HELP! I DID NOT REACH THE NUCLEAR THRONE AND IT'S ALL LIL' HUNTER'S FAULT!

That's understandable. I mean, Lil' Hunter's been nerfed a gorillion times since his revamp seven months ago and you're a pretty big scrub for still having trouble with a boss that has less health than a Palace Dog but it's still understandable. He is, after all, one of the more challenging bosses in the game that requires even experienced players to be on high alert.

So let's get right down to it and start analyzing how to take on this fucker.

>WHY DO I KEEP DYING TO LIL' HUNTER?

The reason you die to Lil' Hunter is the same reason you die in any other way: you panic, you rush into danger, you have bad positioning, you're tunnel visioning for pickups, you're tunnel visioning on one enemy, et cetera. Remember: Lil' Hunter only has 140 health. That's only forty more health than Big Bandit.

So what makes this boss in particular so difficult? It's because up until this point, no other boss plays like Lil' Hunter forces you to play. Big Bandit is, well, he's Big Bandit. He has two attacks and falls to a slight breeze. Big Dog is sedentary in a huge, open area until you activate him and even then he's slow, his attacks are slow, his bullets are slow, and it's very easy to dodge anything he throws at you, especially given the high pickup rate from his missles. Both of these bosses don't require you to rush them; you can take as long as you want to pump enough lead into them to advance.

So what makes Lil' Hunter different?

There's two reasons that Lil' Hunter is the most common roadblock for newer players. First, Frozen City is tough. It's unlikely you're going to go into the fight at full health. There's the ever-unpredictable Snowbot who just seem to have the most random attack patterns, there's exploding cars, there's exploding tanks, there's exploding high velocity cars. Upon entering 5-3, eleven seconds will go by until Lil' Hunter comes in, so whether you're ready or not it's time to throw down.

The second and more important reason for Lil' Hunter's perceived difficulty is that his attacks directly punish passive play. Let's take a step back and look at Lil' Hunter's arsenal for a second.

>BOUNCER SHOT

Lil' Hunter has four attacks that he will use against you, and this is his most unique attack. Lil' Hunter fires a wide spray of bouncer bullets that can ricochet off of walls and will fizzle after they've bounced a few times. This attack is actually very easy to dodge if you're playing versus him correctly, since the bullets will usually fizzle before they get anywhere near you.

>SNIPER SHOT

Lil' Hunter fires a rapid volley that forms long lines of bullets. This attack is only used if you get too far away from him, and there's an audio cue that plays when he fires it. If you're stuck in a bad position, this attack can seriously screw you over, but as long as you're using cover this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

>JETPACK LANDING

I can't think of a better name for this, but he flies up and attempts to land on top of you in a location marked by a shadow, spewing flames in all directions and destroying tiles upon landing. This attack is what I'm referring to when I say that he punishes slow play. If you're pussyfooting around too much, too scared to peek out of cover because you can't get a clear shot on him, Lil' Hunter will make it his personal goal to destroy the cover you're using. The flames have a very large radius as well, so watch out for that shadow. If it's too chaotic to check for the shadow, he can't land on you if you keep moving, so just keep yourself on high alert and be prepared to fire or take cover as soon as he lands.

>IDPD CALL

As an ex-IDPD member, Lil' Hunter has the ability to call for backup (shut the fuck up lorefags) and call in IDPD to assist him in tearing you apart. This is, in my opinion, THE most dangerous attack, because IDPD can quickly overwhelm you and fuck with your positioning. Remember: Unlike any other enemy in the game, IDPD members will fire at you no matter how close you are to them (Regular enemies won't fire bullets at you if you're right next to them. IDPD don't care). This is his biggest way of punishing of passive play because IDPD WILL fuck you up if you let too many of them come in.

>UPON DEATH: ALLAHU AKBAR

Upon death, Lil' Hunter loses control of his jetpack and starts spiraling out of control, bouncing off of walls and dealing contact damage until he meets his explosive demise. That's right, just like Big Dog, Lil' Hunter can kill you even when you thought you were finally done with his bullshit. The amount of time he actually spends in this state seems to be either random or bugged; most of the time it's only a few seconds, but in rare cases he can spend quite a while spiraling around an area.

Now let's look at countering all of these attacks. First thing's first, we need to clear an area. Remember, we're only given eleven seconds until Lil' Hunter spawns, so take this grace period as an opportunity to clear out as many enemies as you can. My personal recommendation is to destroy all nearby cars first because cars can ruin your positioning, whether it's because a Snowbot decided to bench press with one or because you can't move into it or a stray bullet will blow it up. When Lil' Hunter spawns – you'll know when he's about to spawn from that audio cue – back up into whatever area you've cleared out to deal with him. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO KILL EVERY ENEMY IN THE LEVEL AND THEN DEAL WITH LIL' HUNTER. Don't rush it. Those Snowtanks aren't going anywhere. Just focus on Lil' Hunter and his cops for now.

Frozen City has plenty of corridors and wide-open areas, meaning that you'll have plenty of cover to hide behind and take potshots at Lil' Hunter. Try to keep him on the screen. If you stray too far, he'll unload that Sniper attack or you'll be too far away to deal with the IDPD.

Alright, now onto the individual attacks and how to deal with them.

>BOUNCER SHOT AND SNIPER SHOT

I'm putting these two together because they're fairly easy to deal with. Bouncer bullets fizzle after they've bounced off of walls a few times, and from how many alleyways and tight spaces Frozen City has, it actually isn't that threatening. You can virtually ignore this attack. Sniper Shot, on the other hand, can be avoided by simply making a mad dash for the nearest piece of cover you can find should you be put into a position where Lil' Hunter uses this attack in the first place.

>JETPACK LANDING

When Lil' Hunter flies up, try to bait him to land into a place where you can get a clear shot on him, and watch out for his shadow. Don't just sit there behind a wall when he flies up; stray tiles can be a life saver in this fight, and if he destroys them it could be game over.

>IDPD CALL

Something you should know about this attack: Lil' Hunter can't attack you while IDPD are being called. That does not mean you should unload everything you've got the second you hear those police sirens, because he's free to fire immediately after the IDPD call ends and there isn't a cooldown or anything. So, if you've been taking potshots from behind cover, now's the time to get some easy shots on him. Just remember that the IDPD are a massive threat as well, so take them out as soon as you can or they'll destroy cover with their area denial and stupidly-large grenade explosive radius. Do not tunnelvision on Lil' Hunter if there's IDPD afoot. Take them out first if you can.

>I'M SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL!

It's hard to give one direct answer on how to deal with his final attack. Sometimes he'll start spiraling away from you, and other times he'll fly directly toward you. He bounces off of the walls in a circular pattern, which can make it quite difficult to predict how he's going to land. Just keep as far away as possible until you hear him die – that's unfortunately all I can tell you.

>BONUS SECTION: WHAT MUTATIONS, WEAPONS, CHARACTER IS BEST FOR DEALING WITH LIL' HUNTER?

It's really what you're most comfortable with. Seriously. Every character is specialized in a way to make dealing with Lil' Hunter a breeze if you can do it correctly, whether it's using Portal Strike to blast a hole in the wall and create some cover for yourself, rolling from one wall of cover to the next, deflecting bullets with your shield, using corpse explosions to clear away bullets, locking down IDPD with a snare, or simply shitting out raw damage with a single POP POP shot, as long as you know how your character plays you will be fine with this boss. As for mutations, again, it's whatever you're comfortable with. Boiling Veins and Hammerhead can give you some leeway in ensuring his upon-death attack won't kill you or creating cover for yourself, but neither is necessary to deal with this boss, not by a long shot.

>CONCLUSION