Top Support Gear in the Game: Part 5 - He's a Manhunter make you work hard (Patreon)

A couple of the Manhunter items have made it onto the list this week.  The Manhunter is a source of great stuff, just about every single item is useful in one manner or another.

Reverberating Lantern – Manhunter

This is the reward for beating the level 1 Manhunter and it's one of the most useful hunt items in the game outside of those that give you direct bonuses during hunts (whips for example) or those that directly create special hunt events (Sky Lure, Bone Sickle, Bone Pickaxe).  The power of the Reverberating Lantern was something we discussed in the recent Manhunter podcast - but in short the main potency it has is in repairing survival either after overwhelming darkness (if someone has completely run out) or giving survival/insanity just before the showdown.  

Even more impressive is the way the Sonorous Rest (the event) is set up, you can choose when to activate it rather than having to set it up on the board at the start of the hunt (like the special hunt events). Therefore it gives a greater level of flexibility than any other hunt item we have so far.  And this is without considering the two bonus rolls you get from the event if you have the relevant innovations.

And on top of that, you get 2 useful affinities, so the item still contributes when you are in the showdown with passive activations!

Sickle – Bone Smith

I feel that the Sickle does not get enough love, while statistically it is not as good as the Pickaxe (DBK, Mineral Gathering and statline on the Pickaxe are better, especially when combined with the Tool Belt), but having a single Sickle in a hunt party is an incredibly useful, both for bonuses to terrain and for the hunt event.  If you want more details on how to handle the hunt event, I wrote about it here.

1.5 removed Frail from the sickle, which is a minor buff, but honestly it wasn't required.

Digging Claws – DBK

This one is very simple, the reroll on mineral gathering event, combined with the fact that the Digging Claws count as a pickaxe, is huge thing.  I've already mentioned the Digging Claws as being the best Katar in the game, so to see it appear on the best support items just cements how powerful this item is. It's so good that I use digging claws for my 2nd, 3rd and 4th Pickaxes when I am on the Iron hunting part of my campaign.

Deathpact – Manhunter

I often read comments from people talking about this weapon as being 'a slightly better founding stone'. It's not, Deathpact is one of the most ridiculously powerful support items in the game in survival intensive builds.  This item effectively gives you a free survival action every single turn, this survival can be used in a whole load of different ways, spending to gain insanity to keep the Phoenix Placart active, surging every turn and so on.  It's very powerful and the right facing red affinity is useful in a lot of late game builds.

Blue Ring - Spidicules

This one only sits this low on the list because of how awkward it is to activate. However, on a tank (especially when combined with a Gloom Hammer DPS) the blue ring can reduce the amount of damage the hunt party takes by a huge amount.  AI control is a massive amount of damage mitigation, but it is hard to measure.  On the whole I like this item on Trappers, because they're looking to have a lot of blue affinities anyway and this gives you three blue affinity slots to create and a powerful bonus when you do.

However, without AI manipulation, the ring only works 1 out of 4 turns, less if you play with 5+ survivors.