Battle Royale is a diverse genre. From realistic mil-sims in which ghillie-suited G.I.s snipe one another from the cover of rubble to colorful battles between dinosaurs and witches atop a UFO, it is the small differences that distinguish these games, giving each a unique identity in the genre although their bones remain the same.

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt can be difficult, even for those familiar with other BRs. Its mechanics reward fast reflexes as much as keen observation and good tactical sense, and the learning curve can feel daunting. With a few fundamentals under one's belt, however, leading one's creature of the night to victory is more than doable.

Updated May 6, 2022 by Patrick Armstrong: The battle royale scene is regularly shaken up as new companies with new ideas enter the fray. Alongside genre mainstays like Apex Legends and Fortnite, there are scrappy new entrants, eager to prove themselves in a field that is competitive in more ways than one. In the brief time since its release, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt has proven to be one of the freshest and most engaging BRs.

In part, this is thanks to its compelling gothic atmosphere, but just as important is the nuanced, breakneck gameplay which has continued to change and improve since the game's beta. If this trend keeps up, Bloodhunt could be a contender in the field for years to come.

14 Get Aggressive

A Kindred stalking someone in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt is a game that rewards aggressive play. At least, it's a game that rewards aggressive play from experienced players. From new players still learning the ropes, charging into the heat of battle is a recipe for an early death. Why is it good advice then? Because Bloodhunt is a battle royale with a deceptive amount of complexity, and one of the best ways to learn how its various systems and strategies click together is to dive right in. And, yes, die a lot early on.

Stealth is the preferable approach for survivability, and ratting one's way to the end game might be better advice overall, but the player can learn a great deal (not only about their own gameplay but also that of others) by diving in headfirst and letting blood and bullets decide who emerges.

13 Complete Quests

Several Kindred from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

The game offers plenty of quests for the player to grind. Travel a certain distance, Diablerize a certain number of players, deal damage with a specific weapon, or play as a specific Archetype, and the game will shower the player with Experience Points (EXP). EXP is necessary to unlock cosmetics and make sure one's Kindred looks the part, but there's a better reason to do quests.

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Doing quests encourages the player to venture outside their comfort zone, familiarizing themselves with parts of the game they wouldn't ordinarily touch. One quest might encourage a bomb-planting Saboteur player to grab a katana and get swinging. Another might encourage a brute-force Vandal to give the glamorous siren a try. Completing quests is a good way to push oneself and experiment, two things the game rewards.

12 Adapt To Match Variables

One Kindred preparing to drink from another in Vampire: The Masquerade

In some battle royales, the match conditions are always the same. The people playing change, along with their chosen drop locations, their gear, and their strategies, but the rules of that match itself are consistent. In Bloodhunt, this is not always the case. A handful of match variables can change with each game. Sometimes wind affects the Red Mist, the Entity is absent from the sites they usually patrol, or every area contains High Tier loot.

Whatever the change, the player needs to be able to adapt. The player is warned of these changes prior to the match, so there is an opportunity to choose a different spawn location if necessary or at least mentally prepare for the change.

11 Change With The Season

Two Kindred walking side by side in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

The addition of the Ventrue Enforcer Archetype made it evident that with each season the game will change, and players willing to embrace these changes will benefit. The Enforcer is an offensive powerhouse, and it's only the beginning of the Clans and Archetypes that will be added in the game's future.

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Tweaks to gun damage, Blood Resonance, NPCs, and other aspects of gameplay make Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt one of the most engaging battle royales around. Combined with the game's high skill curve, it can take some time for a new player to know what aspects of gameplay to prioritize. Ultimately, as long as new players are willing to roll with whatever is thrown at them, there will always be a bloody good time on the streets of Prague.

10 Maintain Momentum

One Kindred does battle with another midair in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt, momentum can be the deciding factor between feeding and being fed upon. Learning to transition smoothly between running, sliding, and wall-jumping makes a huge difference in survivability, getting players out of jams and helping them find special weapons faster. An important consideration is how momentum can be conserved or lost.

Though fall damage doesn't exist, plummeting off a building will cost a Kindred their momentum, making them an easy target, not to mention that the noise it makes is likely to attract assailants. Practice sliding off roofs instead of leaping from them and continuing the slide upon hitting the ground to preserve speed. Moving targets have fewer holes shot in them.

9 Use Heightened Senses

A Kindred observes several others from above in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Kindred powers include Heightened Senses, a detection ability that highlights item drops and nearby mortals. Even with perfect squad composition, using Heightened Senses is important throughout the match, but critically important in the early game. The pistol that players start each round with is woefully underpowered and should be immediately replaced.

Using Heightened Senses allows players to rapidly identify weapons and other items, and it also highlights mortals and reveals which of the four Resonances their blood will level up, stacking buffs on the character that will be essential later. Heightened Senses is also the only ability that can be used during the five-second countdown at the beginning of the match, allowing players to scout their surroundings and make tactical decisions before they even move.

8 Beware The Entity

A three-person Kindred team walks the streets in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Kindred might be apex predators, but they aren't the only killers stalking the streets of Prague. The Entity is a group of highly trained soldiers bent on killing the Kindred at all costs. They reside at fortified outposts throughout the city, and because those outposts are marked on the map, players can decide just how close to them they wish to draw.

Outposts contain high-tier loot, making them attractive for scavengers, but the Entity are deadly combatants who can easily down players even when playing the best character for newcomers. When first learning the game, it is safest to simply avoid Entity zones. Later, after players are more comfortable with the game, they can venture inside, risking their undead hides for the chance at a few choice weapons.

7 Match Your Playstyle To An Archetype

A Kindred commits diablerie in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt encourages a variety of playstyles, from the melee brawler to the rooftop sniper. Currently, there are three Clans to choose from, each divided into two Archetypes, and in this Battle Royale learning one's role matters. The Nosferatu specialize in stealth and reconnaissance, the Bruja in frontal assaults, and the Toreador in tricks and manipulation.

Players may naturally gravitate towards one Archetype in the beginning, whether for aesthetic reasons or because they are familiar with the World of Darkness lore, but it is advisable to sample every Archetype and see what fits one's playstyle best. Even if their first choice is the right one, sampling other Archetypes helps teach their strengths and weaknesses. Knowing the enemy is the first step to destroying them.

6 Use Verticality To Your Advantage

One Kindred opens fire on another from above in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Prague is a dense, complicated map, brought to life by great attention to detail. For strategic purposes, its most important feature is its verticality. The innumerable buildings of the city offer no shortage of vantage points, and unlike the characters in most Battle Royales, the Kindred can scurry up buildings without a second thought and leap from rooftop to rooftop.

Any FPS fan understands why having the high ground is an advantage, and players in the streets are easy pickings for those above. That said, Kindred will need to alternate between the streets to drink blood and scavenge equipment and the rooftops to traverse the city and hunt their quarry. Knowing how to quickly climb up, and slide down, walls can keep one alive just as long as a good crossbow.

5 Diversify Your Loadout

One Kindred slashes another with their sword in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

No Battle Royale is complete without a bevy of destructive tools, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt is no exception. Pistols, shotguns, crossbows, axes, and swords litter Prague, and the strengths and weaknesses of each take time to master. Certain Archetypes play best with certain load-outs, but having a basic familiarity with all of them goes a long way.

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Though sniper rifles exist and fighting at a distance is possible, most combat ends in close-quarters, making either a shotgun or melee weapon essential. Balancing close-range with middle- and long-range options will ensure that the player isn't stuck with the wrong tool when the undead come looking for heads to take.

4 Keep An Eye On Mortals

Three Kindred emerge from red fog in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

The impulse to dismiss NPCs and focus exclusively on other players is understandable. Yet in this game, the mortal NPCs that wander the streets of Prague, minding their own business and breaking into occasional flights of terror when vampires descend on them, are vital.

Drinking their blood restores injured Kindred to full health, and mortals with special blood also power up Resonances when fed upon, strengthing even underrated Battle Royale weapons. The Masquerade exists to hide the Kindred from humans' watchful eyes, however, and using one's vampiric powers in front of witnesses will trigger a Blood Hunt, outlining the aura of the offending player in red. Blood Hunted Kindred are easy targets. Don't let mortals glimpse the truth.

3 Learn A Location Well

The empty streets of Prague in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Shops, churches, patios, nightclubs, and other locations break up Prague's urban landscape. Rather than trying to explore the entire city at once, it's best to concentrate one's spawns in a single area. Repeatedly beginning the game in the same place allows players to learn equipment spawn points, the position of mortals, and even the most likely routes that enemy Kindred will take.

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Learning something as basic as the fastest way into or out of a courtyard grants any Kindred fighting there a significant advantage. Escaping, killing, and slipping through an area unnoticed all require intimate knowledge of the map, and the fastest and most reliable way to build up that knowledge is by playing in one area repeatedly.

2 Stay Stealthy

Three Kindred watch a distant church burn in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Brazen, head-on attacks are fun, but more often than not end in death for new players. Weapons in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt are highly lethal, and a single clip from a common automatic is enough to devastate a Kindred if its shots connect.

Discretion keeps Kindred alive, or at least not more dead than they usually are. Crouching to minimize one's silhouette, not sprinting on rooftops, and not triggering car alarms are all must-know tactical skills. Gunshots are also visual and audible giveaways of a player's position, and firing indiscriminately is a sure way to get picked off by another, stealthier player.

1 Don't Start Fights You Can't Finish

Two Kindred have a gunfight in the street in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Though guns and swords can chew through a Kindred's health, the undead are quick to heal themselves by ingesting blood from a bag, syringe, mortal, or fellow vampire. The ease with which enemies heal, combined with the danger posed by exposing one's position, makes it unwise to attack players on distant rooftops.

At best, it will be another player that diableries them, improving their Blood Resonance capacity and handing them the slain Kindred's equipment. Unless a player is reasonably sure of their ability to quickly end a fight, it is better to let an enemy pass unawares so as not to expose oneself and waste precious resources. There will always be more blood to shed in Prague.

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