2020 will be kicking off with dozens of new game releases, esports tournaments, and seasonal starts, but few things have garnered the same attention that the upcoming Monster Hunter World expansion has received.
Monster Hunter: World’s upcoming Iceborne expansion will be released on January 9th, and Capcom is doing everything they can to get ready for it. Do keep in mind that most of the changes of this patch affect the console version rather than the PC version of the game.
Most of the additions and fixes of the patch are to help with a few minor bugs and help make the transition over to the new expansion more seamless. These will help with stability and compatibility, as well as making sure that the stranger bugs don’t keep popping up.
Some of these bugs were a handful of quality-of-life issues, ensuring that decorations aren’t randomly unequipped. Others are much more serious and are aimed towards fixing issues where you can’t complete quests or even load their games in some cases.
In terms of major additions and changes, the official announcement reads as follows:
- Shining Wyvern Blade has been renamed to Platinum Dawn to better match its appearance
- Free Meal Skill on the Rex Boar Helm (Beta) has been changed from 2 to 1
- Adjustments to the design of how other players are knocked back from explosions of the gunlance’s Wyrmstake Blast
- A new starter-friendly Guardian armor set has been added, obtained via the Housekeeper. The default armor in character creation also has been changed from the original Defender (Alpha) to the Guardian armor set.
One interesting tidbit about the last two points on the list is that the Guardian armor and Defender armor apparently have no differences. They have the same attributes and only differ in color. Players can also still buy the Defender (Alpha) set at the Armory. To be honest, it kind of makes one wonder why they bothered changing it if all it changes is a cosmetic, as it has no difference on the game itself. Still, since the old armor is still obtainable, it makes no difference for anyone involved.
The list of bug fixes is quite a bit longer, and goes so far as to add in the quests “A New Troublemaker in Town” and “Challenge Quest 2: MR Intermediate,” which were from previous updates. Iceborne will be landing in only a couple of weeks, so hunters would do well to make sure they’re nice and geared up for the winter.
