These are better than you think!
The beauty of Hunt: Showdown is you can play however you want and the game has a mix of all sorts of play styles for both teams and of course solo play. Solo play can be tough at times so preparing yourself when you don’t have a teammate to back you up is very important. This post isn’t a recommendation or calling these two options the “new meta” or anything like that, but I’ve talked to a lot of Solos from playing Randoms the past week and I wanted to introduce other Solos to these tools and explain a bit why I have success using them.
Blank Fire Decoys These are a basically a random gunshot sound that you can throw and they have many of uses that make them versatile as a Solo.
• Stopping a Flank if the team that you’re fighting splits up and they start flanking on your vulnerable side then throw one behind them so they don’t feel comfortable pushing that direction, hopefully come more passive about that side, and in turn sometimes stopping the flank altogether. This does take practice and map knowledge to pull off effectively.
• Blowing up Barrels/Shooting Lanterns many people don’t think to use them for barrels, including myself, when they have them, but when the opportunity strikes they can be very useful. You can also shoot out lanterns with them which can make for a very sneaky surprise ambush on some poor innocent victims nearby.
• Drawing in Players to a Certain Location if shots ring in the Bayou you best believe some blood thirsty hunters will show up. I do this when I end up finding Rotjaw or Hellborn. I’ll go to the opposite compound away from where the Mini Boss spawn is and charge throwing around Blank Fire Decoys and blowing up barrels. Make enough noise in a general location and players will show up out of curiosity. All the meanwhile you’re fighting the Mini Boss and have got a head start to the extraction.
• Force an Enemy to Peek That simple. Sometimes you have those enemies that just won’t poke their head out no matter what, until a fight breaks out that is. Use the decoys to simulate a fight and take advantage of the curious rats hiding inside.
Poison Bomb A throwable splatter bomb that creates a poison cloud that lasts 9 minutes long. Can be countered by Antidote Shots. Very cheap as well.
• Shutting Down Power Positions when the enemy has a spot/angle that they are constantly hitting you from then you can throw the Poison Bomb to close off that spot/angle. A lot of times you’ll get lucky and the Poison Bomb will splash them as well. This can also be done from underneath the spot you want cut off. This has been a very effective strategy at times with them forgetting about it when another team shows up.
• Denying the Bounty if you can’t have it then nobody can! You can throw it on the Bounty Token and rotate away from it when you’re inside the Boss Lair. When the enemy runs inside to grab the token they are surprised and hopefully dies by the cloud. I’ve used this a lot so they can’t get the Bounty Sight for a moment and I can freely rotate. Forewarning though, this can be hard countered if they have Magpie or an Antidote Shot. You can tell if they grab the Bounty, but if you hear then get hurt more than once then they are extremely low or often times die before they exit the cloud.
• Cover Cloud If you are pinned down and need to exit an area you can use the Poison Bomb as a “makeshift smoke bomb” to help you rotate or exit the fight altogether. I’ve used this strategy many of times to pull out of a fight because I was being bombarded by multiple teams or just simply out of meds.
Deny Revive/Supply Point If you down a Hunter you can throw a Poison Bomb on the dead enemy to give yourself some time to flank. This can be countered by a Choke Bomb so keep that in mind, but that also means the enemy team will be down a Choke Bomb as well as giving away their position. This strategy can also be applied to Supply Points. If you’re gonna pull off a long flank then you can drop a Poison Bomb on a supply point as well so the enemy can’t restock while you’re doing your rotation.
The beauty of these two tools is the versatility that you get with them. As a Solo Hunter we are limited in the supplies that we can bring and prepare for. Having a tool and/or consumable that handles multiple tasks is a big plus in my book. If you can think of anymore uses for these tools then please share them with us!
The beauty of Hunt: Showdown is you can play however you want and the game has a mix of all sorts of play styles for both teams and of course solo play. Solo play can be tough at times so preparing yourself when you don’t have a teammate to back you up is very important. This post isn’t a recommendation or calling these two options the “new meta” or anything like that, but I’ve talked to a lot of Solos from playing Randoms the past week and I wanted to introduce other Solos to these tools and explain a bit why I have success using them.
Blank Fire Decoys These are a basically a random gunshot sound that you can throw and they have many of uses that make them versatile as a Solo.
• Stopping a Flank if the team that you’re fighting splits up and they start flanking on your vulnerable side then throw one behind them so they don’t feel comfortable pushing that direction, hopefully come more passive about that side, and in turn sometimes stopping the flank altogether. This does take practice and map knowledge to pull off effectively.
• Blowing up Barrels/Shooting Lanterns many people don’t think to use them for barrels, including myself, when they have them, but when the opportunity strikes they can be very useful. You can also shoot out lanterns with them which can make for a very sneaky surprise ambush on some poor innocent victims nearby.
• Drawing in Players to a Certain Location if shots ring in the Bayou you best believe some blood thirsty hunters will show up. I do this when I end up finding Rotjaw or Hellborn. I’ll go to the opposite compound away from where the Mini Boss spawn is and charge throwing around Blank Fire Decoys and blowing up barrels. Make enough noise in a general location and players will show up out of curiosity. All the meanwhile you’re fighting the Mini Boss and have got a head start to the extraction.
• Force an Enemy to Peek That simple. Sometimes you have those enemies that just won’t poke their head out no matter what, until a fight breaks out that is. Use the decoys to simulate a fight and take advantage of the curious rats hiding inside.
Poison Bomb A throwable splatter bomb that creates a poison cloud that lasts 9 minutes long. Can be countered by Antidote Shots. Very cheap as well.
• Shutting Down Power Positions when the enemy has a spot/angle that they are constantly hitting you from then you can throw the Poison Bomb to close off that spot/angle. A lot of times you’ll get lucky and the Poison Bomb will splash them as well. This can also be done from underneath the spot you want cut off. This has been a very effective strategy at times with them forgetting about it when another team shows up.
• Denying the Bounty if you can’t have it then nobody can! You can throw it on the Bounty Token and rotate away from it when you’re inside the Boss Lair. When the enemy runs inside to grab the token they are surprised and hopefully dies by the cloud. I’ve used this a lot so they can’t get the Bounty Sight for a moment and I can freely rotate. Forewarning though, this can be hard countered if they have Magpie or an Antidote Shot. You can tell if they grab the Bounty, but if you hear then get hurt more than once then they are extremely low or often times die before they exit the cloud.
• Cover Cloud If you are pinned down and need to exit an area you can use the Poison Bomb as a “makeshift smoke bomb” to help you rotate or exit the fight altogether. I’ve used this strategy many of times to pull out of a fight because I was being bombarded by multiple teams or just simply out of meds.
Deny Revive/Supply Point If you down a Hunter you can throw a Poison Bomb on the dead enemy to give yourself some time to flank. This can be countered by a Choke Bomb so keep that in mind, but that also means the enemy team will be down a Choke Bomb as well as giving away their position. This strategy can also be applied to Supply Points. If you’re gonna pull off a long flank then you can drop a Poison Bomb on a supply point as well so the enemy can’t restock while you’re doing your rotation.
The beauty of these two tools is the versatility that you get with them. As a Solo Hunter we are limited in the supplies that we can bring and prepare for. Having a tool and/or consumable that handles multiple tasks is a big plus in my book. If you can think of anymore uses for these tools then please share them with us!