Bears, how do you handle them?

A lot of my plays seem to end with me being a bears lunch, and I cant really find a good way to combat them just yet.

It usually start with me 2 or 3 days in waking up and finding a bear looking though my window. It seems after the apocalypse bears grow a craving that only fresh human flesh can satisfy.
Even with all the berries/bunnys/deer/etc. that is in abundance.

So here is my question, what do you guys do when confronted with a bear, or how do you plan for a bear attack?

Same way I deal with most things - I shoot them, or failing that, try to lure them onto a tile with a movement penalty of 400 and then bash them repeatedly before they can attack me. But to be honest, I’ve never had issues with bears at all. They’ve always been extremely docile for me, unless I inadvertently stray within 3 or 4 tiles of them.

I place a bear trap and gtfo.

I dig huge areas of deep pits and run around it while the bear keeps falling into them, CLASSIC. But, the funniest way of killing them is just driving over them with your flatbed truck.

If you have a high throwing level (4 is sufficient), and have about fifteen tiles between yourself and dear Mr Bear, you could hide behind a bush and chuck rocks or wooden spears at it. If it still gets close to you, usually one or two melee hits will suffice to deal the killing blow… that is, if you are behind a bush.

Always carry a beartrap around. You don’t even have to use it on bears, if you’re in trouble just drop it, wait until the enemy jumps into it and BASHBASHBASH.

That said, I generally kite them into bushes and hope to hell I can brain them with my crowbar fast enough.
Oh, always carry bandages too. Always Always. Normal zed attacks never seem to cause bleeding. Bear attacks seem to freakin disembowel you on the first strike though. Like they say, the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, under the ribcage and then through a lung.

After that it’ll be about 5 turns before you bleed out, depending on your torso health.

If I have a good gun I just lure it to a shrub or similar and pop its head open, otherwise I leave it the fuck alone.

Melee combat with a bear is just bad news, most bears I encounter only attack when I get too close or while i’m working on a vehicle.

Hit them with a fking car, works for me everytime, those furry little aholes never see it coming.

Can you use throwing weapons? Before you could know it, my skill was 6 worth. Bust some flashlights, make a spike and wrap it on a stick. Now you have a 28 piercing weapon. I have a dozen of them.
This is the deal - headshot the beast from afar. He seams to be fairly quick, if you’re not tripping on meth, jumps straight in front of you. Finish him with melee, I use the axe. Now, I had the best of luck with this, with a critical (80+ pts) and a successful after-punch.

Or you can set him on fire with M249 burst. :slight_smile:

A semi is a perfect was to deal with anything.

I generally use a burst firing SMG because they always sneak up on me.
My preferred method is grenade to the face, but if safe mode activates when he’s 2 squares away he’ll dismember me before the grenade goes off, killing us both.

[size=12pt]I burn the house it is in down. As bears only seem to occupy houses after the apocalypse.[/size]

My M4A1 works well on bears, then I usually cook and eat their flesh.

Oh how the tables have turned.

I hit the last one with a truck.

i managed to melee one to death with the mutations fluffy tail, claws and fangs and nothing wielded. That was one hell of a scary fight in the cave, didn’t see it at first but when I did i only managed to get one arrow into it before I went melee

Dragon Style. Once you’ve leveled to 4-5, the question becomes whether it’ll actually score on you.

I bash them to death. It takes little skill with a baseball bat to turn their heads into pulp. Baseball bats are a common drop for child zombies. Once melee and bashing skills are high enough, it is easy to kill a bear in a single hit. Martial arts also laugh at bears’ feeble attempts to hit you.

In general, not investing heavily into your ability to waste things next to you is a recipe for disaster. I am fairly certain more than half of my total experience goes to melee and dodge skills. The things that can kill you from afar are the challenge.