The Hunter

The Hunter is an agile Infected who can climb walls and jump over rooftops, similar to 28 Days Later Infected and Half-Life 2's Fast Zombie. If the Hunter crouches for a certain period of time, a meter will fill and it can use its most powerful attack (this was chosen instead of it becoming invisible once backed up to a wall or similar piece of cover). It can then pounce on a survivor, pinning them down on the floor and slashing at them with its claws, rendering the victim powerless unless The Hunter is killed by gunfire or knocked off its victim. If the hunter is shoved off the pinned survivor it will not die instantly, rather just be shoved back and be stunned for a few seconds. It is extremely weak, and can only sustain minor gunfire before dying. Like most other boss infected, a melee from the Hunter does about 2 times the damage of the horde.

Tactics
Fast and agile like the Hunters of Resident Evil, this boss-infected will whisper dark phrases and growl to alert you of his presence. The Hunter is often used as a distraction by both AI and human infected. Solo players fair especially badly against hunters since their attack is often much harder to avoid than the tongue of a Smoker or the bile of a Boomer. Without timely intervention, hunters kill very quickly.

General strategy:
 * Always have at least one buddy close at hand
 * Listen for the distinctive growl the hunter makes when crouched and ready to pounce

Before pounce:
 * If the hunter is outside pounce range, open fire. Head-shots are particularly effective
 * Otherwise, throw a melee attack just as the hunter starts his pounce. This will stun him and you can finish him off with your choice of two additional melee attacks or weapon fire

After a hunter has pounced your fellow survivor:
 * You will receive a visual notification that a fellow survivor is being mauled
 * If sufficiently close, use melee. It's faster, more reliable, and won't result in the inevitable friendly-fire incident
 * If too far away AND there is no survivor closer than you are, go ahead and shoot
 * A well placed head-shot can instantly kill the hunter
 * Don't let walls stop you, if the only way to save a fellow survivor is to shoot through a wall or ceiling then do it. The rifle is particularly effective at this, although even pistols can punch through

Playing as the hunter:
 * Hunters have few hitpoints, so never attack a group of two or more survivors on your own (unless they are distracted, such as by a mob of infected)
 * Lone wolfs are the bread-and-butter of the hunter, eat them first
 * "Hiding" behind cars with alarms and witches is as evil as it is effective
 * So long as you hold down the crouch key, you can pounce continuously, even off walls in mid-air. You can use this to simply distract the survivors rather than actually pounce on them (for example: to give a boomer time to move in)
 * On levels with mini-guns, you can quickly teach the survivors why manning the mini-gun is a bad idea
 * After getting knocked off your victim, immediately run for cover
 * If the survivors are distracted you'll get away with it and gain a valuable second opportunity for pouncing on them
 * If instead you stick around and try using the claw attack, you'll discover that it's actually quite ineffectual

Survivors
Jump Shot Headshot a Hunter while he's leaping.

Dead Stop Punch a Hunter as he is pouncing.

Hunter Punter Shove a Hunter off of a pinned and helpless Survivor.

Infected
Double Jump Pounce two different Survivors on one life as a Hunter.