So we’re almost ready to head into the Hoarfrost Reach in Monster Hunter World’s Iceborne. The patch is quite big, clocking in at around 30 GB on PS4 and Xbox One, and packs in tons of new content. Major changes are on the way which are about to completely redo the current meta, so let’s dig in.
First and foremost, is the mountain of gameplay changes being introduced in the 10.x patches across all platforms. For one thing, quest difficulty will now scale in real-time according to the number of players in the quest, no more multiplayer quests screwing up due to a disconnect. Monsters are getting behavioral and damage adjustments across the board too. Sleep and Rage behaviors are being tweaked to make them easier to deal with.
Starting on the deployment of the patch on August 4th, ahead of the full launch on the 6th, gamers can claim a completely new Guardian armor set meant to speed up progress to HR 50 by offering some rather surprising skills.
And speaking of skills, Capcom is completely reblancing skills in Iceborne. Multiple skills, with a particular focus on Elemental skills receiving buffs. Weakness Exploit is being nerfed though. In the expansion content, players will have to use the Clutch Claw to get the full effect of that skill by combining it with their normal attacks.
Damage scaling and other stats for various weapon classes is getting adjusted. Pretty much every weapon in the game is getting a rework of some kind to account for the increased difficulty of Master Rank. I’m particularly happy about the Great Sword and Hammer changes, as it’s buffs all the way. The directional hitboxes for some guard animations are being redone to help avoid unintentional damage, so that’s great as well.
Palicoes are also getting a new level of content with increased Gadget proficiency and overall ranks. So get ready to go on some more adventures with your kitty pals.
Other QoL and gameplay tweaks include a redesigned Gathering Hub, complete with all the necessary NPCs, as well as a ton of UI fixes. The amount of items, loadout slots and other information has been increased, placing much more variety and control in the hands of gamers. The sorting of Investigations has been streamlined too. Other locations like the Third Fleet Research Base got some QoL fixes like a Smithy. Overall, Capcom is designing Iceborne with a major focus on player feedback and desires. To that end, all the major complaints players have about spending too much time running from place to place are getting some level of iterations.
The patch is even introducing some new cosmetic options with more Layered Armors and a bunch of new items called Pendants. Pendants are non-boost decorative charms that add flair to player’s weapons. Players can also deck out their new rooms in Seliana, the new hub, with more than 100 different furniture items. And with all of the new armor sets, players will definitely be spoiled for choice.
And as is usual with patches of this size, a ton of bug fixes are being introduced. Fixes to various skills not proccing properly are being dealt with, for example, and that’s just the beginning. There’s so much more to this patch than we could cover here though, check below for more details.
Check out the video developer diary for the 10.x update down below, if you’re more the visual learning type and what an overview of the patch changes. You can also find the full written version of the patch notes on the main site.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne releases September 6th on Playstation 4 and Xbox One with PC arriving in January 2020.
If you’re not prepared for Iceborne, or if you want to make sure you wrap some things up, check out our checklist of things to complete ahead of the expansion launch in a few weeks.
