Monster Hunter Wilds‘s first expansion, Ascendance, is set for release sometime next year. But, judging by some very suspect recent changes to the Wilds beta app on Steam, we may be playing some of the new stuff earlier than we thought.

On Steam, Capcom quietly updated the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta app to now say Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance Beta test. You can see the change log on SteamDB (via PC Gamer), which also shows an updated key art – all signs that point towards an impending beta for Ascendance.

The beta app is the same one those who played the original Wilds beta had in their library. Though the app was removed following the beta’s conclusion, because the two share the same ID, the beta should be visible in users’ list of played games under the new name. This could mean players won’t need to sign up for the supposed Ascendance beta, seemingly only needing to download the new client.

Seeing as Ascendance itself doesn’t have a release date, beyond a nebulous 2027 target, it’s hard to speculate when Capcom plans to release the beta. Sometime early in 2027 would be a good guess, perhaps alongside a release date announcement.

Capcom has shown off Ascendance on multiple occasions, more recently in Sony’s September State of Play, where we got to see a number of the expansion’s new features. A few days later at Tokyo Game Show, we got a first look at returning Elder Dragon Teostra, which we can hunt in the expansion.

Capcom is keen for Ascendance to deliver the level of challenge Monster Hunter is known for, following feedback that the launch version of Wilds simply lacked that expected level of difficulty. While post-launch updates have certainly raised the level of challenge, Ascendance looks to be the next step up.