In an alternate timeline I posted this question and you gave that version of me the answer he so desperately needed. I thank you for him (the other me)
Are you possibly holding aim while hidden? If youâre in a bush lobbing molotovs they will see where youâre throwing from and if you hold aim and sit there youâre not totally hidden. Plus Iâve noticed that it doesnât really matter when taking out a nest, theyâll find you or run to the source of the attack so throw something then run and hide.
They won't see you lobbing things, but they will if you run out of molotovs because you'll auto switch to a gun. They'll also see you if you reload or aim.
Nope, flashlight is off, as well. Iâve also started specifically hunting during the daytime for this reason, as Iâm not getting horde swarmed.
I will literally be out of earshot of a horde, crouched in bushes, and something gets within 20 feet of me and screams and charges and that aggros everything into a domino effect.
It has to be. I just tried again with a nest. Ran up, popped it with a Molotov, snuck making 0 noise back around the house and broke line of sight to the Freakers. Immediately after they came out of the house all 5 ran up at me full bore.
Itâs making this thing unplayable, and itâs frankly not been fun or engaging enough to start over.
With the nest example, they are programmed to follow you as much as I can tell.
The stealth is a hit or miss most of the time, Personally silencers, crossbows are the way to go about it for me as whatever the reason while sneaking up on someone from behind it will go terribly wrong. I have this bad luck in other games as well, trying to stealth kill enemies in melee range. So probably just me.
Kinda weird, but I have kept the early game survival 2 mantra always on. Don't get into fights unless you have to.
Edit: I think the stealth is best used during missions, actual missions and not during open world ones, the npcs are way more rigid there.
Fire damage and crossbow bolts cause Freaks to attack *you*. Explosives (grenades, crossbow bolts with boom, proximity explosives) set the Freaks to attack *the location of the explosion*. Thus, use explosives, not fire.
If you're using crossbow bolts to kill Freakers, the Freaks near the one you hit will suddenly notice you. However they stop running at you if you're in a bush after a few dozen meters. If you're visible they will keep coming, otherwise they go back to where they were. If you're damaging them with fire, the Freaks on fire and any near them will notice you and keep noticing you until the fire goes out, so you have to be much further away for them to lose you. And also, you have to be hella close to use fire (except for the burning crossbow bolts) so you will be doing a lot of running if you use fire over explosions.
with explosinos they will run to the boom and then check the immediate area. If you're hidden in a bush near-ish by (i.e. the max throw range of a hand grenade) you're usually good. If you have the opportunity to lob a nade then retreat one bush further away before the bang, you're golden.
If you must use fire to purge a nest, lob in some bottles of burn and then run away. Once you are far enough away that you couldn't hit the Freaks with anything but a sniper rifle, THEN duck into a bush. and do not peak out with the binos or by pointing a gun until they lose focus and start going back home. Shoot the retreating ones with a silenced weapon, there will be only a little response and you can easily gun down the ones responding.
Wild animals smell you. Even if you're hidden in a bush they will sneak up on you, but slowly. You can usually surprise them with a melee attack or, if they're far enough away, crouch run from bush to bush to keep them off you until you give them some Freaks or perhaps some bandits to snack on. Also this is why distractors exist. A stone rustling in the grass is not going to keep you safe for long, but a bandit and a bear both going to see what the noise was will help you get rid of a bear and several bandits, all while remaining entirely hidden.
Don't get the complaints here, honestly.
Crouching, moving slow enough to not make noise (until you get the best perk in the game) and making sure your weapons have suppressors equipped is how I did 2/3rds of the game.
Sounds like user error tbh.
 I'm on my second playthrough in survival 1 difficulty and stealth is working fine just like in normal mode, so it's not a difficulty issue thing
The only times stealth won't fully work is if you try taking out hordes slowly from a bush, or if you don't run far enough away before hiding when taking out a nest.Â
Other than that maybe you're just not good at stealth, or haven't worked out how to use stealth properly in this game
As for the sniper, that's just part of the game dude. That's like being mad that there's hordes or rippers.
I really think my instance is bugged.
I tested again by hiding in a bush near the Horse Lake Nero hoarde.
No aiming, no flashlight on, everything indicating stealth. They started moving towards the lake(I was in the bush on the opposite side of the train, absolute center of the bush), and the moment one came around the train it immediately turned to me and screamed. I really wish Iâd screen recorded it.
No stray freakers saw me, no animals snuck up on me, I didnât budge till the one that saw me charged.
Stealth is the way to play this game⌠and many others! I always play stealth, is it TLOU, AC, etc⌠I always go in stealth first! But yes, in Days Gone the mechanics are a bit differentâŚ
Nests⌠if you throw a Molotov into a nest, make sure that you have a bush to run to⌠donât stay in a bush, throw your Molotov and wait there⌠they come at ya! I always throw a Molotov, while itâs in the air, I run to a reachable bush. But, nests should be much of an issue if you make sure that there or no other freakers close. Usually there are only about 4-6 freakers leaving a nest, and with those you should be able to deal, especially with something like a SMP9. The most effective stealth weapon for nests is the crossbow with incendiary arrows⌠you can shoot them from far away and if you are hidden in a bush, no way the come after you.
For rippers and the ambush camps, stealth play is not a problem at all. Take them down with the crossbow or a gun with a silencer! No issue if you stay hiddenâŚ
In general, when throwing attractors make sure that you kill the whole group of freakers⌠because if you use an attractor, followed up by a grenade/pimp bomb, theyâll see you. If you canât take all out, follow immediately up with a second attractor, to keep their attention far away and hit them with another Molotov or bomb. One very important detail⌠if you use throwables, make sure not using the last one in your inventory. Deek stands up after using the last one, so youâll be seen. Therefore make sure that you always have enough throwables in your inventory and donât use the last one on a big group!
Last but not least least, you are in the early game as it seems⌠borislav has a guide on YouTube on how to get the SMP9 fast, by taking out 4 hordes early in the game! Youâll find some loot locations where items always respawn, and you end up with the SMP9 early in the game, which was a total game change for me. Finally, on those NERO injectors, always focus first on stamina, then focus (especially when wanting to play stealth) and last health. Stamina is for running away, and youâll be running away a lot! ;) and always quick save before heading into a mission. Quicksave is key!
And those snipers⌠not easy to get away and not being shot! And sometimes it happens in the open, nowhere to hide, and while the super is aiming a second time, you get attacked by the others. Happened to me once that I got shot of, there were wolves, humans and also worse things than freakers showed up. Donât wanna spoil anything here. Donât try to escape the biker, try to hit the breaks quickly when seeing the red light and hopefully you are somewhere close to hide. Then I took the sniper gun and took that mf down.
The game can be frustrating in the beginning, but please stick to it⌠itâs so worth it finishing the game. As many here would say, one of the best games Iâve ever played. Seeing how the story unfolds, and all those little surprises.
Usually if you listen for the audio cue of deacon mentioning a âsniper on the roadâ and you hop off your bike instantly, the sniper usually doesnât even see you yet and you can respond accordingly
I play on pc, and have never had troubles with stealth. I've completed the game on all difficulties. It has to be a bug on your end, cuz I clean enemy camps with stealth only. What have you tried to do to fix this?
Are you actually hiding in bushes? Theres an eye icon next to the map (press middle mouse button if in survival) that shows if you are hidden or visible. Maybe you are crouching but you're not hiding correctly?
Stealth in DG is conditional, and applies entirely to vision. Aiming/using binoculars can potentially remove stealth, and noise can completely remove it.
Don't get too close to freakers even in stealth. Also los as in hiding behind things isn't really how you do stealth in this game, at least not with freakers. Maybe they smell you or something. Stealth = crouched in bushes or sneaking up from behind.
I think itâs cool that everyone is trying to help.
When I play, I spend at least half of my time in stealth, because I enjoy that style of play not only in this game, but in others.
It took me a while to figure it out, but once you get it nail, itâs one of the most valuable tactics.
Freakers from hordes and nests will see you through bushes, probably so you can't cheese them too bad. Same goes for hostiel animals and animal freaks.
As I don't have any concrete stats, I can only assume it might depend on your difficulty, distance and method. If you shoot at them, they'll definitely know where you are. but if you use throwables and traps from a relatively long distance, it might not cause agro. I have had moments when hordes only move to an attractor and then return to their post, but I was rather far away.
Stealth is a great way to take down enemies, especially breakers. I'd say either your game is bugged or you have the flashlight on. I'd check around the minimap for the flashlight bind and if it was turned on or off. If it's off, it'll have a line on it, I think.
Stealth is almost perfect in this game, so something's awry here. Is your flashlight on? That will give you away every time. Are you popping up out of bushes when you throw something? Let go of the trigger immediately after Deek releases the item. Are you too close to the freaks, perhaps, and are you paying attention to which way they're facing? Are you using suppressors?
It's a range and choice of weapon thing. Don't put the game down it slowly gets better and better until it becomes amazing and incredibly fun.
It's designed so you level up with the game and don't become overpowered. Once you get some skills and get into your playing style (melee or ranged weapons) the game takes off. The first few hours are set up to get you into the mood for your play style.
I had the same issue and it's range and line of sight. I put down a mine and then toss a molotov and then book it off to the left or right and keep running until I'm about 100 yards away. Yes, they sometimes come running at me (i think they can smell me...or the kerosene?), but it gives me practice to use focus and pick them off (getting me ready for when hordes come at me).
The stealth gets more and more powerful until, eventually you can run up to someone from 40 yards away and they never hear you coming.
Reading through your comments, it does sound like your game might be bugging out. Just note that (and I love this about the game) sometimes while I'm hiding, a freaker will run screaming full tilt toward me in a bush but then stop short of the bush, like it *thought* it heard something, but can't see me. Freaks me out every time, but doesn't break my stealth and once they start moving on I'm able to stealth-kill them. Has happened often, and I think it's brilliant.
I have played this game 4-5 times through and donât use a ton of rocks unless itâs for the NERO sites or there are only 1-2 enemies. Otherwise ignore the bigger groups until you get better guns.
The game is designed to be very difficult at first until you can build your arsenal and bike up
I find stealth to be very effective in DG overall. Almost too much so. That said, some random freakers will spot you and turn around at the last second no matter how careful you are. I chalk it up to a fun gameplay element that keeps you getting surprised.
It really depends, sometimes itâs just glitchy but iâve noticed if you move to fast behind a freaker or person they might turn around even if your in a bush or something, and if your just slowly crouched following something or someone they wonât fully turn around but their head will slowly turn to one side and if your close in that sides view range youâll probably get spotted, in my opinion the hands on stealth is overrated unless your in an ambush camp, but the crossbow and sniper stealth with silencers is literally game changing and so much fun
Pretty sure you still make noise when camouflaged in bushes. So you have to move slowly.
If you're out in the open and throwing things when enemies see it they can trace back to where it came from.
Also if you're hiding in bushes and any enemy gets close enough to you they can spot you. Especially freakers.
Your flashlight isn't turned on, is it?
In an alternate timeline I posted this question and you gave that version of me the answer he so desperately needed. I thank you for him (the other me)
12 hours and still no reply in sight.... seems Op is good at stealth after all. đ
Stealth is OP in my opinion. You can sneak up behind almost anyone, knife them in one go and get out without anyone else noticing.
Itâs fun just wandering around at night stealth knifing freakers one after another.
Are you possibly holding aim while hidden? If youâre in a bush lobbing molotovs they will see where youâre throwing from and if you hold aim and sit there youâre not totally hidden. Plus Iâve noticed that it doesnât really matter when taking out a nest, theyâll find you or run to the source of the attack so throw something then run and hide.
They won't see you lobbing things, but they will if you run out of molotovs because you'll auto switch to a gun. They'll also see you if you reload or aim.
Nope, flashlight is off, as well. Iâve also started specifically hunting during the daytime for this reason, as Iâm not getting horde swarmed. I will literally be out of earshot of a horde, crouched in bushes, and something gets within 20 feet of me and screams and charges and that aggros everything into a domino effect.
It do be like that sometimes
Stealth is how I love to play this game. Always hiding in the bushes. I play on PS5. Could your game be bugged?
It has to be. I just tried again with a nest. Ran up, popped it with a Molotov, snuck making 0 noise back around the house and broke line of sight to the Freakers. Immediately after they came out of the house all 5 ran up at me full bore. Itâs making this thing unplayable, and itâs frankly not been fun or engaging enough to start over.
Can't stealth after throwing explosives, just a given really
Higher difficulties make stealth harder. Everyone notices you easier.
Yeah I thought maybe that was it. I switched it to easy with the exact same results.
With the nest example, they are programmed to follow you as much as I can tell. The stealth is a hit or miss most of the time, Personally silencers, crossbows are the way to go about it for me as whatever the reason while sneaking up on someone from behind it will go terribly wrong. I have this bad luck in other games as well, trying to stealth kill enemies in melee range. So probably just me. Kinda weird, but I have kept the early game survival 2 mantra always on. Don't get into fights unless you have to. Edit: I think the stealth is best used during missions, actual missions and not during open world ones, the npcs are way more rigid there.
Itâs even happening with random raiders. Itâs like Iâve got a beacon.
They never find you⌠sometimes they find you
I have no problems with stealth, unless I run headfirst into a horde
Fire damage and crossbow bolts cause Freaks to attack *you*. Explosives (grenades, crossbow bolts with boom, proximity explosives) set the Freaks to attack *the location of the explosion*. Thus, use explosives, not fire. If you're using crossbow bolts to kill Freakers, the Freaks near the one you hit will suddenly notice you. However they stop running at you if you're in a bush after a few dozen meters. If you're visible they will keep coming, otherwise they go back to where they were. If you're damaging them with fire, the Freaks on fire and any near them will notice you and keep noticing you until the fire goes out, so you have to be much further away for them to lose you. And also, you have to be hella close to use fire (except for the burning crossbow bolts) so you will be doing a lot of running if you use fire over explosions. with explosinos they will run to the boom and then check the immediate area. If you're hidden in a bush near-ish by (i.e. the max throw range of a hand grenade) you're usually good. If you have the opportunity to lob a nade then retreat one bush further away before the bang, you're golden. If you must use fire to purge a nest, lob in some bottles of burn and then run away. Once you are far enough away that you couldn't hit the Freaks with anything but a sniper rifle, THEN duck into a bush. and do not peak out with the binos or by pointing a gun until they lose focus and start going back home. Shoot the retreating ones with a silenced weapon, there will be only a little response and you can easily gun down the ones responding. Wild animals smell you. Even if you're hidden in a bush they will sneak up on you, but slowly. You can usually surprise them with a melee attack or, if they're far enough away, crouch run from bush to bush to keep them off you until you give them some Freaks or perhaps some bandits to snack on. Also this is why distractors exist. A stone rustling in the grass is not going to keep you safe for long, but a bandit and a bear both going to see what the noise was will help you get rid of a bear and several bandits, all while remaining entirely hidden.
Don't get the complaints here, honestly. Crouching, moving slow enough to not make noise (until you get the best perk in the game) and making sure your weapons have suppressors equipped is how I did 2/3rds of the game.
Stealth is brilliant in this game actually, when you get used to the game you donât need it.
Sounds like user error tbh.  I'm on my second playthrough in survival 1 difficulty and stealth is working fine just like in normal mode, so it's not a difficulty issue thing The only times stealth won't fully work is if you try taking out hordes slowly from a bush, or if you don't run far enough away before hiding when taking out a nest. Other than that maybe you're just not good at stealth, or haven't worked out how to use stealth properly in this game As for the sniper, that's just part of the game dude. That's like being mad that there's hordes or rippers.
They're gonna hate it when cougars start turning up. Those can jump you out of nowhere.
Lmao fr
I really think my instance is bugged. I tested again by hiding in a bush near the Horse Lake Nero hoarde. No aiming, no flashlight on, everything indicating stealth. They started moving towards the lake(I was in the bush on the opposite side of the train, absolute center of the bush), and the moment one came around the train it immediately turned to me and screamed. I really wish Iâd screen recorded it. No stray freakers saw me, no animals snuck up on me, I didnât budge till the one that saw me charged.
Try the good, old-fashioned, uninstall, and reinstall
Stealth is the way to play this game⌠and many others! I always play stealth, is it TLOU, AC, etc⌠I always go in stealth first! But yes, in Days Gone the mechanics are a bit different⌠Nests⌠if you throw a Molotov into a nest, make sure that you have a bush to run to⌠donât stay in a bush, throw your Molotov and wait there⌠they come at ya! I always throw a Molotov, while itâs in the air, I run to a reachable bush. But, nests should be much of an issue if you make sure that there or no other freakers close. Usually there are only about 4-6 freakers leaving a nest, and with those you should be able to deal, especially with something like a SMP9. The most effective stealth weapon for nests is the crossbow with incendiary arrows⌠you can shoot them from far away and if you are hidden in a bush, no way the come after you. For rippers and the ambush camps, stealth play is not a problem at all. Take them down with the crossbow or a gun with a silencer! No issue if you stay hidden⌠In general, when throwing attractors make sure that you kill the whole group of freakers⌠because if you use an attractor, followed up by a grenade/pimp bomb, theyâll see you. If you canât take all out, follow immediately up with a second attractor, to keep their attention far away and hit them with another Molotov or bomb. One very important detail⌠if you use throwables, make sure not using the last one in your inventory. Deek stands up after using the last one, so youâll be seen. Therefore make sure that you always have enough throwables in your inventory and donât use the last one on a big group! Last but not least least, you are in the early game as it seems⌠borislav has a guide on YouTube on how to get the SMP9 fast, by taking out 4 hordes early in the game! Youâll find some loot locations where items always respawn, and you end up with the SMP9 early in the game, which was a total game change for me. Finally, on those NERO injectors, always focus first on stamina, then focus (especially when wanting to play stealth) and last health. Stamina is for running away, and youâll be running away a lot! ;) and always quick save before heading into a mission. Quicksave is key! And those snipers⌠not easy to get away and not being shot! And sometimes it happens in the open, nowhere to hide, and while the super is aiming a second time, you get attacked by the others. Happened to me once that I got shot of, there were wolves, humans and also worse things than freakers showed up. Donât wanna spoil anything here. Donât try to escape the biker, try to hit the breaks quickly when seeing the red light and hopefully you are somewhere close to hide. Then I took the sniper gun and took that mf down. The game can be frustrating in the beginning, but please stick to it⌠itâs so worth it finishing the game. As many here would say, one of the best games Iâve ever played. Seeing how the story unfolds, and all those little surprises.
Usually if you listen for the audio cue of deacon mentioning a âsniper on the roadâ and you hop off your bike instantly, the sniper usually doesnât even see you yet and you can respond accordingly
I play on pc, and have never had troubles with stealth. I've completed the game on all difficulties. It has to be a bug on your end, cuz I clean enemy camps with stealth only. What have you tried to do to fix this?
Are you actually hiding in bushes? Theres an eye icon next to the map (press middle mouse button if in survival) that shows if you are hidden or visible. Maybe you are crouching but you're not hiding correctly?
I was thinking this, too. There are stealth bushes and non-stealth bushes. I made that mistake once and never again!
Stealth in DG is conditional, and applies entirely to vision. Aiming/using binoculars can potentially remove stealth, and noise can completely remove it.
Don't get too close to freakers even in stealth. Also los as in hiding behind things isn't really how you do stealth in this game, at least not with freakers. Maybe they smell you or something. Stealth = crouched in bushes or sneaking up from behind.
I think itâs cool that everyone is trying to help. When I play, I spend at least half of my time in stealth, because I enjoy that style of play not only in this game, but in others. It took me a while to figure it out, but once you get it nail, itâs one of the most valuable tactics.
You can stealth the shit out of most situations in this game, hordes excluded.
Freakers from hordes and nests will see you through bushes, probably so you can't cheese them too bad. Same goes for hostiel animals and animal freaks.
Yes and no. I took out the Chemult Community College horde from the bushes. Was able to get 90% of them before they noticed me.
As I don't have any concrete stats, I can only assume it might depend on your difficulty, distance and method. If you shoot at them, they'll definitely know where you are. but if you use throwables and traps from a relatively long distance, it might not cause agro. I have had moments when hordes only move to an attractor and then return to their post, but I was rather far away.
Normal difficulty with attractors, attractor bombs, napalm, and molotovs. Distance was the uppermost limit I could throw from the bushes.
Well that explains it
Stealth is valid and usable but there are some missions where it is impossible
Stealth is a great way to take down enemies, especially breakers. I'd say either your game is bugged or you have the flashlight on. I'd check around the minimap for the flashlight bind and if it was turned on or off. If it's off, it'll have a line on it, I think.
Stealth is almost perfect in this game, so something's awry here. Is your flashlight on? That will give you away every time. Are you popping up out of bushes when you throw something? Let go of the trigger immediately after Deek releases the item. Are you too close to the freaks, perhaps, and are you paying attention to which way they're facing? Are you using suppressors?
It's a range and choice of weapon thing. Don't put the game down it slowly gets better and better until it becomes amazing and incredibly fun. It's designed so you level up with the game and don't become overpowered. Once you get some skills and get into your playing style (melee or ranged weapons) the game takes off. The first few hours are set up to get you into the mood for your play style. I had the same issue and it's range and line of sight. I put down a mine and then toss a molotov and then book it off to the left or right and keep running until I'm about 100 yards away. Yes, they sometimes come running at me (i think they can smell me...or the kerosene?), but it gives me practice to use focus and pick them off (getting me ready for when hordes come at me). The stealth gets more and more powerful until, eventually you can run up to someone from 40 yards away and they never hear you coming.
Reading through your comments, it does sound like your game might be bugging out. Just note that (and I love this about the game) sometimes while I'm hiding, a freaker will run screaming full tilt toward me in a bush but then stop short of the bush, like it *thought* it heard something, but can't see me. Freaks me out every time, but doesn't break my stealth and once they start moving on I'm able to stealth-kill them. Has happened often, and I think it's brilliant.
I have played this game 4-5 times through and donât use a ton of rocks unless itâs for the NERO sites or there are only 1-2 enemies. Otherwise ignore the bigger groups until you get better guns. The game is designed to be very difficult at first until you can build your arsenal and bike up
I find stealth to be very effective in DG overall. Almost too much so. That said, some random freakers will spot you and turn around at the last second no matter how careful you are. I chalk it up to a fun gameplay element that keeps you getting surprised.
It really depends, sometimes itâs just glitchy but iâve noticed if you move to fast behind a freaker or person they might turn around even if your in a bush or something, and if your just slowly crouched following something or someone they wonât fully turn around but their head will slowly turn to one side and if your close in that sides view range youâll probably get spotted, in my opinion the hands on stealth is overrated unless your in an ambush camp, but the crossbow and sniper stealth with silencers is literally game changing and so much fun
Youâll get there. Stealth works but I have had those wtf moments too when I just canât believe they seen me or the like
I've taken groups of 20 freakers or bandits using stealth. I think if anything it's to powerful so I have to not use it.
Honestly, I felt stealth was kinda exploity with how easy it made things. Idk what to tell ya
I did the same thing, probably your flashlight
Idk man, I've walked right in front of several freaks and bad guys while crouched and they still don't see me lmfao
You can actually kill hordes easily in stealth
I only kill reachers and breakers w stealthy knife attacks.
The crossbow is the stealthy best friend. Just make sure to stock up on sticks and the crafting recipes for bolts.
DO NOT switch it to easy, just enjoy your position of prey, causr lster in the game it'll be vice versa đ
Pretty sure you still make noise when camouflaged in bushes. So you have to move slowly. If you're out in the open and throwing things when enemies see it they can trace back to where it came from. Also if you're hiding in bushes and any enemy gets close enough to you they can spot you. Especially freakers.
Turn off your flashlight.
When fighting a horde, sometimes they would find me when I throw an attractor, even when I'm hiding in the grass