Nodusfall Approaches to Monster Hunting With Aggressive Combat and MMO-Style Bosses

HoYoverse is preparing to enter the monster-hunting space with Nodusfall, a new free-to-play action game built around giant mythological creatures, fast combat, and boss encounters inspired by MMO raids. Since the game’s reveal at Gamescom, more details have emerged through hands-on previews and developer comments.

If you’ve been wondering how Nodusfall actually plays, the information so far points to a game that blends familiar hunting mechanics with faster combat and more flexible character builds. The game’s mix of monster hunting, character abilities, and team-based encounters gives it a different approach to the genre without moving too far away from its familiar foundations.

HoYoverse, the studio behind Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero, is developing Nodusfall, but it's taking things in a different direction.

Instead of the brighter worlds commonly associated with those titles, Nodusfall uses a much darker fantasy setting and is being built in Unreal Engine 5. You play as a Weaver, a person connected to divine and higher powers, given the responsibility of restoring order to a world consumed by corruption. 

The basic structure should feel familiar if you’ve played other hunting games. Before heading out, you’ll prepare your equipment, select a contract, and then travel into the world to locate your target. The Gamescom demo showed a hub where you could select your character and customize your loadout before starting a mission, while horseback travel was available for reaching objectives. 

There’s also a camp system that gives you another way to prepare between encounters. The hands-on previews mentioned the ability to prepare food at camp, alongside some form of crafting system. Loot appears to be at the center of the progression loop, with defeated monsters providing resources that you can use to unlock skills and forge weapons. 

The world itself is expected to be fairly large, with different creatures roaming across the landscape. What you’ve seen so far also seems to represent only the beginning, as the developers have discussed the possibility of adding more regions and activities beyond boss hunting.

That suggests the hunting system could eventually sit inside a much larger game rather than being the only thing you do. For now, though, you still focus heavily on preparing for hunts, defeating monsters, collecting resources, and improving your character. How these systems connect to the wider world will likely determine how much variety the full game offers beyond its core hunting loop. 

Combat is where Nodusfall seems to separate itself from other games in the genre. The game aims for a faster, more aggressive style, with early players describing the movement as responsive and the abilities as satisfying to use. You’ll have light and heavy attacks, while dodging uses a stamina system that forces you to pay attention to how you move during a fight.

The characters also have their weapons, roles, and combat styles, giving you different ways to approach a hunt.

One Spellblade shown in the previews could grapple toward enemies to quickly close the distance, while her fire meter charged through light attacks and could then be used to increase the damage of her heavy attacks. Other characters include a greatsword-wielding knight who can serve as a tank, along with archers and support-focused characters. 

The developers have also confirmed that they plan to add more characters beyond the four available in the demo. Another combat mechanic that stood out during one hands-on session was the greatsword Weaver’s Clash attack. You can charge the attack and release it just as a monster is about to strike, allowing you to counter the incoming attack. 

The Divine Skill system is another major part of the game’s identity. When you defeat certain bosses, you can acquire their abilities and equip them onto your characters, and these skills aren’t locked to a specific character. That gives you more freedom when building your team because you can decide which abilities fit your preferred playstyle.

For example, the Spellblade shown in the preview could create a healing area on the ground to restore teammates’ health while continuing to attack, while another preview featured a skill that transformed a character into a giant knight wielding two weapons and using an entirely different set of attacks.

Boss fights are where Nodusfall leans most heavily into MMO-style mechanics. Some encounters require the entire team to react to specific attacks, including attacks that can kill you outright unless you take cover behind objects in the environment. Other bosses can summon pillars that continuously damage your party until they’re destroyed, forcing you to deal with additional threats instead of focusing entirely on the main target.

Chongqi, one of the bosses featured in the Gamescom demo, can charge at specific players and summon tornadoes, forcing your team to keep repositioning while dealing damage. Another hands-on report mentioned red orbs that continuously damage the party until players deal with them. 

Maldreek, the demo’s final boss, takes the idea even further.

The encounter starts with an enormous dragon carrying an armored knight on its back, but dealing enough damage causes the knight to separate from the dragon. You’ll then have to fight both enemies at the same time before the knight eventually absorbs the dragon’s remaining power and becomes the final opponent on its own. This makes the fight feel more dynamic than a standard boss encounter.

Nodus Fall also features coordinated team executions that can be triggered when a monster becomes vulnerable, with one preview describing a group staggering Chongqi before summoning a huge spectral warrior to strike the creature with an axe. These moments give the combat system a more cinematic feel while emphasizing the importance of coordinating attacks with your teammates.

Despite the focus on four-player co-op, most of the game’s core content will also be playable solo. The developers are also working on PvP and PvPvE content, and one preview reported that one mode could let you play as the monster itself and fight other players. That gives Nodusfall more options beyond simply repeating the same cooperative hunts.

Monetization is another area where HoYoverse is taking a different approach. Nodusfall is confirmed to be free-to-play, but the developers have said that it won’t use character gacha. Instead, you’ll unlock characters through gameplay, while the wider monetization system is still being worked out. 

Early hands-on impressions have generally been positive, although there are some differences between previews. The controls are responsive and snappy, making the game easier to get into than other hunting games, while its art direction and increasingly intense encounters also stand out.

The aggressive combat, particularly when using the greatsword character, has also received attention, with the Clash mechanic encouraging a faster approach than traditional Souls games. This gives the greatsword a more active role in combat, rewarding players who stay aggressive and carefully time their attacks.

Some previews had a somewhat different experience, enjoying the cooperative combat but finding the demo easier than other games in the genre.

They also noted that some attacks lacked weight and that healing specific teammates could occasionally feel awkward. Other groups had the opposite experience and struggled to defeat the boss, suggesting difficulty may vary by encounter and team. The developers have said hunts are intended to last around 30 minutes, so the challenge is expected to be balanced around that structure and potentially increase as hunts progress.

Plenty about NodusFall remains unrevealed, including its final progression and crafting systems, the full monetization model, additional characters, and the content planned beyond the initial hunts. What has been shown so far, though, gives you a fairly clear idea of what HoYoverse is aiming for.

Nodus Fall doesn’t have a release date yet, but an upcoming beta is planned, and players can sign up for the game’s website newsletter to receive updates as the beta approaches. For now, the game is shaping up as one to watch if you enjoy action-focused hunting games but want something with a stronger emphasis on character abilities and team-based boss mechanics.