I don't use Lure very often. It's used during stealth sections. Sometimes I use it on watchers, just to get them to look at me, so that I can have a shot at their eye. I wait until they're alone, then I whistle at them and shoot them in the eye when they turn to look. But if you need to get rid of someone - say you're doing a bandit came and there are 2-3 bandits right together - you can go someplace secluded where you can see them and use lure to lure one away to kill him where his friends can't see you. I don't really like doing that, but it's effective. I call a mount whenever I'm moving between areas. You're about 1/3 faster when riding a mount than when running, and it looks cooler riding a machine than going everywhere on foot. You get between areas quicker. You don't generally want to fight enemies while you're on a mount. It's just useful for moving around. Sometimes the mount is good for fighting next to you, though. It's not worth your time to gather things like flowers and ridgewood and most other things you find as you're travelling. It just slows you down. You want to search machines you kill and any animals for skins and bones. But ridgewood is really cheap. It's better to buy it than to spend your time collecting it. And those flowers only make potions that protect you from elements, and I don't find those all that useful. They're just distractions. Other things like traps just depend on the situation. I often use the shock traps when there are stalkers around, because they're dangerous and hard to find, and weak against electricity. It doesn't work on the stalkers in the frozen wilds though. Daemonic creatures are all resistant to electricity.
how do you know when to use lure and call mounts and stuff
I don't use Lure very often. It's used during stealth sections. Sometimes I use it on watchers, just to get them to look at me, so that I can have a shot at their eye. I wait until they're alone, then I whistle at them and shoot them in the eye when they turn to look. But if you need to get rid of someone - say you're doing a bandit came and there are 2-3 bandits right together - you can go someplace secluded where you can see them and use lure to lure one away to kill him where his friends can't see you. I don't really like doing that, but it's effective.
I call a mount whenever I'm moving between areas. You're about 1/3 faster when riding a mount than when running, and it looks cooler riding a machine than going everywhere on foot. You get between areas quicker. You don't generally want to fight enemies while you're on a mount. It's just useful for moving around. Sometimes the mount is good for fighting next to you, though.
It's not worth your time to gather things like flowers and ridgewood and most other things you find as you're travelling. It just slows you down. You want to search machines you kill and any animals for skins and bones. But ridgewood is really cheap. It's better to buy it than to spend your time collecting it. And those flowers only make potions that protect you from elements, and I don't find those all that useful. They're just distractions.
Other things like traps just depend on the situation. I often use the shock traps when there are stalkers around, because they're dangerous and hard to find, and weak against electricity. It doesn't work on the stalkers in the frozen wilds though. Daemonic creatures are all resistant to electricity.