Capcom revealed new details for the upcoming expansion for their best-selling franchise yesterday – Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. This is the best-selling Capcom title of all time, with more than 12 million units shipped worldwide, adding to the series total of over 53 million units. This first expansion to Monster Hunter World will arrive on the Xbox One and Playstation 4 on September 6th, 2019, with a PC release following this winter.
Iceborne also introduces the new higher difficulty Master Rank, a brand-new quest tier that makes new and existing monsters more ferocious than ever. The extreme cold is also the setting for brand new frigid climate foes such as the horned brute wyvern Banbaro and the snow-buried Beotodus. There will interweave with fan-favorites, such as Nargacuga, who has some killer new moves added to his moveset. The new flagship monster is the mysterious Velkhana, an elder dragon that wields powerful, deadly ice attacks.
To ready players to face the expansion’s fierce hunts, several new gameplay options have been added to broaden the player’s combat repertoire, creating opportunities for exciting new hunting strategies. The Slinger can now be used while the main weapon is drawn, regardless of weapon type. New features have also been added for the Slinger such as the Clutch Claw used to grapple onto monsters with more direct control and the Flinch Shot which unloads Slinger ammo to stun monsters. Each of the 14 weapon types will also get new combos and new elements, offering additional depth to master in combat.
The base game will be required, and though the weapons changes will be available right away, Hunters must have completed the main story through Hunter Rank 16 to access the new content in this expansion. There is also a free trial of Monster Hunter: World on PS4 right now, until May 20th – so if you haven’t given the game a try yet, there’s never been a better time for Playstation users. Any saved progress will also transfer over to the main game.
In the meantime, for existing Monster Hunter: World players on console, the last new content update for the base game will celebrate the aggressive flagship monster Nergigante who will finally appear in the formidable Arch-Tempered form for a limited time from May 11 UTC. Defeating this ultimate challenge will yield the powerful Nergigante γ (gamma) armor. In addition, a dynamic theme showcasing the lethal monster complete with custom ravaged system icons and the main game’s theme “Stars at Our Backs” as background music is now available for sale digitally on PS4 for 2.99.
