Deer

Deer are passive animals that were added in update v0.08 to The Forest.

Gameplay
Deer can be found in the wooded areas though also in open fields, such as the Fertile Lands. When killed, they can be skinned for one deer skin, then butchered for four meat and finally drop a deer head.

Location
As mentioned above, deer can most commonly be found in the woods and tend not to spawn that often in open areas. This means they can be most easily found in the center and the southern parts of the peninsula and appear less often in the coastal regions and the swamp. The mountains also feature a moderate amount of deer.

Hunting
Deer are especially skittish and fast and can easily outrun the player, making hunting them quite a challenge if unprepared.

Thrown spears, such as the weak spear or the upgraded spear are often regarded to be the best way to hunt deer. Both the weak and upgraded spear do the same damage when thrown. Use a weak spear for throwing, and if it misses you can just make another one. If you have a spear bag, you'll have spare spears ready to throw. A thrown spear will kill a deer in a single hit.

The crafted bow or the modern bow can be okay weapons for hunting deer. However, if struck by an arrow, a deer will typically run off, forcing the player to pursue it until it comes to a halt. A solution to this problem is to use poison arrows if available as the deer will die from the poison after a few seconds of running away. Fire arrows also work, however the player might want to save these for stronger foes. Finally, Bone arrows also give an advantage as fewer arrows are needed to kill the deer.

Explosives can be used to kill deer, but will turn them into chunks that cannot be harvested. Molotovs are very effective and make the deer unable to move and screech horribly.

Very occasionally, the player is able to get near a deer without it running off, having the chance to strike it with a melee weapon of choice, which will potentially kill it in a few hits if done quickly enough.

Trivia

 * Deer corpses can attract starving cannibals which will feed on them.
 * The plane crash (regardless of where it spawns) will always create a deer spawn zone there as well, so the easiest specific area to find deer is the plane crash, as they can be hard to find and are uncommon animals compared to lizards and rabbits.
 * If a deer is killed with a molotov, it loops the deer screech until it dies.

Known Bugs

 * Deer standing in place when being hit by a melee weapon