Capcom is doing a lot to get fresh players into the new installment of its long-running series , but it's arguably doing even more for those who’ve played Monster Hunter before.

The Equipment

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The Map

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The Hunts

If you’re already a fan, here are 47 changes we spotted in our many, many hours with an early build of Monster Hunter World - This is probably the most fundamental change in World. Previously, skills were awarded for wearing multiple pieces of armour, but things are a little simpler (and possibly more exciting) than before. Every armour piece now offers a single skill. However, better armour begins to offer set bonuses on top of that, meaning the best sets will offer six or more abilities for coordinating your outfit. It means a lot more mixing and matching than experienced players will be used to, but it’s a great way to diversify your hunter’s build.- Previous MonHun games have forced you to make Blademaster or Gunner armour sets, depending on your weapon type. Those armor types are gone - now it’s one-set-fits-all, so you can change weapons at will without the need to make two different sets.- You can see every piece of armour and weapon on your avatar, live at the Armory - as long as you’ve unlocked the ability to forge it, of course.- Kinsects are selected and upgraded apart from the Insect Glaive in World, while Bowguns get some useful mods that can increase reload speed, suppress recoil and more.- Where there was once a fairly healthy split between forging new weapons and upgrading old ones, World has swung almost entirely to the latter. From basic beginnings, there are huge trees’ worth of upgrades to create your implement of choice.- If you’ve realised you’ve upgraded up the wrong branch of a weapon tree (or just want those crafting materials for something else), you can downgrade back to a previous incarnation. Watch out, though - certain points on the upgrade tree are checkpoints - there’s no going back from there once you hit one.- A time-saving little extra, you can now choose the next piece of gear you want to craft, and the game will automatically create a Wishlist of materials required. As soon as you have every item required, the game will tell you without forcing you back to the Smithy to check.- The new Mantle items are behaviour-changing gadgets. The Ghillie lets you hide in plain sight, the Challenger brings big bads toward you, the Glider lets you… well, you get it. What connects them is something new, a per-use cooldown that the developers say was drawn from the likes of World of Warcraft.- That iconic grill tune is back, but it’s considerably shorter, so hunters can stock up on stamina-healing grilled meat more efficiently in the field. Sadly, there’s something a little less special about your Handler buddy saying that it looks “so tasty”, rather than the disembodied voice of old.- As in each Monster Hunter, there are a variety of different maps to embark on quests to. In World, these maps are significantly larger, have multiple elevation levels, and will require some time to actively remember every secret there is to find.- Each map still has numbered zones to easily communicate locations to party members, but there are no loading screens between them (which also means it’s harder to lose a rampaging monster on your tail).- No more forgetting to feast before heading out on a hunt. In Monster Hunter World, there’s a canteen at each camp, where you can eat the same stat-boosting meals as you can while in Astera, the main hub. If you get knocked out, you can also re-up on a new meal after a certain amount of time has passed, too.- Considering the huge map sizes, there are multiple Camps to choose from as a quest starting point. In both the Ancient Forest and the Wildspire Wastes, we were introduced to two.- You can fast travel to either camp as long as you’re out of combat, making for less time back-tracking and more time monster slaying.- To increase the flexibility of play, hunters can now change weapons and armor at the camp while out on a hunt to switch strategies on the fly. Great Sword too cumbersome for you against the flighty Tobi Kadachi? Quickly head back to camp and switch out to a Light Bowgun for a safer approach.- The areas are huge, but at least when you stumble upon a gathering point or some other interest, it’s automatically saved to your map. This was incredibly useful while looking for Brute Bones in the Wildspire Wastes. The map let me know where the Bonepiles I’ve previously found were, and the multiple Camps let me get to them quickly and easily.- Who would have guessed it - World puts more thought into its world than previous games. Rotted trees and vine-wrapped rocks can be used as basic traps, but things can get more complex. How about smashing a dam to flood an area, or luring a Diablos from underground by shooting winged drakes to make them scream?- In previous demos, Scoutflies seemed to work a little too well, but after nearly 15 hours, starting from the very beginning, this isn’t the case. Tracking various monster marks like footprints and drool with Scoutflies is actually pretty satisfying. Once you find a monster via this method, its icon will appear on your map for tracking just like a Paintball. Plus, the more samples you collect, the easier it is to track a monster, so repeatedly hunting the same target will take less and less time the more you target it. You’ll eventually start recognising individual monster footprints on sight alone, which feels extremely cool.- Tracking and hunting monsters repeatedly also helps you actually learn things about that monster. The more samples collected, the more information you can see about them in your Field Guide, like elemental weaknesses and carve chances.- Numbers now pop out when hitting a monster will clue you in on what weapon used where is most effective in real-time - although purists should know that this can be turned off.- If you can remain mounted on a monster long enough, you now end your knife-stabbing combo with a bespoke special move using your main weapon, knocking the monster down.- The best way of earning the Armor Spheres you need to upgrade your gear is to take on these extra objectives as you hunt, asking you to do everything from gathering mushrooms to capturing bosses.- Earned through a number of means, these new special activities are limited-use versions of normal hunting quests, but offer bonus rewards based on their difficulty.- Much about the hub has been streamlined, not least the fact that you don’t have to go to the village gate to leave for a quest. Just ready your party and hit a button and you’ll be off.