Overview
A basic guide to playing the Night Hunter for new players and even more advanced players might find something useful.
Introduction
Over my time playing the Night Hunter, i have found certain tactics that help new players get into the Night Hunter.
As you level up as the night hunter, it gets easier with the more upgrades you get. However getting there can be a struggle, so it’s all about your pounce, climbing, spits and ground pound…. still alot to work with.
People often forget that the Night hunter is NOT a tanky creature, 2-4 hits and you die. Evade, stalk, strike.
Each section will focus on a specific ability, with a conclusion at the end.
Tendril Locomotion
As I am sure you already know, this is how the Night Hunter gets around.
As the tutorial will show you, it fires a fleshy harpoon out of your wrists and pulls you to a building/ledge or the ground (Kinda like Spiderman after Bathsalts).
This skill is your best way for chasing/escaping survivors.
The best way I have found to take advantage of this skill is to fire it onto a surface, then jump to cancel it mid pull. This allows you to change target mid flight and in theory almost never touch the ground.
REMEMBER: UV flashlights will NOT stop this ability unless you are completely drained of your stamina. If you are fast enough, you can escape a UV light by tendriling away and then (If needed) jumping.
Howl
Howl is a very simple skill, if you have ever played Batman Arkham Asylum, it worked like the batvision. If you havn’t, it’s really a scream that shows you on your map the direction of survivors and shows their skeletons through walls.
It costs no stamina, have almost no cooldown, and works instantly.
However, you do scream… this means survivors will be able to see where you where when you screamed. However unlike you, they cannot track your movements after howling. Howl actually tracks the Survivors for quite a while.
The absolute BEST way to use this skill is when you start/respawn, just to know where they are, or after a kill, see where the human has respawned.
If you arn’t comfortable finding Survivors, then you can use it frequently, but this will keep survivors updated on your general area, ruining chances of ambush.
Ground Pound
Ground pound is truly amazing as far as defensive abilities go. As you hold down your attack, you will swip once then start to charge your slam. The slam is VERY powerful and will sent survivors soaring away from you, this is very useful when you run out of stamina and are ontop of a building as survivors will close in for the kill only to be thrown off the building for insane damage.
This skill does have downsides however, if you pound a survivor on the ground (not high up) you truly wont have long to get away. Also if you MISS a ground pound, you cannot move for about 2.5 seconds.
Remember until you upgrade the ground pound to be able to be used while moving, you need to look and see if the survivor has a gun or not BEFORE you use a pound. Or you will be a sitting duck.
Finally, remember that the pound has a starting delay (the charge) and will not get you out of trouble if the survivor is already ontop of you.
As a last note: Ground pound can send survivors flying into spikes. It is very rare that an oppotunity will arise, but keep it in mind, as it will instantly kill a survivor.
Spits
Okay this is where things get a little… sticky.
Spits are in a nutshell, a grenade that after a delay explodes and summons suicide monsters to charge anyone spat on. Spits also stick to walls, floors, and Survivors but are fired in an arc.
Spit is basicaly your way of splitting up survivors or flushing them out.
Spits take a LONG time to recharge, so use them well. I have found the best way to use them is to…
1) Not use them on freerunning Survivors… you won’t hit them.
2) Use them when the survivors hide in a building.
3) Use them on Survivors attacking nests.
4) Use them on the ground when Survivors have you UVed and are almost ontop of you.
5) Run towards the Survivors and spit right on/near them. (Use UV block to get close)
6) Spit straight up when the Survivors are running after you, wait for it to come down, there is no explosion delay by the time it comes down.
Spits do upgrade with perks selected as you level up. Some are: UV blocking spit, More monsters drawn, and eventually a Ground Pound that covers pounded survivors in spit (LETHAL).
Pounce
THIS is your calling card.. your execution.. your coup de grace. Pounce is a skill that will INSTANTLY kill a human after a delay. It is a skill that requires no aiming, only that you are in range of the target. Pounce requires you to have a full stamina bar, and to be close to a survivour. You know your pounce has worked if you end up wrapping your tendrils around the survivor will looking at his face.
Once you have someone pounced, he can only be saved if a friend attacks you, UV light will NOT save a victim of pounce once you are ontop of them.
This dosn’t mean pounce is overpowered… at all.
Pounce can be interrupted mid flight by even the slightest exposure to UV light, and you cannot pounce while under UV light. This makes pounce a true assassination skill.
A tip when fighting just 1 survivor is to attack from multiple directions and use spits to panic survivors into fleeing. Then pounce.
When fighting multiple. NEVER pounce the group… you will just get UVed and killed. Instead try splitting them up with spit, or try pounce the guy at the back when hes not looking behind him, etc.
Pounce does not consume stamina, it just requires a full bar. If you can pounce a second target, Do it.
I found the best times to pounce are
1) When the survivor is climbing, They CANNOT UV you and are helpless
2) When they are attacking a nest, they will be looking at the nest and likely checking around them, wait until they resume attacking, then strike.
3) Anytime you are told you can pounce, and you are out of their sight.
If you fail a pounce, you will launch over the survivors head and will start loosing stamina from UV, do ANYTHING you can to escape. If you have enough stamina, tendril away. If not, use a ground pound, try climbing etc. EVEN SPIT!
Tips and Tricks
A few things about the Night Hunter you may not know or should at least consider.
* Ground Pound and UV Spit Block will destroy flares.
* Your tackle/pounce will send you flying over the Survivor if you fail it, this can wind you up in spikes.
If you see a Survivor standing in front of spikes, consider he may be baiting you.
* No weapon in the game except EXPcalibur will 1 shot you. Most weapons take at least 3 hits to kill
you.
* Ground Pound/Tackle will make the human invulnerable after your hit. So, if a suicide zombie
begins to explode, and you ground pound a survivor, he will take the pound damage, but the
explosion won’t do anything to them, until they finish falling backwards.
* Incapacitated Survivors can be killed faster by attacking the downed Survivor.
* Oddly, spike traps seem to pull nearby mid-air players if they were pushed. If you are dropped
kicked, you can actually gravitate towards spikes, likewise if you tackle/groundpound a survivor.
* Lastly, if a survivor drop-kicks you, he will almost ALWAYS run straight at you afterwards, use this
to your advantage and throw a spit on them then leap away/ground pound.
Final Notes
With all these skills in mind, you only need master them, as the game will get easier when you unlock more skills.
Don’t forget be flexible! If something isn’t working, try a new tactic.. a new direction.. and new method of hunting. Then you unlock skills that define you as a Hunter.
Do you want lethal spits? The UV blocking spit will let you pounce a survivor no problem.
Perhaps to be even FASTER!? Then the speed and locomotion speed upgrades are for you.
Or maybe ground pound wasn’t cutting it for you and you want Tackle to hurl enemies into the darkness.
Be flexible, move fast, kill faster… evolve.