Blood Testament brings a community-wide Blood Moon nightmare to Hunt: Showdown 1896

Crytek has unveiled the official cinematic trailer for Blood Testament, the next major in-game event coming to Hunt: Showdown 1896. Scheduled to begin on September 8, 2026, the event will launch alongside Update 2.9 and has been described by the studio as its biggest event of the year.

The cinematic introduces a new chapter built around blood, addiction and the corrupting influence already embedded within Hunt’s supernatural mythology. However, Blood Testament is not being positioned as a purely narrative or cosmetic event. Its central community challenge, new Blood Wells, evolving Blood Moon conditions, Burn Traits, Burgess shotgun family and extensive Update 2.9 changes are all designed to alter how Bounty Hunt matches unfold.

Rather than releasing every major addition immediately, Crytek is placing several of the event’s most important features behind shared progression milestones. The entire community will contribute to a three-stage campaign known as Make Them Bleed, gradually transforming the game as collective objectives are completed.

Warren Russett’s blood addiction drives the new storyline

At the centre of Blood Testament is Warren Russett, a Hunter whose desperation leaves him vulnerable to an experimental blood serum created by Lynch. The treatment gives Russett power, but it also creates a devastating addiction and an insatiable hunger for blood.

Crytek is withholding the conclusion of Russett’s story, explaining only that players will discover its “twisted ending” as the event progresses. This structure connects the narrative directly to the community campaign rather than presenting the cinematic as an isolated piece of background fiction.

The premise fits naturally into Hunt: Showdown 1896’s established combination of occult horror and human exploitation. Russett is not simply attacked by another monster roaming the bayou. He is deliberately transformed through an offer that initially appears to solve his problems, continuing the game’s recurring theme of desperate people accepting supernatural power without understanding—or caring about—the eventual price.

That distinction gives the event a more personal foundation than a conventional monster invasion. The Blood Moon and the creatures empowered beneath it provide the spectacle, but Russett’s loss of control supplies the tragedy behind the violence.

Make Them Bleed turns progression into a shared community campaign

The main event activity will be Make Them Bleed, a large-scale community challenge in which players collectively earn points by completing objectives during Missions. Points can be obtained by killing monsters, eliminating Targets and interacting with the new Blood Wells found across the bayou and the gulch.

Progression will be divided into three stages, with each milestone unlocking a significant gameplay addition for the entire community. Stage I introduces the Blood Moon Time of Day, while Stage II unlocks the Chupacabra Burn Trait. Crytek has deliberately concealed the Stage III reward, saying only that the final milestone will unleash the “true new nightmare” upon the maps.

This is more ambitious than a progression track in which every player works exclusively toward personal cosmetics. The community’s combined performance will determine when new mechanics become available, allowing Blood Testament to change over time rather than offering exactly the same experience from its first day until its conclusion.

There is also a potential drawback to this structure. Crytek has not yet published the required point thresholds, the expected duration of each stage or the identity of the final reward. The pacing will therefore depend on how the studio calibrates the milestones against actual participation. If the targets are reached too quickly, the gradual escalation may feel inconsequential; if progress is too slow, players could spend a substantial portion of the event waiting for its headline features.

Blood Wells introduce an immediate risk-and-reward decision

Blood Wells will appear throughout Bounty Hunt during the first two stages of Make Them Bleed. Crytek says one Well will be located in every compound, and each team will be able to interact with it once, following a similar access rule to conventional Clues.

Using a Blood Well costs the Hunter a small amount of health but grants the Siphon Burn Trait. That exchange creates a clear tactical decision: players can sacrifice some immediate survivability in exchange for an ability that may provide considerably greater value later in the match.

Their distribution is particularly significant. Because every compound contains a Blood Well, the mechanic should not force every team toward one predetermined location. Instead, it adds another decision to existing routes through the map. A crew may use the first Well it encounters, delay the sacrifice until it has secured the surrounding area or ignore the mechanic to preserve health before an expected confrontation.

Blood Wells also contribute Community Event Points, meaning they operate simultaneously as match-level resources and progression objectives. Even players who are uncertain about Siphon may feel pressure to interact with them in order to contribute to Make Them Bleed.

Siphon turns defeated Hunters into sources of power

Siphon allows its owner to loot a Scarce Trait from the body of an enemy Hunter. When this happens, the looted ability is removed from the corpse and Siphon is left in its place.

This design means the initial health sacrifice does not produce a guaranteed advantage. The player must first survive an encounter, eliminate a Hunter carrying a desirable Scarce Trait and gain safe access to the body. Siphon is therefore an investment in a potentially stronger mid- or late-match position rather than an instant combat bonus.

The ability could also make contested bodies more important. A defeated Hunter already represents ammunition, tools and information about a nearby team, but Siphon adds the possibility of obtaining one of the game’s rarer Traits. Crews may become more willing to defend a corpse, use it as bait or delay a retreat if an especially valuable ability can still be recovered from it.

Because Siphon is a Burn Trait, it is consumed through its intended use rather than creating a permanent method of repeatedly stealing abilities. Leaving Siphon on the defeated Hunter also preserves the exchange-based nature of the mechanic: power is transferred rather than copied without consequence.

The Blood Moon changes both visibility and monster behaviour

The Blood Moon is more than a red visual filter placed over the existing night conditions. Crytek describes it as a dynamic Time of Day with two alternating phases that affect visibility and the behaviour of the creatures inhabiting the maps.

During the Intense Blood Moon phase, crimson light breaks through the clouds and covers the environment in a stronger red glow. Monsters become more aggressive and move more quickly, increasing PvE pressure while Hunters attempt to track rival teams.

When the Dark Blood Moon phase begins, heavy clouds obscure the lunar light and visibility drops. The monsters are no longer empowered by the red glow and return to their normal behaviour, but Hunters must contend with a darker and less readable environment.

The alternation creates two different kinds of danger. The intense phase makes the environment more visually readable while increasing the threat posed by its creatures. The dark phase reduces that supernatural aggression but makes it harder to gather information at range.

This should have a direct effect on PvP encounters. Faster, more aggressive monsters can disrupt positioning, reveal a team’s location or prevent a quiet rotation. Reduced visibility can instead favour close-range movement, conceal flanking attempts and make distant threats more difficult to identify. Players will need to adjust not only to the map and opposing teams, but also to whichever phase is active when a confrontation begins.

Chupacabra transforms wildlife into a healing opportunity

The second community stage will unlock Chupacabra, another Burn Trait. Once available, it can be purchased for two Upgrade Points and allows Hunters to interact with animals to restore one Health Chunk.

Animals ordinarily function as environmental hazards and sound traps capable of exposing careless movement. Chupacabra gives them an additional purpose, potentially turning part of the environment into an emergency recovery resource.

Its usefulness will depend heavily on timing and location. A player cannot assume a suitable animal will remain available exactly when healing is required, and approaching one may still carry the risk of revealing a position. The Trait therefore appears better suited to opportunistic recovery than dependable healing on demand.

Chupacabra also reinforces the event’s central concept: blood is both a source of power and a temptation that encourages dangerous behaviour. Recovering a Health Chunk could preserve a valuable Hunter, but attempting to reach that resource may expose the player to an ambush or divert the crew from a safer route.

Stage III remains Blood Testament’s largest unanswered question

Crytek has intentionally left the final Make Them Bleed reward unidentified. The official announcement states that Stage III will unleash a new nightmare, but it does not confirm whether this means a Target, Wild Target, enemy type, special encounter or another kind of gameplay threat.

The distinction is important because each possibility would affect Bounty Hunt differently. A new Target could change objective routing and bounty competition, while an environmental enemy might apply more general pressure across the map. Until Crytek provides more information—or the community reaches the required milestone—any more specific interpretation would be speculation.

Maintaining that secrecy gives the community campaign a genuine point of anticipation. It also prevents the cinematic from revealing the complete event before it begins. Whether the eventual reward justifies the mystery will depend on how substantially it changes the game once unlocked.

The Burgess introduces a new family of heavy shotguns

Blood Testament will add the Burgess, a foldable slide-action shotgun with a long barrel and a six-round magazine. It occupies a Size 3 weapon slot and uses extended equip and unequip animations as the principal cost of its folded design.

The base Burgess is compatible with the Bulletgrubber Trait, allowing skilled Hunters to recover live shells that would otherwise be ejected during partial reloads. Its six-round capacity should offer more sustained close-range pressure than lower-capacity alternatives, although the slow transition animations may punish players who frequently switch between their primary weapon, sidearm and tools.

Two variants will accompany the standard model. The Burgess Bayonet adds a blade for stronger melee utility but requires an even longer deployment time. The Burgess Trauma uses a reinforced stock that replaces its heavy melee action with a hammer strike, giving the weapon an alternative response against targets vulnerable to blunt damage.

All three versions will initially be unlocked through the Blood Testament Battle Pass and will remain available through Prestige once acquired. After the event ends, Crytek plans to place the Burgess family into normal weapon progression. The event therefore provides earlier access rather than making the shotgun permanently exclusive to its Battle Pass.

Update 2.9 will significantly alter the existing arsenal

The event launches alongside a broader combat rebalance. Crytek has confirmed reductions to the Hunting Bow’s one-hit-kill range and reserve ammunition, addressing a weapon whose combination of lethal potential and ammunition economy had become a balance concern.

The Terminus will move in the opposite direction, receiving increased damage and a tighter spread. Slug ammunition will become cheaper across several weapons, while the LeMat family will gain access to new High Velocity ammunition.

Tool and Consumable prices are also being adjusted, although Crytek’s initial announcement does not provide the complete list of new costs. Heavy Knife swing detection will be increased to improve the likelihood of its melee attacks connecting correctly.

These changes mean September 8 will not simply place temporary content on top of the existing sandbox. Players will need to reconsider weapon choices and loadout costs independently of the event mechanics. The Burgess may be the most visible addition, but adjustments to established weapons could have a greater long-term effect on the game’s combat meta.

Extraction Points will no longer be visible from the beginning

One of Update 2.9’s most consequential changes affects the information available when a Mission starts. Extraction Points, Supply Points and Scout Towers will now be hidden by default instead of immediately appearing as known map locations.

Interacting with a Clue will reveal two Extraction Points. Scouting Maps may appear at Supply Points, while the Spyglass will retain its ability to expose hidden icons on the compass.

This change places greater value on reconnaissance and delays definitive extraction planning. Teams will no longer be able to examine every exit immediately and construct an optimal route before interacting with the match. Information must instead be acquired through exploration, Clues or appropriate equipment.

The system could make early movement less predictable and reduce the certainty surrounding likely escape routes. It may also create additional risk for teams carrying a Bounty, particularly if they have not discovered enough information before the final stages of a Mission.

There is a reasonable concern that hiding essential locations could add friction rather than meaningful tension, especially for inexperienced players. The effectiveness of the change will depend on how reliably Clues, Scouting Maps and the Spyglass provide the information needed to make an informed decision before extraction becomes urgent.

Loadouts will support Traits and larger Hunter collections

Update 2.9 will allow players to save Traits as part of their Loadouts. Crytek says each build can contain between zero and 15 Traits, with the appropriate Hunt Dollar and Upgrade Point costs still applying.

This should reduce the amount of repetitive menu work involved in rebuilding frequently used Hunter configurations. Players will be able to prepare a preferred collection of weapons, equipment and Traits as a more complete build instead of repeatedly selecting every component manually.

The maximum number of Hunter Slots will also increase from 75 to 100. This is primarily a roster-management improvement, but it will be useful for collectors and long-term players who maintain Hunters with different equipment, Traits or cosmetic identities.

Neither addition changes the fundamental cost of building a Hunter. Saving Traits in a preset does not make them free, and expanding the slot limit does not remove the consequences of losing a recruited character. The update is simplifying organization rather than weakening Hunt’s extraction economy.

Matchmaking and Fair Play systems are receiving further changes

Crytek is also revising how the game handles players returning after an extended absence. A new MMR Decay system will apply a temporary matchmaking modifier that reduces difficulty before gradually disappearing as the player completes more matches.

The existing new-player modifier is being redesigned around a similar principle. Instead of ending abruptly at a fixed Bloodline Rank, its effect will follow a smoother curve intended to prevent inexperienced players from suddenly being placed into much harder matches.

Update 2.9 will additionally introduce the first stage of a Fair Play reimbursement system. Players killed by a subsequently confirmed cheater will receive a flat payment in Hunt Dollars, while reports that contribute to enforcement action will generate a notification. Both messages will appear when the affected player next logs into the game after action has been taken.

This is a useful acknowledgement of the material loss caused by cheating in an extraction shooter, but it remains a limited form of compensation. Crytek is promising a fixed Hunt Dollar reimbursement, not a complete reconstruction of the lost Hunter, equipment and match outcome. The studio describes this implementation as an initial step toward more complex reimbursements rather than a finished solution.

Blood Testament is larger than its cinematic presentation suggests

The official trailer concentrates on the event’s horror identity, but the complete September update reaches far beyond its central narrative. Community progression, Blood Wells, evolving environmental conditions, new Traits, a complete shotgun family, hidden map information, loadout improvements, matchmaking adjustments and combat balancing will all arrive as part of the same release.

Crytek has still left several important details unresolved. The full Battle Pass reward structure, Make Them Bleed point thresholds, event end date, detailed economy adjustments and Stage III reward have not been disclosed in the initial announcement. Players should therefore treat those elements as unconfirmed until more complete event information or Update 2.9 patch notes are published.

What has been confirmed is substantial. Blood Testament attempts to make its theme mechanically relevant: Hunters sacrifice health at Blood Wells, extract power from defeated enemies, heal through animals and fight beneath a Moon that changes the behaviour of the surrounding monsters.

If the community progression is paced correctly and the final-stage reveal provides a meaningful addition, Blood Testament could become one of Hunt: Showdown 1896’s most structurally ambitious events. The Blood Moon may dominate the imagery, but the more significant development is how many parts of the Bounty Hunt experience are being changed beneath it.