Way of the Hunter 2 Maps: New Laurentia, Kilimaya & HQ

By Rowan Ashby · Updated October 4, 2026

People search “how many maps” a lot because the store page talks about “three distinct hunting regions” while trailers mostly show two. Both are right: two full reserves plus one smaller hub map.

The three maps at a glance

Each reserve has its own lodge. The Headquarters lodge is the one you upgrade and fill with trophies from every map.

New Laurentia

New Laurentia is where the game starts. The story has you helping a former warden work out why the local moose are behaving strangely, with a dog trainer joining in. The community wiki splits it into seven regions; a species living in two regions counts as two separate populations with separate fitness.

One player posted where the herds sat on their New Laurentia map in Early Access: moose only in the north-east swamps; Dall sheep mostly around Lake Sasquatch and Jackalope Cordillera; grizzlies and wolverines tucked into the mountains; whitetails around the four central lakes; mule deer around the Wetiko lodge (fitter) and along the southern river (fitness in the 20s). Their elk and bison started fitter in the north-west, around 50% and 43% against 30% and 25% elsewhere. Starting fitness may differ in your save.

Angel, from the Hearth & Hunt family, meets you at the start and gives the mule deer tutorial. The official FAQ says four NPCs wait across New Laurentia (Mikael, Juniper, Regina and Patrick, after Angel’s introduction). Their missions are on the missions page.

Things the patch notes mention by name: Lake Sasquatch (and a tunnel to Jackalope Cordillera), Juniper’s cabin, Salakum Shore trails, Mishipeshu Swamp Station. Broken bridges, tunnels and roads can be repaired as habitat and infrastructure improvements; the wiki counts 32 of them in New Laurentia. See herd management.

Kilimaya Reserve

Kilimaya is described in the Update 2 notes as “built on contrast”: highlands, forests, open grasslands, wetlands, shrublands and sun-scorched barren ground in one 100 km² reserve. You can find ancient stone ruins, remote village settlements, lookout towers and hidden cave paintings.

The Hearth & Hunt story here has you support a renowned safari guide, train with an eccentric archery expert, and track down a retired huntress. Patch notes name the NPCs Damian and Naomi. Completing all of the initial assignments unlocks the achievement You’re Hired: Kilimaya Reserve, which only about 0.5% of Steam players had at the time of writing.

Three of its animals charge: lion, hippo and Cape buffalo. Read the animal list before you walk into the wetlands.

Hearth & Hunt Headquarters

Added in Update 0.4.0, this is a smaller Rocky Mountain map, roughly 16 km², built around your Master Lodge. Elijah, an NPC who lives there, explains lodge upgrades, trophy displays and the shooting range. The store page also mentions an elderly Irish carpenter who turns your cash into lodge expansions. You can still hunt here: wild duck, elk, mule deer, snowshoe hare and ptarmigan.

Is there an interactive map?

The in-game hunting map is interactive: in the Early Access launch stream the developers showed that it can be switched from 3D to a 2D topographic view, and that you can drop custom markers (an idea they credit to the community-made Hunter Toolbox web app from the first game). There is no official web map. The in-game hunting map got filters in Update 0.3.0, markers for hunting stands and placed gear, and land borders over the fog of war. We do not publish need-zone or “where to find” location maps yet: we can only check them against more than one source, and tracks between need zones are generated dynamically according to the studio. Use the dog to find active zones and the hunting map filters to keep your own markers tidy.

Maps still to come

• Two new maps in the first year after launch, as part of the Season One plans.
• A European reserve is “definitely one of the planned regions”, but the FAQ says it will not be among the next two.
• In May 2026 players voted between three concepts for the second post-launch map; the result has not been published. Each new reserve takes about a year to build.

Sources: Nine Rocks 1.0 FAQ (sizes, species counts, future maps), Update 2 and 0.4.0 patch notes, Steam store description, community wiki New Laurentia page (regions), checked October 4, 2026.