Animal Need Zone Times

[solenoid]

How do you know what time animals are supposed to be at a need zone?
I keep going between the resting and drinking spot for moose and can't find them at all.

[DYEUZ]

Check out the times for each species in the encyclopedia of the game.

[solenoid]

Thanks, any tips for finding a particular group's need zones? So far I'm really struggling to find animals, the best way I've found is just to drive around in the jeep until I see something and hope it doesn't spot me first.

[DYEUZ]

Originally posted by Solenoid:

Thanks, any tips for finding a particular group's need zones? So far I'm really struggling to find animals, the best way I've found is just to drive around in the jeep until I see something and hope it doesn't spot me first.

Driving around in your Jeep aint a good way of finding animals really!

Follow rivers. You have NZs there along them all the time.
Go to lakes also. Usually there all around it you'll find NZs.
Start that way & eventually you'll build up some zones all over.
Good luck

( Leave the Jeep at the lodge. Use it only to open quickly something or to go fast somewhere, but don't use it to search/find animals )

[Pinger]

Check all water sources
Check all slopes near said water sources for resting and feeding zones
Clear the fog of war on the map by Walking not driving as you have to be stopped to see need zones in the jeep
If you spot a calm herd then mark it and check that area for zones

[Nooby]

Maybe this

Originally posted by Solenoid:

I keep going between the resting and drinking spot for moose and can't find them at all.

is part of the problem. Unlike COTW, the animals here don't have only one need zone of each type. So a moose can have at least two (or maybe even more) drinking, eating and rest zones.

In worst case you are waiting between resting A and drinking A while he moose is walking between resting B and drinking B some 100m away. There are many possible combinations and even an "often" at a need zone doesn't mean "always" - and if you often shoot animals close to a need zone, they will start avoiding this zone and using another one more often.

[Robur]

Also, if you find tracks, just follow them in either direction. They should take you to need zones. If you walk quietly, you might even stumble on the herd.

[Nooby]

Originally posted by Solenoid:

Thanks, any tips for finding a particular group's need zones?

like @DYEUZ said: follow the water. If you found a drinking zone, follow the animal trails (marked by the foodprints, don't care about direction) and you will finally find the other zones. Same, if you find a need zone somewhere else. There are always trails to the other zones used by this herd.

It probably takes a while (some animals have really big territories) and the trails are hard to see and to follow sometimes.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Nooby:

Originally posted by Solenoid:

Thanks, any tips for finding a particular group's need zones?

like @DYEUZ said: follow the water. If you found a drinking zone, follow the animal trails (marked by the foodprints, don't care about direction) and you will finally find the other zones. Same, if you find a need zone somewhere else. There are always trails to the other zones used by this herd.

It probably takes a while (some animals have really big territories) and the trails are hard to see and to follow sometimes.

What happens if you're following particular group of animals and driving them into areas further and further from their home territory, as you kill a couple within each of their so-called 'zones' as you continue?

How far could you 'drive' them, and would they eventually return to their home area?

This is the real question behind the OP. Because to paraphrase Nooby, with some exaggeration, "...their original territories are large with many zones, and their pressured expanding territory is vastly larger..." Lol, sorry Noob.

My point is, that despite all those BSers that constantly claim it's arcade-easy to just go to a zone at appointed times and turkey-shoot, they are so absolutely wrong. Their claims might have Creedence IF hunting pressure wasn't part of the equation. But, of course, all those who have actually hunted enough will attest that hunting pressure definitely makes it exponentially more difficult to ambush animals at these (so-called zones).

In fact, with each and every kill, the 'zones' become larger and larger, and locating a group's position within that expanded territory is not easy at all.

I've written extensively detailed guides on Need Zone Management in CoTW, based upon my experiences, and I tell you these are not Need Zones in any way similar to CoTW. So anyone trying to suggest any comparison is quite simply wrong to the nth degree.

[Lanani]

Every animal has 2 need zones, usually of 3 types (so 2 feeding zones, 2 resting zones, and with the exception of waterfowl 2 drinking zones). If you pressure them out of 1 zone, they will switch to the other zone of that kind. According to developer statements on Discord, if you pressure them out of both zones of the same kind, the animals despawn entirely for a while until hunting pressure lowers again.

[Nooby]

Originally posted by Lanani:

Every animal has 2 need zones, usually of 3 types (so 2 feeding zones, 2 resting zones, and with the exception of waterfowl 2 drinking zones).

It looks that for waterfowl the drinking zones are replaced byadditional food or resting zones: I found at least two wild duck swarms with 3 (or even more, still uncovering the map) eating zones. screenshot[ibb.co]

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Lanani:

Every animal has 2 need zones, usually of 3 types (so 2 feeding zones, 2 resting zones, and with the exception of waterfowl 2 drinking zones). If you pressure them out of 1 zone, they will switch to the other zone of that kind. According to developer statements on Discord, if you pressure them out of both zones of the same kind, the animals despawn entirely for a while until hunting pressure lowers again.

Now this is useable news! I don't know how accurate, but the first I've heard of it.

For one thing, IF it's true, until they actually 'temporarily despawn' off the map entirely', that suggests that hunting them would simply involve going back and forth between two zones. They're either at one or the other, and I can attest to that being wrong. Unless in my cases, those animals were already 'despawned'. Which shouldn't have been the case, as I haven't been pressuring any areas to that degree.

I'm not going to argue what may or may not be a developer's accurate accounting of game mechanics, but if it doesn't meet with what I'm actually experiencing than the caution flags go up.

Anyone can make mistakes as we all know.

I will concur however that it does seem like animals do disappear, but I have equated that to the combination of multiple conjoined areas suffering from pressure. So in those places where a hunter has created pressure going from one area into the next, they have created a large area which will not contain animals for a while. And BTW, this is why alot of people were complaining about not being able to find animals. They just weren't taking into consideration the hunting pressure's overall effect.

Now, IF the Discord revelation is accurate, that would also account for the lack of animals. But, as I stated, it has not been what I've been experiencing.


Very infrequently, there has been times when I have driven particular animal's out of their areas, and observed closely to see if they were actually just going from one zone to another or not. And most times what I observe, is that animals being chased like that will often continue forward, sometimes slightly left or right, for 300 yards or so at a time. And you can continue following them in this way across the map for quite a way, while taking one or two each time you catch up to them.

[solenoid]

Thanks for all the tips guys, they helped a lot and I'm feeling better about the whole thing.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Solenoid:

Thanks for all the tips guys, they helped a lot and I'm feeling better about the whole thing.

What helpful info did u gather from this thread

[DYEUZ]

Originally posted by Geronimo:

What helpful info did u gather from this thread

What are you doing?

Did you read the replies from all of us? Obviously not.
Many suggestions for finding NZs are given.
- reading the encyclopedia about times
- Following rivers
- Going at lakes, around them & in the vacinity.
- Following tracks can lead you to NZs
- pressuring NZs could result in fewer visits or even removal of those NZs
- Not using your Jeep to search/find animals is an obvious no no.
Pretty good/helpful tips imho.

[solenoid]

Originally posted by Geronimo:

Originally posted by Solenoid:

Thanks for all the tips guys, they helped a lot and I'm feeling better about the whole thing.

What helpful info did u gather from this thread

Following tracks to need zones, trying to get as many as possible for a specific animal. I managed to wait for some moose at a drinking spot, and found a bunch of different animals following their trails to different need zones.