UnReal World > Gameplay questions

How to hunt seals?

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spamgoose:
I've seen this addressed to a certain degree in other forums but figured I should bring it here. Are there any successful seal hunters out there? What are your tactics?

I've tried trapping (pits, heavy deadfall, bear traps, as per other forum suggestions), but haven't had any luck. Mostly I just catch them basking next to the traps. Also, I don't *really* like the idea of trapping seals, as it doesn't feel quite right... especially digging a hole on a rocky island.

In the summer, I feel I could probably bag one if paying attention as they tend to stay in one area. I've definitely had more than one seal reappear with my javelins stuck in it.

I read, somewhere, that in the winter they like to hang out on the edge of ice. So I've spent the last month in the north sailing around with a punt full of javelins hoping to spot one along the edge of the frozen ice, but no luck yet. I figured they would be easier to spot on ice then on the shore in the summer, and I might have a chance for a good toss of the javelin.

So yes. Any expert seal hunters out there willing to share some trade secrets?

PALU:
Expert? Definitely not... Anyway:
- I've used bear traps with some success. Observe where they tend to be and place a trap there. It's especially good if there's only a narrow access to the sea so they don't have too many tiles to chose from when passing.
- Javelin/Arrow hunting: Very difficult, as they dive when scared and can take a lot of damage before they die. I've had at least one case where I've finally hurt one through repeated attacks to probably kill it on the next hit, only to find it had healed up a bit the next time I found it.
- Zoom exploiting: If you zoom out close to the water you'll appear there when zooming in on that tile later. This can be used both to "sneak" up on seals so you're close enough to have some chance to hit them when launching your (prepared) attack. Even more exploity is to have the zoom in location in a place that frequently lies in between the sea and where they sun bath (or whatever they do) on land.

The trap method is the only one I'd say is worthwhile, though.

koteko:
I concur with PALU, with one addition: even if you don't see them, stop every time you hear a "splash" while rowing on the coastline. Then look out for seal footprints (they are a bit hard to spot at first). They should cover a relatively wide area. Place pit traps in there (not spiked) and move on along the coastline. After a while, when you have 10-15 pit traps along a wide berth of coast, come back to check them.

You may also make a shelter and fish at a certain distance from the trap. Not too close, but within sight.

Using this method I was able to hunt quite a few seals, but it's a slow process for sure. My seal-tribe character survives mostly on fish and bear pipes between each caught seal.

Mati256:
Just adding to what has been said. Bear traps on top of tracks is what worked best for me. At first I tried bow / javelins, but it was extremely difficult and time consuming. It would be amazing if the Ango had some special ability to stop seals on their tracks as it's supposedly designed to hunt such animals.

spamgoose:
Update:

Thanks everyone for your ideas.

I've had success now using the bear trap method. It actually seems to me that there are two different land-seal paradigms at play.

Case 1:
Single seal on a shore.
Seal will hang out in an area (say around a small island), but will move down shore if harassed. These are the seals you keep seeing on the zoomed-out map, but tend to be hard to pin down.

Case 2:
Several seals in one area.
These seals are very stubborn and predictable and will keep returning the same few spots (usually within one zoomed-in area, but maybe crossing a border). If you see one and it disappears, you can move a little away and wait and the seals will keep coming back, even if they've gone under water.

All of my luck has been with case 2 where I managed to take down 4 seals in one area, and 3 seals in another over a few days. The best place I found for the bear traps were skerries, and it was pretty easy to see the seals habits over where they would go. the trick was to stay in the area and just kill time (someone above suggested fishing). I actually just sat on my raft a little ways from the skerries, and when the seal appeared I would slowly approach to herd them towards the traps. I find if you go slow and wait every now and then they won't bolt under water but just keep moving away. At least for awhile.

I also think that case 2 opens up an opportunity for ambush hunting. My current character isn't the stealthiest but I found I could hide by a tree or rock near where the seals liked to go, and they would get within 3 or 4 squares. With a proper stealthy, good hunting character, I actually think ambush hunting would work in this case. Also, the seals gave me almost infinite opportunities, as they'd try to come back again with a half hour or hour. My favourite was hiding, lying down, on the skerry... seal was within 1 square of beaching before spotting me.

Next character I will try this more completely and report back.

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