Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Guide: All new weapon moves, updates, and abilities

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is coming up fast and more kinds of beasts to hunt means more of an arsenal to choose from and more tactics to employ in combat. So, we've compiled a list of every new weapon move in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne that Hunters will be able to use. Whether you prefer to lay down suppressing fire with a bowgun, get up close and personal with a Charge Blade or dance around your opponent with a Long Sword, there's plenty of new moves to check out.

Related: List of new weapons and armor in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Clutch Claw

The Clutch Claw is by far the most versatile addition to a Hunter's arsenal in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. This tool will let you attach to different parts of larger monsters, allowing you to unleash close-up blow and combos until you either let go or the beast shakes you loose.

Great Sword

The Great Sword's True Charge Slash is even more powerful and more useful, thanks to a new mechanic. If you land both the initial attack and the follow-up swing, you get a massive damage boost. You'll know you've pulled it off correctly thanks to the glowing red aura. Additionally, you can now fire a powerful Slinger blast (assuming you have ammo) in between swings, giving you some breathing room to charge up the second half of the True Charge Slash.

The Clutch Claw attack has you grapple onto the monster, embedding your sword. The Hunter then jump on top of the sword, doing some heavy damage and leaving a scarred, weakened spot on the beast perfect for exploiting.

Long Sword

The Long Sword has an awesome new mechanic called Special Sheath. After assuming this form, you take a samurai stance and can slash out with one of two extremely quick attacks, either an Iai Slash or an Iai Spirit Slash. The Iai Slash will cause your Spirit meter to fill, forming a critical feedback loop with the Iai Spirit Slash that'll allow you to use powerful attacks quite frequently. The Iai Spirit Slash naturally consumes one bar of your Spirit meter when used unless you have perfect timing. When the Iai Spirit Slash is used just as you're about to be hit, it will not consume any of your Spirit meter.

In the spirit of increased Slinger use, following a slash you can use a Slinger Burst, assuming you've got ammo left. This doesn't interrupt your flow, so it can be worked into your different combos with ease. There's also the Clutch Claw move. After grappling onto a beast, you can perform a downward slash. Not too great on its own but this can cause Slinger ammo to drop, so it's a good way to restock in the middle of a long fight.

Dual Blades

The Dual Blades allow for more evasive gameplay than before, with a new dodge ability that allows you to skirt to the side of an attack in any direction if you have Slinger ammo. Since it's one consumption of ammo per dodge, the regular stone is the best choice, since you can stack up to 20 stones, for 20 dodges. With that said, different types of ammo are going to behave slightly differently, so don't be afraid to experiment.

While in Demon Mode, you can grapple with the Clutch Claw right after using a spinning attack. You can also just slash your way up the beast mid-grapple. If you grapple on through normal targeting, you'll do some quick slashes that will drop Slinger ammo.

Sword and Shield

The Sword and Shield now allows users to perform an uppercut with the Clutch Claw, which instantly grapples you to the monster. A cool feature unique to the Sword and Shield also lets Hunters toggle freely between regular Slinger firing and Slinger Burst mode, instead of having situational use depending on preceding attacks. When you've grappled on, you can perform some quick slashes that will make the beast drop Slinger ammo.

There's also a powerful new combo to master, the Perfect Rush Combo. After using a Slinger Burst or a backstep, you can leap into this combo immediately. Just pressing the buttons will trigger the combo but being careful and pressing the buttons with perfect timing means you'll deal massive damage. You'll also know you've pulled it off due to a charging red glow around your Hunter.

Hunting Horn

The Hunting Horn gains a new spinning attack where you plant the Horn in the ground and spin it around rapidly. It plays a musical note and does extreme KO damage to anything it hits, so try targeting it towards a monster's head. Each time you use this attack, it adds another note to the Horn's reserve. There's a new attack song, the Impact Echo Wave but there's a neat trick to it: If your timing is right, you can queue up three Impact Echo Wave songs, which can be played back-to-back to some high damage output.

There's also a new Extended Health Recovery song, which is simple enough but it can help you and your time if you're close together and low on health. Like other weapons there is a Clutch Claw attack where you grab on to the monster and add a weak spot with a heavy hit from the Hunting Horn.

Hammer

The Hammer retains its simplicity but with more tactical options for Hunters. You can now fire a Slinger Burst while charging your Hammer, leaving you less vulnerable and adding a nice combo opener. There's also a couple of different ways to grapple on to a monster. You can grapple after an uppercut with the Hammer that puts you in midair, performing a Flying Smash in the process. You can also grapple while rolling down a hill performing a Spinning Bludgeon. If your timing is right on the latter, you'll actually continue your spinning attack as your grapple on. Once grappled, you can attack normally.

Gunlance

Out of all the different weapons for Hunters to use, it appears the Gunlance has the least amount of new stuff to play around with. With that said, you can now use field-gathered Slinger ammo to fire the Wyrmstake Blast. It's similar to the Wyrmstake Cannon in effect except it uses all of your currently equipped Slinger ammo to fuel this powerful blast. This embeds a stake in the monster, which you can use to deal more damage with further attacks.

Naturally, you can also grapple on to a monster with the Clutch Claw, attacking with the Gunlance and dropping more Slinger ammo with can fuel further Wyrmstake Blasts.

Lance

The Lance hasn't been left out, with a new Guard stance that sees the Hunter stuck in one spot, able to rotate but not reposition. This new Guard instead allows you to fire a Slinger Burst, or you can swap to a regular Slinger shot. You can also use the Counter Claw, where you brace for impact and upon countering a hit, grapple onto the monster and begin attacking with your Lance. Naturally, you can also just grapple on normally, doing a heavy drill attack with your Lance and leaving a weakened, scarred spot on the monster to exploit

It also appears that the Lance can briefly assume a powered form of Guard Up, where for a few second you can block otherwise-unblockable attacks. This will require testing when the expansion releases.

Switch Axe

The Switch Axe gets some Axe Mode-specific moves, starting with the Heavy Slam. After some wild swings from to left to right and back again, a glow will build up. You can then trigger the Heavy Slam while simultaneously charging up the weapon's power. Instead of being left vulnerable while swinging your weapon about with wild abandon however, you can now use a Slinger burst to interrupt the combo, fire a blast and dodge backward, assuming you have Slinger ammo left. You can also now perform a Fade Slash, slashing with your weapon while dodging back, so there's far more tactical retreat options.

As with all weapons, there's some Clutch Claw-specific moves. In Sword Mode, when using Element Discharge, you can use a Claw shot, grapple onto the monster and attack. If you go into the Amped state while using this move, you can finish the Element Discharge on the monster.

Charge Blade

The Charge Blade is more powerful than ever, allowing Hunters to cancel into the Savage Axe Slash, an upwards and backwards slash perfect for catching monsters by surprise. The Charge Blade also gains the new Power Axe mode, a powered-up form letting Hunters dish out more damage. After using a Savage Axe Slash, if you have at least one Phial, you'll go into Power Axe mode, which allows to deal far more damage while steadily draining your phials.

Playing off of the increased Slinger focus, you can now fire a Slinger Burst after guarding from an attack in Shield Form. Naturally, you can follow this up with other attacks to form a nice combo, such as downward slash to move forward and push back against a monster. Finally, there's the Clutch Claw integration, which lets you grapple onto a monster and attack for a brief time. With the Charge Blade, you'll get in a sword slash, followed by a buzzsaw-like attack down the monster, which is great for weakening and crippling specific targets.

Bow

The Bow has a potent addition to its arsenal called the Thousand Dragons. When you use this move, you fire EVERY bit of currently equipped Slinger ammo you have in a powerful, close-range blast. Obviously the more ammo you have the more effective this move is. There's also the Clutch Claw move, which allows you to grab on and slash a monster with one of your arrows. You then backflip off the beast and if your timing is right, fire another show into the spot you slashed moments ago.

The Bow is a light weapon, so this Clutch Claw attack will also cause monsters to drop Slinger ammo, perfect for fueling your next use of Thousand Dragons.

Insect Glaive

In Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, you can use consume some Slinger ammo to power up your Kinsect, allowing you to gather two buffs before calling the Kinsect back. In doing so, gathering buffs is made a fair bit quicker. Your Kinsect gets a second buff depending on the kind of ammo consumed: if the ammo dropped from a monster, the Kinsect's power is increased while if it was ammo you picked up in the field, the Kinsect gets a stamina buff instead.

There's some full-on new moves too, with a Downward Stab while airborne, which is a flashy move that also marks the targeted spot for your Kinsect to follow up on. You can also use the Clutch Claw in the air, which grapples you on to the monster, allowing you to get in several spinning slashes before dropping down. This move will cause the monster to drop Slinger ammo.

Heavy Bowgun

For both the Heavy Bowgun and Light Bowgun, the main additions come in the form of mods. The Wyvernheart mod will have you deal more damage with follow-up hits with the Wyvernheart attack. The Wyvernsnipe mod adds a first-person aiming Special Scope with a nifty mechanic. When the reticle glows orange, it's the optimal range and attacks at that distance deal more damage. Quite helpfully, that include the Wyvernsnipe attack, which can now deal massive damage.

The Heavy Bowgun's Clutch Claw attack has your Hunter grab on and machine gun into the monster before hopping off, leaving a scarred, weakened target area.

Light Bowgun

Like with the Heavy Bowgun, you can swap between aiming your Bowgun and aiming your Clutch Claw. When you grapple on with the Clutch Claw, you'll do a backflip off the monster and embed a Wyvernblast into the targeted spot. This will naturally drop more Slinger ammo for your use. There's a new Evading Reload mod, which lets you spin your Light Bowgun and dodge to the side. There's another new mod that lets you fire the Wyvernblast forward instead of embedding it in the ground.

Into the Hoarfrost

If you'd like to know more about what you can expect to see, check out our list of every new monster confirmed for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne so far.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is coming to Xbox One, PS4, and eventually Windows PC. The planned launch date is September 6, 2019, starting at $40 with bonuses for preorders.

Related: Monster Hunter World's Iceborne expansion feels like a full sequel

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