Kingdom Come Deliverance – Hardcore Mode 12: Hunting Deer Between Rattay and Neuhof

Now that we are in the training groove, it is time to try and weave some money-making into the flow. In other words, it is time to poach game from the king’s land!

[G^G] Kingdom Come Deliverance – Hardcore Mode – 12: Hunting Deer Between Rattay and Neuhof

Episode Index

You Cannot Hunt On The King’s Land(But You Should Anyways)

Before we get into the mechanics of hunting, it is worth noting one very important fact, it is illegal. Specifically, if you kill any game in the woods not tied to a hunting quest, it will be flagged as “stolen” and you could be potentially fined if you are caught.

The good news is, when you are hunting in the middle of the woods, the odds of you getting pulled over by a guard are slim to none. Futhermore, it appears that most wayfarers walking by don’t really care either. Given the relatively low risk, this means that hunting(or should I say poaching) is a great way to make a significant amount of groschen in a fairly short period of time.

The process of turning meat into money is fairly simple:

1. Kill an animal in the woods
2. Collect its meat(and other parts as applicable)
3. Wait for the meat/parts to “cool-down” and not be marked as stolen
4. Take to your preferred vendor(Ideally a butcher or an innkeeper)

Items #1 and #2 are pretty straightforward, but I’ve noticed that #3 is a bit of a source of confusion for some. As mentioned before the goods are considered “stolen” when you pick them up, so in theory that means they need to be fenced at a mill. However, what is never really explained to you in-game is the fact that if you wait long enough, eventually the hunted game will become legal to sell. Furthermore, if you are in a bit of a rush you can actually speed this process up(and increase the value of the meat) by simply cooking the meat.

So long story short, unless you are infamous around your hunting grounds to the point that guards are pulling you over left and right, it is very unlikely you’ll be caught with illegal game in your inventory. This is even less likely if you manage to stop by a cooking fire before entering town and cook the meat down.

Hunting Between Rattay and Neuhof

The main focus of this episode is showing the hunting loop that I am executing over the course of the next few in-game days. Between recording sessions I was able to track down(pun intended) a very nice hunting ground on the road between Rattay and Neuhof. Specifically, the road the runs along the tree-line of the forest.

What makes this spot this close is it is essentially a convergence point of multiple roe deer hunting grounds, as well as a red deer hunting site. This means that if you wander back and forward in this area you are pretty much guaranteed to find game of some sort.

The roe deer very commonly spawn in the fields outside the forest, so if you are content hunting them you hardly need to breach the tree-line. However, if you are looking to bag red deer, I did notice that in this spot you are more likely to see them inside the forest itself. The good news is, you generally don’t need to go too far in to find them, but in my experience it can take a bit of time for them to show up.

Initially I was mostly focused on the large amount of roe deer in the area. However, once I was able to get a better bow and some better arrows red deer became my preferred target. Once I was able to reliably take down a red deer with a single arrow I started to prioritize searching through the forest vs the fields.

Roe Deer Vs Red Deer

While both types of deer are valuable, there are some key differences that are worth mentioning that will impact how you hunt them.

The first and most important difference is the fact that killing a red deer yields WAY more meat than a roe deer. In the early game while you still have Pebbles, you can easily fill both you and your horse’s inventory with game from 2 red deer. Alternatively, it might take 5 or 6 roe deer to load up your inventory.

The next biggest difference it the amount of firepower needed to take down a red deer vs a roe deer. If you are still using a villagers bow or similar with basic hunting arrows, it might take 4 to 5 shots to take down a red deer early on. This can often result in you chasing them through the woods peppering them with arrows until they finally drop. Fortunately, you don’t have to hunt for very long to get your stats to the point that you can use and afford better equipment. Once you have access to “better hunting arrows” and a better bow(or even just Hans Capon’s hunting bow) you’ll eventually be able to drop both roe and red deer in one shot.

The last main difference, which from a gameplay stand-point is somewhat counter-intuitive, is the fact that the arguably more valuable red deer are actually less skittish than roe deer. That being said, if you are able to sneak up on roe deer they tend to be docile when stationary, and predictable once moving. Red deer on the other-hand wlll romp through the woods pretty erratically until they decide to stop. However, once they are stopped it takes quite a bit to spook them, which means you can often freely fire arrows into them without spurring them into movement.

The good news is both deer are very valuable to hunt, so you don’t really need to discriminate. Rather than focus on one particular type, I recommend you just shoot whatever is in front of you. Eventually as you learn more of the nuances around tracking down red deer they are definitely the most time-efficient prey to track down, but early on you should just focus on building your wallet and stash through any means necessary.

I Threw It(The Meat) On The Ground

One last topic I want to touch on is what to do when you are over-loaded with game from hunting.

For example, somethings you’ll find yourself chipping away a roe deer and just about full up, when suddenly a trio of red deer stroll by. You might be tempted to just pass up on them and take your stash back to town, but the good news is you don’t need to pass up on this free game.

If your hunting spot is close to town, you can actually kill the deer and throw their meat on the ground in an easily retrievable spot for later. In the case of the hunting spot discussed earlier, I’d usually find a nice spot by a fence along the road to toss my meat and go back and forward until the excess meat was sold off.

During almost an in-game week worth of hunting I never ran into any issues with meat disappearing. In fact, this ended up being a great way to “cool off” poached game because usually by the time I made it back to the meat pile the red-hand was removed from the meat.

Training Combat With A Real Weapon

After a couple of rounds of hunting, I decide the cap off the episode with round of training with Captain Bernard. Feeling a bit spicy I decided to give real weapons training a shot.

This was a mistake.

It took Captain Bernard about 20 seconds to dunk on my face and leave me standing there with 10 heatlh, bleeding out of every oraface. Chalking it up as a learning experience, I bandaged myself up and limped over The Broken Wheel Tavern to sleep things off.

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Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great rest of your day, week, month, year, and life!

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