Griffin

Main Weapon:

Griffin is one of the many Hunters in Evolve, and the second Trapper character that can be unlocked. You can unlock him after getting all of Maggie's items to One-Star of mastery.

## Summary

They make horror movies about the things mounted on Griffin’s wall. This veteran Trapper relies on deployable Sound Spikes to keep tabs on the Monster’s movements. But when it’s time to face off with his prey, he breaks out his Harpoon Gun to pin it down – like shooting a giant, angry fish in a space barrel.

## Griffin Expanded

The Trapper Class is all about the hunt, and their kit loadouts reflect that perfectly. The most readily identifiable weapon in Griffin's arsenal is the harpoon gun, a missle-based weapon that connects the trapper and his prey by an energy current, trapping the creature in Griffin's range and preventing it from escaping combat. This serves to both control the combat situation and force the creature to change focus, breaking the flow of combat for the creature and making its various offensive capabilities operate within a limited scope. Griffin is also equipped with sound spikes, which create visual indicators of creatures on the map. As an offensive weapon, Griffin's submachine gun is a good medium range weapon which provides a decent amount of damage over a relatively small area. Perhaps the best weapon in every trapper's arsenal, the mobile arena creates a dome-shaped force field that prevent everybody on the field from escaping a limited area, creating a controlled arena for battle that is indispensable to the effective flow of combat as a trapper.

## Weapon Loadout

Griffin is a trapper by trade, meaning that the following loadout is focused on controlling the Monster, leaving heavy damage to the rest of the team.

 Harpoon Gun | Fires an energy harpoon that immobilizes the Monster while the Fire button is held down.
 Sound Spikes | Places down a sensor that detects the movements of the Monster within it's radius. Up to 3 sensors may be active at any one time.
 Planet Scanner | Scans the entire map, creating a directional indicator of the Monster's location on the compass.

## Strategic Role Summary

In terms of tracking, Griffin has an advantage in the later part of the game when he’s able to utilize his Sound Spikes. The Sound Spikes can reveal the monster’s location when crossing through an area, making it easier to find a monster that has thrown the hunters off the trail. In combat, he can deal out accurate damage with his SMG, having low kick back. Utility wise, he can control the monster’s movement faster than any other trapper using his harpoon gun to instantly tether the monster and keep it from moving away from him.

## Helpful Gameplay Tips

Griffin can use a handful of specialty strategies to better deal with the challenges in Evolve:

* Combo Buffer
* Hiding Sensors
* Up Up and Away
* Where do you think you're going?
* Alone in the Dome
* Taking One For the Team!

### Leverage the sound spikes

They can detect the monster’s movement within a 50 meter radius. Only 3 spikes may be placed on the ground at any given time, any new ones placed after that will remove the oldest spike. If you are uncertain of just how far you are from another sensor, you can look at the sensor itself and it will tell you the distance from the closest sensor. Placing these sensors in strategic locations will maximize your potential to find a monster.

### Positioning with the harpoon gun is key

Picture a situation where Griffin has a monster harpooned from the front and the monster is moving towards him. There is no resistance to the monster’s movement, the monster is getting closer to Griffin, and Griffin is just a sitting duck doing nothing useful. This is a poor use of the harpoon gun. Ideal situations require a player’s intuition in recognizing the best spot to be in. Generally this would be where the monster is positioned between Griffin and the monster’s point of interest, which could be another teammate it is chasing or an escape route. For example, if a player like the medic becomes the monster’s focus, Griffin should be behind the monster on higher ground and harpoon the monster in the back so that it can’t get close to the medic.

Now keep in mind, although the monster’s movement is restricted, this still requires that the medic recognizes this situation and escapes appropriately. If your medic runs towards Griffin, then it will cause the monster to turn and face towards Griffin’s harpoon, which will then have no effect on the monster’s movement when moving towards it. So make sure your team understands what your harpoon gun is trying to do – It’s a team effort.

### Tether efficiently

If the monster is looking to run away, the most efficient use of the harpoon gun would be to tether to it while it is leaping/bursting, which uses traversal stamina. Obviously this will prevent him from moving away from you, but less apparent is the fact that you have wasted the limited stamina that a monster can escape with.

### Think long range

The Harpoon gun has a range of 40 meters when tethering to a monster, and can extend for another 7 meters after that before it will break. Anything that breaks the line of sight between the anchor and the gun will break the tractor beam. It does not apply resistance to the monster’s movement if you are in air when you fire a connection to the monster; it only applies resistance while you are grounded. If the monster is climbing, it will get knocked out of its climb and fall off the wall’s surface, unable to climb any further.