Are animals not spawning in for you? Then this is the guide for you!

As this game is still very glitchy there have been a number of issues. One of the more game breaking issues has been the mysterious dissapearance of animal spawns. I looked online and on forums for the answer to this issue. I finally came across this solution buried in a forum somewhere. That is why I am making a tutorial so people can solve their issue and get back to hunting.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for...

• High Level Players complaining saying they can't find animals
  
• Anyone else having issues

How to fix the spawns

Step 1
Navigate to "Documents" or type C:\Users\(Name Here)\Documents in the file explorer. No go to the file titled "Avalanche Studios"

Step 2
Now once inside you will go into the file called "theHunter Call of the Wild





Step 3
Now go into the saves folder and you will see a few files. There will be one file name with a bunch of numbers (possibly more if other saves are made) and a settings folder. Open the one with the bunch of numbers.




Step 4
Now once inside you will look for a file call "animal_population" Just delete it and you are done

Why I think this works
I believe that the file we deleted is the one saving the locations of animals in the world as it isn't remade when in game only after leaving. When we delete the file we are resetting the spawns of every animal.

Extras

How often should this be done?
You could probably do it once and leave it for a while however I personally delete the file after every session.

If this isn't working

• Turn off cloud sync on Steam as it will replace the file
  
• It is not a guarunteed fix as I have just started using it but it has worked well in my experience

This could all be skipped and you could go right to the file by typing
C:\Users\(Your Name)\Documents\Avalanche Studios\theHunter Call of the Wild\Saves\

[GhostJudicator]

I have found regardless of anything, you have to take it very slow in this game,animals react,You gotta treat the whole game like a big sneaking mission. I had a friend complain about this, till I joined his server and showed him how to roll...suddenly animal calls,and actual animals, turns out you can't drive around on the ATV and have the dog going berzerk...you won't find any animals, or running around like a madman with a gun drawn, well it has mixed results...you sneak "stalk" or crib out near a feed zone, you will start bagging game.

[Graveller]

@Soltyk so yeah, it is given I made it in 2017. I don't play the game anymore either

[Soltyk]

LOL. This is so outdated, it doesn't even refer to the right file anymore.

[irlandec TV]

Agree with Vince about population deletion, but not agree with zones "saving". Each animal who born on map are authentic and allways same untill you kill it. Need zone are just type of track, it shows where and when a herd stops for longer, but zone not produces any animals. Zone its just pause track of some authentic herd. If you have zone with 5 females, just clear all of them, if not - zone and animals on it allways will be same since they authentic untill dead. "Saving" zones have zero sence in hunting game, you can save it only if you have there something to come everyday and use photo camera :)

[LordBamburgh]

You should 100% NOT do this, and this comes from someone with 900 hrs in the game. And I've spoken directly to a dev to double-check and he told me quite clearly 'do not delete the animal pop' file.

Instead, work on building up and protecting your needs zones as this will help direct you to the animals, with time windows also provided.

Finally, don't go on wild killing sprees and expect the animal population to evolve as intended. Focus on (mainly) killing the male prey and don't wipe out need zones. They are in the game for a REASON.

Deleting the animal pop file is one of the game's greatest myths. And whenever anyone does this, it's only confirmation bias which informs them they made the right call.

Happy hunting...

[kerrjj1980]

Gonna try it. Yukon looks all "glitched out" on my map. The other locations look fine. I'm not experienced enough in the game to know whether re-spawns are properly happening or not.

[Shona (vincit omnia veritas)]

Small hint, aslong as the document folder isn't moved, you can use the following ;)

%userprofile%\documents\Avalanche Studios\theHunter Call of the Wild\Saves\

Explanation:

%userprofile% = C:\Users\PROFILENAME\

Some more like these are the following :)

%appdata% = C:\Users\PROFILENAME\AppData\Roaming
%localappdata% = C:\Users\PROFILENAME\AppData\Local

[Tolarbear]

ok thank you

[Graveller]

@slimysloo1 I don't see how it can hurt your game. It only deletes your animals locations forcing the game to make a new file containing that data. If you are worried you could try making a backup of your save file

[Tolarbear]

does this have a chance of screwing up my game or is it completely safe i really want to do this so i can hunt geese again but im a little scared of what might happen