What are they?

How do you get them?

How do we identify them?

How do they work?

And some tips along the way.

So there's going to be a lot of clips here, it's the only way we can do this video, and as you can see we're here with some fallow deer, but we're just going to leave them alone for now and we're going to talk about need zones.

So first off, what are they?

Well need zones are areas of the map where animals come to eat, sleep, or drink, and they're going to return to these need zones at specific times during the day, and that's species specific according to them.

So how can we identify them on the map?

Well first let's look at this little green leaf, well that's a feed zone, and that's how we identify that on our map.

This next one here, this little yellow circle with a Z in it, it's a rest zone, and then finally this blue circle with a little drop in it, well that's a drink zone.

So now that we can identify these three different zones on our map, how can we identify them when we see them in their tracks?

Well for example, all herbivores in a feed zone, their tracks look like this, look like eaten down grass, and we can see them that way.

For predators, such as a red fox here, we can see that it's chewed on rabbit.

What about rest zones?

Well rest zones are the same for every species in the map.

When you come across a rest zone track, it looks just like this, it's kind of like matted down grass that the animal has been laying in, and once again, that's for all species in the map.

The same thing happens with drink zones as well.

Drink zone tracks are exactly the same for all of the species, now they might vary depending on the species track, but they all are a little conglomerate of tracks like this.

So now that we can pinpoint and find out the tracks, how do we collect them to put them on our map?

Well there are two ways.

The first way is by examining a track, it will put it on our map, and the second way is by spotting an animal, and that will add that need zone to your map as well.

So now that we know how to put them on the map, what comes next?

Well we need to know what the need zones tell us.

Why are they there?

What's their purpose?

What do they do?

Well the need zones are there so that we can see what time those animals are going to be there.

So we spotted these fallow deer earlier, we collected their need zone and we know that now that fallow deer are eating there from 5.30 in the morning to 9 o'clock in the morning.

Now this is an approximate time, sometimes it might be a little bit earlier, they might stay a little bit later, and if there's hunting pressure too, they might avoid it altogether, especially if there's a large amount of hunting pressure, we might not find them back in that need zone.

So we've got to be mindful of that, but more often than not, this is where we're going to find animals in order to hunt them.

So seeing that on the map is great, but now this is where having the track skill, or track knowledge helps us, because when we go and we examine this track here, we can see that it says that there's 3 fallow deer eating in this area, and then once again it gives us that time.

So knowing the herd size is great.

Now there was actually 6 in this area, but I ended up shooting 3 for this video, we'll see that a little bit later, and we'll talk about how that is going to affect respawns in a later video.

It's good to know, because we can see the size of the herd, and we can track that herd.

Now if we go over here, we can see that the same fallow deer were resting, and so they were resting in this area from midnight to 5 o'clock, and then after 5 o'clock, where did they move to, because animals move from need zone to need zone?

Well once again, they didn't move very far.

They were resting there until 5 o'clock, and then they just basically got up and they started eating over here, and they're going to eat here until about 9.30.

So knowing where your species are going to be, and when they're going to be there, that's why need zones exist.

That's how they work, and that's why they're so important.

Now you can see as we go across the map, different species have different times, and that is how you work your map, and why you want to put need zones on your map.

So if you're hunting specific animals, you can go there around that approximate time, and those animals should be in their need zones.

So we're going to go back to our fallow deer here, and we're going to harvest this male, because there's another function of need zones that you need to know, and that's that the animals will come back to them.

If you bump them out of their need zone, 9 times out of 10, they're going to run away, but then they're going to come back.

So we're going to harvest this fallow deer, and as you can see, now all the other fallow deer are running away.

So we're just going to wait here for a few minutes, we're going to look that there's hunting pressure, and we can see that that was just from harvesting one animal.

Now we've waited a few minutes, and lo and behold, the rest of the herd has come back.

Now they haven't come back to exactly where they were, and you can see that they're nervous because there's hunting pressure around, but they came back, and that's the important point.

Don't automatically just harvest an animal and move on, you can stick around.

So we're going to take two more fallow deer from this herd, because three is our limit for need zones.

We don't want to hunt more than three animals when we're hunting a need zone, because when we look at the hunting pressure now, we're going to see that it's gone from that blotch of purple to an almost pinky color.

And if we would harvest one more animal in this need zone, it would actually delete the need zone.

So let's go over to a different clip here.

And here I was hunting some wild boar, and you can see that I put a marker down right around where the need zone is.

Now I always like to put a marker down on the need zone symbol.

That need zone symbol is the center of that need zone.

And so I always like to think there's, you know, like 150 meter radius around that need zone where the animals could be.

They're not always right on that little marker.

They could be about 150 meters, you know, in a radius around that need zone.

So you have to be careful when you're approaching in.

If you kind of come in a little bit too hot and too fast, you might bump them a little bit, you might start spooking them.

And we're going to actually see that here.

As I come in, I actually spook the wild boar a little bit as I come in.

And so we can see there, they're pretty close to the center of the need zone, but you can see when I spot them, see they're alert, you know, they're alarmed.

And so, you know, I had to be careful when I'm coming in here.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to harvest four wild boar out of this need zone and I'm going to eliminate it altogether.

Why would you want to eliminate a need zone?

Well, say for example, it's a drink zone and the drink zones can be, you know, into the woods a little bit and you want to move it.

Well, then you can harvest four animals in that need zone.

It doesn't have to be consecutive.

It just has to be at certain times and you'll delete that need zone.

And what will happen is, is that need zone might move, you know, a few hundred meters away from where it originally was.

So we're going to take some boar out here.

So I managed to get three down.

I was hoping for four and I missed the one that was running away on the lower corner and I waited around a little while.

And as you can see, that hunting pressure is, is pretty bright, but three wasn't enough to take that need zone away.

So I waited around a little bit, but none came back.

So I actually had to reset the time, come back to this need zone.

And once again, look for some wild boar that I could take out so I could eliminate this need zone.

So we can see that there's one right there and we're going to take him out and hopefully that will eliminate the need zone when we take him out.

So let's just see here.

So I hit him a little forward, so I'm not sure he's going to go down right away and we're going to check here and there's another one over there.

You notice that says need zone discovered.

That's kind of weird.

Okay.

Well, when we look, that pig went down and so you see how the need zone was eliminated.

So and it's that bright pink.

So remember four shots is going to eliminate that need zone altogether.

And once again, we're just going to take another pig out here just for fun.

But one thing to remember is that it goes by four.

So if you're in a hunting stand, it reduces the hunting pressure by, it only lays down 25% hunting pressure.

So you could actually technically harvest 15 animals before you delete a need zone in a hunting stand or a blind because it lays down less hunting pressure.

If you hit that 16th animal, it'll count as the full four and it'll delete the need zone.

So you want to make sure that you keep your need zones up.

Now one tip for finding need zones is water.

You'll see a lot of streamers, they go and they hunt drink zones all the time.

The reason is, is because drink zones are the easiest to find because you just have to go to where the water is at certain times of the day and see what's there.

So as you can see, we got a red deer call and we're coming in here.

And once again, just being very cautious about how we come in.

Now we know we spooked him a little bit, so we're going to try to spot him here.

But as you can see, we can't spot the need zone with him because he's alarmed.

He's no longer drinking.

He knows something's up and we're just going to have to wait a couple of minutes for him to settle down.

But that, what that'll enable us to do is just talk about when we're, when we're looking over drink zones.

When you're looking over drink zones, you want to make sure that you're not just looking at the water's edge because a lot of species on a lot of maps, they'll be hiding up in the bushes.

You got to remember there's a radius around the water.

So it's really weird sometimes when you see a, you know, deer or whatever, whatever the species is and they're, they're up at, you know, a hundred meters away from the water and there's a drinking zone, but it happens.

So you want to be careful and make sure you don't just check the water's edge, check back up into the bush a little bit, uh, into the woods just to make sure that you haven't missed anything and, um, you'll, you know, nine times out of 10, if you don't see them at the water's edge, maybe they're up a little bit higher.

So let's just check if this fellow's back here and we're just going to take a look.

So there he is.

As you saw in the clip before, this is a clip where we claimed the need zone.

So we're just going to claim him there and now we're just going to harvest him as well.

So for a hard shot and there we go.

So an important thing is, is say we didn't spot him and claim the need zone.

We just kind of saw him, shot him quickly.

A good tip is to always, um, oh, sorry, I got distracted squirrel.

There's a track there.

I always check tracks, but let's say, uh, we didn't, we didn't spot him.

Go up to where the track is and make sure you collect that need zone because as long as that need zone remains there, uh, this guy eventually will spawn back in to this need zone.

It won't necessarily be him, but once again, we'll talk about that on respawns later, but you want to make sure that you claim that need zone before you go and you pick them up or else then you wouldn't be able to claim that drink zone there.

So friends, uh, that's about all I have for need zones.

If you have any questions or comments, just please leave them down below.

Just know that need zones are very important part of, um, of in this game.

If you're having a hard time looking for animals, it's because you haven't gone and you haven't found enough need zones yet.

So keep looking for need zones because the more need zones you find, the more animals are going to be on your map and more different animals are going to be on your map and, um, you're going to have an easier time, uh, in hunting.

And it's also good to, to pattern some of those need zones for different herds because, uh, sometimes catching them when they're, when they're traveling from need zone to need zone, you can set up a tree stand in there and you're able to harvest them there.

And because they always want to go to their need zone, they might run away, but nine times out of 10, they want to take that same path back to the need zone.

So you'll be able to, um, get your animals there when they're traveling to and from the need zones, if you know which ones they're going to.

So we're just going to keep continuing to look for some need zones here and, uh, from

Hirschfelden.

This is Call of the Wild Tutorials saying, happy hunting.