Bear hunting

[Makiboi424]

I'm wondering on what is the best way to hunt a bear on interloper? I always struggle to get it before it get's me. Is there a weak point or a strategy for hunting bears?

[Dan_]

Two tried and tested ways:

Shoot it from outside the detection range. Not very hard to do if you got good aim, just make sure to not have anything stinky on ya, otherwise it's detection range is quite large. If you headshot and get a critical, you drop him on spot. If you hit and make it bleed, wait for the bleed out timer. If you miss, the bear will just run away. Easy money.

Shoot it from a ledge, fallen tree, fishing hut or any inacessible spot for it's pathing. If you shoot it and it charges ya, just move enough on the ledge/hut/tree to break the chase and the bear should run away whimpering. Just be careful because to some of the trees the bear can path to, in that case just jump and it should break the chase. Same applies in case of a missed shot. This is an easier option and allows you to put two arrows on it's head, which with decent archery skills is pretty much guaranteed to kill it. 

Option 3, hit it's left eye. Always drops it on the spot for me. No idea why.

[piddy3825]

My motto is Death From Above

My go to strategy is always to have the uphill advantage.  Find a convenient tree or cliff side that provides for the best elevation that won't allow the bear to charge you if it happens to see you or you strike it with your arrow.  There are many such vantages throughout the game depending on where you might be located at the time.  For example, if you are at the poacher's camp in Forlorn Muskeg, then you are able to scale the fallen tree and actually jump on the roof of the railcar and use that vantage  to rain arrows down upon the bear without fear of reprisal as he saunters by.   There are many such vantages near known bear occupied areas and the trick is to scout those areas before you engage.  

Cars, fishing shacks with doors and buildings with multiple doors also lend themselves well to employing a shoot and scoot strategy.    If I'm in PV for example I like to use the tractors as shelter.  Since you can open the doors to the tractors from either side, it makes it convenient to shoot then duck into the tractor and you can watch as the bear shuffles around you.  when he moves off a bit, you can exit the vehicle, take another shot from the protected side and jump back in.  You can play this cat and mouse game for quite some time and be relatively safe.    Same goes for those areas containing buildings where you can take a shot, open the door to the house and emerge on the other side, just in time to take another shot!

What map are you currently on in your Interloper run?  sharing that may help to formalize a more cohesive strategy to your current query.

[UTC-10]

When the bear is bleeding out, be aware that if you go into a house, say you're escaping a vengeful bear, you should come back out in a relatively short time.  When you go into a house, the outside world despawns as does the bear.  The game maintains the game state for a period of maybe one game hour.  It also keeps track of the fact the bear was bleeding. 

After a game hour, the game does not consider the game state when you entered the house to be valid anymore.  So when you now exit the house, it will respawn the outside world.  Now the tricky part: if you stayed in the house long enough (i.e. the bear would have bled out) when the world gets spawned, the game checks whether the bear bled out and if it did then the bear spawns and dies.  If the bear would not have bled out it spawns normally, uninjured.  So if you go inside for any length of time be sure to stay a good long time that is longer than the bear's bleed timer or prepare to be surprised that its wandering around unharmed. 

If the above does not apply to your given situation when you shoot the bear, you can disregard it but maybe keep it in mind so you know what can happen. 

Good luck.

[Glflegolas]

On 8/23/2021 at 4:09 AM, UTC-10 said:

When the bear is bleeding out, be aware that if you go into a house, say you're escaping a vengeful bear, you should come back out in a relatively short time.  When you go into a house, the outside world despawns as does the bear.  The game maintains the game state for a period of maybe one game hour.  It also keeps track of the fact the bear was bleeding. 

After a game hour, the game does not consider the game state when you entered the house to be valid anymore.  So when you now exit the house, it will respawn the outside world.  Now the tricky part: if you stayed in the house long enough (i.e. the bear would have bled out) when the world gets spawned, the game checks whether the bear bled out and if it did then the bear spawns and dies.  If the bear would not have bled out it spawns normally, uninjured.  So if you go inside for any length of time be sure to stay a good long time that is longer than the bear's bleed timer or prepare to be surprised that its wandering around unharmed. 

If the above does not apply to your given situation when you shoot the bear, you can disregard it but maybe keep it in mind so you know what can happen. 

Good luck.

Ah, so that explains why I kept losing arrows when I shot bears in the evening, then went indoors to sleep. When I went back outside to harvest the bear next day, he was dead alright, but no arrow in his side...

[acada]

I am coward. I always shoot bear from vicinity of car, fishing hut. Some porches may work too, but I dont rely on them. If you can find a tree you can walk on, it is nice too.

About the bug bear not bleeding when you enter inside. Is it still there? I know I encountered it while ago, but the last bear I got on the Ash Canyon: I shot him from vicinity of the workshop and went inside as he didnt like it. Found him later dead.

[Lord of the Long Dark]

Similar to the moose, just shoot him outside of his attack range.  Getting used to doing this prevents you from being limited to having cover nearby when hunting. 

[k0s0ff]

The bear is afraid of the fire.

Make a fire.  Step away from the fire in the direction of the bear, just a little bit. shoot him, go back to the fire, so that the fire is between you and the bear. Shoot again through the smoke.

The main thing is to calculate so that the bear dies next to the fire. Saving resources and all that.

 

[Leeanda]

2 hours ago, k0s0ff said:

The bear is afraid of the fire.

Make a fire.  Step away from the fire in the direction of the bear, just a little bit. shoot him, go back to the fire, so that the fire is between you and the bear. Shoot again through the smoke.

The main thing is to calculate so that the bear dies next to the fire. Saving resources and all that.

 

I've seen a few bears running through a fire so I'm not sure that works!

[acada]

3 hours ago, k0s0ff said:

The bear is afraid of the fire.

I dont think so. I had bear charged me right through my fire.

[k0s0ff]

3 hours ago, Leeanda said:

I've seen a few bears running through a fire so I'm not sure that works!

 

2 hours ago, acada said:

I dont think so. I had bear charged me right through my fire.

My last meeting with a bear went flawlessly in the presence of a campfire. But I will definitely check it again and try to document it all and share it with you.

[Leeanda]

4 hours ago, k0s0ff said:

 

My last meeting with a bear went flawlessly in the presence of a campfire. But I will definitely check it again and try to document it all and share it with you.

I think you got lucky there! You might  get a mauling or two trying to find out but hope not ! good luck☺️

Edited September 14, 2021 by Leeanda

[Bearimpaler101]

What id do if I could survive for more than 2 days on interloper hunters blind or  somewhere like the trappers cabin go out shoot go back in etc.

[UpUpAway95]

9 hours ago, Bearimpaler101 said:

What id do if I could survive for more than 2 days on interloper hunters blind or  somewhere like the trappers cabin go out shoot go back in etc.

Shooting it in the back doesn't always work either.  I've had them pivot and run right towards me.  Best method is to be at a high enough level of archery or shooting skill (if applicable) where there is greater chance of getting a critical hit.  Any bear you can drop in its tracks with a single shot is a bear that can't maul you.  At low level, try to shoot it from a place where he can't get to you easily (rocky ledges if you can get on top of them) but note that climbing tree limbs no longer seems to work.  HL has greatly improved their ability to path to you in most places.  If in a hunting blind now, there is a pretty good chance it will path up the stairs and get you inside.

Edited February 26, 2022 by UpUpAway95

[Bearimpaler101]

That s wrong hunters blinds the doors of them are about the size of the bears feet

[UpUpAway95]

36 minutes ago, Bearimpaler101 said:

That s wrong hunters blinds the doors of them are about the size of the bears feet

... and their reach into the blind is significant.  That is, the bear doesn't have to actually enter the blind to get at you. 

My statement, however, was about the pathing improvements HL has made.  It used to be the bear would run under the blind (in Broken Railroad at least) and get stuck.  Nowadays, he will often path for the stairs.  Same goes for the fallen trees.. wolves and bears will now path to the end that's on the ground and follow you a ways up the tree to reach you (as @piddy3825's pictures on the "fixer upper" thread show); whereas they used to reliably just run around under it, wimpering.  You can stop wolves from running up a tree by starting a fire on the ground just where the tree meets the ground.  Not sure whether it reliably works on bears now.  If you read up this thread, you'll see reports of bears not being afraid of fire.  I've also read reports here of bears being able to reach into the fishing huts to maul the player.

In Broken Railroad, I have found a wedge area between two rocks near the bear's cave where the bear cannot path to me.  This is where I go to hunt that particular bear and he hasn't been able to maul me in a long time.  At Miner's Folly, I duck into the area behind the workbench and, so far, I haven't been mauled there.  Another good spot is to shoot the bear patrolling around the Riken from the deck of the Riken.  I've never been mauled doing that.  I have been mauled by that bear though by just "bumping" into him as I left the Riken.

Otherwise, I rely on getting my archery or shooting skill up to Level 5 on deer and wolves so I have a better chance of just dropping the bear instantly with one shot.

Edited February 26, 2022 by UpUpAway95