Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak DLC – monsters, Switch Skill Swaps & Follower Quests revealed

Stefan L 10/05/22 Comments Closed

Capcom has given us a big new look at the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak expansion in a digital event featuring series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and director Yoshitake Suzuki. There’s three new monsters, the new Switch Skill Swap ability, Follower Quests and more to dig into, with the Sunbreak expansion coming to Nintendo Switch and PC on 30th June 2022.

The broader digital event, had plenty of new details for fans to pour over, with the monsters taking centre stage. The Flying Wyvern Seregios – AKA the tousand-edged dragon – makes its return in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. It’s sure to be a fearsome opponent thanks to the Bladscales on its body which shed and can cause the Bleed status effect. There’s also two new variants of other monsters: Aurora Somnacanth will release a constant chilling mist that can freeze those getting too close, as well as gliding across ice and having an ice breath, and Magma Almudron augments its attacks with molten stone.

However, the monster most people will want to go up against is the Elder Dragon Malzeno. Malzeno has a mysterious swarm of parasitic entities that will capture and absorb the energy of their prey. It’s a vampire dragon, basically, afflicting hunters with the Bloodblight status, sapping their health in a test of which will outlast the other. If a hunter dies from Bloodblight, then Malzeno will evolved into an even more fearsome form.

Building on the Wirebug that was introduced in Monster Hunter Rise, Sunbreak brings a new Wirebug techniques that include the Silkbind Attacks and Wyvern Riding. You’ll also learn new Switch Skills and the Switch Skill Swap that lets you take two different loadouts into the wild and change them out on the fly. You’ll have to try to do so with a modicum of safety, but if you come under attack, you can perform a Swap Evade to dodge and get back in the fight.

New Follower Quests add new single player hunts to the game with quests given out by the NPCs in the game who then accompany you out into the world. Each character – from Elgado Outpost this includes Fiorayne, Luchika, Jae, Admiral Galleus, and Master Arlow, while Kamura Village lends you Hinoa and Minotohas – a specialisation that could help assist players by recovering health, placing traps and riding monsters into battle.

Here’s the full show:

Originally releasing for Nintendo Switch in March 2021 and then getting a PC port in January 2022, Sunbreak is a major expansion to a widely praised entry in the long-running Monster Hunter series. In our Monster Hunter Rise review, we scored this latest entry in the series a whopping 9/10, thanks to new gameplay tweaks and innovations like the Wirebug and Palamutes:

“Monster Hunter Rise is an incredible game. While it may not feel quite as ground-breaking for the series as World did, it boasts a stronger and distinctly Japanese identity, and the changes and streamlined gameplay simply focus on the franchise’s true stars – the monsters. Rise is easily one of the best games for the Nintendo Switch, and one of the finest Monster Hunters ever.”