Animal Respawn Rate?

[Faelandaea]

I have two questions. Google searching is terrible on this as every single result for "Way of the Hunter Animal Respawn Rate", even in quotes to force the title, comes up with only results for COTW, which is not even the same game. So ...

Question 1: When I first started this game, I got over excited and took out an entire heard of deer before I was educated on herd management (I have never been a hunter IRL so I did not know that was a thing). As a result, there are no mule deer in the area and I am unable to complete the Herd Management mission. Oops. Will the deer eventually repopulate or is the area forever clear since I took out both Bucks and Does?

Question 2: How many game days does it take for respawns to occur in this game and/or for deer to "mature" in stages (young - adult to mature, etc.)?

Thank you so much for any answers, guys. I am hoping I do not have to restart the game again as I have done a LOT of exploring but fear I may have to if I screwed up the herds that badly.

[Bjørn]

Regarding the first question; yes, animals should respawn if they're 'wiped out', although I'm not sure with how many animals and how long it takes and such. I don't remember the mission anymore now, but was for that herd specifically? If not, there are dozens of other mule deer herds on the map.

As for animal growth rates and lots of other info, this is a good guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2852355088

[Faelandaea]

Many thanks, Bjørn. I appreciate that information. It gives me hope to keep my current game going. I did actually finish the mission. Of course after 2 days of trying, I found a target for my mission right after I posted for help. LOL.

So far I am really enjoying this game. As a truck driver it's a very relaxing game to play during breaks on the road :)

[Bjørn]

You're welcome. It's a great game for when you want to relax, indeed, spiced up with the excitement of the hunt! Perfect game to let the thoughts wander.

I was a truck driver in my youth, for the postal service, part time after school. But not the big trucks. 7,5 tons, max allowed to drive at the time with a normal driver's license. Now it's 3,5 tons, I think. Sorry for the side-track lol. I see we both owned certain truck sims.

Here is a link to some great interactive maps to help find animals in the game, if you're into 'cheats', it might be called. I stole the link from another recent forum post:

https://codeaid.github.io/woth-toolbox/nez-perce-valley

[Faelandaea]

Oh wow. Sweet. Many thanks for the link. That will indeed come in handy. I've only been driving for 5 years now. I was in military then aviation most of my life but I got sick of the downward spiral of certain politics, so I went into trucking. Much lower stress, but I still get to do something that helps society as a whole. :)

[DC2Dixon]

If you killed all animals in the herd you possibly created to much hunting pressure. You can do this without killing all animals so just be mindful to hunt different areas often and maybe only take 1-2 animals from each herd. Sometimes animals will use a different zone due to pressure (they have often and rarely used zones) I have seen the devs post saying creating to much pressure can actually make animals disappear from the map for a while. You possibly did the latter causing the game to not respawn any animals for you. From what the devs say most animals will respawn like for like (male/male female/female) but killing females can reduce overall population.

It depends on you preference and play style but killing all low genetic animals first is a good way of improving the type of animals you will see in the future. I focused on the main river south for a while and went from having only 2 star matures (low genetics) to seeing some big 5 and 4 stars now after many hunts along that stretch.

The encyclopedia in game has lots of useful info on all this so worth a read if your new to the game.

[Florian Meyer]

Originally posted by dc2dixon:

If you killed all animals in the herd you possibly created to much hunting pressure. You can do this without killing all animals so just be mindful to hunt different areas often and maybe only take 1-2 animals from each herd. Sometimes animals will use a different zone due to pressure (they have often and rarely used zones) I have seen the devs post saying creating to much pressure can actually make animals disappear from the map for a while. You possibly did the latter causing the game to not respawn any animals for you. From what the devs say most animals will respawn like for like (male/male female/female) but killing females can reduce overall population.

It depends on you preference and play style but killing all low genetic animals first is a good way of improving the type of animals you will see in the future. I focused on the main river south for a while and went from having only 2 star matures (low genetics) to seeing some big 5 and 4 stars now after many hunts along that stretch.

The encyclopedia in game has lots of useful info on all this so worth a read if your new to the game.

I now feel that I can't generate any real hunting pressure other than near wiping out a herd, and even then I'm not sure. What most people don't realize is that herds aren't disappearing because of hunting pressure, but because of the fast travel bug. Anyone who really manages herds does not get the opportunity to hunt the herds too strongly, since the 1 and 2 star matures are usually very few. You can run along the same river again and again for 20 ingame days and take out the weak animals that are still left and there is no pressure.

[DC2Dixon]

Originally posted by Florian Meyer:

Originally posted by dc2dixon:

If you killed all animals in the herd you possibly created to much hunting pressure. You can do this without killing all animals so just be mindful to hunt different areas often and maybe only take 1-2 animals from each herd. Sometimes animals will use a different zone due to pressure (they have often and rarely used zones) I have seen the devs post saying creating to much pressure can actually make animals disappear from the map for a while. You possibly did the latter causing the game to not respawn any animals for you. From what the devs say most animals will respawn like for like (male/male female/female) but killing females can reduce overall population.

It depends on you preference and play style but killing all low genetic animals first is a good way of improving the type of animals you will see in the future. I focused on the main river south for a while and went from having only 2 star matures (low genetics) to seeing some big 5 and 4 stars now after many hunts along that stretch.

The encyclopedia in game has lots of useful info on all this so worth a read if your new to the game.

I now feel that I can't generate any real hunting pressure other than near wiping out a herd, and even then I'm not sure. What most people don't realize is that herds aren't disappearing because of hunting pressure, but because of the fast travel bug. Anyone who really manages herds does not get the opportunity to hunt the herds too strongly, since the 1 and 2 star matures are usually very few. You can run along the same river again and again for 20 ingame days and take out the weak animals that are still left and there is no pressure.

Since release I have only taken max 2 males from any herd. I read the encyclopedia on release though and the idea of the genetics and killing females affecting population did change my approach. If I see only adults with good genetics I will just move on. I will usually hunt a region for a day or two (in game) then move onto a new area to hunt for a while. The only area I have hunted regularly is the main river heading south. I like the scenery and how open it is. There is also lots of herds in that area to hunt and feed and rest zones along there. On release most of my animals were very low genetics along that stretch but now I'm seeing good genetics mostly all the way down that river.

I can't say I have ever had animals vanish from my maps (that I know of) but limit fast travelling now and hunt different areas to maybe not notice. I've had animals fast travel with me but reset the time to morning every time I do fast travel now. I honesty don't know how pressure works in this game. I'm just going off what the devs have said and the encyclopedia say. My play style shouldn't really cause much hunting pressure but again I'm not sure how it actually works TBH.

[Faelandaea]

Originally posted by dc2dixon:

If you killed all animals in the herd you possibly created to much hunting pressure. You can do this without killing all animals so just be mindful to hunt different areas often and maybe only take 1-2 animals from each herd. Sometimes animals will use a different zone due to pressure (they have often and rarely used zones) I have seen the devs post saying creating to much pressure can actually make animals disappear from the map for a while. You possibly did the latter causing the game to not respawn any animals for you. From what the devs say most animals will respawn like for like (male/male female/female) but killing females can reduce overall population.

It depends on you preference and play style but killing all low genetic animals first is a good way of improving the type of animals you will see in the future. I focused on the main river south for a while and went from having only 2 star matures (low genetics) to seeing some big 5 and 4 stars now after many hunts along that stretch.

The encyclopedia in game has lots of useful info on all this so worth a read if your new to the game.

Thank you for the information. Any idea how long the hunting pressure lasts before animals start repopulating?

It was only a couple of herds I wiped out, but that was before I started really taking the whole thing seriously and really learning the aspects of hunting. I have found some really wonderful guides that have answered most of what I believe I need to know. Just nothing states at all anything about times as far as respawn in days/weeks, etc.

Also, any idea on Badgers in specific? Seems like every group of them I find has 2 females and a male. I have a mission to kill 3-star males, but I fear that taking their only male would interrupt their repopulation. Am I missing something there?

As for everything else I do not practicing genetics in my management. I am now only taking down mature males with a 1 or 2 star rating. Everything else I am leaving alone unless the story forces me to deviate.

Originally posted by Bjørn:

Here is a link to some great interactive maps to help find animals in the game, if you're into 'cheats', it might be called. I stole the link from another recent forum post:

https://codeaid.github.io/woth-toolbox/nez-perce-valley

I cannot thank you enough for this link. ESPECIALLY that interactive map. It is really helping me in many regards, and using the charts there I quickly planned my loadout for the best weapons for each animal. So I appreciate it, Sir.

[Bjørn]

Glad it was useful, but mind you I had nothing to do with it other than giving the link! You know more about it than me, I notice, so you gave me a tip back now

Edit: That was brilliant. I had only noticed the maps before...

[DC2Dixon]

I don't know sorry. Its not something I have experience with as I tend to only shoot one maybe two from a herd. I don't think the devs have given much info on this either? Its not something we can see ourselves like we could in the COTW game.

I would guess it will either come back down by shooting animals in other areas or just over time in game. I would say it would be both but again its only a guess. You could try resting for several days in game if you wanted. Just keep setting the time 23 hrs ahead several times. I believe that has a affect on the animal age also. I'm not sure on exact figures sorry but I believe it was something like 4 in game days is 1 year for the animals age. People were using this method on release to get the 5 star animals (see a good genetic male and see quickly how big it will be as a mature) I think that was changed in one patch but some still say it works.

I tend to just hunt a full in game day and move onto the next day myself. I don't see any reward in cheesing the game with methods like that for trophies.

The genetics is a nice feature but you don't need to only focus on matures (not sure if you know) You can look at some animals and tell if they have good genetics. If the antlers are very small or uneven the genetics are bad. Some 1 star adults have huge antlers and others might have very small. You should take the small/uneven out of the herd to enable the respawns to have the better genetics from the animals left. You can also use callers with most animals to determine the genetics. Most have a female, low and high genetics call (need to unlock the perks for this though) You could use a red deer or elk caller to unlock these as the deer is only females to start with. Elk and Red deer are low level males as the first caller.

As for predators I believe most are only 1 male and 1-2 females (species dependant) I think If a animal dies of old age the genetics will get slightly better for the respawn (could be very little though) I'm sure the devs said something like this at one point. I personally wouldn't worry to much about the 3 stars for the mission just yet. IMO most missions like that are better to be completed through just playing the game normally. Some missions require a 4-5 star animal so can cause the enjoyment to go from the game if there the main focus. For badgers I think killing the only male is fine, you will just get a respawn but unsure on how genetics work with those if I'm honest.

Hopefully Lalani will see this post and correct what I have got wrong. She has lots of info from the devs posts.

[Lanani]

As far as I know, we never received concrete information on how long exactly hunting pressure lasts. Many aspects of the game have been left deliberately vague to avoid people farming everything on a schedule (including the exact ratio of ingame days to animal years--empirical evidence form release suggests that 3 ig days = 1 year). Spooking and shooting both cause hunting pressure. If you cause too much pressure, they start favoring the other need zone for that type, if you cause too much pressure at both zones, they despawn completely for a while. As said, no idea how long it lasts. Sleep spamming to advance animal age should no longer be as effective as at release, though I don't know the details of what got changed there.

As for herd management, if you want stacked herds, focus on taking out mature 1 stars and anything that responds to a low fitness caller. Secondary habitats have a lower genetic ceilings, so animals there will never be able to reach the highest ratings.

Herd size very much depends on species. Bears are either solo or duo, badgers and foxes around 3-5, wolves and jackals can be more. Deer of all kinds usually come in large herds (though do keep in mind they can also be solo since a recent update), moose on the other hand usually no more than 4. Birds... I've never counted them, but that's mostly because I suck at bird hunting and try to avoid them whenever possible. Hares are usually 4 or 5, in my experience. Gender ratio varies from one pack/herd/flock to the next (except with bears--if you see a bear duo, they are ALWAYS 1 male, 1 female; also Hollywood's herd is forever female only after you kill him, since he is a mission animal and doesn't respawn).

Also, agreed on the missions. Honestly, the most effective approach for them is to find yourself a map of all campsites and cabins, go to all of those first, pick up all available missions, and then do missions as you explore. The more missions you have available at any given time, the more likely you are to find something you need.

[DC2Dixon]

Thanks Lanani and sorry for getting your name wrong I'm sure I have done that before.

Good tip on getting all outposts and campsite unlocked also. Most missions don't require a region or specific mission animal so will just naturally complete as you play. Don't worry about remembering them though as the devs built in a great feature to allow us to know if a harvest can be used for a mission (will need to back out of harvest screen and set it to active)

I wonder if we can actually get the secondary habitats to produce many 5 star animals though. I have had a 5 star in the starting area through herd management and seeing a few 4 stars recently. I didn't have anything above a 2 when I first started playing in that region. I tend to avoid diamond drill area as it seems like were guaranteed to get many 5 stars down there.

[DC2Dixon]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2896775341
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2896775401
This was about 1K from the main lodge south. He was around the tower area (second one down) as you can see he has amazing genetics so it is possible for them to get big in secondary habitats.

[Geronimo]

I don't think there is any evidence suggesting that animals that are spooked from an OFTEN zone are going to run to a RARE zone, back and forth, until pressure reaches a degree where that herd is temporarily removed completely from the map.

I have often chased a herd in one direction for a few thousand yards from their regularly used zones.

Also, some of those often zones are within a few yards of their rare zones, so not much sense in fleeing there.

The animals that I'm spooking just don't seem to be using either-or. When spooked they're going to always run at least 250 to 300 yards.

[Faelandaea]

Originally posted by Lanani:

~snipped~

Sir, thank you very much for the information. I appreciate it.

I also appreciate ALL of the replies I have gotten here so far on the subject. This is a good community. I get anxiety sometimes asking a question on forums any more because of some toxic communities out there, but the community for this game seems to be more mature and willing to help each other out. I appreciate that and I hope this thread helps other people as well.