Wildlife photography arrived with the Wildlife Update on September 22, 2026. Outbound has no hunting and no way to harm an animal, so the camera is how you collect wildlife: photograph a species clearly enough and it is logged in its own tab of the journal. There are 34 species in total, spread across The Outdoors, The Coast, the Canyons and the Mountains.
Getting the Photo Camera
Drive to the Wildlife Outpost, a location added to the first biome by the Wildlife Update.
Take the Photo Camera blueprint from the outpost's download.
Craft the camera from 3x Scrap Metal, like any other tool.
Tool | Tier | Crafting Cost | Unlocked By |
|---|---|---|---|
Photo Camera | 1 | 3x Scrap Metal | Photo Camera download at the Wildlife Outpost |
Scrap Metal is one of the earliest resources in the game, so the camera is cheap enough to pick up on a new save as soon as the outpost is reached. It is listed with the other handheld tools.
Camera Settings and Saving Photos
The camera offers Exposure or Brightness, Depth of Field focus points, Saturation, Contrast and Zoom. On a controller the official screenshots show Take Photo, Close, Reset values and a Toggle Depth of Field button, with a zoom slider on the triggers. When an animal is detected, a small animal icon lights up in the corner of the viewfinder.
After each shot the game shows the finished photo and asks whether to also save it as a screenshot. On PC every photo goes to the hard drive and to your Steam library; the console patch notes say snapshots are saved directly to the console's library.
Filling the Frame
A photo only counts once the animal fills a minimum share of the picture, and that bar is set per species. Large animals such as deer and rabbits need about 1% of the frame, while distant or tiny subjects such as hawks and fireflies register at a hundredth of a percent. If a shot does not log the species, zoom in or move closer rather than retaking it from the same spot.
Share of Frame Needed | Species |
|---|---|
1% | Brown Rabbit, Black Rabbit, White Rabbit, Brown Deer, Black Deer, Blue, Green, Orange and White Butterflies, Capybara, Crab, Blue Crab, Male Duck, Female Duck, Flamingo |
0.5% | Red Fox, Grey Fox, Heron, Exotic Heron, Migrating Ducks, Dolphin |
0.3% | Meerkat, Green Turtle, Orange Turtle |
0.2% | Green Gecko, Red Gecko, Purple Gecko, Caveglimmer |
0.1% | Crow, Oakrobin, Red Robin, Seagull |
0.01% | Hawk, Fireflies |
All 34 Species by Biome
The journal files every species under one biome. That is a category rather than a fence: crows perch across the whole map, and the robins share their perches with crows and seagulls. The names below are descriptive. The journal itself uses more playful names for several species, for example Hazeldeer for the brown deer, Flametail Fox for the red fox, Butterflake for the orange butterflies and Roseplume Flamingo for the flamingo.
Journal Biome | Species | Count |
|---|---|---|
Brown Rabbit, Brown Deer, Crow, Red Fox, Heron, Oakrobin, Blue Butterflies, Orange Butterflies, White Butterflies, Migrating Ducks, Caveglimmer, Fireflies | 12 | |
Black Rabbit, Male Duck, Female Duck, Grey Fox, Flamingo, Seagull, Crab, Dolphin | 8 | |
Canyons | Green Gecko, Red Gecko, Red Robin, Hawk, Exotic Heron, Orange Turtle, Meerkat | 7 |
Mountains | White Rabbit, Black Deer, Green Butterflies, Purple Gecko, Blue Crab, Green Turtle, Capybara | 7 |
Binoculars
The static binoculars that were already placed at viewpoints around the world became usable with the Wildlife Update. Look through them to scan distant ground before you have the camera's zoom, and once the Photo Camera is crafted the binoculars can take pictures as well. They are a good way to log far-off or shy subjects such as hawks, dolphins and flamingos.
Tips
Get the camera early. It costs only 3x Scrap Metal, and every animal you pass on the way to other goals can then be logged.
Some species are scarce. Dolphins have only a handful of spots along the coast, and the ducks on The Coast and the blue crab in the Mountains are similarly rare, so check shorelines and lakes carefully.
Migrating Ducks have no fixed spot in the world, so keep the camera ready whenever a flock passes over the first biome.
Fireflies and the Caveglimmer each have only about a dozen spots or fewer in the first biome, which makes them two of the last entries many players fill.
Birds perch on shared spots, so the same branch or post can hold a crow, a robin or a seagull on different visits.
Animals cannot be harmed or scared into danger, so there is no penalty for getting close. Walk right up if a shot keeps failing to register.
Patches 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 stopped the R key from opening the camera while rotating a build piece or marking down a task, so update the game if the camera keeps popping up.
Achievements
Photography has no Steam achievement of its own. The Wildlife Update added none, and as of October 13, 2026 the game still has 32 in total; see the Achievement Guide.