Sickle

WEAPON

The Sickle in Manhunt.

The Sickle in Manhunt 2.

“*Starkweather revives this 18th century weapon in his feature called "Drunk Driving". The preferred weapon of the "Innocentz", the sickle is used in much the same way as it was in the French Revolution... grotesquely. In one scene, the "hero", the infamous James Earl Cash eliminates one of the Innocents, grab his sickle and goes on a one-man rampage. Using stealth as an ally, he sneaks up to his prey and eviscerates them.*”
―Valiant Video Winter / Spring catalogue, p.11The **Sickle** is a blue class weapon in *Manhunt* and *Manhunt 2*.

## Description

* Manhunt
* Manhunt 2

Originally designed to reap crops, the Sickle is wielded by the Innocentz gang alone who fancy themselves as the Grim Reaper with their pallid faces of death, now reaping the souls of those within the reach of their claws. But Cash shows these nutjobs that the true Death is among them as he takes one of their sickles from their cold, stiff hands and creeps up on them from the shade before he slices them open to free their blood and guts from the confines of their body and liberate their souls from the prison called life.

Sickles can be purchased in Valiant-ent.tv's Adult Store for $300 each, advertised as an 18th century weapon which was also used in Valiant Video's previous snuff movies, as well as a collector's item that's worth having.

After Starkweather's final series of snuff films, Valiant Video sold to their members only sickles that were either the original ones used by the hunters of his snuff films or mere reproductions for $300 per piece. Like before, it was advertised as an 18th century weapon that was grotesquely used during the French Revolution, and a must-have for any weapon collector.

Although Leo Kasper is no lion, he still has his own claws nevertheless when he wields this Sickle, sinking its hook-like blade deep into a hunter's body before he tears it out to slash their neck or belly open.

Meanwhile, Daniel Lamb wields this bane of intact genitalia and intestines against hunters whom the voice in his head deems unfit to live, ripping them open like Leo does.
## Appearance/Influence

* Manhunt
* Manhunt 2

Besides its ordinary handle which is a wooden tube with some curves, the sickle has an unorthodox design for a modern harvesting sickle: sticking out of the handle is a small metal tube where its narrow and curved blade is attached.

The PS2 version of the Sickle has an entirely different model which resembles modern sickles more than the above. It has a straight wooden handle with a darker wood colour and its blade is much broader and darker in color, plus its blade has a sharper curve.

Pretty much the same as the model of the Sickle in other platforms besides PS2, except it has a broader blade.

The broad blade would've made it fit inside the mouth of an unfortunate victim, as seen in its **Jump** execution.
## Abilities/Properties

* Manhunt
* Manhunt 2

### Melee System

#### Attacking

Players using a Sickle may deal quick attacks―attacks that come out quickly, but deals 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 Sickle―whether it's a quick attack or a hard attack―that does not connect with anything (like hunters or surfaces) will produce a small pulse of noise. But if these attacks connect with something else, they may create a large noise pulse, making melee combat noisy and attractive to hunters. Each attack from a hunter (including those wielding a Sickle) towards the player―whether the player blocks them or not―creates a medium pulse of noise.

Additionally, the player is able to attack downed hunters with a Sickle to finish them off after beating them in melee combat. Like all player-made hits on hunters, beating up a downed hunter makes a large noise pulse per hit. Hits like this will also interrupt and prevent downed hunters from getting up. Once the hunter is killed and becomes a corpse on the ground, continuing to hit their remains will only make a small noise pulse per hit.

#### Blocking

Since it can be used for melee combat, players who wield the Sickle can block melee attacks. Blocking attacks are done via doing nothing while facing the attacking hunter/s, 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 hunters when holding a Sickle via pressing Action button and Action2 button together, causing Cash to reach out his hand to grab at a nearby 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 a hunter with a Sickle hits an enemy who is not blocking or with an unblockable hard attack, it will cause their target to stagger. This mini-stun may interrupt many actions, allowing players and hunters alike to cancel enemy actions to their advantage.

### Indisposability

As a Blue class weapon, the Sickle 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 Sickle produce a medium pulse of noise that can be heard by hunters within its range, instantly alerting them to the player regardless if they are in the idle or suspicious states. Look around before a kill unless you want them to hear you.

### Swing Out Attack

While pressed against cover and at the cover's corner, the player may perform a swing out attack using their Sickle. When a swing out attack is able to be done by fulfilling the said requirements, the player will have their Sickle raised up behind them when facing to the right, or they will hold their weapon to their chest when facing left. Despite these 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 stun 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 are in the spotted status, locking the player in combat mode which prevents performing executions. One can tell if they're unable to execute a hunter if Cash enters a combat stance where he holds the weapon up while continuously bouncing in place. That being said, the Sickle's swing out attack will always stun regardless if the player is standing or crouched before performing the attack.

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

The stun of the Sickle'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 the Sickle equipped, the player may knock on any surfaces to create one, large pulse of noise that travels instantly to attract hunters within its range. The player may tell when they are able to knock on a surface if Cash is holding his Sickle closer to himself when he's very close to and facing at a surface. The player cannot perform any quick or hard attacks in this state until they exit it by backing off, or facing away from any surface. Pressing either the Action button or the Action2 button will cause Cash to swing his Sickle 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.

### Melee System

The melee system is pretty much the same even with this Sickle, barring the removal of grappling, changed attack speed, and revamped quick and hard attacks.

#### Blocking

Like the last game, the player can block attacks with this Sickle equipped. However, blocking is no longer automatic in *Manhunt 2* and is now bound to the Block button. When blocking with the Sickle, Danny or Leo will horizontally raise their free arm in front of them to greatly reduce incoming damage from melee attacks (firearms obviously deal full damage to you, even while blocking) and lessen the effect of staggering from enemy melee attacks. Unlike in *Manhunt*, the player no longer moves slightly faster than walking while blocking, they will now move as fast as sneaking while blocking.

### Indisposability

As a Blue class weapon, the Sickle is still not consumed after performing an execution. It will also not break in melee combat.

### Silent Executions

In *Manhunt 2*, all weapons except firearms do not produce sounds in their executions, allowing players to be less careful when picking off hunters. One should still look out for proximity to hunters and their line of sight before getting a kill.

### Swing Out Attack

Unlike the first game's Sickle, this one can behead hunters if it is swung around a corner while pressing against cover. This will only work if the player is standing while behind cover, crouching in cover will simply knock down the enemy and stun them for approximately 5 seconds. Due to how stuns work in this game, they cannot be executed during those 5 seconds. To learn how to exploit *Manhunt 2*’s new stun mechanics, see this page.

### Surface Knocking

Still works like the previous game with nothing new or special added.

### Decapitation

In *Manhunt 2*, the Sickle is now capable of lopping off heads in its swing out attack when standing behind cover, dropping a free Head for the player to use.
## Executions

### *Manhunt*

 **Gruesome** | insert | The player grabs the target from behind to muffle their mouth before slicing their belly open and pushing their body away.

## Combos

* Manhunt
* Manhunt 2

**Note:** *All Blue class weapons, except the Knife, share the same attack animations for both quick and hard attacks.*

## Appearances

*Manhunt*
* View of Innocence (Cutscene only. Wielded with a Knife by an Innocentz high on drugs)
* Drunk Driving (Wielded and dropped by several Innocentz)
* Key Personnel (Found in the basement of Starkweather's mansion along with two bottles and one Painkillers)

*Manhunt 2*
* Ghosts (PC and Wii only)
* Best Friends (Found in the first factory area, one in a control room before the area with the grinders and one below a catwalk in a room with packaged crates)
* Broadcast Interrupted (Wielded and dropped by a few Bloodhounds)
* Altered State (Wielded and dropped by a few Bloodhounds)
* Personality Clash (Wielded and dropped by phantom Watchdogs)

## Gallery

The Sickle in *Manhunt*, PlayStation 2 version.

## Trivia

*General*
* The Sickle's executions that target the groin might be a reference to a Greek myth where Cronus used a sickle given to him by his mother Gaia to castrate his own father Uranus by slashing his genitals open with the sickle in an ambush during the time the latter came to Gaia to lay with her.

*Manhunt*
* The Violent execution depicts the Sickle's chine (or the back of its blade) being used to slice a hunter's crotch, even though it's not sharp unlike the inner edge. This may be an animation error that was not fixed.

*Manhunt 2*
* The PlayStation 2 version of *Manhunt* has a different Sickle model and texture. Its texture name suggest it was originally mean to be a scythe.
* The Sickle in *Manhunt 2* uses the same model and texture as in the PC version of *Manhunt*. However, the blade of the Sickle is thicker than the original model.

## References

1. ↑ Valiant-ent.tv - Adult Store: Sickle, item no. 010
2. ↑ Official Hunter Weapons - Melee Weapons: Sickle, p. 11