Dauntless is an excellent free-to-play behemoth-hunting affair, but it does suffer from a few ill-explained mechanics. As you’re out and about on your early hunts, you may have noticed the Danger Meter in the top right corner, slowly building up a percentage. It’s not immediately apparent what the Danger Meter does, Why the Danger Meter rises, or how to lower it again. As you progress to more difficult fights it becomes crucial to understand what causes the Danger Meter to shoot up so that you know how to prevent it. To that end, in this guide we’ll be looking at what the Danger Meter in Dauntless is and does, as well as explaining how your actions can affect it.
What is the Danger Meter?
The Danger Meter is effectively a way (along with the time limit) to put a limit on your Behemoth hunts and stop players from exploiting certain tactics. As you spend time on the hunt, the Danger Meter will slowly rise. Spend time fighting the Behemoth and the Danger Meter percentage will increase more quickly. When the meter reaches 100%, you’ll no longer be able to revive downed teammates, though Stims will still work. In addition, the Behemoth, sensing victory, will start to hit much harder, dealing far more damage to any standing Slayers.
How to raise or lower the Danger Meter
The Danger Meter will automatically increase during hunts, whether you fight the Behemoth or just run around grabbing herbs and ores. As you fight the Behemoth, the Danger Meter will increase more quickly, which makes sense given how dangerous Behemoths are.
The biggest factor that will cause your Danger Meter to rise is collapsing, or going down during a fight. Every time a Slayer falls in a fight, the Danger Meter will spike. To make matters worse, the longer that Slayer remains down, the faster the Danger Meter will rise. It’s crucial that you stay healthy as long as possible, and revive Slayers as soon as possible when they’re downed. It’s better to back off and heal than risk going down.The good news here is that reviving a Hunter is the best way to lower the Danger Meter again, counteracting some of the gain from them falling, provided you do it quickly enough. If possible, try to stagger or interrupt the Behemoth so that you have time for a revive.
The only other way to reduce the Danger Meter is by chasing the Behemoth off. If the Behemoth flees the current fight, the meter will lower significantly. In this manner, it’s possible to reduce the Danger Meter from 100% and allow you to revive your team once more. Don’t worry, we’ll summarise each of these methods below.
Raising the Danger Meter:
- Occurs gradually over time.
- Rate is increased when fighting the Behemoth.
- Whenever a Slayer collapses (runs out of health and falls to the ground).
- The longer a Slayer is downed, the faster the meter will increase.
Lowering the Danger Meter:
- Reviving collapsed Slayers.
- Driving the Behemoth off.
Hopefully by reading this guide you now have an idea of what the Danger Meter is in Dauntless and what it does. For more information, take a look at the Danger Meter page on the official website. It’s an important factor to consider during hunts, and really highlights how much you need to focus on staying on your feet. While you’re here, why not get yourself started properly in Dauntless by reading our tips and tricks for beginners!
