Bitten by a Spider During a Mission in theHunter: COTW

I haven't done a lot of story missions in theHunter: Call of the Wild. I have completed only Silver Ridge Peaks story missions and many others in a few more DLC reserves that I own. I have done only a few story missions in the Emerald Coast reserve. I was more focused on getting a side mission where you have to hunt down all the animal species with a gold trophy and above. That one is taking much longer than expected.

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I wanted to put the focus back on doing the main story missions. So, I selected the current one called "By a Billabong". Sophia, one of the wardens of the reserve, gave me this mission where she wanted me to go to a specific location on the map. It was in the central part of the reserve close to the river. I had been there before, but didn't know it was part of the mission.

It was a beautiful evening, and the sun was moving towards the horizon. I took a detour and passed through a swamp-like area, which looked like a good place to hunt crocodiles.

I couldn't find any crocodiles there. Maybe it wasn't a good time for it, so I moved on towards the marked coordinates. Doing these missions with no HUD is a new experience as well. Without seeing the visible marker on the screen, moving towards the location can be tricky. I was looking at the full map frequently to make sure I wasn't steering away from the destination.

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I found a small rusted metal bridge. The water level wasn't high here, so taking this bridge was optional, but it is a safer option if you want to avoid dangerous crocodiles, I guess.

I reached the destination, and it was just a small trail between two water bodies. It was a beautiful location, and Sophie wanted me to show this location. She said there are good hunting opportunities here, but I didn't see anyone. Running around wasn't helping either.

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There were a few more points around this place that she showed me, but nothing too interesting. This reminds me why I don't do these missions, some of them are like this, go there, do that or click a photograph. I would much rather prefer hunting missions with specific constraints.

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The nearest outpost here was this trailer. There are a few of these mobile trailers as outposts in this map. Very unique and filled with a lot of interesting details from both inside and outside.

The sun was about to set now, so I decided to rest inside and wake up early in the morning. Even at 7:30 am, the sun was quite high here. I looked at the next story mission, which was called "The Beauty of Nature". This time it was given by the other warden, Robert Raines. The mission objective was to clean up rubbish xd.

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I wasn't excited at all by this one. But at least it was close to the place Sophie showed me. There were a couple of places I had to visit and clean the trash. But while I was picking up the second pile of trash from the riverside, a spider bit me. I didn't see the spider, but we got hurt, and Robert seemed to get worried. He asked if we had seen the spider or if we had any symptoms.

And when I thought nothing happened, my eyes closed, and I was out. I woke up on a bed in another outpost. They told me that I had an allergic reaction, and other than that, everything is fine. At least something interesting happened on a mission this time.

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I was in a Sanctuary where many wild animals were placed inside fences as display pieces for the visitors. This was on the far north-west corner of the reserve, and I had never been there before.

This was a fancy place with boats and docks. Multiple lodges for visitors to stay.

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While I was here, they gave me another objective. This time, I to photograph the animals from the sanctuary. They had deer, crocodiles, and Kangaroos to be shot.

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They tried to shoot them, but the game doesn't allow it. It says 'invalid target', the same thing when we try to shoot another person in multiplayer or even your pet.

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This sanctuary was called Opal Point Sanctuary, and once I finished taking photographs of all the animals, that mission was effectively over.

But I didn't hunt anything in this session, so how can I allow that to happen? I went out in search of animals. It was enough missions for today.

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I found a big group of Red deer drinking by the river. Most of them were females, but there were a couple of males. I had my eyes on the biggest one.

My view was blocked by a lot of branches, so I had to get across and find a good sideways angle on the biggest one. I decided to use the bow just in case I can take down multiple of them. Bows are silent, but they can still spook animals.

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I shot it from 60 meters or so, and it tried to run to the other side of the river, but the wound was too big and it couldn't even cross the river. Look at those big antlers.

This one was a gold, my first gold red deer in this reserve. This also completed one objective from a side mission.

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Later, I shot down one more deer from this same group. Tracking them was difficult without the HUD, but I am liking the increased difficulty challenge. It was a good end to this relatively boring session. The first few story missions are boring in every reserve; hopefully, they will start getting interesting from now on.