Monster Hunter: World Research Quests, Bounties, Paid DLC, and More Detailed

Ever since Monster Hunter Tri, the Monster Hunter series has included the side activity of building up each game's hub village - most recently expanded upon in Monster Hunter Generations. Players could gather certain tasks from talking to NPCs in the game's villages, which would usually unlock a new quest for players to tackle, rewarding them with things such as new ingredients to be used for food before quests, upgrades to certain facilities, and more. Earlier today the Japanese blog Esuteru reported (and Gematsu translated) some new information about the new "Bounty" and "Research Quests" systems that appear to be replacing the prior Village Requests system, alongside some new information on DLC and timed Event Quests.

Bounties

Similarly to Village Requests, Bounties will task players with gathering resources, hunting monsters, and more. Players can accept up to 6 bounties at any given time, and completing them will reward the player with items like Armor Sphere, or Research Points. Bounties are divided into 3 categories: Registered Bounties, which can be accepted at any time, Essential Bounties, which are tied into upgrading facilities in the village, and Distributed Bounties - Registered Bounties which will become available over time as Capcom distributes them after launch. and should include greater rewards than regular bounties. Capcom notes that some bounties might be difficult to tackle alone, and that Essential Bounties should be high priority.

Research Quests

Outside of the already detailed Mission Quests (Story missions), Free Quests, and Event Quests - special Research Quests become available as players find Research Reports while out on quests or exploring. What these quests might include hasn't been detailed.

Guild Card

Returning from previous games in the series, players can still customize and share their Guild Card with other players. New to Monster Hunter: World is how, when receiving a new Guild Card, players might run into the cardholder's Palico as an ally when out on a hunt.

Paid DLC and Free Event Quests

As we reported earlier this week, Capcom plans to support Monster Hunter: World with free updates past its launch, adding content such as new monsters. While anyone that has been with the series a while has reason to be skeptical (for years, monsters have been included in game data completely ready to fight, and were only actually huntable after Capcom released quest files for download later down the line), nevertheless that announcement is repeated here. What is new, however, is that Event Quests will be the primary method for unlocking collaboration outfits such as Aloy's skin or the Mega Man outfit for your Palico. The materials required to craft these equipment can be gathered from these quests, much like in previous games. Surprisingly, it appears that Event Quests will only be available for a limited time this go around, meaning that if you want a specific outfit, you're going to have to complete the quests that drop materials for it as soon as possible! Finally, Capcom confirmed that there will be some paid DLC for Monster Hunter: World, though they're only planning cosmetic DLC such as new costumes for the guild receptionist.

Monster Hunter: World launches January 26th, 2018 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A PC release will come at a later date.