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Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak introduces a vampiric dragon

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During the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak digital event, Capcom showed off a brand-new trailer featuring older monsters and new ones. The clip included the expansion’s flagship dragon, Malzeno.

Malzeno is a vampiric elder dragon that captures monsters and steals their life force. It also has the ability to inflict the Bloodblight status, which causes hunters to slowly lose their HP in a tug-of-war fashion with it. In order for hunters to regain lost HP due to Bloodblight, it seems like they’ll have to keep attacking Malzeno. If a hunter succumbs to Bloodblight, then Malzeno will use the life force to evolve into a more powerful form.

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There are also three additional monsters being added to Sunbreak, including Seregios, who was the flagship creature in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. Aurora Somnacanth is a new subspecies of Somnacanth that fires off a powerful ice breath instead of the usual sleep-inducing breath. The last monster is Magma Almudron, a subspecies of Almudron that specializes in fire elemental attacks.

Monster Hunter Digital Event - May 2022

Sunbreak also introduces Follower Quests, which allow hunters to team up with story characters to help out during hunts. They can place traps, ride monsters, and assist in recovering your health.

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There are a few new quality of life changes, too. Players can now swap between two Switch skills with the Red Swap Scroll and Blue Swap Scroll, and can also avoid monster attacks while swapping skill sets via the Swap Evade mechanic. Additionally, players can now go into a wall run without first going into a wire dash first. When a monster is downed and in a mountable state, players can now choose to keep attacking it instead of riding it. The old controls and new controls can be chosen at any time in the settings menu.

Those who pre-order Sunbreak will receive a striped cat costume and loyal dog costume for their Palico and Palamute companions. There will also be three new Amiibo released, which feature Malzeno, Cayne Malzeno, and Felyne Malzeno. Nintendo will separately release a Sunbreak Edition Nintendo Switch Pro Controller with the Malzeno design on the front.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak launches worldwide on June 30 for Nintendo Switch and PC.

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George Yang
George Yang
George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…
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