Today, the gates open for Garden of the Witch—the first major Event from Hunt: Showdown 1896 in 2025, live until May 5th!
Inviting Hunters to a desperate fight where even healers and fixers must take up arms, Garden of the Witch comes along with Update 2.3. The update brings many fixes, tweaks, and quality-of-life features.
From rebalanced Traits and equipment to improved UI and performance fixes, Garden of the Witch marks the start of a new year focusing on health and performance. This first Event of the year features scaled back content as the development teams focus on addressing more fixes and long-requested improvements, with more coming in the near future.
Uneasy Alliance Against the Spreading Corruption
The bayou’s caretakers can no longer hide: the Brujas, masters of organic mysticism, watch helplessly as their healing plants wither under the Corruption’s blight.
Meanwhile, the Welders, practitioners of industrial occultism, feel their minds fracture under the weight of blood-soaked steel. Distrust runs deep among them, but the factions must fight side by side or die alone.
Five New Hunters Step Up to the Fight
Garden of the Witch brings with it new rewards and new Hunters:
The Brujas: Keepers of the Old Ways
Bruja: Maiden - Librada Cruz Mendoza is a healer who believes in justice as much as medicine. She’ll nurse those who deserve it to health while punishing the rest—just like her grandmother before her.
Bruja: Crone - Ygnacia Cruz Gutiérrez is an aging master of organic mysticism who has saved hundreds with her cures, but the Corruption has poisoned the very soil of the Garden of the Witch. She can no longer watch it wither.
The Welders: Those Who Bring Madness in Metal Form
Welder: Flame - Hubert Brahm loved his craft—until his brain became warped by working with too much tainted metal. He seeks to incorporate Hunters along with metal into his twisted creations to fight back against the Corrupted visions flooding his mind.
Welder: Torch - Luther Brahm repaired heavy machinery in lands now swallowed by Corruption. He finds his purpose now in protecting Hubert, despite or even more so as he went dangerously mad.
And in the Shadows Lurks an Enigmatic Tentacle Cultist:
Servant of the Void - Hailing from unknown lands and speaking dark prophecies, Betsy Rohrveldt carries with her the promise of an apocalyptic future. Eager to preach her words of destruction, she unleashes murderous fury on those who mock her tales of things from beyond space and time.
Event Highlights
Exclusive Sealed Traits – Use Pledge Marks to unlock the Corpse Seer, Gunrunner, and rebalanced Blademancer Traits, each granting powerful abilities exclusive to the Event.
Rare Supply – Scavenge for Sealed Bounty Tokens, Master Clues, Full Health Restoration Kits, and more.
New Hunters and Cosmetics – Recruit the Bruja and Welder Hunters (each with two variants) and arm yourself with new equipment Skins, Charms, and Inspect Animations.
Revamped Weekly Challenges – A smarter system prevents weapon dominance, keeping the Hunt fresh.
Steal Pledge Marks from Fallen Rivals or Earn Them through Event Points—bring even more havoc and tactics into your play.
Find out more in the Patch Notes for Garden of the Witch.
Update 2.3 is Sharper, Smoother, Deadlier
Community feedback drives weapon balancing, UI upgrades, and performance fixes, ensuring that the chaos of the bayou and the gulch runs smoother than ever.
Music for Banishing Corruption
Fans of Port Sulphur Band can also look forward to their next track “Let Us Prey,” which will release on March 28th . You can pre-save it on Spotify now.
Will You Stand or Fall?
Garden of the Witch awaits your entrance in Hunt: Showdown 1896. Will you fight for sanctuary, or give in to the Corruption? Play now and carve your path through this brutal new chapter, available until May 5th, 2025.
Step forth now, Hunters, and uncover the secrets of Garden of the Witch—a sanctuary for those who seek the healing.
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About Hunt: Showdown 1896
Hunt: Showdown 1896 is the new era of the competitive first-person bounty hunting game, packing the thrill of survival and the reward of profit into a horror match-based format. Set in Colorado and the Louisiana Bayou in 1896, the game boasts a mixture of PvP and PvE elements that create a uniquely tense experience. It's not just the monsters who are a threat—it's every Hunter on the map. In the classic Bounty Hunt game mode, a match pits 12 players—playing solo or in teams of two or three—against each other as they race to take out gruesome creatures for a Bounty they must collect and extract from the map. Hunt's Soul Survivor mode offers a shorter match for solo players to scavenge for weapons as they compete for a diminishing pool of Bounty. The higher the risk, the higher the reward–but a single mistake could cost you everything. Hunt: Showdown 1896 is out now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Series X|S. For more information, visit www.huntshowdown.com