The Strain infects WildStar, giving players new zones and hoverboards with eyes

A glorious infection

When you shell out cash every month for an MMO subscription fee, it's fair to expect regular content updates. And where most MMOs simply add a new dungeon or two every few months, the devs of WildStar have more ambitious plans: update the game with a sizable content patch every single month of the year. Great news, fellow Nexus adventurers--the first of these updates, called The Strain, will go live the first week of July. And, as you might conclude from its name, it's all about dealing with the not-so-pretty effects of a deadly, rapidly-spreading virus.

That virus mutates everything it touches. From new mounts, which sport mutant eyes and sick-nasty pustule growths, to awesome Strain-tainted costumes and housing decor (complete with a gnarly-looking Sarlacc Pit), you'll have access to all sorts of awesome themed equipment. Oh, plus there's a new emote that makes a Chestburster explode from your body, so that's awesome, too. More importantly, the content update adds two new zones for level-capped players.

The first of these is Blighthaven. It's packed with pretty neon colors, hideous mutated monsters, and bulbous Globellum--giant, dome-like gastrointestinal tumors pocketed throughout the zone, which you can freely swim into at any time just for the hell of it. Spend some time exploring Blighthaven, and you'll happen across a 20-man open-world public quest that plays out like a tower defense game, as well as The Nursery, a five-man non-instanced dungeon in which a Strain-infected Eldan creature resides. Then there's the Northern Wastes zone; this recreation of the low-level Northern Wilds is all about open-world PvP, featuring a few team-based objectives to keep the battles going. If you're already at level cap and sitting on a fat pile of Elder Gems, fear not; the Strain is coming.

Click through the following slides for more images and information.

That octopus thing with all the eyes? Not a natural inhabitant of the Nexus.

Not all of Blighthaven is festering with creepy Strain-mutations. Some of it's quite pretty!

A new 20-man public quest tasks you with protecting that fancy tree in the background in a sort of tower defense open-world raid.

Welcome to the Nursery, which houses a non-instanced 5-man dungeon.

Some of that dungeon has a cool cyber aesthetic...

...while other sections are fiery wastelands.