Guide to the German Shorthaired Pointer

[Redeye760]

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you all are doing well today or whichever day you happen to read this.

I came on to the forum to check to see if anyone had some additional info on the new pointers however it appears that nobody has put together a guide and it seems some people are having issues with the new dog. So since I got my pointer up to level 15 I figured I would make a post providing some pointers to help people learn how to best utilize their new pointer.

Best place to start would be with the spot point command, essentially every time you spot an animal send the dog to point it. This is best done on open maps with animals in need zones as it ensures they will stay long enough for the dog to point. If the animals are traveling in any direction other than straight at you they will out pace the sneaking and you are just wasting your time. Also note that they won’t point predators.

Once you get to Dog level 10 you can unlock the Distance Tracker perk which allows the dog to range further in search of animals. This is invaluable as the small and medium sized animals have a relatively short search range relative to their ability to detect you walking. From this point I would recommend hunting a mix of birds and big game. Places like Rancho, Mississippi, and New England allow you to hunt quail and or pheasants while allowing opportunities to spot point larger game as well.

This lets you maximize your efficiency, I added a good chunk of my levels chasing quail around the fields of Mississippi and even got a diamond Whitetail, my first Diamond on PC, for my efforts. Additionally while I haven’t confirmed it there does appear to be a benefit to both pointing and flushing the birds as it seems to fill the bar more when both actions are completed vs just pointing. Just be aware that the birds will flush in a random direction, some times it is directly away, sometimes it is right at you and other times they run on the ground for a bit before taking off.

It does take a while and some patience to level up so in the sake of time savings whatever you do don’t take the sneaking longer perk. The dog can’t spook game so having them sneak longer just adds to the time it takes to get them to point.

Where the Pointer really starts to shine is when you reach Dog Level 30, at this point you will have picked up the highlighting spot and the species track perks. The highlight feature is beneficial when in heavy brush as it can spot the animal your dog is pointing at regardless of whether you can see it or not. The species track is invaluable if you are targeting a specific animal, just find sign in the area and tell them to hunt the species from the command wheel. If I’m hunting quail or pheasants it stops the dog from going after rabbits or turkeys which regularly frequent the same areas. For large game they will range out a couple hundred yards looking for them, this is less helpful on maps with a limited number of species in each class but on maps where there are a multitude of animals in each class it can help to streamline your hunting. For example in New England the moose is the only large game that can be pointed so by default any large game pointed will be moose. But on other maps with several animals in the 6-9 class it will make hunting the proper species much easier.

Once you get pointing to level 15 you unlock the expert dog perk which allows you to choose either the retriever or tracking as its secondary job. Based on my evaluation of the benefits and drawbacks it would be my recommendation to pick the tracking option for the majority of players. This option provides the most versatility as you can track all species of wounded game from 1-9. This will allow you to cover the majority of the retriever’s job which is locating and retrieving the downed class one animals, the main difference is you have to travel over to pick it up yourself after the dog finds it.

The retriever perk would predominantly benefit those who primarily focus on upland birds such as pheasant, quail and grouse. When the dog flushes a covey and you hit several that fly in different directions but don’t drop it is much easier to send the dog after the farther ones while you pick up the close ones. The tracking can be used for this but depending on how far apart they went you may have to go back towards the start to pick up the blood increasing the time spent locating the downed birds. So if you are mainly an upland hunter take the retriever perk as your secondary job.

As for the other dogs I would recommend picking up the tracking for the retriever to add to its versatility on larger game. You can also add the pointing however the perks specific to the pointer make it far more capable in that roll. If you are grinding like they do on YouTube going from tent to tent hunting need zones then a retriever with the tracking perk would be the best allowing you to quickly collect class 1 animals and tracking any larger game that runs off.

For improvements personally I would like to see the Small and Medium ranges increased. In real life the majority of pointing dogs in the open search out well over 100 yards for birds where in this game you have to get close to that before they pick up the scent and start searching. Additionally if you don’t stay close they will stop and wait for you, it would be better if they simply walked up and pointed the birds from 150 yards out giving me a chance to get into the best position without spooking them.

Overall I think the pointer and the expert dog perk is a great addition to the game and greatly increases the versatility of the dog breeds. Personally I will be using the retriever primarily for waterfowl/big game hunting over need zones while I use the pointer for my typical exploratory hunting. Cedar, my field bred golden retriever on the couch behind me, is giving me the side eye for choosing to primarily take the new pointer over the fox red lab that I named after her. She will get over it after deer season when I take her back out to chase pheasants.

So there you have it, that is my guide to the new pointer and other dog features from a person who hasn’t played the game a ton but has done enough to hopefully point some people in the right direction.

[AGMoyer]

Leveling this dog's job was way easier than I expected, going to get last 4 levels today probably. All you do is tell it to search for big game and let it run off. Think default distance is 150 meters from the player then there is a perk that ups it to 200. You don't even have to see the animal yourself, kill it, or harvest. Just let the dog find them.

Once it finds and barks at the animal just tell it find some more and it'll run off in search of another. This dog has made hunting for me sooo easy I love it.

It gets exp for pointer every time it finds/barks at the animal. Way faster than smaller game where it will very slowly sneak till it can point at them but you also have to be much closer yourself or the dog won't move unless you use the spot tracking option then you can sit back further from the animal.

I tested the sneak one by siting bit over 100 meters and used the spot track option to see if the dog would seriously sneak for 100 meters and it did. That was painfully slow to watch. Still got exp but would not suggest this method.

EDIT Nvm, I'm fairly certain you have to be a certain distance to the dog for it to get exp when it find an animal. Just now having it search for class 6-9 I shot a class 3 at the same time it barked at a class 6 nearby (maybe 120 meters) and it got exp.

EDIT2: Alright so at first 200+ meters didn't get exp when it found something but at 180 meters it did on class 6 and tried class 3 at 160 meters and it received exp. Both without having to mark them myself (class 3 I directed it to point at but I didn't mark the animal again once it faded).

[MCNacho-ナチョ]

hes pretty good for high vegetaion, if you shoot class 1 animals and lost in high grass, you can take as second trait retriever. works way faster than tracking them. multicombinationdoggo

bloodhound is only good, if you total lost at tracking.