Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is an expansion for last year’s Monster Hunter Rise, and adds a host of new content to keep players busy. Beyond what you might expect — like a new story campaign — Sunbreak offers a bunch of new monsters to the original game’s roster, new arenas to fight in, new gameplay mechanics, a new kind of quest, and more.
Below are six of the new additions to know about before jumping into Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak.
NEW AND RETURNING MONSTERS
Sunbreak adds 17 monsters to Rise’s roster. Most of these are creatures Monster Hunter veterans have tackled before in other games. However, there are four brand new monsters to the franchise in Sunbreak, including the flagship Elder Dragon, Malzeno.
Other new monsters were added like the lupine Fanged Wyvern Lunagaron, the towering Garangolm, and new subspecies such as Blood Orange Bishaten. Hunters will also encounter numerous fan-favorite and returning species from previous Monster Hunter games including the voltaic Astalos.
NEW AREAS
There are two new areas where you can hunt monsters in Sunbreak.
The first is the Jungle, which is a returning area from the franchise. Like the name suggests, it’s a lush jungle island that features beaches, caves, and vine-laden forests. The thing to know about the Jungle is that it’s teeming with endemic life, and features a few unique ways to pile damage onto monsters.
The Citadel is the second new area, and it seems to take inspiration from Castlevania. It features a dilapidated castle, a snowy summit, a swamp, and some grim-looking wooded areas. It’s a moody arena, and it’s where you’ll fight most of the story-critical monsters in Sunbreak.
A NEW CAPITAL
In addition to the plethora of new hunts to complete, the immersive story will task Kamura’s valiant hunters with researching the secrets behind the puzzling anomalies plaguing the distant Kingdom. This pursuit will take players on a journey across the sea to a new base of operations called Elgado Outpost, where they will investigate powerful creatures known as the Three Lords, each inspired by staples of Western horror.
Elgado Outpost has almost all of the stuff you can find in Kamura Village, but spread over far less space. This is a great feature, actually, as it reduces the time you’ll need to spend running between NPCs before you can get back to the hunt.
However, if you’re ever feeling homesick for Kamura Village, you can travel between the two hubs almost instantly — at least after you reach a certain point in the Sunbreak story.
NEW ENDEMIC LIFE
Some new creatures have come to both new and old areas in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, and no, we’re not just talking about hunt-able monsters.
There are several new endemic life tools you can use to help you hunt monsters. There’s the Marionette Spider, which can pull your monster into walls. There are squids that can stab your monster if you lure it into the water, or crabs that act as turrets if there’s a KO’d monster in close proximity. There are even critters that attach themselves to walls and explode if you ride a monster into them.
In addition to these environmental beasts, there are new kinds of Wire Bugs as well, which augment you next Wyvern Ride. With Gold Wire Bugs, your attacks will shear more parts and pieces from your target monster. The Red Wire Bugs increase the damage of your most powerful Wyvern Riding attacks, which can be really helpful if you’re struggling to kill a difficult monster.
FOLLOWER QUESTS
NPC friends will occasionally join you in hunts during Sunbreak (usually for big story missions). But outside of the campaign, you can recruit Followers to go hunting with you in special Follower quests and expeditions.
These Followers act like other human players, but are controlled by the computer instead of your friends. During hunts they’ll slice or bash the monster, use items, and even run off to a different zone, only to return riding a monster.
NEW SWITCH SKILLS AND QUICK SWAP
The Switch Skill Swap is one of the biggest mechanical changes in Sunbreak, although its usefulness will vary drastically depending on how much you like to change up your playstyle.
This swap allows you to have multiple skill loadouts during a single hunt. All you need to do is customize your weapon’s Red Switch Skill Swap Scroll and Blue Switch Skill Swap Scroll sets with different behaviors and Silkbind attacks. Then, in mid-combat, you can swap between the move-sets with a press of two buttons.
If you enjoy using familiar moves all the time with your weapons, this addition won’t do much for you. But if you love customizing the behaviors of your hunting tools, this one mechanic will be a major gamechanger.
Play solo, or join up to three other hunters in online co-op play on Nintendo Switch or PC. The Nintendo Switch system also allows for hunting anywhere, anytime and with anyone via a local connection!
See our review here:
Release Date: June 30, 2022
Genres: Role-playing video game, Adventure game, Fighting game, Shooter game
Platform: Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Note: You must own Monster Hunter Rise in order to play this expansion. Sunbreak content is accessible after completion of the 7-star Hub quest “Serpent Goddess of Thunder”
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 10 （64-bit）
Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-4130 or Core™ i5-3470 or AMD FX™-6100
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 1030 (DDR4) or AMD Radeon™ RX 550
DirectX: Version 12
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 36 GB available space
Additional Notes: 1080p/30fps when graphics settings are set to “Low”. System requirements subject to change during game development.
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 10 （64-bit）
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4460 or AMD FX™-8300
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 (VRAM 3GB) or AMD Radeon™ RX 570 (VRAM 4GB)
DirectX: Version 12
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 36 GB available space
Additional Notes: 1080p/30fps when graphics settings are set to “Average”. System requirements subject to change during game development.
