Overview
A short tips and tricks guide to hunting the elusive but plentiful Hare. Included are details on how to sneak up and catch 2, 3, and even 4 bunnies at once from the same group. Tips are intended for Survival mode, but still apply in normal mode.
Introduction
Hunting in Shelter 2 can be both easy and difficult. I, however, through both practice and strategy have begun to master it. There are going to be many successful hunts, and many unsuccessful hunts, but one of the most important things to remember is that if your prey gets away, think about whether or not it is worth the energy to pursue it.
Hunting can be extremely hard especially with FPS lag or buggy controls, but worry not. I have the crappiest laptop in the world with 15 fps at best and find it simple to catch 2 bunnies every time, and in the best cases, 4 at a time. This is extremely helpful especially when you have starving cubs.
Sneaking and Pouncing
In Survival Mode, there is no automatic sneaking. This can be both a curse and a blessing.
When you press CTRL your mama lynx will begin to crouch. This is useful in Survival Mode as you can crouch at will and will not automatically crouch even when you’re close to rabbits.
I personally have yet to figure out how sneaking benefits the hunt on bunnies. It seems to me like walking normally and sneaking have the same effect on them, they notice you at roughly the same distance. however I have noticed this has a huge effect on other higher-alert-distance prey animals such as deer and pheasants.
To get a hang of sneaking, I suggest you play the game a bit on your own first and get a rough idea at how close you have to be for the rabbits to notice you. It varies for each rabbit, but there is a middle ground that pretty much works for any. The goal is to get as close as you can and then give chase right before you hit the distance where they’ll start running.
this is unproven, but I have also noticed that jumping right as you exit your crouch can sometimes keep the rabbits from noticing you. This doesn’t work every time, and I don’t know if it’s worth the energy, but it is something I occasionally test. My guess is that when you jump, you aren’t making any sound, and therefor they don’t notice you. When you land you should be close enough to grab one without much effort.
Chasing
Chasing is, in my opinion, one of the hardest parts of hunting, and one of the hardest parts of catching multiple rabbits. After the initial sneaking, all you have left to catch the other 1-2 is based entirely on the chase. Like I said earlier, I have 15 fps at best, so turning my camera is extremely hard. However, I have learned a few important tips that have helped me:
- Use your ears. (doesn’t apply to those who don’t wear headphones)
- Learn the pattern
- React quickly
Use your ears: A HUGE part of hunting is hearing. The sound rabbits make when they run is rather loud, you should be able to hear them stumbling and hurrying even from a good distance away. This is extremely useful when they make sharp turns, as you’ll hear which direction they went. Don’t waste time trying to turn your camera, instead sharply turn in that direction and try to keep the sound close until it’s back within your sight.
Learn the pattern: The way the bunnies sharply turn left and right at the worst possible times is the hardest thing about hunting. You could be almost on it’s tail and suddenly it will dart in a random direction and you’ll have no idea where it went. According to my testing, there are multiple patterns that bunnies will follow depending on the surroundings:
-Bunnies will sharply turn in the opposite direction from the nearest obstacle on the left or right side
-If there are no obstacles, bunny will most often turn left to start and then alternate between left and right in a zigzag pattern
-if there are too many obstacles, bunny will run in a random direction, most often towards you
The best way to deal with this is to learn the surroundings and predict the pattern.
React quickly After you’ve learned the pattern, and are using your ears, you need to come up on the rabbit as close as possible. You can either time when it will turn next and run to cut it off, or you can flank the rabbit and attack it from the side as it will run into you no matter which way it goes.
Catching Multiple Rabbits at Once
After you’ve learned all the above methods, you need to learn how to catch multiple rabbits at once. It’s actually fairly simple.
When you initially pounce and give chase, if there are multiple rabbits, more often than not more than one will go in the same direction, and more often than not they will follow the exact same pattern, and should stay fairly close together. Depending on the size of the group, you may have 3 or even 4 rabbits running in generally the same direction.
What you need to do is predict exactly when you will catch the next rabbit, and drop the one you are holding right before you do.
Repeat this for as many rabbits are running side-by-side. It sounds hard at first, but becomes much easier with practice. I would like to upload a video of me doing this to make it easier to understand, but my FPS in the game is too low and running fraps would make it unplayable.