Hunt: Showdown 1896 Best Loadouts for Every Playstyle

Hunt: Showdown 1896 punishes you for bringing expensive toys you can't use. Die with a Dolch 96 and a Mosin strapped on and that's over 1,300 Hunt Dollars gone in one bad push. Die with a Romero and a Nagant and you're out 90. Both hunters can win the same fight. The difference is one of them shrugs and re-queues, and the other has to grind cash registers for an hour.

So the trick isn't finding the "best" gun. It's matching the price tag to how confident you actually are with a weapon class. This lays out working kits at every budget: dirt-cheap pairs under 100, sneaky bow and blade setups, long-range rifles, close-range blasters, and the tools that hold each one together. Prices and stats come off the official wiki, current as of Update 2.8.

Budget Loadouts Under 100 Hunt Dollars

Cheap kits are how you learn the game without funding your own funeral. A recruit dies, the gear goes with him, and if you're rolling 700-dollar loadouts on a 2,000-dollar bank you'll be broke inside three matches. And it happens to everyone eventually, because prestiging snaps your bank back to 8,000 no matter how much you'd saved.

The Cheap Guns That Actually Win Fights

| Weapon | Price | Slots | Why it works | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Nagant M1895 | $24 | 1 | About the cheapest gun you can buy, 91 damage, holds 7 | | Frontier 73C | $41 | 3 | Compact lever rifle, 8 rounds, easy to handle | | Springfield 1866 | $38 | 4 | 139 damage at 490 m/s, a real sniper for pocket change | | Romero 77 | $66 | 4 | 220 damage, tightest spread on this list | | Marathon | $68 | 4 | Pump rifle, 16 rounds, 113 damage per shot | | Ranger 73 | $75 | 4 | 16-round lever rifle, the old Winfield 1873 | | Conversion | $55 | 1 | 104 damage revolver, fannable |

A note on names: the lever guns got renamed and the Ranger 73 is what everyone still calls the Winfield. Same rifle, 110 damage, 15 in the tube plus one in the chamber. If a teammate yells "Winfield," they mean this.

The standout there is the Springfield. It's a single-shot breechloader that hits for 139 damage with a 160-meter drop range, and it costs 38 bucks. That's a quarter of the price of a Sparks for a gun that does most of the same job. Pair it with the $24 Nagant and you've got a long-capable kit for 62 dollars flat.

A Full Kit That Stays Under $100

Weapons are only half the bill. Here's a complete loadout, guns plus gear, that sneaks under the line:

| Item | Price | | --- | --- | | Springfield 1866 | $38 | | Nagant M1895 | $24 | | Decoys (pack of 12) | $6 | | Fusees (pack of 5) | $10 | | Weak Vitality Shot | $20 | | Total | $98 |

That's a functioning hunter for less than the cost of most custom ammo types. The Romero plus Nagant combo runs $90 for the pair, which leaves you ten bucks of wiggle room for decoys and nothing else. Totally playable, just tight.

The 4-slot-plus-1-slot shape matters too. You get 5 weapon slots by default, so a full-size rifle and a pistol fit without spending a trait point on Quartermaster. That's the free layout, and cheap kits lean on it hard.

Where Cheap Builds Cut Corners

Compact ammo is the honest trade. The Nagant kills in three or four body shots where a long-ammo rifle needs two, and it loses damage faster past 30 meters or so. Reloads on revolvers are slow, the Nagant's is 12.5 seconds from empty. You feel that in a fight.

Custom ammo is usually the first thing to skip on a budget. A box of FMJ for a compact pistol costs $50, which is more than the pistol. Poison and incendiary run $40 to $50. When the whole kit costs 98, there's no room, and honestly the base ammo is fine at the ranges these guns want to fight at.

One exception: subsonic. It runs $5 on the Nagant and the Ranger 73. Quieter shots, fewer people turning to look at you. If you've got five bucks left, that's a decent way to spend it.

Stealth Melee and Bow Setups

Quiet kits play a different game. No gunshots means no third party sprinting toward the noise, and AI dies to arrows without waking half the parish. The catch is you're giving up ranged damage and follow-up speed, so these builds live or die on picking your moment.

Bow and Crossbow Kits

The Hunting Bow is $57, takes 3 slots, and hits for 250 damage on a full draw, which deletes anything that isn't a boss. Arrows come back if you retrieve them, so ammo is basically free once you learn where your shots land. Poison arrows cost $25 and stack intense poison instead of raw damage, and concertina arrows at $30 leave a wire bundle that blocks a doorway. Both are nasty for area denial.

The Crossbow is $50, 4 slots, 246 damage, and its steel bolts ($40) push the drop range from 20 meters out to 35. The trait that makes it humane is Bolt Thrower, which cuts that long 5.3-second reload down to something you can live with. The Shot Bolt custom ammo spikes damage to 454 for boss work.

The real sleeper is the Hand Crossbow at $30 and one slot. It's a sidearm that makes almost no noise. Poison bolts are $25, and choke bolts at $10 pop a little gas cloud that douses fire, which matters more than you'd think when someone throws a fire bomb on your downed teammate.

A standard sneaky kit looks like this: Hunting Bow ($57) plus Hand Crossbow ($30) in weapons, Throwing Knives ($30) and Decoys ($6) in tools, Weak Vitality Shot ($20) and a Dynamite Stick ($18) in consumables. Around $161 all in. Hundred Hands is the bow trait (more damage, steadier full draw, and you can melee with a nocked arrow), and Blade Seer highlights your stuck arrows and bolts in Dark Sight within 25 meters so you can go collect them.

Pure Melee Builds

Melee-only sounds like a meme and kind of is, but it wins fights in tight compounds. The Combat Axe is $40, 2 slots, and its heavy attack does 495 damage. That one-shots a full-health hunter, no debate. The Katana at $115 swings faster for less damage (165 light, 280 heavy) and pairs with the Martialist trait, which lets you sheathe it and open with a stronger first strike.

Throwing Knives are the bridge. $30 for a pack of 8, 150 damage a blade, retrievable, dead silent. Throwing Axes at $50 hit for 162 thrown and double as a real melee weapon at 75 light damage. Assailant buffs both, and with it you can even throw melee weapons you pick up in the world.

Silent Killer is the trait tax on all of this. It hushes your melee swings, and without it a loud swing tells everyone in the building exactly which room you're in. Pair melee with a Hand Crossbow or a Nagant running subsonic ($5) and you've got answers at every range while staying quiet.

The honest weakness: if a melee push fails, you're standing in the open holding a knife while the other guy reloads. Have an exit. A choke bomb ($25) on your own feet buys cover when you need to back out.

Long-Range Sniper and Marksman Combos

Long ammo is where Hunt's ballistics turn into a skill shot. Bullets drop now, the HUD shows you the drop range while you aim, and high muzzle velocity means less lead and less holdover. Fast bullets also hold damage farther out, which is the whole point of this category.

Budget and Mid-Tier Rifles

The Springfield 1866 ($38) is the entry point, covered above. One tier up you've got the Martini-Henry at $122: 143 damage, a quick 2.7-second reload, and cheap High Velocity ammo at $35 that pushes its muzzle velocity from 400 to 500 m/s. Fast Fingers shortens its cycle time in aim to 2.7 seconds.

The Sparks ($130) is the classic. 149 damage, 533 m/s, and a 145-meter drop range. It two-taps to the body at silly ranges and one-taps the head at any range. Single shot only, so the follow-up is all on your sidearm. Incendiary rounds at $35 set people on fire with one hit inside 40 meters, which is a horrible thing to do to someone and very effective.

The Vetterli 71 ($105, 3 slots) is the mid-range all-rounder. 130 damage, 6+1 capacity, fast handling, and it only eats 3 slots so you can pair it with a real shotgun. Its Marksman variant has a scope if you want to sit at 80 meters instead of 50.

The Expensive Stuff

Special long ammo is a different animal. The Lebel 1886 ($397) carries 10 rounds at 630 m/s, so you can trade shots all day without the reload problem most bolt guns have. That reload problem does exist, 18.7 seconds from empty, so don't run it dry. The Krag ($450) holds 5+1 and tops off one round at a time instead of needing a full clip swap, which makes it the smoothest shooter in the class. The Mosin-Nagant ($620) is the stat king, 136 damage at 615 m/s with a fast stripper-clip reload.

Iron Eye is the trait for all three. You stay in irons between shots instead of re-aiming every trigger pull, and at 150 meters that's the difference between a follow-up and a whiff. If you run a scoped variant, Scopesmith does the same job for scopes and costs 2 points.

Combos and the Quartermaster Question

| Primary | Sidearm | Total | Slots | Quartermaster? | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Springfield 1866 ($38) | Scottfield ($77) | $115 | 4+1 | No | | Martini-Henry ($122) | Pax ($80) | $202 | 4+1 | No | | Sparks ($130) | Scottfield ($77) | $207 | 4+1 | No | | Krag ($450) | Pax ($80) | $530 | 4+1 | No | | Lebel 1886 ($397) | Uppercut ($310) | $707 | 4+2 | Yes |

That last row is the trap. You carry 5 weapon slots by default, so a 4-slot rifle plus the 2-slot Uppercut needs Quartermaster's 6th slot or the game won't let you equip it. Quartermaster costs real trait points, so unless you specifically want long ammo in your pistol (the Uppercut hits for 126, genuinely a rifle round in your pocket), stick with a 1-slot sidearm and save the points.

For sidearms on sniper kits, the Scottfield ($77) reloads fast when empty and the Pax ($80) hits harder at 110 damage. Either is fine. What you want is a pistol that can finish a wounded hunter fast, because your primary's follow-up shot is slow.

Close-Quarters Shotgun and Dolch Builds

Shotguns are the most cost-effective power in the game. A $66 Romero one-taps to the chest inside its range, and no amount of Bloodline levels changes that. Range is the tax: damage numbers below are the 10-meter average, and they fall off fast past that.

Shotguns at Every Price

| Shotgun | Price | Damage | Capacity | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Romero 77 | $66 | 220 | 1 | Tightest spread of the bunch (20) | | Rival 78 | $170 | 184 | 2 | Double barrel, instant second shot | | Terminus | $168 | 186 | 6+1 | Lever action, loves the Levering trait | | Specter 1882 | $188 | 213 | 4+1 | Pump, tight 25 spread | | Slate | $313 | 207 | 5+1 | Quick 1-second cycle, wide 30 spread |

The Romero is the budget king and stays good forever. One shell means you need to make the shot count, but 220 damage with the tightest spread on the list means that shot usually lands lethal. Slugs ($65 on the Romero because it splits its ammo pool) turn it into a 179-damage rifle for standoff windows, and Penny Shot at $5 trades some damage (220 down to 192) for a wider spray and more shells in the pool.

The Terminus is the trait pairing: 7 shells plus Levering (fast lever hipfire) gives you the room-clearing spam build. The Specter is the safer pick if you don't want to spend trait points, since pumps don't gain much from Iron Eye anyway. The Rival's two quick barrels punish anyone who pushes a corner, and its 4.7-second reload from empty is half what the big tube guns ask.

The Auto-5 sits above all these at 5 whole slots, so you can't carry any sidearm with it at all. Fast, mean, and a commitment.

Dolch 96 Builds

The Dolch 96 is the other kind of close-quarters power: $690, 2 slots, semi-auto, 10 rounds loaded with 10 spare, 64 rate of fire. It sprays like a guilt-ridden hose and at 97 damage per hit, two body shots end most hunters. It's a pistol that out-fights most primaries inside 20 meters.

Because it's only 2 slots it opens up pairings. Dolch plus a 3-slot Vetterli ($105) fits in the default 5. Dolch plus a 4-slot Romero needs Quartermaster again, and the Dolch actually lists Quartermaster as one of its recommended traits for exactly that reason. Dumdum ammo for it is scarce, meaning you can't buy it, you find it, and it adds medium bleed.

The honest problem with the Dolch is the price of losing it. 690 dollars walks out the door every time you die, and a close-range brawler dies a lot. It's a rich man's toy. The poverty version is a Pax ($80) with the Fanning trait, which hip-fires single-action revolvers fast. Same neighborhood of damage, same speed, one-ninth the cost.

Close-Quarters Combos

Cheap and mean: Romero ($66) + Pax ($80) = $146, and put the rest of your points into Fanning. Mid: Specter ($188) + Officer ($96) = $284, the Officer being a 7-shot double-action that sprays well in a panic. Lever spam: Terminus ($168) + Scottfield ($77) = $245 with Levering bought. Big money: Dolch 96 ($690) + Vetterli 71 ($105) = $795, a kit that fights at every range and costs a house.

Tool and Consumable Choices for Each Kit

Gear is where matches are actually won. Two hunters with identical guns, and the one with a choke bomb and a vitality shot walks away. Here's what matters and what each kit wants.

The Gear That's Almost Always Worth It

| Item | Price | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | | Decoys | $6 | 12 throws of distraction, the best value in the game | | Fusees | $10 | 5 flares, light dark interiors, ignite oil and corpses | | Dynamite Stick | $18 | 750 damage, 8m radius, 4-second fuse | | Weak Vitality Shot | $20 | Instant 75 health | | Choke Bombs | $25 | 2 charges, kills all fire in a 3m cloud for 60 seconds | | First Aid Kit | $30 | 3 uses of 50 health, stops bleeding | | Vitality Shot | $85 | Full heal instantly | | Stamina Shot | $100 | Full stamina, no depletion for 420 seconds |

The Choke Bomb deserves its own paragraph. It puts out fire, which means it saves burning teammates, deletes fire-bomb area denial, and covers a revive. Every single kit in this guide should find $25 for it. The Doctor trait doubles First Aid Kit healing to 100 per use, which turns a $30 tool into 300 points of healing.

Vitality math is simple. The weak shot is $20 for 75 health, the full one is $85 for everything back. If you're running cheap kits, take two weak shots and pocket the difference. On expensive kits where dying costs you the Dolch, the full shot pays for itself the one time it saves you.

Stamina Shots matter most for melee and shotgun players, since sprinting and heavy swings both drain you. 420 seconds of unlimited sprint is most of a match.

Matching Tools to the Kit

Budget kits take the freebies: Decoys ($6), Fusees ($10), a Weak Vitality Shot ($20). Total gear cost under $40, and you still have answers.

Stealth kits want Throwing Knives ($30) as a silent ranged option and Decoys for pulling AI away from compounds without a gunshot. A Flare Pistol ($36) is a nice add for lighting a boss lair before you push it, though it's loud when it fires, so shoot it deliberately.

Sniper kits need a Quad Derringer ($30) or other panic sidearm more than most, because you'll get rushed and a 4-round pocket pistol beats trying to no-scope a Lebel. Decoys help you check whether that bush is a person (throw one behind them, watch for the flinch). Stamina Shots matter less here; you're not sprinting mid-duel.

Close-quarters kits live on Vitality Shots and Choke Bombs, since shotgun fights are short, violent, and often on fire. A Fire Bomb ($30) of your own is great for blocking a doorway behind you when you retreat, and melee kits love a Stamina Shot ($100) since the heavy attacks that one-shot people cost the most stamina.

Traps and Situational Picks

Alert Trip Mines ($30) make noise when tripped, which is a cheap alarm for the window behind your sniper perch. Concertina Trip Mines ($90) drop wire bundles that block doors and windows, good for the boss lair while you banish. Bear Traps ($70, Bloodline Rank 35) bleed whoever steps in them, and a trapped hunter is a dead hunter most of the time. Poacher places all of them quietly, and Vigilant shows you nearby traps in Dark Sight so you stop dying to your own.

The Hive Bomb ($40, Rank 48) is underrated for solos, the swarm harasses anyone trying to hold a room and ignores AI entirely. And every kit in the game benefits from looting the map: cash registers, tool boxes, and ammo crates are free money and free gear. A budget hunter who loots two compounds often finishes the match worth more than he started.

If you take one thing from all this, take the price of the Springfield kit. $98, guns and gear, and it wins fights at every range a normal player actually fights at. You could lose that entire kit seven times over before you'd paid for one Dolch 96.