Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Stop Bleeding | How blood loss works and how to prevent it

Of all the threats in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, none is so urgent as bleeding. Blood loss will be the number one killer in the game aside from old age. Because of this mechanic, it can take only minutes for a whole tribe to be eliminated entirely.

Learning to stop bleeding is absolutely essential to surviving in Ancestors. If you can’t stop your clan’s bleeding, then they’ll certainly die. We’ll show you how to prevent blood loss below by finding a certain, very valuable item.

How does blood loss work in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey?

First of all, we need to talk about blood loss as a mechanic in Ancestors. This status effect will cause a constant vitality drop over time. Attacks from wildlife will cause bleeding, and if an animal so much as scrapes a clan member they’ll start spurting blood.

There are varying degrees of bleeding, which is indicated by the visual appearance of your tribe. The more a member of your clan is attacked, the more mauled they’ll look, and the more severe the bleed effect will be. A light scrape might take several days to completely drain vitality, while multiple hits might cause enough blood loss to kill you in minutes.

Bleeding is the only status effect which is permanent until you heal it. You can’t wait it out like you can with a broken bone or poison. If one of your tribe is bleeding, the only eventuality is death unless you cure it. Blood loss is especially hard on elderly clan members as their vitality is already lower than an adults by default. Fortunately, children are not affected by the bleed effect by being mauled, so you don’t have to worry about them after an attack.

How do you stop bleeding in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey?

As stated above, bleeding is the one detrimental status effect that doesn’t go away on its own in Ancestors. Instead, you have to seek out an item and use it to stop blood loss.

Fortunately, the item you need is relatively common; in fact, it grows on trees. You’ll need to use your intelligence and scan the trees for Kapok Fiber. This grows high up and can be applied to your clan members’ bodies to stop bleeding instantly. It looks a bit like a coconut with the husk still on it and will remain one of the most critical resources from the beginning to the end of the game.

One important thing to note is that you can’t really trust a clan member to apply Kapok Fiber if you hand it to them. Sometimes they’ll be bleeding like a sieve, and you give it to them, and they’ll just stand there. Unfortunately, if you then switch to them to apply it, it’ll disappear. If a clan member you’re not currently controlling is bleeding, you’re best off dropping the Kapok Fiber, switching to them, and applying it yourself.

As I continued playing the game, I found that building a large cache of Kapok Fiber at each settlement is the way to go. Especially early in the game, before your dodge and attack neuronals get developed, having Kapok Fiber on hand can mean the difference between success and failure for your tribe. It doesn’t take very long to do since Kapok Trees are so common, and you’ll be thankful when a string of tigers attacks one after the other, and you don’t have to panic and leave your tribe to gather Kapok Fiber.

How do you prevent the bleeding status effect in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey?

You know how to stop blood loss in Ancestors now, but what if you could prevent it altogether? Well, there’s not a permanent solution that will stop bleeding indefinitely. However, you can buff yourself to avoid the bleeding effect for a short period.

By using Kapok Fiber on a clan member when they’re not currently bleeding, you’ll add a buff that prevents blood loss. The more Kapok Fiber you use, the longer the buff will last.

More Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a third-person open world survival game where you Explore, Expand, and Evolve to advance your clan to the next generation in this exhilarating new adventure from the creator of Assassin’s Creed.

Embark on the most incredible odyssey known to humankind: human evolution. Spanning from 10 million to 2 million years ago, begin your journey, before us, in Neogene period Africa. Explore a beautiful yet ruthless world, from swinging through tree branches in the jungle to stalking prey across the golden savannah grasslands. Decide what attributes to learn and hone in order to pass down knowledge to future generations, from crafting tools to enhancing evasive tactics against predators. Just like real life, make sure to eat, drink, and sleep to stay alive and have the energy to face any danger that may come your way.

Grow your clan and find strength in numbers as you progress through critical evolutionary stages of human evolution. Your choices will write your clan’s story and determine if you can survive your evolution.