The Legendary Animals Thread

[CowboyTyke]

48 minutes ago, Leftover Pizza said:

 

 

Got him too! Came home late and decided to turn on the PS4 to see if he was there. No 5 mins in game, I see another player getting chase from a yellow paw on the map, in the Iguga cougar area. He didn't charge, so I did. The cougar killed me twice, since I couldn't ge to higher ground, but I killed it, 22:30 in game, clear sky. That felt good. Been hunting the bastard for days already.

 

A thing worth bearing in mind for finding a specific LA is that stupid 72 RL hour cooldown on SPECIES (Elk, Cougar, Fox etc). Pay attention to when you last activated an LA of that species either in free roam OR via a Harriet mission, it will save a lot of messing about being unable to spawn free roam LA's.

 

Basically if you've got an urge to molest say a Boar and you've done a Harriet or found another Boar in the last 72 RL hours you're not going to find one unless you get someone else to spawn it.

[Leftover Pizza]

3 minutes ago, CowboyTyke said:

 

A thing worth bearing in mind for finding a specific LA is that stupid 72 RL hour cooldown on SPECIES (Elk, Cougar, Fox etc). Pay attention to when you last activated an LA of that species either in free roam OR via a Harriet mission, it will save a lot of messing about being unable to spawn free roam LA's.

 

Basically if you've got an urge to molest say a Boar and you've done a Harriet or found another Boar in the last 72 RL hours you're not going to find one unless you get someone else to spawn it.

I've read about this being tested on Twitter a few days or perhaps a week ago, but it's not accurate. While in a solo lobby, I've snatched up 2 legendary beavers within half an hour, both free roaming. 

[CowboyTyke]

10 minutes ago, Leftover Pizza said:

I've read about this being tested on Twitter a few days or perhaps a week ago, but it's not accurate. While in a solo lobby, I've snatched up 2 legendary beavers within half an hour, both free roaming. 

 

I can't explain how that happened, my testing posted on this thread, that other people say they've also experienced, points very clearly at the 72 hour cooldown. I have been able to get more than 1 of a species inside the cooldown when other people have spawned them or if I've not activated one of them (changed the ? to a paw) and gone to the spawn of another of that species.

 

I've obviously only got the evidence of my testing which is basically anecdotal and I'd be happy to be proven wrong as I find the whole 72 hour thing bonkers, but my results have been consistent and despite trying hard to disprove the theory, I've not been able to.

 

Incidentally I've killed and sampled every free roam LA on multiple occasions.

Edited September 5, 2020 by CowboyTyke

[No Homing]

Today I used one of my alt accs to spawn the Ota Fox, after I spawned it I avoided it on my alt acc, and chased it down on my main account.

Later I wanted to spawn the Winyan Bison and instead found the Marble Fox.

This was all in a private session, so no one else spawned it.

So I guess you could endlessly spawn the same LA as long as you use another account to spawn it and then avoid getting near it.

I do think it still triggered the 48 min cooldown, as I went to look for the Snow Buck after the Ota Fox, time and weather was right, but it wouldn't spawn.

@CowboyTyke Is that true, does it still trigger the 48 min cooldown even if you don't change the yellow ? to a paw icon?

[CowboyTyke]

1 hour ago, No Homing said:

Today I used one of my alt accs to spawn the Ota Fox, after I spawned it I avoided it on my alt acc, and chased it down on my main account.

Later I wanted to spawn the Winyan Bison and instead found the Marble Fox.

This was all in a private session, so no one else spawned it.

So I guess you could endlessly spawn the same LA as long as you use another account to spawn it and then avoid getting near it.

I do think it still triggered the 48 min cooldown, as I went to look for the Snow Buck after the Ota Fox, time and weather was right, but it wouldn't spawn.

@CowboyTyke Is that true, does it still trigger the 48 min cooldown even if you don't change the yellow ? to a paw icon?

 

As far as I can tell if you don't change the ? to a paw it doesn't trigger the 72 RL hour cooldown and if the 48 mins cooldown exists (which I'm pretty sure it does) then the same applies.

I have tested this with the 2 free roam Boars, I ignored the Wakpa ? mark, fast travelled from Manzanita to Lagras and killed Cogi in under 20 minutes from seeing the ? for Wakpa near Manzanita.

@No Homing With the Marble and Winyan I have deliberately ignored the Marble ? mark and found the Winyan in the next few minutes, obviously it takes a little to get to the Winyan area, it's one of the reasons I came to the conclusion that changing the ? to a paw has an involvement in the LA mechanics.

 

I'm convinced that the 48 mins cooldown exists as I've literally just tried it out on Moon Beaver and Teka Gator both of which are well outside my personal 72 hour cooldown, got Moon and was at Teka area in under 5 minutes patrolled the area and at exactly 48 mins Teka appeared, NOT before. I was slightly doubtful about the 48 minute cooldown until the test I just completed, now I'm sure it's real with the Teka ? appearing at 48 minutes even though I'd been in the same area for the previous 40 RL minutes. Teka popped at 8:30am game time, clear weather, no fog, so sub optimal for the LA (stormy night), at least according to the in game guide info. 

 

I hope that helps, I'm making no claims to being a guru on this matter, these are just the results of what I've observed and what appears to be the case, at least for me.

Edited September 5, 2020 by CowboyTyke
Teka weather info added.

[ALifeOfMisery]

Legendary Ozula Elk. 05:20, public lobby of 4 players.

 

[Lemoyne outlaw]

i just got the sun gator. i came out of a pvp match in lemoyne. the lobby was almost empty. it was the middle of the day. i figured that i would check for the sun gator. since i was close to lagras. i checked that spot first nothing. the weather was getting foggy but not super foggy. as i was going to the other spot. i encountered the panther that spawns near lagras. i killed it and skinned it. i went to the last spot. on the northernmost spawn. right alongside the river. and i killed it. thats about all the details i could recall. i did not video it. but there is nothing else i left out.

[Beatrice]

On 9/5/2020 at 4:45 AM, AdamNortonUK said:

If you're on PC just delete the cloud.dat files from your temp folder since the cloud.dat files stored are are created with the cooldown timers, it's the same method of being able to collect the same collectibles or dig in the same location as many times as you'd like in a day cycle

Wait, I've never heard about this before. Does it actually work? Is it not considered an exploit by R*?

[CowboyTyke]

24 minutes ago, Beatrice said:

Wait, I've never heard about this before. Does it actually work? Is it not considered an exploit by R*?

 

I've no idea what their official view of this would be, but it seems pretty exploitative to me.

I know they've been monitoring excessive numbers of pickups due to the hackers spawning chests and the likes as I did some searching to see if there was a way to counter the hackers that were making life miserable and some of the clowns had been banned for it.

Personally I won't take the risk.

[drizzi_b]

My apologies if it's been mentioned but I didn't see it. The Protect Legendary Animal free roam event does not engage the cool down to the species. I did the protect sun gator last night, and just had it spawn for me in free roam.

[CowboyTyke]

14 hours ago, drizzi_b said:

My apologies if it's been mentioned but I didn't see it. The Protect Legendary Animal free roam event does not engage the cool down to the species. I did the protect sun gator last night, and just had it spawn for me in free roam.

 

It hadn't occurred to me to try this out as I've hardly ever done the event, interesting result.

[ALifeOfMisery]

Legendary Emerald Wolf. 03:15, public lobby of 10 players.

 

[CowboyTyke]

35 minutes ago, ALifeOfMisery said:

Legendary Emerald Wolf. 03:15, public lobby of 10 players.

 

 

Judging by your language you're a Brit, you get what you deserve having a French horse! Every Brit knows what the French are like in combat. 

[ALifeOfMisery]

10 minutes ago, CowboyTyke said:

Judging by your language you're a Brit, you get what you deserve having a French horse! Every Brit knows what the French are like in combat. 

We're easy to spot on forums, I'm usually either called out as a Brit or Aussie fairly easily.

 

The French horse (and character) are for two reasons. First is simply roleplay, Saint Denis obviously having a French colonial past, that's where my character is from and we know a Frenchman would ride a Breton. The other being that my wife is half French and I always like to try and attach a little reality to my roleplay, even if only tenuously.

[CowboyTyke]

2 hours ago, ALifeOfMisery said:

We're easy to spot on forums, I'm usually either called out as a Brit or Aussie fairly easily.

 

The French horse (and character) are for two reasons. First is simply roleplay, Saint Denis obviously having a French colonial past, that's where my character is from and we know a Frenchman would ride a Breton. The other being that my wife is half French and I always like to try and attach a little reality to my roleplay, even if only tenuously.

 

Pretty easy to spot, the bollocks and the sarcasm are very typically Brit

[racingman11]

I found two LA today. Haven't found any in weeks. Have they improved the pawn conditions ?

[Big TIme McGill]

I hadn't spawned an animal in almost a week, despite keeping track of dates and locations of last encounters. Made a trip to Lake Isabella and went AFK for about 5 min.  When I came back, I heard the familiar wail of Bison near by.  Managed to sedate the Winyan Bison, no thanks to my cowardly horse who bucked me off from 200 metres away. Is it just me or are the horses way more skittish these days?

 

Anyway, I figured this would trigger the 48 min cooldown so I headed to Lagras to get some Wetland samples.  Sure enough, another player showed up and spawned the Sun Gator, who I also needed for my field guide.  What luck!  I went over and sedated the sucker but this guy was out for the kill so he revived the Gator before I could get the sample and killed it.  What was worse was that he was in defensive mode so I couldn't stop him.  Or at least, so he thought.

 

He called over a Posse member with the hunting wagon and was about to drop the legendary pelt into the wagon.  He didn't count, however, on my throwing a stick of volatile dynamite under the wagon.  Not only did it blow up his wagon but it killed the entire Posse at the same time, leaving the Sun Gator pelt to me.  I picked up the pelt, got on my horse and made a gallup to Gus in St. Denis to cash it in.

 

I've never felt like more of a bandit in my life!

[WPsharpshooter]

Ive been trying to spawn the cogi for the last several days.. I have the spawn points pinned and continually make a circle between them.. Switch lobbies and still nothing.. Ive killed it 2 times in the past but apparently didnt turn it into gus.. I did manage to get the question mark to pop up only to track down a WAKPA boar in the Cogi area.. That really pissed me off. Ive also had the Teca gator spawn in the Sun gator spawn.

[Big TIme McGill]

I haven't seen a legendary boar in weeks.  Been regularly going to the Cogi and Wakpa spawn points and nothing.  I'm beginning to believe they have become extinct.

[CowboyTyke]

34 minutes ago, Big TIme McGill said:

I haven't seen a legendary boar in weeks.  Been regularly going to the Cogi and Wakpa spawn points and nothing.  I'm beginning to believe they have become extinct.

 

Hmm, that's odd, I found the Cogi yesterday at 14:55 my local time, last Boar I'd gone looking for was 4 days previously (I've got all the coats apart from the new Harriet mission Buck, I'll get that later). Outside of the 72 RL hour cooldowns I'm having no issues finding LA's now I know the patrol areas quite well. The only ones I find a real drag are the ones with huge spawn zones. I don't make any real effort for LA's unless I'm in solo or very sparsely populated sessions though, maybe that makes a difference.

[WPsharpshooter]

1 minute ago, CowboyTyke said:

 

Hmm, that's odd, I found the Cogi yesterday at 14:55 my local time, last Boar I'd gone looking for was 4 days previously (I've got all the coats apart from the new Harriet mission Buck, I'll get that later). Outside of the 72 RL hour cooldowns I'm having no issues finding LA's now I know the patrol areas quite well. The only ones I find a real drag are the ones with huge spawn zones. I don't make any real effort for LA's unless I'm in solo or very sparsely populated sessions though, maybe that makes a difference.

Every session I have been in for the last few weeks has had 6 players max. Alot of the times its just me and a couple buddies.

[Big TIme McGill]

I've had very small lobbies lately, and even a few solo lobbies.  Until yesterday, I had not encountered even a single LA for about a week.  However it seems like I can't go more than two minutes without hitting a Moonshiner activity or Gang Hideout.  I know that tends to void the LA appearances so I've been clearing them out, but man, they have been plentiful of late.

[CowboyTyke]

13 minutes ago, Big TIme McGill said:

I've had very small lobbies lately, and even a few solo lobbies.  Until yesterday, I had not encountered even a single LA for about a week.  However it seems like I can't go more than two minutes without hitting a Moonshiner activity or Gang Hideout.  I know that tends to void the LA appearances so I've been clearing them out, but man, they have been plentiful of late.

 

No debate about that, in solo or very low population lobbies the random events like moonshiners, rescues, ambushes and hideouts are very common compared to 20+ person lobbies.

 

I'm absolutely certain that the LA's count as random events (or at the least random events block LA spawns) as I've had the ? of an LA appear on clearing one of the random events on multiple occasions. Cogi yesterday spawned as soon as I took out the ambush from that woman with a dead horse north of Bluewater Marsh near the Elimination Series waypoint. 

 

Worth remembering that, at least in my testing, if you do a Harriet mission for a species it does start the 72 hour cooldown for that whole species.

Edited September 8, 2020 by CowboyTyke

[aaron2997]

I only have both the gators and the cogi boar left. Loving these small sessions!

[CowboyTyke]

47 minutes ago, aaron2997 said:

I only have both the gators and the cogi boar left. Loving these small sessions!

 

I find the Sun Gator a bit of a drag due to the swamp bit by Lagras and the generally large area it can spawn, I've been eaten by gators and that damn panther more times than I care to remember, it can be a annoying if it decides to go swimming in the river too. Cogi isn't too tricky. Teka is easy as it's got a really small spawn zone, just be aware that he and the Sun have gator friends that will do their best to eat you

 

Good luck, I'm sure you'll find them.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by CowboyTyke

[Beatrice]

One time, a Sun Gator started swimming away from me in the general direction of Sisika. Had to force my horse to swim forward and intercept him from the other side, shooting a couple of times at him so he returns back to the shore...

[aaron2997]

3 hours ago, CowboyTyke said:

 

I find the Sun Gator a bit of a drag due to the swamp bit by Lagras and the generally large area it can spawn, I've been eaten by gators and that damn panther more times than I care to remember, it can be a annoying if it decides to go swimming in the river too. Cogi isn't too tricky. Teka is easy as it's got a really small spawn zone, just be aware that he and the Sun have gator friends that will do their best to eat you

 

Good luck, I'm sure you'll find them.

 

 

Oh yeah, I killed and skinned the Sun gator no problem. For some reason it bugged out and was just frozen above the water. However, Red Dead being Red Dead, the pelt just straight up disappeared off the back of my horse on my way to Gus in Saint Denis. So now I have to wait 72 hours to get either the Sun or Teca.

[No Homing]

On 9/8/2020 at 5:25 PM, Big TIme McGill said:

I hadn't spawned an animal in almost a week, despite keeping track of dates and locations of last encounters. Made a trip to Lake Isabella and went AFK for about 5 min.  When I came back, I heard the familiar wail of Bison near by.  Managed to sedate the Winyan Bison, no thanks to my cowardly horse who bucked me off from 200 metres away. Is it just me or are the horses way more skittish these days?

 

Anyway, I figured this would trigger the 48 min cooldown so I headed to Lagras to get some Wetland samples.  Sure enough, another player showed up and spawned the Sun Gator, who I also needed for my field guide.  What luck!  I went over and sedated the sucker but this guy was out for the kill so he revived the Gator before I could get the sample and killed it.  What was worse was that he was in defensive mode so I couldn't stop him.  Or at least, so he thought.

 

He called over a Posse member with the hunting wagon and was about to drop the legendary pelt into the wagon.  He didn't count, however, on my throwing a stick of volatile dynamite under the wagon.  Not only did it blow up his wagon but it killed the entire Posse at the same time, leaving the Sun Gator pelt to me.  I picked up the pelt, got on my horse and made a gallup to Gus in St. Denis to cash it in.

 

I've never felt like more of a bandit in my life!

My horse does the same with the Winyan Bison. I'm suprised I haven't lost it, the coward runs away instantly, so does my horse after bucking me off, leaving me on foot to fight off his 3 Bison buddies, and then quickly catch up with my coward horse and the cowardly Winyan. It's a recipe for disaster, and I'm going after it tomorrow for the 3rd sample so I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

[Leftover Pizza]

Has anyone tried to approach a Legendary Animal with the hunting wagon? Predators don't attack you, while you're on the hunting wagon. Perhaps Legendaries don't either?

[No Homing]

42 minutes ago, Leftover Pizza said:

Has anyone tried to approach a Legendary Animal with the hunting wagon? Predators don't attack you, while you're on the hunting wagon. Perhaps Legendaries don't either?

They definitely wouldn't attack you, but they would run away ofcourse, and chasing them with a wagon that's likely slower and not suitable for off roading, is a recipe for disaster.