Lost Saga Treasure Hunter Guide

Lost Saga Treasure Hunter Guide by kninja

The Treasure Hunter is one of the strongest ranged heroes in Lost Saga, dealing as much damage as a Space Trooper per shot, but with the ability to combo shots together for an extremely damaging combo.
In this guide, I will refer to numerical damage. All damage was tested by Unbounded, so, thank you, Unbounded! In Prisoner mode, heroes have roughly 187~195 hp.

Terms
Quick Shot/Normal Shot: A shot fired while the aiming cursor is yellow.
Precise Shot: A shot fired while the aiming cursor is blue.
Half Faint: Status condition where the afflicted bends over for just under a second. Some people call it “Cringe” for some reason.
Faint: Status condition where the afflicted falls to their knees, then slowly falls to the ground.
Invincibility Frames: The temporary invincibility gained when using a skill.

Damage (All damage calculated and tested by Unbounded)

Combo:
First hit: 8
2nd hit: 8
3rd hit: 10

Normal Shot: 17
Precise Shot: 21

Torch: 8 per hit
Buckshot: 20

Now, remember, attacks deal HALF damage to anyone in the air or on the ground, and everyone has a bit of natural defense, sans naked heroes. Heroes have roughly 190 HP in an even prisoner match.

Combos
    Normally, I’d put this section later in the guide, but OGP requires I have it as the second part, so, here we go.

The most basic combo of the Treasure Hunter is:

Quick Shot > Quick Shot

If done correctly-and quickly enough-the opponent will be in faint status, BECAUSE-in case you didn’t already know-if a person with Half Faint status is hit with another Half Faint causing attack before they recover from the previous Half Faint, it will cause Faint. This is most commonly seen with Cyber Medic’s Dash Attack > Dash Attack, and the aforementioned Treasure Hunter Combo.

Now, let me show you a basic, but highly damaging combo

Written out, that combo is:

Quick Shot > Quick Shot > Camera > Quick Shot > Quick Shot > Buckshot

In terms of damage, that’s 17 + 17 + 17 + 17 + 20, or 88 damage, nearly HALF of an average hero’s HP. And that’s only using 2 skills.

Of course, to pull this combo off, you’d need to land the first Quick Shot with proper positioning, and that’s not too easy. However, there is this slightly weaker, but easier to land combo:

Camera > Quick Shot > Quick Shot > Precise Shot

Although this combo only does 55 damage, it’s easier to land, and doesn’t use Buckshot.

Basic Playing Tips
I would have much rather put this first, but OGP has forbidden that. Here it is anyway…

Quick Shot Faint
As previously mentioned, 2 rapid Quick Shots will cause the enemy to faint. Now, the timing on this is a little bit tricky, and you REALLY want to get this right, as it’s arguably the most vital part of TH. There aren’t any tricks to this, so all I can say is practice.

Actually, I lied. There is ONE thing you need to know, and it is:
Strafe Aiming
Unlike heroes like Cowboy or Infantryman, TH uses Strafe Aiming. Although this allows him to move while aiming, it also carries the curse of slower aiming. Watch this video to see what I mean.

Notice that the Cowboy was able to nearly instantly lock-on to Developer K, while the Treasure Hunter had a slight delay. If you want to pull of the Quick Shot Faint, you have to be perfectly aligned with your target. If you’re not, the delay will be too great for you to pull it off.

Support Hero Quality
Treasure Hunter is a support hero. Contrary to popular belief, that does not mean that he won’t deal a lot of damage-in fact, he could be dealing much more damage than other “non-support” heroes. Being a support hero simply means that Treasure Hunter relies on a teammate or teammates to be optimally effective. Treasure Hunter can rack up a lot of damage simply by firing from just behind a teammate and he helps his teammates deal more damage, as his shots cause half faint. However, this means that Treasure Hunter does not make a great main hero. It’s not that you shouldn’t use Treasure Hunter a lot, just that you should have some sort of “backup hero” that is less situational.

Spacing
Watch this:

Notice how much range Treasure Hunter has. Many people consider him to be a short-range hero and although he doesn’t have much range in comparison to most other ranged heroes, he DOES have more range than more than half of the other heroes. Thus, when playing as a Treasure Hunter, don’t be afraid to keep your distance. Proper spacing can drastically reduce the damage you take, as well as annoy your opponents.

Jump Shot Faint
Although “technically” this is a combo, it’s more of an advanced technique, therefore, I decided to put this here.

As you can see, that’s a jump shot > quick shot and a Buckshot on the end for good measure.

This is pulled off by firing your jump shot just before you hit the ground, then quickly firing a quick shot. It takes a little bit of practice, but it’s a fairly useful technique, as it allows you to advance or retreat while still causing a faint.

Skills

Buckshot

Buckshot: 20

I’m assuming you already know what the skills do.
Now, Buckshot is a pretty good weapon skill. It has decent damage, although not much more than a quick shot, but the great part about this skill is its knockback, which is just below Savage Slam. Treasure Hunter isn’t much of an edging hero, but when he needs to, Buckshot is a great skill for the job. The one thing you do NOT want to do is use Buckshot when a quick shot would work just as well. If you aren’t edging, aren’t using it for the invincibility frames, and aren’t out of ammo, then you should use a quick shot. A quick shot causes half faint, does nearly as much damage, and doesn’t have a cooldown. It’s much better to use, unless specific circumstances make quick shots less effective, such as if you’re near an edge.

Torch

Torch: 8 per hit

A common misconception is that Torch, if used properly, does a lot of damage. That is completely wrong. Torch can get in a maximum of 3 hits. Each hit deals 8 damage to a standing opponent. However, to get in all 3 hits, the opponent has to be on the ground. As previously mentioned, damage done to a grounded hero is HALVED. Therefore, 3 x 4 = 12 damage-less than a single quick shot. That does not mean that Torch is a useless skill. In fact, you can use it to juggle an enemy, and then Buckshot them out of the air for extra knockback. Some people like to use it to delay an enemy in “gear-stripping” combos. It’s not useless, it’s just not useful for pure damage.

Duck
Duck is a pretty bad defensive skill. Compared to skills like Backdash and Bunker, Duck has fewer invincibility frames, leaves you more vulnerable afterwards, and doesn’t have as much countering potential. That’s not to say it’s unusable, as it can still save you from a few attacks. Just don’t expect it to do too much. Also, the worst thing you can do with a defensive skill is underuse it. Duck has a very short cooldown, so don’t be afraid to use it to dodge skills.

Snap Shot
Snap Shot is one of the greatest skills ever. It has a short cooldown. It makes fainting people stand. It has almost no startup warning, making it very difficult to dodge. Particularly in the hands of a Treasure Hunter, a Camera is deadly. I’ve already mentioned the best ways to use Snap Shot in the combo section, so I won’t talk about it much here.

Gears

Body
Torch is a decentish skill. Most other body skills are better than this, however, so unless you’re planning to use Torch in a combo, it’s best to replace it. Interestingly enough, none of the currently available epic gears are especially good specifically with Treasure Hunter, although if I had to suggest a few, I would pick…

Epic Robin Tunic: For getting out of the battle to reload safely, and increased mobility.
Epic Assassin Garb: Sneak up on someone to start a quick shot combo.
Epic Boxing Trunks: Quick Shot > Quick Shot > Uppercut > Jump Shot for some extra edging potential

Hat
Duck is definitely worth replacing. It pales in comparison to other defensive skills, and there are tons of other hat skills that can heavily increase Treasure Hunter’s offensive capabilities. Notable gears include…

Epic Medic Hat: Drain is an awesome skill, AND it makes people stand from faint, and thus, it’s great for extending combos.
Epic Cursed Hat: Cursed Skull works like drain except instead of draining skills, it rips off a gear.
Epic Knight Helm: Headbutt has enough stun time to reload while the opponent is stunned, allowing you to pull of combos such as: quick shot > quick shot > Snap Shot > quick shot > quick shot > Headbutt > reload > quick shot > quick shot > precise shot.

Epic Cowboy Hat: Backdash is like Duck, only much better. Use this if you want to keep a defensive skill.
Epic Sapper Mask: Bunker is also a great defensive skill, and arguably one of the best skills in the game.

Trinket
Do. Not. Replace. Camera. It is one of the best skills in the game. I don’t care if you have a perm Grim Scroll, TKM Board, or Minigun. The only gear you should ever replace Camera with, is…

Epic Camera: ‘Nuff said.

Upgrades
First off, I want to remind you that UPGRADES ARE NOT NECESSARY. If you don’t want to spend the peso, that’s fine. Unbounded’s damage guide has a complete STR chart, so you can see if you think upgrades are really worth it: http://nforum.ogplanet.com/lostsaga/forum_posts.asp?TID=194987

Now, supposing you want to upgrade, there’s one simple build.
Max STR
Max Camera
Treasure Hunter is there to deal damage, and thus, STR is very helpful for that. Camera is one of the best gears ever, therefore, you should upgrade it.

Now, you MAY want to differ from this if you have a good perm gear for your Treasure Hunter. Then, I would suggest:
½ Level STR
Max Camera
Max Other Gear
This assumes that the epic gear you’re using is a good gear, and not just, say, Assassin Hat.

Conclusion
Well, that’s the end of the guide. I wish you great luck on your journey to find treasure! Remember, keep hunting*!

–Kninja

*Actually, don’t. Relic Hunting sucks.