Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance brings back Khezu

Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance has another monster on the board, and it is the one that makes the lights flicker. Capcom confirmed on 19 September that Khezu will appear in the expansion, announcing it from a stage event at the Capcom booth during Tokyo Game Show 2026. The expansion itself is still listed for 2027.

The cave wyvern returns

Khezu has been a series fixture since the PlayStation 2 era: a pale, eyeless cave wyvern that hunts by generating electricity, and stretches its neck out to reach a hunter who thought they were standing clear. Capcom's announcement keeps it short and to the point, promising what it calls an electrifying entrance, and notes the expansion will need the base game plus completion of the 7-star assignment Awaking From a Dream before anyone can take the fight on.

It also joins a roster that has been filling in through the show. Teostra was the first of the pair, revealed during Capcom Spotlight at Tokyo Game Show on 17 September, with the expansion's Tokyo Game Show trailer closing on the elder dragon's arrival. Between the two reveals, the expansion has moved from mechanics talk to a concrete monster list.

What Ascendance is

Ascendance is the large-scale expansion to Monster Hunter Wilds, built around boosted actions: equipping the Boost Bracer temporarily enhances certain moves and unlocks new attacks, with Boost Drivers triggering the upgrades in the middle of a hunt. Capcom has spent September publishing weapon breakdowns for the Gunlance, Insect Glaive, Hunting Horn, Heavy Bowgun, Lance, Switch Axe and Long Sword, and confirming that character editing will become free once the expansion's version 2 update lands.

There is no date past the year, and no price. The store page describes it as a massive expansion to a base game that is already out, which means the wait is about content rather than a new platform launch - the same team is still shipping updates to Wilds in the meantime.

Our opinion

Bringing back Khezu is the kind of choice that only looks safe from the outside. It is a monster defined by two things players remember with their whole body: a scream that cuts the music out, and a neck that arrives before you have finished dodging the last attack. In a series that keeps reaching for bigger spectacle, a fight that works because it is blind and patient is a useful corrective - and pairing it with Teostra, the franchise's most reliable wall of fire, suggests Capcom wants Ascendance's hunts to be about reading a monster rather than out-speccing it. The risk is that returning favourites arrive as nostalgia with better textures. The reward is a 2027 roster that reminds players why they learned to be careful in the first place.