Totally Bear-able advice

[Red Dragon]

I'm playing a fresh Dirwin and I just hit lvl 4.

It made me think "wasn't there this kill-a-bear-before-lvl-5 achievement"? And indeed, it is called "Totally Bear-able. So I looked at my map and as luck would have it a bear "?" rumor spawned on my map just 4 tiles east of the Barrel Brewery.

How can I possibly do this..? I took on a lot of "unnecessary" experience already, if I continue with the main quest I will hit level 5 very fast.

I read an older guide and it said it's even doable with just "Take Aim" + "Distracting Shot" and around 80 arrows and nothing else. Now I have those two abilities plus "Constant Practice" and two more Ability Points that I didn't assign yet.

For your convenience here are the abilities, I don't have access to lvl. 2 Ranged skills yet.
https://stoneshard.com/wiki/Ranged_Weapons_(skill_tree)


Now I've been fighting regular humans so far and the distracting shot cooldown is insanely long (14t unmodified) in this patch and I have no idea how I'm supposed to kite a bear like that around the map with a 14T cooldown giving me 2-3 spaces of breathing room. (It was funny that I realized I could try to cage it in with campfires and then I read the same idea either in Reddit or here and it actually works... but it sounds a bit too cheesy and unworthy). I don't know I want to do this in a way that feels legit. Luring it to any settlement with guards will not trigger the achievement anymore. I have stolen the bear trap from the Drunken Woodsman so far but otherwise I probably need most of my money to even get up to 80 arrows at this point.

Ideas? Remember I have two more AP to spend.

[Red Dragon]

Addendum:

Dirwin has access to lvl. 1 to abilities:
Ranged Weapons
Daggers
Staves
Axes
Two- Handed Axes
Athletics

Survival (I think everyone has that).
Pathfinder in survival sounds pretty good actually: Hit "examine" to hear a creature and apply it with a permanent +10% damage taken and -5% dodge chance.

But I feel I need to get at least another skill that creates as much distance as possible so I can cycle it a bit with the huge distracting shot cooldown. Kick maybe to immobilize? Leg sweep doesn't sound quite doable for a bear, idk you need to be adjacent and they both just give you 1 tile.

[wereraptor]

Any way you go about this is going to require some amount of cheesing the system. You can kite to the edge of the map while maintaining distance, then exit and move to the other side of where the bear is and do the same in reverse. You could lure it to other enemies/npcs, and lure it back out of town once it's almost dead and finish the job. You'd probably only need 5-6 claw traps to get the job done that way if you're using a better weapon like guard crossbow, but it'll be a bit of a pain to get that many for just this one purpose. Honestly might as well build the wall.

Edit: you'd need way more claw traps than that, I thought they ignored move resist, but it's 50% effective, meaning the bear still has 40% move resist against the claw trap. Maybe with the help of some thrown items, deathstinger jars, nistrian flame flask, etc.

[Freeman]

You can also do it without cheesing. But cheesing path is easier, and therefore trodden by many.

[funkmonster7]

There is one way...

You get a bunch of sticks and craft a lot of brushwood bundles. Then you find a bear, shout lure it into a smaller area where you can set up those brushwood bundle campfires (except you don't light them up) to imprison the bear. And then you shoot it to pieces while it is stuck inside the cage.

You just have to make sure you bring 3 quivers worth of arrows. What you can do is find the bear, then park your caravan right next to the tile with the bear, and then dump your arrows on the ground near where you would shoot the bear from. You should ideally aim to lock down the bear and then start shooting without leaving that map tile because I think those campfires have a duration even if they're unlit (don't quote me on this though).

The other way is trade a lot, buy lots of nistrian flame flasks, a bottle of oil, and just throw them as you shoot.

[laveley]

Originally posted by Red Dragon:

Addendum:

Dirwin has access to lvl. 1 to abilities:
Ranged Weapons
Daggers
Staves
Axes
Two- Handed Axes
Athletics

Survival (I think everyone has that).
Pathfinder in survival sounds pretty good actually: Hit "examine" to hear a creature and apply it with a permanent +10% damage taken and -5% dodge chance.

But I feel I need to get at least another skill that creates as much distance as possible so I can cycle it a bit with the huge distracting shot cooldown. Kick maybe to immobilize? Leg sweep doesn't sound quite doable for a bear, idk you need to be adjacent and they both just give you 1 tile.

Just distraction shot will suffice. Bear doesn't have a gap close skill so you don't have to worry, he will never catch you.

[Freeman]

Originally posted by laveley:

Just distraction shot will suffice. Bear doesn't have a gap close skill so you don't have to worry, he will never catch you.

Indeed. Bears are slow, just like rabbits.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by Red Dragon:

it sounds a bit too cheesy

What is or isn't an exploit is partially subjective, but I personally am of the opinion that building a campfire wall is exploitative.

Still, ultimately, there is no way to do this that isn't cheesing.

Just pick the method that is the most effective and that you're comfortable enough with.

[Freeman]

Originally posted by Pixel Peeper:

Still, ultimately, there is no way to do this that isn't cheesing.

There is, actually. Fight him in melee.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by Freeman:

Originally posted by Pixel Peeper:

Still, ultimately, there is no way to do this that isn't cheesing.

There is, actually. Fight him in melee.

Then you'd just be cheesing the RNG.

[Freeman]

Originally posted by Pixel Peeper:

Then you'd just be cheesing the RNG.

Friend, all combat is cheesing RNG. Should I let him win or what?

Melee him or stand behind a wall of brushwood, which you think is less cheesy?

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by Freeman:

Originally posted by Pixel Peeper:

Then you'd just be cheesing the RNG.

Friend, all combat is cheesing RNG. Should I let him win or what?

Melee him or stand behind a wall of brushwood, which you think is less cheesy?

Not all combat is cheesing the RNG, that's absurd. When I'm level 30 and do a 2-skull dungeon, I just overwhelm everything with massively superior capabilities.

If I did a trillion 2-skull dungeons, it's conceivable that one enemy could defeat me, but their victory would be due entirely to exceedingly awful luck for me and exceedingly good luck for them. The game would essentially have attempted to kill me enough time to just get lucky and do it. That is 100% cheesing.

Standing behind a wall of campfires... is cheesy.

Fighting it a million times until the RNG just decides to give you the win... is cheesy and stupid.

[laveley]

Originally posted by Pixel Peeper:

Originally posted by Red Dragon:

it sounds a bit too cheesy

Still, ultimately, there is no way to do this that isn't cheesing.

There is. One can kill him with enough patience, arrows and one skill (distracting shot).

Plus, if you want to make it even more "legit" just buy a few traps to speed up the whole process, until lvl 5 you can get enough coin to buy some.

[Tato]

You only shoot on distracting shot turns. Then walk away every other turn. It is tedious af but requires no prep aside from spending your starter money on food and arrows. Can do it basically as soon as you spawn in as dirwin.

The bear will never catch you bc the turn you spend to take aim and distracting shot he will step forward once in response to each. So you will maintain distance.

[Strelok]

I used three claw traps and some caltrops as well as distracting shot and take aim. Needed about 60 arrows for it, but I would recommend bringing more just in case. I found a bear and used a bedroll to save my progress. The fight took many attempts. If he ever gets into melee range with you, you're as good as dead. I used distracting shot to create distance between us, setting up my claw traps and luring him across them repeatedly. I used the caltrops to get some extra distance by causing him to become confused. When you are approaching the border of the screen and need to go into the next screen, account for this carefully - it takes you one action to transition to the new zone, but the bear doesn't need to use an action do so, so he will get one space closer for free.

Ultimately I kited him across six different screens over a period of about 24 hours in-game, using the road to make sure my path remained free of obstacles. Most deaths will result from accidentally moving too close to an obstacle like a tree or bush, or not taking into account the cost of transitioning to a new screen. I was attacked by a boar at one point, but got lucky and the boar ended up fighting the bear. Once the bear killed him, it wasn't aggro'd onto me anymore, which allowed me to refill my quiver and get more distance before engaging again. You might be able to use a similar tactic with bandits or something.

I have a friend who got this achievement by using a spear and repeatedly immobilizing the bear, but it requires some luck.

For skills, I used take aim, distracting shot, constant practice, pathfinder and resourcefulness. I took resourcefulness simply to be able to get his pelt after. If you can somehow find a way to get dash at level 4, dash would help immensely, probably more than any other skill.

[Captain Butthurt]

Reading all this made me extra grateful to the RNGsus for giving me this achievement for free - I was just blindly rushing through the woods towards my next PoI while, unbeknownst to me, a bear and a young troll were duking it out in the same tile.

I just randomly got the achievement without ever laying my eyes on the bear (I went to investigate the tile after I got it).