Bears and campfire interactions

[dragonslayer587]

Hi guys! 

Wanna ask u about bears and how they interavt with campifures you build... since yesterday 2 of them ran over them and mauled me over the fire..

Does campfire offer some protection against bears? I would like to know so that I plan my next encounters accordingly without so much risk of dying

Thanks!

[Mixxut]

Bears do not get scared by fire. So when you see a bear, making a fire is not gonna save you.

[dragonslayer587]

7 hours ago, Mixxut said:

Bears do not get scared by fire. So when you see a bear, making a fire is not gonna save you.

Thanks for the answer! Just have another question.. I know that a fire wont stop the charge of a bear, but can the fire stop from coming closer to you? For example if u are harvesting a deer, have a fire going and a bear comes walking near you.. does it stop? or it doesnt give a s*** about the fire too?

[cekivi]

In older updates, people were using fires to trick the bear AI into standing in one place for easy harvesting. That feature has since been removed. I haven't gone after a bear in a loooong time though so I don't know if they still ignore fires completely if they're only walking.

[Mixxut]

2 hours ago, dragonslayer587 said:

Thanks for the answer! Just have another question.. I know that a fire wont stop the charge of a bear, but can the fire stop from coming closer to you? For example if u are harvesting a deer, have a fire going and a bear comes walking near you.. does it stop? or it doesnt give a s*** about the fire too?

No problem! Bears ignore the fire completely and will rush through it if they charge. I'm not sure do they walk trough a campfire if they are just walking around normally but I think that they would still ignore it.

[selfless]

Bears do not notice fires anymore.

[shade_grey]

On 1/24/2018 at 12:36 AM, cekivi said:

In older updates, people were using fires to trick the bear AI into standing in one place for easy harvesting. That feature has since been removed. I haven't gone after a bear in a loooong time though so I don't know if they still ignore fires completely if they're only walking.

Lol! I remember losing an arrow to a tree trunk. Then, days later, getting the idea to use a dead bear as a stepladder. Long story short, it worked, using the fire trick and letting the bear charge me. Careful planning was important but the fire trick was pivotal to the operation's success. 

The problem with bears is that they don't just wander, they follow foraging routes. It's not easy creating an algorithm that allows bears to avoid fires while maintaining their routes.