Redfall update adds anti-vampire sniper rifle and more bug fixes, new heroes coming in 2024

What you need to know

• A new update is available for Redfall, adding a large number of bug fixes and accessibility improvements. 
• The update also adds a new special anti-vampire sniper rifle with unique effects. 
• Arkane and Bethesda Softworks confirmed that more updates are coming for Redfall in 2024 alongside the future heroes included in the Hero Pass DLC. 

More improvements are on the way for Arkane's 2023 vampire-hunting game. 

Publisher Bethesda Softworks shared details for the latest Redfall update on Thursday. This is the third major update that game has received since launch, and this update adds a special new anti-vampire sniper rifle for players to acquire, additional accessibility improvements, and bug fixes across Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC. 

In addition to this update, Bethesda confirmed that more updates are on the way for Redfall in 2024, alongside the two additional heroes included in the game's Hero Pass DLC. You can find the full patch notes below:

Weapons

• Introducing the Basilisk, a new Unrivaled Sniper Rifle with a unique weapon trait: This weapon charges the first bullet in a full magazine with UV power that can petrify Vampires. Does not affect enemies recently Petrified or immune to Petrification.
  • Basilisk can drop anywhere Unrivaled items are eligible, with a higher chance to drop from Bellwether-themed containers in the open world and vampire nests.

NPCs and AI

• Shrouds, Anglers, and Siphons are now gated from spawning in the open world until players reach a specific level, or complete certain missions.
• Balanced enemy abilities and traits:
  • Siphon’s Blood Torrent ability takes longer to interrupt when breaking line of sight.
  • Increased Siphon’s resistances to fire.
  • Vampires deal more damage to Bribón and Devinder’s Quantum Kerfuffle decoy when attacking from close range.
  • Soulless enemies deal more damage when attacking players from close range.
  • Watchers react faster to players in line of sight, and spawn reinforcements in combat more often.
• Human enemies are now able to climb awnings.
• Improved quality of enemy pathing and human movement animations.

Gameplay

• Jacob's Camouflage Field skill will no longer cancel ADS for non-Jacob players.
• Devinder's Ultraviolent Light skill no longer shatters Special vampires, and instead inflicts a large amount of damage to them. Regular vampires will still shatter.
• Layla’s Psychic Shockwave no longer triggers multiple times from vampire lunge attacks.
• Deathmist Spewers now respond to the UV burst from Emergency Flash Bang Blood Remnants.
• Co-op players no longer lose their crouching ability when exiting a nest.
• Bound civilians no longer show as cultists when pinged.

Missions

• Refined search areas for several missions.
• Added more respawn points to minimize cases where players are blocked from respawning after death.
• Fixed locations where Devinder’s Translocate device can be thrown out of world.
• Improved NPC patrol paths
• “Amelia's Eulogy” triggers correctly after reloading the game.
• Resolved issues with hostile and friendly states in “One of Us”.
• Improved Totality’s responsiveness during the Black Sun boss fight.

Heroes

• All damage-dealing Hero abilities will now shatter vulnerable Nest hearts.
• Jacob’s Six String backpack cosmetic is now shown with other Backpack cosmetics.
• Hero thumbs should no longer clip into assault rifles when equipped.

UI

• Improved visibility of player locations on the Map.
• Added input curve visuals for Input Response settings.
• Voice chat now has a separate volume control option in the Audio Settings Menu.

Accessibility

• Added Single Press options for the following toggle-Hold interactions: ADS, Continuous Fire and all Menus.
• Screen narration no longer repeats the narration for the "Close" prompt when navigating the System Menu.
• Fixed an issue where all platforms read as ‘Xbox’ by the screen narrator.
• Pop-up countdown is narrated properly during first time use of the Accessibility Menu.
• Speech-to-text messages now appear in front of the blur of dialog menus in the Main Menu.
• Message-of-the-Day carousel no longer receives focus priority after exiting out of pop-up windows.
• Increased player flashlight's fade speed when reflecting off surfaces.
• Reduced Rook lightning dash attack impact brightness.

Audio

• Hero outfit foley has been updated and balanced to reduce loudness.
• Resolved issues with audio skipping during psychic echo playbacks.
• Resolved an issue where music would stop playing after a player was revived during a vampire god fight.

Performance and stability

• Traversing through Deathmist should no longer cause performance issues.
• Resolved issue with contact shadows interfering with self-shadowing.
• Resolved issue with some Game Settings not persisting between game launches.
• Restored default windowed mode to ‘Windowed Fullscreen’.
• The game client now saves window location between game launches.
• Various performance fixes related to FPS drops and stuttering.
• Addressed edge-case crash condition with late joining game clients.

Analysis: Continued updates are great

I wasn't expecting another big update to Redfall so soon after the prior patch, which added 60 FPS performance modes to the Xbox Series X|S versions, takedown animations, and a bevy of bug fixes. I know many players are requesting a matchmaking system of some kind, so I hope we'll see that added next year alongside the two heroes included with the Hero Pass.