u/Confident-Emu9987

I want to list all the life hacks I’ve found over the 5 years of playing.

(English is not my native language, so there might be some mistakes!)

Attacks on pups:

1. When fighting a bear, you need to force it to attack your wolf, and then immediately run behind the bear and bite its legs. This way, you can deal a lot of damage to the bear without taking any damage yourself.

2. When fighting coyotes, this strategy also works, but the timing is very tight. When coyotes gather to attack your pups, you need to order the pups to hide and then quickly run in the opposite direction, stopping about 30 meters from the den/lair. This will make the coyotes chase you and the pups, but they won't reach them. Since the pups hide, the coyotes will run straight to your wolf, allowing you to attack them. The advantage of this scheme is that the coyotes stay far away from the pups, so the pups don't get scared and don't run out of cover. (Note: With wolves, this strategy works almost perfectly, but they always run to the pups. That's why you need to hide the pups first, and then lure the wolves away).

3. When fighting a rival wolf, you can quickly drop the opponent by alternately pressing A and D (this should be obvious in the controls). When the opponent is about to attack your wolf and is standing with its back turned, you need to quickly turn around right before the attack so that the opponent's attack misses. Then immediately bite the opponent in the neck — this can deal massive damage instantly.

4. When fighting wild dogs, just like with wolves, you need to force them to bite your character and then quickly dodge using the dash button.

5. With cougars, it's possible to avoid fighting them altogether, and honestly, it's usually pointless to fight them anyway (they are too agile and deal heavy damage). Just hide the pups, move the den far away, and constantly growl at the puma. They are quite cowardly and will eventually leave on their own.

Carcasses and predators around them:

1. If you come to a carcass where other predators are already present, you can simply steal the meat chunks and eat them from a distance (again, this is quite obvious).

2. If you want to drag the carcass back to the pups, you need to completely break it down into meat chunks. Predators might come up to the chunks, but they won't fight over them.

3. You can lure an elk to the den. This works very well with both bull elk and bison. To do this, your wolf's health needs to be so low that the elk stops and tries to fight you when you approach. Then, lead the elk closer to the den: you can either run away so that it starts chasing you, and then run towards the den, or get close to the elk to trigger an attack and then gradually lead it to the den. (Before doing this, you must send all the wolves home so they don't kill the elk before you get there).

The same scheme works with bison, but you need to lure out an exhausted individual (with ribs showing), and other herd members may chase you after it. It's also much easier to do this with a group of males.

Hunting

1. Elk — Before attacking, you need to provoke them into running. Running among the herd, you can easily find a weak elk (one that stops). This is a great method to use in spring. Alternatively, you can just bite an elk once to check its health.

2. Elk calves (when they start running) — you also need to provoke them into fleeing. Bite them once, they'll stop (most of the time), and then bite them again to latch on. When the mother is nearby, you need to run to the opposite side of her and attack the calf. However, as soon as the calf reaches the mother, it will immediately run away (don't hold the bite until the very end).

3. Mule deer and pronghorn — you can herd them to the edge of a cliff (it works with elk too), where they will run into an invisible wall and slow down for some time. When biting (when the deer runs away), it's important not to hold the bite until the very end: do a few hits, let go, and then immediately lunge and grab it again (you can do this until the wolf's stamina runs out).

4. Beavers — they immediately try to escape into the water. So, either get between the beaver and the water, or scare it so it runs in the opposite direction. If the beaver still dives underwater, you can still pull it out if you stand very close to it on the shore. They try to escape from us, but then they return to dry land again (you can do this even if the diving animation has played).

5. Bison — you just need to lure calves and weak adult individuals further away from the herd.

Miscellaneous / Small details:

1. Never hold a bite until the very end. Almost every animal has a "bite release" mechanic after a certain number of bites (it triggers around the 4th bite for the player, causing damage to be cancelled).

2. When biting a deer at the moment it flees, or if you bite its legs when it runs, it deals less damage. It's better to release the bite and bite again, as the damage numbers are reset.

3. Set up hotkeys for commands for your mate and pups. This really helps in emergency situations.

4. When the "Move to the Rendezvous Site" quest starts, you can leave the den before the screen darkens (signaling the transition). You don't have to wait for the pups to come out of the den on their own.

5. If a pup's death from sickness is unavoidable, you can take advantage of it. If there are predators visible on the horizon, they will simply leave during the pup's death scene.

6. If your pup is dying of sickness in the den near the very end of the "Rendezvous" quest, you can slightly delay its death by going to sleep. When the transition music starts playing, go to sleep, and it will trigger the transition to the growing pups, allowing you to see their coat colors.

7. During the pup-rearing phase — if a wolf pack attacks you, you can simply run away from them.

8. Effective food caching: Always hide food when your hunger is above 80%. If your hunger is at 83%, you can still eat and gain 3% satiety (you can track this on the stats screen), and then hide food to gain an additional 5%.

9. At the very beginning of the "Young Pups" quest, you can quickly level up your experience by killing bison.

10.Iron Wolf death exploit: Death is not the end! When you're playing in Iron Wolf mode and your wolf dies (for example, during a Elk attack), close the game immediately during the falling/death animation (do not wait for the respawn screen).

Then, simply reopen the game and load your last save file. The game will put you right back at your den, and you can continue playing!

Please write in the comments: which tip was unexpected for you, and feel free to add to my list.