Hunt: Showdown continues its tradition of dropping horrifying, little freaks in the Wild West with the 'Hellborn', a roaming demon who hurls molten lava balls

Crytek's Hunt: Showdown debuted Mammon's Gulch, its first new map in 3 years, a few weeks ago on PC Gamer. Crytek kept something back from us. We enjoyed the sights of Hunt’s vision of Colorado - a sun-baked range of mountains with oil fields and extensive mining operations.

The Hellborn is a giant fire demon that roams the map, hurling lava balls at hunters who dare to provoke him. Crytek describes Hellborn as "an amalgam of fire and flesh", who "moves rapidly to slag Hunters trespassing, scorching all in its considerable range."

The Hellborn is a different story. It takes a ranged position against hunters and lobs lava balls that explode on impact and leave lingering fires. The Hellborn is different. It takes a ranged attack against hunters, and lobs lava balls which explode and leave lingering flames. As a "wildtarget," it is considered a miniboss and worth an additional bounty mark over the primary bounties.

According to Crytek the Hellborn can be "tracked audibly in Dark Sight by listening." This is a significant change from Hunt's previous wild target, Rotjaw the killer alligator, who could be tracked using special markers and traps for alligators on the map. The Hellborn trailer suggests that the location of the demon could also be revealed by the appearances of burned trees near his lair.

Scorched Earth

Scorched Earth is Hunt's first season event with the new tag of 1896. The Hellborn will be at its center. Crytek has a different approach to challenges this time. Crytek adopts a similar model as Apex Legends and Fortnite by assigning the same set weekly challenges that can be completed at any time during the season.

The real meat of Hunt's season events are the pact traits. These are special perks which are activated by visiting the supply points on the maps.

The Wilderness Pact Traits

• Surefoot: Sprint with throwables that are primed or while using First Aid Kit
• Beastface: Avoid triggering animals and breaking branches
• Frontiersman: Get an extra Pledge Mark when you collect the first 30 Event points per Mission

The Lawful Pact Traits

• Peacekeeper - Restore a Health Chunk that is empty after looting the body of a Hunter
• Packmule: Loot dead Hunters to find extra ammo
• Vigilant: Doubles the range of Dark Sight

The Demented Pact Traits

• Berserker: Boost melee damage
• Adrenaline: 25% speed boost when in critical health
• Ghoul: Restore health after damaging a Boss Target

The Scorched Earth traits aren't the most dramatic I've ever seen, but Crytek is likely to monitor how players use them and could adopt them permanently for Hunt. The "conditional traits effects" is a bit confusing, but basically it means that joining a pact will upgrade the trait if you have it. The Beastface trait, for example, makes it easier to sneak by noisy animals. But with the upgrade, branches will not break under your foot.

When the Hunt: Showdown 1896 Update arrives on August 15, the Hellborn will be in town and the Scorched Earth event will begin. We'll be able to share more information about the update, as well as the CryEngine 5.11 upgrade, soon.