Chasing Survivors on a Budget: A Hunter-Main’s Journal for Identity V

August 10, 2025 Hector Mack 0 Comments

I swapped from Survivor to Hunter six months ago—mostly because I got tired of teammates popping ciphers while I kited alone. What surprised me is how methodical the Hunter side can be. Below is the weekly routine that took my Smiley Face and Dream Witch from mid-tier to Rhinestone V without marathon queues — and how I keep Echo costs from ballooning by topping up only when the math works through the Identity V top-up center.

Monday—Pathing Drills in Custom Lobbies

Most Hunters tunnel vision on the nearest heartbeat. I spend fifteen minutes in Customs walking every spawn route on Arms Factory and Sacred Heart. The goal is to memorize two patrol loops: one anti-kite line that cuts predictable pallet paths and one cipher-pressure line that forces early rescues. Mapping these routes when the clock isn’t ticking lets me commit to them instantly in ranked.

Tuesday—Trait Shuffle for Fresh MMR

I keep three preset builds:

Insolence + Detention for Smiley Face rushes—rockets online at 90 seconds.

Confined Space + Trump Card for Dream Witch, letting me pop Teleport twice in a single chase.

Blink + Excitement on Wu Chang to counter Forward stuns.

Switching traits every reset prevents Survivors from predicting my tempo, and it costs nothing but a lobby click.

Wednesday—Replay Slow-Mo and Hitbox Checks

Mid-week, I record two ranked matches and scrub frames in 0.25× speed to spot throw windows. A common find: I swing too early at pallet drops; delaying by half a second secures Terror Shocks that break three-cipher kites. That single tweak bumped my hit accuracy from 42 % to 58 % over eight games.

Thursday—Echo Math and Costume ROI

NetEase loves tempting Hunters with limited skins. I follow one rule: If a costume doesn’t improve hitbox visibility or pallet reads, it waits. The Lady 13 “Sailor Star” set? Gorgeous but wide—easy for Survivors to gauge range, so I skipped it. When a functional skin arrives—like Reaper’s “Bloodbath” with clear swing arcs—I reload once, never drip-feeding $2 purchases. My go-to is the cheap Echoes recharge page; one bundle, tax included, Echoes delivered before the next lobby, and first-purchase double bonuses still trigger because the transaction runs through NetEase’s own API.

Friday—Red Envelope Harvest

Every Friday I host a custom “Tag” room for followers. Ten Survivors rotate in; the winner gets a raid shout-out, and I collect ten red envelopes worth a few hundred Clues plus the occasional Echo shard. Community nights boost my post visibility and replace half the Clues I’d otherwise farm in quick matches.

Saturday—Ranked Block (3 p.m.–5 p.m.)

Peak queue time means faster match quality. I run the two patrol loops drilled on Monday, ignore chat taunts, and focus on cipher pressure first, downing second. Average result: 3K/4K elimination spread in five matches, roughly 120 rank points.

Sunday—Ledger Check & Single Top-Up

Weekly audit takes five minutes:

Hits vs. Swings — aim to keep misses under 35 %.

Echo Spend — divide Echoes spent by rank points gained; anything worse than 1 star per 350 Echoes means skip next skin.

Trait Success — track escape rate per preset; rotate out the worst performer.

If a crossover accessory drops on Sunday night and I’m low on Echoes, I run one final reload through the Identity V recharge page. Buying in a single bundle with tax already shown beats accumulating fees via app-store micro-transactions, and the saved percentage usually equals an extra Graffiti pull during the next Essence event.