Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Digital Event Announces New Monsters, Gives Hunters More Freedom In Combat

Sunbreak, the huge expansion to Monster Hunter Rise is only a month away. We have so many more details to share about monsters, locations, and how they will behave as we move our hunters from Kamura Village, to their new Elgado Outpost headquarters. Capcom hosted a digital conference today to discuss the new DLC content.

The event began with a new story trailer, focusing on the cover monster Malzeno, who, with a horde of tiny vampiric monsters, drains life from the environment and captures other creatures. Malzeno is known for his past of destroying the Kingdom of Sunbreak’s character Fiorayne. He will be an issue for hunters throughout this expansion. It can inflict a new Bloodblight statusThis drains your health This forces the blighted hunters into “a struggle of life force”, in which damaging the elder dragon can restore that player’s vitality. Malzeno will become even more frightening if it absorbs enough essence from a hunter.

As for other monsters announced for Sunbreak, Seregios, the flagship monster from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, returns to divebomb unsuspecting hunters with its bladed legs. There are also two new subspecies to existing Rise creatures: the icy Aurora Somnacanth, and the molten Magma Alumudron. Both of these look like interesting variations of the monsters. Other Monster Hunter Rise monsters will be able to fight with more powerful versions of their old favorites and new subspecies.

Hunters have been given a major upgrade in their attack arsenal to combat the new threats. Switch Skill Swap allows players to switch between two different loadouts of Switch Skill Skills at will. This allows hunters to use up to four customizable Silkbind moves in conjunction with each other and combo the moves together in creative ways. Swap Evades can be used to help players avoid being vulnerable when swapping their skills. Other quality of life improvements were shown off, such as the ability to run up walls without the use of a Wirebug, as well as the option to keep attacking a monster when it’s in a mountable state. 

You can take NPCs with you on Follower Quests to go along on single-player adventures. Each Follower has their own weapons specializations and are supposed to be quite helpful in battle. A whole host of characters can join you in Follower Quests from Elgado Outpost including Fiorayne Luchika Jae Admiral Galleus and Master Arlow. The twins Hinoa & Minoto of Kamura Village can also join these quests.

A few other announcements were made at the end of the presentation. The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller featured an image of Malzeno on its face. A Palico Layered Armor Set will be given to those who saved Monster Hunter Stories 2 as a backup file. This set can make Navirou look more like a cat. After the release of Sunbreak, additional content will become available. These updates will include new armor and monsters, just like other Monster Hunter games in recent years.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is available for Nintendo Switch and PC on June 30, 2018. You will require the base Monster Hunter Rise game to access the Sunbreak content. The Sunbreak expansion will be available for purchase as DLC for $29.99 or within a bundle paired with Monster Hunter Rise for $69.99.