Deer Hunter 2014: Caspian Basin, Mekong Wetlands and Thar Desert

“Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they’re in the game.” —Paul Rodriguez

My intuition tells me that there are still individuals who are looking for Deer Hunter 2014-related information. It’s now 2015, and given that Glu Games has not released a successor to Deer Hunter 2014, it’s safe to suppose that Deer Hunter 2014 will be around for quite some time. This is not particularly surprising, since Deer Hunter 2014’s game model of providing downloadable regions and content has allowed the game to be easily updated and run. It’s a rather clever way of extending the game’s lifespan: when I picked up the game back in November 2013, there were only five regions. Some seventeen months later, there’s a grand total of eighteen regions now on Deer Hunter 2014 for iOS, and unlocking them is a relatively straightforwards procedure: completing all of the Trophy Hunts for a region will allow the next region to be unlocked. While there are eighteen regions in total now, plus five hidden regions that require the use of a compound bow or crossbow, the techniques for staying on top of the game has not changed since my first post: it’s best to always begin saving for a weapon two regions above (so, if you’re in region fourteen, play contract hunts to accumulate enough in-game money to purchase and max out the region sixteen rifle, then, once region sixteen is reached, repeat the process for the region eighteen rifle).

• This post deals largely with regions 16, 17 and 18: ever since November, I’ve been rocking the Grantham Foxhound as my primary bolt-action rifle, with the Rohman Shepherd semi-automatic rifle taking the place of my assault rifle, and the Plisskin Rattler as my primary shotgun. These weapons still perform adequately up to region 15, the Himalayas, and for region 14, the Matanga Hills, they’re still quite capable.

• Completing the hunts in the hidden regions can be a challenge, since the platinum eagles awarded for each successful hunt are relatively few in number, and the costs of upgrade are comparatively expensive. Patience is key here, as the grind can be quite long, but strictly speaking, it’s not a good idea to spend gold on recovering one’s energy.

• The latest hidden region I’ve unlocked is the Legendary City, which features some fantastical maps, such as an underground city with lava flows. Since I last played this back in December 2014, three new hidden regions have been added: the Kingdom of Gold, Ruins of Carpathia and Antarctic Crater. I haven’t gotten around to unlocking those yet, but the procedure shouldn’t be too difficult.

• I’ve jumped ahead to the Caspian Basin: having spent between November and March on hiatus, three new regions and three new hidden regions were added to Deer Hunter 2014. Each hunt in the Himalayas only yields 64000 dollars at most, so accumulating enough money for the the Westin Bronco (7 371 610 dollars) can take quite some time. With a base damage of 57340 (upgradable to 83945), unlocking this weapon allowed me to breeze through all of the regions.

• I’ll once again take a few moments to admire the scenery in the Mekong Wetlands region; the regions in Deer Hunter 2014 vary from being unremarkable (such as the Yellow Driver and Gobi Desert), but others have fantastic landscape and lighting that breathe life into the environments.

• Beyond the mountains of the Mekong delta, this region also features swamps, and crocodiles to hunt. I’ve heard that there are special bounties that require shooting the crocodiles in a very specific spot, and that some players are having trouble running into crocodiles in the contract hunts. There is no real solution, besides playing more contract hunts until they are encountered. The sports drinks might be useful here, allowing players to slow time down and place their shots more accurately.

• The Thar Desert is the latest region, and like the Mekong Wetlands, features spectacular-looking scenery. To acquire the resources for purchasing the weapon and upgrades needed to finish this region, I farmed the Easter egg hunts, which yielded on average around 280 000 dollars.

• Similar to the Grantham Foxhound and the Plisskin Bite, the Westin Bronco is styled off classic rifles rather than the highly militarised designs of other weapons in the game. The weapon designs are cosmetic only: some of the more intimidating weapons that were seen in the game earlier on have been vastly eclipsed by weapons of the later regions.

• By region 18, it becomes apparent that the Plisskin Rattler is no longer adequate for the job: while a fine weapon, its low damage output means it takes an entire magazine to down one animal. Thus, it makes sense to upgrade to the Grantham KG-Rook, which hits roughly ten times harder than the Plisskin Rattler. When trying the weapon out, it feels quite nice to be able to complete hunts very quickly.

• For the time being, Deer Hunter 2014 shows no sign of slowing down in terms of content: the model of incremental upgrades and seasonal events means that Glu Games is able to continue adding new features to the game. I still play this sporadically, and over time, I’ll get around to unlocking the remainder of the hidden regions in due course, as well as saving enough for the Plisskin Bane M50: I’ve been using the Rohman Shepherd to stand in as an assault rifle, but its damage model is no longer sufficient, so I’ll need to upgrade, as well.

By this point in time, Deer Hunter 2014’s player base should be reasonably familiar with the unlock mechanics within the game. Thus, most questions in the game will concern whether or not certain missions exist on different platforms. In response to rare hunts for regions sixteen and seventeen, as well as region nineteen, has not been added yet. However, there is the presence of the , a multi-region rifle that includes region nineteen. As such, once the Easter event is over, Glu Games will likely introduce new content. Thus, it’s perhaps not too surprising to see that there is still interest in Deer Hunter 2014: while the game is a little unstable for some, it’s been running fine on my end. The lack of a cloud save feature remains Deer Hunter 2014’s biggest Achilles’ Heel, preventing me from moving the game (and the hours of progress I’ve slowly accumulated over the past seventeen months) from my older iPad to the iPad Air 2. Naturally, if the readers have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.

Deer Hunter 2014: A guide to platinum eagles, Dayong, Yellow River and Isle of Thule

“A wounded deer leaps the highest.” —Emily Dickinson

The last time I wrote about Deer Hunter 2014, it was April, and there was a pile of exams, plus an iOS presentation on the table. This was well before I beat Ace Combat: Assault Horizons and BioShock Infinite, and before the Mobile Suit: Gundam Unicorn finale came out. However, even though it’s been some three months since then, it appears that searches are still pouring in about Deer Hunter: 2014‘s platinum eagles and hidden regions. In fact, this post has been topping the charts for quite some time now on search engines, implying that people are still interested in the game. Thus, to help those who are still wondering about how all of this stuff works, I will go into greater depth as to how these things are unlocked. I will also remind readers that this talk specifically is intended for those running Deer Hunter: 2014 on iOS.

• Before delving into  questions surrounding platinum eagles, I’ll take a few moments to consider the Dayong region, which definitely is one of the most spectacular regions to date: I find myself impressed with the scenery, which includes a verdant bamboo forest, autumn hills and a karst field by nightfall. Moving on to the actual discussion at hand, I imagine that the first question is what the platinum eagles are. They were introduced a while back, and are a special kind of currency used to purchase and upgrade special weapons, usually in the bow class.

• How does one acquire platinum eagles? In the standard regions, there are bow and crossbow challenges that can be completed to accumulate platinum eagles. Completing missions in the standard regions also allow for rare hunts to be opened. Rare hunts yield platinum eagles, as well as some special items on occasions. In the hidden regions, the standard missions, trophy hunts and rare hunts give platinum eagles upon successful completion, while the contract hunts yield standard in-game money.

• To unlock the hidden regions, once must acquire all of the map pieces. There are several ways to collect map pieces: finishing the bow and crossbow challenges, as well as rare hunts. In the case of the latter, rare hunts only occasionally yield map pieces, so a bit of patience is required to gather everything. There is no need to spend gold to recharge more quickly.

• Once all of the map pieces are obtained, the maps will automatically unlock. Like the conventional regions, the trophy hunts for one region will need to be completed before the subsequent regions will unlock. These missions will occasionally require weapon upgrades before they can be attempted; said upgrades cost platinum eagles.

• Those who find themselves short on platinum eagles should complete contract hunts to re-open the rare hunts. Be aware that the rare hunts can be completed in full, although there are sufficient rare hunts to allow for one to replenish their platinum eagles quite quickly.

• The above should address all of the queries surrounding the platinum eagle currency. Now that I’ve unlocked the Isle of Thule, the mystical landscape of tundra evoke a Nordic feeling to it. There are fine details in some of the maps, one of which features a glowing stone with runes on it. These maps require bows to participate in, but those having trouble with the bow’s mechanics can equip a bow and then use their preferred weapons for the hunt.

• Crossbows are heavier hitting and have less stealth compared to the bows, but the second crossbow is magazine-fed and comes with a default of an eight-round magazine. There was a bug in earlier iterations of the game where aiming down the sights was not possible because the scene was obstructed by the scope’s view model, but that appears to have been fixed now.

• The aurora on some of the night missions is a particularly nice touch. At the time of writing, I have yet to finish the trophy hunts in this hidden region, mainly because I’ve been engrossed in Deus Ex: Human Revolutions. I anticipate having a talk on that out quite soon, and regular programming will resume shortly.

• Ordinarily, I would not have included a talk on region 12, but I was offered a Rohman Shepherd for 89 gold. This is a gold-only weapon that ordinarily sells for 1200 gold (roughly 50.00 USD), and as a semi-automatic rifle, has an exceptional firing rate and short reload time. For those wondering, no, I did not spend anything to get at it. A substantial amount of progress can be made in Deer Hunter: 2014 without spending anything, although as I’ve been playing for a half-year now, I can attest that this game does require a fair amount of patience.

• Having a semi-automatic rifle makes Deer Hunter 2014 a little too easy, and even though the weapon will become obsolete when region 13 comes out, it’s quite entertaining to have a high-powered weapon with a reasonably high firing rate and versatility that makes all missions trivially easy.

Thus ends another talk on Deer Hunter: 2014, which should answer all queries about the new hidden regions and platinum eagles. These can be unlocked without much difficulty, but it is a somewhat time-consuming process. Given Glu Games’ typical release pattern, it is quite reasonable to surmise that a future iteration of Deer Hunter could be released by October or so, which means that there will be at least two more new regions to be unlocked in the future. I am quite happy to take questions if I missed anything, but otherwise, it’s time for me to redirect my attention back to the summer 2014 anime and Deus Ex: Human Revolutions.

Deer Hunter 2014- The Lost Temple and Glacial Bay

“You know, if you need 100 rounds to kill a deer, maybe hunting isn’t your sport.” —Elayne Boosler

A few weeks ago, Glu Games released the latest update to Deer Hunter 2014, adding to the game a host of new features, including bows and crossbows and special stealth hunt challenges. Moreover, bounties were added, encouraging players to play through older regions again to complete specific tasks (e.g. take down so many animals with lung shots, etc). Successfully completing a bounty yields gold and consumables. While the bounties and new weapons are exciting on its own, things get even more interesting with the addition of a new hidden region called the Lost Temple, which is unlocked by completing rare hunts and bow missions in regions four and five. As well, region ten, Glacial Bay, was released, as well, adding new weapons and hunts to the game.

• Here, I am equipped with the crossbow, which deals more damage than the compound bow but also has a reduced firing rate and suppression effect. The projectiles from the bow and crossbow behave like bullets, so there’s no need to compensate for bullet drop. When I first began using the bows, I thought that gravity would need to be factored for and missed many of my shots, although having worked with physics engines for my research projects before, I cannot hold it against Glu Games for not implementing a physics engine in Deer Hunter 2014.

• Old temple ruins overgrown with vibrant vegetation and tropical forests define the Lost Temple region. I’m inclined to say that this region is either set in Myanmar or Thailand because of its architecture: Aztec and Mayan temples have a different style.

• Players will need to invest Platinum Eagles into both their crossbow and compound bow to complete the eighty missions and five trophy hunts. The only way to earn them is via rare hunts and other special event hunts, making it a slower process. Gold can be used instead, although even with new new bounty missions, gold is still slow to come by, making progression through the lost temple much slower than through the conventional regions.

• I’ve been hearing about how some individuals were disappointed about how the Spring Break challenges and updates made the game lean increasingly in a pay-to-win manner, although I counter that I’ve gotten quite a bit of enjoyment from Deer Hunter 2014 without spending a single penny: of note was the particularly lucky discount I got on a special assault rifle that let me unlock a region 10 break-action shotgun, and because I had a Halloween event pistol leftover from way back, I’ve now unlocked the region 10 pistol, as well.

• That just looks beautiful: take a moment to gaze at the night sky and marvel at the shooting stars that occasionally streak by.

• The trophy hunts in the Lost Temple are very demanding in that a large number of platinum eagles are required to upgrade the crossbow and compound bow to the specifications. The best trick is to play as many of the regular missions as possible and do rare hunts as they appear to continue acquiring platinum eagles for upgrades.

• While Deer Hunter 2014 might call them customisations, the upgrades are mandatory. By the time one is finished the hidden region, they will have a maxed out compound bow (minus the infrared) and a maxed out crossbow.  With fully upgraded weapons, the trophy hunts aren’t anywhere near a challenge, and in fact, the biggest challenge is finding the target.

• Upon completing all of the trophy hunts, the Barton Hawk is unlocked. At this point in time, I see no reason in upgrading it, but one way or another, I do have all of the bows and crossbows now. I realise that players are dropping off comments asking me how to unlock certain things in the game, and to that, I can only say that 1) if you’re not playing on iOS, these regions don’t exist, and 2) if you’re having trouble unlocking things, patience is your friend, since there are no shortcuts in Deer Hunter 2014 besides paying coin for gold.

• Just for completeness’ sake, here’s a picture of me armed with the region ten shotgun in region ten. Glacial Bay is set in the far north, and like the Klondike region, only has one unique area. Of course, the moody and cold hills are quite nice, reminding me of some of the moments in Survivorman.

• The G&H Seeker assault rifle I have from the event is powerful enough to be useful even in Region 10: carefully placed shots allow me to down opponents that supposedly need a more powerful rifle. As it stands now, I cannot say I’m particularly inclined to continue writing about Deer Hunter 2014 when I have a vast collection of other games (for both iOS and PC) that I would eventually like to get around doing.

Set in the lush Southeast Asian jungles, the Lost Temple looks absolutely beautiful and is well worth the effort taken to unlock it. The region requires both the standard bow and crossbow to complete, and these are upgraded with a new earnable currency known as the Platinum Eagle, which is rewarded for successfully completing bow hunts and rare missions. These new additions to the game are refreshing and offer the incentive to continue playing, breathing new life into a game that quickly can become repetitive; at present, the lack of a cloud save feature is still the game’s biggest detractor, given that any error could undo months of progress in-game. Nonetheless, Deer Hunter 2014 remains a solid game, and I’m enjoying the inclusion of these new gameplay mechanics, although I think my time would be better spent blogging about other things.

Deer Hunter 2014: Klondike Yukon and the Zambezi River

This is the greatest deer hunting of all time.

Regions eight and nine have been released for a few weeks and few days now, respectively, introducing a new set of trophy hunts and missions in the frigid Klondike River region and the lush Zambezi River. While I found the Yukon to be disappointing as far as aesthetics go, the Zambezi River, on the other hand, is beautiful and a thrilling place to start lighting up rhinos, elephants, leopards and hippos. Between region seven and now, I had also accumulated 1.2 million dollars in-game, allowing me to purchase the region nine rifle and upgrade it fully, as well as pick up the region nine shotgun.

• For the rare hunts and holiday hunts, it is sufficient to have a qualifying weapon to enter the event: other than that, players may use their preferred weapons for these hunts, making them easier or more interesting depending on their preferences. The later pistols eclipse some of the earlier assault rifles in terms of damage, so players can go back and use a pistol to complete the contract missions if they so chose.

• The fastest way to earn money in Deer Hunter is to do contract hunts in the highest level region available. I noted earlier that the Klondike Yukon region was somewhat disappointing because most of the maps were re-purposed from the British Columbia region.

• The purchasable region nine rifle is called the Rohmann KR. I was able to purchase and upgrade all of its components immediately, since I had nearly 1.2 million dollars at the ready. The one unique map in the Klondike region are cliff sheers and waterfalls, seen above.

• With a fully-upgraded rifle, the trophy hunts for regions eight and nine took a total time of about six minutes to complete, excluding the waiting time for the energy to recharge.

• It appears that the difficulty of contract hunts alternate every second region: the Klondike Yukon hunts were largely straightforward and could be completed with region seven weapons, while the hunts in region nine are rather challenging, even with fully upgraded weapons.

• The Zambezi River features some of the coolest maps in Deer Hunter 2014 since Mount St. Helens. In the background, there is a railway bridge, and occasionally, a train will pass over it. Touches like these add details to Deer Hunter 2014, giving the environments a much more life-like feeling, even if the game is very repetitive in nature.

• The Plisskin Mamba is the best shotgun available to those who don’t wish to spend the premium currency. I’ve found that with shotguns, the default iron sights are more than enough to get the job done, and that the reflex sights actually complicate things in Deer Hunter 2014.

• I do read all the comments that appear in my Dear Hunter posts and try to answer them the best I can.

• Besides the missions, trophy hunts and contract hunts, the newer updates add rare hunts and special missions for sport assault rifles and pistols. The latter can be purchased for roughly 160 000 dollars in game, while the latter requires 160 of the premium currency.

• I would try and complete a trophy hunt with a weapon lacking an infrared scope, but since the trophy hunt missions cost two energy units per attempt, it’s best to complete them in one try. Lockjaw is the final animal in the trophy hunt challenges. Once that’s complete, the wait for region ten begins. It will be released, given that the top-of-the-line premium rifle is a multi-region rifle that accommodates up to region ten.

Because my Deer Hunter posts seem to be quite popular, I’ve decided that I might return every two regions to do a short talk on the latest and greatest landscapes, weapons and features. Factors motivating that include the amount of feedback I get surrounding Deer Hunter, and whether or not Glu Games continues to release new regions. I’ve also been picking up a lot of comments about whether not certain regions exist in other platforms, such as the Mac OS Deer Hunter 2014, Facebook’s Deer Hunter 2014 and the game for Android. The short answer is no: region nine is unavailable for other platforms at the time of writing. I play exclusively on the iOS platform, where the bulk of the updates are applied: things like rare hunts and holiday events are probably not implemented on the other platforms. In spite of a lack of cloud saving and repetitive nature my experiences with Deer Hunter 2014 have largely been positive, continuing to provide some amusement even five months after I picked it up.

Deer Hunter 2014: Mount St. Helens and the Nile River Valley

This post is for everyone looking for more Deer Hunter 2014 screenshots. The site statistics say people like the Deer Hunter 2014 posts, so this one’s for the readers!

A short while ago, Deer Hunter 2014 for iOS received some new, complementary downloadable content that added a sixth region, new weapons for said region and a Christmas hunt programme. I’ve played some of the Christmas hunts, although I’ve yet to actually win a free weapon from the rare animal events. I had spent the previous month playing through contract hunts in region five to accumulate cash for the eventual region seven weapons. By the time region seven did come out, I had enough in-game money to purchase the region seven rifle and shotgun, as well as fully upgrade each weapon. Of course, it was a slow process, since the upgraded parts now require 25 minutes to import, but once they arrived and were equipped, region six (Mount St. Helens) turned out to be remarkably straightforward to complete, and at the time of writing, I’ve now completed all of the trophy hunts for region seven (Nile River valley) as well. The new locations are beautiful, whether it be the majestic views of the mountains or lush forests in the Mount St. Helens region, or the burning plains and ancient pyramids in the Nile River valley.

• The region seven rifle, the Clayton Rebel, is the most powerful rifle that can be purchased using the in-game currency. It is a bolt-action rifle and performs the same as the previous rifles, except it has more firepower. As before, being able to place a shot accurately with a bolt-action rifle is vital, since the time taken to re-chamber a round could mean the difference between completing or failing a hunt.

• The meadows below Mount St. Helens is beautifully rendered, featuring greenery growing among the splintered tree trunks following the 1980 eruption.

• A gloomy meadow acts as one of the locales for some of the trophy hunts. A properly upgraded rifle means that one could earn a substantial amount of money by playing these trophy hunts very quickly. I recall some guides telling players to play and deliberately fail trophy hunts to earn larger amounts of money, although this technically isn’t practical, since each trophy hunt requires two energy units to enter.

• The wisdom of having a good shotgun becomes apparent if one misses their first shot against predators that will charge the player. There’s really no need for a semi-automatic rifle if one is familiar with the game mechanics, since skills will allow players to turn what appears to be a failed hunt into a successful hunt.

• Before I start firing a carefully-placed round at the first target animal I see, I typically look around the map and scout out where everything is first, then target the closest animal first. After the first shot hits and I re-chamber a round, I am already moving to the next target.

• An oasis underneath the pyramids is downright beautiful. Some guides suggest using the consumables if the hunts get difficult, but I find that practise and persistence will make it so that these items are never required for any hunt.

• I am immensely thankful that I decided to hold back and not buy the region six weapons, instead, skipping ahead to the region seven weapons once those were released. By region seven, the average contract hunt yields some 3200 dollars of in-game currency, making it possible to go back and purchase all of the previous weapons far more quickly than was previously possible.

• Of course, I would recommend sticking to the best weapons available to the player and continuing to save up for the rifles in the region after the next: ever since getting this game, my practise is to save for a rifle and its upgrades two regions ahead.

• I decided to upgrade the G & H Trench, the most powerful standard shotgun purchasable with the in-game currency, after a failed hunt in the Nile River Valley region. I’ve noticed that the hunts don’t actually require a pistol, but pistols remain entertaining to use as something of a self-imposed challenge on some missions.

• Spike Gore is the last trophy hunt that is in region seven and requires a fully-upgraded Clayton Rebel before the player can participate in the hunt. Trophy hunts are very easy simply because there is a single target that must be downed with a heart shot: typically, the missions are the toughest, since some require a player to take down several animals using brain shots.

The array of updates appear to only be for the iOS platform: there are desktop versions of the game for Mac OS X, and the game can be played on Android devices, as well as Facebook. All of these versions are free, of course, but my suggestion is to pick one and stick with it, since there’s no way to synchronise progress on iCloud or across devices, so if I had a completely upgraded region seven rifle and shotgun on a iPad, the iPod touch will not be able to use these weapons. One must also be careful not to delete the app on their devices, since data is saved to the game itself. I think I’ve noted this before in my other Deer Hunter 2014 article, but that article featured screenshots of regions one through five, and has been one of the more popular posts on this site. I imagine that curious readers were wondering what regions six and seven would look like, and I hope that those seeking images of these regions are not disappointed with the contents of this post.