Hello, and welcome to this in-depth guide to Hunters of the Dead. Hopefully both beginners and experienced players can find useful information in this guide to help plan their game.
Hunters of the Dead can be a difficult game, and luck plays a factor, but the key to success is the succesful use of your hunters. Organising them well, keeping enough available while others rest, heal or train is necessary to win. This guide will provide many useful tips, tricks and details that should help you organise the best defense against the undead horde.
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As this is the first guide I ever wrote for Steam, feedback is much advised. Please leave a comment, and if you're having more info on anything in the "to do list" I will be glad to hear it aswell!

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The key to organising a proper defense is through managing hunters (see: hunters), targeting the correct buildings to capture (see: buildings) and perform well in combat (see: combat). A basic understanding of HUD and Zones is just as important however.

General HUD Info:


Zoning. What zone you try to take a building in decides combat difficulty and chance. Also used for some quests. This screenshot should give you a bit of an indication how zones work:

bascially all buildings 1 block away from the base (also diagonally) are zone 1, 2 blocks away are zone 2 etc.

Gold can be gained ingame by completing Quests (see: Quests) and during combat (see: Combat). Important to note is that gold is a constant kept throughout all your games, and can be used for permanent upgrades to make the start of a game easier. It can also be used for spells during combat sections. Choose what to use your gold for carefully. A strategy can be to start a game fully focused on goldgathering for actual use in a later game.

You can increase 4 game-start bonusses at the main menu with gold. You need to unlock the bottom before you can move up a tier for each 4, but you can increase all 4 independant from each other.

NOTE: This only affects your initial hunters, not those given from Houses.



You initially start with 200 Base Life. You can gain additional Base Life through main menu upgrades, or ingame by capturing Towers (see: buildings). The only way to loose Base Life is through combat (see: combat). However if Base Life ever reaches 0 it's Game Over.

As you beat the game, you will unlock additional difficulties. Beating normal will unlock hard, and finishing hard will unlock Hell.

NORMAL: Regular Game
HARD: Enemies are more difficult and do more base life damage, increased points gathering from buildings and combat. Quests will give more gold.
HELL: Enemies are even more difficult and do more base life damage, further increased points gathering from buildings and combat. Quests will give even more gold.

The most important of your tools to vanquish Dracula are your hunters. You will start with 1-5 depending on your main menu unlocks, and can gather additional hunters by capturing Houses (see: Buildings).


Level is one of the most important statistics of your hunter, and directly affects all other statistics below it. As your hunters gain experience through Combat (see: Combat) or training (see: buildings) they will become stronger as result. Click the + next to lvl to train. Each levelup requires more experience than the previous to the forumala of current lvl x 100 XP needed to level up.
For example:
Lvl 1 > 2: 100XP
Lvl 2 > 3: 200XP
Lvl 3 > 4: 300XP
Lvl 4 > 5: 400XP
Lvl 5 > 6: 500XP
Etc.

Each levelup grants the hunter the following bonusses:
*15-29 hp
*1 ap (rare: +2 ap)
*1-3 dmg (rare: +4-6 dmg). Note that 1 damage point's actual damage depends on the weapon equipped, as can be seen below in the Weapons section.

Hitpoints are the amount of damage a hunter can take before dying. Each levelup will grant a hunter a higher maximum hitpoint amount. Hitpoints can be regained by healing, done with Hospitals (see: buildings). Click the + next to hp to heal. Note resting does NOT restore hitpoints. Hunters start with 200HP on level 1.

AP or "Action Point" determine how many actions you can do with hunters. Adding hunters to battle will cost 2AP, each move command during combat will drain another 1AP. Hunters having 1AP or less will not appear during combat and *need* to rest before they can appear in combat. Press the + next to AP to rest. If "auto-rest" is set in the options hunters will automatically rest if they have 1AP or less. The resting period depends on the amount of Hunters and Marketplaces (see: buildings). Hunters start with 4AP and gain *atleast* 1AP per level.

The choice of weapon is very important for each hunter. You only have a limited amount of weaponry, though you can acquire more from main menu upgrades or by capturing Weapon Shops on the map (see: buildings). Each specific weapon has their benefits and drawbacks.
Also, each weapon handles "+ damage" gained from levelups differently. In general:
+1 damage on pistols is +1-1
+1 damage on machineguns is +1-1
+1 damage on snipers is +1-1 (or +2-2 for Dylan)
+1 damage on shotguns is +2-2
+1 damage on swords is +3-3 (or +4-4 for Razor)
Although on occassion upgrades may skip segments, or shift one more than the other (say +3-2 or +4-3 for a sword). Usually later levels balance this out by decreasing/increasing the wrong stat.

Pistol

STRONG VS: None
WEAK VS: All
DEFAULT DAMAGE: 18-22
ADDITIONAL DAMAGE PER DAMAGEPOINT: 1-1
DAMAGETYPE: Front only

The standard weapon for all hunters, this weapon isn't especially powerful. Only really powerful one block in advance with damage dropoff further away (shown in orange in the weapon selection screen but not ingame when placing) you do best to find a better weapon as soon as possible.

Damage:
+1 19-23
+2 20-24
+3 21-25
+4 22-26
+5 23-27
etc.

Machinegun

STRONG VS: Liche
WEAK VS: Death Knight, Vampire
DEFAULT DAMAGE: 27-33
ADDITIONAL DAMAGE PER DAMAGEPOINT: 1-1
DAMAGETYPE: Front only

The machinegun is an upgrade to the pistol, doing more damage at a slightly decreased range. It does full damage one block in advance with damage dropoff further away (shown in orange in the weapon selection screen but not ingame when placing).

Damage:
+1 28-34
+2 29-35
+3 30-36
+4 32-38
+5 33-39
etc.

Sniper

STRONG VS: Liche, Skeletons, Multiple enemies on 1 row
WEAK VS: Death Knight, Vampire
DEFAULT DAMAGE: 16-20
ADDITIONAL DAMAGE PER DAMAGEPOINT: 1-1
DAMAGETYPE: Piercing, all enemies in range will get damaged.

A powerful and dangerous weapon the sniperrifle allows hunters to damage enemies before they get into range. This is especially usefull against Liche, who's ranged attack is the same length as the minimum distance for a sniper to attack. It's piercing attack allows the sniper to mow down an entire row single-handedly. However, care has to be taken that enemies do not enter the front 2 blocks infront of the sniper, as they cannot damage enemies there. Vampires usually move too fast for snipers to do much damage. It's advised to have atleast 1 spare AP to move the sniper away if enemies get too close, or move another unit infront of them for protection. A good combination is combining it with a sword to keep all enemies within firing range.

Damage:
+1 -
+2 19-22
+3 20-23
+4 21-24
+5 22-25
etc.

Shotgun

STRONG VS: Multiple enemies on 1 row
WEAK VS: Liche, Vampire
DEFAULT DAMAGE: 27-33
ADDITIONAL DAMAGE PER DAMAGEPOINT: 2-2
DAMAGETYPE: Piercing, all enemies in range will get damaged.

The shotgun does a large amount of damage on short range, outside the Liche reach. The sniper is the only weapon that does damage over more than one row, though one would have to carefully place the shotgunner to have any additional effects from those side-lines than some minor additional damage. The best use of the shotgunner would be on a row with several enemies, with dianagally placed from the sniper hunters that occupy the enemies on spaces the shotgunner can fire upon. The shotgun can also be very effective against Liche (if not on the same row) by placing it diagonally from the hunter that's about to be attacked, placing the shotgunner exactly on the position a Liche stands still to attack. Considering these specific requirements, usually the shotgunner defends a single lane, but truly shines if it can be used for all 3 effectively.

Damage:
+1 28-34
+2 30-36
+3 32-38
- 33-39 (only possible for starting lvl 3 shotgunners)
+4 34-40
+5 36-42
etc.

Sword

STRONG VS: All enemies but Liche
WEAK VS: Liche
DEFAULT DAMAGE: 54-66
ADDITIONAL DAMAGE PER DAMAGEPOINT: 3-3
DAMAGETYPE: Piercing, all enemies in range will get damaged.

The sword is the most powerful weapon in Hunters of the Dead. With only 1 downside; it's limited ranged. As it's a melee combatant it's useless against the Liche unless placed directly infront of it. It's damage makes it useful against all other enemies, although with stronger foes (Death Knight, Vampire) a higher leveled hunter is advised, and you can expect the swordfighter to get damaged. Support with other hunters in these cases is also advised.



Damage:
+1 -
+2 60-72
+3 63-75
+4 66-78
+5 69-81
etc.

Razor (Based on "Blade") is a special unit that can be unlocked through main menu upgrades. He's the final reward of the extra hunters tier.
Razor has 2AP and 100HP more than regular units, but it's best upgrade is his sword, which is more than double so powerful as the regular sword. It cannot be replaced by another weapon.
Razor is useful against all foes bar Liche, unless placed directly infront of them.

Damage - Sword:
Lvl 1:
122-148

Lvl 2:
126-153
130-158
148-176

Lvl 3:
144-171
135-162
140-166
162-189

Lvl 4:
135-162
153-180
158-184
171-198
176-202
189-216

Lvl 5:
148-176
[To-do]


Dylan (based on "Daryl" from The Walking Dead) is a special unit that is granted to you upon finishing the main game, replacing your original hunter.
Dylan has 2AP and 100HP more than regular units, but it's unique component comes from his crossbow. It cannot be replaced by another weapon.
While the crossbow does around twice the damage of a sniper, it doesn't have it's piercing capabilities, making it less effective against populated rows.
Dylan is useful against zombies, skeletons and liche, but will need protection to defend him from Death Knights and Vampires and keep them within his line of fire.

Damage - Crossbow (No-pierce sniper):
Lvl 1:
122-148

Lvl 2:
44-52
45-54
50-58

Lvl 3:
46-56
48-57
50-58
54-63

Lvl 4:
50-58
51-60
52-62
54-63
56-64
57-66
58-68

Lvl 5:
54-63
[To-Do]

Buildings form an important part of Hunters of the Dead. Each capture of a building represents a day, and each building has benefits to the player or heroes upon capturing it. The further away buildings are from the base, the more dangerous capturing them is, both increasing combat difficulty (see: combat) as well as the chance for combat to occur. Capturing buildings also adds points to the player (NOT Gold), according to the following table:



GRAVEYARD, HOSPITAL
Capturing these buildings will upgrade the training and healing rate co-ordetly. Both use the same formula of XP/HP = [amount of days bonus x amount of buildings].Healing or training 6 days will increase xp and hp the most, and this goes up moreso if more buildings are being captured, according to the following table:

Towers
Towers add +50 Base Life.

Gadget Store
Per Gadget Store combat gives +5% to XP, Gold and Points. This helps level your heroes faster and gain precious gold.

Gunstore
A gunstore provides one of 4 weapons (see: weapons) randomly to give to one of your hunters.

Houses
Each house will provide you with a Lvl 1 Hunter (also with the main menu level upgrade, that only counts for your initial hunters), armed with a pistol.

Markets
Markets influence how long it takes for hunters to rest (regain AP).
If you have equal or more markets than hunters, resting takes 1 day.
If you have half the amount of markets compared to hunters (rounded down), resting takes 2 days. For example 5 markets can support 11 hunters. Add a 12th and;
If you have more than twice the amount of Hunters than markets, resting takes 3 days. Hunters can never rest more than 3 days.

HINT: You will start with 2 days rest regardless of Hunters and Markets. Only on the first time you capture a House or Market will the game calculate the proper amount of turns needed to rest. You can use this to your adventage to get a small boost start-game.

You will receive quests as you progress the game. Completing these quests will grant you points and gold, but also makes it more likely for Dracula to appear in a combat sequence. Quests will grow increasingly difficult as you progress through them. The various quests are:

Preservation
These quests require you to not train, rest or heal for a specified amount of days. This includes combat and non-combat days. If you get the rest-quest it's advised to switch off 'auto-rest' in the options for the duration of the quest.

Exploration
These quests require you to reach a specific zones. The first building you capture in the specified zone will complete the quest.

Annihilation
These quests require you to kill enemies during combat. These don't ask you to go out of your way of normal gameplay and are thus the easiest from them all, not requiring any specific planning than what you otherwise would have done to protect the Base.

Immobility
This quest requires you not to move during combat, so after placement of 2AP not to use any AP to move aside. This can be dangerous, as it may cost a Hunter's life, or damage the base if not enough Hunters are around to cover all rows. Take good care if the reward is worth a Hunter's life.

Security
This quest requires you to not let any Base Life damage happen for a certain amount of days. Like extermination, this would regularly be your goal in the game anyway, so doesn't require any deviations. Keep plenty of Hunters available to cover any potential combat situation without losses. Also counts days without combat, assisting in completing the quest.

Acquisition
This quest requires you to gather a specific amount of buildings (see: buildings). Wheter or not this quest is hard to do depends on the random generation of buildings, and thus can be very hard or very easy.

The Elite
One of the most out-of-the-way goals, the Elite requires you to use a maximum of 3 Hunters to finish a specific amount of battles. Easily done on lower zones, higher zones can pose difficulties. Use high-level Hunters and move around in combat to prevent as much Base Life damage as possible if you try to complete this goal.

HINT: Considering only 3 heroes need to be prepared, use this quest to train your other heroes. Do keep in mind potential resting and healing periods.

Completing quests will grant you gold and points according to the following table:

Whatever you do, sooner or later you will find yourself in combat. Check the weapons overview for what units to use during combat.
Enemies will get increasingly difficult based on zones, and additional zones also introduce additional and different enemies.

ZONE 1 > 4 Enemies
ZONE 2 > 5 Enemies
ZONE 3 > 6 Enemies
ZONE 4 > 7 Enemies
ZONE 5 > ? Enemies

Hunters in combat will get Experience (XP) according to kills. Only the final damage done that lead to the kill will give the Hunter full experience. The experience value is also given in gold and points to the player (even if the Hunter has perished).

Dead Hunters will dissapear out of the game, together with their equipped weapon.

Placing a Hunter into battle requires 2AP, these will be consumed upon placement. 1AP may also be used to move the Hunter one space to the side (not diagonally!), for aslong as the Hunter has AP's remaining.

Hard difficulty will give a 50% points bonus during combat, while Hell gives 100% bonus points. This does NOT account into additional XP or Gold.

Gadget Stores (see: buildings) give addional XP and Gold (and per extension points).

Zombie
Melee
[Ingame Desc here]
[Ingame threat values here]
Strong vs: Nothing
Weak vs: All

Zombies aren't too dangerous for Hunters.

Experience/Gold:
Zone 1: 20
Zone 2: 22
Zone 3: 23

Base Life Damage:
Zone 1: 22 HARD: 27 HELL: 40
Zone 2: 24 HARD: 30 HELL: 45
Zone 3: 26 HARD: 32 HELL: 48

Skeleton
Melee
[Ingame Desc here]
[Ingame threat values here]
Strong vs: Low-level heroes
Weak vs: All

A step up from Zombies, Skeletons are a lot tougher, and do significantly more Base Life damage. If a decision has to be made who to kill Skeletons are high on the priority list.

Experience/Gold:
Zone 2: 25
Zone 3: 27
Zone 4: 29

Base Life Damage:
Zone 2: 36 HARD: 45 HELL: 67
Zone 3: 39 HARD: 48 HELL: 72
Zone 4: 42 HARD: 52 HELL: ?

Liche
Ranged
[Ingame Desc here]
[Ingame threat values here]
Strong vs: Sword, Shotgun
Weak vs: Sniper

The only ranged enemy Liches are a significant foe to the strong Swordwielders. Swords and Shotguns need to be placed infront of the Liche or they are killed/need to use AP to move without chance to retaliate. As the maximum range is the same as the minimum range of Snipers, Liche generally are easy pickings for snipers. Liche generously give experience, but if at risk, they should probably be least focused on, doing barely any Base Life damage.

Experience/Gold:
Zone 3: 51
Zone 4: 55
Zone 5: 58

Base Life Damage:
Zone 3: 26 HARD: 32 HELL: 48
Zone 4: 28 HARD: 35 HELL: 52
Zone 5: 30 HARD: 37 HELL: ?

Death Knight
Melee
[Ingame Desc here]
[Ingame threat values here]
Strong vs: Snipers, low-level heroes
Weak vs: Swords

Having a large amount of health, and doing a lot of damage Death Knights are a formiddable foe. If possible use co-operative working Hunters to take them down.

Experience/Gold:
Zone 4: 42
Zone 5: 45

Base Life Damage:
Zone 4: 42 HARD: ? HELL: 78
Zone 5: 45 HARD: 56 HELL: ?

Vampire
Melee
[Ingame Desc here]
[Ingame threat values here]
Strong vs: All, especially Snipers
Weak vs: None

Vampires are the most dangerous foe you will encounter. As dangerous as Death Knights, they also gain a boost of speed, almost entirely nullfying sniperrifles, and severly lessening the use of ranged weaponry. Don't expect to fight Vampires without getting hurt in the process, unless you clear the field with spells.

Experience/Gold:
Zone 5: 50

Base Life Damage:
Zone 5: 45 HARD: 56 HELL: ?

Dracula
Melee
[Ingame Desc here]
[Ingame threat values here]
Strong vs: All
Weak vs: None

Dracula is the ultimate opponent, defeating him wins the game! Defeating him however wont be easy!

Base Life Damge:
SEE [TO-DO]

* Increase your chances to meet Dracula by completing Quests (see: quests)
* Dracula will teleport diagonally between rows, making him hard to attack with your units.
* Consider cleaning the grid if you want to attack Dracula to make every Hunter focus on him.
* If there's even one spot open at the end, Dracula will use it to damage your base. If however all slots are filled, he will attack one of your Hunters till the death, this is your best opportunity.
* Dracula does a *lot* of damage to your base if slipping through, but for most of the time you just have to accept that.

Spells are used during combat, and cost GOLD. Care has to be taken when to use spells, as gold is multi-functional and spells are pricey.
Spells are however a good way to (help) defeat Dracula.

There are 4 spells in the game:
* Double Experience for Hunters
* Double Damage for Hunters
* Heal (50% HP) for Hunters
* Destroy all foes in the grid (excluding Dracula)

The prices for spells increase per zone.
* 360-240-180-120 (1)
* 720-480-360-240 (2)
* 1080-720-549-360 (3)
* 1440-960-720-480 (4)
* 1800-1200-900-600 (5)

* Save the Double XP spell for fights with Liches, they give the best experience. Also higher zones contain more enemies, further increasing the spells use.
* Consider using the Heal spell during combat as alternative to having Hunters visit the hospital, saving days at the cost of Gold.
* All Hunter spells only work those already placed, ones placed after the spellcast wont be affected.
* Similarly the "destroy all foes" only works if enemies are in the grid. For the best use wait until every foe entered the grid, or you may still have to deal with some stragglers.
* Carefully wager the cost of a singe-combat spell to the permanent improvements of the main menu upgrades.

[TO-DO]

* Missing ingame descriptions for enemies and the stats given on that introduction screen (only appears with a fresh game I don't have, and no screenshots uploaded).
* Missing main menu upgrade values.
* Strategy/tips entry.
* Tables for some statistics (like Spellcost)

Not sure how the hell it's calculated. % of base HP? Doesn't quite explain my test-numbers with no conclusive resolution:

GAME'S ON NORMAL:
Game 1 Zone 2= 90 damage
Game 2 Zone 5= 90 damage
Game 3 Zone 3= 85 damage
Game 4 Zone 3=85, 5=90, 3=55, 4=65,4=65,4=65

HARD MODE
Game 1 Zone 2= 93
Game 2 Zone 3= 87
Game 3 Zone 3 = 106
Game 4 Zone 3 = 87

NIGHTMARE MODE
Game 1 Zone 2= 168
Game 2 Zone 2= 196
Game 3 Zone 2 = 196
Game 4 Zone 2 = 129, Zone 4 = 177
Game 5 Zone 2 = 168, Unknown Damage, Zone 4 = 177

That's some seriously trippy damage there... :/

* 18 Februari 2015 - V1.0
Original Release.

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to hearing comments!