Level 1-99 hunter guide (fast/detailed)

[Nyemma 3]

Hunting guide by Emma Kitty

Hi! This is a (hopefully) short guide bringing you all the info you need to train hunter.
This guide is heavily inspired by Soren's hunter guide, which is a little outdated, but can be found here https://ataraxia-ps.com/forums/topic/204-hunter-guide/

QUICK GUIDE:
This is a tl;dr guide:
Level 1-19 crimson swifts
Level 19-27 tropical wagtails
Level 27-43 cobalt skillchompas
Level 43-70 falconry
Level 70-81 jadinkos
Level 81-99 god jadinko

The actual guide:
Basic info:

So hunter is a gatherers skill, you catch creatures to get xp.
Overall the skill is pretty slow, and divine locations should be used as often as possible.
This will show the main guide (the quick guide with a little bit extra side information that might be needed/handy), on the bottom there will be a list of alternative methods and why to (not) use them, and there will be a money making perspective, since this guide is directly aimed towards getting the max xp and not taking money into account.
There are some advantages I want you to know about before i get deep into the guide:

• Protean traps  can be very advantageous since you can have them auto-place traps for you, allowing you to afk for xp.

 

• perks
  • the Huntsman perk allows you to place 2 extra traps (up to 8 at level 80), you will also gain an additional 25% xp, 15% success rate, and 10% chance to receive double loot
  • The Bank Command perk allows you to remotely bank, this isn't nessessarily great for hunter as it is for anything else, but it can still be nice to have allowing to bank caught animals, or for traps incase you fergot them (again...)
• The ability bar: not everyone is a big fan of abilities, but that doesn't mean you cant use it to put your traps on so you can just place a trap with the click on the numpad 
• Weapon: Use a range weapon with no ammo or a magic weapon without runes, this way you can't accidentally click the skill/chinchompas to attack them;.

Shops

You will need box traps, bird snares, butterfly net, etc, these can all be found in the store at ::market, or from the hunter expert, located at the feldip hills hunter location.

 

Starting out alternatives

So hunter isn't a fast skill, especially when playing on the more difficult gamemodes with less xp multipliers. That being said skipping the first levels of hunter can be very time-saving since this is probably something your going to do eventually anyways.
So what i would recommend start out doing is divination, use the chronicles for hunting xp ideally you wanna get to level 19, but any level will really help your progress.
Another early booster is the divine locations at home, however you need to be a donator (or have donated in the past hour) to use these. These will also not work on all gamemodes.

Level 1-19 snaring crimson swifts

So incase you were too stubborn to do divination (like me) and you didn't want to (or didn't have access to) the divine locations, you want to use bird snares on crimson swifts. You will start out failing a lot, so even getting a couple levels will help out a ton. these can be found on the east shore of feldip hills (teleport skilling -> hunter -> feldip hills and run east). You can drop the loot you get, but it will get auto-dropped if you inventory is full so you dont need to bother.

Level 19-27 Snaring tropical wagtails

These are very similar to the crimson swifts, you place your snare traps close to the birds, and loot them when they get trapped. This location can be found by teleporting to skilling -> hunter -> feldip hills, they can be found right on the teleport, but i found that going slightly southwest was the ideal spot, do not forget to bring a 2nd snare trap as at level 20 you can use 2.

Level 27-43 (or 46) Cobalt skillchompas

If you are blindly reading this guide top to bottom and following it step by step, I'd like to avert your attention to the bottom where I talk about some alternatives as they might come in handy.

The next step is cobalt skillchompas, these are useful because the loot can actually be used this time. It also stacks so no annoying full inventories. Bring box traps, bring 3 because you will stay here until above level 40.
These can be found by teleporting to skilling -> hunter -> tree gnome stronghold hunter area.

Level 43-46 (or 57) Falconry

For this part your going to hunt with a falcon, this is slightly better xp than the box trap hunting, but is really click intensive. You can't wear any weapons in your main or off-hand. 
At level 43 you can only catch the spotted kebbits, i recommend spamclicking them incase the first catch doesnt work or an additional click is required to receive the hunt.
This can be accessed by skilling teleports -> hunter -> falconry

Levels 46-57 (or 63) viridian skillchompas

Similarly to previous, these skillchompas can be found by teleporting to skilling -> hunter -> port phasmatys teleport

It was at this point where I did some falconry as little breaks here and there, at level 57 when dark falcons are unlocked its slightly faster xp, but a lot more click intensive.

Level 57-60 (or 63, or 66) Falconry (again)

Falconry: dark kebbits. Same stuff as before except now dark kebbits, slightly more xp.
At level 60 you unlock an extra box trap to go back to the skillchompas, but personally i stayed here until 63.

Levels 63-66 red chinchompas

Although being slightly more viable, these still have a big flaw for the same reason as the regular chins: there are really few spawns. (they are also kind of buggy)
I would only recommend doing these if you have protean traps laying around, they make this really good and viable, but without them this is greally bad xp and you should stick to falconry.
These can be found with teleport skilling -> hunter -> feldip hills and running slightly south. Their name is carnivorous chinchompa.

Level 66-68 Pawya

Yes! Another good spot! The number of spawns here is massive, making it a really good training place, once again proteans are your friend, but not needed.
this area can be reached by skilling teleports -> hunter -> isdafar.

 

Level 68-69 (or 70) Viridian skillchompas

Viridian skillchompas are slightly better than pawyas. 
These can be accessed by skilling teleports -> hunter -> rellekka hunter area
nothing new to say here.

Level 69-70 Falconry (again again)

Alrighty, you unlocked the last falcon, the xp here is better than viridian skillchompas, but only by a little.
It is also only 1 more level until you can get started with the next step, if you want to switch it up you can, but personally I chose to stay with viridians.

Level 70-77( or 81): jadinkos

This part gets a little complicated, there is a full guide here https://ataraxia-ps.com/forums/topic/791-juju-potions/ but im going to try to narrow it down as much as i can and only give you the essentials. You need to have some skilling tickets for this one too, those can be obtained by doing skilling contracts. You wont need a lot. 
To get started, teleport home and go east (downstairs). You want to be next to the menaphos lodestone. You should see the witch doctor (he's the one doing a weird dance). First you want to  trade him, buy some marasamaw plants, these are essentially your box traps. Jadinkos have a 100% catch rate, but if you place a trap too close to a jadinko you can't catch, they will eat your box trap so make sure you buy some extra just in case. When you buy them they will be noted, but there is a bank directly north.

Once you have enough traps (bring about 10-20), you click the witch doctor again and click teleport. Click jadinkos (3), click lvl 74-80. I know your only level 70 right now but that's not an issue.
Once arrived you want to go to the north east and start hunting. You wont be able to hunt any of the others and they will eat your traps.
 
You seem to not be limited by the amount of traps you can place, making it a really enjoyable method.

Here is which ones you should catch:
level 70+: common jadinko
level 74: igneous jadinko - there will be annoying carrion jadinkos in the way
level 75: cannibal jadinko - there will be annoying carrion jadinkos in the way
level 76: aquatic jadinko
level 77: amphibious jadinko
level 78+: carrion jadinko

currently there are 2 issues: 1 is that not all of these jadinkos are here, and 2: the carrion jadinkos invade the igneous and cannibal jadinkos, meaning you will lose a lot of traps here. The xp is a big ramp up from the common jadinkos so if you have the tokens to spare i would highly recommend going for it, although currently it's really tedious and annoying. This issue stays until level 76 when you can catch aquatic jadinkos in peace.

Level 77-81: Grenwalls

The xp rate of grenwalls will be a little lower than jadinkos, however they drop grenwall spikes. This (and divine locations) is the only way to get these, and they are a requirement for extreme ranging potions (therefor also overloads).

Level 81-89 (or 99): god jadinko

This is, just like the previous jadinkos, the best xp for your level. You can get here by teleporting to the witch doctor with teleport option 2, however these will not be always avaiable. They are active on and off, I can't seem to figure out what the up- and downtimes are, so you'll have to occasionally check the timers in the activity tracker interface. The exception is weekends, during the weekends these will be constantly active and wont disappear until monday. These will drop all the items needed to craft juju potions, more info in the previously linked guide.

This is how I set up my traps. https://giphy.com/gifs/H4Q4xscYqNQKWEgyaC

Level 89-97: Crimson skillchompa

So this xp is substanially lower than god jadinkos, and if you want to prioritise xp gain you should stick with those. The xp from crimson skillchompas is just over half of jadinkos, but you only have 5 traps and a pretty big chance to fail a catch. The only benefit from these is that you get skillchompas which can be used to train other skills or sold.

Level 97-99: crystal skillchompa

Similar to crimson skillchompas, not as good xp as god jadinkos, but you'll get skillchompas out of it.

Money making perspective.

So the hunter skill can make a lot of money. Your early levels will not make you much, since the raw bird meat is useless. But from my small experience, people will pay quite a bit for all skillchompas, this ofcourse comes down a little to timing and luck, but all types of skillchompas will earn you decent money, and you always catch tripples. Chinchompas probably have a good use for training range in crowded places like godwars kc room, but I haven't personally seen anyone use these.
Grenwalls will drop grenwall spikes, which are needed for extreme ranging potions (ergo overloads). I like to assume these can be sold for quite decent, but I have not tried this. 

Alternate methods with some info:

Salamanders - these are actually not a possibility but i wanted to mention them in case you thought about going to do them, and i want to save you some time. at the current moment of writing this guide, salamanders do not spawn, the traps are not intractable (even with bringing nets and rope) therefor these are not possible to do. Do not waste your time trying.

Implings - There is a puro puro teleport where you can find implings (a net and jars can be found there too). The lower level item rewards are mainly junk. The higher level rewards are ???? but the overall xp rate is bad because you end up running around for not a lot of xp, these can be done but i would recommend sticking with the main guide.

Falconry - This is good xp, but really click intensive, if looking for something more relaxed go for box traps, but if enjoyed, do this at the unlocked levels (43, 57 and 69).

Chinchompas - At level 53 you unlock chinchompas, I looked at all the spawns and couldn't find a single spot with enough spawns to make this viable, they are very reduced and I would recommend sticking with skillchompas

Deadfalls - really good xp, only issue is, currently at the time of writing this guide, when the trap is set up, but fails to catch the kebbit, it becomes permanently broken until the server is restarted.

Teasing larupias - also doesn't work, the teasing does nothing (if they even spawn because they dont in all places) and you cant build the traps.

Charming sprites - also don't work, but even if it did I probably wouldn't list it anyways ?

 

 

This next part is mainly directed to the devs and the Ataraxia staff, but you are welcome to read my thoughts about the skill!

It's an okay skill, but it needs work. Most methods are unbearably slow (from the POV of a legendary group ironman). The meta is divine locations, which isn't great (but I do understand from a money earning standpoint), but here are some minor/major fixes that could be done to make it a ton more bearable

• Chins and red chins: increase the spawn #, on the official runescape there are 22 spawn locations for grey chins, spread out over 5 different area, on this server i counted 7, with on 1 spot 3 at most, this is not enough, the red chins were about the same
• Red chins walking animation: So when a red chin spawns, it shows the red chin on the spawn, but as it walks around, the animation is still on the exact same tile, it visually doesn't move, really strange bug, makes you feel like what your doing is irrelevant.
• skillchompas: So what you did is you made it so every catch gives 3, i would change this, not nessesarily to give more (maybe even a little less), but make it random, and increase the xp gained if caught multiple, currently its not enough
• jadinko traps: These cost 1 skilling token to buy each, and i see no point for this, why not let me buy it with gp instead?
• Jadinko traps 2: Currently when a jadinko trap is placed, and a jadinko of a too high level walks in, the trap will disappear, eating your skill ticket, but still obstructing that spot for a while (i think 2 minutes), not allowing you to place another trap on that same location
• Jadinko traps 3: currently you can place unlimited traps (only of these), I love this, it makes it really enjoyable, you can make lines of traps like oldschool firemaking, and then go loot them all one by one, this really changes it up in a possitive way, this is still a bug and i wanted to mention it here (I think it would be great to have this as an overal effect with regular box traps, bird snares, etc, to have a perk allowing you to place infinite, the current perk only allows +2 which doesnt make a big difference with the buggy chins anyways.
• Carrion jadinko: (see screenshot below) The carrion jadinkos and the igneous jadinkos are spawning on the same spots, making it a 50/50 between catching an igneous jadinko, or having a carrion jadinko destroy your trap and eat the tile for 2 minutes, one of these really need to be moved (there is a lot of room south) (they are also invading the cannibal jadinkos)
• Jadinko teleport: the teleport to the jadinko area says "common jadinkos (lvl74-80) but the lowest level jadinko is level 70 and the highest is level 78.
• Salamanders, deadfalls, teasing, tracking: All of these do not do anything, some mobs aren't spawned at all, some are but dont have any working interactions. I think at the very least, with how useless chins are (and how semi-useless skillchomps), i think salamanders should work, all 4 colors.
• Divine locations: I get that you need to cash out on them, for the donators or the voters, but the actual meta is to not train the skill and just do these daily locations, unless you actually are a group ironman and cant interact with these.
• The priffindas hunting location: Yeahh its kinda useless, the Isdafar hunting location is twice as good and doesn't have any requirement to reach, the priff place could(/should?) be changed to have some sort of reward linked to it, but that's just my opinion.
• Maybe add a teleport to the witch doctor or the jadinko places, walking east from home seems odd and weird.
• clue scrolls: through my journey i've gotten quite a bit of clue scrolls, but they were all easy, it would be cool that level 50+ content could give medium, 70+ hard and 90+ elite, just a thought.
• clicking redeploy on a broken trap will just pick it up, having you to click it again in your inventory. (neither does right clicking lay on a dropped trap)

img showing the multiple jadinkos:

Edited August 20, 2020 by Nyemma