Free to play - some facts

[Alf Tupper]

I've cleaned this up a bit to make some points clearer - thanks to DanielsonPL for a quick chat as well as his remarks below - I want to keep this initial post as objective as possible.

Some facts about what you can do for free. This has been posted because of the large number of posts saying this game is not free to play.

This post is made on the basis that 'free' means no expenditure of real money, and using only $gms the in game currency.

You will spawn as a Guest with a .243 rifle, binoculars, a camera and a deer squeaker. You can access ANY of the reserves, but as a Guest you have license and free equipment to shoot only Mule deer. You will get 30 rounds of ammo free which restock every new hunting session.

There are unlockable Mule Deer missions which will earn you $gms which you can then use to buy some items in the store. When you have completed the first three which should really only take you your first hunt, you can access all the mission trees. If you progress up the Mule deer missions, by the time you get to Big Rack Up Close, you will have earned 6900 $gms. That's a minimum of ten kills by the way, but you'll probably have taken more Mules than that.

This is enough to buy a single barrel shotgun for $gms 6299, plus have $gms 600 to have spent on ancillaries.

Your shotgun ammo does not restock just like your .243's, you will have to buy ammo for it, but 30 buckshot or slug for $gms 799 is pretty economical. However it will let you hunt EVERY species in the reserves if you have a license for them.

What can you buy for $gms that are useful? You can buy all of the scent lures, but I'd suggest that you don't until you have won your shotgun as at $gms 1400 to 2000 a bottle they will make getting your shotgun a longer process. The scent eliminator is useful - I don't use the wind indicator any more for what it's worth.

What can you NOT buy with $gms? You can't buy any other in game weapons at this time, plus bait dispensers, clothing, tents/blinds, and stuff to make the game easier, but I'm pretty convinced that you can do a good game with the bare basics.

So where to go with your new shotgun? At this point you can add rabbits to your list of things to shoot for free - and then work your way up the first five rabbit missions, and get yourself $gms 1,600 more.

The good thing about your shotgun (even if it looks like a chair leg nailed to a water pipe) is that it can be used on any species in the game. However you still need a license to shoot any species other than rabbits and Mule deer.

The good news is that you can buy these licenses with $gms - they vary in price, and exist in one day, seven day, and twenty eight day versions. If you put your thought into it, you can use these to take on other species, and try the new missions - and thereby earn more $gms to invest in licenses.

Add onto this that there are other missions you can do without being a member once you have done the first three Mule missions, eg the tourism missions get you 1000 $gms; the first five Boone and Crockett missions net you $gms 1000 for dealing with Mule deer, plus many of the lower level missions for other species start with tracking and spotting them for which you don't even need a weapon. You can actually buy that shotgun a lot quicker than you think!

Therefore - you can access all of the huntable species for free. Genuinely free. That's a fact.

Any downsides? Yes. The missions give you progressively more $gms but get progressively harder. As has been pointed out, they are finite and will eventually you will have done all you can. There's also some mission trees where you need to own a paid for in $ems piece of equipment to complete it - so you can't do all the trees for free guys.

I'm not sure how long that could take but I'd guess it's not something you could do in a couple of weeks - although another poster says it can be done (or exhausted) in seven days to fourteen days. I guess it alos depends on how manyhours a day or week your life allows you to play.

Still in the free to play vein, add onto this that you can earn $ems for free if you want, by filling in surveys etc, and then buy yourself a sexier rifle or shotgun, and the ammo to go with it. I've put this at the bottom but it's still free as in you do not have to use your own money, just your own time. I've started a separate thread to gather more info about this as a safe method of income, and although at this time the game devs are re-evaluating this mechanism, it seems to be worthwhile and as safe as anything else on the www nowadays.

It also is worth pointing out that if you do want to use real money $ems 500 is about $5 in the USA, or in the UK, £3.99. In the UK a three month membership will cost you £6.99, or 8p a day.

So enjoy the game in your own way chaps. Salute!

[Maverick]

A lot of work went into this. It's a credit to you.

+1

[Danielsonpl]

Originally posted by <UGA> Alf Tupper:

Your shotgun ammo will restock just like your .243's. It uses three types of ammo - again all free - which will let you hunt EVERY species in the reserves if you have a license for them.

As far as i know that's totally not true, until they changed it recently. According to http://www.thehunterwiki.com/?title=Guest_Hunting ( last change16 June 2014, at 10:14) you get free ammo ONLY for .243 rifle. Shotgun ammo you still have to buy with gm$

Originally posted by <UGA> Alf Tupper:

The good news is that you can buy these licenses with $gms - they vary in price, and exist in one day, seven day, and twenty eight day versions. If you put your thought into it, you can use these to take on other species, and try the new missions - and thereby earn more $gms to invest in licenses.

Therefore - you can access all of the huntable species for free. Genuinely free. That's a fact.

Keep in mind that missions are finite and you can't repeat them without buying mission reset item from store for 800em$ , so you will eventually run out of gm$. If u buy animal license for gm$ made out of mule deer missions and don't do its missions before running out of time you won't get any more gm$

Originally posted by <UGA> Alf Tupper:

ERRATA - cottontail missions stop becoming free at Level 6 as you need a ground blind;

As far as i know in multiplayer games you can use hosts deployables such as grounds etc

Originally posted by <UGA> Alf Tupper:

Add onto this that you can earn $ems for free if you want, by filling in surveys etc, and then buy yourself a sexier rifle or shotgun. I've put this at the bottom but it's still free as in you do not have to use your own money, just your own time. Can anyone advise as to how many $ems can be earned this way please?

It's true you can gain couple hundered em$ here and there, however be cautious as the hunter staaf is not resposible for ads showed there. You can get some em$ ( around 100 usually or smth like that) for downloading a game, registering and playing for some time (i.e. 2 hours, or till lvl xxx etc). On the other side some of ads will ask you to download a malicious ( harmfull) software which could infect your pc etc...

Also remember what i wrote earlier, even if u get a nice new gun for those em$ you got from ads, you still have to stock it with ammo all the time meaning constant use of em$ or gm$ ( untill you buy membership)

Originally posted by <UGA> Alf Tupper:

ADDENDA - to get to Big rack Up Close you will have to shoot 10 Mule deer; that's not a lot is it?

Another incorrect information from this post. this mission says " Harvest a Mule Deer buck with at least 10 typical points using a Shotgun with Buckshot ammo. ", not "hunt 10 mule deer".... For ppl not knowing what it means, deer are scored by their antlers ( horns), 10 point deer means a deer with at least 5 endings ( spiky points) on each of it's. For more information check this site :
http://www.boone-crockett.org/bgRecords/bc_scoring_typmuledeer.asp?area=bgRecords&type=Typical+Mule+Deer

So yeah, in conclusion nice try with that post but better avoid giving false information / not giving full information :)

The hunter is a great and addicting game worth a try as a guest, and if u like it, support with buying 1 or 2 guns ( that will be enough to hunt all the animals), maybe couple callers (easier to lure animal with those) and buy membership ( srsly 3$ a month? like 1 cheap beer less monthly...) :)

[Alf Tupper]

Right then, Alf is back.


"Another incorrect information from this post. this mission says " Harvest a Mule Deer buck with at least 10 typical points using a Shotgun with Buckshot ammo. ", not "hunt 10 mule deer"...."

Ok - it may be language barriers, but what I wrote and what I meant was that to get to that mission the minimum number of Mule deer you will have had to shoot is ten to have achieved the preceding missions. Edited to be clearer now.

"ERRATA - cottontail missions stop becoming free at Level 6 as you need a ground blind;

As far as i know in multiplayer games you can use hosts deployables such as grounds etc"

Ok then - then it actually gets better then doesn't it? I didn't put this in originally, as someone was bound to whine that they don;t have any mates with a ground blind to invite them, and in any case they have had to pay real £ for the ground blind so it;s not hunting for free then is it? If you can get a mate with a ground blind to invite you to a MP game and shoot rabbits from his ground blind you can do even more of the missions FOR FREE!


Danielson - I honestly thought that ammo restocked itself, but you have made me doubt that now and perhaps it is only the .243 - apologies for this error. I have now edited that information to make it correct.


So in summary yes I made one factual error; but the rest of it is true. Enjoy your game!

[Danielsonpl]

No problem, yeah you can play for free hunting mule deer and rabits with .243 ( however rabbits won't give you score etc as it's unethicall weapon for it) and if u like it and would like to hunt all the animals just subscribe :)

I've played as a guest for 2 weeks and I've subed with wayfarer bundle ( which gives you nice starting shotgun and revolver allowing you to hunt all the animals on short range) I don't regret it :)

[Julius]

Wow, I feel sorry for someone who has to juggle with gm$2000~ one-day licenses and gm$800-960 for every 30 shells. They'd literally have to spend all day praying that they can finish all the missions in time to move on or get stuck, just to get one-day glimpses at the species with the measliest of weapons just before they hit the wall. No wonder why no one ever does it.

Gotta commend EW's ability to tick the boxes with the smallest of margins possible.

[Maverick]

Keep in mind that missions are finite and you can't repeat them without buying mission reset item from store for 800em$ , so you will eventually run out of gm$. If u buy animal license for gm$ made out of mule deer missions and don't do its missions before running out of time you won't get any more gm$

Mission reset is only 800 em$. Easily obtained via 3rd party stuff.

What you failed to state is by the time you need a reset you will have 10's of thousands of gm$. I've done less than 30%, spent like a madman and still have 10k of gm$ I can't spend.

So yeah, in conclusion nice try with that post but better avoid giving false information / not giving full information :)

Ditto. Stop giving misleading information. I gave but one example, it wasn't wrong, it's hyped to ramp up the rhetoric.

The long and the short, work hard at doing it for free or just pay up and enjoy.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Sephyrius:

Wow, I feel sorry for someone who has to juggle with gm$2000~ one-day licenses and gm$800-960 for every 30 shells. They'd literally have to spend all day praying that they can finish all the missions in time to move on or get stuck, just to get one-day glimpses at the species with the measliest of weapons just before they hit the wall. No wonder why no one ever does it.

Gotta commend EW's ability to tick the boxes with the smallest of margins possible.

Pay $30, all those issues go away dontcha know...

or post every 2 or 3 days whining... Who cares.

[Alf Tupper]

Originally posted by Sephyrius:

Wow, I feel sorry for someone who has to juggle with gm$2000~ one-day licenses and gm$800-960 for every 30 shells. They'd literally have to spend all day praying that they can finish all the missions in time to move on or get stuck, just to get one-day glimpses at the species with the measliest of weapons just before they hit the wall. No wonder why no one ever does it.

Gotta commend EW's ability to tick the boxes with the smallest of margins possible.

Or perhaps such a player might have to show skill as an e-hunter instead of skill as an e-whinger? Still telling everyone that the game is not free to play now?

[Ottomic]

You can play the game free. With severe limitations. You won't do anything special by paying, you'll still track, spot and shoot animals.

[DrNoesis]

And there we go, one special thread detox and deep cleanse.

Keep it civil folks. OP, back over to you.

[Alf Tupper]

Thank you Doctor!

[Mgr. Baletnikus]

:o