Hunters

Hunters are the renegade survivors of fallen quarantine zones that appear as enemies in The Last of Us Part I, a playable faction in Factions MP, and mentioned in The Last of Us Part II. The hunters are comprised mostly of civilians that remained in the cities that FEDRA abandoned. They are so named because of their tendency to brutally kill anyone entering their territory (whom hunters refer to as "tourists") to steal their clothes, supplies, and food. Joel and Ellie encounter them in Pittsburgh."Pittsburgh"
== History ==
=== Revolting against FEDRA ===
After the outbreak, hunter groups formed in quarantine zones as a response to the military and FEDRA's oppressive rule over them. Food shortages and forced labor were the main reasons numerous cities rebelled against FEDRA's rule. 
After years of living in an oppressive Zone with frequent food shortages, the people of Pittsburgh gradually became impatient with FEDRA, accusing them of being corrupt liars when they ran short on rations, or simply did not distribute food regularly. 
Eventually, after a protest was violently put down with at least three people executed and branded as traitors,Traitors flyer Fireflies helped the citizens rise up against the FEDRA regime. Large-scale fighting broke out over the next fourteen months,Note from momLost Hill note ending with Captain Mastros ordering his soldiers to abandon the zone,Abandon zone note and the rebels executing any soldiers they captured by lynching. They even burned Mastros and his squad to death.Mob attack note 
The rioting citizens didn't want to be controlled by FEDRA, nor take orders from the Fireflies. Thus, it wasn't long before they killed the Firefly agitators as well.Fireflies note They later found and killed the soldiers hiding out in the city's hotel, and secured a working Humvee from a fleeing military garrison, meaning the city was now completely under their control.Truck note
Now, the citizens had complete control over the city. Despite having intentions to create a better government than FEDRA, their plans never reached fruition, as everyone was still desperate for supplies. In one instance, a couple of teenagers murdered a family passing through the Zone, but when put on trial the leader praised them, claiming they had gathered food and supplies, and commanded everyone to take turns hunting tourists in packs. Two people spoke out, only to be brutally murdered in front of everyone.Trial note At some point after this, they tied a dead body to the Humvee's hood and wrote a sign on the front that says "RUN", reflecting their sadistic nature.
=== Hunting tourists ===
==== Events of The Last of Us Part I ====
Hunter groups eventually expanded into rural areas and abandoned suburbs, like Lincoln, though Bill observed that Infected tended to drive them away.Hunters note Joel and Tommy Miller joined a hunter group at one point, and regularly ambushed unsuspecting travelers to steal their supplies and even torture them for information. The pair eventually left their hunter group, with Joel choosing to become a smuggler in Boston while Tommy joined the Fireflies."Tommy's Dam" By 2033, according to Joel, hunter rule was the norm in many cities that were once QZs.
Joel and Ellie encounter the hunters controlling Pittsburgh when they enter the city in their pick-up truck. One pretends to be injured in an attempt to trick the pair into stopping to help, but Joel, knowing the ruse, drives through the group which begins to attack them. While fleeing the area, they crash after being rammed by a bus and are forced to escape and make their way through the city on foot. They head for a bridge leading out of the city, battling many hunters patrolling the city along the way.
They watch as the hunters discuss their present situation, dealing with other "tourists" who entered the city sometime before Joel and Ellie. The pair learns that one group was brutally murdered apart from a single woman, who was chased through most of the night. She evaded capture, only to reveal herself in an effort to kill them, with the hunters finally killing her. She caused enough trouble for the group that they failed to secure any supplies that day.Tourists manifest Other hunters also lynched one member who had stolen food from the supply cache, while the Humvee unit found and murdered a man and woman they had been searching for. While evading the Humvee crew, Joel and Ellie also meet two other survivors, Henry and Sam, who were separated from their group passing through the city after being attacked and scattered by the hunters.
The hunters in Pittsburgh repeatedly mention that they are under the control of a leader, who is never seen or encountered by Joel or Ellie. It is also mentioned that they have had more than one leader over the course of time, suggesting that the previous leader or leaders died or were usurped by another hunter. More than once has the leader of the group attempted to expand the perimeter beyond the city limits, such attempts ending with multiple hunters getting killed. While they did manage to expand into parts of the suburbs outside Pittsburgh, they eventually lost the area to the Infected."The Suburbs"
The hunters in Pittsburgh appear to generally dislike each other and only work together out of necessity, judging by the dialogue heard between them. One hunter said the other was a bad shot. The other hunter then threatened to shoot him. Another hunter offered to give him lessons, but was told to shut up. Another hunter remarked on the possibility of expanding their territory only to be mocked by one of the older hunters for his naivety. One hunter professed that he didn't want to keep searching the hotel, his partner proceeding to make him keep searching. A group of hunters hanged another hunter for stealing supplies from their cache. A hunter grumbled at another for remarking on how busy he has been after the latter killed a woman with a shotgun. In another instance, a hunter bribed another into sharing some canned bacon he found, stating he would reveal to the others that he had to be saved from a clicker.
The hunters in Pittsburgh possessed a large arsenal of weaponry, including a modified military HumveeTruck note and, according to a note left by a military soldier, a stolen mortar launcher. They also guarded a bridge, the only other way out besides the highway. They were obsessed with the bridge, with many hunters guarding it by day, so many that Henry and Sam had never dared to escape previously. However, there was merely a small skeleton crew left to guard the exit at night, making that the best time to escape.
The group had no choice but to face hunters again when making their escape, watching briefly as the guards killed clickers in the distance. The group split up, resulting in Joel and Ellie fleeing from the Humvee, forcing them to jump into the river beneath the bridge.
The hunters were encountered again when the four escapees were pinned down by a sniper. Joel was forced to fight his way through the Suburbs to reach the sniper, where he brutally stabbed the hunter to death. Joel then covered Henry, Sam and Ellie from the remaining hunters. However, the hunters from the city quickly arrived with the Humvee. Although Joel killed the advancing hunters, he struggled to destroy the Humvee. He eventually succeeded in killing the gunner as they attempted to throw a Molotov cocktail, immolating the vehicle and causing it to crash.
=== Rivalry with the Fireflies ===
==== Events of Factions MP ====
In Factions MP, a group of hunters arrive near a port and discover a group of Fireflies with several medical supplies which they are using to find a cure for the CBI. The hunters plan to steal the supplies when the time is right. They stake out the camp over a period of 12 weeks, convincing as many survivors as possible to join them while fighting against increasingly stronger Fireflies. After 12 weeks, the hunters either defeat the Fireflies, succeeding in securing the supplies and prolonging their survival or they find themselves overpowered and killed by the Fireflies, who are then one step closer to finding a cure.Factions MP
=== Further activities ===
==== Events of The Last of Us Part II ====
In The Last of Us Part II, hunters remained a prominent force spread throughout the post-apocalyptic America. Hunter groups regularly terrorized the Jackson community. Their attacks were bad enough that, when Ellie asks Tommy for permission to take a group of Jackson's patrolmen to pursue Abby Anderson and the Washington Liberation Front, he declines out of fear that hunters could attack Jackson while they are gone."Jackson"
On their way to Seattle, Ellie and Dina are attacked by a small hunter group while camping. They successfully kill the group in self-defense.Ellie's journal Once in Seattle, Ellie recalls how she killed the hunter who attempted to drown Joel in Pittsburgh to Dina while riding on Shimmer."Seattle Day 1"
Months later, when heading to Santa Barbara, Ellie writes in her journal about how she encountered a group of hunters and killed them."Santa Barbara"
== Strength ==
=== Equipment ===
Living within a fallen quarantine zone and suffering from a lack of supplies and rations, the hunters' equipment is primarily scavenged and self-made. Most are equipped with basic weaponry, using melee weapons, 9mm pistols, revolvers, shotguns, hunting rifles, and Molotov cocktails. Some of the hunters made use of body armor and gas masks scavenged from dead military soldiers to better protect themselves against bullets. The hunters don't use any assault rifles that could have been scavenged, suggesting that they ran out of ammunition for them by the time Joel arrived. As evidenced in their conversations, the uprising severely depleted both their numbers and available supplies. As such, they make use of more hand-held weapons like 2x4s, pipes and baseball bats. They also house smoke grenades in their garages, but are not shown using them.
They did, however, possess more effective weapons, such as a Humvee with a 50. caliber machine gun that they managed to repair, and a military sniper rifle with considerable amounts of ammunition. They also placed tripwired nail bombs around the city in the hopes of catching people off guard or killing wandering infected.
The Humvee was used to pursue Joel and Ellie and many other survivors, allowing for quick and easy kills. The sniper was used to kill any who tried to infiltrate the suburbs and had the potential to kill people from at least 400 meters away. However, both of these were later lost thanks to Joel killing the sniper and using the rifle to shoot the Humvee gunner, causing it to crash from a Molotov cocktail that exploded in it. The sniper rifle was lost due to many infected swarming the suburbs, surrounding the house and requiring a hasty retreat.
It is unknown how the destruction of the Humvee and the loss of the sniper rifle affected the Pittsburgh hunters. At this point, a large number of hunters were killed by Joel and Henry. The loss of life and powerful weapons may have been a serious setback. Previously, some felt confident enough to expand beyond the city, though the success of such was mixed, judging from conversations Joel can listen in on throughout the city.
=== Combat ===
The hunters are seasoned survivors. Years of living in the ruined Pittsburgh quarantine zone have enhanced their survival capabilities. Despite their unkempt appearance and apparent incompetence with firearms, most appear to be physically on par with Joel, evidenced by how one hunter notably managed to slam his head into a glass fridge, then nearly pierced his neck on the broken glass while another succeeded in holding him underwater and almost drowning him.
In terms of how they fare against other organized factions, they resemble the bandits the most. Though the hunters are not as hardened as these survivors due to not experiencing life outside the Zone, they possess superior numbers and equipment. Because of said inexperience and lack of military training, most hunters can be outwitted and bested by said hardened survivors, notably Henry and Joel, despite their superior numbers. In many cases however, the hunter's bigger numbers still makes them a considerable threat, allowing them to overwhelm a few lone survivors. The hunters' victory over the Fireflies and the military also appears to have been based on numerical superiority, as most of them only have basic weaponry.
Regarding the infected, the hunters appear to have kept infected presence low within the city through routine inspections in numerous buildings, with some claiming that the infected's presence has not been felt in weeks. However, some infected still roam the city, particularly in hotel basements and the sewers. In the few moments they have faced infected directly, the hunters did well: two of them managed to kill a clicker, but only by taking it by surprise and a sniper was able to kill several clickers at a distance. Regardless, their success wasn't always as consistent as other groups such as the cannibals, since other hunters fled in fear from a group of infected when trying to get in to the town of Lincoln.
== Known members ==
* Eva
* Joel Miller 
* Reuben
* Tommy Miller 
== Behind the scenes ==
* Hunters were the first hostile survivors revealed in gameplay demos.
* No female hunters are encountered as enemies in-game, but their existence is implied by their presence in the Factions MP multiplayer mode as well as numerous bits of concept art. Also, in-game, two hunters debated whether or not they should have let a dead female tourist live and become part of their group instead of killing her, though they decided against such since she would kill them if given the chance. In a Q&A with Naughty Dog, they explained that the lack of female human enemies was a matter of memory on the PlayStation 3's system with different models and animations being needed.PlayStation Discussion (archive)
* The trailers for The Last of Us depicted certain scenes within the game containing the hunters. In the final product, several of the hunter's models were changed. In the first one, the hunter that attempted to impale Joel against a fridge door's glass, whose gaming model changed at least three times throughout development.The Last of Us trailer, August 2012, timestamp; 0:40The Last of Us trailer, September 2012 timestamp; 1:18The Last of Us trailer, June 2013 timestamp; 1:04 The model of the hunter that tries to drown Joel was changed at least twice.The Last of Us trailer, December 2012, timestamp; 1:27 Another hunter's model was changed at least twice.The Last of Us trailer, August 2012, timestamp; 0:40
== Gallery ==
=== The Last of Us (2013) ===
huntershotgun.png|A hunter with a shotgun.
Tloujoelfacehit.png|A hunter attacking Joel with a 2x4.
Tlouwrestling.png|Joel pinned by a hunter.
Images (2).jpg|Joel executes a hunter.
Hunter_vs_Joel.jpg|A hunter tries to impale Joel on broken glass.
Last-of-us.jpg|A hunter with a shotgun, searching for Joel and Ellie.
the-last-of-us (1).jpg|Joel punching a hunter in the face
Tourist_garage.jpg|Joel and Ellie discover the hunter's "supplies".
Joel_approaches_Hunter.jpg|Joel sneaks up on a hunter.
Ellie_stabs_Hunter.jpg|Ellie stabs a hunter.
Joel_drown_hunter.jpg|A hunter holds Joel under water.
pipe-swing-miss.jpg|Joel brawling with a hunter
Joel-punches-hunter.jpg|Joel overpowers a hunter as Ellie watches.
Skeleton_crew.jpg|Hunters guarding the entrance to the bridge.
Joel_strangling.png|Joel strangling a hunter.
=== The Last of Us Part I ===
Hunners.png|A group of hunters.
Hunters jump.png|Hunters entering the area.
Helmet hunters.png|Two hunters with protective helmets.
HunterRM 2.png|A hunter with a sawed-off shotgun.
Hunters rm 4.png|Hunters killing tourists.
Hunter pyro 2.png|A molotov-throwing hunter, distinguished by their gas masks and red hoodies.
Pyro hunter.png|An armored molotov-thrower with a 9mm pistol.
HunterHumvee.png|The hunters' Humvee.
Hunter vest pistol.png|A hunter with a pistol and ballistic vest.
Hunter ellie.png|A hunter about to kill Ellie.
== References ==
de:Hunters
es:Cazadores
fr:Les Chasseurs
it:Cacciatori
pl:Łowcy
ru:Охотники
Category:The Last of Us Part I groups
Category:The Last of Us Part I enemies