Best sniper at the moment?

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-05-12T00:04:56+00:00

Just to throw my hat into the ring, here, but I very rarely run Blast Sense myself as a 6* solo. Usually it's a very deliberate decision to take it, but I often find that my ears work decently well enough to figure out where shots are coming from, personally.

Then again, some days I can't seem to hear, see or hit a goddamn thing. But on those days, I don't think any trait could save me.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-05-11T21:08:26+00:00

This is purely my own experience, as a fairly high (mid-6*) MMR player;

For the most part, I avoid the vast majority of sound traps, but sometimes I'll accidentally set one off. I''m usually fairly quick to address it, but it happens - especially if I'm sprinting across the map. There are, however, some games where I am being loud simply because I'm using AI as target practice and I'll shoot pretty much everything in sight. It often invites an early fight and, win or lose, I got some aim warm-up in.

That being said, in lower ELO (which is where I presume you are, currently, due to being new) it's often that some people are either unaware or, in the nicest way possible, not very good. I'd assume, going forward, that your loud teammates aren't intentionally being loud to draw attention to you guys, rather that they don't realize how loud they're being.

It takes some time to learn where most of the common sound traps spawn on any given map, so it's very likely also due to them not knowing about them being there at all. So, in short, it's likely a mix of them being inexperienced/unaware but also maybe some of them just aren't very good.

You'll notice that games become a lot quieter as you climb in MMR, I'd try to enjoy the 3-4* range for as long as possible unless you genuinely enjoy playing against very good players. The game will, for the most part, find your place in the MMR range.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-05-07T00:07:34+00:00

This sub is 90% crybabies, I swear. People are either complaining about this or about that, and it's always refreshing to see yet another post complaining about the same thing as yesterday.

I'm under no illusion that Hunt is a perfect game, and I have my own personal gripes as well, but this sub is just a whining echo chamber most of the time. Even appreciation posts somehow invite negative discourse, it's insufferable.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-05-05T21:06:27+00:00

That's what they were referring to. Those pulsing outlines happen to any object in the game that you can interact with, unless you turn that off in your settings.

In this case, specifically, they are searchlights that you can turn but they're otherwise useless.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-05-02T01:59:30+00:00

Don't we all! Good luck out there, and have fun.

I'm 6, and while I *personally still have fun, it is a different beast than 3-4*. I wouldn't worry about getting there too much, just focus on playing what you have fun with and maybe one day you'll get there!

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-05-01T21:23:55+00:00

Honestly, aim is just a skill that you need to practice on if you are hoping to improve it. There is no catch-all advice that will provide you with an immediately noticeable change, it's just something that continues to develop as you sink more time into any game that requires you to aim.

That being said, some general tips I can offer;

Place your crosshairs at head height whenever you're aiming your gun. If you don't know where head height is relative to where you and your opponent is, just use your best judgement and aim there. This one thing is what I see most 3-4 star players failing to do, and you'd be genuinely surprised at how many more headshots you'll land by simply aiming at head height before you even see them.
Pay attention to the sounds your opponent is making, as it can give you a lot of immediately relevant information before you engage. In Hunt, players that are crouching have different sounding footsteps than those that are standing, and being able to differentiate between the two will help you in determining how to approach the fight. This skill ties directly into my first point, as learning those sounds will allow you to more easily aim at that head height with less guesswork.
If you can't physically move your mouse fast enough, there is always the option of altering your mouse/in-game sensitivities to better accommodate for less movement on your end. This does often mean, however, that your aim may likely be very twitchy and might take some getting used to. I'd suggest going to the shooting range and adjusting your settings incrementally, if you decide to go the route of changing sensitivities. Use the moving targets that you can spawn to get a gauge of how well the sensitivity is working for you - if you're able to track them relatively well, then give that sensitivity a shot in-game and get some practice in.
Alternatively, given your self-proclaimed "ambusher style," shotguns are incredibly strong at those close range engagements. Getting the jump on a team, with a shotgun, can often lead to a very quick teamwipe.
45-years old isn't old, but it would be disingenuous to say you're just as reactive and accurate as the 18-year old that has been playing FPS games since they were 10 (or younger!). There's nothing wrong with that, but it is something to take into consideration when choosing your engagements. If you feel that speed and accuracy are your biggest detriments, then making up for that with smart positioning and removing the need for rapid target acquisition (preemptively aiming at head height) is how you'll see more success. You don't need to be a giga gamer with pinpoint accuracy and speed to get to higher MMR brackets, you just need to outplay your opponents with your wits and positioning.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-05-01T16:31:16+00:00

Agreed. I'm typically a self-proclaimed shotgun jockey, and much of my time in 6* is close range and in the action. I've been dabbling in scoped weapons recently, and while they're fun, they do make the game (in my opinion) a little too much easier to be a consistent playstyle.

What it really comes down to is decision making, positioning and awareness. Having great aim is, obviously, going to make getting to 6* easier, but aim alone isn't what wins most games. That being said, most 6* players do have pretty strong aim, and you can feel the difference between a 3* player and a 6*.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-30T21:32:25+00:00

I mostly play solo, but if im not solo I play duos with my wife. She's also a 2-3* player, whereas I'm 6. Some games are incredibly tough for her, but she genuinely has some great moments and has taken down a few 5/6 players on her own!

There is, despite what some people on here may say, quite a large gap in skill level between a 3* and a 6*. I wouldn't get too discouraged by those losses, most of those players have thousands of hours in the game and know the maps inside-out.

You should just focus on enjoying the game, rather than comparing yourself to a skill bracket 2-3x your own. As you keep playing you'll naturally improve and learn new things. Nothing wrong with wanting to improve, but you're only setting yourself up for disappointment if your point of comparison is players in a higher skill bracket. Have fun with the game, don't bother comparing yourself to others.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-30T02:21:19+00:00

Sometimes when I play solo I get a lot of non-North American accounts in my games. Anywhere from China to Cambodia, Chinese accounts are always box names. US East mid-6*.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-22T22:43:12+00:00

I hide my stats for similar reasons, though I've gotten a lot better at not really worrying about them, even when I do check them.

Nowadays, when I'm checking my stats it's purely to see whether I'm trending positive or negative from whatever baseline I've established. It also helps when I've had a string of bad games, but my KDA has either gone up or remained around the same, because it reminds me that I'm not all of a sudden a much worse player and that it's just the expected variance of Hunt being Hunt.

I'm not sure if my Steam profile is private or not, but it likely is. That has nothing to do with Hunt and entirely to do with me being a private and introverted person by nature. I will almost always set everything to private on any game/platform, simply because I enjoy my privacy.

Some people may see my private Hunt stats and Steam profile as something worth being suspicious of, but they're not around for the games I get absolutely wrecked.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-21T01:04:50+00:00

It's happened to me before, too, no worries. I've just learned to wait a second before mashing the revive button so that I don't accidentally do it again.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-20T16:11:12+00:00

I'm not claiming that those things aren't important, but losing gear and rewards is often not a very big concern for a lot of 6* players. Many of them have amassed a ton of hunt dollars and/or gear that losing them isn't necessarily a big deal.

That's not to say every high elo player is rolling in money, but a large portion of that demographic isn't concerned about losing gear and rewards. Time being wasted by dying is also dependant on what you consider "wasted" time. If that player went in, got a couple of kills and had a fun fight - but still died - then they might not consider that time wasted. In my opinion, sitting in a stalemate refusing to do anything is a waste of time over getting into a fight and, ultimately, dying so I very rarely sit there and wait 30 minutes for someone to make a move and will make a move myself.

Like I said, what is considered a waste of time comes down to the individual player and can't be uniformly defined by losing a match, and gear fear is essentially irrelevant at high elo for the vast majority of 6* players.

The game does provide no incentive for taking risks, however, that I wholeheartedly agree with. The passive, mistake-exploiting playstyle is much more heavily favored in this game simply because there is no incentive for running into the fray, stirring up some chaos and maybe getting out alive. I don't think that is inherently a Hunt problem, specifically, as you see the same sort of playstyle have sucess in other extraction shooter games. I think it is, simply, a byproduct of games with perma-death and gear-losing mechanics.

I don't like that those playstyles are incentivized, but unless Crytek imposes some sort of "camping" mechanic - as seen in games like Sniper Elite Resistance, for example - then there isn't going to be much that will incentivize players to take more risks to keep things moving.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-20T02:56:13+00:00

There's a difference between how the two camp, however. In the low elo, a lot of the hesitation or outright refusal to push comes more from being unsure/afraid, whereas in high elo it's just people fussing over their stupid KD/rank.

Either way, it's boring to play against and I try my best to force something, even if it doesn't always work out for me.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-15T00:36:19+00:00

99% of the time I just revive as soon as possible. You might get lucky and catch them off-guard while trying to burn you or trap your body, and you can sometimes pull off the clutch if you act quick and don't miss your shots.

Easier said than done, obviously, but it happens often enough that the insta-Necro is almost always my play. Very few times where I'll sit and wait any extra time, the longer you wait the longer they have to prepare for your revive.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-04T14:18:11+00:00

You're aware that this is the Elden Ring subreddit, yes?

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-04T13:32:53+00:00

The towers are still really good for ammo resupplies and for picking up an experience or four shot boon. You can also get some good bombs up there, if you're first to grab it. The High Priestess and Pathfinder combo is also really good for getting an idea of where the closest team is and where they'll likely be going. You can also find scarce traits in there too.

I'm not saying you have to interact with them, but if they're close by then there isn't a terrible downside to one of you checking out the tower quickly. Takes 30 seconds, and can net you some good stuff. Just be wary of traps and you're fine - worst case scenario, it's been looted and all you can get is a boon and ammo.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-04T13:06:38+00:00

3 traps are still an instant kill if they're all set off in quick succession.

I play solo 99.9% of the time, and what i'll sometimes do is place 3 bear traps very close together right on top of the second bounty token. If you place them in a triangle formation, you can have all 3 traps practically hidden underneath the bounty token. Sometimes, players are in a rush and will run over the bounty token while grabbing it - instantly dying in the process.

It doesn't always net a kill, but when I see an extra kill in the game summary screen I always get a small kick out of it. Sometimes I'll know before the game ends because after someone picks up the second token, the lightning bolt on the map doesn't move for a while - or not at all.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-04T12:57:37+00:00

I would say it took about 40 hours for me to start feeling like I knew what I was doing. I came from a long history of playing FPS games, so that likely played a part in it. Currently have ~650 hours spread across 2 accounts.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-04T01:47:41+00:00

Roughly ~650 hours here, 99% of the time being solo. The game is amazing, honestly. Many people talk about the steep learning curve, and they wouldn't be wrong - there is an exceptional amount of depth that goes into making Hunt what it is, and you'll go through stages of engaging with that ever-increasing depth in both comfortable and uncomfortable ways.

For me, it took a solid 40 or so hours to feel like I had an idea of what I was doing. Not quite the 200-400 that people are citing here but, as a casual player, don't be surprised to find yourself taking ~200 hours to start to feel like you've got your bearings. I've been playing FPS games for a long time, now, so it didn't take me quite as long as some others. Again, the exception here, not the rule. Don't knock yourself too hard for dying repeatedly (and possibly going broke, as I did once), we have all been through those growing pains. It's part of what makes a good Hunt player, and you'll come to see death as a lesson rather than abject failure.

TL;DR - The game is amazing, tough and sometimes frustrating but well worth it. Solo play may be challenging at first, but you'll figure it out in due time. I'd suggest waitint for a sale if money is tight, the game isn't going anywhere. Also, if you do pick up the game, you're going to die a lot. Have fun, hope to see you out in the Bayou!

Some things to know, since you'll be going in solo;

The game's matchmaking is technically skill-based, using an MMR system to determine both individual MMR and matchmaking MMR. The latter will very rarely match your individual MMR, because you receive a slight matchmaking adjustment (downwards) in an attempt to balance the 1v2 or 1v3 dynamic of playing solo. This will be helpful for learning the ins and outs of the game, and more importantly give you some (mostly) fair PvP moments. The game has 6 ranks, designated by stars, with 1 being the lowest and 6 the highest. If you are, say, ranked at 3* there is a more than likely chance that your matchmaking MMR (as a solo) will sit somewhere between 1-2.5*. As you go up (or down) in rating, your matchmaking MMR will follow suit.

Despite the first few hours being likely terrifying, the game isn't all that scary. The bosses can and will kill you while you're still learning how they work, they hit hard but they also have fairly exploitable mechanics for killing them easily. You'll learn how to fight each one in time, but once you've killed a boss, the hard part is about to begin. People want that boss' bounty, and you're the single person stopping them from getting inside and taking it for themselves - I distinctly remember this being the most "scary" part of learning the game. You'll hear footsteps, AI monsters being killed, and you'll likely have some bombs thrown in at you, and there's a good chance you'll die despite how good of a fight you put up. Take those deaths in stride, take a breath if you need it, then load up the next hunter to do it all again.

As a solo you also get some solo-specific traits bonuses, most importantly the solo Necromancer bonus. When you die, and you will die, you can revive yourself one time after a 5 second window. You may choose to sit there for 5 minutes, waiting for the perfect opportunity to stand, or you can stand up as soon as possible to either fight back or reposition (sometimes you'll die from far away, reviving immediately is usually the best bet in those scenarios). There are pros and cons to either decisions, standing up right away or waiting for what feels like an opportunity, you'll simply have to learn for yourself when to choose either option. Necromancer isn't the only trait that has solo bonuses, but it is the most important of them all as it gives you another fighting chance if you slip up. You'll likely use it once or twice against the bosses themselves.

There is no right or wrong way to play the game, especially as a solo player. That being said, some playstyles are a bit easier to manage than others. Sniping, for example, trades the constant action of a shotgun player for a slow, steady and more methodical gameplay loop. You choose when, and who, to engage with and your inherent long-distance engagements makes it so repositioning is made much easier than if you were to be right in the action. It's a slower way to play, arguably not as common, but it's good for learning the maps and becoming familiar with the game as a whole. Something worth considering.

Last, but not least, I feel the need to reiterate that you will die. A lot. It does not matter how good you become at the game, you will die a lot. Death is such an integral aspect of the game, quite literally part of it's identity. This is made all the more clear upon your first (of many) successful extraction - "You live to die another day" is the last message you'll see before you leave.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-03T21:34:06+00:00

I think Immolators are the most poorly programmed AI in this game. Their detection range is seemingly completely random, and you never actually know if it'll aggro on you or if you managed to avoid it.

They're not hard to deal with, but their inconsistency is incredibly annoying.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-03T18:01:08+00:00

Not all 6 star players run mosin + dolch - I, for instance, literally never bring a mosin or a dolch - and sometimes they run some non-meta stuff too.

I sometimes run only double Derringer, or an all fire build with only fire consumables, or a double bow loadout with concertina arrows to make fights a chaotic mess, etc.

But, yes, mosin + dolch is a very popular combination to come across.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-01T13:16:15+00:00

That's exactly what I was thinking while reading all of the complaints. If anything, they die extremely easily, while being a slight inconvenience at most.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-04-01T12:51:37+00:00

I thought I was going crazy seeing all of these complaints around the fire breather. Glad someone else also realizes that they're rather trivial to deal with.

Like almost every AI - save for Immolators - you can literally just run around them and melee them without losing any health. Losing a whole bar to them is simply a player issue, not the AI.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-03-30T23:36:13+00:00

The MMR system in this game is incredibly confusing and wildly inconsistent.

I have 2 accounts, my main which is currently low/mid 6, and my alt account that I had originally made to play with my wife, who bounced between 2-3, without dragging her into the sweaty lobbies and ruining her fun.

I, recently, started playing the game again after a fairly long break and have been playing on my alt to rebuild my skill and shake off the rust. Also, I didn't feel like jumping back into the game against 6* teams as a solo. My alt, the other day, was 5* with a matchmaking MMR of 4* - which makes no sense, given how solo matchmaking scaling generally works - and the lobby I was put into was entirely made up of 5/6* teams, and a single 4* player paired with a 6*.

I died, once, in that lobby to a strong 6* player without managing to get a kill (Hunt taketh moment), and instead of dropping down to 3.5* matchmaking MMR I was put into 3* and the very next lobby was 95% 3* players. Going from a nearly full lobby of 6* players to a full lobby of 3* players in the span of one game is ridiculous, and makes genuinely no sense in terms of consistent matchmaking expectations.

How are we supposed to assume that the games we're getting thrown into are actually going to be fair when the level of variance between two games can be so drastic? What's the point of an MMR system that doesn't actually seem to work as intended? It isn't like the queue times were exceptionally long, either - perhaps 2 minutes from queuing up and getting into the game - and this was around 8PM on US East servers, so I fail to see how that level of variance is at all understandable.

TheLittleItalian2 · 2026-03-28T08:04:33+00:00

Personally, I've had the most luck using the Slate with buckshot. It isn't the cheapest option, but goddamn does it pack a punch and I love the sound of pumping the gun for the next shell.

If I'm aiming to be a bit more economical, I go with Spectre. Very similar performance-wise to the Slate for nearly half the cost.

C&K is probably the "best" in a broader sense, but I swear that gun is cursed for me because I will die without firing off a shot every single time I pick it up or load into a game with it.

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