Release information
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows (Steam)
Release date: September 6, 2019 (PS4/Xbox One), January 9, 2020 (Windows)
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Price: $39.99/£34.99/€39.99
Size: 33GB (PS4), 31GB (Xbox One)
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is a paid expansion to the 2018 game Monster Hunter: World. Players will depart to an icy new locale to hunt dangerous new and familiar monsters while participating in a new storyline. A higher difficulty level brings with it new weapons, armor, and tools to help your hunts.
Setting and story
After successfully guiding Zorah Magdaros, slaying Xeno'jiiva, and saving the ecosystems of the New World, the researchers of the Commission have discovered a flock of Legiana migrating to an uncharted island of snow and ice. There, a new headquarters has been established and hunters are being dispatched to investigate a new elder dragon called Velkhana and solve the mystery of the Old Everwyrm.
Trailers
Developer diary #2
Glavenus trailer
Developer diary #1
Story trailer
Gameplay reveal trailer
Reveal teaser
DLC
Rajang trailer
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds crossover trailer
Palico armor design contest winner trailer
Weapon design contest winner trailer
Resident Evil 2 crossover trailer
Developer diary #3
Stygian Zinogre trailer
Developer diary #4
Developer diary #4.5
Safi'jiiva siege trailer
Raging Brachydios and Furious Rajang trailer
Developer diary #5
Alatreon trailer
Master rank Kulve Taroth and arch-tempered Namielle trailer
Developer diary #6
Additional helpful links
Latest patch notes, changes, and updates
Monster Hunter on YouTube and Twitter
Monster Hunter World Wiki
Gaijin Hunter - YouTuber specializing in MH content and tutorials
Arekkz Gaming - YouTuber specializing in MH content and tutorials
JinJinx and Tuna (Monster Hunter Math) - YouTubers specializing in "meta" weapon and armor builds
New features
- New monsters. Iceborne features 33 new monsters, including brand new foes, returning favorites from older games, and new variants and subspecies of monsters from the base game.
- New hunting environments. Travel to the snowy Hoarfrost Reach, the biggest environment in Monster Hunter World, to hunt new and returning monsters. And after completing the story, explore the mysterious Guiding Lands, a hybrid of every environment in the game.
- New difficulty tier. Iceborne will immediately throw you into new master rank difficulty quests, forcing you to craft new weapons and armor to adapt to a much harsher world.
- New town. Tired of Astera? Travel to the new town of Seliana, where a new Gathering Hub actually features all those facilities you couldn't access before.
- New story. Iceborne has a brand new story continuing from the plot of Monster Hunter World. Enjoy watching everybody's favorite Handler almost get eaten by a variety of new monsters!
- New items. You can now use the clutch claw to latch on to a monster during combat. Once attached, you can slash at the monster to weaken its body part, or unload your slinger ammo into its head to send it flying into a wall.
- New moves and balance changes. Every weapon has received some new moves and balance changes. Please see this link for the full set of patch notes.
- Other new features. Every weapon can now fire the slinger while the weapon is unsheathed. You can ride on small monsters if you've formed enough of a bond with them. You can decorate your bedroom in Seliana with customizable furniture. And yes, thanks to DLC...you can finally get layered versions of almost every weapon and armor in the game!
- Quests will now scale the monster's health to the exact number of people in the quest, instead of just one value for singleplayer and one for multiplayer.
- The Seliana Gathering Hub has a Smithy, Resource Center, and other facilities so that you don't need to leave your friends.
- You can now craft many armor sets as layered armor, with more being added periodically.
- A new "view mode" for taking screenshots has been added.
- You can use the radial menu while in Astera or Seliana to perform emotes.
- The radial menu and layered armor can now be saved independently of an item loadout.
- Squads have been redesigned to allow more than one person to add members to the squad.
- A variety of other changes have been made! Please see this link for the full set of changes added in the original Iceborne patch.
- Banbaro: A huge brute wyvern with moose horns that can tear up trees to use as a battering ram.
- Beotodus: A piscine wyvern that swims through the snow.
- Namielle: A bioluminescent elder dragon that controls water.
- Shara Ishvalda, a mysterious elder dragon that can manipulate the Earth and create massive tremors.
- Velkhana: An elder dragon covered in icy armor that commands the snow.
- Barioth: A flying wyvern with saber-tooth tiger teeth that lives in the snow.
- Brachydios: A blue brute wyvern whose horn and fists are covered in a green, sticky, explosive slime.
- Glavenus: A brute wyvern with a long, sharp tail like a sword. Nothing personnel, kid.
- Nargacuga: A cat-like flying wyvern with a spiked tail.
- Silver Rathalos: A Rathalos rare species that is much faster and more aggressive.
- Gold Rathian: A Rathian rare species that is much faster and more aggressive.
- Tigrex: A flying wyvern that loves to roar and charge at foes repeatedly.
- Brute Tigrex: A Tigrex subspecies that is much faster and more aggressive.
- Yian Garuga: A deceptively deadly bird wyvern equipped with a powerful sonic roar and fireballs.
- Zinogre: A very good boy, a fanged wyvern who generates massive amounts of electricity.
- Fulgur Anjanath: An Anjanath subspecies that generates thunder instead of fire.
- Seething Bazelgeuse: A Bazelgeuse variant covered in exploding scales with a huge radius.
- Savage Deviljho: A Deviljho variant that is permanently pissed off and can become even more powerful.
- Acidic Glavenus: A Glavenus subspecies with a sword-tail coated in an acidic substance.
- Shrieking Legiana: A Legiana variant covered in frost, with a stronger command over ice.
- Ruiner Nergigante: A Nergigante variant that grows stronger over the course of the fight.
- Ebony Odogaron: An Odogaron subspecies that breathes dragon energy.
- Nightshade Paolumu: A Paolumu subspecies that emits sleep-inducing gas.
- Coral Pukei-Pukei: A Pukei-Pukei subspecies that emits water from, er, both ends.
- Viper Tobi-Kadachi: A Tobi-Kadachi subspecies covered in poisonous barbs.
- Blackveil Vaal Hazak: A Vaal Hazak variant that has a poisonous mossy substance or on its body.
- Scarred Yian Garuga: A Yian Garuga variant that is much faster and more aggressive.
The following monsters have been added as free downloadable content.
- Rajang, a fanged beast that resembles Goku crossed with an extremely pissed off chimpanzee that was crossbred with Sonic the Hedgehog. Added October 2019
- Stygian Zinogre, a Zinogre subspecies and/or Shadow the Hedgehog cosplayer that emits powerful dragon energy. Added December 2019
- Safi'jiiva, the fully-grown adult form of Xeno'jiiva, fought as part of a siege battle with other players. Added December 2019
- Raging Brachydios, a Brachydios variant that has highly explosive slime and is extremely enraged. Added March 2020
- Furious Rajang, a Rajang variant that is eternally pissed off and very dangerous. Added March 2020
- Alatreon, an elder dragon that can switch between multiple different elemental attacks. Added July 2020
- Frostfang Barioth, a Barioth variant that can freeze the ground in ice. Added August 2020
Is this basically "Monster Hunter World: Ultimate"?
Yes, Iceborne is exactly like the "Ultimate" versions of older Monster Hunter games, except they aren't using that title anymore and it's a downloadable expansion instead of a separate retail game you have to buy a second time.
What purchase methods are available?
Iceborne is primarily a downloadable expansion that can be purchased through your system's online retailer. For new players, retail copies of the base game are being phased out and replaced with a "Monster Hunter World Master Edition" that includes both the base game and Iceborne. There is also a "Deluxe Edition" of the game that can be downloaded for an additional fee that includes an exclusive layered armor, stickers, facepaint, and emotes for your character.
What microtransactions and paid DLC exist?
As with the base game, Iceborne includes a small selection of paid DLC, consisting of a handful of layered armors, emotes, chat stickers, cosmetic options for your character, items for your personal room, and/or costumes for the Handler. As always, major content DLC like new monsters and event quests will be completely free of charge.
Will Iceborne be getting new monsters post-launch?
Yes, like the base game, new monsters are being released post-launch. As of August 2020, six monsters have been released.
Are all of the new monsters solely in master rank?
Yes, all of the new monsters are fought solely in master rank quests.
Can Iceborne players still play with players of the original game?
Yes, all content from the base game can still be played cooperatively with someone who doesn't have Iceborne, but they cannot play any Iceborne content without buying it.
I heard something about some content being available to players of the original game for free?
Yes, certain aspects of the Iceborne DLC patch are available to all players of the original game for free, including the new balance changes and quality of life improvements. This is to ensure compatibility between players of both games.
Do I still have to watch those cutscenes before someone can join my story quest?
Unfortunately, yes. Just keep in mind this only applies to the dozen or so quests that will make up the main story and that the vast majority of content in the game won't require this.
What rank or progression do I have to be to play Iceborne?
Iceborne begins immediately after you complete the main story of the base game, so after you've beaten Xeno'jiiva, reached HR 16, and watched the credits. You do not need to complete any of the post-story content.
Am I going to get my ass kicked because I didn't do any of those post-launch DLC things for the base game?
You're going to get your ass kicked, but not because you didn't do the DLC. Master rank quests will hit hard when you're first starting out, just as high rank quests hit really hard when you first transitioned from low rank. However, the content is being scaled specifically towards the assumption that you are transitioning immediately from beating Xeno'jiiva into master rank and that you did not do any post-launch content, so you are not at a disadvantage. Those who did the post-launch DLC and event quests will only have a very small advantage in terms of weapons and armor and will still have to be challenged to adapt like everyone else.
Is content being released simultaneously on consoles and PC?
Like the base game, Iceborne's content on PC was initially several months behind the console versions. However, as of April 2020 Capcom plans to release all future content for all platforms simultaneously!
Do they ever plan to add cross-play or cross-progression?
Not that we know of.
Can we finally get a better selection of layered armor?
Originally, the answer to this was "no," but Capcom has finally heard our pleas! As of August 2020, (almost) all armor sets from low and high rank (i.e. the base game) are available as layered armor options. Capcom plans to begin adding layered versions of master rank armor this fall. Additionally, Capcom made the surprise decision to allow us to craft layered weapons too! Almost all weapons are available in layered versions.
Yes, Iceborne is exactly like the "Ultimate" versions of older Monster Hunter games, except they aren't using that title anymore and it's a downloadable expansion instead of a separate retail game you have to buy a second time.
What purchase methods are available?
Iceborne is primarily a downloadable expansion that can be purchased through your system's online retailer. For new players, retail copies of the base game are being phased out and replaced with a "Monster Hunter World Master Edition" that includes both the base game and Iceborne. There is also a "Deluxe Edition" of the game that can be downloaded for an additional fee that includes an exclusive layered armor, stickers, facepaint, and emotes for your character.
What microtransactions and paid DLC exist?
As with the base game, Iceborne includes a small selection of paid DLC, consisting of a handful of layered armors, emotes, chat stickers, cosmetic options for your character, items for your personal room, and/or costumes for the Handler. As always, major content DLC like new monsters and event quests will be completely free of charge.
Will Iceborne be getting new monsters post-launch?
Yes, like the base game, new monsters are being released post-launch. As of August 2020, six monsters have been released.
Are all of the new monsters solely in master rank?
Yes, all of the new monsters are fought solely in master rank quests.
Can Iceborne players still play with players of the original game?
Yes, all content from the base game can still be played cooperatively with someone who doesn't have Iceborne, but they cannot play any Iceborne content without buying it.
I heard something about some content being available to players of the original game for free?
Yes, certain aspects of the Iceborne DLC patch are available to all players of the original game for free, including the new balance changes and quality of life improvements. This is to ensure compatibility between players of both games.
Do I still have to watch those cutscenes before someone can join my story quest?
Unfortunately, yes. Just keep in mind this only applies to the dozen or so quests that will make up the main story and that the vast majority of content in the game won't require this.
What rank or progression do I have to be to play Iceborne?
Iceborne begins immediately after you complete the main story of the base game, so after you've beaten Xeno'jiiva, reached HR 16, and watched the credits. You do not need to complete any of the post-story content.
Am I going to get my ass kicked because I didn't do any of those post-launch DLC things for the base game?
You're going to get your ass kicked, but not because you didn't do the DLC. Master rank quests will hit hard when you're first starting out, just as high rank quests hit really hard when you first transitioned from low rank. However, the content is being scaled specifically towards the assumption that you are transitioning immediately from beating Xeno'jiiva into master rank and that you did not do any post-launch content, so you are not at a disadvantage. Those who did the post-launch DLC and event quests will only have a very small advantage in terms of weapons and armor and will still have to be challenged to adapt like everyone else.
Is content being released simultaneously on consoles and PC?
Like the base game, Iceborne's content on PC was initially several months behind the console versions. However, as of April 2020 Capcom plans to release all future content for all platforms simultaneously!
Do they ever plan to add cross-play or cross-progression?
Not that we know of.
Can we finally get a better selection of layered armor?
Originally, the answer to this was "no," but Capcom has finally heard our pleas! As of August 2020, (almost) all armor sets from low and high rank (i.e. the base game) are available as layered armor options. Capcom plans to begin adding layered versions of master rank armor this fall. Additionally, Capcom made the surprise decision to allow us to craft layered weapons too! Almost all weapons are available in layered versions.
How do I use the clutch claw?
The clutch claw has a very limited range. Use it when you're close to the monster. If the monster moves or attacks, you will be injured or even killed. Use it when the monster is winding down from an attack or when it isn't moving. You also use stamina while clawed on and will fall off if it depletes. All weapons can use the clutch claw while the weapon is unsheathed, so you can work it into your existing combos and claw on when you see an opening. You'll get better at this as time passes.
There are several parts of a monster you can claw on to. It can be difficult to actually aim when it's moving around so you may grab the wrong part. You can move along the monster with the control stick the same way you do when mounted. Pressing triangle (PS4 controls) will do a slashing attack and dismount. With "heavy" weapons, you will immediately soften the monster's part; with "light" weapons, you need to do this slash attack twice to soften. A softened part takes additional damage similar to a weak spot. It eventually becomes unsoftened after a short time. You can tell if it's taking softened damage because there will be a little square of ticks around the damage number. This attack is very useful for creating temporary weak spots on monsters that have poor hitzone values along large parts of their bodies.
The real fun of the clutch claw is slamming the monster into a wall. Claw onto its head when it is not enraged and press circle (PS4 controls) to make it swing around in a 45 degree angle. You can do this several times to get it to face the way you want. When it's facing the way you want (facing a wall or other obstruction), press R2 to unload your slinger ammo into its head. It will fly forward a good distance. If it hits a wall while it does this, it will take heavy damage and fall over, being immobilized for several seconds. This attack is invaluable for heavy damage and stunning the monster and should be spammed whenever it is unenraged. Often, a monster will become enraged immediately after you do this attack, whether it hit a wall or not. Make it count.
What's this Steamworks thing? Is it just completely RNG?
Outside the gathering hall in Seliana is a contraption called the Steamworks. You put in "fuel" that you earn from quests (this fuel serves no purpose beyond the Steamworks, so feel free to use it all) and then you "press" three buttons in sequence to earn items, meal vouchers, etc. This process is completely random. There is no secret to guessing which button you need to press next (except for the occasion where the cats jump up and show you which to press). You can just hold down the button and let it run. When the bar is fully filled red, you'll hit "overdrive" and receive a bonus reward. Each week, the first time you get an overdrive, you receive a Celestial Wyverian Print that can be exchanged for a rare monster item of your choice (mantles, the MR equivalent of gems).
This Guiding Lands thing is really confusing. Where do I begin and what is my goal?
The Guiding Lands is a new map you unlock at the end of the game. It is divided into six regions that are based on the Ancient Forest, Wildspire Waste, Coral Highlands, Rotten Vale, Elder's Recess, and Hoarfrost Reach. These regions each have a "level" that grows as you kill or capture monsters, break their parts, collect their tracks, and do other assorted activities in that region. When a region levels up, stronger monsters appear. At levels 1-3, you fight monsters of increasing strength; at levels 4-5, tempered monsters from the first three levels will begin appearing; at level 5, elder dragons will appear; at level 6, a unique "apex" monster that rules each region; and at level 7, tempered elder dragons. The Guiding Lands is considered an expedition, and therefore there is no set objective to complete. You can hunt monsters endlessly for hours if you so choose. You can die an unlimited number of times without failing or losing anything, but if you die you will receive fewer rewards after killing the monster.
Three monsters can appear in the Guiding Lands at any time, and they are completely random. After you kill or capture a monster you will receive a random "lure" for a specific monster. You can then talk to the Handler at camp to use a lure to make a specific monster you want appear. When you fight monsters in the Guiding Lands, you will notice they drop items the way a pinata drops candy. These items they drop everywhere are unique to the Guiding Lands. Every monster has a unique Guiding Lands material that it drops here while it is being fought, and the tempered versions also have a unique material. For example, a Rathalos fought in the Guiding Lands will drop "King's Scale," while a tempered Rathalos will drop "Tempered Red Scale." These Guiding Lands materials are used by certain weapons for their highest upgrades, as well as for the new augmenting system (see below). Once you've fought a monster in the Guiding Lands, you can also meld for its parts at the Elder Melder. Monsters also drop assorted bones and "Spiritvein Gems" that are used for augmenting weapons. As a quick tip...for some reason, equipping a single point of the Geologist skill will allow you to pick up shiny objects twice instead of once. This was thought to be a glitch but for some reason has never been patched on consoles and will presumably still work on PC.
When you level up a region, eventually other regions may start to decrease in level. It is not possible to have every region at level 7 at the same time, for example.
What is the new augmenting system?
Like the base game, fully-upgraded weapons can be augmented, but the system is MUCH friendlier than the old way of having to grind for super-rare things from tempered monsters. Every weapon starts out with three "augment slots." You can fill these three slots with an attack boost, defense boost, affinity boost, elemental/status damage boost, or an extra decoration slot, and each of these things takes up between one and three augment slots. When you've filled all three slots, you can choose the "Extra Slots" option to purchase more upgrade slots. Note that like the base game, Rarity 10 weapons have the most available augment slots, Rarity 11 weapons have fewer, and Rarity 12 weapons have the fewest. The materials used for augmenting are entirely obtained from monsters in the Guiding Lands.
However...there's another twist to all this. Weapons that do not have unique appearances can be augmented even further with a system called custom augments. Custom augments add a little boost to attack, defense, affinity, or elemental/status damage and also change the weapon's appearance. You can stack up to seven of these custom augments.
How does the Safi'jiiva weapon upgrade system work?
When you defeat Safi'jiiva, you are given a selection of random weapons. These weapons all have the same stats (i.e. all the greatswords have the same stats, all the bows have the same stats, etc.) with the exception that they all have different elements or status effects. They also come with at least one free upgrade. Safi weapons are upgraded using dracolite, which is also obtained from beating it. When you go to upgrade a Safi weapon, you spend dracolite to roll a selection of randomly-chosen potential upgrades (like elemental damage up, affinity up, a single point in a set bonus like Teostra Technique, etc.). If you don't like the options presented to you, you can spend dracolite to roll again.
As you add more upgrades to the weapon, the dracolite cost to continue upgrading it increases steadily. You can have a total of 26 "points" of upgrades (each upgrade is one point, and each additional stacked elemental/attack/affinity/etc counts as another upgrade) and five slots into which the upgrades can be stacked. For example, if I have a bow, I can give it five elemental damage increases, each stacked five times (with one of them stacked a sixth time) for a total of 26 upgrades. There are special upgrades denoted with five flashing stars that are unique, and only one can be on a weapon at a time.
The clutch claw has a very limited range. Use it when you're close to the monster. If the monster moves or attacks, you will be injured or even killed. Use it when the monster is winding down from an attack or when it isn't moving. You also use stamina while clawed on and will fall off if it depletes. All weapons can use the clutch claw while the weapon is unsheathed, so you can work it into your existing combos and claw on when you see an opening. You'll get better at this as time passes.
There are several parts of a monster you can claw on to. It can be difficult to actually aim when it's moving around so you may grab the wrong part. You can move along the monster with the control stick the same way you do when mounted. Pressing triangle (PS4 controls) will do a slashing attack and dismount. With "heavy" weapons, you will immediately soften the monster's part; with "light" weapons, you need to do this slash attack twice to soften. A softened part takes additional damage similar to a weak spot. It eventually becomes unsoftened after a short time. You can tell if it's taking softened damage because there will be a little square of ticks around the damage number. This attack is very useful for creating temporary weak spots on monsters that have poor hitzone values along large parts of their bodies.
The real fun of the clutch claw is slamming the monster into a wall. Claw onto its head when it is not enraged and press circle (PS4 controls) to make it swing around in a 45 degree angle. You can do this several times to get it to face the way you want. When it's facing the way you want (facing a wall or other obstruction), press R2 to unload your slinger ammo into its head. It will fly forward a good distance. If it hits a wall while it does this, it will take heavy damage and fall over, being immobilized for several seconds. This attack is invaluable for heavy damage and stunning the monster and should be spammed whenever it is unenraged. Often, a monster will become enraged immediately after you do this attack, whether it hit a wall or not. Make it count.
What's this Steamworks thing? Is it just completely RNG?
Outside the gathering hall in Seliana is a contraption called the Steamworks. You put in "fuel" that you earn from quests (this fuel serves no purpose beyond the Steamworks, so feel free to use it all) and then you "press" three buttons in sequence to earn items, meal vouchers, etc. This process is completely random. There is no secret to guessing which button you need to press next (except for the occasion where the cats jump up and show you which to press). You can just hold down the button and let it run. When the bar is fully filled red, you'll hit "overdrive" and receive a bonus reward. Each week, the first time you get an overdrive, you receive a Celestial Wyverian Print that can be exchanged for a rare monster item of your choice (mantles, the MR equivalent of gems).
This Guiding Lands thing is really confusing. Where do I begin and what is my goal?
The Guiding Lands is a new map you unlock at the end of the game. It is divided into six regions that are based on the Ancient Forest, Wildspire Waste, Coral Highlands, Rotten Vale, Elder's Recess, and Hoarfrost Reach. These regions each have a "level" that grows as you kill or capture monsters, break their parts, collect their tracks, and do other assorted activities in that region. When a region levels up, stronger monsters appear. At levels 1-3, you fight monsters of increasing strength; at levels 4-5, tempered monsters from the first three levels will begin appearing; at level 5, elder dragons will appear; at level 6, a unique "apex" monster that rules each region; and at level 7, tempered elder dragons. The Guiding Lands is considered an expedition, and therefore there is no set objective to complete. You can hunt monsters endlessly for hours if you so choose. You can die an unlimited number of times without failing or losing anything, but if you die you will receive fewer rewards after killing the monster.
Three monsters can appear in the Guiding Lands at any time, and they are completely random. After you kill or capture a monster you will receive a random "lure" for a specific monster. You can then talk to the Handler at camp to use a lure to make a specific monster you want appear. When you fight monsters in the Guiding Lands, you will notice they drop items the way a pinata drops candy. These items they drop everywhere are unique to the Guiding Lands. Every monster has a unique Guiding Lands material that it drops here while it is being fought, and the tempered versions also have a unique material. For example, a Rathalos fought in the Guiding Lands will drop "King's Scale," while a tempered Rathalos will drop "Tempered Red Scale." These Guiding Lands materials are used by certain weapons for their highest upgrades, as well as for the new augmenting system (see below). Once you've fought a monster in the Guiding Lands, you can also meld for its parts at the Elder Melder. Monsters also drop assorted bones and "Spiritvein Gems" that are used for augmenting weapons. As a quick tip...for some reason, equipping a single point of the Geologist skill will allow you to pick up shiny objects twice instead of once. This was thought to be a glitch but for some reason has never been patched on consoles and will presumably still work on PC.
When you level up a region, eventually other regions may start to decrease in level. It is not possible to have every region at level 7 at the same time, for example.
What is the new augmenting system?
Like the base game, fully-upgraded weapons can be augmented, but the system is MUCH friendlier than the old way of having to grind for super-rare things from tempered monsters. Every weapon starts out with three "augment slots." You can fill these three slots with an attack boost, defense boost, affinity boost, elemental/status damage boost, or an extra decoration slot, and each of these things takes up between one and three augment slots. When you've filled all three slots, you can choose the "Extra Slots" option to purchase more upgrade slots. Note that like the base game, Rarity 10 weapons have the most available augment slots, Rarity 11 weapons have fewer, and Rarity 12 weapons have the fewest. The materials used for augmenting are entirely obtained from monsters in the Guiding Lands.
However...there's another twist to all this. Weapons that do not have unique appearances can be augmented even further with a system called custom augments. Custom augments add a little boost to attack, defense, affinity, or elemental/status damage and also change the weapon's appearance. You can stack up to seven of these custom augments.
How does the Safi'jiiva weapon upgrade system work?
When you defeat Safi'jiiva, you are given a selection of random weapons. These weapons all have the same stats (i.e. all the greatswords have the same stats, all the bows have the same stats, etc.) with the exception that they all have different elements or status effects. They also come with at least one free upgrade. Safi weapons are upgraded using dracolite, which is also obtained from beating it. When you go to upgrade a Safi weapon, you spend dracolite to roll a selection of randomly-chosen potential upgrades (like elemental damage up, affinity up, a single point in a set bonus like Teostra Technique, etc.). If you don't like the options presented to you, you can spend dracolite to roll again.
As you add more upgrades to the weapon, the dracolite cost to continue upgrading it increases steadily. You can have a total of 26 "points" of upgrades (each upgrade is one point, and each additional stacked elemental/attack/affinity/etc counts as another upgrade) and five slots into which the upgrades can be stacked. For example, if I have a bow, I can give it five elemental damage increases, each stacked five times (with one of them stacked a sixth time) for a total of 26 upgrades. There are special upgrades denoted with five flashing stars that are unique, and only one can be on a weapon at a time.
What is Monster Hunter?
Monster Hunter is an action/RPG series that began in 2004 and has been released across a variety of systems. The series has an extremely simple gameplay concept with a significant amount of depth. You create a character, pick a weapon, put on some armor, and head out into a large open environment to go hunt down a giant creature, kill or capture it, and create new weapons and armor from the materials you get from it. In combat with a monster, your weapon of choice has a variety of moves, attacks, and combos, and the key to victory is dodging the monster's powerful attacks before getting in hits of your own. This combat gameplay is sometimes compared to a Souls game. Monster Hunter has a very simple and very addicting gameplay loop. Just load up a quest, hunt a monster, return to town with your loot, and start all over again.
Do I have to pick a class or specialization? Which ones are best to pick?
One great thing about Monster Hunter when compared to most traditional RPGs is that there is no class system or specialization to lock players into. You are free to use any weapon in the game at any time. One of the aspects that gives the game longevity is that once you've mastered your favorite weapon, you can go pick up something new and learn the game all over again. All of the weapons are equal, none of them are bad, and all of them are useful in your quest.
How do I level up or get experience?
In another departure from a traditional RPG, there is no leveling system. You do have a "hunter rank," but this rank is almost entirely cosmetic and has no impact on your stats or skills. The only thing it determines is which quests you can participate in. At first, your HR will only increase after completing specific story quests, called assignments. After you beat the story, your HR will become "unlocked" and start increasing with experience points after beating any quest.
What do things like "low rank," "high rank," and "master rank" mean?
Monster Hunter quests are divided into three difficulty tiers. Low rank is the tier you initially start out in. After you progress a certain amount into the story, you'll enter the high rank tier. High rank introduces new monsters, and the monsters you previously fought will become stronger. All of the armor you originally crafted will now have new HR variations that have much higher defense and better skills, and weapons can be upgraded into new HR versions. Some other gameplay features become available in HR. All of this applies again when you transition into master rank (previously known as G-rank) in Iceborne, which is the highest difficulty tier.
What are some settings I should change?
Settings are personal preference, but there are a few default settings that series veterans strongly recommend you change immediately. Under "Control Settings," select "Manual Sheath" so that you aren't automatically sheathing your weapon at inopportune times. Under "Radial Menu," select "Type 2," which makes you have to click the thumbstick to use an item on the radial menu instead of just highlighting it and accidentally selecting the wrong item. Under "Camera Settings," change "Camera Style" to "Target Camera," which means you can select a monster by pressing the right thumbstick and then hit L1 to manually move the camera to position on the monster instead of the camera automatically following the monster around, which can throw off your positioning and aim. Change the "Target Setting" to "Large Monsters Only" as there's no reason to be locking on to small monsters and it can just create confusion. Finally, change "Camera Distance" to "Far" to increase your FOV.
These monsters are really kicking my ass. What's the deal?
The biggest mistake people make when first playing Monster Hunter is being too aggressive and playing it like a hack-and-slash action game. Your weapon has many elaborate combos, but the monster is not going to sit still and let you wail on it, and your character doesn't move very fast. The key is examining the monster's moves and being patient. Every monster has some kind of "tell" before each attack that it does, and as you fight the monster more, you'll recognize these tells and be able to dodge them. The monster will be vulnerable as it's doing these missed attacks and you'll be able to get your hits in. Observe, dodge the attack, and counterattack.
It's taking me like 30-40 minutes to kill anything, is this normal?
It's not uncommon for your first time against a monster to take a little while as you learn its moves and die a few times, but if you're consistently taking a long time to defeat anything (or even timing out), it's likely because your gear is not up to par with the monsters. Go to the Smithy and check if there are upgrades available for your weapon and be sure to upgrade your armor with armor spheres.
Where do I get more of those armor spheres from? I'm always running out
Go to the Resource Center and select "Bounties." You'll see some bounties available, such as "Collect 10 Herbs" or "Hunt 3 Piscine Wyverns." These are little side objectives you can select and complete while you're playing the game, and each time you complete a bounty, you'll receive armor spheres from the Resource Center. Get into the habit of checking the Resource Center constantly to make sure you always have bounties active and a steady flow of armor spheres coming.
I'm trying to upgrade my weapon, but the next upgrade has some material labeled "???" and I can't craft it
That's a material you haven't encountered yet. Weapon upgrades are gated in a specific manner to prevent you from crafting something too powerful for your current position in the story. If you haven't encountered that material yet, just beat another story quest or two and check back to see if you're far enough.
Do I have to do this stupid track collecting thing every time I go on a quest?
The more tracks you collect, the more your research level on a monster will increase. At higher levels, you'll only need to grab a couple tracks to immediately locate the monster on the map, or it will even be highlighted as soon as you load in. Additionally, you'll eventually notice that the monsters don't just wander the map randomly; they spawn in certain areas and walk around in a predetermined path.
Why is it important to sharpen my weapon?
That little gauge in the top left showing your weapon in a certain color, like green or yellow, indicates its sharpness. As you deal hits, the sharpness meter will decrease and drop to a lower color. Sharpness is important because higher colors of sharpness are actually a damage multiplier. For maximum damage, you need to keep your weapon at its highest sharpness as much as possible. The sharpness colors, from lowest to highest, are red, orange, yellow (default damage), green, blue, white, and purple.
What's affinity?
Affinity is the chance your weapon will land a critical hit and do more damage. If your weapon has negative affinity, it has a chance of landing a hit that deals less damage.
Any item management tips?
You can save your item loadout by pressing Start in the inventory box, then Triangle to save it (these are PS4 button prompts). In the future, after a quest, you can access the inventory box, press Start, and then X to immediately swap out all your items with the ones from your saved loadout.
What's this radial menu thing?
The radial menu is useful for accessing items in the heat of combat. Under the options menu, select "Customize Radial Menus." There are four radial menus that can be accessed in the field by pressing L1 and then a direction on the D-pad. Each of these radial menus can hold eight items, crafting recipes, emotes, etc. To use the radial menu in the field, press L1 to bring it up in the corner of the screen, rotate to the item you want with the right stick, and then press R3 (assuming you changed to Type 2 controls) to confirm your selection.
What's the canteen? How does it work?
You should always eat at the canteen before any quest because the meals are very cheap and provide an instant boost to your health, stamina, and other stats that last until you die. If you forget to eat at the canteen before you load into a quest, you can just eat at a canteen at any base camp and get the same effects.
I need some materials from a monster, what's the best way to farm them?
The best way to farm materials is not from the monster's permanently available optional quest, but is actually from "investigations," which you can register at the Resource Center. Investigations are unlocked randomly while fighting monsters and are quests you can only do a certain number of times. They typically have modifiers, like only being able to die twice or having a 15 minute time limit, but they also provide bonus rewards. Those rewards are indicated by the little bronze, silver, and gold boxes on the investigation. If you're looking for something rare, do investigations with gold reward boxes for a much better chance at getting what you want.
How does multiplayer work?
When you first boot up the game and select your save file, you're asked if you want to create or join an online session (note that there is no way to not join an online session unless you're disconnected from the internet). A session is basically a lobby of up to 16 players. If you would like to just be by yourself, create a session and, under the options, lock the room so nobody else can get in without the session ID. If you want a friend to come join your session, they can do so with the session ID or by joining your session from that menu. Once you're in the game, you can also access these session menus from any quest board. However, if you're not playing with friends and just want to play with random people, the fastest and easiest method is the SOS flare system. When you load into a quest, you can go to the options menu and select "Fire SOS Flare," which will allow other people from around the world, not just your session, to join your quest. If you'd like to look for other people's SOS flares, go to a quest board, select "Join a Quest," then select "Search SOS Flares" and input whatever criteria you'd like to look for.
Why does it say I need to wait for my friend to watch a cutscene before I can join?
If your friend is doing an "assignment" quest, the dozen or so quests that make up the main story, they need to watch a cutscene during the quest that introduces the monster before you can join them. There are various theories as to why this exists from a game design perspective but no real excuse for why we can't just skip them. Regardless, it's an inconvenience only for those assignment quests, and only if you and a friend are attempting to co-op the story specifically. The vast majority of Monster Hunter's content is not in the story quests, but the optional quests, investigations, event quests, and other endgame loop content after you've finished the story. Just keep at it!
Any other tips?
You can press Start to skip through a monster's death animation. You can press Circle to skip to the end of an NPC's dialogue. If you run out of items or forget something, you can enter the tent at a base camp and access your item box or change your equipment. Try to unlock all of the canteen ingredients. You can sell spare monster materials for a lot of money. Visit Botanical Research and start cloning your consumable items, like herbs and bugs, and check it on a regular basis. You can use a flash pod to knock a flying monster out of the sky. If a monster falls asleep, the first attack you deal to wake it up will do double damage, so make it count.
Monster Hunter is an action/RPG series that began in 2004 and has been released across a variety of systems. The series has an extremely simple gameplay concept with a significant amount of depth. You create a character, pick a weapon, put on some armor, and head out into a large open environment to go hunt down a giant creature, kill or capture it, and create new weapons and armor from the materials you get from it. In combat with a monster, your weapon of choice has a variety of moves, attacks, and combos, and the key to victory is dodging the monster's powerful attacks before getting in hits of your own. This combat gameplay is sometimes compared to a Souls game. Monster Hunter has a very simple and very addicting gameplay loop. Just load up a quest, hunt a monster, return to town with your loot, and start all over again.
Do I have to pick a class or specialization? Which ones are best to pick?
One great thing about Monster Hunter when compared to most traditional RPGs is that there is no class system or specialization to lock players into. You are free to use any weapon in the game at any time. One of the aspects that gives the game longevity is that once you've mastered your favorite weapon, you can go pick up something new and learn the game all over again. All of the weapons are equal, none of them are bad, and all of them are useful in your quest.
How do I level up or get experience?
In another departure from a traditional RPG, there is no leveling system. You do have a "hunter rank," but this rank is almost entirely cosmetic and has no impact on your stats or skills. The only thing it determines is which quests you can participate in. At first, your HR will only increase after completing specific story quests, called assignments. After you beat the story, your HR will become "unlocked" and start increasing with experience points after beating any quest.
What do things like "low rank," "high rank," and "master rank" mean?
Monster Hunter quests are divided into three difficulty tiers. Low rank is the tier you initially start out in. After you progress a certain amount into the story, you'll enter the high rank tier. High rank introduces new monsters, and the monsters you previously fought will become stronger. All of the armor you originally crafted will now have new HR variations that have much higher defense and better skills, and weapons can be upgraded into new HR versions. Some other gameplay features become available in HR. All of this applies again when you transition into master rank (previously known as G-rank) in Iceborne, which is the highest difficulty tier.
What are some settings I should change?
Settings are personal preference, but there are a few default settings that series veterans strongly recommend you change immediately. Under "Control Settings," select "Manual Sheath" so that you aren't automatically sheathing your weapon at inopportune times. Under "Radial Menu," select "Type 2," which makes you have to click the thumbstick to use an item on the radial menu instead of just highlighting it and accidentally selecting the wrong item. Under "Camera Settings," change "Camera Style" to "Target Camera," which means you can select a monster by pressing the right thumbstick and then hit L1 to manually move the camera to position on the monster instead of the camera automatically following the monster around, which can throw off your positioning and aim. Change the "Target Setting" to "Large Monsters Only" as there's no reason to be locking on to small monsters and it can just create confusion. Finally, change "Camera Distance" to "Far" to increase your FOV.
These monsters are really kicking my ass. What's the deal?
The biggest mistake people make when first playing Monster Hunter is being too aggressive and playing it like a hack-and-slash action game. Your weapon has many elaborate combos, but the monster is not going to sit still and let you wail on it, and your character doesn't move very fast. The key is examining the monster's moves and being patient. Every monster has some kind of "tell" before each attack that it does, and as you fight the monster more, you'll recognize these tells and be able to dodge them. The monster will be vulnerable as it's doing these missed attacks and you'll be able to get your hits in. Observe, dodge the attack, and counterattack.
It's taking me like 30-40 minutes to kill anything, is this normal?
It's not uncommon for your first time against a monster to take a little while as you learn its moves and die a few times, but if you're consistently taking a long time to defeat anything (or even timing out), it's likely because your gear is not up to par with the monsters. Go to the Smithy and check if there are upgrades available for your weapon and be sure to upgrade your armor with armor spheres.
Where do I get more of those armor spheres from? I'm always running out
Go to the Resource Center and select "Bounties." You'll see some bounties available, such as "Collect 10 Herbs" or "Hunt 3 Piscine Wyverns." These are little side objectives you can select and complete while you're playing the game, and each time you complete a bounty, you'll receive armor spheres from the Resource Center. Get into the habit of checking the Resource Center constantly to make sure you always have bounties active and a steady flow of armor spheres coming.
I'm trying to upgrade my weapon, but the next upgrade has some material labeled "???" and I can't craft it
That's a material you haven't encountered yet. Weapon upgrades are gated in a specific manner to prevent you from crafting something too powerful for your current position in the story. If you haven't encountered that material yet, just beat another story quest or two and check back to see if you're far enough.
Do I have to do this stupid track collecting thing every time I go on a quest?
The more tracks you collect, the more your research level on a monster will increase. At higher levels, you'll only need to grab a couple tracks to immediately locate the monster on the map, or it will even be highlighted as soon as you load in. Additionally, you'll eventually notice that the monsters don't just wander the map randomly; they spawn in certain areas and walk around in a predetermined path.
Why is it important to sharpen my weapon?
That little gauge in the top left showing your weapon in a certain color, like green or yellow, indicates its sharpness. As you deal hits, the sharpness meter will decrease and drop to a lower color. Sharpness is important because higher colors of sharpness are actually a damage multiplier. For maximum damage, you need to keep your weapon at its highest sharpness as much as possible. The sharpness colors, from lowest to highest, are red, orange, yellow (default damage), green, blue, white, and purple.
What's affinity?
Affinity is the chance your weapon will land a critical hit and do more damage. If your weapon has negative affinity, it has a chance of landing a hit that deals less damage.
Any item management tips?
You can save your item loadout by pressing Start in the inventory box, then Triangle to save it (these are PS4 button prompts). In the future, after a quest, you can access the inventory box, press Start, and then X to immediately swap out all your items with the ones from your saved loadout.
What's this radial menu thing?
The radial menu is useful for accessing items in the heat of combat. Under the options menu, select "Customize Radial Menus." There are four radial menus that can be accessed in the field by pressing L1 and then a direction on the D-pad. Each of these radial menus can hold eight items, crafting recipes, emotes, etc. To use the radial menu in the field, press L1 to bring it up in the corner of the screen, rotate to the item you want with the right stick, and then press R3 (assuming you changed to Type 2 controls) to confirm your selection.
What's the canteen? How does it work?
You should always eat at the canteen before any quest because the meals are very cheap and provide an instant boost to your health, stamina, and other stats that last until you die. If you forget to eat at the canteen before you load into a quest, you can just eat at a canteen at any base camp and get the same effects.
I need some materials from a monster, what's the best way to farm them?
The best way to farm materials is not from the monster's permanently available optional quest, but is actually from "investigations," which you can register at the Resource Center. Investigations are unlocked randomly while fighting monsters and are quests you can only do a certain number of times. They typically have modifiers, like only being able to die twice or having a 15 minute time limit, but they also provide bonus rewards. Those rewards are indicated by the little bronze, silver, and gold boxes on the investigation. If you're looking for something rare, do investigations with gold reward boxes for a much better chance at getting what you want.
How does multiplayer work?
When you first boot up the game and select your save file, you're asked if you want to create or join an online session (note that there is no way to not join an online session unless you're disconnected from the internet). A session is basically a lobby of up to 16 players. If you would like to just be by yourself, create a session and, under the options, lock the room so nobody else can get in without the session ID. If you want a friend to come join your session, they can do so with the session ID or by joining your session from that menu. Once you're in the game, you can also access these session menus from any quest board. However, if you're not playing with friends and just want to play with random people, the fastest and easiest method is the SOS flare system. When you load into a quest, you can go to the options menu and select "Fire SOS Flare," which will allow other people from around the world, not just your session, to join your quest. If you'd like to look for other people's SOS flares, go to a quest board, select "Join a Quest," then select "Search SOS Flares" and input whatever criteria you'd like to look for.
Why does it say I need to wait for my friend to watch a cutscene before I can join?
If your friend is doing an "assignment" quest, the dozen or so quests that make up the main story, they need to watch a cutscene during the quest that introduces the monster before you can join them. There are various theories as to why this exists from a game design perspective but no real excuse for why we can't just skip them. Regardless, it's an inconvenience only for those assignment quests, and only if you and a friend are attempting to co-op the story specifically. The vast majority of Monster Hunter's content is not in the story quests, but the optional quests, investigations, event quests, and other endgame loop content after you've finished the story. Just keep at it!
Any other tips?
You can press Start to skip through a monster's death animation. You can press Circle to skip to the end of an NPC's dialogue. If you run out of items or forget something, you can enter the tent at a base camp and access your item box or change your equipment. Try to unlock all of the canteen ingredients. You can sell spare monster materials for a lot of money. Visit Botanical Research and start cloning your consumable items, like herbs and bugs, and check it on a regular basis. You can use a flash pod to knock a flying monster out of the sky. If a monster falls asleep, the first attack you deal to wake it up will do double damage, so make it count.
Metacritic: 89
OpenCritic: 91
IGN: 4/5
IGN said:
GameSpot: 9/10
GameSpot said:
GamesRadar: 4/5
GamesRadar said:
Easy Allies: 9/10
Easy Allies said:
Game Informer: 8.25/10
Game Informer said:
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