Savage, nightmarish monsters roam the Louisiana swamps, and you are part of a group of rugged bounty hunters bound to rid the world of their ghastly presence. Banish these creatures from our world, and you will be paid generously—and given the chance to buy more gruesome and powerful weapons. Fail, and death will strip you of both character and gear. Your experience, however, remains in your pool of hunters—called your Bloodline—always.

Hunt’s competitive, match-based gameplay mixes PvP and PvE elements to create a uniquely tense experience where your life, your character, and your gear are always on the line. At the beginning of each match, up to five teams of two set out to track their monstrous targets. Once they’ve found and defeated one of these they will receive a bounty—and instantly become a target for every other Hunter left on the map. If you don’t watch your back, you’ll find a knife in it, and your last memory will be of another team of Hunters walking away with your prize. The higher the risk, the higher the reward–but a single mistake could cost you everything.

Even more new content for Hunt: Showdown, Crytek’s early access multiplayer bounty hunting game, went live today with the release of Update 2.1, coming hot on the heels of the release of Update 2. Update 2.1’s two biggest additions are both community-requested features: a partner spectator mode for players who die during a match and a new mission type with heavy fog.

With Update 2.1, players will also get access to more weapons and the usual slew of improvements and bug fixes. New weapons included in the update are the Crossbow, Hand Crossbow, Poisonhand Crossbow, Throwing Knives, a Specter with bayonet, a Sparks with silencer, a Winfield with silencer, and a Combat Axe. Two related traits have also been added—Bolt Thrower and Bolt Seer—which will give any bow slinger additional prowess.

“Seeing the reactions of the community and working closely with their feedback to fine-tune the direction of the game has been an incredible process,” said Loic Raimond (Live Service Producer) of Hunt’s early access process. “It feels like a truly collaborative process, and the game is all the better—and more fun—for it.”

Highlights

• New stealth weapons:
  • 3 new crossbows - Old school crossbow, Hand crossbow and Poison crossbow.
  • Silenced weapons - The Sparks LRR and Winfield now have additional variants with mounted silencers.
  • Throwing knives – A new tool, allows for stealth kills even if you bring the big guns.
  • Specter 1882 Bayonet – A versatile pump-action shotgun variant that works great in close quarters.
  • Combat Axe – Similar to the Wood Axe World Item (except you cannot throw it). A cheap, medium sized weapon that packs a punch.
• Vitality shot changes – Added new variants: weak and normal variants. Injecting a shot now takes longer.
• Retrieving projectiles – Crossbow bolts and throwing knives can be retrieved from bodies and walls to be used again.
• Fog time of day – A new fog setting that shows off the swamps of Louisiana in all its foggy glory.
• Spectator mode – The ability to continue watching the action through your teammates eyes after being downed/incapacitated or the death of your own Hunter.
  While spectating your partner, a message will be displayed in cases where your body is burning and after being burned to indicate you are dead

New equipment

With this update we are adding a number of additional weapons and equipment to aid Hunters in stealthy game play. This will be great for solo players, who now have more options available to them, if they choose to remain in the shadows. For teams, it is also much easier now to come up with combos that compliment your loadout, adding a silent option for those times when being loud is just not an option.

• Crossbow – Large weapon that can kill a player with a well aimed hit from a single bolt. Cannot resupply from ammo boxes, but bolts can be retrieved.
• Hand Crossbow – Medium weapon that is a great companion as a sidearm. Works the same as its larger cousin.
• Poison Hand Crossbow – Uses poison-tipped bolts that burst on impact. Very powerful against most monsters and can distort the view of other Hunters.
• Sparks LRR Silencer – Large weapon with an attached Silencer and reduced damage. Stronger sway makes for harder aiming, similar to the effect of the bayonet attachment.
• Winfield M1873 C Silencer – Same as the Sparks LRR Silencer, but has more ammunition and fires the weaker Compact Bullets at reduced damage.
• Throwing Knives – Pack of six throwing knives that can be used at short range and retrieved after use (watch where you throw them).
• Specter 1882 Bayonet – Variant of the first-ever pump-action shotgun that comes with an attached bayonet for improved handling in melee combat.
• Combat Axe – New early game melee weapon that occupies a Medium Slot. Very cheap, but a powerful option for new Hunters.
• Weak Vitality Shot – Little brother to the Vitality Shot that heals 50 health, costs much less than the standard Vitality Shot.

New traits

• Bolt Seer Trait – Highlights Bolts and Throwing Knives for better visibility.
• Bolt Thrower Trait - Reduces the time to reload Crossbows.

Fog

With this update we are introducing a new setting – Fog time of day. This setting challenges players with reduced visibility while facing the dangers of the swamp.

Freeze/stalls

• With this update, we are introducing a potential fix to the 3-5 second freezes/stalls issues that has been occurring for some of you

Developer Note: If you are still encountering these issues, please let us know on the Steam forums or via the Official Hunt Discord.

General updates

AI

• Meathead and The Butcher
  • Improvements made to prevent instances where the AI would become unresponsive.

Audio

• Improved consistency of bullet impacts and ricochets.
• Improvements made to the audio of the new silenced weapons.
• Improvements made to the audio of the Dark Sight Boost transition
• Improved consistency of indoor and outdoor gunfire.
• Improved water footstep sounds.
• Improvements made to audio occlusion to reduce the sound bleeding through the terrain of underground areas.

Developer note: We are aware that there are other instances of the sound bleeding through certain areas. We will continue our investigations and make improvements to these areas with each update.

Gunplay

• Improvements made to the responsiveness of hit registration.
• Improvements made to the hit validation system to reduce the number of false negatives. We will continue to monitor and tweak these to improve overall hit registration
• Improvements made to the reliability of throwing axes and hammers with the Tomahawk trait
• Improvements made to the melee hit detection for the following:
  • Dolch Precision
  • Romero Handcannon
• Improvements made to the Cavalry Saber animations.
• Improvements made to the Knife animations.
• Flare Pistol shell speed increased from 50 to 75 meter per second.
• Changes made to the functionality of the Antidote Shots after use:
  • Prevents further poison effects from reapplying while active.
  • Prevents damage from poison clouds.
  • Reduces the damage of Hive swarms, Spider pounce and the Poison hand Crossbow.
• Thrown Wood Axes and Sledgehammers fly slower and lose damage faster.
• Improvements made to the Wood Axe to make the follow-up melee attacks more reliable.
• Derringer reload now consumes all remaining loaded bullets and will always insert 4 fresh rounds.
• Basic single-action revolvers can now fan slightly faster than the heavier Uppercut and Chain pistol variants.
• Improvements made to the occlusion behavior of explosions particularly relating to how they wrap around corners .
• To distinguish between the weak and standard Vitality shots, the standard syringe now is a bronze color.
• Increased the animation length of injecting shots from 3 to 5 seconds.
• Reduced the damage of the Nitro express in relation to leg shots.
• Reduced the damage of compact bullets in relation to the lower torso and arm/leg shots.
• Projectiles now have the correct mass value attached (this will make impacts with physical objects more believable).

Developer note: We are continuously observing the performance and usage of the weapons and equipment across the game and will make adjustments where needed. With this update, we took a closer look at the 3 most used items in our arsenal; the Winfield rifles, the Dolch pistol and the Vitality shot.

The Winfield: These rifles have received another round of tweaks and tuning. We want to keep the two-hit kill capability but now have reduced the damage to limbs as well as the lower torso to increase the average number of hit to kill while rapidly firing. Hitting the upper chest and head will still be the best way to bring down your target. Being such an all-rounder, the Winfield is a hard weapon to balance, one we are sure we are not done with yet. Let us know what you think!

The Dolch: An impressive handgun, using one of the most powerful cartridges of the era, and a revolutionary new semi-automatic fire mode. We want to reflect this in game; however we also have to acknowledge the problems this has for balancing, especially against other weapons. This update will see a reduction in the extra ammunition carried meaning every shot counts that little bit more. Those that blast their way through the medium bullets will find themselves running out of ammo relatively quickly, but with careful use, it remains one of the best handguns in the game.

The Vitality Shot: The most used consumable in the game by far. This is great on one hand, but also means that it dominates the consumables category and removes a lot of variety. Many would rather bring a vitality shot than a more tactical option. This update sees an increase to the price as well as an increase to the use timer (5 seconds for the shot to take effect instead of 3), bringing the shots more in line with the First Aid kit. We have also introduced another variation; the Weak Vitality shot, which will heal 50 health. Players can now choose between the more affordable weak variant, or spend the extra money for the standard shot. Bringing multiples of the vitality shot will now be an investment so we hope that players might consider bringing some other consumables alongside.

Hunters

• Lowered the stamina consumption rate while running. Hunters should now be able to sprint for longer distances.
• All recruits are now equipped with the Weak Vitality Shot instead of the standard Vitality Shot.
• Lowered the Dark Sight boost timer from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.

Developer note:The Dark sight Boost receives another round of tuning with this update and has had its duration cut by 5 seconds. It has been great to see how everyone is adapting to this new feature and so far we have observed and increase in fighting during the banishing phase with players on the inside trying to barricade and defend the area, while other teams try to force their way in before the bounty can be picked up. This reminds us a lot of last year’s E3 reveal and it is great to see!

We want the Dark Sight Boost to give players going for the bounty a fighting chance. It’s a reward that empowers those that take the risk of fighting the boss, but it should not be an option that allows those to dominate and hunt the remaining players once it has been collected. We are certain there will be more adjustments to Dark Sight over time. We want to ensure that it remains an empowering and game changing addition while still maintaining the overall balance.

Meta

Store

• Comparable weapon and equipment stats have been reworked and use a more granular rating system.

New equipment:

• Crossbow - $280 (unlocked at Rank 70)
• Hand Crossbow - $210 (unlocked at Rank 51)
• Poison Hand Crossbow - $240 (unlocked at Rank 68)
• Sparks LRR Silencer - $260 (unlocked at Rank 74)
• Winfield M1873 C Silencer - $100 (unlocked at Rank 54)
• Throwing Knives (Tool) - $25 (unlocked at Rank 24)
• Specter 1882 Bayonet - $105 (unlocked at Rank 59)
• Combat Axe - $4 (unlocked at Rank 5)
• Weak Vitality Shot (Consumable) - $15 (unlocked at Rank 1)

Equipment rank changes:

• Vitality Shot – Unlocked at Rank 15 (previously Rank 1)

New traits:

• Bolt Seer - 2 upgrade points (unlocked at Rank 63)
• Bolt Thrower - 5 upgrade points (unlocked at Rank 84)

Price changes:

• Vitality Shot price increased from 25$ to 75$

UI

• Equipment selection improvements:
  • Consumables are now easier to stack.
  • Equipped item is now sorted in the correct place on the list and the list will center around this weapon.
• Mission selection now supports different missions per region ( not all regions will have the same missions going forward).
• Updated icons for the syringes for better readability.
• Improvements made to the readability of weapon comparisons in the Hunter and store UI for weapons with a damage value exceeding 100
• Added separate mouse sensitivity sliders for Iron sights and Peephole (Nitro scope).

World

• Explosions will now cause doors to break open if they are not fully destroyed in the blast.

Other

• Improvements made to particles effects to reduce performance costs

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that could cause barricaded doors to open due to explosions (even if the explosion was not blowing up the door)
• Fixed an issue that could potentially cause a server crash during gameplay
• Fixed a bug that that could result in weapons not being attached to the character when spectating
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Death screen to display being shot through a wall when you were shot through a window
• Fixed a bug that could cause the bear trap to trigger immediately if placed on top of explosive barrels
• Fixed a number stats and information for some weapons in the shop/Arsenal (display issues only)
• Implemented a number of animation fixes
• Implemented a number of minor audio fixes
• Fixed a bug that was resulting in weapons dealing more damage than intended resulting in one hit kills with body hits
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Boss icons to disappear if the bounty successfully extracted
• Fixed a number of instances that would result in not being able to collect the bounty in certain instances
• Fixed a bug that would cause the compass to disappear by entering/leaving the menu (pressing esc)
• Implemented a tentative fix for an issue with matchmaking. In some instances, partnered players were placed into different matches.
• Fixed a bug that caused the “Mute VOIP on death” option to be inverted
• Implemented a number of animation fixes
• Implemented a number of localization fixes
• Fixed a number of instances where a player could become stuck in the environment.
• Fixed a bug that was often preventing the bullet impact audio from playing.
• Fixed an issue that was resulting in the splashing sounds from wading in water being too loud.
• Fixed a bug that was causing the Dark Sight Boost icon to remain on screen even after the timer had run out.
• Fixed a bug that allowed fire to damage the concertina wire.
• Fixed a bug that in some cases would case the AI’s knockback to not animate correctly.
• Fixed some of the weapon specific poses in the loadout and recruitment menus.
• Fixed a bug that would block players vision when switching weapons while holding a Mosin Nagant.
• Fixed a bug that would cause a player to stand up while bandaging when the Caldwell pistol is equipped to the hunter.
• Fixed a number of minor animations for various weapons and equipment.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Flare pistol to not be more accurate when crouching.
• Fixed a bug that would cause your hunter to be slowed down while using the Derringer in ADS.
• Fixed a bug that was causing a delay when the leaving ADS with the Derringer.
• Fixed an issue with the Nitro Express Rifle penetration settings where players and AI were often receiving more damage than intended.
• Fixed a number of bugs that would cause tools to interrupt animations too early.
• Fixed a bug that was causing the Wood Axe and the Sledgehammer to not correctly reset the stamina regeneration delay.
• Fixed a bug with the concertina bombs aim helper not adjusting correctly when crouched.
• Fixed a bug that would cause hunters to trigger bear traps from underneath a building.
• Fixed an issue that would allow a player to start an unavailable contract by selecting different region.
• Fixed an issue with the Communication slider in the audio options. This now correctly effects the output volume of in-game voice comms.
• Fixed a bug that was causing the “kill the boss” notification to appear repeatedly during a boss fight (it will not only appear once after first finding the boss.
• Fixed an issue that would result in the meathead and Butcher continuing to deal damage to players after it’s death when near the corpse.
• Fixed an issue that would result in the Meatheads corpse blocking player movement.

Other fixes

• Melee hit detection for Talon weapon variants is now more consistent with the animations.
• Melee hit detection for one-handed pistols is now consistent with the animations.
• Melee hit detection for two-handed pistols is now consistent with the animations.
• Melee hit detection for the Bear Trap is now consistent with the animations.
• Melee hit detection for the Concertina Bomb is now consistent with the animations.
• Melee hit detection for Romero Handcannon is now consistent with the animations.

Known issues

• Terrain can sometimes render over knives and bolts if they lie flat on the ground.
• AI will sometimes not perceive footsteps and may not react/attack the player.
• Some UI elements are not aligned correctly with the mouse cursor when the resolution in-game is set to 1920x1200.
• AI may becoming stuck when navigating through certain areas.
• Hunter heads may snap back and forth if too close to other entities or pieces of geometry.
• Hive swarms are able to attack players through solid walls and small lattices.
• Oil pools are invisible.
• Vegetation and other similar geometry may disappear and reappear depending on their distance from the player.
• Some melee attack animations may not be in sync with the hit impact/marker.
• AI (ragdoll) can sometimes be exaggerated after being killed.
• Crossbow bolts and throwing knives may sometimes not be collectible after landing in specific certain areas.
• Names for the Butcher and Spider might sometimes be mixed up in the after match summary report.
• Butcher may become unresponsive at times.
• Grunt AI doesn’t always follow their idle behavior properly and therefore might appear static sometimes when observed from a distance.
• We are aware of the issue that bounty bonus for random missions is currently not granted to players
• Some localization errors (lines showing as @_____).
• Bounty lightning in dark sight might get stuck over boss location and doesn’t follow the bounty carrier. The lightning effect on map however is always at the correct spot.

Even in death, you will be able to progress among the ranks of Hunters via your Bloodline. Though one character may die, their experience will be transferred to your Bloodline, where it can be applied your other Hunters. If you make it off of the map alive, you will be able to use the money and experience you earn to kit out new Hunters and prepare for the next match. If you die, you lose everything but your experience.

Dark Sight allows Hunters to see into the veil between worlds, making that which cannot be seen by mortal eyes visible to those who have been initiated. Use Dark Sight when you are tracking monsters, and a ghostly light will guide you toward your next target. Dark Sight also marks players carrying a bounty, making them more vulnerable to ambush while trying to escape.

Hunt: Showdown is now currently available via Steam Early Access, priced at 29.99 EUR/USD and 25.99 GBP.