Baseball Bat (Metal)

WEAPON

The Metallic Baseball Bat in Manhunt.

“*Although illegal in the world of professional baseball, legalities are ignored when it comes to Starkweather's productions. As seen in "White Trash" the Skinz are armed with metal baseball bats, inflicting heavy damage to whoever crosses their path.*”
―Valiant Video Winter / Spring catalogue, p.10
The Metallic **Baseball Bat**, also referred to as **Metal Bat** in the official manual, is a red class weapon in *Manhunt* and one of many Baseball Bat variants.

## Description

Forged out of metal rather than crafted with wood, the Metal Bat is a common sight in the hands of the Skinz, but it's also held by a Smiley who is doomed to die so that Cash can take the weapon from his dead hands to brutally kill more lunatics. Just like its wood counterpart, the Metal Bat is favored by gangs due to how easy it is to obtain as well as it being a good improvised blunt weapon with its durability, range, relatively wide surface area for striking and it being easy to handle.

Following Starkweather's last series of snuff films, Valiant Video sold metal bats that were the original ones or copies of the ones used in his last films exclusively for their own members for $200 each.

## Influence/Appearance

The Metal Baseball Bat is a generic bat made of metal with a black grip. There is a label on its barrel that has devil imagery containing the word “DEVIL”, the number 666, and a logo of a horned demon. These might be intentionally offensive material meant to mock Rockstar Games' critics.

## Abilities/Properties

Below is a list of things the player can do with the Bat equipped as well as the Bat's generic and unique properties.

### Melee System

The Bat can be used in melee combat situations. Some of these mechanics are only available when the player is spotted, which is also when the player enters combat mode.

#### Attacking

Players wielding the Bat can deal quick attacks―attacks that come out quickly but deal low damage―and hard attacks—attacks that come out slow and telegraphed but deal high damage and are unblockable, as well as perform combos that are composed of either attacks and have a maximum of 3 attacks in them.

Each attack from the player's Bat―whether it's a quick attack or a hard attack―that doesn't connect with anything (like hunters or surfaces) produces a small pulse of noise. But if these attacks connect with something else, they will create a large noise pulse, making melee combat noisy and attractive to hunters. Each hit from a hunter (including those wielding a Bat) towards the player―whether the player blocks them or not―creates a medium pulse of noise.

#### Blocking

Since it can be used in melee combat, players wielding the Bat can block melee attacks. Blocking attacks are done by doing nothing while facing the attacking hunters, which reduces incoming melee damage by two-thirds.

The player moves slightly faster while blocking, but it also prevents you from running backwards. If you wish to escape close combat, move out of the hunter's attack range or face away from them to stop blocking.

#### Grappling

The player may grapple enemies when wielding the Bat via pressing Action button and Action2 button together, causing Cash to reach out his hand to grab a hunter. During a grapple, Cash can land up to three damaging hits on the hunter if he isn't interrupted. Each hit in a grapple deals the same damage as a single hard attack.

#### Staggering

When a player or hunter with a Bat hits an enemy who isn't blocking or with an unblockable hard attack, it will cause their target to stagger. This mini-stun can interrupt many actions, allowing players and hunters alike to cancel enemy actions to their advantage.

### Indisposability

As a Red class weapon, the Bat is not consumed after performing an execution, allowing the player to continue using it to execute other hunters.

### Noisy Executions

All executions made by the Bat produce a medium pulse of noise that can be heard by hunters within its range, instantly alerting them to the player regardless if they're in the idle or suspicious states. Choose your targets carefully and know when to strike.

### Swing Out Attack

While pressed against cover and at the cover's corner, the player may perform a swing out attack with the Bat. When a swing out attack is able to be done by fulfilling the said requirements, the player will have their Bat raised up behind them when facing to the right, or they will hold their weapon to their chest when facing left. Despite the different stances, they have no significant effect on a swing out attack.

If the swing out attack successfully lands on a hunter in the idle or suspicious status, it will deal damage and stuns them for three seconds. The player is able to lock on to the stunned hunter and execute them. However, if done to a hunter in the spotted status, the player can't lock on to them since they're in the spotted status, locking the player in combat mode which prevents executions. One can tell if they are unable to execute hunters if Cash enters a combat stance where he holds his weapon up while continuously bouncing in place. That being said, the Bat's swing out attack will always stun regardless if the player is standing or crouched before performing the attack.

Any weapon's swing out attack, including the Bat's, does more damage than its hard attack. This is balanced by the player not being able to quickly perform multiple swingout attacks like in a combo due to the specific conditions required to perform one.

The Bat's swing out attacks do not make any noise if they don't connect with a hunter, otherwise, a hit from a swing out attack produces a large pulse of noise, just like hitting a hunter with a quick attack or hard attack.

The stun of the Bat's swing out attack functions the same as the stuns of Yellow class weapons. See this page to learn techniques on exploiting this game mechanic.

### Surface Knocking

With a Bat equipped, the player can knock on surfaces to produce one large pulse of noise that travels instantly to attract hunters within its range. Players can tell when they are able to knock on a surface if Cash is holding his Bat closer to himself when he's very close to and facing any surface. The player cannot perform any quick attacks or hard attacks in this state until the player exits it via backing off or facing away from a surface. Pressing either the Action button or the Action2 button will cause Cash to swing the Bat at a surface and make a large pulse of noise. The player is also able to knock on surfaces while pressing against cover to the same effect.

However, the player may still produce the same large pulse of noise without getting close to a surface by simply performing any quick attack or hard attack towards a surface without getting too close to it, otherwise Cash will detect that he is near and facing a wall thus he will knock on it instead.

### Hitting Corpses

For some sick reason, the player may beat up the corpses of hunters with the Bat to no benefit in gameplay. Doing this causes a small noise pulse. This action is only available when the player is not in combat mode.

#### Head Destruction

All Bat variants' Gruesome executions will destroy the victim's head. Destroying heads adds one point to the scene's final ratings, making all Gruesome Bat executions grant 7 points rather than the typical 6 points from other weapons' Gruesome executions.

Like all other Baseball Bat variants, it can destroy heads on corpses (even beheaded ones) if the player stands near the corpse's head area before hitting it. This act of defiling corpses grants the player one point to the scene's final ratings. With this, the player may spend less time locking on to a hunter for lengthier executions while still earning the maximum final scores. For instance, a player can simply perform any Hasty execution, then destroy the dead hunter's head for an additional point, giving them the equivalent points of what they could've gotten with a Violent execution without waiting for it.

Since destroying a corpse's skull counts as hitting a corpse, doing this action produces a small pulse of noise. For some reason, hitting corpses (and subsequently destroying its head) immediately after performing the Bat's Violent execution produces a large noise pulse.

## Executions

**Note:** *All variants of the Baseball Bat share the same execution animations with no differences whatsoever.*

 **Gruesome** |  | The player strangles the target with the bat within an inch of their life, falling to their knees. The player steps back and swings the bat at their head, smashing their skull to pieces.

## Appearances

*Manhunt*
* White Trash (Wielded and dropped by most of the scene's Skinz)
* Fuelled By Hate (Wielded by dropped by most of the scene's Skinz)
* Doing Time (Wielded and dropped by a Smiley after performing a Violent and Gruesome execution with the Hammer)
* Hard as Nails (Starting weapon)

## References

1. ↑ Official Hunter Weapons - Melee Weapons: Metal Bat, p. 10
2. ↑ “How Manhunt rating system works. Detailed advanced explanation.” on Reddit by u/alekseysaz