Star Wars Hunters just kicked off season 5, not only giving us a new hero and map, but also bringing the game to PC, overhauling the leveling system and introducing mods to customize each Hunter's kit to your playstyle! If you haven't already been playing Hunters, there's no better time to join up and squad up with your friends in the arena!
Hunters is a free to play hero shooter set after Return of the Jedi where your team of four faces against another team of four in different fun game modes, playing as various original Star Wars characters across familar Star Wars locations.
While I'm certainly no expert in the game (the 3 back-to-back losses in Scrap Salvage just now can attest to that), I HAVE been playing since launch. While you might not want to take any skill advice from me, I can give you a few pointers into navigating this game and figuring out what it's all about.
Keep Up With Currencies
Like many live service games, Hunters has a lot of currencies. But why so many? What do they do? It can seem a little overwhelming when you don't know what all the symbols and numbers mean, but it's simpler than it looks.
The currency that will be the most pushed on you will be the crystals, little purple gems. All those are for is buying items in the shop. So skins, emotes, leveling bonuses and whatever else. Crystals can be earned through playing the game in different challenges, but you earn them somewhat slowly, so spend them wisely! Alternatively, you can buy loads using real money. To give you an idea of the exchange rate, your average skin might run you between 1,200 to 1,800 crystals. To pay real money, 1,000 crystals is about $10 USD and 2,200 is about $20, but there are crystal bundles costing up to $100 for 12,000 crystals. While that's certainly a lot, buying crystals is 100% optional and won't impact your gameplay experience.
Your next currency is credits. Credits are very easy to earn, and if you're like me you'll probably rack up quite a lot. Credits can't be bought for real money (though you can use crystals to purchase more credits), and can be earned somewhat quickly through playing the game and completing challenges for the weekly events the game offers. Credits are also used for buying items in the shop. Now I know I just said that you buy things with crystals- both are true! Certain items will require crystals to buy, and certain items will require credits. Typically the bigger, fancier stuff will want crystals over credits, but you can still get some good stuff with your credits!
While not quite the same as our other currencies, I do want to include Fame Grants in this section as well. You see, you level up your Hunters through Fame. Every time you play as a Hunter in a game, you earn some fame to level them up- how much you earn depends on how well you did, if you won the game, and so on. Leveling up your Hunters improves their abilities, as well as granting special cosmetics you can only get through leveling up. If you want to level up a hunter more quickly, however, you can use Fame Grants to give them a big boost of fame. Fame Grants can be purchased in the shop for crystals, but you can also earn a lot through the Arena Pass or completing event challenges as well. Some Fame Grants might be specific to one character to level them up, but most Fame Grants let you pick which Hunter you apply them to- and really big ones will let you divide them up among multiple Hunters if you choose.
Our fourth and final currency is chips. Chips are the recently added currency for this new season. Chips are what you use to purchase mods, another new feature of this season. Mods are optional features you can add to the different characters so they can suit your playstyle a little bit better than the default. For example, a mod might slightly increase how much damage a Hunter does, while in exchange slowing them down a little bit. They're sort of like the cards in Battlefront II. Some mods can be earned in the Arena Pass (which we'll get to next), but most mods can be purchased on a Hunter's page in the menu using chips. Chips can be earned in the Arena Pass or, like credits, be bought in the shop using crystals.
To Arena Pass or Not to Arena Pass?
Alright, so what's this Arena Pass thing all about? If you play too many live service games like me, then you're certainly familiar with the concept of a battle pass, which is what the Arena Pass is. If you spend your time more wisely, however, this might be newer to you!
Each season of the game (lasting roughly two months) gives us a new Arena Pass to accompany it (along with a new map and hero each time). The Arena Pass is simply a way to earn different currencies, cosmetics and other bonuses through playing. Different Arena Passes will have different themes to match the season, though that doesn't mean that everything in the pass is centered on that theme. For this season, the theme is Scum & Villainy, meaning you can earn things like a Jabba profile picture, a graffiti-themed Utooni (the Jawa Hunter) skin, but also an Asajj Ventress skin for Rieve (the Sith Hunter) and a Mandalorian Guard skin for Aran Tal (the Mandalorian Hunter).
Now the Arena Pass does include some free rewards if you don't want to pay real money, but if you want the full extent of what the Pass has to offer it costs about $7. Buying the Arena Pass is how you get access to this season's new Hunter, Glikkin, the Kubaz Rogue, who is pretty fun to play! But if you can wait to try him out, you will be able to earn Glikkin through playing after the season is over like the other Hunters.
Down, Down, Down The Hunter's Path
While Hunters is a hero shooter, which are games known for offering a variety of different characters to play, you might not have many options when you first boot up the game. That's okay! The game doesn't want to overwhelm you when you first start out, so you're meant to somewhat slowly earn characters as you play.
Now if you're dying to play one specific character who is towards the end of the path, you are given the option to spend some of your real money to speed up the process. But going through the Hunter's Path doesn't take very long, and it's a great way to learn a wider variety of characters than you might otherwise! The first characters you'll earn will be the original Hunters, and then characters from pass Arena Passes will be available after their seasons end.
They See Me Role-ing
I've been playing hero shooters since the release of Overwatch in 2016, but if you haven't, that's okay! Just means I'll give you a little run-down on the different roles of the game and what it means when you're playing those characters.
So first we have our tanks. These are the big guys! Tanks typically walk a little slower and are bigger and easier to hit, but they have a lot more health and they can hit you pretty hard. A lot of tanks also have shields or some other way to mitigate damage as well. Generally the tank on your team is responsible for soaking up the damage for the squishier guys and holding space in a fight, making room on the objective by pushing the other team around. Currently the tanks in the game include:
Charr, a Trandoshan with a close-range shot-gun and electro-nets to trap his prey.
Grozz, a Wookiee with droid arms for clubs that crush enemies against walls.
K-AOS, a K-2SO style droid with missing arms (hmm) that have been replaced with shields, used both as shields and as weapons in their own right.
Sentinel, an Imperial trooper heavy with a big shield and a bigger gun.
Slingshot, an ugnaught riding a re-fitted droideka who can fling himself around.
Then, we have our damage Hunters. They do exactly as the name suggests- damage! They're made for combat, both ranged and close-up. Unlike tanks though, most damage Hunters are smaller and don't have as much health, though they are generally much more nimble moving around. Different damage Hunters have different roles to play depending on their abilities, but generally their job is to eliminate the other team the best they can. Our current damage Hunters are:
J-3D1, a droid Jedi with a lightsaber who can use the Force (cables) to pull opponents closer.
Aran Tal, a Mandalorian with twin blasters, a jetpack and a formidable flamethrower.
Diago, a Miralukan sniper who can be a real problem if someone is good at him.
Imara Vex, a bounty hunter who can move fast and shoot faster.
Nox, a Dathomirian archer who can also be a real problem if someone is good.
Pilbush, an Ewok riding a grenade-launch mini AT-ST.
Rieve, an angry Sith Lord who can throw her lightsaber and use the Force for real.
Utooni, Jawa brothers with a number of gadgets to cycle through.
Glikkin, our newest Hunter, a Kubaz rogue who can disappear and re-appear to cut you up with his vibroblades.
Finally we have our support Hunters, the unsung heroes of all of gaming. Support characters are able to do some damage and have some pretty useful abilities to change the tide of a battle, although they aren't hitting as hard as our damge or tank Hunters. What makes our support Hunters really stand out is there ability to heal. While certain tanks and damage Hunters can have self-healing abilities (or go find a health pack), the support Hunters are able to heal their teammates to keep them in the fight and give them an edge over the opposition. Currently, there are only 3 support Hunters in the game:
Zaina, a New Republic soldier with a blaster and bacta ready to go.
Skora, a Rodian chemist with a special gun that can heal allies and wound enemies.
Sprocket, a Mon Calamari scientist with various remote droids that can heal, provide shields and even mark enemies.
Unlike most hero shooters which use teams of five or six, Hunters games use simply teams of four. It's important to try and keep your team a little balanced when picking your character in the beginning of the game. While any team can win with the right players, it's easier when you have a variety of roles on your team to keep things well-rounded!
Also, each Hunter has their own fun theme song, which you can hear when you choose them in a game or by simply visiting their page in the Hunters tab of the main menu!
Check Out The Events
At any given time, Hunters usually has at least a couple of events going on, which you can see in the Events tab on the main menu. I recommend checking out these events when you open the game! They're all free, and you can earn free rewards by doing the challenges for them. Some event challenges might as you to play a specific mode (usually a special event-specific mode like Huttball) or to play a specific character, and rewards can be cosmetics, currencies and more!
Casual vs Ranked
If you play other online games like Fortnite, Overwatch, or Marvel Rivals, you know that many of these games have casual vs ranked modes. Hunters does too! But what's the difference between Casual and Ranked in Hunters?
Gameplay wise? Nothing! While some games' Ranked modes might change certain elements of the game to level the playing field a bit more, gameplay in a Casual vs a Ranked mode of Hunters is exactly the same, except maybe your fellow players might take a Ranked game a bit seriously. But why? What's the difference? Why choose one or the other?
When you play a Casual game, that's it! You're playing the game! You play your match, you may or may not make progress on your daily challenges, Arena Pass challenges or event challenges, but then you can play the next game!
Ranked just adds a few bells and whistles. For one, some Arena Pass or event challenges may require you to play Ranked to complete them. But those aside, each season also has a Ranked pass in addition to the Arena Pass, also including more currencies and cosmetics. But while leveling up in the Arena Pass simply requires playing the game and completing certain challenges, leveling up in your Ranked pass requires you to win. This also adds you to a leaderboard showing exactly where you stack up compared to other players.
Ranked games also take extra care to match you up with players at your similar rank. So if you're in the lower categories, the "Bronzium," you'll be matched up with other "Bronzium" players. But if you've leveled up a lot and have reached "Beskar" or "Kyber" status, then you'll play with other "Beskar" or "Kyber" players.
Sounds pretty great, and it is! The catch, though, is that unlike the Arena Pass, you can also level DOWN in this Ranked Pass. You have to win to level up, which means that if you lose you can level down, albeit leveling down takes a bit longer than leveling up. Now the rewards you've already earned won't be taken from you, but your standing amongst other Ranked players will drop. This gets especially precarious in the higher ranks- the higher on the totem pole you are, the more of a penalty losing gives you- but of course the bonuses for winning are higher too.
Ranked can be fun if you enjoy trying to improve and top the scoreboards. I generally don't play Ranked in other games, but I feel like Hunters makes it very enjoyable. But if you're not interested in any of the Ranked rewards and fear that worrying about scores and standings might suck the fun out of the game for you, I promise you'll be just fine sticking with Casual! I avoided Ranked for a while just because of the fact that it can stress me out in other games, and while I tried it eventually I still think the game is just as fun without it!
There's Lore!
Finally, I have to let you know that Hunters has lore! While each of the Hunters is original to the game (as much as you have opportunities to dress them up as other characters), they each have their own fun little backstories. I really adore all of the original character designs in the game, and if there's any characters that really catch your eye, you can go to their page in the Hunters tab and read a little blurb about who they are. Different events and cosmetics may also have attached quotes from or about characters, telling us more about who they are and their relationships with the other Hunters.
But that's not all! If you really want to get into the stories about the characters AND the arenas themselves, look no further than the book Hunters: Battle for the Arena! You can read my full review of it, but it's a book explaining just what the arena is or how all of the characters came together. Rieve is the main character of the book but other Hunters like Sentinel, J-3D1, Zaina, Imara Vex and Utooni also feature quite prominently in it.
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