Fix Bloodhunt Won’t Launch and Crashing at Startup

After almost a year, the full version of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt is finally out. The update has brought a ton of changes to the game. A brand-new weapon, balance changes, weapon tweaks, the update has it all.

The only problem is, this update has triggered some issues for people, who have been playing this game for a long time. Suddenly, either Bloodhunt won’t launch for them, or the game is constantly crashing.

Anyway, these sorts of issues are quite common, nowadays. Especially with online titles. So, I decided to pile a bunch of fixes, that have been confirmed to be working, by the community, and consolidate them.

Bloodhunt Won’t Start or is Crashing constantly – How to fix

1. Launch Bloodhunt in DX11 Compatibility mode

Try forcing the game to run in DirectX 11 mode. To do that:

  • Go to your Steam Library
  • Launch Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt
  • In the pop-up select: “Play in DX11 Compatibility mode”
  • Click “Play”

2. Add Bloodhunt as an Exclusion on your Antivirus Software (Stuck on EAC Loading Screen fix)

After clicking the “Play” button on Steam, if nothing happens, or you get stuck at the Easy Anti-Cheat loading screen, with no signs of an error message. This can be caused by a restriction from the firewall. Here is what you need to do:

  1. Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection.
  2. Under “Virus & threat protection settings”, select “Manage settings”
  3. Under “Exclusions”, select “Add or remove exclusions”.
  4. Select “Add an exclusion”, then choose the Bloodhunt folder

3. Download the latest driver that Nvidia has released for Bloodhunt

Nvidia has finally released a GeForce Game Ready Driver for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt. The driver version is 512.59. You can download and install it manually from this link. Or, you can update the driver directly via GeForce Experience.

4. Download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package

  1. Download Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package MFC Security Update from this link
  2. Install both the vcredist_x86.exe and vcredist_x64.exe
  3. Reboot the computer and start the game again

5. Close Rivatuner, if you are using it at the moment

When Bloodhunt came out in 2021, it was crashing left and right for people who were using Rivatuner Statistics or MSI Afterburner, at that time. I won’t say, the issue has been completely taken care of, as I myself faced a Bloodhunt crash, just a few minutes before I started writing this article. I immediately figured out what was the case, using Event Viewer.

So, I closed Rivatuner and Afterburner, and repeatedly launched and closed the game five times, in a row. Everything was working perfectly.

6. Force Randomization for Images

Now, this is a fix, that I haven’t personally tried, and I am not sure what this does. This has been recommended by people, who claimed to have fixed the crashing in Bloodhunt, using this method. So try it at your own risk!

  • Open Windows Settings menu
  • Click on Update & Security
  • Select Windows security from the left bar
  • Click App & Browser control
  • Click Exploit Protection Settings
  • Change “Force randomization for images” to OFF by Default
    Force Randomization of image - Fix for Bloodhunt launch issues
  • Restart your PC and launch the game

7. An Application could be causing the crashes

We often don’t realize, but there are a lot of background apps that we leave unattended for months. And at times, one or two of them, end up showing incompatibility with other apps. For me, Razer Synapse was causing crashes in COD Vanguard for months. And I couldn’t figure it out. You need to find such applications and close them. Here is how to do it:

  1. Restart your PC first
  2. Once you are back, right-click on your Windows taskbar, and select Task Manager, to open it
  3. Click on the Startup tab
  4. Right-click on each item and select Disable.
  5. Now, go ahead and restart your PC
  6. Try running Bloodhunt again
  7. If you don’t face any crashes this time, enable the startup application one at a time to determine which one is causing the problem
  8. You will need to restart between each application you enable

Of course, if none of these end up working for you, then you can try the trusty good ol’ “Verify the integrity of game files” method.


Try these for now, and let me know, in the comment section below, if any of the fixes mentioned above has worked for you or not. If not, then you can consider contacting Sharkmob Support. I will be updating the article with new fixes in the future.


If you think this guide has helped you, then let us know in the comment section below. And for more Bloodhunt guides, keep an eye on Frondtech. Good luck!


That’s all folks!

Last Updated on April 28, 2022

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