You're going to need friends in Monster Hunter Now to hunt down the Elder Dragons

Monster Hunter Now is Capcom and Niantic's current venture into the augmented reality gaming phenomenon for mobile devices. Bringing together the creators of Pokémon Go with the owners and creators of Monster Hunter triggered a global phenomenon that last October already had more than 10 million users. Now that the franchise is set to expand in a big way on PC and consoles too, with the announcement of Monster Hunter: Wilds launching in 2025, we chatted to the folks at Niantic during SGF 2024 about the mobile game's upcoming season and its position as a social tie-in.

The new Season 2 that's already started is called "Hunting Together", and explores just that - going out and playing Monster Hunter Now with other people in the neighbourhood, taking part in the same raids and sharing loot, Niantic's Dan Inamoto and Mark Van Lommel told us.

"So before, you had to be in close physical proximity with other players to multiplayer hunt at a Huntathon. Now we have matchmaking that happens no matter where you are, no matter who's around you. You can make sure that you fill that whole lobby to get a four-player Huntathon action going on to take down some of the toughest monsters in the game."

One of these terrible new monsters will, of course, be the Elder Dragon Kshala Daura, which will have an exclusive local co-op Raid event. "Kshala Daura, which is an Elder Dragon, is the first time that we're introducing an Elder Dragon. It'll be showing up in these special spots, essentially, that are out and about on the field."

"They are called Elder Dragon Interceptions, and you'll be encountering them in these spots."

Of course, these new features will surely help to further increase the number of players who try Monster Hunter Now in the coming months. Remember that you can already play it on iOS and Android mobile devices for free.