Murderous Pursuits Mobile is a multiplayer game where you stalk and kill targets, while making sure that you don’t get caught or killed yourself.
The game takes place in a Victorian-themed, time-traveling airship, inhabited by a cast of characters with colorful personalities. The host of the party, Mr. X, will assign your targets, known as your Quarry, but beware as your Hunter, the one assigned to kill you, may get to you first.
NetEase, the studio behind the popular MOBA Marvel Super War and battle royale games such as Knives Out and Rules of Survival, ported Murderous Pursuits, originally developed by Blazing Griffin for the PC, to mobile devices. The core gameplay and mechanics remain the same, so fans of the PC version will now be able to play Murderous Pursuits on the go.
Blend among the passengers and hide in plain sight, locate weapons and utilize various abilities, and take down your targets to climb the ranks. Murderous Pursuits Mobile’s unique take on murderous multiplayer is easy to understand, but it will take some time for you to master its many intricacies.
So stay with us and check out our detailed beginner’s guide for Murderous Pursuits Mobile, as it comes with loads of tips, cheats and strategies to master the game!
1. Know The Rules
The tutorial attempts to explain everything there is to Murderous Pursuits Mobile, but players may take a while before they fully understand the game’s rules.
The goal is to score the most points among the eight players in each match. The points are mostly acquired by killing the Quarry assigned to you, though there are several other ways of gaining points throughout each match. One of the game’s core mechanics is finding out which of the characters on the map are your Quarry and Hunter, so that you can kill or stun them, respectively. Players have the option of blending in with the NPCs by stepping into locations called Vignettes, which may be utilized both by players avoiding their Hunters or Hunters looking to surprise their Quarry.
Once you kill your Quarry, you will be assigned a new one so you can try to keep your streak going. You also have the chance of stunning who you suspect to be your Hunter, and if you are correct, that player will be assigned a new Quarry, which means you prevent that player from scoring points at your expense.
Players, however, should watch out for Guards, as they will arrest you if they see you try to kill your Quarry. If you are within their detection radius, a red whistle icon appears on the screen. Wait until the icon disappears, either by moving away from the Guards or waiting for them to fall asleep, before making your move.
After a set amount of time, the match ends and the players’ points will be tallied to determine the winner. Just because you have the most kills doesn’t necessarily mean that you will win, so keep racking up those points until the last minute, even if you are far ahead in number of kills from your opponents.
2. Befriend The Quarry Tracker, Hunter Indicator
Players will be able to track down their targets through the Quarry Tracker, and will be alerted if their Hunter is nearby through the Hunter Indicator. Properly utilizing these aids is the foundation of successful players in Murderous Pursuits Mobile.
The Quarry Tracker changes as you get closer to your Quarry, from a narrow gray strip to a wide green bar, and you would know that you are moving in the right direction if it is aligned to the center. However, before moving towards your Quarry, always check the tracker if it says your target is on the same floor. This is because there aren’t a lot of stairs in the maps, so it would be a waste to move a great distance only to realize that your Quarry is directly above or below you, with no stairs in sight.
Meanwhile, the Hunter Indicator reveals if you are in danger of being killed by the Hunter to whom you were assigned as their Quarry. A gray skull indicates that you are not yet in imminent danger, while a red skull means that the Hunter is nearby. At this point, you will want to either make sure that you don’t expose yourself to the Hunter, or figure out who it is among the characters nearby and stun them. A gray question mark, meanwhile, means that the Hunter hid in a Vignette, and if the Hunter Indicator was a red skull before that, you’d have to be careful as it means that your Hunter can suddenly pop out from among a group of NPCs.
3. Memorize The Maps
The maps of Murderous Pursuits Mobile come with gorgeous aesthetics that perfectly capture the Victorian theme, but they also feature mazes of hallways and rooms that will confuse players who don’t take time to memorize their layouts. While the Quarry Hunter provides the general direction of your target, a working knowledge of the game’s maps will prevent you from finding yourself in rooms without exits with your Quarry on the other side of the wall, for example.
Knowing how many stairs are available in each map and where they are located is crucial in making sure that you can get to your Quarry with the shortest route possible if they are in another floor. Taking the long way around not only increases the risk of exposing yourself to your Quarry and Hunter, but also takes up valuable time that you can instead spend on killing targets and scoring points.
Maps also contain treasure chests that provide additional skills, such as the powerful and hilarious Pie Bomb. The placement of these treasure chests are fixed, and while the contents are random, they replenish after a short while. If you know where they are located, you can always check if they are ready to be opened whenever you find yourself within the area.
4. Keep Your Exposure Down
Keeping your exposure down helps you avoid being detected by your Quarry and identified by your Hunter. However, practically every movement you make in Murderous Pursuits Mobile increases your exposure, though staying still and walking increase your exposure more slowly compared to running. Your exposure level is indicated by the opening eye icon at the bottom center of the screen.
In addition to movement, there are other ways for you to expose yourself, namely getting arrested by Guards for trying to kill your Quarry while in their line of sight, using the Humiliate skill, and attempting to take out a character that is not your Quarry. If you do any of these, your exposure level will instantly reach 100%, warning your Quarry and painting you as an easy target for your Hunter.
You should never let your exposure reach 100%, as it places you at a very precarious position. The most accessible way of lowering your exposure is to enter a Vignette, which comes in three forms – a small circle, a long rectangle, and a large circle. Once you enter a Vignette, your position is also concealed from your Quarry’s Hunter Indicator.
Alternatively, the Disguise skill will remove your exposure, and will also conceal you from your Quarry’s Hunter Indicator. However, this skill should be used when away from the line of sight of your Quarry if you are going in for a kill, or of your Hunter if you are trying to sneak away. This is because they may see you changing your appearance, which is a giveaway that you are another player.
5. Act Like NPCs
So that your Quarry and Hunter would find it difficult to spot you among all the nearby characters, you should act like an NPC when moving. This will make it easier for you to surprise your Quarry with an attack, and to make it hard for your Hunter to spot you among a crowd.
As you move through the map, you should walk in a straight line towards where you want to go. If you keep changing directions, you would be spotted as a player, as NPCs don’t show such erratic movement. Same goes for running – NPCs don’t run, so if you absolutely must run, say to duck into a hallway to activate the Disguise skill or to close the gap with your Quarry, it is best to do so when there are no other players nearby.
Other behavior that you should avoid as they are signs that you are not an NPC include indecisive actions such as stopping in doorways to check out what’s in the room, and shifting in and out of a Vignette. Take time to observe how NPCs act, and try to copy their movements and behavior.
6. Spotting Players
The ability to separate other players from NPCs is a skill that you should learn in Murderous Pursuits. In addition to spotting players who have exposed themselves and/or who don’t act like they’re NPCs, there are some other ways in figuring out who’s a Quarry or Hunter.
Only players will be able to open chests and pick up items, so If you see someone doing these, then that character is a player for sure. Same goes for attacking and using abilities, as NPCs are not able to do that.
Players who are aware that their Hunter is nearby may suddenly jump into a Vignette, but such abrupt movement may give away that they are the Quarry. Some players, in panic, may even use the Disguise skill while in the line of sight of their Hunter, which confirms that they are the Quarry.
7. Master Your Abilities
Murderous Pursuits Mobile doesn’t only rely on players’ wits though, as you have a range of skills at your disposal. You start with up to two skills equipped heading into a match, increasing to up to four skills as you level up. However, while in matches, only two of these skills will be available for you to use, with the skills randomly replaced by one of the other skills you have equipped after you use them.
While playing through the game, you will be able to acquire skill cards, which may be used to upgrade your skills. The other resources used to upgrade skills are easy to come across, so it is generally advised to upgrade the skills that you have unlocked as soon as you can. This allows you to always have the best versions of the skills at your disposal, and you can mix and match to determine the set of skills that fit your preferences.
Here’s an explanation of the 12 skills:
Reveal: Shows you if your Quarry or Hunter is within an area
Disguise: Changes your appearance, lowering your exposure
Counter: For a short time, any attempt by a Hunter to kill you or a Quarry to stun you will backfire
Trickster: NPCs surrounding you will change their appearance to you over a period of time
Humiliate: Shames the Quarry that you kill for additional points, but exposes you
Chaos: Messes up the controls of players who are near you for a few seconds
Disrupt: Scrambles the Quarry Hunter and HUD of nearby players for a few seconds
Stealth: You go invisible for a few seconds, leaving behind a dummy character
Cool It: Reduces the cooldown of your next skill that appears
Clone: Creates a copy of yourself that moves in a specific direction
Purify: Removes all debuffs on you while also increasing movement speed for a few seconds
Mad Laugh: You increase your exposure, but a nearby player will do the same
All of the skills have their uses, but a few are generally helpful in a wider range of situations. These are the Reveal, Disguise, Disrupt, and Stealth, as they may be used both for taking down your Quarry and slipping past your Hunter. This doesn’t mean that they are the only ones worth using though, so you should try all the skills and see what are the most effective ones for you.
8. Scoring Extra Points
In Murderous Pursuits Mobile, the goal is not to end up with the most Quarry kills, but to have the most points at the end of the match. This is an important distinction because while kills are the primary way of scoring points, there are many other ways of moving up the rankings.
First, your exposure level and your weapon provide a variable number of points whenever you kill your Quarry. The lower your exposure level, the higher the points that you score for taking down your Quarry, ranging from 1 to 5 points. The rarity of the weapon that you use also determines the points that you gain for snuffing your target, also ranging from 1 to 5 points.
Killing an exposed Quarry, taking down a target with an ability activated such as Disguise, and backstabbing the Quarry scores an additional 2 points. Activating a kill streak, which means that you are not killed, arrested, or stunned in between kills, scores 3 more points.
Killing a Quarry while in a Vignette is an additional 5 points. The Humiliate skill, when used after killing a Quarry, will get you up to 5 more points at the risk of exposing yourself, though you only get 3 points if you were already exposed when you use the skill. Humiliate should only be used if your Hunter is not nearby, and you should quickly duck into a Vignette afterwards.
However, when you kill a Quarry while you are exposed, you get a deduction of 3 points, giving you another incentive to keep your exposure level down.
9. Claim Your Rewards
The game offers various rewards, which you can collect after completing matches and from other sources such as completing daily or weekly quests, and participating in events. Completing quests earns you medals, which unlocks more rewards as you progress through the game’s X Plan.
There are free rewards that you can claim though, including gifts that you get in the Mail. There are also free items that you can claim from the Store, so check from time to time if there is anything waiting for you there.
As you play matches, you will acquire keys that unlock either Gold Chests or Silver Chests. These chests contain even more goodies, such as skill cards and limited-time weapons, with Gold Chests obviously offering better rewards compared with Silver Chests.
10. Play As Often As You Can
To make the most of Murderous Pursuits Mobile, you will simply need to play as often as you could. This allows you to level up your character, which increases the number of skills you can equip during matches, as well as the 12 skills that are available in the game.
In addition, playing the game allows you to practice your ability in spotting your Quarry and Hunter, as well as utilize the various skills at your disposal to determine which ones fit your playstyle the best. You will also be able to unlock skins for your favorite character, for players who love collecting cosmetics.
However, most importantly, playing Murderous Pursuits Mobile allows you to enjoy a multiplayer game that offers a rewarding experience to those who are dedicated to the crafts of stealth, misdirection, and deduction.
And this ends our beginner’s guide for Murderous Pursuits Mobile! We hoped that you have learned a couple of tips and tricks from this guide. In case you have anything to add or just want to share your thoughts about the game, feel free to drop us a line in the comments down below!