In the early game, your food, armor, and arrows all become far more reliable once you can pull the most materials out of the animals you hunt. Here’s the key: even with the same single deer, the amount you get changes dramatically depending on the tool you use.
The bottom line: butcher with a blade
When you harvest an animal carcass with a blade such as a hunting knife, machete, or bone knife, you recover more meat, hide, and bones. You can still harvest with an axe, a pickaxe, or your bare hands, but the efficiency drops, so keep a blade in one of your holder slots when you head out to hunt.
- Hunting knife: a big harvesting bonus — the go-to choice for hunting
- Bone knife: a stand-in you can craft right away in the early game as long as you have bones
- Machete: handles both combat and butchering with a single tool
Hunt with the materials’ uses in mind
- Raw meat: the foundation for fighting hunger by grilling or stewing it
- Animal hide: turned into leather for armor and backpack expansions
- Bones: material for glue, bone tools, and arrowheads
Pick your target based on whether “you want meat, or you want hide and bones” and you’ll waste nothing. Deer and pigs give meat and hide, while rabbits and chickens are small but easy sources of resupply.
One extra tip
Putting 1–2 points into the related (hunting) perks makes your share from the same butchering go even further. When your blade’s durability starts running low, don’t forget a repair kit. Just making “always finish off and butcher your kills with a knife” a habit will make early-game supply shortages far easier to handle.