There are many different types of animals that inhabit the land of Oros. The in-game map will guide you to which animals inhabit specific areas. The types and amounts of animals in the landscape change depending on the time of day.
Day
Most large predators do not roam during the day, making your encounters with them less common outside of their normal hunting area. Daytime is best for hunting smaller animals for food and skins.
Night
Hunting at night can be very dangerous as packs of Wolves roam Oros looking for food. Luckily, most roaming predators are scared of fire so having a lit club helps scare them off. Having fire also makes you easily spotted by non-predatory animals, so keep that in mind when you are the hunter.
To light a weapon on fire, hold L1/LB to choose the weapon with Left Stick then press Square/X to ignite the weapon. This action removes a piece of Animal Fat from your inventory.
Hunting
Use your Owl and Hunter Vision to spot unsuspecting prey from a distance, allowing you to sneak up and line up a shot with your bow. You’re not here to mount trophies, so aim for the head! Headshots are very effective at taking down animals.
If you did not kill an animal on the first shot, your Hunter Vision shows you the blood and scent trail leading to the animal you hit. Depending on how much damage was dealt on the initial attack, the animal may bleed out by the time you reach it, allowing you to easily skin it.
Spears do the most damage against animals, but they require the most amount of resources, making them an ineffective tool for hunting larger quantities of animals.
Skinning animals rewards you with generic and specific animal skins, meat, and animal fat. Keep your eye out for rare animals, they provide a rare type of skin that you need for certain upgrades. For a full list of animals including the rare variations, check out the Wildlife chapter.
Beast Companions
While traveling through Oros it’s always best to have a beast at your side to help you fight any roaming enemies or predatory animals. Not every beast in Oros can be tamed, but those that can each provide a special benefit to you.
Beasts Menu
Press D-Pad Right to open the Beasts menu and see all tamable animals. Animals that you have yet to tame are grayed out, while animals you do not have the skill to tame are grayed out and also have a small lock placed to the top right of their image.
From the Beasts menu you can select a beast to call. Selecting your current beast companion dismisses it, while selecting a different beast replaces it. Upgrading your Beast Master Skills allows you to tame more beasts.
Beast Command
When tamed, your beast obeys your every command. To command your beast to go to an area or attack a target, aim with L2/LT then use R1/RB to issue the command.
To call a beast back to your side, press and hold D-Pad Right. This causes Takkar to whistle and your beast immediately returns to you.
Beast Survival
Elite Chieftains are the beast nemeses of Oros. Most smaller beasts quickly lose a fight with any Elite Chieftain. Bigger predators such as Mammoths and Cave Bears also pose a great threat to your beast.
When your beast is wounded, approach it and hold Square/X to heal it with Meat. If your beast dies, revive it from the Beasts menu or tame another in the world.
Bait and Taming Beasts
Bait is a necessity when it comes to taming a wild animal. To craft bait, open your weapon wheel and then highlight Bait on the bottom left. Bait is made from two Meat, which can be harvested from any animal in Oros. Once you have bait crafted and selected in your weapon wheel, press R1/RB to throw the bait. If any nearby carnivore is attracted to the bait, a small exclamation point pops up above their head to confirm they are taking the bait.
Once it is at the bait, approach the distracted animal slowly, and then press and hold Square/X to tame the beast. The tamed beast is then added to your available beasts in the Beast menu.
The Owl
After bringing Tensay to your Village, you are granted access to your most valuable skill, the ability to call in an Owl to scout the area around you.
Press D-Pad Up to call in your Owl, then use your Left Stick to move the Owl through the air and the Right Stick to change where the Owl is looking. Pressing L3 causes the Owl to fly faster through the air, making it easy to avoid any enemies. The Owl cannot hover, so it constantly moves forward. Use large circles around areas to capture every angle possible.
Your Owl stays active until it either collides with an object, is shot down by an enemy, or flies out of range. Only enemies who have been alerted to Takkar attack the Owl, otherwise it is left untouched.
The Owl can be upgraded to be more than just an eye in the sky. An upgraded Owl can tag enemies, direct your Beast, and drop weapons like Fire and Sting Bombs.
Hunter Vision can be used by the Owl; simply press R3 to activate it while flying.
New Owl abilities can be unlocked in the Skills menu by building the Shaman’s hut in your village.
Beast Specialties
Each beast has special abilities to help you.
Special Abilities
| BEAST CATEGORY | PHILOSOPHY | NAME | PASSIVE ABILITY 1 | PASSIVE ABILITY 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canines |
Explores, gathers, warns the player |
Dhole | Auto loots (skin) a carcass for you after the beast makes a kill | |
| Canines |
Explores, gathers, warns the player |
Dhole - Rare | Auto loots (skin) a carcass for you after the beast makes a kill | |
| Canines |
Explores, gathers, warns the player |
Wolf | Growls to warn of nearby predators/enemies | Extends the fog of war discovery radius within a certain range and increases mini-map radius by 350 feet |
| Canines |
Explores, gathers, warns the player |
White Wolf | Growls to warn of nearby predators/enemies | Extends the fog of war discovery radius within a certain range and increases mini-map radius by 350 feet |
| Canines |
Explores, gathers, warns the player |
Rare Stripe Wolf | Growls to warn of nearby predators/enemies | Extends the fog of war discovery radius within a certain range and increases mini-map radius by 350 feet |
| Canines |
Explores, gathers, warns the player |
Snowblood Wolf | Growls to warn of nearby predators/enemies | Extends the fog of war discovery radius within a certain range and increases mini-map radius by 350 feet |
| Felines | Stealth attacks, tracking, tagging | Sabretooth Tiger | Fastest Predator | |
| Felines | Stealth attacks, tracking, tagging | Bloodfang Sabretooth | Fastest Predator | |
| Felines | Stealth attacks, tracking, tagging | Leopard | Auto tags animals around it in a small radius | |
| Felines | Stealth attacks, tracking, tagging | Jaguar | Stealth attacks idle target without alerting nearby enemies | |
| Felines | Stealth attacks, tracking, tagging | Rare Black Jaguar | Stealth attacks idle target without alerting nearby enemies | |
| Felines | Stealth attacks, tracking, tagging | Cave Lion | Auto tags NPCs around it in a small radius | |
| Felines | Stealth attacks, tracking, tagging | Black Lion | Auto tags NPCs around it in a small radius | |
| Bears |
Assault attack, tank, fearless |
Cave Bear | Has higher targeting priority than the player, forcing enemies to attack the Bear first | |
| Bears |
Assault attack, tank, fearless |
Great Scar Bear | Has higher targeting priority than the player, forcing enemies to attack the Bear first | |
| Bears |
Assault attack, tank, fearless |
Brown Bear | Has higher targeting priority than the player, forcing enemies to attack the Bear first | When idle, randomly performs a dig animation, which directly gives you loot |
| Honey badger | Deterrent, wildcard | Badger | Repels all animals | Auto-revives itself once after being killed |