Hearth & Hunt Headquarters

Lodge first, wilderness second

Headquarters is the Hearth & Hunt company campus in the Rockies, not a third safari. Update 0.4.0 used it to hold the shooting range, lodge expansion, and Elijah, then let you hang trophies from New Laurentia and Kilimaya in one hall. That is why the atlas files it with the reserves even though the square mileage is 16 km² instead of 100. You come here to zero a rifle, buy ammo types, and look at what you already killed.

The overlap animals are mallard, white-tailed ptarmigan, Rocky Mountain elk, Rocky Mountain mule deer, and snowshoe hare. They are a convenience set, not a claim that Headquarters matches Kilimaya’s dangerous game. If you want lion or buffalo, you still travel. If you want to learn choke on the Primacy pump or the Merkel 45E, the range is the reason this map exists.

Shooting range, loadouts, and Elijah

Ammo loadouts reached the default branch in Update 0.5.0 just before 1.0. You buy extra rifle ammo in the lodge shop, then carry two, four, or six sets depending on backpack size. The default type stays free; alternate loads cost money. Bows have no alternate ammo at 1.0. The range is where those loads get tried before a Kilimaya buffalo hunt, not a place that invents new ballistics numbers.

Elijah is the named NPC the 0.4.0 notes attach to this map. Voice-over locales added in the same patch cover Chinese, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Latin American Spanish, which you will hear in lodge scenes as well as in the field. Controller support includes DualSense, so a range session on PlayStation is a supported path, not a mouse-only leftover.

Trophy hall and what still waits

Antlers and horns are procedurally generated rather than the preset racks from the first Way of the Hunter. Non-typical trophies remain on the post-launch list, so a 1.0 hall will not show that variation yet. Lodge Decoration is a $1.99 Season Pass drop that puts animal statues at lodge entrances; it is cosmetic, not a new hunting ground.

Use Headquarters as the hub the name claims: sight-in, mount, then leave for New Laurentia or Kilimaya. The species ledger still lists the five overlap animals under New Laurentia with an Headquarters flag. Gear compare is the next stop if the range made you care about ZEISS glass or a second shotgun choke.

A working day at the lodge

Zero the Merkel 45E and the Primacy pump on the range, then walk the 16 km² for elk or mule deer if you want a short hunt between shop visits. Elijah is the named face of the campus. The hall is where Kilimaya buffalo and New Laurentia moose share a wall. Lodge expansion is furniture and rooms, not a new biome.

Buy ammo types here. Slot two, four, or six loads by backpack. Try choke. Clip on a DTC. Then leave. Headquarters is a hub, and treating it as a third safari wastes the 100 km² maps. The overlap five are mallard, ptarmigan, elk, mule deer, and snowshoe hare — enough for a lunch hunt, not a week.

Voice-over in Chinese, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Latin American Spanish plays in lodge scenes after 0.4.0. DualSense is supported. A PlayStation range day is a real 1.0 path. When the hall is full enough, open editions only if you want statues or year-one DLC, not because the hub is incomplete.

Why the hub is 16 km² on purpose

A 100 km² lodge would waste the two hunting grounds. 16 km² is enough for a range, a hall, Elijah, and five overlap animals. You are supposed to leave. The expandable rooms and trophy wall are the loop: sight-in, hunt elsewhere, come back, hang, buy ammo, leave again.

Update 0.4.0 bundled this map with shotguns and herd group scaling because those systems need a shop and a claim screen, not another savannah. Voice-over locales landed in the same patch, so lodge scenes are where you notice French or Latin American Spanish first.

If the hall looks empty, you have not hunted. If the range is the only place you play, you are missing 200 km² of 1.0. Use the hub as a hub. The species flag “also on Headquarters” is a lunch hunt, not a reason to ignore moose and buffalo.

Walk the range, buy the extra ammo, clip the DTC, then fast-travel to the 100 km² map you actually care about. Elijah and the hall will still be here when you bring a buffalo or a moose. The 16 km² is a campus, and the five overlap animals are a coffee-break hunt for elk or hare, not a reason to skip Kilimaya.

Mount the last Kilimaya head, buy the next ammo type, and queue New Laurentia. The campus is finished when you leave it. Sixteen square kilometres is a feature: you cannot hide here for a whole season. The shooting range plus Elijah plus the hall is the 0.4.0 gift, and it only pays off if the 100 km² maps stay your job.

Then go hunt. The hub will keep.

Sight the rifle, buy the load, hang the last head, and walk out to 100 km².