Bear

This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.19.4.

Bear
Type	Land
Behavior	Hostile[[::Category:Hostile_creatures| ]]

Bears have both high health and high damage. Most bears are dangerous to players as well as to other animals.

Spawning

Brown and black bears spawn in Temperate regions, and may be present in Warm or Cool regions, though brown bears spawn at slightly higher latitudes than black bear. Panda and sun bears spawn in Warm/Hot regions. Polar bears spawn in Cool/Cold/Icy regions.

Worldgen spawn conditions

Bears spawn on the world's surface , in grass , shallow snow, or air. Most prefer forested areas with some precipitation, but trees are not necessary, and removing vegetation doesn't affect their ability to spawn.

The maximum elevation for all bear variants to spawn is 1.6. If default sealevel is Y 110, and 110x1.6=176, then the player should not encounter many bears above Y 176. Bears can still wander to higher elevations after spawning, especially if chasing prey.

The TriesPerChunk is 0.015.

A male might spawn alone, or with one female, with an average group size of 1, ±1.

Regional conditions

Variant	Minimum temperature	Maximum temperature	Minimum rain	Minimum forestation
Polar bear	-48	-9	0	0
Brown bear	-15	-2	0.1	0.2
Black bear	-5	20	0.25	0.5
Panda bear	20	33	0.5	0.6
Sun bear	24	40	0.6	0.4

In the table above, temperature refers to annual average, rather than the current temperature a player can observe in the Character panel.

Runtime spawn conditions

After worldgen, the temperature etc. conditions for spawning are the same. However, bears will not spawn in areas of artificial light higher than level 7. This is intended to prevent wild animals spawning in obviously-developed areas.

The chance for a bear to spawn is 0.00003.

Whether a bear spawns is dependent on a location meeting its spawn requirements when a spawn check occurs; there are no "spawn points" that repeatedly produce specific animals.

Despawn conditions

• Bears might despawn if in the dark (below light level 8) for 5 minutes and at least 16 blocks away from the player.
• Bears should de-spawn after 14 in-game days. But if provided enough light, or frequent visits by the player, it seems possible to "keep" a bear indefinitely.

Variants

There are 5 types of bears:

Polar bear [[{{{image3}}}|130px|center]] Health Health (Male/Female) 66 Health (Cub) {{{HealthB}}} Attack Base Attack (Male/Female) 16 Behavior Alert Range (m) (Male/Female) 30 Step Height 2 Multiply Drops Bushmeat 20 - 24* Raw Hide (Huge) 3 - 3* Fat 3 - 5* Animals	Brown bear [[{{{image3}}}|130px|center]] Health Health (Male/Female) 64 Health (Cub) {{{HealthB}}} Attack Base Attack (Male/Female) 12 Behavior Alert Range (m) (Male/Female) 30 Step Height 3 Multiply Drops Bushmeat 14 - 18* Raw Hide (Huge) 3 - 3* Fat 1 - 3* Animals	Black bear [[{{{image3}}}|130px|center]] Health Health (Male/Female) 44 Health (Cub) {{{HealthB}}} Attack Base Attack (Male/Female) 10 Behavior Alert Range (m) (Male/Female) 30 Step Height 3 Multiply Drops Bushmeat 10 - 14* Raw Hide (Huge) 2 - 2* Fat 1 - 3* Animals
Panda bear [[{{{image3}}}|130px|center]] Health Health (Male/Female) 38 Health (Cub) {{{HealthB}}} Attack Base Attack (Male/Female) 8 Behavior Alert Range (m) (Male/Female) 30 Step Height 3 Multiply Drops Bushmeat 8 - 12* Raw Hide (Huge) 2 - 2* Fat 1 - 3* Animals	Sun bear [[{{{image3}}}|130px|center]] Health Health (Male/Female) 34 Health (Cub) {{{HealthB}}} Attack Base Attack (Male/Female) 4 Behavior Alert Range (m) (Male/Female) 30 Step Height 2 Multiply Drops Bushmeat 7 - 11* Raw Hide (Huge) 2 - 2* Fat 0 - 2* Animals

Note: Cubs do not appear in the game at this time.

Behaviors

• Brown bears, black bears and pandas can easily escape a pit 3 blocks deep. Polar bears and sun bears can only jump up 2 blocks. Polar bears are the only variant that cannot use ladders.
• All bears can easily hit animals over 1 block high fence, but they can't jump over fences.

Prey

Panda bears and sun bears will not hunt any prey, but will still defend themselves if they are attacked. However, it is recommended to avoid getting too close to them, as they might feel attacked and can defend themselves.

Other bears will hunt:

• Player
• chickens
• hares
• foxes
• raccoons
• pigs
• deer

Domestication

Bears cannot be domesticated but can be killed for animal resources.

Harvesting

Butcher the animal by right-clicking while crouching with a knife in the active hand to harvest its corpse.

History

• Polar bears were added in version 1.16.0-rc.1 as a rare spawn. "Other bear types should get added in the future."
• Brown bears, black bears, pandas and sun bears were added in version 1.17.0-pre1.
• Polar bears can swim faster than other bears but not climb ladders, since v1.19.0.
• Jump height for polar and sun bears was modified in 1.19.0.
• Brown bears were tweaked to not spawn as far into cold regions.
• All bears' spawn rate was reduced.

Notes

• While bear.json says basketCatchable: true, the trapChance is 0, so none are possible to catch in reed basket traps.
• The trapDestroyChance is 90%.
• It's unclear whether groups of bears can spawn during runtime. bear.json says maxQuantity: 1 but also groupSize: { dist: "verynarrowgaussian", avg: 1, var: 1 }

Gallery

teaser image from devlog for 1.17.0-pre1