Animal leveling explained for dummies

[Ranger]

OK, I'm the dummy, who's gonna 'splain?

*I made the statement earlier today in a post about the invincible wolf that ALL animals level up when one kills you. That statement was incorrect, but based on me only seeing level 2 wolves and bears in my main (easy) game, where I have died but once. Now, I admit, I often cannot see the animals levels, but every one i had noticed was level 2. Tonight, I played all evening in my normal game, in which i was killed 6 times by a wolf, and every single animal I was able to see the bar on was level 2... So, did that level 8 wolf despawn and is gone? do animals level up naturally as the game progresses? is thier level at spawn random? Somebody, please help the dummy.

[Professor]

Originally posted by Ranger:

OK, I'm the dummy, who's gonna 'splain?
Somebody, please help the dummy.

I'm far more of a dummy than you are, and so am very qualified to explain...

From what I understand, each time a wolf or bear kills you, they level up one point. Each time you kill a wolf or bear, that animal comes back at the same level it was at when you killed it. May be wrong here in that a killed animal maybe spawns back at its original level???

[SpacemanSpiff42]

I believe they can level on their own and do despawn eventually, but I could be wrong.

I'm pretty sure I just watched a lvl 3 grizzly kill a hunter and level up to 4. Of course I kinda helped by shooting the grizzly and the hunter when they were close to each other. The griz' was headed to me but then turned on the hunter, who may have shot him in the back, and took him out. Otherwise I don't know why there's a lvl 4 grizzly in the game while I'm on easy mode.?,

Maybe they gain xp by protecting the chickens and wabbits.

[Zuleica]

Originally posted by goodgrief42:

I believe they can level on their own and do despawn eventually, but I could be wrong.

I'm pretty sure I just watched a lvl 3 grizzly kill a hunter and level up to 4. Of course I kinda helped by shooting the grizzly and the hunter when they were close to each other. The griz' was headed to me but then turned on the hunter, who may have shot him in the back, and took him out. Otherwise I don't know why there's a lvl 4 grizzly in the game while I'm on easy mode.?,

Maybe they gain xp by protecting the chickens and wabbits.

I've never seen a level over 3 unless I died to a level 3 wolf or bear at which time it became 4. The ones that leveled over 3 didn't seem to despawn, I had to kill them and when I did the ones that spawned taking their place were back to level 3 or below.

That was a long time ago though, I haven't died to an animal in a while.

[Professor]

Originally posted by Zuleica:

That was a long time ago though, I haven't died to an animal in a while.

Better be on guard then. Those fiber plants are ruthless little buggers! They can sneek up on you and slit your throat before you knew what happened.

[ColdGames]

Animals currently only level-up by killing humans, at which point they also gain full health. An injured animal will slowly heal over time, but keep it's battle scars (even across saves). So if you see a bloodied animal, you've most likely had an encounter with it before (unless it had taken fire from a hunter).

Hope that helps clears things up.

Cheers.

[Professor]

Originally posted by ColdGames:

Animals currently only level-up by killing humans, at which point they also gain full health

That sums up things very well. Thanks!

[John Raeder]

Thank you CG, that does help a lot

[HyphenTorpedo]

Originally posted by ColdGames:

Animals currently only level-up by killing humans, at which point they also gain full health. An injured animal will slowly heal over time, but keep it's battle scars (even across saves). So if you see a bloodied animal, you've most likely had an encounter with it before (unless it had taken fire from a hunter).

Hope that helps clears things up.

Cheers.

Whoa, I didn't know that! So you could, in theory, have that one animal that kills you all the time coming back to haunt you even in a new game assuming you weren't able to kill it?

[kaganpunchwood]

Can confirm they level up if the animals kill hunters for whatever reason.

[Ranger]

That doesn't explain how the bears in my game got to be lvl 2, (multiple bears) and numerous wolves, when I've only died once. Does the game remember their level (and that they killed me) even if I reload last save instead of respawning? And, I assume this means that the game does in fact save information about "instances" of animals, and respawns those instances rather than generating new ones? Ohhhh, CG, you clever bastard you.

[God Bless The Dead]

Originally posted by Ranger:

That doesn't explain how the bears in my game got to be lvl 2, (multiple bears) and numerous wolves, when I've only died once. Does the game remember their level (and that they killed me) even if I reload last save instead of respawning? And, I assume this means that the game does in fact save information about "instances" of animals, and respawns those instances rather than generating new ones? Ohhhh, CG, you clever bastard you.

The standard wolves and bears by default are between lvl 1-3 (before killing a human), they dont all start at lvl 1.

its either between lvl 1-3 or 1-4, but im sure its upto lvl 3 only.

[HyphenTorpedo]

If the game does remember instances, then you could take this concept and apply it to hunters or other future enemies for when they kill you, and from that you could have rivalry system like in Shadow of Mordor. Might be pretty neat.