How to kill Polar bears without guns, any hints?

[Swato85]

Just wondering about what is the easiest way to kill them without high tech equipment. For the moment its better to avoid, or waste a lot of arrows/javelins while camping out of their reach. I dont mind going mellee against Brown ones, but the whites I have a bit bigger respect of.

So are there any weakness of theirs to exploit (not game mechanics or bugs abuse) or do you have any special tricks against them.

[Rekal]

It call comes down to developing your skill at dodging them completely in close quarters using what most people would call a jousting technique. Once you can reliably dodge the bears, it doesn't really matter what you use to deal damage.

The bears have a predictable attack pattern you can force pretty easily. All you have to do is be far enough away that the bear initiates a charging attack. For the brown bears it's fairly easy to just side step the bear like a bull fighter by strafing and moving forward to the side of the bear just before it attacks at the end of the charge. This puts you beside the bear when the bears attack animates and thus you're safely outside of the attack range. Once the bear is past you keep moving or back pedaling away to create the distance to force another bear charge while giving you time to continue firing your weapon. Repeat.

The Polar Bears require a bit more speed because their attack range is wider and their bodies are bigger. The best way to attain this speed is to not use strafe and use sprint instead. It can require a bit of twitching movement with your aim but sprinting to the side gets you out of their wider range. Then it is the same as the other bear where you move away to create the distance to force another charge.

Here's a video demonstrating the twitchy side step method in 3rd person: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElcKbMuJgAI

I personally play in 1st person and don't like to twitch that hard, so I sprint directly toward the Polar bear and veer off to the side. Basically bouncing off the polar bear's collision box to end up at its side when it attacks. Then I continue sprinting forward to recreate the distance, turn and fire. You could even melee them down this way.

Here's an example of sprinting forward and bouncing to the side as you pass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0wMHcQCkr8

Whether you count this as a game mechanics abuse or not is up to you. It's literally just moving outside of their telegraphed attack range which you see all the time in other games as the giant red circle you shouldn't stay inside of.

[Cereal]

My first polar bear in a melee fight went extremely poorly. Hard+Hardcore mode and ended up losing a bunch of workshop items. One bad hit and that was it. Ever since that disaster, I started carrying some stone/concrete walls+floors(great for storms too) and a hammer, then building a bunker with portholes to poke at it from a safe distance.

If I need to bail, I just encircle it with walls Satisfactory style and just run. Better to lose a bunch of walls than the entire drop and whatever workshop stuff you've got on you.

[Whiterabbit-uk]

Originally posted by Cereal:

My first polar bear in a melee fight went extremely poorly. Hard+Hardcore mode and ended up losing a bunch of workshop items. One bad hit and that was it. Ever since that disaster, I started carrying some stone/concrete walls+floors(great for storms too) and a hammer, then building a bunker with portholes to poke at it from a safe distance.

If I need to bail, I just encircle it with walls Satisfactory style and just run. Better to lose a bunch of walls than the entire drop and whatever workshop stuff you've got on you.

That's a great idea. I'll have to try it sometime.

[william_es]

Tunnel sideways into the big flat slabs of rock. If you avoid talents that instantly mine the whole rock, this is possible. You can hollow out the bigger ones like a stone igloo. Use the lowest quality pick you have, to take the smallest chunks of rock. I used a starter stone/wood pick for this purpose. Crouch when mining into the rock to make the smallest possible opening.

Make only ONE entrance, never two. If you make two, the AI goes nuts and runs constantly between the two. It will never stop moving.

Agro bears by shooting at them, and then run inside the stone igloo. The bears will either come to the opening, or end up standing on top of the rock.

If they're at the opening, you can knife them in the face. I've killed them with a stone or bone knife. Or shoot them with a junky bow and starter arrows.

If they're standing on top of the rock, you can use the same tactics. Edge out slowlyyyyy, and they bear follow you, and will end up with it's head right above the opening. It's safer to shoot it with arrows, but I've killed them with a knife too.

As a side note, the hollowed out boulder can usually be mined out (carefully) until it's big enough for a fire, bed, and a box. It will (or did) count as shelter from storms. If you travel too far away after using one, the boulder derenders, and the bed will be exposed and break.

[humphreys66]

Originally posted by Swato85:

Just wondering about what is the easiest way to kill them without high tech equipment. For the moment its better to avoid, or waste a lot of arrows/javelins while camping out of their reach. I dont mind going mellee against Brown ones, but the whites I have a bit bigger respect of.

So are there any weakness of theirs to exploit (not game mechanics or bugs abuse) or do you have any special tricks against them.

it`s easy just like with bears get them into water if you can and swim backwards while stabbing them in the face job done hope this helps.

[ulzgoroth]

Rekal has it. On a good day I can spear down a polar bear without getting hit using that technique.

(On a bad day I can be killed three times in a row by the same bear because I keep botching the movement. That wasn't fun.)

[Swato85]

Originally posted by Rekal:

It call comes down to developing your skill at dodging them completely in close quarters using what most people would call a jousting technique. Once you can reliably dodge the bears, it doesn't really matter what you use to deal damage.

The bears have a predictable attack pattern you can force pretty easily. All you have to do is be far enough away that the bear initiates a charging attack. For the brown bears it's fairly easy to just side step the bear like a bull fighter by strafing and moving forward to the side of the bear just before it attacks at the end of the charge. This puts you beside the bear when the bears attack animates and thus you're safely outside of the attack range. Once the bear is past you keep moving or back pedaling away to create the distance to force another bear charge while giving you time to continue firing your weapon. Repeat.

The Polar Bears require a bit more speed because their attack range is wider and their bodies are bigger. The best way to attain this speed is to not use strafe and use sprint instead. It can require a bit of twitching movement with your aim but sprinting to the side gets you out of their wider range. Then it is the same as the other bear where you move away to create the distance to force another charge.

Here's a video demonstrating the twitchy side step method in 3rd person: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElcKbMuJgAI

I personally play in 1st person and don't like to twitch that hard, so I sprint directly toward the Polar bear and veer off to the side. Basically bouncing off the polar bear's collision box to end up at its side when it attacks. Then I continue sprinting forward to recreate the distance, turn and fire. You could even melee them down this way.

Here's an example of sprinting forward and bouncing to the side as you pass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0wMHcQCkr8

Whether you count this as a game mechanics abuse or not is up to you. It's literally just moving outside of their telegraphed attack range which you see all the time in other games as the giant red circle you shouldn't stay inside of.

I know mate:

as I wrote:
" I dont mind going mellee against Brown ones, but the whites I have a bit bigger respect of."
I know this tactic, was asking for other methods. But thank you.

[Swato85]

Originally posted by Cereal:

My first polar bear in a melee fight went extremely poorly. Hard+Hardcore mode and ended up losing a bunch of workshop items. One bad hit and that was it. Ever since that disaster, I started carrying some stone/concrete walls+floors(great for storms too) and a hammer, then building a bunker with portholes to poke at it from a safe distance.

If I need to bail, I just encircle it with walls Satisfactory style and just run. Better to lose a bunch of walls than the entire drop and whatever workshop stuff you've got on you.

This is kinda like me :-D

[Swato85]

Originally posted by william_es:

Tunnel sideways into the big flat slabs of rock. If you avoid talents that instantly mine the whole rock, this is possible. You can hollow out the bigger ones like a stone igloo. Use the lowest quality pick you have, to take the smallest chunks of rock. I used a starter stone/wood pick for this purpose. Crouch when mining into the rock to make the smallest possible opening.

Make only ONE entrance, never two. If you make two, the AI goes nuts and runs constantly between the two. It will never stop moving.

Agro bears by shooting at them, and then run inside the stone igloo. The bears will either come to the opening, or end up standing on top of the rock.

If they're at the opening, you can knife them in the face. I've killed them with a stone or bone knife. Or shoot them with a junky bow and starter arrows.

If they're standing on top of the rock, you can use the same tactics. Edge out slowlyyyyy, and they bear follow you, and will end up with it's head right above the opening. It's safer to shoot it with arrows, but I've killed them with a knife too.

As a side note, the hollowed out boulder can usually be mined out (carefully) until it's big enough for a fire, bed, and a box. It will (or did) count as shelter from storms. If you travel too far away after using one, the boulder derenders, and the bed will be exposed and break.

This describes my initial starts at Icarus. For polars a I prefer to dig a small wall in cave entrance, its a lot more safe and I can get further away if needs, while with the rock formations there is allways the risk of bear glithching through and hitting you inside.

[Swato85]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Rekal has it. On a good day I can spear down a polar bear without getting hit using that technique.

(On a bad day I can be killed three times in a row by the same bear because I keep botching the movement. That wasn't fun.)

Yep, can happen. I trained this with the knife and not even sidestepping because it cause you to block movement in number of times, simply when I am close to hit or directly after i land the hit I simply turn a bit to the left or right and slide alongside the bear. Like a ricoche bullet :-D. Found out that this method is a lot easier and safer to do then sidestepping in front of him, at lest for me as we all have our own grips on controls.

[william_es]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Rekal has it. On a good day I can spear down a polar bear without getting hit using that technique.

(On a bad day I can be killed three times in a row by the same bear because I keep botching the movement. That wasn't fun.)

I can't do "bear jousting". It's too stupid, makes my head hurt. It's a bug/exploit to me. They actually fixed that during one patch, and so many people got face planted when the bear suddenly pivoted and swatted them down that they reversed it on the next update. Bears can move lightning fast when they need to. Look up vids of them "fishing" in streams. Fish like salmon leap out of the water, and the bear nails it instantly.

[william_es]

Originally posted by Swato85:

This describes my initial starts at Icarus. For polars a I prefer to dig a small wall in cave entrance, its a lot more safe and I can get further away if needs, while with the rock formations there is allways the risk of bear glithching through and hitting you inside.

I've never had it become an issue, unless I mined out too much stone inside the big flat slab boulder. I used to do this all the time. Started out as a way to make a respawn point... hollow the boulder out, put down a campfire and bed. That way if the bear caught me I could respawn right there, and sneak out to get my stuff.

Then I discovered I could actually just kill it from inside. Not all boulders can be hallowed out... some are too low. Look for the thickest vertical height... generally about shoulder height on the player. if they come up to waist level, its too low. You'll create holes in the "ceiling".

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by william_es:

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Rekal has it. On a good day I can spear down a polar bear without getting hit using that technique.

(On a bad day I can be killed three times in a row by the same bear because I keep botching the movement. That wasn't fun.)

I can't do "bear jousting". It's too stupid, makes my head hurt. It's a bug/exploit to me. They actually fixed that during one patch, and so many people got face planted when the bear suddenly pivoted and swatted them down that they reversed it on the next update. Bears can move lightning fast when they need to. Look up vids of them "fishing" in streams. Fish like salmon leap out of the water, and the bear nails it instantly.

I mean, yeah, it's exploiting the game enemy's moveset flaw.

...Though it's pretty weird to object to that as an exploit, but not to burrowing inside a boulder and killing the bear as it mindlessly but hopelessly tries to reach you. That's just as much 'this would never work' with a side of 'also, you couldn't do your side of it even if there was no bear'.

[Powerferret]

My favorite technique is to use javelins, and strafe as the charge by. Generally 5 or so javelins on headshots take them down. Also try to get a stealth headshot with bow and arrow to start the fight.

[william_es]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

...Though it's pretty weird to object to that as an exploit, but not to burrowing inside a boulder and killing the bear as it mindlessly but hopelessly tries to reach you. That's just as much 'this would never work' with a side of 'also, you couldn't do your side of it even if there was no bear'.

Oh, agreed, they're both goofy. There are no wildlife survival manuals that tell you "just tunnel into a boulder". But when the game first launched I used the hollowed out boulder method all over game, not just the arctic.