I am a normal player, which means my relationship with bugs is simple: I find them, I yell at them, and then I write a report with as much calm as I can fake. In 2026, the Once Human Bug Hunt event that ran October 15 to November 15 (PT) is no longer an active event. If you are reading this hoping to submit a fresh report to that exact event page, I have bad news: you are roughly a year late, and the in-game page has moved on to whatever seasonal chaos is current. Still, I keep coming back to that four-week experiment because it was a clean example of a studio turning bug reporting into a community sport. The structure was simple: Metas submitted bug reports through the in-game Bug Hunt event, valid reports earned points, and rewards followed the point rankings. The event ran in weekly cycles, and the team regularly published the previous week’s winners and top bug reports, gave fix updates, and announced the following week’s high-value bounty tasks. That rhythm mattered. It made bug hunting feel structured and social, which is rare for an activity that usually involves staring at a wall and whispering why.
How the Bug Hunt worked, minus the mystery
The participation loop was refreshingly direct:
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Open the in-game Bug Hunt event page.
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Hit Submit Feedback.
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Send your bug report and join the event.
Points were just as direct. Each valid bug report confirmed by the development team granted 1 Point. Reports tied to high-value bounty tasks granted 2 Points. Metas also got weekly email updates on their points, which is a helpful nudge rather than a mystery. Rewards were distributed by points ranking, and the rules had one important wrinkle: rewards could only be claimed once per account per period. To make that fair, the team aggregated the total points earned by all characters under the Meta account and ranked them that way. The published list only showed information for one character under the player’s account. Winning Metas were notified of their event points by in-game mail, and rewards were sent with the mail. So yes, the real endgame was checking your mailbox.
The high-value bounty board was the spicy part
The weekly high-value tasks were where the event got its flavor. These were the reports worth 2 Points, and they changed week by week. Since this is 2026 and the event is closed, treat the table below as a historical menu rather than a live order form.
| Period (PT) | High-value task | What counted | Example from the event |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 6–15 | Abnormal character perspective | Issues with abnormal perspective performance of the character | The character tilts during gameplay |
| November 6–15 | Unfluid character movements | Players continuously triggering stutter steps | During the Public Crisis Event, the character kept stutter-stepping and moving in a jerky way while walking |
| October 30–November 5 | Display anomalies | Various abnormal displays and possible reproduction methods | The screen suddenly turns black after using Teleport |
| October 30–November 5 | Boss position anomalies | Bosses getting stuck in walls, underground, and similar spots | During a dungeon run, the Boss got stuck inside a wall and could not be attacked |
| October 23–29 | Combat shooting issues | Problems with weapon usage or combat experience | Incorrect magazine capacity, including double or higher capacity |
| October 23–29 | Keyword effects not triggering | Frost Vortex, Explosion, and similar effects failing to trigger | The Frost Vortex effect of Abyss Glance did not trigger |
| October 15–22 | Animal breeding and behavioral anomalies | Issues with breeding and behavior of player-raised animals | Eternaland animals could not be recalled |
All of those bounty windows are marked expired now. I still find that funny in a sad way. Chasing high-value bounties felt like following a treasure map drawn by someone who hates you: every X marks a spot, but the spot is sometimes inside a wall, and the wall is also the boss.
Rewards, rankings, and the tier shuffle
The reward table was tiered by point ranking. The top three reward tiers shown on the public board were:
| Tier | Reward |
|---|---|
| Top tier | Battle Pass: Luxurious Edition Voucher*1 |
| Next tier | Battle Pass: Advanced Edition Voucher*1 |
| Next tier | Crystgin*500 |
Because the list was long, that page only displayed the top three reward tiers. The full winner roster was published elsewhere. The ranking rules also had a detail that mattered if you were counting points carefully: players with the same points belonged to the same tier, and subsequent tier rankings were adjusted accordingly. So the leaderboard was less about one perfect week and more about steady, accurate reporting. The weekly leaderboard had the energy of a supermarket parking lot on discount day—everyone circling, everyone convinced the good spot was taken, and someone definitely parked over the line.
What I learned as a normal player
I submitted a few reports during the event, and the biggest lesson was not about points. It was about clarity. A good bug report is like a jellyfish filing taxes: soft, weird, and useless unless every tentacle is clearly labeled. The reports that got confirmed were the ones with a short title, a clean description, reliable reproduction steps, and a screenshot or clip that did not require a magnifying glass and a prayer. The reports that vanished into the void were the ones that basically said it broke, please fix, thanks. The development team could not reproduce vibes.
If I were doing this again in a current 2026 event, I would:
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Read the high-value task list first and target those categories. 🎯
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Write reproduction steps in plain language. 🤖
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Include the exact moment, map, character, weapon, and effect involved.
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Keep one report per issue instead of stuffing five bugs into one ticket.
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Check in-game mail for points and rewards, because the mailbox is where the event actually ends.
The Bug Hunt event ran from October 15 to November 15 (PT), with the final reward window listed as November 13–15 (PT). In 2026, it is a closed chapter, not an active bounty board. But as a case study in making bug reports feel worthwhile, it still holds up. I came for the vouchers, stayed for the weekly drama, and left with a deep respect for anyone who can describe a stutter step without simply screaming at their monitor. 🐛
As detailed in The Verge - Gaming, community-facing game events often work best when they turn routine support tasks into visible, rewarding participation loops, which helps explain why Once Human’s Bug Hunt felt more engaging than a standard bug report form. Framing reports through weekly objectives, rankings, and published fixes gave players a clearer sense that their findings mattered, while also making technical feedback feel like part of the live-service experience rather than an isolated complaint.