Hunt: Showdown 1896 Update 2.9 Is Live With Blood Testament and a New Shotgun

Hunt: Showdown 1896 Update 2.9 is now live, bringing the Blood Testament event to the bayou and the gulch on September 8, 2026. Crytek’s Steam announcement details a new Blood Moon time of day, the Burgess shotgun, fresh Traits, weapon balance changes, hidden location updates, and a large collection of bug fixes. The deployment follows the September 8 Update 2.9 server maintenance notice, which scheduled the September 8 maintenance for Update 2.9 and Blood Testament’s launch.

Blood Testament changes the rhythm of every Mission. The Blood Moon moves between an intense phase, where monsters become faster and more aggressive, and a darker phase that reduces visibility while returning monster behavior to normal. Both phases tint the environment red, with the glow becoming stronger when the moon breaks through the clouds.

After the event roadmap previewed Chupacabra, a new monster, and other planned content, the Blood Testament roadmap has now given way to the first live update. The patch also makes the Burgess available through the Battle Pass, with its variants moving into normal weapon progression after the event ends.

Blood Testament adds a new shotgun and harsher night conditions

The Burgess is a foldable, slide-action shotgun with a six-round magazine and Size 3 weapon capacity. Its long equip and unequip animations are the tradeoff for that capacity, while the Bulletgrubber Trait can recover live shells that would otherwise be ejected.

Update 2.9 also gives LeMat users a new High Velocity ammunition option and adjusts several weapons, tools, consumables, and prices. Hunting Bow quick shots deal less damage, LeMat and Officer ammunition reserves are lower, and Terminus receives a damage increase alongside tighter spread.

Patch Notes for Hunt: Showdown 1896 Update 2.9

The biggest gameplay changes affect visibility, monster behavior, and how Hunters rebuild their loadouts. Supply Points, Scout Towers, and Extraction Points are hidden at the start of a Mission, while Clues reveal two Extraction Points. Custom Loadouts can now include Traits, giving players a faster way to rebuild a Hunter after a death, and returning players receive a temporary MMR modifier after a longer break.

Blood Moon Time of Day

A new and dynamic Time of Day, or rather, time of night, rises over the Incursion areas and shifts between two phases throughout your Mission. During the Intense Blood Moon phase, a storm grows and the moon breaks through the clouds. Monsters become more aggressive and attack faster. During the Dark Blood Moon phase, clouds cover the moon, reducing visibility and returning monster behavior to normal. Both phases bathe the map in a red glow, with the effect becoming stronger and brighter when the Blood Moon leaves its cloud cover.

New weapon: Burgess

The Burgess is a foldable, slide-action, long barrel shotgun with a Weapon Capacity of Size 3 at the cost of a long equip and unequip animation. It features a 6-round magazine. It can be equipped with the “Bulletgrubber” Trait to recover ejected live shells.

• Basic – 6+1/6
• Dragon Breath – 6+1/6
• Flechette – 6+1/6
• Penny Shot – 6+1/9
• Slugs – 6+1/4

New variant: Burgess Bayonet

A variant of the Burgess that has a bayonet added to it, which comes at the cost of an even longer equip and unequip animation, as it takes more time to deploy and stow away.

• Basic – 6+1/6
• Dragon Breath – 6+1/6
• Flechette – 6+1/6
• Penny Shot – 6+1/9
• Slugs – 6+1/4

New variant: Burgess Trauma

A variant of the Burgess with a reinforced stock that changes the heavy melee attack into a hammer strike.

• Basic – 6+1/6
• Dragon Breath – 6+1/6
• Flechette – 6+1/6
• Penny Shot – 6+1/9
• Slugs – 6+1/4

Dev note:

During Blood Testament, all Burgess variants are unlocked via the Battle Pass and will stay unlocked over Prestige. Once Blood Testament ends, they will be added to normal weapon progression.

Gunplay

New Custom Ammo: LeMat High Velocity

• For LeMat Carbine and Variants
  • Damage 101
  • Muzzle Velocity 560
  • Drop Range 150
  • Recoil 4.5
  • Reserve Ammunition 9/12
• For LeMat
  • Damage 92
  • Muzzle Velocity 450
  • Drop Range 85
  • Recoil 8
  • Reserve Ammunition 9/8

Balance Changes:

Hunting Bow

One-hit kill range to the upper body while at full draw has been reduced:

• With the “Hundred Hands” Trait from 36m to 30m
• Without the “Hundred Hands” Trait from 29m to 27m

The damage curve for draw percentage has also been adjusted to reduce damage:

• Generally, this means that quick shots will deal less damage and be less likely to one-hit kill a Hunter

Reduced Reserve Ammunition

• Basic – from 1/8+8 to 1/6+6
• Poison- from 1/5+5 to 1/4+4
• Frag- from 1/5+5 to 1/4+4
• Concertina- from 1/5+5 to 1/4+4

LeMat

Reduced LeMat reserve ammunition

• Compact from 9/18 to 9/12
• Incendiary from 9/18 to 9/12
• FMJ from 9/18 to 9/12
• Shotgun Shells from 1/3 to 1/2
• Dragon Breath from 1/3 to 1/2
• Starshell from 1/3 to 1/2
• Slugs from 1/2 to 1/1

Officer

Reduced Officer and Officer Brawler ammunition:

• Compact from 7/14 to 7/10
• Poison from 7/14 to 7/10
• Dumdum from 7/14 to 7/10
• High Velocity from 7/9 to 7/7
• Subsonic from 7/16 to 7/12

Terminus

• Damage increased from 186 to 207
• Spread decreased from 40 to 30

Slugs

Reduced pricing from 65 to 40 Hunt Dollars for:

• Romero 77, Romero 77 Shorty, and Romero 77 Hatchet
• Drilling and Drilling Variants
• LeMat and LeMat Variants
• Haymaker

Tools and Consumables

Adjusted Hunt Dollar prices

• Tool Box decreased from 70 -> 25
• Medical Pack decreased from 35 -> 15
• Throwing Spear increased from 80 -> 145
• Throwing Axes increased from 50 -> 80
• Derringer Pennyshot increased from 63 -> 100
• Decoy Fuses decreased from 30 -> 15
• Bear Traps decreased from 70 to -> 35

Heavy Knife

Adjusted the swing melee to increase hit chance:

• Increased the height of the melee hit box.

Gameplay

Hidden Information Changes

• All Supply Points, Scout Towers, and Extraction Points are hidden by default.
• Investigating a Clue will now reveal 2 Extraction Points.
• The Scouting Maps that reveal hidden info can now appear at all Supply Points.
• Scout Towers still have a guaranteed Scouting Map inside.
• The Spyglass still reveals hidden location icons on the compass.

The radius to discover hidden locations has been increased to 75m.

Dev Note: We’ve taken note of community feedback and hope this alleviates some of the pain points of the previous iterations of the hidden info mechanic. We hope this adds focus to the core game loop, while adding the element off discovery by keeping a lot of information hidden.

Trait Changes

New Burn Trait: Siphon – Allows you to loot a Scarce Trait off an enemy Hunter’s body, leaving Siphon in its place. Siphon can be acquired by interacting with Blood Wells or found in-world like other Scarce Traits.

Dev Note: Siphon will prioritize Death Cheat whenever possible, and if not, it will steal a random Scarce Trait if the looted Hunter had one. For solos, if not Death Cheat, it will then prioritize Necromancer, but you will not be able to steal Necromancer from another solo player, only from someone in a team. When Death Cheat is stolen, it will still be active for the player that lost it for the rest of the round.

New Burn Trait: Chupacabra – Interact with a live horse, cow, or animal cage to restore 1 Health Chunk.

Dev Note: Once unlocked, Chupacabra will be buyable from the Trait menu for 2 Upgrade Points. When interacting with dog cages, all 3 dogs can be interacted with separately, while for chickens the entire cage can be interacted with once. The chosen animal is triggered during the interaction and killed upon completion.

Catalyst Updates:

• Vulture: Now gets a Catalyst Conditional which allows players to loot some ammo from downed Hunters.
• Lightfoot: Now gets the Catalyst Conditional to never break branches. This effect was previously part of the Catalyst Conditionals for Beastface, but has now been moved to Lightfoot.

Trait Spawn Changes:

• Added Crackshot, Blademancer, and Corpse Seer to the list of possible Trait spawns at Scout Towers and themed Supply Points. Both Sealed and normal Trait Spur variations can spawn.

Misc. Gameplay Changes

• Destiny’s Dial now has a chance to reveal all hidden locations as a reward.

Sealed Reward Spawn Changes:

• Postal Supply now only contains the Experience Boon, with the other Boons moving to more thematically appropriate Supply Points.
• Clockmaker’s Supply now contains a Dark Sight Boon.
• Reduced the chance of Sealed Boons to spawn in Scout Towers and Supply Points.

AUDIO

• Added a short variation of the Rise Up Dead Man “Humming Theme” to play after a successful extraction.
• Fixed an issue with certain Equipment Animation sounds in first person to be heard after canceling the inspect.

Monsters

• The Intense Blood Moon phase from the “Blood Moon” Time of Day affects monsters except for Water Devils.
• Triggered by the Blood Moon (general effect in all maps) or when players interact with Blood Wells for the Community Event (both in a radius for a short time).
• Agitated monsters have the following Traits:
  • A dark, smoky aura.
  • They sound more aggressive.
  • They have slightly sharper senses while roaming.
  • They move faster. Armoreds and Leeches are most affected by the change, while Hellhounds and Immolators retain their original movement speed.
  • Grunts, Armoreds, and Firebreathers (when wet) attacks occur at shorter intervals, so they deal more damage over time.
  • Attack animations for Grunts, Armoreds, Firebreathers (when wet), Brutes, Ursa Mortises, and Meatheads are faster.
• Immolator navigation has been nerfed, no longer allowing the monster to figure out long, complex paths to players. Detection distances remain the same, preserving the experience in open fields where the Immolator has a straight path to its target.
• Hellhounds are now slower when they are in water or have a mutilated leg.

New Player Onboarding

• Low visibility Time of Day rates have been reduced for new players to ease their first steps in the game.

UI

Traits in Loadouts

• A much-requested feature is finally here! You are now able to add Traits to Custom Loadouts and, in the process, hopefully cut down on the number of steps to re-equip a Hunter after death.
  • Custom Loadouts now come with a dual cost: Hunt Dollars and Upgrade Points.
  • You can equip 0-15 Traits to a loadout. Cost is replaced with total budget needed.
  • The cost of the Traits will be applied when you equip the Loadout to your Hunter.
  • If you have insufficient Upgrade Points, you will not be allowed to equip the Loadout and will be shown an error message.
  • You can still copy your Hunter’s loadout into a Custom Loadout slot.
  • Scarce and Locked Traits cannot be copied over to a Custom Loadout from a Hunter. Those items will be skipped once the action is taken.
  • You can disable the Traits widget if you want to equip the Custom Loadout without the Traits.
• Hunter Slots
  • Expanded the total possible number of Hunter Slots from 75 to 100.
  • Made improvements to the localization for French, Russian, Chinese Simplified, and German.

Matchmaking

MMR Decay

• Returning players will now receive a temporary MMR modifier that slightly reduces difficulty of Missions after a longer break from the game.
• This modifier gradually decreases the more you play, perfect for when you are feeling rusty and need a few games to get back on track.

New Player Modifier

• Before, this was a flat-value MMR reduction that was turned off at specific Bloodline Rank, resulting in a spike of difficulty for new players.
• Now it uses similar logic to MMR Decay, a modifier that smoothly increases difficulty and gives newcomers a fair fighting chance against more experienced (but similarly skilled MMR-wise) players.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed rare issues that could affect both client and server stability
• Fixed an issue where fuse audio for cooking Tools and Consumables was missing. Audio would only play after the item was thrown, while explosion audio functioned as expected
• Fixed an exploit where players could Prestige after readying up, causing them to load into a Mission with an empty Hunter
• Fixed an issue where equipping a Loadout while viewing a Hunter other than the selected Hunter would apply the Loadout to the wrong Hunter
• Fixed an issue where the “Frontiersman” Trait could disappear after being picked up twice
• Fixed an issue where the iron sights on some weapons were slightly misaligned
• Fixed an issue where, after losing connection while loading into a Mission and then reconnecting, teammate and monster footsteps would play from the player’s original spawn location instead of their actual positions
• Fixed several locations where players could become partially or fully stuck
• Fixed an exploit where players could instantly self-revive by opening Death Screen sub-menus before the Death Screen had fully appeared, bypassing the intended revive timer
• Fixed an issue where the third Clue, when located inside the Boss Target compound, could fail to register as collected, preventing the map from shrinking as intended
• Fixed an issue where the Shooting Range could incorrectly display a Bounty Hunt or Bounty Clash contract after returning from the Loadout Screen
• Fixed an issue with incorrect sign placement and orientation on the signpost south of La Plata Mine, including upside-down signs and an incorrect direction sign pointing to Pelican Island Prison
• Fixed an issue where Hellhounds could sometimes spin around
• Fixed an issue where the light in a Hellhound’s eyes didn’t turn off when it died
• Fixed an issue where the Bileweaver could stop moving and become unresponsive
• Fixed an issue where the player receives increased damage from Firebreather while standing in the water
• Fixed an issue where Armoreds could get stuck attacking after breaking an obstacle
• Fixed an issue where Bileweavers could start walking in the air
• Fixed an issue where the VFX for moving in water was placed too high for the Firebreather and Immolator
• Fixed an issue where Hellhounds could spawn even if user was below the required Bloodline Rank
• Fixed an issue where multiple Hellhounds in the same spot could visibly clip into each other
• Fixed an issue where the Immolator could move without proper alignment towards a closed door
• Fixed an issue where some monsters were unaffected by fire volumes when in deep water
• Fixed an issue where the Firebreather didn’t have body destruction enabled during the “Wet” Status Effect.
• Fixed an issue where the Firebreather’s weakness to poison didn’t apply with certain applications
• Fixed an issue where Grunts could be moved after the attack animation
• Fixed an issue where the Bileweaver ragdoll may glitch and fly away
• Fixed an issue where Bats would always start to burn, even if they were not killed by fire
• Fixed an issue where a Liquid Fire Bomb would not damage Rotjaw
• Fixed an issue where audio would crackle and produce audible clicks and pops when downed or affected by the ear-ringing effect
• Fixed an exploit where players could interact with the top of a ladder from below, allowing them to bypass climbing and save time and button presses
• Fixed an issue where removing the “Quartermaster” Trait while a Quartermaster-enabled Loadout was equipped always unequipped the weapon in the first slot instead of the second slot
• Fixed an issue where FPS dropped significantly when standing beneath the waterfall near Split River Mill
• Fixed an issue where, after killing a player with a Vetterli 71, all subsequent kills in the same Mission were incorrectly counted as Vetterli 71 kills
• Fixed an issue where the side tray and navigation were bound to the same button in the Bloodline Progression and Prestige screens
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to reload their weapon while using VIVOX voice chat
• Fixed an issue where the Hunter Screen paperdoll incorrectly shared saved shortcuts across all Hunters
• Fixed an issue where the “Shadow Leap” Trait could be used on Bileweavers
• Fixed an issue where Boss Target kills did not contribute to the “Monsters Killed” statistic in Bounty Hunt, despite the stat description stating that it includes all monsters, including Boss Targets
• Fixed an issue where holding the Interact button while a paperdoll slot was selected in the Gear Screen did not open the Party Tab
• Fixed an issue where the Inspect button was missing from the “All Hunters” Recruit Screen
• Fixed an issue where the third-person weapon swap animation played incorrectly while aiming down sights if the player had any combination of Dolch 96, Dolch 96 Bullseye, or Dolch 96 Claw equipped in both Weapon Slots
• Fixed an issue where “Favorite” stars in the Story Challenges tab did not display correctly when they were selected from right to left after already being favorited
• Fixed an issue where burning Hunters wouldn’t damage caged chickens and caged dogs on contact

Unresolved major issues of update

• Rare crashes and freezes occur during gameplay and/or while loading into or out of a Mission
• When the player holds the shortcut used to assign a Quick Slot to the currently held equipment item, the shortcut cannot be assigned to the highlighted slot
• The Lobby may become broken if one of the Players in an invited team disconnects during extraction
• When a player recruits a new Hunter, enters a Mission, and acquires Traits, then purchases additional Traits for the same Hunter from the Loadout Screen, selling a Trait may result in two Traits being sold instead of one
• Healing a teammate with a Vitality Shot or First Aid Kit does not grant them shared progress for the “Restore Health for yourself or your teammates” Challenge. Progress is only granted to the player using the item.

Blood Testament is now live in Hunt: Showdown 1896. Share your thoughts on Update 2.9 in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.

Hunt: Showdown 1896

Developed by Crytek Frankfurt

Hunt the corrupted in backwaters lost to history. Fight back against a timeless evil that pits you against twisted monsters and other desperate Hunters – solo or in a group – in a high-stakes, tactical, PvPvE, first person shooter. There are no heroes here. Risk everything as Hunt consumes you.

• Genre Shooter, Simulator
• Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One
• Perspective First person
• Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
• Release August 27, 2019
• Publisher Crytek
• Age Rating

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