Hunt: Showdown update 6.0 patch notes add new boss

Published May 2, 2019 10:20 AM, by Brittany Vincent

The newest version of Hunt: Showdown is adding several goodies for players to dig into, such as a new boss target, a swath of new equipment, the Book of Monsters, and several other changes detailed in a lengthy series of patch notes.

Previously, Hunt: Showdown was voted the Best Early Access Game of 2018 during our Shacknews Awards. Here's what our own Chris Jarrard had to say about it:

"The game centers around groups of bounty hunters that travel deep into the muggy, unforgiving swamps in search of otherworldly creatures. If they manage to cleanse the land of these beasts, they will receive a reward of gold, but simply earning the bounty is not enough. Hunters who manage to slay the beasts and collect the bounty must escape the swamp under pursuit from the remaining bounty hunters who remain in the session.

Should players manage to escape with the bounty of gold, the windfall can be spent on outfitting their hunters with improved weaponry for additional runs. All players who perish during a session lose everything, though the experience earned is retained through a mechanic the game refers to as the Bloodline. Experience earned from one hunter is passed down to the pool of hunters in the Bloodline. Hunt: Showdown is always a balance of risk and reward."

You can read the patch notes' highlights below, and the notes in full over at the Hunt: Showdown Steam page. 

• Added new boss target: The Assassin 
• Agile attacks from unseen angles
• Uses walls to navigate to shortcuts and fire ranged attacks from
• Temporarily clones itself to try and open up an opportunity to attack

Developer Note: 
The Assassin is the product born from a lot of investigation into what bosses mean to Hunt in its current state, since the previous two boss targets were created, the game has shifted a lot to build a better core experience. With this in mind, we wanted to approach the issues that came out of the other bosses and see where we can build a benchmark that offers a few things; a challenge to new and old players, a balance between boss PvE engagement and the ever looming PvP, and something unique to set each boss apart.

There were a lot of prototypes and concepts that we tried – for example the early stages didn’t have clones and relied on trying to lead the player into dead ends, but a lot of complexity was hidden so a lot of weird and wonderful ideas that worked on paper actually turned out to be unreadable and annoying to play. The Assassin will use its behaviors in specific ways to punish the unprepared and reward those who keep calm and pay attention to what is about to happen, and this is how the logic and behaviors settled for the final thing you can play today. 

• The Book of Monsters is the first in a series of new books for the Library that allows players to reveal more about Hunt's universe and backstory.
• The book includes a unique unlock system that makes new pages available to players after completing the required gameplay challenges.
  • Main entries unlock when the player kills a type of enemy for the first time
  • Additional pages unlock by completing mastery challenges
  • Challenges, become harder to complete with every mastery level

LeMat Mark II Revolver

• Re-imagining a classic: The LeMat Mark II is based on a vintage Civil War era caplock design, but modernized to load cartridges
• Single-action revolver with a second barrel that holds a single shotgun shell. This weapon uses a small inventory slot
• Combines the advantages of a mid-range handgun with the firepower of a shotgun at a point-blank range
• Can toggle fire-modes between primary and secondary ammo types
• Fires 9 rounds of compact ammo with additional 18 bullets
• The shotgun comes with 3 additional shells
• The weapon benefits from the Fanning trait, but fans at a lower speed due to its bulky size.

Lebel 1886 Bolt-action Rifle

• French bolt-action rifle design that set new standards to many upcoming rifles such as the Mosin Nagant, which would take inspiration from the Lebel in the following years
• Slightly dated and somewhat clunky to operate. What the weapon lacks with its lower rate of fire and less control, it makes up in ammunition capacity over its competitors
• Holds 9 long ammo rounds in a tubular magazine with one additional round in the chamber, but only comes with 5 extra bullets
• Unlike the Mosin Nagant, the Lebel rifle cannot be loaded using stripper clips and can only take one round at a time
• The weapon benefits from the Bulletgrubber and Iron Sharpshooter traits

Bomb Lance

• Custom large slot melee weapon that is based on whaling lances of the time, combining a long-reaching sharp blade with a built-in harpoon launching device
• Fires an explosive harpoon that can penetrates deep into the flesh before it detonates, tearing the target apart from the inside
• A successful hit with a Bomb Lance harpoon projectile can bring down the toughest of enemies without hurting the bearer as the victim's own flesh absorbs most of the explosion even at a short distance
• Comes with 5 additional harpoons

Alert Trip Mine

• Portable trip mine that comes in a pack of 3 and takes a tool slot in the inventory
• Can be placed in the world and when activated produces noise and light to warn of possible intruders and to disorient them
• A placed Alert Trip Mine can be picked up and re-deployed again by any Hunters (similarly to the Bear traps found in the world)

Concertina Trip Mine

• Portable trip mine that takes a tool slot in the inventory
• Can be placed in the world and when activated creates a mini razor-wire mesh that can block windows, doors and narrow corridors and causes Rending damage
• A placed Concertina Trip Mine can be picked up and re-deployed again by any Hunters(similarly to the Bear traps found in the world

Ammo Box 

• Portable box that holds small quantities of both regular and special ammunition
• Can be placed in the world and allows a Hunter and their partner (or an enemy!) to resupply ammunition from it once, similar to the ammo boxes found in the world
• Takes a consumable slot in the inventory
• The Special ammo types include Nitro bullets as well as all types of Crossbow bolts

Ghoul

• With the Ghoul trait, players instantly heal 50 hitpoints when looting a dead Hunter

Vulture

• The Vulture trait allows players to always loot dead Hunters they come across, even if they had already been looted by other players

Adrenaline

• Adrenaline enables players to instantly start recharging stamina when their health is critically low.