Huntsman has expanded on Steam with its first paid DLC, Protect & Serve, while every existing player can also download a free Hardcore Mode update. The two additions push the spider-horror game in notably different directions: one opens another piece of its nightmare facility and gives players a gun, while the other makes the existing experience markedly less forgiving.
Developed by OnTheHouse Studios and published by Ten Image Publishing, Huntsman began as a small Itch prototype before becoming a viral hit. Its creatures draw inspiration from real spider movement and hunting behaviour, a foundation that makes the new content especially meaningful. The update is not simply more rooms or an arbitrary difficulty slider; it changes both the amount of danger players face and, in the DLC, the tools available to answer it.
What Protect & Serve adds to Huntsman
Protect & Serve introduces a new area, a complete quest line, revised spider behaviours and a gun. It is paid DLC and is available now alongside the base game on Steam.
The setup moves the action toward a police station. A lone survivor arrives with alarming claims involving monstrous experiments, giant arachnids and a research facility filled with bodies. When officers investigate, they uncover another section of the facility beyond a door that had been missed. That discovery evidently does not offer anyone a reassuring change of scenery: the premise stresses threats that can emerge both around and above the player.
The most conspicuous mechanical addition is the gun. In a horror game built around dangerous spiders, a firearm changes the relationship between player and threat. It implies that confrontation is now an option rather than a situation to be avoided at all costs. But the DLC’s description also frames that option as a necessity: players are told to stand and fight because there is nowhere reliable to run or hide.
That distinction matters. A weapon alone does not necessarily turn a horror game into a power fantasy. Protect & Serve’s stated focus on altered spider behaviour suggests the enemies themselves are part of the expansion’s identity, rather than merely targets placed in a fresh map. Exactly how those revisions work, including which behaviours have changed and how ammunition or combat progression is handled, has not been detailed here. Players should therefore avoid assuming broader combat systems beyond the confirmed addition of the gun.
Hardcore Mode makes the original threat denser and faster
The free Hardcore Mode is available to all current players and makes three specific changes. First, it doubles the number of Huntsman spawns. Second, it increases the movement speed of selected Orb Weavers. Third, it adds a limited save system inspired by classic survival-horror games.
Doubling spawns is a direct increase in encounter density. In practical terms, it means the spaces players already know may offer fewer quiet stretches and a greater chance that moving through an area puts them in contact with a Huntsman. More spawns do not automatically reveal every knock-on effect on pacing, but the stated purpose is clear: Hardcore Mode asks players to operate under more persistent pressure.
The Orb Weaver adjustment is more selective. Not every spider is said to move faster; the change applies to selected Orb Weavers. This is worth keeping precise, because “faster enemies” can imply a blanket speed increase that has not been confirmed. Even so, speed is one of the most important variables in a chase or avoidance-focused horror game. Faster movement can reduce reaction time, narrow safe routes and make a familiar plan less dependable.
Limited saves, explained
A limited save system restricts how frequently a player can record progress, unlike a system that allows saving at will or places frequent automatic checkpoints. The update cites classic survival horror as its inspiration, a genre often associated with decisions about when it is safe or worthwhile to save.
The practical consequence is risk management. Progress becomes more valuable when a mistake can cost a longer stretch of play, and players may have to decide whether to protect their current run or keep exploring before saving. The precise rules have not been specified, so it is unknown whether the limitation involves a finite resource, fixed save locations, restricted opportunities or another approach. What is confirmed is the broader intent: Hardcore Mode raises the cost of failure while also making the spiders more numerous and, in some cases, faster.
For returning players, that combination may be the larger change than a conventional difficulty setting. Spawn count affects how often danger occurs. Orb Weaver speed affects how quickly that danger develops. Save restrictions affect what failure means. Together, those components target the rhythm of a playthrough rather than merely increasing enemy durability or reducing player resources.
A split expansion strategy: more story, more pressure
The simultaneous launch gives Huntsman two distinct routes forward. Protect & Serve is the narrative and mechanical expansion: a newly discovered facility area, an entire quest line, revised enemy behaviours and a firearm. Hardcore Mode instead revisits the existing game through harsher conditions, and it does so as a free update rather than paid content.
That separation is useful for players deciding where to begin. Anyone chiefly interested in new story material and the prospect of fighting back will likely be looking at Protect & Serve. Anyone wanting to revisit the central game with higher stakes can focus on Hardcore Mode without needing the DLC. Players who take on both are getting two kinds of escalation, though the available information does not establish whether Hardcore Mode applies to every part of Protect & Serve or whether the modes can be combined in a particular way.
It also preserves a tension at the heart of the game’s premise. Huntsman became known from a prototype shaped around real spider movements and hunting habits. That inspiration favors creatures that feel unpredictable, intrusive and unnervingly physical. Giving the player a gun changes the balance of that fear, but revised behaviours can keep the creatures from becoming simple stationary obstacles. Meanwhile, Hardcore Mode leans the opposite way, emphasizing vulnerability through abundance, speed and consequences.
What players can confirm on Steam now
The full game and Protect & Serve are currently available on Steam. The base game is also part of a limited-time 50% Daily Deal tied to the launch. Since the offer is explicitly limited, anyone considering the base game should verify the live Steam listing for the current price and its end time rather than assume the discount will remain active.
- Protect & Serve: paid DLC with a new area, full quest line, revised spider behaviour and a gun.
- Hardcore Mode: free update for existing players.
- Hardcore changes: twice as many Huntsman spawns, faster selected Orb Weavers and limited saves.
- Platform confirmed here: Steam.
- Launch promotion: a limited-time 50% Daily Deal for the base game.
The release arrives amid a steady stream of smaller PC games using updates to sharpen their core identity, as seen in other recent PC releases experimenting with distinct play structures. In Huntsman’s case, the identity is arachnid dread: one path now offers a means to shoot back, while the other makes surviving the spiders an even more deliberate commitment.
Protect & Serve and the Hardcore Mode update are available now. The key remaining unknowns are the exact details of the DLC’s new behaviours and firearm systems, plus the fine print of Hardcore saving rules. The confirmed changes, however, make the direction unmistakable: the facility has more to uncover, the spiders have more ways to threaten players, and simply getting through the game can now demand substantially more care.
