Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak: 'Crash on startup' error - How to fix, possible reasons, and more

The highly-anticipated Sunbreak expansion for Monster Hunter Rise has finally been released. Players are no doubt eager to see which new adventures await them in the two new locales of Sunbreak - the Citadel and Jungle. While the expansion's release was fairly polished and bug-free on Nintendo Switch, the PC release, however, has created a few challenges for some players.

There have been reports of players facing constant crashes on their PCs while trying to access the DLC or even booting up the game. Monster Hunter Rise was previously exclusive to Nintendo Switch and was only recently ported over to PC and made available via Steam. The launch of Sunbreak, however, was simultaneous on both platforms.

Given that the expansion is in its early release stage, some minor errors and issues are not entirely unexpected, especially on PC. It's unlikely that Capcom itself is not oblivious to the problems players are facing with Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, and a patch or hotfix might already be in the works.

Until then, there are a few things that players can try to get the game to launch without crashing.

Troubleshooting guide for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Why is Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak crashing for PC players?

There can be several reasons for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak PC players facing errors like crashes, stuttering, framerate drops, and so on, such as: the PC not fulfilling the specified system requirements for the game, not having up-to-date graphics drivers, conflicting with rogue background tasks, outdated Windows version, antivirus or firewall blocking the game's executable, and many more.

How to fix the crashing errors in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

The ideal and official way to fix the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak crashing issue is to wait for Capcom to issue a hotfix or patch that rectifies the error, but given the nature of these games, it might take more than a week for the developers to do so. In the meantime, players can try a few troubleshooting tricks to get the game to work on their PCs.

Check the system requirements for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

It goes without saying that players on PC should always check the system requirements of a game and how it compares to their computer's specifications before they decide to spend their hard-earned money.

Although Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak doesn't require a very demanding system to run the game at a decent resolution and framerate, it does demand a dedicated GPU with DirectX 12 capabilities to run it. Here are the minimum and recommended requirements for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak.

Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core i3-4130 or Core i5-3470 or AMD FX-6100
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (DDR4) or AMD Radeon RX 550
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 36 GB available space

Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 or AMD FX-8300
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (VRAM 3GB) or AMD Radeon RX 570 (VRAM 4GB)
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 36 GB available space

Update Windows to the latest version

Keeping the Windows operating system up-to-date is crucial for games to run trouble-free, as the operating system trying to update in the background can hog system resources, causing the game to crash or not perform as expected.

It is also advisable for players to keep Windows updated to the most recent version. The updates usually come with various improvements and additional features as well as security updates to keep the system running smoothly and securely.

To update Windows, follow these steps:

• Press the Start Menu key and go to Windows Settings. (Alternatively, users can press Windows+I keys to open up the Settings menu)
• Next, go to Updates & Security > click Check for updates under the Windows Update section.
• Any pending or new updates available will show up which users can install by clicking 'Download and install.'
• It may take a while for Windows to download and then install the updates.
• Once it is done, users just need to reboot their system once to fully install the updates.

Update the graphics drivers

This is an important one, and PC gamers should always keep their GPU drivers up-to-date without fail. The newest version of the drivers usually consists of various fixes and improvements over the past versions and often comes with GPU-related fixes for certain games.

To update the graphics drivers:

• Right-click on Start Menu and go to 'Device Manager' from the Quick Access Menu pop-up.
• Click on 'Display adapters' to expand the list.
• Right-click on the dedicated graphics card from the list and select 'Update driver.'
• A pop-up should follow asking for automatically or manually search for driver updates.
• Select 'Search automatically for drivers.'
• If there are any updates, it will automatically download and install them.
• Once updated, users need to reboot their system for the changes to take effect.

Alternatively, players can manually download the latest version of graphics drivers for their GPU via the official websites of their graphics card manufacturer. NVIDIA graphics card users can also use the very handy GeForce Experience application to keep their drivers up-to-date, while AMD users can directly download the updates from AMD's website.

Close unnecessary background tasks

Unnecessary background tasks and applications can consume a lot of system resources, which can negatively affect the game's performance. Many background tasks like third-party overlays, startup apps, and even unnecessary windows functions can throttle CPU, memory, and disk usage, and lead to issues like game crashes or stutters.

It is highly recommended that players always disable or close any unnecessary tasks or programs before attempting to boot up a game. To close unnecessary programs, follow these steps:

• Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys to open the Task Manager. (Alternatively, Task Manager can also be open by right-clicking on Taskbar and selecting 'Task Manager')
• On the Task Manager, go to the processes tab and look for programs that are not needed and are consuming a lot of system resources.
• Click 'End Task' to close each unnecessary task to free up the system resources.
• A restart is recommended but not necessary after the process.

Reinstall all redistributables and DirectX

Monster Hunter Rise comes with native support for DirectX 12 as opposed to DirectX 11 in Monster Hunter World, and therefore, it requires the most up-to-date DirectX version installed on the system. The game also requires the most updated C++ redistributables to be installed to function properly.

Although Steam takes care of these things in the first startup of the game, players can also try and reinstall these redistributables from Microsoft's official website if they are facing issues in the game.

Disable Windows Firewall or Antivirus Programs

Disabling the security features on the system should be considered as the last resort to fix Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak's crashing problem. It is always better to just wait for the official fixes to roll out before disabling the Windows firewall or any antivirus program for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak to work.

However, if players need to play the game and don't want to wait for the official fix, they can temporarily disable the security features on Windows to see if it fixes the issue with the game. To do so, follow these steps:

• Click on Start Menu, go to Settings > Update & Security.
• Click on 'Virus & threat protection.'
• From there, click 'Manage settings' under Virus & threat protection settings.
• Turn Real-time protection off.
• Try to launch the game.

Perform a clean boot

Even after disabling most resource hogging applications, there may still be some services and apps that could lead to conflicts with the game's executable, preventing it from functioning as intended. In such cases, a clean boot can help tremendously. To perform a clean boot:

• Press Windows+R keys, to open the Run dialog box.
• Now, type 'msconfig' and press Enter to open System Configuration.
• From there, go to Services > Enable 'Hide all Microsoft services' checkbox.
• Click on 'Disable all' > Click on 'Apply' and then 'OK' to save changes.
• Now, go to Startup > Click on 'Open Task Manager.'
• On the Task Manager go to Statup tab and disable all the services that have high startup impact.
• Once done, simply reboot the system for the changes to take effect.

Verify the integrity of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak's game files on Steam

There is always a chance that the downloaded game files might get corrupted, or a few files might go missing while downloading or updating the game. With Sunbreak DLC being a rather large chunk of data that is added to the base game of Monster Hunter Rise, it is very likely that some files might go missing or corrupt during download.

In that case, players can verify the integrity of the game files on Steam. This feature essentially scans through the 'steamapps' folder to check for any missing or corrupted files for the selected game. If Steam finds anything lacking or problematic, it redownloads the files to fix the issue.

To verify the integrity of the game files in Monster Hunter Rise, players can complete the following steps:

• Launch Steam > Click on 'Library.'
• Right-click on Monster Hunter Rise from the list of games.
• Click on 'Properties' > Go to 'Local Files.'
• Click on 'Verify Integrity of Game Files.'
• It will take some time while Steam checks for the missing components in the game's directory.
• Once done, launch the game.

Issue with purchasing Sunbreak on Steam during gameplay and how to fix it

There have also been some reports of players experiencing issues when trying to purchase the Sunbreak expansion for Monster Hunter Rise during gameplay. Capcom has acknowledged the issue and assured players of a fix.

Meanwhile, players can simply restart Monster Hunter Rise on their computer to resolve this issue, according to Capcom.

The game is a fantastic expansion of the base Monster Hunter Rise experience, and it can be really heart-breaking for some players on PC to experience crashes in the game. We hope these troubleshooting tips can help such players to launch the game and finally get to experience Sunbreak.

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