I recently came across this game 'Hungry Wolves' on Qitan Dimension, free of charge, and it can run on Android 5.0. I tried it on my old phone, and once I started playing, I got hooked. 🐺 To give the conclusion first: this game doesn't have a forced path, but if you want to speedrun and quickly become the leader of the wolf pack, there are several key decision points you must get right.
Let's start with the core gameplay. You play as a wolf, hunting, leveling up, unlocking skills, and developing personality traits in an open map. Attributes are divided into five categories: strength, speed, endurance, stealth, and intelligence. Each level up grants 3 attribute points. The skill tree is divided into three branches: hunting, combat, and social. The main game modes are Hunting Mode (free exploration + fighting monsters) and Survival Mode (with hunger and thirst). Speedruns usually go through Hunting Mode because experience comes faster.
I compared three files and found that the initial wolf types have a huge impact on speedrunning. Grey Wolves start with 5 Strength and 4 Stamina, suitable for direct fights; Black Wolves start with 6 Stealth and 4 Intelligence, suitable for ambushes; Jackals start with 6 Speed and 3 Strength, suitable for kiting. For speedrunning, Black Wolves are the first choice because high stealth allows you to bypass early elites that you can't defeat and directly steal experience. 😎
Don't wander around at the start. Head straight to the abandoned farm in the southeast corner of the map, where 3 mice spawn every 30 seconds. Each gives 5 experience, and the mice won't fight back. You can farm them safely using normal attacks at the barn door. It takes about 8 minutes to reach level 3, unlocking your first key skill, 'Sprint.' With Sprint, immediately go to the grasslands to catch rabbits. Rabbits give 8 experience but are fast. The trick is not to chase them in a straight line—cut diagonally to predict their turns. Sprint + pounce basically always hits. I tested it, and going from level 3 to 5 only takes 12 minutes.
Level 5 is a turning point and unlocks 'Intimidate.' At this point, don't rush to fight the big monsters. First, look for lone low-level wolf packs (at the edges of the forest in the middle of the map) and use Intimidate to scare them off. You'll be able to collect the food they drop and gain a small amount of experience. Repeat this several times to build your Strength up to 10. Each point of Strength increases bite damage by about 2.5%. With 10 Strength, you can kill a rabbit in one hit and a fox in two. It's recommended to raise Stamina to 8; otherwise, your stamina bar will run out quickly while chasing prey, which is very inconvenient. There's no need to deliberately increase Speed, as it can be supplemented with equipment and skills.
Around level 10, you can go to the rocky area in the northwest corner of the map, where a fixed elite old fox spawns. Killing it gives 200 experience. But if you can't fight it head-on, I figured out a positioning trick: lure the old fox into the gap between two large rocks. Its body is too big to get in, and you can attack it from outside using Bite. Note that when its health drops below 30%, it will summon two small foxes. At this time, use Sprint to quickly kill the small foxes first, then turn back to finish the old fox. One round takes about 40 seconds, and the experience efficiency is three times higher than farming mice.
Additionally, there is a hidden mechanic in the game: watching ads gives you a double experience buff that lasts for 30 minutes. It's a must for speedruns—30 seconds for half an hour of double experience, extremely cost-effective. No charge, ads are the only monetization, which is acceptable. 💡
Personality development also has its nuances. Choosing a 'aggressive' personality gives +5% attack, but social affection decreases by 10%, affecting your ability to recruit wolf pack members. For speedrunning, it is recommended to raise aggression to level 10 first, then reset points to change to 'leader', because being a leader requires the support of the wolf pack. Point reset items can be bought in the shop with gold, which is earned by selling fur, so stock up on fur early on.
Let's talk about the downsides. In the later stages, the game becomes highly repetitive; after reaching level 20, it's basically just repeated hunting and leveling up. The AI can sometimes be stupid; prey can get stuck in trees, and wolf pack members may circle around in place. But as a free-to-play mini-game, these flaws don't overshadow the positives. It runs on Android 5.0 and is fairly well optimized; my old phone didn't get very hot.
Final summary of the speedrun route: Start with the black wolf, farm mice to level 3, prairie rabbits to level 5, scare wolves in the forest to stack strength to 10, block positions in the rocky area to kill the old fox, watch ads for double rewards, challenge the wolf pack leader at level 15. My fastest time was 11 hours to go from cub to wolf king, and I even slept in between. 😴 If you also want to avoid detours, follow this route, and you basically won't get stuck. If you have any questions, ask in the comments, and I'll reply when I see them. 🐺⚡