Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak continues the franchise's panchant for interesting and unique monsters.

Each game and expansion takes this incredibly deep pool of monsters and makes it that little bit deeper - and Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak is no exception.

While those who are Barioth-levels of long-in-the-tooth will no doubt have guessed the structure of the Sunbreak expansion, it will no doubt be a little daunting for newer players - especially when the difficulty curve starts to really ramp up.

And with the addition of two new quest types, you may be wondering how if and how they matter - which is where this in-progress Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak walkthrough and guide comes in.

Sunbreak follows in the footsteps of Monster Hunter World’s Iceborne expansion - something that helped simplify the franchise’s story structure, making it something much easier for new players to jump into and follow.

Getting through the Sunbreak DLC is the most straightforward Monster Hunter questline yet. Everything is linked to ‘Key Quests’ in your highest level of Master Rank (MR) quests, and any Urgent Quests you’re asked to look into as you progress.

Like the base game, Rise, your Key Quests are shown by a red diamond to the left of the quest name when talking to the quest giver. In Sunbreak, this can either be Minoto in the Gathering Hub, or the new character Chichae in Elgado.

This straightforward design makes blasting through MR quicker and easier than ever. When trying to advance to the next rank, you can pick any Key Quest that still has a red diamond to the left and no tick mark to the right. This means you can either pick the easy option and fight the weakest monster, or you can go for the one you think will give you the loot you need to level up your weapons and armour. The choice is all yours.

As always, it's useful to know what quests and their respective monsters are coming up. The further you progress, the more materials are available to you, and if you know your favourite monster is just an area away, you know exactly when to take an hour out of the story to start farming.

If you don't prefer the below format, we also have a dedicated monsters list of what is in the expansion and when it unlocks.

Note you need to have played your way through a number of missions in the base game to start Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, which then allows you to unlock Master Rank as well as Sunbreak's missions.

Simply put, do the first mission of the Sunbreak DLC:

From here, you will need to do a set number of Key Quests to unlock an Urgent Quest and level up. At this point, the easiest are:

However, you can also do the following if you’re feeling brave:

Tip: Do ‘A Sinking Feeling’ and then get the Velocipray armour if you like catching large monsters. The defense boost is great, and the Capture Master ability gives you a ‘High chance of increased capture rewards’, and we all know that the chance to get additional rare items for basically nothing is excellent.

You’ll also get the option to craft the super-powerful Power Talon and Defence Talon items, so make sure you do so!

Do two more Key Quests (any of the following):

Tip: It’s like the normal one, but with fire-breathing and firey pinecones instead of fruit. Fun.

Congratulations, you’ve just unlocked Master Rank 2! In doing so you’ve also unlocked Follower Quests and Support Surveys.

While these aren’t necessary to progress within the game, they are a fun addition that really fleshes out the world of Elgado, and are recommended should you need to farm items and don’t want to simply replay the same old quests!

Do two Key Quests from the following:

This adds the researcher Bahari to your list of known characters. He’s found Garangolm tracks - the first of the Three Lords.

Do two more Key Quests:

This mission unlocks the Citadel, where Dame Fiorayne joins you on the hunt.

Beating the mission unlocks MR3 and Bahari in Elgado. Congratulations!

Learn how to start Sunbreak - the first expansion - and from there, how to unlock Master Rank, use Switch Skill swap, and progress onward with our Monster Hunter Sunbreak walkthrough. There's also a monsters list, as well as individual pages on beating Garangolm, Lunagaron and Shogun Ceanataur. For the base game, we have a number of Monster Hunter Rise tips and lists of ore locations, bone locations, weapon types, how to use Insect Glaives and Kinsects, details of how to join friends in multiplayer, how to capture monsters and learn about wirebugs and great wirebugs.

Like a normal MR Somnacanth, but it’s an ice-type variant. Instead of sleep-breath it uses ice-breath. When you see it get ready for an AOE attack, run because it will ignite the icy mist it exudes. Other than that, pack a few Nulberries to get rid of the ice-blight and rapidly thaw your Silkbugs!

Congratulations - you’re now asked to do a few more Key Quests while Bahari analyses what is clearly a vampire bat. Specifically three more Key Quests from the following:

Congratulations for real this time - you’ve just hit MR4!

Please enable JavaScript to see comments.

Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak Garangolm strategy, weakness, and how to get Garangolm materials

How to take down the first of the Three Lords.

Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak Lunagaron strategy, weakness, and how to get Lunagaron materials

How to take down the second of the Three Lords.

Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak Shogun Ceanataur strategy, weakness, and how to get Shogun Ceanataur materials

A tough crab that’s hard to beat.

Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak monsters list, new and returning monsters explained

Our in-progress list of when you can encounter new and returning monsters in Sunbreak.

Jelly Deals | Best early Amazon Prime Day Xbox deals 2022

Here are today's best early Prime Day deals on Xbox consoles, games, Game Pass, accessories and more.

There is a work around for The Quarry's unobtainable Hard Pass accolade

Pokémon Go Ultra Beast Pokémon list, all current and upcoming Ultra Beasts

Every Ultra Beast in Pokémon Go.

Final Fantasy 14 to receive Island Sanctuary farming sim mode in next patch

Plus data centre travel from next week.

Buy things with globes on them

And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store!

Bad puns and video games since 1999.

Copyright © 2022 Gamer Network Limited, a ReedPop company.

All rights reserved. No part of this site or its content may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder.