Disclaimer:
I haven't played as an alien for a while due to being banned, so this guide is from my experiences as an alien a few months ago and as a marine now. That being said, let's move on.
Introduction:
So, you want to be a badass lone wolf that wants to slaughter marines by the dozen? Or you just have trouble cooperating with the rest of your hive, whatever. Why be a hunter? Hunters have a good balance between health, damage, and speed, which makes them perfect to run around and kill. Their size also makes them a small target that probably won't be chased to the ends of LV-624 to be killed.
Pre-Marine Arrival:
This is simple, evolve to runner, get some monkeys, evolve to hunter, get some monkeys, but don't evovle further, press the upgrade button. This will save a T3 spot for the other losers in your hive to be a ravager/crusher/whatever. Continue getting monkeys and upgrade as soon as possible. Don't waste your time on survivors, they are a waste of your time and will probably kill you. When you're all out of monkeys to collect, start to destroy everything you see in medical, hydroponics, the Nexus, and the leisure dome. This will open up entrances and escape routes you can use to gank marines. Destroy lights and APCs as well.
Post-Marine Arrival:
This is when you need to spend all your time stalking the humans, learning their patterns. If you're still young, only do this. Never engage. If you're mature, you need to single out individual marines, and make sure no one is near them. Pounce them and cut at one of their hands, when it is off aim for their eyes, and if they get up pounce again. Once you are elite however, you should first aim for the eyes because you'll easily be able to kill them before the stun wares off. And as an elite/ancient, you should be able to take out multiple people at a time if robust enough.
Tactics:
Always hit it from the back. You need to weaken their back lines so they don't have the infrastructure to support their front lines, making it easier for your alium buddies to win. You'll want to focus on the Nexus, Engineering, LZ2, and LZ1 (don't get too close to the dropships if you don't want to get shot, be sure to provoke the turrets from behind the grilles so they waste their ammo and also destroy obstacles). You'll want to focus on groups of 3 or smaller, even as an ancient, and you should always have an escape plan. Be careful for mines, these will ruin your day. Especially at LZ1 you'll want to check all the injured to see if they're dead, if not, kill them. Easy prey. Just rinse and repeat until they don't have a back line anymore, and wait on the shuttles for new marines to kill, but be careful, this can be dangerous. Even if the front line is the Nexus, don't attack unless you're sure of your abilities, focus on LZ1 and search for people to kill that are outside of the Nexus.
A few tactics you might want to use:
- Run around, make your movements unpredictable.
- Run circles around marines to make them shoot (and miss) and waste their ammo, and hopefully friendly fire a little bit.
- If you ever get slightly injured, retreat to the nearest weeds.
The Sulaco:
You still want to be a lonely stalker here too. Use the vents, run around, and kill all the puny humans that are alone. You can slaughter whole groups of people now because you're probably ancient and these will usually be unarmored and unarmed people. Once you've scowered the vessel and there is no one else to kill that isn't in the front lines, you'll want to join a ravager or crusher and help them out. You can help them by finishing people they've charged at, distracting gunshots from them, etc.
If you've been a good boy and followed this guide, you've probably one.
Congratulations.