Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak release time for PC and Switch - here's when you can play

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak release times have been confirmed for PC, and while Switch times are less clear, we do have a pretty good idea of when the expansion will unlock.

PC players will technically get to hop in on Steam at the same global time, but depending on your time zone, that may be today, June 29, or tomorrow, June 30, which is Sunbreak's official release date. Here's the full breakdown:

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Steam release times  

• UK: 5am BST
• EU: 6am CET
• US: 12am ET / 9pm PT (June 29) 

Unfortunately, specifics haven't been released for Switch at the time of writing. We can reasonably assume that the Switch Sunbreak release times will mirror Steam's; otherwise, the expansion will presumably become available at midnight local time. 

The good news is that Switch players can download the 10.1GB Sunbreak patch ahead of launch, which will save you some time when the expansion unlocks. The full patch notes specify that some "updates that require purchase of the Sunbreak expansion will only become available on [the] official release date of the expansion, June 30," but you can at least get a head start. 

Meanwhile, PC players will need to download a 22GB patch when it unlocks in their time zone – a small price to pay for SSD-grade loading times, am I right? 

The accompanying Sunbreak patch makes some notable changes to the 14 weapons in Monster Hunter Rise. The short version is that the longsword, which is widely regarded as the strongest weapon in the game and sparked a revolt after seemingly being buffed, has had its damage and cooldowns nerfed. Meanwhile, basically every other weapon – apart from a few bowgun ammo types and higher-level bow charge shots – has been buffed. Together with the new moves coming in Sunbreak, that ought to improve weapon diversity in multiplayer. 

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