Continue with and set . Part (e) requires an interior count to satisfy with ; the all-deer endpoint is allowed when . If is nonintegral and , only works. If is an integer with , both and work. At only remains, while permits only . When , there is no positive equilibrium count.
Thus there are at most two positive counts, and exactly one precisely whenThis includes , when the excluded set is empty. It counts numbers of deer hunters, not the many choices of which hunters participate. The argument is the threshold stag-hunt equilibrium count.
The original paper states only explicitly. Its assertion needs the usual strict positivity of the hare reward. If zero is included, take . Counts and both give unsuccessful hunters zero, and one additional deer hunter still cannot reach the threshold; all unilateral alternatives also pay zero. The count is an equilibrium as well. These are three positive equilibrium counts, contradicting an unrestricted reading. More generally, for , the positive counts are and .