Where do you place tents?

[Vertibird]

If you place a tent close to a need zone, when you fast travel to the tent, you spook the animals in the zone. So where do you place them? And do you spook animals when you enter/exit tripods, blinds etc?

[Pinger]

I put a marker on the need zone edge and 150m from that that has cover from the tent to the need zone, so I can move bush to bush for the more flighty animals
As for exiting tripods etc not sure, usually I have just shot a few animals so they are spooked anyway

[Striker]

Excellent question by the way. My initial response was "it depends upon what you are hunting" but that's amounts to a single brush stroke on a very broad canvas considering the variety of animals and terrain this game has to offer.

We know that erecting or fast traveling to a tent generates considerable noise and that the degree to which animals react to that noise varies somewhat between an animals species, the level of the animal and the difficulty rating assigned to it. As a general rule a calm animal within 150 meters of the erection of a tent or fast traveling to/from a tent or outpost will not appreciate your doing so. At the very least animals will go from calm to nervous or high alert status. Some say that if you plan on getting to the tent about 30 game min earlier than the posted hours of a need zone then it really doesn't matter where you place your tent as long as it is downwind of the animals pathway to/from a need zone. Some say that it doesn't matter because the animals you spook by fast traveling will return to the need zone within a few minutes. There is some merit to both of those approaches.

I prefer to place tents roughly 150 meters of where I expect animals to be once they enter a need zone. For example, I've deduced that Warthogs usually drink near a 1/4 area around a pond. I've placed my blind approx 75 meters from that area and my tent 80 meters from the blind. I fast travel to the tent, crawl to the blind (takes about 12-15 min game time). I tried various shorter distances between the tent and blind but 80 meters works the best. At another location I've placed my tripod roughly 50 meters from the need zone and my tent 150 meters from the tripod due to the openness of the terrain between my tent and the tripod. I've been able to get onto that tripod on a consistent basis while animals were drinking less than 40 meters away. I just have to do the fast crouch for 50-60 meters then do the snake belly dance the remainder of the way to the tripod.

Entering or leaving a tripod or blind will not spook animals. Your visibility, stink or the amount of noise you make getting to the blind, tripod or stand might spook them but actually entering or leaving them is noiseless. When you leave a tripod, tree stand or elevated blind you usually hit the ground in an upright position so get ready to crouch or lay flat if you are doing it in order to get to a more favorable shot angle.

Hope this helps.

[Throttle Kitty]

The moment you spawn in on the tent, carefully lie down and crawl out of the tent. Try not to move between when you spawn in and when you lie down, even a tiny bit. One step while standing up in the tent will make so much racket, you might as well have tossed the whole tent down a flight of stares.

[Striker]

Spray yourself with odor eliminator before fast traveling. It lasts for 2 hrs of game time. Our stink travels instantly to animals 200 meters away and do what Throttle Kitty says.

[Vertibird]

Thanks all for great tips!

[Humpenstilzchen]

Originally posted by Autobot:

Spray yourself with odor eliminator before fast traveling. It lasts for 2 hrs of game time. Our stink travels instantly to animals 200 meters away and do what Throttle Kitty says.

No, it only lasts 30 minutes.

[JPSGT40]

Originally posted by Humpenstilzchen:

Originally posted by Autobot:

Spray yourself with odor eliminator before fast traveling. It lasts for 2 hrs of game time. Our stink travels instantly to animals 200 meters away and do what Throttle Kitty says.

No, it only lasts 30 minutes.

You are actually both right.
Scent Eliminator Spray lasts 30 real-time minutes (which equates to 2 hours of game-clock time).

[Kraxin-Kari]

I usually am strategic with my tents. So basically I go to reserve and grab all the outposts. Once I do that all the walking around I usually have a decent amount of need zones cause I do walk bys of water areas when I go to outposts to claim.

I set my tents 250m by lakes or water edge of map hot spots depending on map that don't have an outpost within 500m. If 2 lakes or more close to each other meet this criteria I set tent between them in an area thats roughly 250m from tent.

Most maps this should take up 10-12 tents, leaving me 4 left to put close to whatever I concentrating on at the time. That way I can get to my need zones and cover a bunch of distances to maximize my hunt times since I don't get to spend too many hours a day hunting.

[McSqurl Nugget]

i usually place my tent on the ground. seems to work the best i think.