Hunt: Showdown Shop Guide for Beginners

8/11/2025

A Glimpse into the Bayou's Economy: How the Hunt: Showdown Shop Works for New Players

Diving into the bayou of Hunt: Showdown for the first time is an experience, to say the least. It’s a tense, atmospheric, & utterly unforgiving world where death can come from a hidden grunt in a bush or a rival hunter’s bullet from a hundred meters away. You’ll quickly learn that survival is just one part of the game; the other, equally important part is managing your resources & building a hunter that can stand a chance against the horrors that await. That’s where the shop comes in, & honestly, it can be a bit of a maze for new players. So, let’s break it down, piece by piece, so you can focus on what really matters: surviving the hunt.

The Lifeblood of the Bayou: Understanding Hunt's Currencies

Before you can even think about buying that shiny new rifle, you need to understand the different currencies you’ll be dealing with. There are two main ones, with a third that’s specific to your hunters.

Hunt Dollars: Your Everyday Cash

Think of Hunt Dollars as your workhorse currency. You’ll earn these by playing the game – successfully extracting with a bounty, finding cash registers or purses in the world, & looting fallen hunters. You'll use Hunt Dollars for pretty much everything you need to gear up for a match:

Recruiting Hunters: While you get a free hunter after every match, you can also hire more experienced ones with better gear for a price.
Buying Weapons, Tools, & Consumables: This is where the bulk of your Hunt Dollars will go. From basic pistols & shotguns to powerful rifles & an array of traps, decoys, & healing items, you’ll need to spend to get the gear you want.

A word of advice for new players: don't get too attached to your Hunt Dollars. It might seem like a big deal at first, but the game is designed for you to be able to make money relatively easily once you get the hang of things. Worrying too much about your cash flow can lead to hesitant gameplay, which in the world of Hunt, often leads to a quick trip back to the lobby.

Bloodbonds: The Premium Stuff

Bloodbonds are the premium currency in Hunt: Showdown. You can buy them with real money, but you can also earn them in-game through various means:

Weekly Challenges: Completing these will net you a small amount of Bloodbonds.
Dark Tribute: This is a daily reward system that can sometimes give you Bloodbonds.
In-game Loot: You can find purses of Bloodbonds or golden cash registers in the world, though they're rare.
Prestiging: We'll get into this later, but prestiging your account can reward you with a good chunk of Bloodbonds.

So, what are Bloodbonds for? Mostly for the cool stuff:

Legendary Hunters & Weapons: These are cosmetic skins that give your hunters & gear a unique look. We'll dive deeper into these later.
Battle Passes: During events, you can buy a premium battle pass with Bloodbonds to unlock exclusive rewards.
Hunter Slots: If you find yourself running out of space for all your hunters, you can buy more slots with Bloodbonds.

Here’s a pro-tip for new players: try to save up at least 1000 Bloodbonds for the battle pass. They usually cost around that much, & if you play enough, you can often earn back a good portion of what you spent, making it a worthwhile investment.

Upgrade Points: Leveling Up Your Hunters

This isn’t a currency you can spend in the shop, but it’s crucial for your hunters’ development. As your hunters survive matches & gain experience, they’ll earn Upgrade Points. You can then use these points to buy traits, which are powerful passive abilities that can give you a significant edge in a match. You can also use them to restore lost health chunks.

The Path of a Hunter: Progression in Hunt: Showdown

Now that you know what you’ll be spending, let’s talk about how you unlock all the cool gear in the first place. Hunt: Showdown has a few different progression systems that work together.

Bloodline Rank: Your Overall Progress

Your Bloodline Rank is your account’s overall level. As you play matches & earn experience, your Bloodline Rank will increase, from 1 all the way to 100. Each time you level up, you’ll unlock new weapons, tools, consumables, & traits. This is the primary way you’ll gain access to the vast arsenal the game has to offer. Once you hit rank 100, you have a choice: stay at rank 100 & keep all your unlocked gear, or prestige.

Prestiging: Starting Over for a Price

Prestiging is a big decision. When you prestige, your Bloodline Rank resets to 1, you lose all your unlocked gear (except for legendaries), & your Hunt Dollars are wiped. So why would anyone do this? Well, for the rewards. Each time you prestige, you get to choose one of three rewards: a permanent XP boost, a lump sum of Hunt Dollars, or a random legendary skin. Prestiging is also the best way to earn a large amount of Bloodbonds without spending real money. It’s a long-term goal, & for new players, it’s best to focus on getting to Bloodline Rank 100 first.

Weapon Progression: Unlocking Variants

Just because you’ve unlocked a weapon through your Bloodline Rank doesn’t mean you have access to all its versions. Many weapons in Hunt: Showdown have different variants – for example, a rifle might have a version with a scope, a bayonet, or a larger magazine. To unlock these variants, you need to use the base version of the weapon in matches. The more experience you earn with a weapon, the more of its variants you’ll unlock. So, if you have your eye on a specific weapon variant, make sure you’re using its base version as much as possible.

Hunter Progression: Unlocking New Looks

A more recent addition to the game is the Hunter Progression system. This system allows you to unlock new cosmetic skins for your hunters by leveling them up. You start with a roster of "Rookie" hunters. When you get a Rookie hunter to level 50, you unlock their "Survivor" version, which is a more experienced-looking skin. Get that Survivor to level 50, & you unlock the "Veteran" version. It’s a great way to get some cool-looking hunters without spending Bloodbonds.

Navigating the Shop: Your Arsenal Awaits

Okay, you’ve got some Hunt Dollars burning a hole in your pocket, & you’ve unlocked some gear. It’s time to go shopping. The shop is where you’ll buy everything you need for a match, from your primary weapon to your healing items.

Buying Weapons, Tools, & Consumables

The shop is divided into categories: weapons, tools, & consumables. You can browse through each category to see what you’ve unlocked & what’s available for purchase. When you buy an item, it’s added to your inventory. Keep in mind that some items, like weapons, have different ammo types that you can also purchase in the shop. These can drastically change how a weapon performs, so it’s worth experimenting with them.

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Contraband vs. Owned Items

You’ll notice that some of your gear is marked as “Contraband.” These are items that you’ve either found in the world or that came with a free hunter. You can use contraband items just like any other item, but you can’t sell them. If you die with a contraband item, it’s gone for good. Items that you’ve purchased with Hunt Dollars are considered “owned,” & you can sell them back to the shop if you want (though you’ll only get a fraction of what you paid for them).

The Allure of the Legendary: Special Skins for Your Gear

Legendary items are purely cosmetic skins that change the appearance of your weapons & hunters. They offer no gameplay advantage, but they sure do look cool. Here’s how you can get them:

Bloodbonds: This is the most direct way to get the legendary you want. You can browse the legendary store & buy any unlocked skin with Bloodbonds.
DLCs: Many legendary skins are part of paid DLC packs. If you buy a DLC, you’ll get the legendary skins included in that pack.
Prestiging: As we mentioned earlier, you can get a random legendary skin each time you prestige.
Events: In-game events often have their own unique legendary skins that you can earn by participating.

Once you’ve unlocked a legendary weapon skin, you still need to buy the weapon itself with Hunt Dollars. The skin is just a cosmetic overlay. For example, if you unlock a legendary skin for the Caldwell Conversion Pistol, you'll still need to buy the pistol with Hunt Dollars each time you want to use it with that skin. The good news is that it doesn't cost any extra Hunt Dollars to use the legendary version.

Legendary hunters work a bit differently. Once you’ve unlocked a legendary hunter, you can recruit them for a flat fee of 200 Hunt Dollars. They’ll come with three random traits, which can be a nice little bonus.

The Black Market: A Gamble for a Discount

The Black Market is a special section of the shop where you can buy a rotating selection of items at a discount. However, there’s a catch: the items are presented in bundles, & you can only buy the highlighted item. Once you buy it, another random item from the bundle becomes available for purchase. It’s a bit of a gamble, but if you’re lucky, you can get some good deals on legendary skins & other items. The Black Market’s inventory refreshes with major game updates, so it’s worth checking back every now & then to see what’s new.

Tips for New Hunters: Surviving & Thriving

The world of Hunt: Showdown is tough, especially for new players. Here are a few tips to help you get on your feet:

Don’t Get Attached: Your hunters will die. A lot. Don’t get too attached to them or their gear, especially in the beginning. You get a free hunter after every match, so you’ll always have someone to play with.
Master the Melee: Guns are loud & will attract unwanted attention. For killing AI enemies, a knife or the butt of your rifle is often your best bet. It’s quiet & saves you precious ammo.
Stick to a Loadout: The sheer number of weapons in Hunt can be overwhelming. In the beginning, it’s a good idea to stick to one or two loadouts that you’re comfortable with. This will help you learn the ins & outs of those weapons & focus on the other aspects of the game.
Use the Shooting Range: The shooting range is a great place to practice your aim & get a feel for different weapons without the pressure of a real match.
Play Quickplay: Quickplay is a great way to practice your skills & earn some free gear. You go in with a basic hunter & have to scavenge for weapons. If you survive, you get to keep the hunter & their gear.

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The Final Word

The shop & economy of Hunt: Showdown can seem daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a natural part of the game’s loop. The key is to not get bogged down in the details & to focus on learning the core mechanics of the game. The more you play, the more Hunt Dollars you’ll earn, the more gear you’ll unlock, & the more confident you’ll become in the bayou. So, gear up, hunter, & get out there. The bounty is waiting.

I hope this was helpful! Let me know what you think, & I’ll see you in the bayou.