Lunastra returns to Monster Hunter in World’s newest update

Lunastra — a blue, lion-like Elder Dragon — has arrived in Monster Hunter: World. For those unfamiliar with the returning beast, Lunastra is the mate of Teostra, and packs just as much of a fiery punch as her male counterpart.

While Teostra has been in the game since launch, Lunastra is just now making her Monster Hunter: World debut, having most recently appeared in Monster Hunter: Frontier Z in Japan in 2016 and Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite worldwide in 2009. Now that this power couple is in-game together, they can pair up for a powerful attack against over-eager hunters. If you plan on trying to take these two out together, be careful when they start to tangle together — this isn’t the turf war mechanic you’re used to seeing, and will instead result in a deadly explosion.

Like all new monsters, Lunastra brings new gear for hunters to craft and collect. But Lunastra’s gear works a bit differently. After slaying Lunastra, you can build her pieces, which look like blue-tinted metal-tree recolors for weapons and blue Teostra recolors for armor. For the first time in Monster Hunter: World, these weapons will come with armor skills attached to them.

After building the base Lunastra weapons, you can upgrade them one step or combine the tools with two other monsters: Nergigante or Xeno’Jiiva. Staying on the pure Lunastra tree will net you the Guts armor skill. Nergigante weapons come with Hasten Recovery and Xeno’Jiiva has Razor Sharp/Spare Shot.

Capcom

Alongside the addition of Lunastra, the Monster Hunter: World 4.0 update adds the even more difficult Arch Tempered Elder Dragons, although they won’t be released until a later date. The first of these fights will be the Arch Tempered Kirin, which promises to test even the best hunters.

4.0 also adds some quality-of-life improvements to the base monster hunting experience. Most notably, you can now acquire investigations for tempered monsters while hunting them and breaking their parts.

Lunastra and update 4.0 is live now for Monster Hunter: World on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.