How to Defeat the Assassin Boss in Hunt: Showdown

Hunt: Showdown is a risk/ reward FPS game centralized around tracking down bosses, defeating other Hunters, and extracting the bounty and yourself in one piece. In comparison, gunfights with other players are far more deadly than fighting the bosses, and it’s good to know how to defeat them as efficiently as you can manage to avoid confrontation while bringing them down.

This article will cover some tips and tricks to beat the Assassin boss in Hunt Showdown as quickly as possible.

Hunt Showdown Assassin Boss Description

The Assassin is a tall, lengthy humanoid boss who is partially made of various small insects. Whenever you approach an Assassin’s lair, you can hear hollow laughter and howls, along with the loud skittering of bugs. We highly recommend reading up on their lore in Hunt Showdown, as it’s pretty interesting yet disturbing.

The upper half of the Assassin is white as ash with its skull caved in, and its face is completely gone. The lower part of its torso is rotted and hollow, with black decay coating its chest and face. Every limb of the Assassin is picked clean of any flesh, leaving only bones constantly swarmed by bugs.

The Assassin can split itself into three clones, tricking newer Hunt Showdown players into striking one of its doubles to cover their bodies in bugs and impair their vision. While swarmed with bugs, the player is marked by the Assassin and will likely be its primary focus to attack. The Assassin has no weaknesses to physical damage and can rend players with melee or ranged attacks, causing them to bleed.

Take Advantage of His Weaknesses

The Assassin is one of the more mobile bosses in Hunt Showdown. Yet, unlike most bosses, they can be pressured into retreating. They move about the room like the Spider, maneuvering up walls and on the ceiling while in their bug form, and no melee attack or gunshot will damage them in this state. Whenever the boss takes a large amount of damage or consecutive hits, they stagger, causing them to retreat using their bug form.

Whenever the Assassin reappears from their bug form, using your entire stamina bar can stagger them into a frenzy or cause them to retreat. This is the primary reason this fight takes so long compared to the Butcher in Hunt Showdown.

The Assassin also has a bigger and better weakness: poison damage. Poison afflicts NPC monsters differently than players. When a player is shot by a poison round, the bullet usually does slightly less damage but poisons the target, blurring their vision and preventing any healing for a short time. When an NPC is poisoned, they take additional damage instead of the extra status effect.

Bringing poisoned bolts, bullets, or grenades will deal extra damage to the Assassin, allowing you to speed up this fight pretty quickly. 

Related Article: All Hunt Showdown Hidden Achievements and How to Get Them

So, How do You Defeat the Assassin in Hunt: Showdown?

The Assassin has a variety of attacks, yet if you successfully stagger him, you can avoid most of his moveset quite often. The Assassin has two primary attacks, which extend his arms into a spear of bone. If he lands a stabbing attack on you, this single attack will deal moderate damage but cause a medium or heavy bleed. The Assassin’s ranged attack is throwing a bone spear at the ground, causing damage on impact or in a small area around the landing point, causing a bleed.

When the Assassin enters his frenzy mode, he will spawn two clones that rapidly approach the Hunter. If the clone comes too close or is killed by the player, the Hunter will have their vision impaired by bugs, and the Assassin will focus on them.

It’s imperative to know that no matter how many clones you cut down, so long as the Assassin is still in his frenzy, he will spawn more clones. If the clones don’t find a Hunter to blind, they will disappear.

The way to quickly defeat the Assassin in Hunt Showdown is to pummel and continue to stunlock them until they frenzy. Typically whenever clones spawn, their attention can be split between multiple hunters, making this boss easier to stunlock if you are in a duo or trio. However, if you are playing Hunt Showdown solo or don’t want to fight the clones, it’s best to exit the room during their frenzy.

We found their frenzy was the least threatening compared to other bosses because you can still stunlock them pretty consistently. Since they have no weaknesses to a specific type of melee damage, anything works.

Related Article: A Complete Guide To Hunt: Showdown Prestige 

More Tips and Tricks to Defeat the Assassin in Hunt Showdown

• Another huge tip we have for fighting this boss is to utilize lanterns or lamps around the area. If you can line up a good spot to throw a lantern onto them, and they retreat, you will get some extra damage during a phase where it’s usually impossible to damage them. While the Assassin is in their bug form, they can’t be damaged by melee attacks or bullets. Yet, the damage over time effect from running through fire will still hurt them as they scatter around the ceiling.

• Damaging a clone will mark that Hunter as the Assassin’s priority target. If you are playing in a duo or trio, gathering around the player who was marked allows you to get multiple hits on the boss since they will be focusing on one player.

• When you touch a clone, your vision is impaired, and it’s difficult to hear players running toward the house while dealing with clones. We recommend staying outside the boss’s room during their frenzy. Otherwise, you might have other Hunters sneak next to you while you’re blinded and covered in bugs.

• The Assassin in Hunt Showdown rarely makes his ranged attack unless you try to keep a distance from them continuously. 

• Stamina Shots allow you to stun the Assassin nearly permanently. Having one Hunter in your party bring one Stamina Shot can enable them to solo the boss quickly.

• Trying to rush the Assassin with Dynamite Bundles, Sticky Bombs, or using the Bomb Lance is still powerful but risky since they can shift into their bug form and relocate anytime.

• Using poison bolts or arrows from the Crossbow or Long Bow allows you to easily take chunks out of the Assassin’s HP bar while remaining silent.

• The clone’s main mechanic is to confuse and blind you, making them more of a threat if the situation gets out of hand. When the Assassin spawns clones, they shimmer and flicker more than the normal boss does. Clones also share the ability to disperse into a bug form, making them more difficult to track if they are skittering around the room.

For additional tips on how to defeat bosses in Hunt Showdown, check out our other Hunt: Showdown guides.

Final Thoughts

Take the time to learn the visual differences between the real Assassin and their clones to utilize your time best when fighting them. Stick to a close range build and overwhelm the Assassin with constant melee blows. If the situation grows dire and other players show up to contest you, have an exit ready, or you might be bleeding out or unable to see others here to claim your bounty.

If you are not sure of the best way to get in and get out with your bounty, feel free to check out some of our Hunt Showdown tips and our guide to the best guns in Hunt Showdown.