Monster Hunter: The Board Game Buying Guide and Expansions

As you mightiness expect from the title, the mounting for this postulation is simply a primeval forest. The crippled boards are a lush greenish and brownish and the monsters are intelligibly inspired by dinosaurs and tropical animals. There’s the lizard-like Great Jagras, the furred and scaled Tobi-Kadachi, the fearsome tyrannosaur Anjanath and the immense dragon Rathalos. Setting retired to instrumentality them down are the classically-armed hunters Great Sword, Sword and Shield, Dual Blades, and Bow.

Wildspire Waste is simply a small much esoterically-named but the monsters and boards marque wide that it’s a badlands-type setting, with a substance of rocky outcrops, godforsaken and swamp. The included creatures are the heavily-armored Barroth, monstrous swamp-fish Jyurados, the bird-like Pukei-Pukei, and underground behemoth Diablos which bears much than a passing resemblance to its demonic namesake. The hunters successful this acceptable are a small much bizarre, wielding Charge Blade, Switch Axe, Heavy Bowgun and Insect Glaive respectively.

Retail Expansions

As is often the lawsuit with Kickstarter-driven games, determination were a slew of expansions disposable to pre-order astatine the aforesaid time. Most of these are inactive disposable astatine retail, nevertheless Nergigante is precise hard to find and Teostra is exclusive to the publisher, Steamforged games – some of them are presently disposable straight from their website.

Nergigante, Kushala Daora and Teostra are each Elder Dragons, a caller benignant of monster for you to hunt. They travel with further quest contented for the basal game, but possibly astir appealing of each they connection an extra, five-star trouble level that’s a people supra immoderate of the basal crippled monsters, and the included miniature is simply a full level bigger than immoderate of their halfway container counterparts, too. That gives you an extra, mega-boss situation to flooded and extends your campaign.

While getting to combat an eventual brag successful a longer run mightiness dependable similar the perfect mode to widen your basal crippled content, each these expansions are expensive, and galore person features that lone enactment with 1 halfway container oregon the other. For example, Daora has 1 peculiar crafting limb that fits a huntsman from the Ancient Forest, and different for a huntsman from the Wildspire Wastes. As such, picking up the 2nd halfway acceptable mightiness good beryllium your champion archetypal halt if you privation further contented for your game.

This offers six caller hunters, arsenic accustomed named aft their weapons, which are a substance of the accepted and peculiar. You tin take from the Light Bowgun, the Long Sword (which is precise agelong indeed), the Gunlance, the Hammer, the Lance and the Hunting Horn (which looks thing similar a horn). While chill dragons and different monsters are evidently appealing, successful presumption of adding assortment to your games, this container gives you the biggest bang for your subordinate arsenic you get six antithetic caller toys to play with, and six caller upgrade paths to explore, alternatively than conscionable 1 beastie. However, you’ll request some halfway sets to beryllium capable to afloat utilize each six.

If you bash privation 1 azygous dragon to adhd to your campaign, this mightiness beryllium your champion stake due to the fact that it allows you to trade further weapons for each the presently disposable characters, including each those from the halfway sets and the Hunter’s Arsenal. He’s besides delightfully odd, a spiny colossus who grows vicious spikes to impale the hunters wherever he’s damaged.

Kushala Daora is simply a upwind dragon, who buffets the hunters with almighty storms and he’s besides got the biggest miniature successful the range, with a foot-wide wingspan. As if beating specified a behemoth wasn’t a pugnacious capable combat successful the archetypal place, you’ll besides person to combat done beardown winds and tornado blasts conscionable to adjacent adjacent with your quarry.

Of each the dragons, Teostra mightiness beryllium the astir acquainted simply due to the fact that it’s the classical occurrence dragon everyone knows and either loves oregon fears, perchance successful adjacent measure. As you mightiness expect that means a batch of ranged punishment from blasts and fireballs for anyone that dares trespass onto the dragon’s lair.

Exclusive Expansion

This was primitively lone disposable arsenic portion of the Kickstarter run for the game. Expect to wage a hefty premium if you privation to prime 1 up second-hand. However, there’s presently different accidental to snag 1 acknowledgment to the much caller Kickstarter run for the caller Iceborne boxes, elaborate below.

This bizarre carnal tin prime things up successful its dextrous claws, specified arsenic rocks to propulsion astatine intrepid hunters. In mechanical presumption this not lone gives it a rocket onslaught but its quality to usage tools makes it unpredictable, ensuring you’ve got to prime the close spot from circular to circular successful bid to people maximum damage. It looks a batch similar an ornithomimosaur - an ostrich-mimic dinosaur - truthful looks close astatine location successful the Ancient Forest though it tin beryllium utilized with either halfway box.

Upcoming Content

Following the occurrence of the archetypal lineup elaborate above, steadfast Steamforged Games ran a 2nd Kickstarter for a caller iteration of the basal plan called Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. While it features the aforesaid halfway mechanics it has a scope of caller concepts, truthful it’s lone partially compatible with the archetypal boxes: you tin larboard monsters and hunters from 1 to the different successful arena games, but you can’t shunt a run from 1 mounting to a antithetic one.

The Iceborne contented follows a similar, but somewhat antithetic way to the archetypal campaign. There’s conscionable 1 halfway container this time, Hoarfrost Reach, again with 4 monsters and 4 hunters. Also arsenic earlier determination are Elder Dragons and a Hunter’s Arsenal enlargement to add. But alternatively of different halfway container determination are 3 monster expansions with 4 caller monsters each, Absolute Power, Seething Anger and Overpowering Hunger. Plus a smattering of extras unlocked during the campaign.

While the run has closed, the crippled has not yet shipped and you tin inactive bid items from the offered scope via Gamfound.

For more, cheque retired our Arkham Horror buying usher if you're into fearfulness committee games, oregon instrumentality a look astatine our Dominion buying usher if you're much a instrumentality of deck-building games.

Matt Thrower is simply a contributing freelance writer for IGN, specializing successful tabletop games. You tin scope him connected BlueSky astatine @mattthr.bsky.social.

Originally posted:

May 10, 2025 7:00 pm