Deer

Deer

Class	Farming and Animals
Type	Wild Animal
Life Stages	Fawn Doe Buck
Breeds	White-Tailed
Old Age	570 days

The Deer is the largest wild animal in Knox Country, and it gives a hunter a big load of venison, sinew, bones and a hide. One adult deer can stock a pantry for days, which makes the hunt worth the long walk into the countryside.

Deer are wild animals. They roam the rural parts of the map along fixed animal paths, and they run from people and other threats. They stay wild for life and leave any livestock zone drawn around them. Young deer are Fawns. A female Fawn grows into a Doe, and a male grows into a Buck.

The game has a single breed, the White-Tailed deer. Bucks give a Stag Head when butchered. Does travel in small herds, and some of them have a Fawn at heel.

Deer matter because they feed and water themselves in the wild. They also give the hide that becomes medium leather, a material used in some of the bigger crafting builds. The catch is that deer must be found and brought down. That takes patience, a good eye for tracks and steady aim.

How to Hunt Deer

Deer travel in groups along large animal paths through the countryside. A herd is mostly Does, with one Buck at most and a few Fawns. The chance that these paths appear on a map can be changed in the sandbox settings.

A herd takes turns travelling, feeding and resting, and each activity leaves its own sign. Search mode reveals these clues, and the Tracking skill decides which ones show. Footprints and droppings appear even to a beginner. Grazed plants and flattened resting spots need a little Tracking. Broken twigs and tufts of light brown fur need a bit more. Footprints also point the way the herd was heading.

Until Tracking is fairly high, the clues only say that a large animal passed by. A skilled tracker can name the animal as a deer. Following fresh sign is the surest way to catch up with a herd.

Deer flee the moment they notice a person or another threat. A wounded deer may keep running and leave a blood trail before it falls. A higher Aiming skill shortens how far a badly hurt deer can run.

Deer Breeding

Deer live and breed entirely in the wild. A Fawn grows into an adult in about two months of game time. It then joins its herd as a Doe or a Buck. Adult deer live for about a year and a half before they reach old age.

Each Doe in a herd has a fair chance of a Fawn by her side. Fawns travel with the herd until they are grown.

The deer grows through these stages, each one taking the days shown to reach full size.

Stage	Grows For	Becomes
Fawn	60 days	Doe, Buck
Doe	60 days	-
Buck	60 days	-

Deer Breeds

Each breed of deer the game spawns.

Breed	Image
White-Tailed

Deer Butchering

A deer carcass gives Venison, Animal Sinew, bones, a head and an unprocessed hide. Adults give Animal Bones and Large Animal Bones. Fawns give Bone Pieces and some Animal Bones, along with their own head and skull. A Buck gives a Stag Head and a Stag Skull.

Adult deer drop a Deer Hide, and Fawns drop a smaller Fawn Hide. A Deer Hide can be worked into Medium Leather (Crude). A Fawn Hide gives Small Leather (Crude). Medium leather goes into recipes such as the Large Bellows, which some furnaces and forges need.

A deer is large enough to need a Butcher Hook for the best result. The hook raises the amount of meat and other material. The final yield also depends on the animal's size, its meat genes, the age of the carcass and the Butchering skill. Roadkill damage also changes the result.

What a butchered carcass gives at each life stage, one tab per stage.

FawnDoeBuck

Name	Amount	Breed	Spawn ID
Bone Pieces	5-10	All	`/additem Base.SmallAnimalBone`
Animal Bone	3-5	All	`/additem Base.AnimalBone`
Fawn Hide (Unprocessed)	1	All	`/additem Base.FawnLeather_Full`
Fawn Head	1	All	`/additem Base.Deer_Fawn_Head`
Fawn Skull	1	All	`/additem Base.DeerFawn_Skull`

Name	Amount	Breed	Spawn ID
Animal Bone	5-8	All	`/additem Base.AnimalBone`
Large Animal Bone	3-5	All	`/additem Base.LargeAnimalBone`
Deer Hide (Unprocessed)	1	All	`/additem Base.DeerLeather_Full`
Doe Head	1	All	`/additem Base.Deer_Doe_Head`

Name	Amount	Breed	Spawn ID
Animal Bone	5-8	All	`/additem Base.AnimalBone`
Large Animal Bone	3-5	All	`/additem Base.LargeAnimalBone`
Deer Hide (Unprocessed)	1	All	`/additem Base.DeerLeather_Full`
Stag Head	1	All	`/additem Base.Deer_Buck_Head`
Stag Skull	1	All	`/additem Base.DeerStag_Skull`

Deer Locations

Deer roam the forests, fields and back roads of rural Knox Country. They follow animal paths rather than wandering at random. Rural land is the hunting ground, and the herds keep to it. Deer Droppings and trampled plants along a trail are the first sign that a herd is near.