Comprehensive Guide to Surviving Wolves in Stalker

[ChillPlayer]

Changelog

01.03.2015: Updated the guide for v200:

- general overhaul of the guide

- added 2.12 - 2.15

- complete rewrite of 4.3 (Flares)

- complete rewrite of 4.5 (Handfighting wolves)

- added 5.3

Intro

I was asked by viewers of my stream to write a guide about wolves after they watched how I deal with them. Given the high number of threads that emerged since the update with complaints about wolves, I agreed, if not to say I felt compelled to write it. My hope is that this guide will be posted as an answer to all threads where people complain that wolves are too hard to deal with. I assure you they are not.

This guide is written for version 200 and will be updated with future releases. It covers everything that is relevant when dealing with wolves. Although it is targeted mainly for Stalker difficulty I see no reason why you should not be able to use it for Voyageur or maybe even Pilgrim. It will also be posted on the steam forum.

Why do I feel I am the right person to write this Guide? I've spend combined over 1000 days in Stalker, 300 of these with the new update and my longest Stalker run was 193 days. But most importantly, I use everything I am writing in this guide myself. Wolves are my best friends, I actually hate it when there are no wolves because it asks for more effort on my side

But bear in mind, I cannot offer any tricks or shortcuts to learn how to deal with wolves. I'm only respecting their behaviour and adjust my gameplay accordingly. This guide is ment to get you on the right track to learn how to deal with wolves - but you still have to do the learning part yourself. This means lot's of dying, then some more, until finally you begin to embrace those cute little fluffies instead of cursing them. That being said, let's begin.

1. General Tips

1.1 Wolves are predictable, there is no randomness in their behaviour. This is the most important tip, it's a piece of software that was written in a certain way. If you step into its attention radius there are only two outcomes: it runs away out of fear or attacks you. Keep that in mind while following the rest of the guide.

1.2 Always be prepared for a wolf attack when you are outside, always. This means you leave the house only with at least 4 bandages and a bottle of antiseptic unless you absolutely have to (because you lack either of them). It also means you always know, no matter where you are, how you will react if a wolf will jump you from behind the next corner: shoot, fight or flight.

1.3 Idealy, get a knife or a hatchet before you engage a wolf in hand combat. But it's not needed as I describe later.

1.4 Condition of your cloths has an effect on how much damage a wolf will do to you in a hand combat. Never engage willingly a hand fight when you're half naked.

1.5 The rifle is the weapon of choice when dealing with wolves, so use it. Don't think you safe this one bullet for a wolf/deer pair because if you die, that bullet gives you nothing. The most times I died from a wolf attack was exactly when I thought I can safe the bullet and fight it with my knife. It puts unnecesary and unplanned stress on you and this eventually leads to mistakes.

1.6 Wolves move in patterns and many of them in packs. This means there are areas where it's very likely you will encounter a wolf, other areas where only on certain times there's a wolf and even areas where you will never encounter a wolf. It is very important that you learn where they are and which path they travel.

1.7 There are no areas where you can safely camp outside without fear of a wolf attack. I haven't figured out yet if it's the blizzards or the sleeping outside that may spawn a wolf that attacks you. But I was attacked several times while trying to sleep through a blizzard in the most unlikely places where I never saw a wolf before, like above the "Lookout" area near Clear Cut. The only safe place outside to camp are the caves in PV, I was never attacked while sleeping in a cave by a wolf, but othe players report that they were attacked by bears. Therefor take extra care that there's no bear nearby.

1.8 Raw meat is a wolf magnet. If there are any wolfs in your sight and you have raw meat on you, they will hunt you.

1.9 Low condition is a wolf magnet. Not as strong as raw meat but you are more likely to get attacked by a wolf when your condition is low and the probability that it runs away scared is even less the lower your condition is (that last part is only an educated guess, as it's hard to test)

1.10 Wind direction and strength are the determining factor for how close you can get to a wolf before it notices you. I bolded this part because from what I gathered during my streams, this is what most people don't pay attention to. But it has become very very important to always take wind into account when dealing with wolves.

1.11 Don't expect to become a wolf hunter after a few hours in Stalker. You need to die, alot, dying is part of the learning process in this game. But whenever you die due to a wolf attack, ask yourself: what have I done wrong, did I have to fight it, could I've just ran away, were my cloths in good condition, was my condition high enough to survive the attack, did I press the correct mouse buttons and so on. Dying is no shame as long as you've learned something from your death. If you didn't, you died for nothing. So keep notes, observe yourself, figure out what your mistake was and don't blame your death on "the stupid wolves that are just to hard to deal with...". I am certain that I would find the mistake in every of your deaths if I'd be there.

2. Surviving among wolves - Traveling

2.1 It's called Stalker for a reason. The reason as I see it is not because you are getting stalked by wolves but because you are expected to stalk them. Therefor the most important advice to survive among wolves is: do not engage them. You have, HAVE to scout the area first before you get even near a place where you suspect there might be wolves. Look for any elevation in the area that you can climb to get an overview of the situation.

2.2 When you are traveling always take the highest possible route that follows roughly the path where you are heading. If you are on a snow covered trail, get up on the snow drift the devs have so conveniantely put along it, if there is a hill chain near a road, get up there on the steepest slope you can barely climb and follow the ridge. If you are in a forest, look for hills or any other vantage point, if your path follows the foot of a mountain range, go up there as high as you can. Whatever you do, don't walk in the middle of the path where you can get jumped from any side.

2.3 Always have painkillers and bandages when you are running across a steep slope. Spraining an ankle and not being able to heal it means dinner is served - for the wolves . And you will sprain it sooner or later but I prefere the occasional "Ouch" to running into a wolf who will most likely not kill me, but probably hurt me so much that I have to abord my trip.

2.4 Strafe alot while you are running, that's what the feature is for. I constantly look around while I'm running, I turn 90° left with the mouse while pressing D, 90° right and press A, depending where I am I don't even let go of W so I move - and look - in zigzags.

2.5 Turn up the volume and the sound of the game, headphones are even better - and listen. I usually listen to my own music when I play games but TLD is one of the few examples where I have to rely on what I hear ingame. If you hear the wolf howling it's best to stop and stand still for some seconds. Look around, zoom in on the rifle, does something move anywhere? Be now extra careful especially in forests.

2.6 If you hear it barking then it's on to you. If it's in front of you, either shoot it or strafe around, don't turn back because this will leave you with new problems. For one, the wolf will still be in the area blocking your way, two you are open to jump attacks from other wolves you might have missed.

2.7 If you are very careful you can use strafing to lure a wolf away from a path you want to go. The place where I have to use this tactic often is when I want to follow the Lake Trail in ML from either side, which most of the times is blocked by a wolf. What I do then is get it's attention, walk/run backwards while strafing first left until it's far away from the entrance to the Trail, then right until I am nearer to it than the wolf, and run for it. This works perfectly every time and is what I mean by predictable behaviour.

2.8 Wind matters, I cannot stress this enough. When you travel in places where you see the wolves openly, like the frozen sea in CH, be extra careful that the wind is not blowing in the direction you are running if they are in front of you, always run in a 90° angle to the wind if possible, straight on or by strafing. But wind direction can also change very sudden, therefor it's best to never run towards wolves, even when they are far away. If you have raw meat on you, not paying attention to the wind is a certain attack, probably by multiple wolves if you are in the wrong place.

2.9 Your position matters. This is just an estimate but I think you can get 50% closer to a wolf from behind or from the side than from the front (not taking wind into account) without it noticing you. If you see a wolf moving towards you, run as quickly as you can to it's side before it notices you. This way you can pass it much more safely.

2.10 During night, pay attention for two green glowing dots. If you see them the wolf is already quite near, keep the middle between this two dots in the aim of your rifle and when you can actually see the wolf, shoot.

2.11 During blizzards you see the wolves early enough to still be able to avoid them - if you don't have raw meat on you that is. Constantly check the area from left to right with the strafing technique I described earlier.

2.12 Blizzards serve a purpose too, they let you go to places that are usually heavily patroled by wolves, like Derailment in ML without much fear of a wolf attack. If you weere far enough away from the place you want to go when the blizzard starts, chances are high that you won't encounter a wolf there - but not 100%, still be prepared. And you have to find the way by following landmarks you memorized of course, which is why I always cheer the first time a blizzard hits when I'm near the rail track in ML.

2.13 Wildlife is more than just a means to give you meat or fur, it also let's you travel safer if you are on the lookout for it. Whenever you see wildlife you can be almost sure that there's no wolf near. If in doubt which route to take, always choose the one where you see a deer or bunny.

2.14 Use the wildlife as a taxi, even if you don't intend to eat it try to chase it along the path you are traveling. Deers are very easy to stear, they always run off in the exact opposite direction you are looking. Bunnies follow the same rule initially but are more difficult to control and keep on a certain path. Taxis safed me from many wolves hiding behind rocks and corners but are also convenient to cross wide open spaces like Clear Cut or the sea in CH.

2.15 Sleeping outside, openly or in a cave or fishing hut is much safer with a bear bedroll. I was never attacked by a wolf either while sleeping on the side of the lake in ML nor while spending 20 days in a fishing hut. I don't think it's a 100% sure thing but chances are for sure lower to get attacked during sleep than on an ordinary bed roll.

3. Surviving among wolves - Houses

3.1 Leaving houses is probably where people get killed the most by wolves. Therefor the number one rule when leaving a house is: be prepared for a fight. Second, know before you leave the house in which direction you have to look for a wolf and in which direction you can run. Know where you should run and where you just stand still while listening and observing. When I leave Camp Office in ML I do it via the main entrance and I just stand still checking the area, prepared to shoot any wolf or fight it when it's directly in front of me. When I leave the backside of Quonset Gas Station on the other hand, I don't think or look, I just run straight ahead as soon as the loading screen vanishes. There's almost never a wolf in front and one behind me I can outrun. This kind of knowledge about your housing location is paramount.

3.2 Try to avoid houses with only one exit, never camp in one unless you have to because they might trap you. If you are chased by a wolf and run into a house, it might be that the wolf will stay there until you come out. If you sleep, chances are high that it leaves. But sometimes you can't afford to sleep, for example if you are in low condition already and have 0 calories. With two exits you can slip out the other one and run away.

3.3 Long time camps should always have two exits of which at least one should be fenced, idealy with a little balcony like the house on Jackrabbits. You need to have some space between the fence and the exit or the wolf will still get you, like the fence of the Camp Office which is no protection from wolves.

3.4 When you enter a house, take a note to which room the entrance led you. You should always know from inside the house which exit is gated and which one is open for attack.

3.5 You cannot shoot through fences but you can shoot through the entry of the fence when the wolf is in front of it. You have to be quick but with some trial and error movement you can lure it to run in front of the fishing hut, balcony or stairwell and shoot it.

4. Combat - Hand Fight

Sooner or later you will find yourself in a handfight, no matter how careful you are. Depending on your condition and reaction this can end very badly. If it does, accept it, ask yourself why you got into this situation in the first place, learn and start a new sandbox. Here are some tips how you can survive even at 10% if you do it right.

4.1 The best way to fight wolves is to avoid fighting them. Yes I know I said that already, but I mean it in a different way this time. Except when you are jumped while leaving a building or from behind a corner you can always outrun a wolf, if you take the wind into account. Never run against the wind when followed by a wolf. If you cannot run with the direction of the wind, run in a 90° angle but not against it or the fluffy will get you. Unless you...

4.2 ...use decoys, they are very handy if you are in low condition or have no easy escape route because of wind direction or other wolves nearby. Wait though until you are certain that it won't change it's path again. Drop the decoy (press 4) and move straight away from it, so it lies in a direct line between you and the wolf. It will at least check it out, most stuff it will eat, both gives you valuable seconds to escape.

4.3 Flares can be used to scare away a charging wolf when you throw it in it's path. Wait until the wolf is in thrownig distance and throw the flare before it's feet (RMB click), most of the times it will run away from you. But not always so be prepared to drop a decoy, run or fight. It never worked for me though when I tried to scare away a wolf from a deer corpse, it's better to rely on your rifle or knife in those situations.

4.4 Be sure that no other wolf will join the fight. If a wolf notices you while others are nearby and you don't want to flee from it, pull it away from the group by walking/running backwards so it follows you. Get far enough away and engage the fight.

4.5

Now for the fight. Since the RMB method was patched away during a recent hotfix there is only one reliable method that works for me 100% of the time, provided that I am in good enough condition and only fighting one wolf:

Don't count clicks, don't look on your health bar, the only bar that matters is the one with your strength building up. You have to fill it fast with LMB clicks, not nearly fill it but to the end (important). This requires around 4-5 clicks and you can not overshoot, if it's full it stays full until you release the energy with a single RMB click. This hit takes away around 30% of the wolves life, repeat it it two more times and it will be down to 10%, leaving you around 60% depending on how quickly you filled the bar.

It's not a brain-off method like the RMB clicking in v183 but it works as reliable, if you're fast enough with filling the bar you can fight 3 wolves in a row without recovering condition in between as I did once (and ask yourself afterwards why the heck did you come into a situation where you have to fight 3 wolves in a row :twisted:)

5. Combat - Gun Fight

5.1 When a wolf is running towards you, keep calm, crouch and aim your rifle so the tip of the aim is roughly where it's nose is. Wait until it's close enough, 5-6m away, shoot and he should be dead, either by head or heart shot. A moving wolf should always be shot on from ahead.

5.2 A still standing wolf that is devouring a deer should never be shot from the front. For starters, if the wind is blowing towards the wolf he will smell you long before you are in aiming distance and you have to go back to 5.1 Instead, strafe to the side of it but really, pay extra attention to the wind, they smell you from freakishly far away. You can safely approach it until you hear it swallowing.

Aim directly at the head, the tricky part though is to know when to shoot, because the head makes constant and sudden moves. The pattern repeats itself and for me the beginning of a new cycle is whenever it raises it's head to swallow a big piece. When it lowers the head I aim and shoot immediately, because I know from experience that it won't raise the head again for some seconds.

5.3 Keep in mind though, since some updates ago the wolf might charge at you even if you are closing in from the side, no matter if there's wind or from which direction you approach it. Fortunately, the radius from which it will run towards you is quite large, about the same if you would approach it from the front. Keep your cool and follow 5.1. If you can get closer than this radius it most likely won't charge at you, with time you will get a feeling for the various distances.

5.4 Use the "Peng" of the rifle as a tool. Places like Derailment in ML are crowded with 2-3 wolves. Shoot one of them and scare the others away with the "Peng", which leaves you enough time to loot the area. Beware though that the "Peng" does not scare the wolves far away enough, they still can smell raw meat on you. If you are going to harvest the biest, ready your rifle for the next wolf.

6. Combat - Aftermath

6.1 Beware: some wolves have the tendency to come back after they fled within the next 30 seconds. If you can't withstand another fight, start running in the other direction but still pay attention to the wind, because often they don't only come back, they will actually hunt you for a long way.

6.2 As you should know you can follow the blood trail of a wounded wolf to harvest it. But be sure that you are in well enough condition to survive another fight. Even if it does not circle back it might attack you again if you come too close, or flee deeper into the woods, leading you to another wolf (pack). You might also get caught in a blizzard which you do not want to encounter when you are already down to 15%.

6.3 Harvesting has become very tricky now because of the hyper meat smell feature the wolves got with the latest update. When you harvest, always take gut and hide first, meat last. If you have several carcasses to harvest, take from each first the gut and hide. Then take the meat from the first animal and look up. Do nothing except checking the whole area for any movements. Only if you are certain that there's no other wolf smelling the raw meat, get to the next carcass, rinse and repeat.

6.4 Do NOT harvest meat if you see any wolf nearby, especially if the wind is blowing it's way. And even if you don't see one, listen carefully and observe the harvesting screen, you might see it just in time to abort the harvest, aim the rifle and shoot it. Or at least be prepared for flight or fight.

6.5 Before you harvest, crouch down and look around. Everything moves in realtime while you are harvesting, if the area was clear before you began to harvest, it will most likely stay clear.

6.6 When you cook your meat outside on a fire pay special attention to any wolf sounds, especially barking. If you hear the barking a wolf might jump you within seconds. Immediatelly cancle cooking and run or be prepared for a fight.

6.7 Even when you are on a balcony with the fire at the entrance you are not safe as long as you are in the cooking screen. The instant you hear the barking you have to cancle and step back, the cooking distance is not enough to protect you from the wolf and the fire won't prevent it from attacking you.

7. Final Notes

The summary of this guide is: always be prepared and know your surroundings. It sounds trivial but 6 chapter's are proof that there is a thing or two you need to follow in order to do so. This is not an arcade game where you turn your brain off and shoot everything that moves. The game demands that you take care, be observant, make conscious decisions and be ready for everything it throws at you, anytime. But it's not magic, you bought this game because you wanted to play a survival game, well then, behave like a survivor

Also, I am not a dev nor am I in any way affiliated with hinterland. Everything in this guide I figured out by myself and therefor some things might be wrong. If you find an assumption I made to be false or any other mistake, don't hesitate to reply to this guide. The same is true if I missed to mention something.

I truly hope that this guide will at least change the perspective some players have about wolves and how they approach the "problem". If you like the guide, please reference it whenever another discussion about the "impossible wolves" emerges.

Lastly, I am streaming almost every evening on Steam->TLD->Broadcasts->ChillKiller. Feel free to join me and ask questions in the chat, I and most of the viewers are happy to answer them or just join the madness and have a good time

Happy hunting

[coryduran]

I think this is a fantastic in depth guide, one which will hopefully help new players avoid the extreme frustration some have experienced when it comes to the wolves in this game.

There is only one thing I disagree with, and that's the flares. My experience with the flares is that If you wait long enough to throw the flare, you get 100% wolves running.

I don't have quite as much time as you do, probably closer to 300-400 stalker days and about 140 real time hours in the game, but I've used flares quite a bit and in my experience, they always run. That is if you nail the throw. I feel like the people who are reporting really low percentages of wolves running are throwing the flares far too early. The flare needs to land pretty close to the wolf, perhaps a 1-3 foot radius around the wolf, at the most?

As far as the torch is concerned, my experience with the torch is that when you throw it on the ground, wolves stop at it. They allow you to pick it up and then waving it at them will have them run off. This is what I've had happen a few times, but my experience with torches is nowhere near as comprehensive or exhaustive as with flares, since they are still so new. That being said I've been able to stop 2 and 3 wolves at the same time by throwing a torch down between them and myself. They have then allowed me to pick it up and scare them off with it each time. This has happened maybe 5-8 times for me.

Finally when it comes to harvesting, I've noticed something that may help people who have had issues of being attacked while harvesting (jeeze I avoided using the word complain ). I noticed this happening back before the update but it's probably much more important advice now. I've used fires at various times to thaw out a corpse because I wasn't stressing and wanted to harvest it with my knife. What I've noticed a few times doing this is that when a wolf comes up on my while I'm harvesting, the fire stops it in it's tracks. I've had numerous occasions where I start a fire, harvest, and the screen goes away to show a wolf waiting on the other side of the fire staring at me. This gives me an opportunity to scare it off or attack it, or simply run as they will usually still wait by the fire. I haven't done this enough to say definitively that this always happens, but I certainly think starting a fire by a corpse you are harvesting is a way to make you much safer through that experience.

[ChillPlayer]

Thank you coryduran for your feedback, it's well appreciated

Our experiences differ because I rarely throw a flare at a wolf, it's too risky for a strategy for my liking and many can go wrong. I do run around with a flare when I don't have a rifle, though more for superstition reasons lol. I prefere to simply run, drop a decoy or fight it. The rightclick method works surprisingly well.

I have different experiences with fire though, neither while sleeping nor while cooking meat from the balcony on Jackrabbits did the fire prevent a wolf ever attacking me. I used to place the fire in JR slightly right so it will block it's path when it comes around the corner. Fire didn't interest it at all nor the fact that I was just cooking one of it's brothers lol.

But I never had a fire while harvesting, maybe that's the difference. At the moment I am willing to waste 2-3 bullets for a deer/wolf/wolf... because it's just the safest way. Kill'em as they're coming :twisted:

[Hylander]

1.7 There are no areas where you can safely camp outside without fear of a wolf attack. I haven't figured out yet if it's the blizzards or the sleeping outside that may spawn a wolf that attacks you. But I was attacked several times while trying to sleep through a blizzard in the most unlikely places where I never saw a wolf before, like above the "Lookout" area near Clear Cut. The only safe place outside to camp are the caves in PV, I was never attacked while sleeping in a cave.

I can say categorically at least some of the caves are not safe for sleeping - I was set upon by a bear while trying to recover from the 10% condition I received from another bear (which I previously killed). I was sleeping in the cave at the far south central part of the map when this attack happened.

[Hylander]

Also, I think that sections 2.7 and 4.1 are no longer relevant, since you can't really outrun wolves anymore.

Other than that, very awesome! Nice job...

I agree with cory regarding the flares, btw - I've scared off dozens of wolves with flares with the new update. Its all about timing.

[ChillPlayer]

You can outrun a wolf, I did just yesterday during streaming run away from several wolves, one was actually almost in attacking range but I managed to drop a decoy Though I must admit the last time I lured a wolf away from anywhere as described in 2.7 was with 183, will test this again.

I forgot to mention about the caves: after you killed the bear in the area you are safe. It never occured to me to camp in a cave with a bear roaming around, but I'll add this too. I'll also change the part about flares if you both have good results with it. The few times I tried it it never worked, guess some training wouldn't hurt. But tomorrow, need to go to bed now

[Hylander]

I forgot to mention about the caves: after you killed the bear in the area you are safe. It never occured to me to camp in a cave with a bear roaming around, but I'll add this too.

Nope. I killed the bear in the southern cave. He was dead. I went to sleep in that cave for 5 hours. Woke up to another bear mauling me.

Interestingly, here's the relevant entry from the log:

Day 33:

...

9:11 AM Bear Attack!

9:15 AM Experiencing significant blood loss.

9:15 AM At risk for infected wound.

9:35 AM Went to sleep.

11:35 AM Woke up after sleeping 2 hours

1:30 PM Drank 0.34 L potable water.

1:32 PM Ate Black Bear Meat.

1:33 PM Contracted food poisoning.

1:37 PM Went to sleep.

5:48 PM Interrupted by wolf during sleep! Had been sleeping for 4 hours 11 minutes

5:48 PM Bear Attack!

Wasn't a wolf - I could have survived that one. You can see I started eating the bear I killed (got food poisoning from it). I was in pretty bad shape, but I would have survived.

[ChillPlayer]

Was this by any chance in a cave near contemplation bridge and a hunters blind? You know in the back county of the radio tower. Because that's where I was trapped by two bears, shot one and later never found the other bear. I've spend 4-5 days looking for it, nada. Makes me wonder if the "Interrupted by sleep mechanice" now also can spawn bears in PV.

[EDIT] changed the part about flares and sleeping in caves a bit. I will run some more tests with flares and maybe update the guide with a tactic but as for now I cannot rely on them.

@opeth: when it's about showing pictures of many dead wolves you are the master, no doubt about that :lol: But this guide is not to show people how many wolves you can kill but that you can deal with wolves if you behave accordingly. I'm also not sure about the bear master, I first have to encounter one after the hotfix and some players claim they can one-shoot a bear. I made the video 2 days after release when a lot of player were complaining that they can't kill a bear. Now suddenly everyone can, I wonder why

[Denyo]

As answer to this great survival guide,I can first say this: Before update I survived 37,then 67 and after that 81 or so,days.And that in a row.And I had game then for less than three weeks.It was coz I did read other"s players tips and I learned from my mistakes.After update I manage to survive most 10 days,always killed by a wolf.Why? It was only,coz I didn"t accept changes and I didn"t adapt.I kept using all aknowledge and tactics from previous version and behavior of nature and animals.Always my stupidity killed me,coz every time I was aware,that I can cross a wolf,but yet I still was stuborn using old methods and old paths.And,all,what I had in mind,was,how to find all looting areas and loot them asap.I was not thinking about survival,but about discovering.Exampl: Every time I wanted stuborn first to get to Camp Office and from there to Traper"s Homestead.No matter,where I was respawned at start.Of course,if I had focus only to get to those two places,I will do milion mistakes.I did acts like harness horse,to whom they cover eyes at sides,so he is focused only going forward and forward and forward.

But,after I did watch some of ChillPlayer"s streaming and after we talk about some tips and logical things,I started to take things different.Now I completely change oppinion about wolves.I"m running now 79th day of my game and I did already 7 trips into townsite,transfering stuff from garage to my base on Jackrabbit"s.I do meet one or two wolves sometimes,but only,as I walk relaxed and am not affraid to meet them.It is realy easy to drag them off with only right button clicking.At least in Voyageur mode.Or to chase them away with torch.I like to use torch,as it is much more reliable than flare.Flare will never help you,if wolf is already in full sprint after you.Even if you throw it under his feet,he cannot stop his furious attack.So,as I experienced,if we carry raw meat,wolf will turn crazy coz of meat smell and then he will just crazy run towards meat source,growling like mad.On that occasion only torch help,if we mash infront of his nose.I dunno,why torch helps,but I had many experience,that flare didn"t stop madly running wolf.

[Scyzara]

Great guide, Chill, thank you for writing it!

I can confirm that your advices are very helpful in voyageur mode as well. (I've figured out and used most of them myself, but you're guide still taught me new things like "only right-clicking to fend off wolves faster").

Regarding the flare/torch/fire issue... from my personal experience, I can only say that neither of them seems to be a 100% secure option to scare away wolves. Flares are fine to chase a wolf away from its prey (if you mind the wind direction), but I would not try to throw a flare at an approaching wolf as the correct timing can be quite hard.

If you carry raw meat, waving torches and hiding behind campfires won't protect you either (at least this hardly ever worked for me, but it's possible I'm just terribly unlucky).

When I read the V. 192 patch notes that wolves are attracted by the smell of raw meat, I just thought "Okay then, I'll just cook the meat immediately with a campfire before taking it home, should be the safest option". I checked that there was no wolf nearby after harvesting the meat, built my campfire at the safest place available in the area, cooked about half of the meat and was suddenly attacked by a wolf which was standing right within my campfire (I placed the campfire between two big rocks at the foot of a cliff, so I was surrounded from three sides by rocks when cooking. There's really no way the wolf avoided my fire somehow). Made the same experience again when trying to cook meat in front of a cabin which had no stove. Although I was standing at a terrace completely bounded by a fence (fire placed at the entrance), I still got attacked by a wolf.

I can not advice to cook meat outside under any circumstances unless you're extremely desparate and starving to death. (Even then I would prefer a food poisoning over a wolf attack in most cases).

[Hylander]

Was this by any chance in a cave near contemplation bridge and a hunters blind? You know in the back county of the radio tower. Because that's where I was trapped by two bears, shot one and later never found the other bear. I've spend 4-5 days looking for it, nada. Makes me wonder if the "Interrupted by sleep mechanice" now also can spawn bears in PV.

This was the cave in the far south center of the map (1432, 209). I'm thinking the "interrupted by sleep mechanic" can definitely spawn bears, because there's no way that there should have been another bear anywhere near that cave.

[ChillPlayer]

Thank you both Denyo and Scyzara for your feedback, it's encouraging and much appreciated

Denyo what you describe is the typicall learning process everyone has to go through, I did too and it didn't actually take too long, I only play the game since end of december. Sadly some people don't see this and demand instant success as they are used to from other, mostly triple A, games. As I wrote in the guide, dying is not a shame, it's part of the learning. Only if you die without recognizing your mistake you died for nothing.

Scyzara I have the same experience with fires and wolves. No matter how close to the terrace you build the fire and how far you step away so that you can barely cook, if a wolf gets to you while you are in the cooking screen you will have a fight. But at least on Jackrabbit you get a warning, the wolf barks before he gets to you. If you hear barking while cooking on a balcony, immediately, really as in now, cancel and step back. This way you are safe but you have to quit the instant you hear the barking. Come to think, this might be worth adding to the guide.

[ChillPlayer]

Update: I added 6.6 and 6.7 and the guide is now on steam:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=391000817

Please rate it if you like it so it will be better recognized

[pikkue]

Tried to rate, kanji's everywhere!

No read, no rate

[Hylander]

Rated! Thanks for the guide, it is great!

Regarding spawning bears, LMG has it happening on video:

[bBvideo 560,340:hwb3v5ky]

[/bBvideo]

He starts his sleep right at the 7 minute mark...

[ChillPlayer]

Tried to rate, kanji's everywhere!

What do you mean by that? I see now kanji's, the guide is in english. But you can also access it via the TLD community hub inside steam, maybe this works for you.

Hylander what interests me the most about this topic is, if the bear (or wolf) was already in the area or if it was spawned by the game due to sleeping in the open. There are only 5 bears as far as I can tell, although I'm not even sure it's 5, I shot only 4 and never found the 5th again, but when I was hiding in a hunters blind somehow two bears got there. What I think is, that one walked there and the other was spawned while I was sleeping.

With bears we can actually test it. We know there's a maximum of 5 bears, I haven't read anything about a 6th bear yet. So the next time someone kills 5 bears he/she should sleep some nights in the cave and report back if another bear attack happend. I think this way we can rule it out. Unfortunately I just had to begin a new game so I can't test it myself yet.

Or... the devs give us a hint

[ChillPlayer]

sadly, with the latest hotfix the RMB method does not work anymore. I've updated the guide accordingly.

[coryduran]

[EDIT] changed the part about flares and sleeping in caves a bit. I will run some more tests with flares and maybe update the guide with a tactic but as for now I cannot rely on them.

This is my tactic, and like I said in MY experience, this is 100%. When a wolf is coming up on me that I don't want to fight/shoot, I pull a flare out. Based on how I'm feeling I either stand my ground, but usually I end up running backwards away from it facing the wolf (this is only if I know that it's safe to run in that direction). As the wolf continues to run up on me I throw the LIT flare at it at in a situation where it will land within 1-2 feet of the wolf (this is pretty easy with an understanding of the physics of throwing and if you can gauge the wolf speed, as it will run into the flare). Again in my own experience, this will lead to one of two situations EVERY TIME as long as the flare lands closely to the wolf (again at this point I always nail my throw, might take a little practice in the beginning though). These two situations are that the wolf either runs away immediately, or if the flare was a little further it will stop the wolf in it's tracks. The wolf will allow you to pick the flare up and throw it at the wolf again, standing a foot from it which should allow you to nail the throw making it run away.

Again this is all my own experience, which is somewhat a significant amount of time (like 150 hours logged?), but in my experience flares are a guaranteed escape assuming you know how to use them, takes a little practice but legitimately ALWAYS works for me.

The torches I'm still testing with a bit, but it does seem that there is at least a HIGH percentage that they will stop in their tracks if you throw the torch at them. Then pick it up and wave it in their faces, but I can't speak as confidently on torches as I can on flares.

[norgust]

Hey, I just found out another tip for wolf killing with a rifle.

1. Look at the wolf coming towards you

2. Drop a decoy and run backwards

3. The wolf will slow down and you can easily make a head shot

Pretty straightforward but deadly effective!

[ChillPlayer]

@Coryduran: I believe you that it works for you but I first have to make that experience myself before I put in in the guide. The general tone yesterday in my stream chat was, that flares are too risky. But I will test it some time the next days and if I find a reliable way that even works for me, I will put it in the guide.

@norgust: yes this is a very handy trick I just used yesterday, I will add it to the next update of the guide, thanks for reminding

[Denyo]

@Coryduran: I believe you that it works for you but I first have to make that experience myself before I put in in the guide. The general tone yesterday in my stream chat was, that flares are too risky. But I will test it some time the next days and if I find a reliable way that even works for me, I will put it in the guide.

@norgust: yes this is a very handy trick I just used yesterday, I will add it to the next update of the guide, thanks for reminding

I bet this will be tomorrow fixed,so this trick won"t work anymore. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[TLDFAN]

Hey, I just found out another tip for wolf killing with a rifle.

1. Look at the wolf coming towards you

2. Drop a decoy and run backwards

3. The wolf will slow down and you can easily make a head shot

Pretty straightforward but deadly effective!

4. Use the flare to ignite the fire you build right on its carcass to keep it and you from freezing while you filet that bastard and cook its meat and pull off the pelt and remove the guts for a set of snares :mrgreen:

[norgust]

What flare?

Hey, I just found out another tip for wolf killing with a rifle.

1. Look at the wolf coming towards you

2. Drop a decoy and run backwards

3. The wolf will slow down and you can easily make a head shot

Pretty straightforward but deadly effective!

4. Use the flare to ignite the fire you build right on its carcass to keep it and you from freezing while you filet that bastard and cook its meat and pull off the pelt and remove the guts for a set of snares :mrgreen:

[TLDFAN]

I thought you meant flare by decoy

[Denyo]

I know it is only Voyageur mode and that many players achieved much more,than me,but...I"m still so proud of myself,that I passed today 100 days of survival,actualy am running 103rd day today. And I could not last that long,if there would not be this guide,that is for sure.I learned so much from this guide and from player"s broadcasts as well from conversations,mostly from ChillPlayer.Altough there was one major update and three hotfixes,that still didn"t affect on my surviving battle,as I learned to adapt,not complain.I unlocked also another achievement,which is: Visit all interior places in both maps,ML and CH.So,CH I cleared now for the first time wholle.Atm I"m full of supplies and my unlocking of PL area can wait. Only thing I"m lack off are bullets. I have only three left,so last few days I must fight with my hands with wolves for food.Like Chill said,when you get know wolves,they become your frends and you want them.Now I"m thinking about them as my food and clothing material,not as treath anymore,altough they became darn smart after last hotfix.

Anyway,now I feel ready to go try Stalker mode.So,after I will die in current game,I will go dying in Stalker.:-)

So,I want to give public announcement of my gratitude and appreciation to ChillPlayer for this great guide,as well for all his help and tips.Thank you realy very much,mate.