Positioning refers to the placement of your character in relation to your opponent. It involves moving around the map to find the best spot for attacking or defending. In Hunt Showdown, positioning is essential because it allows you to control the flow of combat and avoid being caught off guard. With good positioning, you don’t always need the best aim.

With strong positioning, you will be able to control the flow of a fight by giving yourself advantages and your enemies disadvantages. The clue here is to stack benefits for yourself and negatives for your enemy. So, for example, one really strong form of positioning is setting up an ambush for an enemy team. If we were to freeze the game as an ambush starts, we would see one team out in the open far from cover and another team being able to shoot one or two shots before the enemy team can even react. With this advantage, a team can be taken down from 3 to 1 player in the matter of seconds. If there is no cover close enough and the player isn’t an aim god, he should be easy pickings too.

But positioning isn’t just in aspect of setting up for a fight, but also what you should be thinking about every second of a fight. You should constantly be asking yourself “where could I be to have even more of an advantage?”, is their cover that you could use. Is being on the move, so you’re harder to hit, key here? Is there elevation to get up on?

Use Cover

Cover is essential in Hunt Showdown because it protects you from enemy fire. You can use trees, rocks, walls or any other object that provides cover to hide behind when taking shots at enemies. Remember, if you can see them, they can see you too.

Also be mindful of what type of cover it is. A flimsy wooden fence doesn’t offer much of protection. The most valuable thing of a wooden wall is the enemy can’t exactly see where you are. But bullets go through it like butter. So if you have the option to choose, move to stronger cover. Brick walls, steel support and similar strong barriers are very useful.

Move Around

Staying still makes you an easy target for enemies. Use movement to your advantage by strafing left and right, jumping and crouching. This way, it becomes harder for your opponent to aim at you accurately.

The other aspect of moving around is to make sure you’re not predictable. Don’t re-peek the same position multiple times. If someone sees you peek a window, they can just hold that window until you peek again. Same with walls, don’t peek the same side multiple times. Also, don’t just alternate left and right side of a wall, that’s also predictable. You can always use the wall as a vision blocker and move straight back. The key here is to create new angles the enemy doesn’t expect bullets to come from.

Use Elevation

Elevation is a double-sided blade when it comes to Hunt. It gives you a bigger overview of the fight, it gives you more control, and usually allows you to take shots at enemies way more often. But the drawback is that you’re very exposed and usually your head is the first thing that is visible, so grants easy headshots for skilled players. Even with its drawbacks, it’s still super useful, but you need to think about these things before you make that decision.

Stay Close to your team

If playing with others, try staying close together so that you can provide support for each other during combat. When I say stay close, I do not mean stay on top of your teammates, but rather stay within range. That could mean that your allies could easily get line of sights over to you, so they can help you in a sticky situation. Even close enough to protect you or your body with bombs is always useful.

So in teams, you don’t only have to keep track of your enemies but your allies too. The strongest teams you meet in the bayou will consistently be covering each other. When you’re teaming up with someone, use voice to communicate what your intentions are and listen to their intention and move in ways that you have the most control and cover.

Be aware of your surroundings

Keep an eye out for any potential threats like traps, AI or enemy movements in the surrounding area. Fighting enemies with hives on you or a pack of dogs is a major detriment to you. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything in your surrounding. Having a meat head between you and your enemy can be very useful if they have shotguns, and you have something medium/long range.

One of the fun things about Hunt is that after you have some experience, the AI isn’t really a threat. But AI + enemy hunters usually spell doom for you. So use that to your advantage. Some ways to do this is not to clear a compound as you go through. If someone is following you, they have to deal with it. In fights move in ways where the enemy has to move through the AI to get you, when they deal with the AI you can strike.

Be mindful of the compound you’re in

After some time with the game you will start to know how the compounds are laid out. What angles exist, what cracks people can look through, and so on. Use this knowledge to give you the advantage you need to win a fight.

Also, there is a key tip in here, if you just banished the boss. Don’t fight from the boss lair itself, use the full compound. If you’re waiting inside the boss lair, you have very little movement options, and you have very little options when it comes to peeking your enemies. If you use the full compound to fight people approaching you can always pull back, you can always move to better positions and not be locked down.

In conclusion

Positioning in Hunt Showdown is important in gaining an advantage during combat. Using cover, movement, elevation and sound cues effectively can help you stay alive longer and take down your enemies with ease. Remember to be patient and aware of your surroundings as you position yourself in fights.