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How to survive bear attacks?

HumanDude

By HumanDude
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Thorfinn Historian

Thorfinn

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, hstone32 said:

Same goes for caves.

Huh. I've never yet had to outrun a cave. They just sit there, waiting to swallow me up. But I can imagine leading them on a merry chase through the woods, you should be able to give 'em the slip.

Edited by Thorfinn
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Professor Dragon Steel Worker

Professor Dragon

Posted
Posted
On 11/17/2025 at 10:10 AM, LadyWYT said:

Given it's possible to fistfight a wolf and win...I'm not even sure one needs to have gear, or even be a Blackguard. Both qualities do, however, greatly increase survival chances. 🤣

Just look at Chuck Norris over here.  😃

I'm mentally moving you into the same category now as @Thorfinn - swiping away lesser hazards that makes stout hearts tremble.

In the meantime, the rest of us will be running, pillaring, digging, fencing, water-logging, climbing, pyroing, modding and cheesing bears.

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LadyWYT Historian

LadyWYT

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

Just look at Chuck Norris over here.  😃

I'm mentally moving you into the same category now as @Thorfinn - swiping away lesser hazards that makes stout hearts tremble.

In the meantime, the rest of us will be running, pillaring, digging, fencing, water-logging, climbing, pyroing, modding and cheesing bears.

I dunno, I feel like Mr. Bean might be a more appropriate descriptor. 😂 Or Monty Python. Maybe even Jack Sparrow. I don't even know how I get myself into some of the situations that I do. Things just kinda...happen...and somehow I manage to stumble my way through them.

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Maelstrom Historian

Maelstrom

Posted
Posted (edited)
14 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I dunno, I feel like Mr. Bean might be a more appropriate descriptor. 😂 Or Monty Python. Maybe even Jack Sparrow. I don't even know how I get myself into some of the situations that I do. Things just kinda...happen...and somehow I manage to stumble my way through them.

Jackie Chan.   Definitely Jackie Chan oh master of weaponizing a feeble twig.  I won't be surprised when you come on here regaling us of some tale in taking down a bear with a couple of rocks, a stick and a deep pond on May 2, year 0.

Edited by Maelstrom
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LadyWYT Historian

LadyWYT

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Maelstrom said:

I won't be surprised when you come on here regaling us of some tale in taking down a bear with a couple of rocks, a stick and a deep pond on May 2, year 0.

🤔 Hmmm...

  • 2 weeks later...
CABLES Berry Picker

CABLES

Posted
Posted

a contrasting argument to wearing armor and/or fighting from a distance:

without armor, at 100% movement speed, a player (any class) can outmaneuver a bear. always be holding CTRL! all you really need to do at that point is lead the bear to an open area and circle strafe while sprinting and stab it to death with a spear. this is obviously way riskier than fighting it in water or the pillar/ranged method, but it's my go-to. that aside, if you want to be totally safe, a bronze/iron shield works wonders.

Arasine Stone Age Settler

Arasine

Posted
Posted

As soon as you spot one, make a two high, four deep packed earth construction, it takes seconds and approx 20 packed earth... throw a rock / spear at them and run inside. As long as you have one spear left on you, you can stab them almost to death from the safe end of the dirt construction (they cant fit down the 1X entrance, but you can stab them). When they start running away, throw remaining spears :)

Note: this only works if you spot them *first*

Mowdan Stone Age Settler

Mowdan

Posted
Posted

The reason why bears are strong is because they don't take much or any knock back. When you hit the bear with the spear you don't get a distance advantage and they trade with you. When they sneak up on you just try to run. Don't climb things because they can climb really well, what they can't do very well is swim. They will even start taking damage after awhile if in deep water even when swimming on the surface. They will try to dive down and get you so watch out. You can also just get good armor and trade with them but getting a early bear means you get the  bear armor.I noticed while fighting one inside a shallow cave that if they are above you they make act strange and do weird things. Pretty sure they are two blocks wide.

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Broccoli Clock Steel Worker

Broccoli Clock

Posted
Posted (edited)

Discussing bear attacks tends to lead to discussions about bear armour. Here's something I wasn't aware of until just the other day, not all bear armour is the same. They have slightly different nerfs depending on the breed of bear you use.

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Hide_armor

If you can't be bothered with the link, then in summary Polar and Brown bear hide movement speed is slower by 1% (3% vs 2%), while the damage protection for them is +10% overall and +.1hp flat damage (55% vs 45% / .5hp vs .4hp) . The durability is also quite varied, with the order being Polar (400), Brown (300), Black (200), Sun Bear (120) and Panda (120), meanwhile the warmth provided is Polar (+1.5'c), Black/Brown (+1'c) and Panda/Sun Bear (+0.5'c).

What's more, since 1.25.5, the most up to date stable version at the time of writing this, you can no longer repair bear armour.

I've never actually encountered a Sun bear, but the Panda is not aggressive at all*, so I'm guessing their poorer protection and durability reflects that for balancing.

 

(* edit: I'm not sure if this is a bug, and I get that panda's have a bit of a reputation for being like huge furry toddlers, but that's them in captivity. I feel that hitting a large animal, that is capable of easily biting your head off, wouldn't result in it gently trotting away)

Edited by Broccoli Clock
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williams_482 Copper Caster

williams_482

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

I've never actually encountered a Sun bear, but the Panda is not aggressive at all*, so I'm guessing their poorer protection and durability reflects that for balancing.

(* edit: I'm not sure if this is a bug, and I get that panda's have a bit of a reputation for being like huge furry toddlers, but that's them in captivity. I feel that hitting a large animal, that is capable of easily biting your head off, wouldn't result in it gently trotting away)

Good notes about the bear armor. Seems like an intentional choice to make the more difficult to kill bears give more useful armors.

As for Panda/Sun bears, they seem to behave identically towards the player. They'll run away if you get close to them, but usually turn aggressive if attacked. They are also both capable of the same indiscriminate "rampage mode" as other bear types, where they run around killing whatever they can find (including you). 

Poxxs Berry Picker

Poxxs

Posted
Posted

Early game, some flint spears to throw and water are my biggest allies against bears. Get them in the water and start throwing spears. Just don't let them get close. 

Teh Pizza Lady Steel Worker

Teh Pizza Lady

Posted
Posted

The fact that you cannot repair bear armor seems intentional and I honestly cannot think of a good way to do it outside of skinning and tanning the hide of another bear to use for the repairs.... which at that point you might as well just make another set of armor.

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Professor Dragon Steel Worker

Professor Dragon

Posted
Posted (edited)
13 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

The fact that you cannot repair bear armor seems intentional and I honestly cannot think of a good way to do it outside of skinning and tanning the hide of another bear to use for the repairs.... which at that point you might as well just make another set of armor.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/beararmorrepair

I can't think of a reason why bear armour should not be repairable. I can repair ancient armour sets from before the world broke, but not something that I made from scratch?

Anyway, that mods uses pelts as repair constituents, and that seems good enough to me.

Edited by Professor Dragon
Broccoli Clock Steel Worker

Broccoli Clock

Posted
Posted (edited)

@Teh Pizza Lady / @Professor Dragon

I'm editing this post as originally quoted both of you with "it has to be an intentional choice, as the Wiki is implicit and as the Wiki is not publicly editable then that means one of the dev team updated it".

However, I've just gone back to the actual entry and I see it has an appendix link, which goes to a bug report...

[bug report] Hide armor durability cannot be repaired

..so perhaps it's not intentional at all.

 

Edited by Broccoli Clock
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Professor Dragon Steel Worker

Professor Dragon

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

@Teh Pizza Lady / @Professor Dragon

I'm editing this post as originally quoted both of you with "it has to be an intentional choice, as the Wiki is implicit and as the Wiki is not publicly editable then that means one of the dev team updated it".

However, I've just gone back to the actual entry and I see it has an appendix link, which goes to a bug report...

[bug report] Hide armor durability cannot be repaired

..so perhaps it's not intentional at all.

 

Nice find. Yes, you're right. It has a flag of "Confirmed" as an issue against it, and a Dev. has indicated (Nov 5, 2025) that  a code fix is needed.

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