Hunting is the heart of the Wolf Globe. Your wolf follows the herds, brings prey down, and returns with loot you can eat or use, and none of it requires biting another wolf. The game is built so that everyone can eat if the herds stay healthy. Here is how it works.
Know Your Prey
The world is stocked with rabbits, deer, boar, bison and bull bison, plus any wildlife that members have documented in the Field guide. Rabbits are small and fast, with only 20 health, which makes them an easy first target. Deer have 80 health and a good loot yield. Boar are tougher at 120 health, and they hit back for 8 damage. Bison (400 health) and bull bison (600 health) are the big prizes, but they are pack prey, which means you need two or more packmates biting within the last hour to bring one down. They hit for 12 and 25 damage respectively, so they are not a solo job.
Bears and honey badgers can appear too, but only when the admin switches on "temper animals," which is off by default.
Bites Are Your Hunting Currency
Every hunt is built on bites. You get 30 hunting bites a day, plus 5 more for each rank of Speed, and one bite comes back every 10 minutes. Each bite costs 1 Energy, and you can buy extra bites for 5 Energy each. After biting an animal you have to wait a short gap, 60 seconds minus 5 seconds per Hearing rank, before biting that same animal again. Big animals take many bites, so it pays to plan before you commit.
Find It Before You Chase It
Your wolf can only hunt what it can sense. Vision reaches 2 km per rank. Hearing starts at 10 km and doubles with each rank. Smell starts at 300 km and triples with each rank, and Tracking reads trails up to 24 hours old. Sight also gates what you learn: you read an animal's state at 50% sight, and its speed and your odds against it at 75%.
Let the Real World Work for You
The globe runs on real sun and real weather, and smart hunters use both. Animals keep schedules: they drink at ponds at dawn and dusk and rest in thickets at midday and night. A resting animal takes 25% extra damage, and your first bite on a foraging animal gets the same bonus.
Wind matters just as much. Scent carries twice as far downwind and half as far upwind, so approach a herd from downwind. Rain halves scent, fog and darkness cut your sight, and snow lengthens trails.
Chases Cost Energy
A bitten animal flees. If it is faster than you, the chase drains Energy, so don't pursue something much quicker than your wolf. A chase ends in a fight of up to 180 seconds. Be aware, too, that herds alert one another: once one animal is bitten, others within 3 km take alarm for 10 minutes.
Bitten animals also bleed for 2 hours, losing 1 health every 10 minutes, which can finish them off without further effort. Your wolf can bleed as well, and herbs stop it. If an animal downs you, it costs 10 Energy and 2 hours.
Carcasses Attract Company
A kill leaves a carcass that lasts 2 hours and offers three helpings. Wolves take two at a time, while vultures and foxes take one. Vultures arrive after about 10 minutes, foxes after 25, and each helps itself every 30 minutes. If you leave a kill and your den is unguarded for 30 minutes, a fox may raid it, so don't wander far from your spoils.
Eat What You Catch, While It's Fresh
Eating is the simplest way to turn loot into Energy and health at once. Meat heals 20 and pays 2 Energy. Fish heals 10 and pays 1. Blood heals 5 and pays half an Energy, and herbs heal 5, pay half an Energy and stop bleeding. The catch is spoilage: meat and fish lose 1 health per hour and 1 Energy per day as they age, and they can turn harmful. Eat them early. Eating pays up to 1,000 Energy a day, and there is no selling loot to the house.
Ride the Frenzy
Sustained hunting builds a Frenzy meter, with prey bites adding 8 each. Reach 100 and you get 20 minutes of extra speed, extra damage and extra bites, so hunting in streaks pays off.
Tips for Newcomers and people yet to understand the game.
(These are suggestions, not official rules.) Start with rabbits and deer, and move to boar once you have a few Stamina and Bite ranks. Hunt at dawn and dusk when animals are at the ponds, and approach from downwind. Keep a few herbs on hand for bleeding. Save bison and bulls until you have a pack, which costs 200 Energy at level 2. And never bite another wolf: it starts 24 hours of Bloodlust, during which you can be killed.
Veterans, what is your best hunting routine? Share it in the replies.
Hunting 101
Re: Hunting 101
This is actually helpful, especially for beginners. I think starting with rabbits and deer is the best way to learn before going after the bigger animals. No point wasting all your energy on prey you can't handle yet