The horror shooter Hunt: Showdown relies on a permadeath mechanic that allows you to theoretically lose everything if you die. How this works and why you can only theoretically lose everything is explained in this article.
How does death work in Hunt? First and foremost, we need to distinguish between death in the match and a truly permanent death in Hunt:
- If you have teammates, you can still be revived and rescued
- If you are alone in the match and die or cannot leave the round, you are permanently dead
- Being dead does not mean you receive no experience; your bloodline still levels up
This means that the game is a little more challenging on its own, and you have several attempts in a group before it’s truly over for you. How this works exactly and why you still make progress no matter what happens will be explained below.
This means your permanent death
When am I really dead? Permanently dead status occurs when you die alone in a match or receive the “You are dead” screen and the sound takes on a dull tone. From that moment on, your character, also known as Hunter, is considered to have died permanently and cannot be rescued.
What happens next is quickly explained: You lose everything that the Hunter had with him, as well as the character himself. For the round that you didn’t survive, you will only receive half of the bloodline experience.
See the trailer for Hunt: Showdown here:
What is bloodline experience? The bloodline defines your match-overarching progress in Hunt: Showdown. Whether you lose a match and die or emerge alive from the fight, you receive experience points on your bloodline for what you did in the game.
This raises your bloodline level from 1 to 100. By leveling up in the bloodline, you unlock new abilities, weapons, and equipment that you can then use with new Hunters. This is the only type of safe progress in Hunt: Showdown.
You can still be revived in a team
How does death work in the match? Now it gets a bit more complicated. The prerequisite for everything that follows is that you play in a team of two or three. If you die alone in a round, there is only the permanent death described above.
If you die as a team, however, you can be revived. However, this does not work indefinitely and is determined by the number of your health bars. This can vary from Hunter to Hunter. Overall, a Hunter has 150 health points, while the left health bar always accounts for 50 health points. The remaining 100 are divided into either 50 or 25 health bars.
With each death in the match, you permanently lose the bar on the far right. In the worst-case scenario, you have three large bars and can thus only be revived twice. In the best case, however, you have five bars (the large one on the left and four small ones on the right) and can thus get back up four times.
If you exceed this number, you are permanently dead, and the scenario described above occurs. However, if you manage to make it out of the match alive after death, you can sacrifice the experience points of your Hunter to refill your missing health bars and start fit into the next round.
Recruit new Hunters and continue playing
What happens after death? If you lose your Hunter, that’s not the end of the world. To continue playing, you can simply recruit a new Hunter and start the next match. If you ever run out of money, the left Hunter is always free. This is basically your joker when nothing else works.
After each match, even if you win, you can reload the recruitment page and get new Hunters presented to you if the current ones do not appeal to you.
Tip for beginners: If you’ve been wondering what the hell I’m talking about, you are probably below level 10. Because until you have completed bloodline level 10, you are under a kind of puppy protection.
If you die, you simply lose nothing at all. You just need to refill your Hunter’s health bars, but you still keep him in your repertoire. But be cautious, because once you reach level 11, this Hunter is also lost if you come up short in the Bayou.
To help you win your first rounds, we have prepared the best 6 weapons and loadouts for beginners.
