Manhunting: Part 2 - Hats, Belt and Pistol Gear (Patreon)

We looked at the first half of the Manhunter's gear drops last time and explored two pieces of exciting gear that really changed the game in a bunch of different ways - be it during the hunt phase, through allowing survivors to cheat death or even by creating a powerful innovation that helped fix injuries that normally would cause survivors to retire.

The remaining three items are just as exciting and game changing, with continuing this escalating impact on survivor builds with a climax of an incredible pair of game changers.

However, before we get there we need to make sure we are well dressed and looking sharp thanks to the only gear card that the Manhunter doesn't drop as a reward. It's time to inspect the Pilgrim Hat that keeps the Manhunter's head dry and warm as they trek across the darkness in search of victims to abduct.

Manhunter's Hat

So, things have not been clear for a while in respect to the rules of the Manhunter's Hat because it has been stated by APG to have been designed with the Set ability but it lost it in the printing. That means the accessory was intended to allow players to use it to complete Rawhide or Leather sets with an alternative piece of head gear. Something that makes a lot of sense.

However, playing with it that way should still be looked on as a 'semi-official' house rule, because repeated requests to APG from multiple different people, in order to get the correct situation clarified have met with static or ghosting (not a uncommon occurrence when trying to get clarification about the various rules inconsistencies and a source of consistent frustration for the content creators in the KDM sphere). 

If you do run with the semi-official house rule then this item boosts up in power a great deal because it has funky interactions with the Leather and Vagabond sets - allowing you to complete both of those sets (Vagabond didn't exist when the Manhunter's Hat was created) and that is quite a considerable spike in power that no-one could have imagined would have happened.

Outside of the Vagabond/Leather interaction, this is an excellent piece of gear for any survivor. It is particularly strong for survivors who don't typically have their head covered (pure Vagabond, Rolling Armor) and has a neat interaction with the Green Armor helmet.

Because the Manhunter's Hat ignores the first severe injury to the head, you can wear it with the Green Helm (I guess you perch it on top of the horn? I'd love to see that sculpt) and then it means you can take more head hits with confidence that losing armor isn't as punishing due to that that amazing 'ignore the first severe head injury' abiliy.

I absolutely adore the flavour of this ability by the way, it represents the hat flying off your head instead of taking a 'headshot' in the classic western style and is another sweet reference to the trope of a character losing their hat instead of their head during a hard fight. Have I mentioned how GOOD, like REALLY GOOD the Manhunter expansion is? If the showdown fight was just a bit stronger in design this expansion would be perfect.

Also, as a quick aside, why on earth doesn't APG put out more hybrid armor sets as white box promos? Hybrid armor sets are one of the best ways to refresh and make previously ignored pieces of gear exciting. 

Now the tricky part of this item is how to get it, you can only get it from a critical wound to the Manhunter's head location and you need to swoop it up and jam it on your head right at that moment in order to take it home. So you want to ensure that your critical wound based luck attackers have a free slot if you intend to try and get this unique piece of head gear. You know you want it, it'll let you look just like that icon of fashion; Victor Saltzpyre.

Before we move on, here's one of the greatest hat scenes in movie history, it is from For a Few Dollars More and it is the point of confrontation between Colonel Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) and "The Man with No Name" (Clint Eastwood). 

Tool Belt

Gained by slaying the L3 Manhunter, this item has facilitated so many different tool based builds that at this point it's become almost a meme. The Tool Belt, in addition to having a decent introductory story event, is one of the strongest 'build around' items in the game with only one downside - tools have no weapon proficiency due to them not being tools. 

(These are the 1.31 versions, the newer versions do not have Frail, but I wanted to show why the Tool Belt references Frail in its text).

Which tool you choose to use is a matter of personal preference, personally I prefer the Bone Pickaxe because it goes up to a reasonable (2/5+/2/Sharp) rather than (3/5+/1/Sharp), but it is very close between them both and high strength survivors will prefer to lean on the Sickle.

In addition the belt has some neat synergies with other items that have downsides if you use weapons, most notable is the Shadow Saliva Shawl from the Sunstalker.

In combination with the Tool Belt this lets you hit +6 evasion just from two gear items with only the limitation that you can't equip heavy, soluble, shield gear or gear with 3+ armor points on it. Turns out that's not a major issue when you get this much evasion from two items (and also have access to Cycloid Scale Armor if you want it) - also it works with Crystal Skin survivors, whee, now diamond is unbreakable.

Deathpact

Gained from the L4 Manhunter. Yes this monster goes to L4. This item gives you a single shot which functions just like a founding stone, but you can't reload it because your survivors are not from the Holy Lands and haven't discovered gunpowder the same way that the Manhunter's master has.

The super powerful part of this is the gaining of 1 survival every single act, that's a massive amount of survival and it's used to fuel some really crazy builds. The classic combo is to combine this with the Silk Boots:

And the Immortal disorder or the Phoenix Plackart:

You can also throw in a Gloom Katana (see here) or Xmaxe (see here) both of which appreciate the insanity gains because they convert them straight into strength - you can also use this to fuel the Raptor-Worm Collar from the Slenderman as a part of the entire suite. 

Basically, when you can gain +1 survival every single turn, there's a load you can do, and while the God Mask is better overall, it is harder to get and harder to activate.

Which would win? Cool looking mask of a god or neat pistol with a lion on the hilt? BANG BANG!

So yeah, it's pretty darn amazing that the Manhunter expansion can manage to pack so many interesting and unique items into a meager 5 cards, but this is a great example of why quality matters over quantity. The Spidicules expansion (for example) is stuffed full of gear cards that are just inferior versions of other cards and you end up hunting after just a few select items for key strategies, there's a similar issue with the White Lion. People, when given the choice of what to spend their hard earned resources on will naturally pick the best gear because that is what lets them get more good gear later on. Having a roster of just 5 incredible items, each one of which doesn't even require crafting, makes for a golden experience for the players and this expansion is a wonderful tribute to the wrestler who inspired it with his incredible 30 year career; The Phenom.