Get your cold-weather wear ready, hunters: Monster Hunter: World’s Iceborne expansion officially has a release date. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game will be hitting shelves on September 6th, with the PC version currently targeting a “winter release.” In the MHW spring update livestream yesterday, in addition to announcing the release date, the developers also unveiled some new details about the expansion. Some spoilers about the new zone and new monsters follow below, so if you’re trying to avoid those, I suggest you stop reading now.
The new hunting zone coming in Iceborne is called Hoarfrost Reach, and unsurprisingly enough, it’s a “snowy, polar stage” in which players will have to contend with biting cold that will sap their stamina if they don’t counteract it through the use of hot drinks, which can be crafted using the hot chili peppers that grow in the zone. Hoarfrost Reach will feature a bunch of new critters, including the docile Popos that are beloved by veteran hunters — when they’re not hunting them for their tongues, anyway.
The developers also revealed four of the new large monsters that are being introduced in Iceborne. Of the four, three are complete newcomers. There’s the Banbaro, a new brute wyvern that uses its massive, mooselike horns to hurl debris, including boulders and entire trees at its enemies, and there’s the Beotodus, an ice-dwelling relative of the Jyuratodus that buries itself in deep snow, only emerging to attack with the massive horn on its head. The third of the newcomers is Iceborne‘s flagship monster, the elder dragon Velkhana. Not much is known about it yet, but the developers promise more information in the coming months. But veteran hunters will be most excited to hear that the fourth revealed monster is everyone’s favorite bat-panther, Nargacuga, who will be returning with all of his trademark attacks plus a handful of new tricks as well.
The livestream also included some details on new hunter actions coming to Iceborne. All hunters will be able to use their slingers as well as “a variety of items” (including flash pods) with their weapons drawn, which seems like kind of a slap in the face to the Sword and Shield, since that was one of its defining characteristics, but hey. Every weapon type will also be receiving “new combos and new elements,” though the devs are saving detailed information about those for a later video. If you want to learn all about these new features from the devs themselves, you can find the full livestream over on Twitch, and to see the new monsters in action, be sure to check out the official trailer just below.
