Hunter (Item Set)

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Hunter is an early-to-late game item set. It consists of rugged hunting equipment.

Items

Hunter items are available in Epic and Legendary quality. The set includes the following items:

	Cup	Knife	Watch	Book
Sprite
Name	Leather Flask	Buck Knife	Leather Watch	Gundog Book

Set Bonus

With this set, for every single point of range travelled, each individual main damage attack will receive a +0.33% damage increase. The exact formula used by the game is the following: damage * (1 + distance * 0.0033). The increases are totaled into one when the hit lands, and the resulting value is rounded down.

Analysis

Because of how generous this set is, it's guaranteed to massively boost damage of any ranged unit that equips it. Even in context of missions with Insectoids, it's never a wrong option to use Hunter, as long as its wearer has enough range and can consistently land their shots, which is especially true for snipers. Shooters and supports also tend to benefit from it more than from other sets.

The only units for whom Hunter is a questionable choice are shotgunners. While having low range is part of the problem, the real reason for Hunter's less dominant performance on them is that their shots only travel for a limited distance. It's not impossible to get a good use out of Hunter on shotgunners, since it still provides a high single-pellet damage increase, but Military might prove to be a better option in some cases. The situation is slightly better for Flamethrower and Dr. Norman, whose short sprays receive an average boost of 30%, making it slightly more consistent than Military, with an added chance of the buff reaching ~35%. However, Firefighter and Ice Breaker can achieve the same effect with guaranteed consistency.

It's important to mention that while Hunter still works on melee units, the bonus is unlikely to go higher than ~12% on average, meaning that it can only supersede more specialized sets in very specific circumstances, or if players are willing to take a gamble:

• Welder can take advantage of barricade's hitbox placement which guarantees a bonus from Hunter roughly equal to 40%;
• Juggernaut's critical slam is landed far away from the center of his hitbox, meaning that it receives a major boost from Hunter. The bonus tends to range from 12 to 60%, and depends on the position of a struck enemy;
• Chopper's regular attacks and Red Hood's shockwave can also demonstrate Hunter's effect on melee damage but these units are not viable enough for it to make a difference.

Location

The tables below displays which Supply Runs have the Hunter set in their reward pool.

Epic

	Easy	Normal	Hard
Location 1
Location 2
Location 3
Location 4
Location 5
Location 6
Location 7
Location 8

Legendary

	Easy	Normal	Hard
Location 1
Location 2
Location 3
Location 4
Location 5
Location 6
Location 7
Location 8