He’s back and bigger than ever! Lao-Shan Lung is a monster that only occasionally makes appearances in the Monster Hunter series for how iconic it is, but the mountain dragon is front and center for the Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance trailer from Playstation’s State of Play today, the Monster Hunter Wilds expansion set to release in 2027, though despite the spotlight Lao isn’t the only big dragon we see, as the newly unveiled Gundoraja pulls thunder and lightning and storms across the skies to give aspirant hunters the fight of their lives.

Alonside the Elder Dragons are a new breed of monster, if you can really call them that, an ink-like parasite that emerges from the fallen bodies of other monsters and has a unique look for creatures in the series, resembling more of a walking infection than an exaggerated version of something you’d see in real life.

On a much less exciting note, Nata is also back. Monster Hunter’s narrative, its continued expanded existence mainly, has been a bit of a contentious topic over the years and Nata is a character that exemplifies it; Nata was kind of a, “love him or hate him” NPC with extreme opinions on either side of the aisle. He’s back now though, and he’s gotten slightly taller since his appearances in the base game, so maybe he’ll be better received this time around.

Beyond the story and the returning faces, Ascendance will of course expand on the thing Monster Hunter is loved for: the gameplay. As we see in the trailer the new Boost Bracer equipment can really enhance your chosen weapon’s attacks, on top of new abilities added to each weapon type in the expansion to help hunters as they take some hunts within broken islands in the clouds, and hunters are going to need all the help they can get, as Ascendance features the return of Elder Dragons and Master Rank content.

Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance is set to release sometime in 2027 for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC through Steam.