Monster Hunter Now, with Season 2 it gets serious: the first Elder Dragon and the Rifle Lance arrive
Season 2 of Monster Hunter Now, “Storm Bubble Festival” is about to arrive: let’s take an overview of what’s new in this update, which welcomes the Rifle Lance and the Kushala Daora.
Despite a certain initial skepticism, Monster Hunter Now turned out to be a successful experiment , with the mobile hunting game born from the collaboration between Capcom and Niantic, the authors of Pokémon GO, which managed to conquer a segment of the public indifferent, with over 15 million downloads worldwide.
Now the game is preparing for a new chapter, thanks to Season 2 – Stormy Bubble Party – Part I and the substantial June update, which at the moment you are reading these lines is already available for download, welcoming the first elder dragon, the fearsome Kushala Daora, in addition to two other monsters, features and a new type of weapon, the Rifle Lance. We had the opportunity to preview the new content through a presentation conducted by senior producer Sakae Osumi, here is a summary of the tasty news that has arrived for all players.
The elder dragons arrive, we start from Kushala Daora
With the updates published in April and May, the developers have strengthened the multiplayer hunting system, for example by inserting additional rewards for missions undertaken in groups, the possibility of participating in Hunts even with players who are not in our vicinity, and inserting an equipment enhancement system with Vago Fusion.
Monster Hunter Now, with Season 2 it gets serious: the first Elder Dragon and the Rifle Lance arrive
Monster Hunter Now – Season 2 Trailer
With hindsight, they were all changes and tweaks in view of what we can in all respects consider to be the first great endgame challenge of Monster Hunter Now, namely the “Clash with the Elder Dragon” , the most feared and dangerous monsters of the Monster Hunter universe. The first to arrive on Now is the Kushala Daora , a dragon covered in a layer of steel skin and capable of annihilating hunters with powerful gusts of wind and tornadoes.
To take part in these highly difficult hunts, you must have reached hunter rank 11 and possess the Ultra Hunt vouchers , which replace the Cacciatona vouchers. Furthermore, these missions can only be tackled with a GC 11 or higher. Outside of special events, Elder Dragons will only appear in the game at two specific times (7:15am and 10:20pm local time) at specific points on the map. Prepare yourself mentally for very difficult battles which, according to Osumi’s words, are currently almost impossible to complete solo and much longer than normal.
The dynamics of these fights are also different from usual. In fact, elderly dragons have a life bar divided into two segments : by emptying the first, the hunt timer is extended, giving rise to phase 2. The reward system is also different. In fact, it is not necessary to eliminate this dangerous monster to obtain rewards, although succeeding in this undertaking ensures a loot of eight materials, in addition to the bonus ones for breaking parts. You can also deflate his life bar by 20% and “Repel” the monster to get a reward, with the number increasing proportionally to the total damage.
Regarding the clash with Kushala Daora itself, however, we were not shown much more than what we can already see in the Season 2 trailer. Moreover, the Niantic team wants to leave players with the “pleasure” of discovering the Kushala Daora’s destructiveness in battle, well known to long-time fans of the series: expect to have to deal with tornadoes moving across the hunting ground, compressed air explosions and mid-air attacks. Good luck!
The Kushada Daora isn’t the only addition to Now’s roster of monsters. Also arriving with him were the Basarios , a large creature covered in hard rock armor and which suffers real damage only by hitting its incandescent parts, and the Khezu , a gruesome flying wyvern capable of stretching its neck and generating dangerous thunder attacks that could easily figure in a Resident Evil. From now until June 23rd these monsters will have a greater chance of appearing in the game. Additionally, by completing urgent Season 2 story missions, Coral Pukei-Pukei and Zinogre will appear sporadically on the map.
As usual, the materials of the new monsters allow you to forge new weapons and armor and therefore access new abilities. In particular, producer Osumi suggested that the Kushala Daora’s weapons are on a whole other level compared to those of standard monsters and have the Hunter’s Bond ability , which increases the damage of an ability based on how many hunters in the team it has. ‘activate. For the rest we will find equipment that enhances thunder damage and Artillery, which guarantees a bonus to explosive damage and which will prove essential for the Rifle Lance.
The debut of the rifle spear
For those who have played the main games of the series, the rifle launcher needs no great introduction. For everyone else, just know that it is a basic weapon similar to the spear with shield, but with reduced mobility and capable of firing powerful explosive projectiles at short and medium range.
The weapon maintains the mechanics and complexity seen in Monster Hunter World and will come in variants with Normal projectiles (according to producer Osumi the most suitable for beginners), Fan projectiles (short range and with a greater impact, but with a very small capacity) and Long (greater range and high damage), each of which favors different combinations of attacks.
From the gameplay that we have been able to view, World players will have no difficulty in becoming familiar with this weapon, although there will be some differences, designed to adapt its movements to the stylistic features of Monster Hunter Now. In this regard, Osumi suggested that, unlike the main games of the series, the damage of explosive projectiles will not be semi-fixed (i.e. calculated exclusively from the level of ammunition and skills such as artillery, ignoring statistics and the resistance of the affected parts) and so more attention will be needed on how and where to hit the monsters.
Other new features: friend missions, friend requests after hunts and new costumes
The June update of Season 2 (to be followed by those in July and August) continues to enrich the social and multiplayer functions of Monster Hunter Now. For example, now at the end of a group hunt it will be possible to send a friend request to the hunters we have met.
Additionally, the new Friend Missions activity has been added for hunters with GC 12 or higher. We are talking about challenges that are updated every week and repeatable several times, which require the joint efforts of you and your friends to achieve a common goal, for example eliminating a certain number of monsters, in exchange for various useful rewards.
New season, new season pass, both free and premium, which once again will allow you to obtain new costumes, this time themed around sportswear and yukata. Furthermore, during the month of June, a collaboration event with the Monster Hunter Stories series will begin , on the occasion of the launch of the remaster of the first chapter . Completing them will earn you Hunter Medals and limited edition layered outfits.
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