Developer Insight - Upcoming 2.3 Balancing Changes

Hunters,

As part of Update 2.3, we’ve made a number of balance changes to equipment, Traits, and more. These changes were based on player feedback and were made to ensure gameplay was more balanced overall and that more diversity among games was encouraged. We’ve touched on the balance changes coming to Hunt in previous blogs, but we wanted to sum everything up so it’s clear what is coming in Update 2.3.

Check out the changes below!

Equipment Balances

• The Krag will now have slightly reduced extra ammo capacity (from 12 to 10) and the cost will increase to 450 Hunt Dollars, which is to encourage more arsenal variety in games. These changes go hand-in-hand with a rebalance of the Berthier and Mosin Obrez and allows slotting the new Mosin Obrez Match and Sharpeye into the Long Ammo category. The Berthier will now be the strongest of the Carbines, while the base Obrez will be the weakest. We want to position these Carbines as more viable alternatives to the full-size, Long Ammo, bolt-action rifles, such as the Krag, Lebel, and Mosin Nagant.
  
• In a similar vein, the Uppercut will be made cheaper again, dropping to 310 Hunt Dollars. While the Uppercut remains one of the most used handguns and an excellent sidearm in the game, we felt that with recent nerfs around ballistics, damage, and extra ammo, the price didn’t represent the Uppercut’s true power level anymore, hence why it was reduced. The Haymaker was adjusted for the same reasons and was reduced from 370 to 279 Hunt Dollars.
  
• It will now require three Bear Traps to kill an enemy Hunter, preventing players from using a single Tool slot choice that allows for easy insta-kills out of the box. Players are expected to utilize extra traps found in the world or equip the Frontiersman Trait to increase the carried capacity. In general, players should try to use the different types of traps in clever ways or utilize mechanics found in the world, like explosive barrels to stack damage.
  
• Melee Tools will cause more damage to Boss and Wild Targets, and there are more in-world melee weapons which spawn near Boss Target lairs again.
  
• Pulling out projectiles from hit monsters and Hunters will cause meaningful damage again, rewarding players who are brave enough to get up and close to retrieve their blades, Bolts, and Arrows in combat. The Berserker Trait still applies double damage here. The Blademancer Trait no longer deals any pull-out damage when retrieving objects. We felt that the benefit of quickly getting your items back was strong enough of an advantage, helping to address the balancing concerns from the last Event.
  
• The Vetterli has been given an improved rate-of-fire in ADS with the Iron Eye Trait, while the Centennial’s rate-of-fire has been reduced slightly at the same time. This is a very subtle change that swaps both guns when using ADS and Iron Eye. Now, the Vetterli is slightly better when using the Trait, where before the Centennial was slightly faster at shooting.
  
• Players can now disarm and pick up Dark Dynamite Satchels, storing them back in their inventory (if they have a free slot).
  
• We have reduced the duration of Stamina Shots and Regeneration Shots.
  
• Based on feedback from our players and internal teams, we have made the decision to remove the Revive Bolt from Hunt with Update 2.3.  We recently tested a rework for the item but have not been satisfied with the results in regards to balance and readability to fully address the concerns from the community. Rather than pushing forward with shipping an unsatisfying version, we have made the call to remove the Revive Bolt from the game entirely. This difficult decision was made to ensure we maintain a fair and balanced experience for our players. All previously purchased instances of Revive Bolts in your inventory will be reimbursed accordingly. 

Trait Changes
Check out some of the changes we’re making to Traits below:

• The Lightfoot Trait no longer allows for silent crouching for solo Hunters. While it provided a good power boost for solo players, the feedback from the community was unanimously against being able to fully eliminate footsteps, which play such an important role in detecting nearby players. We agree with this feedback and will consider other solo-only improvements in the future, if needed.
  
• The Surefoot Trait will no longer have faster crouch speed and will go up in cost to 6 Upgrade Points.
  
• The Fast Fingers Trait has been added to the Martini-Henry IC1 and Maynard Sniper families. Just like with Fanning and Levering, some weapons benefit more from certain Traits than others. The advantage for the Maynard Sniper is marginal due to its two-stage reload being quite cumbersome, but the Martini-Henry IC1 benefits quite a lot from Fast Fingers with its already fast and smooth reload action.
  
• The Bolt Thrower Trait now also works for the Bomb Lance and Bomb Launcher, which was a long-standing request from the community to help further specialize your Hunters.
  
• The Conduit Trait now gives solo Hunters double the stamina reward and progresses two Clue steps with one interaction. The previous iteration had the problem that depending on the chosen playstyle, it could be more of a drawback for solo Hunters. Now, they receive the progress and the reward from both steps, no questions asked!
  
• We have also changed the pricing for some Traits. Those affected are Surefoot (from 4 Upgrade Points to 6), Greyhound (from 5 Upgrade Points to 2), and Determination (from 4 Upgrade Points to 1).

Bug Fixes
We’ve also spent a lot of time on fixing some of our more challenging, long-standing bugs, which include:

• Refactored the poison damage system to prevent issues around the effects not disappearing correctly.
  
• Hanging chains and other sound traps will no longer block attacks during combat.
  
• Concertina wire should no longer damage players through walls and ceilings. It may still be possible for wires to be rendered through certain walls, but they should no longer apply any damage if there is a wall or obstacle in the way. In the same way, it should no longer be possible for invisible wires to damage a Hunter, like was often the case when walking on a roof where the room below had a Concertina Bomb thrown into it.

Lastly, our Weekly Challenges will now come in random weekly sets. This is to reduce the chance of individual weapons dominating entire weeks, meaning more varied gameplay across the Event. Players will still be required to complete the same challenges over a given time, but the order they arrive in per week varies between players to mix things up.

 We’re excited to bring Update 2.3 to you on March 26th, 2025. This is a key year for us in bringing performance updates and quality-of-life improvements, and this is just the start. We hope you enjoy the Event and the improvements!

Your Hunt: Showdown 1896 team