Are timberwolves too hard or am I doing something wrong?

SulphuricChipmunk

By SulphuricChipmunk
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SulphuricChipmunk Survivor

SulphuricChipmunk

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I've been carrying survivors back to town hall, and on my way back with the first survivor, I have had to endure a total of 3 timberwolf attacks. Each time I've expended far too many revolver rounds, distress flares and marine flares to be sustainable. Rocks don't seem to work.

As a  result, my question is the following: are these timberwolf attacks timed or scripted to happen X many times each time I take a survivor back to town hall, or are there "safe zones" where I shouldn't encounter too many of the rascals?

Follow up: What's the long-term most effective way of deterring them? Do I stock up on ammunition before I go out to find someone, or am I not using what I have correctly?

 

Thanks

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Serenity Pathfinder

Serenity

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I've been fine with 2-5 pistol or rifle rounds per encounter. Usually 3 or 4. Which is easily sustainable with what's available

How it works out varied a lot for me. The timberwolf behavior seems a bit wonky. Sometimes they go for straight attacks which makes them easy to shoot. Sometimes they run around in circles right past me without attacking, but aren't scared off by shots either

Edited by Serenity
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RegentRelic Pathfinder

RegentRelic

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You escape them easily enough with single shot from either fire arm or flair gun when you aren’t carrying someone and by starting a fire when carrying some one. I don’t know what difficulty your in but I have been playing in hardened survivor and have found enough ammunition to kill about a hundred of them. If you are willing to go out of your way for ammo do the black rock prison side quest.

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DarkTreader Prepper

DarkTreader

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I just got my first survivor, but am still at the crash site, so I've yet to run into any meals-on-wheels.

I have, however, run into a number of them while traveling around. So far, the way I've dealt with them is to wait for one of them to charge, then shoot it in the face - same as I'd point-blank an arrow.

That seems to instantly break their morale, and they run away... leaving some guts, a hide, and a few kilos of meat behind.

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lyttol Prepper

lyttol

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Also... exploit the terrain... Its much easier if you have a rock wall behind you, as it limits their approach angles. Or for total safety climb up one of the angled tree trunks, or climb up onto a rock.. Just beware that these last two won't work if you are carrying a survivor, as the wolves can still attack them (you can't seem to drop survivors on top of rocky areas, even if they are flat...) Also, if you find a "niche" somewhere, the wolves often get confused and don't attack at all, just yelping and trying to work out how to get to you, which gives you time to reload, and breath...

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Sceh Prepper

Sceh

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The help suggested so far is exactly right in my opinion - pay attention to the music, it gives you an early warning, stay calm, take a quick look around if you can use the terrain to your advantage, draw your weapon, (crouch), aim and shoot.

Another point that may be important here is that their AI seems to be fairly intelligent and they apply pack hunting techniques - one of them will distract you by yapping and running around in zigzags in front of you, while another sprints up and takes a bite out of your behind. Ever since I became aware of that they have not been successful in attacking me, as it is usually pretty obvious which one is the distraction and which one will run straight up to attack you (even if that's from two different directions sometimes).

Good hunting!

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Ruruwawa Pathfinder

Ruruwawa

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17 hours ago, RegentRelic said:

If you are willing to go out of your way for ammo do the black rock prison side quest

I've gotten ammo from some of the other side quests too.  Some nice gear too.

If you find yourself looting a bunker, remember to check behind the ventilation grate!

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Sceh Prepper

Sceh

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2 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said:

I've gotten ammo from some of the other side quests too.  Some nice gear too.

 

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If you find yourself looting a bunker, remember to check behind the ventilation grate!

 

There are bunkers in this episode?? Oo Do tell please! I've been to all the regular bunker spots, yet nada.

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Ruruwawa Pathfinder

Ruruwawa

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3 minutes ago, Sceh said:

 

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There are bunkers in this episode?? Oo Do tell please! I've been to all the regular bunker spots, yet nada.

 

This is pretty spoilery, so beware!

 

I recommend you check out the little store near the town hall, by the bridge.  There might be a side quest starter (or two) in there, and one might magic bunkers into existence in helpful places, with the usual goodies inside.

;) 

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GothSkunk Pathfinder

GothSkunk

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Timberwolves are definitely a challenge. I'm terrible at hitting fast moving objects with any weapon, but even so it's the most reliable way to deal with them.

On the one hand, I welcome the change. The decoy method of hunting wolves made their presence a mere nuisance rather than a threat. And their pensive stalking meant it was also possible to perhaps avoid them by just out-walking them. Timberwolves force you to be patient and precise with your aiming and, to the best of my knowledge, not rely on decoys to slow them down enough for an easy arrow shot.

But on the other hand, if you have no way to defend yourself, they are vicious. Encountering them in a Survival Mode sandbox in the first few days would surely mean death, especially on Interloper.

I didn't try using a decoy on them due to my experience with the regular black wolves; once they start charging you, they're committed to the attack. And since these Timberwolves are constantly going full tilt, I just assumed that a decoy would be ineffective.

Edited by GothSkunk
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BESt Prepper

BESt

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I've found out that they won't attack you if they are alone. They need to be a pack and a hurt timberwolf doesn't join the pack any more... So even if you break their morale, without killing/hurting them, they will return after you. So the best way to deal with them is to kill/hurt them

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tulkawen Pathfinder

tulkawen

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These Timberwolves are kicking my rear no doubt. I had to redo the fights multiple times with every carried survivor.

What I found useful: I tried carrying survivors along the cliffs. If you put your back to the cliff or back in to a niche, the wolves will have limited flanking. That way you only need to aim into two or three side areas. Also, if you can climb a rock or a tree, it limits their approach line.

Also, I dropped survivor in front of me as bait; as wicked as that sounds. The wolves do stop when they take a bite out of your ward, this gives you a moment when they aren't in motion to aim and shoot them properly.

This is how I've actually been able to fight off an attack when carrying Gwen and 4 attacked. I died a million times and then went leftward along the cliffs. When I heard the music I dropped Gwen into snow in front and put my back to the cliffs. I had failed with the pistol, so, I tried the rifle. They massively went after Gwen. I killed one and badly hurt another. Once they ran I used two bandages to stop her bleeding. Her health dropped to 27% but I finally managed to get those wolves off my back. They actually hadn't come back at me, which was lucky since in other scenarios I had fought them off but then a smaller pack would go after me again.

Item usefulness:

Red flare: next to useless, lowers morale too little.

Blue flare: a little better, but not too useful.

Rifle: The most powerful and scares the shit out of these wolves, especially if you wound them. BUT, they're just too fast and jump on you in close quarters, so, aiming it is hard.

Once, I got lucky when a pack of 4 charged. I managed to 1 shot one of them, this dropped their morale to something like 30% from 100%

Pistol: I found it the easiest to use and less weight. Easier to aim than the rifle in closer quarters. The wolves get scared and lose morale even if you miss. A pistol can also kill them. I had a couple bleed out and die after getting wounded.

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tulkawen Pathfinder

tulkawen

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46 minutes ago, RegentRelic said:

Don’t use them to fight the wolves us them to keep them at bay. If you have enough flairs you can make it across the whole map.

I'm not sure which is a good way to use them. One of them actually jumped on top of me while I was holding a red flare and I had to do that thingy where you click super fast to get him off and they do bite your leg even if you are holding one. And when I threw them it lowered morale next to nothing or perhaps my aim is that terrible, which it is, but I did find it easier to shoot the wolves.

I suppose you mean if you aren't carrying anyone (since you can't hold a flare with a guy on your back) then you can hold the flare and run which makes it easier. I do prefer to hoove it if nobody is on my back (wolves aside :D). Do it with a flare seems more fun.

35 minutes ago, Ape88 said:

We have to carry people back? My goodness. I'm glad I am doing the side quests ahead of time!

Oh doh! I'm sorry for the spoilers! 😱

Edited by tulkawen
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tulkawen Pathfinder

tulkawen

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8 minutes ago, RegentRelic said:

Has I said in the original post. The blue flairs. The only draw back is that they burn super fast and can’t be used when carrying. But they will hold wolves off till you can start a fire.

Oh I see. I guess I had thrown the blue ones and didn't know their burn rate.

Um.... these wolves aren't scared of fires at all. I had hidden in a river cave and built a fire inside a cave. A pack of 3 jumped inside the cave and stomped all over the fire like it doesn't burn in order to bite a chunk out of Astrid.

This is something I found weird. The fire doesn't scare them. Though, perhaps it lowers their morale a little without making them yelp and run like regular wolves? I'm not sure at this point hence I've been shooting at them when they barged in.

Edited by tulkawen
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tulkawen Pathfinder

tulkawen

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I guess I'll try the fire again and watch more carefully if its presence lowers morale. However, it does not have the same effect for sure as in the game where a wolf yelps and simply runs from a fire. These ones just cross it and bite you anyway, though, maybe that costs them morale.

Providing the fire does help, then I suppose the strategy would be to drop the survivor, then light a blue flare and build a fire to hold off the wolves and then start shooting at them. I suppose with a cliff at your back and a fire in front it would make it harder for these wolves.

That being said, as crazy as it sounds, I'm glad these aren't like the regular game wolves. These really are menacing and a far bigger threat. This fits very well with the episode where the wolves are advertised as a force to be reckoned with, and they are. I hope they won't be added to any normal games or it would be a huge problem though.

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