Hell Let Loose has just rolled out Patch 17.1 across all platforms, delivering several quality of life updates and key fixes that players have been asking for. This update focuses heavily on medic gameplay, map visuals, and new admin tools, while also preparing the ground for future content. Let’s jump into what’s new!
Medic players get some real love this time. Revives now restore full HP, and both revive and bandaging speeds have been cut down to 2 seconds. That’s super fast! Medic XP rewards have also been boosted significantly, from 30 to 75 for both reviving others and being revived. Plus, a new Call & Response system lets downed players ping for a medic, and medics can reply with radial markers to prioritize who to heal first. The UI now shows clear icons indicating injured, downed, and medic-requested statuses, along with medics en-route. Honestly, it makes the whole medic interaction feel way more intuitive.
Medic loadouts across US, German, Soviet, and British forces got tweaks too, mostly adding extra smoke grenades and ammo clips. For example, US Standard Issue medics now carry one extra M1 Carbine clip and two more smoke grenades. These little changes might seem small but can really change firefights.
The bipod system has been revamped with a smarter detection method that checks for valid deployment surfaces dynamically instead of old hardcoded limits. This means no more weird clipping through objects or canceled deployments mid-animation. Plus, eager angles now adapt to terrain height, so you can aim higher or lower naturally depending on where you’re set up. I’m already imagining all the sneaky spots this opens up!
Explore Mode got a nice upgrade too. You can now launch it offline directly from the Basic Training menu, renamed from Practice Range. It lets you roam any map freely, choose any role, and use faction vehicles and artillery without XP or match objectives interfering. Perfect for messing around and learning maps at your own pace.
For admins, a bunch of new camera features have arrived. You can lock onto players and snap to their first-person view in real time, even if they’re in vehicles (the camera will follow the vehicle from 3rd person). On top of that, several stylish lighting filters have been added, like Bleach Bypass, 1940s color, and black and white with red or blue tint. They combine with effects like bloom and film grain for some seriously cool cinematic shots.
Gameplay-wise, XP rewards for destroying and dismantling enemy spawns have been increased to better reflect the risk involved, especially for dismantling, which now grants more XP than before. Engineers can finally dismantle their own nodes, bringing consistency with other deployables. These changes should push players to be more aggressive and strategic.
Map improvements include better VFX occlusion on Tobruk around big buildings, adding more realistic bullet and shrapnel damage textures, and extra ground scatter to improve the war-torn feel. Winter camo from Elsenborn Ridge has been extended to tanks and vehicles on Foy and Kharkov maps, which looks super slick. Also, fog on several night maps has been toned down for longer sightlines, based on community feedback—Kharkov and Sainte-Marie-du-Mont are among the maps with clearer views now.
LOD (Level of Detail) issues, especially with barbed wire assets, have been addressed. Barbed wire now transitions more smoothly between detail levels and has been removed from the hierarchical LOD system to avoid looking too low poly at a distance. Flare guns are also getting a visual boost with improved light spread in night scenarios, though this is still being refined.
The Practice Range now unlocks all loadouts regardless of your in-game rank, which is great for testing weapons safely. Dynamic weather effects like snow, rain, and sandstorms are being added to legacy maps, with Mortain’s rain updated to a newer system. Server owners can disable this if they want.
Another big change: Hell Let Loose on PC now defaults to DirectX 12, eager for better performance. If you hit issues, there’s an option to revert to DirectX 11 in settings. RCON tools have also been expanded, allowing server admins to tweak match and warm-up timers within new ranges for different game modes.
On the cosmetic front, the Operation Overlord Units DLC has launched, adding new uniforms for German and US forces. And as usual, a hefty list of bug fixes has been applied, covering everything from UI quirks on ultrawide monitors to map collision errors and floating assets.
Community events are coming up too! There’s a livestream planned for June 26th on the official Hell Let Loose Twitch channel featuring a Q&A and a “Best of the Community” episode. Then on June 28th, the DraftHaus server hosts a “Tank Only” event on the Foy map, which sounds like a wild ride with no infantry distractions.
