Comprehensive Guide to Surviving Wolves in Stalker

[Scyzara]

Heh, wolves are very fast now,

" Lately if I saw that fresh kill happen with all of that nice shelter around, with the right distance you can have free meat. Run past, not to close or you are in a fight and bee-line for shelter. Wolfie is off his kill and you have not spent a thing except for a few calories."

I would not recommend this to anyone now.

I also have the feeling wolves dash faster now, but the strategy described above is nevertheless still working. Even better than before.

The trick is not to make the wolf dash prematurely.^^

You have to be extremely careful that the distance between you and the eating wolf is as big as possible in the very moment it notices you (only approach it from the front, be mindful of wind directions and maybe even carry some raw meat on purpose). If your initial distance is big enough (maybe 40m+), the wolf will only break into a rather slow trot towards you instead of dashing right from the start. This gives you a tiny lead when running away, but ofc you cannot outrun the wolf for long distances as it inevitably starts to dash at some point (as far as I can tell yet).^^

Anyway, running away for about 20m into a nearby house still works fine for me whereas trying to outrun a wolf for 100m+ certainly won't be successful any more, I guess.

[MrNicoras]

I'm really not digging the new wolf behavior after the latest update. It used to be that when a wolf charged you, you could just wait til it got close and then shoot it. But I've noticed that after the update, they always make a flanking move right as they get close to you. Has anyone figured out a work around for this new behavior yet?

[Scyzara]

I'm really not digging the new wolf behavior after the latest update. It used to be that when a wolf charged you, you could just wait til it got close and then shoot it. But I've noticed that after the update, they always make a flanking move right as they get close to you. Has anyone figured out a work around for this new behavior yet?

Haven't found any decent strategy yet apart from waiting until they are half a meter in front of your muzzle before you pull the trigger. If their movement follows a regular pattern, I haven't figured it out so far. ^^

[Denyo]

I'm really not digging the new wolf behavior after the latest update. It used to be that when a wolf charged you, you could just wait til it got close and then shoot it. But I've noticed that after the update, they always make a flanking move right as they get close to you. Has anyone figured out a work around for this new behavior yet?

Haven't found any decent strategy yet apart from waiting until they are half a meter in front of your muzzle before you pull the trigger. If their movement follows a regular pattern, I haven't figured it out so far. ^^

One thing is for sure: With new update I almost like more to approach to wolf from frontal side,than from aside.I cary cooked or raw meat always,when I go hunting.That I mean for deer/wolf combo,of course.As wolf notice me from quite far,I drop decoy,then start moving backward.After wolf reach decoy,I stop in safe distance and wait for him to finish eating decoy.After he is disturbed,wolf won`t go back eating deer,but he will continue his normal path.This way I can get almost wholle deer without loosing too much calories.Except one piece of meat.

Of course,I could shoot wolf,too,when he stops at decoy,but i haven`t try that in new version yet,as I am doing Silent Hunter achievement,so, no rifle use alowed.

Another important thing,which changed in new patch.If you turn your back to wolf,who is chasing you,he will run constantly and in time outrun you.But,if you run backward,face turned to wolf,he use to vague his chances,so he may stop sometimes and then continue running.He is more carefull,when you are facing him,than if you turn him back.

[Hotzn]

Another important thing,which changed in new patch.If you turn your back to wolf,who is chasing you,he will run constantly and in time outrun you.But,if you run backward,face turned to wolf,he use to vague his chances,so he may stop sometimes and then continue running.He is more carefull,when you are facing him,than if you turn him back.

This. Has anyone tried if it makes a difference whether you run (backwards) or stand still while facing the wolf?

[MrNicoras]

I've noticed that running backwards does keep the wolf at bay. They will follow you, and then they stop, kind of shake their head, start walking towards you, and then run towards you again. They repeat this behavior. Of course, I still eventually wind up going into combat with them, because I have yet to find a distance that is far enough for them to give up the chase.

I don't usually drop a decoy, because calories are too precious for me. Probably because this game has an annoying habit of hiding the rifle from me. On my last go around, I went 4 days before finding a hatchet, and another 10 after that before finally finding the rifle. I then died a couple hours after finding it because I decided that it was time to kill a wolf.

In my experience so far, bad decisions and overconfidence kill me. The wolves are just usually the instrument which carries out the sentence.

[Lyramisu]

I also haven't figured out how best to shoot a wolf since the latest update. In prior versions, I'd wait until the wolf saw me and started to come toward me, and I'd shoot it as it got close but before it made a lunge. At this point, it was always facing me head-on. Now, wolf movements seem faster and less predictable. I haven't played for very long since the latest update, but of all the wolves I have shot at, I've only hit one, and that one still attacked me ... previously, I hit virtually every wolf. The one wolf I managed to hit was hurt badly enough that it died next to me so I didn't have to track it all over the wilderness. But for all the other wolves, it became hand-to-hand combat, they ran off while injured, and ultimately ran somewhere I couldn't follow (like up a hill too steep to climb) or their blood trail vanished.

The new behavior is more realistic, but I'm definitely having trouble figuring out a good strategy. At this point I feel like I'm wasting ammo even trying and should just fight them hand-to-hand unless I am already hurt or there's more than one of them.

[KeldorKatarn]

Quite frankly after playing this game in its latest iteration for a bit, I died twice to a wolf insta-kill.

I see some major problems here: New players are going to be low on condition most of the time before finding decent clothing and shelter. They don't know the map and don't have any weapons. Then they suddenly get jumped. The game doesn't pause before this combat so you have 2 seconds to figure out what the tutorial screen is trying to tell you (EVERY action in this game is on the left mouse button, attacking is on the right... that makes it incredibly unintuitive since being scared you instictinvely mash the left button doing absolutely nothing), then you got about 3 seconds left to try and do as you're told before you die. That's just insane. It's incredibly frustrating and even now as a player that knows most of Mystery Lake (I think), I still have no idea how to defend myself. This building up strength then attack thing just doesn't work. I get a wolf down to at most 50% health before it kills me off, at best leaving me alive at 10% condition heavily bleeding (and a new player then first has to figure out how the medical system works before he bleeds to death).

These wolves are WAY too unfair and frustrating and as a threat WAY out of proportion compared to every other threat in game.

I really recommend changing them asap as currently they take the entire fun in the game away for me. I do videos about this game on my channel and right now I'm having a VERY hard time to show the game in a positive light since I basically died in 3 out of 6 videos to a wolf attack, despite having played the last 3 on medium difficulty. That's just not right. Twice I had a very nice position, nice amount of food, was finally in a position to be able to go exploring more of the map, and then a wolf attacks me right in front of my safe house and kills me without me being able to defend myself effectively. No, just no. it's zero fun.

[toebar]

I've felt your frustration. The fight mechanic is hard to figure out, since it there isn't anything similar in the game. The game has stayed away from tutorials, but I've suggested before that maybe they could work in a similar mechanic in a situation that is not life threatening. That way the player can practice how the mechanic in the course of survival activities, and then be familiar with it when a wolf fight occurs. The example I used was using the pry bar to open locked containers, but there could be others as well.

[KeldorKatarn]

I've felt your frustration. The fight mechanic is hard to figure out, since it there isn't anything similar in the game. The game has stayed away from tutorials, but I've suggested before that maybe they could work in a similar mechanic in a situation that is not life threatening. That way the player can practice how the mechanic in the course of survival activities, and then be familiar with it when a wolf fight occurs. The example I used was using the pry bar to open locked containers, but there could be others as well.

That would require the player to actually encounter this harmless situation before a wolf and that cannot be guaranteed. I don't get why the fighting mechanics have to be this awkward in the first place. Why can't it just be mashing LMB? That's the instinctive reaction, it doesn't take more skill or aynthing from the player and it fits with the rest of the game interaction mechanics. I don't get why the wolf defense has to be some strange combination of mouse buttons that isn't just awkward it's frankly also painful for the hand. It's stupid, it doesn't add anything to the game and it leaves the player frustrated to no end, feeling betrayed by the game.

A better solution imo would be to scale the difficulty of these encounters. Make the first encounter very easy to survive, then slowly skale up once the player is expected to know how to avoid wolves.

But surviving against the wolf should ALWAYS be possible. Dead end point of no return situations in gameplay are ALWAYS bad design. If I have no chance to win against the wolf you might as well just play a cutscene and not force me to hurt my hand trying to fight a battle I can't win anyway.

Make the controls more intuitive using just the left mouse button. I don't get what this "build up strength" mechanic is for if low-strength strikes don't do the trick anyway. If I always need full force then why give me the option to strike with low force? That makes no sense, it's useless and confusing the player.

Also pause the game when such an attack happens to the player has time to read up on the controls.

Always make such an encounter survivable. It's ok if we always get badly wounded. It's not ok if we always die. That's not fun or challenging, it's frustrating and unfair.

If a wolf attack should be avoided at all costs because it's supposed to be insta-kill, also fine. but then don't give me fight mechanics I can't win anyway. Play a dying cutscene. But then also give me proper stealth mechanics. That means teach me about stealth, teach me what I should be avoiding, give me some kind of UI feedback about how visible/stealthed I am and maybe add gear that helps me to be more stealthy.

Right now the player has zero information what wolves are all about. He has no idea he's supposed to avoid them, he has no idea how big a danger they are, he has no idea how to defend against them and the mechanics of a fight are crappy as hell and the player has no time to learn them. All that is just badly designed and sticks out like a sore thumb against the wonderfully designed and well rounded rest of the game.

Either make wolf encounters stealth based, then introduce proper mechanics and player feedback, or make them combat based, then use functional and intuitive fight mechanics and make those fights actually survivable.

[Bill Tarling]

I don't get why the fighting mechanics have to be this awkward in the first place. Why can't it just be mashing LMB? That's the instinctive reaction, it doesn't take more skill or aynthing from the player and it fits with the rest of the game interaction mechanics. I don't get why the wolf defense has to be some strange combination of mouse buttons that isn't just awkward it's frankly also painful for the hand. It's stupid, it doesn't add anything to the game and it leaves the player frustrated to no end, feeling betrayed by the game.

Simple answer is they haven't reached including the new fighting mechanics yet. The current mashing is a placeholder. They do plan on changing it further on in development, but they have other priorities they need to change first.

[KeldorKatarn]

I don't get why the fighting mechanics have to be this awkward in the first place. Why can't it just be mashing LMB? That's the instinctive reaction, it doesn't take more skill or aynthing from the player and it fits with the rest of the game interaction mechanics. I don't get why the wolf defense has to be some strange combination of mouse buttons that isn't just awkward it's frankly also painful for the hand. It's stupid, it doesn't add anything to the game and it leaves the player frustrated to no end, feeling betrayed by the game.

Simple answer is they haven't reached including the new fighting mechanics yet. The current mashing is a placeholder. They do plan on changing it further on in development, but they have other priorities they need to change first.

That's good to know. However I didn't want to give the impression I expect an Alpha to be perfect. I just wanted to say I don't know why even this placeholder was chosen. If you look at the keybinding screen, you can clearly see that the LMB is for interaction and usage and the RMB is for secondary actions like aiming. In the wolf combat it is completely the other way around. It is LMB for secondary (build strength) and RMB for primary (attack). That makes things worse. I've watched quite a few videos on youtube and the first wolf encounter always goes the same. People start mashing the LMB and fail.

I think switching around these two buttons would already improve the situation a bit.

In general I just wanted to give feedback on WHAT exactly I feel is wrong with those controls and why I think they are bad (did so in more detail in other threads), just so the devs have more feedback for the final version of the combat.

[toebar]

I think I'm being misquoted ^ up there

[Admin]

I think I'm being misquoted ^ up there

*lol* Sorry about that - turned out to be a glitch where the "quote" code was placed... should be corrected now :oops:

[Denyo]

Since latest update I experienced two more important aknowledge about wolves.

1. Candies and other lootable food does not work well as decoys or not working at all.I came into situation to hunt or defend/escape from wolves three times,by using decoy.First time I dragged wolf closer to my base on CH map.When I lured him enough far,I dropped Candy Bar,walked backward few steps and crouched,as I do ussually.I waited with aimed rifle till wolf put head down to smell decoy.But,he dropped head only for half and then charged at me,ignoring Candy Bar.Other time I was running from wolf,who ambushed me arround rock and I dropped Energy bar to stop him,bu he just continued chasing me,completely ignoring decoy.On other hand,I had never any troubles with raw or cooked meat,they always work perfectly as decoy.

2.I learned on hard way another thing: DO NEVER TURN BACK SCARED WOLF! I was on my way from my base on Jackrabbit`s Island towards Misanthrope.When I came down on ice,I saw near by wolf running away scared,probably coz of my wolf coat.So I didn`t pay attention on him anymore and was continuing my way.I was strafing during my walk towards Misanthrope,checking all sides,but not the side where I saw wolf running away from me.Suddenly,without any warning,no sound,no barking,I was jumped by wolf from behind.As I was checking all sides and there was no place for any wolf to hide from me,I realised that scared wolf returned back and attacked me.

So...even if you see wolf running away from you,do not ignore him and keep checking,if he decides to come back.

Let me use this moment also for two small tips,which can help.If you have base on Jackrabbit`s,always approach to house from southern side.It is more steer slope,but you can still climb up without any problems and from that side you will very,very rarely run into wolf.It is enough to climb up with straffing left and right,to be sure there is no surprising attacks from wolf.This southern side is also good coz of one simple fact: In CH wolves are mostly in packs of three,especially on frozen sea.On right side as well on left side there is one pack of them at each side.Whille approaching Island,just observe both packs.If there are 3 wolves on each side,you can safely climb up the hill.If there is a wolf missing on any side,there is high possibility,that missing wolf is on the hill,either he was on his patrol or he chased deer/rabbit.In that case either wait a whille,move arround and search for him,or continue your way,prepaired for encounter with him.

Also...sometimes wolf does not bark,when he is in attack mode.In that case we must rely on sound from enviroiment.So,always have some meat in backpack and if you hear any strange sound,which you are not sure the cause of,just press keyboard number 4 and drop decoy,then run forward.After a whille you can turn arround and check,if that sound was from wolf or just some other sound of nature.Do not leave nothing to coincidence.Better to act,even if there is just a small doubt,than to be attacked from back.I was recently in that situation and I ignored sound of footsteps behind me,concluding I am only imaging.Next moment I had wolf on my back.