The new Monster Hunter Wilds cherry blossom festival brings some of its best-looking armor sets yet

kicked off April with , adding new monster hunts, challenge quests, and a new Grand Hub as a central base of operations and socializing space for hunters to hang out between quests. It's also the venue for Blossomdance, the first Monster Hunter Wilds seasonal event, which kicked off last night in a blizzard of cherry blossom petals and sakura-themed armor sets.

When you first enter the Grand Hub during Blossomdance, you'll be greeted by a lot of pink. It's Monster Hunter's own hanami festival, covering the Hub with cherry blossoms and spring pastel streamers. The main attraction, however, are the event's sakura-themed armor sets. The Sakuratide armor sets are easily among the prettiest outfits in Wild, and I'm sure they'll be frequent features [[link]] in layered armor getups for years to come.

Do I feel like my weeb levels are getting a little unsustainable while wearing them? Yes. But look at them. It's good stuff. (And yes, you can tone the pink down by changing the armor pigment if you want.)

To craft the Sakuratide sets, you'll need Blossomdance Tickets, which you'll get as login bonuses and limited bounty rewards during the event's two-week duration. One week's bounties will only get you enough tickets for one of the armor sets, [[link]] but you're in luck: Wearing pieces of Sakuratide armor will give you the Blossomdance Boon skill, giving you a chance to earn additional Blossomdance Tickets whenever you complete a quest. Just throw on your new duds, run some hunts, and you'll have enough materials for both sets in no time.

You can also use Blossomdance Tickets to craft a—frankly unsettling—papier mache bobblehead getup for your palico. There's also a new event quest to hunt a Tempered Xu Wu to earn yet another form of ticket that you can use to craft a cool new eyepatch. It's a big week for building out your Monster Hunter Wilds aesthetic options.

And there are still more goodies on offer. After accepting your login bonus during the event, you'll automatically unlock a new Seikret decoration, a petal-tossing gesture, sakura-themed pop-up camp gear, and more. You can also talk to one of the Support Deck palico [[link]] NPCs and select Claim Content to get a free weapon pendant. A veritable bounty of freebies.

All those armor sets and cosmetics will only be available while the event lasts, so jump in-game and grab them if you want them. You've got until Blossomdance ends on May 7.