Hunt: Showdown Best Loadouts

Hunt: Showdown can be a bit tricky to master, let alone approaching for the very first time for all the options you have available to deck out your player character with. Look no further than here for our handy breakdown of the weapons you should always prioritize over the many other ones.

We will be suggesting the best loadouts in regards to distance. Since the way to play and master Hunt: Showdown vastly differs for each player and their play style, this is the best way to break down all the options available to you.

Hunt: Showdown Best Loadouts

Loadouts in Hunt: Showdown when it comes to suggested Tools and Consumables are quite consistent across the board. Always prioritize carrying either Knuckles or a Knife to down the majority of the PvE enemies (if taking a Knife, ensure to bring along a Flare Gun to down Armoreds). Ensure to have a Smoke Bomb on hand if you are playing in a team and have Trip Mines on you to set up sneaky traps to eliminate opponents when going past explosive barrels. Always take a First Aid Kit.

Bring Flash Bombs if you are wielding a close-combat weapon kit to blind opponents. If not, stock up on Vitality Shots almost completely. Bring dynamite packs or even a Sticky Bomb as another option to eliminate players if an opportunity arises to get them cornered or use the Sticky Bomb to down the Bounty at a quicker rate.

• Mid Range
• Loadout 1:
  • Large Slot: Spectre 1882 – easy to wield and inexpensive.
  • Small Slot: Uppercut/Sparks Pistol (cheap option Caldwell Conversion with FMJ ammo) – good for mid range and compound fights.
• Loadout 2:
  • Medium Slot: Springfield Striker with bleed ammo packs an underappreciated punch
  • Medium Slot: Any shortened shotgun (if money is no option, Winfield Slate but all shotguns viable – Romero Hatchet good for ammo pool + added melee attachment on the weapon if you miss the shot and need to rush/defend yourself) – good for mid range combat and compound fights.
• Loadout 3:
  • Medium Slot: Nagant Precision with FMJ ammo, Medium Slot: Any shortened shotgun (same as above) – Nagant Precision fires quickly and don’t need to lead your bullets at all within around 80m – perfect for mid range combat and compound fights.
  • (REQUIRES QUARTERMASTER TRAIT) Large Slot: Mosin Avtomat, Medium Slot: Dual Sparks Pistol – Best within 60m, the dual sparks pistols give your Avtomat an insane ammo pool – bring extra ammo boxes to be pretty intimidating in a compound.
• Long Range:
• Loadout 1:
  • Large Slot: Sparks LLR Silenced – highly valuable for any gun to have a silencer – means for more opportunities for stealthy kills against PvE and PvP.
  • Small Slot: Silenced Nagant with poison ammo – excellent for prolonged fights, shooting silenced guns can allow you to keep your position hidden for longer (make sure to reposition after a few shots to keep enemies guessing).
• Loadout 2:
  • Large Slot: Sparks LLR (unsilenced) poison ammo
  • Medium Slot: Spectre Compact with bleed ammo – Provided you make a hit with the Sparks (which hits for 149 damage on a hunter’s 150 health pool), the poison damage will both temporarily blind your opponent but will also prevent your enemy healing until the poison has faded away (provided they haven’t got an antidote shot applied). This gives you the opportunity to follow up with your shotgun bleed ammo from anywhere within 50m as all it takes is a single bullet to land for the bleed damage to activate – as this requires a minimum damage input to actually cause the bleed effect, namely a minimum of 1hp, you can actually kill after a sparks poison shot if done correctly!
• Loadout 3:
  • Large Slot: Whichever long ammo rifle of your choosing (personal pref Martini Henry Riposte),
  • Small Slot: Whichever pistol of your choice (personal pref Caldwell Conversion Pistol as it’s the fastest gun to fan with), with the fanning trait. This loadout gives you great utility in rushing corners/compounds whilst the range of the Martini Henry allows you to hold your own in a fight against other long ammo users who prefer to keep their distance.
• Short Range:
• Loadout 1:
  • Large Slot: Winfield Slate (default ammo is fine, take slug ammo for increased range, penny shot if you want to guarantee a kill within 10m)
  • Small Slot: Uppercut/Sparks Pistol with Poison ammo – use the poison ammo sparks to initiate and if under 50 metres and confident that other team members can cover you, run straight at your target to finish them off before the poison wears off. Pays to be super aggressive with this loadout.
• Loadout 2:
  • Large Slot: Bomb Lance (with Steel Ball ammo)
  • Small Slot: Whatever pistol you prefer, with fanning – Caldwell Pax with FMJ ammo is a good choice to follow up on tags with the bomb lance special ammo. A hit from a bomb lance with steel ball ammo as its projectile hits for a potential 240 damage, has 14m effective range and has a projectile velocity of 450m/s meaning near enough zero leading of a shot – just point and click!

Hunt Showdown is available to play on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows. We hope this article helped you. Interested in more Hunt: Showdown content? Check out our other similar articles such as All Hidden Achievements in Hunt: Showdown or How to farm Event Points in Hunt: Showdown