Hello, fresh faced baby

Hm...this water glows. Better drink from it!

Little did the wolf know it was radioactive waste from a nearby power plant.

But yeah, that's uh, kinda all you can do. I will say that if you manage to latch onto a creature, sheer works best on predators and crush on herbivores. Lucky Feet can be used in battle, but only during certain times of the in-game year, at least from what I've noticed. Eventually there will be an icon below the explore page that shows the number of Lucky Feet that you have and if you want to use it during a fight.

Oh, and another little tip. When prompted, "Go West" and "follow the Rancid Scent" will always lead you to meat chunks. Not only is this a good way to keep your pack fed early on if you're having a hard time hunting, it gives you more food to sell to the racoon. Selling my extra food to them is one of the easier ways I make sc in the game.

This is how the wolf gets mutated into monstrous dire wolves 2.0 lol

I will keep the sheer and crush thing in mind since I was just clicking those at random too. That is a really helpful tip. And that would be an excellent change honestly.

I always thought the north vs west was going to be random, but the rancid scent was something I just learned. I was thinking "Man, this will lead me to a skunk with my luck." but finally curiosity took the best of me. 

I would take me for a blank slate tbh if you have any other hints too, I'm really appreciating all the info tbh. 

Something you'll learn very quickly is that the explore options are very predictable, even when "random". For example, dig is random in that it will give you a random amount of sc, a lucky foot, or item such as a bone, a shell, or an owl talon. Some buttons will never be random though. Following a sweet scent will always lead you to a wolf that you can befriend.

As for other hints, here are some of the things I've learned.

1. Certain roles give more experience than others. Scouting will yield you the most experience with hunting in second and the herbologist and pupsitter roles being incredibly slow. The pupsitter role is the absolute worst in terms of experience gain.

2. When you do unlock herbologist, make sure to have lots of open wound salves. It's the most common ailment to have and will usually occur on your hunters. Having a steady supply is a good idea, once you are able to.

3. It's better to treat an illness rather than ignore it. While some will go away on their own, there are others that can spread very quickly and can even kill your wolves if left untreated.

4. Early on I recommend using your acorns on only the blue jay or the opossum. The blue jay will give you good amusement items and the opossum will give you acorn based decors. Once you've collected all the recipe decors you can sell extras to the raccoon shop for 10sc each, which is pretty big considering they're easy to get and not worth much in the trading center. most folks wont buy them since they are so easy to find.

5. Hunting is going to be rough your first week or so! You've probably noticed they fail more often than not. This is normal. There are a few things that help increase your chances. Your hunting party will have a proficiency that can only be raised by hunting. The higher it is, the better. Personality types are important as some personalities get along better with others. You can pay the personality snake to check out your party to see if there are any problems or look up a guide. Another factor is the wolves stats. High stated wolves are more likely to be better at hunting and certain stats are better for certain roles. A finisher should have a high strength stat, chasers high speed and agility, and staler wisdom and smarts. These stats will increase as well as hunting has a chance to give them a point in these desired stats. The type of prey determines how easy it will be to hunt them. The larger the prey, the harder the hunt, so early on it's better to stick to smaller scent trails.During the winter expect things to get rough. Even the most skilled hunting party will have a hard time collecting food.

6. There are way more tips I can give you, but the biggest and most important one is to play in the way YOU like. Never let someone convince you you're "playing the game wrong". These are generally tips that work for me, but you will probably come up with your own stuff that fit your play-style. Some people focus on lore, some people like to challenge themselves by avoiding inbreeding or playing their pack as though they were real wolves. Some people like to keep up with the trends to have the wolves with rare bases and markings while others hunt for mutations. You play in the way that will make you happy and you'll probably have fun on here. :)

Turning back is a good idea, at least until your wolf hits level ten. If you try to face the threat you'll go into a tough wolf fight.
There is a lot more to the game. I would recommend going to the community guides and finding the "Grouse Guides" as they are the best ones in terms of information. You can find ones on hunting, breeding, exploring, and so on.

Also, I wanted to send you a little starter gift! I tried sending it a few days ago but wasn't sure if you'd seen the message. You should get a notification when you do. It's some stuff that should help out in these earlier times. :)

Sorry, I poofed for a bit due to a bunch of adulting things. (I am moving soon!)

Daaang, noted. I'll have to grind that hard then. And I will def poke at the guide. It is super helpful! 

And I super appreciate all the help! It's so nice.