Start by reading the main article: Learn to Hunt for all the info about locating, targeting, and bringing down elk and other prey.
Ungulates
Adult Ungulates
When you detect ungulate prey (a herd of elk or a small group of mule deer or moose), try to approach them from downwind. Without a pack to help you, look for smaller or weaker members of the herd. Calves are smaller and weaker than adults — but usually have a mother to protect them. To discover the health of an elk, bite it.
Newborn Ungulates
In early summer, elk, mule deer, and moose give birth to calves and fawns. Elk and mule deer mothers hide their babies in stands of tall grass while they graze some distance away. If you find one before the mother notices you, you'll have a nice meal to eat or carry back to your pups, who can now eat small carcasses and chunks! Look for patches of tall grass as you travel throughout your territory. Newborn elk and mule deer emit no scent, but if you see a solo cow elk or doe mule deer, you'll know that a baby is hiding nearby!
Baby moose, however, stay with their mother and wander as they graze.
Beavers
Beavers live along waterways, using aspen trees and willow bushes for food and construction materials. In WolfQuest, beavers live along the Lamar River, Slough Creek, and in the Lost River beaver pond. Each beaver colony has its own lodge, either built along the riverbank (leading into an underground burrow) or a freestanding lodge in a pond. Most beaver colonies also feature a dam, which creates a beaver pond with a slow current that forms a moat around their lodge. Beavers are safe in the water!
Ambush Hunting
Hunting beavers is completely different than hunting other animals in the game. Ambush hunting requires patience, some planning, and a good deal of luck. In fact, in real life, ambushing a beaver takes so much time and patience (sometimes twelve hours or more!) for a small meal (compared to an elk) that it is unlikely that real life Yellowstone wolves would bother with beavers. But, since wolves in other places do hunt beavers, we thought it would be an interesting gameplay option.
Beaver Trails
Beavers create trails from waterways to aspen and willow stands. This is the best place to hunt them. Find a beaver trail (less grass and dirt path) and lay in wait for a beaver to come along.
Beavers have a powerful sense of smell but poor eyesight, so be sure to position yourself downwind of any approaching beavers. Press the CTRL key for several seconds to go into a special "Lying in Wait" pose. And then you wait.
In real life, wolves can wait a dozen hours for a beaver to come along. In the game, you may have to wait for awhile (but minutes not hours) -- and a beaver is not guaranteed to come up the path you have chosen to wait at.
Beavers are most active at dawn and dusk, so try hunting them at those times.
If a beaver does come along, you'll be prompted to hold the SHIFT key down when it's about 10 meters away, to remain very very still. If all conditions are good, the beaver will pass right in front of you, so you can launch an attack at close range. You'll do extra damage when you bite it immediately after lying in wait. But be careful! Beaver teeth are sharp and do real damage when the beaver fights back. It'll be a race to kill the beaver before it can reach the safety of water.
You can also try charging at beavers when you come upon them -- but they will turn tail at the sight of you and head for the water. Beavers are safe in the water.
Scavenging
You will find carcasses that make tasty meals. Eat as much as you can because the carcass will soon attract other hungry scavengers. Some competitors will fight you to get control of the carcass! Others, like ravens and eagles, will just eat a lot of it, meaning you may have to hunt again sooner.
Carcasses often provide more food than you can eat in one sitting. When at a carcass, howl to mark its location on the compass and World Map until it has been consumed. (In multiplayer, this will also share the carcass's location with all current members of your pack.)
HINTS:
- Use scent mode to find carcasses.
- GORE LEVEL: The first time you encounter a carcass, you will be able to choose "low gore" or "more gore" to set the realism of your carcasses. You can also change this later in your game settings.
- You can pick up meat chunks and small carcasses (hares, beavers, baby ungulates, or fish) and carry them around. You might even find a fish that an eagle dropped. Tap-hold SPACEBAR to pick up, tap to put down.
- Eagles sometimes drop their fish so you can eat them or carry them around. Yellowstone wolves have not been seen fishing so that is not an option in the game.
- Yellowstone wolves don't cache food because there are so many scavengers with good noses that find it right away.
Competitors
You can kill some competitors (bears, cougars, wolves, coyotes, and foxes) but you can't eat them. Experts says they probably don't taste very good so wolves just don't dine on other predators.
Other competitors like eagles and ravens stay out of reach so you will never know if they taste like chicken or not.
VIDEOS about HUNTING TIPS & GAMEPLAY
Hunting Tips and Tactics (JayPlays)
Can't find what you're looking for?