Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak Preparation Guide | Get Ready for Sunbreak

Monster Hunter Rise’s “massive expansion” arrives next month in the form of Sunbreak. If you’re looking to join the hunt in Elgado when Sunbreak arrives, you’ll have to reach a certain point in the base game before you can tackle the new content. We’re here to point you in the right direction so you can jump right into the expansion’s new content when it launches on June 30th. Our Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak Preparation Guide will show you how to get ready for Sunbreak ahead of launch.

How to access Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak at launch

So, the simple answer to this question is you need to have beaten the 7★ gathering hub quest ‘Serpent Goddess of Thunder’ which tasks you in slaying Thunder Serpent Narwa. This quest is given to you as an urgent quest from the guild once you have completed a number of key quests in the 7★ rank.

How to unlock 7 Star Gathering Hub Quests

Monster Hunter Rise’s narrative is split across two different Hubs. First off are the village quests, which make up the single player component of Monster Hunter Rise. Village quests go up to the 6★ rank and can be found by talking to Hinoa in the main section of the village. Gathering hub quests are the game's multiplayer quests (although they can be played entirely in single player mode) and can be found in the building to the left of the village next to Yomogi the Chef’s counter.

You can unlock the 7★ quests by completing each tier of gathering hub quest up until 6★ and then by clearing the urgent quest ‘Can’t kill it with fire’. However, if you’ve beaten the appropriate number of key quests in the 6★ village quests, you have the option to complete the ‘Special License Test 3’ quest which allows you to skip all Hub quests up to the 4★ rank.

This will still take some time, however, Capcom has recently added the Black Belt armor set, Defender weapons, and Veteran talisman, which will help you through the early stages of the game faster if you’re keen to start Sunbreak when it launches.

Narwa Guide - Defeating the Serpent Goddess of Thunder

Best Gear for Narwa

As the name implies; Thunder Serpent Narwa’s attacks use the thunder element. We recommend using the highest rated thunder armor set you can obtain before battling Narwa; the Golden armor set, which is crafted from materials from the monster Rajang. However, other sets like the Zinogre S and Almudron S are more than enough to hold your own against Narwa.

Narwa’s main elemental weaknesses are Dragon followed by Ice. Like with every hunt, it doesn’t matter what weapon you pick as all are viable. However, be on the lookout for weapons using Goss Harag or Barioth materials as they’re likely to be the best Ice weapons you have access to. Dragon weapons are a little harder to come by, with the only sure bet being with Wind Serpent Ibushi - who has a tree for each of the game’s weapons. Some trees like the Charge Blade, Lance and Switch Axe have their own dedicated ‘Dragon’ tree which are far more accessible than Ibushi’s. There are also special trees like the Dual Blade’s ‘Aelucanth’ tree and the Great Sword’s ‘Smithy’ tree which offer Dragon element weapons.

Narwa’s attacks and Battle Strategy

In terms of items, we recommend buying the Power and Armor charms from the village store, if you haven't already - these will give you a boost to your attack and defense. We would also recommend bringing vials of Demondrug and Armorskin as these will give those stats a further boost. We would also recommend bringing 10 Honey along with you to craft first aid med+ with the first aid meds you can pick up from the supply box.

Narwa’s main weak points are her head and the giant glowing sac on her stomach; you’re going to want to aim most of your damage here. Since she is generally floating at all times, heavy use of the wirebugs to reach these weak points is recommended for melee weapon users. Once you stun her, two platforms will appear either side of the thundersac allowing you to dole out massive damage

Narwa’s moveset consists mainly of projectiles, beams, and slow-moving AOE attacks. Her moves can become overwhelming if you don't stay on your toes. Once again, heavy use of wirebugs is recommended to get yourself out of the way of her onslaught of moves. Once she reaches phase 2 (which you’ll notice via her battle themes vocals kicking in) she becomes far more aggressive and gets some new moves; however, your strategy shouldn’t have to change much in this form.

Arena - The Coral Palace Guide

The ‘Serpent Goddess of Thunder’ quest introduces a new locale in the form of the ‘Coral Palace’. Thankfully, there isn’t much to tell you about this new area as it is one big arena in which you take on Narwa. However, there are a few things of note about this arena to aid hunters in slaying her.  During the fight with Narwa pieces of the terrain will begin to float; these can be quite useful for dodging Narwa’s ground ring projectiles.
 
The platforms also occasionally come equipped with the mounted weapons seen during earlier rampage missions; Ballista, Machine Cannon, and Cannon. These are good for laying on some extra damage to Narwa from a distance, especially the Cannon which does 380 damage per hit.

Coral Palace also features two ultimate weapons in the form of the Dragonator - a set of wall-mounted spears (also seen in the rampage missions) and the Splitting Wyvernshot, which launches a large explosive projectile, both of which deal massive amounts of damage. Both of the levers these weapons are activated through can be found at the north of the arena. However, you will likely only get to use each of these once as they take a while to charge up.

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With that your Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak preparation should be complete! Once you have defeated Narwa, you’re ready to tackle Sunbreak! However, if you’re up for more hunting in the meantime, there are a few more monsters to discover through leveling up your hunter rank by doing more quests, or you can check out more guides below: