Players without the Iceborne expansion of Monster Hunter: World will not be left behind. They will still be able to play cooperatively with their friends. The story of Iceborne will take place only partly on the new continent.
This is what the producer of MHW says: In an interview, producer Ryuzo Tsujimoto commented on the contents of Iceborne. Although the expansion will bring a whole snowy continent, there will also be new content in the old areas of MHW. For instance, roughly half of the story of Iceborne will take place on the old continent.
There will be plenty of content in the old areas that players can complete together, according to Tsujimoto. In the Beta of Iceborne, players could encounter the new monster Nargacuga in the Ancient Forest.
Tsujimoto also stated that players with and without the expansion will continue to be able to play together in cooperative mode. There will be no restrictions at this point.
What do players need to do before Iceborne? To be able to start directly with the new expansion on September 6, players need to have completed the entire story of MHW beforehand.
The new mechanics of Iceborne will be available in MHW as soon as the expansion has been downloaded. This includes the clutch claw, as well as the new dynamic difficulty system.
What happens after Iceborne? While console players can play Iceborne starting September 6, PC players will have to wait again.
They want to release the console version as stable as possible, according to Tsujimoto. One of the goals is also to release the PC version faster than it was the case with MHW.
There are no plans for an additional expansion after Iceborne. Tsujimoto said that Iceborne is meant to complete MHW.
