What happens to wounded animals you abandon?

[Kairo]

Say I shoot a deer and as it flees I decide to give up on chasing it. Does it despawn? Or does it keep moving until it dies in a random spot? Because sometimes Ill come across a herd of deer and shoot as many as I can at once, but lots will get away and I wonder if I am stuck with bloody trails all over the place forever. I just want to know if the animals along with their trails eventually despawn.

[Razamanaz]

The animal will run off and die most likely. (Sometimes yes or no with a flesh wound)

When you harvest an animal all it's tracks go away. Otherwise they will stay until you exit your play session.

[Kairo]

Originally posted by Razamanaz:

The animal will run off and die most likely. (Sometimes yes or no with a flesh wound)

When you harvest an animal all it's tracks go away. Otherwise they will stay until you exit your play session.

So are you sure that even when I close my game and come back the trail will be gone? I think I am pretty sure I logged back in after a restart and saw blood trails from something I shot in a previous session. Thanks for your help though!

[Kaned Dragon]

Originally posted by BlueKiwi:

Originally posted by Razamanaz:

The animal will run off and die most likely. (Sometimes yes or no with a flesh wound)

When you harvest an animal all it's tracks go away. Otherwise they will stay until you exit your play session.

So are you sure that even when I close my game and come back the trail will be gone? I think I am pretty sure I logged back in after a restart and saw blood trails from something I shot in a previous session. Thanks for your help though!

Did you exit the game? Or use the lodge to change the time of day?

I ask because I kinda got a feeling I have started a new hunt session.
And seen tracks and blood marks from previous hunts.
But that could be me getting mixed up because I changed the time in the game, instead of exiting.

[Razamanaz]

Originally posted by BlueKiwi:

Originally posted by Razamanaz:

The animal will run off and die most likely. (Sometimes yes or no with a flesh wound)

When you harvest an animal all it's tracks go away. Otherwise they will stay until you exit your play session.

So are you sure that even when I close my game and come back the trail will be gone? I think I am pretty sure I logged back in after a restart and saw blood trails from something I shot in a previous session. Thanks for your help though!

After you exit the game blood trails should all be gone and your Consecutive Harvest Bonus will be reset to 0% to reflect any animals you wounded but did not harvest. Of course you can't see Consecutive Harvest until you kill and harvest your next animal.

EDIT: I mean exit to desktop as that's what I always do. I suppose exit to Main Menu may not act the same.

[Rookie-31st]

Originally posted by BlueKiwi:

Say I shoot a deer and as it flees I decide to give up on chasing it. Does it despawn? Or does it keep moving until it dies in a random spot?

This depends on wound severity and animal size. As discussed many times here, single flesh wound with very low bleed rate usually does not result in animal death, although smaller animals like red fox, coyote and even roe and blacktail deers could still die if bone was hit

If animal dies, it usually happens within 2-3 minutes. Watch map for hunting pressure to appear (it is recommended not to hunt in one place because previous hunting pressure might obscure new one), if it does not appear after 3 minutes of real time, it is most probably safe to abandon search.

Also, animals might come back during those 2-3 minutes, especially if you used a caller soon after firing a shot. It might be another chance to spot and shoot wounded animal.

As a general rule, I never rush to chase wounded animal. After firing a shot, if I see animal fleeing, I pul out Huntersmate and watch for hunting pressure. Only when it appears I go to search a corpse.

[wubbelflup]

Originally posted by rookie31st:

Originally posted by BlueKiwi:

Say I shoot a deer and as it flees I decide to give up on chasing it. Does it despawn? Or does it keep moving until it dies in a random spot?

This depends on wound severity and animal size. As discussed many times here, single flesh wound with very low bleed rate usually does not result in animal death, although smaller animals like red fox, coyote and even roe and blacktail deers could still die if bone was hit

If animal dies, it usually happens within 2-3 minutes. Watch map for hunting pressure to appear (it is recommended not to hunt in one place because previous hunting pressure might obscure new one), if it does not appear after 3 minutes of real time, it is most probably safe to abandon search.

Also, animals might come back during those 2-3 minutes, especially if you used a caller soon after firing a shot. It might be another chance to spot and shoot wounded animal.

As a general rule, I never rush to chase wounded animal. After firing a shot, if I see animal fleeing, I pul out Huntersmate and watch for hunting pressure. Only when it appears I go to search a corpse.

I wait for the animal to come back if i shot iton a feeding or drinking spot. Otherwise it's a good idea to check how much damage your bullet did, if it's a flesh wound on a moose for example i mostly give up.

[Tommy]

Originally posted by Razamanaz:

After you exit the game blood trails should all be gone and your Consecutive Harvest Bonus will be reset to 0% to reflect any animals you wounded but did not harvest. Of course you can't see Consecutive Harvest until you kill and harvest your next animal.

EDIT: I mean exit to desktop as that's what I always do. I suppose exit to Main Menu may not act the same.

This is true except they is a delay in the resetting the Consecutive Harvest count it seems. So if you load back in and don't 'rest' in game and carry on hunting for a period you still get your previous Consecutive Harvest bonus... I assume this also allows you to get your missed kill, not that i've ever managed to.

[Kairo]

Originally posted by kaned dragon:

Originally posted by BlueKiwi:

So are you sure that even when I close my game and come back the trail will be gone? I think I am pretty sure I logged back in after a restart and saw blood trails from something I shot in a previous session. Thanks for your help though!

Did you exit the game? Or use the lodge to change the time of day?

I ask because I kinda got a feeling I have started a new hunt session.
And seen tracks and blood marks from previous hunts.
But that could be me getting mixed up because I changed the time in the game, instead of exiting.

Yes, I am positive I have fully restarted

[kycaver]

If you shoot an animal, and then lose it when tracking it, will that cause you to lose XP? Is there any penalty if you cannot find the animal, and harvest it?

[Geronimo]

Talk about raising the dead, lol!!

[BJWyler]

Originally posted by kycaver:

If you shoot an animal, and then lose it when tracking it, will that cause you to lose XP? Is there any penalty if you cannot find the animal, and harvest it?

There are no penalties for not harvesting or finishing off animals.

In Classic, if you lost a wounded animal, Doc would send you a message chastising you. It got annoying very quickly. Thankfully they did not carry that over to this game.

[TheHardstyleBrazil]

One day I shot a moose and only injured it, chased it for a few minutes but lost track and went hunting for something else, after about 40 minutes on the map I found it again roaming around and managed to shoot it down, so I believe that even injuring the animal it still continues around the map, at least until you don't close the game or change maps

[snorski]

Originally posted by Kairo:

Originally posted by kaned dragon:

Did you exit the game? Or use the lodge to change the time of day?

I ask because I kinda got a feeling I have started a new hunt session.
And seen tracks and blood marks from previous hunts.
But that could be me getting mixed up because I changed the time in the game, instead of exiting.

Yes, I am positive I have fully restarted

are you looking at blood splatters on the ground or at he red blotch on the map?

the blood on the ground is gone after exiting the game or harvesting the kill

the blotch on the map means hunting pressure that fades over in game time on that specific map.

and then there is bloodsplashes in feed zones of predators, but those obviously serve a different function and only vanish if the feedzone goes away

[Geronimo]

This thread was started back in 2018.

It's like talking to the dead!

Consequtive harvest no longer exists.

[ATOMIC]

Originally posted by Geronimo:

Consequtive harvest no longer exists.

You sure?
Last I heard about it, "Consecutive Harvest still affects XP and money. It just no longer affects the Trophy Score."