Whether you're a hunter or a runner, tricks and traps can be very helpful in achieving your goal.
Tricks for Both Sides[]
1) Potions
Easily one of the strategies with the most potential and effect, and also one of the least situational, Potions are a surefire way of getting an advantage over the other side. Many potions are in the game, and a lot of the ingredients are not so hard to get, especially when you need to visit places like the Nether or a cave anyways. Since brewing potions requires blaze rods, this is a strategy for late game, however it is pretty easy to collect 2 or 3 extra blaze rods when you need at least 7 anyways. A lot of potions have useful effects. Some of the more useful ones are:
Tricks for Runners to Use[]
1) Towering
This may seem simple and obvious, but if you are in low health or need to smelt or craft, this could be a game saver. Being this high in the air gives you an advantage over the hunter, as to reach you they have to either tower up to you and risk you hitting them off or have an ender pearl. However, if they have a bow they could knock you off at long range, so I would suggest placing blocks behind you as a sort of makeshift railing. This could also be used to knock hunters off the tower and have them take fall damage. For example, in Dream's recent Survivalist vs. 3 Hitmen video, he lures Sapnap and GeorgeNotFound onto a bridge made of leaves, and uses his shears to break the blocks under them and send them plummeting to the ground many blocks below. In another video, Dream uses a fishing rod to pull his friends off their towers as well. Overall towering is an easy-to-implement plan that gives you an advantage. The only downside is that this strategy is basically a beacon to the hunters, and may not be the best plan for a more sneaky runner who wants to avoid PvP at all costs. Also, unless you can kill the hunters, you are going to have to get past them eventually. Personally, I would recommend practicing your MLG skills before using towers.
2) Trapped Portal
A great diversion later game, You can literally booby-trap your portal by surrounding it in cobble (Leave a block on each side of the portal) then placing lava on top, so it flows over the portal. Wait for a Hunter to enter the portal, and punch him into the lava,, While you won't get his stuff, you certainly impact the hunters adversely, You can also prevent them from leaving the Nether Portal (One side is blocked with Obsidian, so they can't mine it), and when they enter, attack, They cant attack you while inside a portal block, Only if they are on the right edge (The one nearest to you, Or on the side they want to mine out from, As they can't mine either), can they attack you, And that's difficult to do, as your keeping them from getting to the right side of the portal, Later, in the End, if your sufficiently far from them you can practically stop them from following you, Simply note the area you appeared in, If over the Void, place Lava around and 4 blocks over the portal, And mine your blocks, It's easier if your under ground, Same thing, Cover the entire spawn pad with lava, Then you have freedom from the hunters, as there is no way out of that without Ender Pearls, (You can trap them further by creating a second layer of Lava a short distance away with blocks to stop the pearl)
3) Ambushes
While the Hunters are hot on your trail, you can ambush them with all sorts of environmental glitches, One of the most treacherous is the thin Gravel bits over Lava in the Nether, They often generate only one block thick, You can while running over it, simply place a block, If they are on the plateau, they'll fall in the lava, If not, then they have to build across, However, be careful they don't do it to you. You can also, if you can get one, use sponges to ruin the hunters water clutches, You can leap into a pool of water nearby, (After towering), Then, when they jump into the pool after you, you can place the sponge into the pool, drying it up, dooming them to falling onto the dry ground, Just be careful not to choose too big a pool, as then your sponge won't dry it all, Also, with a simple block clutch, you can place a few buckets of Lava, If your fast enough, they will be stuck up on their pillars, while you are able to make some distance
4) Distance
Easily one of the most useful things you could have in the game, this strategy requires some work. The hunters are sure to chase you, and the terrain, mobs, and other factors could cause you to lose your lead. You will need to use certain tricks and items to cover as much distance as possible, as quickly as possible. Remember that hunters can use these strategies as well. The only reason I put these in the 'runner' section is that it is far more beneficial for the runner than for the hunters. Some strategies to speed up or slow down hunters include using boats or dolphins to cross oceans, water to slow the hunters down, lava and flint and steel to light the hunters on fire, blocks to make the terrain more unpredictable, or give you a bridge over shallow pools of water, terrain generation, potions (specifically speed, splash potion of slowness, or splash potion of poison) and ender pearls. Nether travel is a very good and fast option as well, but will only work if you have enough obsidian to make another nether portal farther away, or can trade with the Piglins to get enough obsidian.
5) MLGs
There are a lot of ways to get the hunters off your tail using MLGs. And when you are just starting, these might come in handy. So you start your manhunt game and come across a village. You will want to turn all their hay bales into bread, right? But hold on one second! Keep at least one of those hay bales with you. Hay bales reduce 80% of most fall damage. So if you don't have a water bucket, or aren't very good at using them to save your life, hay bales will almost 100% save your life from most heights. At least, at the cost of a couple of hearts of damage... One of Dream's most useful tools in manhunt is his boats. Whether he is rowing away in the water or literally gliding with this vehicle, it's one of his most valuable assets. My favorite way he has used boats to help him escape is by gliding by repeatedly getting out of the boat and going back in the boat repeatedly. This allows the boat to stall in the air for a few seconds while covering some distance. so Dream basically figured out a way to fly with a boat. This also counts as an MLG. Some other ways to MLG include sweet berries, cobwebs, horses and donkeys, llamas, striders, vines and ladders, slow falling potions, and more!
If you're especially skilled and a hunter is above you, you can steal the item mid-jump and use it for yourself. This is a "banzai MLG", which is coined from banzai skydiving, where a jumper throws their parachute out the plane, waits, then jumps after it.[1]
6) Knowing the Hunter
In Manhunt, knowing your hunter(s) gives you a huge advantage. For example, if you know that you are better at parkour than your friend, try to lure them into a place that will mess up their movement. Or if you know that you are better at PvP than they are you can try to lure them into fighting you 1 on 1. In addition knowing your hunters could let you predict what kind of strategies or traps they could use in advance.
7) Mind Games
You can easily confuse the hunter(s) with mind games. There are different types of mind games that can be used. You can go to the Nether and let them see you earn the advancement, and go out of the nether immediately to gives the hunters the illusion you're still in the Nether. you can make a false cobblestone trail, although that would take some time, so make sure the hunters aren't near you. You could smelt cobblestone to make stone and dig down when they see you, then dig to the side, fill where you are with stone, and they'll think you're still digging. The possibilities are endless.
8)Pufferfish trap
This trap is used for pushing the hunters into the void or the trap. If you get close to the pufferfish (one block radius) you will be poisoned and will be knocked back one block. First, find a suitable spot, or build one. It should be two blocks wide and there should be a wall covering the water block the pufferfish is in. Next, lure the hunters to the trap. MAKE SURE you place the pufferfish at the spot after you past it. The hunters will get knocked off the island and into the void/ your lava
Tricks for Hunters to Use[]
1) Trapping the portals
As a Hunter, one of the worst things you can do is let the runner use portals. In order to beat the game, the runner has to visit both the Nether (to collect blaze rods) and the end (to beat the dragon and thus win the game). However, this can be difficult to stop as the runner is going to be bent on reaching the portals. Nether portals are hard to stop players from making, as lava pools are fairly common around the world, but if you use a water bucket you can turn the lava into obsidian and make it much harder for the runner to make the portal. If you are in the nether you could use beds or TNT to break the portal or kill the runner when they come through.
2) Be aware
Don't just chase after the runner without a plan. You always want to make sure you maximize your chances of winning a fight by being aware of your surroundings and the runner. If the runner is smart they could have a plan or trap waiting to kill you, so be cautious when giving chase, and don't rush anything. There will always be another chance to kill the runner later, so don't take unnecessary risks. It is always important to know when the right time to give a full on chase is.
3) Get good loot, and have extras
Once the runner has advanced far in the game, It will be important that you have more loot than them. This is because if you lose a fight to the runner late game, the runner will have all your loot and you will have no way to recover, leaving you helpless as the runner finishes the game. It is suggested that you have a chest or a specified hunter carrying gear similar in strength to what you had when you died. That way, if you die, you will be able to get right back in the game immediately without frantically having to mine all over again. It is worth it to do this in the early game rather than later, because the runner will be staying in relatively the same place also gathering resources, so you won't lose ground.
4) Place beds
This may seem obvious but placing beds regularly to reset your respawn point is critical. This allows you respawn in the vicinity of the runner over and over no matter how many times you die. You may not have any loot, (unless you have that chest or another hunter carrying extras) but at least you won't respawn half a world away from the hunter. Be sure your bed is out of reach or properly hidden from the runner. If it's destroyed your respawn point will be set back to world-spawn and not the previous bed you placed, possibly leaving you hundreds or thousands of blocks away.
5) Disguise
This might be a boring strategy if you are eager to fight the hunters, but it might be very helpful in the stronghold. You see, strongholds are hard to navigate. It is really hard to find the portal room. You can make this harder for the speedrunner by using a silk touch pickaxe or smelting cobblestone to make regular stone. Then, collect some bricks from the walls of the stronghold. Go to the entrance and place down the bricks. Make sure to alternate the types of bricks, making it look indistinguishable than a regular brick wall. And then, put stone behind the walls, usually 2 or 3 layers. That way even if the speedrunner gets suspicious and dig into the walls, they will find stone instead of a portal room.
6) Practice!
Practicing is crucial for manhunts. You might need to use a different mechanic or game strategy each time or the hunters will get wise and catch on. You might've used the "run away" strategy, but even if you got away the first time, there are almost endless amounts of variables in a minecraft manhunt. So you need to swap strategies each time. The best way to determine which strategy is the best strategy is practice.