Newbie hog, snakes, crab post, 2021

[caphe_boda]

I'm relatively new to the campaign, so I thought I'd write up some things i've learned about fighting and cooking land animals, some of which contradict things I had read on beginner's tip guides and threads elsewhere (possibly because things may have been changed in updates).

-Hogs, night snakes, and giant crabs, all aggressive, all respawn between 7 and 10 days.

-Best tactic for fighting hogs is throwing crude spears at them when you can, retreating to water where they can't get you, then rinse and repeat. It takes somewhere between 6 and 8 hits with a crude spear to kill a hog. 

-Best tactic to kill a giant crab is to try and attack it with a spear or axe from behind. It will scoot forward, and you keep attacking it. You have to be pretty much on top of it to score a melee "hit". If it turns and chases you, lead it away until it turns its back on you, and then go after it. Takes at least 6 hits with a crude spear to kill one.

-Night snakes, I've found it's easiest to wait until they coil up, at which point they are stationary, and aim for the head slightly above center mass with a spear and throw. The spear will hit and stick, and the snake will try to either run away or attack you, and you can track the snake from the spear sticking up from it. Wait for it to coil up again, then throw another spear or fire another arrow at it. Two spear hits kill a snake.

-With all live animals, including fish, you have to skin them and harvest meat (sometimes leather) before you can cook them.

-Over a fire, you'll hear a "ding" that sounds like a microwave when the meat is cooked. When you hover the cursor over it, it should now say "cooked meat".

-With a smoker, you have to wait past the point that the meat cooks until it reaches the "smoked cooked meat" phase. The name of the meat will change accordingly.

-Each size meat requires a different amount of fire in the fuel of your fire/smoker to cook it. For example, large meat requires at least 3/4 of the campfire beneath the smoker to be full to smoke the meat. This becomes important as you take care how much fuel you use to make a fire, and let things cook while you sleep.

-You can use palm fronds and fibrous leaves as fuel for fires.

[Agoork]

All good, but one major improvement is to craft and use refined spears when possible. Even just start with 1 of them, and then add a few more as you get more leather from crates or if you build a tanning rack. Each refined spear does twice the damage of a crude spear and kills a snake for example with just 1 hit. No more angry snakes chasing after you. A giant boar takes 4 hits until you level up your hunting enough, and then it only takes 3 hits with a refined spear.

[caphe_boda]

Originally posted by Agoork:

All good, but one major improvement is to craft and use refined spears when possible. Even just start with 1 of them, and then add a few more as you get more leather from crates or if you build a tanning rack. Each refined spear does twice the damage of a crude spear and kills a snake for example with just 1 hit. No more angry snakes chasing after you. A giant boar takes 4 hits until you level up your hunting enough, and then it only takes 3 hits with a refined spear.

Good to know - thanks!

[dm19732787]

and don't throw spears, crude or refined, at a giant crab. They will break.

[caphe_boda]

Originally posted by dm19732787:

and don't throw spears, crude or refined, at a giant crab. They will break.

Gah, forgot to add that. Thank you!

Next up is a Hammerhead Shark that has been stalking me. Just circling my home island. I've been trying to get it, but my game chugs just a tiny bit, so the movements of the sharks are even more erratic... going to try a hard reboot of my system and see if that helps.

[thomlovessue]

Improve your FPS rate to stop the "chugs". I was convinced that I was a terrible hunter until I discovered this. Deep six unneeded items and don't leave piles of things on the beach. That should help your FPS. Also, at level 7 hunting, it only takes 2 hits on a giant hog or 3 hits on a shark, using refined spears. You can rapidly get to hunting 7 with your crude fishing spear. It only gives 10 experience points per fish, but you can spear nearly unlimited fish quickly. You need 14,648 experience points for 7 of anything.

[caphe_boda]

Originally posted by thomlovessue:

Improve your FPS rate to stop the "chugs". I was convinced that I was a terrible hunter until I discovered this. Deep six unneeded items and don't leave piles of things on the beach. That should help your FPS. Also, at level 7 hunting, it only takes 2 hits on a giant hog or 3 hits on a shark, using refined spears. You can rapidly get to hunting 7 with your crude fishing spear. It only gives 10 experience points per fish, but you can spear nearly unlimited fish quickly. You need 14,648 experience points for 7 of anything.

This is good to know - I had wondered if all the stuff I left on the beach had anything to do with it. Yikes, gotta figure out a storage system...

[caphe_boda]

p.s. started to build a dock with a walkway, with the intention of building myself a little ocean hut on stilts over the water as a treat to myself, and accidentally found out I had created a great shark hunting platform.

[caphe_boda]

Originally posted by Agoork:

All good, but one major improvement is to craft and use refined spears when possible. Even just start with 1 of them, and then add a few more as you get more leather from crates or if you build a tanning rack. Each refined spear does twice the damage of a crude spear and kills a snake for example with just 1 hit. No more angry snakes chasing after you. A giant boar takes 4 hits until you level up your hunting enough, and then it only takes 3 hits with a refined spear.

I created my first refined spears. I used the leather from a Hammerhead that had been stalking me and named the refined spear Hammerhead, natch. I used another leather from a Tiger shark I killed and named the refined spear Tiger Beat.