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Quick guide to BH hunting

Since I did not see anything about BH hunting in the eDutch media I decided to share some lessons I learned about it. Perhaps I miss a point here or there, so feel free to add or criticize. I write this from my own D1 perspective, so perhaps there are things going on in other divs that im not aware of. In any case the math is different.
First of all, I notice there are different opinions about the game called ‘BH Hunting’. There are even some ethics involved that some people understand better than others. The unwritten rules of the game, so to say. The BH hunting im writing about here is for reasons of fun and profitability and NOT for national pride.

Lets start with why to go BH Hunting?

1) Its exciting and fun.
2) It can be extremely profitable.

Now the more tricky part is how to successfully go BH hunting. I want to make a clear distinction between doing insane amounts of damage and kills and grabbing the BH for fun or for pride, or 'actual EFFICIENT BH hunting'. The first version is easy, just put a brick on your hitbutton and go for coffee. Its the latter im trying to describe here. :

1) Spotting the right battle

Spotting the right battle is the first step. If you browse down the list of active battles, you can look for indications that a battle may be suitable for your purposes. You want to look for a battle that has relatively low total end-damage, so you can get the BH for cheap. Indicators for this are:

-Time of the day: certain time-zones are calmer than others.
-Can you fight there without travelling?
-Which countries does it involve, small countries tend to have lower damage battles, although there are other factors.
-Is it a RW. Because of no-MPP’s RW’s tend to have cheaper BH’s than MPP battles. In case of a RW, is it going to be won or lost? If it’s smells like a win, it may attract FF hunters that come to do silly amounts of kills for their medal, and thwart your plan to get away with it cheaply.
-Are there MPP’s active (and on which side). The fewer the better.
-Is it perhaps a treaty region, rent-deal or land-swap? Low damage guaranteed, so do your home-work
-Is the campaign close (if its 64-64 the damage tends to be higher than if it’s 2-75)
-Are there any CO’s active? Battles with CO’s will have damage to much higher than the BH you want to achieve. CO’s are a clear promise at least one of the sides is serious about winning, for BH hunting you don’t want that. You want low profile battles.
-How long has the round been running? If it is 10 minutes it is impossible to make a reliable prediction if the damage you want to allocate is going to be enough. Personally, I look for battles that are over 1 hour old.

Did you spot the right battle? Now lets have a closer look at this one you chose, you will look for more clues and investigate the ethical side of this hunt:

- Check what is currently the top damage. Is it clearly lower than 1.2 million, that means people are not yet claiming the cap. If it is, its also a confirmation that you indeed have a low profile battle at hand. Is it already at 3.5 million? You can still look for a different battle, as from an economical perspective this one doesn’t fit your purposes.
- Who holds the top spot currently?
o Is he/she much stronger than you? Be careful
o Does he/she have a lof of BH caps in their profile? Be careful
o Did he/she do 12 or 95 kills to get where they are? People that did 95 kills to get to 1 million are usually not a threat, people that did 6 kills and park at 1.2 million are…
o Is he/she online? (perhaps watching the battle?)
o Is he/she still in the region?
- How is the rest of the top five composed? (similar indications)
- How did the previous battles end? What damage was dealt? This indicates how important the battle is.
- Who won previous BH’s? Are there any known BH hunters in the list? (perhaps still around)?
- Is a countryman or friend sitting on the BH? Consider this carefully if you want to pursue.

Try to figure out what is the ‘price of a BH’ in your time-zone. Currently in D1 they go for around 2.0 million damage. If you can do that with normal FF you may have a shot. Do you need to spend EB’s, better not try it. Part of this game is psychological, and the feeble will be exposed. If you considered all of the points I describes above, you may have found a battle that is suitable for your purposes. The sport is now to get the BH as cheaply as possible. But there’s a catch. If you go for cheap, you MAY attract competition. If you throw in too much damage, you may use more damage (weapons, XP) than needed. This is a fun game, and the key to winning or losing.

2) Laying a claim

Successful BH hunting is actually NOT a matter of throwing in your max damage and simply taking the BH, it´s about a search for the minimum damage you can get away with without attracting competition. In order to do this you need to VISIBLY CLAIM the BH, beforehand. This means turning around loads of the points I mentioned above. You will want to psyche out a potential other hunter. Because they WILL see what your current damage is. They WILL see how much kills you had to do, and if you have FF left. They WILL check your profile page to see your strength and the number of BH’s you already have. If you have 5k strength and 2 achievements they WILL take your BH. If you have 50k Strength and 325 previous BH’s they WILL think twice. And that’s what you want.

Scaring away a potential competitor is more important than the actual winning. Because in this stage you are actually winning or losing already.

So, show that you are serious about the BH, that you are capable of taking it and that they will have to rip it from your cold dead hands if they want a smell of the medal:

- BE actually strong (follow my other advice)
- The more previous BH’s in your profile the better
- Write a BH related war-slogan in your profile that will be checked. Something scary.
- Or post links to screenshots of previous BH’s that clearly show the insane amount of damage you were prepared to do to defend your claim.
- Be online (green circle next to your profile name)
- Be in a region that allows you to fight there.
- Do a minimal yet serious amount of kills to get to claim-level damage. Lets say 1.5 or 2.0 million. In order to do this you should use Guerilla Fights as it can double your damage. If you have 10-20 kills in the list it shows more serious than if you did 100 kills. The more kills you did, the more change for competition, because it signals WEAKNESS.
- APPEAR strong, make sure your health bar is full, when you sit it out. If its empty, people on the battlefield may think that you ran out and get tempted to have a go. If its full, only the foolish will try to pass you.

3) Finishing off

- Under normal circumstances you already won the BH in the previous stage. However it is always possible that somebody pops up to mess up your plans. Quite often they are no professional BH hunters anymore, you scared them off in the previous stage, but rogue fighters, young players with too many zooka’s, with local CS and a cause to fight for, a leftover bomb. Generally people that don’t understand the value of XP. (Professional hunters do, so they will calculate their chances). Keep an eye on the battle and look out for unusual activity. In the new battle page you can nicely see who’s popping in and shooting. See somebody? Quickly check their profile if they are a threat or not. If they are a potential threat:
- throw in extra damage to show that you are serious.
- send them a message politely asking if they lost their mind
- An interesting chess game can evolve around the wall. If you can, find the spot on the bar where they can’t top your damage without pushing the wall.

If you did all of the above succesfully you have a good chance that you won the 2 gold at a cost of around 100cc (guerilla items and weapons). This means a profit of 300cc for 15 minutes of fighting. And you had fun in the process!

I think I covered a considerable amount of aspect to BH hunting. If I think of something Ill add it. If you think I missed something, let me know!
Have fun hunting!