Killing Floor 3 Shadow Hunter Update Fires Out on July 23 via Patch 2.015
Tripwire Interactive has released the Operation: Shadow Hunter update for Killing Floor 3, and this adds the Gunslinger Perk, and a whole lot more.
Console gamers can download the file as Killing Floor 3 update 2.015 (PS5) and version 1.0.0.18 (Xbox), and this also brings a slew of gameplay fixes and changes.
There’s a mountain of info to go through, so read on.
Killing Floor 3 Operation: Shadow Hunter Live on July 23 via Update 2.015
New Operation: Shadow Hunter
An offshore drilling operation in the North Sea accidentally discovers the Mire, drawing Dr. Emmanuel Moorcroft and his followers to seize the rig.
New Perk: Gunslinger
The legendary Gunslinger returns to the fray. Specializing in light fast, dual wielded pistol combat, this perk is for those with nerves of steel and the aim to match. Master the art of rapid fire precision while managing your ammo counts under pressure, and be sure to show those Zeds and Mire Monsters who’s the fastest draw out there.
Gunslinger Weapons
Tier 1: 2058 Lawbringers
- A modern take on the classic 1858 revolver and a perfect way to meet the Zeds headon. Beloved for its stopping power despite limited ammo capacity. Wow them with your flair and impeccable aim, but always keep ’em guessing: Did you fire 6 shots, or only 5?
Tier 2: Night Adders
- When you feel like it is you vs the world, no need to step back with the trusty Night Adders at your side. A fully automatic machine pistol that is ready to take on every challenge, switch them over to semi-auto if you find yourself needing to count your rounds. When next the Zed horde calls your readiness into question, proudly say: “Yea, I think I am.”
Tier 3: Desert Eagles
- Some threats ask for something… more. Enter the Desert Eagles. If raw stopping power is what you require, then the Desert Eagles are the answer. While others may bring the imitation, rest well knowing yours say “DE .50AE” on the side.
Tier 4: AF2081-A1s
- Did science ever stop to ask itself if Zeds were truly something necessary for humanity? Then why should they question our need to fire 4 rounds at once to stop them. Built on the legacy of the first industrial double barrel pistol, the AF2081-A1s accepts no questions, just provides .45 quad shot answers.
Sidearm: Single and Dual Der Königs
- Even a Gunslinger needs a reliable backup, and Der König, “the king”, reigns supreme. No matter if you prefer the surgical precision and faster handling of carrying one or the tactical potential of dual-wielding, this fast firing 9mm platform is ready for the heat of the moment.
Gadget: Fatal Focus
Dual-wielded smartguns that, when aimed at enemy weak points, fire homing projectiles at the targeted location.
Grenade: Gravity Grenade
Grenade that implodes on detonation, pulling nearby Zeds to its center before exploding with concussive force.
New Weapon Mods
Sonic Tracer Rounds*
- On impact, marks target for a short duration. Future impacts from the same weapon deal Marked Damage to the marked target.
Holographic Pistol Sight*
- Pistol-specific optic that uses laser-illuminated hologram to project an aiming reticle, allowing for fast target acquisition.
Volter-Shock*
- Adds or replaces a weapon’s secondary fire mode, discharging electricity in the direction the mod is aimed. Area of effect widens as the mod is upgraded.
Der Der König Compensator
- Der König-specific compensator, designed for seamless integration, to help reduce muzzle flip and recoil.
Five-Round Conversion Cylinder
- Replaces the standard 6-round cylinder with a 5-round conversion cylinder which takes more powerful .45 Colt ammunition.
Powered Polymer Mag
- Made from a glass-filled polymer material, which is both strong and lightweight, it sacrifices ammo capacity to charge up each shot, increasing damage.
*These weapon mods will be available on a selection of previous existing weapons
New Map: Hastur Oil Platform
An oil-drilling operation accidentally struck mire in the North Sea, prompting Moorcroft to seize the rig with his followers.
Centered around a middle platform, players will quickly encounter diverging paths and stairs to different levels, external catwalks, and hallways that lead to different rooms/points of interest. Keep an eye out for zip lines and ladders for vertical movement opportunities to keep yourself from getting surrounded and overwhelmed.
New Boss: Moorcroft
Rippling with muscle and bristling with organic armaments, Dr. Moorcroft has merged with the Mire to become the ultimate doomsday weapon.
Moorcroft is a multi-phase boss, who while deadly by his own right, also uses both Zed and Mire hordes to his advantage to both drain and escape. In his first phase, Moorcroft will shield himself and a chosen clot to drain and restore himself. And while in his second phase he will call in his Mire creations and scavengers while he tactically removes himself from danger to heal.
Inspired by previous humanoid bosses, Moorcroft features a range of weapons and tools that are deadly close up and at range including: A techno organic rocket and small arms, the ability to emit gas, shield himself as well as use mortars and grenades against his foes.
New Difficulty: Suicidal
We’ve heard your calls loud and clear! Based on your feedback and community voting, we are excited to announce the return of Suicidal.
Situated between Hard and Hell on Earth, players will find this new mode challenging them to put their skills and builds to the test, but not as unforgiving as Hell On Earth.
New Mutation Waves
Mire Infestation
- Mire seizes a Trader Pod, spawning enemies from its portals and cutting off resupply until you hunt down and destroy all four tentacles. Every Zed is enraged while the infestation holds.
Explosive Situation
- Crawlers, Gorefasts, and Bloats detonate on death in an area-of-effect blast, and the wave runs larger and crawler-heavy, so watch your spacing on cluster kills. Careful headshots can be used to not trigger the explosions.
Season 4 Narrative Campaign / Milestone Rewards
- Monsterball Scrake Weapon Sticker
- See no Evil Player Card
- Monsterball Fleshpound Weapon Sticker / Fleshpound MonsterBall Weapon Trinket
- Grown for Violence Player Card
- Gunslinger Perk Weapon Trinket
- Scrake Evolution Player Card / Scrake Monsterball Weapon Trinket
- Shotgun Shell – Slug Rounds Weapon Trinket
- Moorecroft Horzine ID Badge-Defaced Weapon Trinket / / Devlin Ushanka Hat Head Gear
Performance Improvements – Summer Update
(PC Only) Updated Shader compile method
- This should drastically reduce if not eliminate in game stutters due to on the fly shader compiling. Initial compile count and time is optimized and reduced by 5k shaders. First map load will compile shaders for the map, spreading compile load out.
Please note that shaders will still need to fully compile on first launch, and after a game or graphics driver update. Subsequent launches will just have a check for any missing shaders that will pass more quickly. Players may also want to look into upcoming technologies such as AMD ASD and Nvidia ASC to further improve their experience by compiling shaders in the background outside of the game.
(PC Only) Improved Low VRam Performance
- The team has made targeted improvements around systems with lower VRam (6 to 8 Gigabytes). These systems will still want to target lower Shader and Texture settings for maximum performance.
Loading / Memory
- Title-screen stutter mitigation during shader precompile
- Weapon content optimized so less content is loaded
- Projectile pooling further optimized
- Memory Optimization Pass:
- City Streets,
- Various textures/materials
- Unused videos removed
- (Playstation 5) PlayGo launch chunk trimmed
CPU / GPU
- Optimized Tick Load: crawler wall-walking, security cameras, turret traps, clientside interactables, stationary audio components, and zed components now tick less or not at all (if not needed)
- Animation tick refactor cutting per-frame load by 85%
- Zed LOD bone pruning across the whole roster
- Explosions and pull volumes optimized
- Audio:
- Staggered occlusion updates,
- Fewer per-player audio components,
- One audio event per type per frame
- Niagara:
- Component pool priming
- Smarter cull reactions
- Reduced distortion on Medium/Low quality
- Console:
- Xbox Series X: material/effects quality tuning
- Series S: material compile fixes
- Lumen shimmer reduced
Killing Floor 3 Op: Shadow Hunter Balance Adjustments
This update brings a round of weapon, mod, and perk tuning: buffs for a few underperformers, targeted nerfs to some standouts, and a batch of handling and behavior refinements across the arsenal.
Weapons
Artemis
- Damage increased from 120 to 180 with improved penetration, while its fire rate has been slowed so its overall damage-per-second stays about the same. It now hits noticeably harder per shot.
Stormguard
- Damage increased from 70 to 78, raising its damage-per-second so it’s more competitive with the MKR350.
ESR 36
- The ESR 36 can now stun enemies, stunning a Scrake or Fleshpound in two hits.
Legacy Sidearms
- All legacy sidearms now use the same horizontal bash animation as the newer sidearms, making it easier to hit multiple Zeds at once.
Disciple
- You can now slide while reloading the Disciple’s secondary fire mode.
Dual Bloodhounds
- Updated the special reload animation that plays when one of the two weapons has a single round left, so you can bash-cancel to reload more efficiently in that situation.
Dual Kraits
- Adjusted the default aim-down-sights pose to make aiming easier when no sight mod is equipped.
Dual Kraits & Dual Bloodhounds
- Adjusted their spread and recoil so they behave more like their single-weapon versions.
Various Burst-Fire Weapons
- The Artemis, Krait, Dual Kraits, Bloodhound, Dual Bloodhounds, KH-380, and Dual KH-380 (whether the burst comes from the base weapon or a burst mod) now let you queue the next burst while the current one is still firing.
Biomorphic Projector
- Increased the base healing of its secondary fire from 2 to 3, while slightly reducing the bonus that builds up the longer you keep healing the same target, so it doesn’t become too strong. Its targeting has also been refined to be less likely to lock onto a Zed’s legs or extremities, and better at aiming for critical zones.
Weapon Mods
Supercharged Plasma (Vulcan TA)
- Reduced the mod’s explosion-size bonus by about 18% (from 25% / 50% / 75% / 100% down to 20% / 40% / 60% / 85%).
Red Dot (Pistol) Sight
- The Red Dot (Pistol) sight now provides the same recoil reduction as the standard (non-pistol) Red Dot sight.
Underbarrel Laser
- Standardized how the Underbarrel Laser mod (both pistol and non-pistol versions) behaves. When you aim down sights, the laser dot now appears at the center of your crosshair; when you’re not aiming, it still projects from the tip of the weapon as before. Every weapon with this mod now works the way the Dual Pistols did previously.
Underbarrel Frag Launcher (Knightsbridge)
- You can now slide while reloading the Knightsbridge’s Underbarrel Frag Launcher.
Explosive Ammo
- Reduced the critical-hit chance on the mod’s explosions from 25% to 5%, so you now need to aim more accurately to land critical hits.
Yumi Exploding Arrows
- Reduced the damage and explosion size this mod provides at higher mod levels.
G33 Confusion Grenade
- The Confusion Grenade ammo mod now reduces Max Ammo by 12 and Starting Ammo by 6, and lowers the ammo refilled from Ammo Bags from 33 to 24.
MKR350 Drum Mag
- Reduced the Drum Mag’s loaded ammo from 90 to 75 and lowered how much ammo it refills on reload. The mod now slightly worsens recoil instead of improving it.
Perk Skills
Commando
Insider Trading
- Armor cost reduction increased from 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% to 20% / 25% / 30% / 35%.
Hothead
- Trigger chance increased from 20% / 23% / 26% / 30% to 20% / 25% / 30% / 35%.
Preferred Customer
- Weapon cost reduction reduced from 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% to 10% / 15% / 20% / 25%.
Quick Return
- Now only triggers when you destroy an enemy’s head with Ballistic damage.
Firebug
Barbecue Bash
- Bonus Bash damage reduced from 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 to 100 / 140 / 180 / 220. In addition, its bonus damage is now halved when used with the Tekko Kagi, since that weapon hits twice per swing (previously it applied the full bonus on each hit).
Flammable Material
- Duration reduced from 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 seconds to 7 / 10 / 13 / 16 seconds.
Hot Streak
- Now only triggers when you kill nearby enemies with Heat damage.
Double Feature
- Damage dealt per discharge increased from 70% / 80% / 90% / 100% to 80% / 95% / 110% / 125%.
Engineer
Full Blast
- Explosion radius bonus reduced from 30% / 40% / 50% / 60% to 20% / 27% / 34% / 40%.
Reverb Pedal
- Explosion damage reduced from 200 / 240 / 280 / 320 to 175 / 200 / 225 / 250.
Medic
Social Distancing
- Darts that hit a downed ally now only heal that ally’s downed-health pool. Their heal-over-time effect no longer carries over to the player’s normal health until that player is revived.
Sharpshooter
Hardshell
- Cooldown between triggers increased from 40 / 35 / 30 / 25 seconds to 45 / 40 / 35 / 30 seconds.
Sniper
- Now triggers while you’re standing still, instead of only while crouching.
Enemies
Alpha Scavenger
A tuning pass to make the Alpha Scavenger less of a stationary, range heavy fight during Phase 2:
- While in its Satiated state, it can no longer be interrupted by afflictions (such as stuns and stumbles).
- On Hell on Earth, its Toxic Spike Spew and Consecutive Spike Spew attacks no longer use a health-based cooldown; they now use a flat 15-second cooldown. These attacks also try to cancel if they don’t have a clear line of fire to their target.
- On Hell on Earth, its Toxic Gas Bomb attacks no longer use a health-based cooldown; they now use a flat 12-second cooldown, and also try to cancel if they don’t have a clear line of fire to their target.
Overall, its ranged attacks now fire less often and it backs off when it can’t get a clean shot.
MISC
- Pounded weekly: Fleshpound boost increased
- Not of this World: Mutation frequency capped
Killing Floor 3 Summer Update Bug Fixes, Polish & System Improvements
Crashes / Stability
- Fixed a potential deadlock between the main thread and a worker thread in an animation tick
- Fixed a potential deadlock between the main thread and the UI thread during map loads
- Fixed a crash if the music manager was reducing memory within 0.5s of Zed Time ending
- Fixed several AI related crashes that could occur with the following:
- Zed Grab
- Zed Navigation
- Queen Crawler
- (Playstation 5 Only) Indeterminate cause
- Fixed a crash on late join
- Fixed a crash when hovering trader/armory items
- Fixed a crash when the AFK modal fired during debug camera
- Fixed a missing glyph crash in the UI font handling
- (Playstation 5 Only) Fixed the title screen going black
Gameplay
- Fixed issues with Hebi Ken getting players out of bounds
- Fixed multi-tool consumption not firing while bashing
- Fixed Running on Empty weapon swap giving gadget recharge
- Fixed certain block-stamina-reducing melee mods preventing your guard from breaking under sustained hits
- Fixed clients mis-predicting skills by making several abilities server-authoritative
- Fixed late join issues with grenades, laser trap VFX, and boss-wave loadouts
- Fixed an issue that could cause some players not to be able to obtain an achievement
Matchmaking & Party
- Fixed stale “party full” status
- Fixed join dialog timeout
- Fixed a case where “Return to Stronghold” would fail with a PC host and other platforms as members of the party
- Fixed matchmaking restarting under a new leader instead of stopping
AI
- Fixed zeds pausing after leaving spawn rooms and getting stuck on failed moves
- Fixed stuck zed pathing spots across Arctic, Radar Station, and Onslaught, including large zeds climbing through destructible walls
- Fixed the Husk walking in midair after jetpack moves
- Fixed Husk mortar charge audio spam and suicide charge tell
UI
- Improved cases where the client and server would take too long to communicate during a trader or armory transaction resulting in an extended saving UI
- Chat
- Fixed chat input bleeding into Perk & Specialist select while typing
- Fixed stuck chat after Esc+Enter
- Moved gamepad chat open from RB to L3
- Fixed loadouts not displaying on Ready Up
- Fixed stale perk/weapon tooltips
- Fixed nameplate armor tier not updating, low-health widget stuck after death, and heal-prompt flicker
- Fixed keybind menu allowing escape without binding
- Fixed weapon pickup widget stat comparisons
- Fixed comic viewer to correctly scale for 16:10
- Fixed Operation Naming for Mission Assignments, for Operations 2 and 3
- Fixed jittering on player card menu
- Fixed mutation pip color for color blind. Also corrected to match other mutation visuals.
- Fixing Biosample Used in list
Audio
- Fixed ambient sounds not occluding
- Fixed 3P weapon/environment audio playing from the world origin
- Fixed Firebug gadget audio desync with Double Feature, Luna voice line while meleeing, Pyre barrel mods forcing suppressed sound, and Fleshpound drill SFX sticking after an interrupted execution (NF-46391, NF-48090, NF-54864, NF-55270)
- Fixed Rhodes tutorial lines playing out of sequence (NF-42010)
- Fixed spectators not hearing gameplay audio (NF-48351)
- Fixed missing suppressed audio on KH-380/Pipette burst mode (NF-56059)
Art / VFX
- Fixed a missing Trench Gun buttstock skin
- Fixed skins not applying on dual weapons;
- Fixed the black Ronin outfit not applying
- Fixed floating fire on the Husk during Scorched Earth
- (Console) Fixed Siren neck stretching at distance and gore caps missing
Weapons, Mods & Combat
- Fixed Vulcan infinite ammo exploit
- Fixed the Stormguard Compensator mod appearing incorrectly while being crafted in the Armory.
- Fixed Polymer Tip Ammo not applying its Bleed affliction when fired from the KH-380.
- Fixed the Biomorphic Boosted Battery mod (LF-85) displaying its healing amount incorrectly. The Armory now correctly shows +3, +4, +6, or +8 Healing (with the heal-over-time unchanged). The actual amount healed has not changed.
- Fixed the Cold Fusion Converter mod (LF-85) not removing the base weapon’s Toxic Power as intended.
- Fixed being able to Bash or throw a Grenade while starting a Multitool interaction, which let the Multitool activate without consuming a charge. You can no longer Bash, throw a Grenade, block, or charge a weapon while activating the Multitool (and vice versa).
- Fixed Buckshot Ammo on the Dragon’s Breath and Trenchgun triggering the Firebug’s Explosive Reaction and Heat Exposure skills, even though Buckshot Ammo removes Heat damage and shouldn’t trigger them.
- Fixed weapons with the Incendiary Ammo mod not triggering the Firebug’s Explosive Reaction and Heat Exposure skills when they should.
- Fixed the Heavy Frame Receiver mods (X295 Wraith and Knightsbridge) improving recoil instead of worsening it. The Trader and Armory stat bars now correctly show that these mods make recoil worse.
- Fixed discrepancies in the reload-speed bonus shown for the MKR350’s Dual Mag mod, and slightly tuned the bonus (the previously displayed value was incorrect). Also fixed the Reload Speed stat bar not updating when comparing the weapon with and without the mod (unleveled).
- Fixed the crosshair not adjusting correctly when firing the M14 EBR in its secondary full-auto fire mode.
- Fixed the crosshair not adjusting correctly when firing the Bloodhound or Dual Bloodhounds in their secondary multi-round-burst fire mode.
- Fixed the LF-85 (First Law Blaster) loading ammo into the gun before the magazine was inserted, on both partial and empty reloads.
- Fixed the Underbarrel Healing Grenade’s healing stopping when the player who fired it swapped to a weapon without similar healing.
- Fixed the secondary-fire healing darts on several Medic weapons (VS-11, KV Recluse, K&W MP6) displaying their damage values incorrectly.
- Fixed the Knightsbridge Powered Box Mag mod incorrectly showing a Handling penalty while being crafted in the Armory, which didn’t match its stat bar or its actual effects.
- Fixed the UV Light mod not affecting secondary-fire spread. Previously, equipping it on the Ifrit didn’t improve accuracy because that weapon’s projectile attack is its secondary fire. This now works for any weapon with a projectile-based secondary fire.
- Fixed the Handling stat bar not reflecting changes from the Underbarrel Healing Grenade, Enfeebling Grenade, Frag Launcher, Shotgun, and Incendiary Launcher mods, even though those mods do change the weapon’s Handling (equip and unequip speed).
- Fixed the Underbarrel Healing Grenade mod incorrectly changing several stat bars on the KV Recluse in the Armory and Trader; only the main weapon’s Handling stat should change.
- Fixed the Disciple’s shotgun fire mode being able to be spammed and re-fired before its reload finished.
- Fixed the Spiked Choke mod not showing its recoil penalty on the Bonebreaker’s stat bars in the Trader or Armory.
- Fixed the Shotgun Choke mod not showing its recoil penalty on the Dragon’s Breath’s stat bars in the Trader or Armory.
- Fixed the Heat Sink mod not showing its recoil improvement on the Vulcan TA’s stat bars in the Trader or Armory.
- Fixed the Exploding Arrows mod (Yumi) not reducing Penetration as intended.
- Fixed the Shuriken not receiving the Attack Speed bonus from the Lightweight Quiver mod, and fixed the Armory and Trader not showing the Attack Speed bonus correctly for the Kunai and Shuriken.
- Fixed the Textured Grip mod (Kunai) not listing its Block Power bonus while being crafted in the Armory.
- Fixed the G33’s grenade explosion not destroying Queen Crawler Web Traps, Bloat Mines, and other destructible objects as intended. This fix also applies to the G33’s Ammo mods.
- Fixed the Underbarrel Incendiary Launcher mod on the Incinerator M7 sometimes failing to damage or kill a Zed that was hit directly by the grenade.
- Fixed being unable to switch fire modes while blocking with the Tekko Kagi and Dual Ninjato.
- Fixed the Penetrating Barrel mod (LF-85) granting far more penetration than intended (it was multiplying penetration instead of adding to it).
- Fixed the player’s block never breaking, even when hit by large Zeds. This happened by default on the Tekko Kagi and with certain mod combinations on other melee weapons.
- Fixed the Trenchgun’s slam-fire mode re-firing too quickly when interrupted by the Bayonet bash.
With a patch this significant, don’t be surprised if Tripwire needs to release a hotfix or two in the coming days and weeks.
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