Hunt: Showdown's first big content update is HUGE. With so many changes, additions, and bug fixes going into this one, we're just going to take a look at the some of the highlights on the blog today. If you want to read about every detail, check out the patch notes for Content Update 1 right here.

Of course, this is just the beginning of what we will be adding throughout Early Access, and there is so much in store for the coming months. If you want to find out more about what we have planned, check out our Roadmap here. And if you want something in the game bad, but it's not on the list, let us know on the Hunt feedback page.

Now, to a few of the highlights!

Anti-Camping Measures

A lot of players have complained about campers. While we see camping as a valid strategy in the game, we don't want it to be so easy as to ensure an auto-win. So in this update we've taken measures to balance out the situation.

What we expect to make the biggest difference are the changes we've made to compound layouts, which we've tweaked extensively to provide more defensive cover and generally make camping more difficult. If you want to hear the details of the thought process behind that (and about a lot of the other world changes in this update), check out this video with Level Design Director Chris Auty. We will continue to monitor feedback on this subject, and make further changes accordingly.

The addition of banishing rewards is another change geared specifically towards reducing camping. We wanted to incentivize the decision to take out the boss monster, instead of waiting for somebody else to do the dirty work. A completed banishing now fully restores your health and gives your Hunter additional health chunks (if your Hunter has room on their health bar). Additionally, killing, banishing, and extracting with at least one bounty token from a target now provides a post-mission bonus of 25 bounty.

Hunters

There have been a ton of changes to Hunter characters, movement, equipment load outs, prices, and all that sort of thing, though there is no single big shiny change to put the big spotlight on exclusively. Well, except maybe for the massive refactoring of Hunter stats. And the fact that every Hunter now starts with 150 health, regardless of their tier. And the additional names. And that jumping now costs 20 stamina to reduce bunny hopping. And that walking in water is now linked to the depth of the water. And that fall damage is a bit more realistic (aka, if you jump off a two-story building it's going to hurt).

Weapons and gunplay

Let's get the fine print out of the way first: we refactored the inventory system and re-categorized all weapons as either large, medium, or small. By default, Hunters only have one large and one small weapon slot. If a Hunter equips a medium weapon in their first slot, the second slot will upgrade from small to medium. NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE NEW TOYS:

New weapons this patch include: the Nagant M1895 Deadeye (a pistol with a short scope), the Vetterli 71 Deadeye (a rifle with a short scope), the Winfield 1873 Marksman (a rifle with a medium scope), the Mosin-Nagant M1891 Sniper (a rifle with a long scope), the Sparks LRR Sniper (a rifle with a long scope), a Flash Bomb (delivers a blinding flashbang), a Poison Bomb (creates a cloud of poison gas which causes damage over time, similar to the spider's poison attack), and a Spyglass.

Happy hunting.

Traits

Twelve new traits, incoming!

• Deadeye Scopesmith: Remain in scope view after firing a shot while using any weapon with a short scope (Deadeye variants)
• Marksman Scopesmith: Remain in scope view after firing a shot while using any weapon with a medium scope (Marksman variants)
• Sniper Scopesmith: Remain in scope view after firing a shot while using any weapon with a long scope (Sniper variants)
• Iron Sharpshooter: Remain in iron sights after firing a shot while using bolt-action rifles
• Iron Devastator: Remain in iron sights between shots using shotguns
• Steady Aim: Sway settles over 12 seconds with scoped rifles
• Steady Hand: Sway settles over 12 seconds with scoped pistols
• Bulletgrubber (replaces Pump Jockey trait): You can reload mid-clip without losing the chambered bullet on certain weapons
• Bulwark: Reduce the damage from explosions by 20%.
• Salveskin: Health Chunks damaged by fire heal faster to their full amount
• Resilience: Get revived with one full health chunk
• Kiteskin: Reduce damage from falling by 50%

The rank unlocks for the traits are listed in the Patch Notes, so we won't repeat them here.

Just a few more things

AI will now spawn randomly around clues to make them harder to access.

You can see not one but two clues when using Dark Sight.

Nine locations have gotten overhauls of varying intensity (see the section about anti-camping measures).

Solo Hunters can now operate elevators.

We've improved audio readability, consistency, and realism.

And there is so much more. Little things, many of them, but all things that will add up to the version of Hunt we're all dreaming of. Check out the Patch Notes if this wasn't enough detail for you, or just get in a game and see it all for yourself .

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