Post Malone’s Murder Circus Encore

The Ringmaster Returns to the Bayou with New QOL Features, Mechanics, and One Angry Bear

Post Malone returns to the Bayou with vengeance on his mind in the new winter event for Hunt: Showdown 1896 (2018). Update 2.6 also brings a plethora of UI and gameplay improvements, a new way to customize your in-game profile, and a holiday-themed Twitch Drops campaign with new legendaries. Here’s everything you need to know.

The Murder Circus Saga continues:

• Post, the former Ringmaster (now “Disciple of Death”) and Giggles are back to continue where they left off after the events of last year's Circus visit.

• Ursa Mortis, the escaped two-headed circus bear, returns as well and has been reworked to be much more deadly than before. She adds more chaos to matches, with more health and damage, and the ability to smash through the circus fences when chasing players; she's also immune to explosive knockdowns, so Hunter should prepare for the fight of their life.

Shredder Rework (Event-exclusive)

The infamous Shredder is back after a significant rework, requiring more skill to use this time around:

• Saw blades no longer “smart bounce” toward players – bounces are now pure physics, requiring players to carefully place shots or flood an area with blades to incapacitate enemy hunters.

• The Shredder must be manually charged after every shot, making the rate of fire much slower.

• There is no auto-charge on equip; the weapon must be charged manually by pressing X on PC or Up on the D-pad on console.

• The blade now spins down over time and unequipping no longer stops the spin.

• The Shredder will keep spinning when stowed, so it can still be “primed” for a quick shot; but this carries the risk the spinning noise will give away the user.

• Blade projectiles no longer pierce multiple targets; instead sticking into bodies like bolts or arrows.

Event Traits & Troupes

The Troupes return, each with a unique Trait bought with Pledge Marks — Hunters can now pledge to as many Troupes as they can afford.

• The Knifethrower Troupe features the Blademancer trait for two pledge marks. Hunters can use Dark Sight to pull retrievable ammo in front of them back into their inventory, up to 100m away.

• The Mystic Troupe gives the Communion trait for one pledge mark. While in Dark Sight, hunters can temporarily lose 15 max HP to heal a teammate for 75 HP and cleanse statuses up to 25m away.

• The Trickshooter Troupe gives Crack Shot for one pledge mark. Hunters have less weapon sway and higher ironsight zoom for rifles and stock pistols. These effects do not apply to shotguns or sawed-off variants.

• The Strongman Troupe muscles in with the Bruiser trait for one pledge mark. This trait lower melee stamina costs and reduce aim punch when taking damage.

• Finally, the Ringmaster Troupe brings back Corpse Seer for two pledge marks. Hunters gain one second of Dark Sight Boost when looting downed enemy Hunters.

There’s also a new High Striker booth: smack it with any melee weapons to earn Event Points; your score is shared across all High Strikers in the current mission.

Player Customization Cards

The new patch also brings customizable Player Profile Cards. Each card can show an avatar (Hunters, monsters, etc.), up to 3 badges (item mastery, progression), up to 3 stat trackers (kills with specific items/Hunters, bounty earned, etc. – mainly Bounty Hunt and Bounty Clash stats), a title (item mastery titles, nicknames, achievement tags), and a cosmetic frame.

Most of these are unlocked through regular play, Story Challenges, and events; while others can be purchased with Blood Bonds. Most stats start tracking from 2.6 onward, with only a few using historical data. Hunters will see player profile cards on the death screen, on the last mission screen, in the lobby (by clicking on their teammates), and during the pre-match sequence. Hunters can create their customizations in the reworked Career tab, alongside Story Challenges. Check out the official Crytek News post here for more details.

Story Challenges

Story Challenges are a new, chapter-based progression track that mixes lore and gameplay tasks; they are found on the updated Challenges screen, which now houses both Weekly and Story challenges. Each Story Challenge line is broken into Chapters, with rewards tied to completing individual challenges and entire chapters. Two storylines ship with 2.6:

1. On the Winds of Midwinter is a Premium, time-limited three-chapter storyline. Rewards include: Krampus (Hunter), Hoof and Horn (Legendary Terminus skin), Clamor’s Carol (Charm), Profile items (avatar, frame, title), and Event Points, Hunt Dollars, Bloodline XP, etc.

2. An Acquired Taste is a free, permanent three-chapter storyline. Rewards include: Tennessee Morgan as a returning tiered Hunter (Rookie / Survivor / Veteran), Profile items (avatar, title), and Hunt Dollars, Bloodline XP, etc.

These are not the only Story Challenges hunters will see, as Crytek has stated they plan to expand on this feature in future updates.

UI, Ping & Compass Rework

The map screen has been significantly reworked; traits are now ordered by “last acquired”, and traits picked up mid-mission are marked; the map background is now semi-transparent for better situational awareness; new map art, icons, and boss target borders provide players with more clarity; a widget now tracks weekly and story challenge progress directly on the map.

The ping system is now more detailed with more ping types per player. Pings now indicate what type of object is being pinged, including, healing, ammo, toolboxes, caches, money bags, trait charms, blueprints, barrels, traps, tools, weapons, animals, clues, and more. Standard markers last 15 seconds, danger pings 2 seconds, and trap pings 24 seconds.

Marker visibility got buffed too. All ping icons show on the compass, lined up with their world position. Markers fade slightly when you ADS. Lighting no longer alters ping colors, so they stay readable. The compass UI itself has been redesigned to handle multiple icons cleanly.

Gameplay & Balance Changes

There’s a new Doused status that interacts with water and fire. Hunters become Doused when moving through deep water, and stay that way for 15 seconds. While Doused, Hunters are harder to ignite, recover charcoaled HP faster, have louder, easier-to-track, wet-sounding footsteps.

Water Bottle is a new world item that spawns randomly in the world. Throwing it creates a big splash and applies the doused status to Hunters and Immolators. Water bottles put out most flames and burning Hunters; however, hitting an oil fire creates a bigger flame burst instead of extinguishing it. Water bottles can be shot on the ground to detonate the splash, but cannot be stored and will break if dropped.

Changes to Traits, Healing & AI

There are also several significant changes to traits, healing, and AI in this patch: 

• Recovery Shots and the Relentless trait now restore HP chunks with 24 points of charcoaling, slowing their immediate benefits. 

• Burn traits, like Relentless, Remedy, and Rampage, no longer stack; Hunters can only have one instance of each.

• Beetle cocoons can now spawn any Beetle variant, reversing a previous change.

• Immolators will become Doused in deep water, heavy rain, or from Water Bottles; while Doused, they can’t ignite, are slower, and take more damage.

• Hives now moves more slowly in water.

• The Assassin has had his HP reduced to bring its TTK in-line with the other bosses.

Weapons & Meta

There are several weapons and meta changes, that will impact play this patch:

• The Centennial Wildland's spread has been increased from 17.5 to 22.5, making it less effective at range.

• Rare Locked Weapon Boxes, containing a Wildland or Homestead, can now spawn at watchtowers; unlocking them costs 3 Pledge Marks.

• Silencer volumes, occlusion, interior gun tails, melee flybys, and more now have improved positional audio and clarity.

• Rich Presence is now available for Steam and Discord; players who opt-in can now show more details about their in-game status.

• New Player Onboarding has been streamlined.

• Several bugs have been fixed, but some persistent issues remain.

See patch notes for complete details.

Hunt Winter Twitch Drops Campaign

Alongside Update 2.6, there’s a Twitch Drops campaign starting on December 12, 2025 – 15:00 UTC and ending on December 24, 2025 – 15:00 UTC. Viewers can earn rewards by watching any Hunt streams after linking their Hunt and Twitch accounts.

For the first time, Crytek is providing a way for viewers to support their favorite Hunt streamer with Support-a-Streamer Rewards. Subbing to any Hunt streamer during the drops period will give the following reward bonuses:

• 1 subscription of any tier, gifted or direct, to any live Hunt channel awards the Hunt Twitch Chat Badge.

• 2 total subscriptions to one or multiple channels awards the Hunt Twitch Chat Badge and the Head Taker Legendary Hunter.

Viewers will also receive rewards for watching every hour, up to nine hours. Each successive hour watched gives the following rewards and a Supply Crate:

• 1st hour – a Random Charm.

• 2nd hour – a Random Avatar.

• 3rd hour – a Random Legendary Equipment Skin.

• 4th hour – a Random Sleigh Ride (Legendary Ranger 73 variant).

• 5th hour – a Random Legendary Hunter.

• 6th hour – another Random Charm.

• 7th hour – another Random Avatar.

• 8th hour – Random Legendary Equipment Skin.

• 9th hour – Random Death’s Caroler (Legendary Krag variant).

• Each Supply Crate contains one random Rifle, one random Pistol, one random Shotgun, one random Special Weapon, three random Tools and/or Consumables, and a random amount of Hunt Dollars.

Random rewards take into account what legendaries a Hunter already owns; see Crytek's Twitch Drops page here for official details on how to link accounts and claim rewards.

Conclusion

In all, update 2.6 is a big one; the Murder Circus is back in town with a nastier Ursa Mortis and a more skill-based Shredder; profile Cards and Story Challenges give Hunters new ways to customize their appearance and something to grind for; ping, compass, onboarding, and audio all get meaningful quality-of-life passes; and the Winter Twitch Drops campaign has plenty of rewards for everyone involved, streamers and viewers. 

If you’re thinking of returning to the bayou, 2.6 has plenty of reasons to do so. I'll be streaming the drops everyday from 9 AM EST on at twitch.tv/GameswithDeath, so come by and join the murderous fun. Otherwise, I’ll see you on the other side, Hunters. 

[The audio version of this article was generated using machine-learning technology.]