Hunters, we’re in the Endgame now. The final Developer Diary for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne aired just recently, with loads of details and the return of our favorite black dragon on October 1, later this year.

During the presentation, the developers wasted no time in showing off perhaps the worst kept secret of this reveal and to the surprise of practically no one, the addition of Fatalis.

The King Returns

To say that Fatalis is well-known in the Monster Hunter community is a big understatement. It is, after all, a monster that appeared in the very first Monster Hunter game and has terrorized hunters ever since. Finally, Fatalis makes his debut in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.

To add to the nostalgia factor, hunters will face the dreaded Black Dragon in the very stage he was fought in way back in the first Monster Hunter game, Castle Schrade. It’s looking to be a very challenging fight as Castle Shrade still has the various weapons left behind during the previous encounter with Fatalis, including ballistas, cannons, and two (yes TWO) Dragonators.

To add context to the return of Fatalis, a new character was introduced in the featured trailer, the General from the Guild, who enlists the help of the Research Commission to fight off Fatalis. An even interesting twist is that the Excitable A-Lister is revealed to have a history with this Black Dragon and it will be touched upon when the update is released.

Should you be able to take down Fatalis, you’ll be treated to some amazing new equipment. The armors are particularly stylish, along with the weapons.

And you can’t ignore that Palico Armor and weapon. The developers really tapped deep into their creativity here by having the weapon your mini Fatalis wields to be an actual hunter. Even more amazing is that with the weapon sheathed, it’s as if the hunter is riding your mini Fatalis’s back.

As for what kind of skills the Fatalis armor will give you, the developers were pretty tight lipped about it. They downright said it was a secret. But they did drop some hints while they were at it:

• The developers wanted players to add lots of skills, and how certain skills have skill caps
• The skills have something to do with Fatalis being at the top of the monster ecosystem

It’s still very secretive, but judging from those hints, the Skills that come with the Fatalis armor may have something to do with the full potential skills like Slugger Secret or Divine Blessing Secret. It’s still all up for speculation, and the developers did a good job of teasing players with it. Hunters will just need to take down the Fatalis to find out.

Admittedly, that statement about Fatalis being at the top is really concerning. Considering how much of a pain the Alatreon was, it’s scary to know that there’s something even more menacing than that.

The Claw comes in Clutch

The Clutch Claw was a very useful tool when it was introduced in Iceborne, giving hunters the chance to soften up monster parts and open up more damage opportunities by making them run into walls, leaving monsters dizzy and vunerable. It’ll be more useful when the update hits, as many hunters will be happy to know.

Forget about limitations, heavy weapons can tenderize monster parts like usual, but now it’s possible that Slinger ammo will drop, a feature reserved for the lighter weapons like Dual Blades, and Sword and Shield. On the other hand, hunters who use light weapon will only need to tenderize a monster part once now, compared to previously needing to hit a monster part twice to tenderize it.

It sounds like a simple update, but hunters will understand how useful this change will be, especially with how Slinger Ammo is deeply incorporated into heavy weapon movesets like the Greatsword.

New update, new look

The prayers of Fashion Hunters everywhere have been answered. All of you always wanting those stylish Master Rank armors without sacrificing your hardly assembled builds will be able to craft Master Rank Layered Armors now.

This was a feature long sought after as the Master Rank armors did receive slight alterations from their High Rank counterparts. And it’s finally coming with this update.

New pendants and decors

The final title update is churning out new pendants for hunters to decorate their weapon with, and they range from cute, to downright awesome! It’s pretty certain players will want that cute flying Poogie or that rubber chicken, but it’s especially amazing how Capcom’s mecha fighting game, Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness, is given a shout out here by having a pendant modeled after Princess Devilotte’s Super-8 mecha.

For those curious, Cyberbots is the game where Marvel vs Capcom’s hot-blooded, Blodia shouting, brawler Jin Saotome came from. That octopus looking mecha, Super-8, is one of the bosses of Cyberbots.

You’ll soon be renovating your quarters again as a slew of new decors are coming with the latest update.

A look back

While not an announcement of new features, the Developer Diary concluded with a nearly 5-minute video looking back at Monster Hunter World’s amazing journey – from its surprising reveal to becoming one of Capcom’s best-selling titles ever and bringing Monster Hunter out of its niche status and into the hearts the gaming community at large.

It was truly a nostalgic look back to the game’s early beginnings, to the surprise collaborations (that Witcher collaboration really came out of nowhere), the new free updates constantly re-introducing fan favorite monsters like the Tigrex and Alatreon, and of course the Iceborne expansion that gave way to even more content, all coming full circle with the reveal of Fatalis.

It’s a bittersweet feeling, seeing that this video really hammers the point that this is the very last Developer Diary for Iceborne and also the final update for the game. On the other hand, it means things can only get bigger from here, and we can only just wait in anticipation what the next Monster Hunter title will be, and you can bet expectations from the Monster Hunter Community will be bigger than Zorah Magdaros.

You can view the full Dev Diary below: