Hunt: Showdown 1896 News

Hunters,

Today we would like to share some insights into Bounty Clash and our future plans around the game mode. We launched Bounty Clash with the intention of providing a smaller scale, faster paced experience to those looking for a change of pace from Bounty Hunt. Initially the launch was experimental, with minimal content, but it was a huge hit with players around the world.

Ever since, we have been closely monitoring your feedback and available data to make improvements to the mode. With Bounty Clash quickly becoming a fan-favorite, here’s a little more detail on where the mode currently stands, and where we'd like to take it going forward:

Current Status and Issues:

Bounty Clash is doing well, and support for it will continue into 2025.

Around a third of active players are playing it on any given day, which is a very healthy number for a secondary game mode.

Overall, player feedback has been exceedingly positive, but there are still some shortfalls around rewards, compounds, and more that we’re looking to address to make Bounty Clash even stronger.

Rewards

On launch, the mode offered too few rewards for extracting with the Bounty Token. We've since taken steps to remedy this, by granting bonuses to solo and duo players for extraction as well as a flat Bounty Bonus to the token itself.

We have noted a positive impact since improving the offering and have been satisfied with the effects of these changes so far. As always, we are continuing to monitor your feedback and game analytics data to tweak Bounty rewards if necessary.

Compound Variety

Bounty Clash only offers a limited number of compounds to play on, which can get repetitive—especially for those who play a lot of Clash.

We are focusing on adding compounds that offer the best experience for the mode's balance and requirements. We're keenly aware of this issue and will continue adding more compounds to the Bounty Clash pool regularly, as well as curating the existing list of compounds based on your feedback.

MMR and Stat Separation

We're aware of the issues and frustrations that arise from Bounty Clash's stats and MMR being shared with Bounty Hunt, and are working on solutions for both. We will share more on this when we can.

Upcoming changes

In addition to working on the above topics, we'll also be making some balance changes to Bounty Clash in the near future:

• The maximum number of teams in Bounty Clash will be reduced from 5 to 4. 
  
• The maximum number of players in Bounty Clash will be reduced from 12 to 9. 
  

We are experimenting with slightly reducing the chaos factor of Clash by reducing the number of players in one lobby. With this change, we hope to promote more thoughtful gameplay and improve the experience for smaller team sizes.

Interesting Fact

A bonus factoid for you all: If you’ve ever wondered what the top-used weapons are in Bounty Clash to inform your future loadouts, we’ve gathered the top 10 for you below!

• Scottfield
  
• Romero 77
  
• Nagant M1895
  
• Conversion Pistol
  
• Frontier 73C
  
• Bow
  
• Centennial
  
• 1865 Carbine
  
• Springfield 1866
  
• Sparks LRR
  

As ever, your thoughts and feedback will be key in driving the direction of mode—please share it with us!

We’re going LIVE NOW with the Community team!

Join us for a gameplay live stream featuring Twitch Drops and exciting giveaways!

🎯 Twitch Drops Active
🎁 Giveaways for Viewers

Streaming here on Steam and on- Twitch Youtube Facebook

The Last Laugh DLC is now available!

This DLC includes everything you need to unleash chaos:

• The Hyena (Hunter)
  
• Lion’s Roar (Centennial)
  
• Banner Shot (Pax Trueshot)
  
• Warm Embrace (Concertina Bomb)
  

Become The Hyena today! 👉
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3282880/Hunt_Showdown_1896__The_Last_Laugh/

[h3]As Post-Malone's Murder Circus continues, we're celebrating the coming Year of the Snake with a Sale! [/h3]

If you're new to Hunt: Showdown 1896, we have a great way to get started. There are discounts across Hunt: Showdown 1896. the DLCs and all our soundtracks (including The Devil's Match and The Sinners Songbook released last month).

We have a time limited offer in the Year of the Snake Edition which is only available until February 3rd.

Add the Year of the Snake Edition to your collection today! 👇



We've also just released our latest DLC. Hunt: Showdown 1896 - The Last Laugh . Get it here:

The Last Laugh DLC



Explore everything on sale here

Back in October, we shared details of upcoming hit validation and trade window improvements that went live with Update 2.2. Since the changes have been allowed to play out in a live environment, we wanted to circle back with an overview of the results and improvements observed so far.
To recap, we adjusted the specific time limit for how long a player can still shoot or land a hit after death from 800 to 75 milliseconds. Our goal was to fine tune the system to create a fairer and more consistent ecosystem for everyone, prioritizing player reaction times over external factors like connection speed.

Now to the results:

Kill Trades VS Total Player Kills:



One of the key metrics we’ve been closely monitoring since rolling out the trade window adjustment is the percentage of kills that qualify as "Trade." A kill trade specifically occurs when two players eliminate each other within a specified window. This definition encompasses a variety of scenarios, from intentional gameplay mechanics like bleeding out or being taken down by a well-timed throwable, to the "bad trades" that have been a source of community concern.

Our data shows a clear and sustained decline in the percentage of kill trades since the update went live. In fact, the figure has effectively been halved compared to pre-update levels. This is a substantial improvement and highlights the tangible impact of the recent changes on gameplay dynamics.
(Please note the large spike on December 12th is due to restricted data during server downtime as Update 2.2 was rolled out)

Hit Invalidations:


We also analyzed the percentage of hit invalidations with our 2.2 adjustments, which refers to the instances where a shot does not register as intended, which can significantly affect combat, outcomes, and player satisfaction. The goal with this change was to prevent hit validation from attacks made by players who were already marked as downed on the server.

As anticipated, we have been able to track a significant rise in the number of invalidated attacks following the update.

To better understand the context behind this, we went on to analyze the root causes of invalidations, both before and after the update. Before changes went live with 2.2, most invalidated hits stemmed from general timeouts. This meant a damage request took too long to reach the server, usually due to connectivity issues between the player and the server.

Following the update, we can see the landscape has changed significantly. The leading cause of invalidations is now projectile launch prevention. This occurs when a shot is rejected at the moment of launch because the shooter was already downed and beyond the 75 millisecond death threshold.

Conclusion:

By addressing community feedback and fine-tuning the mechanics contributing to unfair kill trades, we’ve made measurable progress in creating a more balanced and satisfying experience.
We are always working to refine gameplay in Hunt, and we will continue to share updates and insights as we do. As always, we thank you for your feedback, and happy hunting!