Panthers and Parakeets

[smokeless6]

I'm in the epilogue, having finished it, and free-roaming to my heart's content. One thing I am shooting for is Zoologist, and I'm five short.

 

I need the Leghorn Rooster, the Carolina Parakeet and three panthers (panther, Florida panther and legendary panther)

 

I have spent literally weeks of in-game time hunting for a panther. This is actually my second run in RDR 2, and in the first one I got a panther no problem. They seemed easy to find. But this time I cannot seem to get one to spawn. The two locations should be south of Braithwaite manor near Old Harry's Fen, and also in the swamp near Lagras and Lakay.

 

I have sat still, and walked around, rode my horse back and forth. I've used predator bait and potent predator bait. I've brought carcasses, and used scent cover. I've moved away and back again, camped near by, and slept hours to reset the spawn and it's not happening. If the panther were there I'd at least get a sign of his trail in eagle eye. I realize that if the stranger spawns with his horse in the spot near Catfish Jackson's that the panther won't spawn, but even when that doesn't appear I'm not getting any panthers.

 

Has anyone actually taken a panther in the latest version of RDR 2? Any tips in this version to make one show up?

 

And it's been the same with parakeets. In my previous run I found them easily at Hagen's Orchard northwest of Saint Denis. I just hopped on the roof of the building near the dock and there were the parakeets in the grass by the stump to the SW. Easy. Now? Nada. I like to find this stuff on my own, but I'm admitting defeat and asking for help.  The methods in the videos I see on the interweb just don't seem to be working at  the mo.

[El Dorado]

panthers do spawn frequently for me around Old Harry's Fen, so I dunno - the lakay one I think it's only at night

 

legendary panther unlocks after hunting challenge 9, I guess you already knew that

 

but coming to think of it, I've never encountered the parakeets either

[smokeless6]

Thanks for the reply, which both gives me hope and extends my frustration.

 

Yeah, I knew of the unlock for the legendary, which I'll get to eventually, I'm still on master hunter 5 I think (kill five cougars with a bow. The scorecard's about even between me and the cougars on that one)

 

But first I'd like to get the bog standard version spotted. In my first run back in 2019 or whenever, I could just gallop past this stand of woods and find them. Now I cannot seem to do so regardless of what I try.

 

Maybe it's just bad luck. But the longer it goes on the more I wonder what's up.

[El Dorado]

 

put regular predator bait by the side of the road then ran to the fallen log, it spawned immediatly, I'm on pc if that matters

[smokeless6]

A perfect one too. Yeah, that's where I hunt, and I'm also on PC. Weeks of in-game time. And you get one in mere seconds.

 

I've been placing the bait closer to the rock on the right in the first shot, but that shouldn't make a difference, should it?  But I will duly recreate your screen later and hope for the best.

[smokeless6]

And that's in the epilogue too, right? Looks like John's hat.

 

Thanks for the proof that this is possible.

[BigBoyBertram]

IDK if it helps but the Carolina Parakeet is not required for zoologist or skin deep, neither are the guarma animals

[smokeless6]

I had read that yes, but I have 173 out of 178 including all Guarma animals and it has not fired.

[BigBoyBertram]

6 hours ago, smokeless6 said:

I had read that yes, but I have 173 out of 178 including all Guarma animals and it has not fired.

 

Hmm, it's weird. Some people have said that studying a guarma animal, even though they do not count, offer you a free pass from one troublesome animal back in the main map. I personal did not see this to be the case. I guess you automatically have to study every non Carolina parakeet or guarma animal without a get out of jail pass.

It's all good, you're almost there.

[Dan_1983]

11 hours ago, smokeless6 said:

A perfect one too. Yeah, that's where I hunt, and I'm also on PC. Weeks of in-game time. And you get one in mere seconds.

 

I've been placing the bait closer to the rock on the right in the first shot, but that shouldn't make a difference, should it?  But I will duly recreate your screen later and hope for the best.

I place my bait in the same place near the rocks, but usually stand on the tallest rock and wait. The panther will spawn soon enough and it cannot attack you as the tallest rock is a little too high. 

[subvod]

https://github.com/subvod/rdr2-maps#panther

 

You can download an archive of my maps here:

 

https://github.com/subvod/rdr2-maps/releases/download/2022.07.18/rdr2-maps-20220718.7z

 

Got rooster locations too:

 

https://github.com/subvod/rdr2-maps#rooster

 

The parakeets are tricky.

 

https://youtu.be/eeZkt-QxU9o

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by subvod
Added rooster link.

[smokeless6]

Thanks for the replies and help. My problem isn't so much where to find them, but that they're not there. This is my second run through the game and I found them without issue in the first. But this time I'm finding it an altogether different proposition.

 

I fired it up and placed the bait where Dorado shows, but no bites. I noticed the wind direction was alternating from the south and the west, blowing the scent from the bait either out over the river or back up the trail toward Rhodes and the civil war battlefield. So I tried again, this time hopping on the roof of the Old Harry Fen shack with the bait on the ground 75 feet away. This position would let the wind take the aroma out through the woods. But still nothing. I then returned to the swamp near Lakay. I had read that if you get a night folk ambush that the panther (always?) spawns there. 'Always' may be optimistic, but no panther was around.

 

Returned to the area around Hagen's Orchard and again no parakeets. Sunny, dry day time. I'll try the spot shown by subvod down near Crawdad Willies. Thanks for the videos mate.

 

The rooster I'm not worried about, just haven't found one yet, but the time I've spent looking for it is low. Just a matter of RNG before it pops I'm sure.

 

I want to touch on what Bertram said about the parakeet not being required. I had read that the Guarma animals aren't needed as well, and I've read that they can count as 'bonus' animals, meaning if you find all of them then you need to find that many fewer of the others that count. I found all of those. But I have only five empty squares in the compendium, tally shows 173 out of 178 and it would appear to me that every animal is needed to make the achievement fire including the parakeet and the Guarma birds and snakes.

 

I had found the first 160+ on my own, just naturally during game play. But as I got down to about the last ten I needed some help. I wanted to know whether I was looking for a bird, or a snake or bull or whatever, otherwise it could take forever to find the final few. This link is quite handy indeed for anyone looking to know which animals they are missing.

 

https://www.powerpyx.com/red-dead-redemption-2-all-animal-locations-zoologist-skin-deep

 

And having read it now, subvod's link here is a good one too

 

https://github.com/subvod/rdr2-maps#rooster

Edited September 20, 2022 by smokeless6

[subvod]

The timestamps shown in my charts are verified. The spawn at Old Harry Fen is the only 24-hour panther spawn. The other two (Lakay and Macomb's End) are only active from 00:00 to 05:00. Bait doesn't need to be used. All it does is attract nearby animals, or if none are present is spawns a single animal. In predator bait, that implies fox, coyote, cougar, and black bear (iirc).

 

I've also noticed I encounter panthers at all locations more often in foggy/misty weather. I'm updated to the latest patch (used to be 1436.31 but idk what it is now) and hit florida panthers at all three locations within 48 hours in game.

 

Might also be your approach direction or incomplete (active but not tripped) random events around there. South of Old Harry Fen, there's a Lemoyne Raider ambush event (after you raid Shady Belle once). Approach from west and see if it trips. Far as around there goes, there's only one other event that could cause the spawn to stumble: the "lady" with the hurt ankle ambush event. That's north of the triple junction where the panther can be found.

 

Otherwise, I have had Nite Folk random encounters prevent the panther at Lakay from spawning. As for Macomb's, the dead horse wagon Nite Folk event can occur on the narrow wooden footbridge east of the shacks on the water. That will also trip up the panther spawns around Macomb's. Complete it/them, and the spawns should return to normal.

 

Your best bet by far is Old Harry Fen, but since you apparently have yet to come across any idk what to say further. All of the spawns still work for me even on the current patch.

[smokeless6]

My approach to the Old Harry Fen location is either from the north through the battlefield, or from the east from the direction of Shady Belle. I found a bunch of panthers here in my first run. And they found me. This time though....

 

After finding another dry parakeet hole at Hagen (and I struck out at Crrawdad Willies), I decided to borrow one of their wagons and head to Emerald Ranch to look for a rooster. Fenced the wagon and had a look around and sure enough a Leghorn. So that's 174.

 

I don't even need the panther pelt anymore since I could just buy the LotE satchel in the epilogue, I just need to study them.  I've been looking essentially since chapter 4.

 

I'm sure it looks like I'm doing something wrong or don't understand how things work when others find the game behaving as they expect.

Edited September 20, 2022 by smokeless6

[Dan_1983]

It's annoying as when you want an animal, they never spawn, but turn out in their hundreds when you don't want one. 

[subvod]

11 hours ago, Dan_1983 said:

It's annoying as when you want an animal, they never spawn, but turn out in their hundreds when you don't want one. 

The psychology behind that is fascinating. It's nothing to do with the game, but we all perceive it to be.

[smokeless6]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions, but I regret to inform you I've not had success. More time spent at both panther spawns along with some parakeet spawns and nothing's up.

 

It's getting rather silly now, considering how much time I've spent on it. So I wondered if perhaps there's a trigger. Rockstar likes to use completion of this for the appearance of that, and often unrelated. Could there perhaps be some sort of early game trigger that populates panthers that everyone does without thinking about it but I somehow missed? A conversation where someone mentions big cats, or a transaction with the trapper, a completed challenge or something I just never did and so the panthers don't appear. A long shot to be sure, but clearly something is amiss if I compare what's going on in this run to how easy this was in the first one. It can't be down to RNG at this point I don't think.

 

To come all this way and be so close to Zoologist it can't end this way

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by smokeless6

[El Dorado]

I used rampage trainer's ped scanner and ghostmode and found the exact spawn point for the panther

 

 

 

[smokeless6]

Good info, thanks. I have about 3,800 bootprints on that spot lol.

[subvod]

9 hours ago, smokeless6 said:

Thanks for all the help and suggestions, but I regret to inform you I've not had success. More time spent at both panther spawns along with some parakeet spawns and nothing's up.

 

It's getting rather silly now, considering how much time I've spent on it. So I wondered if perhaps there's a trigger. Rockstar likes to use completion of this for the appearance of that, and often unrelated. Could there perhaps be some sort of early game trigger that populates panthers that everyone does without thinking about it but I somehow missed? A conversation where someone mentions big cats, or a transaction with the trapper, a completed challenge or something I just never did and so the panthers don't appear. A long shot to be sure, but clearly something is amiss if I compare what's going on in this run to how easy this was in the first one. It can't be down to RNG at this point I don't think.

 

To come all this way and be so close to Zoologist it can't end this way

If there is some trigger none of us are consciously aware of, I don't know about it. You can get panthers right after getting to Horseshoe, so if there is some trigger it's before then. (Since you can craft the LotE satchel in Chapter 2, and need a panther pelt for the final recipe.)

 

A guy on YouTube https://youtu.be/XOtWRWvrAsQ has made anecdotal arguments that saddled (main) horse breeds affect the scoring of wild animals. I doubt that's the case, but then again I've not noticed a difference in scoring between the high class horses (Turkoman, MFT, Arabian, etc). I've stuck with the Amber Champagne MFT for like a year now and never have trouble finding animals. Moose are kind of their own thing, but if you know where to find them you know where to go and what to do. (Northern Tall Trees and east of Calumet.)

 

Approach direction shouldn't matter for static spawns, either. I think it does matter for random events since I only ever see the moose at Owanjila when approaching from the south. I've hit panthers at all three spots approaching from all different directions. I hit perfect Florida Panthers in all three spots last night. Actually slept 48 hours in game and found a 2 star regular panther at Macomb's shortly after. They're around.

 

Forgive me for saying, but this reads like a troll at this point. Granted, I didn't even know the spot at Macomb's worked until a few months ago, but you're saying you can't find *any* at either of the three locations. That baffles me because every time I ride past Catfish Jacksons to raid Shady Belle I get chased by a panther 80% of the time I pass that triple junction. You can attract hostile animals by riding fast on your horse or by firing a gun. Gunshots seem to have a lot more effective range when attracting things like cougars, griz, wolves, and panthers.

 

Like I said, Old Harry Fen is the only spawn I'm aware of that's active 24 hours. The other two at Macomb's and Lakay are only active shortly before or after midnight. If you're trotting around the spawn locations, run a ways off or hop on your horse and head quite a distance from the spawn (hard to judge in game, but by the looks of scaling I'd say half a mile), then return to check with Eagle Eye to see if it popped. Sticking close by the spawn area won't allow the animal to spawn. Just run back and forth to and from the spawn areas until you run across one.

 

Here's a copy of my current cougar/panther map on https://github.com/subvod/rdr2-maps in case you haven't downloaded the archive:

 

 

Lot of the maps I've seen online have huge blobs for spawn points. I hated searching a moderately massive area for stuff like quail and cougars, so I made my own maps to fix that. The spawns shown in Lemoyne are panthers (since there aren't static cougar spawns in the state). I have to mark another spot here soon for a panther on the southeastern path along the water at Macomb's but there's three spawns there I know of which are marked already.

 

1. Fast travel to Braithwaite Manor and check the spawns to the east.

2. Either ride or fast travel to Lagras.

3. Set up camp just north of town and sleep until midnight.

4. Ride north, then west across the bridge, then south towards Macomb's.

5. Ride all the way down to the waterline at Macomb's End.

6. Head back north, then east to Lakay.

 

I hit at least one panther every time I run that route. Sometimes it's just a single 2 star, but never have I not run across a panther at any of the three locations. If that somehow by a stroke of luck ends up your situation again, rinse and repeat. Beyond that, idk what to tell you, man.

 

EDIT: Just found another at Old Harry at 02:34. I have no clue what's wrong with your game files.

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by subvod
Image of one I just ran across.

[smokeless6]

38 minutes ago, subvod said:

IForgive me for saying, but this reads like a troll at this point.

 

Fair enough, and I reckon I'd be thinking the same thing if this was working for me and some rando claimed it was not.

 

Regardless, thanks everyone for the info, ideas and suggestions.

 

[subvod]

32 minutes ago, smokeless6 said:

Fair enough, and I reckon I'd be thinking the same thing if this was working for me and some rando claimed it was not.

 

Regardless, thanks everyone for the info, ideas and suggestions.

 

Do you have any alternate saves? Try them and see if you can get one to spawn. I know of at least one save glitch where you can make a "long load" save. (IIRC Alcomahol has a video on YouTube explaining how to do it.) I doubt it's possible, but you might have some messed up save data that somehow affects only panther spawns. That's such an outlandish case, though. I've never heard of saved data affecting gameplay mechanics other than the "long load" glitch.

 

You can download saves starting after Horseshoe on Nexus. I've used this one before and know panthers spawn at all three spots right off the bat after moving to Horseshoe: https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/36

 

Or just try my save and see if you can get them to spawn: https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/1177

[smokeless6]

Thanks for the file I might give that a go. I do indeed have some old saves, back from my first run in 2019, in chapter 4. I had taken panthers in that run no trouble.

 

Matter of fact, here's one packed on my horse Ricochet, upon return to Shady Belle.

 

[Cutter De Blanc]

Old Harry Fen is the most reliable spot. El Dorado has got the right of it, the Panther spawns exactly there. It's hunting you as you're hunting it. I wouldn't keep the horse anywhere around you if I were you. If it's not there just leave for a few days and come back

[smokeless6]

Thanks Cutter, but I'm way past that stage I have to say.

 

To muddy the waters, I loaded an old save. This one was from July of '21, early in chapter 4 in the same run I'm still in. Spawned in Shady Belle sitting on Black Bourbon, my horse. Took the rear exit from Shady Belle and to the panther spawn. First, I rode full speed to Catfish Jackson's, turned around and rode to the other end of this copse of woods, past where the panther would be sketched on the map if I were to find one. Just hoping to see a red dot, and then back again near the spawn point. Dismounted and took out the bolt-action and walked to the spawn point, which I stood on and was killed by a panther within about 20 seconds. I think he spawned while I was standing there, and was like "that's convenient". I play in first person so he could have spawned right next to me and I wouldn't have noticed straight away.

 

So yeah, I don't get it. I estimate I've hunted these woods at least 6 real hours, probably more but who tracks that sort of thing? No panther. I load an old save and find one as soon as I arrive. But that save has 98 animals studied while this one has 174.

 

Well, if nothing else, any theory I might have had about a missed populating trigger is obviously not the cause, as this is the same run.

Edited September 23, 2022 by smokeless6

[ViktorFekete]

7 hours ago, smokeless6 said:

Thanks Cutter, but I'm way past that stage I have to say.

 

To muddy the waters, I loaded an old save. This one was from July of '21, early in chapter 4 in the same run I'm still in. Spawned in Shady Belle sitting on Black Bourbon, my horse. Took the rear exit from Shady Belle and to the panther spawn. First, I rode full speed to Catfish Jackson's, turned around and rode to the other end of this copse of woods, past where the panther would be sketched on the map if I were to find one. Just hoping to see a red dot, and then back again near the spawn point. Dismounted and took out the bolt-action and walked to the spawn point, which I stood on and was killed by a panther within about 20 seconds. I think he spawned while I was standing there, and was like "that's convenient". I play in first person so he could have spawned right next to me and I wouldn't have noticed straight away.

 

So yeah, I don't get it. I estimate I've hunted these woods at least 6 real hours, probably more but who tracks that sort of thing? No panther. I load an old save and find one as soon as I arrive. But that one has 98 animals found while this one has 174.

 

Well, if nothing else, any theory I might have had about a missed populating trigger is obviously not the cause, as this is the same run.

I'm pretty sue that this is a kind of bug. Panther shouldn't be that hard.

[smokeless6]

5 hours ago, ViktorFekete said:

Panther shouldn't be that hard.

 

I think we all agree with that.

 

I think this bloke encountered whatever has happened to me

 

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/316859-possible-panther-spawn-bug-skindeep-zoologist-trophy/

[smokeless6]

Hit 175 as I finally found a parakeet, this one at Hagen orchard as expected, but it took a long time for them to appear. Rare indeed.

 

Still no panthers, but I'm now on master hunter 9, so at least I'll be able to hunt Giagauro soon.

 

With the panthers proving so elusive I've just been going about other business, filling out the compendium and challenges. This run has hit 330 hours, and any game I clock 300 hours in is a classic.  It must be good enough, and deep enough, to hit that sort of number. Few do. A game like Dishonored for example, as good as it is, would never come close. Not enough meat on those bones. But RDR 2 has no such trouble, and there's plenty more to do.

 

Master hunter 5 proved challenging, final score card was 5-2 in my favor. One cougar killed me west of Armadillo. I spotted him chasing some NPCs so I closed in and drew my bow. I shot him from long range, but forgot I had been shooting snakes earlier and had swapped to normal arrows. The cougar laughed at my mistake and killed me dead. The other one we rode up on  around a corner, I got thrown, and before I could recover from the fall the cat was on me. On a third one I was riding behind two NPCs and we had just turned to take the trail south from Marko's lab, next to the abandoned trading post. Suddenly the two riders in front spun around and took off back past me with a cougar hot on their heels. As the cat passed with a few feet my horse reared up and I was thrown. The cat gave up on the two riders and turned to face me, now alone on my feet, but I had the right arrows equipped and dead-eye is such a massive advantage that this time I emerged the victor. Final cougar was found just outside the main gate to Beecher's Hope, within a few feet of the road sign.

 

Took me a while to realize that the game auto-compensates for range with the bow. I was aiming high to allow for drop, but it seems you just need to put the cursor on the targets and trajectory is then applied automatically. My long range shooting got a lot better when I realized this.

 

Master Horseman 8? also proved difficult for me, ride from Van Horn to Blackwater without touching water in 17 minutes or less. Took at least six attempts. Twice I crashed in to other riders coming full blast around a blind turn. If you fall off the horse the challenge is broken. Twice I got ambushed in Tall Trees by a big gang of skinners, and during one of them when I went to reload my shotgun I hit E instead and dismounted. Another time I went to jump over the tiniest creek, and mistimed it so I splashed down, voiding the challenge. The route is key, and not all that hard to beat the time, but doing so without something going wrong along the way is a challenge indeed, or it proved so for me.

 

So yeah, with the legendary panther (hopefully) just a matter of finishing the next challenge, all that will remain are the two normal panthers. Would be a shame to come this far and fall short.

 

Hunting cougars near Brandywine drop

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by smokeless6

[subvod]

I just thought of something that might affect the spawns at Old Harry: the  note nearest Old Harry for the American Dreams stranger mission. I doubt that affects the spawns, but it's nearby so if you've not collected that note, do so then see if the panthers spawn again. After thinking back, things I do know of that will prevent panther spawns at Old Harry are:

 

Raider campsite just northeast of the junction

Raider ambush just southwest of the junction (active after raiding Shady Belle for the first time)

injured "woman" next to path just north of junction

random NPC campsite literally next to the panther spawns (spawns only in daytime iirc)

 

To my knowledge, the Washed Ashore runaway slave event doesn't affect panther spawns at Old Harry. I've gotten one there just after moving to Horseshoe and collecting all the items/documents available then.

 

The Aberdeen Pig Farm event is far enough away from the spawns at Macomb's that it shouldn't affect them. However the Night Folk encounter with the mutilated horse wagon will prevent panther spawns at Macomb's. The random encounter with Agnes Dowd doesn't affect spawns at Macomb's from my experience.

 

As for the spawns at Lakay, I do know for a fact that if A Fine Night for It or any night folk random events are active nearby, the panthers won't spawn. Same goes for an NPC campsite which may spawn at random west of the path to Lakay but a bit inland from the water's edge.

 

There's a ton of stuff like this that affect rare spawns. For example, the random campsite raid by Murfree Brood on the beach below Brandywine will prevent the moose spawns in that area. Also, the Skinner campsite on the north side of Aurora Basin will disable the moose spawn on the north shore. Same with a Skinner campsite near the "all coats" moose spawn at the second 'L' in "TALL TREES".

 

Make sure none of those things are around or going on nearby before hoping the panther spawns are active. Sorry it took so long for me to type all this up. I've thousands of hours in RDR2 and have picked up so much information that it's sometimes hard to recall details for certain situations like these. But still, being you can't get a single panther to spawn anywhere that still leads me to believe your game files or saved data must be wack. Idk. Give it a shot.

[smokeless6]

Thanks very much subvod, you've been very helpful.  You seem like the forum's unofficial zoologist, and it's clear you've taken time to catalog things and approach the hunting and animals from a distinctly scientific point of view. Your insight is appreciated. I also suspect it might be somehow related to these things (strangers, random encounters). Of course when I loaded the chapter 4 save the panther spawned as expected. But it does not now. Even when the area around Old Harry Fen is free of these strangers and events I am not seeing the panther.

 

I have not done the American Dream thing. Is that the serial killer one? I've found all three clues, but not the final step to find the killer. I have a code of some sort, but haven't found the location to complete the chain. I try not to spoil anything so I can work it all out on my own, aside of course from starting this thread when I decided I should seek help in finding these elusive panthers.

Edited September 26, 2022 by smokeless6