So, what can I expect in the Savannah map?

[funewchie]

I've gone into the Savannah map for the first time, and I was curious... how rough is this going to be, compared to Layton and Hirschfelden?
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The lions particularly worry me. Exactly how bloodthirsty for the player character are they?
(i.e. If I hear a lion roar, is it pretty much time to die? Or is it a case of "If you don't bother them, they won't bother you"?)

I'm just curious if this is going to be like having Predator constantly tracking you down to kill you. If a Lion sees me, is it just automatically game over?

(I know, I know, the fact I still tense up hearing a black bear growl (and instinctively whip out the shotgun with 20GA slugs), is probably a hint I'm not ready for the Savannah.
But it never hurts to ask)
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On a side note, I appreciate that entering the Savannah map for the first time, they start you off right at sunrise.
...They totally expect you to imagine the Lion King theme playing, don't they?

[Robbie Taliban]

Better have your high caliber rifles with you.
.300 or 338 and 7mm or 30.06 . and a good caliber handgun pref 454
But further than that its one of my favorite maps.
Its a verry open map with a nice potential for long range hunting

And Lion roar is not a instant kill (if they far away)
But had some times that i was in a bush and a warning call came and he immidiatly jumped me.
But they do mating callls also.
But its pretty open there and you wont see much Lions in the north of the map.

The more worrying animal is the Cape Buffalo ....they will charge you even when shot,
even with multible animals at once.

[funewchie]

Originally posted by Robbie Taliban:

Better have your high caliber rifles with you.
.300 or 338 and 7mm or 30.06 . and a good caliber handgun pref 454
But further than that its one of my favorite maps.
Its a verry open map with a nice potential for long range hunting

And Lion roar is not a instant kill (if they far away)
But had some times that i was in a bush and a warning call came and he immidiatly jumped me.
But they do mating callls also.
But its pretty open there and you wont see much Lions in the north of the map.

The more worrying animal is the Cape Buffalo ....they will charge you even when shot,
even with multible animals at once.

Oof, I'm only at Level 15.
(To be fair, I lost my save months ago when they had that Hunt Club Beta crash issue, and had had to start over.)

The only one of those I have is the 30.06.
And handguns... yeah, I'm still at like 316 exp for those. (Haven't even unlocked a decent sight for them yet)
Ditto with Shotguns (400xp), no sights for them yet.

(To be fair, I'd been focusing on rifle and bow (roughly, Rifle = 1900xp; Bow = 940xp))

But I was starting to get a little tired of Layton and Hirschfelden, and just wanted to take a break and try a new area.
I only have Taiga and the Savannah reserved bought, and just figured I'd go for the one with lions.

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Good to know about them being rare up north.
(After posting this, I'd read that lions are a little bit rare to encounter. So the fact I spotted one within a few minutes of playing there, is kinda cool (and terrifying).

I was looking around with the binoculars, spotted a lion coming over a hill (on the other side of the watering hole/lake), and I though "Ohh!! That's a lion!! Okay, as long as he stays over there, I should be fine--Oh my GOD, he runs fast!!"

Thankfully, he stayed over there and didn't spot me.
He might explain why the warthogs I shot at ignored me and kept on running, though.
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I'd heard about the Cape Buffalo being big time bad news.
How bad are they, compared to the European Bison in Hirschfelden?

(Those I'm a bit underpowered to take on, though I did kill one with an arrow shot once.
(To be fair, I was hunting Fallow Deer, and that Bison unwittingly snuck up on me. I heard him do a warning call, turned, and saw him standing like 5 feet away. I panicked and hipshot him with the arrow. I somehow got a lucky hit on his lung. Took him ages to die, but I did harvest him)

[jf3000]

I wouldn't worry to much about the lions, they will attack if you find yourself out in the middle of nowhere and then you hear them, I often have a tripod with me to overlook the area.

The Buffalo, expect them to come out of nowhere and knock you down, it happens and with the right gun usually a shot will take them down.

Savannah is the only map that has a stampede, the stampede can be anything but mostly Wildebeest, Jackals and Buffalo. For the most count they're Wildebeest (I've wrote a guide on them if you want to check out the stampede).

The more water, eating, rest zones you can find the better, more equals more animals.

Most people believe using an ATV is a bad idea, well believe me when I say that using an ATV has been the been part of my hunting journey, especially when you're chasing down a handful of Buffalo.

Have heaps of fun, its a great level, there is an area to the west up a hill, great place for a tripod and tent for shooting hares and leveling a handgun if you've not done so already.

[botaya1]

I had lots of fun hunting in the Savanah, found the 470 rifle very usefull against buffalos, if you don't have it try the crossbow with the 600 bolts,

Lions do attack sometimes.

And also found the solokhin and the 7 mm very usefull as there is a lot of long distance shooting.

[Humpenstilzchen]

If you have the drilling rifle (dlc item) then you can go and hunt lions, it´s even stronger than the 338 judging from the caliber (8.6x70 for the 338 and 9,3x 74 for the drilling drilling), though I´m not 100% sure, because if you look at the stats of the ammo it states that the 338 is stronger, although the caliber is much smaller. Idk but I know that the drilling works excellent for lions.

[niccolas.miller]

The .338 is actually far more powerful than the 9.3x74. The Drilling gun will get the job done on lion with a lung shot but it will take a lot longer for the lion to die, during which time he is quite likely to be subdividing your carcass.

[funewchie]

Originally posted by Humpenstilzchen:

If you have the drilling rifle (dlc item) then you can go and hunt lions, it´s even stronger than the 338 judging from the caliber (8.6x70 for the 338 and 9,3x 74 for the drilling drilling), though I´m not 100% sure, because if you look at the stats of the ammo it states that the 338 is stronger, although the caliber is much smaller. Idk but I know that the drilling works excellent for lions.

All I have is the Weapons pack that unlocked the 30.06 and .22LR (among others), the treestands/blinds/tents/tripods, and the duck/geese hunting tools. And the ATVs.
(Plus the Savannah and Taiga maps)

I figure I'm nowhere near ready to hunt an actual lion.
To the point downing a Moose was a crazy accomplishment (as none of my available weapons/ammo are particularly rated for them).

Originally posted by botaya1:

I had lots of fun hunting in the Savanah, found the 470 rifle very usefull against buffalos, if you don't have it try the crossbow with the 600 bolts,

Lions do attack sometimes.

And also found the solokhin and the 7 mm very usefull as there is a lot of long distance shooting.

To sum up how low level I am: ...There are crossbows in this game?

With arrows, I only have the normal 450 grain arrowheads available. I haven't even gotten the puny 300 grain ones, yet (I'm close to it, though)

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I was only curious if I needed to worry about them bothering (i.e. killing) me while I'm trying to hunt things more my skill level.

Still, the Savannah looks like it'll be fun, anyways.

I appreciate the info, everyone.

[Humpenstilzchen]

Originally posted by funewchie:

I was only curious if I needed to worry about them bothering (i.e. killing) me while I'm trying to hunt things more my skill level.

To answer this quickly, yes they will kill you if you are too close to them and if they live long enough to do so, so if the shot is not instantly lethal or doesn´t kills them within the next few seconds and they are within 100-150 meters you will often times have a bad day.

Usually you can easily sidestep any charging animal, this doesn´t work with lions due to them being so superfast.

If you keep your distance you are fine.

[Hidden Gunman]

Lion will also dodge.

Point to note is that if you stalk through closed visibility thickets, while you are walking up on one lion, his or her friend is circling around one of your flanks to pounce on you. A means of avoiding this is to move out to the side about half a visible distance from the track of the lion you are following (a 'visible distance' is the average of how far you can see in a thicket or similar)...as you follow up from the flank, take it steady, stop often to listen and look, and be prepared to walk face first into a lion, so go around thick low visibility clumps, rather than through them.

[DanthemanBoone]

A tripod is your best defence against lions and water buffalo. If you scout the waterholes in the late afternoon and find their drinking zones you can set up a tent and tripod overlooking the zone then sit up there and hunt them during the zone active times. Only shoot the males and leave the females to maintain the zones. I have taken 10 lions in one hunt without being killed because they cant get you if you are in the tripod stand. Same thing works with the water buffalo too.