Expansive Worlds released theHunter: Call of the Wild on 16 February 2017 through Avalanche Studios, and it is still receiving reserves nine years later, with the Peru map arriving on 16 June 2026 as the nineteenth destination. Every animal sits in a class from 1 to 9, every cartridge is rated for a class range, and the game checks your ammunition, your shot placement and your shot count before it awards a medal. Around 128 huntable species are spread across reserves that run from the Pacific Northwest to Nepal.
Starting theHunter: Call of the Wild can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
theHunter: Call of the Wild is a simulation game built around Need Zones and Wind and scent. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Stalker skill tree | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Ambusher skill tree | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Rifle perks | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Shotgun perks | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Archery perks | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Ambusher skill tree. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Archery perks as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Need Zones
Every species uses three kinds of zone on each reserve: Feeding, Drinking and Resting, each active during its own window on the in-game clock. You reveal them by spotting animals inside them or by investigating tracks, and a zone can vanish outright if the animals that used it are killed or driven off.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Need Zones works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Layton Lake District
The Pacific Northwest base reserve, with marshland, lakes and coniferous slopes. Nine species from mallard at class 1 up to moose at class 8, which makes it the reserve where the class system teaches itself.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for .270 Huntsman: it's the most accessible early upgrade. A step up in cartridge rather than in mechanism, with the .270 rated from class 4 up to class 8. It is the single most versatile calibre in the game because one rifle legally covers whitetail, red deer, elk, black bear and moose.
Step 4: Understand Wind and scent
The compass rose shows a green cone for wind direction, and animals downwind of you will smell you before they ever see you. The Scent Eliminator costs 3,000 credits and gives 10 uses of roughly 120 in-game minutes each, but it reduces your scent signature rather than removing it.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Hirschfelden Hunting Reserve
The second base reserve, set in central European farmland and beech forest. It carries nine species including the European Bison at class 9, which is the single largest animal available without buying a reserve.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Need Zones
Every species uses three kinds of zone on each reserve: Feeding, Drinking and Resting, each active during its own window on the in-game clock. You reveal them by spotting animals inside them or by investigating tracks, and a zone can vanish outright if the animals that used it are killed or driven off.
Wind and scent
The compass rose shows a green cone for wind direction, and animals downwind of you will smell you before they ever see you. The Scent Eliminator costs 3,000 credits and gives 10 uses of roughly 120 in-game minutes each, but it reduces your scent signature rather than removing it.
Hunting Pressure
Shooting an animal that then dies generates pressure centred on the spot where your first round hit, not where the animal fell. Animals avoid pressured ground and enough pressure deletes Need Zones entirely, so a reserve you have hammered all week will feel empty until you hunt elsewhere and push the oldest pressure out.
The Harvest Check
To score full value you need ammunition rated for the animal's class, a hit on the heart, lungs, liver or cervical spine, a kill inside two shots, and an undamaged trophy organ. Failing any one of those drops the medal a full tier and cuts both the cash and the experience payout.
Trophy Rating and medal bands
Score comes from a species-specific trophy type, whether that is weight, skull, antlers, horns or tusks, and the medal is a percentage of that species' own maximum. Under 20 percent is Bronze, 20 to 60 is Silver, 60 to 90 is Gold and 90 to 100 is Diamond, so an Iberian Wolf reaches Diamond around 40 points while a Fallow Deer needs roughly 252.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Firing a mid-calibre rifle at a class 8 or class 9 animal because the shot looked good
The Harvest Check fails on ammunition class alone and drops the medal a tier regardless of placement.
2. Hunting one small area of a reserve for hours
Hunting Pressure builds where your shots land, animals leave, Need Zones vanish, and players conclude the reserve is broken when the mechanic is working as designed.
3. Using a repeating rifle or heavy slug on class 1 birds and hares
Birdshot is the only ammunition rated for class 1, and anything else destroys the trophy even on a perfect hit.
4. Assuming blood colour tells you where you hit the animal
Call of the Wild models bleeding rate rather than blood colour semantics, and the coloured track lines most players see are a user interface setting they chose themselves.
5. Chasing a rare fur type expecting a higher score
Fur is purely cosmetic and a Diamond is decided by the species-specific trophy measurement, not by how unusual the animal looks.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Need Zones and Wind and scent
- Choose Ambusher skill tree as starting build
- Clear Layton Lake District main content
- Acquire .270 Huntsman or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Hirschfelden Hunting Reserve
- Read the class rating on the ammunition, not on the rifle. The Harvest Check tests the cartridge you fired, so a .243 round dropped into any rifle is still only legal on classes 2 through 5, and shooting a class 7 bear with it downgrades the medal no matter how perfect the shot was.
- Two shots is the hard limit for a clean harvest. A third round on the same animal fails the check even if every hit was in the vitals, which is why players carry a bigger calibre than they think they need rather than planning on a follow-up.
Tips for New Players
- Read the class rating on the ammunition, not on the rifle. The Harvest Check tests the cartridge you fired, so a .243 round dropped into any rifle is still only legal on classes 2 through 5, and shooting a class 7 bear with it downgrades the medal no matter how perfect the shot was.
- Two shots is the hard limit for a clean harvest. A third round on the same animal fails the check even if every hit was in the vitals, which is why players carry a bigger calibre than they think they need rather than planning on a follow-up.
- Hunting Pressure is created where your first shot lands, not where the animal dies. If you shoot from a favourite ridge every session, that ridge accumulates pressure and the Need Zones below it eventually disappear, so rotate between two or three areas on the same reserve.
- The green cone on the compass is wind direction and it decides most hunts. Approach so the cone points from the animal toward you, and treat the 3,000 credit Scent Eliminator as a way to buy a few more metres rather than as an invisibility cloak.
- Medals are percentages of a species maximum, not points on a shared scale. An Iberian Wolf reaching Diamond around 40 points and a Fallow Deer needing about 252 are the same achievement, so stop comparing raw numbers between species.
- The difficulty rating attached to a species measures its senses, not its trophy value. A Very Hard animal has sharper vision, hearing or smell, which affects how you approach it and has nothing to do with how much the harvest pays.
- Rare fur types are cosmetic. Albino, Melanistic, Piebald, Leucistic, Erythristic and Dilute animals score exactly the same as an ordinary one of identical size, and the rates differ per species and per reserve, so no single percentage applies.
- Great Ones exist for exactly 13 species: Black Bear, Fallow Deer, Gray Wolf, Jaguar, Moose, Mule Deer, Red Deer, Red Fox, Ring-Necked Pheasant, Roe Deer, Tahr, Whitetail Deer and Wild Boar. There is no Great One bison and no Great One sheep, so do not grind for one.
- You cannot buy every skill and perk. The level cap is 60 and it yields roughly 22 skill points and 22 perk points across two separate pools, with perks split by weapon category, so pick Stalker or Ambusher as a primary and respec with in-game cash when you change reserves.
- In co-op you are hunting the host's saved reserve. Up to eight players can join, your own harvests and experience follow your profile, but outpost and landmark discoveries only credit the host, so explore a new reserve in your own session first.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many reserves are there?
Nineteen as of August 2026. Layton Lake District and Hirschfelden come with the base game and the other seventeen are separate reserve purchases, most recently the Peru reserve on 16 June 2026 and the Scotland reserve in December 2025.
What does animal class actually control?
It sets which ammunition is legal on that animal. Classes run 1 to 9, from hares and waterfowl up to bison, buffalo, lion and tiger, and firing a cartridge rated below the animal's class fails the Harvest Check and costs you a medal tier.
Why did my perfect shot only score Silver?
Medal tier and Harvest Check are separate things. The medal is a percentage of the species maximum for its trophy measurement, so a small animal shot perfectly is still a small animal. Under 20 percent is Bronze, 20 to 60 Silver, 60 to 90 Gold and 90 to 100 Diamond.
Is there player versus player?
No. The game is single-player and online co-op for up to eight players, with no competitive mode, no split-screen and no crossplay. Groups compete informally through host-set challenges such as first to a given number of harvests.
Is the game still supported?
Yes. Expansive Worlds shipped the Multi-Class Weapon Pack in April 2026, the Peru reserve in June 2026 and Hotfix 9.2.1 in July 2026. No sequel has been announced and no end-of-support notice has been published.
More theHunter: Call of the Wild Guides
- theHunter: Call of the Wild theHunter: Call of the Wild Overview
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Best Builds
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Tier List
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Walkthrough
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Tips & Tricks
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Weapons Guide
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Combat Guide
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Boss Guide
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Maps & Locations
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Crafting Guide
- theHunter: Call of the Wild Classes & Characters
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