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The Hunter (originally known as The Stalker)[2] is one of the three antagonists that may pursue players while they attempt to escape the ship in Monstrum.

History

According to a lab report made prior to the events of Monstrum, two injured humans were subjected to a compound based on the genetic material of "Turritopsis dohrnii", commonly known as the immortal jellyfish. The first test subject gained increased strength, aggression, and cellular regeneration at the cost of intelligence. The second gained increased intelligence, though the subject's healing factor did not prove as potent as the first one's, leaving that person with unhealed scar tissues, damaged nerves, and the constant feeling of pain. Determining that these tests require further refinement, the lab report concluded that both test subjects must be euthanized. This ultimately did not go as planned, as both test subjects appeared to have survived and escaped, with the first one implied to have become "The Brute", and the second one implied to have become "The Fiend". This leaves The Hunter as the only creature in Monstrum with an ambiguous origin, as its existence was only hinted at in a single note which brings up a "big rat problem" that busted through the vent covers and ripped through several boxes to messily feast on the food within. While it is possible that The Hunter is a natural or extraterrestrial specimen that was left unaccounted for, it is also likely that The Hunter, too, was once a human, as indicated by its human-like skeletal structure and its transparent skin, which resembles that of the jellyfish used to make the compound that brought about The Brute and The Fiend.

The Hunter, screeching after dropping down from a vent in the ceiling.

The Hunter is a creature that is driven to hunt prey out of predatory instinct, intending to tear apart and devour what it can get its long claws on.[2] Its slender, almost-skeletal frame is covered with gelatinous, transparent skin that makes it resemble a humanoid amoeba, rendering it hard to see especially in dark places. It has three jaws that resemble those of the sarcastic fringehead, an aggressive, territorial fish that flares out its jaws when fighting. This trait is likely an adaptation meant to help The Hunter swallow large prey in proportion to its size.

Unlike The Brute, The Hunter does not appear to have been mass-produced by the Hongsha-Miller company. However, The Bhagra, a similar monster in terms of stealth, feral mindset, predatory instinct, and abilities, might be its spiritual successor, while The Hunter's ability to reproduce asexually was given to The Malacosm, likely the successor of The Fiend.

Capabilities

As a predatory creature, The Hunter primarily relies on tactics of stealth and ambush to secure prey.

Strength

The Hunter breaks into a locked room.

The Hunter is deceptively strong for a creature of its stature. Despite its lanky and frail physique, The Hunter can still shred a wooden door, or rip locker doors off of their hinges. Even so, The Hunter will open doors manually if it can, so it is advised to lock them if possible. Fittingly, The Hunter is the only monster that cannot open power-locked doors, as it lacks the raw strength of The Brute and the telekinetic abilities of The Fiend.

Durability

The Hunter is constantly seen scratching itself with the sharp talons of its long fingers, indicating that its skin is sensitive and easily irritable. Furthermore, The Hunter is the only monster in the game that can be affected by all means of deterrent. The Hunter can be delayed by pits, stunned by flares and fire extinguishers (though, like all monsters, The Hunter will be immune for 11 seconds after being sprayed, so subsequent attacks with the fire extinguisher are pointless), injured and blocked by steam, and forced to retreat with the use of fire, therefore also making it the only monster that the player can actually drive away, albeit temporarily.

Speed

The Hunter relies more on cornering the player or catching them off-guard when it emerges from an egg sac or vent. In a straight chase, The Hunter is only capable of a moderately-quick run, allowing the player to easily outrun it. Like the other two monsters, The Hunter has no trouble traversing the cargo hold, and can easily climb up through the holes.

Intelligence

The Hunter's intelligence appears to be above average, as it always seems to know the general area that the player is hiding in (based on the fact that it is "moving" constantly through the vents, following them), and will linger in an individual room it thinks the player is in for just as long - if not longer than - The Fiend. The Hunter also checks hiding places with equal or greater accuracy than The Fiend. When the player is hiding in a more open area, the Hunter will only linger for about as long as it would in a room before eventually giving up and returning to the vents. While The Hunter lacks the strength to open power-locked doors, it can eventually enter rooms behind such doors by dropping in from a vent in the ceilings of such rooms, bypassing power-locked doors completely and further showing its knowledge of the vent system of the ship.

Stealth, Hunting Tactics, and Asexual Reproduction

The Hunter climbing over the side of the ship.

The Hunter's transparent skin makes it hard to see, especially in poorly-lit areas, allowing its skeleton to blend in with the darkness as it closes the distance between it and its prey.

The most uncanny ability the Hunter possesses is that it is effectively always "near" the player when it is not roaming on foot. For example, if the player has just escaped a chase with The Hunter on one side of the ship, then quickly ran all the way to the other and made a loud noise or set off an alarm, the Hunter would exit out of a vent or crawl over a railing on the side of the ship as if it had somehow gotten there ahead of them. The Hunter makes even less noise when it ambushes the player by climbing over the sides of the ship.

The Hunter also has the ability to spawn egg sacs that it can suddenly burst out of when the player comes within a certain distance of them, or if they set one of the egg sacs off with an item. These egg sacs can form on the floors, walls, and ceilings of hallways, as well as on the outskirts of the ship on the Main Deck. Such formations may appear or disappear as quick as it takes the player to enter and come back out of a room, which can be shocking. The cargo hold is special in that it has egg sacs that never disappear, meaning that the player should proceed through that area with more caution.

Monstrum Tips

Detecting The Hunter

Because of The Hunter's ability to move through the vents, detecting it revolves around listening for the sounds it makes when it emerges:

  • The earliest indication the player may have of The Hunter is the presence of egg sacs, which only spawn if The Hunter is the active monster. Egg sacs are harmless on their own, but triggering one will cause The Hunter to emerge from them. As the creature may pop out of them at any time, it is recommended that the player find some other way around them if possible, unless they are sure that they can run or hide safely when The Hunter appears. When egg sacs that appear outside of the cargo hold vanish, it means that The Hunter is roaming around and stalking its prey on foot. On the other hand, seeing egg sacs after a chase means that The Hunter is no longer roaming on foot and has returned to the vents.
  • The Hunter's footsteps gives off wet, slapping sounds. As with The Brute, a skilled player who listens carefully enough will be able to judge where The Hunter is based on the loudness of the footsteps and which direction they are coming from.
  • The Hunter occasionally makes various screeching sounds when roaming around, possibly due to being randomly hit by steam. A skilled player can also use this to gauge The Hunter's approximate whereabouts.

Evading The Hunter

The Hunter emerging from an egg sac.
  • It is recommended to close and lock doors when possible while being chased by The Hunter and are attempting to hide in a room. This will buy the player a few extra precious seconds as it rips the door down. Otherwise, it is almost always better to keep running, since The Hunter is too slow to catch up to the player.
  • Avoiding cameras is particularly important when facing The Hunter, as unlike The Brute or The Fiend, who must travel to the source of the sound, an alarm will cause The Hunter to almost immediately emerge from a nearby vent or egg sac in the area, which gives the player much less time to hide or flee.
  • The Hunter's transparent skin makes it hard to see in dark places, therefore, it is recommended to use a light source when entering poorly-lit areas, especially when one is sure of its presence. On the other hand, it is advisable to conserve the battery of flashlight as much as possible when the player is sure that The Hunter is roaming on foot but still a safe distance away (and thus has even less chances of suddenly popping up in front of the player).
  • If the Hunter spots the player after just crawling from a vent, it will stay in place for about five seconds before chasing them, giving the player ample time to recover from their initial shock and get away.
  • Once it came out of a specific vent, the Hunter will no longer be able to emerge from that same vent. Thus, purposely provoking The Hunter to pop out of certain vents near important areas may be a viable strategy if the player is skilled enough to take on the risks.
  • The Hunter is the only monster that cannot open power-locked doors. The player can, therefore, stay behind a power-locked door while The Hunter is left pointlessly screeching and scratching at the outside of the door (provided that it knows that the player is behind the door). This does not guarantee safety from The Hunter, however. Eventually, The Hunter will walk away, then enter the room behind the power-locked door via a vent in the ceiling, so it is best not to linger for too long in such rooms.
  • The Hunter can be affected by every form of defense in the game, making it the most vulnerable of the three monsters in Monstrum. The player can briefly halt its advance with flares, fire extinguishers, steam, and pit traps. It can also be outright temporarily forced to retreat when attacked with fire, making it the only monster that the player can actually drive away.
  • Hiding is the best way to ward off The Hunter, as, after a failed attempt to find the player, it will immediately return to a vent as opposed to continuing to wander around on foot.
  • Were it not for its stealth, The Hunter can be considered "jack of all trades, master of none", since its strength, speed, and intelligence are all on a moderate level. The Fiend is able to compensate for its slow speed and low physical strength with its long attack range and its great number of special abilities, while The Brute makes up for its low intelligence by being as fast as (but not faster than) the player as well as being the strongest, allowing it to disregard every form of barricade in the game as well as ignore some things that the player can use for self-defense, like flares and fire.
  • Because of the reasons listed above, The Hunter may be considered the easiest monster to defeat and escape when played against, as it is the only one that doesn't have a static presence within the game, is far slower than The Brute in a chase, and has no other abilities for catching up with or hindering the player as The Fiend does. Hence, if the player is prepared at all times to be ambushed by The Hunter (provided that they are reasonable and not too paranoid about it), they can eventually get over their initial shock and reliably beat The Hunter every time.

Trivia

  • Team Junkfish stated that Hunter's behavior and looks were inspired by the Xenomorph from Alien, the Chryssalid from XCOM, as well as various insects and spiders.[2] They also consider The Hunter as female.[1]
  • The Hunter's flared-out jaws also slightly resemble the mandibles of the Predator, a technologically-advanced extraterrestrial hunter often considered as the archenemy of the Xenomorph, as well as the Predalien, a Xenomorph that inherited the genes and features of a Predator host.
  • The Hunter was originally supposed to follow a scent trail that the player would leave, and the player's scent would strengthen the longer they stayed in one area, however this was never implemented (though the concept was eventually carried over to The Bhagra, which could be seen as The Hunter's successor).
  • Another unimplemented concept for The Hunter was that it was planned to have a strange attraction to electricity, which meant that it would presumably "gravitate" towards areas or rooms that were powered. In the final game, its reaction to anything electrical being used (such as the TV in the Mess Hall) is no different from the other two monsters, though its response may appear more immediate because of the way it emerges from vents or egg sacs.
  • One last unused idea was that The Hunter was meant to be the only monster that cannot open doors. In the final game, The Hunter can open doors just like any other monster, but it has no means to directly get past power-locked doors, unlike The Brute, which can simply break the door down, or The Fiend, which can unlock the door with just its mind. The Hunter can still bypass power-locked doors, however, by entering the room behind the door through a vent in the room's ceiling.
  • On the 21st of December 2020, Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals released its first DLC bonus pack, featuring elements and creatures from Monstrum, including The Brute, The Fiend, and a nightmare (level) manifesting in the form of the Hisa Maru, which has steam, cameras, and even a helicopter that drops a crate with four enhanced versions of The Brute on the ship's helipad. This leaves The Hunter as one of the few entities from Monstrum that is not present in the crossover, as, while the actual player character in Monstrum does not make an appearance, they are still represented in the form of the Russian prisoner Borisov, who is equipped with a freezing fire extinguisher to slow down enemies for ten seconds when using his ultimate ability, "Cool Down".
  • By extension, The Hunter is the only monster in the series (not counting unused ones like Sparky) that never became playable.

Gallery

Death Animations

Images

GIFs

Audio

References

Monsters
The BruteThe HunterThe FiendThe BhagraThe Malacosm
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