Hunting and Tracking
We’re about to drop some truth bombs on you that will prove to be some of the most valuable tips when it comes to surviving The Long Dark. These relate to hunting, tracking, and the mechanics behind animal behavior and death.
The first fact is that if you cause damage to an animal in The Long Dark, it will die. However, that doesn’t mean that hitting an animal with a Simple Arrow or Rifle Round will cause damage. Damage in The Long Dark is tracked in only one way: blood. If you’ve hit an animal with a Simple Arrow or Rifle Round and drawn blood, you have caused damage and that animal (provided there are no glitches or hiccups) will die. It may take many hours, but they’re done for.
Let’s assume that you have seen a Bear outside of the Pleasant Valley Farmstead. Open your Journal and take note of how many Bears you’ve killed by looking under the page showing your statistics. Having seen that you’ve never killed a Bear (wimp), you’ve gone and done the brave thing and shot it with your Hunting Rifle while hiding in the closed in porch, and the Bear has run off. Your Rifle Firearm Skill went up, and when you go outside there is blood. However, you can’t find Mr. Bear, as Geltaz would call him.
You can track the Bear using the blood trail, or you can head inside and catch a nap. Choose the nap and let several hours pass (note this can sometimes cause a glitch, but Hinterland may have a fix for the May update), and then open your Journal again and see how many Bears you’ve killed. Did the number go up? If so, head outside and go find the carcass (easier said than done). If not, wait longer. Eventually, the Bear will die, your Journal will update, and you’ll be able to go and harvest all the goodies. This line of thinking can be applied to all animals in The Long Dark.
It’s also worth noting that if you want Mr. Bear or Ms. Wolf to stay dead for a bit instead of respawning quickly, you can leave a piece of the carcass behind. Take all the meat and the hide, but leave one gut. This will stop the carcass from de-spawning for three days or so, which delays the respawn time and gives you some breathing room in that area of the map.