The developers over at Sharkmob have released the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt summer update, along with the complete list of patch notes. The free-to-play battle royale had been dropping updates since its initial release last year. However, with the recent addition to Bloodhunt with the summer update, players will find in the patch notes that Sharkmob is still adding new stuff to their game.
The Bloodhunt summer update patch is dropping new features, changes, and bug fixes to the game. Players will also notice in the Bloodhunt patch notes for the summer update several changes to archetypes, improvements to the quality of life, and added balancing to weapons. However, the significant change in the Bloodhunt summer update is the addition of a new game mode. You can find the full patch notes list for the Bloodhunt summer update below.
Bloodhunt summer update patch notes
Team deathmatch (beta)
Team Deathmatch (TDM) is an explosive 8 vs 8 mode where teams of duo squads fight for dominance in 5 arenas from the Prague map.
We think that this new mode is a great entry for old and new players wanting to get familiar with the deep gameplay that Bloodhunt offers, as it lets you get right back into the action more quickly. It also allows you to experiment more with weapons and powers compared to the Battle Royale mode, as you’re no longer limited to having one or two lives per match.
Additionally, we hope that the mode will resonate with players who are fans of all-out action PvP games, as TDM is quite hectic and intense, so please share the news with all your friends! We will be trying out a few variations of this mode in the future as well to find what works best!
Slay the summer with the new summer pass
Our next update contains new vanity items where you can slay the summer in style! The nimble Summer Pass, holding over 100 different items, is available for purchase at a special low price point of 600 tokens.
We created a faster Battle Pass to fit in with your summer gaming needs, knowing that the sun can be quite painful during the summer, and nighttime gaming might be sparser during the summer period for many of our Kindred.
The overarching aesthetic theme is both suited for the hot summer nights and for blending in with the local group of organized international criminals. Among the many variations, you can, for example, unlock 10 new and different outfits – ranging from epic to legendary – as well as 10 new tattoos, 6 masks, 1000 tokens, multiple XP-boosts, and a plethora of new eyewear, makeup, hairstyles, beards et cetera. And that is just what is included in the Summer Pass!
- Here is a list of the ten outfits included in the Summer Pass:
- Unstable Assailant
- Berserk Battle-Ax
- The Four Hundred
- Time Traveller
- Kindred Kingpin
- Vagabond
- Serve, Flex
- Do Not Cross
- Main Character
- Short Fuse
Certainly, there will be more for you to choose from in the store, but we wanted to pique your curiosity with some of the names.
New Bodies and rigs
Because we mentioned all the new cool cosmetics and fresh outfits to customize your vampire coming with the Summer Pass, we also need to mention our new streamlined process for getting these out to you. The decision to create this was not made easily and took a lot of time to achieve. Doing this also meant delaying any possibility of resolving lingering bugs since we needed this new system to be implemented to be able to proceed to fix others. To accomplish this, we had to painstakingly sculpt new bodies, remake vanity items, and change the rig.
Performance improvements
As we mentioned in the article here: https://bloodhunt.com/en-us/news/what-is-going-on-with-bloodhunt-part-two , we have been working on further improvements to our game performance. With this update, the number of stutters should decrease even further when playing the game in DX12 mode. However, given that we have added new bodies and additional assets with the new rig, this could impact performance. We will continue to work on improving this in future updates.
Bug fixes
In the same article linked above, we detailed the challenges that we faced with the Reload and Red Gas bugs that we have now finally solved with this update. Additionally, we have been able to solve several other bugs.
- Weapons get reloaded before the reload bar finishes loading completely and can be canceled mid-reload.
- Fixed a bug that was causing some powers not to interrupt reloads, while others did. All powers will now interrupt reloading.
- Traversal has been smoothened out which means less getting stuck while climbing on corners and overhangs, as well as climbing on steep angles.
- Addressed several traversal-related desyncs.
Quality of life improvements
No update is complete without a few QoL improvements, and this update is no exception. We’re proud to say, it has many sought-after improvements.
- We have updated the controller and added a plethora of settings for you to customize how you look, aim and turn. The deadzone has been changed from axial to being radial, and is now fully customizable as well.
- We implemented changes to our Vampire rig, which not only speeds up our vanity item creation process but also enabled us to slightly improve the visual quality of the vampires.
- All the Camarilla Caches now require a key to be opened. You will need to find this in Prague, adding a bit of challenge in finding the rarer weapons. This makes matches less predictable and requires a bit more exploration when it comes to finding the best weapons.
- Ranked Mode rewards are now immediately unlocked on reaching the next rank. Additionally, we have reduced the required Ranked Points by 1000 points. More on this when Ranked launches again in the future!
- The user interface has been updated to make the Archetype perks more prominent and easier to find. We have also added a pop-up in Elysium each time a player has unlocked a new Archetype perk.
- The challenges screen has gotten an overhaul for both the daily and weekly challenges with new icons, better category separation, more in-depth progression per individual challenge as well as expiration dates and times.
- The quests screen has also gotten an overhaul making it more user friendly.
PS5 now features a VSYNC option which can lead to smoother frame delivery as it reduces the chances of screen tearing. - The Melee hitboxes have been improved which will make it slightly easier to hit targets that are below you on slanted surfaces.
New areas and other noteworthy map changes
Elysium
- The Nosferatu clan space has expanded further. Enter if you dare!
- With the addition of an elevator, the Ventrue area is now open if you feel that you are worthy.
The Elysium also has some new secrets. For example, you may encounter a new interactable character here. Those of you who are detail oriented may find what else is hidden.
Prague
- The attic space of the Rudolfinum has been opened, which improves the flow when the match reaches its end in this area.
- A train has arrived at the train station.
Balance changes
Weapons
- The Axe damage has been increased from 70 to 80
- The Spiked Bat damage has been increased from 55 to 60
General
- The regenerate/revive HP has been increased from 50 to 100.
- Diablerie no longer breaks the Masquerade for improved game flow.
Archetypes
- As the Enforcer exits Flesh of Marble, the character will play a brief transition animation during which the Enforcer is unable to attack. This transition gives players time to react and shifts Flesh of Marble to more of a defensive ability as originally intended. Additionally, you can now no longer perform any other actions except for reloading or switching weapons while under the effect of Flesh of Marble. This includes things such as committing diablerie and using consumables.
- The Sirens’ Blinding Beaty damage has been increased from 20 to 50
- The Vandals’ Earthshock damage has been decreased from 20-60 to 10-30
- The Sewer Bomb no longer causes the thrower to be slowed down during the throw and the throw velocity has increased by 33%. Additionally, the time stuck in the animation has been decreased from 0.4s to 0.3s.
Quests
This update contains multiple new quests for you to complete. Additionally, we also have improved and restructured the UI which now will give you a clearer picture of the current active and completed quests along with expiry dates, progress bars and better challenge descriptors. All this in addition to a new quest indicator badge, progress pips and clearer viewable rewards for completing quests.
New melee weapons
We added the Knife and the Crowbar to the game. These are two close-combat weapons are now spawned across the map. They provide more weapon variety, and their spawn chances lower the probability of encountering the other melee weapons. This allows us to balance them accordingly, making the blue melee weapons better bridge the gap versus the purple ones.
Known issues
- The camera sways when feeding on NPCs
- Revive prompt doesn’t animate and shows as full
- There are still some rare cases where players can respawn in the red gas, particularly when the Windy variant is active
- When queuing for Trios and Duos, players might end up in Prague without a full team (the team can be missing the last player)
- Teammate map markers may not be present after respawning in Prague
- NPCs jitter and rotate when you feed on them (side effect of the Big Rig)
- Looping sounds for Camarilla and Entity containers don’t cut off when they’ve been opened
- Player may get stuck at “Your Coterie” screen after selecting an archetype and entering Prague
- Low vault sometimes pops you up a bit higher than expected, which is a side effect of a fix to low vault desyncs and therefore an overall improvement, but still not ideal
- Some character assets may flicker or appear odd (side effect of Big Rig)
- NPCs may still clip into walls or the ground in some cases, especially after being fed upon
- Still no potato salad, but stay tuned!
TDM (beta) known issues
- There’s currently no join-in-progress or autobalancing to handle players leaving during a match.
- It’s a bit difficult to differentiate teammates from enemies.
- Respawning still needs some work to improve spawning near teammates and squad mates and away from enemies.
- Distant characters can show animation compression artifacts (i.e., look like they are in slow motion), especially with lots of characters in view.
- Assists are credited as kills in the main scoreboard. This is by design but will be replaced with a score-based approach in the future.
- It’s not yet possible to switch Archetypes between lives.
- The current approach to picking up weapons is experimental and may change in the future based on feedback. This was an easy-to-implement solution that has the benefit of encouraging players to try different weapons, but it can feel a bit too luck-based.
- Map layouts are preliminary and will be refined based on feedback and telemetry.
- The scoreboard is currently bound to the same key as the Map (V or M). This was easier/safer in the short term, but it will eventually replace the inventory screen (Tab).
- Healing isn’t super tenable at the moment due to the fast pace of matches. A better solution is being playtested internally and should be released in the not-too-distant future if the feedback is positive.
After checking out the Bloodhunt patch notes for the summer update, you can find the game available on Steam, PlayStation 4 & 5 as a free-to-play. Additionally, you can head to the Sharkmob development page to learn more about Bloodhunt or other projects. Lastly, you can find the official Bloodhunt patch notes for the summer update on its official page.
