Respawn rates for animals

[Rayir]

Hello all,

Im a new player and new to the forums (picked up the game August 1st. Finished sorry mode and just 15-20 days into pilgrim. Wanted to start easy because I am still trying to get a feel for the game as story and survival seem really different) hoping to get some clarification on animal respawn rates. Specifically I wanted to know.

1. Are the specific spawn rates for each animal; rabbits, deer, wolfs and bears after they are killed and fully harvested?

2. Does the rate change in different difficulties?

3. Can you wipeout the animals so they don't respawn? Example if I come across a group of rabbits (3-4) and I kill and harvest them all would that have an effect on a possible spawn rate? 

4. Can respawn location change or is set?

I am asking in terms of survival mode. 

Thanks for any help/tips you have!

-Rayir

[Scyzara]

On 11.8.2017 at 4:43 PM, Rayir said:

1. Are the specific spawn rates for each animal; rabbits, deer, wolfs and bears after they are killed and fully harvested?

2. Does the rate change in different difficulties?

Yes, there are specific respawn rates for all animals, but they depend on various factors. Most importantly the duration of your game (e.g. on day 100 Interloper, deer will have a longer respawn timer than on day 10), but also the experience mode and presumably even how often you've killed animals in this region before. (The latter may just be my personal impression, though - it's hard to say because as you kill an animal in a spawn location over and over again, your game time also progresses as well of course.) It's hard to name some specific numbers because they're not static, but typically bears have the longest respawn timers while wolves, rabbits & deer respawn rather fast.

On 11.8.2017 at 4:43 PM, Rayir said:

3. Can you wipeout the animals so they don't respawn? Example if I come across a group of rabbits (3-4) and I kill and harvest them all would that have an effect on a possible spawn rate? 

It does, but you can't exterminate animal populations forever. If you exhaust e.g. a rabbit population, their respawn timer just becomes way longer than usually - but at some point the rabbits will still respawn, albeit probably in lower numbers at first.

On 11.8.2017 at 4:43 PM, Rayir said:

4. Can respawn location change or is set?

They can (and do) change, but it's not totally random. There are multiple potential spawn locations for each animal species and not all of them are inhabited at once. So if you kill a wolf in let's say region A, it's well possible the wolf won't respawn in A again, but rather in B, C or D. The same is true for deer, rabbits and bears. 

Just as a sidenote: You can easily check if a bear location is inhabited by checking if there are bones in front of the potential bear cave. If bones are lying around, the cave is inhabited - if not, you know the bear has spawned elsewhere.

 

[Thrasador]

Also, the respawn/despawn rates for animals in the Story seem totally broken and jacked up....they don't follow the rules of Sandbox at all....

[JAFO]

Further to the above, a not-fully-harvested carcass takes several days to disappear. Only after that does the respawn clock start ticking. So you can slow down the respawn rates of troublesome wolves and bears by leaving some guts or hide unharvested.

[Thrasador]

39 minutes ago, JAFO said:

Further to the above, a not-fully-harvested carcass takes several days to disappear. Only after that does the respawn clock start ticking. So you can slow down the respawn rates of troublesome wolves and bears by leaving some guts or hide unharvested.

That's what I'm talking about....at least in my experience in the Story, that isn't occurring properly...i.e. the way it has been in sandbox. I've had carcasses despawn immediately after quitting and reloading and/or sleeping and reloading the zone whether I have left material on the carcass or not. The biggest issue I have with it is the wolves. Like the barn wolf guarding the corpse with the key. Both myself and @SnowWalkerhave had that wolf reappear VERY quickly on that corpse. Like the next day, whether it was harvested or not. I have an issue with this...No sir, I don't like it...

[SnowWalker]

1 hour ago, Thrasador said:

That's what I'm talking about....at least in my experience in the Story, that isn't occurring properly...i.e. the way it has been in sandbox. I've had carcasses despawn immediately after quitting and reloading and/or sleeping and reloading the zone whether I have left material on the carcass or not. The biggest issue I have with it is the wolves. Like the barn wolf guarding the corpse with the key. Both myself and @SnowWalkerhave had that wolf reappear VERY quickly on that corpse. Like the next day, whether it was harvested or not. I have an issue with this...No sir, I don't like it...

Yes, and I shot a deer at Unnamed Pond for myself but it was getting night so I harvested two kg and ran over to the little cabin to sleep the night. Next morning the whole carcass was gone. I wanted the rest of the meat 7 kg and the hide for Jeremiah. Nope, gone. I shot another deer last night and harvested only all of the meat and it was still lying there the next day though when I walked past it. So I got the hide too. There's no rhyme or reason. And that barn wolf re-spawned for me twice. I killed it the first time I went to the farm out of turn. Saw it's carcass but left it for the time being. Went back to get for food later and I got jumped unexpectedly again by a barn wolf and the other carcass was gone. The wolf I had just fought was hurt and took off so I didn't follow it or stick around but when I went back to the barn later for Mother's quest, I went inside the barn with a lit flare and it was waiting for me once again by the back wall. I scared it away with the flare. There was no other carcass anywhere that I could spot.

Edited August 13, 2017 by SnowWalker

[Rayir]

16 hours ago, Scyzara said:

Yes, there are specific respawn rates for all animals, but they depend on various factors. Most importantly the duration of your game (e.g. on day 100 Interloper, deer will have a longer respawn timer than on day 10), but also the experience mode and presumably even how often you've killed animals in this region before. (The latter may just be my personal impression, though - it's hard to say because as you kill an animal in a spawn location over and over again, your game time also progresses as well of course.) It's hard to name some specific numbers because they're not static, but typically bears have the longest respawn timers while wolves, rabbits & deer respawn rather fast.

It does, but you can't exterminate animal populations forever. If you exhaust e.g. a rabbit population, their respawn timer just becomes way longer than usually - but at some point the rabbits will still respawn, albeit probably in lower numbers at first.

They can (and do) change, but it's not totally random. There are multiple potential spawn locations for each animal species and not all of them are inhabited at once. So if you kill a wolf in let's say region A, it's well possible the wolf won't respawn in A again, but rather in B, C or D. The same is true for deer, rabbits and bears. 

Just as a sidenote: You can easily check if a bear location is inhabited by checking if there are bones in front of the potential bear cave. If bones are lying around, the cave is inhabited - if not, you know the bear has spawned elsewhere.

 

Thank you for the clarification. I actually got to experience the staggered respawn rate of rabbits after "wiping" them out ones voyager run I just started. Killed 4 and had only 1 respawn first a couple days out by the hunters cabin in muster lake.

From this it looks like the best thing to do is learn spawn points of each animal and only hunt went needed and not just because you see them. 

Thanks for the info! 

[galadhlinn]

I know this is oldish thread, but wanted to add my experience to help others down the road.  My main camp in Stalker (d116) is the camp office.  Initially there were three deer at the far end of the lake over by the climbing rope to western access.  I was mainly hunting wolves out on the lake and the deer that spawns close to the office.  There were also three deer in the hollow across from the office on the other side of the tracks.  I killed one of them once.  Eventually, all the animals disappeared and/or stopped respawning.  I didn't mind because I was away a lot exploring other regions and forging arrowheads at Riken and the Maintenance yard.  After a couple of weeks I came back to the office to stay for awhile and work on my fishing.  Only one wolf was on the lake.  No deer anywhere near the office or lake.  So I killed the lone wolf and headed to trappers cabin.  I killed four wolves and a bear out in that neck of the woods.  Humpted all the meat back to the office over a couple of days, stashing the hides in trappers.  Several days after I was back at the office mostly fishing and making bows/arrows two wolves on the lake and all six deer reappeared.  I killed the two wolves hoping to save the deer (wolves on the lake like to kill the deer).  A couple of days later, all the deer are gone again even though I did not hunt them and no wolves were present.  While there is something to hunting out an area, and I think something to hunting another area to cause animals to spawn in previously empty areas, I think there is sufficient randomness to not rack my brain trying to figure it out.  Simple answer is: animal spawning changes as you interact with the world.  : P

-G

[Doc Feral]

On 12/8/2017 at 10:31 PM, Scyzara said:

Just as a sidenote: You can easily check if a bear location is inhabited by checking if there are bones in front of the potential bear cave. If bones are lying around, the cave is inhabited - if not, you know the bear has spawned elsewhere.

Never figured that out, interesting.

I agree that in story mode spawn rates are different (wolves sure are plentiful).

Harvesting a carcass is the fastest way to make an animal respawn. Leftovers disappear in a few hours.

Some spawn locations may have different animals. You may have rabbits once, then deer, then wolves, then a wolf eating rabbits... you'll always find something but you don't know what.

Edited February 4, 2019 by Doc Feral

[AssassinFiver]

Know that this thread is old, but I just want to know if bears spawn in story mode. I'm now in Chapter 3, and I haven't seen ANY bears except for old bear. I'm starting to wonder if they even spawn at all. (By the way, I'm on middle difficulty)