Bear

For the unique bear found in Episode 2, The Hunted, Part One and The Hunted, Part Two, see Old Bear.

“

If you find bones in a cave, this may mean it's a Bear Den. Watch out! Resting in these caves might earn you a nasty surprise.

Load Screen description

”

“

He'll come for you when you're not expecting it. But you won't miss it. It won't be subtle. It'll sound like a ton of muscle and bone bearing down on you like a freight train of hate and hunger.

Jeremiah describing a charging Bear

”

Bears (also known as Black Bears) are large, dangerous Wildlife predators in The Long Dark.

Overview

Bears are large solitary predatory Wildlife. Bears normally hibernate throughout the winter, but the First Flare and subsequent aurora has awoken them from their slumber. They are now regularly found exiting their bear cave (often with bones inside), or roaming the area near them in search of food, attacking human survivors the if they are spotted.

They are among the toughest and most dangerous animals on Great Bear Island, easily overpowering any human survivor with just their shear size. While not as aggressive as Wolves, Bears are highly territorial and will charge and maul their victims. They are significantly harder to avoid/kill compared to the common Wolf, requiring the player to be alert and prepared should they come across one.

Drops

A Black Bear Carcass may be harvested for 25.00-40.00 kg of raw meat, 1 Fresh Black Bear Hide, and 10 guts. Bear hides can be cured to craft Bearskin Coat or Bear Skin Bedroll. On Stalker and Interloper modes, Bear meat carries the risk of Intestinal Parasites.

↑ If carcass is harvested
↑ If carcass is quartered.

Behaviour

Bears have three paces: walking, charging, and fleeing. Typically they wander near their bear caves at a slow walking pace, with little interest in their surroundings, but occasionally stop to forage or look around. Bears do not hunt other animals, unlike Wolves. Bears are the only animal whose breath is seen as they wander around.

Sounds

Bears are relatively quiet, but their soft-padded footsteps can be heard from a distance. At closer distances their grunts and snorts may be heard, and if the bear detects the player they will bellow, growl, and begin to follow them. Crows have a unique "bear call" which can be heard when a bear is stalking the player, and the standard "dangerous wildlife" music will start playing.

Charging bears usually stand on their hind legs and roar, with their heavy breath "huffing and puffing" as they rapidly charge after the player.

A fleeing bear will whine, moan, and "scream" as it rapidly runs away from the player if they successfully drive/scare it off.

Dens

All Bears have a specific den as their home, usually a dedicated Warm Bear Cave or a rocky outcropping in the side of a rockface. Each den is immediately identifiable by the remains of yellowing skeletons near their entrances (normally of deer, but sometimes of human). A bear will often return from roaming to their den after dusk, taking the most direct path (even if it is kilometers away) to try and sleep inside for the night. A frightened bear often flees for a time before attempting to return to their den.

Sleeping or spending time in bear caves is dangerous, as a Bear can return and attack the player during their sleep if they spot the player.
Not all dens are inhabited in at all times, as a Bear will often take many in game hours to return to their cave, even after dusk.
Sleeping in a cave with very high Scent is generally a very bad idea, as the Bear will often leave its normal patrol to come to you

Scent

“

Bears can smell blood from over 20 clicks away. You get out there, you cut yourself enough that you bleed, and he'll come to you. I'm sure of it.

Jeremiah

”

Bears have the most sensitive noses of any predator wildlife animal, and will travel great lengths (up to over half of the game map) to find the player if their Scent is too high, far outside of their normal patrol pathways. This can make sleeping in a Bedroll in the snow, buildings, or caves (even non-bear den caves) very dangerous if the Bear finds them, as they will attack the player in their sleep. This can be used to the player's advantage when hunting them, as long as the player is prepared to wait very long periods of time for the Bear to come to them, as the Bear will still walk at its normal slow walking speed upon detecting the player's Scent (unlike Wolves who walk quickly to the player's location).

Sleeping

Bears occasionally return to their den to sleep for the night when dusk falls, in which they lie down to try and continue hibernating, often snoring quite loudly. In this state, a bear can be awoken by normal stimuli such as gun reports, lit flares, or simply being too close.

Interaction

Bears will follow any player they detect and attack the player at close distances. If the player moves far enough away, the bear will give up its pursuit. Bears will also charge if they detect the player and the player shoots at them; shots from undetected players usually cause bear to flee, even if not struck by the round.

Baiting

Bears are attracted by Scent. Baiting with dropped scent items while being pursued by a bear will distract them (unless charging). See: Baiting.

Bear Campfire Close — A bear held at bay by a campfire.

Limited Fear of Fire

Bears are only held at bay by certain fires. Campfires and flares (held or on the ground) will prevent a bear from charging the player unless it is already within a certain distance. It will wait outside the radius of the fire until the player leaves the safety of the fire or it is scared away. While being held at bay, bears can be scared away by hitting it with a thrown burning torch (short flee), weapon shot that misses (long flee), weapon shot that hits (longest flee). Approaching a bear while it is held at bay will cause it to overcome its fear and charge. They will walk or charge around a lone lit torch on the ground, but it will not stop them, nor will throwing torches or flares at them cause them to flee while they are not held at bay.

Gunshots/Hits

Bears flee from Distress Pistol reports and from the landing site of flare rounds; the Distress Pistol can prevent a charging bear from attacking even at very close distance. Bears are also frightened of bullets and arrows striking near them, but only from undetected players; they will charge attackers if they can detect them (barring Distress Pistol fire).

Hunting Bears with a Revolver is not advised, as the sheer body weight will absorb any damage from the shot (though they will still bleed to death, even from 1 gunshot wound).

Stones

Stones deal no damage if striking a Bear, and a Bear will chase those who throw stones at them (if detected). Stones thrown by undetected players will distract nearby bears to investigate for a few seconds.

Aurora

Like all predators, the Aurora will produce an Aurora Bear, a much tankier, less fear prone version of the Bear. Extreme caution is advised while the Aurora is out and a Bear is nearby. It can often take up to 6 well placed headshots on an Aurora Bear to fell them.

Wildlife Interactions

Moose and Bear — A Bear and Moose ignoring one another.

Bears will ignore all other forms of Wildlife:

Rabbit, Ptarmigan, and Deer will flee from Bears.
Wolves, Timberwolves, and Poisoned Wolves will also flee from the presence of Bears.
Moose and Bears will ignore one another.

Mauling

Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 5.47 — Player's view of a bear mauling.

If provoked with weapons or approached too close, a bear will charge and maul the player. Bear struggles are different from Wolf struggles in that the player will always lose, getting mauled and eventually passing out. After mauling the player, the bear will walk away but may maul the player again if they do not flee immediately.

Bear attacks cause massive Condition loss, Blood Loss, Infection Risk, and usually ruins a worn Clothing item (typically one worn on the head, accessory or shoes). Attacks from Bears are usually not fatal at high Condition.

After a struggle, move a safe distance from the bear before applying First Aid; staying too close to the bear may cause it to maul the player again.
Bears require physical contact to begin a struggle, so attacks can avoided by using terrain blockers, doors, narrow spaces, cliff sides, and the interiors of Vehicles and structures.
Bear attacks typically are non-lethal at high Condition, but cause 90% Condition loss (reduced by clothing protection) (e.g. pre-struggle: 72% Condition, post-struggle: ~7% with no protective clothes).
After a struggle, random items from the player's inventory will usually fall onto the ground—typically their weapon or held item at the start of the struggle.
Significant condition damage is usually inflicted on some of the clothing item(s), often ruining one.
Bear struggles cannot be won (except in Wintermute with the Bear Spear against the Old Bear).

Hunting

Bears may be hunted with any ranged weapon (except Stones) and suffer from blood loss, so a single round is lethal (but may take many hours for the animal to bleed out). A single rifle shot may even kill a bear instantly if it strikes their head and is a "critical hit", but usually bears survive multiple rounds and will immediately charge or flee depending if the player was detected.

Critical hits

Critical hits cause the animal to instantly die after being hit by a shot. The following table contains the critical hit chance based on the location that was shot on the animal.

The critical-% for flare gun seem to be currently bugged (i.e. defaulting to rifle bleed-out numbers)

Weapon		Critical Hit Chance
Weapon		Head	Neck	Torso	Hips	Limb
	Hunting Rifle	15%	10%	5%	3%	3%
	Distress Pistol	60%	90%	Guaranteed	Guaranteed	Guaranteed
	Survival Bow	15%	10%	5%	3%	3%
	Revolver	3%	2%	1%	0%	0%

Bleeding wounds

All shots that cause blood loss are lethal, but may take many hours based on which body part was struck. Multiple shots do not stack blood loss. A shot that hits a higher blood loss area will override blood loss from a shot in a lower blood loss area. Conversely, if shot in an area of lower blood loss after being shot in area of higher blood loss, the shot that hit the area of lower blood loss will override the blood loss from the first shot. Therefore, if you land a head shot which causes a bear to flee, shooting it in the hindquarters or limbs will cause the bear to bleed out more slowly. As such, you should not fire a second shot in that scenario and instead simply follow the bear until it bleeds out from the head wound.

Bleed Out

Weapon		Bleed Out
Weapon		Head	Neck	Torso	Hips	Limb
	Revolver	80 min	120 min	320 min	480 min	640 min
	Hunting Rifle	60 min	90 min	240 min	360 min	480 min
	Survival Bow	45 min	60 min	375 min	240 min	240 min
	Distress Pistol	30 min	45 min	50 min	140 min	140 min

Strategies

Bull-Fight: Shoot from close to a position that bears cannot attack, perhaps luring or baiting the bear into range first. Shoot the bear, enter cover. Let it charge and fail. Follow until it bleeds out.
Hunter's Blinds: Some bears wander near hunter's blinds like Unnamed Pond in Mystery Lake. These structures provide protection against predators while allowing the use of ranged weapons.
Stealth: Shoot from a hidden location, ideally with the survival bow and track until dead.
Unwise: Shoot repeatedly as it charges hoping for first or second shot critical hit to drop the bear before it reaches you.
Decoys: Drop decoys to distract the bear and fire on the bear when it is distracted.
Stall with Fire: Get close enough to the bear for it to follow you (but not charge, do not shoot yet), make a quick fire (best with accelerator) then wait behind the fire for the bear to approach. About midway, the bear will go on its hind legs and roar, then charge but stops in front of the fire and stays in a waiting stance. This will provide a significant amount of time to shoot the bear in the head (choose your favorite weapon), the bear then runs away. Follow until it bleeds out.
Goading: Agitate the bear into following (but not charging) and lead it to a more advantageous location for hunting, or even back to a safe house. You can also shoot and retreat to safety, such as inside a vehicle. Avoid loading screens (inside a mine or building interior), since that may cause the bear to de-spawn. As the bear starts to wander off, exit your hiding spot and agitate it again to draw it back. After a few hours (in-game) the bear should die relatively close by. This process can be time consuming depending on distance and bleed out time, but is relatively safe, minimizes risk of losing the wounded bear, and makes harvesting convenient.

It is worth noting that after killing the bear, it is more time-efficient to Quarter the bear than to harvest the hide and guts individually. However, the body of the bear that would be destroyed by quartering is also large enough to grant protection from the wind (Wind Shield) to campfires and crouching players, which can be useful for players looking to harvest the bear's meat on the spot.

Population

Bear spawns vary by region and Survival Mode. In some regions (Coastal Highway and Desolation Point) bears always spawn in the same location(s); in other regions (Mystery Lake and Pleasant Valley), bears have multiple possible spawning locations which only some may be be occupied in a given save file. The following list is a list of possible bear locations:

Mystery Lake: 1-2 bears

Unnamed Pond
Near the Lone Lake Cabin
Clearcut
Near Trapper's Homestead in a little cave

Coastal Highway: 2-3 bears

A cave slightly east of Misanthrope's Homestead, on the island.
North of the Coastal Townsite
Downstream from Bear Creek Campground

Pleasant Valley: 3-7 bears

North of the Long Curve, along the river.
To the east of the cave leading to Winding River.
Beneath the placed rope leading up to Signal Hill
North of Burned Ridge Cave and the Crash Site (Pleasant Valley).
Near the bridge to the southeast of Point of Disagreement.
Along the snow path underneath the path up to Cinder Hills Coal Mine.
At the Lonely Homestead

Desolation Point: 1 bear

Next to Broken Bridge, along the highway.

Timberwolf Mountain: 3 bears

Between Deer Clearing and Waterfall Cave
East of Crystal Lake, in front of the trail down to Echo Ravine.
Along the river west of Andre's Peak

Forlorn Muskeg: 2 bears

Poacher's Camp.
Northwest of the Old Spence Family Homestead

Broken Railroad: 1 bear

At the base of the cliff below Hunting Lodge

Mountain Town: 1 bear

Spruce Falls Bridge

Bleak Inlet: 1 bear

A cave just east of Cannery Worker Residences

Hushed River Valley: 2 bears

Northwest corner, north of the Hushed River and Offset Falls.
East of Stairsteps Lake

Ash Canyon: 1 bear

A cave leading to Miner's Folly

Blackrock Region: 3 bears

In the large clearing between Bear's Bend and Forager's Remnant in the northwestern corner.
Cliff Cave, to the northwest of Bricklayer's Retreat and due west from Whistling Perch.
In the west part of Blackrock Prison, inside the courtyard the player escapes into from the prison in Episode 4.

Forsaken Airfield: 2 bears

West of Final Approach.
On and around Shoulder Lake, with the den at Fallow Dugout.

Zone of Contamination: 1 bear

North of Smoker's Cave, South of Unquenched Extraction

Sundered Pass: 1 Bear

Found near Final Refuge

Trivia

Bears base their appearance off of the American Black Bear (Ursus americanus), a species of Ursidae found in North America. Their sizes vary, but they are typically half the size of the Bears founds in game until they reach adulthood.

Gallery

Update history

UPDATE 19 May 2020 (Update):
- [General] Bear sound effects no longer play when a carcass is removed from the world.

HOTFIX 1 November 2019 (Update):
- Fixed Bears resetting to their dens after loading a save.

HOTFIX 28 October 2019 (Update):
- Fixed issue that caused Bears to sometimes spawn under the map.

HOTFIX 27 May 2019 (Update):
- [Survival Mode] Tuned damage dealt to Bears and Moose when using the Revolver.

HOTFIX 8 May 2019 (Update):
- Tuned Revolver effectiveness when used against Moose (reduced) and reduced critical chance against Bears.

UPDATE 17 December 2018 (Update):
- [Survival Mode] Fixed Bear spawning in terrain in Mystery Lake
- [All] Bear breath effect optimization
- [PS4] Fixed missing Bear breath

HOTFIX 27 August 2018 (Update):
- [ALL] Fixed issue where injured Bears reset their status when players enter an interior or Pass Time.

UPDATE 14 June 2018 (Update):
- [All] Fixed Bear becoming stuck in animation when not in player’s view.

HOTFIX 20 March 2018 (Update):
- [Survival Mode] Fixed issue where Bears could be stuck on broken ice in Desolation Point.
- [Both] Crouching close to Bears no longer lets players move inside the carcass.

UPDATE 7 December 2017 (Update):
- [Both] Fixed issue where player camera would be inside the Bear mesh during carcass harvesting.

HOTFIX 16 August 2017 (Update):
- Fixed issue with a series of multiple exertion sounds being played after a Bear struggle.

HOTFIX 3 August 2017 (Update):
- Fixed the Bear struggle.

HOTFIX 12 January 2017 (Update):
- Fixed issue with drawn Survival Bow movement speed retained after Wolf or Bear struggle

HOTFIX 21 December 2016 (Update):
- Fixed bear getting stuck inside rail car in Forlorn Muskeg region

HOTFIX 25 May 2016 (Update):
- Fixed issue with Bears running too slowly.

HOTFIX 30 April 2016 (Update):
- [BUG] Fixed issue with bears not respawning.

UPDATE 21 April 2016 (Update):
- Delay condition-loss from Bear struggle until the struggle animation is complete. (This does not apply to Wolf struggles.)
- Improved the Bear model and texture.
- Improved the Bear animations.
- Overhauled struggle audio for both Wolves (to account for new first-person presence) and for the Bear struggle (to make it more impressive).
- Bears are now spawned facing outwards from Dens. This helps fix some pathing issues when the bear attempts to leave the Den.
- Fixed issue with Bear playing sleep animations after leaving the sleep AI state.

UPDATE 14 April 2015 (Update):
- Bears have now migrated to all regions of the game world.

UPDATE 1 April 2015 (Update):
- Added new Bear "smelling" and "standing" animations.
- Wolves and Bears will stop attacking when the player falls through the ice.
- Fixed issue with player health being reset to 100% if loading a save after a Bear attack.

HOTFIX 10 February 2015 (Update):
- Fixed some bear AI detection and reaction issues.
- Re-balanced harvestable meat and gut yield for Bear, as well as Caloric value of Bear meat.

UPDATE 7 February 2015 (Update):
- Added to game.

[1] If carcass is harvested

[2] If carcass is quartered.

[1]

[2]

Item	Quantity	Rarity
Bear Meat (Raw)	25 - 40	Always^[1]
Bear Quarter	5 - 8	Always^[2]
Fresh Black Bear Hide	1	Always
Fresh Gut	10	Always