Hunter

''Strong and quick, with a fierce metabolism requiring a steady diet of meat. But the stomach won't be your only concern, as the path of the hunter is one of extreme peril.''

The Hunter serves as the base game's hard mode, and features several changes which make the game significantly more challenging.

For the main Slugcats page, see Slugcat.

Unlocking
The Hunter is not unlocked by default, instead, the player can only access the Hunter after completing either 's or 's campaign.



Food
6 food pips are required to hibernate, while up to 3 may be stored for the next cycle.

Opening
The Hunter does not have an intro cutscene, instead playing a short animation before handing control over to the player. Despite that, their story is the most intertwined with the lore of the world out of the base game Slugcats, as their primary mission is to deliver a green neuron to, who has collapsed due to using too much water from their shared source of groundwater. Another Iterator, No Significant Harassment (NSH), noticed the lack of rain coming from her structure and decided to help by sending a special Green Neuron. This holds several slag reset keys, which, as the name suggests, gets rid of the slag and allows Looks to the Moon to function again if given to her. Being unable to make the delivery themselves due to eroding equipment, No Significant Harassment sent the Hunter to do it for them.



====Food:           ====

Inventory:

 * The Green Neuron in hand.
 * The Aquamarine Pearl in their stomach, which contains a message from No Significant Harassment to Looks to the Moon.
 * A on their back.

Cycles
Unlike every other Slugcat, the Hunter's cycles count down, meaning the player has a limited amount of time to do everything they wish. Cycles decrement upon ing and are limited to 19 upon beginning the game. If the player visits, he rewards the player with 5 extra cycles and acts like an in terms of karma, as opposed to raising it to rank 10. This means that visiting Echoes is required; the player needs to raise their maximum karma four times before passing the s.

At cycle 0 and below, Hunter becomes significantly weaker, suffers seizure-like spasms, and requires more food to survive. The cycle count descends into negative numbers below cycle 0, with each step below zero making the effects of the Hunter's affliction much worse. It is difficult, although not impossible, to survive for some time in negative cycles. Dying or quitting at this point causes the run to immediately end and the final score to be tallied.

Downpour's Remix option enables the player to select how many cycles the Hunter starts with, as well as how many extra cycles Five Pebbles gives to the player.

General Changes

 * Any dead creature can be eaten for food.
 * A second can be stored on their back.
 * Smaller creatures and plants only fill 1/4th of a food pip.
 * s don't spawn, except on a permanent death.
 * Speed, jump height, and damage from Spears are all slightly increased.
 * s can rarely replace normal Spears (1/125 chance).
 * Creatures killed by the player have a higher respawn rate (50% per cycle).
 * Passages do not allow for teleportation.
 * Hunter is more visible to creatures, is louder and gains a smaller stealth bonus when crouching.

Stats
[*] Throwing skill affects velocity and trajectory.

World Changes

 * Predators are more common and more difficult.
 * Unfortunate Development is easier.
 * Fewer appear in the Underhang and.
 * The lower section of is more difficult.
 * Two shelters are unusable:
 * The shelter near the gate in  (HI_S03)
 * The shelter next to a Scavenger cave in (LF_S07).
 * Two fewer appear in the pearl room of  (DS_D01).
 * This means that Hunter only has one room with Bubble Weed, near the Karma Gate in  (SL_D05).
 * Three do not appear in the room left of Subterranean ravine (SB_A09).
 * Nine additional s:
 * Three in Outskirts (one in SU_B02 and two in SU_B09).
 * Six in (two each in SI_C07, SI_D03, and SI_D07).
 * Some s are withered and thus unusable.
 * One extra Popcorn Plant appears in the room left of the ravine in Subterranean (SB_A09).
 * Five additional dead s:
 * Two in Industrial Complex in the room outside the Outskirts Karma Gate (HI_B04).
 * Three in the (now-unusable) shelter next to the cave in Farm Arrays (LF_S07).
 * Albino appear in the water in Subterranean's "Leviathan cave" room (SB_J02).

Trivia

 * No Significant Harassment (NSH), the Iterator who sent Hunter in the first place, is speculated to make an appearance in the ascension ending.


 * Probably due to the same cause that limits Hunter’s time to 20 cycles, upon their final death, their corpse becomes.
 * This can be seen only when playing as if the player has a failed Hunter campaign in the same save slot, at the location of the permadeath.
 * also hints at this.