Hound

## Bio

*Autobot Hound has a mean bark and a nastier bite. This brave warrior will back his teammates no matter how grim the struggle. Armed with enough weaponry for a small army and quick to improvise, this Autobot is able to hold his own in any situation.*

## Max Stats

* 2-Star:
	+ Health: 1,854
	+ Attack: 149
	+ Max Rating: 547
* 3-Star:
	+ Health: 4,553
	+ Attack: 318
	+ Max Rating: 1308
* 4-Star:
	+ Health: 11,839
	+ Attack: 827
	+ Max Rating: 3484

5-Star

## Game Abilities

### Basic Abilities

* Inferno Ammo
* Precision Ammo

### Abilities

* *Ammo Types:*
	+ Holding Block at Ranged Distance for ~~0.9~~ 0.6 seconds will Swap Autobot Hound’s Ammo Types.
	+ Inferno Ammo grants Critical Ranged Hits a 100% chance to inflict Burn, dealing 40~60% of Attack as Heat damage over 8~10 seconds.
		- The third hit of a Ranged Combo has a 100% chance to refresh the timer of a Burn Debuff.
	+ Precision Ammo grants Ranged Attacks a 30~50% increased Critical Rate and cannot be Evaded and is not affected by abilities that would cause Ranged Attacks to Miss.
		- The second hit of a basic ranged combo has a 60% chance to Nullify a Shield Buff on the opponent.
		- The third hit of a basic ranged combo has an 80% chance to Nullity a Shield Buff on the opponent.
	+ Sidestepping with Precision Ammo Purifies all Daze effects.
* *Ranged Attacks:* Critical Hits on Burning opponents have 50~% Critical Damage.
* *Heavy Attacks:*
	+ 100% Chance to gain an Armor Buff, reducing damage from attacks by 10% for 6 seconds.
	+ 50% Chance to inflict a Critical Resistance Debuff, increasing the chance for Critical Hits against opponents by 20~27.2%? for 6~8 seconds.

### Signature Ability

**Warrior Ballerina**

*In the heat of a firefight this robust robot uses his surprising agility to maneuver and exploit the enemy's weak points.*

* Sidestepping Ranged Attacks:
	+ When Autobot Hound rolls to avoid a Ranged Attack he gains a 50~200% Ranged Bonus for 5 seconds.
	+ +1.7% per level

### Special Attacks

1. **Rolling Thunder** - *Big boy coming through!*
	* While Precision Ammo is equipped the last hit has a 100% Chance to inflict 100% Critical Rate Down for 20 seconds.
	* While Inferno Ammo is equipped this the last hit has a 100% chance to inflict Burn, dealing 60~80% of Attack over 8 seconds.
2. **Safeties Off** - *Nothing makes holes quite like a naval rotary cannon.*
	* 50% chance per hit to Bleed, dealing 40% of Attack over 5 seconds.
	* The final hit instead has a 50% chance to Burn. dealing 40% Attack over 5 seconds.
3. **Full Autobot** - *You’re not out of time until you’re out of ammo!*
	* 100% Chance to gain an Armor Buff, reducing damage from attacks by 10% for 30 seconds.
	* Autobot Hound has a 100% chance to inflict a Critical Resistance Debuff, increasing the chance for Critical Hits against opponents by 40% for 20 seconds and proceeds to fire every gun in his inventory.

### Synergy Bonuses

* **Enemies** – Barricade - +2~3~8% Attack Rating.
* **Sharpshooters** – Mirage, Arcee - +5~10~20% Crit Rate on Ranged Attacks.
* **Weapon Specialists** – Mixmaster, Ironhide, Rhinox - +3~4~9% duration for all Damaging Debuffs. +2~4~8% Attack Rating in Alliance Missions.
* **Medic Support** – Optimus Prime (MV1), Drift - 1.3~2.5~7% of base Health Repaired at the start of the fight. +3~4~5% extra Repair in Raids.
* **Allies** – Optimus Prime MV1, Drift - +2~3~8% Armor.
* **Leadership** (5-Star) - +10% Critical Damage.

## Strategy

### Player

Hound may not have the strongest basic and Special Attacks, and his Burns are longer than stronger, but his Precision Ammo mode is useful in specific situations. Enemies can't Evade Hound's Precision Ammo ranged attacks. If affected by a Daze, Hound can Sidestep with this Precision Ammo. His only disadvantage is that he relies on his Ranged Attacks to connect to deal their maximum damage. Hot Rod is a safer option for Ranged Attacks and anti-evade through those Ranged Attacks.

Hound's Precision Special 1 is useful for disabling an opponent's Critical Rate, which is useful against Solo Mission Bots with deadly Critical Rate and Critical Damage mods.

In addition, Hound himself can deal frequent ranged Critical hits by increasing his Critical Rate and decreasing his opponent's Critical Resistance.

### Opponent

Dodging Hound's Special II can be tricky, as it will fire almost instantly. The best (if not *very* effective) way to at least reduce its damage is Blocking. It is possible to sidestep all the bullets, but the grenade requires sidestepping at the right moment.

### Strong Match-Ups

* Barricade – Autobot Hound’s Precision Ammo rarely misses, making Autobot Hound the premier choice to dismantle this Barricade’s powerful Evasion Buff.
* Mirage, Windblade, Slipstream – Their Heavy Attacks are notorious for being untouchable to Ranged Attacks, but that trick stops at Autobot Hound. Precision Ammo is not affected by abilities that would cause Ranged Attacks to Miss.
* Blaster - Blaster will have a harder time to reduce Hound's Precision Ammo. And if he thinks he can absorb his Ranged Attacks with Absorption Shield, the Shield will be broken before Blaster knows it.
* Kickback's Critical-based dinner won't be served when his waiter is Hound, serving him a zero-Crit Special diet.
* Hot Rod - Acceleration Evades will do nothing to Hound's Precision Ammo.
* Cheetor - The Maximal scout won't be so able to dodge-and-dash in.
* Hound's push won't be affected by Scorponok's Dazes - just sidestep with Precision Ammo.
* Rhinox, Wheeljack - As of v8.4, Hound's Precision can break Shields from a distance.
* Megatron (ROTF) - Bleeds and burns ignore Megatron’s armor and Hound’s ranged attacks will mostly win when it comes to ranged to ranged attacks.

Mods

* Hound's Precision Ammo is unaffected by the E.M.I Module.

### Weak Match-Ups

* Optimus Primal – Primal will completely resist Autobot Hound’s Powerful Critical Hits which means no burns for the maximal. Even though Hound can inflict Critical Resistance Debuff.
* Soundwave – Soundwave has the ability to reflect Autobot Hound’s powerful Signature Ability right back into his bearded face. So does Jetfire's parry shield but no needs Signature Ability to be awakened.
* Optimus Prime can break through Hound's armor.
* Nemesis Prime too but he can copy the armor buffs and nullify them in return.
* Megatron - A fused debuff means, Megatron will outshoot this warrior.
* Grimlock - Bleeds and burns will fuel the dinobot’s rage.
* Megatronus - Megatronus can break Hound’s armor and the relic of obedience can prevent Hound from gaining armor or any other buffs.

### Recommended Modules

You're entering a world of Guns & Ammo with these Mods!

* E.M.I. Module – The E.M.I. Module will punish any gunslingers who attempt to outshoot this warrior.
	+ Raids: His Precision Ammo would not be affected by opponent E.M.I Modules.
* Laser Guidance Module – This module will combine with Autobot Hound’s Signature Ability to punch holes through even the toughest opponent.
* Superconductor 2000 - It is quite hard to completely dodge Hound's Gatling gun bullets and grenade.
* The Harm Accelerator will enhance Hound's damaging debuffs.
* The Security Module pads his protective vest.

## Obtainment

* Big Boy Crystal
* February 2018 Bot Chips
* Bot Crystals (added 5/24/2018)
	+ Premium Bot Crystal (Shard Crystals)
	+ 3-Star Bot Crystal
	+ 4-Star Bot Crystal
* **May 2019 Featured Bot Set** - 3- to 5-Star Hound

* **5-Star Crystals** - added March 12, 2020
	+ *in addition to a* **5-Star Big Boy Crystal** that has an increased chance to drop Hound

* May 2020 Bot Set

## Updates

* 2019:, v8.0
	+ Added +3.6% to base Critical Rate.
	+ The time it takes to switch ammo has been reduced to 60ms, down from 90ms.
	+ Increased Signature Ability scaling to start at +50% projectile damage. This scales to an unchanged maximum of +200%.
	+ The bonus from Hound’s Signature Ability remains active during Special Attacks that activated before the bonus expired.
	+ Increase Critical Damage against Burning opponents.
	+ The Critical Resistance Debuff now scales up, gaining +0.5s duration and -1.8% potency each Rank.
	+ The increased Critical Damage against Burning targets now scales up +5% with each Rank.
	+ The final (grenade) hit of Special 2 inflicts Burn instead of Bleed.
	+ Sidestepping while Precision Ammo is equipped Purifies Dazed effects.
	+ Added +10% Attack to Inferno Ammo heat damage (was 25~40%) at all Ranks and now all damage is dealt after 10 seconds instead of 15s.
* v8.4 April 30, 2020
	+ Hound gains new abilities when landing a ranged combo.
	+ Hound's Special a applies a Critical Resistance Debuff that can last as long as you stay at range.
	+ Hound's Warrior Ballerina Signature Ability now lasts longer.

* *Hound has great versatility with his two ammo types, allowing him to cause Burn damage or ignore Evade abilities. His toolbox of abilities allows him to change things up depending on your opponent, but it could end up feeling like Hound was not as strong as a less versatile Bot.*
	+ *We also want to encourage players to use Hound as a ranged bot, but many players felt like there wasn’t enough reward for landing ranged combos.*
	+ *Finally, we wanted to give expert players a chance to really shine with Hound in longer fights, so we’ve modified his Special Attack 3 in a way that should allow skilled players to maximize Hound’s damage.*
	+ *With these changes, we hope players will make Hound feel more like a heavy weapon, dealing damage from a distance.*
* *(NEW) Inferno Ammo:*
	+ *• 3rd hit of a Ranged Combo has a 100% chance to refresh the timer of a Burn Debuff.*
* *(NEW) Precision Ammo:*
	+ *• The 2nd hit of a ranged combo has a 60% chance to remove a Shield Buff from the opponent*
		- *• The 3rd hit of a ranged combo has an 80% chance to remove a Shield Buff from the opponent*
* *(ADJUSTED) Special Attack 3:*
	+ *• Autobot Hound has a 100% chance to inflict a Critical Resistance Debuff, increasing the chance for Critical Hits against opponents by 40% for 20 seconds and proceeds to fire every gun in his inventory. (Timer was 28 seconds, now it’s 20, but doesn’t start counting down until the player hits or is hit by a melee attack)*
* *(ADJUSTED) Signature:*
	+ *• When Autobot Hound rolls to avoid a Ranged Attack he gains a 50~200% Ranged Bonus for 5 seconds. (was 3 seconds, increased to 5)*
* *BUG FIX:*
	+ *• 5-Star Hound was not gaining his Armor Buff when performing a Heavy Attack. This has been fixed.*

## Trivia

* His vehicle mode is based on a Customised Mercedes Unimog Tactical Vehicle, but the logo is removed to avoid licensing issues.
* In the film he also sports red crosses on his helmet and shoulders. Those were probably removed for the same reason.