Hunt: Showdown 1896 News

Hunters,

As a part of our year of improvements for 2025, we have been exploring ways to better expand direct communication in our key community hubs. You may have noticed an increase in Developer Insights, and we hope that’s been as valuable for you guys as it has been for us.

The community shares a lot of valuable information with us on platforms like Reddit, Discord, Twitter, etc., and looking at how we monitor and respond to that engagement is a focus for us this year. One element of that is real-time game issues and bug reporting.

With that in mind, we are introducing Community Triage, a new initiative designed to improve the way we track and address bug reports across community channels.

Community Triage is a structured system that will help us catalogue, cross-reference, and respond to the bug reports you share, as well as streamline our information flow both to and from players. The result should be more fixes communicated, more new reports filtered directly to the development teams, and a clearer order of priorities internally based on community feedback.

[h3]Why Are We Implementing This? [/h3]

Our community hubs move quickly, and this creates a challenge for the team as we try to effectively track and respond to ongoing issues. By introducing Community Triage, we aim to:

• Improve response time and consistency
  
• Share more status updates and details of upcoming fixes
  
• Provide better data for our development teams to act on new reports
  

Pairing up player reports with known bug tickets internally is not always a simple process, and the Triage system will allow the team to thoroughly investigate without losing track of open reports. It will also help us to better update you guys directly on what’s being worked on, helping us to close the loop faster on key issues.

By centralizing this information, we will also gain stronger insights into bug trends and community priorities.

[h3]How Will It Work? [/h3]

To begin, Community Triage will be rolled out exclusively on Reddit, where we will test and refine the process before expanding to other platforms.

When a player reports a bug, our team will review the issue and attempt to find a relevant ticket internally. When we find a match, we can share an update directly in the report thread about progress on the fix.

If we aren’t able to find a relevant ticket, the report then becomes logged in our Community Triage system, along with a link to the original thread. This will then go on to be reviewed by the wider team. The outcome of this could be that a relevant match is found, or that we identify the ticket to contain a new report—which will then go on to become an internal bug ticket—and the team can begin investigating fixes from there.

The result is then communicated in the original thread, and the ticket is considered resolved.

[h3]What’s Next? [/h3]

We see Community Triage as a major step forward in how we communicate with you about in-game issues. By starting with a smaller rollout on Reddit, we can test and optimize the system before expanding to other platforms.

We will be closely monitoring how the system performs, listening to your feedback, and refining the process as we go. Stay tuned for further updates, and as always, we appreciate your help in making the game the best it can be.

Thank you.

Hunt: Showdown 1896’s big Steam spring sale is here! 🌿

The base game and all DLC are on sale now, with discounts up to 50% off! Whether you’re a veteran looking to expand your collection or a newcomer ready to step into the bayou, now’s the perfect time to jump in.

Don’t miss out - https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Crytek/sale/HuntSpringSale2025

Dead Man’s Cut – wishlist now!

A trickster, a performer, and a master of the unknown—Crossroads Walker steps out of the shadows, bringing his deadly tools to the fight against Corruption.

Add Dead Man’s Cut to your Steam wishlist now and prepare to embrace the darkness.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3282900/Hunt_Showdown_1896__Dead_Mans_Cut/

We are thrilled to unveil Garden of the Witch, the first live in-game Event of 2025 for Hunt: Showdown 1896! The Event comes alongside the highly anticipated Update 2.3, kicking off a year of improvements, fixes, and performance updates for the game.

Step into a world where cursed nature and Corrupted metal collide as the mystical Bruja duo and the industrious Welders wage war against the Corruption, armed with their own unique powers.

The update signals a bold new direction, placing a laser focus on fixes, gameplay improvements, and quality-of-life enhancements to elevate player experience throughout the year. Prepare for a thrilling adventure and a redefined Hunt: Showdown 1896.

[h2]Garden of the Witch [/h2]

Garden of the Witch sees cursed nature and Corrupted metal clash. In the story of the Bruja duo and the Welders, each group fights against the Corruption with their own strengths. The Brujas bring organic mysticism to the table, while the Welders are armed with industrial occult practices and fire.

Players will earn Event Points and Pledge Marks like in previous Events, however instead of a vow pledging a Hunter to a Pact or a Troupe, Garden of the Witch brings three Event-exclusive Sealed Trait Rewards, which have been selected from past Events.

The following Traits will be exclusive to Garden of the Witch:

• Blademancer: Use Dark Sight to quickly retrieve launched projectiles.
  
• Corpse Seer: Receive a Dark Sight Boost when looting Hunters, even without a Bounty Token.
  
• Gunrunner: Allow your Hunter to equip two large guns at the same time.
  

Garden of the Witch also introduces Rare Supply Points to Hunt: Showdown 1896, which will appear in addition to normal Supply Points. At Rare Supply Points, Hunters will find rare rewards, such as one of the Event-exclusive Sealed Traits, a Sealed Cash Register, and all types of Sealed envelopes that can be unsealed in exchange for Pledge Marks.

[h2]Update 2.3 [/h2]

Based on our commitment to refining the game’s core experience and listening to player feedback, we’re refocusing on quality-of-life improvements, bug fixing, and performance throughout 2025.

Ahead of Update 2.3, we rolled back and adjusted several changes done in the past year. This included balancing Traits such as Lightfoot’s silent crouch, the Bear Trap’s damage, and stuck projectile mechanics. We’ve also addressed community-reported issues such as concertina wire damage through floors, hanging chains blocking attacks, lingering poison effects, and UI bugs.

Performance, stability, and quality-of-life features for our players remain our top priority, each with their own planned improvements throughout 2025. A lot more fixes and tweaks are upcoming, along with bigger changes.

Update 2.3 brings exciting new changes, including:

• Recruitment Revamp: New Hunters now come with 10 Upgrade Points to freely spend on unlocked Traits, offering greater customization options from the get-go.
  
• Trait Adjustment: Poltergeist and Blast Sense return as regular Traits, with Blast Sense now also detecting silenced shots.
  
• New Compounds for Bounty Clash: Arden Parish and Darrow Livestock join the pool of possible Bounty Clash compounds, alongside refined spawn points and item locations.
  
• Gameplay Tweaks: Syringe use has been improved, and Dark Dynamite Satchels can now be disabled and picked up.
  
• Bounty Clash Tweaks: Following community feedback, the number of teams has been reduced to four in order to ease the pressure at the start of the clash. The “Nighttime” Time of Day has also been removed from Bounty Clash Missions to ensure better gameplay flow.
  
• Stealth Adjustments: Stealth mechanics have been rebalanced to better reflect their value. Silenced weapons now suffer a 10% damage decrease, and throwable melee Tools have been adjusted to emphasize specialization.
  

Gunplay changes reflecting community feedback:

• The Bolt Thrower Trait now works with the Bomb Lance and Bomb Launcher for faster reloads.
  
• The Maynard and Martini-Henry now also benefit from the Fast Fingers Trait.
  
• New Weapon Variants: Introducing the 1865 Carbine Silencer, Obrez Match, and Obrez Sharpeye.
  

[h2]Looking Ahead [/h2]

Update 2.3 and Garden of the Witch kick off a year dedicated to listening to the Hunt: Showdown 1896 community and delivering meaningful improvements. We are excited to hear your feedback and encourage you to let us know your thoughts in our surveys, to make sure developers hear from you directly. We can’t wait to see you visit the Garden of the Witch!

Hunters,

This weekend we’re celebrating International Women’s Day! It’s a simple fact that Hunt wouldn’t be what it is without our female Partners, players, and staff. As part of our celebrations, we’re taking the opportunity to spotlight some of the women in our community as well as some of our female Hunters.

Our Partners are a huge asset to Hunt. By providing so much visibility, feedback, and support, what they do helps hugely with our efforts to consistently push the game forward. As a thank you to the women in the Partner program, their exclusive codes will get you 50% off selected products in the Crytek store from today until March 9th (10 am CET), with a larger revenue share for your chosen streamer. Whether it’s a DLC you’ve had your eye on, or you want to get a friend into Hunt, there’s something for everyone—and you’ll be supporting the fantastic women that make up the community!

Check them out below – their discount codes can be found on the Partner website here

Angejia

Azuki

Failish

Holthe93

JacJac

Jenntacles

Justbree

Kerrty

Kiteera

LeafLit

Lunarfelis

MelPlaysAround

Morgan

NerdyNetty

Sigma

Rxysurfchic

TameHotPear

WhiskyFrizz

YaSmithe


We would also like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the iconic female Hunters in our ranks, as well as share some insights from the team about how these characters took shape.


[h2]Felis[/h2]
Beloved by the community, Felis has become an icon of Hunt—she’s been part of the game for a long time. When it finally came to find a voice actor for her, we were torn; she is an eccentric character, a child of the wilderness, and it was important to get it right. In the end, we settled on her having Appalachian roots and a taste for travelling far and wide. She values her primal side, and this is reflected in her design as well as her name, which means ‘cat.’ She had a significant impact on the lore of other Hunters too, and prefers her wilder peers… but of course she would!


[h2]Prescient Night[/h2]
The Prescient is another beloved Hunter found in the bayou and beyond. She is part of an inquisition order, meaning her background is somewhat stranger and more rooted in the occult than the other Hunters. If you didn’t know, Prescient Night is blind. This was designed intentionally as we opened up the lore around Dark Sight from a narrative perspective. She has a heightened ability to exploit Dark Sight written into her character, although this is of course not represented in-game. We hope to show a little bit more of this lore in the future.

[h2]Marshall Brewer[/h2]
This Hunter’s name is an homage to Phoebe Couzins, the first female US Marshall. The real Phoebe was more of a lawyer, temperance advocate, and suffragette than a gunslinger. The second name—Brewer—is a vague reference to when Couzins left the movement in 1897 to join the United State Brewers Association. It is assumed that she left due to financial reasons, and in our homage we saw an interesting parallel between someone leaving a life enforcing the law (i.e Marshall) to pursue her own idealistic ambitions (Brewer), hence the name Marshall Brewer was born.

[h2]Frau Perchta[/h2]
Frau Perchta was based on a goddess of Alpine Paganism and was the first of our Hunters to come with two variants: Dusk and Dawn. For her lore, we wanted to represent how mythology could come into the darker, more grounded setting of Hunt. Since writing her character story, we’ve implemented this idea in a lot of other characters.


We once again want to wish a happy International Women’s Day to all the women that have contributed to making Hunt: Showdown 1896 what it is today. Our team is beyond proud to support and celebrate you!