Weird west multiplayer game Hunt: Showdown has just received its big 1.8.1 patch on its live servers, which means the haunted bayou is going to be an even more interesting place from now on. This update adds new armed variants of the shambling grunts we’ve been punching out for the past few years, and there’s a brand new weekly quest system too.
Armed zombies are a deceptively simple change. Thanks to Hunt: Showdown’s reliance on positional audio, however, it’s an important one. A grunt that manages to connect a hit with a rusty pistol will cause a round in the cylinder to discharge, creating a loud report that other hunters will be able to hear all over the map. Hunters will have to be quite a bit more careful about approaching and eliminating these enemies to avoid giving away their position.
Another major change in 1.8.1 is the new quest system, called Summons. These replace daily and weekly challenges, and Crytek says they’re “designed to be more fun and engaging”. Completing these quests will award players with one to six stars – although these are distinct from the stars you can earn in trials. Quests refresh each week, you can track two of them at a time (with the option to spend Blood Bonds to unlock a third slot), and you can trade in 30 stars for 25 Blood Bonds.
The new weapons, which have been available on the test server for the past couple months, are the Winfield 1893 Slate pump-action shotgun and the Cadwell 92 New Army double-action revolver.
There are some new audio effects players should be aware of: bullet casings create sounds when they land, hanging chains will play a subtle sound when you crouch-walk through them, and there’s been some general improvements to the sound design for door impacts and destruction, Crytek says.
Crytek has also decreased the spawn rate of golden cash registers. The studio says this is to counteract the negative economic effects that a bug that caused golden cash registers to spawn “significantly” more than intended, and that it will be discussing its monetisation plans and players’ concerns in the coming weeks.