Comprehensive Guide to Surviving Wolves in Stalker

This guide focuses on everything wolf, how to avoid them, how to fight them and how to kill them. It covers general behaviour of the biests, tactics to move around the map, where to camp, wolf combat and many more. After reading this guide you should get an idea of how to change your gameplay so you can embrace those cute little fluffies instead of cursing them.

Introduction

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

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 is also posted on the hinterland forum.

The screenshot I used for this guide was taken by opeth1939, thanks man for keeping us safe ;)

Why do I feel I am the right person to write this Guide? I've spent combined over 1000 days in Stalker, over 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 :D

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. 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 :D

[ChillPlayer]

mind you though that a lot has changed since I've written this guide, many tacticts do not work anymore. I will update it once the final release is out ;)

[Birddog]

Thanks, nice guide. I can't throw flares anymore tho ;_;. if i'm hunting wolves i find that getting them to come after you, dropping a decoy, backing away 4-5 steps and then shooting them in the face works well. i have find it very hard to hit one as it charges at you. Another good way is to lure a deer in its path, the wolf will kill the deer, you can sneak up pretty close from behind as its eating and take a bow shot. if you miss you will most likely scare the wolf off, if not you will bag alot of meat, skins, and guts with one bow shot. i find that it seems the bow has a better chance to one shot, instant kill a wolf than a deer,. so less chasing across the map. but i still hate to try a bow shot as the wolf is charging me. i've done it before, but i count that to luck.

[Spoopy Owl]

Just a pet peeve here, I hate that comments for dicussions are in top to bottom order, but for everything else you have to go backwards. like here, you start reading on page two at the bottom and go up. anyway, to my real point...

I think at least for hand fighting I"m going to set a macro on my keyboard to just immitate pressing LMB every 0.50 milliseconds or something like that, fill that bar up in an in instant, maybe even have it press RMB after 6 clicks or so.

[zarraza]

Hey, any updates coming soon? :)

[valley29]

Very good guide. I play at the lowest level right now but this will help when I start to play at the higher levels. I think your point - to stay away from the wolves in the first place - it the best. Even if you win a fight you may end up wounded and that's the end.

[ChillPlayer]

- It honestely never crossed my mind to throw the flare in the direction I am running for a simple reason, you don't see where the wolf is and if it will run towards the flare at all (they change paths since update 192 IIRC)

- Decoys really work on a wolf that just spotted you, I use them very frequently especially since update 192/3 where you practically can't outrun a wolf on flat terrain, they follow you across the whole map until you do something about it, which in my case is either fight it or drop a decoy. Again though, turn around and be sure that it won't change path. Once it checks out the decoy you are free of it and can run away.

- You don't have always time to turn around and go back inside the house, especially in places like trappers or almost all places on the coast of CH wolves might be right on your door step when you leave the house.

Btw I invite everyone to join our streaming group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/tld-s

[Pater von Peter]

@chillplayer: Thx for this guide and please keep up the good work. 3 things i would like to add:

1. Flares are much more reliable if im throwing them the direction im fleeing and not towards the wolf behind me. This way i make sure that there is enough distance between flare and wolf. As u mentioned with campfire/balcony, distance matters for wolves to (not) ignore things.

2. Flares and decoys never helped me making the wolf loose my track, they only gave me a few seconds to get some distance or escape into a car/building. I dont know if its a bug or intended, but i noticed that the wolves are changing their behaviour after being detained by the flare/decoy. They continue to chase me no matter how far away i am, neither growl nor bark anymore and most importantly run even faster than before.

3. If i am leaving a building i am prepared to instantly go back inside, if a wolf spots me. Sleeping one hour is often enough to get rid of the wolf and go out again.

[ChillPlayer]

Thank you Hinterland_Studio for the kind words, the purpose of the guide was exactly to show players that wolves can be dealt with and to read from the developer themself that this guide accomplishes that, means alot ;)

[Hinterland_Studio]

@ChillPlayer: This is a wonderful guide. Thank you very much for making the effort to document, so carefully, the behaviour of Wolves in our game. It's so easy for people to dismiss them as mindless "zombie replacements", but your outline really illustrates the effort we've put into making them a challenging threat in the game, but still one that can be dealt with if people are only willing to learn, plan, think, and when necessary...act. Thank you!

[ChillPlayer]

I update the guide to reflect the recent changes up to v200, most importantly a reliable method to handfight them ;) See change log in the intro for what has changed.