Hunting Rifle Update Patch Notes

Hello Bloodhunt community!

What has a long metal barrel, goes bang, and is specially crafted to make vampires bleed?

It’s the highlight of this update, and a fun one at that, let’s talk a bit more about it!

The Hunting Rifle

The Hunting Rifle might look a bit crude at first glance, but its looks are deceiving you. It is a single-action rifle that packs quite a punch, getting hit by it will give the target Kindred a nasty bleeding surprise.

The Hunting Rifle sits somewhere in between the Sniper Rifle and the Marksman Rifle in that it has a lower rate of fire than the latter but a higher damage output. Additionally, it introduces a unique bleeding feature that makes it ideal for hunting. Its main weakness is that it only comes with an iron sight, which narrows its use for long distances – also the longer reloads versus the Marksman make it less feasible at closer ranges.

Bleeding mechanism

Getting hit by the Hunting Rifle might not be as bad initially as getting struck by the Sniper, but its bullets behave uniquely, expanding wounds on vampires and making them bleed over time. The visual bleeding damage caused by this provides the shooter with the ability to track their target more easily, also making this weapon an attractive option if you want a slightly easier time to do follow-up shots.

In-game medals

This update also adds a new mechanic that challenges and makes it feel more rewarding when you perform daring feats in the game by awarding you a medal. All medals are displayed in the middle of the screen highlighting your accomplishment.

There are also some different rules depending on which game mode you are playing. For example, a medal that is rewarded after rapidly killing 4 players within a brief time in TDM, the same reward would also be rewarded after rapidly taking down 4 players within quick succession in a Solo game. The difference is that in TDM there is no downed state.

Here is a list of all the medals that have been implemented with this update:

Killstreak medals

Rapid kills / Takedown medals

Feeding on civilian medals

Diablerie on players medals

Match placement medals

World medals

Revenge medal

Crosshair notifications

Crosshair notifications are small rewarding messages that pop up near your crosshair letting you know after you have done something impressive in the game. Just as with the medals feature, they have names and criteria for triggering them. Additionally, some of them require you to perform a takedown (for our BR game-modes) and some require you to perform a kill (for TDM).

Below, you can find a list of the possible notifications, and what triggers them:

• Elimination, triggers by killing a player
• Bloodhunt takedown, triggers by downing a bloodhunted player in BR
• Assist, triggers by assisting a takedown or kill
• Headshot, triggers by landing final shot kills in TDM or final headshot takedowns in BR
• Slide shot, triggers by landing final shot kills in TDM or final headshot takedowns in BR
• Aerial shot, triggers by landing final shot kills in TDM or final headshot takedowns in BR
• Diablerie, triggers by diablerizing a player in BR

Bot adjustments

We have noticed that the bots in Bloodhunt can sometimes behave a bit erratic. In this update, we have made a pass on their logic and overall behavior. They will now have a little more survivability with the starting equipment and be a little more deadly with better weapons.

• Bots now try to avoid entering combat when they only have the starting pistol
• Bots now will treat Entity as a bigger threat
• Bots’ weapon accuracy has been adjusted to make them slightly more challenging

Additionally, we have resolved a few bugs with the bots, some of which are mentioned further down in the bug fixes section.

Weapon balancing

When the December Update came out, we noticed feedback that the Dual Crossbows still needed some additional tuning, for this reason, we are reducing the bonus damage from direct hits by half but increasing their magazine size slightly for the lower rarities. Instead of 4/6/8 for green, blue, and purple, we are now at 6/7/8 rounds per reload.

Furthermore, we have done the following changes for this update:

• Increased the Minigun ammunition from 300 to 400
• Increased the Double-Barreled shotgun damage
• Increased the max spread of the AK
• Increased the Heavy Crossbow gas damage

All the balance changes above have been based on two factors: player feedback, and our back-end data. As always, if you have additional thoughts on the weapon balancing, make sure to provide your feedback in the survey that will be released shortly after the update goes live.

TDM changes

In this update, we have made some important improvements to Team Deathmatch.

All the powers' visual effects now show for your full team, including the reveal from Scouting Famulus and the heal from Rejuvenating voice. Additionally, you now can see hit point bars for all members of your team. These changes were implemented based on player feedback.

We also changed the weapon loadout on respawn in TDM to a combination of the Tommy Gun and Marksman Rifle, so you can get into the action more quickly and effectively!

Server matchmaking changes

During the previous week, we performed some tests and evaluated which settings would work best for Bloodhunt. From this update and going forward, the following changes will apply:

• We have increased the number of players that are allowed in each Elysium
• Region expansion will be limited in regions with higher population, this should lead to fewer matches with exceedingly high ping
• Bots will continue to be absent from Team Deathmatch
• Our rating expansion settings will include a wider range of players, potentially it will make matches in the Duo and Solo game modes more populated by players

In short, we are keeping the same changes that were made during the Jan 21-22 weekend.

Bug fixes

• We resolved an issue with invisible accessories and facial hair on the holiday masks
• A visual issue that sometimes showed 0 players at the end of a match has been fixed
• You no longer get stuck and are again able to move if you cancel ‘Rejuvenating Voice’ after getting downed mid-air
• Bots no longer get stuck in making decisions about whom to perform diablerie on
• The description for the ‘Shark Chum’-challenge has been corrected to accurately represent the unlock requirements
• You now will be able to spawn with Dual Daggers in Prague with the ‘Warrior’ perk equipped (get cutting!)
• Visually, all ‘Buzz Cuts’ now are consistently the same length across multiple hairstyles
• Once again you can change keybinds for the basic movement controls in the settings
• The abilities of disconnected players in TDM will no longer continue to be active
• The final objective in the quest The Talent Show – Part 3 can now be completed
• In-game messages for Twitch Drops are now properly localized
• The health bar above spectated teammates is now being displayed consistently
• [PS5] An issue which under certain circumstances would crash the game after opening the store has been resolved
• Some issues with characters and letters present in certain localizations have been resolved
• Several other technical bugfixes

New year, new potential

We have been working diligently with this first update of the year, and it is the first one for the CVC. We hope that you will you enjoy it, make sure to fill out the survey that will be available shorty after the update goes live. Until then...

See you at dusk!

/Sharkmob