Do the animals you kill disappear after some time?

[Shunso]

like after you leave them in the open for a given amount of time?

[iwasa]

When an animal is killed, the meat on it degrades at a high rate (amounting to about 33% a day, at least in Pilgrim) and the carcass despawns after that. In addition, an animal that has nothing to harvest will despawn when the screen updates/reloads so going inside a building then coming out causes the carcass to disappear.

So the wolf you killed and fully harvested will disappear if you enter a building then come out. If you left the carcass unharvested, it will be there for about three days or so before despawning.

[Shunso]

ah i see, thank you
can i add to that question? sorry..
How does one get suffient food? I can aim and kill rabbits but thats not enough to get by and i have fish hook but wolfs are around so i cant fish and that leaves bows, i believe thats far off

[iwasa]

I play in Pilgrim so predators are not a problem (they run away, except in certain situations) and I played enough so I know where things are in my starting zone.

A few things you can do.

1) Search houses, buildings, cars, (everything really) to find food. Avoid touching the ravaged carcasses as they will despawn if touched, but if you have to you have to. Look for a hatchet, knife and prybar, they will help (I assume you may have figured that out already).

2) If short of food, you can practice starvation because the condition loss is not severe (maybe 15-20% over a day and then eat enough calories to cover you while you sleep. Sleeping with enough calories regains your condition. If you are careful, you can have 100% condition when you wake. Also try to be hydrated too. Multiple meters in the red do tend to aggravate condition loss.

3) Try fishing. At low levels the fishing tackle breaks with distressing frequency. Be sure you cure the guts of any rabbits you got. Convert the cured gut into line and scrap metal into hooks all at a work bench. You can make fishing tackle anywhere if you have hooks and line.

Try to learn the area and where things are. Knowledge will give you an increased chance of survival. As I recall, the survival sandbox was pretty notorious for people not surviving more than a few days until they learned more about it.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[Shunso]

mhm it'll do, thank you for the detailed comment

[Astralite]

harvest cat tails whenever you see them. It's worth the detour if you spot some. They're worth 150 calories each, so finding a bunch of 4 gives you 4 tinder (the cat tails), and 4 150 calorie stalks which is worth more than a 500 calorie energy bar. They also don't spoil, so are good to keep for emergencies, or just to take a bite when Will starts talking about eating horses.

Also, if you're healthy enough, just start fights with wolves (be ready for quicktime event) with your knife and track them til they drop. Best done in good weather (when they'd be more likely to be out hunting anyway). This will dig into your antibiotics and bandages if they hurt you, though, so stock up. This also has the added benefit of the wolf being out of the area for a while, and will get you a pelt to start curing asap.

Although, once you get a bow, it is easier just to lure them with guts and shoot them from a safe distance. But the knife method works in your first week when you're still healthy and haven't cured sticks for arrows (and found enough bodies to collect feathers) or made a forge trip. I usually start in FM *just* to make my arrowheads asap, which has the added benefit (?) of finding those 4-5 cans of dogfood at the farm. Mmm, Dog's Best Friend! It's a rough first 2-3 days with just starter clothes, but it feels good when you get lucky with stuff from the forge area and the 2 nearby loot areas.

[Shunso]

Fair enough, thank you