How to Get Diamonds in Call of the Wild — The Complete Diamond Hunting Guide

A diamond is the top normal trophy medal in theHunter: Call of the Wild, and the main reason people put hundreds of hours into the game. It isn’t luck alone. Diamonds follow rules: the animal’s level, its trophy rating, the ammo you use and how cleanly you kill it. This guide covers how each of those works, how to grind a population efficiently, and species-specific tips for the animals people chase most — including the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and the Side-striped Jackal.

What Makes a Diamond

Trophy Rating (TR) is the measured value of the trophy: antlers, horns, tusks or skull. For species without a trophy, such as foxes, jackals and many birds, it is based on weight. Each species has medal thresholds, and a diamond is roughly the top 10% of the species’ possible TR. You can see the exact threshold by hovering over the rating on the harvest screen. The threshold for every species is on our animals page.

Fur colour doesn’t change the score. A rare fur on a diamond is a separate bonus — players call it a “super rare”.

Difficulty Levels: Only Max-Level Animals Make Diamonds

Every animal spawns at a level from 1 Trivial to 9 Legendary, and Great Ones are 10 Fabled. Each species has its own cap, and diamonds come from animals at — or occasionally one below — that cap. That one fact saves more time than anything else in this guide. If the animal in your binoculars isn’t at its species’ max level, keep looking.

For Great One species the cap is shown as Fabled (10). Their regular diamonds still come from the highest normal level.

The Harvest Check: Don’t Lose Your Diamond

When you harvest an animal, the game runs a four-part check. Each failed part drops the medal one level, so a diamond-scoring animal can come home gold, or worse. Toggle the parts below to see what happens.

Some gamebirds — pheasant, quail and ptarmigan — must also be shot in the air. A sitting shot loses the medal.

Need Zones: Where and When to Look

Every herd moves between feed (green), drink (blue) and rest (yellow) zones at set in-game times. Need zones are where diamond hunting happens. You can check dozens of animals at a drink zone in one window, and judge each one before you shoot.

• Find several zones for your species, so you can rotate between them.
• Drink zones are the best “inspection” spots — animals come out into the open near water.
• Hunting pressure deletes zones. Shooting more than about three animals in one place with a gun can make nearby zones disappear. Blinds, stands and bows raise that limit a lot.
• Don’t fire at other species during your target’s window. Gunfire spooks animals for hundreds of metres.

Each need-zone clock below shows one species’ published schedule on its signature reserve.

Grinding a Population: The Odds

Every animal you harvest is replaced by a new one, usually of the same sex, and the replacement’s level is rolled fresh. That’s why “grinding” works. Each kill of the right sex is another roll of the dice for a max-level, diamond-scoring animal. Community estimates put the odds somewhere around 0.5–2% of correct-sex kills for most species. Set your own odds below.

The grinding routine that works:

1. Map three or more need zones for your species on one reserve.
2. Take every non-diamond animal of the target sex in the window, using the right ammo. Each one is a fresh roll.
3. Rotate zones and rest each one for a few in-game days, so you don’t delete it with hunting pressure.
4. Use blinds, tree stands, tripods or a bow to cut pressure and kill more per zone.
5. Check levels before you shoot. With the Spotting Knowledge skill you see an estimated TR range — skip anything that can’t reach the threshold.
6. Bank the payouts. Grinding properly pays well, so it funds the DLC rifles and gear you’ll want next.

Some players also thin out low-level animals to “manage the herd”. Whether that improves your odds is disputed in the community — the replacement roll is what matters.

Great Ones

Great Ones are fabled, level-10 animals with unique trophies and fabled furs, available for Black Bear, Fallow Deer, Gray Wolf, Jaguar, Moose, Mule Deer, Red Deer, Red Fox, Ring-Necked Pheasant, Roe Deer, Tahr, Whitetail Deer, Wild Boar. How they spawn isn’t officially documented. The developer has said that resetting a population doesn’t remove Great One progress, which points to hidden, per-reserve progress that builds as you harvest that species. In practice: pick one reserve and grind that species there, harvesting the target sex, and the Great One eventually appears. Community terms like “harvest checklist” and “tipping point” describe this process, but they aren’t official.

Species-by-Species Diamond Tips

Thresholds and times shown in the cards come from community data and change with patches. Where sources disagree we say so, and the in-game hover value on the harvest screen is the final word. Callers marked "verify" haven't been confirmed against the current store.

Skills and Perks Worth Taking First

• Spotting Knowledge (Ambusher tree): shows the estimated weight and TR range when you spot an animal — the single most useful skill for diamond hunting.
• Track Knowledge (Stalker tree): estimates weight, sex and even fur from tracks, so you can follow only the animals worth following.
• Improvised Blind and Soft Feet: get closer without spooking the zone.
• Steady Hands and Breath Control: longer, steadier shots at drink zones.

Common Diamond Mistakes

1. Shooting before checking the level. If it isn’t the species’ max level, it won’t be a diamond.
2. Over-gunning small animals. A .300 on a jackal fails the ammo check and turns your diamond gold.
3. Head shots on trophy species. The skull is the trophy organ for most animals.
4. Burning out a zone. Six rifle kills in one spot can wipe the need zones you spent hours finding.
5. Chasing a spooked animal. Let it settle, or move to your next zone and come back.

See every species’ threshold on the animals page, the right load for each class on the weapons page, and quick answers in the FAQ.