Tutorials/Manhunt/Tricks and Traps

Whether you're a hunter or a runner, tricks and traps can be very helpful in achieving your goal.

Tricks for Both Sides
1) Potions

Easily one of the strategies with the most potential and effect, and also one of the least situational, Potions are a surefire way of getting an advantage over the other side. Many potions are in the game, and a lot of the ingredients are not so hard to get, especially when you need to visit places like the Nether or a cave anyways. Since brewing potions requires blaze rods, this is a strategy for late game, however it is pretty easy to collect 2 or 3 extra blaze rods when you need at least 7 anyways. A lot of potions have useful effects. Some of the more useful ones are:

Strength

Speed

Invisibility

Slowness

Poison

Weakness

Tricks for Runners to Use
1) Towering

This may seem simple and obvious, but if you are in low health or need to smelt or craft, this could be a game saver. Being this high in the air gives you an advantage over the hunter, as to reach you they have to either tower up to you and risk you hitting them off or have an ender pearl. However, if they have a bow they could knock you off at long range, so I would suggest placing blocks behind you as a sort of makeshift railing. This could also be used to knock hunters off the tower and have them take fall damage. For example, in Dream's recent survivalist vs. 3 hitmen video, he lures Sapnap and GeorgeNotFound onto a bridge made of leaves, and using his shears took the blocks out from under them and thus threw them down onto the ground many blocks below. In another video, Dream uses a fishing rod to pull his friends off their towers as well. Overall towering is an easy-to-implement plan that gives you an advantage. The only downside is that this strategy is basically a beacon to the hunters, and may not be the best plan for a more sneaky runner who wants to avoid PvP at all costs. Also, unless you can kill the hunters, you are going to have to get past them eventually. Personally, I would recommend practicing your MLG skills before using towers.

2) Distance

Easily one of the most useful things you could have in the game, this strategy requires some work. The hunters are sure to chase you, and the terrain, mobs, and other factors could cause you to lose your lead. You will need to use certain tricks and items to cover as much distance as possible, as quickly as possible. Remember that hunters can use these strategies as well. The only reason I put these in the 'runner' section is that it is far more beneficial for the runner than for the hunters. Some strategies to speed up or slow down hunters include using boats or dolphins to cross oceans, water to slow the hunters down, lava and flint and steel to light the hunters on fire, blocks to make the terrain more unpredictable, or give you a bridge over shallow pools of water, terrain generation, potions (specifically speed, splash potion of slowness, or splash potion of poison) and ender pearls. Nether travel is a very good and fast option as well, but will only work if you have enough obsidian to make another nether portal farther away, or can trade with the Piglins to get enough obsidian.

3) Unexpected Tricks

There is a lot of ways to get the hunters off your tail. And when you are just starting, these might come in handy. So you start your manhunt game and come across a village. You will want to turn all their hay bales into bread, right? But hold on one second! Keep at least one of those hay bales with you. Hay bales reduce 80% of most fall damage. So if you don't have a water bucket, or aren't very good at using them to save your life, hay bales will almost 100% save your life from most heights. At least, at the cost of a couple of hearts of damage... One of Dream's most useful tools in manhunt is his boats. Whether he is rowing away in the water or literally gliding with this vehicle, it's one of his most valuable assets. My favorite way he has used boats to help him escape is by gliding by repeatedly getting out of the boat and going back in the boat repeatedly. This allows the boat to stall in the air for a few seconds while covering some distance. so Dream basically figured out a way to fly with a boat.

Tricks for Hunters to Use
1) trapping the portals

As a Hunter, one of the worst things you can do is let the runner use portals. In order to beat the game, the runner has to visit both the Nether (to collect blaze rods) and the end (to beat the dragon and thus win the game). However, this can be difficult to stop as the runner is going to be bent on reaching the portals. Nether portals are hard to stop players from making, as lava pools are fairly common around the world, but if you use a water bucket you can turn the lava into obsidian and make it much harder for the runner to make the portal. You can also block off the ender portal so that the runner cant use it. If you are in the nether you could use beds or TNT to break the portal or kill the runner when they come through.