The ULTIMATE Solo Guide! Your Handbook To Surviving Alone In Hunt: Showdown 1896
Hi guys, REX here! Solo gameplay in Hunt: Showdown is a different beast than teamplay. It can be both challenging and stressful, as you have to rely on your own experience, knowledge and game sense to navigate through the maps and deal with threats along the way. As a solo player, a single mistake will often be enough to send you straight back to the lobby, as you will usually be outnumbered. In this video I will share my best tips and tricks that I’ve learnt over roughly 5000 hours of mostly solo gameplay, and bring you up to speed on all of the game mechanics you need to know about if you are getting into solo gameplay for the first time! I’ll leave timestamps for each segment in the description, so feel free to skip ahead to the topics you are more interested in, but without further ado, let’s dive into it!
1. Weapon choices and combinations
There are endless loadout options in Hunt: Showdown, and each have their strengths and weaknesses. What I’ve learnt over the years is that no matter what loadout you chose, if you’re playing solo you need to make sure you can at least cover the close to medium range fights, unless you are literally not interested in playing the objective. As a solo player you have to rely on yourself, and you are usually going to be outnumbered. A lot of loadouts are simply not well suited to fighting two or three enemies at the time if you are solo, even if the same loadout would work well in a team. In general, I try to ensure my loadouts can cover MINIMUM the close to medium range, but ideally also long range fights. For this reason, I tend to take the quartermaster trait very often, which allows me to play basically any 3-slot weapon I want whilst having the option to take a solid weapon for close range, for example a bow or a shorty shotgun variant. Where a martini henry & a pistol would not offer enough firepower if you are being pushed by a trio, the same rifle with a rival shorty would certainly do the trick. Keep in mind, it is easier to get away with JUST having a short to medium range loadout than having ONLY a medium to long range loadout if you are playing solo, provided you pick your fights and position yourself well.
2. Tools and consumables
When you are setting up your loadout, you need to make some choices for tools and consumables. There are a lot of options to choose from, yet I find myself taking the same tools and consumables in almost every game and with any loadout that I play. You want to get the most value and utility for your available slots, and with the setup I propose you will do exactly that. For my tools, I typically take either the throwing spear or a knuckle knife. The spear is a bit more powerful overall as it is very good for boss killing and PVP. It has a good range and will oneshot enemy hunters with a throw to the torso, which can come in handy with some practice. The downside is that the spear is a bit expensive, which would be the main reason to consider a knuckle knife instead – based on how much you can afford to spend on your loadout and your preference in general. My second tool slot always goes to the med kit, and on the third slot I always take a burn item. You COULD take fuses, but overall I see no reason to not just take the flare pistol instead, which is tremendously useful for burning bodies on a bit further range, but also for killing certain AI, as well as blowing up explosive barrels for some of the most satisfying kills in the game overall. My final tool slot goes to a trap variant most of the time, and in the current state of the game I tend to prefer bear traps, as they come with 3 charges and will kill an enemy player with just 2 traps triggered since they deal 82 damage. They are also very easy to hide in a lot of scenarios, making them extremely powerful overall.
For my consumables I almost exclusively take all of the large shots available;
A large vitality shot ensures I can heal up fast in a hectic combat scenario. This shot also stops bleeding which saves you time – and as a solo player time is of the essence.
A large regeneration shot keeps you fighting ready even if you take damage. With this shot enabled you are able to hold angles and defend yourself while the regeneration effect brings your health back. This could be the difference between life and death in a scenario where you are getting pushed. I try to use my regeneration shot when a fight starts so that I don’t have to use it in the middle of a fight, but this is just preference.
A large antidote shot makes you immune to all poison effects. Similar to the salveskin and bloodless effects that will be discussed later in this guide, this is another way to prevent effects that will shut you down. If you get poisoned in a fight you will effectively not be able to heal, and you will lose overview by having your hearing and vision impaired. At the same time, you might get targeted by nearby meatheads that can sense you if you are poisoned, which could end up forcing you out of position. Finally, the antidote shot also protects you from poison clouds from poison traps, the spider bosses spit ability and even poison bolt or poison bomb clouds that would otherwise zone you and prevent you from moving freely.
The final shot is the large stamina shot, which grants 10 minutes of stamina boost. I generally always run this shot and typically use it when the round starts, which allows me to move freely and more quickly. The most dangerous time of the match is the early stage, because you have no idea where other players might have spawned and you could end up getting ambushed at any compound. You are also a much easier target if you are moving slower due to lack of stamina, increasing the chance you might get sniped from afar. How or when you use the stamina shot is entirely preference.
I mentioned taking all four shots most of the time, however there are two main exceptions to this rule:
Once I have assigned the traits Doctor & Physician, I typically skip the large vitality shot. This is because the boosted medkit is powerful enough to replace it, making it somewhat redundant. At this stage, I typically take a thrown explosive instead – for example a frag bomb, or a sticky bomb if my loadout isn’t built for boss killing.
The other exception to the rule is when I am running a loadout that requires an ammo box for refills. In this scenario, I would typically skip the antidote shot to make room for the ammo box, as the antidote shot is overall the least important of the 4 shots in my opinion. If you are running a loadout that requires TWO ammo boxes, I would skip the vitality shot as well and utilize the regeneration shot to it’s full potential, for example by taking the vigor trait, which increases the regeneration speed in dark sight.
3. Health bar allocation
You have two options when it comes to health bar allocation; big bars and small bars. In general, this is completely based on preference, but there is a sort of meta regardless. If you play in a team, you will lose one of your health chunks if you get downed. For this reason, taking small bars is recommended as you will lose less health overall per death, making you less vulnerable to getting one-shot after getting back up. When you play solo, however, you will regain all of your health if you revive with the necromancer trait, and hence you won’t need the small bars to limit the health loss. For this reason, taking big bars only is recommended. With big bars allocated, you are less likely to lose a bar from fire damage, for example if you are fighting players using fire ammo. In most scenarios, if you get set on fire you generally either kill the enemy quick enough or find time to stop the burning before a big bar is depleted. If you don’t, you will usually die regardless, and necromancer will restore your health completely upon use. In other words, if you are playing solo 3 big bars is the best option.
4. Solo specific traits
4.1 Necromancer
As mentioned, Necromancer enables the ability to revive yourself 5 seconds after dying, and the revival will trigger a full restoration of your health bars, including any lost health chunks. This makes Necromancer the single most useful trait you can take as a solo player. There are a lot of things that can kill you in Hunt: Showdown, and sometimes there is no way to prevent these deaths. You could get sniped from a hundred meters away shortly after the game starts, or you could run into a trap that was nearly impossible to see. If you played in a team, your teammates would be able to pick you up with ease, but as a solo player you don’t have this option. The most common misconception about the necromancer trait for solo players is that it is supposed to allow you to simply stand up and keep fighting, even if another team is securing the body. For this reason, many players claim the necromancer trait is not worth taking – but this is simply because they don’t understand what the main purpose of necromancer is. The primary function of necromancer is to allow you to get up and have a second chance IF nobody is covering your body. The truth of the matter is you’re not going to benefit from the necromancer trait a lot of the time if you are killed where a team can easily cover your body, but with the right amount of patience or timing it WILL make a big difference in your overall survival rate. When on you are downed, you can’t see but you can hear the players and environment around you, as well as see the distance to your killer, allowing you to judge the situation, and the viability of a self-revive accordingly. The better you are at reading the situation and waiting for the right moment, the more likely you are to make the most out of the Necromancer trait.
One thing worth mentioning is that the necromancer trait is a burn trait, meaning it has a single charge and will be spent when you revive yourself. With some luck you can acquire another charge in-game by finding the necromancer trait spur, for example by killing meatheads or the wild target Hellborn, which has a guaranteed burn trait drop. During events, you can sometimes find a sealed trait for necromancer as well which can be purchased for pledge marks. The necromancer trait can always be purchased for 4 trait points in the lobby and will have to be re-bought if you spend it in-game.
4.2 Magpie
The second most important solo trait is magpie. This trait can be purchased for 1 trait point, and once acquired it will double your special dark sight gained from carrying a bounty token. As you may know, once you pick up a bounty token you will be able to scan in dark sight to see enemies within 150 meters distance. By default, or if you are playing in a team, each token grants 5 seconds of this special dark sight, and looting a hunter or taking a boss clue will restore 1 second. Since this trait doubles the effect for solo players, this means you get 10 seconds of sight when you pick up a bounty token, and at the same time you restore 2 seconds every time you loot a hunter or take a boss clue. This makes this trait one of the most powerful traits for solo players, especially considering how cheap it is! In addition to the dark sight boost, magpie also grants you 3 short effects when you pick up a bounty: antidote, stamina and regeneration.
4.3 Serpent
The serpent trait allows you to interact with clues and bounties from a distance through dark sight. While this trait can be extremely useful for teamplay, it is even more powerful for solos. By default, the maximum range for the serpent ability is 25 meters, but as a solo player you get twice the range for a total of 50 meters distance. This means you can take clues from a safe position, banish a dead boss or even pick up a dropped bounty token from afar. This trait is a solid pick for any solo player, but especially for those who prefer a slower or safer playstyle. Serpent can be assigned for 4 trait points, making it a solid pick overall.
4.4 Conduit
This trait can be assigned for 5 trait points and will grant you a health and stamina boost every time you take a boss clue. For solo players, investigating a single clue gives you the same map progress as taking TWO clues, which makes it easier to locate boss lairs. Depending on your playstyle, this could be very useful, however as a solo player it is not always recommended to be the first player to the boss lair. This trait is highly dependent on preference and playstyle, and possibly a bit too expensive to be worth it overall.
4.5 Lightfoot
The final trait that has a solo specific condition is lightfoot. This trait can be assigned for 5 trait points, and will allow you to vault, fall and climb ladders silently. For solo players, this trait also allows you to crouch walk quietly, making it ideal for stealthy gameplay. This trait has seen a lot of changes over the years but is definitely worth considering in the current state of the game.
5. Additional traits recommended for solo gameplay
5.1 Dauntless
Dauntless is possibly one of the strongest traits in the entire game, while at the same time costing just 1 trait point to assign. With this trait enabled you can defuse any throwable that has a fuse, for example dynamites, frag bombs and even choke bombs. You can also defuse flares on the ground and even dark dynamite satchels placed by enemy teams. The only downside of this trait is that it requires some degree of game sense, good positioning and reaction time. At the same time – if you don’t run it every single game it’s easy to mess up by either thinking you have the trait assigned or the other way around. I recommend you either ALWAYS run dauntless or never run it at all, however you’re best off with option 1 in the long run.
5.2 Weapon specific traits
After you have assigned the most crucial solo traits and dauntless, weapon specific traits are next in line. If you are running a bow – take the hundred hands trait, and for a lot of rifles you might want to take the iron eye trait to increase rate of fire and allow you to stay in ADS between shots. Consider whether your loadout could benefit from any weapon traits and assign them if necessary. The Quartermaster trait falls under this category if your loadout requires an extra weapon slot. I find that a lot of the most optimal solo loadouts benefit from this trait, but this really just depends on your preference. The quartermaster trait can be assigned for 6 trait points, which is well worth it considering how many more powerful loadout options it enables.
5.3 Salveskin & Bloodless
As a solo player, fire ammo is your worst enemy. Being set on fire will shut you down by burning out your health bars and limiting your vision. Once you are on fire, you have the choice of fighting back and hopefully killing the enemy fast enough to save your health bars or trying to stop the burn and most likely getting pushed and killed. In the current state of the game, compact and medium ammo will set you on fire with the first shot up to 20 meters away, and long ammo up to 40 meters away. The salveskin trait ensures it takes 2 shots to light you on fire regardless, and you will burn slower as well. The slower burn speed also benefits your necromancer ability by slowing down burn time if you are downed, making this trait extremely valuable overall. I would recommend taking this 3 point trait as often as possible.
Similar to burning, bleeding will often shut you down if you are playing solo. Some ammo types will cause intense bleeding, leaving you no option but to stop it – and in the meantime the enemy can push you down before you have a chance to defend yourself. The bloodless trait also costs 3 points, and with this trait assigned bleeding will not escalate beyond light, which buys you a lot of time and often allows you to fight back if you’re getting pushed. This is one of my top picks after the most essential traits are assigned.
5.4 Doctor, Physician & Frontiersman
While there are a ton of great and relevant traits to chose from, the last three traits I want to mention are Doctor, Physician & Frontiersman. Doctor doubles the healing effect of med kits, and physician reduces the time required to use them – which is especially useful as using a medkit with physician will stop bleeding or burning faster than stopping it normally. While you could assign each on their own for 9 and 5 trait points respectively, I tend to wait until I have enough points to assign both. Lastly by taking the Frontiersman trait for 7 points, you are granted an extra charge for all tools and consumables, including your now super charged med kits, but also traps, flares and even throwables like the spear, throwing axes or knives. This combo of 3 traits is extremely powerful as it allows you to heal more and faster with an additional charge, effectively making your healing capacity over twice as strong as without those traits.
5.5 Greyhound and Determination
In the event that you don’t take a stamina shot, for example due to loadout limitations or simply by preference, consider taking the Greyhound & or Determination traits. Greyhound costs 5 trait points to assign and will allow you to sprint at full speed for a longer duration, while determination costs 4 points and ensures stamina regeneration starts sooner. Combined these two traits are tremendously useful for managing your stamina levels without the need for a stamina shot.
5.6 Vigor
Similar to my last point, in the event that you either skip your vitality shot or you need better stamina management, consider taking Vigor for 3 trait points. This trait doubles health and stamina regeneration while in dark sight, which can be tremendously useful combined with a regeneration shot for example.
That covers everything regarding setting up your character. I’ll do another video soon where I cover actual loadout options, so stay tuned for that, but without further ado – let’s move on with the guide!
6. Duos or trios?
Whether you should play versus duos or trios is a question each player needs to ask themselves. There are some differences between the two options however:
6.1 Solo VS Duos
Each match can have up to 12 players, and since the maximum team size is limited to two for duos, this means you’ll have a minimum of 6 teams on the map, or possibly more if some of the players are playing solo. This means more spawn points overall, which leads to a lot more chaos on the map. You won’t be able to read the map as well as there will be fights and noise everywhere. Because there are more teams on the map, you are also much more likely to have spawn fights or get third partied in the middle of a fight with another team. On the bright side, since no team can have more than two players, the fights will typically be much more manageable, and if you can drop a player quickly you effectively turn it into a 1v1 situation from the start. A possible downside of playing against duos is that they tend to be a bit more synchronized since it is easier to coordinate two players than three.
6.2 Solo VS Trios
With this option selected, each team can consist of up to three players, and you’ll typically see mostly trios in these matches. Because of this fact, the overall number of teams will typically be lower in this mode, making it much easier to read the map. You are much less likely to have spawn fights, and you typically won’t get third partied as often when you’re fighting. The downside is that in the vast majority of fights you’ll be outnumbered 3 to 1, which is significantly more challenging than fighting two players in most cases. Even if you get the initiation and drop a player with your first shot, you still have to deal with two more whilst covering the first body to prevent revives. In my opinion, this is also what makes trios so much more interesting to play, and I’ve always preferred the increased challenge of playing against bigger numbers. This is a great way to put all of your abilities to the test, as you have to keep track of multiple players at the same time and position yourself better to prevent anyone from having angles on you. For most of my time playing Hunt: Showdown, I’ve played almost exclusively solo vs trios.
Whether you chose to play vs duos or trios, there is a matchmaking modifier in place to even the playing field. Your opponents will typically be marginally lower ranked than you if you play vs duos. If you play vs trios, the opponents are typically a full star below you in rank with the current MMR system, meaning if you’re 5 stars you’ll mostly face 4 stars for example, and if you’re a 6 star you’ll face 5 stars or higher, however there are exceptions to this rule and the system has changed a lot over time. When it comes to choosing game mode, my advice is to try both as they are surprisingly unique, and your favorite mode may not be mine.
7. Stealth or speed
As a solo player, you can choose to play stealthily and try to avoid getting detected, or you can be more aggressive and move faster around the map, dealing with anything that comes your way. Both options are viable if you play your cards right and choose your loadout accordingly. A stealthy player could move around the map undetected and pick enemy players and teams one by one without getting noticed, but they could also end up getting shot from afar without realizing an enemy team is aware of their location. Likewise, a more aggressive and faster paced player is much easier to locate, but simultaneously much harder to hit as they are moving faster and reacting quickly to threats. How you choose to play is up to you, although certain loadouts are better catered to certain playstyles. You’ll often find that some weapons are more suited for aggressive playstyles due to having high damage and quick fire rate, whilst also being loud. Other weapons naturally suit stealth playstyles by being silent, but consequently they don’t hold damage at distance as well, and it’s harder to hit the target as the bullet travels slower, giving stealth weapons a potential disadvantage in medium to long range encounters. Nothing is set in stone however, as you can use loud weapons in a stealthy way or use silent ones aggressively. An example is how I use the bow to aggressively push trios, even though it is typically considered a stealth weapon. Similarly, a player with a nitro express who drops two players in a duo before retreating to the shadows and the bushes improvises their own stealth into their playstyle, despite playing the loudest gun in the game.
8. Read the map
Reading the map is extremely important for any player, but perhaps even more so for solos. When I say read the map, I don’t mean the map in itself, but rather everything that is happening in the match. Hunt: Showdown is a game heavily designed around audio, and you can get an extreme amount of information by simply listening to gunshots, triggered AI, bosses being banished, players dying nearby etc. The better you are at recognizing what you are hearing in the game, the more clearly you can draw a mental picture of what is happening, where players are spawning and where they are likely to be moving, how many players are remaining in enemy teams etc. This skillset is probably the hardest and most time consuming to acquire, but simultaneously the single most useful skillset you’ll acquire in the game. Based on audio, you could position yourself to set up an ambush as a team moves from A to B, you could push into a compound at the perfect moment when multiple players are downed, or you could predict where a team is headed with very high accuracy just seconds after the match started. Make it a habit to take notice of what you are hearing, and as you get better at the game, you’ll start connecting the dots.
9. Third partying
The safest way to take a fight as a solo in Hunt: Showdown is typically third partying. While a lot of players might frown upon this mentality, there is nothing wrong with setting yourself up for success. If enemy teams are fighting each other, they are less likely to be focused on you. This gives you time and opportunity to set up a perfect ambush, land a headshot on an unsuspecting enemy to lower their numbers or even wait out the fight and pick off the remaining wounded players. The benefit of third partying is that players numbers in each team are likely lower as they get downed. Since you are not their only target and they might be missing health bars following revives, this makes them much easier to kill. Furthermore, they may be at low health or even depleted on tools and consumables, making it much harder for them to fight effectively or heal themselves after taking damage. Third partying when possible is more likely to succeed, but often requires a slower playstyle or at least a certain degree of patience. Sometimes, a good rotation can turn a fight from being in a sandwich between two teams, to being the third party instead. Be the bread, not the bologna if you can.
10. Boss killing, yay or nay?
Should you kill the boss or should you wait for others to do the work for you? This is a question I get a lot, and the simple answer is that it is completely depending on the situation. If you find yourself at the boss lair at the beginning of a match, chances are you have plenty of time to kill it without getting pushed in the middle of a fight. The longer the match goes on, however, the more likely you are to get pushed and killed whilst trying to kill the boss – and some bosses can be extremely slow and tedious to kill if you are playing solo, such as the assassin or spider. This does depend heavily on your loadout, however. Some loadouts are great for killing bosses quickly. For example, killing the butcher, scrapbeak or even spider is relatively quick and easy if you have a throwing spear or a sticky bomb, and likewise the assassin is very easy to kill if you are running poison bolts on the hand crossbow. Each situation has to be assessed individually, but the main thing you need to ask yourself is whether or not you are likely to safely kill the boss without getting pushed by other players OR if you HAVE TO kill the boss for example to regenerate lost health or give yourself space to move around. When you scan in dark sight, the boss icon at the top left corner of your screen will glow white if no enemies are near, and red if they are close. Should this warning icon be glowing red, fighting the boss is tremendously riskier. If possible, you could consider backing off from the boss lair and try to take out the enemy players first, or you could commit to the boss fight if you think there is time. Each situation has to be assessed differently, as sometimes fighting the boss is the best option despite nearby enemies, whilst other times it might be the easiest way to get yourself killed.
11. Wild target bounty, pick up?
Wild targets are bosses that can spawn outside of compounds. In the current state of the game there are two in total – Rotjaw and Hellborn. Both bosses drop bounty tokens, and as you may know, once you are carrying a bounty token – other players can track you on the map or through dark sight following the lightning bolts that appear on your location. In a lot of cases, you’ll end up fighting a wild target early in the match – but do you want to pick up the bounty token if you’re planning to stick around in the game? This can be a tough decision, because having the dark sight seconds to scan helps you locate nearby teams, but the seconds won’t last forever, and once you run out you are basically a sitting duck waiting to get ambushed. It becomes a risk vs reward situation, and there is no right or wrong, but in general I often end up either extracting with the token for a quick reset and money if I kill a wild target early, or I leave it behind if I plan on sticking around. This way I am able to keep my position hidden from other players, and I can always come back for the token later on if nobody picks it up. Sometimes, other teams end up picking it up and bringing it to you either way, which is a win-win scenario.
12. Fight or flight
Should you fight or should you run? You are under no obligation to take every fight that the game throws at you, and a skilled player will often be able to identify which fights are worth taking and which ones are not. For example, if my loadout is more close range focused and a team starts taking shots at me from afar, the safer and better option might be to disengage entirely or rotate to another position and catch them off guard. In another example, if I as a solo player take damage from fire ammo, I will often disengage from the fight knowing that I am most likely going to get shut down and possibly lose health bars if I take multiple hits. That way, if the team ends up fighting another team I can instead third party to increase my odds.
13. The 50% rule for engagement
When I locate another team and they are unaware of my presence, I tend to ask myself this the following question: Am I more than 50% likely to kill one or more players within the first few seconds? If the answer is yes, it is worth taking the fight, provided you believe it is a good fight to take in the first place. If the answer is no, you are better off holding your fire and trying to close the distance or get a better angle that is more likely to work in your favor. The downside of taking a fight where you are less likely to reduce the enemies numbers is that you are revealing your position and actively going into a 1v3, which could have been a 1v2 or even a 1v1 if you chose a better fight. The exception to this rule would be if you are convinced that the enemy is a solo player, in which case it might be worth taking the chance even if it doesn’t work out, as they are not as likely to kill you before you can kill them.
14. Solo VS Solo
As a solo player, you are not only going to be facing other teams. Whether you select duos or trios as your game mode, teams of smaller sizes will occur. Identifying which players are solo is crucial, as they will more than likely have the necromancer trait assigned and be able to revive themselves after you kill them. If you are not paying attention, this can quickly turn the tide from a win to a loss. Once you down a player that you suspect might be solo, count to 5 in your head and try to close the distance enough to have an angle on them immediately. If you can’t find an angle in time you could throw a well times explosive at their body which would kill them if they revive on the 5 second mark, which a lot of players will instinctively do knowing that they are most likely gone regardless if you make it to their body in time. If you are able to get to their body in time, make sure you burn them as soon as possible to force their revive. In case you’re not aware, once a player is burnt out they can no longer be revived, so this is the safest way to deal with solo players. While they are burning, you need to make sure you are covering the body to prevent a potential revive. Traps are very effective for preventing successful solo revives. For example, a couple of well-placed bear traps will instantly kill a reviving solo player.
One final thing to keep in mind when fighting solo players is that they tend to be of a slightly higher skill level for the reasons I explained earlier, which means taking a fight with another solo player can be riskier. In a lot of cases if I am holding one or both bounties and I see a solo player within scan range I tend to disengage, simply because the risk is higher than the reward.
15. Burn & choke mechanics
Burning enemy hunters when you can is the strongest tool in your arsenal to force the enemies’ hands. For solos, this will force a revive, and for teams they will have no choice but to choke their teammate to prevent them from losing a lot of health or burning out entirely. The sooner you can burn enemy players, the less time they have to coordinate a plan, and this often leads to them making mistakes. If you double up and take the dauntless trait as discussed earlier, you can even plan ahead and be ready to defuse their chokes as they are thrown at their teammate, adding even more pressure for them to take action. I find that in a lot of cases if I dauntless one or two chokes, the enemy will eventually either run out of chokes or give up on it and try to rush me. Since my loadouts are typically catered to both close and long range, this is exactly what I want, and I can simply hold angles and wait for them to run into it, or place strategic traps making it harder for them to push. A final thing to note regarding burn mechanics is that players cannot be burnt if they are downed in water. This can be used strategically if you know you are likely to lose a fight. Position yourself in water and fight back to the best of your ability. If you lose, they’ll have to either trap your body, wait, or move on.
16. Keep your head cool
A stressed out player makes mistakes. A stressed out player gets the shakes. If you are panicking in the middle of a fight, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage, and as a solo players you’re already at a disadvantage by default. Learning to keep your cool no matter how hectic or stressful the situation is one of the most powerful tools to increase your survival rate. Back when I started playing solo games like Rust and Tarkov I used to get extreme adrenaline rush when the shit hit the fan – and guess what? I usually died shortly after. The silver lining is that it gets better, so you just need to keep throwing yourself into the stressful situations until you develop immunity to it. Today, I barely ever get an adrenaline rush from the most intense situations, and this allows me to stay completely focused and think clearly. This leads to me making the best possible decisions for my situations, and even if it leads to me dying it won’t be because I got stressed out and made a mistake. It is better to think clearly and make the best decisions even if you die, than panic and fire your weapon uncontrollably for the win. You’ll become a much better player over time if you can stay focused in every fight.
17. Approaching compounds
Pushing a compound can be tricky as a solo player. There could be one, two or even three players hiding inside and holding angles, and you often won’t have an overview of the situation. The first thing you can do to get that overview is to listen for movement inside. Some players or teams are more active and will often reveal their numbers to you simply by the way the move around. Other times, you won’t get any information at all. The compound is completely quiet and yet they are there – somewhere. There are a few things you can do to create an opportunity to push. Throwing an explosive inside of the lair will very often force players to move, and in some cases, it could even end up scoring a random kill, which could be your cue to make a move. If you don’t have dynamites, you could take pop shots at random locations where enemies are more likely to hide or wall bang at typical hiding spots. Players will often move when your shots are getting close to their location, and who knows – you might even get a random kill. If you are are throwing explosives and wall banging the compound but nobody is moving, this could be a sign that whoever killed the boss moved on, or they are simply holding safe positions waiting for you to push. At this point, you either have to decide which entrance you’re more likely to successfully push from and full send, or you back off and either wait them out or reset. Another option when in doubt is to scan the area with the help of a beetle, which can be brought into the game or found in the world at beetle pod spawns. You don’t HAVE TO take every fight just because you can. If an enemy team is playing in a way that puts you at a huge disadvantage, it is perfectly acceptable to leave. Nobody owes anyone a playstyle, and that applies to you as well.
18. Double or nothing?
Let’s say there are two bosses on the map, and you’ve already secured one bounty. Do you stay and double up on the second boss, or do you leave and secure the win? This really depends on a few things. If you are running low on money, taking the guaranteed win can be a much smarter call than trying to double up, and at the same time your hunter levels up which gives you better odds next game as you can assign more traits. Secondly, if you know the other boss is very close, you are less likely to be ambushed moving over and you could potentially kill it quickly and safely, making this a solid option. In another scenario, it could be that you’ve secured the bounty from one boss, and another team is getting ambushed defending their bounty. Pushing in with the special dark sight from your bounty and third partying the weakened and fighting teams drastically increases your odds of success, and in this scenario it might be worth taking the risk to double the rewards. There is no right or wrong, however. I typically make this decision based on how much I can afford to lose. If I have enough money in the bank, I don’t worry over losing a bounty, however if I am running low I’d rather take the victory and build up a buffer for future losses. A final thing to consider is that sometimes taking a win is important for the mental aspect. The more you lose, the more you are likely to lose. Taking a win, even if it is a small one, can be enough to give you a mental reset and set you up for more wins for the rest of the session. I often like to take the easy wins early in my streaming session to set myself up for success and build up a buffer of confidence and mental resilience for the day.
19. You will lose a lot, and that’s OK!
No matter what anyone says, playing solo is not easier than playing in a team. You are facing more enemies on the map; bigger teams and you are often their only focus. Even a far less skilled team can land a lucky shot on you and take you down immediately. Don’t underestimate the power in numbers, despite a solo matchmaking modifier. I personally find it far easier to play in 6* trios than playing solo as a 5*. At some point, players are good enough to put up a serious fight. Typically solo gameplay gets really tricky when you get into the higher MMR, starting around 5*. The bottom line is that you will end up dying a lot. In fact, you will probably die a lot more than you will survive, depending on your playstyle and the choices that you make throughout your games. Being OK with losing is an important part of playing solo, and at the same time the wins will feel so much better when they eventually come along! At the end of the day, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage by playing alone, despite any mechanics in the game designed to make the experience more enjoyable. The truth of the matter is that no trait or solo mechanic can make up for being outnumbered simply because of the brutal nature of the game. I’ve had entire days losing to 3 and 4* players, and I’ve had days mostly winning against 5 and 6*s. Hunt giveth, and hunt taketh away. That is the way of Hunt: Showdown. It is how we handle each loss and what we learn from it that matters the most in the long run.
The mental aspect is an extremely important part of any PVP game. In fact, it is so important that I might even do a dedicated guide to it at some point in the near future.
20. Follow REXNOR on YouTube & Twitch!
If you made it this far, why not smash that subscribe button and follow me on Twitch? I stream 5 days per week, and I would love to see you there! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below and I’ll make sure to respond as soon as possible, or you can ask me when I am live over at Twitch.tv/REXNOR. I’ll leave a link in the description! Thank you so much for watching, and I’ll see you – in the bayou!
