Hunt Showdown Clue Routing: Reading the Map by Sound

What clues give you

Three clues identify the lair. Each one requires an interaction that takes a moment, and during that moment you are stationary and exposed. That trade is worth making because a lair you know is a fight you can choose. The cost is time and noise, and both are manageable if you plan the order.

Routing rules

Pick clues that form a line, not a zigzag. Two clues near each other and a third in the direction of the lair is a route. Three clues on opposite sides of the map is a tour of every dangerous place at once. Approach from the quiet side. Clues sit in compounds, and compounds have approaches with animals and approaches without. The sound trap page covers how to read which is which. Leave after interacting. Standing at a clue is the worst possible post. Move immediately, because the interaction sound has a radius and someone may already be walking toward it. Do not clear the compound for a clue. You came for one object. Fighting the AI in a compound you do not intend to hold spends health you need for the lair.

The information you are giving away

Clue interactions are audible, and experienced players treat a clue sound as a location ping. So a squad that takes three clues quickly is a squad that has told the server where it is heading — which is exactly the same problem the banish creates, just earlier. The counter is to vary the route. If you always take the nearest clue, you always move the same way, and a player who knows that will meet you there.

After the third clue

You know the lair. The decision at that point — go in, wait, or leave — is the one covered in the boss timing page. Deciding it before you arrive is the difference between arriving with a plan and arriving with a problem. If another team arrives first, that is an opportunity rather than a setback: they will kill the boss and start a banish, which tells you exactly where they are and roughly how long you have. The bounty clash page covers the mode built entirely around that situation.