How do I hunt?

[Kriis]

I'm brand new to the game and basically have no clue as to what I am doing. I want to specialize in hunting but I don't know how. I tried to punch a badger earlier and it went horribly.

What stats should I focus on?
What food should I eat to obtain proper points?
What creature is the best to hunt for a beginner?

[Teleskop]

depends if you want to fight melee or use a bow or sling

if melee then you will need some more practice
focus on strenght constitution agillity unarmed combat and melee combat
start practicing on ants

if bow or sling
focus on perception and marksmanship
try to block small animal like a fox or mouflon on the water and then pew pew them

either of the ways will be quite difficult for you on the beggining so just stay away from aggresive animals (bears mamooths boars and badgers) for now and hunt passive animals like rabbits or chickens
sometimes you can find a corpse of fox killed by badger or vice versa or some animals left by high level players

[Popo13]

There is a lack of beginner advice for combat (hunting) at the moment due to the recent patch and the relative age of the world, however:

Sticky'd at the top of the "How do I" board, is a good series of guides that covers a lot of topics that a new player should care about. The beginner guide by Sevenless in particular walks you through the early stages of the game quite nicely, with a section (Blood in the Water) on combat. Here is the link to his guide:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=40714

That being said, we've been through a few tweaks and a major combat patch since then, so the system itself you will find is different, but I think you can still make sense of it. The specifics you are looking for are still consistent, and the rough targets for stats in the guide are still close (always err on the side of safety, in my opinion).

The guides will also help proactively answer future questions you're sure to have. Without further ado, here are the answers for your specific questions:

What stats should I focus on? If you care solely about hunting, then STR and AGI should be your focus. AGI affects the amount of time between your (and your opponent's) attacks. STR affects the amount of damage you deal. Aside from stats, you'll also want to level the Unarmed Combat proficiency, or "UA".

What food should I eat to obtain proper points? Zebratul has a great guide on eating, as well. Beginner AGI and STR food aren't great (most forageables give you a lot of hunger per FEP), but Ant Soldiers are great for STR, and Ant Larvae are good for AGI, both of which can be raided from ant hills (with or without fighting the ants, first. This is also covered in the beginner guide, I believe). Rat-on-a-Stick is a solid starting STR food as well.

What creature is the best to hunt for a beginner? Ants. Target them with the "Attack" command to fight them one at a time (raiding their hill will aggro them all simultaneously). I'd recommend having at least 10 points in UA. Ants now have an attack that deals HHP (hard hit points) that will take some time to heal, so the more UA you have the less you'll have to heal before fighting more.

[iamahh]

in my experience it took a while to start fighting even ants... the order is ants, bats, fox, etc... badger is a bit strong early on... i usually focus farming and walls first, so you can afford some food variety and leather for armor...

also very important to find a decent Realm to live on... early on any bonus is good, but some realms are giving a lot

[Flyrella]

Also it depends on what tactic you want to use. If you dont want to fight but need meat/hides/bones, you can safely shoot animals using bow and being in the boat. Attack them being in the deep water 2-3 tiles away from the shallow, then aim and shoot when the aiming bar is almost full.

Stats: 10-20 Marksmanship, q 10 bow and q10 bone arrow would allow you to kill foxes most of the time. Be aware that arrow q would softcap animals q (hide and meat at least). Also, you would need a boat and some stats allowing you to craft good quality bow and arrows (dexterity, carpentry and marksmanship for the bow, dexterity and survival for arrows).

[MrPunchers]

Also it depends on what tactic you want to use. If you dont want to fight but need meat/hides/bones, you can safely shoot animals using bow and being in the boat. Attack them being in the deep water 2-3 tiles away from the shallow, then aim and shoot when the aiming bar is almost full.

Stats: 10-20 Marksmanship, q 10 bow and q10 bone arrow would allow you to kill foxes most of the time. Be aware that arrow q would softcap animals q (hide and meat at least). Also, you would need a boat and some stats allowing you to craft good quality bow and arrows (dexterity, carpentry and marksmanship for the bow, dexterity and survival for arrows).

Arrow q only caps Hide q, not meat.

[Flyrella]

Arrow q only caps Hide q, not meat.

Oh ok, I thought only bones are not affected but I probably messed it up with the sharp tool capping.
Thanks for the correction.

[MagicManICT]

What stats should I focus on? If you care solely about hunting, then STR and AGI should be your focus. AGI affects the amount of time between your (and your opponent's) attacks. STR affects the amount of damage you deal. Aside from stats, you'll also want to level the Unarmed Combat proficiency, or "UA".

CON(stitution)... everyone always forgets CON. If a person is going to purely bow hunt, STR and CON are unnecessary, but should also think about increasing PER(ception) beyond what you'd normally want for foraging. (For foraging, stopping about about 50 is fine unless you need it for marksmanship, cooking or something else. Then, raise it as high as you need it.) However, I'm going to say that CON is an attribute everyone should be raising just in case you get caught by a bear... or worse, a raider.