question Distress Pistol for Bear Attacks

[Varying Neutrals]

Salut Survivors,

So, two days ago I had an encounter with a bear in the cave below the Hunting Lodge in Broken Railroad and I just need an explanation because I simply do not understand.

I had gotten attacked by a bear and kind of strolled around without worrying much since I was on Stalker and knew the region pretty well I would say. Thing is, a wolf spotted me while I was in the cave or at least near it so I started a fire for defense, but then so did the bear. I could see it heading my way from rather far and I held up as long as I could hoping it would leave me be at the last second, but it didn't.
So naturally, I shot my Distress Pistol at it but it just fled in my direction instead which lead me to my presumed death since I had already been mauled a couple minutes ago.
Any explanation why it just attacked me even I had scared it with the Pistol? And if any of you have any tips for making predators flee away from oneself, that would be very appreciated!

Any feedback is welcome, don't feel shy to comment anything at all.

[Leeanda]

Unless it was an aurora bear I don't know why it didn't run away.....    Did it instantly attack you or run around for a minute then attack ?  I'm wondering if it just reset itself after panic mode..

@Zaknafein has done some great 'how to' videos if you're interested ..

[ThePancakeLady]

Bears tend to flee towards their den when injured or frightened, and you were in its den cave? And bears do not like us being in their dens. So it fled toward its cave, and there you were, in its cave, so it re-aggro'd when it got within range?

Only thing I can think of, and there could be lots of other reasons.

[Leeanda]

It could also just have been a bit buggy, there are a few issues with the bears at the moment..

[Leeanda]

1 hour ago, Laxgoalie said:

So were you attacked by the bear after firing your distress pistol or did the bear just flee in your direction? Animals often flee right towards you. And this bear was just headed home if you were in the open cave below the Hunting Lodge. This happens a lot with wolves with the torch drop/aim a weapon move. They bark and run right at you and it freaks me out every time it happens, but they don't' attack and just run right by me assuming I've remain within the safety radius of your fire or torch. I have made the mistake of backing up too far from a torch or fire and getting attacked (by bears too). Although I know it's random, animals always seem to flee in whichever direction I don't want them to go.

If you are next to an open fire, a bear should not attack you regardless of it's direction of flight or whether you're in it's cave or not. I routinely lure bears towards their own caves, light a fire, and kill them in their own cave. Nice sheltered area to harvest them in. You can live there for the next several days until a new bear spawns there. It's probably well over 20 days on Stalker. It's something like 40 or 50 days on interloper.

Should be  x amount of days...  I've seen a loper  kill the bear and spend that night in its cave only to get woken by a mauling in the early hours..

Edited May 18, 2024 by Leeanda

[ThePancakeLady]

22 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

It could also just have been a bit buggy, there are a few issues with the bears at the moment..

Yeah, this is true. Bears have been a bit buggy since the last big update.

[Leeanda]

2 minutes ago, ThePancakeLady said:

Yeah, this is true. Bears have been a bit buggy since the last big update.

Honestly they've been like that for a few years...   I've had invisible ones, vanishing right in front of me ones, twitching through walls rocks etc for a long time..    most I don't mind so much but I do miss old grumpy at PV farm..

[Varying Neutrals]

3 hours ago, ThePancakeLady said:

Bears tend to flee towards their den when injured or frightened, and you were in its den cave? And bears do not like us being in their dens. So it fled toward its cave, and there you were, in its cave, so it re-aggro'd when it got within range?

Only thing I can think of, and there could be lots of other reasons.

No, it was the cave with the memento box in it

 

[Leeanda]

5 minutes ago, Varying Neutrals said:

No, it was the cave with the memento box in it

 

That is the bears cave..

[Varying Neutrals]

5 hours ago, Leeanda said:

That is the bears cave..

No? The bear's cave is near the hunting shelter, not the hunting lodge

[Varying Neutrals]

8 hours ago, ThePancakeLady said:

Yeah, this is true. Bears have been a bit buggy since the last big update.

Oh got it

 

[Leeanda]

3 minutes ago, Varying Neutrals said:

No? The bear's cave is near the hunting shelter, not the hunting lodge

Not in my game it's not.. I've got the bones in there and I've snuck past it sleeping to get the memento loot.

[conanjaguar]

I think it's situations like this where Cheat Death will be very welcome...

[Varying Neutrals]

8 hours ago, Laxgoalie said:

So were you attacked by the bear after firing your distress pistol or did the bear just flee in your direction? Animals often flee right towards you. And this bear was just headed home if you were in the open cave below the Hunting Lodge. This happens a lot with wolves with the torch drop/aim a weapon move. They bark and run right at you and it freaks me out every time it happens, but they don't' attack and just run right by me assuming I've remain within the safety radius of your fire or torch. I have made the mistake of backing up too far from a torch or fire and getting attacked (by bears too). Although I know it's random, animals always seem to flee in whichever direction I don't want them to go.

If you are next to an open fire, a bear should not attack you regardless of it's direction of flight or whether you're in it's cave or not. I routinely lure bears towards their own caves, light a fire, and kill them in their own cave. Nice sheltered area to harvest them in. You can live there for the next several days until a new bear spawns there. It's probably well over 20 days on Stalker. It's something like 40 or 50 days on interloper.

I'm almost certain the bear fled towards me because of the shell I shot with the Distress Pistol. What I don't understand is why it attacked me though. I can get I got really unlucky with the direction it fled, but I had lit a hand-held flare and even started a campfire with it. So I just really don't get why it still attacked me and not just kept fleeing.

[Varying Neutrals]

7 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Not in my game it's not.. I've got the bones in there and I've snuck past it sleeping to get the memento loot.

Uhh... Could you show me?.. Cause I'm certain mine doesn't. There's one cave with a climbable mountaineering rope near it, right on the cliffside the Hunting Lodge is, with another cave further along that same cliffside, which is the bear's den. I even checked it out and found two Cedar logs which surprised me

[Leeanda]

2 minutes ago, Varying Neutrals said:

Uhh... Could you show me?.. Cause I'm certain mine doesn't. There's one cave with a climbable mountaineering rope near it, right on the cliffside the Hunting Lodge is, with another cave further along that same cliffside, which is the bear's den. I even checked it out and found two Cedar logs which surprised me

It's a few minutes in... But I must apologise,I could've sworn there were bones in his cave but obviously not..  but that one is definitely his den.

 

 

[Varying Neutrals]

Yeah, the one with the bones is the one near the hunting shelter, and I always thought that it was how you could tell it was a bear den and not a random cave that you'd wake up with a bear next to you. I'll check the map when I use charcoal on it later on, but thanks anyway

 

[Leeanda]

What bones?   Sorry,but I've never seen bones in the other cave..    I usually only find wood in that cave..

[RossBondReturns]

Yeah, after thousands of hours played...I've never had the BR Bear (cave) anywhere but the one with the Memento.
It has always been there for me with or without bones.

[Leeanda]

8 minutes ago, RossBondReturns said:

Yeah, after thousands of hours played...I've never had the BR Bear (cave) anywhere but the one with the Memento.
It has always been there for me with or without bones.

Me either..  and I always sit and wait for it to leave the cave so I can shoot it from up at the lodge

[ThePancakeLady]

1 hour ago, Varying Neutrals said:

Yeah, the one with the bones is the one near the hunting shelter, and I always thought that it was how you could tell it was a bear den and not a random cave that you'd wake up with a bear next to you. I'll check the map when I use charcoal on it later on, but thanks anyway

 

56 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

What bones?   Sorry,but I've never seen bones in the other cave..    I usually only find wood in that cave..

I have had the bear up at the cave behind the pond and hunting blind, but it's really rare for me. And I can't honestly say if there have been bones there or not- sometimes bear dens *do not* have bones in them. But a bear still hangs out there.

And the cave below the rope climb in BR *is* definitely a bear den cave. It's part of what makes going for that Memento box risky if you haven't seen that bear and killed it right before going into that cave. (Don't harvest that bear if you kill it, before going in and getting the Memento box contents- the main bug I have had with bears is them respawning almost immediately after harvesting the carcass in full, instead of having a good bit of time before Paddington shows up again- also happens with wolves sometimes, which kinda sucks in Stalker. Collect the box contents first, then harvest your bear.)

[Leeanda]

4 minutes ago, ThePancakeLady said:

 

I have had the bear up at the cave behind the pond and hunting blind, but it's really rare for me. And I can't honestly say if there have been bones there or not- sometimes bear dens *do not* have bones in them. But a bear still hangs out there.

And the cave below the rope climb in BR *is* definitely a bear den cave. It's part of what makes going for that Memento box risky if you haven't seen that bear and killed it right before going into that cave. (Don't harvest that bear if you kill it, before going in and getting the Memento box contents- the main bug I have had with bears is them respawning almost immediately after harvesting the carcass in full, instead of having a good bit of time before Paddington shows up again- also happens with wolves sometimes, which kinda sucks in Stalker. Collect the box contents first, then harvest your bear.)

Really?    I can imagine it's a bit of a shock to find him there.....    Mind you I've never seen the moose behind the garage in Milton either,I didn't even know it could spawn there until about 2 years ago...

[ThePancakeLady]

17 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Really?    I can imagine it's a bit of a shock to find him there.....    Mind you I've never seen the moose behind the garage in Milton either,I didn't even know it could spawn there until about 2 years ago...

Haha! Yeah, the first time was a bit of a "Pssssst... don't look. He's right behind you." kind of a moment that I was not expecting at all. The bear was wandering around the pond, hadn't detected me yet, so I figured I'd go see if there was anything on that cave, spent a little too much time looking around, turned around to head back out and Grumpy was right out in front of the cave. It did not end well for my character. I can't say I have ever seen that bear go into that cave, but I have seen it wandering very close to the entrance on multiple occasions, and have learned to keep my head on a swivel and not dawdle inside of that cave if I decide to go in.

Granted, that first time was years ago, right after BR was added to Survival Mode, so that bear's patrol loop may have changed since then- but I will never trust that cave 100% if I am not doing a relaxed Pilgrim run. To be honest, the surprise moments in the game after playing for 8 years are things I relish- they keep me on my toes and help snap me out of a sense of complacency if I start getting too comfortable and stop keeping my senses tuned to the world around me.

[Leeanda]

3 minutes ago, ThePancakeLady said:

Haha! Yeah, the first time was a bit of a "Pssssst... don't look. He's right behind you." kind of a moment that I was not expecting at all. The bear was wandering around the pond, hadn't detected me yet, so I figured I'd go see if there was anything on that cave, spent a little too much time looking around, turned around to head back out and Grumpy was right out in front of the cave. It did not end well for my character. I can't say I have ever seen that bear go into that cave, but I have seen it wandering very close to the entrance on multiple occasions, and have learned to keep my head on a swivel and not dawdle inside of that cave if I decide to go in.

Granted, that first time was years ago, right after BR was added to Survival Mode, so that bear's patrol loop may have changed since then- but I will never trust that cave 100% if I am not doing a relaxed Pilgrim run. To be honest, the surprise moments in the game after playing for 8 years are things I relish- they keep me on my toes and help snap me out of a sense of complacency if I start getting too comfortable and stop keeping my senses tuned to the world around me.

I'm not surprised , I would be too...   The wildlife refresh is really going to shake things up.

[Varying Neutrals]

Okay so thanks guys, I guess you helped me figure why I got darth mauled to death by the bear; I was in its home uninvited!


But seriously though, mille mercis to everyone on this post! I can safely say I learned something new again about this game after some 7 odd years and 846 hours in The Long Dark. I seriously and deeply appreciate everyone's patience here (especially yours Leeanda😭) and the respect around here.

For those interested, here's the explanation (I think):

My issue was that I had assumed that bones always meant bear dens, and a lack thereof meant the opposite. I think I got confused because last time I was in Broken Railroad, it was with my old Stalker save (Before the wipe) that got to 500 days. I had a ton of loot and had more than enough resources to go around. I had Cooking Skill at level 5 and I was basically just focusing on getting my other skills to master.

Other than that, I wish all of you a great day, because you all made mine better 😊😚❤️💜💚