Hunters,

Update 2.1 is now live! It includes new Weapons, a new Consumable, and introduces the brand-new game mode Bounty Clash. Along with these exciting additions, there are numerous improvements, changes, and bug fixes. Check it out below!

Harvest of Ghosts

Harvest of Ghosts – Live Event

The new Live Event, Harvest of Ghosts, adds exciting new mechanics and Pacts to the game as players collect Event Points for progress and Pledge Marks, which can be used to unlock new powers. Progressing in the Event yields access to new weapons and equipment, as well as a ton of cosmetic rewards.

Pact Traits

Similar to previous Events, there are special Pact-specific Traits that can be gained at Supply Points in the world.

At Supply Points you will find Pledge Boxes which can be used to pledge to one of the three Pacts. This Event, your Hunter will get their Trait the moment they pledge to their Pact. This also means that unlike before, these Traits will not cost any Pledge Marks.

Additionally, every Pact has one Trait that will get a new Conditional Effect that only activates if your Hunter is pledged to the related Pact.

The Wilderness Pact

Restore, Revive, Revenge: The Wilderness Pact preserves the mountains' integrity and punishes those who corrupt it.

Wilderness Traits make your Hunter more mobile and equipped for exploration.

• Pact Trait:
  
  • Surefoot: You can sprint while using First Aid Kits and Consumable Shots and while priming Throwables. Additionally, Hunters will move faster when crouched.
• Conditional Trait Effects:
  
  • Beastface: You will not be noticed at all by wildlife, and you will not break branches.

The Pact of Omens

Weaponize the Corruption: The Pact of Omens harnesses powers within Dark Sight to inflict harm and horror upon their enemies.

The Pact of Omens' Traits gift your Hunter with sharpened senses that allow tactical advantages in both sound and sight.

• Pact Trait
  
  • Blast Sense: Loud sounds such as gunshots and explosions are highlighted while in Dark Sight.
• Conditional Trait Effects:
  
  • Pain Sense: Effect is visible when low on Stamina.

The Smugglers Pact

Loot and Profit: The Smugglers Pact seeks wealth amongst the carnage of this haunted season.
Smugglers Traits heavily arm your Hunter and allow for fast map traversal.

• Pact Trait
  
  • Gunrunner: Allows two Large Slot weapons on your Hunter and applies Quartermaster.
  Conditional Trait Effects:
  
  • Greyhound: Sprint faster while carrying a Bounty Token.

Sealed Rewards

Returning from the previous update, Sealed Rewards can appear both in the Sealed Hoard central location and at Arsenals, Supply Points, Hunting Towers, and Watch Towers. In addition to the previous rewards, there is a new reward being introduced:

• Sealed Trait: Receive a random Burn or Scarce Trait

Event Point Sources

Event Points can be earned by doing various in-game activities as well as completing daily and weekly tasks. The full list of Event Point sources is as follows:

In-game Activities:

• Unlock Sealed Hoard Bounty Token or Master Clue – 50 EPs
  
• Extract a Bounty Token or Become the Soul Survivor – 30 EPs
  
• Banish Targets, Kill a Hellborn, or Activate the Wellspring – 15 EPs
  
• Loot Any Hunter for the First Time – 10 EPs
  
• Investigate Clues or Close Rifts – 8 EPs
  
• Kill Meatheads – 3 EPs
  
• Kill Hellhounds or Immolators – 2 EPs
  
• Smash Pumpkins – 1 EP

Weekly Challenges:

• Complete Regular Challenge – 750 / 1000 EPs
  
• Complete Premium Challenge – 1500 EPs
  
• Dark Tribute
  
• Reach the 1st Dark Tribute Milestone – 200 EPs

New Equipment

During the duration of Harvest of Ghosts, new equipment can be unlocked through the Battle Pass. After the Event, the Weapons and Custom Ammo will go into the regular Bloodline Progression as usual.

New Weapon: Bomb Launcher

Fires an explosive harpoon and can switch between two ammo types. The compact stock makes for an easy carry.

• Basic – Special Ammo – 1/6
  
• Dragon Breath – Special Ammo – 1/9
  
• Steel Ball Ammo – Special Ammo – 1/12
  
• Waxed Frag Charge – Special Ammo – 1/12
  
• Harpoon – Special Ammo – 1/12

Developer's Note:
The Bomb Launcher will become the base weapon, and the Bomb Lance will move to become an unlock.

New Weapon: Maynard Sniper

A scoped rifle with high damage and Medium Ammo. Requires a two-staged reload with the placement of a percussion cap.

• Basic – Medium Ammo – 1/26
  
• Dumdum Ammo – Medium Ammo – 1/26
  
• High Velocity Ammo – Medium Ammo – 1/18

New Weapon Variant: Auto-4 Shorty

Crown & King made, semi-automatic shotgun. Dominates close range with high power and fire-rate, but has a strong recoil. Shortened stock and barrel with one less round than the Auto-5.

• Basic – Shotgun Ammo – 3+1/5
  
• Flechette – Shotgun Ammo – 3+1/5
  
• Penny Shot Ammo – Shotgun Ammo – 3+1/7
  
• Slug – Shotgun Ammo – 3+1/3

New Weapon Variant: Centennial Pointman

Winfield made, lever-action repeating rifle. High muzzle velocity and good damage at range. Shortened stock and modified with a mid-to-long-range scope.

• Basic – Medium Ammo – 5+1/12
  
• Dumdum Ammo – Medium Ammo – 5+1/12
  
• FMJ Ammo – Medium Ammo – 5+1/12
  
• High Velocity Ammo – Medium Ammo – 5+1/8
  
• Poison Ammo – Medium Ammo – 5+1/12

New Weapon Variant: Rival 78 Mace

Caldwell made, break-action shotgun with two barrels. High damage but high pellet spread, two-tapping gives it an edge. Shortened and modified with a rear bludgeon.

• Basic – Shotgun Ammo – 2/6
  
• Dragon Breath – Shotgun Ammo – 2/6
  
• Flechette – Shotgun Ammo – 2/6
  
• Penny Shot Ammo – Shotgun Ammo – 2/9
  
• Slug – Shotgun Ammo – 2/4

New Consumable: Dark Dynamite Satchel

A deployable bundle of dynamite sticks that are detonated remotely via Dark Sight. It can be interacted with up to 50 meters. You can attach it to walls and floors.

Developer's Note:
This versatile Consumable has the same explosive yield as a Big Dynamite Bundle. Teammates can detonate your Dark Dynamite Satchel in Dark Sight. Projectile, Fire, and Explosive damage will cause the dynamite to explode instantly. It can be defused using Dauntless.

New Custom Ammo on Existing Weapons

• Bomb Launcher/Lance Harpoon
  
• Hand Crossbow Revive Bolt

Developer's Note:
Revive Bolts are a new ammo type for Hand Crossbows, letting you revive and heal teammates from a distance. While dealing no damage, they open new opportunities to support teammates mid-fight.

Bounty Clash

Face off against enemy Hunters in our new limited-time game mode: Bounty Clash. One Bounty Token, one compound, 12 players, and a 15-minute time limit. Rush - Fight - Extract - Repeat!

A dead Boss Target awaits banishment in a randomly selected compound. Players spawn directly adjacent to the compound and have 15 minutes to fight over the spoils. The Boss Target, as well as the nearby Extraction Points, are indicated directly on your compass to help you navigate in the middle of the firefight.

Be warned—you'll take in Hunters from your roster, so the stakes are high. Fight across a variety of compounds across Mammon’s Gulch and Stillwater Bayou, streamlined for the new game mode.

Your MMR is used to match you against Hunters of similar skill, but is not affected by the outcome of the Mission.

Gunplay

• Changed the behavior of Throwing Tools to require aim while throwing them.
  
• Reduced the level of zoom on Deadeye weapons.
  
• Reduced ballistic performance of silenced versions of the Vetterli, Frontier, and Nagant.

Scope Updates

A new drop helper has been added to help gauge your distance to your target. This new helper consists of a thicker vertical line below the center of the crosshair—when a full Hunter from head-to-toe fits in-between the two, you are exactly at the Drop Range distance of that weapon. With this information, you can:

• Quickly determine if you actually need to adjust your aim to account for drop or not.
  
• Use the scale of a Hunter to determine how much to account for drop.

Melee Weapons & Tools

• Made changes to the Throwing Spear’s balancing:
  
  • Base throw damage has been reduced to 200.
    
    • Throw damage to the leg has been reduced to 110.
  • Melee Damage has been reduced:
    
    • Light attack: 70
      
    • Heavy attack: 147
  • Damage dealt pulling the Throwing Spear from a target has been reduced.
    
  • Light melee attack speed has been reduced.
    
  • Velocity has been reduced to 40m/s.
    
  • You can no longer sprint while charging or aiming the spear unless you have the Surefoot Trait.
• Rebalanced equipped melee weapons, improving damage and Stamina consumption on all weapons apart from the Katana.
  
• Increased Stamina consumption on the Katana.
  
• Increased damage, throw rate, and throw accuracy for Throwing Knives.

Gameplay

• Changed the Bulwark Trait to no longer save the player from a Bomb Lance explosion
  
• Allowed Beetle spawns to appear in Soul Survivor
  
• Restoration now also refills Dark Sight Boost when the player has a Bounty Token
  
• Rebalanced projectile penetration and fixed a bug in the system that didn’t reduce damage correctly after the first successful wall penetration

Developer's Note: With this bug fix, the balancing for how projectiles lose damage when penetrating walls has been adjusted slightly. Overall, the penetration multipliers have been normalized and slightly simplified. Nothing changed on the general rule of Compact Ammo being the weakest to penetrate, and Long Ammo the strongest.

Compact bullets received some slight improvements to ensure they work similarly as before. Medium bullets retain their damage slightly better through the first layer of penetration as well, but lose more damage in further penetrations. Long bullets have seen some adjustments to their multipliers overall. FMJ bullets in general retain their damage better with the first penetration, but are weaker with successive penetrations.

Meta

Bounty Token Value Normalization

• Updated the value of all Bounty Tokens to 125, regardless of region or Contract

Developer's Note: We had two goals with this change: first, making it clearer how much a Bounty Token is worth, and second, making small region Targets more appealing to engage with. This change results in a net increase of Bounty available across all Contracts and should shake up your decision-making process in deciding which Target to go for.

• Reduced the number of random Weapon Family unlocks from Blueprints from 3 to 1

Developer's Note: With the removal of Custom Ammo from our unlockable Weapon Families, we drastically reduced the overall number of unlocks and XP required to unlock all items. With this in mind, we’re reducing the number of unlocks from Blueprints, initially increased to ensure that slightly higher thresholds for the individual unlocks introduced in Update 1.15 wouldn’t be too challenging or time-consuming to overcome. Blueprints still grant a single, random item unlock, as opposed to a specific unlock for your carried weapon from Gun Oil.

• Moved Fire and Choke Beetle unlocks to Bloodline Rank 27
  
• Moved the Dauntless Trait unlock to Bloodline Rank 1
  
• Replaced vacant rank rewards with Hunt Dollars

Trait Changes

Conduit:

• Added Solo Conditional Effect: Investigating one Clue gives the same map progress of investigating two Clues.

Pain Sense (Formerly Poison Sense):

• Poison Sense has undergone a rework and has been renamed Pain Sense. The Trait now highlights Hunters who are bleeding, burning, or poisoned in Dark Sight.
  
• Cost increased from 1 Upgrade Point to 3 Upgrade Points.

Lightfoot:

• Added Solo Conditional Effect: Players make reduced noise when crouched. This Conditional Effect has been moved from Surefoot to Lightfoot.

Berserker:

• Has now become a Scarce Trait.

Bulwark:

• Will no longer protect you from a Bomb Lance explosion when stuck.

Rarity Updates

Developer's Note: We acknowledge that upon launch of Hunt: Showdown 1896, the Rarity of some content felt inconsistent, or did not resonate with our players. As such, we have decided to update the Rarity of some content to better conform with our design philosophy and our players’ expectations.

Scorched Earth (Battle Pass)

• Updated the Rarity of Shrewd Savior (Krag) from Rare to Legendary.
  
• Updated the Rarity of Thunderstroke (Rival 78) from Epic to Legendary.
  
• Updated the Rarity of Salted Earth (Dynamite Bundle) from Rare to Legendary.
  
• Updated the Rarity of Forest Sting (Scottfield Precision) from Epic to Legendary.
  
• Updated the Rarity of Gilded Maul (Railroad Hammer) from Rare to Epic.
  
• Updated the Rarity of Gold Reliable (Derringer Pennyshot) from Rare to Epic.

Developer's Note: The Scorched Earth Battle Pass saw some almost identical content with widely ranging Rarities. We have decided to retroactively update and upgrade these.
Double or Nothing (DLC)

• Updated the Rarity of Hyde (Pax) from Uncommon to Rare.

Developer's Note: We acknowledge that the Hyde (Pax) Skin that is part of the Double of Nothing DLC originally had its Rarity set up incorrectly. The Hyde is part of a matching set with the Jekyll (Pax) of the same DLC. We intend for the level of detail and complexity to be the same for both Skins. As such, we have decided to update the Rarity of Hyde (Pax) accordingly.

Dark Tribute

• Updated the Rarity of Bad Hand from Mythic to Legendary.
  
• Updated the Rarity of Union Suit: Red Drawers from Mythic to Legendary.
  
• Updated the Rarity of Union Suit: Sunday Best from Mythic to Legendary.

Developer's Note: We acknowledge that the Mythic Rarity does not fit the Dark Tribute Hunters Bad Hand and Union Suit, as they have been (and are subject to be) re-run as rewards via other in-game mechanics and frameworks (e.g., Twitch Drops). As such, we are updating their Rarity accordingly.

UI

• Paper doll will now be used in Gear screens so that your loadout will remain visible across equipment screens
  
• Dedicated Play button has been added to the top nav
  
• Full shortcut button and key binding pass has been added for clarity, consistency, and ease of use
  
• Filters and sorting are now remembered between Missions
  
• KDA will now be shown in Player Details from Lobby
  
• Charms can now be placed on any number of Weapons again
  
• Teammate Hunter levels will now be shown in the Lobby
  
• When recruiting a Hunter, the Hunter will now be automatically selected
  
• Affordable and unaffordable/available and unavailable Traits are now easier to differentiate
  
• The Grid View is now set as the standard view for Recruit Screen, including a “Free Hunter” button as well as a “Recruit All Hunters” button. Dedicated buttons for All Recruits/Free Recruits have been added.
  
• "Show 3D Item" now present in the contextual side panel
  
• We have also added a total of 461 bug fixes.

World

• Level: Mammon’s Gulch:
  
  • Changed Spawn Points in Preston Oil to avoid potentially unfair spawn fights.
    
  • Various player movement improvements have been made around Preston Oil.
    
  • Fixed some stuck spots and improved player movement over logs in Deadfall Timber.
    
  • Hellborn can now appear in the northern area of Blackthorn Stockyard (New Potential Spawn Location)

Performance

• DLSS updated to version 3.7.
  
• FSR updated to version 3.1.
  
• Added Upscaling Slider.
  
• NVIDIA Reflex added.
  
• Improved general stalls in the main menu and missions.
  
• Various GPU memory performance improvements to minimize stutters in specific scenarios.
  
• Fixed a minor stall when starting animation playback of certain UI elements (e.g., banishing marker on the map screen).
  
• Implemented forced frame-rate limiting in the main menu to 60 FPS.
  
• Minor reduction in VRAM over-allocation for some specific cases.

• Fixed an issue where the Relentless Trait would be given from a Rift instead of the Remedy Trait in Soul Survivor
  
• Fixed an issue where the Sparks ammo switch could be interrupted early.
  
• Fixed an issue where recruiting a new Hunter with no Hunters on the roster caused an unselected state, allowing the player to load in without a Hunter.
  
• Resolved a cosmetic bug where weapon Skins showed different Tooltip UI values than non-skinned versions. Affected weapons: Frontier Silencer, Frontier Marksman, and Springfield Bullseye. Also fixed the drop range HUD while ADS.
  
• Fixed an issue where teams would load into the “PvP Off” Shooting Range, despite the Lobby showing otherwise.
  
• Addressed an exploit where Hunters rendered at 500m while other certain objects did not.