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Early Access Update V0.8.9.9

April 1, 2026by Twelv

GamePatchNote Digest

Poached : Hunt The Hunter Patch Notes — April 1, 2026

Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.

V0.8.9.9

This update is what I have been calling the last "boring" update before the V0.9+ stretch to final release. It focuses solely on mopping up the remaining tweaks and bugs on my list - clearing the decks so I can get back to more exciting work: new content, missions, and pushing toward the finish line. It's a long list, with entries ranging from subtle polish to more substantial fixes, but it's done and out of the way.

Player interaction, vehicles, physics, collisions, and animation

1. Tents that have been set up can now be disassembled to be used again, to do this simply press use to sleep in the tent but hold down use to collect it again, the same as you would to collect ammo vs swap a weapon from a weapon pickup.
2. Crafted items such as tents and campfires now properly align to the ground slopes.
3. Fixed ragdoll issues with specifically enemy drivers that fall out of an exploding vehicle, such as being able to be pushed underneath the ground. The ragdoll is now baked into a static pose when finished animating like all other enemies.
4. Fixed a new issue with reload animations for pistols not being reset properly if player switches weapons during a reload.
5. Fixed B.I.R.D. scout drone camera from making the terrain tiling smaller after having used it in Mission 5.
6. Fixed bug causing player to exit guest lodge if they walked into the hood of the vehicle instead of selecting the exit option via the use key.
7. Fixed issues with swapping camouflage vest for a bullet proof vest not properly swapping the vest types.
8. Fixed an internal null reference error caused by hitting an enemy with your car making the game attempt to show the red "X" hit indicator when it is currently not active due to being in a vehicle.

Enemy A.I., combat behavior, and animation

9. Added a new enemy idle animation, seen in Mission 3 - smoking a cigarettes, blissfully unaware of what's about to hit the fan. Best seen via sniper rifle scope or binoculars as enemy will put their cigarettes away as soon as they are alerted, but a nice touch of detail.
10. Increased enemy variation in the post game mode after defeating the final boss.
11. Fixed some strange behavior exhibited by enemies in the post-game sandbox mode which caused them to run around like headless chickens and/or get stuck at certain locations.
12. Fixed navigation issues with the very final boss fight causing the boss to sometimes walk through trees.
13. Fixed issue causing enemies to walk through the grounded helicopter during interlude #2 during the second half of the mission.

Animals and wildlife

14. Buffalo will now fuck your shit up if you try and get too close to them. Auto save still applies as before whenever you approach a buffalo herd of course, this is necessary.
15. Wild dogs will now actively stalk and kill warthogs instead of being purely background creatures. This will not affect the game in any way, but is simply a part of nature added for realism and immersion.
16. Replaced salamanders with big-toe spotted gecko native to the area for better geographical accuracy.
17. Warthogs are now more skittish and will run away if you get too close to them.
18. Warthogs that are not walking or sleeping now eat grubs and such, instead of just standing around doing nothing.
19. Warthogs & Buffalo now make sounds.
20. Zebras that run into poachers are now more easily scared by their presence and not only just the sound of gunfire.
21. Increased likelihood of encountering warthog or buffalo in the wild.
22. Wild dogs are no longer found near buffalos, and will focus solely on smaller prey.
23. Made elephants and giraffes found near final boss fight run away for this particular event so they don't get in the way of the final battle.
24. Improved flee & obstacle avoidance algorithm for warthogs, buffalo and wild dogs.
25. Improved the variation of Warthog & Buffalo walking/idle/sleeping states.
26. Improved giraffe texture as well as fixed an issue with it's tail not being rendered from both sides.
27. Improved appearance of wild dog/lycaon fur.
28. Frogs & Lizards are no longer invincible to gunfire.
29. Fixed bug causing sleeping warthogs to be invincible from bullet fire.
30. Fixed missing death animations for the chickens found in the chicken truck quest, and the applicable mission failure for killing any of them instead of helping the driver locate them.
31. Fixed an issue with one of the warthog zones from spawning in too late, causing it to pop into view in front of the players eyes.
32. Fixed bug where scared warthog, wild dogs or buffalo running away might disappear into thin air if you follow them far enough.
33. Fixed bug causing wilddogs to make a stampede sound of a large animal when running away.
34. Fixed issue with gazelles and wild dogs not being properly cleaned up when despawning a zone.
35. Fixed an area where buffalos would spawn out of thin air as you approached.
36. Fixed an issue that caused animal optimization in the main camp, that should disable animals to not work correctly when away from camp if you loaded a save game far away from camp.
37. Improved buffalos terrain slope alignment.
38. Fixed issue with Warthogs & Buffalo sometimes disappearing as soon as you turn your back on them.
39. Improved goat upwards slope terrain alignment when fleeing from player.
40. Fixed rare bug that could cause some animals to die from walking into the front of your vehicle while it was stationary.
41. Fixed a goat that was floating in the sky during mission 10 as well as during the chapter 2 sandbox.
42. Fixed bug in Mission 10 that would cause no goats, zebra or rhino to spawn if you loaded your game inside the camp.

Missions, story flow, progression, and achievements

43. Improved various aspects of post-game "Noise Complaint" level.
44. Removed ugly timer bar from Mission 4 when waiting for reinforcements, replaced with periodic notifications instead.
45. At certain times, the groundskeeper will now actually be found inside their domicile.
46. Fixed an invisible shotgun pickup in one of the underground bunkers.
47. Fixed bug that would cause player to return to their old caravan instead of the upgraded mobile home when leaving the vehicle garage if they had purchased the mobile home upgrade.
48. Fixed bug causing poacher leader to respawn if you load your game after killing him in Mission 8 even if you saved your game afterwards.
49. Fixed rare bug in mission 4 where leader could escape at the same time the backup arrives, leading to a frozen no-win condition.
50. Improved final boss fight end sequence visuals and SFX.
51. Fixed some issues with the final boss fight ending causing audio normalization to dip due to audio sounds being way too loud and clipping the games audio output limiter.
52. Fixed some floating and mislabeled pickup items near the main camp during the final boss fight.
53. Fixed some occlusion culling issues in interlude #2 helicopter mission causing some trees to flash in and out of existence based on player camera angle.
54. Fixed Gideon's hat falling off his head weirdly in Interlude #2 and landing on an invisible collider.
55. Improved captured team-mate skin materials in mission 8.
56. Fixed recurring bug causing game to consider player as having won all ostrich races when they have only won 7 out of 8.
57. Fixed issue where tutorial phase 2 task that required hunting 2 goats could be completing by only hunting one.
58. Fixed issue causing you to spawn in your vehicle after exiting the shebeen if you played the hippo bonus mission previously and drove your vehicle in that mission to the hippo location even if you exited it to finish the mission.
59. Fixed issue with hippo mission resetting the day/night cycle clock.
60. Fixed "Economize" achievement for taking down 6 enemies with a single magazine without reloading or switching weapon not working properly.
61. Fixed "Greater Good" achievement for killing an enemy by exploding your vehicle from being triggered by killing a goat with your vehicle.
62. Fixed "Greater Good" achievement also being triggered by killing an enemy with his own vehicle, as it is supposed to only be with your own vehicle.
63. Fixed bug causing the "Expert" achievement to sometimes fire on non-applicable bonus missions which made the achievement guaranteed.
64. Fixed "Nigh Watch" achievement for taking down a squad of poachers at night during a mission from triggering during the bonus camping mission which only takes place at night making the achievement pointless.
65. Achievement for completing mission now triggers immediately after finishing the mission instead of at the start of mission 2 to prevent the achievement for advancing a mission via sleeping to be close to it, as the player might choose to do many other things before advancing to the next story mission.
66. Increased the amount of drones required to be destroyed to obtain the drone destruction achievement in mission 8 from 6 to 10, as it was a little too easy even for inexperienced players since the drones just flew directly at you always in any case.
67. The "All Four One" achievement for trying out all 4 of the characters no longer saves to the player preferences in registry which makes it tied to the computer but rather uses a save file to monitor the achievement so that it is synced to steam cloud save and your game instead.
68. Fixed rare issue that might sometimes cause the obstacle course achievement to not trigger after completing it.

Audio, UI, options, and general systems

69. Collecting an item with cash value that gives you that amount in cash instead of the actual item, such as diamonds or gold will now display the cash value when you collect the item.
70. Added an informative popup inside the caravan to let the player know when an upgrade from caravan to mobile home is available, with instructions on how to purchase it.
71. Danger music no longer plays when non-dangerous animals such as warthogs are stampeding.
72. Danger music no longer plays when player takes damage from falling, fires or cactuses.
73. The game will now show a helpful one-time reminder to players who start a new game if they have not yet played the tutorial, to remind them to play the tutorial first. The reminder will not happen more than once even if a player chooses not to do the tutorial.
74. Fixed an issue that would cause your score card's "Enemies Killed" as well as enemies total stat to reset when you loaded a game, resulting in inaccurate end results if you had saved/loaded in the middle of a level.
75. Improved tutorial tooltips in obstacle course for controls which controls to use whether keyboard or gamepad and also added more tooltips.
76. Neatened the onetime score opt-in gateway popup text.
77. Fixed missing penalty audio for killing Kudu.
78. Fixed issue with notepad text being way too small after completing a mining company-hired enemy wave in chapter 2.
79. Fixed issue that could cause the game to prompt you to use your lantern because it's getting dark when you already have your lantern equipped, if you had equipped your lantern before it got dark.
80. Fixed bug that would cause the enemy counter to sometimes display a negative amount of enemies when loading a game after having defeated all enemies in a level.

Terrain, environment, lighting, and visual polish

81. Added more authentic African decor to the guest lodge for more local realism.
82. Added more detail to the inside of the groundskeepers domicile, found near the outskirts of the map.
83. Added a few more Easter eggs, secrets and funny random things to find.
84. Improved mobile home upgrade interior with some new décor and fridge magnets.
85. Improved visual appearance of crafted campfire model.
86. Improved female main characters eye & eyelash materials.
87. Improved appearance of Anti-Venom 3D model.
88. Improved color of waterfall base water when transitioning from day to night and made waterfall main water double sided so it doesn't go invisible when you go behind it.
89. Fixed weird reflections in post-game cave #3 and worked on general lighting.
90. Improved lantern model glass material.
91. Improved appearance of overturned truck in escaped chicken truck side quest.
92. Neatened grass billboards in various locations across the map.
93. Improved some terrain texture painting near outskirts.
94. Fixed waterfall #1 culling being too extreme causing it to pop into view.
95. Fixed wrong terrain tiling scale in guest lodge map terrain.
96. Fixed weird culling issues with the hat of the ranger stuck in a tree during hippo mission.
97. Fixed a terrain section near the outskirts where an unnaturally steep wall had formed that looked ridiculous.
98. Removed some more instances of giant novelty over-sized grass that just looked terrible.
99. Fixed wrong regional license plate on abandoned visitor vehicle in Zone F.
100. Fixed an optimization volume from popping some cliffs into view in front of the players eyes near the abandoned visitor vehicle in Zone F.
101. Removed some trees that were placed unrealistically on a slope that exposed the underside of their roots in an unaesthetic manner.
102. Tweaked lighting obstacle course level environment lighting.
103. Various small obstacle course scene tweaks.
104. Fixed a few final floating rocks, shrubs or scene inconsistencies found around the map.
105. Fixed various cliff objects with mismatched LOD's that caused the cliff or rock to be in a slightly different position from a distance.

Performance, optimization, and codebase cleanups

106. Numerous other small internal performance, script and project optimizations.
107. Removed many un-used objects that were just sitting invisibly in memory for no good reason.
108. Optimized internal mesh data structures for various scene decorations.
109. Optimised scorpion animator controller memory footprint.
110. Optimized colliders for old soccer balls and bull skulls.
111. Removed some unnecesary meshes from the crafting table for optimization as well as aesthetic purposes.
112. Optimized animation rig for frogs, lizards and scorpions to use less memory and have no transform heirachy bones.
113. Optimized shotgun texture memory footprint, as well as a few other weapon null objects used by the player weapon system.
114. Fixed issues with Kudu not being cleaned up properly from memory when player has left a Kudu zone.
115. Optimised memory & CPU usage of Gazelle & Kudu that are nearby but not yet seen by the player.
116. Fixed an internal error with drones relating to Drone destruction achievements that could cause the Steam manager to be initialized twice.
117. The save game system now clears all previous data from missions that are complete and will not be returned to, saving a tiny bit of disk space but most importantly optimizing the savegame lookup memory used during the games runtime as the campaign progresses.
118. Fixed internal issue causing game to load save data three times on start, which could cause slower startups than neccesary on certain systems.
119. Removed 84 trees/bushes that were underneath cliffs wasting precious resources for no reason.
120. Optimized the animation rig used for the player arms while driving a vehicle in third person, removing all bones not being fully used such as thigh, torso, hips, feet, legs, head etc. 259 unused bones removed, to be precise.
121. Cleaned up grass detail patches beneath cliff faces where they were invisible, improving memory performance by removing unnecessary data that could never be seen. Specifically, 170,502 detail cells were removed programmatically across 6 terrains using raycasting.

With this out of the way, I am very excited to get back to new content. The game's final release is scheduled for the end of the year - which will mark 6 years of active development, with many more years prior to that spent building the core architecture. All told, I have spent over 10 years of my life on this project, alongside a full time day job and many other freelance commitments. I can't wait to see it to the finish line.