Clone Sergeant Hunter

As the leader of the notorious Clone Force 99 aka "The Bad Batch", Clone Sergeant Hunter is one of the greatest clone warriors and tactitians in Star Wars. He and his squad were known to have a 100% success rate on their missions, a feat that not many were capable of in the Republic. Hunter was arguably the main reason for that success.

In the game, that translates to him being an excellent fighter and support leader. He has a nice mix of abilities that help him and his team, which I think is very fitting for the leader of the Batch. He is one of the best Republic Primaries that we have seen since launch. He and his squad were exactly what the Republic needed to stay powerful and relevant. Let's talk about why.

8 Squad Points
3 Force
9 Stamina / 3 Durability
Primary | Bad Batch - Clone Trooper - Galactic Republic - Scoundrel

Starting off with eight squad points, Hunter is slotted into the most flexible spot for Republic Primaries. In theory, this gives him access to many different combinations of units both in and out of Republic lists. In practice, he usually just ends up taking his squad almost every time. There are decent arguments to be made for taking a Supporting unit that is not Tech and Echo, but it's not that common in my experience. He also comes in with the standard three force points which is solid. He and his team can be force-hungry but do not need to spend force to be good.

Nine stamina is pretty much the standard for non-force users. At first, it appears to be a bit on the low side, but that is not the case in practice. Hunter has access to a bunch of different defensive abilities that are all very good. Wounding him is not as easy as it may look at first glance. He sits at the normal three durability which effectively means he will never leave the table. If your opponent is focusing on wounding him so much that he does end up becoming defeated, it probably means they completely ignored the rest of your list.

His tags are all quite good. Bad Batch and Clone Trooper pair nicely for a handful of reasons. Republic is still, in my opinion, the single best Tag that a unit can have. He also has the Scoundrel tag which is nice because it allows him to pair with units like Hondo, Maul, or in the future Han and Mando. Overall his tag suite is very nice and it feels like he's got his fingers in all of the best pies.

We Prefer Going to Them - Oh Baby! I love this ability. Out-of-activation moves for any of your Bad Batch buddies are incredible. I generally always use this on a fellow Batcher but I have used it a handful of times on other Clones where a dash was extremely clutch. This ability is very good and extremely helpful. My favorite, and probably the best, use case for this ability is on Wrecker and Omega. There are two big reasons for this: 1. If you get lucky and pull Hunter before you pull Wrecker, then you allow Wreck to position further up the board, giving him more Options for Bulldoze! 2. This one does not really care about the order in which you pull them, but being able to shift Wrecker into a position where his Protection and Steadfast aura will be near Hunter is amazing. Hunter loves both of those keywords and the fact that he can move them to where he wants to go is nuts.

Striking Distance - This is Hunter's only Active Ability and the only ability on his card that has a printed price (one force). When he is not wounded, I tend to use this ability almost every time he is activating after his first activation. First of all, the extra distance from the dash is very good. Getting him into a more preferable position is very helpful, especially if you need this dash to get into Wrecker's aura. The extra attack is also very helpful in certain situations. It gives him that little extra kick that he needs to do some serious damage on his turn. It also allows you to potentially wound two different units in one activation, which is quite good. One of the biggest things about this ability is that it is a soft counter to Obi-Wan, Out of Hiding aka Obi2. Obi2 is likely the best or second-best secondary unit in the game right now and this is almost entirely because of Mind Trick. This ability on Hunter allows you to slightly circumvent Mind Trick by making two attacks. Even though one attack will have 2 fewer dice, it's generally fine. Overall, this ability is almost always helpful to use, even if Obi2 is not on the table.

Enhanced Tracker - Oh my lord, as if Hunter was not already mobile enough, they went and gave him this! This ability is great, especially during all of Struggle One and early Struggle Two and Three (to reposition to the flipped objectives). Depending on draw order, this ability could allow Hunter to dash up to three times before he activates, which is nuts. That's also not including abilities from other units either, like Rex. Once Hunter is wounded, I generally do not use this ability a ton, if ever. There is always a chance for some super situational use-case where maybe you want to spend three Force for this ability but that is not going to be very common. Usually, by the time he is wounded, it is mid to late game and all the action is up close enough that he really doesn't need this to get where he wants to go.

It's Hard to Compete With a Jedi - This ability makes Hunter one of the tackiest units in the game. So far, it is the only ability that lets you reroll defensive dice. I feel like almost every time I am defending with him I roll at least one or two failures, which in turn get rerolled into at least one other result. This ability makes it very hard to completely whiff a defensive roll with Hunter. Another huge plus is the timing of this ability. The second part dictates that if you are exposed you may reroll all of your failures. This roll happens after the Expose condition takes effect, so if you re-roll into any expertise icons you may use them. This kinda means that Hunter is like half immune to Expose, but obviously, that's only if you get the lucky re-roll.

The Leader of the Batch - Oh my lord! This Identity is fantastic. I would be taking Hunter all the time just based on his first four abilities, but when you add this in, he's now my go-to primary. The fact that this ability is not random is wicked. A re-roll from failure would be nice, don't get me wrong, but being able to straight-up fix dice in a game feels incredible. It is such a powerful ability and will have an effect almost every time you shoot. The few times it does nothing are when you roll hot anyway, so you can be happy when it does nothing.

Republic lists are going to bring Clones, that is almost a 100% certainty. If you have any Clones, Hunter makes them feel incredible. This ability takes Clones that were once considered middling or bad and takes them up to the great or amazing level. For example, I have always loved 212th, I think they're great. I know a lot of people who have been down on them for a long time, but to you, I say: Take them with Hunter. You will be surprised just how much that one additional strike can do for their consistency and overall value. This also applies to units like Rex or ARFs who were already S Tier and now, with Hunter, punch with Primary-like consistency. This identity opens up a lot of good options, and with the Batch all being CTs, it's not difficult to have five out of six units being Clones.

Speaking of the Batch, this ability also makes them feel insanely good in combat. The option to change that failure into a strike or expertise is very helpful almost every time they attack. The option to keep that strike when you need it is incredibly valuable too, it allows you to pick and choose exactly how you want to move up your expertise charts. One key note about this ability is that it gets around disarm. Disarm takes effect after you roll your initial dice but before you modify the roll. So let's say you rolled three expertise and one fail. The Disarm will remove the expertise, and then you would modify your roll by changing that failure into an expertise and you are now free to move down your chart. So Hunter gets himself around Exposes and he gets himself plus the rest of the batch around Disarm. Now, because of the way his identity works, this can only ever be one expertise. Still not bad and it does come up fairly often.

Stances

Hunter has access to two very good stances. They can be categorized pretty simply with one being a Ranged side and one being a Melee side. Both are good, both have very common use cases, and both have pretty incredible stats. For me, I like to start the game in Huntsman and flip to Knife Fighter later on in Struggle One. I generally do this for all of my primaries who have a Ranged/Melee side. I like to start ranged so they can potentially easily attack and have usually better defenses against ranged attacks. Once the action gets up close and personal, I flip to the melee side for better attack and defense in engagement.

Huntsman

Huntsman is Hunter's ranged stance. It also happens to be where he can do the most damage.

He starts off with seven attack dice at range four. I think that is a pretty solid base, but he's not focusing very often so seven is where you'll be most of the time. I do find it a bit strange that he only shoots at range four, but I get that they probably wanted Crosshair and Wrecker to feel different from Hunter. His ranged attack expertise is quite good. He maintains a 1:1 ratio or better of expertise to results until he rolls five or more, which is very rare. He checks all of my boxes with this expertise: A 1:1 ratio until 3+ or higher, Crits at every level, and extra mobility. All of these things are very very good. The extra damage is just a nice little treat. The dash and reposition make him feel insanely mobile and very flexible. In melee, he gets six attack dice, which is also not terrible, but if you're going to be punching you likely want to swap to Knife Fighter if you can. His melee expertise is fine, it'll get some work done if you need it to.

His combat tree is also great. It's fairly flexible and has a ton of good options depending on what you need. It tops out at a potential eight damage from five successes or nine with expertise. The big things for me are the shove on two, up to three conditions on the bottom row, and a potential reposition at the end. Sometimes, damage is all you need to win and he can pretty reliably put out five or six in an attack. However, I think his bottom run is the way you ought to go more often than not. Sure, it's only three maybe four damage, but you also get Expose, Pin, Strain, two Shoves, two Heals, and a Reposition. If you don't need the heals or Repo you can just add that two extra damage to the pool. For me, the fact that he can do that many conditions and two Shoves means he's fairly reliable at ruining his target's next activation.

Defensively, he is a menace already. Through his defensive re-roll and other outside abilities like Wrecker's protection, he can be a tough nut to crack. He's getting a very respectable six-defensive dice at ranges and five in melee. That means on average he is getting two blocks, two fails, and two expertise at range. When you consider that both of those blocks are going to be re-rolled, he feels very tanky. His defensive expertise character is quite good. It checks three out of four of my personal boxes. He maintains a 1:1 ratio of expertise to results until five or more, he gets extra mobility, and he generates at least one block at every level. He does lack any sort of crit mitigation, but considering his other defensive abilities I think that is a fair tradeoff. He also gets a heal when he rolls two or more expertise, which helps him deal with any crits that get through.

Knife Fighter

Knife Fighter is his Melee stance. Just like Huntsman, it can function fine at range if you need it to, but flipping is preferable if you'll be shooting or defending at range.

His dice suite is the inverse of Huntsman. Six at range four and seven in melee. Once again, that is not a bad start at all. His ranged expertise can get some decent work done, but it's not as good as Huntsman's. His melee expertise, however, is very good. Again, it checks all of my boxes. Crits at every level, 1:1 ratio, and extra mobility. I think that his melee expertise on this side is better than his ranged expertise on Huntsman, meaning this is his best overall offensive expertise chart of the four. A crit and dash on one or two is solid, but anything three or more is amazing. Two crits, a reposition, and a pin at four or more are insanely good. He's very consistent in melee and it only gets better once you look at his tree.

His combat tree on this side is less flexible, but slightly better in my opinion. This side tops out at seven possible damage, which is not bad, but a little low for combat primaries. It's evened out by him having a shove on one and a shove on three! He also has access to either a Dash or Reposition on four! I love the choices that this tree forces you to make. A Dash with one heal and three damage is good but so it a Reposition, three heals, and one damage. I think both options have plenty of common use cases and there is not one right answer.

Defensively, he is almost the same as Huntsman. The only difference is that he rolls five defense dice at range and six in melee. So, once again, if you're skirmishing you probably want to be on Huntsman and if you're engaged or going to be engaged shortly you probably want to be on Knife Fighter.

Tactics

Let's talk about the tactics that I have found useful with Hunter. These are more loose guidelines than hard rules. A lot of this can be playstyle-dependent and change depending on Terrain, Opponent, etc.

I think you need a VERY good reason not to have Wrecker next to Hunter at all times. Protection and Steadfast on Hunter is absolutely incredible and, dare I say, necessary. Yes, he has very good defenses, but he's also only a nine stamina Primary. If he has access to Protection that takes him up by one stamina for every hit he takes. One hit = ten, two = eleven, etc. Steadfast also makes Hunter a lot harder to displace via combat, especially if you have Kenobi around for the Heal+Dash after losing Hunkers.
He's fast and mobile, use that to your advantage. If you need him to kill something on a point and then sprint across the map to claim another point, he can do it. With up to three advance length moves and a dash per activation, he is capable of getting anywhere you need him to. Be careful not to move him away from Wrecker unless absolutely necessary though.
He is very good at hunting Secondaries and Supports. He can pretty reliably wound almost any of them in one activation via Striking Distance + a regular attack. Keep him hunting the small guys as much as possible.

He is a very flexible character, but there are certain things that he likes to do/ have access to as often as possible. I strongly suggest playing around with him just to see if he fits your playstyle.

Squad and Strike Team Ideas

These are all squads that I have used and had pretty good success with. I am probably sitting around 20-30 games with Hunter and the Bad Batch and this is what I have found success with.

Defensively... Offensive?

Primary: Clone Sergeant Hunter
- Secondary: Wrecker and Omega
- Support: Echo and Tech
Primary: General Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Secondary: CC-7567 Captain Rex
- Support: Republic Clone Commandos

This has been my most successful list with Hunter in it. The option to have Hunkers on Hunter, Wrecker, and Techo in melee is incredible and has made all of them feel almost impossible to kill. With how many extra abilities and actions they can get during their activations, I have not felt too bad about Taking Cover with them fairly often. Rex does Rex things, most notably, giving out heals when the Batch Take Cover and potentially giving Hunter a Dash + Hunker. I think the commandos could be ARFs if you want, but this list for me is out of a premier list where the ARFs are in another squad.

Business is BOOMIN'!!!

Primary: Clone Sergeant Hunter
- Secondary: Wrecker and Omega
- Support: Echo and Tech
Primary: Hondo, Honest Businessman
- Secondary: Jango Fett, Bounty Hunter
- Support: ARF Clone Troopers

This list is a lot of fun. I think right now, it is one of the only lists where Hondo actually works. Give the Batch or Jango some extra dice -> kill something -> shove them away -> take no strain ->???->Profit. I think there might be a small argument for Cross over Jango here, but since Cross is not a Scoundrel it's a bit of a tough sell for me.

It's Like Watching MMA

Primary: Clone Sergeant Hunter
- Secondary: Wrecker and Omega
- Support: Echo and Tech
Primary: Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter
- Secondary: Barriss Offee, Jedi Padawan
- Support: ARF Clone Troopers

Take this if you want to watch the Batch punch their way through just about anything. With Hunter and Vader's Identities, Your Batch will be hitting full trees almost every time they punch. It's insane. Throw ARFs into the mix and you're almost as killy as something like Grievous+Maul.

Full Batch

Primary: Clone Sergeant Hunter
- Secondary: Wrecker and Omega
- Support: Echo and Tech
Primary: Lord Maul
- Secondary: Crosshair
- Support: 212th Clone Troopers

This is the only "Full Batch" list I have had personal success with. I think Maul could probably also be Luminara and it would be just as good. The nice thing about Maul is the force economy that he brings to the table. It allows you to use Wrecker, Crosshair, and Hunter's force cost abilities more often.

Overall, I think Hunter is in the running for best Republic Priamry so far. He is incredibly versatile both by himself and in squad building. Since he came out I have not put him (or Wrecker) down and I don't think I will be any time soon. If you haven't tried him yet, I highly suggest giving it a go. Not only is he fun to use but he's also amazing.

I know this one was long, but there was a lot to say. I still have a ton to say about Hunter and the Bad Batch as a whole, but those thoughts will come in the Unit Guides for the rest of them later on.

Thank you for reading!