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Carcass harvesting

Carcass Harvesting is a Survival Skill that is used to harvest meat, hides, and Guts from Wildlife. There are five types of harvestable animals in The Long Dark, and apart from Rabbit and Ptarmigan, all animals can only be harvested at the location of the carcass, unless that animal has been quartered. Higher levels in the carcass harvesting skill reduce the amount of time required to harvest and increase the amount that can be harvested by hand from a frozen carcass.

How to harvest

Deadmoose

Players can only harvest at the location of the animal, which cannot be moved by the player. The only exceptions to this are rabbits and ptarmigan, which can be picked up and harvested at any location.

In order to harvest a carcass, the player needs to have a tool on them, as any non-ravaged carcass (other than rabbits and ptarmigan) cannot be harvested with bare hands, regardless of Carcass Harvesting skill level. Once a carcass has been harvested with a tool, to any degree, the player will be able to use their hands. This is shown by the carcass having exposed flesh.

A carcass deteriorates over time, based on how frozen it is, which lowers the condition of the harvestable meat. Once said condition reaches 0, the carcass will become uninteractible, so any remaining meat, hide and guts will be lost.

Carcass harvesting is messy, and the raw animal parts the player takes will emit an odor that attracts predators from greater distances than usual (indicated by a icon of three wavy lines on the upper center area of the HUD). Cooking the meat and curing hides and guts reduces or eliminates the intensity of the scent.

Quartering

Harvesting a whole freshly killed animal often takes several hours to complete. Players can instead choose to quarter an animal, which harvests the hide and guts, and additionally harvests the meat into "quarters" with a weight of up to 10 kilograms (roughly 22 pounds), each of which contains half their weight in harvestable meat. Depending on the harvestable meat, a Wolf may yield only one "quarter", while a Moose may yield up to nine "quarters". Players can then take the quarters and harvest the meat elsewhere at a later time. Quartering may be the safer option if there are nearby predators or potentially dangerous weather conditions.

To quarter an animal, players have to "use" an animal carcass and select the Quarter option. Players are notified of the amount of time and the number of calories that will be spent while quartering. Quartering can be interrupted and resumed without loss of progress, so if the player wishes to do other things intermittently while quartering, they can interrupt the action whenever they feel the need and resume where they left off.

Quartering a carcass yields Skill points at a ratio of 1 point per hour spent harvesting.

Because Quartering automatically harvests the hide and guts, it is usually the fastest way to harvest large animals with lots of guts, namely Moose and Bears.

Quartering will destroy the carcass in the process, leaving behind only cosmetic giblets and the creature's legs that will soon despawn, so if one requires Crow Feathers from the corpse sitting out, they may want to take this into account.

"Meat bags" created by quartering are much heavier than the meat they contain (or the meat you would get if you harvested the carcass outright). This should be taken into account as weight management is always important.

Equipment

Players can harvest carcasses by hand, but can decrease the amount of time needed for harvest with certain types of equipment. In most cases, any bladed tool will harvest faster than using one's hands, however, in a few situations (e.g., when harvesting guts with only a hatchet available or harvesting hides at high skill level) harvesting by hand may be slightly faster.

If a carcass is less than 50% frozen, a Hunting Knife is the most efficient tool for harvesting. If the carcass is more than 50% frozen, a Hatchet or Hacksaw is more efficient for harvesting meat, but a Hunting Knife is still more efficient for harvesting guts and hide.

Tool Harvest rate
(minutes per kg)
Harvest rate
(minutes per unit)
Tool decay
(per hour)
Meat Frozen Meat Hide Gut
Hacksaw icon Hacksaw 15.0 10.0 60.0 30.0 1.0%
Hatchet icon Hatchet 15.0 10.0 45.0 20.0 1.0%
Hunting Knife icon Hunting Knife 8.0 20.0 30.0 10.0 1.0%
Improvised Hatchet icon Improvised Hatchet 20.0 15.0 60.0 30.0 1.5%
Improvised Knife icon Improvised Knife 12.0 30.0 40.0 15.0 1.5%

Carcasses

Carcasses can be obtained either through Hunting or can be found by scavenging for any existing dead animals.

Status

A carcass can exist in three different states: Ravaged, Frozen, and Normal.

A ravaged carcass has a significant lack of meat on the carcass, depending on how long the carcass was being fed upon by a Wolf if it was killed by one after world generation, or if it spawned into the world ravaged. A frozen carcass generally requires a tool to harvest the carcass, depending on the player's carcass harvesting skill level. A normal carcass has either been recently killed or has been warmed up by a nearby Fire.

Types

Name Minimum weight Maximum weight Hide Guts
Rabbit 0.80 kg
(1.76 lb)

Rabbit (Raw) icon Rabbit (Raw)

1.50 kg
(3.3 lb)Rabbit (Raw) icon Rabbit (Raw)
1 x Rabbit Pelt icon Rabbit Pelt 1 x Gut icon Gut
Ptarmigan 0.60 kg
(1.32 lb)Ptarmigan (Raw) icon Ptarmigan (Raw)
1.20 kg
(2.64 lb)Ptarmigan (Raw) icon Ptarmigan (Raw)
None None
Deer 6.00 kg
(13.2 lb)Venison (Raw) icon Venison (Raw)
11.00 kg
(24.2 lb)Venison (Raw) icon Venison (Raw)
1 x Deer Hide icon Deer Hide 2 x Gut icon Gut
Wolf 3.00 kg
(6.6 lb)Wolf Meat (Raw) icon Wolf Meat (Raw)
6.00 kg
(13.2 lb)Wolf Meat (Raw) icon Wolf Meat (Raw)
1 x Wolf Pelt icon Wolf Pelt 2 x Gut icon Gut
Bear 25.00 kg
(55 lb)Bear Meat (Raw) icon Bear Meat (Raw)
40.00 kg
(88 lb)Bear Meat (Raw) icon Bear Meat (Raw)
1 x Black Bear Hide icon Black Bear Hide 10 x Gut icon Gut
Moose 32.00 kg
(70.4 lb)Moose Meat (Raw) icon Moose Meat (Raw)
45.00 kg
(99 lb)

Moose Meat (Raw) icon Moose Meat (Raw)

1 x Moose Hide icon Moose Hide 12 x Gut icon Gut

Skill levels

Players can increase their carcass harvesting by harvesting meat, guts, or hides from a carcass.

The player will gain about 1 skill point per hour spent harvesting. If possible, one's hands should be used to acquire skill points faster. However, 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of meat will require 30 min with the Basic Harvesting skill. Therefore a large-sized Moose can take more than one day to be fully harvested (including hide and guts).

A limited increase can be obtained from the Research Book Field Dressing your Kill, Vol. I, which allows players to increase their Carcass Harvesting by 10 skill points with 10 hours of research.

Once players have reached a new skill level, they unlock a new bonus/bonuses get better.

Level Skill points Effects
1 0
  • Basic carcass harvesting skill
2 15
  • 10% reduction in meat harvesting times
3 30
  • 25% reduction in meat harvesting times
  • Can harvest 50% frozen carcasses by hand
  • 10% reduction in hide or gut harvesting times
4 50
  • 30% reduction in meat harvesting times
  • Can harvest 75% frozen carcasses by hand
  • 20% reduction in hide or gut harvesting times
5 100
  • 50% reduction in meat harvesting times
  • Can harvest 100% frozen carcasses by hand
  • 30% reduction in hide or gut harvesting times
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