How do you play Predator?

#1

This is one for the dedicated Pred mains. I’m curious to know how others approach their matches.

  • How do you decide what class/loadout you’re going to use for the match?

  • Do you decide beforehand, thinking “I fancy a few matches with my Jungle Hunter loadout”, or do you decide when you’ve seen what map you’re on?

  • What influences your Predator choices for the match? If you recognise players on the Fireteam, does that change things knowing what you’re up against?

  • What is your favourite build/loadout? (Not the meta, just personal favourite)

  • Are there personal rules/restrictions you play by? (For example, to my detriment I won’t usually engage a Fireteam player if they’re swamped by AI. I’ll wait until they’ve regained situational awareness before I engage, it feels cheap to start attacking a Fireteam player when they’ve got half a dozen AI dumping shotguns into them because if they focus on you the AI will kill them anyway and if they ignore you, well… I use the AI to drain their resources such as ammo and syrettes mostly).

I’m interested to see how other Predator players approach their matches, mostly because the biggest headache I have (aside from the bugs) is deciding on which loadout I’m going to use. Thankfully I have the Thursday Thor’s Day Viking Challenge and Samurai Sunday Challenge to cover those respective days, the rest though…
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#2

When bow is working I typically stick with hunter or city hunter. Long jump adrenal and cooling sync so I have the mobility and overload recharge time of a scout. Bow and combistick with traps. Cooling sync allows for lots of rapid downs with the caster. Bow for finishing downed players, trapped players, or more stealthy ranged play. Combistick for loners and another powerful ranged attack when needed. Very versatile build. Can be stealthy and methodical due to long jumps ability to instantly reposition, or manic with constant sprinting, leaping, and hit and run. Lots of options.

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#3
  1. Aside from the challenges, I typically run whatever, if I have enough time I like to play 1 match with each class.
  2. I typically decide beforehand, but I often don’t switch it to default so I select that loadout once loaded in.
  3. If I recognize a good FT, then I know I probably don’t have time to fuck around all day, and will either kill them first or leave them last for an epic final showdown (Depending on how good the rest of the team is). I also tend to leave people with a mic for last or stealth kills because I find it absolutely hilarious to hear their reactions.
  4. Don’t really have 1 loadout that I use a lot more than others, but I would probably say CH97 is what I am best at. I nearly always use 1 melee weapon and 1 ranged weapon, most of the time smart disc and katana/combistick/alpha sickle.
  5. I always try to kill one FT member as early on as possible, then play stealthy. And like I already mentioned killing the mic people last or getting stealth kills on them.
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#4

1.) I look at the map I’m playing in, how many players there are and who they are. If I’ve faced them.before and lost to them, I am more likely to try something new, keep them on their toes. If I’ve barely won, I may tweak loadout option. If it was a total beat down, why change what works?

2.) Favorite b/l is Hunter class (could be any of them, reg, jh, ch.), large pouch, light bender, and the other energy effects perk. Weapons vary per build, but nothing IMO beats the elder sword for melee. Very versatile. I throw war club in there once in a while. So many people are surprised when it comes out, especially scouts. Second fav is Alpha. That speed is awesome. I never use Samurai.

3.) If I see a flat out noob, and he’s the last survivor, I sometimes mic up and offer to help them finish the mission. Three days ago, that happened. I had one trapped in a building. Bear traps at every entrance, they hid under a table. I offered to help, guided him to an ammo crate and such, killed ai to keep him healthy. Then…he betrays my generosity and goes right for the respawn radio. I warned him not to, but he did it anyway, so I was forced to kill him. I expect his teammates were yelling at him to get them back in the fight so they could kill me. No such luck.
I have zero qualms about engaging FT under any kind of duress. I generally don’t trigger alarms. If FT allows them to be triggered, its their own fault. If I down every FT member and its a good match, I give them the “roar of respect” before I claim them.

4.) With the addition of the new, insanely OP specializations for FT, and not being able to see them during the ready-up screen, it may drastically alter how I play. If there’s a whole team of field medics and/or deadly’s, I may just settle for 1 or 2 kills. Those specs are a giant flustercluck for Preds.

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#5

I just decided before I’ve even started matchmaking. But normally I’ll switch up my preds every 2 or 3 games just to keep things fresh for myself and other players. Lord knows how many hunters/city hunters with bows people are going against, haha. Nothing influences me once I’ve loaded in except for ping. If I’m using my smartdisc class and I get a ping of 200 I’m probably gonna switch up.

Favourite loadouts? Fuck I love everything I got. From the master chonk lord herself, warclub zerker named Jabba the Hutt, to my jungle hunter with dithered lens and down range and a very plasma caster heavy attack pattern, to even my close enough Big Red with the Katana and Smart disc. I enjoy all my loadouts and I still think dithered lens is underrated and underused as fuck.

My usual restrictions are to let the FT reinforce, unless I’m having a REAL tough time, I don’t nornally claim on the 1st down unless I NEED to get that person out (Field medics as an example) and my end game roar is used if the match was tough. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s Preds that wipe a team in 2 minutes then roar after quick claiming everyone. To me that’s more of a “Fuck you I win” roar than a “GG” roar, but that’s just me, lol.

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#6

For the most part it’s whatever I feel like playing as beforehand which is usually scout. I tend to use plasma pistol for being stealthy and applying pressure and the combistick for general melee use and for the throw. I tend to get as many alarms set as quickly as possible and destroy the perma health kits. My main objective is to kill at least one person and down the rest as much as possible that way should they reinforce they’ll have exhausted all their resources.

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#7

So I’m definitely not a “main” and more a hybrid but I’ll answer with what I got.

Most of the time I’m kinda “eh…I’m in the mood for elder” or “Haven’t played Alpha in a while”. Prior to this patch I leaned heavily to scout but now I’m more on a Hunter trip.

I have two builds that are tree-centric that I’ll only use on overgrowth or excavation and I always tend to lean towards melee builds on Backwater so Derailed is really the pot luck as far as when I randomly decide to choose by map.

The rare event i recognize a FT member i usually get a little too cautious for my own good. Lose a lot due to exfil (either suicide runs or extraction). Usually though I pick a style (melee or ranged) and just run it and see.

Only restriction i have is if 1 or 2 FT members doing OBJ that leaves them vulnerable I leave them alone. I do have a nasty habit of slamming when I’ve got 3 or 4 FT members grouped up in the open though. Throwback from when you could get away with that, now it just gets me melted.

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#8

Not a Pred main but my strategy is the same no matter what class/weapons I choose

Blast them from far then finish them with melee

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#9

If anyone thinks this over alot you probably overthink lol.

Its honestly best to just flow off instincts,
And just react accordingly.

Find what you like and are most effective with, then go have fun.

Unless you’re trying out different things to see if theyll work better for you, I dont see the point of trying to do any challenges.

It would be a different story,
If every thing was viable.

But with some gear being fucking awful for one reason or another, I see no point but just sticking to the best shit.

Also ven, fk the ft.
They dont deserve the luxury of not being attacked when the a.i. is on them.

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#10

I like this. Nice and straightforward.

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#11

I like to Start off every hunt with Plasma caster pokes. Either full or quick shots. I tend to do this till i get my first down.

After I get my 1st down I try the hit and run technique with the Mighty Alpha sickle, I tend to do that till i get two more down.

After that I still haven’t claimed anyone because I always try for stealth kills.

I tend to get more aggressive once I know the ft has starved themselves of stims and nades.

I will Full charge caster till a down, then alpha sickle melee the two players covering the pick up. Then back to full charge to stop a pick up and get that other person down. By this point I have at least one stealth kill set up. And one kill as well. Usually from the full charged shot on the teammate picking up the downed ft player.

Then I toy with them. To get the stealth kill and set up the other one.

I almost never let them reinforce.

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#12

Favorite is the trapper build with the smart disc. But ever since they nerfed bear traps to the ground well

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#13

Definitely👌🏼💯 However, there are those Pred mains that scorn and scoff at those of us who employ a strategy with sustained shoulder caster attacks especially since the cloak rework.

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#14

That perk is on all my ranged builds

#15

• Elder class (cuz he’s the coolest!)
• Bow and Elder Sword
• Traps & Audio Decoys
• Large Pouch, Adrenal Gland, Impenetrable

Highly mobile style of gameplay (lots of jumping) with a mixture of ranged and melee - the balance between the two depends on how competent the FT is.

I will allow reinforcements if the FT are potatoes. If they are more organized/deadly then no.

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#16

  • I choose Hunter for balanced stats, Beserker when I get pissed I’m not winning

  • No

  • Yes after scans I hunt Recon or Supports or Dutch last

  • Alpha

  • My strategy is finding the FT in a vulnerable spot and harass them until they call for reinforcements, then when I figure out the direction I cut ahead of them and lay wait, then kill them

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#17

I also make it a point to

  1. Find the reinforce
  2. Kill pigs while doing so
  3. Set off alarms while doing so
  4. Destroy any health and ammo crates I find while doing so
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#18

I decide what i play based on the amount of pc players and if i recognize Any of them as being quite good.

Usually I either use my meta build which is one of the most fun builds for me. Or I use my scout axe melee only build with no perks. Which also is very enjoyable because it can be hard, even against bad players.

If I use my scout build I restrict myself to melee only and no perks. Sometimes I might be nice and not immediately kill everyone if I use another build lol

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#19
  1. I usually just decide beforehand what class I want to play or what loadout I want to test before I go queuing.

What I’ve been using recently.
Class:Hunter/Jungle Hunter '87

Weapons:
Combi-Stick
Smart-Disc

Gear:
Med-Kit
Proximity Scanners
Wrist Launcher

Perks:
Energy Cell
Adrenal Gland
Long Range

(I really could just use City Hunter and have that minor speed boost, but I’m lazy and like the JH look.)

  1. What I said before but if I land on Excavation, Zerker/Samurai/Viking. Slower and Melee oriented. Range Play doesn’t help much even if you’re out of the Caves.

  2. Only Playstyles. More safe plays, less open attacks, etc.

  3. Not really. Their fault for not killing the A.I, and also not hitting me to push me out to heal and all.

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#20
  • How do you decide what class/loadout you’re going to use for the match?

My Favorite Class is my Huntress Aihrui, I mostly use her for my Hunt’s.

  • Do you decide beforehand, thinking “I fancy a few matches with my Jungle Hunter loadout”, or do you decide when you’ve seen what map you’re on?

Nope

  • What influences your Predator choices for the match? If you recognise players on the Fireteam, does that change things knowing what you’re up against?

None, I try my best with my favorite class.

  • What is your favourite build/loadout? (Not the meta, just personal favourite)

Weapons: Combi, Bow
Perks: Fearless, Down Range, Large Pouch
Items: Medi Kit, Audio Decoy, Motion Detector

  • Are there personal rules/restrictions you play by? (For example, to my detriment I won’t usually engage a Fireteam player if they’re swamped by AI. I’ll wait until they’ve regained situational awareness before I engage, it feels cheap to start attacking a Fireteam player when they’ve got half a dozen AI dumping shotguns into them because if they focus on you the AI will kill them anyway and if they ignore you, well… I use the AI to drain their resources such as ammo and syrettes mostly).

My playstyle depends on the Fireteam itself. If they are coordinated or uncoordinated. When they are alone, if they let me, I try to help.

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