Hammerhead Shark in-depth guide

This guide will help people not too familiar with the hammerhead shark, explaining mechanics, and other in-depth things that concern the shark.

Intro & Updates

Hello and welcome to my guide!

In this guide, I'll teach you how to play Hammerhead (or HH) properly.

There are some intricacies that aren't well explained by the game itself, and we will cover them here
in this guide.

Updates :

9 Jul.2018 : Added maps and modifications
11 Sept.2018 : Added Advanced Tactics section and modifications
27 Oct.2018 : Net section modification and new HH gameplay
2 Jan.2020 : Added a compilation in the video section and an announcement

BEFORE YOU READ/ANNOUNCEMENT : This guide is not outdated since there was no modifications to the hammerhead shark BUT it is nearly abandoned (IRL, bored of the game etc) and there is so many things, tips and tricks not mentioned in this guide, it is like 50% of the whole HH mechanics and game plans, if anybody that knows HH very well and want to contribute more for this guide, add me (undefined) or write a comment and i'll add you.

Hammerhead is a tank shark capable of dealing massive damage on divers by slamming them into a solid object. It can be walls, environment, ground or even S.T.E.V.E. Hammerhead in its current state is pretty overpowered if you master him. His ability allows you to regain stamina by hitting a solid object, if maxed, it allows you to regenerate a part of your health.

Pros :

-Massive HP, nearly same HP pool as the Great White.

-Unlimited stamina if you know how to handle this shark.

-Constant self-heal, again if you know how to ride him.

-Very mobile shark, handling hammerhead is different from other sharks, i will explain this later on the guide.

-Massive, very massive damage dealing on divers and S.T.E.V.E.

-Ability to destroy S.T.E.V.E. in less than 20 seconds with headstrong, 10 seconds if you double hammerhead.

-Countered by almost nothing if you master him, except dragged volleyjet. (that cost 3K + the price of drag mod)

-Always keeps the pressure on divers.

-Ability to perform real surprise attacks without evolutions since he’s a tank shark.

-Makes divers salty.

Cons :

- Very big hitbox, you will get hit more often by divers.

- Small stamina pool, can be hard for beginner to manage it.

- Vulnerable to nets due to his hitbox, but i will explain you how to avoid them later.

- Can be hard to play when you begin with him, especially against good divers.

- You will be called a hacker or a pubstomper nearly every game if you are doing well with him, but anyway who cares ?

- Money can counter him aswell if you don’t deny golding or DPV.

- Dragged volleyjet, if you see one of those, you basically lost the game.

There are mainly 3 ways of playing HH :

1 - Classic way : You kill all divers at your rythm. Just don’t play HH if you are playing that way because you are gonna get countered by heavy divers artillery.

2 - The Rush : Never eat seals and apply constant pressure on divers, attack the faster as you can and apply constant pressure on divers and S.T.E.V.E. (also called the great pubstomp). Game should end at safe 1, 2 or 3 if you are doing well. Basically don’t lose your time and destroy them.

3 - STEVE destroy : Simple, buy Headstrong, Hangry and Nimble Finned, and “Disable S.T.E.V.E !”. Game should end at safe 1 or on the way to safe 2. This is a bit hard to perform when you begin with HH but it’s very rewarding when you look at the chatbox.

First thing you gotta know is that you will never one hit kill divers by slamming them into walls, but there is few way to optimize the damage you deal to divers. It depends on the angle you slam them, and the object.

Let’s see the best angles on you can slam to :
Very important : you have to always to hit perpendicular to deal the maximum damage, if you don’t do so, you will deal less damage and you will get hit by more knife hits.

Remember, the goal is to kill the diver as fast as possible so here is a trick to one shot divers :

This is called the mid-air ground-slam

Remember to ALWAYS trash when you got a diver in your mouth, the trickiest part is to slam him properly into the ground and keep trashing.

As a HH main myself, i always try to slam them into the ground than into walls or objects. You will also get more stamina/health from your ability.

Here is multiple builds that i made depending on the way you are going to play, Rush or S.T.E.V.E destroy.

HH Rush Build (23kills needed, 17 without BloodR) :



Blood rage is a plus, but not essential, you can buy any other evos instead of blood rage if you feel comfortable without it. I personally never run Blood Rage, it’s just an option.

S.T.E.V.E Rush Build : (9kills needed)


Always get headstrong after hangry+nimble finned, ALWAYS.

- Always hit on a perpendicular angle, in early game aim for walls or solid object, when you have Powerful Tail, always do the ground-slam trick if you can, it’s more rewarding and fast than slamming into walls or objects.

- Never waste your time eating seals if you are in a killing spree, just die and respawn with full health.

- You can one shot walls without the Headstrong evolution since you are a tank shark, first sprint into a wall then lunge, impossible for divers to see you coming, basically a free kill.

- Be greedy! greed is a part of hammerhead gameplay, you should never stop doing multi kills, a master hammerhead should perform at least 2 kills per attacks in early game, even against level 100 divers.

- Be very, very aggressive, aggressivity is the point of hammerhead, if you are waiting outside S.T.E.V.E room, you are just gonna waste time and let them pick up gold.

- First safe is where HH excels the most, comparing to the other sharks. He can easily perform double, triple, or even penta kills, even against good divers.

- Don’t be afraid when you take shots! you are a tank and you can tank more than 5 pistol shots, i see most of HH players getting out of the room when they take shots from divers, you should strike at this diver shooting at you, not leaving the room.

- Don’t forget S.T.E.V.E! let’s say you have performed a team-wipe, don’t get outside! hit S.T.E.V.E as max as you can then wait for divers to respawn, die and respawn with full health, remember that your goal is to deal the maximum damage in the smallest amount of time, hitting S.T.E.V.E will slow them and they will have to wait longer to gather gold from safes.

- Hammerhead is the hardest shark to counter early game with Great White, abuse as max as you can.

Most of veterans/high levels says that the Netgun is the ultimate counter of HH.

Trust me, as a guy that did more than 1000 HH games, Netgun doesn’t fully counter HH.

First, divers don't have netgun at the start of the match and HH excels at the start, so you have to make a huge ticket difference at the start to not get outscored when divers will have better weapons and nets, if you are doing well you should have at least 5 ticket difference (and i'm generous) when divers will reach safe 2, you should rush as maximum as you can at the start using Hangry and make a big ticket difference to prevent getting outscored at the 2nd safe

Net is a slow projectile, that means that if your positioning is fine, you shouldn’t get hit by that net, another way to counter nets is to surprise attack the net guy, also i always consider divers buying nets that they wasted their money and they’re stuck with the akimbo pistols, not helping their team in case the other shark attacks. You should still be able to perform multikills even if someone has a net, positioning is the key, if you have trouble with someone who got a net, try to enter by different paths, divers don't have 4 eyes, grabbing them from behind, from above, from below, behind a wall (with the surprise attack trick).

In conclusion, stomp them hard at the start, be mobile, and manage your stamina to not get caught by nets.

You can buy the Razor Fins evo if you are afraid from nets, but trust me if you master HH you will not need it, i personally never had trouble with nets, even against veterans/high levels. The only things that really counter HH is the dragged volleyjet, and good aiming with great artillery, of course.

In my opinion, Tiger + Hammerhead is the best combo in-game, HH will constantly keep pressure on divers while the Tiger will search for greedy divers and punish divers going outside or just simply help you to avoid your counters. It’s basically stomp+hit&run.

Avoid HH+Mako, Mako will lack getting kills early game which is the point of Mako and HH, that’s why this is not a good combo.

HH+Thresher is fine against average divers, but if you do so against high levels, they will get the advantage by going outside.

HH+Bull : just don’t do it against good divers, you will get shredded by drag+nets.

HH+Great White : Double tank just don’t work against good divers, you will get the GW counters + HH counters in your ass. Also DPV will destroy your game.

Double HH : This one is particular, it can work against a full pro premade of divers if both hammerheads are good, but i recommend avoiding this when solo sharking, just pick another shark if your teammate already picked HH.

For the maps i recommend you to select only the following maps (again this is my opinion, you can select whatever map you want but i find doing better on certain maps) :

- Olmec : 2 First safe spots, the one in the square room is very good for HH since it have flat walls, the other first safe spot is more difficult for HH but once you get into safe 2 you should end the game there, flat walls, flat ground and many ways to enter the room.

- Stash : Very good map for HH especially the first safe, divers spawn below you so it is very easy to spawnkill them and doing multi-kills, safe 2 is very good for you too since you can enter by multiple ways

- Station : This is by far my favorite map for HH, first safe is heaven for doing multi-kills and many walls to perform surprise attacks, same for safe 2, if you are doing well on station, game should end on the way to safe 2 or safe 2

- Crude : First safe is one of the best to perform as HH, 2 possible ways for safe 2, but they are both good for HH, pretty nice map for HH overall, also be aware of DPV divers, this map is very easy for them since there is a lot of gold far from your spawn point so its difficult to spot them

- Antiguo : My favorite map with Station, 5 ways to enter the first safe and lot of flat walls and perfect ground for HH, also divers tend to split at the first safe so its easier to pick them 1 by 1

- Hillside You can suprise attack at your first attack by going straight into the first door when divers are behind it, doing this will grant you at least 2 kills, but be careful of good divers placing a mine at this spot, overall a very good map for HH

[BETA] This section is not completed, i will add more tactics and tricks with the HH in the future.

In this section i will talk about advanced tricks with the hammerhead shark. Keep in mind that you have to practice a lot to be effective with the HH and you need to have a minimum of experience in the game to use tactics like that.

1 - Spawnkill/Spawncamp - Mass spawncamp

Hammerhead is very effective for spawnkilling/spawncamping divers because of its very high HP pool and his E ability.

This is very humiliating for divers to get mass-spawnkilled so try to do it only against random players in public matchmaking, and avoid to do this against friends or people that you know. Also try to not abuse it because its kind of anti-game to perform anti-spawn plays in every games.

Practice a lot with the HH and try be very quick and having good reflexes, this tactic requires a lot of focusing, you will have to try a lot to be effective.

You will also need to know divers spawn location in every map, for example, in stash, divers can spawn below you at the first safe, try to learn spawn locations in offline mode.

First you have to learn how divers respawn mechanic works, this is very simple :
When a diver respawn, he have a 5sec spawn protection, this means that he will not be highlighted in red and you can't grab him, but if this diver shoots 1 bullet the spawn protection will be canceled (its not applied with bangsticks/knife and DPV, only guns, so never try to spawncamp a bangsticker because he will always have the advantage against you when respawning)

Secondly you have to learn how to see divers that arent highlighted in red, for this i recommend you to practice in offline against respawning bots, or in multiplayer mode against shark shields

There one common method to see divers not highlighted in red : Divers always have flashlight activated when respawning, you can use this at your advantage to see where is the respawning diver.
Always focus as maximum as you can when you are trying to spawncamp, and try to localise the first respawning diver

You can only spawnkill after performing a team wipe with your partner or solo, if there is one diver remaining after the wipe, try to finish him quickly and prepare yourself for spawncamping, if no one respawns after 1sec, then focus STEVE and wait for diver shots.

Now, let's say you have performed a team wipe solo or with your shark partner and you have more than half of your HP remaining, stay in the room then watch every spawn locations and search for divers flashlights and localise the diver, then watch if he is looking at you or not, if he is, then wait for him to shoot 1 time, then instantly lunge at his direction, easy bonus kill. With a lot of practice, you will not even have to wait for him to shoot, you will have the feeling, and grab him right at the moment that he shoots, its kind of random but it works almost everytime especially against high level divers that instantly tries to shoot at you.
Some divers respawn too quickly without coordination, this a mistake from them and you have to punsih them by spawncamping.

If it worked, then its like a chain-reaction, other divers will start to shoot at you right after respawning then do your HH job and kill them all, if you have the level, you can even perform double quadrakills in less than 10 seconds.

There is some variants of this tactic, for example if you have your HH ability maxed, you can regenerate health while in the room and mass-spawnkill divers without even having to leave the room, imagine the same with vitalized frenzy, sometimes i do games i dont even have to leave the room to finish the game, like i said this is a chain-reaction from divers, respawning 1 by 1 and picked 1 by 1 by HH. Even high level divers/100 gets trapped by this.

Conclusion : Doing a team wipe is the key to spawncamp, sometimes in games that you are losing, doing a lucky team wipe or coordinated wipe can make the difference and trigger a chain-reaction from divers and can make them lose like 10 tickets in less than 1min because of the spawncamp.

HH compilation (2016-2017-2018)

HH stomp (october 2018)

Hammerhead pubstomp (old)

Stomp #2 (old)

Stomp #3 (old)

Thanks for reading my guide, hope it will help you to get better as hammerhead, feel free to ask me any questions about hammerhead in the comments, and don't forget to fav this guide if you enjoyed!

[////////]

[undefined]

thank u, just have fun and laugh in this game :)

[Projectile Dysfunction]

Love this! The amount of salt thrown my way by divers crying over the S.T.E.V.E. rush is amazing

[undefined]

[berain]

when the game starts its the most "easy" part with HH for someone that have the basics of the shark already (but i found that its the most hard part for beginners), divers that attack you will only have 1 pistol or a bangstick (rare), you only need 3 kills fairly fast to become a killing machine (hangry>nimble finned)

for fast kills, aim for anything that is flat (try to never smash in a corner), never left click to get a diver, never change your direction in mid-lunge or after the lunge (unless you missed the flat object), if possible have the maximum distance from the diver you are aiming before lunging so with the speed it does full smash damage (5-10 meters), activate your E ability everytime just before grabbing a diver in mid-lunge (to prepare stamina for the others), if you smashed someone correctly then you will have just a single movement of thrashing with your mouse to finish him, dont try to get a kill from a random smash you always have to know what you are doing

[Galvator]

Alright. Thanks for the tips. I plan to main HH, Whitetip, and Thresher, and HH is really the only one I haven't quite grasped yet

[undefined]

and if you want to avoid damage, everytime you are exposed to the divers sight, always press space to go up, it "mess" the shark hitbox and its very effective

always perpendicular and flat objects including steve for max damage (wall, ground etc)(no corners or stairs), with practice it will become natural to smash on flat objects you will not need to think about it anymore, and always W+shift

Just one kill at the start then with hangry it will become much easier because you can enter very fast and get stamina back from angry for a little bit of time if you rush the objective

and for the end be as fast and dynamic as you can (try to think that you have something very important to do in 5mins and you have to shut down the computer)

[undefined]

when the game starts its the most "easy" part with HH for someone that have the basics of the shark already (but i found that its the most hard part for beginners), divers that attack you will only have 1 pistol or a bangstick (rare), you only need 3 kills fairly fast to become a killing machine (hangry>nimble finned)

for fast kills, aim for anything that is flat (try to never smash in a corner), never left click to get a diver, never change your direction in mid-lunge or after the lunge (unless you missed the flat object), if possible have the maximum distance from the diver you are aiming before lunging so with the speed it does full smash damage (5-10 meters), activate your E ability everytime just before grabbing a diver in mid-lunge (to prepare stamina for the others), if you smashed someone correctly then you will have just a single movement of thrashing with your mouse to finish him, dont try to get a kill from a random smash you always have to know what you are doing

[Galvator]

Hello. I love this guide, because it helps so much with HH. Do you have any tips for getting kills during the Early Game before you get to Powerful Tail? I struggle to kill the divers very fast at that stage, even if I try to ram them into a wall while thrashing

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