Permafrost Hunting Guide: Every Animal, HP, Drops & What to Craft From Pelts

Meat keeps you fed, Animal Fat becomes Oil, Candles and Treated Hide, and pelts are the only route to Cloth without looting rags. Permafrost's 12 huntable animals range from a 1-HP Rabbit to a 1200-HP boss Bear, and every one of them has a fixed drop table rather than random loot. Here is what each animal gives, what it takes to kill, and what to do with the hide.

Every animal: HP, damage, drops

Bows vs firearms for hunting

Some quick arithmetic with the data: a Simple Bow needs one body shot on a Red Deer (120 vs 100 HP), two on a Boar or Moose (180 HP), three on a Bison (270) or Muskox (360) and five on a Bear. A Compound Bow headshot deals 300. The craftable Mrozny 91 bolt-action does 210 per shot (420 to the head) and the looted BA-37 270. Compare any two weapons on the compare tool and see the full weapons list.

Traps and the Skinning skill

• Rabbit Trap — 2 Wood + 1 Rope at the Crafting Bench. 'Takes time and the right place, but gets the job done.' Also unlocks the Trapper achievement.
• Trap Bow — 4 Wood + 1 Simple Bow + 1 Rope. 'Requires less effort in hunting, but the results won't be immediate.'
• Under Snow Trap — 1 Quality Metal + 1 Components. 'Hidden deep in the snow, awaiting unsuspecting prey.'
• Rat Cage — 2 Quality Metal + 1 Components, hand-crafted. Catches rats for Meat.
• Skinwalker at Hunter's Glade sells 5 Rabbit Traps, 5 Under Snow Traps and 5 Trap Bows alongside Simple Bows and 100 Wooden Arrows.

The Skinning skill (cap 50) shortens skinning time by 1% per level and levels every time you skin a carcass; the Tracker specialization starts with +1 Skinning, +1 Bows and +1 Knives. Knives matter because the shiv is your skinning tool — the Knives skill cuts its durability loss by 0.5% per level, and the quest Horizon's Kitchen and Skinwalker's hunting challenges in the Woods ("Wabbit" Season, Oh, Deer, On Boar'd, The Muskox, UnBear-able) are structured around hunting one species at a time. All 16 skills are on the skills page.

From pelt to clothing

1. 1
   Build a Tanning Rack

   15 Wood + 3 Deer Pelt, 2 blueprint points — so your first three deer go into the rack itself.

2. 2
   Tan the pelt

   Any pelt + 2 Animal Fat → 1 Treated Hide (Hare Pelt needs 2 pelts). Every animal except Rabbit, Rat and Fox drops 3–4 Animal Fat, so one deer tans its own hide with fat to spare.

3. 3
   Cut Cloth

   1 Treated Hide → 3 Cloth at the Tanning Rack. Cloth is in almost every clothing recipe (a Permafrost Jacket needs 18).

4. 4
   Craft at the Tailoring Bench

   Hybrid set pieces use Treated Hide directly (Jacket: 11 Cloth + 5 Treated Hide, 32 insulation); the Tribal and Moon Cult sets add Bones (Tribal Jacket: 8 Cloth + 6 Bones + 2 Treated Hide); the Survivor's set uses raw Deer Pelt.

5. 5
   Wear the trophy

   Bear Head Hat (4 Cloth + 2 Bear Pelt), Fox Head Hat (4 Cloth + 4 Fox Pelt) and Wolf Head Hat (4 Cloth + 4 Wolf Pelt) each give 35 insulation — the warmest cheap headgear before the Utility and Military hats.