Tips and Tricks For Dealing With Sharks

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Between the health regeneration and the weak weapons available I'm finding myself in a position where no matter how well established on land I am the only deciding factor regarding whether or not a shark kills me is whether or not it feels like it.

So far a good trick I have learnned for staying safe while at sea is keeping an eye on a shark and then rowing in to it as it bumps me instead of letting it hit me side on. I find that this has a better chance of keeping me out of the water but even then it's with limited success.

As far as actively hunting sharks go or fending them off while they're swimming around my island I'm completely lost for ideas. Is there something I'm missing? I love this game but I have no idea how to handle them. I get they're the apex predator but I don't even know how to give myself a chance.

[kkt4life]

my advice to u is before you try to take on any shark; make sure you have found the flippers so you can dodge them if they turn to attack or so u can escape to land fast.
ive found bringing my raf with me helps alot so you can climb out of the water fast and regain a firld of view so u dont lose sight of the shark(s).
Most islands have more than one shark so engaging them when they r together is a bad idea. I use the "paddle" glitch with an axe(not crude) and chase em down. its takes 5-6 solid hits to drop then shark this way.
Before the new build was implement i had almost 25 dead, claimed tiger sharks and about 9 great whites on my main island as trophies. i dont mess with the reef sharks because they r a peaceful people and mean no harm.
An axe a bandage close by and flippers and ur ready to kill these sharks.
they do not respawn after u kill them either.

after youve got the hang of it u will see its really not to hard to dodge the shark bite and claim the shark as ur own. this will become addicting and u will then want to kill every shark! happy hunting

[ZomBeGone]

Yes, the flippers are needed to keep up with them. and the metal axe. don't use the machete or spear as it takes too many hits. The islands average 1 tiger shark each, but can have none, or two. If you have two, paddle around to the other side of the island, and try to get one to follow, then kill the one. Two at a time is VERY dangerous, imho. Keep bandages handy. also gather duck tape and cloth to make more, if you try to kill a lot of them.

Always use the rubber raft, as they will not knock you off of it. i stand and have never been knocked off. The wooden raft can be a death trap as you can get knocked off it too easy, imho

If one is heading right at you, and you are in the water, look them in the eyes, and there is a fair chance they will abort the attack. The flare does nothing to avert an attack!

I find jumping off the raft on top of them swinging the axe will sometimes pin them down on the shallow ocean floor. get them in your sights and target the tail and back... follow them swimming under water as much as you can, as it is faster, and pop up for a breath when you can. focus on wacking their tail with the axe. It can be quite a rush!

When you have almost killed them, they will swim away very fast. I usually try to follow them so they don't get away and start healing. Often they can be hard to find.

Don't do it at night or in the rain, unless you want to die! visability is bad and they will get behind or below you. Also i have not had great luck in regions with no islands. I usually end up bloody, so i don't bother, for me its not worth the effort.

The only sharks i kill are the tiger sharks. Reef sharks i find harmless. The others are never an issue for me.

I am playing a game where my goal is to clean out every tiger shark from every island. I have cleaned out 25 islands so far, about 25 tiger sharks, and used about 6 bandages so far. ((I never thought the cloth would come in useful)) I ain't dead yet, but came close once! ((if i die i die and start over))

Once you have tasted tiger shark blood, its hard to go back, haha.

Your mileage may vary.

[Dave Davison III :)]

Just use your Axe to slay them,then cook and eat them. I find the Axe kills them easier

[Ehrmantrout]

sometimes if i kill a reef shark and then cross a tiger shark's path, the tiger might sometimes get angry and attack...also, starring them in the eyes does work and also i just hold the LMB down when attaciing like when cutting down a tree cause even if they get out of range , you're still hitting them...in my experience, i've found the machete and the metal/ regular axe work the best

[ZomBeGone]

Oh, and i forgot to mention a very important part... always "sprint" swim. hold the sprint key down while swimming and you will go much faster. With sprinting with flippers, you can keep up with them most of the time.

I often sprint swim between my islands, even with sharks. I find it rare they ever catch you. Its MUCH faster than the rubber raft or the wooden raft even with motors.

The machette i think takes about 40% more hits to kill them. I base that on the axe will fell a tree in 8 hts, and the crude axe in 10, and the machette in 11 hits.

Looking them in the eyes works. i did an experiment a while back and recorded how long it took for the tiger shark to bite me. controlled experiment in open ocean. i saved the game and repeated the experiment about a dozen times. They abort the attack about 50% more often.

I do not think holding the button down works any more. that was a very old bug in an early version, back in the days of the flying tree trunks :D

[Dave Davison III :)]

Far to much time on your hands......lol

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Originally posted by Smilesy34:

Far to much time on your hands......lol

That was super helpful. Thanks bro...

Originally posted by eugenekelley:

Oh, and i forgot to mention a very important part... always "sprint" swim. hold the sprint key down while swimming and you will go much faster. With sprinting with flippers, you can keep up with them most of the time.

I often sprint swim between my islands, even with sharks. I find it rare they ever catch you. Its MUCH faster than the rubber raft or the wooden raft even with motors.

The machette i think takes about 40% more hits to kill them. I base that on the axe will fell a tree in 8 hts, and the crude axe in 10, and the machette in 11 hits.

Looking them in the eyes works. i did an experiment a while back and recorded how long it took for the tiger shark to bite me. controlled experiment in open ocean. i saved the game and repeated the experiment about a dozen times. They abort the attack about 50% more often.

I do not think holding the button down works any more. that was a very old bug in an early version, back in the days of the flying tree trunks :D

Originally posted by kkt4life:

my advice to u is before you try to take on any shark; make sure you have found the flippers so you can dodge them if they turn to attack or so u can escape to land fast.
ive found bringing my raf with me helps alot so you can climb out of the water fast and regain a firld of view so u dont lose sight of the shark(s).
Most islands have more than one shark so engaging them when they r together is a bad idea. I use the "paddle" glitch with an axe(not crude) and chase em down. its takes 5-6 solid hits to drop then shark this way.
Before the new build was implement i had almost 25 dead, claimed tiger sharks and about 9 great whites on my main island as trophies. i dont mess with the reef sharks because they r a peaceful people and mean no harm.
An axe a bandage close by and flippers and ur ready to kill these sharks.
they do not respawn after u kill them either.

after youve got the hang of it u will see its really not to hard to dodge the shark bite and claim the shark as ur own. this will become addicting and u will then want to kill every shark! happy hunting

The quotees are just to get you guys tagged in the post. I'm yet to find flippers. I'm rreally trying but I'm struggling to find any while also keeping close enough to keep track of my home island. I'm slowly making my way further and further out but the construction of piers and reference points is taking time.

I tried following and attacking from behind as suggested even without flippers and I can see that this will be effective once I have them considering the way I can dominate the fight even though I take damage.

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I managed to find flippers and have now killed my first shark. It was the one that I had managed to get close to earlier with my label maker and I named him Perry. He was my nemesis and was constantly swimming around the section of coast that I had dropped a few fish traps in. I'm not going to eat him though unless I become desperate. My plan is to contruct a single slightly raised foundation and display him on top of it to assert my dominance.

[ZomBeGone]

Yay!.. i am sure that mounting Perry on a platform will scare all the other sharks into submission! Just as effective as the blowing the whistle :D


possible spoiller alert....



For eating, look for archer fish. you can eat them raw, and they are easy to catch. you can get a dozen in a few minutes with the spear. two food bars each. There is no real need for coooking with ver 04, i have found. Archer fish, and potatos to eat, coconuts to drink. lets me travel light.

Also there is a trick to navigation and simple mapping, once you learn the secret. but the label maker can be VERY useful for keeping track which island you are on. with a simple map, i can go anywhere and return, swimming all the way. My current game has 43 named islands, all free of tiger sharks, and 2 forts, and one whale. My kingdom is growing :D

[404 Not Found]

Originally posted by eugenekelley:

Yay!.. i am sure that mounting Perry on a platform will scare all the other sharks into submission! Just as effective as the blowing the whistle :D


possible spoiller alert....



For eating, look for archer fish. you can eat them raw, and they are easy to catch. you can get a dozen in a few minutes with the spear. two food bars each. There is no real need for coooking with ver 04, i have found. Archer fish, and potatos to eat, coconuts to drink. lets me travel light.

Also there is a trick to navigation and simple mapping, once you learn the secret. but the label maker can be VERY useful for keeping track which island you are on. with a simple map, i can go anywhere and return, swimming all the way. My current game has 43 named islands, all free of tiger sharks, and 2 forts, and one whale. My kingdom is growing :D

I'm jealous. I haven't seen a single whale yet. I have however, been a person of interest for several great white sharks while in deep sea biomes. Also, do fish and sharks respawn? Trying to figure out if over fishing is a thing and whether or not I can swim around near my island now that Perry has been put down.

I've heard archer fish are good but I hate weaving through the army of lion fish near my island. Oh, and final question. Do coconuts respawn? I'm assuming trees don't but I've noticed that Yukka plants do.

As for navigation, I've been picking a tree or rock at the exact point I set sail from to hit a new island and marking it with the degrees it is inrelation to that object. Then when I get to that island I do the same so I know how to get home.

[ZomBeGone]

sharks do not respawn. fish generate on the fly, so you can not fish them out. if you are careful, you can avoid lionfish, but just in case find some anitbiotic ((anti venim)).

trees do not re-spawn, but i think cocnuts do. I know they do in the experimental build (way too fast).

yucca plants and potatos re-spawn.

The whates are not common, less common than the forts. in one game i found 3 whales in the 190 grid squares that i explored and mapped. You just have to stumble on them by accident. They are quite impressive!

Do you have a compass? If so, you can count paddle strokes and do some mapping. once you get good at it, maps are trivial to make. it lets you expand out much farther, and lets you travel at night.

i build a foundation on each island, and label it with the label maker. They have two supports, so they look like a chair, and point the route to my home base...i can just follow the island chain to home.

some islands i set up as supply bases, with vitamins, intibiotics, bandages, fish, and coconuts, so if something happens, i head to a base to get patched up.