Monster Hunter Now Season 1 Brings The Mobile Game Even Closer To The Main Series

Highlights

• Monster Hunter Now Season 1 brings new features like Charge Blade, new monsters, and a battle pass for players to enjoy.
• The layered armor system allows players to customize their looks and show off their outfits in the new Matching Lobby feature.
• Season pass offers cosmetic items and materials to unlock, with a new weapon type and expanded loadout slots for players.

I’ve always admired Monster Hunter Now for how much it feels like playing traditional Monster Hunter games. Pokemon Go is great, but you’d never spend all day catching and releasing thousands of Lechonk in a regular Pokemon game. Pokemon Go players say things like “I just need 200 more Trapinch Candy XL to raise my shundo’s CP!” To mainline Pokemon players, these are nonsense words.

But Monster Hunter Now is just like Monster Hunter. You go on expeditions, find monsters to hunt, collect their materials, and use them to craft stronger weapons and armor. It’s got all the trappings of a Monster Hunter series, from paintballs to palicos, and Niantic has adapted all of them into its signature AR model beautifully. With the start of Season One this month, Now takes another giant step towards becoming a fully-featured Monster Hunter on-the-go.

The big headliners of Season One: The Vernal Invader are as follows: a new weapon type (Charge Blade), three new monsters to hunt (Odogaron, Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, Deviljo), a seasonal battle pass (with a free track and a paid track), the introduction of a layered armor system, and a new Matching Lobby where you can show off said layered armor. Monster Hunter vets will be most excited about those last two points, but let’s start at the top.

The Charge Blade maintains its core playstyle, adapted for the simplicity of mobile. Sword Mode offers quicker attacks, a shield, and the ability to store up energy, while Axe Mode provides slower, stronger attacks and the opportunity to unleash your stored energy for devastating damage. You’ll gain access to this new weapon at HR11, just a short way into the introductory storyline. Charge Blade is the ninth weapon added to the game after Dual Blades and Lances back in December, leaving only nine more in the future (I’m still begging for Insect Glaive).

The new monsters add a few interesting wrinkles. Materials from each of them will be used to craft new weapon and armor sets, and Odogaron weapons will introduce the bleed status effect. Deviljo is the titular Vernal Invader of the season, and it has a special encounter mechanic. When hunting monsters in certain unstable areas, you have a high likelihood of seeing your hunt get invaded by Deviljo.

Unfortunately, it won’t leap into battle and start a turf war like it would in Monster Hunter World – I guess we’re still a few years off from having that kind technology on mobile – but it will take over your hunt launch screen, allowing you to decide whether or not you want to take the monster on solo or invite some nearby hunters to help. I imagine encountering a Deviljo will be kind of like catching a Shiny Dragonite only to find out it was a Zorua in disguise, except more exciting and less heartbreaking.

The new season pass is pretty standard live service fare. There’s 100 levels to unlock full of curated awards like cosmetic items and materials, and after level 100 you can continue progressing infinitely until the end of the season to earn more. If you’ve played Marvel Snap, this will look very familiar.

In a Q&A, senior producer Sakae Osumi estimated that a power player could get through all 100 levels in a month, while someone that plays just 20 minutes every day could still finish it in a couple of months. You’ll be able to buy the Season One pass using gems, but sadly, you won’t earn any gems with the pass to use to pay for the next one. The Prime Hunter’s Pass will still be available too, this is just a new way to spend money in the game. From what I’ve seen, though, it looks like a good deal, especially if you want an easier, more consistent way to get a few extra Wyvern Gem Shards.

Real Monster Hunter sickos know the true endgame is fashion hunting, so I was excited to learn that the layered armor system is coming to Now with Season One. Many of the layered armor pieces you’ll get will come from the season pass, but you’ll also be able to mix and match the looks of any pieces you’ve previously unlocked. Then when you join a Matching Lobby, you’ll be able to see all the different outfits of the hunters in your party.

The battle pass cosmetics are decidedly un-Monster Hunter in style, and I wasn’t overly impressed by the offerings there. Osumi showed off a few of the styles you can unlock, like Biker and Student, and a black t-shirt to celebrate the franchise’s 20th Anniversary. I know the main games have had plenty of ‘real world’ layered armor pieces and goofy cosmetics that don’t necessarily belong in the world of Monster Hunter, but who wants to wear t-shirts and skorts when you could be wearing the scales of an Elder Dragon? These layered armor options make the Monster Hunter Now characters look like Pokemon Go characters, and I’m not a fan. Osumi also says that, at least for now, layer armor options are specific to the gender of your character, which is pretty disappointing.

Note: Osumi also says there won’t be any balance changes to existing weapons at the start of Season One. The developers want to see how Charge Blade fits into the lineup first and approach balance changes cautiously.

There’s still plenty to be excited for with the start of Season One. Osumi explained that the existing storyline is meant to function as a prelude, while Season One will kick off the game’s ongoing narrative. A new weapon type gives us a good reason to farm long-forgotten monsters again, while new monsters allow us to expand our arsenal and armor options exponentially. With so much new gear, Now is getting an expansion of its loadout slots to accommodate, going from five to ten so you’ll have enough loadouts prepped for any hunt.

I’m not one to champion monetization, but I’m looking forward to the season pass as a way to earn more incremental rewards in between the long progression delays that come from grinding out hunts for new gear. If there’s one way Now could be a little less like mainline Monster Hunter, it would definitely be the grind.

Season One starts March 14 at reset. In the meantime, check out the 20th Anniversary Quest. It’s going to be a long wait for Monster Hunter Wilds, so it’s nice to see so many new things coming to Monster Hunter Now.

Next: No One Has Ever Done Crossover Events Like Monster Hunter World