Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Additions

This expansion introduces a variety of new characters to help you along in your quest to defeat whatever monster is terrorising the ecosystem, such as Fiorayne (voiced by Valerie Arem) and Master Arlow (voiced by Keith Silverstein). And they aren’t just going to let you do all the work. A surprising addition is Follower Quests; quests that allow NPC allies to help you in hunting monsters by setting up traps, healing, and riding monsters.

In contrast to the base game’s Eastern-influenced hunting grounds, Sunbreak goes for more Western-inspired locales to hunt in, like the Citadel (featuring the ruins of an old castle, foggy swamplands, forests, and frozen areas all in a single map.)

With Master Rank quests comes harder monsters to fight. The ones already in the game will have new tricks up their sleeves, with some monsters getting subspecies to really throw you off like the Blood Orange Bishaten. Meanwhile, new ones—like the flagship monster Malzeno—are sure to make you rethink your approach to hunts. There are also returning monsters from previous games, like Seregios from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Hunts will be a lot harder as you work through all the quests, so all your old equipment from High Rank is going to be outclassed very soon, even if it’s just from pure stats. Luckily, monsters new and old will drop higher quality materials needed for better armour with more (or new) skills and stronger weapons.

Every weapon type in the game, from Great Sword to Bows, will receive new Silkbind skills to modify your fighting style. You’ll be able to swap between sets of skills on the fly using Switch Skill Swap, and even change while dodging with Swap Evade. Truly make your hunting style your own!

There have also been a few quality of life improvements made to the game to make your hunts go a lot smoother, like not needing to wiredash to run up walls. 

That’s only really scratching the surface of what new experiences Sunbreak has to offer. With all these improvements to your hunter’s skillset and equipment, you’re going to need all of them if you want to stand a chance against the variety of new monsters ready to cart you.