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Blood hunting is an action that a commander can do in an owned province where they attempt to collect blood slaves at the cost of population and unrest. You cannot blood hunt in underwater provinces.
Blood hunting is the main way of obtaining blood slaves for blood rituals, unlike other paths of magic which rely on site searching for magic sites to produce a passive income of gems.
In order to successfully blood hunt in a province, a blood hunter must pass three successive checks, each of which can have no more than a 100% likelihood of success.
In order to find the final probability of a blood hunt succeeding, multiply the chance of each check succeeding together. For example, a commander blood hunting with a blood hunting level of 2 (1 plus a SDR) in a province with 6750 population and an unrest of 40 has a 70% × 90% × 90% = 56.7% chance of success. On the other hand, a commander with a blood hunting level of 3 in the same province would have a 100% × 90% × 90% = 81% chance of success.
The changes to blood hunting checks from Dominions 5 to Dominions 6 means that you now need a blood hunting level of 3 (3 or
2 plus a SDR) in order to maximize blood hunting success, compared to a blood hunting level of 2 in Dominions 5. The minimum population for maximizing blood hunting success has also increased from 5000 to 7500 population.
Following a successful blood hunt, the number of blood slaves found will be d6 + blood hunting level.
Magic site frequency also affects blood slaves found. Every increment of 5 above or below a magic site frequency of 50 will add or subtract an average of 0.5 blood slaves.2) Thus the default Early Age site frequency of 65 will produce an average of 1.5 more blood slaves per successful hunt than a game with a magic site frequency of 50. Note that in Middle Age, the default site frequency is 55, while in Late Age it is 45.
Lanka gains an additional slave per Turmoil scale in the province, or one less per Order scale.
The population loss from blood hunting is 10 × ((slaves found + 4) / 5, rounded down).
Whether successful or not, blood hunting produces unrest. If the blood hunt succeeds then unrest in the province will increase by d(slaves × 3 + 4). That is a random number between 1 and 3 times the number of blood slaves found, plus 4. If the blood hunter did not find and slaves then there is a d6 - 1 increase in unrest.
The reduction in unrest caused by units with reduces unrest tag can remove unrest before it impacts income unlike all other ways to reduce unrest. There are a limited number of units with this trait, notably Ind's Bishop Vicomtes and the Phlegran Priests of LA Phlegra. The amount of unrest reduction needed to sustainably hunt a province without hurting its income will depend on the number and quality of the blood hunters.
All magic paths can be "bootstrapped" into, starting off without access to the path and empowering, boosting, and summoning your way up to reasonable access to the path. Blood is a particularly easy path to bootstrap into because anyone can hunt for blood slaves, even if poorly. This can be especially significant for nations with unique blood rituals but no native blood mages e.g. Patala, Bandar Log.
Initial bootstrapping into blood can be done through a myriad of ways:
Regardless of the initial method, the goal is to produce at least one level 1 blood mage by which to gather more slaves to empower yet more blood mages with. Ideally this will also involve the use of a Sanguine Dowsing Rod.
Blood Hunting Analysis Dominions 6 - spreadsheet containing a comprehensive analysis of chances of blood hunting success in different conditions, patrol strength required to manage unrest, optimal number of blood hunters per province, etc.