The Best Loadouts in Hunt: Showdown 1896

Key takeaways

• Loadouts in 'Hunt: Showdown 1896' vary in cost, offering options for different budgets and playstyles.
• Each loadout contains a mix of weapons, equipment, and consumables to suit specific strategies and preferences.
• Use cool loadouts for stealth, powerful weapons for versatile scenarios, or expensive options for sniping and close-range combat.

Hunt: Showdown 1896 is one of the most inventive, challenging, and fun extraction shooters out there. It has its own feel, and fights against other hunters reflect that unique flavor. These fights can last up to ten minutes at a time, or end quickly, and the loadout you bring with you is as important as what you decide to do with it.

Everything you bring to a Hunt costs Hunt Dollars, the currency you earn for completing certain tasks in the game. The best loadouts don't take this into account, but most everyday loadouts try to strike a balance between cost and effectiveness.

6 the beginner

Cost: ≈423

Made up mostly of things you'll have access to from the start, the beginner loadout is designed to teach you how to use a variety of things in a hunt and to think about what kind of weapon, equipment, or playstyle you're after. Would like to work towards using more.

The Frontier 73C is a very cheap weapon, but it is also very solid. It's lever-action, so it can fire pretty fast, it does good damage, and it has a few different variants to unlock with Silencer and Marksman.

Holding the levering trait lets you fire the Frontier 73C extremely quickly from the hip, making it very usable at close ranges.

The Nagant M1895 silencer is not available from the start, but grabbing some XP with the default Nagant is going to unlock it pretty quickly; Kill some grunts and other monsters with it, and you'll soon have a silent version.

This is going to be your go-to weapon for PvE scenarios, especially when you can't hand to target. One shot to the head, and many enemies are dead.

5 stolen

Cost: ≈637

This loadout is all predicated on being as cool as you can possibly be. The sound design in Hunt is fantastic, and sound is one of the most important mechanics in the game. If your opponents don't hear you, they are more likely to be completely unaware of your presence, and you can use this to extreme advantage.

Bring the Silent Killer, Lightfoot, and Beastface features to reduce your noise.

The hunting bow is a great weapon, capable of one-shotting the body in most situations. It is completely silent, and if somehow your target is alive, they will bleed out. What can be added to this loadout, and what makes the bow such a great utility, are the different arrow types.

Concertina Arrows, Frag Arrows, and Poison Arrows all have their own use cases, and can all be brought along with standard arrows.

The Vetterli 71 silencer may not be the best weapon in its class, but it's not too expensive, and gets the job done. It can be swapped for any other silencer version; The Frontier 73C is a more affordable option, while the Centennial Shorty Silencer works well if you don't have the Quartermaster feature.

It's not a particularly cheap loadout, but concessions can be made to lower the price.

4 Budget

Cost: ≈149

If you're in a money hole that you're having trouble digging yourself out of, or you're looking to run something cheap but effective, this loadout is going to have you covered. Coming in at just under 150 hunt dollars, if you collect all the clues, this loadout can easily pay for itself in one run.

Keep an eye out for tool boxes; They can fill your empty consumable slots.

The Frontier 73C headlines this loadout in the heavy slot; Once again, combining this with the Levering trait can get you a lot further here. But even stock standard, the Frontier 73C is an easy weapon to use, and an easy weapon to hit your shots with.

The hand crossbow is an excellent little slot weapon, capable of one-shotting the body within its optimal range, and can cause blood if the target is standing. Plus, it's silent, meaning it's a high-damage weapon that's great for PvE and PvP encounters. If you're looking to spend a little extra money for extra options it can come with different bolt types.

3 Versatile

Cost: ≈651

A versatile loadout means being usable in more or less any situation in the game, regardless of what loadout the enemy Hunter has, what type of engagement it is, or what PvE monster you encounter.

This loadout requires the Quartermaster trait, but if your Hunter doesn't start with it, you can usually either swap the traits they have, or get the Quartermaster after a conclusion.

The Vetterli 71 Marksman is probably the most versatile Marksman weapon in the game, with good damage, good muzzle velocity, and an acceptable rate of fire. Drop range is a little shorter than other weapons in its class, and you need to take that into account in long-range shooters. But as long as you care about it, Vetterli is a consistent and versatile weapon.

The Specter 1882 Shorty is a medium slot shotgun, and while it lacks a bit of damage compared to something like the Romero, it makes up for it by holding four shots before reloading, as opposed to one. It's a little expensive, but it's a great PvP weapon for close range, especially in indoor environments when enemies have nowhere to go.

2 Sniper

Cost: ≈1688

This is an extremely expensive loadout, and it is not necessary. If you want, you can swap out the Mosin for any of the Sniper variants, they all have a use case. The Mosin is just an unforgiving rifle, especially for its damage potential.

Dolch can be subbed for Bornheim or any other small slot weapon you want; A thrown spear can also help at close range, meaning a small slot doesn't need to fill that void.

The Mosin-Nagant Sniper doesn't really have much of a downside, and that's reflected in its price. For a cheaper variation, you can bring the Infantry 73L Sniper, which does less damage but will still kill in a headshot.

Dolch is absurdly expensive, but it's also absurdly good. Whether or not it's good enough to justify the price is up for debate, but if you've got the money for a Dolch, the Dolch won't let you down.

It has a good fire rate and two-shot body shot potential, meaning it outperforms the Bornheim. It can also be double-wielded if you want to hold around 1400 worth of Hunt dollars in your hand at the same time.

1 the gun

Cost: ≈828

The shotgun loadout is designed to highlight the Romero 77 Alamo. That said, that doesn't mean this loadout is designed specifically for shotgun-range engagements; It has some mid-range capability, and all those shots in the expendable slot mean you can keep yourself busy when other hunters duck.

The Romero 77 Alamo overcomes the biggest problem with other Romeros, which is the fact that they require reloading after each shot. The Romero 77 Alamo can fire five times before it needs to be reloaded, making it very forgiving on a miss.

The Mosin Obraz Extended is an excellent medium slot weapon, with excellent damage, a solid rate of fire, and above average magazine capacity. You can do all of this for a mesh variant, sacrificing some of that magazine size, but also eliminating the need to bring dusters to deal with emulators.