Expansions like Iceborne are rare. The upcoming DLC to Capcom’s Monster Hunter World will not only feature a ton of new content but some of the hardest monster encounters in the game. It’s comprised of Master Rank quests, which are ultra-challenging endgame quests typically seen in the “Ultimate” versions of Monster Hunter games. As such, you need to be ready for the trying new adventure at Hoarfrost Reach, the chilly new locale where Iceborne‘s storyline is centered. For those wanting to dive in before it launches, we’ve put together a list to help you be as ready as possible for Master Rank.
Make sure to check out our Monster Hunter World: Iceborne beginner’s guide.
This is a mandatory requirement. In order to play Iceborne, you need to reach Hunter Rank 16 in Monster Hunter World. If you reached the credits, you’re already there. This means slaying Zorah Magdaros, working through High Rank quests, and toppling the Elder Dragons. If you’re not at Hunter Rank 16 come launch, you’ll be able to use the new Hunter moves such as Clutch Claw in World’s story, but you won’t be able to head over to Hoarfrost Reach to start the Iceborne story.
One of the best ways to prepare for Iceborne is to revisit some of the toughest monsters in World. Not only will you sharpen your skills, you’ll earn helpful items and rewards. While you cannot replay main quests, you can do optional quests as many times as you’d like. Run through the Elder Dragons — Vaal Hazak, Nergigante, Teostra, and Kushala Daora — in eight-star quests. You can also grab Investigations from the Resource Center. A good place to start is any High Rank investigation that requires you to hunt two monsters.
Since Master Rank monsters have significantly more health, trying to slay two or three High Rank monsters in one quest will be great practice.
Depending on how far you progressed past HR 16, you might not have time to unlock Tempered and Arch-Tempered monster hunts. Undoubtedly the toughest High Rank challenges in World, these are the best challenges to prepare yourself for Iceborne. You’ll also get some useful rewards.
Once you collect enough Elder Dragon tracks, an investigation for a Tempered monster can be registered at the resource center. A formidable test comes at Hunter Rank 29 when you have to hunt a pair of Tempered Bazelgeuse. And at Hunter Rank 49, you can hunt Tempered Kirin. From there, you can accept quests against Tempered Elder Dragons.
If you’re already here or manage to get this far, you can accept Arch-Tempered Event quests at Hunter Rank 50 until August 29. All of these Tempered monsters will test your might. If you can make it out alive against a Tempered monster, you should be in good shape when starting Iceborne.
Mantles are wearable cloaks that provide buffs. You’ll want to have as many of them unlocked when starting Iceborne. They truly help, and some of the Mantles will have a second, more powerful form in Iceborne that can presumably only be unlocked by having the Mantle already.
The three most useful Mantles for starting Iceborne are the Iceproof Mantle, Temporal Mantle, and Rocksteady Mantle.
The Iceproof Mantle nullifies Iceblight and reduces ice damage, which will certainly come in handy in Hoarfrost Reach. You can unlock it by completing the delivery quest “Armory R&D: Weatherizing.”
The Temporal Mantle automatically dodges powerful powerful attacks. It goes without saying how useful it could be against Master Rank monsters. To unlock it, you have to complete the special assignment “No Remorse, No Surrender” (slay Lunastra and Teostra). But first, you have to beat “The Blazing Sun” and “Pandora’s Arena.”
The Rocksteady Mantle increases defense, nullifies reactions to damage, gives you perfect balance when windy, and gives you tremor resistance. As it’s pretty awesome, you have to slay three Tempered Elder Dragons (HR 50) and then complete “A Summons from Below,” which tasks you with hunting Tempered Vaal Hazak and Tempered Odogaron.
If you have time, you should try to unlock all Mantles prior to Iceborne. Here’s the full list.
Just as G-Rank monsters have in the past, Master Rank monsters will deliver a beating. Start stocking up on healing items: Max Potions, Mega Potions (harvest tons of honey!), Lifepowder, Ancient Potions, etc. Also make sure you have a ton of Nulberries to remove the many blights you’ll get afflicted with against monsters such as Banbaro, Velkhana, Coral Pukei-Pukei, and more.
While you’ll earn new monster parts, bones, and ore to craft Master Rank weapons and armor, it doesn’t hurt to save up parts. Don’t spend all of your materials on armor you don’t need for High Rank, since you can later use some of those materials in Master Rank when you will actually need them. This includes Armor Spheres. Conserve those useful armor upgrade materials. It also helps to save materials to take to Elder Melder to make new Decorations and the aforementioned healing items.
First thing’s first. Pick the weapon you’re most comfortable with to bring with you to Iceborne. Practice with it, of course. But is there still room to improve it on the upgrade tree? If yes, focus on maxing out that weapon. A fully upgraded weapon will help you in the early quests in Iceborne.
If you regularly hunt solo or as a duo, you already know Palicos can be quite helpful. While the Vigorwasp Spray Gadget is great for healing, other Palico Gadgets are also useful. To unlock more, you have to make friends with the local tribes in each locale and complete short quests for them. For example, in the Ancient Forest, you have to find Grimalkyne Doodles. In the Wildspire Waste, you have to capture a few Grimalkynes for the local tribe. In the Coral Highlands, you have to fight the Tailriders and then slay a couple of Tzitzi-Ya-Ku.
If you’re playing solo, the Shieldspire Palico Gadget can be incredibly helpful, as it can both protect you from large monsters and attack/stun them at high levels.
Iceborne‘s storyline is centered around Hoarfrost Reach, but you’ll still go on quests in the existing locales. Ahead of the launch, make sure you have all of the camps unlocked for quick and painless fast travel to the Canteen and Item Box.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.