The Decoy. A Life Saving Tactic.

[ccwylde70]

I hear a lot of people talk about wolves, and there are many stories of 'the wolf that finished me off in the blizzard' or 'the wolf I threw the flare at that still came over and ate me' or 'the wolf that shredded up all my clothes and now I'm @#$! freezing to death'. I hear a lot of those stories (and I've been through all those things, so I know where you're all coming from) but one thing I RARELY hear anyone mention is the value of the Decoy.

Now if you're new to the game, you might want to wait on reading this and experience some of the many gruesome ways you can die in the game first :). This is meant as an alternative to that sad end for those people who haven't tried it yet.

There's a default hot key assignation called the 4 key (yup, that one after that trusty ol' 3 key, the rifle). This key may not get much press (yes, I did ...) but this key can quite easily and often be the one thing that'll save your life, particularly when you don't have access to anything left that hitting the 1 key (flares) or the 3 key (rifle) would otherwise do for you.

Quite simply, the 4 key drops something on the ground out of your pack. To be a bit more precise, if you're carrying any raw or cooked food, it will drop one portion of that on the ground. I haven't quite done enough experimenting to know exactly what the process is for what gets dropped first, if it goes left to right through your foodstuffs or not, but I do know that it will cycle through all your available meats if you pick them back up one after the other, so ... if you carry around that tiny tidbit of 40 calorie rabbit/wolf/deer meat and cycle through to when you know the next food you drop is going to be that piece, now you have an incredibly cheap method for keeping a wolf off your rear the next time you hear that familiar "I see you !" bark.

In my experience, you want to drop your decoy well before the wolf gets to you (not long after the "I see you !" bark. Nearly every time I've done this, the wolf immediately stops charging and begins a slow pace towards the food I've dropped. If you wait until the wolf is nearly on you (or if you accidentally run into a wolf at close range) this is not a tactic that is likely to work. I would say it's about like the flare in that regard - there's a certain committed to attack distance at which neither the flare or the decoy meat seem to work anymore. Also be aware that if you prefer to drop a really small tidbit of meat and keep the bigger portions to yourself that the moment the wolf arrives at the meat, he'll basically inhale it and then shift his attention immediately back to whatever might catch his interest next - namely, you, if you're still around observing what the wolf is doing.

So, in a nutshell, drop your decoy meat early and beat feet in some direction that will take you well out of reacquiring range of the wolf before he reaches the decoy. This can save you flares, bullets, bandages, shredded longjohns, etc.

[yai200439]

this would greatly help. Thx :) Been wondering why 4 key drops stuff for a while

[ecian]

There is a little bug whis this decoy. When wolf run to you, you drop meat and then pick this meat up. Back in your inventory, but wolf still go slowly to the place, when you droped it, then start animation "eating" and this piece of meat in your inventory just... disappear.

[ccwylde70]

Originally posted by ecian:

There is a little bug whis this decoy. When wolf run to you, you drop meat and then pick this meat up. Back in your inventory, but wolf still go slowly to the place, when you droped it, then start animation "eating" and this piece of meat in your inventory just... disappear.

Didn't know all that - hope they fix it where if you pick the meat back up, the wolf starts charging you again - anything else doesn't make good sense !

[Marstil]

The Decoy is actually my favorite deer hunting technique. When you see or make a deer get attacked by a wolf, (and you have a clear path out of there) go into aggro range of the wolf. when it's head comes up, turn and run. Drop the meat and clear the area. The wolf will not return to the deer, so you can return later and get the whole deer for the low price of one cooked meat.

Three things I always travel with: Knife, Bandages, Cooked meat, anything else is optional.

[D00M 101]

+1 to this, i've avoided countless wolves using decoys

on a side note it would be great if you could select stuff to be used as decoy material, i'm thinking of those useless .1kg rabbit meat bits that still take 20 mins to cook...

[Marstil]

Originally posted by D00M 101:

+1 to this, i've avoided countless wolves using decoys

on a side note it would be great if you could select stuff to be used as decoy material, i'm thinking of those useless .1kg rabbit meat bits that still take 20 mins to cook...

and +1 to that

[TRICKY]

oouu.. thanks. and i was deploying the meat with all the superman superfast moves--> TAB, food, meat, drop, esc,esc,esc :) and was wondering if there is some other option to throw the meat under my feet and just ruuuun. it was always funny to watch an approaching wolf through the blurred backpack menu.. thanks

[Hinterland_Studio]

Glad to see some people recognizing the value of the Decoy! This has actually been in the game since the very beginning, but not many people have picked up on this tactic.

The way it currently works is it auto-selects the food item that has the greatest "scent" value (every food item has a scent value). This tends to be raw meat, then cooked meat, and then various other things, with low-scent foods like granola bars, etc. being the least effective.

[Denyo]

I use drop decoy also in situations,when I want to kill wolf ravaging deer and he notice me,how I sneak to him.I am always approaching to wolf from opposite side of wind,but if there is no wind,wolf can simply sense presence.In case he notices me,I run backward few steps,drop decoy and do few steps more.Then I stop and crouch,waiting wolf,that he comes to decoy and put head down,starting to eat it.I can calmed focus on aim with rifle,so my shoot is 100%.
I would suggest that way of killing wolf for those players,who still have shaking hands,when aiming at wolf.
Let me expose one more thing here,I do,when I want to kill wolf ravaging deer.If he does not sense or notice me,I get close to him about 5-6m.Then I aim with rifle and I slowly keep moving towards him step by step.When I get to about 3m distance,wolf raises head and freezes,coz he is aware,that something is wrong.He cannot sense me,but he knows,something is wrong.As he has head up and still,I can in peace take a good aim from close and shoot him in ears,direct into his brains.That is also 100% kill.

[Hinterland_Studio]

Originally posted by Denyo:

I use drop decoy also in situations,when I want to kill wolf ravaging deer and he notice me,how I sneak to him.I am always approaching to wolf from opposite side of wind,but if there is no wind,wolf can simply sense presence.In case he notices me,I run backward few steps,drop decoy and do few steps more.Then I stop and crouch,waiting wolf,that he comes to decoy and put head down,starting to eat it.I can calmed focus on aim with rifle,so my shoot is 100%.
I would suggest that way of killing wolf for those players,who still have shaking hands,when aiming at wolf.
Let me expose one more thing here,I do,when I want to kill wolf ravaging deer.If he does not sense or notice me,I get close to him about 5-6m.Then I aim with rifle and I slowly keep moving towards him step by step.When I get to about 3m distance,wolf raises head and freezes,coz he is aware,that something is wrong.He cannot sense me,but he knows,something is wrong.As he has head up and still,I can in peace take a good aim from close and shoot him in ears,direct into his brains.That is also 100% kill.

Hmm...their detection range is reduced when they are focused on eating fresh kill, but it sounds like we need to modify this somewhat so you can't sneak up on one. If anything they are more likely to become hostile to protect their meal as you approach them.

[Denyo]

Originally posted by Hinterland_Studio:

Originally posted by Denyo:

I use drop decoy also in situations,when I want to kill wolf ravaging deer and he notice me,how I sneak to him.I am always approaching to wolf from opposite side of wind,but if there is no wind,wolf can simply sense presence.In case he notices me,I run backward few steps,drop decoy and do few steps more.Then I stop and crouch,waiting wolf,that he comes to decoy and put head down,starting to eat it.I can calmed focus on aim with rifle,so my shoot is 100%.
I would suggest that way of killing wolf for those players,who still have shaking hands,when aiming at wolf.
Let me expose one more thing here,I do,when I want to kill wolf ravaging deer.If he does not sense or notice me,I get close to him about 5-6m.Then I aim with rifle and I slowly keep moving towards him step by step.When I get to about 3m distance,wolf raises head and freezes,coz he is aware,that something is wrong.He cannot sense me,but he knows,something is wrong.As he has head up and still,I can in peace take a good aim from close and shoot him in ears,direct into his brains.That is also 100% kill.

Hmm...their detection range is reduced when they are focused on eating fresh kill, but it sounds like we need to modify this somewhat so you can't sneak up on one. If anything they are more likely to become hostile to protect their meal as you approach them.

Dang..I should`ve been quiet about this tactics. :D There goes my ninja mode kill away.:-/

[ccwylde70]

Originally posted by Hinterland_Studio:

Glad to see some people recognizing the value of the Decoy! This has actually been in the game since the very beginning, but not many people have picked up on this tactic.

The way it currently works is it auto-selects the food item that has the greatest "scent" value (every food item has a scent value). This tends to be raw meat, then cooked meat, and then various other things, with low-scent foods like granola bars, etc. being the least effective.

Thanks for the extra info - I knew there had to be some method to the selection, but wasn't figuring it out :)

[WarningTrack]

Worth noting: recent updates have made it so that the wolves can more easily detect you if you're carrying raw meat, so while this technique might get you out of a tough situation, it's also more likely to put you in that situation in the first place. So it might be optimal to split the difference and carry a small cooked piece around.

[Tsoprano]

Wow how did i not know this yet. Thanks for the info!

[Marstil]

Originally posted by WarningTrack:

Worth noting: recent updates have made it so that the wolves can more easily detect you if you're carrying raw meat, so while this technique might get you out of a tough situation, it's also more likely to put you in that situation in the first place. So it might be optimal to split the difference and carry a small cooked piece around.

I often keep a raw scrap of rabbit to carry when I plan on going hunting for wolves.