Battle hunter

In the years after the large-scale world war, several scientists who remained on Earth are going to find a way to protect humanity from extinction. For success, they need vital information from the ruins of cities from around the world. They entrust the collection of information to an elite group known as the "Hunters." The player controls one of these hunters and receives tasks to extract the necessary relics from the caves from the store owner. Periodically, the player will fight against a secret organization known as B PHS to obtain the necessary relics.

The game process consists in hunting and mining relics in a cave, presented as a randomly generated field. There are always four hunters on the field. Hunters that are not controlled by players are controlled by a computer. Before entering the cave, the player receives a task for the extraction of one or another key relic hidden in one of the boxes at the level. Other boxes also contain relics, but only the key is needed to win the mission. The player can choose among three actions - movement, attack or rest (the player draws 2 cards and restores a quarter of his health).

Character Development

During character creation, a player is given 11 skill points that can be distributed between movement, attack, defense, or health points (HP). Performance enhancement uses the following scheme:

• 3 points invested in movement will increase the character’s movement by 1 cell
• 1 point invested in an attack will increase the character’s attack by 1
• 2 points invested in protection will increase the level of character protection by 1
• 1 point invested in health will increase the maximum number of health points by 3

Maps

Each hunter starts the game with 5 cards randomly drawn from a deck of 100 cards. Each player’s hand is visible to all others at any time. Cards can be used to produce various effects throughout the game, but they are divided by color depending on the effect they produce. Blue and yellow cards can be used both on the field and in battle, but red and green cards can only be used in battle or only on the field, respectively.

Blue cards affect movement. The effect of these cards ranges from +1 to +3, there are also quite rare cards with the "E" effect. There are only two "E" cards in the deck. If you use the blue card on the field, then the movement of the hunter will increase by the corresponding number of cells in this round. If you use the "E" card, the hunter will be teleported immediately to the exit. If you use blue cards in the battle, then the chance to escape from the enemy in this phase of the battle will increase. If you use the “E” card in battle, then the escape will certainly be successful.

Yellow cards affect defense and evasion. The effect ranges from +3 to +9, and there are also special cards with effects “A” and “D”. If you use a yellow card on the field, then the hunter will increase the chance to protect himself from the trap by a percentage equal to the cost of the card times 10. For example, a yellow card +3 gives a 30% chance of not falling into the trap. Cards “A” and “D” completely protect from traps, increasing the chance to 100%. Used cards are valid only until the end of the turn, then their effect disappears. If yellow cards are used in battle, they will increase the level of protection of the hunter by the number of points indicated on the map. Card "D" (double) will double the protection of the hunter, while card "A" will completely protect against damage.

Red cards affect attack power. Can only be used in battle. Values ​​on red cards can take values ​​from +3 to +9, as well as “C” and “S”. Card “C” adds to the hunter's attack the value of the enemy’s attack. Card "S" doubles his own attack. There is only one card “C” and “S” in the deck, similar to the yellow cards “A” and “D”.

Green cards are traps, and can only be used on the field. Traps are set before the hunter begins to move, and remain on the cell that he has just left. The trap is not visible on the map until it triggers from the hunter stepping on it. There are four types of green cards, which are different types of traps. The maximum number of traps on one cell is three.

• E - Empty: The player discards all cards from his hand and cannot draw cards until the effect ends
• S - Stun (Stun): The hunter is stunned and skips the next turn. During a stun, the hunter's protection level drops to zero and he cannot take any action, neither on the map, nor in battle, and also cannot use cards this turn.
• D - Damage (Damage): The hunter takes damage.
• L - Leg Damage: For a hunter with a leg injury, the move parameter drops to zero until the end of the mission or until the hunter steps on the exit cage (EXIT). (If the hunter has a crutch identified in advance, then the parameter of movement will be +1 instead of 0. And if his movement was initially equal to zero, such a trap, coupled with a crutch, on the contrary will increase his movement by one.)

Battle

A battle can take place between two hunters or between a hunter and a monster. The battle in Battle Hunter is different from the battles in most RPGs, because the battle ends after one exchange of actions, and does not continue until the death of one of the parties. Most of the battles end with the fact that both combatants continue to stand in their places. If the character is under the influence of the “panic” effect, then the computer automatically controls the player’s actions. If a character is stunned, he cannot act at all and has zero defense if he was attacked in this state.

When a hunter is attacked, he is given a choice among a series of actions: counterattack, defend, run away or surrender (unless, of course, the character is stunned). When choosing an action (except for “surrender”), the hunter must choose a card or refuse to use the cards at will. Then the attacker selects his card. Following this, the system will roll two dice for each of the combatants: two for playing the attacker's attack power, and two for playing the attacker's defense level. Native characteristics of hunters and effects from maps are added to the results, then the final damage is calculated.

Example: Hunter A attacks Hunter B. Hunter A has 3 attacks and 0 defenses, Hunter B has 1 attack and 2 defenses. Hunter B chooses a counterattack and a yellow card for +5 defense, Hunter A uses a red card for +3 attacks. Then the system throws the dice and Hunter A drops 6 and 5, and Hunter B drops 4 and 4. The total attack of Hunter A will be (6 + 5) + 3 + 3 (dice + bonus from the card + native attack) = 17, and the total defense of the counterattack will be 4 + 4 + 5 + 2 (dice + native defense + bonus) = 15. As a result, Hunter B will receive (17-15) = 2 points of damage. The system then calculates the counterattack of Hunter B in the same way.

If protection was chosen, the defender does not conduct a counterattack phase, but at the same time his defense indicator doubles. In the case of the above example, if Hunter B defended, he would take 0 damage.

If an escape is selected, the defender rolls the dice to determine the chance of escape. The defender can resort to using blue cards to help with the escape, but the attacking player can also use them to catch up with the evader. Both players roll dice and add a bonus from the card and their movement value to the received value. If the defender throws a larger final number than the attacker, then the escape is considered successful. If on the contrary, then the attacker catches up with the runaway and deals one blow. In this case, the protection of the fugitive is zero during the calculation of damage.

If the “surrender” action is chosen, then the defending hunter gives one of his objects to the attacker and moves to a random cell on the map, as if he had been killed. The difference from actual death is that the hunter can choose which item he wants to donate, and does not lose half his maximum health.

If a hunter loses all health points, he does not really die. Instead, he moves to a randomly selected cell in the field with a maximum health reduced by 50%. At the same time, he gives the attacker a choice which of the items he wants to take (if this is another player). If GON (the monster that appears when there are no cards left in the deck) defeats the player holding the key relic, the mission ends and the hunter loses all the money and all relics that were at his disposal.

Relics

After exiting the cave, the player may ask the store owner to investigate the relics found. Some of them may be useless (for example, an empty bottle), and some may have a certain effect, such as increasing the attack of weapons or disks with wallpaper for the main menu. Some may adversely affect the hunter who owns them (for example, confusion at the end of a turn). Such relics can come in handy to escape from the battle by transferring this item to an adversary who will further suffer from wearing this item. Only such “viral” relics can work without the need for identification, while the rest of the relics need to be identified in order to benefit from them. Relics can also be sold to the store owner, regardless of whether it is identified or not. The key relic cannot be recognized: it is sold automatically.

Level

To increase the level, you need to collect a certain amount of money through the sale of relics or victories in missions. Then you need to go to the clinic to buy a new level. During the level increase, the hunter receives +1 HP and 1 point for distribution to any parameter of his choice. The maximum level is 15.

When the deck ends

If the deck runs out of cards (which usually does not have time to happen before the end of the mission), then the cave beast GON enters the field. He is a monster (since he does not attack other monsters, but only hunters) and it is very difficult to defeat him. This panther-like creature has an incredibly high attack and can even defeat some hunters in one hit. It is important to always ensure that the number of cards in the deck does not drop to zero.

Secret characters

By entering SHUICHI or VIKEIF as the character name, you can play for secret characters - Suite or Wakeife. Each of them has a unique appearance and pre-allocated skill points. Secret characters are somewhat stronger than regular ones.

The game received negative reviews from critics, but was praised for being able to play four of them through the Playstation Mulltitap .