Hunters,

Winter is nearly here and with it comes Season 8: Interdimensional Defenders
Astalos, Quematrice, and Goss Harag make their first appearance in Monster Hunter Now, alongside Riftborne Khezu!
At exploration bases, new Base Defense events begin. Team up with fellow hunters in your area to take on powerful riftcharged monsters together.

Dive into a new season and join the hunt!

Update Date & Time

Thursday, December 11th, 2025, at 12:00 a.m. (UTC)

Update Details

Additional Monsters

• Astalos will appear on the field in low numbers.

Riftborne Khezu Appears

Khezu arrives as a new riftborne monster! With this, it will now be possible to customize the style of Khezu weapons, and the dual blades Khezu Daggers and Khezu Skards will be added.

And for a limited time only, you’ll need fewer materials to forge and upgrade Khezu weapons. See the announcement on release day for additional details.

New Skills

Soon you’ll have six new skills to master! These skills can be added to the armor of Astalos, Quematrice, and Goss Harag.
Make sure to utilize these new skills in your hunts!

• Skill: Perfectionist
  Effect: Automatically perform a perfect evade against an incoming attack at the cost of a percentage of your Special Gauge.

• Skill: Spare Shot
  Effect: Chance of ammo not being consumed upon use when equipped with a light bowgun or heavy bowgun.

• Skill: Normal/Element Ammo Boost
  Effect: Increases damage of Normal/Fire/Water/Thunder/Ice/Dragon Ammo.

• Skill: Morph Attack Boost
  Effect: When performing morph attacks, affinity and damage increase.

• Skill: Advanced Ice Attack
  Effect: Increases weapon’s ice-element value when Ice Attack Lv5+ is active.

• Skill: Advanced Thunder Attack
  Effect: Increases weapon’s thunder-element value when Thunder Attack Lv5+ is active.

Take on Riftcharged Monsters With New Feature: Base Defense!

Starting in Season 8, the final week of each Wave (month-long exploration period) at exploration bases will culminate in a Base Defense event, where you and nearby hunters will face off against powerful riftcharged monsters.
These monsters have been heavily influenced by abnormal rifts and cannot be slain in a single hunt. You’ll need to team up with other hunters in your area and challenge them multiple times!

About Riftcharged Monster Hunts

• The damage you deal to a riftcharged monster is recorded as Defense Points (tracked individually).
• Defense Points are tallied for each weapon you’ve used, and your top 5 weapon scores determine the Defense Rewards you’ll earn.

Tips for Earning More Points
You can use any weapon in these hunts, but if you equip a featured defense weapon for that Wave, you’ll receive bonus Defense Points.

What Are Featured Defense Weapons?
Featured defense weapons change with each Wave. They include weapons forged from specific monsters’ materials or event-exclusive weapons.

(Example) Season 8 Wave 1 featured defense weapons:

• Weapons forged mainly from Astalos materials
• Weapons forged mainly from Khezu materials
• Wrapping Bow, the exclusive weapon from the A Happy Hunting New Year 2026 event

Forge and upgrade a variety of weapons to face the riftcharged monster!

Stay tuned for more details in an upcoming announcement.

Exchange Certain Gatherable and Small Monster Materials for Gems

If you’re missing some materials needed to forge or upgrade equipment, you’ll soon be able to exchange gems to complete the process.
Use this option when you’re short on gatherable materials or small monster materials.

The following material types will be eligible:

• Iron Ore / Monster Bone S / Fire Herb / Flowfern / Snow Herb / Sleep Herb / Dragonfell Berry / Parashroom / Toadstool / Nitroshroom / Thunderbug / Godbug / Sharp Claw / Wingdrake Hide

This feature will be introduced in an upcoming update ahead of the Season 8 release.

Get the Season 8 Pass

Get your hands on a new Season Pass for Season 8!
Once Season 8 begins, you will no longer be able to raise your Season 7 tier but you will still be able to claim any rewards for a period of time.

See the announcement when the season begins for more details on the Season 8 Pass.

Get Your Season Supply Items

Soon you’ll be able to add 250 slots with the Item Box Expansion available as a Supply Item.

Additional Monster Unlock Quests

Once Season 8 begins, Season 7 monsters will temporarily disappear from the field and will only return permanently once you complete their corresponding monster unlock quests.
Monster unlock quests become available once you have completed the pre-season story.

Eligible monsters from Advent of the Exploration Base:

• Garangolm
• Lunagaron
• Brute Tigrex
• Espinas

The latest update info and roadmap will be introduced in the official YouTube program MH Now Navi, coming Nov. 25 (Tue).

Additional Information

• Make sure to restart your app to enjoy the update.
• See the release notes for other update information.
• See the community forum announcement for additional notes and details on Season 8 and the update.
• Update and event details are subject to change without notice.

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