Team Fortress 2 – MvM Huntsman Guide

Disclaimer (why do I bother nobody’s gonna read it)

This guide is intended for bored players who are sick of playing the meta and want to spice things up a little. The Huntsman, while capable of contributing a decent amount of damage, is underpowered compared to the beast that is stock Sniper. DON’T use the Huntsman in expert mode. DON’T use the Huntsman against airblast Pyros. Your team is 100% in the right to kick you if they get steamrolled. This loadout, while fun, can seriously cripple your team if you don’t know what you’re doing. 
 
With that out of the way, let’s begin. 
 
 
 

Loadout

Primary

Huntsman/Fortified Compound. Obviously. 
 
 
 
 

Secondary

This is a less obvious choice. There are a few options for this playstyle, and it really depends on what the team needs at the current moment. 
 
SMG 
 
 
The classic SMG. Don’t bother using it since there are much better alternatives for any case. 
 
Jarate 
 
 
Useful for the damage bonus it brings against robots, and the slowdown upgrade helps with super scouts. However, if your Scout has the Fan O’War and/or a Soldier has a Buff Banner, the mini-crits are pretty much redundant. If your Scout has Mad Milk with the slowdown upgrade and/or a Soldier has Rocket Specialist, the slowdown is pretty much redundant. Still, it never hurts to have a backup. 
 
Speaking of backups, don’t waste your Jarate on Battalion’s Backup Soldiers. They’re immune to mini-crits so all you’re doing is slightly inconveniencing them and painting them yellow for a few seconds. 
 
Cleaner’s Carbine 
 
 
Ahh, who could forget the classic Cleaner’s Carbine/Bushwacka combo? Useful for Tank shredding, though by no means necessary as your team should probably have a dedicated Tank buster. Still, very useful if your team is struggling against Tanks. 
 
Darwin’s Danger Shield 
 
 
Use it if there are a lot of flare Pyros in the wave, I guess. I’d still go with something else though. 
 
Cozy Camper 
 
 
Due to a bug, the Concheror and Cozy Camper do not have to wait for the healing ramp-up to kick in to heal at the max rate. 4 health regenerated per second is nothing to shake a stick at, especially since you’ll be closer to the action than a normal Sniper. 
 
Razorback 
 
 
It’s not BAD, per se, but you shouldn’t be in danger of being backstabbed anyway. With stock Sniper, you will likely be far away from your team and thus in more danger of being one shot by a lone Spy that you were too distracted to deal with. However, with the Huntsman you can simply turn around every once in a while and make sure Spies aren’t sneaking up on you. 
 

Melee

This choice really comes down to what you picked for your secondary. 
 
Kukri/Reskins 
 
 
Decent if you’re facing single targets and don’t have a method of dealing mini-crits. Use it with the Cozy Camper or any other backpack. 
 
Bushwacka 
 
 
The guaranteed critical hits on mini-crit are very useful for Tank shredding, as mentioned above. If your Soldier has the Buff Banner, consider using this even if you aren’t using Jarate or the Cleaner’s Carbine. 
 

Cosmetics

 
 
A little known fact about MvM is that hunger is a real problem. Many Snipers go for extended periods without food, risking a premature death by hunger. To avert this problem, equip the Fruit Shoot. This handy lil’ apple will decrease your chances of going hungry while using the Huntsman by up to 13%! (Note: Fortified Compound users are still liable to go hungry.) 
 
 
 

Upgrades

The Huntsman is an interesting playstyle with a non-intuitive upgrade path. Though there is no Explosive Headshot to be found, this weapon still packs a punch if upgraded correctly. 
 

Huntsman Upgrade Path

 
 
The first thing you should upgrade, regardless of circumstances, is Projectile Penetration. With this upgrade you are able to hit multiple robots with a single arrow, which is the key to this playstyle. If you cannot afford this upgrade, do not play with the Huntsman. 
 
If you look at the Huntsman’s upgrades you might notice one unique to the Huntsman: +5s Bleed On Target. This upgrade, while useful, is a bit of a noob trap. The only level of this upgrade worth buying is the first level, as it unlocks the bleed effect of the Huntsman. Level 2 and 3 of this upgrade are nearly useless, as anything that lives long enough for the duration to make a difference (i.e. a giant) is something that you will want to hit with another arrow anyway. Since the next arrow will reset the timer, the 5 seconds that come with the first level suffice. 
 
Why is bleed so useful and why do I say get it first? The reason is that for only $200, you are able to increase your damage significantly such that your arrows can kill Scout bots (and other light classes) in one fully charged bodyshot. Unupgraded fully charged bodyshots by themselves do 120 damage, with the bleed acting as a finisher. It is also invaluable with upgraded damage, as a fully upgraded fully charged bodyshot will do 194 damage, enough to cripple Soldier bots so the bleed can finish them off. 
 
After getting Projectile Penetration and one level of bleed damage, the next upgrades are up to you. All 4 damage levels are useful, and 2 damage levels are required to cleanly kill Uber Medics with a bodyshot (more on that later). Reload Speed is another useful upgrade, as it increases the speed at which you can draw, charge, and shoot arrows. Health On Kill is always useful for close range combat classes, however as Sniper you are able to stay back from the action. I do not recommend investing much into Health On Kill, especially if you have the Cozy Camper equipped. However, if you wish to be more aggressive with your playstyle go right ahead. Just remember that Health On Kill doesn’t overheal you, so if you buy more than 1-2 levels, it’s probably a waste of money. 
 
Ammo capacity is a very low priority upgrade, as using the Huntsman means you are going to play closer to the rest of your team and thus have easy access to the Dispenser. However if your Engineer doesn’t have a dispenser in a good spot… Wait why the hell are you playing with the Huntsman? Clearly your team is under-equipped as is, they don’t need another handicap! 
 
Other upgrades outside of the Huntsman that you should consider are resistances, -35% Speed On Target for Jarate, 1 level of Health Regen, and Attack Speed for the Bushwacka. For resistances, Crit Resistance is by far the most important, and you should max it out the second crits and mini-crits become a problem for you (and no sooner). Bullet/Blast Resistance are situationally useful, but don’t spend too much on them. The Huntsman takes priority, as there isn’t much point in staying alive if you’re not going to do much damage anyway. 
 
Now that the upgrades are covered, let’s take a look at what you should actually be doing as Huntsman Sniper. 
 
 
 

Playstyle

Small Robots

For small robots the strategy is similar to a class such as Soldier, spam projectiles at robots and kill as many as you can. Make sure to fully charge up your shots, as uncharged shots do a fraction of the damage charged shots do. The name of the game is chaining bodyshots. 1 arrow can pass through several robots, crippling them and often killing them with either the initial shot or bleed. Generally if robots are alive more than 5 seconds after they spawn, they’ll group up in formations that are easy to pick off. Oh, and it can also headshot, so don’t forget about that if you’re facing off against individual robots such as Spies or Heavies – an uncharged headshot is better than a fully charged bodyshot. 
 
The best place to stay with the Huntsman is with the Heavy, near the Dispenser, as your arrows have no damage falloff and can kill from any distance. Being on the same level as the robots is important as well, as chaining shots requires a straight line through multiple robots. 
 
Remember that you have 5 teammates who are all trying to kill the same robots, so don’t feel bad if your teammates are killing robots faster than you – the Huntsman is a “pick up the slack” type of playstyle where you do better the less well your teammates are doing. However, if your team is failing and you aren’t one of the top damage dealers, it’s time to pick a different role. 
 

Giants

Giants are where the Huntsman really starts to shine. The Huntsman, when fully upgraded, is capable of dealing 570 damage on headshot due to its innate crit boost. (This damage would be 720 if Valve were to fix the bu- ok I can’t finish that with a straight face.) This effect is amplified if 2 giants are standing in close proximity, as it is trivial to line up double headshot after double headshot. For about the price of Spy’s knife upgrades, you can get dps on a similar level from ANY range, from ANY direction. 
 
Since headshots are considered crits, any other damage boosts are pretty much useless to you if you plan to headshot giants, as they do not stack. 
 

Uber Medics

Anyone who has played MvM for a significant amount of time should be very familiar with these things. Sniper and Demo are usually picked for this task since they hold the ability to instantly kill them. The Huntsman also has this ability, though it’s a bit different than stock. 
 
Uber Medics have 150 base health, same as a normal Medic. As mentioned previously, 2 damage upgrades is enough to allow the Huntsman to kill Uber Medics with one fully charged bodyshot, allowing them to be taken out without activating their Ubercharge. Of course, headshotting the Uber Medics also works at lower damage levels, and is more consistent if you can get a clear view of the Uber Medic. If Uber Medics are pocketing giants it is possible to shoot them through the giant, though your accuracy might be slightly decreased. Against groups of Uber Medics, lining them up might be difficult, and for large enough groups it’s impossible. Switch to stock Sniper if your team needs to pop groups of more than about 4 Uber Medics at once. 
 

Tanks

The Huntsman is not particularly effective against Tanks, so the strategy is similar to that of stock Sniper. Having you on the Tank means you aren’t shooting at robots, which is kind of a waste. Focusing the bomb as Sniper and having a dedicated Tank buster as a teammate is a better strategy in my opinion. However, if the team really is struggling with the Tank, having the Cleaner’s Carbine/Bushwacka combo in your back pocket is not a bad idea. 
 

Shield Medics

For those of you who only play vanilla MvM you might not have even known these were a thing, but robot Medics with the Projectile Shield upgrade are found frequently in custom MvM missions. The Huntsman is unique in that, assuming it is upgraded with Projectile Penetration, it is able to go straight through the Medic’s shield. That’s right, no more having to work around it, just shoot straight through and kill the bastard! 
 

Weaknesses

Like Soldier, the Huntsman has many weaknesses due to the nature of projectile weapons. In particular, airblast Pyros and Deflector Heavies will be the bane of your existence so if the wave features them in significant numbers consider switching off the Huntsman. 
 
 
 

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this guide to the Huntsman in MvM, I hope it was informative and gets you to consider what I think is one of the most fun off-meta strategies in the gamemode. Oh and don’t forget, if you kill the last robot with a tauntkill you get a free unusual. Happy hunting! 
 
 
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, or want to tell me anything I missed. (inb4 delete this guide) 
 

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