Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, the massive expansion adding more story, monsters, and gear to the base game, is now available on Nintendo Switch and PC. The new expansion includes a new locale, new story quests, and a bunch of monsters from throughout the Monster Hunter series. Sunbreak takes place after the base game of Monster Hunter Rise so there are a few prerequisites to start the DLC.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak prerequisites

Before starting the Sunbreak expansion, you will need to have completed most of the main story in Monster Hunter Rise. You will need to have completed the 7-star Hub Quest "Serpent Goddess of Thunder." There are a couple of quests that have story beats after that, but those don't need to be complete to access Sunbreak. It's important to note that only the Hub Quests are required to access Sunbreak. Hub Quests are the multiplayer focused quests, while Village Quests are single-player-focused. You don't need to complete any Village Quests.

If you haven't finished the main quests yet, Capcom added a set of armor and weapons specifically for catching up, the Black Belt Armor set, which can be acquired for the Senri the Mailman next to the steelworks. The defender weapons can be crafted at the steelworks. The base stats for the armor and weapons are much higher than other weapons, designed to make it easier to get to the expansion. It will still likely take two dozen hours from starting the game, but it will be faster than using the base game weapons and gear.