New Dauntless trailer gives a first look at its hub city, armor sets, and chain blades

We've got an exclusive first look at a new trailer from Dauntless, the PvE action game I previously described as "the PC Monster Hunter we've all been waiting for." While we've seen Dauntless' combat in action already, this trailer gives a brief look at some of its other features, including armor crafting, the hub city of Ramsgate, and a new snowy owlbear behemoth named Skraev.

Although there aren't many hard details, the video gives a general overview of what progression in Dauntless may look like. It starts out with a fight against Skraev, who seems very similar to Shrike (an owlbear behemoth we'd seen previously) but with an icy theme and new attacks. Unable to take that behemoth down, the players in the trailer instead go fight a fire behemoth named Embermane, before returning to Ramsgate to craft special armor and weapons from defeating it. With Embermane's fire equipment in tow, they return to fight Skraev with an elemental advantage.

Once again, all the specifics of these systems are left out as of now, but it's a closer look at that gameplay loop than we've previously seen. The trailer also teases a few other armor sets toward the end (seen above) which I'm told include the Shrike and Gnasher weapons and armors. Killing those behemoths will enable you to make the equipment you want, and then customize it to your liking with dyes.

And, as I mentioned, the fight against Embermane is the first time we've seen Dauntless' fourth Weapon Class, the Chain Blades, which centers around a mix of quick short range combos and longer range poke attacks. It's a cool bit of variety compared to the other options, though I'm still hoping for a Weapon Class with a focus on ranged combat in the future. The trailer also features our first good look at the Ramsgate hub city, though it's hard to get much of a sense of scale for it yet.

Dauntless is still taking sign-ups for its closed alpha right now. We'll be sure to let you know when harder details are shared about these systems.

Tom is PC Gamer’s Associate Editor. He enjoys platformers, puzzles and puzzle-platformers. He also enjoys talking about PC games, which he now no longer does alone. Tune in every Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on Twitch.tv/pcgamer to see Tom host The PC Gamer Show.