Overview
The hunter is a strong infected that can inflect lots of damage if not killed quickly. Although the hunter is no longer such a key component to a solid team attack it still remains an effective addition to any attack when used effectively. To help you get a better understanding of how to use and defend against the hunter we have wrote up a brief guide on the left4dead 2 hunter. We have also included how it differs from the original hunter in left4dead one.

What is the Hunter?
The Hunter is one of the original Special Infected from left4dead one that makes an encore in left4dead two. It is a very quick and agile Special Infected that can easily remain hidden until it strikes. His main attack is to jump on survivors pinning them to the ground as it viciously claws away.

How has the Hunter Changed From Left4Dead One?
The main concept behind the hunter remains unchanged as its attacks, hitpoints, and usage is the exact same as left4dead one. The only difference is that in left4dead 2 they have increased they amount of stumble that the hunter causes. Stumble occurs to any survivors that are located close to the survivor you pounce on. If they are close enough they will stumble backwards leaving them unable to shoot a few second or two.

What are some tell-tale signs of the Hunter?
The main tell-tale sign of the Hunter is the screeching noise it makes as it crouches. Unlike the other infected the Hunter is not nearly as loud and will only make noise as it goes into it’s crouching possession. It will make another screeching souse right as it pounces. Since the hunter is so quite it will be hard to kill before it attacks but using it’s audio ques to your advantage you can tell what direction it is coming from and prepare your self to kill it as soon as it jumps onto one of your team mates.

How to defend against the Hunter
As the hunter must pounce on the survivor to inflect damage from it’s main attack a great defence is to simple keep moving. If you are standing still you become a very easy target for a hunter to pounce. Likewise if you are constantly moving it will make it much more difficult for the hunter to land a pounce on you. This is also beneficial because if it takes the hunter two or three pounces before it actually makes contact with the survivor it will give the other survivors time to set up and be ready to kill it quickly as they will be well aware that a hunter is about to strike.

If a hunter does manage to pounce you or a teammate it is important that you kill it before any other infected that may be reeking havoc on your team at the same time. This is because the hutner can do damage very quickly compared to the smoker or the jockey. As a result if you find your self in a situation where one teammate is pulled by a smoker and another is pounced on by a hunter you should almost always kill the hunter before the smoker.

How to use the Hunter
With the addition of the additional of the new infected in left4dead the hunter is not as strong as it used to be however used stratigicly in a team attack it can still deal devestating damage. It is best to send the hunter in after the boomer goes. Make sure you land on the none boomed on survivors (the ones who are not purple) as in left4dead 2 they survivors who are boomed on can not see the names of there teammates. This was a huge advantage in left4dead one because even if you could not see anything due to the boomer bile you could still save your teamamtes from hunters as you could simply shoot at their name.

If there is no boomer then using the hunter as the first infected in a well timed attack could work well too. This is due to the longer stumble affect. If you see survivors bunched up quickly pounce on one of them and the others will be stumbled back for a few seconds making them easy targets for the rest of your team.

If you miss your pounce and the rest of your team dies it may be smart to pounce away and wait for your team to re spawn as the hunter will not be very effective by itself against any good team of survivors.