Huntress Guide

My name is TheChadington and i have been a Huntress main since god knows when she released. My friends that know me occasionally ask for tips on how to play this ranged killer, so I made this guide for them, but with a bit of peer pressure I decided to release this guide to the public. Enjoy.

Introduction

Hello friends, My name is TheChadington or Chad for short, and I am a Huntress main. I have almost 1,000 hours on Huntress and while I do not at all consider myself the best, I do believe that I know a thing or 2 about bunny girl which I mean I should at this point. In this Guide I am just gonna give some verbal tips and try my best to explain the approach to the way that I believe is the best for Huntress. I will go over Huntress herself, perks, then I will go into detail of the 3 stages of the game and tips for each. Enjoy, hope you like reading. If you want a better version of this guide i highly suggest you go check out ScottJund's Ultimate Huntress Guide as his guide also has a lot of visual examples which helps out a lot as well as going into more depth, And he has been playing Huntress far longer than myself. But if you are too lazy or are curious then enjoy :).


Huntress: A Ranged Killer who stands as "Tall" standards for killer. Huntress has a 20 meter terror radius, but on top of that she has a 45 meter hum radius which basically pinpoints exactly where Huntress is coming from. To note the Hum Radius does stop when chargin an axe (for 2 seconds),
hitting something (for 2 seconds), chasing someone (As long as the chase lasts), which allows mind games around certain tiles. Huntress's movement speed is at 110% rather than the usual 115% making her quite slow to get around. The Huntress is unique in the fact that she can directly damage survivors from any distance given a clear shot, This means Huntress excels on open area maps such as Blood Lodge but sucks on closed in maps such as Lery's, The Game, and Haddonfield. Huntress excels in chases as her Hatchets completely negate loops and make them dangerous and the fact that she can injure from a distance. Huntress can also effectively pressure hooks, gens, and totems from afar as well, making her deceptively dangerous to people who rely on terror radius to run or hide. Huntress has probably the best basement game in the game as unlike Leatherface, Huntress can switch targets easily with her hatchets and still have enough time to body block the other survivors on the stairs. This also makes it to where Huntress doesn't have to commit to one survivor in the basement scenario. Huntress does have a few weaknesses however, with her Hum Radius at 45 meters this gives survivors ample warning that Huntress is approaching and allows them to hide more effectively. Also because of Huntress's decreased movement speed Huntress has a tough time with Map Control which really she has none. This makes it so Huntress is more stressed to be more time efficient in everything she does including chases and finding survivors. Also Huntress is pressured to make good use of her hatchets as when she runs out she basically becomes a worse hag without movement speed and the fact she has to drop chases to reload at lockers allowing survivors to gain more distance. Combining her strengths with her weakness's in my eyes makes her one of the most balanced killers in the game if not the most, as there are factors that both survivor and killer can control.


Power: Hunting Hatchets: Huntress's power is simple, she starts with 5 hatchets at the beginning of the game, which can be reloaded at lockers. When Huntress uses her power her movement speed drops below the survivor's movement speed but this is countered by the fact that as you hold down your hatchet you increase the distance and speed of the hatchet, while decreasing the ark sorta turning it into a worse bullet. While Huntress's power is used for damaging it also has another effect not a lot of people talk about although ScottJund discussed this in his video, is the fact that just the threat of being damaged by the hatchet influences where the survivor will go, so if the survivor is running in the open for example and you find them and ready a hatchet, that will force the survivor to try to run for cover thereby "Zoning" the survivor to where you want them to go or in another circumstance stay.

Perks

Now I talk about perks, the perks that I deem useful i will explain why and explain their strengths. I am going to assume you have all the killer perks i am going to talk about at level 3.
(On a side note,not all perks that are not mentioned on this list are not at all means bad, just the perks listed below are more useful in my experience.)

Good in any situation:


Barbecue and Chili: If you don't have any of the perks on this tier, i would greatly recommend this one first. Not only does it allow you to have map awareness of survivors from 40 meters and beyond, decreasing the time it takes to find one and begin another chase. But it also allows you to go for those very rewarding cross map hatchets (which i will explain in further detail later). On a side note it gives you a percent increase to BP up to 100% more you earn in game at the end of the match. Allowing you to level up your characters that much quicker.


Nurse's Calling: As Huntress, it is safe to say you are going to injure a lot of people, and while hopefully you down and hook them, some are going to get away. This perk allows you to locate them, giving you a 28 meter radius of which you can see survivors healing gives you insane knowledge, and most of them time you can easily down them with your hatchets due to the hit box of the survivor being increased while healing for some reason. Nurse's Calling is better on huntress than most killers because most survivors won't stop healing when they are in your hum radius because your actual heart beat doesn't start until 20 meters giving you 8 meters until most survivors will realize your closing on them and stop healing. But most of the time they are too slow stopping giving you a clear picture of their location at least.


Whispers: This is a perk I originally thought was not that good as knowing that survivors are in 32 meters of you is great but finding them was a issue. But after extensive usage of the perk and watching other huntress mains using the perk (Besides Umbra_Bug). I have since learned that this perk is a must on Huntress. This perk allows you to not waste time searching for survivors in areas which there are none, which saves time massively and when the perk does activate and you have learned to track using Whispers, you will know where to look. (I will link ScottJund's Huntress guide as his video explains this but in visual detail.)


Corrupt Intervention: With the nerf to Hex: Ruin, Corrupt Intervention has taken its place as the best game delaying perk. With restricting the number on gens that are able to be worked on for 2 minutes, this perk more than allows you to find that first survivor and begin the cycle and another bonus is that it brings the survivors into closer proximity to you as the gens that can be worked on are the closest to you when you spawn in. This allows you to not only not worry about the whole map at the beginning of the game but make it easier to find survivors as they are forced to now come to you.



Good, but either situational or not needed:


Enduring: A perk that reduces stuns from pallets and Decisive Strike (Which finally got nerfed <3) by 75%. This perk is for most killers a great addition as it allows them to not respect pallets as much which honestly you shouldn't do in the first place, and recover quickly to either break or go around it and resume the chase. But for Huntress it is really not needed, as Huntress you have the ability to throw hatchets over pallets, which other killers cannot do....besides Nurse but in a different way. But Nurse is OP so who cares. So as Huntress you should focus on the mind game of readying Hatchets at pallets or not, which i will explain later on. And this makes enduring good but not as useful as the perks listed above.


Sloppy Butcher: With the Sloppy Butcher buff, this perk has shot up from completely useless to actually a major consideration in your perk selection and with the increased emphasis on healing this perk does nicely. The perk allows you to apply the mangled affect to a survivor when you hit them decreasing the amount of time they heal by 20%, but considering that most survivors run Self Care which already has decreased healing speed the perk makes healing that much slower, meaning less survivors focusing on gens! While this is nice the key thing about it is that this perk also affects your hatchets. If it didn't then this perk should never be considered but thankfully it does. It also increases the frequency of which the survivor bleeds allowing you to track them easier. This perk is nice but the sad thing that keeps the perk from being used is the fact that Huntress already has addons that afflict mangled on survivors, so you can basically run this perk in the form of the addon and make room for another perk.


Deerstalker: This perk allows you to see the aura of survivor who has been knocked down in a 36 meter radius. While just looking at this perk you might think there are far better perks but for Huntress especially, slugging is a major factor and with that in mind this perk is far more useful then it appears. This perk is not used in my main build simply because the perks listed above are just too important for this perk to be used and the fact that Whispers in the right situation is basically a downgraded deerstalker.


Discordance: This perk highlights a gen in yellow unlike red for 12 seconds if 2 or more people are working on a gen. This perk is really all about 2 things information and increased disruption. On one hand you now know that 2 or more people are working on the same gen, and the other if you choose to go over there then you basically stop 50% of the overall team gen progression speed guaranteed. This perk i have used to some success as huntress but simply Hex: Ruin outdoes the perk and affects all survivors.

Honorable Mentions:
- Pop Goes the Weasel
- Agitation
- Overcharge
- Remember Me
- Shadowborn (Warning: If you run this perk, aiming hatchets becomes skewed as depth perception is different, though still a good perk especially for practicing melee hatchets.)
- Hex: Huntress Lullaby

Beginning of Game

This is the most crucial point of the game in my eyes as the beginning really sets the pace for the whole game. From spawn start by looking around for the farthest gen and start moving to that gen, 9 times out of 10 either 1 or more survivors have spawned there and are starting or going towards that gen. Note when Whispers activates, by experience you will be able to accurately know where the survivors are. Note if there is any gens or high traffic areas up ahead when Whispers activates, as that is usually a guaranteed tell where survivors are. Now when you arrive at that location survivors typically this early try to hide as people don't feel comfortable as much looping starting out (hiding is more likely to succeed) unless absolutely necessary. This is your golden opportunity to land a Melee Hatchet which i will explain later. After landing your melee hatchet and quickly downing them you then begin the cycle. Try to put them on an hook in an open area as this makes it easier to defend from a distance.

The Cycle is basically you find the first survivor, melee hatchet or chase them, down them and use BBQ to find the next survivor and repeat this process. This is normally how I win my games 9 times out of 10, as you want to establish momentum and do your best to keep that going for as long as you can at all cost. Because if you don't then usually you don't put enough pressure on the survivors in order to stop them from powering the exit gates. After doing this cycle once or twice you that is usually when Nurses comes into play as people start to heal themselves due to being downed by you beforehand and that increases the pressure and momentum you do by going after them and downing them, decreasing chase time because they are injured and also putting more pressure on the other survivors to come and rescue them because they are now in second stage.

On a side note if you cannot find the person you were going after from BBQ then i suggest 1 of 2 things: First go back to the hooked person, usually by the time you go back or begin your journey back to the hook someone has become altruistic and is most likely going for the save or getting ready to make the save, and by putting them on an hook in the open it is a perfect opportunity to ready an hatchet to either down the person on the hook again or injure the person saving them. The other option is to patrol a gen you saw being worked on through BBQ or by having Whispers activated when you arrive there, as at that point if you find and chase the survivor around that gen, you have someone on the hook and somebody coming to save them (unless they are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥), then you have now slowed their team gen progression speed by 75%. As only 1 person can work on a gen.

Melee Hatchets

Melee Hatchets are super important to Huntress, as they decrease chase time immensely if done. Melee Hatchets is done by hitting a survivor with a hatchet at point blank range then simply downing them with a melee attack. In the beginning of the game you might be lucky in that survivors will simply try to hide and you might body block them on a corner granting a free Melee hatchet (Tip: don't throw the hatchet at them immediately, just wait as some might try to sprint away thereby wasting Sprint Burst if they had it, so when you release it they don't get a mega speed boost.) But towards mid game survivors will feel more comfortable in the map and will start looping instead of hiding. In that case most survivors when you try to do a melee hatchet will try to run around you, making them harder to hit knowing you have a limited POV. In most cases when the survivor is running around you they will run back into your the middle of your screen, just follow them with your mouse and wait until you recognize their dodging pattern or until they run back into the middle of your screen, then release your hatchet.

Running around Huntress is probably the worst idea survivors can do, because you have 5 hatchets and even if you miss 4 you are likely to hit one and when that happens they are still in range to be melee attacked after the cool down as they have wasted time not gaining distance. If your still having trouble landing Melee Hatchets then I recommend you put on Shadowborn as that will better help you keep track of survivors as they spin around you.

Mid Game

By this time you should have started the cycle of downing and hooking survivors, and if not then you must do all you can to start it. By this time you should have 2 or 3 people hooked (though probably not on the hook atm.) Survivors might start ignoring healing completely as if you have kept up the cycle, then maybe 1 gen has been done by that point. This is honestly best case scenario as Huntress you can hit survivors on gens from afar and down them instantly. To note you can hit survivors that are doing the gen while using it as cover just simply charge your hatchet to full and because of hitboxs if you throw the hatchet just above the gen hitbox it will hit them.

If by some chance you see a second survivor as you down the first one, i would suggest thinking about slugging the first survivor, as that adds pressure immediately as now a third survivor has to get off a gen somewhere to come heal, while you chase the second survivor you saw. Slugging is when you down a survivor and then leave them on the ground, not hooking them. WARNING: if the survivor you spot is very far away or starts looping around a very strong loop, lets say the building in Groaning Storehouse which would take a very large portion of your time then it's better if you just let them go as by the time you down that survivor, the slugged survivor has already been healed to full and very likely back to doing a gen. Tunnel visioning on a survivor is always the death of momentum, so it's really up to you to evaluate how much time its going to take to down that 2nd survivor and if it's really worth it. Though I would especially start slugging if you have not had success with beginning the cycle as you will have not put enough pressure early on. While slugging is frowned upon by most survivors, slugging helps immensely with stopping survivor gen aggression which if you don't have Hex:Ruin will become a must thing to do.

By slugging you effectively have kept the survivors at 25% percent gen speed capacity (1 downed, 1 being chased, 1 coming to save), and it is not uncommon for only 1 or 2 gens to be done at that point. If you down someone and you don't see anyone around, then just hook as slugging is not necessary unless you have not applied pressure beforehand. Most likely at this point in the game about 1 or 2 people should be either dead or death hook. Note if you have not applied enough pressure I suggest going after a person on death hook if seen, as killing a survivor will drastically sweep the game back into your favor and on top of that if you slug after you effectively stop all gen progression because as you chase the second survivor, the third survivor must come heal.

Mid Range Hatchets

Mid Range Hatchets is where if you were to hit them with a hatchet, you would not be able to down them with a melee attack immediately afterward. This is probably what separates a good Huntress from a bad one. Most survivors at this range will not spin in circles around you, but will simply run towards cover while looking at you ready to dodge the hatchet. You will know that the survivor is looking at you from the way the survivor's head is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ to one side. By this visual tell you should understand that just throwing a hatchet at them not fully charged is most likely not to hit. honestly Most Hatchet throws that are not fully charged are less likely to hit as they are easier to dodge unless you predict their dodge and you throw the hatchet to the side of the survivor they are dodging towards granting you a hit. In this case you have to study the survivor while you have your hatchet out at full charge, recognizing the pattern they do to avoid potential hatchet throws. Some Survivors move from left to right as they run from you and usually dodge to the opposite side they are going (if they are running to the left side they dodge right and vice versa), while others just might run in a straight line and usually dodge to one side once you release a hatchet. After you figure out the pattern either throw it to where they will dodge towards next or if they are prematurely dodging then wait until they dodge back into your hatchet. Most of the time waiting for them to dodge back into your hatchet is the easiest way to hit them, but some survivors know this and will purposely keep themselves from the middle of you screen therefore forcing you to aim at them. Though if they are bad and don't dodge at all then just throw it at them and get a free hit. This is really just a battle of mind games between you and the survivor, you predicting what the survivor will do, and the survivor trying to predict when and where you will release the hatchet.

Now, if the survivor is about to get into cover, the survivor will most likely expect a hatchet throw at this point and will be looking to dodge. All you have to do is throw the hatchet to side of survivor away from the cover and most of the time they will dodge towards the hatchet granting you a hit. Note if the survivor doesn't dodge at this point then just next time aim it right at them.

The Mind Game of Readying Hatchets at Pallets

This is one of best things you can learn as Huntress, how to down survivors around pallet loops. Most Survivors will expect you to ready a hatchet every time a survivor goes through a pallet, because as Huntress that is an easy hit if they drop the pallet. These survivors instead of dropping the pallet to get hit, will instead just run another loop around the pallet predicting your going to ready a hatchet, therefore rewarding them with 1 or 2 more loops around that pallet if you choose to do so. If your chasing this survivor for the first time I would act like they are dumb and do ready a hatchet, if they aren't after this point then begin the mind game. When it gets back to the point that you can hit them with a hatchet sometimes don't ready a hatchet and simply walk through the pallet, granting you either a melee hit or a chance for a melee hatchet. Most survivors will not expect a Huntress to do this, as Huntress doesn't have to run through the pallet. Now after this as you are getting looped you are now very likely in the survivor's head and next time the survivor might drop the pallet expecting you to run through it again, or might run through it again depending on how greedy the survivor is, but most of the time survivors quickly lose their confidence when looping due to them being injured, and will drop the pallet early to erase that mind game. This mind game is good as it is something you as the killer CAN CONTROL, so read the survivor as your being looped, is the survivor losing more distance quickly by not going around corners tightly? If so the survivor might feel more inclined to drop the pallet. Is the survivor still retaining their same level of skill looping when they are injured? they might feel greedy enough to try to get another loop in. All of these things you must read as your being looped and make educated guess as to what the survivor intends to do, though sometimes some loops are small enough to where even if you ready a hatchet you can still down them if they go around the loop again.

One last thing to watch out when you have a hatchet out and a survivor is about to go through the pallet is the pallet fake, this fake just entails survivors making themselves look like they are about to go through the pallet, and then they immediately turn to the side to avoid a hatchet. To counter this just hold your hatchet until the survivor is between the pallet and the wall, or if they do try to fake then most of the time they will either spin around you if you are right behind them so just apply the tips from the Melee Hatchet section or they panic and run through the pallet, in which case is a free hit.

Late Game

Late game you actually might not see all too often as you might have already ended the game in mid game. But if it gets down to 1 or 2 gens left, I would consider it late game. If you haven't slugged and there are still 3 or more survivors in the game and they are not all death hook, then Slugging is now very important. Though most Survivors should be death hook, so simply hook them unless you know there is a survivor on a gen nearby in which case simply slug and chase the survivor off the gen. After hooking get Intel from BBQ on what gen they are doing and if you don't see anyone then either remember if there was any gen that they started but have not finished and go to that one, or patrol around the hook for a minute looking for survivors as survivors at this point will know you have BBQ and will stay close.

If the Exit Gates power you will be in either 2 situations, 1 is you have someone hooked or are chasing somebody and the other you don't have anyone on hook and you are still patrolling. If you have someone on hooked but your not chasing, go back to the hook and patrol as altruism gets to an all time high at this point. If you have somebody hooked and both gates are nearby then simply patrol the gates but be ready to book back to the hook when someone saves. Now if you are chasing somebody when exit gates power then keep chasing, down them, hook them and look to see anyone on BBQ if you don't then the survivors are close hoping to save. If you have 2 people hooked at this point then return to the first person hooked, as the 3rd survivor might be booking it to them to save where you simply slug the person off hook and chase the 3rd person until they either escape or you down and hook them. Then it's just cleanup as you use whispers to be a second tier deerstalker to know if the slug is around you. If you don't have anyone hooked and you aren't chasing them simply patrol the gates with your hatchets, and wait until they commit to one. Down that survivor, hook ONLY if they are not death hook. If not then the other survivors will simply leave through the other gate, once you hook them, as that chase should have given them enough time to open the exit gate. Then either patrol the gates gates if they aren't opened or if an exit gate is open then patrol that person looking for people who want to save. Most of the time I score another kill by doing this but getting a 4k at this time is unlikely.

Long Range Hatchets

This is my favorite part of Huntress as scoring one of these, especially if it downs them is incredibly
satisfying. These types of hatchet throws you rarely need to predict survivors dodging since they won't be in your humming radius so they won't bother paying attention. Most of the time you need to fully Charge your Hatchet and aim ahead of the survivor in the direction they are going. You can get some really good practice by doing this once you hook someone and using BBQ to see where survivors are going and just throw one, just watch the ark, speed, and where the hatchet lands, as these things you will learn to calculate in your future throws. Now if the survivor is paying attention you can try to mind game them with your hatchets as you do with Mid Range ones but most of the time survivors have ample time to react to their mistake and dodge again. Some times it is best to throw a Hatchet that is not fully charged as you want the hatchet to go over a obstacle or building, in which case you simply just aim your hatchet higher to compensate for decreased distance.

Links of Huntress Streamers That I Like to Watch

https://www.twitch.tv/scottjund (Used to main Huntress but no longer does)
https://www.twitch.tv/umbra_bug (Huntress Main)
https://www.twitch.tv/ralph (Huntress Main)
https://www.twitch.tv/queen_kuro (Huntress Main)
https://www.twitch.tv/zubatlel (Does not main Huntress but very good)
https://www.twitch.tv/entoanthepack (Huntress Main)

ScottJund's Huntress Guide Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQRDijaX5Io

Bonus: Perks That Are Good Against Huntress

Dead Hard: This perk is especially strong aganist Huntress due to survivors getting to dodge a hatchet at mid to long range for free. That could mean another 1 or 2 minutes of chasing if they are near any strong loops or buildings. To counter I usually try to get close and bait out a dead hard with a potential melee swing, or if I have a hatchet out sometimes survivors will use the perk in part of their predication of when you will throw the hatchet, afterwards I am free to then release the hatchet.


Unbreakable: In this guide i talked a lot about the use of slugging and when to do it. If the survivor has this perk then you basically wasted time downing the first guy in the first place, and this immediately gets rid of the pressure you hoped to install on them as now the survivor not being chased can now simply continue the gen, while the slug picks himself back up.

This concludes my Huntress Guide! If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions that I should add to this guide that I forgot to mention then feel free to put them in the comments.

[OTORVA ♥ ONI]

are you sure enduring can reduce DS's stun?

[Foxtrot]

I'm also a huntress main

[Michael Bublé]

You can take the addon(s) that make survivors exhausted after a hatched hit. very good if surv has dead hard and you try to melee hatchet

[Rad]

Left mouse button*

[TheChadington]

To put a hatchet away while you have it out just simply press the right mouse button.

[Kzzigo]

how to pack hatchets back from aiming state? yeah im babykiller

[𝕮𝖗𝖚𝖓𝖐...]

So hatchet+melee is faster than melee+hatchet, which means Huntress players should always start an attack with the hatchet.

[TheChadington]

Bitter Murmur is a good substitute to BBQ, if you don't have the perk. Otherwise i would stick to BBQ as Bitter Murmur has a small radius and you cant control when it procs unlike BBQ. But if you are good at hitting your snipes then you should be fine.

[Stellaris Chloride]

is bitter murmur good (if you can snipe or is a maths genius who easily calculates axe trajectory)

[TheChadington]

BamBoozle is a good perk if you feel like bringing a pure chase build or if someone is looping lets say the killer shack but most of the time you want someone to take a window because then they are stuck in the animation and its an easy hatchet hit .