1) Fight ensues. Since the monster is designed to be weaker at level 1 than the hunters it is likely that the monster will get trounced, unless it can gain a tactical advantage. (As a side note, apparently a troll tactic from Kraken players is to invest all points in a monster-centered AoE, stand in the middle of the hunters drop and unleash the AoE the moment they land)ThingWhatSqueaks said:
2) 45 seconds from the monster spawning, 5 seconds from the hunters dropping down from the ship.
The game play in Hunt is centered around the idea that the monster wants to reach stage 2 (where it is even) and stage 3 (where it is superior to the hunters) as soon as possible but has to avoid open conflict and thus has to use stealth and evasion tactics. The hunters meanwhile want to engage as fast as possible and kill or severely damage the monster. Depending on relative skill the match can last anywhere between 5 and 25 minutes (20 minutes being the time limit, but the timer pauses every time combat initiates).
As someone who has clocked 36 hours in Evolve to date, I can say that most of my matches last around 12 minutes, which seems to be near the average from the released metrics. Often they involve one fight at late stage 1 or early stage 2 and a final fight near the end of stage 2. Rarely does the monster reach stage 3 and when it does it is because the monster has managed to feed quickly and aggressively, not because it kept stealthing around for 18 minutes. I usually go pre-made with friends which means we employ "advanced" tactics like splitting up, baiting and using environmental clues (broken vegetation, scared wildlife etc.) to find the monster.
