River Survival Pike is SO HARD

[BUCKmaster]

Even on easy difficulty, Pike on River Survival is very very difficult. If you have gotten even the bronze star on Pike, please respond with any tips? I have spent many, many hours at this and am extremely frustrated.

I'm beginning to wonder if there is a bug on the hunger settings? Perhaps it's in Hard mode regardless of your difficulty selection, maybe? I am relatively new to the game, but it seems that as you level (grow) your fish within Survival the player controlled fish Hunger becomes insatiable. Because there are 4 levels of the pollywog/tadpole stage with the Pike, by the time you hit juvenile the Hunger is already quite noticeable. Now you somehow have to find the quite rare Perch species before Hunger kills you. Throughout the juvenile stages the Christmas cookies paired with Trout kills can keep the hunger at bay. Eventually though in adulthood you are forced to make bad tactical decisions out of hunger hysteria, like attacking larger River Salmon (which are EVERYWHERE and travel in small pairs or schools). There's no way to stop growing, other than death, to my knowledge. By level 8,9,10 your food bar is plummeting. I am somewhat familiar with where the Perch spawns are, well at least two. I can usually get a couple Perch, but eventually I am just doomed. There are too many Salmon, Bass, Payara, TigerFish and of course that verdampt Arra con Pollaima gonna swallow ya wholeya.

I know that burst swimming consumes your food bar quickly, I am patient at the juvenile stage, I slow swim cautiously eating only to the start of the white bar, intentionally trying NOT to get the digestion exp bonus.

Edit: Also, I forgot to mention that once you hit juvenile stage now all the adult Pike are against you as well. I think if they are lower level they aren't, but I'm not sure, seems everything wants a chunk of me.

[BUCKmaster]

Well. I finally was able to complete the objectives and get the bronze star on Pike. Some tips for others that decide to walk this path:
1. Be patient, there are several things out of your control.
2. After every failure (you die), go back to Main menu, then back into River Survival to start fresh. Why? Well, I came to notice that playing subsequent attempts there isn't a reset of the biome. It all remains in place. The Perch spawning grounds are very near the Pikes spawning grounds and from what I can tell after many many hours at this, Perch do not respawn. There are 5-6 at each spawning ground (on a fresh start) and they will be killed.
3. The fastest way to level out of the pollywog/tadpole stage is to follow around the adult Pike that are near your spawn spot. Often times they'll even kill a Perch or two and you only have to eat one chunk of meat from a Perch kill to get credit towards your dreaded 5 count.
4. As a pollywog/tadpole whenever your food gauge (right side) turns white: STOP MOVING and wait for the digestion exp bump. You will level to Juvenile in like 4 medium meat chunks if you eat it, stop moving, wait, then eat the next chunk. Very fast leveling out of pollywog stage.
5. Live fast and furious as a pollywog, level as quickly as possible because the Perch will slowly start migrating out of their spawns. You want to get there (as a Juvenile) before they do. You'll die often by being reckless but you really don't lose much dying as a pollywog, wager big = win big and get out of this stage ASAP.
6. Pay close attention to your level, as soon as you hit level 4 you are a target for the Pike you've been following. So GTFO fast as soon as you hit level 4 (Juvenile).
7. At the Juvenile stage is where you need to be very calm, very patient and VERY focused. The hunger will start to become problematic. Eat little bits that are safe, don't go for risky meat chunks. Your objective at this stage is to get to the Perch spawn areas as quickly and safely as possible. That is the only thing that matters.
8. If you see a Perch and there are other predatory threats (to you) near them don't panic and leave, stay near and watch for the kill, you can shoot in and get just one meat chunk which will count towards the dreaded 5 count. Do NOT go into murderous rage and try to kill them with the Salmon/Tigers/etc nearby, they will beeline towards the ruckus and you'll be dinner.
9. Adult stage, you've hit level 7. This is when your focus changes to breeding. If you don't have your 5 perch yet keep looking for them, do NOT do breeding yet. At least the Pike will no longer hunt you at this stage (I think).
10. Now you breed, you find another pike and swim around it holding Q until the hearts at the top left of your HUD change to Eggs.
11. Now you eat for the eggs. Kill trout, or scavenge meat chunks from others as you build the exp bar on the Eggs (top left of your hud). Once you've eaten enough to satisfy the cursed Egg gods you will see a Q button there for Egg deployment.
12. Find a good spot for your eggs, they don't take very long to hatch so you don't have to get too creative, just put them off to the side somewhere.
13. Don't go too far from your eggs but the dreaded Hunger bar is getting out of control now isn't it? Keep killing, keep stealing meat.
14. Pollywogs come. Grats Mom they've hatched, now you can use the Q button to change them from Stay to Follow. The idea is to protect them and get at least TWO of the idiotic fools to grow to Juvenile.
15. I had some difficulty getting the idiots to eat meat chunks. I was starting to panic but then I took the shallow stream (that connects the two Pike spawn areas) and luckily there were some Bleaks in there. So I started biting the Bleaks. Once a Bleak was dead the cute little fellers would start ripping into their bodies. The water was so shallow and confined the Bleaks had no where to go so I was able to continue biting them and watch my little dufus babies grow to Juvenile and swim away. I died shortly thereafter from the OUT OF CONTROL HUNGER OMG DEVS PLEASE LOOK INTO IT.

IMHO Pike would STILL be a challenge with HALF the hunger hysteria that is in place now. I think Perch is the WRONG fish for the Pike challenge. Their spawns are either bugged or FAR too low. Trout would probably be too easy because there are a gazillion trout in the river. Salmon would be difficult, but at least they are plentiful so even though it's near impossible to actually KILL an adult salmon as a Juvenile Pike, I would STILL prefer that challenge to the extremely rare Perch.

Hope this all helps someone, I get to have my life back now.

[SUPREME YEET]

i have tried to get the bronze star with the pike for five hours and i want to kill myself

[Bassilth]

The problem isnt just the hunger but this freaking 'full stomach to exp' bs the devs put in. For god's sake make it player-triggered! I want to play properly without having to stay near starvation stage all the time just to keep what I ate in the stomach.

They should also make changes to how eggs develop. They should automatically develop on a timer that lasts a bit long but can be shortened if the player exchanges food to exp. But it has to be a choice.

Not on that but food is also less satisfying for the fish. By the time you are adult... barely anything will satisfy your hunger.

And all this is on frekkin' easy difficulty.

[Callisto]

Well, I've been working on survival pike, and it is quite difficult however its only because of salmon, I recommend a small area with lots of tiny bugs and stuff to eat off of as a baby and bleaks in the area as well to eat when you are a juvie, after you eat some bleaks, you can eat some trout but make sure to hide if you see salmon, once you reach adult lvl 7 salmon won't immediately go after you and once you reach level 9 you might be able to kill them.

[Callisto]

OOOO once you reach level 10, they are killable and are scared of you

[Callisto]

Ok once you reach level 10 YOU HAVE TO PREY ON SALMON or else you will probably starve

[SirGouki]

1) there's an edit button for a reason, There's no reason to be quaduple posting.

2) You have 2 other fish prior to pike to progress first. I'd recommend practicing managing the digestion process, as well as controlling your hunger, with them. All of the fish eventually operate the same - the more you eat the bigger you get until you get so big that nothing satisfies your hunger quick enough any more. I was able to get big enough to eat even the biggest predatory fish in the river with all 3 fish for the river.

3) This is more at the OP, but also for anyone else that needs help - going down the water fall in the river does not bring you to a new area, nor does it kill you. It DOES, however, reload the map with more fish to eat. Just be careful early on when using it, as it also causes the biggest predator for that map to spawn, and there will be more aggressive fish than when you first spawn, and they WILL be near where you land most of the time, especially the biggest one. This loops.

[BUCKmaster]

I felt the second posting was applicable. I did edit the first post so I am clearly aware of the edit button.