Deer Hunter 2014: A guide to platinum eagles, Dayong, Yellow River and Isle of Thule

“A wounded deer leaps the highest.” —Emily Dickinson

The last time I wrote about Deer Hunter 2014, it was April, and there was a pile of exams, plus an iOS presentation on the table. This was well before I beat Ace Combat: Assault Horizons and BioShock Infinite, and before the Mobile Suit: Gundam Unicorn finale came out. However, even though it’s been some three months since then, it appears that searches are still pouring in about Deer Hunter: 2014‘s platinum eagles and hidden regions. In fact, this post has been topping the charts for quite some time now on search engines, implying that people are still interested in the game. Thus, to help those who are still wondering about how all of this stuff works, I will go into greater depth as to how these things are unlocked. I will also remind readers that this talk specifically is intended for those running Deer Hunter: 2014 on iOS.

• Before delving into  questions surrounding platinum eagles, I’ll take a few moments to consider the Dayong region, which definitely is one of the most spectacular regions to date: I find myself impressed with the scenery, which includes a verdant bamboo forest, autumn hills and a karst field by nightfall. Moving on to the actual discussion at hand, I imagine that the first question is what the platinum eagles are. They were introduced a while back, and are a special kind of currency used to purchase and upgrade special weapons, usually in the bow class.

• How does one acquire platinum eagles? In the standard regions, there are bow and crossbow challenges that can be completed to accumulate platinum eagles. Completing missions in the standard regions also allow for rare hunts to be opened. Rare hunts yield platinum eagles, as well as some special items on occasions. In the hidden regions, the standard missions, trophy hunts and rare hunts give platinum eagles upon successful completion, while the contract hunts yield standard in-game money.

• To unlock the hidden regions, once must acquire all of the map pieces. There are several ways to collect map pieces: finishing the bow and crossbow challenges, as well as rare hunts. In the case of the latter, rare hunts only occasionally yield map pieces, so a bit of patience is required to gather everything. There is no need to spend gold to recharge more quickly.

• Once all of the map pieces are obtained, the maps will automatically unlock. Like the conventional regions, the trophy hunts for one region will need to be completed before the subsequent regions will unlock. These missions will occasionally require weapon upgrades before they can be attempted; said upgrades cost platinum eagles.

• Those who find themselves short on platinum eagles should complete contract hunts to re-open the rare hunts. Be aware that the rare hunts can be completed in full, although there are sufficient rare hunts to allow for one to replenish their platinum eagles quite quickly.

• The above should address all of the queries surrounding the platinum eagle currency. Now that I’ve unlocked the Isle of Thule, the mystical landscape of tundra evoke a Nordic feeling to it. There are fine details in some of the maps, one of which features a glowing stone with runes on it. These maps require bows to participate in, but those having trouble with the bow’s mechanics can equip a bow and then use their preferred weapons for the hunt.

• Crossbows are heavier hitting and have less stealth compared to the bows, but the second crossbow is magazine-fed and comes with a default of an eight-round magazine. There was a bug in earlier iterations of the game where aiming down the sights was not possible because the scene was obstructed by the scope’s view model, but that appears to have been fixed now.

• The aurora on some of the night missions is a particularly nice touch. At the time of writing, I have yet to finish the trophy hunts in this hidden region, mainly because I’ve been engrossed in Deus Ex: Human Revolutions. I anticipate having a talk on that out quite soon, and regular programming will resume shortly.

• Ordinarily, I would not have included a talk on region 12, but I was offered a Rohman Shepherd for 89 gold. This is a gold-only weapon that ordinarily sells for 1200 gold (roughly 50.00 USD), and as a semi-automatic rifle, has an exceptional firing rate and short reload time. For those wondering, no, I did not spend anything to get at it. A substantial amount of progress can be made in Deer Hunter: 2014 without spending anything, although as I’ve been playing for a half-year now, I can attest that this game does require a fair amount of patience.

• Having a semi-automatic rifle makes Deer Hunter 2014 a little too easy, and even though the weapon will become obsolete when region 13 comes out, it’s quite entertaining to have a high-powered weapon with a reasonably high firing rate and versatility that makes all missions trivially easy.

Thus ends another talk on Deer Hunter: 2014, which should answer all queries about the new hidden regions and platinum eagles. These can be unlocked without much difficulty, but it is a somewhat time-consuming process. Given Glu Games’ typical release pattern, it is quite reasonable to surmise that a future iteration of Deer Hunter could be released by October or so, which means that there will be at least two more new regions to be unlocked in the future. I am quite happy to take questions if I missed anything, but otherwise, it’s time for me to redirect my attention back to the summer 2014 anime and Deus Ex: Human Revolutions.