The holidays are being celebrated in the bayou with a special Winter Solstice event in Hunt: Showdown that should yield ample rewards for those who participate. This year's Winter Solstice event allows players a chance to earn legendary skins through a variety of ways, most of which promote simply playing the game as intended. This new Winter Solstice even for Hunt mirrors past events, though there are some important changes, which may effect how easily some players are able to attain the rewards for playing.
Those who have participated in Hunt: Showdown's recent events will find the activities during the Winter Solstice familiar. All four of Hunt: Showdown's bosses are dressed for the occasion with special holiday appearances, and Solstice Tributes (read: presents) can be found around the map. Finding and smashing the presents will be the simplest way to earn Event Points (EP), and accumulating enough will incrementally unlock the event-specific legendary skins, of which there are six, including one new legendary hunter, Devil's Advocate.
The Winter Solstice event will last from December 15, 2020 to January 5, 2021, giving players three weeks to accrue as many EP as possible. In contrast to other events, there are no daily limits on how many EP can be accumulated, though Crytek has offset this by introducing a new scale for the event tracker. Unlike the Light the Shadow event a couple months ago, where 2,000 EP were needed in total to unlock all the rewards, Winter Solstice has a maximum of 10,000 EP to reach the Devil's Advocate unlock. The rewards for completing event objectives are likewise bolstered, though it may not be enough to properly compensate for the new quota.
Earning Event Points During Hunt: Showdown's Winter Solstice
The aforementioned Solstice Tributes can be found scattered throughout the maps (some of which got some changes in Hunt's recent 1.7 update) individually, but two can be found under each randomly placed ornamental tree, and three will drop from every defeated boss. Each one will award 6 EP when smashed, meaning ornamental trees will have 12 (unless someone else found it first), and bosses will drop a total of 18. There is also a 50% chance of clues and rifts having a special Winter Solstice appearance, which will grant 16 EP when interacted with. The final method of earning Event Points is 20 per dead hunter looted, which will make the Vulture trait especially useful during the event.
Event Point boosters are also no longer tied to a single match, and instead can be purchased for Blood Bonds with various durations, making this a great time for players to check out Hunt: Showdown. Known as Chary's Contracts, these boosters can have a duration of two hours, 24 hours, three days, or a whole week, and boost earned EP by 50% and increase the range at which Solstice Tributes can be seen in Dark Sight to 20 meters instead of the base 10. Making the boosts available across multiple games is a welcome change from previous events, but it's unclear whether or not it will make up for the increased goal of 10,000 EP, even with the event objectives having higher rewards comparatively as well.
Additionally, all of last year's holiday event skins will become available to those that missed out the last time around. There will be a DLC bundle available for purchase, but each individual legendary skin, including legendary hunter The Skinflint, can be acquired for Blood Bonds from the in-game store. The Winter Solstice event doesn't bring any major content drops, like a new Hunt: Showdown map, weapons, or boss, but it should incentivize plenty of players to hop into the bayou a bit more regularly for a few weeks.