Beginner questions about hunting? Can someone help me out, please?

[BoromiR]

Crafting and hunting confuses me in this game.

1) I've read what i can from reddit threads, and my main takeaway about carcasses vs skinning, is that carcasses if sold give more money, if donated to camp, give more meat. Aside from that, there is no actual reason to choose to carry carcasses vs actually skinning animals (since you can only equip 1 big game, 2 medium game vs dozens of skins on back of a horse). Only exception is to bring carcasses with you is, if some crafting recipe specifically asks for carcass. Did I understand this correctly?

Another thing that confuses me, is camp crafting, fence crafting and trapper crafting.

2) When I donate 3 star pelts to camp, they are "stored" indefinitely until I craft camp upgrades with them? Correct? Meaning, items that are craftable/upgradeable at camp must have skins and animal components (feathers, antlers etc) deposited/donated first. Correct?

3) What about trappers outfits and upgrades? Do i need to have all my 3 star pelts and other items needed for recipe in my actual inventory (satchel) when i go see trapper to buy some legendary outfit, for example? For example some outfit requires 8 feathers, currently i can only carry 10. Does this mean i can only buy this one outfit, and then i have to go farm another feathers and make trip back to trapper again, if I want to craft another outfit that requires more feathers? (Even though i have many 3 star skins on horse, I dont have inventory space to bring other materials to trapper, like, already mentioned feathers).

4) Another question, regarding skins on a horse. What are conditions when items on a horse (skins etc) might disappear? Does dying automatically "revert" horse back to normal state? Meaning, no items? If so, what do i do with my 3 star items in the meanwhile, if cant craft anything at the moment, since i need to farm other small common resources? Where can i safely store my pelts until i gather rest of needed materials?

[GhostyOsty]

1) Skinning Carcasses is usually for Crafting. Pelts are used at both Pearson and the Trapper to craft new stuff. Whether the Trapper is perminate, Pearson only lasts for the duration of the story. If you require a skull or antler for Pearson, it usually means that you have to skin that specific animal.

2) Yes, they are stored indefinitely. This also applies to the Trapper.

3) Every pelt MUST be perfect, Legendary Pelts will always be Legendary, they will not degrade. Pelts and Feathers must be sold to be used.

4) okie this is a long one.

- Carcasses decompose overtime, although Pelts do not. Pelts do not get damaged while on a horse.

- There's a specific trinket at the Fence you'll be able to craft to slow the process of decomposation of animals (I think it's the Elk Trinket) and there's a trinket that allows the player to obtain Perfect Pelts from 2-Star Animals (I forgot which one it is though).

- If you die, all of your pelts that were stored on your horse will be gone. The pelts that are stored on the player do not dissapear, I really hate how Rockstar left this in the game since day one. Fortunately, Legendary Pelts if you die GO straight to the trapper no matter what. Although, if you're fishing for Legendary Fish you will have to go back to find it again.

I hope this helps! I'm sorry for such a big block of text though, a lot to go through.

[Wingnut]

Add to this that high quality pelts and carcasses are rare but can be sold for more. It is worth taking and selling a single high quality carcass than just spamming lots of low quality pelts because if you spot a high quality animal it is a waste to leave the carcass to rot.
In fact the best tip i can give is only go for high quality animals. Mid quality are okay just to sell if there are no high quality and dont bother with the low quality at all.
Just my opinion though.

[Pyx]

You don't have to store anything on your character/horse if you turn it in to the Trapper or Pearson it will be there when you go to craft later. Anything in your satchel will not rot so small birds, squirrels, small fish, chipmunks, rats, toads, frogs, and bats will all keep. So for the hunting requests you should collect those first before getting the carcasses (Rabbit, Opossum, Skunk, etc) that way your carcasses don't spoil while you hunt the other items because hunting requests have to be turned in at the same time. Dying you will lose all your skins and carcasses on your horse. Also if you crash your horse and you have carcasses on it, they will likely fall off, the skins will stay on though. Always make a save after you get a 3* so if something happens you can reload.

[Duderino]

Keep in mind that you can always tame a wild horse and have it or yours follow along to carry a second carcass . . . makes getting the upgrades/trinkets go a lot quicker ;)

[T9]

Originally posted by GhostyOsty:

I hope this helps! I'm sorry for such a big block of text though, a lot to go through.

If that is a too big text for some people, they seriously need to learn to read better

I hate it too that pelts disappear. Lost 3 cougar pelts due to dying and I was mildly tilt xD

[ArcTheWolf]

This guide right here will be your best friend, I highly recommend favoriting it. It will cover everything you'll need to know about hunting.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2698798609

[adrian_vg]

Originally posted by Pyx:

Anything in your satchel will not rot so small birds, squirrels, small fish, chipmunks, rats, toads, frogs, and bats will all keep. So for the hunting requests you should collect those first before getting the carcasses (Rabbit, Opossum, Skunk, etc) that way your carcasses don't spoil while you hunt the other items because hunting requests have to be turned in at the same time.

Doing Mrs Hobbs hunting request 4 for the last three four days IRL.
Managed to find a perfect sparrow, perfect toad and yesterday a perfect bullfrog.
A perfect songbird was nowhere to be find and something I spent the entire evening on, so saved and set up camp to craft some steaks and sleep till morning as birds are active during day only.

Tearing down camp, I suddenly got notifications about the hunting request and to my horror saw the bird, toad and frog disappear one by one. I now have none of the perfect carcasses left.
I can't but assume they decomposed in the satchel.

I hope my last saves with the carcasses are still good...

I've spent almost a week, several hours a day on this. Can you imagine my frustration losing the stuff?

[ArcTheWolf]

Originally posted by adrian_vg:

Originally posted by Pyx:

Anything in your satchel will not rot so small birds, squirrels, small fish, chipmunks, rats, toads, frogs, and bats will all keep. So for the hunting requests you should collect those first before getting the carcasses (Rabbit, Opossum, Skunk, etc) that way your carcasses don't spoil while you hunt the other items because hunting requests have to be turned in at the same time.

Doing Mrs Hobbs hunting request 4 for the last three four days IRL.
Managed to find a perfect sparrow, perfect toad and yesterday a perfect bullfrog.
A perfect songbird was nowhere to be find and something I spent the entire evening on, so saved and set up camp to craft some steaks and sleep till morning as birds are active during day only.

Tearing down camp, I suddenly got notifications about the hunting request and to my horror saw the bird, toad and frog disappear one by one. I now have none of the perfect carcasses left.
I can't but assume they decomposed in the satchel.

I hope my last saves with the carcasses are still good...

I've spent almost a week, several hours a day on this. Can you imagine my frustration losing the stuff?

When doing those quests never collect things before you have the actual request for them. It's a known issue, don't know if it's by design or a bug but if you get a request and already have the requested item said idem get's deleted.

[Spaghetti]

In multiplayer bringing carcasses is 3 or 4 times more money but only if it is perfect. you can shoot a deer and stow it on your horse and then shoot another and throw a lasso around the dead body and drag it to your camp.

In single-player, you can have 2 horses follow you, so u can stow two animals and potentially lasso one. but whole animals are not very valuable in the single player. plus you lose them if you take a quest.

When you get a high trader rating online you get the hunting wagon which can store 4 carcasses. you can dismiss it once it is full, then stow one carcass on your horse and lasso another then sell both and re-summon the wagon, making 6 total carcasses. it's a good way to make money to build up your trading empire online.

in single-player, there isn't much incentive to hunt and save carcasses that haven't been skinned as they just aren't worth the trouble and the value is not worth it.

to sum up, in single-player, always skin. it is worth way more unless the skin is the same size as a carcass. you also cannot lasso carcass-size skins.

but in multiplayer try to get as many 'whole animals' as possible