Lost my first arrow in a deer , will it despawn?

[Adamo]

Ah well it was bound to happen ! I crafted my first bow and arrow (well , I found the arrow head) and a deer runs off with my arrow embedded somewhere. I lost track of the blood as my ankles started spraining up where it ran .

I’m hoping I will stumble across the carcass and arrow in the future or will an unharvested body de-spawn? Possibly taking my arrow with it?

thanks 

Edited February 15 by Adamo
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[Leeanda]

The arrow will stay wherever the deer died,or should,even after the deer has despawned.. the deer shouldn't despawn for two three days.

[Adamo]

Ok thanks , so some listening for crows then  day one of that didn’t turn anything up , I think I’m right that a hit with an arrow will always eventually lead to bleed out with deer so I’ll widen my search tomorrow 

[Leeanda]

4 minutes ago, Adamo said:

Ok thanks , so some listening for crows then  day one of that didn’t turn anything up , I think I’m right that a hit with an arrow will always eventually lead to bleed out with deer so I’ll widen my search tomorrow 

They can run for miles , usually up the highest slope they can find😁.      I find ,at least with wolves and bears that they'll run in a large circle,if they live long enough..    good luck finding it...

[bysinda]

Oof, searching for runaway arrows brought me the most pain. Very frustrating 😁 did you manage to find the carcass? If you didn't you might stumble upon the arrow one day, once the carcass is gone it will be just lying on the snow. Very hard to spot though 

[juusto56]

i constantly get fresh arrows from beach combing so i don`t worry about finding the old arrows

 

[Veskaida]

It is possible to lose arrows in rare circumstances, but there are multiple systems in place to try and prevent arrows from being lost.

• Arrow Broke on Impact: "cronch"  a Broken Arrow item should be on the ground near the site of impact.
• Arrow hit Animal > Didn't Break: if the arrow is visible/reachable on the carcass' model, LMB on it will pick it up directly.
• Arrow hit Animal > Didn't Break: LMB on the animal's carcass should place the arrow directly into the player's inventory (this can be useful if the arrow is still attached to the animal, e.g. the bear rolled onto the arrow as it died,and clicking the arrow directly is impossible).
• Arrow hit Animal > Didn't Break > Animal Despawned: animals unload if the player spends more than 15 minutes (in-game) in a different map (including different regions, inside caves/mines/houses/etc but NOT inside vehicles), this includes "Time Accelerating" tasks. Animals can also despawn when the weather transitions to/from an Aurora. When this occurs, any arrows stuck in an animal will fall to the ground where the animal was.
• Arrow left Bounding Box: There is also a collision check the game makes if arrows spawn underground/fly underground, which will cause them to appear at the surface (the deformed mesh of the "snowy ground", which may not be the same as doodads (e.g. a large boulder) placed atop/inside it).
• Arrow left playable gameworld: e.g. firing an arrow into the non-player accessible areas of The Ravine, into the ocean, up and over impassible boulders/hills/mountains, in these cases the arrow is probably lost, as I'm unaware of any checks/mechanics to allow recovery of it. But Birch Saplings and Metal Scrap are renewable via Beachcombing, and Crow Feathers are renewable so you should be able to make new arrows in time.

FUN TRIVIA: you can even grab Simple Arrows off of still-living animals. ITS TIME TO PLAY
🫱 🏹🐻THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME

 

Edited June 30 by Veskaida

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, Veskaida said:

• Arrow hit Animal > Didn't Break > Animal Despawned: animals unload if the player spends more than 15 minutes (in-game) in a different map (including different regions, inside caves/mines/houses/etc but NOT inside vehicles), this includes "Time Accelerating" tasks. Animals can also despawn when the weather transitions to/from an Aurora. When this occurs, any arrows stuck in an animal will fall to the ground where the animal was.
• Arrow left Bounding Box: There is also a collision check the game makes if arrows spawn underground/fly underground, which will cause them to appear at the surface (the deformed mesh of the "snowy ground", which may not be the same as doodads (e.g. a large boulder) placed atop/inside it).

For a little while now, animals will despawn (seemingly) the moment you enter a building.  If you shoot an arrow into an animal then go indoors (through a loading screen), then come right back out, the animal will be gone and the arrow will be on the ground where the animal was when you entered the building.  I don't think they actually despawn though, or maybe they do and respawn in the same place later.  I've seen this behavior with the bear at Trapper's in Mystery Lake.  Shoot the bear, duck inside, come right back out and the bear is gone and arrow is on the ground.  If I walk away from the cabin, like across to the barn, the bear respawns where it was when I entered the cabin.

Arrows don't always "pop up" to the surface.  If an animal dies and you don't retrieve the arrow near it or by clicking the carcass, walk around the animal looking at the ground and you'll likely see the "simple arrow" prompt at some point.  That does seem to be fairly rare though, in my experience.

[Veskaida]

40 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

For a little while now, animals will despawn (seemingly) the moment you enter a building.

I've encountered this too and don't fully understand this behavior, but I think it may be a 'grace radius' mechanic around the player when transitioning load screens, including loading into a sandbox world from the Main Menu.

This is quite easy to abuse as an exploit, during

Spoiler

Timberwolf attacks if the player is attacked by a Timberwolf and receieved an auto-save incurring injury (Blood Loss, Infection Risk, Ankle Sprain, Wrist Sprain, or enter and exit a Struggle), you can ESC -> QUIT -> CONFIRM -> SURVIVAL -> LOAD -> SANDBOX NAME and the Timberwolf pack will no longer be around the player, if they were within that 'grace radius', though the pack is still active so they may be very close by (at their original spawning point)

It is also to abuse this during other kinds of struggles/disadvantageous situations, like deliberately spraining yourself if a black Wolf/Bear/Moose is blocking your way, and reloading and it will be gone if you were close enough

I think it could also be explained as the out-of-sector mob being partially unloaded, especially during 'estimated' calculations (like during Time Acceleration). Scared Animals seem to run in mostly random directions, so it could be possible the OOS mob is moving beyond some distance threshold and is fully unloading.

Edited June 30 by Veskaida