How to use tranquilizer darts correctly

[zPhoenix]

I am puzzled.  I got the varmint gun, I got its tranquilizer darts.  Tried to sedate animals with it to get samples but the animals laugh it off, even after hitting them twice. I think I got saline instead of the proper drug in the darts.

 

What am I doing wrong?

[1898]

28 minutes ago, zPhoenix said:

I am puzzled.  I got the varmint gun, I got its tranquilizer darts.  Tried to sedate animals with it to get samples but the animals laugh it off, even after hitting them twice. I think I got saline instead of the proper drug in the darts.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Realistically one should be enough but unfortunately depending on the animal, you may  have to work your varmint rifle like a machine gun to sedate them. It's the game, nothing you're doing wrong.

Edited December 14, 2020 by 1898

[AmyStone]

1 hour ago, zPhoenix said:

I am puzzled.  I got the varmint gun, I got its tranquilizer darts.  Tried to sedate animals with it to get samples but the animals laugh it off, even after hitting them twice. I think I got saline instead of the proper drug in the darts.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Twice. That's where you're going wrong. Try 10 or more for a medium sized animal.

[zPhoenix]

22 minutes ago, AmyStone said:

 

Twice. That's where you're going wrong. Try 10 or more for a medium sized animal.

 

Seriously?  More than one is a joke unless you play on a controller and chase the animal to exhaustion.  That is not fun at all.  If you are using mouse and keyboard one shot is usually all you get, 2 if you are lucky.  Giving up on it.

[GrungeNinja]

Keep shooting til your hear a distinct sound and the crosshair turn red, thats when you know you hit them enough to be sedated, they will fall down in some seconds, bigger and legendary animals take a bit longer.

[aaronBLUEeyes]

Shoot the animal slowly until you hear an audible double-click sound, re,I ds me of two hollow wooden blocks striking each other.

 

That audio queue signifies the animal had been sedated, and there’s no need to waist extra shots.

 

‘’The animal will still be moving, so follow it closely until it falls asleep then gather sample.

 

*Pro-Tip leave the area quickly after sedating Predators like Bears, Panthers and Wolves — for when they awake after being sedated are super pissed off and will track your scent to kill you.

[kcole4001]

Usually smaller animals like rabbits, badgers, raccoons, skunks, up to the turtles can take 2 shots or more.

If you hit them in the head it is more effective, turtles are easy because they move very slowly.

The best you can do with larger animals up to deer is 7, but they zigzag so much it's difficult.

Predators are tough, I've never gotten a panther sedated yet because there's no cover.

 

If you climb a decent sized rock, the predators can't get you.

 

Also, you can use deadeye and the paint it black card (PiB) to put a bunch of shots into the animal to save a lot of running around.

 

Forget about trying to get pronghorn in the desert, it's almost impossible if there are rocks, bushes, and gullies around, you'll lose your PiB markers or the shots will be blocked by leaves on the bushes (one of the most stupid game mechanics ever invented).

 

It is manageable once you get the technique down, but naturalist is the most frustrating role.

[netnow66]

32 minutes ago, GrungeNinja said:

Keep shooting til your hear a distinct sound and the crosshair turn red, thats when you know you hit them enough to be sedated, they will fall down in some seconds, bigger and legendary animals take a bit longer.

It's that sound that I listen for.

 

My suggestion (if Valentine is relatively safe on your lobby) is to go for the sheep and pigs that are in two separate spots near the butcher. I sometimes find 6 or 7 sheep and 4 or 5 pigs--and they're a captive audience because they're all penned up!!

 

I went with the Farmland group to help level Naturalist because they are so easy (though the XP is smaller). I was experimenting whether a shot to the head would make animals go down faster but I don't think so. For pigs, I shot them 2-3 times before I heard that weird sound mentioned above. For sheep, I believe it was 3 or 4. Practice on those animals first.

 

For Legendaries? Hmph! Just keep shootin'. It may be awhile before they go down...

22 minutes ago, kcole4001 said:

If you climb a decent sized rock, the predators can't get you.

I sure wish I had found that out sooner!! Water also stops some of them. There's a video of a player about knee deep in water with a cougar prowling the shore waiting for him to come out (I guess cat's really don't like water...)

[zPhoenix]

5 minutes ago, netnow66 said:

It's that sound that I listen for.

 

My suggestion (if Valentine is relatively safe on your lobby) is to go for the sheep and pigs that are in two separate spots near the butcher. I sometimes find 6 or 7 sheep and 4 or 5 pigs--and they're a captive audience because they're all penned up!!

 

I went with the Farmland group to help level Naturalist because they are so easy (though the XP is smaller). I was experimenting whether a shot to the head would make animals go down faster but I don't think so. For pigs, I shot them 2-3 times before I heard that weird sound mentioned above. For sheep, I believe it was 3 or 4. Practice on those animals first.

 

For Legendaries? Hmph! Just keep shootin'. It may be awhile before they go down...

Thanks for the suggestion about the penned sheep/pigs at Valentine.  I will try it.

 

For wild animals... there is no chance I can do this, it is clear that the  game was designed for consoles or at least PCs with controllers.  I already avoid PvP because it is nearly impossible to hit a weaving target with mouse and keyboard, now I know I have to avoid the Naturalist samples too.

 

Frankly, R* really messed up with this.  And after all this time they still have not corrected their design flaw?   It leaves me questioning their designers IQ and their marketing people for ignoring an aiming design that must cost them easily 30% or more lost customers.  For most of the gameplay I don't mind being sneaky and only targeting animals when they are not moving, but most players aren't going to be happy with that.

[kcole4001]

It can be done with practice (I'm on PC also), but yeah, it is definitely more controller friendly in almost every way.

 

For wetlands animals that head toward water as soon as you shoot them, place yourself between the animal and the water.

A lot of times you have to forgo one animal because of location and look for a better opportunity, for example gators near deeper water.

 

There is a lot of shallow water in Bluewater Marsh, so you can often find gators there that aren't close to deep water, get between them and the water, start plugging them with sedatives, and keep moving between them and the water, you can herd them because they will move away from you after you hit them.

 

Water snakes are very tricky, you can sometimes find them in shallow water in Bluewater again and sample them

 

If the water is too deep you can't sample anything, and then have to try to swim into the sedated animal and bump them closer to shore.

This is a huge pain in the ass.

Beavers are the absolute worst!

 

Farm animals are easiest, as already pointed out: they're penned up and can't get away unless you leave the gate open.

Need 5 samples in 10 minutes for the daily? Farm animals every time, just make sure you sell off extras in between so you have room to take the samples.

 

For things like desert pronghorns, if you find a nice open area like just west of Armadillo, so they can't run and hide behind stuff you can get them, make sure you have lots of deadeye and PiB equipped, then load them up with markers and let fly.

Most other animals aren't nearly as bad.

 

I only sold a bunch of farmland sets and one or two of the easier sets of samples to Harriet, and did missions to rank up naturalist, now I don't bother with it until I need it for a couple of quick dailies to fill in the 9/9 role challenges.

Some people like it, I think it was the worst role: not very interesting, and absolutely the worst mechanics in the game.

Far too much work for far too little reward.

 

Legendary animals are OK for some things, but I only ever hunted them when they pop up randomly, and then only if it's really convenient.

The role is most useful as filler for finishing role dailies when other stuff is too time consuming to bother with.

 

I add all the advice to show you it can be done if you feel the need to max the role, not so much to recommend doing it.

My philosophy is if you don't like some particular content, don't feel obligated to pursue it.

Just do what you like, and you'll be a whole lot happier and enjoy the game more, and longer.

[IamCourtney]

Different strokes & folks I guess but for me sedating larger animals from horseback or trying to sedate/kill Legendary predators is the only time hunting feels like any sort of challenge. I just wish sedatives worked on humans as well, it'd be a bounty hunter's best friend.

 

Of course, I play free aim with a controller and haven't tried MKB but I can imagine it being a different story.

[StyxTx]

I can hear the double click noise when someone else sedates an animal, usually someone close by.

[BUT THE BENZ]

OP, important, if you ever happen to run into that legendary fox, near scarlett meadows, just let it run off and DO NOT BOTHER. that f*cker tanked shot after shot, I sprayed 70 + bullets (many shots missed) and was close to out of ammo, and then to make it all worse and completely BULLsh*t, TIME ran out...wtf!

/NEVER AGAIN

[Krommer]

I hate pronghorns, for this 

 

Their heads don't go as high as deer, while it is ideal to hit larger animals in the head to sedate them faster (fewer shots.)

 

But since I can hit them with a rock, all over Hennington's stead Camp area, I often resort to getting them for

that Naturalist daily. If it is the other one, where it can be jackrabbits, I ALWAYS go for the jackrabbits.

 

I'm pretty sure I outright killed that fox, with bolt rifle, rather than sedated 

I only try to get a coat of each one once, from Gus, then don't even bother sedating unless it is easy.

They are all so good at the trader table, I've lost count of how many times I've turned in that Legendary

Coyote, usually spawning right near my camp in Hennington's Stead...  

(naturalist was leveled to max SO Long ago, doesn't seem worth it to bother after that,

maybe will be more worth it if it gets the prestigious level 30 but I hope to HECK they incorperate Gus more this time...)

Edited December 15, 2020 by Krommer

[kcole4001]

4 hours ago, BUT THE BENZ said:

OP, important, if you ever happen to run into that legendary fox, near scarlett meadows, just let it run off and DO NOT BOTHER. that f*cker tanked shot after shot, I sprayed 70 + bullets (many shots missed) and was close to out of ammo, and then to make it all worse and completely BULLsh*t, TIME ran out...wtf!

/NEVER AGAIN

The trees around there, yeah, you can't keep LOS (line of sight) for more than 2 seconds.

I killed that bugger the first day of naturalist, before I even got the role. It popped up randomly while I was in the area looking for a collectible, well before I even had sedative rounds. 

Sold it to Gus, and it's actually my favourite outfit of all the LAs.