Guide to Lil Hunter

Crucial ideas to keep in mind to survive and kill Lil Hunter
I will keep this updated.

Before the fight

Lil hunter is the 3rd boss and on level 5_3; by the time the player has reached Frozen City, they have been through some tough stuff.

Like me, I am sometimes mentally unprepared for lil hunter. I will be halfway through 5_2 and i'll say "Oh crap it's lil hunter next level. Am I ready?" and then before I know it a snowbot is flying into me.

Weapons:

It's 5_3, you better hope you found some good weapons. The e-sword/hammer, auto shotgun, auto crossbow, Gatling slugger, shovel/sledgehammer with Trigger Fingers (aka Racing Mind), and laser guns with laser brain are all weapons that I consider top-notch.

Take a look at that list of weapons and you'll see one thing in common; high firerate with moderate damage. This is important for the pre-fight with lil Hunter.

All I suggest is one of those weapons, but to make the boss fight even more effective you want to pick up a weapon that I classify as a Hard Hitter.

Weapons like the heavy crossbow/slugger, super crossbow/slugger, most grenade weapons, and even the E-sword/hammer are some weapons for Lil Hunter. But just lil hunter, you wont expect yourself to be using these weapons for any common snowbot for their reload times are too long OR you just want to conserve that ammo for Lil Hunter himself.

Mutations:

Boiling Veins + Hammerhead are two effective mutations. BV offers protection from Lil Hunter's blue flames + post-houmous explosion (Boiling veins is one of my favorite mutations, i'll never die to a car being thrown at me, fire traps, explo-freaks, and I can use explosive weapons like an idiot)

Hammerhead allows you to dig tunnels into walls. We all know how crap spawns can be in this RNG fest, and cover is something CRUCIAL in the boss fight (really cover is important all over NT but especially this boss fight!)

Other than these two (which i think are great mutations outside of Lil hunter's context, try picking them over other mutations) the mutations you choose are up to your style/how your run is going.

Spawning on 5_3

OK so you just took the portal to 5_3 and you have 10 seconds before lil hunter comes in and decides this is where the run ends.
frozen city's level generation tends to spawn you in either a room connected by a hallway, or a wide and open hallway. The latter is the bad thing; you have no cover, no walls to divide yourself from enemies, and once lil hunter comes down he has a clear sight. You need to hope that you kill enough enemies to take the edge off the crowd or run in one direction until you find a part of the map that is like a room+hallway generation.

First things first, shoot everything ASAP.
This is why stuff like the auto crossbow or a minigun would be a good weapon; you just need to kill things to clear the area.

Hammehead is useful for making that cover, but keep in mind hammerheading should be done last thing. Dont decide to just run into a wall and wait for lil hunter to come down. You'll just waste time which can be used to kill the 10 snowbots and wolves around your spawn.

Snow tanks; they take a lot of damage yet dont pose a threat. I like to imagine snow tanks as walking item chest that sometimes get angry at you. If you can, ignore these enemies because they will just waste your time. I do recommend getting rid of them if there are about 5 in your sightline. 2 snow tanks wont make a big deal but 5 will deny a lot of area for you to fight in.

Once you think you have enough cover and space to work with, take a step back from the next room of enemies and recollect yourself. Try and catch where Lil hunter is going to land.

The Boss Fight [Updated 8/27/15]

Lil hunter lands right on top of you and he fires about 100 bullets at you. RIP

You should ensure that if lil hunter would happen to land on you, that there is a clear corner you can cut to put yourself behind cover. never stand still, lil hunter may decide to land on you but the time he takes to decide where to land and then actually touchdown can allow you to move out of the way.

Also look for the shadow. I sometimes dont even notice it though.

Once there a wall between you and lil hunter, start to abuse the level's shape and get some quick and hard hitting shots on lil hunter.

Never be in a sightline with lil hunter unless you are shooting. This relates to some competitive FPS games; peak and shoot. Dont expose yourself for too long. This is why automatic and low-damaging-per-shot weapons are bad.

Aim:

This psycho actually goes into a dodge AI maneuver whenever you press Mouse1. So dont expect to land a shot when lil hunter has room to fly around in. Wait till he goes into a tight spot. I can't guarantee this, but a helpful trick for any video game fight with a fast moving target is to shoot where that target isnt. Lil hunter can be somewhere to elsewhere in a matter of seconds without you even noticing, especially since he goes into hyper speed whenever you click. I dont have any evidence on this since I never analyzed this myself, but perhaps shooting where he isnt will force lil hunter into running into your own shot.

Stay on the move:

Whenever lil hunter blast off, move around. Like I stated in the start, he cant really land on you if your always changing you location.

Nuke Launcher:

Nuke launcher is a guided rocket, you can direct that thing around corners and have it end up anywhere.

This will crush Lil hunter, and you wont even have to set up a sightline to kill him.

Just make sure the Nuke missile gets to him before he blast off.

[Here's where I add some new tips now that the update is out]

COPS? LOADS OF COPS!

lil hunter spawns cops as his health gets lower. So tl;dr, dont shoot lil hunter so much, deal with other enemies and try and run away from him.

Ive killed lil hunter by wall debris only, its a lot of waiting but its funny. Ive learned that he spawns cops at certain health points. He always spawns one when he comes down for the first time, and Im not too sure but it feels like he spawns 5 more waves, each at 20% less health.

So a good idea is to NOT start damaging him all you can when he drops down, unless you know its going to be fatal. It's still a great idea to clear all of the enemies before taking on lil hunter. Why? because a lot of times I see people focusing on killing lil hunter when there are 3 snowbots ontop of them, and they cant handle the extra IDPD spawns that come when lil hunter starts to get hurt.

Lil hunter only uses his snipe shot at a distance now, and the bouncer bullet attack at close range. It's quite easy to dodge as long as you stay away from his landing spots. Once you're away from lil hunter he sometimes doesnt jetpack back to you for a good time, so use that time to clear out other enemies for more room.

OMG you did it

Like Big Dog, lil hunter explodes on death. Be careful... ok?

Dont get to excited because you still got level full of enemies on the other side.

Mutant Specific tips:

Just adding another section, feel like there are more tips to give but it's specific to what mutant you're playing as.

Plant: i play this guy 95% of the time and know every quirk. Learn how to snare lil hunter as soon as he lands. Look for that shadow and time the snare so it collides with him as he drops in.

Steroids: I heard that using right click wont have lil hunter dodge, he only listens to left-clicks to dodge.

Rogue: Unless you have throne butt, use the strikes to create cover rather than get an easy shot on him. Without TB the damage is really low and I suggest shooting it into a wall to create cover like hammerhead.

YV: same with steroids, i think POPing him wont have him go into a dodge. Anyways, you should be using burst damage in the first place with Lil hunter so use it regardless.

Crystal: shield shield shield, shield up close and reflect bulelts at him too.

Chicken: im not to familiar with slow-mo, but use it up close to lil hunter with a melee and you'll see results.

Horror: dont be afraid to use the rad beam and spray it more than lil hunter spams his shots. Dont forget to go into cover, the rad beam protect you forever.

Eyes: im certain the projectiles are too fast to deflect, so dont be running everywhere thinking you're untouchable.

Melting: explode corpses when you get attacked by spam, they destroy bullets.

Rebel: use your allies as a shield. You're better off saving your health though IMO

Fish: roll

Robot: no idea

[Rummy the Blargh-gineer]

The trick with Robot is to pickup an assault slugger and stuff it in his face.

[Dex Napalm]

A good way to deal with him as robot is to get heavy heart early on and get a bunch of weapons on the floor before he spawns, this is so that you can eat the ones you don't want as a type of pickup that doesn't despawn.

[baksetball]

this shit is old, chicken hasnt had the slo mo for a long time now

[Maxfecteau]

I like how robot has no trick to use against lil hunter. the only way to do it is to frickin do it.

[GREN]

Just right click as yv with any decent weapon

[tnkforce]

i've done it with robot a couple times. you get some nice tech sometimes. another good plan is if you get an auto crossbow, choose homing bolts to take out other enemies quickly first and you've got a large part of the map to run around in. that's pretty much an all-characters thing though. he's really unpredictable, and i just hope to get a nice spawn most of the time.

[splendid ledraps]

But what's a real boss if the games arent real D:

[Watereaters]

Also Chicken can no longer slow mo, now she throws weapons

[Watereaters]

Surprised that you didn't tell us how to truely use HH, it works in any arena

First dig the longest 1 block tunnel you can then wait for him to land, when he lands make sure you're not in the blast radius, then when he lands fire at him and stay in the tunnel, it's too narrow for hunter or IDPD to fit in, his bouncer shots can barely hit you and you are too close for burst fire, if he flies find the landing zone and stay in the tunnel

[Stevelonk]

its not lil hunter him self but the snow bots around him hes like bait for me cause im trying to kill all the snow bots and then eaither lil hunter kills me and makes me ashamed at my skills or a snow bot charges at me and I die