Monster Hunter Wilds is getting its first major paid expansion in the form of Ascendance, currently planned for release in 2027. The upcoming DLC will feature a completely new area, Skybound Eyrie, a new roster, overhauls to the game’s difficulty, and more. On that latter note, game director Takuro Hiraoka says that “every monster” will be getting “new moves and behaviors”.

Hiraoka wants players to “rethink” their strategy during hunts with introduction of Master Rank, which is where enemies will develop their new moves and behaviors. “It’s true that for, say, existing monsters who have not got master rank versions, there will be parameter increases behind the scenes,” says the director, but increasing difficulty is about more than upping the numbers.

What’s new in Monster Hunter Wilds Ascendance?

The comments come from a recent interview with Video Games Chronicle, which also featured series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and executive director Kaname Fujioka. Within Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, a new combat tool and meter system will be introduced in the form of the Boost Guage and Boost Bracers, giving players the ability to unleash enhanced weapon-specific combos, moves, and offsets for all 14 weapon types. Hiraoka says the “Boost Bracer in particular” is useful for tackling master rank monsters.

“Every monster, including the existing ones in the base game, will have new moves and new behaviors, and we want the player to have to revisit and rethink their strategies for the monsters, not just do the old strategy harder. You actually have to rethink what this fight actually means and how you’re going to have to approach it.”

Takuro Hiraoka, Game Director on Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance

Long-time Monster Hunter players have been quick to point out that this isn’t really anything new to the franchise. “That’s how it’s worked in almost all of the games,” says one commenter. With the most recent major releases, Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter World, new moves for master rank monsters were introduced in the Sunbreak and Iceborne expansions, respectively.

Tsuijimoto also touched on topic of PC performance, saying “We’ve been working hard on bringing the lessons learned from the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds to bear on Ascendance”. The game’s optimization has come a long way since launch, and Steam reviews began to U-turn after a major PC performance patch was released early this year.

“It just takes a lot of time and research to examine what it is you need to achieve on PC to make the game perform well on a variety of hardware. It’s just a matter of experience really, so I’m hoping that we can bring those lessons forward into Ascendance” Tsuijimoto added.

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Jack Goodall

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