When a mysterious song is suddenly heard across the New World and spurs a mass flock of Wyvern-like Legiana to suddenly migrate beyond the sea, the Research Commission investigates. They track the Legiana to a polar subcontinent and set up a base of operations there, which they dub the Hoarfrost Reach and Seliana respectively. As the Hunter and Handler explore the land, they discover evidence of unusual seismic activity which seemingly caused the ecological changes that prompted the Legiana migration. Meanwhile, the Tracker conducts her own investigation into her long-missing mentor. Her search proves fruitful, as she finds the wreckage of her mentor's ship and a scrap of cloth denoting the existence of a monster known as the "Old Everwyrm", which seemingly links the song and seismic action.Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is an expansion pack that introduces new monsters, improved gameplay mechanics and a new story set in Hoarfrost Reach, an arctic-themed region. Similar to the base game, Iceborne the player takes the role of a Hunter, slaying or trapping large monsters solo or cooperatively with other players. Iceborne features a new arctic ecosystem named Hoarfrost Reach, said to be one of the largest maps created by the team, where players will encounter both new and returning creatures. As the player slowly progresses in the story, more areas in Hoarfrost Reach will be opened up for players to explore. As it is set in a cold environment, players need to consume hot drinks or visit hotsprings so that their stamina would not deplete. Snow would also slow down the player's movement.
A total of 20 new Monsters: 4 small and 16 large (excluding variants).
10 of the large monsters are from past MH games.
Master Rank difficulty added – A tier above High Rank that makes new and existing monsters more ferocious than ever.
Attacks can take a third or more of the health-bar and the mission timer is more of a threat.
Slinger tool upgrades to latch onto monsters.
New combos and elements for existing weapons.
New region and base added.
A set of guardian armor made specifically for players to speedrun the base game to launch into Iceborne.
Multiplayer
A paid subscription service (PlayStation Network or Xbox Live) is required to use multiplayer features.
The game supports both single-player and up to four player cooperative mode while being online; there is no local offline multiplayer. The game also supports Squads, the equivalent of clans or guilds in typical massively multiplayer online games. The game allows players in different release regions to work together; the game will use a pre-determined set of common greetings and commands that are translated to the various languages so that players can effectively communicate with each other. However, players are limited to cooperating with those on the same platform, and will not feature cross-platform play.
Microtransactions in the form of cosmetic items, gestures, character customization options, and stickers are present.