The last Monster Hunter Showcase of the year has concluded — I’ve gathered all the new gameplay info for Monster Hunter Wilds and Monster Hunter Stories 3

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Capcom has released a recording of their Monster Hunter Showcase event, which was delayed due to a tsunami warning. They also shared new trailers for both Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection and the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds.

This presentation revealed a lot of exciting news, including details on new gameplay features in Monster Hunter Stories 3. We also got a first look at the Gogmazios boss fight coming in the 4th update for Monster Hunter Wilds, scheduled to release on December 16, 2025. Capcom also responded to concerns about how Monster Hunter Wilds will run on PCs, and shared even more updates.

Here’s all the new information announced at the Monster Hunter Showcase.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection — New Gameplay Systems

The Monster Hunter Showcase kicked off with a trailer for Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, giving viewers a first look at new gameplay features.

You are a Ranger in this game, tasked with protecting the environment and rescuing endangered monsters. A dangerous event called the Crystal Encroachment threatens these creatures, and it’s your job to save them.

Dangerous monsters are invading and causing chaos! It’s up to you to stop them from destroying the environment and harming the rare creatures that live here.

Invasive Monsters are powerful bosses that need a good plan and some preparation to beat. If you manage to defeat them, you can track them back to their lair and search their nests for stolen monster eggs, rescuing any that are in danger.

I’ve discovered that if you manage to recover a stolen egg, you can actually hatch it and return the creature to its natural habitat, which is a great way to help its species recover.

After a monster species has recovered its population, you can find and hatch their eggs to create Monsties – tamed monsters that join your team and help you explore and fight.

A major new feature in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is Habitat Restoration. By populating habitats with monster eggs – both from common and endangered species – you’ll raise their Ecosystem Rank.

The better the quality of a habitat, the simpler it becomes to find monster eggs. Plus, monsters hatched from those eggs are more likely to have strong genes and skills, making them better fighters.

Rare and powerful Monsties, such as the Dreadqueen Rathian, can only be obtained by restoring habitats in the game.

With Habitat Restoration, you can alter a monster’s element and even create Dual-Element Monsters by moving them to habitats with special elemental properties.

If you put a Tobi-Kadachi, a monster normally known for its thunder abilities, into a fire-element habitat, there’s a chance it will lay an egg. That egg could hatch into a Tobi-Kadachi with both thunder and fire powers.

Monsters with two elements will look noticeably different from standard monsters, clearly showing off their unique abilities.

The showcase ended with some exciting news for Monster Hunter Stories 3 fans. Capcom revealed that Arkveld, the main monster from the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds, will actually be appearing in Stories 3! You’ll be able to battle it, and even add it to your team as a Monstie.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection will be available on March 13, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC through Steam.

Monster Hunter Wilds — Title Update 4

The Monster Hunter Showcase also revealed details about the 4th update for Monster Hunter Wilds, launching on December 16, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC through Steam.

The main highlight of this update is the addition of Gogmazios, a difficult boss from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, as an end-game challenge. Players can team up with up to four friends and four AI-controlled hunters to take it on.

Defeating Gogmazios gives you the materials needed to create unique armor sets and fully upgrade Artian Weapons into powerful Gogma Artian Weapons.

Gogma Artian Weapons are strong items you can create with special abilities. Each weapon gets one bonus ability from a set and another from a group, both chosen randomly. You can then customize these abilities to your preference.

When you upgrade Artian Weapons to Gogma Artian Weapons, you can either refresh their bonus stats or keep the existing ones and make them even stronger.

It’s not just Gogmazios that’s exciting in the new Monster Hunter Wilds update. There’s a bunch of other cool stuff coming too, including…

  • Arch-Tempered Jin Dahaad to fight in a Permanent Event Quest with new armor sets as rewards.
  • A Transcendence System that will allow you to ‘transcend’ High Rank Armor Sets to their full potential, which will increase their defense stats and improve their Decoration Slots.
  • Optional High Rank Side Quests, where you can take on several 9* Tempered Monsters to unlock special nameplates as rewards.
  • Hunting Exercises where you can take on 9* Tempered Monsters.
  • Two New Support Hunters to take with you on hunters (Griffin the Great Sword wielder and Nightmist the Light Bowgunner).
  • A ton of free and paid DLC to obtain, including poses, Layered Armor, Layered Weapons, Gestures, Pendants, and more.
  • A free Character Edit Voucher and Palico Edit Voucher to change the looks of their character and Palico.
  • New Event Quests, where players can obtain special gear, fight tougher monsters, and farm Heavy Armor Spheres to upgrade their armor sets.
  • A Free Challenge Quest involving Arch-Tempered Jin Dahaad.
  • A new seasonal event called Festival of Accord: Lumenhymn (which will run from December 19, 2025, to January 14, 2026), where players can obtain special gear, gestures, and decorations for a limited time.

Monster Hunter Wilds — Final Update and Performance Improvements

Following the announcement of updates for Monster Hunter Wilds’ fourth major content release, Capcom surprised fans with details about the game’s final update, set to arrive on February 18, 2026.

This final content update for the game will include:

  • Arch-Tempered Arkveld as the final Arch-Tempered to hunt.
  • A new weapon and pendant created by fans from an “Original Weapon and Pendant Design” content.
  • A collaboration with Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, where players can obtain a pendant and Palico armor inspired by Rudy from Monster Hunter Stories 3.
  • A Latin-American Spanish voice language option.

Capcom finished the Monster Hunter Showcase by announcing how they’ll improve the game’s performance on both consoles and PCs for Monster Hunter Wilds.

With the release of the fourth update, Monster Hunter Wilds on both consoles and PC will run more smoothly thanks to improvements that make better use of your computer’s processor and graphics card.

These improvements include:

  • Improving processing time by distributing process access frames for elements that demand the heaviest load, like players, monsters, and graphical user interfaces.
  • Reducing processing load by cutting the number of simultaneous effects and improving collision detection for the Seikret and Palico.
  • Other enhancements like optimizing and reducing memory usage.

Capcom revealed that the Steam release of Monster Hunter Wilds will receive a special performance update in January 2026. This update will optimize how the game uses your computer’s processor and graphics card, and will also offer settings to help lower the demands on your system.

This update includes several enhancements to improve performance and visual quality. It addresses stuttering by optimizing how shaders are processed, reduces the amount of video memory (VRAM) used, and speeds up texture loading for the High-Resolution Texture Pack.

Capcom plans to further improve performance for both the console and PC versions of Monster Hunter Wilds in February 2026. They’ll do this by optimizing the game’s use of the computer’s processor and graphics card, and by simplifying the detail of 3D models when viewed from a distance to ease the strain on graphics cards.

Capcom is also looking into how the game uses memory to see if they can make it run even better.

Monster Hunter Wilds is available for purchase on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.

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2025-12-11 17:12