How do you find animal that you killed?

[foreverlost]

How do you find animal that you killed? I know to track the blood but in two cases now that track disappear. Tracks have disappeared when I updated the map and when I was following a trail. I read an post about going the next day to get the animal but I can never find any of them, unless it was the bear but it is dead now (what a scare that was). :)  Any suggestions?

[Sherlock Holmes 18]

It's hard for me to find deer dead. So are the wolves. But when I can't kill big animals in one shot or in front of me, I guess. 

I'll see where he's going when he's avoiding me, and if I see him nearby, I'll hit him one more time and finish the job. If not, I'll go back to my base and get through the night (My hunts usually fall on the evening). I'll spend the night looking for the bear early and considering where he might go, and I'll narrow it down. I think the wolves died close to where they were shot, but it may not be true. You've got one shot for the deer, you hit it, you can't hit it, give up that grudge and head for new prey. (It's still in front of you andI'll see where he's going when he's avoiding me, and if I see him nearby, I'll hit him one more time and finish the job. If not, I'll go back to my base and get through the night (My hunts usually fall on the evening). I'll spend the night looking for the bear early and considering where he might go, and I'll narrow it down. I think the wolves died close to where they were shot, but it may not be true. You've got one shot for the deer, you hit it, you can't hit it, give up that grudge and head for new prey. (HaI'll see where he's going when he's avoiding me, and if I see him nearby, I'll hit him one more time and finish the job. If not, I'll go back to my base and get through the night (My hunts usually fall on the evening). I'll spend the night looking for the bear early and considering where he might go, and I'll narrow it down. I think the wolves died close to where they were shot, but it may not be true. You've got one shot for the deer, you hit it, you can't hit it, give up that grudge and head for new prey. I'll see where he's going when he's avoiding me, and if I see him nearby, I'll hit him one more time and finish the job. If not, I'll go back to my base and get through the night (My hunts usually fall on the evening). I'll spend the night looking for the bear early and considering where he might go, and I'll narrow it down. I think the wolves died close to where they were shot, but it may not be true.

You've got one shot for the deer, you hit it, you can't hit it, give up that deer and head for new prey. But if the deer is in front of you and still, hunt it down. (Do not kill for pleasure🤗😉) 

I guess that's it☺️. 

 

[Stinky socks]

Usually next day there would be crows circling overhead if the animal didn't run away too far.

[darkscaryforest]

Finding corpses of fleeing animals is something you'll get better at the more you do it, especially when repeat hunting in particular regions, getting a feel for the patterns of where they trot off to.

As you probably already know, all animals, except the moose, bleed out.

https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Survival_bow#Bleed_out_time

https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Hunting_rifle#Bleed_out_time

If you manage to strike a non-fatal hit, most of the time that animal will run away for some time until it drops dead, but not always. If your arrow broke on the hit for instance, some times it is counted as a graze and you can find the animal back at the hunting site later.  If the animal did run and die, a circle of crows will form above the corpse that are useful for locating the animal when the weather is calm (not windy). You can hear their crowing from a great distance. This alone isn't always helpful, since these same crows will be above every human/prespawned deer corpse on the map and can be misleading.

When it comes to deer and wolves, the best tip I can give is to note the direction they ran. That should at least discount 180-240 degrees of searching.  I have personally found that wolves are the hardest to locate since they run so damn far and fast, but you can expect deer to collapse at a reasonable distance away. Note they can run up hills at a steeper gradient than you can, so you might need to go out of the way to get to higher areas.

Bears take much longer to bleed out and it can be tricky to know if you've actually killed a bear that has run off after hitting it. I've definitely had instances where I've shot a bear, had it run off, seen blood splatter, yet later see it roaming around with my arrows stuck out of it. Aside from finding the corpse, you can know for sure that you've killed an animal by looking at your stats and seeing if your kill count for that animal has increased. I have seen that bears have an affinity for returning to their cave/spawn point and often die near that.

Good hunting!

 

 

[Serenity]

It's difficult. Blood trails disappear way too fast. And animals sometimes climb up weird locations when hit. They can also run very far. As said the best bet is to have clear weather and look for crows circling in the sky.

But you need to get used to the idea that sometimes you won't find your kill. Raise your shooting skill and eventually most good shots will kill with one hit.

[foreverlost]

Thank you.

[xAnAngelOfDeathx]

Maybe a glitch (?) but I find that after wounding an animal if I quickly pass an hour of time the animal that I wounded will be dead not far away.

[UpUpAway95]

11 hours ago, xAnAngelOfDeathx said:

Maybe a glitch (?) but I find that after wounding an animal if I quickly pass an hour of time the animal that I wounded will be dead not far away.

I wouldn't say this consistently works, but I have had it work particularly well recently where I seem to encounter more wounded animals that seem to get "stuck" in their panic animation and wind up frantically running and doubling back and running for literally hours in-game.  If this behavior starts, I've found I can just pass an hour to cause the animal to almost immediately drop dead (i.e. I don't even have to allow the hour of passing time to complete).  There must be a glitch going on here though.

[UpUpAway95]

On 4/28/2021 at 3:45 AM, foreverlost said:

How do you find animal that you killed? I know to track the blood but in two cases now that track disappear. Tracks have disappeared when I updated the map and when I was following a trail. I read an post about going the next day to get the animal but I can never find any of them, unless it was the bear but it is dead now (what a scare that was). Any suggestions?

Depends a bit on what animal behavior difficulty you have set.  For example, when "passive" is engaged, wounded animals will generally start making laps around the perimeters of their regular patrol zone (if you don't chase them).  That is, they'll panic and run off in a direction for a ways and then double back.  If you stay out of sight, they should eventually reduce to a walk and then eventually drop dead... often close to the point where you shot them.  If you pursue them, you will usually cause them to resume their panic and start running again... which can cause them to run out of their zone.  Again, if left alone, they will try to eventually double back to their regular patrol zone... but will sometimes die before they get back.  On higher difficulties, you are far more likely to cause them to attack again if you're pursuing them when they have stopped their initial panic and are doubling back to their patrol zone.  As you play the game, you'll learn what the extend of these patrol areas are for many of the animals on the map.  This distance, however, varies as each standard difficulty has different settings for animal detection range and smelliness.

Following a blood trail is tricky in that you have to maintain a fairly short distance between yourself and the animal or else the blood trail despawns.  It also will disappear and reallign itself when the animal encounters a pathing obstacle (e.g. a tree).  The animals can also do some unpredictable things when they encounter such obstacles (for example, my video of a bear that climbed a tree he encountered while I was following his blood trail)

 

[hozz1235]

Crows are a good indicator, unless you're in an area with some static carcasses/corpses, then it can be tough (listening at least).  When crows aren't working, I will start scouting the general area where you hit them at, in particular the direction they ran when you hit them.  Good luck!

[Stinky socks]

You can make carcasses disappear by harvesting it. Unfortunately not for humans. I wonder if hinterland will add that later?

[Luca Loquax]

Deer carcasses will show up on the map if you chart the area with a piece or charcoal.   Sometimes you can use that to find your kill.

[Guest jeffpeng]

On 4/29/2021 at 6:36 PM, Stinky socks said:

I wonder if hinterland will add that later?

It's been requested since the early days. Probably not.


Also: a wounded bear will return to its den after it calmed down. So if you didn't hit it very severly, chances are it will make it back to its den alive, and die there then.

 

[vidholf]

On 4/28/2021 at 9:41 PM, xAnAngelOfDeathx said:

Maybe a glitch (?) but I find that after wounding an animal if I quickly pass an hour of time the animal that I wounded will be dead not far away.

Especially deer. Majority of the time, if a deer has a bleeding wound, but you don't chase it, then it will run away but then walk back. Same, but less frequent, for wolves and bear. 

I try not to chase/follow a wounded animal unless I want to push it to a cul de sac or feel I have a chance of catching up, finding it, and getting a kill shot.

Otherwise, one arrow and waiting works often enough, with less frustration- esp. if you don't want to lose arrows or waste bullets.

[stratvox]

I've found that bears like to go home to die; I've often found them in or just outside their caves the day after putting an arrow into them.

[MrWolf]

Be careful with going indoors or leaving a region before knowing the animal has died.  I think this is a bug that seems to show up, get fixed, then show up again.  I think it's shown up again in the current build(s).  Twice recently I've shot a bear with an arrow, gone indoors, and come out later to find the bear walking around with no arrow, like nothing ever happened.  RIP arrow(s).  Just tonight, I was hunting the bear in Ash Canyon.  I shot the bear with two arrows and it walked off toward its cave.  It was night by then and I didn't want to go inside right away so I went to the warm part of the outdoor barn next to the workbench.  I put the bedroll down and slept for a couple hours at a time, about 6 hours total, until a blizzard made it too cold to continue.  I went inside the nearby cabin, slept a few hours, then headed out to find the bear.  I found him sauntering out of his cave, good as new.  Damn.  Finally got him, but so long to those first two arrows.

[UTC-10]

I have to thank the crows for dropping feathers.  

I shot a wolf with an arrow in the Coastal Townsite.  It ran away to the west (i.e. roughly across the townsite towards Log Sort).  I was following the tracks and blood drops then blood drops then had a problem finding the blood drops.  Sometimes there would be  a blank area five or ten feet across but then I would come across more blood drops.

I kept following the blood drops when I could find them.   The trail led up into the upslope area from the coastal highway.  Then I noted (using the journal) that the wolf had died (I didn't hear it die).  I was in the area and wandered all around the area looking for that black shape on the snow.  It was getting dark and snowing when I was calling it quits then came across a crow feather near the road.  Climbed a short embankment and there was the wolf carcass.  Great sigh of relief.  Got my arrow back too.  

[FluffyComeHome]

Like jeffpeng said, if you wait for the bear to bleed out you can just find it at the cave, which provides a nice shelter for harvesting and cooking.

I notice wolves tend to "sink" into rocks quite a bit, so look carefully. The blood trails for the deer seem most consistent for me, but if you stand up and start to follow them, they run faster and farther. I usually just settle in place and wait them out, then listen for the crows.