Evolve Stage 2

Evolve Stage 2

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Evolve Stage 2: The Monster Within You: An introductory guide
By ShortFuze
A guide to help new and returning players with the Monster side of Evolve. All information written for a Monster player.
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A note to you.
Hey, it's ShortFuẞe.

First let me say thank you for reading. I made this guide to help new and returning players with Monsters. The Monster has a lot of complex strategy and mechanics that can be confusing, so I wanted to help out.

If you like this guide, leave a comment and a good rating so others can see it. If you don't, or you want to tell me something or suggest something, leave it in the comments. I usually update as soon as I see something.

If you like this guide, and want a better introduction to Evolve as a whole, you can read my guide: http://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=593085606

If you want a better exposure to Hunter, read my other guide:
http://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=723451384

Thanks for reading this.

Now go out there and have a safe slaughter.

-ShortFuẞe
The Monster, and fleeing the Hunters
As a Monster, your enemy (the Hunters) drop in about 30 seconds after the game starts. This gives you enough time to run away. As soon as the Hunters drop, they will likely use the Planet Scanner, so don't bother sneaking just yet. If you have traversals to use, or movement skills such as Charge, Leap Smash, Warp Blast etc Use those immediately. If you have trap skills (Banshee Mines, Spider Trap, etc), drop them below the Hunter's drop location. This will buy you time. When farming, it's better to use abilities that have quick animations or let you move while using them (Warp Blast, Fire Breath). Then you should eat a few corpses and start moving again.

In the changes for Stage 2, the Monster has a much more difficult time sneaking, but it isn't impossible. To gain distance from Hunters, run, traverse, and climb away from Hunters, avoiding wildlife. You can also choose to run next to a Megamouth so if the Hunters follow you, they will be slowed down. When you are far away, hit the sneak button, and continue the rest of the way. If they use the Planet Scanner, you should stop sneaking and start running as fast as you can. Farm in between traversals, and eat quickly. Never spend too much time in one place.

Escaping Hunters is a skill that needs to be learned and experienced. My advice? Play some bot matches. Bots have this sixth sense in the way that you can't escape them. As such, they are great practice to help you learning alacrity in escaping.

Now let's do an exercise. Say you are at the top half, at the point farthest North-East, and the Hunters are just south of you. Trapper uses Planet Scanner. What do you do? Well here's my solution. Jump West, so it shows up on their screen. When the Scanner ends, jump east again. The Hunters will have moved North-West to cut you off, but you'll be back where you started. Then you can safely sneak away, while they are lost as to where you are.

There is one more strategy you can use. Around the map, there are bushes that are big enough for a sneaking Monster to be in. (Doesn't really work for Meteor Goliath). If you sneak into the bush, so that you don't leave tracks, you can hide in there. However, if they use Planet Scanner, you're screwed. There is another mechanic that CAN make it either hard or easy to use. I suggest only trying it while fleeing, and make sure you aren't seen. The first thing to mention, is that you cannot move, attack, smell, or do anything while in the bush. Stay still. The second thing is the mechanic. In Evolve, as a Monster takes HP damage, they will become brighter or dimmer. At max HP, the Monster is much brighter, and so can easily be seen in bushes. At low HP, the Monster is dimmer and cannot be seen. Armor does a similar thing. At max Armor, each Monster glows a certain color, revealing your position.

When used properly, this strategy is surprisingly effective. It DOES NOT work against bots, so don't bother if the enemy team has a bot.
Combat with your Enemy
The Monster is deceptively strong. A single hunter is no match for your combat prowess. A team of four, however, is. There is a chain to who you should focus first.

1st - Medic - Most important class, keeps their team from dying.
Also 1st - Hank - Ability to Shield and to Orbital can keep Medic alive. You can't focus Med until you down Hank.
2nd - Support - Abilities that support the team and good amount of damage. Shield Burst is difficult to deal with.
3rd - Assault - does lots of damage and can easily chew through your armor.
Also 3rd - Griffin and Crow - Griffin's Harpoons are the bane of a Monster's existence, and Crow disregards your armor, while slowing you a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
4th - Trapper - can be focused above Assault if you need to get out of Dome (minus 3 and a half minutes.) Otherwise, not too important. Does almost no damage, but can be annoying.

The chain of focus can be modified based on the strength of a player. Someone with a 14 win-streak is likely the MVP for his team, and it might be better to take them out first.

Know your enemy, and your Monster. In simplest description of playstyles...

Hank and Sunny can keep a team alive, Cabot can shred your armor, Kala just ignores your armor, Bucket, does constant DPS and keeps his team annoying.

Val heals a singe person very fast, Rogue Val Heals a team, Caira heals an area, Laz heals a corpse, Slim heals an area, and Emet heals an area.

Maggie confines you to one place, Griffin doesn't let you flee, Abe slows and tracks ya, Crow slows and kills ya, and Jack stops your attack.

Markov kills and area controls, Hyde kills and area controls, Parnell kills x2, Torvald Kills and area defends, and Lennox kills x2.

OG Goliath focuses a single guy while dealing out huge AOE damage. Platforms, Harpoons, and Walls are the bane of his existence. Mobile

Meteor Goliath does more team-based AOE. Platforms, Wallsj, and Rogue Val is the bane of his existence. Mobile

Kraken does heavy AOE and burst damage from afar. E. Kraken does Heavy AOE and burst from up close.

Wraith focuses a single guy to death and runs around. Squishy, but high mobility.

Behemoth cuts off a team member and annihilates them, but if he misses his tongue he's basically done for. Tanky af

Gorgon jumps around and deals AOE damage with great disables. Squishy, high mobility.

Hunters with disables and harpoons are dangerous for mobile Monsters because they can cut off a lot of their damage supply. Abilities with Long animations like Aftershock and Warp Blast are countered by high mobility and mobility bestowing Hunters. Learn the ins and outs of Hunters, Monsters, and your playstyle. An aggressive player can easily down an unprepared Hunter, but might suddenly lose to a good team. A defensive player stays safe, but might not know when to attack, wasting opportunities, and thus losing. A lot of Evolve is playing a lot and playing around.

KNOW WHEN TO FLEE
If you lose your armor, and the entire enemy team is full HP and/or shielded, it's time to run. If your HP is very low and your trying desperately to kill one guy, consider running. Doming location is important to each Monster. If you're in a bad dome, don't stick around very long. Get out as fast as you can. If you're being outhealed while you try and finish off someone, either switch targets or GTFO. Your HP doesn't regen. Theirs does. Consider the trade off for taking any amount of HP damage.
Wildlife
Eat them. It's your job. That said, wildlife are very common, and very weak. Smaller wildlife give you between 1 and 2 meats, and bigger wildlife give you between 2 and 3. Bigger wildlife will also fight you, and they hit like a truck. Don't fight a Crowbill Sloth if you're out of armor. You'll win, obviously, but you'll take big damage. Wildlife is much more dangerous for Hunters, seeing as Hunters have less HP and can be trapped by Megamouths and such. When you get domed, try to get domed in an area with a big wildlife so that they can help you defeat the Hunters.

Some wildlife looks different. These are called Albinos. When you kill an Albino and eat the corpse, you gain a powerful buff. Each Albino drops the same buff, so learn which ones give which. It's important to try and eat the whole corpse, because otherwise Hunters can come by and gain the buff by touching the Monster.

Wildlife (and all corpses) start to decompose after 15 seconds, and everyone 15 seconds after that they lose one full meat. Hunters may kill buff wildlife so that they decompose and you can't gain the buff. Keep a tab on the locations of any Albinos you may come across.
Perks
When you select your fearsome Monster, you may choose up to 3 perks. There are three potency levels of Perks. Bronze, Silver, Gold. You get one perk of each. Perks stack with each other additively, meaning that if you have +20% Jetpack Recharge and + 25% Jetpack Recharge, you'll have +45% Jetpack Recharge. Perks DO NOT stack with Buffs, meaning if you have the 45% Jetpack Recharge, and you get a buff that gives 100% Jetpack Recharge, you'll only get 100%. The bigger number is the only one that is used.

You can purchase Perks, and purchase upgrades to your Perks, or you can win them by leveling up your characters. It's a lot cheaper to just level them up and you do save Keys. Also, if you receive a Perk as a reward and it's already maxed out level, then you'll receive a very small amount of Keys.

You choose Perks based on playstyle, but in case you want a little advice, I'll list some solid Perk choices for each Monster.

OG Goliath - Brawler line, Enhanced Sense line, Hunger line
Meteor - Mutated Recover line, Mutated claw line, Hunger line

OG Kraken - Mutated Recovery line, Endurance line, Savage Nature line
E. Krakky - Mutated Recovery line, Haste line, Brawler line.

Wraith - Brawler line, Hunger line, Crippling Attack line

Behemoth - Enhanced Sense line, Unstoppable line, Endurance line.

Gorgon - Crippling Attack line, Mutated Recover line, Enhanced Sense line.
The Invaders.
You are mother nature given form, with lots of extra teeth. These scumbag humans have invaded a planet that is rightfully yours, killing animals and carving up the land in their own image. Who's the real Monster? Show them exactly what you think of them when you separate their torso from their spine.

Here I will cover each Monster, and tell you who to wary of and how you can try to beat them.

Goliath. Goliath is weak to platforms, pillars, and walls. Pillars and walls can block ALL of his abilities. Platforms suck because of a thing called roaching. Basically this. If Goliath is at the very bottom of a platform, next to the wall, he can't hit the enemy with any of his abilities (if the wall is fairly tall). The enemy Hunter then waits for Goliath to try and climb the wall. As soon as Goliath is reaching the top, the enemy Hunter walks off the edge. The Hunter stands against the wall, and again can't be hit by abilities. If Goliath walks off the edge, the Hunter jetpack climbs up. Rinse and Repeat. Goliath is very very weak to roaching, so if you find yourself in this situation, back up. If you back up, you can hit Rock Throw. It also means you can traversal to the top of the wall if it's short enough. Alternatively, when you walk off the platform, do a 180 and melee attack, possible knocking the Hunter off the wall.
Jack, Sunny, and Griffins abilities to negate damage or prevent you from moving are dangerous. For Griffin, try and knock him back with a Rock Throw before you leap away so he doesn't Harpoon you. Jack can waste Leap Smash and Charge, so use your traversals or just wait until his Repulsor is gone, and then use movement abilities.

Meteor Goliath has the same weaknesses as Goliath, and also counters and is countered by Rogue Val, due to the DOTs. Just spread the damage around, and focus down the lowest HP one.

OG Kraken. Avoid getting domed in places with lots of obstacles. A cave or a wide open space is great. Caves are great for all Monsters, because any AOE abilities you have wreak havoc. And Kraken is ALL AOE. Weak to Jack, Torvald and Laz.
Jack can force you to land using Repulsor. Torvald can nuke you to ♥♥♥♥ if you sit around in the air, so move around often and try and get an enclosed room, so that his Mortars hit the ceiling. Use Banshee Mines to keep him away. For Laz, you really just need to keep attacking the incapped Hunter. Don't use Aftershock, or Laz will have enough time to revive. Try and use your melee attacks to disrupt any would be cloak-rezzer.

E. Kraken is melee oriented, and can dish out a lot of damage. You want caves, tunnels, and spaces with corners. Try and shove someone into a corner or wall and go to town on them. Your low mobility makes you weak to B. Markov, Lennox, and Jack. Jack can keep you out of melee range, and Markov and Lennox's increasing damage per time is brutal against your low mobility.

Wraith benefits in a lot of terrain. Avoid flat, open spaces. You want lots of twists and turns. If you get someone in a corner, use Supernova and shred them. If you use Supernova, then Decoy, your Decoy will gain the bonuses of Supernova. If you get into a cubby or cave, you can Abduct someone, spawn Decoy, Warp Blast 'em, Supernova, and gg ez kills. Weak to Crow and Kala, because you're squishy and they penetrate armor, and Hyde because he has strong DOTs and can throw down his Toxic Grenades to punish you for using Supernova. If against a Hyde, I would only put one point in Supernova, unless he's really bad. Scare off Crow, destroy Kala's TPs, and if they start breaking your armor, Decoy.

Behemoth. I love him to death. He loves caves. I mean LOVES caves. Cave simulator 2K16. Caves, caves, caves. Some people like staves? Nah man, you like caves. Caves. He also does well with REALLY BIG walls. Walls and walls. And caves. Bob saves the day with caves. #CaveTheDay. Alright I'm done now. You need to hit that Tongue Grab, so highly mobile enemies are a pain. He's resistant to most slowing, so don't worry. Val can fill you with holes, which sucks. Blitz Markov does amazing against you. Cabot chews through your armor, and Bucket's constant DPS makes him a pain. You want to Grab the biggest threat, Lava Bomb them, Wall them in with you, Fissure them, and then go ham with the Sneak pounce.

Gorgon likes walls. She LOVES walls. Anywhere that you can be sneaky. As with Bob (Behemoth) avoid big open spaces. If you have tunnels that turn, you can hide a Spider Trap in a blind spot for sneaky plays. After you down someone, toss a Spider Trap on their body. You can Web Sling onto walls by holding the traversal button. From there, you can melee attack to leap and do a pounce attack. You do a lot of damage if you can hit it, so stick to a wall, and then surprise them. You lose to anyone that can limit mobility (Maggie, Griffin. Destroy Harpoon Traps and send a spider after Griffin before you jump away) and anyone that can do massive damage (Blitz Markov, Hyde, Cabot). Cabot can Dust Tag to limit sneakiness, shoot you through walls, and Damage Amp to shred armor. A single Gold Mine from Blitz will MELT you. Hyde does strong DOT, and his 'Nade can kill both you, your spider, and your Mimic at the same time. Focus down the Medic/Support, and keep tossing spiders out to shake people up. A great Spider Trap can make or break a game.
Conclusion
Hey thanks for reading!

If you liked this, leave a good rating so others can see. Comment too! It means a lot to me. If you have suggestions or want me to make another guide, leave it in the comments. Have a correction? Leave it in the comments. If you have questions, you can comment it and I'll answer as soon as I see it.

Thanks, and safe slaughtering.

-ShortFuẞe
71 Comments
Perfectly Sane Individual 27 Sep, 2022 @ 5:29pm 
Servers are up again. :)
tojgrase 12 Oct, 2020 @ 5:33am 
dang
ShortFuze  [author] 12 Dec, 2019 @ 11:21pm 
@oceanboy86

I should add something though. If you were already a fan of the game, and have access to the original version because you bought it when it still had a price tag, then there is one good option to play more.

There's the Evolve subreddit, and an Evolve discord, which has a lot of players, and even hosts mini-tournaments. It's worth checking out, before you abandon the game forever.
ShortFuze  [author] 12 Dec, 2019 @ 11:14pm 
Honestly? No. I love this game to death, and I always will. I'll always wish that more became of it. But the game is no longer available for purchase, the only way to play is the original version, without a lot of content, and you can't play online anymore, since they shut the servers down.

Short of a miracle, a massive gofundme/petition out of nowhere, or some billionaire investor buying the game's rights (read: more miracles), this game is dead.

If you already have a group of friends that own the game and are willing to play, it could be worth it to go back to the game to play with them. If you don't probably not.

tl;dr, no, it's not worth. It was fun hunting while it lasted, but this game is long dead.
oceanboy86 10 Dec, 2019 @ 6:48pm 
Honestly is it worth coming back at this point?
ShortFuze  [author] 16 Oct, 2017 @ 6:01pm 
@~Marie and Callie~

They didn't give up on it. 2K owns the game, they just develop it, and 2K shut it down. Hence why I stand proudly and say

"Fuck you 2K"
So.MANY.TeEtH 16 Sep, 2017 @ 8:46pm 
why do you think Turtle Rock gave up on evolve stage 2 and evolve ?
ShortFuze  [author] 23 Jun, 2017 @ 10:02am 
@trapper_444. You shouldn't be getting an error. What does it say?
trapper_444 15 Jun, 2017 @ 3:51pm 
I really love playing Evolve But i am getting a error when i go to download it I am blown away by the games monsters & Hunters Excellent
ShortFuze  [author] 13 Jun, 2017 @ 11:08pm 
@Spicybarbecue. No it isn't. Drop the med and the team drops like flies. It depends on med. Focusing rogue val is a bad play since her self-sustain is so high. You have to play smart. Focus med, and if team protects med then switch to trapper or support, then swap back to med. It really is the best advice for new monsters. Med holds a team together.