100 Tips To Prepare You For Hunt Showdown 1896 & Mammon’s Gulch
Hi guys, rex here! In this video I will cover 100 tips and tricks that are guaranteed to help you out if you are new to Hunt: Showdown or returning after a long break, but even if you are an experienced player you might be able to learn a thing or two! The video will be divided into 10 main categories, so feel free to check out the timestamps, but without further adeau – let’s dive into it!
Category 1: Core game mechanics
1. Boss clues will glow red and make noise when enemy hunters are nearby. If you interact with the clue, it will still be making noise for the enemy hunters, but go quiet for you which makes it easier to hear their movement.
2. A clue that has been interacted with will have a dark circle in the middle, while a clue that has not been taken will have a complete glowing seal. This information can be useful to track player movement throughout the match.
3. If you use dark sight at a boss compound, the boss icon will glow white if no enemy hunters are near and red if enemies are close.
4. Picking up a bounty gives you 5 seconds of special dark sight which allows you to see enemy hunters within 150 meters. Solo players can take the magpie trait to gain twice the seconds upon takin a bounty.
5. Looting an enemy if you are carrying a bounty restored 1 second of special dark sight if you are in a team, and 2 seconds if you are solo with the magpie trait.
6. Killing a boss restores all lost health bars for the entire team. This includes the four main bosses and wild targets like Rotjaw.
7. Sound traps such as ducks, crows, horses and chicken coops can easily reveal your position to other hunters when triggered. You can kill all of the sound traps in various ways, or reduce the likelihood they are triggered by taking the beastface trait.
8. Extraction points are visible on the map. Paying attention to where they are can help you plan your escape or position yourself well to prevent an enemy team from leaving.
9. If two teams are close to an extraction point at the same time, the extraction is blocked until one team dies or leaves the zone. You can prevent enemy teams from leaving by pushing closer.
10. Once all bounty has been extracted from the match, the timer is set to 5 minutes. If you are not at an extraction point by the time it runs out you will lose your hunter and all of its equipment.
Category 2: Money
11. Picking up a clue will give you a guaranteed 50 hunt dollars per clue, even if you die.
12. Playing solo is the best way to make money due to the solo modifier, however it is also harder to win because you are outnumbered.
13. When you are full on tools and consumables you will get money from looting saddlebags or dead hunters. With the update on august 15th, the vulture trait will give you money every time you loot a dead hunter.
14. Money you loot in a match will be lost if you die. This includes money from small pouches and cash registers as well as money from looting dead hunters.
15. Every time you unlock an item, you gain one instance of that item that you can either use or sell. You can maximize the efficiency of this strategy by looking for blueprints and gun oils at stationary work bench locations in the various maps. A blueprint gives you 3 random unlocks while a gun oil gives you the next unlock for your currently equipped weapon.
16. The size of the search area for each boss on a map determines the bounty value. A larger search area means a higher value, and is generally more attractive to players as a result. Keep in mind, going for the small bounty could be less risky and a safer strategy overall.
17. If you are running low on money, it is generally smarter to take your wins when you can instead of trying to double up and going for two bounties.
18. Cash registers have specific spawn points that you can memorize. Looting a cash register gives you between 50 and 1000 hunt dollars. Keep in mind, the money is lost if you die, so there is no shame in extracting with the 1000 if you are running low.
19. When you level up your hunter to the max level, you gain 500 hunt dollars.
20. Each hunter in your roster has a daily bonus sign next to it. The first time you extract with each hunter per day you gain 20% increased experience and hunt dollars. Switching after each extract is a good money making strategy.
Category 3: Levelling, unlocks and prestige
21. Your hunter gains experience from various actions in the game. The most effective way to level up is to kill and banish bosses and extract the bounty.
22. You can find posters on walls around the maps that will give you hunter exp, bloodline exp or trait points.
23. As you level up your bloodline, new traits, tools and consumables are unlocked. You can get access to some of the tool and consumable unlocks by finding blueprints in your games, if you are lucky!
24. All base weapons are available from level 1. By playing each weapon you unlock new variants, which is based on weapon experience.
25. Killing a hunter grants you 450 weapon experience, a boss grants 400 exp and killing a meathead grants 300 experience. Armoreds, dogs, hives and immolators grant 30 exp and regular grunts grant 10 exp. For reference, a compact ammo weapon requires 450 exp per unlock, medium requires 600, and a long ammo unlock takes 900 exp.
26. The maximum hunter level is 50, and you can retire your level 50 hunters to gain 10 000 experience towards your bloodline. This is one of the best ways to increase your levelling speed if you are prestiging.
27. Your hunter will be lost if you die. The burn trait “Death Cheat” can sometimes be found randomly spawning in your games and has a chance of dropping when you kill a meathead. If you have the death cheat trait and you die, the trait is lost but you keep your hunter.
28. Once your hunter is maxed level, all of the experience gained goes towards your bloodline, which speeds up the levelling process. This is a risk vs reward situation, because you can retire your hunter for the guaranteed 10 000 exp, or play it and hopefully survive long enough to make up for it.
29. You should never retire a maxed out hunter that has the death cheat trait. This is because all of the exp goes towards your bloodline while the hunter is maxed, and even if you die you can still retire the hunter afterwards. The exception to this rule is if you are very close to max level and you want to retire the hunter for the 10 000 exp so that you can prestige.
30. When you prestige you lose all of your levels, weapon unlocks, hunters in your roster, gear and money. In return, you get skin rewards at certain levels and an upgraded prestige badge which is visible in the menus.
Category 4: Explosives
31. Throwable explosives like dynamites and frag bombs are very powerful and can easily deal with enemy hunters if used correctly. You can hold down the fire button when preparing to throw an explosive, which starts the fuse. This is referred to as “cooking” the explosive. Dynamites will blow up after 4 seconds, and sticky bombs will blow up after 8 seconds.
32. Sticky bombs will stick to surfaces and moving targets, and are really powerful against most bosses. They can also be shot to trigger the explosion early, which can be a next level strategy against enemy hunters in some situations.
33. The indicator arc on the screen shows you exactly where the explosive will land. If you cook an explosive for long enough, this line will move closer to you, which indicates exactly where it will blow up. The explosive indicator line will turn red if you are in the damage range of the explosive. Cooking an explosive for too long is a certain way to kill yourself.
34. The bulwark trait reduces explosive damage taken, which can sometimes save you from incoming dynamites or other explosions such as nearby explosive barrels. Frag bombs deal rending damage, which is not reduced by the bulwark trait. They also apply bleed on impact which makes them the best throwable explosive for PVP overall.
35. In some cases, blowing yourself up intentionally can be a solid strategy to kill pushing players, provided you have teammates that can revive you or the necromancer trait if you are solo.
36. When throwing explosives, try to predict where the enemy will be at the time of the explosion rather than throwing it where they currently are. If they are running, throw it in front of them.
37. Red barrels are explosive and will blow up when shot twice or if they come in contact with fire or other explosives. The flare pistol or incendiary ammo can be utilized to quickly blow up a barrel and kill any hunter that is close to it.
38. Choke clouds and choke bombs can be thrown on explosive barrels to prevent them from exploding. This could be useful if you need to move past it whilst taking fire from enemy hunters.
39. Most explosives will not detonate when in contact with water. The exception to this rule is the waxed dynamite stick, which will blow up regardless.
40. Similar to water, explosives generally don’t blow up in choke clouds. The waxed dynamite stick is the only explosive that can be thrown into or through a choke cloud and still explode.
Category 5: Weapons & ammo
41. There are three main rifle categories in Hunt: Showdown, divided by ammo type: Compact, medium and long. In general, compact ammo weapons have lower range, damage and penetration power, whilst long ammo has the highest. Shotgun ammo is a separate category. Special ammo types are both found within existing categories and as the default ammo type for some weapons such as the bow, crossbow and dolch.
42. The various ammo types have different attributes and are useful for different purposes. For example, high velocity ammo has increased bullet speed which makes it easier to land shots on distance, whilst FMJ has reduced bullet speed but increased penetration power.
43. Fire ammo will set hunters on fire on the first hit within a certain distance. For compact and medium ammo rifles this effect applies up to 20 meters distance, whilst long ammo will set hunters on fire up to 40 meters away. If the enemy hunter has the salveskin trait, you need two hits instead.
44. Spitzer ammo is available on some weapons, and has greatly increased bullet velocity as well as increased penetration power. This is the most popular ammo type for long range sniping.
45. Poison ammo inflicts the poison effect on hunters, which prevents healing and impacts your vision for the duration of the effect. The poison effect will be removed if you apply an antidote shot, or prevented entirely if you have an antidote shot active already.
46. A lot of ammo types inflict bleeding on impact. This includes flechette ammo on shotguns, dumdum on pistols and rifles, arrows and bolts from bows and crossbows as well as shredder ammo on the nitro express.
47. Dragon breath ammo from shotguns will set enemy hunters on fire on impact, but can also be used to burn dead hunters on the ground which will prevent them from reviving once their bars are burnt out.
48. All default bullet types have some penetration power. A lot of special ammo ammo types have no penetration power at all, including most bleed ammo, poison ammo, fire ammo and pennyshot from shotguns.
49. Arrows, bolts and other throwables have no penetration power. The exception to this rule is shotbolts on the crossbow, which triggers a buckshot effect on impact similar to any shotgun.
50. How much ammo you get from an ammo box depends on the ammo type. Long ammo gets less than medium or compact for example, and special ammo is restored from special ammo boxes instead of the regular ones. Some weapons can run two ammo types at once. Having regular ammo and one special ammo type ensures you can restore more ammo overall as you will be restoring both regular ammo and special ammo for the weapon.
Category 6: Settings and keybinds
51. You can set custom sensitivity stages for each scope variant in the menus. This can be very useful to adjust for the increased zoom levels with scopes.
52. By default, vaulting and jumping is bound to the same key. You can separate these keys in the settings, which allows better movement overall and ensures you don’t vault in situations when you mean to jump, for example trying to get into a window for an angle.
53. Similar to the previous point, interacting and healing are bound to the same key by default and can be separated in the settings. This can be particularly useful in cases where you are trying to heal but are close enough to interact with something, for example climbing a ladder or looting a dead body. Interacting instead of healing will often be enough to get you killed.
54. Setting up custom keybinds for your tools and consumables allows you to more accurately select the items you want when you need them. Make sure your keybinds are easily accessible and try to use keybinds that are easy to memorize, for example “G” for grenade or “T” for traps.
55. Increasing your gamma in the settings can be very useful if you are having trouble seeing on dark maps. Most monitors also have built in gamma settings that has the same effect.
56. Quickswapping is faster than switching your weapon through scrolling or using the specific weapon keybinds. By default, quickswapping is bound to Q, but you can change this in the settings.
57. Hunt: Showdown features two control schemes; gunslinger and hunter mode. While there are some differences, you can generally achieve all the same things with both options. Gunslinger is the closest to most other games and is probably the best for beginners. I personally play gunslinger.
58. With the gunslinger scheme, your weapon is always raised by default. When standing close to a wall or window your gun will be sticking out and can be visible to other hunters. By holding down Q you can lower your weapon to prevent this until you ADS again.
59. If you are having trouble aiming accurately, try reducing your sensitivity in the game settings as well as your mouse DPI. Lower sensitivity means more precise aim as you need to move your mouse more and is generally recommended for increased precision, but could take a while to get used to.
60. As of the update on august 15th, you can choose between a lowered crosshair, which has been the default in Hunt: Showdown since launch, or a centered crosshair similar to any other shooter. This is mostly preference and should have minimal impact on gameplay.
Category 7: Tools
61. Decoy fuses sound exactly like a dynamite and can be thrown useful for masking your movement or pushing into a compound. At the end of the fuse, decoy fuses will trigger a small explosion that can be used to blow up doors and windows.
62. Placing an alert trip mine on an explosive barrel will blow up the barrel if the trap is triggered, either by a hunter walking into it or if someone shoots the trap.
63. Concertina traps and poison traps make for a deadly combo referred to as a death trap. This is because when triggered, the concertina prevents you from moving and the poison trap creates a poison cloud that deals massive damage over time to any hunter within it if they don’t have an active antidote shot.
64. Two alert trip mines can be put next to each other for a makeshift incendiary trap that will set hunters on fire if they trigger both. This can also be used to burn dead hunters on the ground.
65. The flare pistol can be used to burn dead hunters from a distance. It can also be used to blow up explosive barrels, set living hunters on fire and deal with various AI by setting them on fire. In dark environments, the flares glow very bright and can illuminate an area or be used for a blinding effect.
66. Melee tools are very powerful in Hunt: Showdown and can easily kill an enemy hunter in one or two hits.
67. Some melee tools can be found as world spawns in your games. This includes the shovel, pitchfork, sledgehammer and axe. These spawns can either be random or static spawns, meaning you will always find the item at a certain location. Learning these static spawns is useful because the tool items are great for killing bosses.
68. The Derringer pennyshot is great for killing bosses and meatheads, and can oneshot players if you are very close. The regular derringer is a makeshift pistol that can be a great sidearm in certain loadouts.
69. At the current time, the throwing spear is the most powerful melee tool and can be thrown for massive damage against bosses and players alike. The spear throw will kill a hunter on impact regardless of where you hit them. Since the spear is a very new addition to the game, this could change in the future.
70. The flashlight is generally quite useless as it takes up a tool slot and is only useful at nighttime. Similarly, the spyglass serves little function aside from being able to zoom in which you can do with any scope and to some extent even by ADSing with any weapon.
Category 8: Consumables
71. Stamina shots allow you to move around a lot more without getting slowed down. I highly recommend taking a large stamina shot every game, but alternatively you can use traits like greyhound and conduit to help maintain your stamina throughout your games.
72. Regeneration shots are very useful in PVP scenarios as they heal you over time. This effect can be amplified by taking the vigor trait, which boosts all regeneration while you are in dark sight.
73. Antidote shots are tremendously helpful in situations where the enemy is running poison ammo. Large antidote shots can also be used proactively when entering a fight or a compound to protect yourself from potential poison traps or death traps which can very often get you killed if you are not aware.
74. Vitality shots can quickly heal you up in a combat scenario. A large vitality shot can be the difference between life and death in a lot of cases, and I generally always bring one unless I have traits like doctor and physician to boost my medkit healing and heal speed.
75. Concertina bombs create a large cluster of concertina that can protect you from incoming fire. This is because most ammo types are blocked by the concertina on impact, which makes it much less likely you’ll get hit. Try throwing a concertina bomb between you and the enemy while reviving your teammates if you are taking fire.
76. Concertina bombs can be thrown on a dead hunter to greatly reduce their chances of getting revived. This is because they will likely die immediately upon revival, which means their teammates have to clear the concertina first.
77. Dynamites will remove concertina on impact, which can be used to clear a path through a blocked entrance or remove concertina from a dead body.
78. Fire bombs will set enemy hunters on fire on impact. They can also be used to block of entrances due to their temporary burning effect on the ground.
79. Hive bombs can be great for forcing enemies out of cover as they spawn bees that trigger on nearby hunters and attack them. Be aware though that if you are too close they might trigger on you instead, so be careful where you throw them.
80. The flash bomb is completely useless and does not serve much of a purpose since a heavy nerf a while back. You can still get some effect out of this item but it is generally not worth the trouble.
Category 9: Useful Traits
81. Solo players can revive themselves with the necromancer trait. As of august 15th, necromancer will be a burn trait with a single use. With this change, solo players can revive themselves at full health after a few seconds, but once revived the trait will be gone. If you are lucky enough to find the necromancer trait in the game after this, you will regain the effect and have the ability to revive once more.
82. When you play in a team, you can use the necromancer trait to revive a teammate through dark sight. With the update of august 15th, this will be a burn trait for teams as well, meaning you get one revive before the trait is consumed.
83. Some traits are buffed for solo players. I already mentioned the magpie trait at the beginning of this guide. Additionally, the serpent trait allows you to interact with clues and bounties from a distance. For solos the distance is 50 meters whilst it is only 25 for teams.
84. Doctor & physician are two traits that amplify your medkit healing. Doctor doubles the healing effect, while physician increases the healing speed. Together they amplify the medkit enough to warrant skipping a vitality shot entirely. I typically take a frag bomb instead once I have assigned these traits.
85. The frontiersman trait gives you one extra charge on your tool items. This trait is an excellent choice if you are running doctor and physician for an extra medkit charge, or if you are bringing a throwing spear which usually comes with just one charge. Frontiersman is also an amazing pick for trappers.
86. Resilience is a must have trait if you are playing in a team. By default, when you are revived you are low on health, but with the resilience trait you are revived with full health bars up to whatever your current maximum health is. Keep in mind you lose one bar every time you die. As of august 15th, resilience will not be necessary for solo players as any revive with necromancer will grant you a full health restoration.
87. Salveskin reduces both fire damage and burn speed, and protects you from being set on fire instantly by fire ammo, as previously mentioned in this guide.
88. Bloodless prevents bleeding from escalating, which buys you time when fighting players with bleed ammo.
89. The quartermaster trait allows you to bring a medium slot weapon in addition to a large slot weapon. This can be extremely useful as it opens up a ton of loadout options. My personal favorite is bringing the hunting bow with a sniper rifle.
90. Dauntless allows you to defuse any explosive that has a fuse by interacting with while the fuse is still burning. This includes dynamites, frags, choke bombs and even flares.
Category 10: Other useful tips
91. Crouching whilst opening doors will open them slowly. Punching a door or hitting it with your weapon will open it quicker than normal.
92. The way you are moving determines which way you open a door. If you are moving forward, the door moves away from you. If you are moving backwards, you open the door towards you.
93. When a hive swarm has triggered on you, you can kill it with melee attacks. Two punches from your dusters or knuckle knife is usually enough to kill it. You can also burn the bees with the flare pistol.
94. If you jump twice into water you will bounce forward a bit before getting slowed down. This helps can help you cross over faster and decreases the odds that you get killed.
95. Waterdevils spawn very frequently In rivers. If you kill them, the nearby ones will die as well which creates a temporary safe passage. A single spear throw is enough to kill water devils in the current state of the game. The water devils will respawn after a while.
96. Almost any noise in the game can be useful for masking your movement and getting from A to B undetected. For example, if you are trying to climb a ladder, waiting for the boss to banish can be a next level strategy. Pun intended.
97. The shooting range is a fantastic place to practice your aim, test out loadouts, ammo types and more. You can bring up to two friends into the shooting range and practice PVP as well.
98. Hunt: Showdown is a very complex game that has way more depth than what meets the eye at first glance. If you are having a tough time in the beginning, just know that it is completely normal. Getting really good at this game takes hundreds if not thousands of hours. Keep in mind, the journey is just as important as the destination, so enjoy the learning process! I have plenty of guides on my channel to help you along the way, and I will do my very best to continue providing more quality content in the future!
99. If you have any questions about the game, you can ask me in the comments or in my chat when I am live on Twitch. I stream every day except Monday and Friday from 10am CET for at least 6 hours.
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Did you learn something new? Let me know in the comments, and until next time, I’ll see you – in the bayou!
