_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ Monster Hunter (US) Version 0.19 Headlock FAQ FAQ created by Terragen on March 8, 2005 CONTENTS: I- Disclaimer II- Updates III- About Headlocking IV- Headlocking Rathalos and Rathian a) Lance: 2-hit b) Lance: 3-hit c) Great Sword: Side-swing d) Dual Swords: Spin e) Dual Swords: Combo V- Winglocking VI- Credits VII- Authorized Websites [I- Disclaimer] I do not own Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter and all names, characters, items, et al are the sole property of Capcom and any parties associated with the creation of Monster Hunter. I did not discover, invent, or perfect the art of headlocking. There have been many claims as to who truly did this, but there has not been sufficient evidence or justification for this. I will assume that headlocking belongs to the Monster Hunter community. Whenever I credit someone for a certain method to headlocking, note that it does NOT mean they discovered this method. It simply means they were the one to supply the description for this FAQ. This is my first FAQ, so bear with me. At the moment, this FAQ is very incomplete, as I still need to look into headlocking for alternate weapons, as well as headlocking for other wyverns. [II- Updates] v0.19- 3/23/05- Section IV- Lance: 3-hit added. v0.16- 3/13/05- Updated Rathalos and Rathian stagger info. Updated Section IV- Dual Swords: Spin timing info. v0.14- 3/10/05- Section IV- Dual Swords: Combo added. Section V added. v0.12- 3/09/05- Section IV- Great Sword: Side-swing added. v0.10- 3/08/05- Headlock FAQ Created. [III- About Headlocking] Headlocking is a form of attacking a monster (at the head, of course) in such a way that it is staggered every few seconds and is unable to attack the headlocker (and, usually, any other hunters). It is claimed that any weapon can execute some form of headlocking, whether it be alone or in groups. The goal of headlocking is to keep the monster stunned as long as needed while dealing damage to it. The most commonly used weapon for headlocking is the lance. It is important to make sure your weapon is at its best sharpness for headlocking, unless otherwise noted. You will commonly see the word "stagger" used in this FAQ. "Staggered" refers to the point when a monster is stopped from doing whatever it is doing (whether it be standing up straight or doing some other action). A monster is not counted as staggered if it is knocked over, stunned, blinded, or does another action in place of the one it was prevented from doing. In the headlocking sections for each monster, you will see a more detailed description of what the monster is like when it is staggered. A very important key to headlocking is entering the area with the monster first. In many cases this requires you to memorize where the monster will be at the start of the mission, so you can head to the area immediately. This is important because it eliminates any lag that you will experience while headlocking (excluding server and/or player lag, which is unavoidable). When you do not enter the area first and attempt to headlock, you will notice that the monster responds late to your attacks. This is referred to as "locking lag" by some players. It may be a good idea to tell your party members beforehand that you will be headlocking and that they should let you enter the area first. You need to enter first for every area if you plan on headlocking in that area. The following is a suggestion from somd: "Also I've noticed a differrence in timing depending on how many people are in the party. Offline and solo online the timing is very strict, timing gets loose as more people join the party so naturally its easiest to lock in a four person party." You must realize that no one is perfect -- especially not while learning to headlock. If you somehow lose the headlock, it is best to improvise and get in extra hits if you feel it will recover the headlock. If not, revert to evasive or defensive tactics until you can start the headlock again. [IV- Headlocking Rathalos and Rathian] Rathalos and Rathian (or Raths, as they are called by many) are the most common application of headlocking, especially in 4-star quests and up. This is mainly due to the fact that they are some of the easier wyverns to headlock and the need for an immobile target whose tail can be easily cut off (for the elusive Plates). Both types of Raths look similar when they are staggered. They make a short groan, their head lowers, and they will shake their head briefly for a while before returning to their normal standing position by lifting their head while shaking it again more violently. There are two main types of staggers for Raths, and the only difference is the rate at which they shake their head. The usual is the slower shake, and it is the stagger that most headlockers are accustomed to, and the one that is easiest to learn with. The faster shake is seen when the Rath is in frenzy mode, and it makes it more difficult to adjust for the timing in this situation. (Thanks to TheOneReturns for fixing that) No matter what weapon you use, it is safest to wait close to the Rath until they make two slow turns (which telegraph a leap, bite, or fireball attack). What you're hoping for is a fireball, but in case it decides to do another attack, wait a few seconds before running into the fray. Always make sure the Rath is not facing directly towards you. After one fireball is fired, run towards the side of the head and begin the headlock. Rathalos always shoots one fireball when he fireballs, so you will be safe running at an angle towards his head. Rathian, however, usually shoots three, so, it is best to run in directly to the side of her head. Follow the instructions below for the methods indicated. a) Lance: 2-hit This is the suggested headlocking method for lances with attack power above 500. Lances with attack power under 500 may be able to use this method, but I have only tried it with lances with attack above 500. Stagger the Rath once by either doing an unsheath attack or a normal stab/upstab into its head and following up with enough hits to stagger it (you should need no more than 3 hits). Make sure you stop attacking as soon as you see the Rath get staggered. When you stop, you have several options ahead of you. Consider your position. 1) If you are in a good spot to keep attacking the head, stop and wait for the next step. 2) If you are a little too close to or even past the head and you feel that an upstab may miss the head, sidestep once immediately into a more comfortable position and then move quickly to face the head. 3) If you are more than a little too close to the head, backstep immediately and take 1-3 steps towards the head. While you are commiting to one of the three options, you must watch the Rath's head. It should still be shaking, but it only shakes for less than 2 seconds (a little more than 2 seconds if it is shaking slowly, as described before), so timing is crucial. At the end of the shaking animation, the Rath will begin to raise its head back to its normal position and shake its head more violently. This is the critical moment. Upstab, making sure you hit the head as it is shaking violently, and upstab once more (this second upstab should occur when the head is at normal position). This second upstab should stagger the Rath. Go back to the three options as listed above to continue the headlock in an endless cycle. b) Lance: 3-hit This is the suggested headlocking method for lances with attack power above 450. The following is a paraphrased version of Sanjuro333's given method for 3-hit headlocking. This lock is done while standing directly in front of the Rath's head. Use the unsheath attack or an upstab, followed by more hits to the head, if needed, to stagger the Rath once. Then, immediately backstep, and do one forward stab, making sure that it hits the bottom of the Rath's head. Follow this up immediately with 2 more upstabs, backstep, and repeat the forward, up, up stab combo. Since this requires 3 hits instead of 2, it will be much more fast- paced and there is supposedly not much room for timing. Just try to do the sequence of stabs as quickly as possible, and it should work. c) Great Sword: Side-swing This method of headlocking has been proven to work with most great swords with attack power above 900. The method for Rathalos and Rathian differs slightly, because Rathian tends to resist strikes to her head more. For Rathian, it is suggested that you use Eternal Annihilator. The following is a paraphrased version of enjelsama's guide to headlocking Raths with a great sword. For this method, references will be made to the area of the great sword that you should hit the Rath with. Area 1 refers to the third of the blade that is closest to the hilt. Area 2 refers to the middle third of the blade. Area 3 refers to the third of the blade at the tip. For Rathalos, your initial position should be in front of the head, slightly to the left of it. Start the headlock by doing a horizontal slash (left on the right analog stick) to the head using Area 2. Immediately follow up with an upswing using Area 1. Immediately repeat these two attacks using the same areas as needed. If you are using a slower great sword, you may want to try using Area 1 when attacking with the horizontal slash instead of Area 2. For Rathian, your initial position should be approximately underneath her neck. You should be facing towards her head for the headlock; that is, you should be facing in the same direction that she is. This makes you vulnerable to her tailflip, so be careful. Begin the headlock by using Area 1 to upswing the head, and immediately follow up by using Area 1 to do a horizontal swing. Immediately return to the upswing to repeat the cycle as needed. You will need to turn your character to make sure you hit the head with Area 1 every time. d) Dual Swords: Spin This is the suggested headlocking method for dual swords with attack power above 250. However, only DDU and Guild Sabers (thanks to fiercelinkaura for testing the Guild Sabers with this method) have been tested to work with this method. The following is IamBeeflog's method (typographical errors corrected): "Alright, since dual swords don't have the best sharpness and sometimes lose it, very carefully, you'll have to stop and sharpen but don't do that until you stop headlocking it. Example: miss a bit and it doesn't shake. Anyway, take mega juice and use it of course. Go into berserk mode and run up to Los [/Ian]. Stop right beside it's head and to the left or right spin (depends on what side you're standing on) it should hit him enough to shake his head. Once he shakes his head it should give you enough time to run back and do the spin hit again." To find out when to continue with another spin combo, watch the head of the Rath at all times. At the very end of the shaking animation, the Rath will begin to raise its head to the normal position. During the short, crucial period when it is lifting its head, begin striking again. Repeat as needed. For Rathian, there will be times when your swords "lag" a lot when cutting through her head. It will most likely stagger her, but you will not have enough time to time your strikes as mentioned in the previous paragraph. In such a case, it is best to just continue doing spin-slashes on her head without breaks. I have managed to lock Rathian with this method with up to 10 staggers using DDU, but my sharpness quickly ran out. e) Dual Swords: Combo This is FFX Tidus 415's method for headlocking Raths using Dual Swords: "You need mega juice/power juice. Press R1 then do up,up,up,down. This depends on your attack power. You need the last hit of the down have them stagger or w/e. So sometimes you might only need 2 up's and 1 down. probably 1 up and 1 down. All depends on your attack. Oh yea...Stay directly infront of the head. The up motions move you forward a bit. So if your at the left/ride side of the head...your gonna end up at the other side of the head." For timing, refer to "Dual Swords: Spin" and read the second to last paragraph. This method's timing is very similar. [V- Winglocking] In addition to headlocking to stagger and immobilize monsters, some wyverns can be winglocked. As the term suggests, this is similar to headlocking but it involves attacking the wings of the wyvern. EhudBarak has a simple guide for winglocking Yian-Kut Ku and Gypceros using a lance: "Just do the 3 up stabs with the lance at the wings, and then do the backstep, and then repeat. If you keep repeating that, the Yian Kut-Ku or Gypceros isn't going anywhere. The only problem with doing that on the Gypceros is his stupid feign death -_- Other than that, I've tested it several times and it works wonders. I timed a Yian Kut-Ku with a Black Dragon Spear and it wasn't even more than 30 seconds." [VI- Credits] I give thanks to Capcom for making Monster Hunter, GameFAQs and Heavens Knights for allowing me to host this FAQ, and all of the hunters who helped me to progress in this game and those who taught me the rudiments of headlocking. The following people contributed directly to this FAQ: -IamBeeflog -enjelsama -FFX Tidus 415 -fiercelinkaura -EhudBarak (BloodiedWraith) -TheOneReturns (Dream) -Sanjuro333 (John5000) [VII- Authorized Websites] This FAQ may only be hosted on the following sites: -GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) -Heavens Knights (www.freewebs.com/hevknights) -Neoseeker (www.neoseeker.com) -Monster Hunter Forums, unofficial (www.s8.invisionfree.com/MH_Forum)