Way of the Hunter 2 patch notes

Early Access year, mapped to the atlas

26 March 2026 opened Steam Early Access with New Laurentia, thirteen species, the hunting dog, and Hearth & Hunt story beats. 28 April added ecosystem management, suppressors, and thermal optics. 27 May shipped Kilimaya Reserve and the original African twelve. 24 June was Update 0.3.0: pronghorn, wild boar, warthog, ZEISS, Primos, map filters. 12 August was Headquarters, shotguns, choke, herd group scaling, and extra voice-over locales.

22 September pushed ammo loadouts onto the default branch. 29 September left Early Access and launched on Steam, GOG, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S with 28 species and two-player co-op. That is the whole dated spine. Older Steam news posts exist beyond the 50-item capture window; this timeline uses the seven records that were normalized.

What 1.0 did not take with it

Two extra species and non-typical trophies missed the 1.0 train. The Road Ahead also lists larger multiplayer, extra dog work, and paid region DLC into 2027. None of those sentences are patch notes for a live button on 29 September. Those items sit in one paragraph so the timeline itself stays dated and real.

If you are checking whether Kilimaya is “DLC,” it is not — it is Update 0.2 inside the base 1.0 maps. If you are checking whether Headquarters is a 100 km² reserve, it is not — it is the 16 km² 0.4.0 hub. Cross-play is still absent. Steam Deck is still unofficial. Those answers live in the FAQ chapter on the home atlas as well as here.

Where to go after the dates

Open New Laurentia or Kilimaya for the grounds each patch added. Open species for the 0.3.0 names. Open gear for ZEISS and shotguns. Open editions if the question is Deluxe versus a loyalty pack. The timeline is the index, not a second copy of those chapters.

Studio posts used here are the FAQ, the 1.0 launch article, Update 0.3.0, Update 0.4.0, The Road Ahead, and the Steam news hub. Gematsu is a date table for the former working title Next Hunting Adventure, which is history, not a 1.0 store name.

Reading the six months as a hunter

March gave you New Laurentia and the dog. April gave you feeders, suppressors, and thermal. May gave you Africa. June gave you three animals, ZEISS, and Primos. August gave you the lodge, shotguns, choke, group size, and more voices. Late September gave you loadouts, then 1.0 on three families of hardware.

That order is why a 1.0 hunter owns Kilimaya without a DLC ticket and owns Headquarters without a second map pack. It is also why warthog, pronghorn, and wild boar feel newer than moose. Two species and non-typical trophies missed the train. Larger multiplayer missed it too. Free updates and paid region DLC are the 2027 language.

Use the dates when a friend asks whether buffalo is “later DLC.” Buffalo is May. Use them when someone calls Headquarters a 100 km² reserve. It is 16 km² in August. Then leave the timeline and hunt. The atlas chapters for each ground, the species ledger, and the gear compare are the rest of the patch notes in player order.

What you already own because you bought 1.0

Buying Version 1.0 on 29 September means you own March’s New Laurentia, April’s ecosystems and thermals, May’s Kilimaya, June’s three animals and ZEISS, August’s lodge and shotguns, and late September’s loadouts. You do not own Season One’s later maps. You do not own extra dog breeds. You do not own non-typical racks.

That split is why the timeline exists. Friends who skipped Early Access still get the African reserve and the hub. Friends who played from March get Heirloom for free. Friends who own the first game get Night Hunting. Patch notes are how those grants and maps stacked, not a second store page.

When a new dated row appears — a 29th animal, a chat patch, a Central Asia map — it will sit under 1.0, not rewrite March. Until then, hunt the 28, use the dog, and treat 29 September as the line between Early Access and the full release on PC and consoles.

If you bought 1.0 on launch day you already paid for Kilimaya and Headquarters. The timeline is the receipt. Later Season Pass maps will get their own dated rows when they exist, not a rewrite of May and August.

Read May for Africa, August for the lodge, September for 1.0. Everything else is flavor on that spine.

March to September is the spine you already paid for.