Hunter

For the evolution of the Hunter, click the Wild Shard.

“He deals BIG damage up close - not so much at range. What he lacks in accuracy, he makes up for with his impressively bushy eyebrows.”

The Hunter is an Epic card that is unlocked from the Hog Mountain (Arena 10). It spawns a single-target, air-targeting, medium-ranged, ground troop with moderate hitpoints and very high damage. The Hunter launches an attack that shoots 10 shotgun pellets that travels in random directions with a widespread range, giving him higher damage the closer he is to the target and lower damage at long range. He resembles a man wearing a brown cloth, gloves, belt, pants and boots, a team-colored shirt and coonskin cap, armed with a double-barreled shotgun, and has fuzzy black eyebrows and mustache covering his eyes and mouth respectively. A Hunter card costs 4 Elixir to deploy.

Strategy[]

For Battle Decks with this card, click here.

The Hunter is able to take care of swarms when placed at a distance, and can quickly damage down high-hitpoint units when placed right next to them, having slightly more damage than a P.E.K.K.A. when all his bullets connect. However, although he has slightly more health than units of identical Elixir cost like the Musketeer, Mega Minion, and the Electro Wizard, he will still be taken down fairly quickly by support troops in a push due to his low range and attack pattern forcing him to be played near the front. Distraction units like Skeletons, Archers, Minions, Bats, Goblins, and Spear Goblins, and mini tanks like the Ice Golem and the Knight complement him very well, buying him considerable time to get his powerful burst shots off for a cheap cost.
The Prince is a hard counter to a lone Hunter, being able to counter it defensively or offensively whether he has his charge attack or not thanks to his health pool, damage, and his melee attack having a longer range than most others, meaning that the Prince will not take much damage after countering him. However, a Hunter paired with Skeletons, Zap, Log, Ice Spirit, or Electro Spirit can fully counter a Prince on the player's side. If Skeletons are used, the Hunter can be deployed closer to the Prince, allowing it to defeat the Prince without taking damage. This makes it stronger on the counterattack.
One on one, he can neutralize a lot of mini tanks and building-targeting units; against a Hog Rider, he will at most only let it hit the Crown Tower once before defeating it. He can usually take three or four hits from a mini tank before being defeated, and he has enough health to survive a single strike from a P.E.K.K.A., provided that the two cards are of the same level.
A lone Hunter can be surrounded with swarm units such as the Skeletons, Goblins, or Bats to counter him, since he can only shoot in one direction at once and has a fairly slow attack speed.
As the Hunter's shotgun shoots multiple projectiles, he can counter troops with shields relatively well, since each bullet is an individual hit. When the shield's health is depleted by some of the bullets, the damage from the rest of the bullets will dig into the unit's actual health.
Ranged units such as the Musketeer, Electro Wizard, Baby Dragon, Executioner, Bowler, Inferno Dragon, Zappies, Goblin Demolisher, Electro Dragon, and Wizard are good counters to the Hunter since they do not get close enough for the Hunter to deal significant damage to them. However, the Hunter will destroy these troops extremely fast if he is deployed right on top of them.
He is a fairly reliable counter to the Graveyard, since he can one-shot the spawned Skeletons with each pellet and can survive an equivalent level Poison spell. However, the varied spawn locations of the Skeletons can cause him to be inconsistent as the spawning order of his bullets is also random, possibly making him miss more of his bullet shots. Additionally, as the spell's duration goes on, he will walk towards the center of the Graveyard and be vulnerable to being surrounded.
He can counter a Goblin Barrel placed on the center of a Crown Tower entirely without any damage if he is placed directly behind the Crown Tower before the barrel lands. However, the timing for this needs to be precise; the Hunter's deploy timer should finish the moment the Goblins stop being pushed out to the sides of the tower. Otherwise, the Hunter may not shoot straight ahead, causing some of his bullets to miss.
An Ice Spirit is sufficient to distract the Hunter long enough for a Cannoneer or Dagger Duchess to finish him off.
The Hunter pairs very well with the Fisherman, as the Fisherman pulls units towards the Hunter, allowing the Hunter to maximize his damage easily. This combo can defeat many singular units on defense, but can be defended with swarms like a Skeleton Army or Minion Horde and units with high enough burst damage, like a Sparky, P.E.K.K.A, Mini P.E.K.K.A, Elite Barbarians, or Three Musketeers.
Though the Hunter is very powerful on defense, he deals little damage towards opposing Crown Towers due to rarely, if ever, getting close to them. However, charging units such as the Battle Ram, Ram Rider, Prince, and Dark Prince can actually push him close to the Crown Tower if placed directly behind the Hunter, though this combo is very impractical at 8 Elixir.
When defending against a Hunter, the player should try not to place their counter too close to the Tower at an angle, as some of the Hunter's bullets could hit a Crown Tower and deal substantial chip damage.
When using a melee troop to defend against a lone Hunter, the player should not place the countering unit directly in front of the Hunter, as his high damage up close can result in the unit taking more damage than necessary. Instead, the melee unit should be placed at a distance so that the Tower has time to chip down the Hunter, and so that the Hunter's first shot is spread out, and deals less damage to the melee unit. However, if the Hunter is already locked onto a Crown Tower, it may be more valuable to place the melee unit directly in front of the Hunter to soak all of the damage.
The Hunter is a good counter to Balloon, if you place him early enough. He will land one full shot which will cripple the Balloon, and the Tower can finish it off. Then you can use the Hunter for a counter-push if you want. However, the Balloon death bomb will damage the tower and possibly the Hunter too. Also, beware of spells that might accompany the Balloon.
The Hunter is a good counter to Lava Hound, as he can quickly burst it down. If placed far back enough, he can also defeat the Lava Pups without any major Tower damage.
The Magic Archer synergizes well with the Hunter. The Hunter is excellent at beating tanks and short range threats to the Magic Archer while the Magic Archer deals a lot of damage to long range threats to the Hunter as well as swarms. However, beware of spells like Lightning that could be used against the duo.
Spells that can knockback the Hunter such as The Log, Fireball, and Giant Snowball can be used against the Hunter to knock him further from his target, dealing less damage with each attack. They can also reset the windup time of his attack. On top of that, the Giant Snowball slows down his already slow attack.
- A Giant Snowball along with the Crown Tower is enough to stop the Hunter on your side. The knockback and slow are enough to prevent him from attacking the Crown Tower before dying.

Statistics

Cost	Hit Speed	First Hit Speed	Speed	Deploy Time	Range	Projectile Range	Projectile Speed	Target	Count	Transport	Type	Rarity
4	2.2 sec	0.7 sec	Medium (60)	1 sec	4	6.5	550	Air & Ground	x1	Ground	Troop	Epic

Level	Hitpoints	Damage	Damage per second
6	553	52 x10 (520)	236
7	608	58 x10 (580)	263
8	667	63 x10 (630)	286
9	733	69 x10 (690)	313
10	806	76 x10 (760)	345
11	885	84 x10 (840)	381
12	972	92 x10 (920)	418
13	1,069	101 x10 (1,010)	459
14	1,172	111 x10 (1,110)	504
15	1,287	122 x10 (1,220)	554

Card Mastery

Type	Level/Tier	Objective	Reward
Damage Dealer	1	Deal a total of 180,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	20 Hunter cards 75
	2	Deal a total of 540,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	6,000 75
	3	Deal a total of 910,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	150 75
Troop Destroyer	1	Destroy 490 enemy Troops	9,000 125
	2	Destroy 1,400 enemy Troops	20 125
	3	Destroy 2,450 enemy Troops	15,000 125

History[]

2017

The Hunter card was added to the game on 12/12/2017, in the Electrifying Update.

2018

On 24/1/2018, a Balance Update, decreased the Hunter's range to 4 tiles (from 5 tiles) and slightly decreased his bullet spread.
On 25/4/2018, the Clan Wars Update, fixed a bug where the Hunter could not hit targets on top of him.
On 20/6/2018, the Summer 2018 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Hunter from Jungle Arena to Goblin Stadium.
On 5/9/2018, the September 2018 Update, changed it so that Epic cards start at Level 6 and end at Level 13 (from 1 to 8).

2019

On 7/10/2019, a Balance Update, increased the Hunter's damage by 2%.
On 26/11/2019, the End of November 2019 Update, added a card render to the Hunter's card info screen.

2021

On 30/3/2021, the 2021 Quarter 1 Update, increased the Hunter's first attack time interval to 1.1 seconds (from 0.7 seconds).
On 7/6/2021, the Summer 2021 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Hunter from Goblin Stadium to Hog Mountain.
On 6/9/2021, the 2021 Quarter 3 Update, decreased the Hunter's first attack time interval to 0.9 seconds (from 1.1 seconds).
On 27/10/2021, the Champions Update, increased the Level cap of all cards to 14 (from 13).

2022

On 3/2/2022, a Balance Update, decreased the Hunter's first attack time interval to 0.8 seconds (from 0.9 seconds).

2023

On 19/6/2023, the Card Evolution Update, increased the Level cap of all cards to 15 (from 14).

2024

On 6/8/2024, a Balance Update, increased the Hunter's hitpoints by 5.5%

2025

On 30/1/2025, a maintenance break, made it so that damage boost from the Rune Giant would be split on Hunter instead of being granted to each of her projectiles.
On 3/3/2025, the March 2025 Update, added the Hunter's Evolution.
On 31/3/2025, the 2025 Quarter 1 Update, increased the Hunter's hitpoints by 0.11%.
On 6/6/2025, a Balance Update, increased the Hunter's first attack time interval to 0.7 seconds (from 0.8 seconds).

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

The Hunter is likely inspired by Shelly from Brawl Stars, another Supercell game. This is referenced a few times:
- During the global release of Brawl Stars celebration, the Hunter was reskinned as Shelly in the Heist mode.
- A Trainer in the Training Camp is called Trainer Shelly and uses the Hunter in their deck.
The Hunter is one of the first troop cards to receive a card render, alongside the Archers, Knight, Goblins, Bomber, Skeletons, Barbarians, Bats, Royal Recruits, Skeleton Barrel, Rascals, Musketeer, Giant, Valkyrie, Wizard, Flying Machine, Hog Rider, Royal Hogs, Dart Goblin, Zappies, Elixir Golem, Baby Dragon, Skeleton Army, Witch, P.E.K.K.A, Prince, Balloon, Giant Skeleton, Goblin Giant, Electro Dragon, Wall Breakers, Bowler, Cannon Cart, Mega Knight, Ram Rider, Miner, Royal Ghost, Ice Wizard, Magic Archer, Bandit, Lava Hound, Night Witch, and Fisherman.
The Hunter is 1 of 4 troops that can deal damage to multiple units with one attack without an area damage radius, the others being Electro Spirit, Electro Dragon, and Electro Wizard.
The Hunter's attack load shares the same sound effects as the Musketeer's deploy sound.
If the Hunter performed his attack right before dying while being cursed by the Mother Witch, it is possible for the Cursed Hog to spawn right inside these bullets, destroying it immediately.
The Hunter is the subject of certain cosmetics in the game. More specifically:
- The Hunter is the subject of 2 Emotes.
- The Hunter is the subject of a Battle Banner item.
The Hunter was featured in the winning deck of the Clash Royale League 2020 Tournament, by a player called Ruben.
The initial balance change for Hunter on the 6/8/2024 balance changes was a 4% hitpoints increase, but it was raised to 5% last minute.
The Hunter was originally going to have a hook mechanic, similarly to the Fisherman. However, the hook mechanic were dropped, which lead to the creation of the Hunter. Ultimately, the Fisherman was added in one of Clash Royale's updates.