My most annoying (and successful) wolf tracking

[reginaphalange]

So firstly, I'm stoked that animals have returned to the lake cabin area of ML on my 343-day save (one of my first saves ever, easy mode, wolves are mostly scared of you). I was worried it was bugged when no animals at all respawned ever. I knew there was a bug, so I just waited... Finally, I see a 3-wolf pack and a 6-deer herd on the lake! This hopefully means that the herds by Trapper's and elsewhere have respawned too. And rabbits as well. 

Anyway, I'll be damned if I let those mangy woofs steal my venison, and on my way back to the camp office I get lucky with a critical and massive blood gush from this fella. He runs for not long at all before he stops running and is immediately limping. 

But then he keeps limping for what felt like an hour in real life but it was long enough for the weather to change and go down 2 degrees. 

At one point I worry, cuz he howls for his friends, who howl back. And I'm thinking, "Great, Hinterland has updated the wolf AI and I'm about to be revenge-killed."

So Mr. Woof finds his friends. They don't seem to care that he's limping, poor sap. They circle the lake for I don't know how long but I am circling with them from camp office to fishing huts... Then his buddies howl, and Mr. Woof answers, and again I wonder if I'm wolfbait. But I'm crouching all the way and they either don't notice me as I"m wearing a wolf coat, or I'm just that good at sneakysneaks. 

Then I get impatient with the lil $#1T and shoot him again with an arrow, AGAIN getting a crit and big gush of blood. He runs a tiny bit then is limping even harder (or rather dragging himself along). And by along I mean up that ridge across from the camp office -- up high enough for me to sprain my wrist AND ankle... !@#$$% -- then swings back around down, then up AGAIN where he finally keels over and I don't have to check my journal because I hear Mr. Woof's death cry.

The temp is now 4 degrees lower, though my coat is laughing at this.
I get my arrow back (the other one didn't stick in him and I retrieved it from the snow), and get 7.2 lbs of meat from him.... skinny thing.

I didn't just do the "wait and stalk after" bit because whenever I do that in this area I lose the beasts in the hills. Thankfully the footprints and blood trails did their jobs and didn't glitch away. 

I stalked this fellow long enough to start to feel bad for him, but I remind myself he'd otherwise steal my herbivore meat supply.

....sigh.

This game requires nothing if not patience.

[Pillock]

If your first arrow didn't stick in him, it might be that he wasn't critically injured. I think you can sometimes get 'glancing blows' that cause blood but never end up killing the animal.

[reginaphalange]

6 hours ago, Pillock said:

If your first arrow didn't stick in him, it might be that he wasn't critically injured. I think you can sometimes get 'glancing blows' that cause blood but never end up killing the animal.

I thought a limping animal indicated that it would drop soon. Maybe not. So perhaps I stalked him much longer than I should have...... 

[Doc Feral]

7 hours ago, Pillock said:

If your first arrow didn't stick in him, it might be that he wasn't critically injured. I think you can sometimes get 'glancing blows' that cause blood but never end up killing the animal.

Unless the arrow breaks. A broken arrow will always spontaneously fall off, but the blood trail will tell if the hit is critical or not.

[Pillock]

3 hours ago, reginaphalange said:

I thought a limping animal indicated that it would drop soon. Maybe not. So perhaps I stalked him much longer than I should have...... 

I thought that too! I would have done the same as you. Whatever, it made for a good story.

[Dan_]

Yeah, limping just indicates the wolf suffered condition loss in my book. Little scraping hits will make the blood spill sound but produce no bleeding wound. 

If the wolf is indeed bleeding, you can approach him safely and finish him off with a headshot from point blank. I prefer this method over waiting to avoid the prey getting itself into difficult to reach spots which may lose you the kill and an arrow. 

Wolves can also limp if you win the struggle with a blunt weapon ( hammer/prybar ), though in this case, I'd recommend you to not get close or you'll get jumped. 

[Doc Feral]

If you try to pluck your arrow off a living wolf it will act offended and attack, but if it's really close to death there are good chances to slay it without suffering any damage.