Grizzly bear



Grizzly Bears are large predatory animals, found throughout the western United States at the time of Red Dead Redemption. John Marston can hunt Grizzly Bears and obtain furs, claws, teeth, hearts, and meat which can be sold to merchants for cash.

Grizzly Bears are imposing foes and can easily kill Marston. They are highly aggressive, and will attack on sight. When traveling in bear country, always be aware of your surroundings, as they can attack from anywhere at any time.

Due to their size and aggressiveness, bears are arguably the toughest and most challenging animals to hunt and kill in the game, although some claim cougars are more difficult due to their speed. The best idea is to use Dead-Eye and get a head shot with a powerful rifle or a shotgun in short range. Bears are slow however, use this to your advantage by getting distance from the bear, and placing a well aimed shot to the head.

Location
The only location of the Grizzly bear is the snow capped, forested region of Tall Trees in West Elizabeth and Bearclaw Camp. Also a spawn point of the bear can be found just West of Wreck of the Serendipity before you get to the road coming from Thieves' Landing, also near the train tracks close to Beecher's Hope.

Their spawn location is near the Aurora Basin cabin. When at the cabin, head towards the slope that leads to a rock face, Grizzly Bears will spawn there frequently.

They are also found near the west of Manzanita Post.

Hunting Tips
When hunting grizzly bears, reality takes a backseat. In reality, Grizzly bears are territorial, yet in Red Dead Redemption, when you kill one grizzly, chances are, another three or five will show up to avenge their fallen brethren. A sound strategy that has been tested is to find yourself a wide open area in their territory on foot, and scan with your eyes, but listen carefully. Bring your horse, but leave it roaming freely close by. It will make plenty of noise and run away from the bear, giving you an idea of where the bear is coming from. Your horse is likely to survive, but may be killed by the bear just the same. It's a chance, like anything you hunt. Listen carefully if your horse isn't around; for such a large and dangerous animal, it doesn't make a lot of noise. But after a bear charges you a few times you'll easily recognize it's huffing grunting growling sound. This means it's close, so hope you have a real powerful weapon. Turn to it, hit aim, go into dead-eye, and just for good measure, put two bullets in it's forehead. If you can hit it between the eyes, the Buffalo Rifle is a good choice for bear, because it's a one-shot-kill. Your Throwing Knife is almost always a 1 shot kill, especially when aimed properly at the bears head. Using the throwing knife will also prevent the other animals in the area from running away. The noise of a rifle, may scare the other animals in the area away, save for bears and cougars. Using the throwing knife is silent and leaves more prey for you to kill. The more animals that are dead in your area the more likely a bear is to come. This can be helpful when completing the achievement(s): bearly legal,

A slightly cheaper method of hunting grizzlies consists of climbing on top of a boulder, where bears (and cougars or any other animals) cannot attack you. Killing smaller animals, such as deer or wild boar, or applying bait some distance away from the rock will help ensure a grizzly bear shows up in a timely fashion. As mentioned above, bears usually appear in waves, so don't leave the safety of your rock until you're confident you've dealt with them all

Another method while hunting these is using a vehicle such as 1-4 horse wagons as aggressive animals do not attack these. Bears seem to flee from the wagon so bait is helpful. It also provides a safe haven from new bear spawns.

Melee killing a bear can be challenging, but is necessary to advance your Master Hunter rank. While on horse, shoot the bear once in its leg to weaken it. If you're on foot, pull out your pistol, and put a shot in it's head, it won't die, but it will bring it's health down considerably. Chase it down, maybe shoot it in the butt as it runs away. When you turn your back to it, it will charge again. You can run circles around it, and you will chase it far on foot, but by now, you should only need to slash it two or three times to kill it. Alternatively use the Henry Repeater and shoot it in the head once. This will greatly weaken the bear allowing you to kill it in one knife slash.

If you want to do the melee kill on a bear for your Master Hunter challenge in a true John Marston fashion lock on to a charging bear with your combat knife (timing is everything here). Be patient and hold your ground, center your screen on the bears head. Once the bear comes just close enough to almost touch you swing your combat knife. If done correctly your will kill it with one clean slash across the bears face. If not you will most likely be dead so have a save file in Manzanita post. Getting used to the timing in multiplayer makes it easier for your single player challenge

If you are struggling to melee kill a bear for the master hunter challenge, be aware that there are 3 separate missions in West Elizabeth (At Home with Dutch, For Purely Scientific Reasons, and Spare the Love, Spoil the Child) that involve facing off versus a bear, and all of these missions checkpoint you right before the bear. So you can play through one of these missions and use the checkpoint to face the bear multiple times, until you get it right. This is significantly easier than starting over each time at Manzanita Post and needing to search for a bear each time.


 * Weapon recommendation: Buffalo rifle, Henry Repeater, Springfield Rifle, Carcano Rifle or Semi-Automatic Shotgun. Throwing Knife- a SINGLE THROWING KNIFE TO THE FACE CAN KILL A BEAR


 * Wait to skin your kills once the four plus bears have been dealt with. Likely once you've slain them, you'll probably get two skinnings in before another grizzly shows up.


 * For the Sharpshooter Challenge, use a Buffalo rifle or a Springfield Rifle, and Dead-Eye to hit the bear in the head when its dangerously close.
 * In Bearclaw Camp, there is a broken house where you can go to. When you go in there, the bears will come attacking you, but they cant attack you because the house zone prevents the bears from getting in. This is also a good way to snipe bears, as they will often go a little back and stand on their rear legs for a few seconds. This gives enough time to shoot a bullet in their face. In mutiplayer, killing enough bears lets loose the legendary bear, that has a lighter brown fur and has a scar on one of his eyes.

Trivia

 * When skinned, the bear has the exact same model as other large animals like the cattle, the Horse and the buffalo.


 * Bears will stand up infront of you if you find a spot where they can not attack you. For example standing on a building. However, there is an occasional glitch where the bear will stand on its hind legs and still not attack the player.
 * If confronted by two or more bears and the player kills one the other bear(s) will flee. (Rare)
 * There are also regular Bears that can be hunted, which give the player Bear fur, and Meat, but can not be identified by their fur or structure.
 * Sharpshooter rank 7 of singleplayer requires you to shoot 3 bears with 1 bullet. Some may find this confusing and think it means to kill 3 bears by shooting the gun once. However, it means kill 3 bears, using 1 bullet for each bear. The best way to achieve this is to go to the Tall Tree's and shoot the bear in the head with a single shotgun blast.

Achievements/Trophies
There are two available achievements/trophies involving the hunting of Grizzly Bears.

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