Capcom made waves in 2018 when Monster Hunter: World was released, breaking the publisher's sales record with 13 million copies shipped by July 2019. Now the Monster Hunter series is making a resurgence with the release of its long-anticipated expansion, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Iceborne sees Hunters traverse new, snowy territory in order to understand the ecology and changes to it and a lot of the research done is, in true Monster Hunter fashion, done via combat.
Iceborne has been on the radars of gamers everywhere for more than just a new area, though. The expansion also sees monsters from earlier entries in the series make appearances, giving veterans of the series a reason to jump back in. In honor of the nostalgia as well as the promise of new challenges that Monster Hunter World: Iceborne brings, here are 10 hilarious memes that only true fans of the series will understand.
10 The Problem With Expansions
The Monster Hunter series has been around since 2004. As the series has grown over the past 15 years, so too has its player base. These days a lot of veteran Monster Hunter players have jobs, families, and other responsibilities that don't really allow them the luxury of sitting around and playing their favorite games for hours on end.
As such, it's no surprise that one of the biggest struggles coming along with the Iceborne expansion is just getting back into the swing of things. A lot of fans may have stopped playing World to allow time for other things, and now that its time to come back, certain players might be a little rusty.
9 Dark Who?
One thing that Monster Hunter: World did incredibly well was to make the series more accessible to new players without sacrificing the core appeal of the franchise. The difficulty and challenging learning curve were surprisingly well maintained much to the joy of series veterans.
Going into Iceborne, there's no reason to expect otherwise, which gives series vets bragging rights in a gaming world where titles like Dark Souls are often synonymous with high difficulty. Lorian and Lothric? Talk to us after you've squared off with a Teostra and a Lunastra.
8 This Takes Us Back
The Iceborne news that has series veterans the most excited is easily the return of familiar monsters. Brachydios, Glavenus, and Tigrex are among some of the returning monsters and seeing them rendered on current generation consoles and PCs is a throwback of the highest caliber.
Tigrex, for example, made its debut in the Freedom 2 title for the PSP and fans are thrilled to see it back. Honestly, as more and more classic monsters from the series were announced to be included in Iceborne the hype behind the expansion's release really started to snowball.
7 Don't Forget Me, Everyone!
There are a few new faces and a lot of familiar ones in the new Iceborne expansion. While it's exciting to see so many old school monsters return, not every single one is making the roster.
The iconic Gigginox, for example, is still nowhere to be found, much to the relief (or dismay; no judgment here) of many players. Seeing how Capcom has handled World so far though, not being shy about bringing in more monsters post-facto, it still has a chance to make it in, so maybe we shouldn't count Gigginox out just yet!
6 No Words Necessary
Pikachu knows what's up. Veterans of the series are probably familiar with sleep bombing: A tactic that utilizes setting up barrel bombs around a sleeping monster in order to dish out insane damage while a target monster is otherwise completely defenseless. This is an incredibly effective way of bypassing the last leg of the hunt, which can often be the most difficult.
While senior Hunters don't even need to explain this process to their peers, we'd do well to remember that we were all new once...and probably remember the first time we messed this process up by damaging the monster and waking it up before set-up could be completed.
5 This Looks Familiar...
Piscine Wyvern is probably nobody's favorite monster to hunt, which is saying a lot because there are so few of them in the Monster Hunter roster. In World, there are only two, Lavasioth and Jyuratodus, neither of which are terribly fun encounters.
One of Iceborne's new faces brings a third Piscine Wyvern to the roster in the form of Beotodus, a literal snow shark. While it's not uncommon to see similar Wyverns in the game, the addition of another Piscine Wyvern may not be fan's favorite thing, but it's hard to argue that the move was a bad one considering all the snow that comes along with Iceborne.
4 Everyone Understands
This meme takes a morbid situation and turns it into something relatable. Iceborne suffers the curse of all expansions: It costs more money to continue enjoying a game that was already great. This raises a multilayer issue for gamers of this generation, particularly those of us that grew up with games before DLC.
This makes this meme even more relatable and gamers probably understand the struggle and some may even be willing to help out other gamers in need too. As long as, of course, they don't have other games that they're saving up for...
3 The One Where Brachydios Is The Meme
Brach is back in Iceborne and fans couldn't be happier. The fight mechanics behind the Brachydios hunt, as well as its overall design, will have veteran hunters reminiscing on the days of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.
One of Brachydios's trademarks is, of course, its slime-covered fists that it can use to create insane explosions and ultimately make the hunt that much more challenging. With the context of Iceborne in mind, it doesn't take much to equate this picture of Larry from Spongebob to Brachydios laying it down on Beotodus, or any other monster unlucky enough to start a turf war with this boxing Brute Wyvern.
2 Sparking Joy
Another wonderful announcement that has a lot of Monster Hunter fans excited is the return of Zinogre, a lupine style monster with an affinity for lightning, to Iceborne. This sparky monster makes it fit in perfectly next to Marie Kondo, who is all about reminding people to surround themselves with things that spark joy.
While it's certainly undeniable that the joy of Zinogre's return is prevalent, hunting Zinogre will no doubt spark feelings other than joy. Rightfully so, too, because Zinogre is one tough beast. Hopefully, that joy comes after a successful hunt. When it does, it will definitely be well earned.
1 G-Rank
If there's one thing veteran Hunters understand, it's the challenge that the term "G-Rank" brings. Monsters are tougher, Hunters deal less damage, and skill is more important than ever. Iceborne is essentially the equivalent of a G-Rank update with an expansion that makes the journey to the endgame content a lot more challenging than it was in World.
With new mechanics and harder hitting monsters, including variants of familiar ones, newer Hunters that thought they were impressive at High Rank are in for a rude awakening once they're ready to dive into the world of Iceborne. Hopefully, you know a series vet or two that can teach you how true Monster Hunter enthusiasts do it!