There’s little to think about when using guns in most modern video games. Many fantasy firearms are simply a point and shoot mechanism, streamlining the firearm maintenance to make it as easy as possible for the user to hit their target. Way of the Hunter, however, focuses a bit more on realism to immerse you in its world and shooting your guns is no exception. Here’s everything you need to know about shooting in Way of the Hunter.
Firearm Types and Hunting Tiers
Hunting is an activity that focuses on precision and planning, and that means you’ll always want the right tool for the job. Way of the Hunter streamlines this idea by separating animals into tiers.
Small game such as birds and badgers will be on a lower tier, which is more suited for short range weapons such as a pistol or shotgun. These smaller animals aren’t worth a ton of money and are normally the more difficult category to turn a profit with.
Larger game, such as deer or sheep, fill out the higher tiers of the scale. This is because hunting those animals requires precision shooting with scoped higher caliber rifles.
Even if you hit and kill the animal, the quality of the kill is everything and your focus in this wilderness airs on the ethical side of things. If you need more than one shot, that animal suffered too much and won’t be worth as much as one who didn’t, meaning roadkill is next to worthless.
You’ll also want to be hunting game that is either worth the money or focus on animals that you need to hunt for quests. While trophy hunting for impressive animal trophies to decorate your lodge is fun and engaging, there are very few tasks in the game that reward you beyond the cosmetic appeal.
How To Hit Your Shots
Before you fire your shot, there are a few things to consider when using a rifle.
Unlike most other games, you’ll need to sight your rifle before you take the shot to make sure your bullet is traveling the distance. While you’re able to zero in with the rifle for 200m shots, these are some of the riskiest you can take, so it’s best to set yourself up for shots at 150m at most. Since you always want to aim for a kill with every shot, it’s important that all of these factors are taken care of before taking it. Aiming also isn’t simply a point and click affair, either.
When you look down the sights, things get a little wobbly and you’ll have to hold your breath to steady your aim. Before you make the commitment, however, you’ll want to hover over your target and wait until it stops moving before lining up your shot. You’ll also want to note the wind resistance.
Know Your Anatomy
While it might not rob you of a kill shot, not taking note of the details can be the difference between piercing a heart for an instant kill or just the lungs, meaning you’ll need to follow a blood trail to claim the kill. Not being precisely zeroed in on your rifle will also cause this. Zeroing in at a higher distance than the range of your target will cause the bullet to fly higher, while zeroing it in at a lower calibration will cause it to fly lower. You’ll need to keep this in mind just when you need to make small adjustments before taking the shot.
Hitting an animal through the head, heart or spinal cord directly will cause it to die where it stands. While the head and spinal cord are the best shots, the heart is the most practical one and is almost always worth shooting over all other options. The main reason is because even if you miss the direct hit on the heart, you’ll almost always pierce the lungs which will kill the animal. While it may still be able to run, the animal will be much easier to track down and claim over something like a random shot to the stomach, which will have you chasing that animal far and wide.
Way of the Hunter is an incredibly immersive hunting sim experience. The game does a good job of telling you where to find the majority of information you’ll need to excel at your hunt, but does a rather poor job of showing you how it all works. With this guide, you’ll be able to confidently take your first steps into the wilderness and make a shot that’s worth claiming.
Way of the Hunter is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X & S.
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