Mistfall Hunter Season 2 Loot Buff | Gaming News #55
Mistfall Hunter Season 2 raises loot drop rates and cuts the grind, but the devs just ruled out Duos and new US West servers.
Gaming News · Issue #55 · 1 October 2026
TL;DR
- Mistfall Hunter Season 2 raises loot drop rates and cuts the grind, but the devs just ruled out Duos and new US West servers.
- ARC Raiders now permabans cheaters on the first offence, and splitting known teaming groups cut ruined solo raids from 1 in 50 to 1 in 300.
- Hunt: Showdown 1896 joins PS Plus Essential on October 6, the same day its Chapter 2 event starts.
- Battlefield 6 Season 5 heads to Vegas with Rapid Royale Solos and a 20% faster armor plate.
- WARDOGS is done warning exploiters: repeat abusers and real-money traders now risk permanent bans.
🎯 Extraction shooters
Mistfall Hunter Season 2 Buffs Loot Drops Everywhere, but Duos and US West Servers Are Off the Table
Mistfall Hunter, the dark-fantasy PvPvE extraction game that launched on Steam in July, answered its second community AMA on Steam on September 30. Season 2 raises drop rates across the board, adds a new seasonal mode with a much cheaper exchange shop, a shard exchange for camp upgrade materials, a Gem Warehouse, and a toggle to skip the drinking animation. The studio said no to a Duo mode, US West and Middle East servers, and an opt-out from bot matchmaking.
Player impact: If you dropped it over stingy boss loot, Season 2 is the moment to check back in. Duo players and West Coast squads should not wait on fixes that the studio just said are not coming.
Sources: Mistfall Hunter on Steam
ARC Raiders Now Permabans Cheaters on the First Offence and Says Solo Teaming Fell 85%
Embark Studios posted an anti-cheat update on September 30: accounts caught using known cheat programs are permanently banned on the first offence, and any account ever linked to a banned copy goes too. Hardware bans now trigger at a lower threshold. Embark also started splitting known teaming groups in matchmaking, which it says cut teaming by 85% in five days and dropped ruined solo raids from about 1 in 50 to 1 in 300. The changes land ahead of the October 8 Frozen Trail update.
Player impact: Solo raiders should see far fewer pre-arranged squads stacking their lobbies. Anyone sharing an account with a cheater now risks losing their own.
Sources: ARC Raiders · GamesBeat
Hunt: Showdown 1896 Joins PS Plus Essential on October 6, Right as Chapter 2 Starts
Sony's PlayStation Blog confirmed on September 30 that Hunt: Showdown 1896, Crytek's bounty-hunting PvPvE extraction shooter, is a PS Plus Essential monthly game for October on PS5, alongside F1 25 and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2. Subscribers can claim it from October 6 to November 2 and keep it while subscribed. A Hunt Starter Pack perk lands the same day, which is also when Blood Testament Chapter 2 begins.
Player impact: PS5 players get the game free on the exact day new content starts, so expect a wave of fresh hunters in the bayou. Veterans should bank some easy kills, and new players should expect a rough first week.
Sources: PlayStation Blog · VGChartz
Active Matter Lets Monsters Teleport Ahead of Fleeing Players, Then Walks It Back the Same Day
Active Matter, Gaijin's anomaly-filled extraction shooter, shipped three patches on September 30. Update 0.4.0.163 moved exposed Dalniy Island extraction points next to cover and let chasing Distorted monsters teleport ahead of fleeing players. After feedback, 0.4.0.165 pushed those teleports farther out, made fire damage monsters again, quieted bullet impacts, and restored the collision that let players shove out of a monster ring.
Player impact: Running from Distorted is survivable again and Molotovs are back in the kit. Squads who quit over unfair chases two weeks after launch should give the patched build another raid.
Sources: Active Matter on Steam · Active Matter on Steam
STALZONE Pays NA Miners 20% More, Exit Ways Adds a Keycard Bunker, and Dark and Darker Gets a Stash Sort Button
Three smaller extraction games patched this week. STALZONE's September 30 notes add a North America event with 20% more income at four mining zones and triple-value light cargo, plus a Ticketopia ticket event from October 14 to 28. Exit Ways patch 5.6a (September 28) moved servers to the cloud with nearest-server matchmaking and added a Shore bunker opened by keycards that drop from robots 10% of the time. Dark and Darker hotfix 127 (September 29) adds a Stash Sort button before the October 9 wipe.
Player impact: NA STALZONE players have a short window of boosted cash runs, and Exit Ways players outside Europe should test the new server pick. Dark and Darker players can finally clean up a stash before it wipes.
Sources: STALZONE on Steam · Exit Ways on Steam
🔫 FPS
Battlefield 6 Season 5 Heads to Vegas With Rapid Royale Solos and Tougher Armor
EA's September 30 community update says Battlefield 6 Season 5, Siege of Vegas, opens with two new desert maps, with a third Vegas map later in the season. REDSEC battle royale gets Rapid Royale Solos at launch, 20% faster armor plating, and PDWs, carbines, ARs, and LMGs needing one extra bullet on armored targets at some ranges. A server browser and BR Duos arrive mid-season. Update 1.4.3.5 also went live September 30 with loading-screen and spectator crash fixes. No start date yet.
Player impact: Armored fights in REDSEC get longer, so rushing a plated enemy with an SMG gets riskier. Solo BR players finally get their own queue.
WARDOGS Ends Its Grace Period: Repeat Exploiters and Real-Money Traders Now Risk Permanent Bans
BULKHEAD's WARDOGS update 0.1.2 went live September 30 after a short maintenance window. It fixes the WD-L020 crash tied to a Windows 11 update, closes revive, vehicle clipping, and FOB pallet exploits, and moves revive rewards to a server check. BULKHEAD says first-offence leniency is over, so repeat exploiters and real-money traders can be permanently banned. A new DEPLOY menu splits servers into Official, Community, Infantry Mode, and Low-Level. The Season 2 wipe lands October 15.
Player impact: If you have been farming revive rewards, stop now. Everyone else gets a fairer economy and a server list that lets low-level players avoid veterans before the wipe.
Sources: Timesaver.gg · WARDOGS Hub
Road to Vostok Build 2 Adds a Friendly Faction, a Boss, and AI That Loots and Fights Each Other
Road to Vostok, the single-player hardcore survival shooter in early access on Steam, released Build 0.2.0.0, Nomads, on September 30 as a free update. It adds a friendly Nomad faction with reputation, a Bogeyman boss, two traders, two maps (Airfield and Bridge), four weapons, crafting, and a Garage shelter. AI now loots bodies, reloads with real ammo, and fights other AI. Existing saves work, but most mods break. The game is 25% off until October 8.
Player impact: If you want Tarkov-style tension without other players, this is the biggest reason yet to try it, and it is on sale for a week. Modded players should wait for their mods to update.
Sources: Road to Vostok on Steam
🔜 Coming soon
Crimson Desert's Charting the Unknown DLC Slips Two Weeks to October 29
Pearl Abyss announced on September 30 that Crimson Desert's Charting the Unknown expansion is moving from October 15 to October 29, a two-week slip. The studio says it needs the extra time to deliver a more polished and stable release. It is the first delay announced for the expansion.
Player impact: Players saving the expansion for mid-October have two more weeks to finish the base game. A short delay for stability is usually a better sign than a broken launch.
Sources: Gematsu
🆕 Just released
Gears of War: E-Day Early Access Starts Today After a Leaked 3 Out of 5 Review
Gears of War: E-Day's Premium Edition early access opens October 1 at 15:00 UTC, ahead of the full launch and Game Pass Ultimate release on October 6. On September 30 The Guardian published its review early and pulled it: 3 out of 5, praising the shooting as responsive but calling the campaign repetitive and its open Kalona areas monotonous. Other reviews arrive when the embargo lifts on October 1.
Player impact: Game Pass players can wait five days and judge it for free. Anyone eyeing the 99.99 dollar Premium Edition for early access should read the full review wave first.
Sources: Notebookcheck · TheClick
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Launches as the Series' Best-Reviewed Game in 25 Years
Bandai Namco's Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launches worldwide on October 1 at 3pm PT on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, after Deluxe Edition early access opened September 29. It sits at 88 on OpenCritic from 46 critics with 98% recommending, and 87 on Metacritic, second only to Ace Combat 04 in the series.
Player impact: If you skipped flight games, this is the one critics say is worth a look. Flight-stick owners finally have a big new reason to dust them off.
Sources: KitGuru · OpenCritic
Silent Hill: Townfall Patch 1.3.1 Targets PC Shader Stutter
Konami released Silent Hill: Townfall patch 1.3.1 on September 30 for Steam and Epic, a week after the game launched on September 24. The patch reduces gameplay stutter caused by shader precompilation on PC, the main complaint behind the split between strong critic scores and a 71 percent Steam rating at launch.
Player impact: PC players who refunded or stalled over stutter should retest now. Buyers on the fence can check whether Steam reviews start to climb.
🕹️ Console specifics
Xbox Tests Mythic Achievements, Its Answer to the PlayStation Platinum
Microsoft began testing Mythic Achievements with Xbox Insiders on September 29. Players earn a Mythic status by completing every original achievement in a game, with DLC and later additions excluded. It applies retroactively, including Xbox 360 games, and adds a Gaming tab on profiles, progress bars, and a special frame in achievement history. No date for the public rollout.
Player impact: Completionists may already own a stack of Mythics without knowing it. Expect an achievement-hunting spike on old 360 games once it rolls out wide.
Sources: Gematsu · Windows Report
🖥️ Hardware
Nvidia GPU Prices Are Up 41% Since June, and AMD Is Expected to Raise Prices Again
Price-tracker data from PriceSquirrel, reported by PC Guide on September 29, shows average Nvidia graphics card prices up 41.3% between June and September across 179 models, from about 783 euros to over 1,000. AMD cards rose 28.3% across 71 models. One RTX 5090 listing went from 6,899.99 dollars to 7,999 dollars in two weeks against a 1,999 dollar launch price. Another AMD hike is expected in Q4 as the memory shortage continues.
Player impact: If you need a GPU before the holiday shooter wave, prices are not coming down soon. A driver update and lower settings beat panic-buying at these prices.
Sources: PC Guide
📦 Other
Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture Leaves NetEase and Goes Independent
Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio led by Goichi Suda (Suda51), split from NetEase and became independent effective October 1, VGC and Game Informer reported on September 30. NetEase bought the studio in 2021, and it shipped one game under the deal, Romeo Is A Dead Man in February 2026. Grasshopper will now self-publish. It follows NetEase closing or cutting loose several overseas studios.
Player impact: Grasshopper avoided the closures that hit other NetEase studios, so its next game is still alive. Fans of its weird action games should watch whether self-publishing slows it down.
Sources: VGC · Game Informer
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