Moose Spawn

[dustinmico]

How often do moose spawn in a particular location? Came upon one while exploring Milton Basin but I took too long preparing myself to down him that he left.. now I'm camping out awaiting his return. How long will I have to wait?

[Serenity]

Impossible to say. Could be days. Could be weeks

[PrincessAutumn]

They can disappear for awhile but what I've done that works most of the time is to go to another moose spawn point or to another region to find one there because you could be waiting awhile if you wait for them to come back to just one spot  

[dustinmico]

Thanks for the information.. I did camp out and wait for the moose... in this case it came back in 3 days and I got him for my first ever moose kill.... Moose Satchel here I come. I wasn't going to camp out long though because I was nearing my transition time to move on to another region.

[haft2doit]

The moose has spawns in most of the regions, but only spawns 1 in a random region at a time.  So you could see it in ML and the next day it is in TM.  So it could be back in ML in a couple days, or be in any of the other possible spawns that day.  It's a take it now if you want it kind of thing.  I never hunt for one, just take the opportunity if I'm able.  I'm in late game stalker now so I have a rifle near all spawns so I can bag one if I happen to be in the area.

Edited August 31, 2020 by haft2doit

[UTC-10]

The only region where the moose will reliably spawn and remain spawned is Bleak Inlet on what I would call the west side of the region around the frozen delta area mostly on  the "mainland". 

If entering the zone from Forlorn Muskeg, the land path would take one through where the moose spawns.  As the only significant game animal on that part of the map, it makes it the target of choice. 

 

[piddy3825]

The moose spawning randomization and migration algorithm seems to be working, probably much better than the dev expected since there's almost no way to predict where those damn moose will spawn.  I suppose that is why a couple of guaranteed moose spawn locations were introduced during one of the last updates.  There is one for sure now at the Forlorn Muskeg to Bleak Island transition just down to the right after leaving the cave.  There's supposed to be another one, but the location escapes me. I remember reading about here in the forums but can't remember which thread otherwise I would have left you a link.
 I bet @ManicManiac has a idea as to where this other location may be.  Perhaps he will chime in on this thread.

My own experience has been varied, but since Winter's Embrace, where I found a moose in just about every region I transitioned, I have been running into Moose with increasing regularity.  In my current play through for example, I randomly spawned in DP and almost immediately a moose spawned on the bridge.  Of course I managed to successfully take it down and subsequently another  moose spawned roughly 45 days later.  I ended up taking two more moose at approximately 45 day intervals between harvests.  So 4 moose harvested within 170 days of game time on the bridge in DP.  Subsequently I decided to camp out in DP long term to see if some kind of pattern would continue and now I'm at 250 days in my run and I haven't seen a moose in DP since.  

[ManicManiac]

@dustinmico

Most of the folks that got to the tread before I did, are right (at least as far as I've experienced). 

I don't claim to know for certain either, because I can't look at the code... but the following is what I've personally observed (or what has been posted by Hinterland) about the moose behavior:

On 2/9/2020 at 1:18 AM, ManicManiac said:

There are various possible moose spawning points.  At the beginning of a survival sandbox, spawn points are pseudo-randomly selected from amongst the pool of possible spawn points.  Only one moose will spawn at a time, and that one moose will "migrate" between all the spawn points that were selected at the beginning of the run.  The longest I've seen the moose stay in one location has been 4 game days.  By this I mean, that the moose will change locations at some interval between 1 and 4 game days - though this duration may have changed in more recent updates, and it's also possible that a longer stay in one location may in truth result from the same location being selected for consecutive intervals.  Once successfully hunted, then the population respawn interval for the moose (at the selected difficulty) must pass before the migration process will begin again.

On 6/7/2020 at 7:07 PM, ManicManiac said:

Those selected possible spawn points manifest as the scrapped trees.  These indicate an active possible spawn location for a moose.  Very similar to how bones in at the mouth of a cave (or other locations on some rare occasions - like the Low Blind) indicate an active bear spawn location.

Just like the "bear den," scrapped trees will always stay scrapped for the duration of each particular run, in much the same way that the bones indicating a bear den will be there whether a bear is there or not.

On 6/25/2020 at 10:51 PM, ManicManiac said:

To elaborate on what I've mentioned previously.  The one moose will "migrate" pseudorandomly between any one of the selected spawn points (that is where you find scrapped trees or the bridge in Desolation Point - note worthy as being a spot I've seen the moose spawn but there was a distinct absence of scrapped trees in the area).

Sometimes the moose may appear at the same spot for consecutive intervals.  In general: The longest I've seen the moose stay in one location has been 4 game days.  By this I mean, that the moose will change locations at some interval between 1 and 4 game days - though this duration may have changed in more recent updates, and it's also possible that a longer stay in one location may in truth result from the same location being selected for consecutive intervals.

Yes, there does seem to 1 exception to this.  There does appear to be one dedicated moose spawn (that is to say in addition to the 1 Moose that "migrates" around the map).  That spot appears to be in Bleak Inlet, in the area that @piddy3825 described.   
 

About the camping strategy: 

On 6/25/2020 at 11:01 PM, ManicManiac said:

the problem with this theory is that the moose migrates pseudorandomly.    *(I say pseudorandomly because a computer can't really generate "truly" random numbers)

What I mean is:
Let's just say in one particular run you end up with... say 12 spawn points.
The moose doesn't just cycle through them in order.

(lets just use number designations to make this example easier)

So for example: the moose starts the game at spawn#7.  It will then seemingly migrate to another spot at intervals between at least 1-4 days (this duration is anecdotal from my observations about the moose behavior, the actual interval could be shorter... seeing the moose in a spot for 4 days may have been a case where it rolled the same spawn location two intervals in a row  - I have no way to know for sure since I can't look at the source code).  So let's continue and say in this case it starts at spawn#7, then migrates to spawn#12, then spawn#9, then spawn#7, then spawn#4, and spawn#4 again... and so on and so on.

So... there is no guarantee that the moose will ever be at a particular spawn point... there is only the chance that it will.  Because the migration is pseudorandomly selected, then generally speaking every possible spawn point has an equal chance of being selected each time the "dwell time interval" expires rolls a check.

 

From my experience, it seems best to either head to Bleak Inlet... or just travel around the map as you normally would and just try to keep what you need for a moose hunt in your pack.  It is likely quicker to come across one in your travels rather than wait at any particular spawn point. 

As an alternative... if you are just looking for a satchel - there is one that can be found just laying around in the world as well. 

Edited September 3, 2020 by ManicManiac