UNMATCHED Stopping Power! Nitro Express Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Intro

Hi guys, REX here! The Nitro Express is the most powerful rifle in Hunt: Showdown. This elephant rifle does not only have the power to take you out – it will take out your neighbour at the same time and deafen the entire neighborhood. The Nitro Express can be purchased for 1050 hunt dollars and features two high caliber rifle barrels and an aperture-style scope, but unlike other aperture scopes this one can not be flipped down. When aiming through the nitro sights, everything else gets blurred out, making it hard to keep an overview – which could be a challenge for newer players who may rely more on visuals to keep track of what is going on in the match. Luckily, the hip fire spread is quite good on the nitro, and even better if you crouch before firing.

The Nitro Express can fire three ammo types: Regular ammo, shredder ammo & explosive ammo. Firing the weapon causes ear ringing, which severely impacts the hearing of yourself and anyone near you. Regular ammo for the nitro has the highest penetration power in the game. This is the only ammo type that can penetrate brick walls, and as I mentioned in my recent Lebel mastery – it is also the only ammo type aside from Spitzer that can pass through more than one target. The regular ammo for the nitro will one-shot to the torso up to 43 meters away and has a velocity of 550, which is very solid!

Next up, shredder ammo combines raw stopping power and bleeding in one mean package. This ammo type has a velocity of 495, which is slightly lower than the regular ammo, but will one-shot to the torso up to 57 meters and causes intense bleeding on impact. While most dumdum ammo types lacks the ability to penetrate surfaces, the shredder ammo retains some penetration power, but does not pass through brick or metal walls like the regular ammo.

Finally, explosive ammo detonates on impact and deals heavy explosive damage in a small area. Two bullets fired at the ground near a hunter is usually enough to kill, and two shots to the body will kill on any range. While explosive ammo is very strong, it is generally considered more of a meme and is rarely played in my experience, likely due to the lack of 1-tap potential that the other ammo types have.

With the 1896 update for Hunt: Showdown, the Nitro was nerfed – as the update added deviation for all nitro ammo types, meaning it is no longer perfectly accurate. At the same time, the addition of bullet drop has made it harder to land shots on long range than before, which might affect the Shredder ammo type in particular, since it used to be very consistent for long range 1-taps to the torso.

The Nitro Express has limited ammo capacity, capping out at just 6 bullets. Looting a special ammo box only grants you 1 extra bullet, while deployable ammo boxes or those dropped by scrapbeak grants 2. This means you have to manage your ammo well, or you will run out quickly. Bringing an ammo box or two is highly recommended.

As for your sidearm, anything can work – but since the Nitro is a high end, high budget rifle – you’ll often see players bring a dolch or uppercut alongside it.

In this video, I am taking the Nitro Express for a spin and testing the capabilities of the regular and shredder ammo. I will not be playing Explosive ammo as I consider it less optimal, but if you are interested I did cover this ammo type in my original Nitro Mastery which you can find on my channel.

At the end of this video I’ll give you my thoughts and recommendations for the Nitro Express, so stay tuned – but without further ado, let’s dive into it!

Thoughts & Recommendations

After having played the Nitro Express for an entire day, here are my thoughts! First off, I am once again blown away by how effective this rifle is! As with my original Nitro mastery, I went in with the expectation that it was going to be quite challenging and expensive to play this weapon over many hours – but like last time it outperformed my expectations. Somehow it felt like I hardly ever missed, and I kept dropping hunters every game. In fact, we went on a big winning streak and made a lot of money during the first couple of hours. Things took a turn for the worse after I switched from normal ammo to shredder, and we went on a bit of a losing streak. Whether that was because shredder is worse or just bad luck is hard to say – but overall I felt like the normal ammo was more consistent.

Regardless of the performance, I had a ton of fun playing the Nitro – and I can highly recommend you give it a try! It is by no means an easy weapon to play, so it is probably not the best option for beginners, but practice makes perfect! As for my sidearm, I rarely ever ended up using it. The nitro held its own in most fights, and with two teammates bringing an ammo box for me as well I didn’t run out of ammo very often. If you’re playing solo it might be a different story though, and in any case I would recommend bringing at least 1 ammo box for yourself.

In conclusion, I would say that the Nitro Express, despite the double nerf in August – is still highly viable. Since the drop range is just 45 meters, regular ammo is probably the safer bet as it matches the torso 1-tap range whilst having slightly higher velocity, but for the more skilled player – shredder has higher potential over distance. Explosive ammo could work, but I don’t see it outperforming any of the other ammo types, and because you’ll often need two shots to kill it will be a lot harder to sustain your ammo pool.

But now I want to hear your opinion! What do YOU think about the Nitro Express, and which ammo type do you prefer? Let me know in the comments, and until next time I’ll see you in the Bayou!