Classic, fan-favorite Elder Dragons from older Monster Hunter games have a habit of finding their way back eventually. World brought back Kushala Daora and Teostra, while Rise revived Valstrax and Shagaru Magala. Even Wilds pulled Gogmazios out of the 3DS jail with Title Update 4. Now, fans seem to have found convincing signs that Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance DLC could be preparing to rescue another Elder Dragon seemingly lost to time.
Reddit user Interesting_Sea_1861 wrote four compelling reasons why Capcom could add Yama Tsukami to Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance. “We have a Cephalopod skeleton in the game from Nu Udra and Xu Wu,” was the first in line. And that does sound like the biggest possible hint that Yama Tsukami will return.
Most Monster Hunter games usually reuse what fans call ‘skeletons’ — basic physiology, model, and moveset of a monster for others. The most noticeable case being Kushala Daora, where its skeleton is used for other four-legged, ‘dragon-like’ Elder Dragons from Teostra to Velkhana.
Now, with that in mind, it won’t be surprising if Capcom then reuses Nu Udra for another addition to Ascendance‘s roster. It helps that the floating Elder Dragon is obviously back on Capcom’s mind. After all, Monster Hunter Stories 3 puts the long-absent monster back in the spotlight with the Crystallized Yama Tsukami encounter. That’s reason number two.
The third reason is that Ascendance‘s new floating islands map looks to be a perfect fit for Yama Tsukami’s turf. Although we still don’t know how large the new hunting area will actually be, visually, it does give the Elder Dragon plenty of room to lazily float around.
More importantly, Ascendance appears to be leaning hard into old-school Monster Hunter nostalgia. Its new environment clearly evokes Monster Hunter 4, while Capcom is already bringing back Lao Shan Lung. Adding one of the most-requested DLC fan picks, Yama Tsukami, would be the mossy cherry on top.
However, other Hunters argued that Lao Shan Lung’s inclusion itself could be a problem. Capcom may not want two giant, slow-moving monsters occupying similar ‘raid-style’ quests in the same expansion. If Lao Shan Lung is already Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance‘s big spectacle encounter, another lumbering giant could feel redundant.
“[I]t’d be a stretch to add multiple massive and slow Elder Dragons into Ascendance, so I’m very skeptical about Yama coming back,” one commenter wrote.
Of course, at the end of the day it’s all up to Capcom. Not to mention that this could be another Iceborne situation. A snowy, icy region should’ve been a perfect fit for a ‘remaster’ of Monster Hunter Generations‘ Gammoth. Yet as Hunters learned the hard way, the obvious pick doesn’t always make the cut.
