This Budget Loadout Is Silent & DEADLY! Crossbow Deadeye & New Army | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Intro:

Hi guys, REX here — and welcome back to my budget loadout series, where I cover cheap but reliable setups I genuinely recommend you try out.
Together with my community, I’ve set an upper price limit of 600 Hunt Dollars per loadout. I’ll keep things as cheap as possible without sacrificing efficiency — and I’ll always show you where you can cut costs further if you want to run these on an absolute budget.

Today we’re running the Crossbow Deadeye, paired with the New Army — a quiet, hard-hitting loadout built around hit-and-run playstyles that heavily punish overpeeking. The crossbow causes intense bleeding on impact and lets you reload while moving, which makes it extremely dangerous when played correctly.

On the Crossbow, I’m running half steel bolts and half shotbolts.
Steel bolts increase velocity and effective drop range, making shots at close to mid range far more consistent. Shotbolts cover close-quarters fights, effectively turning the crossbow into a shotgun with very reliable one-tap potential — and even the ability to wallbang.

I’m running the Deadeye variant mainly for versatility. The crossbow’s hipfire accuracy is excellent in close range, but the Deadeye gives me far better overview when I want to take more precise shots at range. If you don’t like the Deadeye, standard iron sights are completely fine too.

The playstyle is simple.
At close to mid-range, I’ll peek, land a crossbow hit, and immediately reposition while reloading. If the shot doesn’t kill, the heavy bleed forces enemies to heal and seek cover — and that’s where the New Army comes in. I’ll quickswap and finish them off while they’re low and bleeding.

For this weapon, I’m running regular ammo. It works as a finisher, a backup if you don’t have time to reload, and a fallback option for landing headshots at range if crossbow hits become difficult. Its fast fire rate makes landing follow-up shots far easier.

With shotbolts, I’ll hold angles or aggressively peek for one-tap kills, playing it very similarly to a single-shot shotgun.

The biggest weakness of this loadout is the crossbow’s single-shot nature. You’re forced to reload between every shot, which means positioning and movement matter a lot more than usual. Staying mobile and seeking cover while reloading is crucial.

For tools, I’m running knuckle knife, medkit, flare pistol, and decoy fuses.
Decoy fuses are great for masking movement, forcing repositioning, and creating pressure before committing to a peek or push.

Consumable-wise, I’m keeping it simple:
A small vitality shot, a small regeneration shot, a large stamina shot to keep momentum high early game, and an ammo box to sustain since steel bolts have a relatively low ammo pool and shot bolts are spent upon use.

Trait wise, Bolt Thrower is a core pickup for this build. This trait significantly improves reload speed and makes the crossbow feel far more consistent in extended fights.
On top of that I’ll prioritize Necromancer, Vigilant, Magpie, and Dauntless for solo, and Necromancer and resilience for teamplay.

The total cost for this loadout is 594 Hunt Dollars, keeping it just under the 600 Hunt Dollar cap. You can cut the price further by downgrading the New Army to a Conversion, skipping steel bolts, swapping the ammo box for a waxed dynamite, or downgrading the stamina shot — bringing the total cost down to 438 Hunt Dollars while keeping the loadout very viable.

But without further ado — let’s dive into it.