The Hunter: Call of the Wild - Money, XP, and Ammo Classes: How It Works

Money, XP, and Ammo Classes: System Explanation

The mechanics are intentionally obscured, but from what I can tell, the subsequent downgrade of trophy quality (from diamond to gold, gold to silver, etc.) from using improper ammo is what results in lesser experience and money rewarded, and it’s significant. I’d say it’s closer to 25-30% reduction at each decrement. They will never let you get away with just a 5% penalty, that’s for sure.

I believe that penalty also carries over to the weapon-specific score you get, so your progression in the weapon categories will be slower also.

If you need to use improper ammo, try to do the following:

Use the expense-free .243 soft-tipped ammo so you only profit from the kill.
Lean toward overpowered ammo, as long as it’s not too expensive, because the animal will die more quickly, which is another thing that you are scored on.

If you use the wrong ammunition, you fail the harvest check – that will reduce the trophy score and the trophy medal by one level. It does reduce the amount of money paid out, and the XP+weapons score as well. Alas, I don’t know the percentages, as I’ve never kept track – a rough guess would be in the 20-30% less cash range.

As a general rule, don’t intentionally break the harvest check rules:

Many missions state that you must pass the harvest check to complete their objectives.
If you care about high-value trophies, then you have to pass the harvest check to get the full value.
Of course, it’s possible to make a mistake – you might select the wrong weapon from your quick-access wheel without realizing it.

Although the game doesn’t prevent you from doing this, it does cost you. Everything in the store is outrageously expensive, so it’s best to maximize your cash reward for a hunt.

If you are still leveling up in XP, Skills, Perks and weapons scores, then it’s in your best interest to maximize your progress.

There are situations where you might have to break the rules, though:

You are being attacked by an aggressive animal, and you have little opportunity to change weapons. Even if you have the right weapon in hand, it might take 3 or more shots to kill the animal, and you may not even hit a vital organ. One example that comes to mind: you are surrounded by a pack of wolves and you get into a firefight with them – they are relentless, and you’ll be lucky to survive – it’s great fun! If you are in wolf country, get the Davani 10mm semi-auto pistol (it has a 15 round magazine).
You are on a mission that specifies a weapon/ammunition class to hunt a particular species, even though it doesn’t match the species class. In this case, you’d fail the harvest check, and sacrifice a trophy level, but the mission rewards compensate for the loss – just don’t hunt a high-difficulty animal on those missions – stick to the 1’s and 2’s.

At the end of the day, you can play the game as you like. If you are participating in a multiplayer hunt, the host may have set objectives and rules of engagement that you are expected to follow.