Update 2.9 & Blood Testament – Everything You NEED To Know | Hunt: Showdown 1896
Hi guys, Rex here — and today we’re going through Update 2.9 and the brand new Blood Testament event that will be live from September 8th until December 8th.
This update introduces a brand new community-driven event system, where players work together to unlock new content as the event progresses. We’re also getting a new dynamic time of night called Blood Moon, Blood Wells, new Burn Traits, the brand new Burgess shotgun, Hunting Bow nerfs, another rework to hidden information, Traits inside custom loadouts, a new MMR decay system, significant Fair Play changes and more.
So hold on to your gamer chairs, and without further ado — let’s dive into it!
1. Blood Testament
The centerpiece of Update 2.9 is Blood Testament, a new three-chapter blood-themed event focused on community participation and an evolving world with a growing threat.
Throughout the event, new mechanics, weapons, tools, Tarot Cards, world changes and other content will be introduced across its three chapters.
As with previous Hunt events, Blood Testament also introduces a new Battle Pass packed with rewards that you can unlock by progressing through the event.
This includes things like:
• Three new Hunters — The Dark Friar, Hell’s Profiteer and Lynch
• Weapon skins, animations, profile customization options and more!
Chapter 1 begins with a brand new community event called Make Them Bleed.
Every player contributes toward one shared community goal by earning Community Event Points during regular missions, and the goal progression will be visible from the menu.
Points are earned by interacting with the new Blood Wells, killing Targets and killing regular monsters, with Blood Wells providing the largest contribution. Points earned during a mission are shared across your team
Each stage introduces something new into the event.
And importantly, there isn’t a predetermined date for these unlocks. How quickly we reach them is completely dictated by the community.
I think this will be a very refreshing change of pace, and it will be interesting to see how quickly we progress through the three stages!
2. Stage 1 – The Blood Moon
The first stage of Make Them Bleed introduces the Blood Moon, a brand new dynamic time of day — or rather, time of night.
Blood Moon missions continuously shift between two different phases: the Dark Blood Moon and the Intense Blood Moon.
During the Dark Blood Moon, clouds cover the moon, reducing visibility while monsters behave normally.
During the Intense Blood Moon, the moon breaks through the clouds, covering the map in a much brighter crimson glow.
But this isn’t just a visual change.
During the Intense phase, most monsters become Frenzied.
Frenzied monsters have a dark smoky aura, sound more aggressive and generally become more dangerous.
Many monsters receive sharper senses, increased movement speed or faster attacks, with different AI affected in different ways.
Water Devils are the main exception and remain completely unaffected.
Overall, I really like that the Blood Moon actually changes gameplay rather than simply affecting visibility. And while frenzied AI is probably going to be quite manageable in most cases, it will be interesting to see how capable they are of ruining your day when the shit hits the fan.
3. Blood Wells and Siphon
Another major addition with Blood Testament is the introduction of Blood Wells.
Every compound contains a single Blood Well that Hunters can interact with.
Each team can use the same Blood Well once, sacrificing a small amount of health in exchange for a new Burn Trait called Siphon.
Interacting with the Blood Well also briefly sends nearby monsters into the same Frenzied state that occurs during the Intense Blood Moon.
The Siphon trait allows you to steal a Scarce Trait when you loot a dead Hunter and replace it with Siphon instead.
Siphon prioritizes Death Cheat whenever possible, and Necromancer next if you are playing solo. However, you cannot steal Necromancer from another solo Hunter.
Siphon can also be found naturally in the world like other Scarce Traits, so Blood Wells aren’t the only way to acquire it.
I think this trait has massive potential, and will certainly shake things up. I am curious to see what the community thinks about having Death Cheat stolen, so please let me know your thoughts on that in the comments! As for the Necromancer trait, this could have huge implications for solo gameplay, as stealing a necromancer charge in the middle of a fight could completely shift the tide in your favor.
4. Stage 2 – Chupacabra
Once the community reaches Stage 2, another new Burn Trait called Chupacabra becomes available.
Chupacabra allows you to interact with living horses, cows or animal cages to restore one missing Health Chunk.
Once unlocked, the Trait can also be purchased directly from the Trait menu for two Upgrade Points.
The animal is killed in the process, and dog kennels can provide multiple interactions since each dog can be interacted with separately. For chicken coops, the entire coop is consumed by the interaction.
I imagine this trait will be very useful, effectively allowing you to skip a recovery shot for 2 trait points, which frees up a slot for other useful tools or consumables. On the other hand, relying on it entirely could be risky, since you’ll have to seek out animals to use it.
There is also a third and final community unlock, but Crytek is deliberately keeping Stage 3 a secret for now.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens once the community reaches that final milestone, but given the secrecy I imagine it will be something major. Let me know in the comments what you think it is!
5. New Weapon – Burgess
A brand new shotgun called the Burgess is also being added with Update 2.9.
The Burgess is a Size 3, long-barrel, slide-action shotgun with a unique folding design.
Whenever you equip or unequip the weapon, your Hunter physically unfolds or folds the gun, resulting in significantly longer swapping animations than most weapons.
The Burgess features a large six-round magazine plus one additional shell in the chamber.
It also ejects a round when reloading, which can be prevented by the Bulletgrubber trait.
For custom ammo, the Burgess supports Dragon Breath, Flechette, Penny Shot and Slugs.
There are also two additional variants.
The Burgess Bayonet adds a blade attachment at the cost of an even longer equip and unequip animation.
Meanwhile, the Burgess Trauma uses a reinforced stock that turns its heavy melee attack into a hammer strike.
All three Burgess variants are unlocked through the Blood Testament Battle Pass during the event.
Once Blood Testament ends, they’ll move into normal weapon progression.
Perhaps the biggest impact of this addition is having a full-sized shotgun with a large magazine for just 3 slots. This gives you incredible loadout flexibility with high firepower, at the cost of slower swapping times. It will be interesting to see where this lands in the current meta.
6. Hunting Bow Nerf
Now let’s talk about what will probably be one of the most controversial balance changes in Update 2.9.
As expected, the Hunting Bow is receiving a pretty substantial nerf.
Its maximum one-hit-kill range to the torso at full draw has been reduced.
Without Hundred Hands, this drops from 28 to 27 meters.
With Hundred Hands, the maximum range changes from 34 to 30 meters.
The damage curve based on draw percentage has also been adjusted.
In practical terms, partial draws will generally deal less damage and be less likely to one-shot.
And on top of the damage nerfs, the Bow is losing ammo capacity across all ammo types.
Regular arrow capacity is reduced by 2 per slot, while Poison, Frag and Concertina arrows all lose one arrow per slot.
This is obviously a pretty significant nerf, especially considering the bow already got nerfed with the last update. That said, given how controversial the weapon has been over the past few months, this will hopefully result in a more balanced experience.
7. Other Weapon Balance Changes
There are also several smaller weapon balance changes arriving with Update 2.9.
The LeMat family is getting access to High Velocity ammo, with 450 meters per second for the LeMat, and 560 for the carbine variant.
However, LeMat variants are also receiving reduced reserve ammo across the board.
The Officer and Officer Brawler are receiving similar reserve ammo reductions.
The Terminus is getting a damage buff and lower spread, which should improve its overall consistency.
Slugs are also becoming significantly cheaper for several weapons, including the Romero, Drilling, LeMat and Haymaker families.
Overall, the reserve ammo changes seem to continue Crytek’s recent focus on making ammo management more important. But in my opinion, the most significant change by far is the addition of HV ammo to the LeMat Carbine. This weapon was already highly viable before, and will no doubt become a force to be reckoned with following this update.
8. Tool and Equipment Changes
Several tools and consumables are receiving price adjustments.
Tool Boxes, Medical Packs, Decoy Fuses and Bear Traps are all becoming significantly cheaper.
Meanwhile, the Throwing Spear increases from 80 to 145 Hunt Dollars. Throwing Axes and the Pennyshot Derringer are also becoming more expensive.
The Heavy Knife is receiving a small buff with an improved hitbox for better consistency.
The Throwing Spear price increase is definitely the standout change here. And while it’s remained one of the strongest and most versatile Tools in Hunt for quite some time, this comes across as a bit excessive if you ask me. But feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!
9. Hidden Information Changes
Update 2.9 is also making another significant adjustment to Hunt’s hidden information system.
Supply Points, Scout Towers and Extraction Points are hidden by default as before.
However, Crytek has made several changes based on feedback from previous versions of this mechanic.
Most importantly, taking a Clue now reveals two Extraction Points.
Scouting Maps can also appear at every Supply Point, while Scout Towers still contain a guaranteed Scouting Map.
The Spyglass continues to reveal hidden locations on the compass, and the radius required to naturally discover hidden locations has been increased to 75 meters.
Destiny’s Dial can also reveal every hidden location on the map as one of its potential rewards.
Overall, these changes seem to be achieving their main purpose without being overly tedious or centralizing player movement on specific locations. Most notably, having more ways to acquire information should prevent camping behavior around key locations – such as bald dudes beetle bombing scout towers for the entire launch day.
10. Traits in Custom Loadouts
With this update, you can finally add Traits directly to custom loadouts.
This means loadouts now effectively have two separate costs: Hunt Dollars for your equipment and Upgrade Points for your Traits.
When you equip the loadout, the selected Traits are automatically assigned as well.
If you don’t have enough Upgrade Points, you won’t be able to equip the loadout, but you can disable the trait selection using a check box if you only want the equipment.
You can set up your loadout manually or by copying your equipped loadout directly, like before. Scarce and locked Traits are automatically skipped when copying an already equipped loadout.
Adding traits to your loadouts is a major quality of life change that will make the loadout feature a lot more useful. Personally, I have primarily been using loadouts for my tools and consumables and assigning weapons manually, but following this change I believe I will be using them a lot more.
11. MMR Decay
Update 2.9 is also introducing MMR decay for returning players.
After taking a longer break from Hunt, players will now receive a temporary matchmaking modifier that slightly reduces the difficulty of their matches.
The modifier then gradually disappears as you continue playing.
New players are getting a similar system.
Previously, new players received a flat matchmaking reduction that disappeared at a specific Bloodline Rank, resulting in a sudden difficulty spike.
The new system gradually increases matchmaking difficulty as players gain experience.
These changes will hopefully result in a much smoother gameplay experience for both new and returning players, giving them more time to ease into it.
12. Fair Play Improvements
With this update, we are seeing a highly impactful change to the report system.
Players who submit a cheat report that is later validated will now receive a notification confirming that action was taken.
And if your Hunter was killed by a player who is later confirmed to have been cheating, you’ll automatically receive a flat Hunt Dollar reimbursement.
This change is far more impactful than it might seem. As a content creator, I constantly hear complaints from players claiming nothing is being done to combat cheaters, or that reporting is pointless since it has no impact. With this change, Crytek is facing this challenge head on and letting you know that your reports matter. And importantly, players might be a bit less frustrated if they are being reimbursed for unfair losses.
13. Trait Changes
With this update, Vulture and Lightfoot are receiving new Catalyst effects.
Vulture when combined with Catalyst will allow you to loot some ammo from dead hunters, while Lightfoot ensures you no longer break branches. This effect was tied to Beastface in a previous event, and is now making a return.
Most significant here is the ammo resupply. With ammo resupply being nerfed across the board with update 2.8, and several weapons receiving ammo reductions with 2.9, being able to restock after kills is both convenient and incredibly powerful. This will likely be particularly strong for weapons that have a very low ammo capacity and are difficult to restock, such as the Nitro Express or the Avtomat.
Additionally, Crackshot, Blademancer, and Corpse Seer have been added to the list of possible Trait spawns at Scout Towers and themed Supply Points. Both Sealed and normal Trait Spur variations can spawn.
These are all very powerful and popular traits from previous events, and I’m happy to see them returning to the game. Most notably, Blademancer has been highly requested by a lot of players, and should pair nicely with the Hunting Bow following the reduced ammo capacity.
14. Additional Changes
Update 2.9 introduces several gameplay and quality of life changes.
The maximum number of Hunter Slots is increasing from 75 to 100.
Immolator navigation is being toned down so they can no longer calculate extremely long and complicated routes toward players, while Hellhounds become slower while moving through water or with a damaged leg.
The postal supply point now only contains an experience boon, with other boons moving to more appropriate supply points. The clockmaker supply point now only contains a dark sight boon. And additionally, boons now have a lower chance of appearing in scout towers and supply points.
New players will now encounter low-visibility times of day less frequently.
And successfully extracting now plays a short version of Rise Up Dead Man.
Most notably, submerging yourself in water should now significantly reduce the odds of getting dogged.
There are also a lot more smaller changes and fixes coming with Update 2.9, so make sure to check out the full patch notes linked in the description.
Outro
And that wraps up the biggest changes coming with Update 2.9 and the new Blood Testament event.
Overall, I think the evolving nature of Blood Testament is probably the most interesting part of this update.
Instead of receiving everything on day one, the community will gradually unlock new content through the Make Them Bleed event, while Blood Testament itself continues across three separate chapters with an additional weapon and tool, new Tarot Cards, story content, world changes and more planned throughout the event.
On top of that, the Burgess adds another unique shotgun to the arsenal, the Hunting Bow is receiving one of its biggest nerfs in years, hidden information has been adjusted based on previous feedback, and Traits inside custom loadouts should be a fantastic quality-of-life improvement.
Keep in mind that this video reflects work-in-progress patch notes provided to me prior to the update, and things might still change before the full release.
But with all that said, let me know your thoughts on Update 2.9 and Blood Testament in the comments below! What are you most excited for?
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Thank you for watching, and I’ll see you in the Bayou!
