Update 2.0 – Hunt Showdown 1896 & Scorched Earth

Hi guys, REX here! Hunt: Showdown 1896 is live, bringing a ton of changes including a new map, a new event and an enginge upgrade! In this video I’ll Walk you through the most significant changes. Keep in mind, due to how extensive this update is I will not be covering everything, but I will leave a link to the patch notes in the description. Let’s dive into it! 

The new map, Mammon’s Gulch is set in a mountain biome with large forests, mountains, rivers and underground mines. The map is set in Colorado, and features 16 new and unique locations to explore. Three of the locations on the edge of the map can yield two boss clues to get you a head start. In the middle of the map there is a large mine system allowing passage through the mountains. As you may have noticed, since this map is set in a mountain biome, the verticality is quite unlike anything we’ve seen before, which should make for some pretty versatile and interesting gameplay overall! 

First off, let’s talk about the new event: “Scorched Earth” 

As per usual, the event brings a brand new battlepass which can be levelled up with event points to unlock new and exclusive rewards. The pledge mark system is making its return, alongside the sealed rewards we saw introduced with the last event. We are also seeing the return of pacts which can be pledged to in order to unlock new traits and empower existing traits. 

 
Players can earn pledge marks in the following ways: 

• Gaining your first 30 event points in a match 

• Looting your first hunter in a match 

• Banishing your first boss or wild target in a match 

• Becoming the soul survivor 

You may earn three points per match under normal circumstances, which I’ll get back to shortly. 

 
As for the sealed rewards, these can be found at the central sealed horde in the middle of the map, as well as at arsenals, supply points, hunting towers and watch towers. The sealed rewards can be interacted with at the cost of pledge marks, same as last event. The cost for the various sealed rewards varies. On top of all the previous rewards, which you can find in my update video for the last event, we are also getting two new ones, including: 

• A dark sight boost boon, which refills your dark sight at the cost of one pledge mark 

• Weapon boxes, divided into scope rifle boxes, rifle boxes and shotgun boxes. These boxes are unlocked for one pledge mark and will reveal a single weapon once opened. 

The big cash register now yields a varying amount of hunt dollars instead of the consistent 500 which we saw last event. 

The sealed hoard in the center of the map now has more available sealed rewards than before. 

As mentioned, we are getting three pacts with this event. The pledge boxes for each pact can be located on supply points on the map. Pledging to a pact is free of charge and will grant you a special pact trait once you’re pledged. Here are the available pacts: 

The wilderness pact: 

• The wilderness pact grants you the passive trait “Surefoot”. With this trait, you can sprint whilst using the first aid kit or any consumable. 

• The pact comes with two conditional traits as well. If you have the beastface trait, you will not be noticed by wildlife, meaning you can pass through freely without giving away your location. Finally, if you have the frontiersman trait, you will gain one extra pledge mark for earning your first 30 event points in the match, making this the only pact that allows you to gain 4 pledge marks in a single round. 

The lawful pact: 

• Peacekeeper is making it’s return to the game, and any hunter pledged to the Lawful pact will restore a health chunk when looting a dead hunter. One thing to note is that this effect will only apply once per hunter per match, meaning you cannot keep on looting the same hunter to regain health. 

• Secondly, if you have the packmule trait you will receive ammo from looting a dead hunter, same as last event.  

• Finally, if you have the vigilant trait you will now be able to see traps in dark sight at twice the range. 

The final pact is the demented pact: 

• With this pact, berserker is once again making its return, and with this trait your melee attacks will deal double damage. Like the other two pacts, demented comes with two conditional effects. Adrenaline will grant you a short speed boost when your health is critical, allowing you to move to safety or land that killing blow even quicker. Finally, ghoul will restore some health when you damage a boss or wild target. 

As I mentioned in the start of this video, event points can be earned in game to level up your battle pass. Here are the available event point sources: 

• Obtain the Bounty Token from the Sealed Hoard – 100 EP 

• Extract with at least one Bounty – 30 EP 

• Become the Soul Survivor – 30 EP 

• Investigate Master Clue – 30 EP 

• Looting a Hunter the first time – 12 EP 

• Banishing a Target – 12 EP 

• Kill Hellborn – 12 EP 

• Investigate Event Clues and Rifts – 10 EP 

• Kill Meatheads – 5 EP 

• Kill Immolators – 3 EP 

• Kill Hives – 2 EP 

• Kill Armoreds – 2 EP 

Additionally, you can earn 750 to 1000 event points by completing a weekly challenge, and 1500 by completing a premium challenge. Weekly challenges have been reworked and will now release in sets that remain available to complete until the end of the event. The challenges are the same for all players, and contributions made by teammates will help progress your challenges. 

Now to the part that you’re all probably excited about! The new weapons and equipment! This update brings three new weapons and a bunch of changes to existing weapons and equipment as well as gunplay and ballistics. Let’s get into it! 

First off, with this update players will now be able to choose between a lowered crosshair, which has been the default until now, or a centered crosshair. While this change should have minimal impact on gameplay, I’m sure it’s very exciting for a lot of you players out there coming from other games! I will personally be making the switch to centered crosshair. On a somewhat related note, we are also getting an aim dot helper in dark sight which should help when performing actions like necromancer on teammates or serpent to grab clues from afar. 

Next up, we have bullet drop. Probably the most controversial topic of this entire update! Up until now, Hunt: Showdown has never had a drop mechanics for weapons that fire bullets. That changes with this update.  

• With this change, you will now see a drop range display on the bottom right while in scope or ADS, showing the distance at which bullets will start dropping. This range is generally quite high, meaning bullet drop will have minimal impact in close to medium range for most weapons. 

• Past the drop range, bullets will drop to a varying degree which is dependant on both ammo type and special ammo variants. 

In general, bullet drop behaves in the following way: 

• Compact ammo has weak drop and a flatter curve 

• Medium ammo has a mild drop and a balanced curve 

• Long ammo drops heavily at an intense curve 

• The Nitro Express has a very strong drop and a very intense curve 

• Bolts, arrows and throwables remain unchanged 

• To compensate for the fact that landing headshots on range will be harder, headshots will now always kill on impact. 

Before moving onto the new weapons, here are a couple of ballistic changes worth mentioning: 

• Maximum range for shotguns has been increased 

• Slugs and the nitro express are now less precise than before and have a slight deviation even when ADSing making them less accurate on range. 

• Maximum travel range for all bullets is now 500 meters before they are deleted. 
   

Now to the new weapons! The first new weapon is the 1865 carbine: 

• This is a brand-new lever action repeating rifle that fires medium ammo. The rifle comes with FMJ as the only special ammo type for now. With standard ammo, this rifle deals a whopping 145 damage, which is significantly higher than most other medium ammo rifles. 

The second new weapon is the Infantry 73L, which is technically a variant: 

• With this update, a lot of weapon renames were introduced. The infantry 73L as such is a variant of the previously named Winfield 1873, now named Ranger 73. The Infantry 73L is the first compact ammo sniper rifle introduced to the game. It can run FMJ, High velocity, incendiary and poison ammo. 

Finally, the Crossbow Deadeye is making its way into the game. This is the first primitive scoped weapon in the game so far. Alongside the new scope, the crossbow is also getting a new ammo type, “steel bolts”, which fly at a higher velocity at the cost of reduced damage. This should make it much easier to land headshots with the crossbow at longer ranges than before. 

Some weapons are getting new ammo types: 

• High velocity for the drilling 

• High velocity for the martini henry 

• High velocity for the marathon 

• And Incendiary ammo for the marathon 

Some other significant weapon changes have been introduced to the game: 

• Dual pistols have had their recoil reduced, making them easier to control 

• The uppercut and haymaker (previously known as uppermat) have had their damage values reduced to 123 and 122 respectively, meaning they will no longer onetap to the torso if a hunter is missing a small health chunk. 

• Deadeye scopes have seen a massive buff as your movement speed in scope view has been increased. Their sway has also been reduced. 

• The mako has had it’s spread reduced which also increases the levering accuracy. 

• Levering fire rate has also been increased for all levering rifles. 

• The sparks silencer and the Frontier 73c (previously Winfield 1873c) silencer have had their sights reworked, which should make them much easier to use overall. 

• High velocity ammo now has increased recoil and slightly lower damage than before, as well as a significantly lower velocity increase than before. 

• FMJ ammo similarly also has higher recoil than before. 

• Precision weapons now have more ammo 

• Explosive damage over distance is now more consistent 

• Some weapons have had their price reduced, including the Berthier, drilling shorty, krag, mosin and vetterli. 

• Scopes now make up a percentage of the base cost for a weapon, making them cheaper overall. 

Lastly, REXNOR has been buffed. The Hunting bow has had it’s base damage increased by 10%, meaning it now behaves the way it would with the hundred hands trait in the past. The trait can still be applied for an additional 10% on top, which has implications for kill potential with the bow going forward. The hunting bow’s special ammo capacity has also been increased from 3-5 per slot. I’ll be covering the new damage values and ammo capacity implications in a new and updated Hunting bow guide at some point in the near future! 

Aside from three new weapons, we are also getting a new purchasable tool item with this update: Bear traps! 

• These traps come in a pack of three and will deal more damage than before as well as applying a short slowdown for anyone that runs into them. 

Another tool item that has been changed is the spy glass. This is something I’ve personally wanted for a long time, but also heard others mention on several occasions. The spy glass is now effectively a range finder in the game, which should complement the new bullet drop system very well! Ping markers placed whilst using the spy glass will now accurately tell you the distance to your target. 

On the topic of tool items, traps have seen a massive rework. Traps placement has been significantly improved overall, which should make them significantly easier to place, even on slopes and terrain. You can even place traps at angles attaching to walls or even on windows. Additionally, traps will now trigger when in contact with opening doors and windows as well as moving elevators, which should have significant impact on gameplay. 

Stalker beetles have had their damage increased to 50, making them much deadlier than before. 

Stalemates have been a problem in Hunt: Showdown in the past. To combat this, burn speed for dead bodies has been significantly increased from 1 fire damage per second to 2.5. Burning out from 125 health now takes 50 seconds, and burning even with the salveskin trait is faster than before, as the fire damage has been increased from 0.75 per second to 1.65.  

To further combat stalemates, choke clouds have had their duration reduced by half and will now only last one minute instead of two. 

In the past, Necromancer has been causing a lot of controversy in the community since the implementation of the self-revive mechanic. The root of the issue was the ability to spam revive combined with slow burn speeds. As of this update, the necromancer trait has been made a burn trait with a single charge for both solo and team players, meaning it will disappear once used. Since solo players now only have one chance of revival, the timer has been reduced to 5 seconds down from 10, and solo players will now receive a full health restoration upon use. Team players using the necromancer trait will no longer lose health with this update, as the trait now only offers a single use for them as well. One thing to note is that the necromancer trait can be acquired in game after you’ve used it if you are lucky enough to find a necromancer trait spur. This can frequently be acquired by killing Hellborn. At the posting of this video I have also posted a Hellborn guide for those interested, so make sure to check that out for a full introduction to the new wild target and the mechanics of the fight! I’ll leave a link in the description. 
 
With the new map, we are getting two new types of wildlife: 

• Bats can be found in the underground mines and will trigger when players are close, similar to ducks and crows. You can sneak under the bats to avoid triggering them or acquire the beastface trait whilst being pledged to the wilderness pact to run past them freely. 

• Dying cows can be found on the new map, similar to horses in the past. There is also a variant of the cows that have cow bells attached to their neck which makes even more noise when triggered. 

Fall damage has been reworked to be more consistent. 

• The kiteskin trait now significantly reduces fall damage instead of halving it 

• You will now take less fall damage if you land on haybales or in water 

Overhead team indicators have been added to the game to make tracking your teammates easier. 

• You can see the direction of your teammates on the compass at the top of your screen 

• The team indicator is shown above down teammates, making it easier to see through terrain 

• In beetle view, you’ll see your teammates indicators making it easier to coordinate with them 

• Teammates beetles now have indicators above them, making it much easier to differentiate from enemy beetles 

• Teammates beetles are also shown on the map, which should make them much easier to keep track of overall 

Next up, the rule of two has been removed. 

• In the past, looting hunters, toolboxes, medkits etc was limited to two uses per match. This is no longer the case, meaning you will be able to interact with all loot boxes, medkits and dead hunters regardless of how many hunters have looted them already. Obviously, same as before, hunters may not be looted if burnt. 

• Since this change made the existing vulture trait redundant, it has been reworked and will now grant you hunt dollars every time you loot a dead hunter. One thing to note is that you can still loot hunt dollars from dead hunters or saddlebags if you are maxed out on tools and consumables, on top of the added gain from having vulture. 

Doors are now easier to destroy with heavy slash and blunt attacks as well as shotguns, but harder to destroy with stabs as well as weak slashes and blunt attacks. 

Previous burn traits have been reassigned to new categories and reworked slightly: 

• A new category called scarce traits now cover traits that are exclusively found in the world and stays until the hunter dies. I’m sure a lot of you will be happy to hear that this now includes the Shadow trait. Scarce traits show as dark blue spurs in game. It is possible for a trait to be a scarce trait and a burn trait at the same time, for example death cheat which will stay until your hunter dies before burning to prevent you from losing it. 

• Burn traits are no longer exclusively found in game. For example, necromancer is a burn trait that can be purchased from the menus. Burn traits are removed upon use, for example when you self-revive with necromancer. Burn traits no longer always stack like they used to. For example, death cheat and necromancer now have a maximum of one stack at any given time. 

On the topic of scarce traits, shadow leap has made it’s return and will allow you to kill a nearby AI and teleport to it’s location. Luckily, this no longer works on meatheads. 

Another trait that has made it’s way back into the game is witness, which can now be purchased in the menus for 5 trait points and is unlocked at level 44. With this trait, you can see dead hunters and AI in dark sight. Hunters leave a orange glow, whilst regular AI leave a white glow. You will also regenerate health near corpses with this trait. 

One final trait that has been reworked is adrenaline, which will now grant you a short stamina boost on critical health. 

The UI has seen a massive overhaul. With these changes we are getting a bunch of features that ohave been requested by the community for a long time. This includes features such as the ability to favorite items, traits and hunters, grid view for easier overview and more! The hotkey system in the new UI makes the process of assigning and removing traits, respeccing and setting up your loadouts much faster than before. 

A new rarity system has been implemented, differentiating between various rarities for hunters and items. Mythic means the item or hunter is never returning to the game. Blood bond prices have been adjusted to reflect the rarity of items and hunters purchased. 

Speaking of new hunters, there are a bunch of new ones making their way into this update, including the new blood bond hunter Grotesque as well as multiple lower tier hunters. 

The prestige system has been enhanced with new rewards, including previous rewards from trials as well as brand new ones. Personally I am very excited for unlocking John Victor at prestige level 100. If you are not familiar, he is the hunter that guides you through the game tutorial. 

I briefly mentioned weapon renames earlier in this video. A lot of weapons have received new names with this update, including the following: 

• The Winfield 1873c has been renamed Frontier 73 

• Winfield 1873 is now named Ranger 73 

• The uppermat has been renamed Haymaker 

• All shortened weapon are now referred to as shorty, replacing the previous handcannon, compact and shorty. 

• All weapons with a deadeye scope and stock are now named deadeye, whilst all stockless deadeye weapons are named bullseye 

To round off this video, here are some other changes you may find interesting: 

• The trials system has been removed, and as mentioned the rewards are now acquired through prestiging 

• The black market and the book of weapons has also been removed from the game. 

• You’ll now find less world items across the maps in bounty hunt. 

• The electric lamp has been removed from the game. 

• Supply points are now reduced to 4 instead of 5. 

• With the new engine, both lighting and audio has been significantly improved. 

A final thing to note is that Mammon’s Gulch will be the only map available for the first month following the update, while the other maps are being revamped to the new standard. 

That concludes this summary of all the new changes and updates introduced with Hunt: Showdown 1896. If you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to smash that subscribe button so you don’t miss the next one! What are you most excited for with this update? Let me know in the comments, and until next time, I’ll see you – in the… mountains?