With Monster Hunter World: Iceborne less than a month away, old and new Monster Hunter World players have a lot to look forward to. If you’re looking to get into Monster Hunter World when Monster Hunter World: Iceborne releases next month, you will likely be buying the Master Edition. For older players who already own the base game, now is the best time to prepare for the upcoming expansion to ensure you are ready for what it has to offer going by what Capcom has revealed so far and from my time with both betas.

Finish the Monster Hunter World main story This is a given but I know a few people who are still in the middle of the main story in the base game. You can’t access the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne story content until you’ve finished the whole main story and the credits have rolled so make sure you get back to it and wrap it up. Buy and craft the charms and talons This is something that every single Monster Hunter World player needs to do. Save up a bit of money for this because these items are expensive but super worth it. Once you reach Hunter Rank 6, two new items will be available from the provisions vendor in Astera. The Power Charm and Armor Charm cost 36,000 and 24,000 Zenny each. These will take up a slot in your item loadout but give you a permanent stat boost to both attack and defense. Once you encounter a Bazelgeuse, try and hunt it to get Bazelgeuse Talons. You use one talon to upgrade the Power or Armor Charm to a Power or Armor Talon. These stack with the Charm so you essentially are forfeiting four item slots but the attack and defense boost is massive and you will never look back.

Unlock all mantles While you gain access to the Ghillie Mantle early on, some of the late game mantles like the Temporal Mantle and even the Iceproof Mantle require you to fulfill certain requirements and do certain quests. Mantles are essential and help out a ton. We know that Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will have upgraded Mantle options so you may as well have everything ready for when Monster Hunter World: Iceborne arrives. Unlock all palico gadgets Palico Gadgets are very useful in Monster Hunter World. If you haven’t unlocked them all, make sure to spend time and unlock them. Palico Gadgets like the Plunderblade are essential for farming runs. They have their own requirements but all of them can help you out on hunts. Raise your Hunter Rank to 50 To do this, you will need to keep doing investigations and quests until you hit Hunter Rank 29. At this point, you will be given one of the more interesting quests in the game as an assigned quest. “Beyond the Blasting Scales” is a quest where you need to hunt two tempered Bazelgeuse. Good luck with this one because they hit hard. Once you clear that, your Hunter Rank is unlocked once again until you reach Hunter Rank 49. At this point, you get the “Thunderous Rumble in the Highlands” quest to take on a tempered Kirin. This is one heck of a wall for most players and once you unlock this, you get the final Hunter Rank cap removed and are free to progress without any restrictions. While this not only helps you unlock augmentation, it prepares you for taking on very strong Monsters. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne brings Master Rank (known as G Rank in earlier entries) and going by earlier entries, the monsters will not be a walk in the park at all and will hit hard.

Make sure you do the Event Quests Right now, Capcom has a huge festival going on in game with loads of events returning until the end of the month. Some of them are returning after a long time and many of them have huge reward boosts compared to regular investigations and quests. While they will return in the future, now is a fantastic time to try them with many hunters coming back after a break and feeling rusty. Farm decorations Decorations will be even more useful in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne since you can also use them in Upgraded Mantles. While “The Greatest Jagras” quest has gone out of rotation, “The Name’s Lavasioth!” event is going on until the end of the month letting you farm to your heart’s content. You need to be Hunter Rank 50 or above for this so keep that in mind.

Login for daily event bonuses While the events are going on until later this month, login bonuses feature event specific tickets and fireworks in addition to items. These are only obtainable during events so if you don’t want to actually do any quests, at least login to get the tickets you can use on layered armor later. Try some of the harder hunts solo Monster Hunter World: Iceborne has more story content and that means more cutscenes and solo moments where you will either face off on your own initially or be on your own for a good amount of time. Get used to fighting some of the tempered monsters or even tempered Elder Dragons on your own because G / Master Rank monsters are going to be a nice wakeup call for you if you’ve been playing only in multiplayer.