Killing Bears

[DrMembrane]

Dear Community,

I've been told that bears can be killed with only a bullet or two. Now I've had really wonky experiences with bears, and the only ways I've found to kill them involve doing really gamey/exploity kinda things. Basically I've had to shoot them from right outside my house then quickly run inside, then hope that they're still there when I come outside, and about 70% of the time, the corpse has dissapeared, or perhaps they're not dead. Can someone explain how to kill bears reliably within the game? Preferably in a way that feels less like I'm exploiting a bug.

[octavian]

At the moment there's a rifle accuracy & one shot kill zone RNG conundrum.

If you're willing to take the chance.

https://youtu.be/CyN0FOlyLr8?t=40m

If you're not.

https://youtu.be/TMFMZQk9pNA

Here, wrapping its electric brain around the tree kept me safe, esp. with the new sprinting mechanic.

I recommend going for the "heart", that seems the most reliable one-shot kill area, again, taking into account RNG.

The "heart" is, well, imagine this: the bear is walking perpendicular to your viewpoint, so you're seeing it side-on. When its front leg extends forward, you shoot in the newly exposed area, "behind" the front leg. You shoot low, just above the lowest point of the "chest".

Hope it helps. Don't curse me if you lose your save. I've shot tens of hours at bears and there is some RNG in the equation.

[Aduron]

Dear Community,

I've been told that bears can be killed with only a bullet or two. Now I've had really wonky experiences with bears, and the only ways I've found to kill them involve doing really gamey/exploity kinda things. Basically I've had to shoot them from right outside my house then quickly run inside, then hope that they're still there when I come outside, and about 70% of the time, the corpse has dissapeared, or perhaps they're not dead. Can someone explain how to kill bears reliably within the game? Preferably in a way that feels less like I'm exploiting a bug.

The way I do it is a little less of an exploit, but ultimately still is:

[spoil]They follow you when you're close-ish, so I slowly lead them to a car. This sometimes takes a great deal of time. The car doesn't have a loading screen, so it isn't like a "load and he'll die" thing, but you can shoot and quickly dive into it and he can't attack you. In fact, if he kept patrolling the car for a while, trying to get to you, then I think this would be a totally non-gamey way to effectively kill a bear. But as soon as you step in, he starts walking away, so it's still a bit of an exploit. If I were in this situation, that would be how I would kill a bear, so I justify it that way.

The other nice thing about this strategy is the trunk of the car, as it holds 30kg, allowing you to clean the animal and leave a cache in the trunk to return to later. The meat in the trunk rots much more slowly than on the ground or left on the animal, still to be harvested.[/spoil]

edit: there's also a one-shot region somewhere on the face, but certainly not everywhere on the face (*shudder* at the sound of him charging)

edit2:

If you're willing to take the chance.

Holy mole, that's some serious eat-the-heart-raw-afterwards stuff right there. You're twice the man I am.

[octavian]

edit: there's also a one-shot region somewhere on the face

Not guaranteed though. Now, I don't know if this is because the rifle accuracy is weird or because the region has only a chance to one-shot.

You can also use fire, a flare or a torch, the latter is obviously cheapest, but I've always felt this is a bit too much. I've found this video in my video scraps, it's a bit old, .257, and I can't guarantee you this wasn't changed in .258 as I don't have time to test it right now, although I feel it's somewhat unlikely it was changed.

https://youtu.be/vCoVOMWmX40

You can also use level geometry, get somewhere above the bear where it can't reach you, and from what I understand this is more or less intended gameplay.

Or like Aduron said, in a car, or a hunting blind, whatever.

[iSUGGESTthings]

I have only killed one. It took 5 of my 6 bullets, and I kept running in and out of a house so I wouldn't be mauled. ._. Bears are scary. I avoid them most of the time. I remember the first time I saw one: I was coming down off the forest lookout at night, in the dark, and I almost ran right into the huge dark thing with glowing green eyes. And I literally shouted at my screen, "Holy crap, there's bears in this game!"

PS. Please add craftable beartraps, that you can also accidentally step in and severely injure yourself if you're not careful.