Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance’s next gameplay trailer shows the Boost Bracer’s improvements to Bow, turning the weapon into an explosive shotgun

Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, the upcoming DLC expansion to the latest entry in Capcom‘s action-hunting Monster Hunter series, has released its second trailer showcasing how its new ‘Boost Bracer’ mechanic will change every weapon type.

This trailer focuses on the Boost Bracer’s changes to Bow, the classic ranged weapon type where you pierce enemies with a rain of arrows tipped with poisons or, in this DLC expansion, explosives.

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From what we can tell in this trailer, the Bow will gain a new Boost Driver that lets the user perform an Offset counterattack, firing explosive arrows at enemies to knock them over while flying backwards.

The Bow’s Boost Driver attack can be charged for extra damage and transition into other special attacks like the Dragon Piercer (which fires a super-fast rocket-powered arrow) or the Thousand Dragons technique (which fires a bunch of arrows in a single burst at close range).

The Boost Driver attack also fills up the Boost gauge, which, when filled, can be activated to enhance the Bow’s attacks and unlock new attacks.

These boosted features include making your arrows fire faster with explosive damage and allowing you to perform enhanced evasive jump maneuvers to avoid attacks while staying on the offensive.

Windows Central’s take

I’m not much of a ranged user in Monster Hunter games, as I prefer getting up and close with melee weapons. Although I do make exceptions whenever ranged weapons with explosive ammo builds are viable enough to use because I love blowing monsters up.

So it’s kinda cool to see Bow essentially turn into an explosive shotgun thanks to the Boost Bracer’s enhancements, and I’m willing to give it a go in the DLC expansion because of it.

However, the most interesting part of the trailer for me is the gear the player is using, as it’s a reward for hunting Lao Shan-Lung.

For newer players who never heard of it, Lao Shan-Lung is a colossal Elder Dragon from the original Monster Hunter game back in 2004. It’s appeared in a few other games like Monster Hunter Dos, the Monster Hunter Freedom sub-series, and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (which is where I fought it), and now it’s coming back in Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, as confirmed in its reveal trailer.

I’m personally dreading fighting Lao Shan-Lung again, not because it’s difficult but because it’s notoriously one of the most boring boss fights in the entire franchise. This is because Lao Shan-Lung is a glorified punching bag that takes forever to kill, and it spends its time VERY SLOWLY running away from the players rather than actively fighting them.

So I’m really hoping this game will make Lao Shan-Lung actually interesting to fight this time (or at least make it actually fight the player instead of being a coward) so farming for its classic gear will be worth the time and effort because it has some slick-looking gear in

We will have to wait to find out when Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance launches in 2027 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.

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