The day we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! We're bursting with excitement to crown the victors of our biggest and most thrilling contest ever!

Remember when we challenged you, our incredible community, to unleash your inner monster-maker? To conjure up the most intriguing, spine-tingling creature to stalk the barren lands of Blood West? Well, the wait is over!

As a reminder, the winner’s design will be immortalized within the game and their name will take the rightful place in the Blood West credits! Talk about legendary!

And for the three runner-up masterminds, their phenomenal creations haven't gone unnoticed. Each of them will receive a double dose of gaming glory: two game keys from our selection, a well-deserved reward for your fantastic work.

Drumroll, please...

The moment you've all been craving: the winning entries!




These woods used to echo with the sounds of the Wolf Packs around here. But as Ranchers and
Frontiersmen settled in, they were wiped out, hunted to oblivion. Now though, since the dead have been rising again, the Wolves have come back... And they seem intent on returning the favor.

There are two variants of the Wraith Wolf, the Alpha, and its Summons.

The Alpha is a Skeletal Wolf with a ghostly body, and glowing eyes and heart. And the Summon is the
Skeleton with only the glowing eyes. The Wraith Wolf Alpha starts patrolling its territory alone. But when it engages with a target, the Alpha howls, summoning additional skeletal wolves around itself that attack the target directly. While the Summons attack the target, the Alpha circles from the outside, quickly darting back and forth, occasionally stopping to summon additional skeletons at different
angles around its target. The Skeletal Summons pull themselves from the ground when spawned, and are brittle, falling relatively easily with no damage resistances. The Alpha is heavily resistant to all damage types outside of Silver, with the glowing heart acting as a greater weak point as opposed to the head. When the Alpha is defeated, any active Summons also fall with it. When defeated, the Alpha's ghostly body evaporates while the bones fall to the ground, and the Skeletal Summons simply fall to the ground.

The Wraith Wolf may drop its Jaw on death as an equipable item. When worn, it will summon two
skeletal wolves to aid the player in combat once every 5 minutes. The skeletal wolves, and the item
cooldown are both triggered when an enemy targets the player. The goal of the Wraith Wolf is first, to have more Spectral enemies to encourage greater use of Silver Ammo. Second; to be an enemy encounter that offers many targets to fight at once, giving more value to high-capacity weapons like the Lever Rifle and the Chain Pistol. And thirdly; to have an enemy that offers a more intense, faster paced combat if the player seeks it, or to be a dangerous enemy rewarding a stealthy play style.



“The Wraith Wolf's concept as a whole captivates us; the synergy between its design, mechanics, and lore creates an exceptional entity. While each element on its own is strong, it's their cohesive integration that truly stands out. Among many impressive submissions, it stood out and clinched the team's vote. It's a perfect fit for Blood West's varied biomes, enhancing the game's "wild" areas seamlessly. The creator aimed to introduce a spiritual foe encouraging more use of silver ammo, a touch we find brilliant. Essentially, the Wraith Wolf triumphed by melding a striking visual idea with game mechanics as if tailor-made for Blood West.”







We want to give a monstrous shout-out to every single contestant who stepped into the arena! Your unleashed creativity and sheer passion were the fuel that kept this contest burning bright. Stay tuned, as we will be sharing with you the process of how Wraith Wolf becomes a monstrosity that will hunt you in the next expansion!

We're reaching out to all of you - the gunslingers, assassins, explorers, and seasoned adventurers who've braved the trails of Blood West. We want to hear from you about what made the game tick for you!

So, if you've got a spare minute, we'd sure appreciate it if you could take a quick survey to share your thoughts. Your input is like gold to us - together we can shape the future update into something truly special.

Let's work together to make Blood West even more exciting and unforgettable than ever before!

[forms.gle]

Step right up and help us make Blood West even scarier and more challenging! Blend your creativity into the frightening atmosphere of Blood West and bring a new level of terror to its haunted world. Your creation could be the next terrifying legend in Blood West!

The most blood-curdling, spine-tingling, original monstrosity will find a place in the world of Blood West. That's right, you heard correctly!

YOUR MONSTER will be animated and will roam the lands of Blood West in the newest expansion!

And there's more – you'll get your name etched in the annals of Blood West, right there in the game credits!


[hyperstrange.com]1st Place Prize
The winner of the contest will have their concept art recreated in the newest expansion for Blood West. Our internal team will create the monster’s model, animate it, and code its behavior in accordance with your concept art and description.

Runner Up Prizes
Up to 3 participants whose concepts have got close to the final cut, but have not made it, will receive game keys from the Hyperstrange Catalog.

1. Create a concept art that would depict a cosmic horror-themed monster that would fit the Weird West setting of Blood West.
   
2. In addition to the concept art, provide a text which describes the creature’s in-game behavior, powers and weaknesses along with a short flavor text which will justify the monster’s existence in the world of Blood West.
   
3. Once you have both parts of the submission ready, host them on a Google Drive or an equivalent cloud service and go to https://hyperstrange.com/bloodwest-contest/. Make sure to make it accessible to anyone who has the link.
   
4. You can submit up to 3 concepts.

• Start of the contest: 31st January, 2024.
  
• End of the contest: 29th February, 2024.
  
• Results announcement: 5th March, 2024.

• You have to be 18-years old to participate.
  
• You have to be the legal owner of the provided concept and the related materials you submit.
  
• The submission cannot include AI-generated images and text.
  
• The submitted content cannot be neither offensive nor sexually suggestive.
  
• We, Hyperstrange S.A., reserve the right to alter the submitted content in order to make it coherent with the game’s style and functional within the game’s engine.
  
• By submitting your concept, you, as an author, grant the non- revocable free of charge right to the Hyperstrange S.A. to use your intellectual property, related to the submitted concept, for the indefinite period.

The promised update has arrived and it is ready to go, but before you go digging into the newest changes, let us share with you one more thing that will make some of you happy.
As of today, Steam Community items have been enabled for Blood West, so expect some trading cards to drop while you play. There are also badges to unlock, forum emotes, profile bacxkgrounds - the whole shabang!

Keep an eye out for these sweet special Steam item drops, and now back to the 3.0.4 update. It's time to give you the...

• Fixed a very rare error that occurred when accessing the player’s stash that results in items being lost
  
• Fixed a very rare instance of items being lost - after the patch is applied, the lost items should be back in player’s inventory
  
• Fixed inability to save & exit the game via pause menu for some players
  
• Fixed issue where removing Occult Mask without full HP didn’t remove the effect
  
• Second level of Gunslinger perk no longer affects bosses
  
• Fixed rare crash that occurred on opening bags in a trading window
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause some players to not be able to pick up items from the ground
  
• Way of the Spirit is no longer tradeable

• Fixed an issue that made builds using Devil’s Eye to increase player’s HP beyond the intended levels
  
• Disabled mouse acceleration/smoothing that was not suppose to be active
  
• Fixed an issue where the Emerald Eyes could be taken off without dying or using Purple Revival
  
• Animated Dead will no longer perform two charges/jumps in a row
  
• Certain artifacts and weapons were not working correctly - including Giant Leech, Drunken Master, Corrupted Liver
  
• Fixed an exploit that allowed player not tot pay for partial stacks of items under certain circumstances
  
• Fixed a case where the number of available charges of Whetstone disappeared from HUD
  
• Revolvers are better aligned towards the center
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause the cursor to disappear when the player left the trading window in a specific manner
  
• Spite no longer will kill player if they have exactly 5 HP remaining when trying to shoot
  
• Lionheart should now work correctly
  
• Fixed an issue where the friendly Boo Hag could be both at the old and new camp
  
• Blowing up enemies heads with dynamite no longer counts towards the Headhunter achievement
  
• Fixed a rare issue where the player was not able to move after teleporting back to the Safe Zone
  
• Bunch of smaller typos and improvements to translations

• Undead Hunters take aim faster, making them more dangerous
  
• Scallywag now prioritizes throwing molotov at player over using a shotgun
  
• Increased the range of the stomp attack for boss of Chapter 2
  
• Crimson Brooch found on maps will have non-default price values
  
• The following perks have been slightly rebalanced: Bloodless, High Tolerance, Gotcha, Bloody Carnage, Pitcher, Strong Lungs, Alive and Dangerous, Self-taught and Gunslinger

• Added the ability to change keybind for item rotation on the inventory screen
  
• Added an the option to hide/show UI as desired, using a bindable key
  
• Added the ability to limit fps to a desired value

• Negative Stamina regeneration (until death, or next strong melee attack)
  
• Whetstone buff icon may remain on screen and as an effect after all charges has been used
  
• Enemies may stop moving under certain rare circumstances
  
• Rare case when one of the NPC doesn’t update correctly and softlocks player when trying to talk to them
  
• There were reported crashes on Chapter 3 for some players

Still ponderin' whether to step into the world of Blood West? Ponder no more, partner!

Strike while the iron's hot and snag Blood West on Steam for a steal - a whole 30% off! Now that's a deal that'd make even the stingiest prospector smile.


Blood West ain't just about a deep, fear-soaked atmosphere, nor just about the damned creatures that lurk in the shadows, nor even about the vast arsenal echoing the true steel of the Wild West. It's also about the exceptional voice acting that breathes life into this ghostly world, with voices that are as renowned in the gaming realm as any legendary gunslinger of the old frontier. Without them the dark and oprresive world of Blood West simply would not come to life. This here material is our small tribute to them.

To answer the gathered feedback from our great community, we’re proudly announcing that not one but TWO updates are comin' your way. One's hittin' the dusty trails this week, and the next one's ridin' in next month. Yeehaw!

First one will arrive later this week and it will deal with most of the remaining pesky bugs and issues. It will also contain a bit of rebalancing for some of the monsters and skills.

The second one, will be arriving in February and this one will be all about the improvin' the pad gameplay along with some other quality of life features.

The last bit of info is ... that works on a brand new content have just started and we would like YOU to be a part of our posse on that one!

Glad to see all of ya' enjoying Chapter 3 and the Full version of Blood West. Whether you have just started your journey through the Barren Lands or you are about to return for a second run, we have a little something for you, a new Archetype Showcase!


If you are looking for unparalleled flexibility without compromising your firepower then the Gunslinger archetype may be just for you. Just make sure to keep your cowboy hat and shoes in your inventory - otherwise it does not count!



Have you ever had something that lived inside your head rent-free ? In case of the Defiler, it ain't memes but a parasitic entity dubbed the Hell-bat. While the carrier does not pose that much of a threat, for the Barren Lands standards that is, the content of its head definitely does. Be careful, as any damage to the head may prompt the Hell-Bat to leave its host and jump ship. And who knows, maybe it will decide to make your head its new home.

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Howdy!

In the release version of Blood West we've done a reset of the skill point allocations, so players returning to the game can re-distribute them in the redesigned skill-tree. In some rare cases this caused the perks to reset alright, but didn't grant any skill points to distribute. This hotfix alleviates this problem, and addresses some other issues. Full changelog follows:

• Long Jack no longer reduces maximum HP of the player on debuff
  
• Alvaro’s Necklace has been slightly buffed

• Fixed an issue that could cause players continuing game from previous specific version of the game to not have their perks/levels reset properly
  
• Protagonist moans were too loud, we calmed him down a bit
  
• Emerald Eyes could still provide better prices at shops without being equipped
  
• Specific rope in Chapter 3 was trying to kill players - now it should behave properly
  
• Fixed a bug regarding a full stack of 5 Hellbear Hearts
  
• Fixed a bug with Devil’s Eye constantly giving more HP than it should, after save & load