Hunter leading

Sometimes you may want to get a Hunter to a particular location. You can lead him along by continually letting him swipe then backing off; either face to face, or with your back to him if you're confident of just using sound. When you want to take him a long way though, you can lead him a lot more efficiently as follows.

When he's too close to fire yet not quite close enough for a swipe, he'll run at you to try to get within swiping range. Once he's running at you like this on Normal or higher, it's possible to lead him along at close to your full running speed. Remain just out of his swiping range and he'll keep on coming. You don't have to be facing him; it's easier to be watching where you're going. You can listen to his clanking behind you to judge where he is, or watch the blip on your motion tracker and try to keep it just within the inner circle or thereabouts. If he's getting a bit close, speed up else he'll try a swipe. If he's starting to fall back, slow up else he might open fire. Doorways or other narrow gaps may impede his progress and you might have to let him take a few swipes at you to get him through (you'll back off from these swipes of course), but for the most part you should be able to keep him running. When taking him around a corner, it can help to give it a reasonable berth and curve around. That should keep the Hunter moving smoothly.

With a bit of care it's possible to get more than one Hunter running after you at once, if you want to.

Different on Easy

On Easy, leading Hunters is a bit different due to their hesitancy. To start a Hunter running after you, you'll need to be a bit further back than on the other difficulty levels. Once he's running, it seems like he'll only take a maximum of nine steps before stopping and pausing a few seconds, before you can get things started again. It's not a problem and you can quickly get used to making him run his nine steps each time, but it obviously slows things up. I find it best to be facing the Hunter while waiting for him to start. Once he starts, you could either run backwards (having already taken a look so you'll know where you'll be going), or you could quickly turn and run forwards.

Getting away

If you want to finally get away from a Hunter you've been leading along, dodge a swipe and run back past him quick. By the time he turns to face you, you should be far enough away that he doesn't chase, though you'll probably want to do a bit of weaving to try to avoid the inevitable bombardment if you're in the open.