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.

Hunt: Showdown fans will get their wish this week as Update 6.0 brings a new boss to the playing field.

The Assassin materializes in a whirlwind of bugs and rags, then spawns a pair of decoy clones in order to distract players as it comes in for the killing blow.

Update 6.0 also contains six new weapons—the LeMat Revolver, Lebel Rifle, Bomb Lance, Alert Trip Mine, Concertina Trip Mine, and Ammo Box—and three new traits—Vulture, Ghoul, and Adrenaline.

The new boss comes at the request of the Hunt community, and so Crytek has published an Assassin video dev diary in which Character Art Director Abdenour Bachir, Senior Character Artist Chris Goodswen, Junior Technical Designer Robert Green, and Lead Concept Artist Artem Shumnik discuss the creation process in light of the Assassin’s moves and attacks, gameplay features, prototyping tools, and the testing process. For those who prefer the written word, a blog about the origin of the new AI, its creation, and its inspiration can be found here.

In addition to the boss, weapons, and traits, Update 6.0 also adds more Hunter character variants, tweaks to improve the experience for brand new players, and improved hiding and unhiding of world geometry to improve performance for all players.

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 Early Access, priced at 29.99 EUR/USD and 25.99 GBP.