Hunter

The Hunter is a military attack helicopter featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Internally, it also appears in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, though unused.

3D Universe
The Hunter is based on the Boeing AH-64 Apache, more precisely the AH-64A Apache. In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the Hunter is an aesthetically correct AH-64A, though in VCS, it's technically a YAH-64A, as the helicopter did not formally enter service with the United States Army until 1986. The version featured in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has a similar design. However, it omits the co-pilot gunner seat (CPG), uses an eight-bladed tail rotor, and has a canopy that swings open horizontally to the right, like the Hydra jet fighter.

The Hunter is also present in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, although it does not spawn anywhere and can be only obtained through third-party trainers and modifications.

In all its appearances, the Hunter always comes with a dark green color and has a Hughes M230 30mm chain gun mounted on the chin and dual Hydra 70 rocket pods, as well as a set of unusable AGM-114 Hellfire missile racks with 4 missiles each.

A special Vigilante Mission is available with the Hunter, the "Brown Thunder" mission. Despite being a military vehicle, it does not appear being military-operated in normal gameplay, out of missions or scripted events.

Grand Theft Auto V
An unnamed helicopter assumed to be the Hunter, bearing an extremely similar design, can be seen in a trailer for The Simian during the showing for the movie Meltdown and a picture for Warstock Cache & Carry's Lifeinvader that details their equipment selection (located in the lower right). The Hunter is depicted with a desert camouflage scheme, similar to most military-owned vehicles in Grand Theft Auto V.

This helicopter looks like it's modeled after the aforementioned Apache with various elements from the RAH-66 Comanche. On the front, the nose of the Hunter features detailed cameras mounted in similar fashion to that of the AH-64 Apache series and its 3D Universe predecessor, while the canopy now resembles that of the RAH-66 Comanche. The Hunter's front suspension is raised in order to fit the Hughes M230 30mm chain gun mounted on the chin of the craft's fuselage when grounded and is equipped with 4 Hydra 70 rocket pods, while lacking the 8 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. On the back, the tail boom is briefly seen and has a build similar in appearance to that of the Comanche. The stabilizers have moved to the top of the tail fin and the rotor is removed and replaced with a Fenestron-style fan-in-fin. As an additional note, the engines have been modified slightly too, with the exhaust vents on the rear of them horizontal instead of vertical, as seen in the previous 3D models and its real-life counterpart. In the same trailer, the pilot is seen piloting the helicopter in the co-pilot gunner seat, like in previous renditions.

An alternate version of another vehicle, also assumed to be the Hunter, appears at the start of the Jack Howitzer series. Jack is pursued by 2 of these in a scene from Loincloth, one of his 80's action movies, therefore the Hunters used appear to be the previous 3D Universe renditions, as a sake of time sense.

Performance
The Hunter is, in all of its appearances, the fastest helicopter in the game. It possesses a stellar handling and easy to control, as well as being a good choice to fly between structures in cities. However, it has a wide turning radius and cannot automatically stabilize at 45 degrees when keeping the control thumbstick forward, as doing so will result in the Hunter getting upside down, loosing control and eventually crashing. The vehicle can easily get upside down when moving the helicopter at high speed.

It's highly resistant to damage in comparison to an average helicopter, due to its nature as a combat vehicle.

Weaponry
The Hunter has two sets of weapons, which consist of a chain gun mounted on the chin, and dual rocket pods. This weaponry makes the Hunter a deadly vehicle. The chain gun is autonomous and automatically lock/fire at targets in a 45 degrees radius. The rocket pods will fire two rockets (one from both sides) at once. These are unguided, but the high rate of fire of the rockets and the good handling of the helicopter make the rockets easy to use and devastating. Like the Rhino, the Sea Sparrow and the Hydra, all weapons have unlimited ammunition. Only the set of missiles are unusable.

Notable Owners

 * Tommy Vercetti
 * Jerry Martinez
 * Ricardo Diaz

GTA Vice City

 * Fort Baxter Air Base - Inside the base after completing either Keep Your Friends Close or collecting all 100 hidden packages, which will appear only after a certain percentage of the game is complete. Jacking the Hunter from here without a police uniform is not easy. The easist way is to fly another helicopter (purchasing the Hyman Condo is the easiest) to the rear of the base (where the Hunter is parked), then slam down and land right next to it, hop out, and then jack it. This must be quick because eventually guardsmen will spawn around the base with M4's, and will shoot the player down.
 * Ocean Beach - At the helipad next to Lance Vance's house after finding all 100 hidden packages and completing Keep Your Friends Close.

GTA San Andreas

 * Easter Basin, San Fierro - On a helipad inside the Easter Basin Naval Station after completing Pilot School with all golds. The player instantly gains a 5 star wanted level upon entering the base and therefore will be engaged by two NPC Hydras firing heat-seeking missiles, which makes obtaining it very difficult.
 * Verdant Meadows, Bone County - At the airstrip after getting gold on all Pilot School tests. (Note: When both the Hunter and Leviathan are unlocked at Verdant Meadows, only one of them can spawn at a time. Arrive from the west to spawn the Hunter and arrive from the east to spawn the Leviathan).
 * Used in Heli Hell - the player can keep it if take the Hunter to the aircraft hangar in Verdant Meadows instead of completing the course.
 * May be found with the unknown twin-plane at both LSPD & SFPD's basement.
 * Can be spawned by inputting the cheat during gameplay.

GTA Liberty City Stories

 * The Hunter aircraft itself is not available in the regular game, but left over code from GTA Vice City is, and can only be spawned in with a third-party trainer.

GTA Vice City Stories

 * Escobar International Airport - At the southern part of the airport near the Biplane after completing Last Stand. Starts the "Skywolf" side-mission automatically upon entrance.

Notable Appearances in Missions
Although it isn't considered a mission, the Hunter appeared in a multiplayer match for the PSP version of GTA Vice City Stories named "Might of the Hunter".
 * In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City it makes a single appearance in the mission All Hands On Deck, being used by a french secret service agent, though only uses the chain gun.
 * It also appeared in Learning to Fly, a race event (Heli Hell) and two flown by NPC in Up, Up and Away! (part of the casino heist mission) from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
 * The Hunter's most notable use is in the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories missions Over The Top and Last Stand, when Victor Vance steals a Hunter (in Over the Top) in order to attack the Mendez Cartel (in Last Stand). It also appears in a previous mission, From Zero To Hero.

Skywolf Mission
The Skywolf mission is a side mission in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories available after Last Stand, it is activated by simply entering the Hunter at Escobar International Airport. The mission requires the player to use the Hunter's weaponry and destroy a certain amount of targets while flying through some rings. The targets are boats, cars and for the last part, another helicopter. Completion of the mission gets the player a step closer to 100% Completion.

General

 * The default radio stations for the Hunter are:
 * GTA Vice City: V-Rock
 * GTA San Andreas: K-DST
 * GTA Liberty City Stories: Lips 106
 * In GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas and GTA Liberty City Stories, the player is able to play the game's Radio Stations while flying the Hunter. However, this ability was removed in GTA Vice City Stories.
 * The Hunter is one of the fastest helicopters in the 3D Universe and with the widest turning radius, on par with the Sea Sparrow and VCN Maverick/News Chopper.
 * The name "Brown Thunder" is a reference to the 1983 action film Blue Thunder, which centers on a heavily-armed law enforcement helicopter.
 * The Hunter's "Brown Thunder" Vigilante mission is the best way to earn money in GTA Vice City, and third best in GTA San Andreas (after the Inside Track betting trick and using the Rhino in Vigilante missions). The mission allows the player to take-out criminals in a specific time period, earning more time with each successful kill. Once at a high level (level 30 & beyond in GTA Vice City, level 150 & beyond in GTA San Andreas), the money earned can be massive, sometimes over 100K.
 * The in-game chain gun, despite it was intended to be the Hughes M230 30mm chain gun, is seem to be very boxy and small for this helicopter in the 3D Universe, due to the low suspension of the main landing gears. However, the Beta Hunter from GTA V (the desert camo one) has a realistic model of the said weapon.

GTA Vice City

 * The front wheels are designed in the same orientation. Thus, the black side is on the left side of both wheels and the wheel caps on the right.
 * Even though the cockpit has the correct two personnel layout, the Hunter has the control stick in the gunner position. AH-64 Apache helicopters actually have control sticks in both the pilot and co-pilot gunner seats.
 * Also, Tommy flies the Hunter from the co-pilot/gunner seat, situated at the front of the cockpit. AH-64 Apache helicopters are actually piloted primarily from the rear of the cockpit.
 * Notice Tommy never flies the chopper since he never put his hands on the stick (cyclic) or the throttle (collective). Rather, he makes a cup shape with his hands as if holding a steering wheel. In fact, when he turns, he turns his hands as if turning a steering wheel instead, rather than "pitch" the stick.
 * The Hunter's machine gun has a firing sound like the M-60, instead of a 30mm chain gun.

GTA San Andreas

 * There's a visual glitch that might cause the inside of the cockpit to disappear. It often happens when viewing it from the left or right side or the view looking behind the helicopter.
 * Using the turret to destroy any vehicles does not attract police attention, but killing people while grounded using the turret or rockets (unless they hit the ground, a structure, directly at criminals spawned by a Vigilante mission or explode in the air) does attract a wanted level.
 * When entering a Hunter with a Camera equipped. The camera lens will show up when in first-person mode. This is useful, as the camera lens provide accuracy for targets.

GTA Liberty City Stories

 * Although it does not appear within the game, leftover Hunter files from GTA Vice City are present in the code of GTA Liberty City Stories. With the aid of third-party trainers, a fully functional Hunter can be spawned. It has the same design as the GTA Vice City model but cannot be used for Vigilante missions, nor does is it have a in-game name.

GTA Vice City Stories

 * One must be careful when shooting the rockets from the Hunter, because if the helicopter strafes too much, the rockets will hit the chopper immediately after firing, thus, destroying it in the process. Same is true for any Hunters in other games when firing too close to the ground as the splash damage will instantly kill the player.

GTA V

 * In The Simian trailer appearance, the pilot seen is wearing an LSPD flight helmet.

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