Monster Hunter World Welcomes back Zinogre, Tigrex, and Brachydios, with a Continued Story
ICEBORNE BRINGS NEW MOSNTERS AND STORY
Zinorge, Tigrex, Clutch Claw, Combat Slinger, and more!
Monster Hunter World Iceborne is releasing some wicked new monsters to the game with the Iceborne expansion. Some of these monsters are brand-spanking new, while others are some fan favorites revisited and revised for Monster Hunter World.
As such a major installment of the franchise, I was hoping for a long time that some of these monsters would make it back. Some I had faced before (Brachydios and Zinogre), and others I have only heard fateful stories of (Tigrex).
There are many ways this game is looking awesome right now, especially with the all-new Master Rank of monsters, Master Rank is what was formerly known as G-Rank in previous titles. So what are these monsters? I have a great little list for you right here.
Zinogre: The Elvis of the brute wyverns that wields lighting to empower itself, make its fur stronger to break, and deal out some wicked nasty thunder blight to the hunter.
Tigrex: Originally from Monster Hunter Freedom Unite 2, Tigrex is a flying wyvern that keeps itself on the ground. It is extremely fast and very dodgy. It will make a tough foe to deal with using heavy weaponry.
Nargacuga: Another flying wyvern that was originally introduced in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite then later in Monster Hunter Generation. An aggressive black panther looking monster that has red glowing eyes when in rage mode. Beware of its tail throwing spikes. Did I mention it makes rattlesnake like sounds?
Brachydios: Originally appearing in Monster Hunter World 3 Ultimate, this brute wyvern uses blast blight to coat its hands making puddles that can explode in its wake. It definitely feels like a boxing monster, and when in rage mode no longer leaves puddles, but causes explosions everywhere.
Barioth: A flying wyvern that has spiky sings and strong legs that will kick you down quickly. It definitely looks like a saber tooth tiger with it’s long protruding tusks. It keeps on the move, to being quick or having good timing will be key to dealing with it. Also, it can make tornados!
Glavenus: Introduced in Monster Hunter Generations, this brute wyvern has a massive spiky sword-like tail. It has strong armor from its scales and will use the tail as it’s primary attack.
Velkhana: A new type of Elder Dragon that uses ice attacks. Elder dragons have great battles that are usually hard-fought, so expect quite the battles when this new monster is finally encountered.
Banbaro: This new brute wyvern reminds us of a large moose. It uses ice blight from the large snow boulders it makes when it charges you coming from its horns. Also, it can pick up trees and charge even farther to be more of a nuisance.
Beotodus: This is a new piscine wyvern who will swim in the snow and ice similar to the Lavasioth and Jyuratodus. Similar to the fire blight and water blight of those two, the Beotodus will inflict ice blight and charge you to death while remaining difficult to attack.
Yian Garuga: A brid wyvern introduced in Monster Hunter Freedom makes a return in Monster Hunter World Iceborne. It is aggressive and fights very similar to a Rathian. Is immune to sonic attacks and gives off a deafening roar as well as uses it’s tail like a poison club that should be avoided.
Old Everwyrm: This monster looks to be a very large monster, though the trailer has me thinking of a monster like the Dalamadur from Monster Hunter 4.
Shrieking Legiana: Sub-Species of the Legiana that uses even more aggressive ice attacks and ice blight inducing winds.
Viper Tobi-Kadachi: Sub-Species of the super nimble Tobi-Kadachi. This one uses poison to attack the hunter with its tail and fangs instead of thunder.
Coral Pukei-Pukei: Sub-Species of the Pukei-Pukei that uses its tail to suck up water instead and blast it light a laser at the hunter similar to the Plesioth from previous games.
Nightshade Paolumu: Sub-species of the Paolumu that uses sleep inducing status debuffs on you then pounces for the kill.
Acidic Glavenus: Sub-Species of the Glavenus that uses acidic abilities. It is also far more aggressive than it’s original counterpart.
Fulgur Anjanath: Sub-Species of the Monster Hunter World flagship monster the Anjanath. It uses thunder instead of fire.
Ebony Odogaron: Sub-Species of the deadly Odogaron that deal dragon damage out as it leaps around relentlessly.
Namielle: This is a new monster that looks to be big, red fear-inducing colors and can use water as a weapon as well as a shield.
So that is it for the new big monsters. There are of course some fan favorites coming back, like the Cortos that roll snowballs around. They’re so cute. Unfortunately missing are some monsters that fans were hoping to see like the Lagiacrus and Gammoth.
Capcom has done well keeping the content fresh and rotating out activities and certain hunts to keep players chasing more and more to do. Sadly it has not included new story content yet. That is about to change though with the Iceborne expansion. This expansion will have a story that continues after the main storyline of Monster Hunter World and brings a whole new frozen region to life. The Hoarfrost Region is the new snowy wonderland for players to have new challenges in. in the Hoarfrost Region you will be in Seliana, the hub town.
The new hub town of Seliana will be much more condensed, as the developers put it, with all the stuff you need to interact with in one instance. This is a really nice change of pace from the previous where you had to run all over the place just to talk to everyone between hunts. Keeping it neat will definitely see more players hanging out in the new zone as opposed to the previous. (Maybe they will do an evolution of the world thing and cause it to get destroyed so it can be rebuilt neatly later on).
Iceborne also introduces some new gear for the hunter in the form of the Clutch Claw. This nifty little item acts like a close-range grappling hook to help you maneuver around a monster, to help line the monster up for more attacks for your team, or leaving weak spots to hit the monster at for extra damage boosts against them. This is a combat specific slinger tool that will be introduced with the release of Iceborne and it’s new additions to combat mechanics.
Speaking of new combat mechanics coming, the Clutch Claw is part of the slinger tool being able to be used in combat with a weapon drawn or in your hands. This previously was not possible to do, but now it also lets you use the slinger tool mid-combo which will bring some new flashy and life-saving moves for hunters to use. In addition to the new slinger combat addition, most weapons are getting 1 or 2 extra moves added to them, like the forward slashes for the Long Sword weapon class.
One short but sweet addition that says it all in one line. Your Felyne buddies can now revive you once per hunt! If you have them with you.
My favorite final addition coming is going to be Grammeoster Chef. She is an older felyne that was the mentor to the Meowscular Chef from Monster Hunter World. She was out of work for a while but came back to prepare food for the hunters in Sleiana. The is way more round than most of the felyne that are around and looks very cozy in her old grandma looking get up for the cold.
So what are the final thoughts on Monster Hunter World Iceborne? Well it looks stunning. I mean the living world of Monster Hunter is always mesmerizing but this expansion really is putting some amazing touches to it. I feel like the snow is going to really help to track monsters, but most hunters that are new to the series have no idea how harsh fighting in the cold biomes can be. The stamina-sapping cold must be counteracted to be successful. Prolonged hunts that cause you to run out of Hot Drinks and lose most or all of your stamina bar will almost guarantee failures.
On top of all of these new monsters and features, I am most excited about the Brachydios. I know this was not everyone's favorite, but man I loved fighting these brutes. They would be some of the most exciting moments I would challenge myself with, especially when you had to fight 2 in one area at a time with their already nasty AOE attacks. Phew!
From us Monster Hunter Lovers here, we really hope to see you out there on both PC and Consoles. Let's hope that the devs get the gap between releases knocked out soon and we can all be playing at the same time instead of waiting as Capcom stated at E3 2019.
Release Date: Sept 6th, 2019 (Console), January 2020 (PC)
Developer: Capcom
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
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