How do I hunt White Whales?

I just discovered a White Whale and decided to kill it, but not only does it do tons of damage to my rowboat, sometimes it even manages to flee.

What am I doing wrong?

Solution 1:

It took me a lot of tries to figure out how to hunt these whales effectively.

The reason the whale flees is because you are running out of harpoons. Yes, you have a limited supply of harpoons at your disposal; if you run out, you'll be forced to abort your hunt. So don't get too hasty, keep your calm and take your time to aim.

As for how to avoid getting damage from the whale:

The White Whale knows only 2 attack patterns, one of which is using its tail while your line is still attached. To prevent it from using its tail, you need to hit it soon after it lifts its tail. Take too long, and its tail will damage your boat, even if you managed to hit before its tail hits the water.

The White Whale uses its second pattern only after it manages to get rid of your line and after it submerges. It will emerge soon after, either right in front of your boat, or some distance away. When it appears right in front of your boat, that's when it's launching its attack. You have to hit it twice to prevent it from using that attack, so you should keep aiming towards the front of your boat while the whale is submerged, lest you have too little time to fire the second shot before its attack connects.

Before you go hunting for whales, I recommend you upgrade your harpoon storage to the maximum ( enabling you to carry 40 harpoons) and the harpoon strength to at least level 2. Rowboat armor is a fine idea as well, but if you're a skilled whaler, you'd probably be fine with a level 1 rowboat.

Solution 2:

The White Whale is the hardest of the harpooning targets. To hunt it you need to fully upgrade your rowboat, harpoon damage and no. of harpoons.

The White Whale deals a ton of damage so it's better if you take caution with each harpoon. Whenever the Whale is about to strike with it's tail immediately throw a harpoon at it, it will cause it to abandon the attack.

Be patient, never throw a harpoon aimlessly, whenever the reticule turns slightly dim it means it is on a target. Charge you harpoon and throw it then. The Whale only flees if you run out of harpoons so only throw it you know they will hit it.