Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance trailer reveals story, no date

Capcom used yesterday’s PlayStation State of Play to give us our best look yet at Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, and honestly, it’s a lot more story than I expected for an expansion trailer. The bad news? Still no release date, just a 2027 window. Patience, hunters.

Monster Hunter Wilds – Ascendance trailer

A time skip changes everything

The story picks up after the base game, but with a twist: a time skip means familiar characters and locations now look different. The trigger for all this is the Elder Dragon Lao-Shan Lung, whose arrival causes serious devastation and forces the Expedition to spend years fortifying itself, eventually building the Madoi Stronghold to prepare for the dragon’s return.

Once the mist from that arrival clears, players get access to the Skybound Eyrie, a new area sitting above the clouds. Up there, things have clearly gone sideways ecologically, guardian monster habitats have expanded, and more Elder Dragons start showing up, including the newly revealed Gundoraja, a storm-manipulating monster that sounds like an absolute nightmare to fight in the rain.

On the gameplay side, Capcom is adding the Boost Bracer, gear that temporarily boosts your hunter’s abilities and pumps up the strengths of all 14 weapon types. Should make an already deep combat system even more chaotic, in a good way.

If you want in before Ascendance lands, Capcom’s also released a demo covering the Monster Hunter Wilds prologue. And when the expansion does arrive, you’ll need to have finished the “Awakening From a Dream” quest and hit Hunter Rank 40 to actually play it.

2027 isn’t that far, just a few more months.

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