Capcom, in all its glory, indeed dropped a bomb on unsuspecting Monster Hunter players. That gear you have been wearing? Just might not cut it anymore. There’s a new patch that allows it to be upgraded even further, and the official Monster Hunter Twitter is already saying that those upgrades could very well be the difference between a kill and a cart to camp against the terrifying new 9★ monsters.
With a “Psst,” the tweet almost seemed like it had come from some shady black market alley in the heart of a monster hunters’ town as it clandestinely instructed the players to “upgrade your armor sets to the new upgrade limit.” It is like a warning, that if the game itself instructs you to upgrade your gear, it is something you better do or else you will turn into one-shot bug food for a rampaging dinosaur.
Things got even more interesting in the comments, as there was a sort of division amounting to “Hell yeah, new challenges,” and “Oh god, the grind.” One hunter by the name Vice Simani mentioned that they had already maxed out their favorite Bubbly Dance set; since it’s a rare 6 armor, it quickly gets cast aside for higher-tier armor. The dread news for fashion hunters; those who will not break their style for pure defense stats.
That was when the MH community did what it does best, and of course, the “git gud” began. People like MH_Oldhunter flared saying “the best defense is not getting hit,” while others were complaining about the insane grinding for materials necessary for upgrading several armor sets. Another salty veteran, x5jailed_k03B01, complained he had hunted everything 50 times and was just waiting for new content.
Performance issues arose as well. DrPlague_05 sarcastically said, “All I hear is ‘come back please, I swear we will do performance patches sometime in 2030’.” Such a burn! Taking it back, Avellar3000 argued that the game runs fine on well-maintained machines and told another player to “get a better toaster.” PC master race do it again.
The armor upgrades then sparked a technical dialogue. OnikaiIronfist was sharing his findings on optimal Gunlance builds, while PARLT47 was crunching numbers relative to farming efficiency – apparently 60k upgrade points per hour if you’re optimally efficient with your hunts. Math in my Monster Hunter? Pluck that out, way more likely than you think.
What is more interesting is linking this talk to the ongoing discussion on Monster Hunter difficulty. VaynePeluche and some opinions started to compare the challenge with that of the older games of the series, while Avellar3000 shot down all comparisons to Souls games. The community cannot decide if the new content genuinely presents a challenge or if it is just artificial difficulty through gear checks.
Nonetheless, at the end of the day, the unambiguous message equals: If you don’t want to become breakfast for these new 9★ threats, gear up and get ready to put some serious work in. Whether that means farming for hours on end, refining the timing of your dodges, or picking up that Lance that’s been sitting in your item box and gathering dust, well, that’s your choice. Just don’t whine once Rajang uses your corpses to decorate the ground because you refused to upgrade your leather armor.
The update looks like it’s a patch to keep veteran hunters hooked while setting the stage for whatever dread they’ve got in store next. And seriously, we all know that was just a warm-up for the worse nightmare they’re concocting for the next title update. Happy hunting, and may your armor spheres never run out.
