The Monster Hunter World: Iceborne expansion will launch for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 6, followed by PC this winter, Capcom announced.
The expansion will be available in the following formats:
For Existing Owners
The Monster Hunter World: Iceborne expansion will be available as digital downloadable content for $39.99 / €39.99.
A Digital Deluxe version including both the expansion and a Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Deluxe Kit downloadable content of cosmetic items will also be available $49.99 / €49.99.
For Newcomers
The Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition containing both the main game and the Iceborne expansion is available to pre-order at retail and will be available for purchase digitally at launch for $59.99 / €59.99. For European retail pricing please check with individual retailers.
At North America retail only, the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition Deluxe option that also includes the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Deluxe Kit downloadable content in a Steelbook will be available for $79.99.
Pre-Order Bonus
A special Yukumo Series layered armor set bonus is available exclusively for early bird customers.
Here are the latest details on the expansion:
Fact Sheet
About
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is the highly anticipated massive expansion* to Monster Hunter: World, the bestselling Capcom title of all time with more than 12 million units shipped worldwide adding to the series total of more than 53 million units to date. This gargantuan follow-up rivals the gameplay volume from the original release and features a new icy setting, storyline, monsters, gameplay options, and more.
The game’s all-new story picks up after Monster Hunter: World and whisks hunters away to the newly discovered chilly locale that, once fully explored, becomes the largest region in World so far. The new locale is home to several new and returning monsters ready to challenge hunters throughout their expeditions, and raises the stakes with the added higher difficulty Master Rank. Iceborne continues the skill-based progression and robust crafting system found in World , and expands that with several new gameplay features that broaden the player’s combat repertoire. All this leads to the ultimate hunter test against the mysterious new flagship monster, Velkhana.
Key Features
- Massive Volume of Content – Iceborne builds on every aspect of World with a wealth of new challenges and surprises.
- New Story Introduces Hoarfrost Reach Locale – Picking up the plot from World , hunters will travel to a snow-covered terrain which progressively expands with the story, eventually becoming the largest region in World so far.
- New and Returning Monsters – The new locale is home to brand new frigid climate foes as well as returning fan favorites joining the Monster Hunter: World lineup. Leading the pack is the new flagship monster Velkhana, an elder dragon with powerful ice attacks that is a pervasive threat in the new story.
- Master Rank difficulty option – A brand-new quest tier above High Rank that makes new and existing monsters more ferocious than ever.
- Added Gameplay Mechanics Deepen Combat – Options for the Slinger tool have been added including a Clutch Claw grapple move and Flinch Shot that stuns monsters. With the new ability to use the Slinger while the main weapon is drawn, new strategies and opportunities are available for combat.
- Expanded Weapon Options – Each of the 14 weapon types will get new combos and new elements, offering new depth to master.
- New Gear and Items to Craft – Added monsters means hunters will have new materials from which to craft equipment as they take on new quests and challenges throughout Hoarfrost Reach.
Press Release
The Iceborne expansion builds on every aspect of Monster Hunter: World, starting with an all-new story that picks up after the main game and whisks hunters away to a newly discovered chilly locale called Hoarfrost Reach. The snow-covered terrain offers an ecosystem that contrasts areas in the main game and progressively expands with the story. Iceborne is set to offer the largest region in the game so far, presenting hunters a wealth of new content with even more quests to face than in the original release.
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. These interweave with returning fan favorites such as the swift-attacking Nargacuga who adds some dangerous new tricks to his trademark move set as he joins the Monster Hunter: World lineup. Leading the pack in Iceborne is the mysterious new flagship monster Velkhana, an elder dragon with powerful ice attacks that is a pervasive threat in the new story.
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 Monster Hunter: World base game is required and while Iceborne players will be able to enjoy some of the gameplay options such as the Slinger and weapon updates right away, they must have completed the main story through Hunter Rank 16 in order to access the new Iceborne story and quests.
More information regarding Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will be announced at E3 2019.
Outside of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Capcom announced that a free trial of Monster Hunter: World will be available for PlayStation 4 starting today and ending May 20. Save data from the free trial can be transferred over to the main game should players end up purchasing the title.
Additionally, the last new content update for the base Monster Hunter: World game will be released on May 11 and see the appearance of flagship monster Nergigante in the Arch-Tempered form. By defeating this monster, players can earn the powerful Nergigante Gamma armor.
Finally, a PlayStation 4 dynamic theme featuring Nergigante, ravaged system icons, and the main game’s theme song “Stars at Our Backs” as background music is now available at the PlayStation Store for $2.99 / €2.99.
Watch a new trailer for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne and the Monster Hunter: World Spring Developer Update below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Trailer
Monster Hunter: World Spring Developer Update
■ Introduction
Ryozo Tsujimoto: Thanks for joining us for the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Spring Update. I am Ryozo Tsujimoto from Capcom. Last year in December, we announced Monster Hunter World: Iceborne and today we can finally reveal the release date. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will be coming to home consoles worldwide on September 6, 2019.
We just showed you all new promo footage of the game, and I have several members of the dev team here with me to provide more details. Let’s do a quick round of introductions!
Kaname Fujioka: Hello everyone. My name is Kaname Fujioka, executive director and art director on Monster Hunter: World and Iceborne.
Yuya Tokuda: I’m Yuya Tokuda, director on Monster Hunter: World. I lead the development of World and all of its updates. Today I’m here to tell you about some of the things we still have in store for Monster Hunter: World.
Daisuke Ichihara: I’m Daisuke Ichihara, director of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Today I’m here to tell you more about this new expansion.
Tsujimoto: Thanks for joining me today, everyone. To clarify a bit, the development of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne ran parallel to the production of the title updates on Monster Hunter: World, so Tokudo was the director on the updates after the release of the main game, while at the same time Ichihara led the direction for Iceborne. So without further ado, let’s talk about the game!
First we’ll have another look at the latest promo video we released. Enjoy!
[Trailer plays.]
I’m sure everyone has lots of questions, so let’s go through all the new information bit by bit.
■ Basic Info
Tsujimoto: I’ll be guiding you through this together with Fujioka and Ichihara. Let’s look at the basics first!
Fujioka and Ichihara: We’re ready!
Tsujimoto: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is a massive expansion DLC for Monster Hunter: World. If you already own Monster Hunter: World, you’ll only have to purcahse the expansion DLC to upgrade the main game. If you want to play Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, you’ll need to own the main game.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne features a completely new story. This story takes place after the ending of the main game of Monster Hunter: World, but you’ll have to see for yourself what it’s all about. We’ve also got a new rank called “master rank.” Monster Hunter: World had low and high ranks, and master rank is one step above high rank. It’s like the G rank from previous games.
Now let’s get into the really juicy details of the game.
■ New Locale
Tsujimoto: I’ll let Fujioka and Ichihara take things from here to give us the details on the game.
Fujioka and Ichihara: Thank you!
Tsujimoto: We’ll start by introducing the main new hunting locale in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Fujioka, please guide us through this new locale.
Fujioka: This new locale is a snowy polar stage which is something a lot fans actually asked for. It’s called the “Hoarfrost Reach.” We’ve prepared some footage of it so you can see what it looks like in real-time.
The biggest characteristics of this area are obviously the snow, as well as the extreme cold. Visually, it’s very different from areas in the main game. And things such as snow effects and other visual elements of the stage have had a lot of particular care put into them, so we hope you’ll pay attention to all the details.
Tsujimoto: I like how the player actually leaves a trail behind them.
Fujioka: Exactly. That’s something we’ve never really been able to do before, so we made a point of making it look as good as we can. If you’re familiar with Monster Hunter, you’ll know that cold areas will make your stamina gauge decrease quicker, which is obviously not ideal, but you can gather a special plant, like this. That’s a hot pepper, which you can use to create hot drinks. These drinks will stave off effects from the cold. Monster Hunter veterans will be familiar with this.
So let’s look at the starting area for a bit. It’s fairly forest-like, with lots of trees. It has some familiar creatures, like Popo. It’s like meting an old friend again. In previous titles, they—Popo, that is—were always getting attacked by various other monsters, so you’ll see herds of them here as well, as well as various endemic life.
In an actual polar region, you may not expect to find this many kinds of wildlife, but we’ve created many rich unique creatures for this area. For instance there’s Stonebills, a type of bird, and these little bugs that make snowballs, kind of like Dung Beetles. They’re called “Rhime Beetles,” and they roll up balls of snow—you see us kicking it here—and these rolled up snowballs contain “Crystalburst,” and you can use this Crystalburst as Slinger ammo.
Of course, this locale has its own wingdrakes, too, called Cortos. If you’re familiar with Monster Hunter: World, you’ll know that you can use them to move from area to area. So we hope players can continue to use them to make it easier to get around in these big locales.
Tsujimoto: Oh, that looks nice and warm.
Fujioka: Yeah, we figured that in a cold area like this, you’ll want to be able to warm yourself up somehow, so we added these natural hot springs. Hot springs have the same effect as hot drinks in that they contain components that fight off the cold, so they’re good for preventing cold related ailments. And in these hot springs, you’re going to find monkeys…
Tsujimoto: I think they’ll be popular with the fans.
Fujioka: …so you can enjoy a relaxing time with the local endemic life. So this new locale, the Hoarfrost Reach, is a newly discovered region so you’re going to have to explore it. And you’ll open up new parts of the map as the story of Iceborne progresses. In the beginning, there will be some areas you can’t reach, but once you get to the midpoint of the story, it’ll open up and in the end it’ll be the largest region in Monster Hunter: World so far. So there’ll be plenty to explore and play around with.
■ New Cast of Monsters
Tsujimoto: Next up lets take a look at the new monsters that will be appearing in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. What shall we start off with?
Fujioka: First let’s look at one brand new monster appearing in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Let’s talk about Banbaro.
Ichihara: Banbaro makes his debut in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne in the early parts of the game, and is a new brute wyvern.
Fujioka: That’s right. He’s an early game monster, so his attacks are fairly straightforward, but he likes to pick fights with other monsters as well, which should lead to some interesting situations. We’ve prepared some footage of him, so as we watch him in action, I’d like to go into some more detail.
Ichihara: Sure. As you can probably tell from the footage, his defining characteristics are the huge horns on his head. He’ll use them to charge at your hunter so most of his attacks are on a straight line.
Fujioka: That’s right, but he’ll pick up whatever is in his path, so depending on where you’re fighting, he may hurl boulders at you in rocky areas, or if you’re in a foresty area, he may pick up entire trees while charging at you.
Tsujimoto: I see. So if he picks up a tree, that’ll increase the width of his attacks, so he’s going to be harder to dodge and pose more of a threat.
Fujioka: Yes. So even if he uses the same charge attack, the reach of his attacks will differ depending on what he picks up along the way, so you’re going to have to pay attention to your surroundings while fighting him.
Tsujimoto: You know, I’m also curious about the ecology of this new monster. What can you tell us about its habits?
Fujioka: Well, this monster mostly eats plants, so it’s not really carnivorous or anything, and it usually lives a fairly peaceful life. Sometimes it’ll drink from hot springs like the one we showed before. So it’ll calmly roam around for a drink. And you can also see it do things like sunbathing. Just like with other monsters in the main game, we’ve gone to some trouble to create all kinds of behavior other than attacks, so we hope you keep an eye out and enjoy those details, too.
Let’s have a look at another new monster. This one is called Beotodus.
Ichihara: Beotodus is really the first large monster you’ll get to fight in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, once you arrive in the Hoarfrost Reach.
Fujioka: You’ll start out in an area with fairly deep snow, and this monster likes to bury deep into the snow, hiding and waiting for a chance to corner its prey. That’s the kind of monster we wanted to have, so we really wanted to recreate a deep snow effect for this game. This monster will move around with half of its body buried in the snow, like the players themselves. Ichihara: It’ll attack you while submerged in the snow, so you’ll have to figure out how to get this monster out of the snow in order to really master this hunt.
Fujioka: That’s right. As we explained just a bit ago, Banbaro also appears early on in this game. Their ecological territories are very similar, so they’re turfs overlap quite a bit, which means you’ll be seeing them fight a lot, so I think players are really going to enjoy and encountering this on their own.
Tsujimoto: So you’ll meet these monsters soon after starting master rank?
Fujioka: Right. Beotodus, for instance, is a carnivore, so the Popo you saw before is one of the prey it’ll go after. Of course, we’ve made sure to properly show predatory scenes like that in the game as well, so we hope you’ll look out for things like that and enjoy it.
Tsujimoto: Next, we’d like to talk about a very popular monster from the series.
Fujioka: For Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, we also wanted to bring back some fan favorites, including one that made its first appearance in Freedom Unite. So I’d like
to take a look at that monster now, Nargacuga.
Ichihara: Nargacuga will appear around the halfway point of the story, and it’s got its own proper position within this world. As usual, he’s no pushover, so look forward to a challenging time. Fujioka: Right. Nargacuga’s defining characteristics are its swift attacks and its sort of a wily, shrewd way of fighting. And of course, all those characteristics remain intact here. But of course, it’ll also have some new tricks up its sleeve for Monster Hunter: World, so look forward to that.
Ichihara: Yeah, we’ve made sure to bring back all of the moves you know and love, but since this is Monster Hunter: World, we’ve also given it a more World-like flavor, so I’m sure everyone will enjoy how it’s changed for this title.
Tsujimoto: I see, and because Nargacuga is now part of this new world, that means it’ll be getting involved in turf wars as well.
Fujioka: Exactly. That’s actually one of the points in Monster Hunter: World that we’ve put a particular focus on, and we’ve made sure there are plenty of new turf wars here. You can actually see a little bit right there in the video, Nargacuga will fight with Rathalos, for example.
Ichihara: The fans will love that, I’m sure.
Fujioka: And you’ll get to see it up-close, it’s a very in-your-face fight, so that’s something we hope you look forward to.
Tsujimoto: Next up we have one final monster we’re going to show you today. This is the new flagship monster for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Now let’s take a closer look.
Fujioka: Every time we release a new game in the Monster Hunter series, they always have a new flagship monster just for that title, and since this is an expansion for Monster Hunter: World, and Monster Hunter: World is all about investigating and searching out Elder Dragons, the main monster in Iceborne is a new type of elder dragon. This new monster is defined by its use of ice attacks and is named “Velkhana.”
And since it’s an elder dragon, it doesn’t just use straightforward ice attacks, but there’s a bit of a twist to its behavior to show that you’re fighting this mysterious ancient creature. So we’re sure players will find it interesting.
Tsujimoto: We’re keeping this to a very basic introduction today, but we’ll be telling you more about this monster in the future, so please stay tuned.
■ New Hunter Actions
Tsujimoto: Next, Ichihara will tell us a bit about the new junter actions added for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
Ichihara: In Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, we’ve expanded the hunter’ moveset quite a bit, so I wanted to give everyone a peek into what we have in store.
First off, Monster Hunter: World introduced the Slinger, which for most weapons could only be used while your weapon shiethed, but in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne you’ll be able to use your Slinger with your weapon drawn, for all weapon types.
Fujioka: You’ll be able to ready your Slinger and use a variety of items with your weapon drawn, so this will significantly increase the strategies available to you.
Ichihara: You can now fire Flash Pods with your weapon drawn, for instance. We’ve also added a new feature to the Slinger called the Clutch Claw. This allows you to fire a claw while readying the Slinger, which lets you grapple onto monsters.
Fujioka: Controlling monsters in a variety of ways was a central theme of Monster Hunter: World, around which we designed a lot of hunter actions. The Clutch Claw is basically an extension of that, in that it allows you to control monsters directly.
Ichihara: When you’re clinging onto a monster, there are several actions available to you. What we’re showing here now is called a Flinch Shot, which lets you unload all of your slinger ammo at once, while clinging onto the monster’s head, in order to send it barreling in the direction it’s facing.
Fujioka: Yes. You can use this to send monsters towards traps, slam them into walls or otherwise create opportunities for attack.
Ichihara: We’ve added new combos and new elements for all weapon types. For instance, with the great sword, you can now fire more powerful Slinger shots during combos. This is called a power shot, and though it has shorter range, it’s also much more powerful, allowing you to make monsters flinch more easily. So in the case of the great sword, you can mix this into your combo, making it easier to land a charged attack.
Fujioka: By making the monster flinch before your charged attack, you can then land the attack, just by comboing the actions.
Ichihara: As another example, using the dual blades, you can fire more powerful shots while evading, and the dual blades even allow you to do other actions, like using the Clutch Claw directly in its new combos.
Fujioka: Right, you can go from attacking to clinging onto the monster’s body within the same combo.
Ichihara: We’ve added new features to the light bowgun as well, and there are some new custom mods, too. The mod we’re showing today lets you reload ammo while evading. This custom mod is designed for reloading. If you perform two evading actions in a row, the second move will be a slide, and this mod lets you reload while doing this sliding evade.
Fujioka: There’s this move where you kind of turn the bow gun around a bit, and basically it allows you to reload one round of ammo.
Ichihara: That’s right, and if you equip multiple mods, you’ll be able to reload more rounds in one turn.
We’ve only touched on a few of the weapons here, but we’ll have another video on all of the other new weapon features at a later date, so please look forward to that.
Tsujimoto: So today we looked a bit at the new locale, some new monsters, and some new actions, but of course we’ll share more as we approach release, so please stay tuned for more updates.
■ Product Info
Tsujimoto: So now, leading up to the worldwide release on September 6, 2019, let’s have a look at the product lineup for the home console versions of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. First of all, if you already own the physical version or the digital version of Monster Hunter: World and you only want to buy the massive expansion DLC Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, you only have to buy the digital version of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
We’ve also prepared a pack called “Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Digital Deluxe” that contains both the expansion DLC and a collection of stickers, gestures, and layered armor. The DLC collection of stickers, gestures, and layered armor will also be made available as a separate package called the “Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Deluxe Kit.”
If you’re someone who’s been waiting for Iceborne before getting into Monster Hunter: World, we have the “Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition” for you. This contains both the main game of Monster Hunter: World and the Iceborne massive expansion DLC. This edition will be available as a physical version.
As a pre-order bonus, we’ve also prepared the fan-favorite Yukimpo Series of equipment, which will be available as a layered armor set. This layered armor is only available if you pre-order the game.
The Steam version of Monster Hunter: World was released half a year after the console versions, but for the Steam version of Iceborne, we’re planning a winter release. We’re working hard on it, so stay tuned.
Pre-orders for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will start becoming available from today. Don’t miss out!
■ Monster Hunter: World New Info
Tsujimoto: Now, Tokuda will take over from here and share the latest information on what’s coming up in Monster Hunter: World.
Tokuda: Thank you. The main monster of Monster Hunter: World Nergigante will finally appear in the arch-tempered form. This quest will be available for a limited time only starting on Saturday, May 11, 2019
Tsujimoto: Now that we know when the main monster of Monster Hunter: World, Nergigante, will finally appear in its arch-tempered form, let’s have Tokuda tell us a little bit about what to expect from this monster.
Tokuda: Arch-tempered Nergigante will have some new swift attacks that may suddenly follow its normal patterns. We’ve also given it some new movement routes and also prepared some rather unique tricks here and there. As a result, we hope you think back to the beta test or the main game of Monster Hunter: World and relive the thrill of facing off against Nergigante for the first time as we’ve prepared a very challenging monster for you.
Using its materials you’ll be able to craft the Nergigante Gamma armor, which is a very powerful armor set, so we hope you enjoy this new content together with the second Spring Blossom Fest.
We are also pleased to announce the release of the Nergigante dynamic theme for PlayStation 4. Nergiante is one of the more aggressive rampaging monsters, so you may not have had a chance to get a good quiet look at it, but his theme allows you to appreciate its design. The system icons are also a bit special and that they look like Nergigante tore into them. It uses Monster Hunter: World‘s main theme, “Stars at Our Backs,” as background music, so we think this is something really special that everyone needs to check out.
Tsujimoto: This theme will be available for purchase today.
This is all the news we have to share from Monster Hunter: World. No, to the many, many people out there who have played and enjoyed Monster Hunter: World, our director Tokuda would like to give you a very special message.
Tokuda: Since the release of Monster Hunter: World, the number of people who played our game has greatly exceeded our expectations, and we are very grateful for that. We’ve brought you updates, many of them free, and some of which were made while development on Iceborne was already underway, so we’ve had some challenges now and again. But sharing in the joy of playing the game, the world has been our inspiration and has helped us overcome those challenges. There were things we couldn’t quite pull off, or things we wanted to do more of, but we’ve passed on everything we learned to the Iceborne team and we’ll use our experiences to improve how we make our games, so we look forward to your continued support.
Tsujimoto: To close out our program, we hope you continue to enjoy Monster Hunter: World!
■ Closing
Tsujimoto: Once again, the home console versions of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will be released worldwide on September 6, 2019. We’ll have new information for you at E3 in June, and we’ll keep on bringing you updates after that as well, so stay tuned.
We leave you with the usual final words…
Everyone: Happy hunting!
