_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ MONSTER HUNTER FREEDOM 2 FULL FAQ / WALKTHROUGH _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ Monster Hunter Freedom 2 - Full FAQ / Walkthrough Author: noilleberreven (chocori.icy.eyes@gmail.com) This FAQ is Version 0.1A - it was last updated on April 19th, 2008. Contact information can be found at the bottom of this FAQ. ====================================================================== [1] Introduction [1] ====================================================================== Monster Hunter Freedom 2 Platform: Playstation Portable (PSP) Number of Players: 1-4 Cooperative Play Developer: Capcom Production Studio 1 Publisher: Capcom US Release: Aug 29, 2007 EU Release: Sep 07, 2007 AU Release: Sep 12, 2007 JP Release: Feb 22, 2007 (as "Monster Hunter Portable 2") This walkthrough is based on and intended for use with Monster Hunter Freedom 2 for the PSP. It was written using the North American version of the game. Some of the information found in this walkthrough is translated from the JP Official Guide Book for the game. The information contained here can also be applied to the EU, AU, and JP versions of this game (all information should be the same in the EU and AU Monster Hunter, and the only information different in the JP Monster Hunter are download quests), and some of the tactics and information provided may still apply to the previous and future games in the series. This is a walkthrough, meaning that it is intended to walk you through the game and provide help on every obstacle that comes your way. It will not hold your hand and make you a master of the game just by reading it, nor is it intended to be the ultimate guide to the world of Monster Hunter or the last piece of writing you will ever need to read. This walkthrough is merely an additional resource for you to use to learn more and more about Monster Hunter. It's worth noting that when talking about how to fight most monsters, I will normally just refer to a monster's openings - opportunities when it is safe to attack. It is up to you and your mastery of the weapon you're using to know what attacks you can get in during those openings. Only when a monster has very specific strategies for fighting it will I go into further detail than that. In the future, I might write weapon specifics for each monster fight, but right now it doesn't seem necessary. This walkthrough is typed 70 characters wide on Lucida Console, and should be read with a similar monospaced font on a resolution that can display 70 characters wide. Version 0.1A (04/19/2008) - First version uploaded to GameFAQs, as it meets the minimum requirements to be approved for submission. This walkthrough currently covers all quests up to Ruler of the Snow. This is probably actually the third time I've written this thing, I've scrapped it and rewritten it several times until I felt it was written right. I'm going to make a lot of references to clockwise/counter clockwise, and left/right, so let's make sure we all know which is which: <--- THIS IS LEFT THIS IS RIGHT ---> Have trouble remembering that? Just remember that L comes before R in the alphabet, or that you normally read English from left to right... Clockwise refers to the direction that hands move on a clock. If you aren't sure which direction that is... just look at a clock. Counter clockwise is the opposite direction. And by the way, if you find this on any website OTHER than GameFAQs, it's been stolen without my permission. Avast, pirates! ====================================================================== [2] Table of Contents [2] ====================================================================== To quickly find what you need, press CTRL+F (APPLE+F for Macs) and use the search engine on your internet browser to hop to the section you want. For example, if you wanted to get to the table of contents, you would search for "[2]". Remember to have the brackets on the ends of the section number. I've taken out all the parts I haven't finished writing from this Table of Contents, because I know it's frustrating to scroll down to a section you want and read "Under Construction". :p [1] Introduction [2] Table of Contents [3] Playing the Game [3.1] What is Monster Hunter? [3.2] Changes from MHF [3.3] Controls [3.4] The Menu [3.5] The Village of Pokke [3.6] Your Home [3.7] Crafting [3.8] Pokke Farm [3.9] The Eleven Weapons [3.9.a] Sword and Shield [3.9.b] Dual Swords [3.9.c] Great Sword [3.9.d] Long Sword [3.9.e] Hammer [3.9.f] Hunting Horn [3.9.g] Lance [3.9.h] Gunlance [3.9.i] Heavy Bowgun [3.9.j] Light Bowgun [3.9.k] Bow [3.10] Armor, Decorations, and Armor Skills [3.11] Progressing through the Game [3.11.a] Quests [3.11.b] Gathering [3.11.c] Hunting [3.11.d] Slaying [4] Pokke Elder Quests - Offline [4.1] * One Star Elder Quests [4.1.a] Mountain Herb Picking [4.1.b] An Anteka in the Snow [4.1.c] Hunt the Carnivore! [4.1.d] Sinking Feeling [4.1.e] Slay the Blangos [4.1.f] Urgent Quest - The Carnivorous Leader [4.2] ** Two Star Elder Quests [4.2.a] Gathering - Snowy Mountains [4.2.b] Gathering - Jungle Zone [4.2.c] Gathering - Desert Zone [4.2.d] The Carnivorous Leader [4.2.e] Reckless Bulldrome Hunter [4.2.f] Slay the Giaprey! [4.2.g] The Pack of Blangos [4.2.h] The Taboo of Negligence! [4.2.i] Hunt Down the Velocidrome! [4.2.j] Jungle Menace [4.2.k] Rarest of the Rare Beasts [4.2.l] Hunt the Rare Forest Congas! [4.2.m] Attack of the Giant Bugs! [4.2.n] Collect to Combine [4.2.o] Hunt the Gendrome [4.2.p] The Land Shark [4.2.q] Liver of Legend! [4.2.r] Gone Fishin' [4.2.s] Urgent Quest - Shadow in the Snow [4.3] *** Three Star Elder Quests [4.3.a] Gathering - Swamp Zone [4.3.b] Gathering - Forest and Hills [4.3.c] Shadow in the Snow [4.3.d] The Subterranean Glutton [4.3.e] Blango Slaying Tactics [4.3.f] Aim for the Jungle Crab [4.3.g] Master of the Giant Lake [4.3.h] A Swarm of Hermitaurs [4.3.i] The Purple Poison Menace [4.3.j] The Lurking Desert Giant [4.3.k] Water Wyvern in the Desert [4.3.l] Slay the Genprey! [4.3.m] Gypceros: Venomous Terror [4.3.n] Attack of the Blue Kut-Ku [4.3.o] The Mischief-maker [4.3.p] Fang of the Iodrome! [4.3.q] Slay the Great Kut-Ku! [4.3.r] A Killing from Mushrooms [4.3.s] Urgent Quest - The Ruler of the Snow [12] Item List [15] Afterword ====================================================================== [3] Playing the Game [3] ====================================================================== Not everyone reading this walkthrough has played the game, or has any idea what Monster Hunter is or how it's played, or owns the game manual for Monster Hunter Freedom 2. And that's ok, because here I'll go over all that wonderful and explanative goodness you can probably find by playing the game and reading the manual. ====================================================================== [3.1] What is Monster Hunter? [3] ====================================================================== It's hard to describe. The answer to that question is usually "Look up videos on YouTube", but I'll try. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is the second game in the Monster Hunter Freedom series. The Freedom games are ports of the original Monster Hunter games for the PS2, with a few modifications to make the game playable on the PSP (which lacks dual analog and the hardware power of the PS2). In Monster Hunter, you do just what the name implies - you hunt monsters. It sounds like a simple concept that's already been done in video games, but what sets Monster Hunter apart from other games is depth - this isn't like any other game where you just target a monster and attack it until it dies. You have full control over your hunter. The analog stick controls movement, and the other buttons control actions like attacking, drawing and sheathing your weapon, rolling, guarding. You don't evade attacks simply by pressing the evade button, you have to actually avoid the attack yourself. These monsters aren't cakewalks either. Monsters are anywhere from two to twenty times your size. Even the weakest attacks will shave off 20-30% of your health. Two hit kills are commonplace and 100% combos can happen in an instant. Fights can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, on average. For that reason, you need skill to pick up and get better at Monster Hunter. Decent reflexes. Time management. Quick learning. Common sense. The ability to be in the right place at the right time. Simply having the best weapons and armor isn't going to let you blaze through the game (though it certainly will help if you're good). Will you like this game? That's up to you. The only game I can think of that is remotely like Monster Hunter is Diablo II - if you liked that, you will probably like Monster Hunter Freedom 2. In fact, the more I think about it, the more Diablo II and Monster Hunter seem similar. ====================================================================== [3.2] Changes from MHF [3.2] ====================================================================== As the name implies, Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is the second game in the Freedom series, introducing many changes from the first game. Here's a list of them in somewhat random order: - New town (Pokke) instead of Kotoko It's all the same to me, honestly. - Farm Point system has been revised You no longer get points for selling or buying items. Instead, you get a certain number of points for every "Account Item" you bring in... Powderstone is worth 3000, Special Mushrooms are 50, and so forth... This also introduces new items like Goldstone Piece and Silverfish. You also get points for doing quests at the Training School and for doing Treasure Hunting quests. - Farm renovations changed Mushroom Tree and Beehive will give you items similarly to Bomb Mining did. Instead of having to gather items one at a time, you will see a list of all items you got from it and can pick which items to take and which to sell for z. You can also send items obtained this way directly to your storage box. There is a new renovation, Trenya's Boat, that will bring you items in exchange for points. - Reward system changed Any items left in your post-quest rewards will be sold for z instead. - Miniature storage boxes added These boxes give you access to your item storage, but not your equipment storage. There's one at the Pokke Farm, and one at the Guild Hall. - Storage holds six pages of items To cater to the increased number of different items, obviously. It's still not enough. - Inventory holds 24 items instead of 20 Now there's no excuse for forgetting your Combo Books. - New boss monsters Tigrex, a wyvern whose wings have adapted into legs. Daimyo Hermitaur, a hermit crab living in a Monoblos Skull. Shogun Ceanataur, a hermit crab living in a Gravios Skull. Shen Gao Ren, a large crab living in a Lao-Shan Lung Skull. Bulldrome, the drome version of Bullfango. Giadrome, the drome version of the new Giaprey. Congalala, a primate that attacks mainly with contact damage. Blangonga, a primate that uses ice. Rajang, a ferocious horned gorilla that uses lightning. Kushala Daora, the Elder Dragon of wind (wind shield). Chameleos, the Elder Dragon of Mist (invisibility). Teostra, the Elder Dragon of Fire (burning aura). Lunastra, the female version of Teostra. Akantor, the new final wyvern. White Fatalis, now with less health and more instakills! - New minions Giaprey, white Velociprey that can spit ice at you. Congas, the minion version of Congalala. Blango, the minion version of Blangonga. Hermitaur, the minion version of Daimyo Hermitaur. Ceanataur, the minion version of Shogun Ceanataur. Great Thunderbug, a floating insect that goes for contact damage. Remobra, annoying little wyverns that try to poison you. - Basarios now takes extra damage when stomach is broken Before he didn't. Now he does. He's still too easy. - Camera revamped It no longer sucks to fight in FnH 9! - New armorsets (mostly for new monsters) - New armor skills Most are there to complement the new weapon types or new status ailments, but there are a few other notable ones you can use with any weapon. (Evade+2, Runner...) - New items Obviously... most are to deal with the new status ailments, but there are some new ones. Cooked Fish both heals the red HP gauge and acts as an Immunizer, Shock Traps are like Pitfall Traps that hold monsters in place but have a much shorter duration... - Armors can be previewed before crafting If the armor shows up on your crafting list, you can preview it even if you don't have the materials to make it. You can't rotate the preview though, which sucks. - Armor can now be upgraded At the cost of z and Armor Spheres, you can upgrade your armor, giving it 2 more defence per upgrade. As you upgrade more, the cost increases and type of Armor Sphere needed changes. Each armor has a preset maximum level of upgrade - for some it's 14, for others it might only be 7. - New effect, Quake It's essentially Faint/KO (you even mash out of it), but it happens when you get hit by the quaking effect of a monster's attack. - New status ailments Frozen, during which you will run at egg-carrying speed. You can still roll, but you cannot use any items except Thawing Agents. Fatigued, during which your max stamina becomes 25 and you cannot use any items to raise it without curing the Fatigue first. Odor, during which you cannot use any items on yourself other than Deodorant. There are no armor skills that prevent Odor. Defence down, during which your defence is cut in half. - Wyvern Wind fixed Instead of making you fall backwards, Wyvern Wind now properly pushes you away from the point of origin. - Decoration system added Armors and weapons now have slots, which can be filled with decorations to modify the armor skills given by that piece of equipment. - Color changing armor system added S-series armor will have parts whose color can be changed. Colors are changed at your equipment box. - Maximum armor/item rarity is now 9 They're Red! - +Rank removed, only Normal and Hard Rank now Dragonite Ore, MB+, and other old +Rank items can be obtained in the higher starred Normal quests. - Maximum HR is now 6 But since Hard Rank now starts at HR4 instead of HR3, it's essentially the same thing as it was before (especially considering the fact that going from HR1 to HR3 is now a joke). - A few new monster properties Hard Ranked Gravios and Black Gravios can do a sweeping beam that has less range but covers a wide area in front of him. Hard Ranked Gypceros can be carved once when it is playing dead. Plesioth can do a body splash like Cephadrome does. Yian Kut-Ku can do a swoop like Rathalos does. All Rathian variations can do a second backflip after the first. - New affinity system added Affinity controls critical hits and negative critical hits. Critical hits do 125% raw damage, negative critical hits do 75% raw damage. 0% affinity means no critical hits at all. - New area, SnowyMountains If you like getting tons of Ice Crystals and one or two Machalite, you might like SnowyMountains. I don't. - Desert, Volcano, Jungle, and Swamp have been changed The changes are mainly to open up more of the areas to monsters who previously only stayed in one or two areas (like Diablos). They're also a nice change. - Most areas now come in Night and Day variations Night and day will control some environmental changes. Some paths become blocked off or become open. Desert(night) becomes cold instead of hot. The lava level is higher in Volcano(night). Jungle(night) and Swamp(day) have rain. Swamp(night) has poisonous swampy areas. Forest and Hills does not have a night variation. - Bombs cannot be used in the rain A new item, LightningRod, can only be used in the rain. - New weapon types Bows have unlimited ammo at the cost of damage. They are simpler to use than Bowguns and offer a new range alternative to those who couldn't manage ammo with Bowguns. Gunlances are slightly weaker Lances that can only do cutting damage, but have shelling, which enables them to perform longer combos and deal some explosion-type damage in their combos. Hunting Horns are significantly weaker than Hammers, but can inflict KO and can perform Recital music, which can give out temporary buffs like increased movement speed, +30% damage, infinite stamina, healing... Long Swords are like Great Swords, but are much faster in exchange for also being much weaker. They cannot block, but can accumulate Spirit Gauge, which increases attack when filled and can be consumed to use a strong Spirit Attack. (Also, all Great Swords that were previously katana-like in appearance are now Long Swords) - Hammers have been improved Hammers (as well as Hunting Horns) can inflict KO. KO acts like other status ailments, but the amount of KO inflicted varies by attack (Hammers are better at it), and KO will only accumulate when the attack hits the monster's head (except for the smaller Dromes, in which case any attack that hits will inflict KO) A monster that is KO'd will fall on the floor (like a leg stagger knockdown), but will stay down long enough for two triple pounds. - Sword and Shield have been severely weakened They now have a VAR of 1.12 on their raw damage instead of 1.5, so they do approximately 74.6% of the raw damage they did before. In exchange, most of SnS' attacks have High Wind Res, and you can use items with the weapon out. Yippee. - Lances have been weakened They now do 72% damage when they do Impact damage except for the charging (81% instead) and blocking (100%) attacks. On the other hand, they can now do three backstep/sidesteps in a row. - Dual Swords have been improved... sorta They do more raw damage on each attack, but do only 70% elemental. It's a bit of a toss-up, really. - Great Swords have been improved They now have a charge attack which has High Wind Res while charging and is the most powerful single attack in the game. - Heavy Bowguns have been improved They can now get a Power Barrel mod which further increases their raw power. Or a Shield which auto-guards as long as you aren't reloading or recoiling. You're better off with the damage, but at least now you have something better to pick than a Scope, Long Barrel, or a Silencer. - Sleep has been improved Sleeping monsters now take triple damage on the attack that wakes it up. This has improved Sleep Bombing and is of great benefit to Hammers and Great Swords, which can make the best use of this triple damage. - Stun has been improved Stunned monsters now take 10% extra damage from everything. - New element, Ice Personally, I don't like the element. Things notably weak to Ice: Cephadrome, Velocidrome, Rathalos, Monoblos, Diablos, Rajang. Notice how a lot of the things on that list you wouldn't use an elemental weapon on anyway. - Monsters now have less HP and all weapons are slightly weaker It all kinda evens out, but it's pretty obvious these changes were made to help prevent soft headlocking. HL is still possible, though. - Monsters hit harder It's true. Oh, it's true. - Defence values on armor is roughly doubled 150 defence in this game is about the same as 75 defence in MHF. Elemental resistance system remains the same. - Some carves have been simplified For example, instead of Rathalos and Rathian Claws, there are just Fire Wyvern Claws dropped by both monsters. All rubies from all Rathalos variations are now Rathalos Rubies, same applies to Rathian Rubies... - Almost all hunting quests are now "slay or capture" As a result, all capture quests have been removed. The only quests that aren't slay or capture are the ones for monsters that can't be captured anyway. - Powderstone/Herbivore Egg/Wyvern Egg quests removed Well, there's still an Egg delivery download quest, but for the most part, they're gone. The items are still in the game as Account Items though. - Early Bird Piercing removed On the bright side, High Speed Gathering is one of the easier skills to get via Decorations. - Sword Saint Piercing cannot be crafted It is now the reward for completing every single solo training mission with every weapon. That's 10 x 5 Battle Training and 5 x 5 Special Training. - Training School now offers Group Training quests Mandatory to unlock Fatalis. There's only three of them :( - Treasure Hunting quests can now be done solo It's not like you're going to score very high by yourself anyway. - Downloadable content Oh yeah, downloadable content. An alternative to people who can't unlock the Fatalis brothers the normal way, or want access to items before they can get them (HR4+s can fight HR6 monsters via download quests). There's other bonuses in the downloadable content too, but not much of it really matters. I think that's it, aside from the numerous small weapon changes (i.e. Shining Wyvern Blade has slightly less raw). That was a long list. ====================================================================== [3.3] Controls [3.3] ====================================================================== Controls are probably the most intimidating part about this video game, but give it some time and they'll grow onto you. Here's some ASCII to remind you what buttons you've got on your PSP: _________________________________________ / L / \ R \ /¯¯¯¯¯¯ |¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯| ¯¯¯¯¯¯\ / | | sony \ | _ | | | | _| |_ | | T | || | | | [] O | | ¯| |¯ | | X | | ¯ | | | \ O | | / \_____ |___________________________| ______/ \ home - vol + PSP select start/ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --- In Menus: Simple menu controls. D-Pad: Scroll up/down/left/right X: Confirm Circle: Cancel --- In Town: More simple controls. Analog Stick: Movement X: Talk Square: Use exit Triangle: Quick travel You actually can't use this in town, but when using any exit that goes TO Town, you can press Triangle instead to quickly go to one of the other areas that you would have to go through Town to get to. It's just a convenient thing to have. Start: Open Menu More information on the Menu in the section about the Menu. (Section 3.4) --- In the Field: Field controls can be complicated! Weapon specific controls will be covered in the section about weapons. (Section 3.9) Analog Stick: Movement Movement is based on your camera angle. If you press down on the analog stick, your character will move towards the camera no matter which way your character was facing before. D-Pad Left: Turn camera left D-Pad Right: Turn camera right D-Pad Up: Turn camera up D-Pad Down: Turn camera down You don't have full 360 degree camera turning when turning up/down, it simply switches between three preset camera angles and positions. You should operate the analog stick with the tip of your thumb, and hit the D-Pad buttons with the side of your index finger. This lets you move in one direction while turning the camera in another, which makes running circles around your enemies a breeze. X while moving: Roll or dive Rolling is your basic evasive maneuver. Learn it, love it. Rolling uses some stamina (25, to be exact), but it can get you out of a tight spot in a hurry. Rolling also has a few invincibility frames. You can only dive if your weapon is sheathed, if a monster sees you, and if you are currently running in a direction away from that monster. Diving has far more invincibility frames than rolling, but the weapon sheathed requirement makes it less useful than rolling. X+Analog Left or Right: Side roll You can only do a side roll with your weapon out in order to end a combo, otherwise you will do a regular roll instead. There is nothing special about a side roll, other than the fact it can be done to cancel or end combos. Unlike moving, if you side roll to the left, your character will roll to his or her left, regardless of which direction your camera is facing. You also have to remember that you must hold the Analog Stick left/right and not simply the direction which is your character's left/right (otherwise you might do the wrong roll, which can make the difference between life and death). X, standing still: Crouch Moving while crouching is slower, but increases your carving speed and reduces the chances of a monster detecting you. If you roll while crouching, it takes longer to roll and you will not be crouching when the roll ends. X, while fishing: Pull line X, while cooking: Pull food Fishing and cooking! Not things you'll do very often, but when you do, remember that X is the button you need to press, not Square or Circle. More on fishing and cooking in the section about Hunting. (Section 3.11) X, near a Supply Box: Open Supply Box Blue Supply Boxes will provide you with basic items on every quest. Just press X to open the Supply Box menu and use the menu controls to take the items you want. X, climb: Climb ledges and vines R, while climbing: Climb faster This is pretty self explanatory. If you see a ledge you can reach, press X to climb it. Same goes for vines. Holding R makes you climb vines faster, but you use Stamina as long as you keep it held down. Run out of stamina and you'll fall off! Square, weapon sheathed: Use items Square, weapon drawn: Sheathe weapon Only the Sword and Shield weapon type can use items with the weapon drawn. All other weapon types must sheathe their weapons before using items. Triangle, weapon drawn: Weapon attack #1 The functions for Triangle vary from weapon to weapon, but it is the universal main attack button for all weapons. Circle, weapon drawn: Weapon attack #2 Again, the function for Circle varies from weapon to weapon. It is a secondary attack for all weapons. For some weapons, it's stronger than Triangle, for others it's weaker... Circle, carving position: Carve monster You have to have your weapon sheathed and be standing close enough to a dead monster to carve it. Carving items from monsters is how you will get most of your items in this game, so learn it well. Tap L: Moves camera behind you Does exactly what it says. Useful for running from place to place, but using the D-Pad is best during fights. Hold L: Open Inventory Square, inventory open: Scroll left through items Circle, inventory open: Scroll right through items Triangle, inventory open: Scroll through ammo types Inventory controls. Inventory stays open as long as you keep L held down. Release it and it closes! Unlike most games, opening your inventory does NOT pause the game. The action just keeps going! R, weapon sheathed: Run It's how you get from place to place. You usually won't run while fighting, unless you're using one of the slow weapon types or want to get out of whatever mess you've gotten yourself into. R, weapon drawn: Block / R action The functions for R vary from weapon to weapon. For most weapons, R is block. R+Triangle+Circle, weapon sheathed: Block / R action This is what you press when you need to block in a hurry but don't have the time to pull your weapon out and then block. It saves time. It's pretty useful. For some weapons, R+Tri+Cir does something other than the R action. ====================================================================== [3.4] The Menu [3.4] ====================================================================== There are two menus in Monster Hunter Freedom 2, the main menu that shows up when you start the game, and the in-game one that you can pull up by pressing Start. The Main Menu's options are pretty self explanatory... New Game - Starts a new game. Pick a character slot, create your character, and begin a new game! Continue - Loads a previously saved game. Gallery - Watch movies that you've already seen in-game as well as a few that you can't see in-game. Options - Change the game options such as sound, background loading, etc. Download - Connect to Capcom's download service, where you can download various things... The in-game menu is far more important, since it's where you'll manage your items, check your status and armor skills, pause the game... You'll use it a lot. I'm sure of it. ;) Items - Lets you go through your items. You can discard items, rearrange their order... when you're in Multiplayer, this is also how you give items to another hunter. Combine - Combining items! If you have two compatible items, you can combine them to make another more useful item. Check the Combination List on GameFAQs for a list of items you can make through combining. Quest Info - This shows information on the current quest you have taken. Most people just look at this to check how much time they have left on their quest. Gestures - This lets your character perform gestures. It's grayed out when you aren't out on the field in a quest. Player Info - This lets you check a quick summary of the other players in the Gathering Hall. It'll show their equipment, their Hunter Rank, their name... It's grayed out outside of the Gathering Hall, since you obviously can't use it on yourself. :p Guild Card - This lets you edit and view your Guild Card, give your Guild Card to other players in the Gathering Hall, and view the Guild Cards you've received from others. Status - This... shows you pretty much everything you need to know about your character's current state, including how much attack and defence you have, how much money you've got, what armor skills you have... Equipment Detail - This lets you check your equipped armor and weapons in close detail. Reference - Reference gives you access to two lists. Combo List shows all the item combinations you've completed and can give you help on figuring out the item combinations you haven't completed. Monster List shows you a list of all the monsters you've bought reference books for, how many you've killed, and the maximum/minimum length for each monster type. Options - There's only one option here, and it controls if you choose which channel of the Gathering Hall you join or if the game does it automatically. Only change this if you're having trouble playing Ad-Hoc with others. Player Log - This shows the log of characters who've joined or left the Gathering Hall. Grayed out when you aren't in the Gathering Hall, and the log is reset when you leave the Gathering Hall (not that it's important anyway). Pause - This only appears while you're on the field, and only if you're playing by yourself. It pauses the game! ====================================================================== [3.5] The Village of Pokke [3.5] ====================================================================== Pokke Village! Where you'll be doing most of your pre-quest preparations. It's also where you start off in the game, so it might be a good idea to know what's around! Exit Training School / / \ \ Gathering Hall / / \ \______/ \____/ ¯¯¯¯¯¯\ \ Red Pokke | \ Cat Elder | \ / \ NPC1 / \ / \ / \ NPC2 / \ Item | Seller | NPC3 | | NPC5 | | \ | Crafter | NPC4 \ | Felyne | Seller | | / ______/ / /\ / | Home / \ / Wandering / / | / Cat / / | | _____/ ¯¯¯¯¯ | Blue | Nothing Cat Farm \ Aid \ ______________________________________ \ \ Pokke \ Farm Yum yum, delicious maps. Here's what everything on the map is: Home - It's your home. You can change weapons and armor here, save, and get food from your chefs. Training School - This is where you do Training Quests. Some items can only be obtained at the Training School. More about the Training School in the section about Training School Quests. (Sections 8, 9, and 10) Gathering Hall - This is where you go to do multiplayer and Guild Hall quests. Pokke Elder - The Pokke Elder gives you the solo Elder quests. Exit - After taking a quest from the Pokke Elder, go here to leave Pokke Village and go out to the field. Item Seller - She sells essential items for quests. As you progress through the Elder Quests, she'll start to sell higher end items. Crafter - You'll be talking to him a lot. The Crafter will craft all weapons, armor, and decorations in the game. He's also in charge of removing and attaching decorations to your armor, and upgrading your armor. Felyne Seller - The Felyne Seller sells armor and weapons rather than crafts them, but only sells lower end equipment. As you progress through the game, you can buy better armor (but not better weapons). Nothing - Just that, nothing. It's a path that looks like it would go somewhere but it doesn't go anywhere. Farm Aid - This guy will let you purchase renovations for the Pokke Farm, and lets you exchange Pokke Points for some harder to obtain items (It's usually not worth the points though). Red Cat - This NPC doesn't always appear here, but when she does, she sells from one of several item lists. Keep checking to see if she's selling an item you want! Blue Cat - This cat will sell Felyne Chefs. As you progress through the game, you'll be able to have more and more chefs (who can then cook better food for you) Wandering Cat - If you've downloaded a Wandering Cat, it'll appear here to be hired. NPC1 - This guy has semi-useful random information on the more legendary monsters you'll face. NPC2 - This NPC talks with NPC3 on a variety of subjects. Sometimes they disagree. NPC3 - This NPC talks with NPC2 on a variety of subjects. Sometimes they disagree. NPC4 - This guy is the hunter you replaced. He usually has information on upcoming urgent quests or urgent quests you've already done. NPC5 - This felyne NPC tells you about some armor skills. ====================================================================== [3.6] Your Home [3.6] ====================================================================== Home! Home is definately one of the more important places in Pokke Village, since it houses a variety of things... Felyne Kitchen__ \ \ \ Bed\ Storage \ Box___ \ Exit At the Felyne Kitchen, you can get the Felynes you've hired as chefs from the Blue Cat to cook food for you. By cooking the correct combination of ingredients, you can get temporary effects like Max Health+50, Damage+5%, Stamina+30... Although the effects only last for one quest or one life (whichever comes first), being able to increase your maximum health by 50% is nothing to shrug at. Get used to getting food from your Felyne Chefs before every quest. You can read more about the Felyne Kitchen from the Felyne Kitchen and Felyne Whim Skills on GameFAQs. I won't go into any more detail on the subject when you can just read those FAQs instead. The Bed is where you save. Even though you're given the option to save after every quest, if there's some reason you want to save while you're in Pokke Village, the bed is where you do it. Storage Box! Another thing you'll be spending quite a bit of time with. The storage box stores your items and extra equipment. Your inventory will fill up fast if you just leave your Brute Bones and Sharp Claws in there, so just deposit them into your storage box. It's also the only place where you can change your equipment, so if you ever need to change armor or weapons, go to your storage box to change them. Your Storage Box can register up to 10 sets of armor and weapons, which lets you quickly change from one set to the other without changing each part one at a time. It's very useful once you own lots of different sets of armor or weapons that you use for certain situations, or when you want to remember that combination of armor that gives you a certain armor skill... And there's the exit, for when you want to head back to Pokke Village. Don't hit yourself on the way out. :) ====================================================================== [3.7] Crafting [3.7] ====================================================================== Crafting is simple and almost completely automatic in Monster Hunter. In fact, I almost feel bad writing an entire section about it! To craft, talk to the Crafter in town and pick the type of crafting you want to do - Weaponcraft, Armorcraft, or Decorations. --- Weaponcraft If you pick Weaponcraft, there'll be two choices - Create Weapon or Improve Weapon. If you pick Create Weapon, they'll ask you what weapon type you want to create. Pick whichever one you want, and then a list of all the weapons you can craft from scratch will appear. Picking Improve Weapon will bring up your equipment list, and you pick the weapon you want to upgrade. Once you've picked a weapon, a list of all the possible upgrades will appear. Pressing Square will show the new weapon and how it compares to the old weapon (if upgrading) or the weapon you have equipped now (if creating). You can press Select to see a preview of what the weapon will look like. If the name of the new weapon is white, you have all the materials and money you need to create it! Press X to upgrade, and then again when they ask you if you're sure. If the name of the new weapon is gray, you either don't have enough money or you don't have all the materials you need. You can check what materials you need by pressing R. It'll look something like this: Barrel Lid : 0 ( 0) / 3 ShakalakaTreasre : 0 ( 15) / 3 FlynMealPassReg : 0 ( 2) / 5 The first number shows how many items you have in your inventory. In my case, I don't have any Barrel Lids, ShakalakaTreasres, or FlynMealPassRegs in my current inventory. The second shows how many you have in your storage. The third number shows how many items you actually need. It doesn't matter if the items are in your storage or if they're in your inventory, as long as you have the number of items you need. Now that you know what you need, go out and get it! Upgrading Bowguns is a little different. You don't upgrade Bowguns into new Bowguns, but you mod the one you have to make it better. In addition, upgrading Bowguns doesn't require any materials - only money. A Light Bowgun can get a Level Up, a Long Barrel, a Scope, or a Silencer. The Level Up will increase the Bowgun's raw power by 12. The Long Barrel will ensure all bullets will be accurate. The Scope lets you zoom in (it's useless), and the Silencer will make it so monsters attack you less often in Multiplayer. A Heavy Bowgun can get a Level Up, a Power Barrel, a Shield, or a Scope. The Level Up and Scope do the same thing they do for Light Bowguns. The Power Barrel adds another 24 raw power onto the Bowgun. The Shield makes it so that your Bowgun will automatically guard attacks as long as you aren't reloading or recoiling from a shot. Light or Heavy, either way your Bowgun can only have one of these mods and only four Level Ups. --- Armorcraft If you pick Armorcraft, there will again be two choices - Create Armor and Upgrade Armor. If you pick Create Armor, they'll ask you what armor part you want to create. Pick whichever one you want, and then a list of all the armors you can craft from scratch will appear. Picking Upgrade Armor will bring up your equipment list, and you pick the armor you want to upgrade. Armor can only have one type of upgrade - a Level Up. Level Ups require Armor Spheres and money. Just like with upgrading weapons, if the upgrade is possible, it'll be white. If the upgrade isn't possible, it'll be gray. Creating armor is the exact same process as creating a weapon. White means it's doable, gray means it isn't. By pressing Square, you can see the armor and how it compares to your current armor, and even what armor skills you would have if you equipped it. --- Decorations If you pick Decorations, there'll be three choices. The last two are for removing or attaching decorations to your armor. The first is for creating decorations. Creating decorations is just like creating armor, except that there is less info to see when you press Square. Removing and attaching decorations will take you to your equipment list - pick a piece of equipment that has slots and it'll show you a list of all the decorations you can put in or take out of it. ====================================================================== [3.8] Pokke Farm [3.8] ====================================================================== Boldrin's FAQ about the Pokke Farm covers everything you need to know about the Pokke Farm. But for sake of completion, I'll go over the basic concept of what the Pokke Farm's all about. The Pokke Farm allows you to gather materials in-between quests. When you are first introduced to the farm, there isn't much you can gather from it. In order to gather more materials and more higher-end materials, you need to perform renovations (and progress through the game to unlock these renovations). To pay for renovations though, you need Pokke Points. The Farm Aid in town outside the Pokke Farm can explain them, but the basic idea is that you get Pokke Points for finding and bringing in Account Items. You can also get points from doing Training Quests and Treasure Hunting quests, but it's more efficient to just bring in Account Items. Once the Farm is out of things to gather, you need to do a quest. Once you come back from your quest, there should be more things for you to gather again. Be sure to get things from the Pokke Farm in-between each quest to make things easier on yourself. If you won't do it for you, then at least do it for all the people on the original Monster Hunter who had to suffer without a farm to gather Machalite Ore and Dragonite Ores from. :p ====================================================================== [3.9] The Eleven Weapons [3.9] ====================================================================== Before you can play Monster Hunter, you have to know what weapon type you want to use! Otherwise you'll need to experiment, which can lead to terrible situations like having to fight Plesioth with a Hunting Horn... While it's very much possible to beat the game using one weapon type, you'll have a much easier time using several weapon type, since no weapon type works equally well against all monsters. Great Swords might be great against Rathalos, but terrible against Rajang. Instead of trying to use a Great Sword against Rajang, you'd have an easier time if you used a Hammer or Sword and Shield instead. You don't need to be a master of all weapons, but you should at least try to learn at least three different weapon types. You can start with one - but if you find that there is a huge glaring weakness in that weapon type (like the inability to block, or lack of reach), go ahead and pick up another weapon type that covers that weakness. You can go ahead and read the following sections and decide for yourself which type you want to use, but if you want my viewpoint on the weapon tiers: End Game (HR6+): Top: Hammers, Great Swords, Lances Mid-High: Hunting Horns, Dual Swords, and Gunlances Mid: Heavy Bowguns Mid-Low: Long Swords and Light Bowguns Bottom: Sword and Shield and Bows Late Game (HR4+): Top: Hammers and Great Swords Mid-High: Hunting Horns, Gunlances, and Lances Mid: Dual Swords, Heavy Bowguns Mid-Low: Long Swords, and Bows Bottom: Light Bowguns and Sword and Shield Mid Game: (4* Elder+/HR2-3) Top: Hammers and Great Swords Mid-High: Hunting Horns, Gunlances, and Heavy Bowguns Mid: Long Swords, Lances, and Sword and Shield Mid-Low: Light Bowguns and Dual Swords Bottom: Bows Early Game: (1*-3* Elder) Top: Hammers Mid-High: Hunting Horns, Great Swords, Long Swords and Gunlances Mid: Lances, and Sword and Shield Mid-Low: Heavy Bowguns, Light Bowguns, and Bows Bottom: Dual Swords These are mostly based on damage output. There are other things to consider when picking a weapon besides just this tier list. For example, I put Bows near the bottom tier at almost every phase in the game because they have the worst damage output - but they are also the safest weapon to use because you are constantly standing where it is difficult for monsters to hurt you. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure where Hunting Horns belong on the tier list. They aren't played very often in solo, and people generally accept them as being great in multiplayer - yet, nobody has really delved any deeper into it than that. Where does HH stand in terms of damage output? How much does Recital Mode cut into precious attacking time? We simply accept that it's good, when in reality it may actually be terrible. ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.a] Sword and Shield [3.9.a] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Cutting Sword and Shield (SnS) used to be one of the most powerful weapon types in MHF. Although now they've been weakened, they still find use in dealing high elemental damage. SnS are fast and agile weapons. Mobility and speed are the strong points for SnS - you can jump in towards a monster, hit it three or four times, then quickly roll away from it before it can punish you. Though they aren't the strongest weapons you'll ever use, they're often suggested to new players because they are a simple weapon to learn and use, and many of the things you learn with a SnS will apply to all the other weapons. Early game (1* - 3* Elder): 7/10 A few good early game SnS like Viper Bite and Velocidrome Bite make SnS a good candidate for early game. Not the best, but still good. Mid game: (4* - HR3): 7/10 Some of the Elemental SnS finally start to get good at mid-game, and SnS like Djinn, Eternal Strife, and Kirin Bolt Ultimus work fine when Deathprize doesn't get the job done. Late game: (HR4+): 5/10 SnS really suffers late game, since late game SnS are only barely stronger than their mid game forms. Odyssey Blade and Azure Ogre Sword are still good. Pros: ++ High hit count = higher elemental damage. ++ Hits fast, and almost every attack can be cancelled into a roll + Simple to use + Can use items with weapon out + Can block Cons: -- Just doesn't compare to hard hitting weapons like the GS or Hammer - Low raw damage requires you to make many different elemental SnS - Mobility is useless against monsters who wouldn't hit you anyway - Hard to consistantly hit a weakpoint for very long since SnS combo causes you to move forward - Low reach makes hitting some weakpoints difficult Tree: (Note that it is usually possible to obtain some of these weapons earlier than stated here via Download Quests.) Early Game: Hunter's Dagger -> Snake Bite -> Viper Bite Hunter's Dagger -> HD+ -> Assassin's Dagger -> Velocidrome Bite -> VB+ Mid Game: Viper Bite -> Deathprize Bone Kris -> BK+ -> Chief Kris -> Red Saber -> Djinn Kirin Bolt -> KB+ -> Kirin Bolt Ultimus Rusted Sword -> Tarnished Sword -> Eternal Strife If you don't really need a fire weapon (i.e. you use Gunlances too), then don't make Djinn. Make Corona instead. Late Game: Bone Kris -> BK+ -> Chief Kris -> RedSaber -> Corona -> GoldenFalchion Kirin Bolt Ultimus -> Thor's Dagger Velocidrome Bite+ -> Odyssey -> Odyssey Blade Blue Ogre Sword -> Azure Ogre Sword Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Melee | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Unsheathe attack Action: Triangle + Circle with weapon out Triangle with weapon sheathed Triangle after bouncing Damage: 18% Roll after: Yes A jumping slash that covers a lot of ground. This is a good and balanced attack, and should be your main combo starter. Get used to the distance this covers, since you'll be using it a lot and won't want to miss - since missing with this often results in missing with the entire combo. --Combo Slash 1 Action: Triangle Triangle after Unsheathe Attack Triangle after Upslice Damage: 14% Roll after: Yes A single diagonal slash from top right to bottom left. This is a very quick attack. It feels weird to me to use this attack and not immediately use Combo Slash 2 right after it, since they are both very fast and reasonably powerful attacks. --Combo Slash 2 Action: Triangle after Combo Slash 1 Damage: 12% Roll after: Yes A single diagonal slash from bottom left to right mid. The next attack in the SnS combo, and a fast one to boot. You can almost always find time to get this one in before having to roll out. --Combo Slash 3 Action: Triangle after Combo Slash 2 Damage: 8%, 12% Roll after: Yes A knee, followed by another diagonal slash. Since this attack is actually two attacks, it's pretty slow, and if you don't think you can get it in without getting punished, then don't do it. Roll instead... It's pretty weak raw damage wise, but is still effective with an elemental weapon. Notice that you move forward a bit with this attack, which can cause you to miss the target's weakpoint. --Revolution Slice Action: Circle Circle after Unsheathe Attack Circle after Combo Slash 1 Circle after Combo Slash 2 Circle after Combo Slash 3 Damage: 24% Roll after: Yes A spinning slice that does heavy damage. The damage is great, it can be used to end your combo with a bang, but remember that sometimes it's safer to just roll to end your combo instead... You move forward a bit with this attack, though it's not as bad as Combo Slash 3 (especially since a Revolution Slice will end your combo anyway, giving you a chance to reposition for your next attack) --Upslice Action: Triangle after rolling Triangle while guarding Damage: 15% Roll after: Yes A vertical slash upward that does good damage. 15% damage. This attack is actually pretty strong! Not as strong as the unsheathe attack, but it can be done immediately after a roll, something with the unsheathe attack can't do. This lets you remain constantly on the attack, if the situation calls for it. --Guard Action: R Button R + Triangle + Circle with weapon sheathed Damage: Not an attack Roll after: No Guard. SnS Guard is the weakest guard and receives pushback/chip damage on most attacks, but it's better than taking the hit. For those of you who are savvy on how Guarding works, 0 Power or less: No pushback and no chip damage 14 Power or less: Small pushback and some chip damage 15 Power or more: Heavy pushback and full chip damage --Use Item with weapon drawn Action: Square while guarding Damage: Not an attack Roll after: No Uses an item without having to sheathe your weapon. Not all items can be used. If you use a Whetstone, your weapon will be sheathed when you are finished. --Guarding Attack Action: Circle while guarding Damage: 14% Roll after: No A horizontal slash that quickly returns to guard stance. Pretty slow, but it immediately goes back to guarding after the attack ends. This isn't anywhere near as useful as the Lance and Gunlance's guard attack, since the SnS also has the weakest guard stance in the game. I hardly ever use it, since guarding with the SnS isn't something you can rely on and abuse throughout a fight. --Chain Diagram: Rev Slice Rev Slice Rev Slice OR OR OR Unsheathe Attack > Combo Slash 1 > Combo Sl 2 > Combo Sl 3 > Rev Slice OR OR OR OR Roll Roll Roll Roll v v v v v-------------v-------------v------------v------------v v v Rev Slice Rev Slice Rev Slice v OR OR OR Roll > Upslice > Combo Slash 1 > Combo Sl 2 > Combo Sl 3 > Rev Slice ^ OR OR OR OR ^ Roll Roll Roll Roll ^ v v v v ^----------v--------------v------------v------------v Guard > Guarding Attack > Guard ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.b] Dual Swords [3.9.b] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Cutting Dual Swords (DS) have been improved since MHF, now doing more raw damage in exchange for doing less elemental damage. This has knocked out the old popular Eternal Schism and put the spotlight on other dual swords which utilize both strong raw and strong elemental power. Dual Swords are also fast and agile weapons, though it takes a little bit longer for DS to finish a combo compared to the faster SnS. Though they can't block, DS are all about offence, and they really shine in situations where defence isn't necessary, such as when a monster is stunned by another hunter, caught in a trap, or taunting you. Dual Swords also have the best of both worlds - they can put out a lot of damage when mobility isn't needed, but they can also hit and run when mobility is needed. However, this requires that the Dual Swords do good damage even with hit and run, which can be a problem when early game DS are weak... Early game (1* - 3* Elder): 3/10 Ugh. Almost all DS available at this point in the game suffer from bad sharpness, bad damage, or both. Mid game (4* - HR3): 6/10 Bladed Edge+ becomes available, and is the best raw DS for a long time. New elemental DS become available, but sharpness remains a problem for these DS until they reach their late game forms. Late game (HR4+): 9/10 Ultimus Heaven & Earth? Corpse Blades? Guild Knight Sabers? They do it all. If it moves, one of those three dual swords will likely tear it to bits. Pros: ++ Above average damage output, excellent in multiplayer + Almost all attacks can be cancelled into a roll + Best melee weapon for many end-game monsters Cons: - Need to be attacking constantly to compare to full raw weapon types - Burns through sharpness quickly - Weak early game - Difficult time hitting some weakpoints Tree: (Note that it is usually possible to obtain some of these weapons earlier than stated here via Download Quests.) Early Game: Bone Scythe -> BS+ -> Chief Scythe Mid Game: Chief Scythe -> Bladed Edge -> BE+ Bone Kris -> BK+ -> Chief Kris -> Red Saber -> Twin Flames Twin Flames -> Hi Twin Flames Twin Dagger -> TD+ -> Dual Tomahawk -> Order Rapier -> Holy Saber Black Sword -> Double Dragon Late Game: Hi Twin Flames -> Gradios Ultimus -> Corpse Blades Holy Saber -> Guild Knight Sabers Double Dragon -> Dual Dragon Ultimus -> Ultimus Heaven & Earth Worn Blades -> Weathered Blades -> Hi Twin Daggers -> Silhouette Saber Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Melee | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Step Cross Slash Action: Triangle + Circle Triangle with weapon sheathed Triangle after bouncing Damage: 12%, 11% Roll after: Yes You dash forward and slash ahead with both swords. This is the Dual Swords version of the SnS Unsheathe Attack - the attacks serve almost exactly the same purpose, so I'm gonna just copy and paste what I said about the SnS Unsheathe Attack: This is a good and balanced attack, and should be your main combo starter. Get used to the distance this covers, since you'll be using it a lot and won't want to miss - since missing with this often results in missing with the entire combo. --Combo Slash 1 Action: Triangle Triangle after Step Cross Slash Damage: 18% Roll after: Yes A single diagonal slash from top right to bottom left. 18% damage. It's a quick, balanced, and strong attack. It's part of your combo. What else is there to say? --Combo Slash 1 (mirrored) Action: Triangle after rolling Damage: 19% Roll after: Yes Same attack as the Combo Slash 1, but it's mirrored so the attack is bottom right to top left, not that it really matters. The damage is higher and it's the only attack that can be done immediately after a roll, just like the SnS Upslash. --Combo Slash 2 Action: Triangle after Combo Slash 1 Triangle after Combo Slash 1 (mirrored) Damage: 10%, 8% Roll after: Yes A turning slash with both swords. A pretty fast attack, though the damage isn't much to write about. --Combo Slash 3 Action: Triangle after Combo Slash 2 Damage: 6%, 12%, 18% Roll after: Yes A low poke, followed by a turning slash with both swords. The damage is good, but the attack itself is so slow that I usually prefer to do the much faster Spinning Slashes after Combo Slash 2 instead of this. Of course, if you're just mashing Triangle with your Dual Swords, you probably won't have much choice in the matter :p --Spinning Slashes Action: Circle Circle after Combo Slash 1 Circle after Combo Slash 2 Circle after Combo Slash 3 Damage: 15%, 10%, 6% Roll after: Yes A jumping spin with three diagonal slashes. This acts as a combo ender much like the SnS' Revolution Slice, only it can't be done immediately after Step Cross Slash. The damage is decent and the hit count is good. --Spinning Slashes (mirrored) Action: Circle + Analog Stick Left Circle + Analog Stick Left after Combo Slash 1 Circle + Analog Stick Left after Combo Slash 2 Circle + Analog Stick Left after Combo Slash 3 Damage: 15%, 10%, 6% Roll after: Yes Same attack, but mirrored. This one doesn't do extra damage, so the only reason to use it is if you know regular Spinning Slashes will miss if you don't. Note that it is very difficult to do this by itself without accidentally turning left. --Demonize Action: R Button R Button after Step Cross Slash R Button after Combo Slash 1 R Button after Combo Slash 2 R Button after Combo Slash 3 R Button after Spinning Slashes R Button after Rolling R + Triangle + Circle with weapon sheathed Damage: Not an attack Roll after: Yes During Demonize, you constantly drain stamina and your attacks do more damage. Demonize will end when you use it again or when you run out of stamina. While under Demonization, your attacks do more damage: Step Cross Slash: 16%, 14% Combo Slash 1: 24% Combo Slash 1 (mirrored): 25% Combo Slash 2: 13%, 10% Combo Slash 3: 8%, 16%, 24% Spinning Slashes: 20%, 13%, 8% You also have access to a few new attacks... --Fury Combo Action: Triangle + Circle while Demonized Damage: 33%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 40% Roll After: Yes Ah, the fury combo. It does a ton of damage, and a ton of hits, so it'll put out a hefty amount of elemental damage. It does have its flaws though. For one, it's a long attack. The only way you can land all ten hits on a monster's weakpoint is if it's standing perfectly still or if you've trapped it. Also note that the strongest hits are at the beginning and end of the entire attack - if you're only hitting with half of the combo, you might as well not use it at all. The fury combo has built in ESP, so it will not be interrupted if it bounces off a monster's hide. Newer hunters are often criticized for staying in Demonization all the time and spamming this and only this attack. If you devote yourself to using only the Fury Combo, you will miss out on plenty of opportunities to get in small combos, and the damage you lose that way will add up. Not to mention you're chugging through sharpness (people tend to ignore that they've lost a sharpness level and keep Fury Comboing through it even though they're doing way less damage) and denying yourself the Step Cross Slash by staying in Demonization mode. Still, different situations call for different tactics. If you find the chance to land a Fury Combo, go for it. It is possible to roll and end your Fury Combo, but I don't know how to do it. :P --Double Spinning Slashes Action: Circle while Demonized Damage: 20%, 13%, 8%, 20%, 13%, 8% Roll After: Yes Two spinning slashes! More damage from Demonization, and you're doing one right after the other! What more could you want? --Spinning Slashes Fury Combo Action: Circle, Circle while Demonized Damage: 20%, 13%, 8%, 33%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 8%, 40% One spinning slash with a fury combo tacked onto the end. A nice way to end the Demonization if you know you're about to run out of Stamina. --Chain Diagram: Spinning Sl Spinning Sl OR OR Step Cross Sl > Combo Sl 1 > Combo Sl 2 > Combo Sl 3 > Spinning Sl OR OR OR OR Roll Roll Roll Roll v v v v v--------v------------v------------v-------------v v v Spinning Sl Spinning Sl v OR OR Roll > Combo Sl 1 Mir > Combo Sl 2 > Combo Sl 3 > Spinning Sl ^ OR OR OR ^ Roll Roll Roll ^ v v v ^----------------v--------------v------------v Everything >> Demonize >> Roll Double Spinning Slashes >> Roll Spinning Slashes Fury Combo >> Roll Fury Combo >> Roll ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.c] Great Swords [3.9.c] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Cutting Great Swords (GS) used to be that big hulking sword that people would use to cut tails that they couldn't otherwise reach... now that Long Swords have been introduced as a brand new tail reaching and cutting weapon, GS needs a new task to do incredibly well... And now they've got it. The GS has a charge attack, which when fully charged, does the most damage out of any other attack in the entire game. Being able to do the most damage in a single hit makes the GS very effective against monsters whose weakpoints are only vulnerable for a short time - while other weapons may only get one or two weak attacks in, the GS gets one attack that does insane amounts of damage. One fully charged GS swing does the same amount of raw damage as 3 regular GS swings. That might not seem like much, but remember that the GS is a slow weapon that does already high damage on each swing. Early Game (1* - 3* Elder): 6/10 Early game GS are a little weak, but once you develop them as far as they can go, they'll still put a hurting on everything. Ravager Blade and Golem Blade+ are equally good. Khezu Shock Blade is even better than Ravager/Golem, but becomes obsolete after 4* Elder. Mid Game (4* - HR3): 9/10 Great Swords get a huge boost, since now you should be able to make Tactical Blade, which will be the strongest GS available for a long time. Late Game (HR4+): 10/10 Siegmund plows through almost everything. It's just too good. Elemental GS also become available now, though only a few of them are worth not using Siegmund. Pros: +++ The charge attack does the most damage in the game + Elemental GS still do good raw damage and have high elemental power to boot + The GS charge means you can use just one strong raw GS for almost everything + It can block, though every attack blocked lowers your sharpness + Sharpness doesn't deplete very quickly + Most attacks have High Wind Res Cons: - It's a slow weapon - Less useful in multiplayer, since it's more difficult to bait your monster into getting hit by a GS charge - The GS is weak if you can't utilize the GS charge - It's hard to learn to GS charge everything, though the ability to release your charge at any time makes it easier Tree: (Note that it is usually possible to obtain some of these weapons earlier than stated here via Download Quests.) Early Game: Bone Blade -> BB+ -> Bone Slasher -> Golem Blade -> Golem Blade+ Buster Sword -> BS+ -> Buster Blade -> Ravager Blade Note: You can go Ravager Blade -> Khezu Shock Sword, but then you need to make a new Ravager Blade for Ravager Blade -> RB+. If you don't have a problem with that, then go ahead. KSB is not very good, since you can't upgrade it any further until late game. Mid Game: Golem Blade+ -> Valkyrie Blade -> Spartacus Blade Ravager Blade -> RB+ -> Tactical Blade Black Blade Note: You cannot get Rathalos Tails or Webbing from the 2* Guild Rathalos. Wait until 6* Elder or HR3 Troublesome Pair. Late Game: Spartacus Blade -> Siegmund Black Blade -> Fatalis Ancestor Finblade -> Plesioth Wsword -> Plesioth Csword -> Plesioth Azureblade Worn GS -> Weathered GS -> Teostra Blade -> King Teostra Blade Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Melee | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Overhead Swing Action: Triangle Triangle with weapon sheathed Triangle after bouncing Damage: 48% Roll after: Yes An overhead swing with good forward range. Learn this attack well, as you'll be relying on it often for monsters you can't Charge Slash. It's the strongest unsheathe attack in the game, and you can roll afterwards. I've fought many monsters using just this attack, rolling, sheathing, and repeating. This attack comes out slower if you don't use it as an unsheathe attack. --Side Swing Action: Circle Damage: 36% Roll after: Yes A weaker wide swing that hits all around you. Useful for clearing out weaker monsters, but not much else, since its ability to hit a weakpoint is pretty unreliable. --Upswing Action: Triangle + Circle Damage: 46% Roll after: Yes? A reverse overhead swing. 46% damage. This attack hits both in front and behind you. This attack will launch other hunters you hit with it into the air, so it's highly encouraged that you never ever use this attack in multiplayer. Solo, it has its uses... --Guard Action: R Button R + Triangle + Circle with weapon sheathed Damage: Not an attack Roll after: No Guard. GS Guard is a medium strength guard, but you lose some sharpness every time you block an attack with a GS. For our guard savvy hunters... 14 Power or less: No pushback and no chip 15 to 39 Power: Small pushback and some chip damage 40 Power or higher: Large pushback and full chip damage --Charge Slash Action: Press and Hold Triangle Press and Hold Triangle with weapon sheathed Damage: 71.5% (Level 1), 96% (Level 2), or 143% (Level 3) Roll after: Yes (Note: For our damage formula savvy, the damage values given here already factor in the bonus VAR for using the Charge Slash. The VAR is factored in to better compare the Charge Slash to the other attacks.) Begins charging an overhead swing that does insane damage. You'll hear three noises as the swing charges, each noise indicates that you've charged it to the next level. The Charge Slash can be released at any time, even before it has reached Lv1 (it'll act as an Overhead Slash instead) As absurd as the damage values for these attacks are, note that the attack is very difficult to land, and that if you cannot land the Lv3, you are usually better using regular unsheathe Overhead Swings instead. Landing the Lv3 on the weakpoint is very important, as it will almost always guarantee a head stagger, allowing you to safely roll out without any fear of being punished for the attack. Note that like the Overhead Swing, this attack comes out slower if you don't use it as an unsheathe attack. For help on landing this fearsome attack, look for naijiao's videos on GS Charging on YouTube. --Chain Diagram: o>>>>> Side Swing <<<>>>>> Upswing <<<<< Roll ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.d] Long Swords [3.9.d] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Cutting Ah, one of the new weapon types. Long Swords were originally known as Tachis in the Japanese game, and so the initial impression hunters got of the LS was that it was a purely offensive weapon that focused on power and speed. As time passed, we realized that the LS was not a purely offensive weapon, but rather a balanced weapon that has good amounts of speed, raw power, elemental power, and mobility. Due to this, the Long Sword is usually beaten out by another weapon that specializes in one area rather than trying to balance many areas. Of course, if you don't care about that and just want a good, balanced weapon that can take on almost anything, then the Long Sword is for you. The only real weakness of a LS is that it can't block - but instead it has a Spirit Gauge that fills up as you land attacks, which boosts your power when filled to the max and can be used to use stronger attacks. Early Game (1* - 3* Elder): 8/10 Early game Long Swords are very powerful, but require quite a bit of effort to craft and upgrade. Eager Cleaver boasts a good amount of raw and sharpness with some Thunder element to boot, and is probably the only LS you'll need for a while. Mid Game (4* - HR3): 6/10 New elemental Long Swords become available, but aside from that, LS doesn't get much stronger than it was in Early Game. Wyvern Blade "Blood" and Red Dragonsword will help your Devil Slicer cover more elemental ground though. Late Game (HR4+): 4/10 All the LS get new upgrades and boosts, but they just don't compare to how strong other weapons have gotten at this point in the game. Still, they remain balanced weapons and have a few good matchups. Pros: + Most elemental LS have a ton of element to compensate for their shortfalls in raw power + Moderately high hit count allows it to utilize elemental power well + Tri+Cir attacks and dodges attacks at the same time + Good reach makes tail cutting easier + Can roll out of most attacks Cons: - It can't block - Spirit Gauge can be difficult to accumulate against faster moving monsters - Weak in doing raw damage without the Spirit Gauge boost Tree: (Note that it is usually possible to obtain some of these weapons earlier than stated here via Download Quests.) Early Game: Iron Katana -> "Grace" -> "Gospel" -> Eager Cleaver Bone -> Large Bone -> Bone Katana "Wolf" -> "Shark" -> "Dragon" Mid Game: Eager Cleaver -> Devil Slicer Bone Katana "Dragon" -> Supremacy Blade Bone -> Large Bone -> Bone Katana "Wolf" -> "Shark" Bone Katana "Shark" -> Wyvern Blade "Fall" -> "Blood" Fire Dragonsword -> Red Dragonsword Note: You cannot get Rathalos Tails or Webbing from the 2* Guild Rathalos. Wait until 6* Elder Troublesome Pair. Late Game: Devil Slicer -> True Devil Slicer Supremacy Blade -> Divine Slasher Wyvern Blade "Blood" -> Wyvern Blood "Maple" Red Dragonsword -> Smoulder Dragonsword Akantor Katana Note: Use the Akantor Katana only with the armor skill Sharpness+1. Otherwise, it is weaker than using Divine Slasher. Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Melee | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Vertical Slash 1 Action: Triangle Triangle with weapon sheathed Triangle after bouncing Damage: 33% Roll after: Yes A vertical slash that has a lot of reach. Like its brother, the GS, this is a powerful unsheathe attack that can be rolled after and used as hit and run. It is also a combo starter for... --Vertical Slash 2 Action: Triangle after Vertical Slash 1 Triangle after Upslash Damage: 28% Roll after: Yes Looks exactly like Vertical Slash 1, but does less damage. It can be used after the Upslash, or tacked onto the end of the Vertical Slash 1 before rolling away to safety. --Stab Action: Circle Circle after Vertical Slash 2 Circle inbetween parts of the Spirit Combo Damage: 20% Roll after: Yes Not much of an attack, but it's part of the Long Sword combo. A hit's a hit when you're using an Elemental LS anyway. --Upslash Action: Triangle after Stab Damage: 23% Roll after: Yes Better than the stab, but still not much of an attack. Note that it creates a loop with Vertical Slash 2 and Stab. --Backsweep Action: Triangle + Circle Triangle + Circle after any other attack Damage: 30% Roll after: Yes A wide diagonal slash from left to right, followed by a long backstep. This attack comes with a few invincibility frames, and the backstep makes it an incredibly safe attack (use it to leap out of an attack's range and attack at the same time). --Spirit Combo Part 1 Action: R Button Damage: 35% (16% when Spirit Gauge is too low) Roll after: Yes A wide diagonal swing that hits a wide area. Starts the Spirit Combo. Unlike the other parts of the Spirit Combo, this can be done even without enough Spirit Gauge, but it will do less damage. --Spirit Combo Part 2 Action: R Button after Spirit Combo Part 1 Damage: 36% Roll after: Yes Another wide diagonal swing, this time in the opposite direction. You cannot do the Spirit Combo Part 2 if you do not have enough Spirit Gauge. I don't really use this if I know I can't do the third part, but some people might find it useful as a quick substitute for the Vertical Slash. --Spirit Combo Finisher Action: R Button after Spirit Combo Part 2 Damage: 18%, 18%, 40% Roll after: Yes Two quick sweeps followed by a strong vertical slash. You cannot do the Spirit Combo Finisher if you do not have enough Spirit Gauge. --Chain Diagram: Vertical Sl 1 > Vertical Sl 2 > Stab > Upslash ^ v ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Spirit Combo 1 >>> Spirit Combo 2 >>> Spirit Combo 3 v ^ v ^ v>>>> Stab >>>>>>^ v>>>> Stab >>>>>>^ Roll << Everything >> Backsweep ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.e] Hammer [3.9.e] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Impact It's a hammer. This end's the one you hold. This other end is the big end that you swing around. Hammers are big. And as most of us know, all big things in video games are slow. Hammers are no exception - the Hammer's combos are relatively slow, nor do they cover as much distance as the SnS or Dual Swords can. On the other hand, they're big. Huge. They dole out the most raw damage of any other weapon type - it'd be a shame if they didn't, given how slow they are. Of course, just like the Great Sword with the GS charge, players have figured out how to use the power of the hammer at it's greatest potential, while making the lack of speed as small of a handicap as possible. It's not enough that Hammers do tons of damage - they deliver so much force that they can actually knock out monsters, causing them to helplessly fall over and be vulnerable for a good 7-8 seconds. Each KO sets a monster up to receive even more pain from a Hammer, and it's not unusual for a monster to get KO'd three or four times in a single fight. Any Hammer attack that hits a monster's head will work towards causing the KO - which also works out great for hammers, because the Impact weakpoint of a monster usually is the head. KO is honestly, just way too good of a status effect. The only time when Hammers aren't that great are when the weakpoint isn't the head or is hard to reach, or when blocking is essential. Aside from that, Hammers can fight any monster in the game with little trouble. It's a hammer. It's slow, it's powerful, it knocks out monsters, and if you learn how to use one well, you'll probably never have trouble with this game again. Early Game (1* - 3* Elder): 9/10 I want to say that early Hammers are crippled by a lack of green sharpness. I really do. But then I factor in KO, and KO is just so good that it makes the Hammer worth using over every other weapon type. The power of KO is something that can't really be described in text. You have to witness it yourself. Mid Game (4* - HR3): 9/10 Anvil Hammer. Enough green sharpness and raw power to go around. And let's not forget, KO. Late Game (HR4+): 10/10 Onslaught Hammer is easy to make and is powerful enough to rival Siegmund. Fatalis Buster is both powerful and has Dragon element to boot. Diablos Chaos Broker takes effort to make, but it is so overwhelmingly powerful that you may not need another raw weapon ever again. Pros: +++ KO. Getting a KO means you get two free triple pounds, more than enough to maim anything that moves. + Hammers have one of the best (if not the best) damage outputs in the game, thanks to the massive power of the triple pound and the KO status. + Hammers are versatile - use the triple pound for slower monsters that require brute power, and use the superpound for faster monsters that require speed, mobility, and range. Cons: -- Hammers can be problematic in multiplayer, since all of the hammer's good attacks will knock away allies - Hammers are terrible at utilizing elemental damage - Hammers can't Block - Being an impact weapon, it can't cut tails - Hammers can be difficult to learn if you're used to fast weapons Tree: Early Game: (Note that it is usually possible to obtain some of these weapons earlier than stated here via Download Quests.) War Hammer -> WH+ -> War Mace -> Iron Striker Bone Club -> Atlas Hammer -> Kut-Ku Jaw Mid Game: Iron Striker -> Iron Striker+ -> Anvil Hammer Kut-Ku Jaw -> Kut-Ku Pick Black Hammer Late Game: Anvil Hammer -> Onslaught Hammer Black Hammer -> Fatalis Buster Kut-Ku Pick -> Hard Bone Hammer -> Hard Bone Hammer+ Hard Bone Hammer+ -> Diablos Hammer -> Diablos Chaos Broker Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Melee | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Unsheathe attack Action: Triangle with weapon sheathed Damage: 20% KO Inflicted: 15 Roll after: Yes A weak upward swing. Keyword is weak. Even for a Hammer, this attack is weak. Weeeeak. Fortunately it's only the unsheathe attack, and you can always just use R + Triangle + Circle to unsheathe and immediately charge instead. --Triple Pound Part 1 Action: Triangle Triangle after Side Swing Damage: 52% KO Inflicted: 10 Roll after: Yes A vertical pound with the hammer. The damage is good, but you need to connect with the entire triple pound to get good damage out of it. --Triple Pound Part 2 Action: Triangle after Triple Pound Part 1 Damage: 20% KO Inflicted: 15 Roll after: Yes Another pound, not nearly as strong, but better KO. It's all just sizing you up for... --Triple Pound Finisher Action: Triangle after Triple Pound Part 2 Damage: 100% KO Inflicted: 45 Roll after: Yes Bam! A golfswing that does insane damage and KO, and the reason the Hammer puts out such disgustingly high raw damage. Landing this on the weakpoint almost guarantees a stagger. --Side Swing Action: Circle Damage: 15% KO Inflicted: 15 Roll after: Yes It's fast and inflicts good KO. That's about all this attack has going for it. --Charge Action: Press and Hold R Button Damage: Not an attack Roll after: Yes You step back a bit and begin to charge the hammer up for a powerful swing. While charging, you have High Wind Resistance. --Lv1 Charge Swing Action: Press and release R Button before reaching Lv2 charge Triangle after bouncing Damage: 45% KO Inflicted: 10 Roll after: Yes A quick side swing that moves you a good distance forward. Plenty stronger than the Side Swing but just as fast since it can be used quickly (just don't charge at all). --Lv2 Charge Swing Action: Press and release R Button between Lv2 and Lv3 charge Damage: 45%, 35% KO Inflicted: 10, 15 Roll after: Yes A quick side swing, followed by an upward swing. Like the Lv1 Charge Swing, but with the extra hit tacked on the end. Good KO. --Super Pound Action: Press and release R Button once fully charged while not moving Damage: 20%, 76% KO Inflicted: 5, 30 Roll after: Yes Your other good attack. It has a wide area of effect, so it hardly ever misses. Does great damage and great KO. You can't use it very quickly since it has to be charged, but being a charge move means you have all the mobility of charging while charging it. The Super Pound also has built in ESP, so it won't be interrupted if it bounces off a monster's hide. --Hammer Spin Action: Press and release R Button once fully charged while moving Damage: 20%, 10% per revolution KO Inflicted: Unknown (possibly none?) Roll after: No You begin to spin with the hammer, around and around... the damage is terrible, but it's the only effective way to utilize elemental or status effects with a hammer, not that you should really be doing those things with a hammer anyway... The Hammer Spin has built in ESP, so it won't be interrupted if it bounces off a monster's hide. --Hammer Spin Finisher #1 Action: Press Triangle during Hammer Spin after first revolution Damage: 45% KO Inflicted: 10 Roll after: Yes It's the Lv1 Charge Swing. Listed it again anyway to avoid confusion about the Hammer Spin. If you do a Hammer Spin by accident, do this finisher then roll to quickly get out of it before you get yourself hurt. --Hammer Spin Finisher #2 Action: Press Triangle during Hammer Spin after second or third revo Damage: 45%, 35% KO Inflicted: 10, 15 Roll after: Yes It's the Lv2 Charge Swing! Nothing.. really special here. --Hammer Spin Finisher #3 Action: Press Triangle during Hammer Spin after fourth revo Damage: 100% KO Inflicted: 45 Roll after: Yes The Triple Pound Finisher! It's the Hammer Spin's best finisher too! The Hammer Spin is almost not worth using if you don't use this. --Hammer Spin Finisher #4 Action: Do nothing until the Hammer Spin finishes Damage: 40% KO Inflicted: Unknown (possibly none?) Roll after: No This is what happens when you mess up the #3 Finisher. This attack can barely even be considered an attack because it is so hard to hit with, so slow, can't be rolled after... it pretty much is terrible in every possible way. --Chain Diagram: Side Swing >> Tri Pound 1 >> Tri Pound 2 >> Tri Pound Finisher >> Roll OR OR OR Roll Roll Roll Lv1 Charge Swing >> Roll OR Lv2 Charge Swing >> Roll Charge >> OR Finisher #1 >> Roll Super Pound >> Roll OR OR Finisher #2 >> Roll Hammer Spin >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> OR Finisher #3 >> Roll OR Finisher #4 ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.f] Hunting Horn [3.9.f] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Impact Hunting Horns are one of the more unique weapons in Monster Hunter. Unlike other weapons whose sole purpose is to bash something's face in, Hunting Horns are more of a support weapon, being the only weapon that can provide buffs to allies. By pressing R, you can go into Recital Mode and play music, which then adds effects to all hunters in the area. While early on, some of these effects seem useless (Fire Res, Heat Negated, stuff like that that you could get from just using an item), the effects that you can play later on (Heal 60, Attack Up 30%, Infinite Stamina, etc.) make Hunting Horns extremely valuable on the field. Solo-wise, Hunting Horns are a notch below the other Impact weapon, the Hammer in terms of damage output. They are a bit faster and able to put out more hits, but they do less raw damage per hit. (Though that also makes them better at utilizing elemental power). All Hunting Horns are capable of playing W-W or P-P, which gives the user of the Hunting Horn increased movement speed while the weapon is unsheathed, giving the Hunting Horn a significant mobility advantage over other weapons. Hunting Horns are also able to inflict the KO status - though not nearly as well as Hammers, which inflict KO roughly three times faster than a Hunting Horn. Pros: +++ Excellent team support weapon + Can inflict KO, though it's not as good as the Hammer for inflicting KOs + Decent at utilizing elemental damage + Never run out of healing items with a Hunting Horn that can heal! Cons: - Recital Mode takes time to use and it is near impossible to play an entire song solo with a boss monster in the area _ In a team, if the HH user does not fight, the team would've been better off if he had helped fight with another weapon (Three people with Attack Up 30% do less damage than four people with no Attack Up 30% at all) - Needs Attack Up 30% just to do decent damage - Hunting Horns are pretty weak early game - Flute Expert is almost mandatory to cut down on time spent rebuffing Tree: Early Game: (Note that it is usually possible to obtain some of these weapons earlier than stated here via Download Quests.) Ivory Horn -> War Drum -> War Drum+ Bone Club -> Cyclo Hammer -> Khezu Horn -> Khezu Horn+ Mid Game: Sakura Recorder Khezu Horn+ -> Blood Horn Dragonwood Horn Late Game: War Drum+ -> War Bongo -> War Conga Blood Horn -> Blood Flute Sakura Recorder -> Sakura Recorder+ -> Gold Recorder Dragonwood Horn -> Spirit Dragonwood Horn Akantor Horn Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Melee | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Right Swing Action: Triangle Triangle with weapon sheathed Triangle after Poke (second Poke only) Triangle after Left Swing (limit of three consecutive swings) Damage: 31% KO Inflicted: 18 Roll after: Yes A wide diagonal swing from right to left. Not much for damage, but it's good at inflicting KO. --Left Swing Action: Triangle after Right Swing (limit of three consecutive swings) Triangle + Analog Stick Left Triangle + Analog Stick Left after Poke (second Poke only) Damage: 31% KO Inflicted: 18 Roll after: Yes Same attack, but mirrored. Guess Capcom threw this in so we wouldn't think our hunters get tired of doing Right Swing over and over. --Poke Action: Circle Circle after Poke (limit of three consecutive Pokes) Damage: 12% KO Inflicted: 0 Roll after: Yes A pretty pathetic attack, it's only really useful for utilizing status and elemental damage, and for going straight to Recital Mode Stance 2. --Super Pound Action: Triangle + Circle Triangle + Circle after any non-Recital Attack Damage: 15%, 48% KO Inflicted: 5, 10 Roll after: Yes Just like the Hammer's. Same area of effect effect, but nowhere near as much damage or KO. It doesn't need to be charged though, which makes it of use. I personally prefer to just stick with Left and Right Swings. The Super Pound's only good quality to me is the area of effect's added range. The Super Pound also has built in ESP, so it won't be interrupted if it bounces off a monster's hide. --Enter Recital Mode Action: R Button R + Triangle + Circle with weapon sheathed Damage: 22% KO Inflicted: 20 Roll after: Yes Enters Recital Mode Stance 1. While in Recital Mode Stance 1, you will play Note #1, which for all Hunting Horns is either Purple or White. The damage and KO, while good, aren't really worth rising trying to land the attack. Outside of Multiplayer, it is considered unsafe to enter Recital Mode with monsters in the area. --Exit Recital Mode Action: R Button while in any Recital Mode Stance Damage: 26% KO Inflicted: 20 Roll after: Yes Good KO, but again, risky to use outside of Multiplayer. Usually better off just rolling to exit Recital Mode. --Transition to Stance 1 Action: Square while in any Recital Mode Stance Circle while in any Recital Mode Stance Damage: 38% KO Inflicted: 20 Roll after: Yes Better damage, but pretty tricky to hit with. Square causes you to move left, Circle causes you to move right. Enters Recital Mode Stance 1. While in Recital Mode Stance 1, you will play Note #1, which for all Hunting Horns is either Purple or White. --Transition to Stance 2 Action: Triangle while in any Recital Mode Stance Damage: 41% KO Inflicted: 25 Good KO, good damage, but like all Recital Mode attacks, tricky to use and use safely. Causes you to move forward. Enters Recital Mode Stance 2. While in Recital Mode Stance 2, you will play Note #2. --Transition to Stance 3 Action: Triangle + Circle while in any Recital Mode Stance R Button after Poke Damage: 43% KO Inflicted: 20 Roll after: Yes Ah, finally, damage on a Recital Mode attack worth using! If you transition from another stance, your hunter will move back, which can make landing the attack difficult. There is no attack when transitioning from a Poke. Enters Recital Mode Stance 3. While in Recital Mode Stance 3, you will play Note #3. --Chain Diagram: Stance 2 <----> Any Stance will chain to and from OR any other stance and Exit/Enter Roll Recital OR Poke >> Poke >> Poke >> Roll OR OR Left Swing Left Swing Roll Left Swing OR OR OR >>>>>> Right Swing >> Right Swing >> Roll Right Swing OR OR Roll Roll Anything non-Recital >> Super Pound >> Roll ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.g] Lance [3.9.g] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Both Impact and Cut The Lance is a defensive weapon - Lances and Gunlances are the only defensive weapons in the game, and handle differently from their offensive brethren. It's a complicated weapon that's only really effective when in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing with it. If after reading that, you're still interested in the Lance... They have the strongest guard in the game. Not only that, you can attack, turn around, and walk while guarding (you'll walk slower than usual, but it's still better than nothing). They hit hard and fast - not as hard as a hammer, and not as fast as the Sword and Shield, but there's a strong amount of both to make the Lance a powerful weapon. Strong enough to have excellent damage output, and fast enough to utilize elemental power. The ability to do both Impact and Cut damage gives the Lance access to both Impact and Cut weakpoints on a monster. Lances are slow though, and this is what usually keeps someone from getting real good with a Lance. While the Lance is unsheathed, you walk slower - about as slow as a Great Sword user with his weapon out. Factor in the defensive nature of the Lance, and you've got a weapon that makes most people feel like a sitting duck. Course, if you can work around the slow nature of the Lance, you've got yourself one of the best weapons in the game. (So good that Capcom has spent the last two games nerfing it to put it on the same level as other weapons.) From Monster Hunter Freedom, Capcom reduced the amount of Impact damage Lances do, and gave them the ability to do chain together three sidesteps or backsteps (A long backstep immediately ends the chain). Pros: ++ Can attack, move, and turn while blocking + Has the strongest guard in the game + Moderately high hit count allows it to utilize elemental power well + Deals both Impact and Cut damage Cons: -- Movement speed is crippled and can't roll with a Lance unsheathed - Difficult to learn and use properly due to lack of speed - Less useful in multiplayer, since a monster is less likely to target you, forcing you to spend more time running around. - Lances are weak until late game Tree: Early Game: (Note that it is usually possible to obtain some of these weapons earlier than stated here via Download Quests.) Iron Lance -> Iron Lance+ -> Steel Lance -> Paladin Lance -> Rampart Long Horn -> LH+ -> Long Tusk Mid Game: Rampart -> Growling Wyvern Long Tusk -> Crimson Lance -> Diablo Horn -> Diablo Spear Black Lance Late Game: Growling Wyvern -> Knight Lance -> Knight Spear -> Babel Spear Diablo Spear -> Black Tempest Knight Lance -> Aqua Spear -> AS+ -> Emerald Spear Black Lance -> Black Ruiner Lance Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Melee | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Stab Action: Triangle Triangle with weapon sheathed Triangle after Stab or Upstab (limit of three consecutive) Damage: 23% (30% if it's the third stab) A forward stab with good range. You won't be using this all that much, because... --Upstab Action: Circle Circle after Stab or Upstab (limit of three consecutive) Damage: 28% (30% if it's the third stab) An upward stab that has less range but hits higher and does more damage. Plenty better than the Stab simply because of the extra damage. You'll barely notice the loss in range, because the upward stab is better for hitting weakpoints anyway. --Backstep Action: X X after Stab or Upstab X after Backstep or Sidestep (limit of three consecutive) Damage: Not an attack Costs 25 Stamina. You jump back a short distance. It's not much, but it's as close to rolling as you're going to get with the Lance family. --Sidestep Action: X + Analog Stick Left or Right X + Analog Stick Left or Right after Stab or Upstab X + Analog Stick Left or Right after Backstep or Sidestep (limit of three consecutive) Damage: Not an attack Costs 25 Stamina. Like the backstep, but to the side. Again, closest thing you'll have to rolling. You can chain together any combination of three sidesteps or backsteps (remember each one costs 25 Stamina) or end the chain with... --Long Backstep Action: X + Analog Stick Down X + Analog Stick Down after Stab or Upstab X + Analog Stick Down after Backstep or Sidestep Costs 25 Stamina. Like the backstep, but it covers more distance. This will immediately end your chain of sidestep/backsteps though. --Guard Action: R Button R + Triangle + Circle with weapon sheathed Damage: Not an attack Guard. Lance Guard is the strongest guard in the game. You can also move and turn while Guarding, though at a reduced speed. For our guard savvy hunters... 39 Power or less: No pushback and no chip 40 Power or higher: Large pushback and full chip damage --Guarding Attack Action: R Button + Triangle or Circle Damage: 20% A forward stab that's quick and has decent range. Not the strongest attack, but you'll immediately go back into Guarding after the attack, which makes it pretty safe given that the Lance has the best Guard in the game. --Charge Action: Triangle + Circle Damage: 20% per hit A charge with the Lance that can hit multiple times. As great as this sounds, it's pretty hard to get more than three hits out of it, let alone 3 hits on the enemy's weakpoint. It's only really useful because it has High Wind Resistance. It also drains your stamina. --Charge Finisher Action: Triangle during Charge Damage: 40% A long thrust with the Lance that ends the Charge and does high damage. This is better, but it has a long recovery time since you can't sidestep or backstep after it. --Charge Cancel Action: Circle during Charge Damage: Not an attack Stops your Charge. Also has a bit of recovery. Can't really see a reason to use this - if you've done a charge, might as well commit to it with a Finisher than this. ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.h] Gunlance [3.9.h] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Cutting The Gunlance is a new weapon in MHF2 and closely related to the Lance... in fact, they're almost exactly the same weapon. Capcom was lazy with this one, I think. As such, Gunlances share many of the strengths and weaknesses of the Lance. Like Lances, Gunlances have the strongest guard in the game, they hit hard and fast, and they also cripple your moving speed. Gunlances are a bit weaker though - they do less raw damage than a Lance does, and elemental Gunlances tend to have less element than their Lance brothers. In exchange, Gunlances have the ability to shoot short-range bullets at their enemies inbetween attacks (this is known as "shelling"). Shelling uses up the weapon's sharpness, and Gunlances have to be reloaded when they are out of shelling ammo (you have infinite ammo, you don't need to bring your own). They do explosion type damage though, which does the same amount of damage whether it hits a weakpoint or not. In addition to this, Gunlances also have Wyvern's Fire - a powerful shell usable by all Gunlances every two minutes. Wyvern's Fire does a ton of explosion type damage early on, but becomes weaker later game since it doesn't get much stronger... Pros: ++ Can attack, move, and turn while blocking ++ Has a combo that can be done while blocking, making it excellent for "turtling" + Moderately high hit count allows it to utilize elemental power well + Shelling and Wyvern's Fire are very powerful early game Cons: -- Movement speed is crippled and can't roll with a Lance unsheathed - Difficult to learn and use properly - Shelling is both time consuming and sharpness consuming - Weaker than Lances in many cases, and also harder to use than Lances Tree: Early Game: (Note that it is usually possible to obtain some of these weapons earlier than stated here via Download Quests.) Iron Gunlance -> IG+ -> Steel Gunlance Iron Lance -> Snow Gunlance -> SG Mk. II -> Marine Fisher Mid Game: Steel Gunlance -> Special Ops Gunlance -> Imperial Gunlance Steel Gunlance -> Luna's Howl -> Luna's Roar Marine Fisher -> Deep Fisher Late Game: Imperial Gunlance -> Silver Rook -> Gun Chariot Luna's Roar -> Luna's Flare Deep Fisher -> Deep Ocean -> Sea King Gunlance Akantor Gunlance Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Melee | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Rushing Stab Action: Triangle with weapon sheathed Triangle + Analog Stick Up Damage: 34% A running vertical swing with the Gunlance. Good damage, but the running can make it difficult to aim. --Stab Action: Triangle Triangle after Rushing Stab, Stab, or Swing (limit of three) Triangle after Shelling (Shelling resets the combo) Damage: 21% (28% if it's the third stab) Basic stab. Fast, but the damage isn't that great. --Swing Action: Triangle + Circle Damage: 30% A wide vertical swing with the Gunlance. Good damage, but slower than the usual stab. --Shell Action: Circle Circle after any attack Damage: Depends A shell fired from the gun of the Gunlance. The damage depends on the Shelling type and partially on the Fire resistance of the monster. The direction the shell is fired depends on where the Gunlance was pointing when fired. Shelling resets the combo, allowing you to exceed the normal limit of three stabs in a single combo by linking them with Shelling. Shelling DOES consume sharpness, and deals explosion damage (the same as Barrel Bombs and Crag/Clust S) and some fire damage. --Reload Action: R + Circle Damage: Not an attack Reloads the Gunlance. Obvious enough. --Backstep Action: X after Rushing Stab, Stab, Swing, or Shell Damage: Not an attack A small back step. Unlike the Lance's, these can't be chained together. --Sidestep Action: X + Analog Stick Left/Right after Rushing Stab, Stab, Swing, or Shell Damage: Not an attack A small side step. Unlike the Lance's, these can't be chained together. --Long Backstep Action: X + Analog Stick Down after Rushing Stab, Stab, Swing, or Shell Damage: Not an attack A long back step that covers a good distance. Not sure why you'd use the regular back step when this one is available. --Guard Action: R Button R + Triangle + Circle with weapon sheathed Damage: Not an attack Guard. Gunlance Guard is the strongest guard in the game. You can also move and turn while Guarding, though at a reduced speed. For our guard savvy hunters... 39 Power or less: No pushback and no chip 40 Power or higher: Large pushback and full chip damage --Guarding Attack Action: R + Triangle R + Triangle after a Guarding Attack (limit of three) Damage: 24% An upward stab. You return to Guarding after this attack, and it can be done three times. The damage is good, it's relatively safe... if you don't mind not being able to Swing or Rushing Stab, this is pretty much the only attack you need. --Wyvern Fire Action: R + Triangle + Circle Damage: Depends Wyvern Fire! It hits four times and does explosion and fire damage, just like shelling. It's significantly more powerful and doesn't use ammo, but still uses the Gunlance's sharpness. There's also a bit of a startup time on it, so you can't just throw it out whenever. It can be done roughly every two minutes (you'll hear a clicking reloading noise when it's ready, and the steam vent will close). It's powerful early game, but it doesn't get much better throughout the game, so it's pretty weak by end game. ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.i] Heavy Bowgun [3.9.i] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Gun Heavy Bowguns are... heavy bowguns. It's a gun that launches bullets propelled both by a bow and by an explosive charge. Weird, I know. Like your typical video game, the heavy weapons are slow but powerful - in this case, you walk at half the speed with a Heavy Bowgun out. In exchange, you have the best damage output of all the ranged weapons in the game. Despite this, Heavy Bowguns are still pretty mobile (more mobile than Lances and Gunlances, at least), since you can still roll. They only really have trouble with monsters that are too fast for rolling alone to avoid. Both Heavy and Light Bowguns aren't limited to just dealing out damage - they also have access to ammunition that serves other purposes. Status Shots are hands down the fastest way to inflict status ailments on monsters, and support shots can aid allies with long ranged healing and buffs. Crag and Clust Shots also double as Sonic Bombs, and are great for armored enemies, as they completely ignore a monster's defence. Heavy Bowguns can get three attachments - a Shield, which will automatically block attacks, a Power Barrel that further increases the Heavy Bowgun's power, and a Scope, which allows the user to zoom in while aiming (useless, by the way). Heavy Bowguns are big, slow, powerful, versatile, and ranged. If you don't need speed and want more damage, it's the perfect ranged weapon. If you do need speed, then consider one of the other ranged weapons instead. Pros: ++ It's ranged. Being ranged gives you the advantage of being able to attack from a distance, and the advantage of always being able to attack a monster's weakpoint. + Strongest of all the ranged weapons Cons: - Heavy Bowguns are extremely costly to use and maintain - Ammo restrictions make them terrible against some end-game monsters - All elemental bowgun ammo is weak (except Dragon S), so heavily reliant on raw damage - Requires ammo management on the field which can be distracting or difficult to some - Movement speed is lowered while Heavy Bowgun is unsheathed Tree: 1* Elder: Bone Shooter 2* Elder: Rapidcaster 3* Elder: Rapidcaster 4* Elder / HR2 : Monodevilcaster 5* Elder / HR3 : Duelcaster 6* Elder / HR3 : Duelcaster HR4: Seven Stars or Monodevilcaster+ HR5: Seven Stars or Monodevilcaster+ HR6: Empr Lao-Shan Cannon and Destiny's Hand Controls: --Draw Action: Triangle Unlike other weapons, the Heavy Bowgun does not have an unsheathe attack. --Reload Action: Triangle R + Triangle + Circle with weapon sheathed Kinda self explanatory. --Shoot Action: Circle Shoots the Bowgun. Damage depends on the ammo being used and the distance from the target, and of course, where the bullet hits. --Aim (first person) Action: R Button This changes the view to first person and gives you a crosshair to aim the Bowgun. You can aim with the analog stick. --Aim (third person) Action: Hold L and press D-Pad This creates a red crosshair that shows you where the Bowgun will hit. You can change your angle with D-Pad Up and Down. (I personally don't bother using this ever) --Change Ammo Action: Hold L and press Triangle Changes the ammo type being used. Remember to reload! --Melee Attack Action: Triangle + Circle An attack with the butt of the bowgun. Does 2 damage. ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.j] Light Bowgun [3.9.j] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Gun Light Bowguns are lighter versions of the Heavy Bowgun. As you can imagine, they have more of a focus on speed rather than brute power, which makes them better at utilizing Status Shots at the cost of some damage. This speed only comes in the form of increased movement speed - with a Light Bowgun out, you move at regular speed. How much damage are you sacrificing for this speed? Light Bowguns average out to be around 25-30% weaker than Heavy Bowguns in the damage dealing department, which doesn't make them very good in straight forward damage dealing. On the other hand, the boost in speed makes it easier for the Light Bowgun to use Status Shots and other ammunition that doesn't depend on raw power, like Crag S and Clust S. If that's the only ammo you plan on using, then a Light Bowgun might work better than a Heavy. New to Light Bowguns in MHF2 is the Rapid Fire feature - a Light Bowgun that can Rapid Fire a particular type of ammo will shoot salvos of two to five half-power bullets (the number depends on the Bowgun), all at the cost of just one bullet. The half-power and the extra time spent shooting a salvo doesn't make it all that great of a new function, though. Pros: ++ It's ranged. Being ranged gives you the advantage of being able to attack from a distance, and the advantage of always being able to attack a monster's weakpoint. + Excels at using Clust and Status ammunition Cons: - Light Bowguns are extremely costly to use and maintain - even more expensive than Heavy Bowguns if you plan on using Clusts often - Ammo restrictions make them terrible against some end-game monsters - Status Ammo and Clusts get weaker as you progress through the game - Requires ammo management on the field which can be distracting or difficult to some - Weakest of all ranged weapons Tree: ...I honestly can't write this section, due to the different needs of Light Bowgun users for different tasks. You'll really just have to look at what's available and decide for yourself what's best for you based on your needs as a Light Bowgun user. Controls: Yes, I did copy and paste the controls from the Heavy Bowgun section. --Draw Action: Triangle Unlike other weapons, the Light Bowgun does not have an unsheathe attack. --Reload Action: Triangle R + Triangle + Circle with weapon sheathed Kinda self explanatory. --Shoot Action: Circle Shoots the Bowgun. Damage depends on the ammo being used and the distance from the target, and of course, where the bullet hits. --Aim (first person) Action: R Button This changes the view to first person and gives you a crosshair to aim the Bowgun. You can aim with the analog stick. --Aim (third person) Action: Hold L and press D-Pad This creates a red crosshair that shows you where the Bowgun will hit. You can change your angle with D-Pad Up and Down. (I personally don't bother using this ever) --Change Ammo Action: Hold L and press Triangle Changes the ammo type being used. Remember to reload! --Melee Attack Action: Triangle + Circle An attack with the butt of the bowgun. Does 2 damage. ______________________________________________________________________ [3.9.k] Bows [3.9.k] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Weapon Type: Gun Bows, the new ranged weapon type. The main thing about Bows that distinguishes it from its Bowgun bretheren is that Bows have infinite ammo, and thus no ammo management, making it more of a user friendly weapon and easy to use even if you were terrible with the Bowgun. Bows are also significantly more mobile than Light Bowguns, again making the weapon easy to use. Of course, all this easiness comes at a cost. Bows are pretty weak all the way from the beginning until the end of the game. They are also very weak in the wrong hands, usually taking four or five times longer to do a quest than any other weapon. Just because they're easy to use doesn't mean they can't be used incorrectly. :) Pros: ++ It's ranged. Being ranged gives you the advantage of being able to attack from a distance, and the advantage of always being able to attack a monster's weakpoint. + Best mobility of all the ranged weapons + Easy to use due to no ammo management + Infinite ammo makes it possible to use against certain monsters that Bowguns can't be used on Cons: -- Extremely weak until end of the game - Coatings can be costly to make for every quest - Heavily reliant on elemental damage until end game Tree: You pretty much need to make every single bow that you possibly can, because Bows rely so very much on elemental damage. Controls: ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Bow | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ --Draw Action: Triangle with weapon sheathed Unlike other weapons, the Light Bowgun does not have an unsheathe attack. --Pull Action: Press and hold Triangle As you keep pulling the arrow, you'll hear noises and see flashes indicating that you've charged the arrow to Lv2, Lv3, and Lv4. These levels will determine which of your Bow's three (four with Load Up) shots will be fired when you release the arrow. The damage done depends on the distance, the shot type, the level of the charge, and of course, on where you hit. --Melee Attack (Horizontal) Action: Circle R + Triangle + Circle Damage: 10% A melee attack with an arrow. Though this attack isn't very strong... --Melee Attack (Vertical) Action: Circle after Melee Attack (Horizontal) Damage: 24% This one is! It'll do more damage than your shots, but it's pretty hard to hit some weakpoints with it. You're usually better off just sticking with shooting. --Aim Action: R Button + D-pad This moves the camera and gives you an over the shoulder view of your hunter. A red line appears that will show you the path your arrow would take, and it can be adjusted with the D-Pad. --Load Coatings Action: Triangle + Circle Loads the currently selected arrow coating. --Change Ammo Action: Hold L and press Triangle Changes the arrow coating being used. Remember to reload it if you've changed the arrow coating you're using. ====================================================================== [3.10] Armor, Decorations, and Armor Skills [3.10] ====================================================================== Had a whole section on weapons. Gotta have one for armor too, right? Armor, in Monster Hunter, plays a bit of a different role than it does in other games that have armor and weapons. In those games, armor is your primary source of defence - how much you get hurt and whether you die or not depends mostly on the armor you're wearing. In Monster Hunter, your primary source of defence is your brain. Who needs armor when you can dodge and block attacks and avoid getting hurt at all, right? Of course, that doesn't make armor completely worthless. Pieces of armor, when assembled correctly, can give you armor skills - passive skills that directly affect your hunter and their capabilities to hunt. They're pretty important, and most hunters will tell you later game that "Armor Skills > Defence". This is true, for the most part. You still need some defence, just don't get an armor set solely for the purpose of increasing your defence. Just get enough defence so that you can survive 3 or 4 hits without needing to heal. If you're getting killed in one or two hits, upgrade. Otherwise, don't. Putting together armor for Armor Skills takes a bit of thought, and the ability to count to 20. Let's take a look at the details on each piece of armor first though... Example: Shinobi Suit (Sky) Defence : 28 Level : 1 Fire Res : 2 Water Res : -6 Thundr Res : 4 Ice Res : -3 Dragon Res : 2 A suit that can only be worn by those pure of heart, like a crystal cloudless sky. Hunter Type: Blademaster/Gunner Rarity: 8 Slots: OO- [Skill Tree:Skill Points] Spc Attack : +2 Cold Res : -1 Evade : +2 --- Defence Defence is defence. The more you have, the less damage you take from attacks. The Defence formula is reverse exponential... in other words, the more Defence you have, the less useful each additional point of defence is. If you have, say, 1 Defence, and you get 20 more Defence, that'll reduce the damage you were taking to about 80%. Now, if you have 300 Defence, and get 20 more Defence added onto that, it'll only reduce damage to 95% of what you were taking before. Got it? Don't focus too much on raising Defence. Rely on it too much early game and you'll get trounced late game when Defence doesn't help you anymore. --- Level The Level of the armor is... well, the level of it. You can increase an armor's level by upgrading it with Armor Spheres - each level up will increase the defence of that piece of armor by 2. No other benefits to it besides that. --- Resistance (or, simply 'Res') Fire Res, Water Res, Thunder Res, Ice Res, and Dragon Res, will reduce damage taken from those elements by 1% for each point of Res (or increase it by 1%, if you have a negative amount of Res). That's not really a lot - plus, you have to factor in the fact that few attacks are actually elemental. Yian Kut-Ku might spit fireballs, but that doesn't mean all of his attacks are Fire elemental - only his fireballs are (And how often do you get hit by those? Almost never.). Dragon Res is the only Res that really matters, since the few monsters that have Dragon element attacks have it on almost all of their attacks. --- Hunter Type Hunter Type indicates what weapons can be used (or rather, MUST be used) while wearing that armor. Blademaster/Gunner means you can use any weapon type, while Blademaster means you can only use the melee weapons, and Gunner means you can only use the ranged weapons. Gunner armor tends to have weaker defence but stronger elemental resistance. Blademaster armor has more defence, but less elemental resistance. Blademaster/Gunner armor tends to be the same as Gunner armor in terms of defence and resistance, with the exception of helmets. All helmets are Blademaster/Gunner. --- Rarity Rarity just indicates what point in the game you can get that armor, really. It has nothing to do with how rare the armor actually is. (Just look at Akantor armor and Cephalos armor. Ceph armor is Rare 1, and almost nobody uses it. Akantor armor, on the other hand, is Rare 8 and worn by everyone and their mother.) --- Slots Slots refers to the number of decorations you can put into that armor. This armor happens to have OO-, which means it has two slots. That means you can put in two one-slot decorations, or one two-slot decoration. --- Skill Points and Armor Skills And finally, Skill Points. This part lists all the skills given by this armor, and how many points it gives towards that skill. In order to activate an armor skill, you need to get 10 or more points in that skill. Getting 10 points in a skill is always good, even if the skill sounds bad. Hunger for example, sounds bad, but actually reduces the rate at which your max stamina decreases if you can get it to 10. Some skills can go beyond 10, and have higher levels of that skill activate when you reach 15, or 20 points. Let's look again at Hunger: At 10, Hunger simply halves the rate at which you lose max stamina. At 15, Hunger causes your max stamina to never decrease. It's also possible to get a skill to -10, at which point you get an armor skill that's bad for you. It's very rare that you will ever have to use armor with a bad armor skill though, thanks to decorations. Here are some common armor skills hunters use: AutoTracker - AutoTracker will automatically show you where on the map the target monster is. No need to use Paintballs or Psychoserums... it requires 15 PsychicVis. Sharpness+1 - Sharpness+1 adds sharpness to your sharpness bar - this can make weapons that are otherwise terrible due to a lack of sharpness good and usable again. Requires 10 points of Artisan. Reckless Abandon - Reckless Abandon increases your weapon's affinity by 10%, increasing the rate at which you get critical hits. Requires 10 points of Expert, and has higher levels at 15 and 20 points. High Grade Earplug - "HGE" causes all monster's roars to have no effect on you when you don't block them. Requires 15 points of HearProtect. Runner - Runner reduces the rate at which you use stamina. Requires 10 points of Stamina. Speed Fire - This speeds up the charging of bow shots. (Speed Fire also has an effect for Bowguns, but it is so terrible that most bowgunners regard it as the worst skill for Bowguns) Requires 10 points of Speed Fire. ESP - ESP makes it so that when your weapons bounce off a monster, it doesn't interrupt the attack. Requires 10 points of Fencing. For a list of all the armor skills in the game, their effects, and the amount of skill points required for them, read KingofMH's FAQ on GameFAQs about Armor Skills. --- Decorations As I mentioned earlier, the number of slots on a piece of armor let you know how many decorations you can put on it. There are three types of decorations - one-slot, two-slot, and three-slot decorations. One-slot decors usually add +1 to an armor skill's skill points. Many one slot decors will also add -1 to another armor skiil's skill points though, just to balance it out. "Easy" Armor Skills like SwdSharpener and HiSpeedGathering have one slot decorations that add +2 to that armor skill's skill points. They're called easy because then you only need a total of five slots to get that armor skill using only decorations, as opposed to other skills which can take anywhere from seven to twelve slots. Two-slot decors usually add +3 to an armor skill's skill points, but they will only fit in a piece of armor with two slots. You can't split it up and use one slot of one piece of armor and one slot on another, it has to be two open slots on the same piece of armor. Two-slot decorations are more efficient than using two one-slot decorations, but there is the difficulty in finding a piece of armor with two slots. Three-slot decors are the most efficient of all, usually adding +4 or +5 to an armor skill's skill points. However, there are only a few pieces of armor in the entire game that even have three open slots. Weapons also have slots, but hunters often avoid trying to rely on the slots on their weapons, since then you would have to use that weapon with that set of armor. If you get a stronger weapon that has no slots, you'd have to decide whether you want the strength of the stronger weapon, or the armor skills provided by the slotted weapon. For information on Decorations, just read KingOfMH's FAQ on GameFAQs about decoration skills. It lists every decoration in the game and the materials you need to craft them. ====================================================================== [3.11] Progressing through the Game [3.11] ====================================================================== Well, now you know the controls, what the town is like, and what weapon you want to use. What now? The goal of Monster Hunter is to become a high-ranking and prestigious Monster Hunter in the community of Pokke Village. When you start out, you're going to be regarded as a newbie by the village, and thus they won't sell you their best items or let you take the hardest quests. By completing the quests available to you, you can unlock higher ranking quests, which also gives you access to better materials for better equipment, and better items/farm renovations being sold in town. That's essentially your entire purpose in this game - to get the best stuff and become the best hunter. You do this by completing quests, most of which involve hunting down monsters. Hunting is so very important to this game, and there's still so much to learn! ______________________________________________________________________ [3.11.a] Quests [3.11.a] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ In order to start hunting, you need to take a quest from the Pokke Village Elder or from the Gathering Hall Quest Managers. (The Village's quests are single player only, and are easier than the Gathering Hall quests, which are slightly harder since they can be done in multiplayer) Either way, you'll be shown a list of quest levels. Once you've picked a level, you can scroll left and right through the list of quests. Some details to note while you're scrolling through this list and looking for quests... Reward: This is the reward you get for doing the quest. You lose a third of it each time you die during the quest. Also, the reward is divided among all the hunters doing the quest - do it by yourself and you'll get the full reward, do it with three others and you'll split the reward four ways. Contract Fee: This is the amount of zenny you have to pay to start the quest. If you succeed in completing the quest, you'll get paid double the Contract Fee back. Note that in multiplayer, only one person needs to pay the Contract Fee, and only that person will get the double Contract Fee bonus at the end of the quest. Time Limit: The amount of time you have to do the quest. It's usually 50 minutes, but it can be less than that for some quests. Location: This is the area the quest takes place in. Very good to know before doing the quest, since you might need to prepare potions or healing items before going to certain areas. Goal Condition: The goal condition will tell you what you need to do to complete the quest. "Slay XXX" means that the quest is complete once you slay the specified number of that enemy. "Hunt XXX" means you can complete the quest either by slaying the specified monster or by capturing it. "Deliver XXX" means you need to go and find the requested items and drop them off at the Supply Box to complete the quest. Fail Condition: Most quests usually have the same two Fail Conditions, Reward Zero and Time Over. Time Over is obvious enough, run out of time and you fail. Reward Zero means you'll fail as soon as your reward is zero - which as I mentioned before, drops by 1/3rd every time you or another hunter on your team dies. Once you've found a quest you want, press X, confirm your choice, pay the Contract fee, and the quest is yours! If it's a quest from the Village Elder, just walk up to the town exit and press Square to go. If it's a Gathering Hall quest, walk over to the north exit and press Square to go. If there are other hunters in your team, you need to wait for them to go to the exit and say they're ready to go. If you just press Square when they aren't ready, the quest will start and leave them behind. ______________________________________________________________________ [3.11.a] Gathering [3.11.a] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Gathering! There aren't many gathering quests to do, but Gathering is the easiest way to get materials for creating items or upgrading your equipment. Even if you're not on a Gathering quest, you can gather items anyway just to get more items. You can't complete a Gathering quest without knowing how to gather, which I'll explain here: -- Basic Gathering There's floor gathering - if you see a plant, a mushroom, or some rocks that look out of the ordinary, put your weapon away and press Circle near it to start gathering. You can keep gathering from that spot until you get the message "There is nothing else here." "There is nothing else here." doesn't mean you can never gather at that spot ever again - it just means there's nothing left to gather there for the rest of this quest. If you come back again after you've finished the quest and taken a new one, there'll be items to gather again. Some items you can gather are large - so large that your hunter has to carry it in their arms (like in the opening video). During this, your hunter moves slower (you can still run, but it's a slow run) and you can't use any items or your weapons. If you fall from too high a cliff, the item will break. If you get hit, the item will break. If you run out of stamina, the item will break. If you crouch or roll, the item will break. Drop off the item at the Supply Box to deliver it. While it's a difficult task, these large items are usually worth a ton of Pokke points once delivered safely. (When a Gathering Quest asks you to deliver a certain item, simply gathering it is not enough to complete the quest. You also have to deliver it to the Supply Box at camp.) -- Mining Mining is a bit different - you need to have a Pickaxe in your inventory. The Item Merchant in town will sell Old and Iron Pickaxes (and later on in the game, Mega Pickaxes). If you find a place in the wall that looks cracked, it might be a mining point. Walk up to it and switch to the Pickaxe in your inventory. If there's an X over it, you might need to reposition yourself, or it might not be a mining point at all. If there is no X over your Pickaxe's icon, that means you can mine from the mining point. Just use the Pickaxe and your character will gather a mineral from it. Again, you can keep gathering until you're told "There is nothing else here." However, you need to keep an eye on how many Pickaxes you have - they'll randomly break. Old Pickaxes are more likely to break but are cheaper. Mega Pickaxes are less likely to break but also expensive. Iron Pickaxes are just average. Mining is very important, since minerals are used to create almost half of the weapons in the game. If you find a spot that gives you good minerals (not Ice Crystals or Stones or trash like that), make a habit of mining there every time you pass by on a quest. -- Insects Insect gathering is similar to mining. You need to have a Bugnet in your inventory to gather insects. Again, the Item Merchant in town will sell you Old and regular Bugnets. Insect gathering is the same process, only Insect gathering points look like fireflies (yellow lights) floating in the air. Use your Bugnets the same way you use your Pickaxes. -- Fishing Fishing used to be how Bowgunners were supposed to get the materials to make their Bowgun ammo, but those items are now sold in stores. Nowadays, you rarely ever have to fish - you will probably only use it to clear two or three quests that require fishing, or to fish out Plesioth (more on that when we actually fight Plesioth). To fish, you need to be standing near a fishing point (you'll know you can fish there because... there will be fish there) and you need to have a fishing bait selected in your inventory. Simply use it, and your hunter will cast it out onto the water. Now you need to watch your bait - as soon as a fish bites it and pulls the bait under the water, press X to fish it out. Press it too soon and you won't catch the fish - too late and you'll lose your bait. -- Carving Carving is the method through which you'll get most of your items for upgrading equipment. Once you've killed a monster, put your weapon away and walk over to it's corpse, then press Circle to carve it. The number of times you can carve a monster depends on what monster it is - just keep pressing Circle to carve. You'll know you can't carve anymore when your character doesn't do anything. ______________________________________________________________________ [3.11.b] Hunting [3.11.b] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Hunting quests! Hunting is the meat and bones of Monster Hunter, a huge majority of the quests are Hunting Quests. Hunting Quests are cleared when you capture or slay the target monster. I'll go more into the actual slaying and killing of the monster in the next section. This section will be more about capturing the monster, and the tools of the trade that you have at your disposal. The weapon you carry on your back isn't the only tool you have for getting the job done - the Hunters of Pokke and Kotoko have to be crafty and ingenious to outsmart these ferocious monsters. You can carry 24 items in your inventory. While some of these 24 slots will be taken up by carved items, minerals, and other spoils from your ventures, the rest of the slots can be used to hold items to help you out on your quest. There are plenty of items you'll use as a Hunter - I tried to only list the commonly used items and essential ones here. You should be able to figure out what the rest of the items do as you encounter them. :) First off are Healing Items. Until you get really good at this game, you're going to have to carry quite a few of these along with you on every quest. (Note: Your maximum health and stamina are 100, unless you eat food from your Felyne Chefs.) First Aid Med - Heals 30 HP Potions - Heals 30 HP Mega Potions - Heals 60 HP Max Potions - Heals HP to max and increases the max health to 150 Ancient Potions - Heals HP and Stamina to max and increases both maximums to 150 Nutrients - Increases max health by 10. Mega Nutrients - Increases max health by 20. Rations - Increases max stamina by 25 Rare Steak - Increases max stamina by 25 Well-Done Steak - Increases max stamina by 50 Gourmet Steak - Increases max stamina to 150 Burnt Steak - Randomly increases or decreases max stamina by 25 Most people carry 10 Mega Potions, and carry 10 Potions and 10 Honey so that they can combine more on the field. As you get better, carry fewer and fewer Mega Potions - then eventually stop using Mega Potions altogether. Then reduce the number of Potions you use... Steak isn't all too important, since quests usually don't last long enough for you to need to reraise your max stamina. You're supplied with Rations on most quests anyway. Max Potions and Ancient Potions are harder to make and combine, so just bring them only for really difficult quests. They're not the kind of things you can afford to make for every single quest. Next are Effect Items. Though there are some that heal, the basic idea of these items is to grant some sort of effect to your hunter. Some of these effects are defensive, some are offensive... Cool Drink - Counteracts the effects of the heat in Volcano and Desert. If you don't use a Cool Drink in these areas, your health will slowly decrease. (Also, your red health won't regenerate - because it's constantly decreasing!) Hot Drink - Counteracts the effects of the cold Desert night, Swamp caves, and Snowy Mountains. If you don't use a Hot Drink in one of these areas, your stamina will be blinking red and your maximum stamina will decrease at double the normal rate (-25 stamina roughly every 3 minutes) Immunizer - Doubles the rate at which your red health regenerates. Rare Fish - Instantly regenerates your red health. Gourmet Fish - Instantly regenerates your red health and copies the effect of Immunizer. Gourmet Fish+ - Instantly regenerates your red health and copies the effect of Immunizer for a longer amount of time. Burnt Fish - Randomly regenerates your red health or hurts you. Demondrug - Increases your attack until the end of the quest or your next death. Armorskin - Increases your defence until the end of the quest or your next death. Psychoserum - Drinking this will show you where on the map all the boss monsters are. Deodorant - Cures Odor. Antidote - Cures Poison. Thawing Agent - Cures Frozen. Energy Drink - Cures Fatigue. Next are Bombs. Bombs are useful against those monsters that don't seem to take very much damage from your weapons since they ignore a monster's defensive power. Sm Barrel Bomb - Sm Barrel Bombs are timed bombs - after being placed, they'll explode after a set amount of time. Lg Barrel Bomb - Lg Barrel Bombs pack a punch! They do more damage than other bomb types but don't detonate on their own - once you put them down, you need to trigger the explosion with another bomb or by attacking it. Monsters can detonate them too, so watch out! Bounce Bomb - Bounce Bombs pack the same amount of power as a Sm Barrel Bomb, but they're rigged to bounce up into the air. Lightning Rod - Other bombs can't be used in the rain. Lightning Rods can - and they'll call down a neat looking bolt of lightning to strike the lightning rod and anyone around it. Anti-Dragon Bomb - These bombs are only given to you for use in a few quests - they need to be placed ON the target monster. They hurt more than a Lg Barrel Bomb and detonate on a timer like Sm Barrel Bombs. Traps. Traaaaps. Traps are essential for capturing a monster - a monster needs to get caught in a trap before you can capture it. Pitfall Traps - Pitfall Traps create a large pitfall in the ground once placed. Once a monster is caught in it, they'll flail around and try to break out of it. There are some types of terrain (like snow) that Pitfalls can't be placed on, though. Shock Traps - Shock Traps act like Pitfall Traps, except they stun the monster and hold it in place. They don't last as long as Pitfall Traps do, though on the other hand they can be used on all types of terrain. Thrown Items. This covers a large amount of items... you throw them, they do something. Neat-o. Flash Bombs - After traveling a certain distance, Flash Bombs explode, temporarily stunning any monster that looks directly at the explosion. Paintball - If a Paintball hits a boss monster, that monster will become marked on your map, and you will be able to keep track of where it goes. It wears off eventually, though. Tranq Bomb - Tranq Bombs will tranquilize a monster caught in a trap. Throwing Knife - Alone, it doesn't do much. You throw it and it does a small amount of damage. However, combine it with some other items and you get... Sleep Thr Knf - Throw enough of these at a monster and it'll fall asleep. Poison Thr Knf - Throw enough of these at a monster and it'll get poisoned. Paralyze Thr Knf - Throw enough of these to paralyze a monster. Farcaster - You throw this at the floor, actually. It teleports you back to base camp. Boomerang - You throw it, it flies forward, and does pathetic damage if it hits. Sometimes it returns to you. Sometimes it doesn't. Flutes! Flutes usually effect all hunters in the area and can be used over and over until they break, which makes them handy for multiplayer. Flute - After playing this flute, all monsters in the area will attack only you. Health Flute - This flute heals all hunters in the area. Demon Flute - This flute raises the attack of all hunters in the area. Armor Flute - This flute raises the defence of all hunters in the area. Most of these items can be combined - check the Combination Lists on GameFAQs or check the item list in this FAQ to figure out how to do so. You won't use all of these items all of the time, and there are a few other items I didn't list that you'll encounter, but these are some of the more common items. Learn what they do, learn to use them in the field, and hunting will be a lot easier. Capturing monsters requires three things - a monster that can actually be caught, a trap, and tranquilizers. Traps come in two varieties - Pitfall and Shock. I already explained what those do, but Shock Traps are ideal for capturing, since it's a bit of a waste to use a Pitfall for capturing, plus Shocks are easier to make and can be used on any type of terrain. Tranquilizers come in many forms - the most common is a bomb, which you throw like a Paintball. Early quests will supply you with Tranq Bombs, so most hunters usually have a stockpile of extra Tranq Bombs lying around. As for the monster... most monsters can be caught, and there are a handful that can't be captured. But you can't just capture a monster as soon as you see it - it has to be weakened to a certain amount of health. All monsters have some sign to indicate that they're weak enough to be captured. Once you've got a monster weak enough to capture, simply get it into a trap and throw your Tranq Bombs at it until it falls asleep. That's how you capture a monster. As for the actual act of making a monster weak enough to capture, read on to the next section... ______________________________________________________________________ [3.11.c] Slaying [3.11.c] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Slaying! Killing monsters. Fun. Usually Slaying quests are either one of the following: - Slay the XXX - Slay (a number larger than one) XXXs The quests that have you just slaying one monster are the same as Hunting quests - the only difference is that the monster can't be captured (because you can't trap it, and thus, can't capture it). The quests that have you slaying many monsters usually have you slaying a ton of smaller monsters. These are easy enough and I really shouldn't need to explain how to do them. To slay a monster, you simply have to reduce it's health to zero. You can do it with bombs, with poisoned meat, and with traps and other tools, but most of the time, you're going to be relying on the weapon you're carrying on your back. So let's learn to use it! --- Sword and Shield The Sword and Shield's better strengths is the ability to roll after almost every attack. You can hop in attack, roll out, then hop back in and attack again as soon as you see the next opening to attack. Tri+Cir is going to be the attack you use the most. It allows you to quickly close the distance between you and a monster and attack at the same time, and it also acts as a combo starter. Circle is also a good attack, because it is, sadly, the most powerful single hit in the SnS' arsenal at 24%. One Circle is equivalent to about two Triangles. Only have enough time for one slash? Make it a Circle. Start your combos with Tri+Cir. From there, you can either roll, continue the combo with Triangle, or end the combo with a Circle. If you continue the combo, you again have the option of rolling, continuing, or ending with a Circle. And so on and so on until the end of the combo when you can't do anymore Triangles. Long SnS combo: Tri+Cir, Tri, Tri, Tri, Cir, Roll Hit and Run: Tri+Cir, Cir, Roll Hit and Run (faster): Tri+Cir, Roll Sword and Shield can attack while Guarding, but the only useful use for that is to detonate Large Barrel Bombs without taking too much damage from the bomb's explosion. Don't forget that you can items with the Sword and Shield unsheathed. Just hold R and press Square. You'll save plenty of time if you remember that you can do that instead of sheathing and unsheating your weapon each time. --- Dual Swords Dual Swords work a lot like the Sword and Shield, but with a bit less mobility and a bit more power. Though you can still roll after most of your attacks, you can't roll in the middle of some of them, like Circle. Once you begin a Spinning Slash, you must wait until all three slashes complete before you can roll out. The Spinning Slashes Fury Combo is the best way to put out a ton of damage with your Dual Swords, but it's only really ideal against slow or stationary targets. Try to use it against anything else and you'll get hit halfway through, or miss the second half of the combo. Remember that the final hit of the combo does the most damage, and you'll want to try to connect with that attack above all else. Against faster enemies who won't let you use an entire Fury Combo, you'll need to rely on the Dual Swords' regular combo and hit'n'run tactics with regular attacks. The Dual Swords' regular combo is just like the Sword and Shield's. Tri+Cir is your basic attack, it starts combos, it closes distance, it does decent damage. From there, you can continue the combo with Triangles, end the combo with Circle, or roll out. If you continue the combo, you have the same options again. Exactly like the Sword and Shield's combo. Though you get more damage if you Demonize, remember that you cannot do Tri+Cir while Demonized - you'll do the Fury Combo instead. (Of course, you can work around this by doing Tri+Cir, Demonizing, and then finishing your regular combo) It's best to just not use Demonize at all unless you have an opportunity to use a Fury Combo. Long DS combo: Tri+Cir, Tri. Tri, Tri, Cir, Roll (look familiar?) Hit and Run: Tri+Cir, Cir, Roll Long DS combo (demonized): Tri, Tri, Tri, Cir, Cir Remember that you can also Demonize at any time during your combo - if the opportunity to Fury Combo shows up, Demonize and take it. Don't forget that Demonizing grants you High Wind Res, which allows you to go in on the offensive when other weapon types would have to stand back. --- Great Swords Great Swords are both the simplest weapon and the hardest weapon. They're simple because there's only one attack you'll ever need, the GS Charge. They're hard because, well, good luck landing that Lv3 GS Charge. Of course, even if you aren't a GS Charging God, the GS is still a decent weapon. Even if it isn't Lv3, Lv1 and Lv2 still do excellent damage. Heck, even an uncharged Overhead Swing does good damage. The fact that you can release the GS Charge at any time makes it very easy to use, once you're aware of when it is and isn't safe to attack. Once you see an opening to attack, run in and start charging. As soon as it's no longer safe to attack, release the charge and sideroll to avoid getting punished. Manipulating monsters to get hit by the charge is very important. Almost every single monster will turn around to face you after every attack. Knowing this, you can start charging a GS Charge at Rathalos' tail, then release it on his head as he turns around to face you. Easy GS charge to the head. Naijiao on YouTube posts many videos explaining how to land the Lv3 GS Charge on some of the more difficult monsters. You can learn quite a bit simply from watching them, a lot more than I can ever explain to you with text. If you're using an elemental GS with high element, hit count will matter more than landing the GS charge, and so, we introduce the "infinite combo". It's not a real infinite combo, nothing like what Magneto or Storm can do to you in Marvel vs Capcom 2. Hunters have just called it the infinite combo, possibly out of ignorance of what an infinite actually is, or conforming to what everyone else is calling it. I think the proper way to describe it would simply be a loop. The Overhead swing of the GS will link into the Side swing, and the Side swing will link into the Overhead swing. All you have to do is do one after the other. Overhead swing, side swing, overhead, side, overhead, and so on and so on and watch the hits add up. Remember that Great Swords make you walk slow. I usually sheathe my weapon after a roll so that I can move around at normal speed - the fact that the GS' most used attack is also its unsheathe attack is all the more reason to sheathe your weapon more often. --- Long Swords Long Swords are... interesting. As I said, they're well balanced weapons that are suited to many different situations. Of course, that means you'll need to know how to deal with all of these situations... The Spirit Combo is very important to the LS, since it's pretty much a quick burst of high damage. Extensive use of the Spirit Combo will be necessary for the LS to remain competitive with other weapons. You should be using it whenever you can, don't worry if your Spirit Gauge starts draining. The damage you lose from losing full Spirit Gauge is well worth the extra burst of damage from the Spirit Combo. Most of the time, you'll want to be employing hit and run tactics to take advantage of the Long Sword's good speed and mobility. Triangle unsheathe, Triangle, roll or Tri+Cir, repeat. The damage adds up. Like the Great Sword, you can sheathe your weapon after each run so that you can move at full speed again (which might be necessary for some of the faster monsters). When larger opportunities show up, do a full LS combo instead. Tri, Tri, Cir, Tri, Tri+Cir, or go for the Spirit Combo if you think the entire thing will hit. When you have really large openings, there's the loop - Vertical Slice 2, Stab, Upslice, repeat (Tri, Cir, Tri, Tri, Cir, Tri, repeat)... of course, don't forget to unload a Spirit Combo as soon as you have enough gauge to do so. Tri+Cir is a good and stable attack when you aren't sure if it's safe or not. It might not do much damage by itself, but the step back you take during the attack and the invincibility frames make it pretty safe for testing the waters. Pretty much just stick to that, regardless of whether you have a raw or elemental LS. LS are balanced enough that you don't need to change your tactics much to make use of elemental weapons. --- Hammers There's not really much to say about the Hammer. The Triple Pound is absurd. Learn the timing, learn it well, and pretty soon you'll be landing finishers on your enemies' faces and inflicting KOs. And it will be glorious. There's also the Super Pound, for monsters who are still too difficult for you to Triple Pound. It does reasonably good damage, though it can have trouble hitting some monsters' weakpoints. Charging gives you High Wind Resistance, so take advantage of that and drop Super Pounds on the heads of monsters who rely on wind for safety. The Hammer Spin also works, though having to charge it up and let it go to four revolutions each time can really cut into your damage per second. Not to mention it's pretty hard to get that finisher to hit where you want it to. --- Hunting Horns Eh. Not much I can say about Hunting Horns. As I said, I'm not entirely sure how they stack up against other weapons because nobody's really tested them in a solo environment. In a group, you'll want to get Flute Expert and stay mostly out of the group and the monster's way while you play music. Once you've played enough Attack Up Lg and Defence Up Lg (or whatever songs you can play with your Hunting Horn), go in and help out the group. If there's a Hammer user, you can help him inflict KO with some Right Swings and Left Swings to the head - they inflict decent KO. Take note of the duration of your songs, and renew them as necessary. It's best if you renew the buffs BEFORE they end, especially for those buffs which need to be played twice or are particularly long. By yourself, Attack Up and Healing songs will probably be best. The Healing songs give you a source of endless healing so you can save your Potions and such for when you need them in battle. Attack Up will keep your HH competitive with the Hammer's damage output. Swings will work, as will Super Pounds, anything will work as long as you don't Poke too much or try to land Recital Mode attacks. --- Lance He's a complicated man, and noone understands him but his woman! You'll want to avoid the turtling strategy you'll probably hear about, since turtling is a task better suited to Gunlances than Lances. Lances need to be played in a somewhat hit and run fashion... only difference is you're running to stay on the offensive, not get on the defensive. Run in, attack the monster with unsheathes and upstabs. If it fights back, block the attack or dodge it with a long backstep, and go back on the offensive. If it runs, sheathe, chase after it, and go back on the attack. You'll need to become very good at guarding attacks just before they hit and using R+Tri+Cir. The more time you spend Guarding, the less time you can spend killing. Having the strongest guard means that instead of getting out of the way of an attack, you can simply guard it and quickly go back on the offensive. There are a few attacks you can't guard... gas based attacks and beam based attacks are unblockable. A few attacks will also break your guard, and you'll need to sheathe/run more to avoid those since you can't really guard them. You'll notice as you play that some attacks can only hit you once. Learn which attacks can only hit you once and take advantage by quickly going back on the offensive as soon as you block the hit. --- Gunlance The Gunlance is different from the Lance in how it should be handled, mainly due to how the Gunlance has a superior Guarding attack. The turtling method involves getting the armor skill "Guard+2" (it lowers the Power of attacks, making them less likely to chip you) and "Guard Inc" (it lets you block unblockables), then relying on your almighty Guard to just sit there and poke at your enemy with Guarding Attacks whenever the opportunity arises. If you don't plan on turtling, just stick with the strategy for Lances. It's basically the same for Gunlances, just now you have Shelling that you can use instead of sidesteps (to link attack chains) and Wyvern Fire which can be used for quick damage early game. --- Bowgun, Heavy and Light Point it at your target's weakpoint and shoot it. A few miscellaneous things... Damage depends on where the shot hits, on the ammo type, and on the distance from the target. To make sure you always do as much damage as you can... Aim for the weakpoint. This should be obvious enough. Use good ammo. Normal S Lv1 is incredibly weak, and the 270z or so it costs to buy 99 of the better Normal S Lv2 isn't that expensive. Don't be cheap. Just buy it. Normal S Lv2-3 and Pierce S Lv1-3 should be your main ammunition for Heavy Bowguns. Light Bowguns should use whatever special ammo is best suited to the job... Normal S is your generic damage dealing ammo. Nothing special about it except for Normal S Lv3, which ricochets in a random direction when it hits, and thus can hit more than once. Pierce S passes through when it hits a monster, hitting every hitzone it passes through on the way out (or until it's done its maximum number of hits). Higher levels of Pierce S do less damage but more hits. Pellet S is terrible. It sprays a wide area (and it likes to stun your ally hunters) and does not do very much damage, in exchange for doing many hits. It still does terrible damage though, and you should barely bother with this ammo. Crag S does low damage once it hits, but it sticks in your target and then explodes, doing explosion type damage which ignores defence and can produce a Sonic Bomb effect. Higher levels of Crag S do more explosion damage. Clust S is similar to Crag S, but instead of sticking, it breaks apart into three to five bomblets that fall to the ground and do explosion damage if they hit anything on the way down. They are notable for doing tons of this explosion damage, but are expensive and difficult to hit with every single bomblet. Higher levels of Clust S release more bomblets. Flaming S, Ice S, Water S, Thunder S and Dragon S are elemental ammo. Flaming S acts like Normal S. Ice S, Water S, and Thunder S act like Pierce S Lv1. Dragon S acts like a Normal S that hits five times. Poison S, Stun S, and Sleep S inflict status ailments. Hit a monster with enough of these and it'll eventually be inflicted with that status. Unlike other ammo types, status shots do not need to be aimed at a weakpoint to be effective - as long as they hit, they hit. The other ammo types (Demon, Armor, Paint, Recov, Tranq) are kinda self explanatory and aren't all too great. Damage %s for ammo: Normal S Lv1: 6% Crag S Lv1: 3% + 20 explosion Normal S Lv2: 12% Crag S Lv2: 3% + 30 explosion Normal S Lv3: 10% per hit Crag S Lv3: 3% + 40 explosion Pierce S Lv1: 10% per hit (max 3) Clust S Lv1: 6% + 32x3 explosion Pierce S Lv2: 9% per hit (max 4) Clust S Lv2: 6% + 32x4 explosion Pierce S Lv3: 7% per hit (max 6) Clust S Lv3: 6% + 32x5 explosion Pellet S Lv1: 5% per hit (max 3) Pellet S Lv2: 5% per hit (max 4) Poison S Lv1: 10% + 25 poison Pellet S Lv3: 5% per hit (max 5) Poison S Lv2: 15% + 50 poison Flaming S: 1% + 40 fire Stun S Lv1: 10% + 25 stun Ice S: 1% + 10 ice per hit Stun S Lv2: 15% + 50 stun Water S: 1% + 10 water per hit Thunder S: 1% + 20 thunder per hit Sleep S Lv1: 25 sleep Dragon S: 1% + 64 dragon per hit Sleep S Lv2: 50 sleep The strong ammunition types are strong, but they also come with huge recoil, which significantly slows down how often you can put out shots. You can fix this by getting the Recoil Reduction+2 skill... Recoil values for ammo: Recoil - ?? Bonus - RR Bonus = 0-8: No Recoil 9-10: Small Recoil 11+: Full Recoil Recoil Reduction+2 gives a RR bonus of 4. Recoil Reduction+1 gives a RR bonus of 2. I'm not sure what the ?? Bonus is. The kanji makes no sense <_> When you do have the ?? Bonus, it is 1. Normal S Lv1: 6 Crag S Lv1: 9 Normal S Lv2: 7 Crag S Lv2: 10 Normal S Lv3: 8 Crag S Lv3: 11 Pierce S Lv1: 8 Clust S Lv1: 11 Pierce S Lv2: 8 Clust S Lv2: 12 Pierce S Lv3: 9 Clust S Lv3: 12 Pellet S Lv1: 8 Pellet S Lv2: 8 Poison S Lv1: 9 Pellet S Lv3: 9 Poison S Lv2: 11 Flaming S: 8 Stun S Lv1: 9 Ice S: 8 Stun S Lv2: 11 Water S: 8 Thunder S: 8 Sleep S Lv1: 9 Dragon S: 11 Sleep S Lv2: 11 Oh, but I'm not done! Now you see why the Bowgun was an intimidating weapon to learn and use. Your distance from the target is also a factor in the amount of raw damage you do. (Status, element, and explosion damage are unaffected by range modifiers, unless you are so far that you don't hit at all.) Here's a chart: X = Bonus damage (1.5x) o = Normal damage (1.0x) - = Penalized damage (0.8x) . = Crippled damage (0.5x) (blank) = no damage (0x) Distance from the target Near Moderate Far Normal S Lv1: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXoooooo------................... Normal S Lv2: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXooooooo-------............. Normal S Lv3: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXooooooo-------........ Pierce S Lv1: oooooooooXXXXXXXXoooooooooooo------............. Pierce S Lv2: oooooooooXXXXXXXXXXXoooooooooooo------.......... Pierce S Lv3: oooooooooXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXooooooooo--------...... Pellet S Lv1: ooooooooooooo Pellet S Lv2: ooooooooooooooo Pellet S Lv3: oooooooooooooooooooo Crag S Lv1: oooooXXXXoooooo----------....................... Crag S Lv2: oooooXXXXXoooooo----------...................... Crag S Lv3: oooooXXXXXXXoooooo----------.................... Clust S Lv1: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Clust S Lv2: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Clust S Lv3: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Flaming S: oooooooooooooooooooooo Ice S: ooooooooooooooooooooooo Water S: ooooooooooooooooooooooo Thunder S: ooooooooooooooooooooooo Dragon S: ooooooooooooooooooooooo All other S: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (The MHP2nd guide also has information on reload speeds, but I won't bother you with that since it has nothing to do with damage.) --- Bow Point it at your target's weakpoint and shoot it. Not only does your damage depend on where you hit, your shot type, and your distance from the target, but Bows have another variable thrown into the mix - the charge level of the shot. ________________________________________________________________ | All numbers related to damage are obtained from DS31x's Bow | | Damage Formula FAQ. If you aren't intimidated by numbers and | | equations and want to better understand how much damage you're | | doing, I'd suggest reading it... though I'm giving you a crash | | course on it right now. | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Charge Level 1: 40% raw, 50% element, 50% status Charge Level 2: 100% raw, 75% element, 100% status Charge Level 3: 150% raw, 100% element, 150% status Charge Level 4: 150% raw, 112.5% element, 150% status Now for the shot's type... Scatter spreads a bunch of shots in a horizontal line and should be avoided. Rapid spreads shots vertically, but the shots do good raw damage and it is more ideal for nailing a weakpoint. Pierce shots penetrate and hit multiple hitzones and are capable of doing the most damage if used correctly. Scatter 1: 4%, 5%, 4% Scatter 2: 5%, 6%, 5% Scatter 3: 4%, 5%, 5%, 5%, 4% Scatter 4: 4%, 5%, 6%, 5%, 4% Pierce 1: 6% per hit (max of 3) Pierce 2: 6% per hit (max of 4) Pierce 3: 6% per hit (max of 5) Pierce 4: 6% per hit (max of 6) Rapid 1: 12% Rapid 2: 12%, 4% Rapid 3: 12%, 4%, 3% Rapid 4: 12%, 4%, 3%, 2% When a Poison/Stun/Sleep Bottle is used, each shot also does a different amount of status on top of the 50-150% modifier you already have from the charge level... Scatter 1: 5, 5, 5 status Scatter 2: 6, 6, 6, status Scatter 3: 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 status Scatter 4: 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 status Pierce 1: 5 status per hit Pierce 2: 4 status per hit Pierce 3: 4 status per hit Pierce 4: 4 status per hit Rapid 1: 13 status Rapid 2: 7, 7 status Rapid 3: 5, 5, 5 status Rapid 4: 4, 4, 4, 4 status Power Bottles increase damage, though I'm not sure by how much. I'm looking at the official guide and just drawing a blank because the modifiers they list hardly make sense. And again, like Bowguns, Bows are affected by the distance to the target: X = Bonus damage (1.5x) o = Normal damage (1.0x) - = Penalized damage (0.8x) . = Crippled damage (0.5x) (blank) = no damage (0x) Distance from the target Near Moderate Far Scatter 1: oooooooooXXXXXooo------------------..... Scatter 2: oooooooooXXXXXooo------------------..... Scatter 3: oooooooooXXXXXooo------------------..... Scatter 4: oooooooooXXXXXooo------------------..... Pierce 1: oooooXXXXooo-------.... Pierce 2: oooooXXXXooo-------.... Pierce 3: oooooXXXXooo-------.... Pierce 4: oooooXXXXooo-------.... Rapid 1: oooooooooooXXXXXXXXXXoooooooooo------... Rapid 2: ooooooooooXXXXXXXXXoooooooooo-----... Rapid 3: ooooooooooXXXXXXXXXooooooooo-----.. Rapid 4: oooooooooXXXXXXXXooooooooo----.. You can go ahead and throw this in someone's face the next time they wonder why their bow is so weak at long range. ====================================================================== [4] Pokke Elder Quests - Offline [4] ====================================================================== Elder Quests! You can take these quests from the Pokke Elder in the northeast corner of Pokke Village. These quests can only be done by yourself - if you want to do multiplayer quests, you should go to the Gathering Hall instead. Elder Quests are significantly easier than Guild Quests, since they're intended to introduce you to more and more features of the game and slowly ease you into the world of Monster Hunter. You really shouldn't start right away with the Guild Quests unless you've already played Monster Hunter before, want a challenge, or want to immediately start playing multiplayer with others. The only downside to Elder Quests is that you cannot increase your Hunter Rank by doing Elder Quests. Increasing your Hunter Rank lets you get closer to Hunter Rank 4, when you can take Hard-Ranked quests, which have new, harder monsters, and stronger weapons and armors to be crated. Fortunately, the ranks in the Elder Quests have equivalents to the Hunter Ranks: HR1 = 1* to 3* Elder Quests HR2 = 4* to 5* Elder Quests HR3 = 5* to 6* Elder Quests If you have 6* Elder Quests, you aren't HR3 per se, but you have access to crafting the same weapons and armor that HR3 players do. For this reason, players who play the Elder Quests first and then raise their Hunter Ranks find HR1 to HR3 easy or boring - either because they've become used to fighting these monsters, because they start the Guild Quests with HR3 equipment, or because they aren't getting anything new every time they increase their Hunter Rank. Well, that's enough on that subject. Read on if you want to do Elder Quests! Skip below to Section 5 to read about Guild Quests! ====================================================================== [4.1] * One Star Elder Quests [4.1] ====================================================================== One star quests! Everyone has to start somewhere. Most of these quests are just gathering quests intended to get you used to the game before feeding you to the big monsters. There's only five one star quests, a pretty small amount compared to how many quests you get in the other ranks. In order to advance and unlock the two star quests, you must clear the following quests: - Hunt the Carnivore - Sinking Feeling - Slay the Blangos! And then clear the Urgent Quest, The Carnivorous Leader. Don't gripe, it's only four quests. Certainly a lot less than how many you'd need to do for other ranks... Since you're just starting out, your equipment should just be the simple starter Mafumofu armor set and a weapon of your choice. I suggest getting an Iron weapon of that type once you're comfortable with a weapon type, simply because Iron weapons are easier to upgrade. There isn't much need to upgrade your armor yet, though if you have the money to blow off, you could buy or craft Chain armor. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.1.a] Mountain Herb Picking [4.1.a] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 300z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: I want to pick some of this village's famous Mountain Herbs for my brother in town, but there are too many monsters! Could you please go out for me and bring back 5 Mountain Herbs? Clear Conditions: Deliver 5 Mountain Herbs Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Ah, Gathering Quests. Get used to them, as many of the One Star Elder Quests are Gathering Quests. In order to clear a Gathering Quest, simply collect the items the quest asks for and drop them off at the Red Supply Box at camp. Mountain Herbs are easy to find though, so think of this quest just as an introduction to the Snowy Mountains... you'll even get to see a video of the Snowy Mountains if this is your first quest going there. The Mountain Herbs can be found in Areas 5, 6, 7, and 8. Fortunately, you only need 5 Mountain Herbs, so just visiting Area 5 should do. Leave camp and go to Area 1. Directly in front of you and a bit to your right are some ledges - climb them and enter the cave to enter Area 4. Run forward and make the first right to find some more ledges. Climb those and enter that cave to go to Area 5. Go forward and you should see what looks like plants growing near ice crystals. Gather there by pressing Circle until you get the message "There is nothing else here." Head over to the other bunch of plants and gather some more Mountain Herbs there. Keep gathering, even if you already have 5. Mountain Herbs are Account Items, so the Guild will pay you some extra money and Pokke Points for each extra Account Item you bring in. Once you get another "There is nothing else here." message, simply go back the way you came to camp and drop off the Mountain Herbs to finish the quest. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.1.b] An Anteka in the Snow [4.1.b] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 300z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: In the Eastern lands, it is said that an Anteka's antlers are good for one's health. I would like to test this proverb. Please acquire 3 of these antlers for this purpose. Clear Conditions: Deliver 3 Anteka Antlers Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Yet another Gathering Quest. This time, you're looking for Anteka Antlers, which can be found by carving them from slain Anteka. An Anteka looks like a moose with a smaller body. You can find them in Area 2. Simply go there (figuring out how to get to Area 2 is simple enough) and slay Anteka, then carve their bodies to get Anteka Antlers. They won't always give you Anteka Antlers - if you've killed all the Anteka there and still don't have 3, just leave Area 2 and re-enter. If you do that and you still don't have 3 (real unlucky), then you'll have to explore the rest of Snowy Mountains looking for some more Anteka. There's probably some in Areas 5 and 6. Once you've got 3, drop them off at the Red Supply Box to finish the quest. Easy enough. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.1.c] Hunt the Carnivore! [4.1.c] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 300z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: HELP! The children are being attacked by small, white monsters called Giaprey! 5 of the beasts are outside! Do something! Please! Think of the children! Clear Conditions: Slay 5 Giaprey Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This quest must be completed to unlock the "The Carnivorous Leader" urgent quest and move up to ** Two Star Elder Quests. Mmm, those Anteka were alright, but they didn't really fight back. This time you need to hunt down 5 Giaprey - monsters that are actually carnivores and built to tear apart delicious meals like you. But no worry, you've got weapons and armor, so you should be able to brutally slaughter the Giaprey. Anyway, this is a Slaying Quest, so there's nothing to gather or collect and no need to return to the Red Supply Box to finish the quest. Simply slay the target monsters and you'll finish the quest. You'll find three of the five Giaprey in Area 5. Just take the same path you did for gathering Mountain Herbs to get there. Three Giaprey at once! Giaprey aren't very strong, so they rely on strength in numbers. They can quickly close the distance on you by leaping at you, and like to avoid your attacks by sidestepping around. Aside from the leap, they don't really have any quick attacks, so as long as you stay out of their direct line of vision, they shouldn't be able to hit you at all. The Giaprey won't take many hits before they die, so you can go ahead and rush them down. It can take anywhere from 2 to 10 hits, depending on the weapon type you've brought and if you've managed to upgrade it by now. If you find that the Giaprey are dodging your attacks too much, you should be more patient in your assault - don't attack as soon as you're in range, but wait until the Giaprey looks like it's vulnerable or busy doing something other than sidestepping, then attack it. Either that or you can just use a faster attack, though those usually don't do nearly as much damage. Unlike Popos and Anteka, Giaprey need to be carved pretty quickly after they die, otherwise their corpses will disappear~ You'll get some Giaprey items in the quest rewards, but you should probably try to carve at least a few of them. Once you've killed those three, turn left and go southwest until you see a path leading to Area 3. The other two Giaprey are there. Two Giaprey should be easier than three were (plus Area 3 is bigger and more open), so it shouldn't take long to clean up here. Once those two are dead, quest complete! ______________________________________________________________________ [4.1.d] Sinking Feeling [4.1.d] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 300z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 20 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Night) Quest Info: As usual, I went into the mountains on my hunt for Popos; however, today they were frightened and fled to the summit. Something must be up there... Please get the Popo Tongues for me! Clear Conditions: Deliver 3 Popo Tongues Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This quest must be completed to unlock the "The Carnivorous Leader" urgent quest and move up to ** Two Star Elder Quests. Oh, your first quest to the Snowy Mountains at night. Neato. Understand what a sinking feeling is? It's when you're hesitant to do something in fear that something bad will happen. That's exactly what happens in this quest. The Quest Info doesn't make any mention of it, but you must also avoid a Tigrex while doing this quest. A Tigrex is that monster you saw in the opening video. The one that threw you off a cliff. Him. But don't worry, you don't have to kill it. Obviously, you aren't ready yet to do that yet, so just stay out of his way and hunt down the Popos. The Popos are higher up in the mountains this time and not in Area 1, so it's pretty likely that you will run into Tigrex. (Popos are the large tusked beasts that look extra meaty. The kind of monster you'd kill for meat if you needed to feed a village. Oh, and they can be carved twice instead of just once.) If you see Tigrex, run! Go back to the area you were at before and wait a while. Check now and then to see if Tigrex has left, or just find a different path to use. If Tigrex sees you first though,(you'll know if he's seen you because there'll be a yellow eye icon next to your name, and he'll attack you) he'll stay in that area and wait for you for a while, even if you leave the area. The best thing to do is to go around that area and take another path to where you want to go. It might even be a good idea to let Tigrex see you, because then he'll wait in that area and not move around, which makes it much less likely that he'll come in and surprise you while you're cutting up Popos in another area. I can't advise passing through the area Tigrex is in without either a blocking weapon or very good rolling/diving. Once you've got the 3 Popo Tongues, drop them off in the supply box to finish the quest. No more surprises in this quest. :) Later on in the game, when you're able to fight Tigrex without getting brutally slaughtered, you can use this quest to practice fighting him, or to get Tigrex carves. If you break Tigrex's face, and then finish the quest by dropping off the Popo Tongues, you'll get either a Tigrex Fang, a Tigrex Shell, or a Tigrex Skull Shell (rare) in the rewards. You can practice against Tigrex and then simply drop off the Popo Tongues if you discover that you can't kill him. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.1.e] Slay the Blangos [4.1.e] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 300z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Night) Quest Info: Whew! That was incredibly scary! On my walk up the mountain road, some Blangos began to chase me! I think they are still up there, so please slay them quickly! Clear Conditions: Slay 3 Blangos Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This quest must be completed to unlock the "The Carnivorous Leader" urgent quest and move up to ** Two Star Elder Quests. Ooooh, another hunting quest. This time you need to hunt Blangos, which are small baboon like creatures. Slay 3 Blangos and you're done with this quest. All 3 of the Blangos you need to slay are in Area 8. You should know the Snowy Mountains well enough to get there by now. Blangos aren't very fast or strong, but they're pretty durable compared to the Giaprey you've hunted earlier. They'll mostly rely on two attacks - a claw swipe, and a lunge. The claw swipe is pretty quick, but the range is short, so as long as you aren't directly in front of the Blango, it shouldn't be able to hit you with it. The lunge has better range, but it's a lot slower. Again, you can dodge it easily by not standing in front of the Blango. Go around and hit it from the side and it should go down easy. Wasn't that easy? ______________________________________________________________________ [4.1.f] Urgent Quest - The Carnivorous Leader [4.1.f] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: It seems that I can trust you with a difficult job like this. I'd like you to hund down the leader of a Giaprey pack, the Giadrome. I wish you a beautiful victory in our defense! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Giadrome Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any, as long as it's upgraded Upon clearing this quest, the Pokke Elder will give you access to ** Two Star Elder Quests. This quest will move from the URGENT! quest section to the Two Star section. Ah, your first actual hunting quest with a real boss monster. Giadromes are the alpha males of Giaprey - they're stronger than regular Giaprey in every way. Giadromes have more health and do a bit more damage when they hit. So it sounds like just a stronger Giaprey, right? Nope. There's a special trait to Giadrome that seperates it and all the other bosses in this game from the regular minions you've fought so far. Bosses don't stagger on every hit. That's right, you could be bashing Giadrome's head in with a hammer and he won't even care - he'll just keep attacking you. This can result in you getting interrupted on every attack, and eventually getting killed. But hey, it's not that bad. You just need to rethink how you're going to fight Giadrome. When you fought the Giaprey, I told you to just rush them down. They didn't have much health, and every attack would make them stagger. They couldn't really do much to you. Giadrome, on the other hand, is easily capable of taking you to the cleaners. So instead of rushing him down, take a patient approach to fighting him instead. Wait for Giadrome to make himself vulnerable and capitalize on every opening he gives you, then back off and wait for the next opportunity to attack. If he hits you, back off and reassess the situation. It sounds slow, but it's how you're going to have to fight every boss from here on out. It's something you'll need to get used to. Aside from that, Giadrome has the same attacks and patterns as Giaprey. Don't stand in his direct line of sight, slow down if he's dodging you attacks too often, etc. If Giadrome isn't alone, kill all the other enemies in the area first. It's easier to kill Giaprey with a Giadrome in the area than it is to kill a Giadrome with Giaprey in the area. If this is the first time you've fought Giadrome, you'll find him in Area 6, and see the short video for it. Otherwise, you'll probably run into him at Area 7 or 8. Giadrome, like most bosses, will try to flee from the area when it's weak and near death. Don't start celebrating when you see Giadrome flee though - Dromes will recover a small bit of health everytime they change areas. Just because the Giadrome flees doesn't mean it's ready to kick the bucket. Keep at it and it'll die soon enough, though. How long it'll take mainly depends on how much you've managed to upgrade your weapon at this point in the game. If you've been visiting your Pokke Farm in between each quest, you should have at least one upgrade done. Also, you're provided with tools for capturing Giadrome in this quest (the Tranq Bombs and Shock Trap). When Giadrome is weakened enough, you can use the Shock Trap to trap him, and then throw the Tranq Bombs at him to capture him. You'll know Giadrome is weak enough to capture when he flees the area. Or you could just use the Shock Trap to get free hits on him. That works too. ====================================================================== [4.1] ** Two Star Elder Quests [4.2] ====================================================================== Two star quests! This party's just getting crazy! More quests with boss monsters, though we've still got some Gathering quests and minion Slaying quests. There's eighteen two star quests. That's right, an entire 13 more than you had at one star. In order to advance and unlock the three star quests, you must clear the following quests: - Reckless Bulldrome Hunter - Jungle Menace - Rarest of the Rare Beasts - Liver of Legend And then clear the Urgent Quest, Shadow in the Snow. Wa-hey, five quests this time. Just because you only need to do those four doesn't mean you should ignore the rest of the two star quests though. Plenty of new materials to be found just by doing them... Still wearing Mafumofu armor? Now's the time to finally drop it for something new. The Giadrome Hides you got can be used to finish that Giaprey armor, or you could consider making Steel or Battle armor if you can collect the materials. Oh, and you can now purchase Insect Thicket+1 for your Pokke Farm, if you have the Pokke points to do so. You can gather rarer bugs from it than with the normal Insect Thicket, including Great Ladybug and Killer Beetle. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.a] Gathering - Snowy Mountains [4.2.a] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 12z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: A gathering quest in the snowy mountains. Gather all the materials you can from the field, then deliver the Paw Pass Ticket to finish up. Clear Conditions: Deliver Paw Pass Ticket or Survive until Time Over Fail Conditions: Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This is a Free Gathering quest, about as close to free roaming as you are ever going to get in Monster Hunter. The Supply Box has only a Paw Pass Ticket and a Map. Delivering the Paw Pass Ticket would clear the quest immediately. You can go around the Snowy Mountains and gather as many materials as you can, then deliver the Paw Pass Ticket to end the quest. Note that there are no Hot Drinks in the Supply Box... you'll need to either use your own extras that you've saved, or just ignore the faster stamina loss. If you alternate doing these Gathering quests and visiting the Pokke Farm, you should have plenty of materials for everything in no time. Personally, I don't like gathering at the Snowy Mountains. I prefer to spend my time over in other maps, but here's some places of interest: Honey - Area 4, near the Veggie Elder (West part of map) Rare Mining Point - Area 8. This Mining Point is more likely to give you those precious Machalite Ores and less of those annoying Ice Crystals. Occasionally, you'll get a Khezu Whelp, which is an account item that drains your health as long as you hold onto it. Either deliver it if you're almost done with the quest, or Discard it. Wyvern Eggs - Area 3. Eggs are worth good Pokke Points, but can be a hassle to safely deliver to Camp. The path you should take is 3 > 5 > 4 > 1 > Camp. Mining Point - Areas 3, 4, 5, and 6. These are more likely to give you Ice Crystals, but now and then you might get an Iron Ore. Paintballs - Area 7. If you're passing through, might as well pick up some paintballs. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.b] Gathering - Jungle Zone [4.2.b] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 12z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Day) Quest Info: A gathering quest in the jungle. Gather all the materials you can from the field, then deliver the Paw Pass Ticket to finish up. Clear Conditions: Deliver Paw Pass Ticket or Survive until Time Over Fail Conditions: Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Another Free Gathering quest, only this time it takes place in the Jungle and not in the Snowy Mountains. If you're going through these quests in order, this'll be the first time you've been to the Jungle. You can use this time to look around and get acquainted with the area. If you alternate doing these Gathering quests and visiting the Pokke Farm, you should have plenty of materials for everything in no time. Here's some places of interest: Black Pearl - Area 10. Check the Oyster in the Southeast corner of the island. Honey - Areas 3, 9, and Camp. The Camp's honey are near the top of the vines, Area 3's are on the east side, and Area 9's are on the south side. Goldenfish - Area 9. Goldenfish are worth good Pokke Points, but you need to have Goldenfish Bait (only Goldenfish will bite Goldenfish Bait, making them easier to catch). Rare Mining Point - Area 8, middle. Mmm, machalite. Mining Point - Areas 1, 3, 4, 7, and 9. Wyvern Eggs - Area 7. Eggs are worth good Pokke Points, though you'll want to clear the area of Hermitaurs before you try to deliver any. Two paths this time: 7 > 3 > 4 > Camp or 7 > 5 > 2 > 1 > Camp. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.c] Gathering - Desert Zone [4.2.c] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 12z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Desert (Day) Quest Info: A gathering quest in the snowy mountains. Gather all the materials you can from the field, then deliver the Paw Pass Ticket to finish up. Clear Conditions: Deliver Paw Pass Ticket or Survive until Time Over Fail Conditions: Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This is a Free Gathering quest, about as close to free roaming as you are ever going to get in Monster Hunter. If you're going through these quests in order, this'll be the first time you've been to the Desert. Again, you can use this quest to look around and get used to the Desert. Opposite to the Snowy Mountains, the Desert has hot zones that will drain your health (and prevent your red health from healing) as long as you're in them. You need to drink a Cool Drink to counteract the effects. Unfortunately, the Supply Box has only the usual Paw Pass Ticket and a Map. No Cool Drinks. Though, the health drain isn't that bad, and just like the cold effect of Snowy Mountains, it's something you can just ignore. If you alternate doing these Gathering quests and visiting the Pokke Farm, you should have plenty of materials for everything in no time. It's a good idea to NOT take the Paw Pass Ticket out of the box until you're done with the quest. The Desert has Melynx, who like to steal your items when they hit you. If it gets stolen, you have to kill the Melynx to get your item back. If it gets away, you have to go to the Felyne Drop Point at Area 8 to retrieve it. It's not that big of a deal if they get away with something like a Potion or a Stone, but you kinda need that Paw Pass Ticket to finish the quest. I prefer to gather over at the Jungle, simply because you don't need Cool Drinks or Hot Drinks for it. Here's some points of interest anyway: Rare Mining Point - Area 10. This Mining Point is more likely to give you those precious Machalite Ores and less of those annoying Ice Crystals. Herbivore Eggs - Area 10. They're just like Wyvern Eggs, only they belong to something else. Otherwise, they're exactly the same... 10 > 7 > 3 > 2 > Camp is the path. Mining Point - Areas 3, 4, and 9. Area 9 gives you trash like Ice Crystals and Stones. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.d] The Carnivorous Leader [4.2.d] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: It seems that I can trust you with a difficult job like this. I'd like you to hund down the leader of a Giaprey pack, the Giadrome. I wish you a beautiful victory in our defense! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Giadrome Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any, as long as it's upgraded After you cleared Urgent Quest - The Carnivorous Leader, it disappears from the Urgent quests and becomes this quest. Just in case you want to do it again for Giadrome parts. The only thing that's different this time is that the Giadrome won't be waiting for you in Area 6, since there's no longer a video to watch since this isn't the first time you've fought a Giadrome. In case you already did the Giadrome quest before reading this FAQ, and didn't read where I told you how to fight one: Wait for Giadrome to make himself vulnerable and capitalize on every opening he gives you, then back off and wait for the next opportunity to attack. If he hits you, back off and reassess the situation. It sounds slow, but it's how you're going to have to fight every boss from here on out. It's something you'll need to get used to. Aside from that, Giadrome has the same attacks and patterns as Giaprey. Don't stand in his direct line of sight, slow down if he's dodging you attacks too often, etc. If Giadrome isn't alone, kill all the other enemies in the area first. It's easier to kill Giaprey with a Giadrome in the area than it is to kill a Giadrome with Giaprey in the area. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.e] Reckless Bulldrome Hunter [4.2.e] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1200z Contract Fee: 200z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: My son decided to become a hunter and ran off after a Bulldrome on his own! Of course, now the tables have turned and I'm worried! Hunt down the Bulldrome on the snowy mountains! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Bulldrome Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This quest must be completed to unlock the "Shadow in the Snow" urgent quest and move up to *** Three Star Elder Quests. Mmm, another hunting quest for a Drome monster. Bulldrome is the Drome version of Bullfango... who you haven't fought yet, and thus have no idea what he'll be like (unless you've played MHFreedom). Capcom likes to make this FAQ writing business hard. :p Bullfangoes are creatures that resemble wild boars, only they have bigger horns. Much bigger horns. Much like wild boars, they're extremely aggressive - upon seeing you in the area, they'll immediately attempt to impale you with those horns. They're slow though, so the common method of beating them is to just dodge a charge and kill them before they can charge again. Bulldrome is a bit tougher - it takes more damage to stagger him, and he recovers from his charges a lot faster. So fast that you'll probably only get one or two hits in on him before you have to avoid the next incoming charge. And of course, he has more health than your usual Bullfango - about as much as Giadrome had. So, let's look at Bulldrome's attacks: Charge - Bulldrome runs at you. If it hits, it hurts. It's as simple as that. Simply roll or get out of the way, then chase after him to attack him before he can get ready to charge again. Taunt - He likes to use this a lot when you don't play aggressively, probably to bait you into attacking. Bulldrome makes some noise and shakes his head around a little bit. Taunts never seem to work out the way monsters want them to though, and Bulldrome's taunt leaves him open and vulnerable to attack for a good length of time. Quick Turn - Bulldrome gets back on his hind legs for a moment, makes an angry sound, and quickly does a 180, attempting to hit you with his horns. A problem people have had with Bulldrome is that he combos them - as soon as your hunter recovers from a charge attack and gets back up, Bulldrome is charging at you again and hits you before you can do anything about it. I've personally never had it happen to me, so I'm not sure if this actually does happen. So yeah, fighting Bulldrome is like fighting Bullfango. Dodge the charge, hit him a few times, dodge the charge, hit him a few times, rinse and repeat. As long as you avoid getting hit, you should have no trouble with Bulldrome at all. Bulldrome migrates around the Areas 6, 7, and 8, in a counter clockwise direction. Simply go through those three areas clockwise and you should run into him soon enough. If this is the first time you've fought one, he'll be waiting for you in Area 7. Just like Giadrome, Bulldrome will flee when he's almost dead (and he'll also heal when he changes areas). And again like the Giadrome quest, you've got a Shock Trap and Tranq Bombs supplied to you. Use the Shock Trap to get free hits or to capture him, it's up to you. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.f] Slay the Giaprey! [4.2.f] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: A pack of 20 Giaprey have been preying on my Popos! They're too much for me to handle and now they're back! Please get rid of them for me! Hunters, this is your chance! Clear Conditions: Slay 20 Giaprey Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Chance? Chance for what? This is the same as the Hunt the Carnivore! quest you already did, only this time you need 20 Giaprey instead of 5. Oh, and there'll be a Giadrome moving around the map too. Neat. 20 is a rather large number, and you might be wondering just where would all 20 Giaprey be if there's only 2 or 3 per area. After you've killed the Giaprey in an area and their corpses fade, new Giaprey might respawn in that area. There's a limit to how many Giaprey you can fight in one area though. You can speed up the respawning process by leaving and re-entering the area. If there aren't any Giaprey there, you need to move onto the next area. You'll need to do this often for some of the other Hunt 20+ something quests, so remember it. Aside from that, nothing new. If you run into Giadrome, you can kill him or just ignore him while you focus on the Giaprey. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.g] The Pack of Blangos [4.2.g] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Night) Quest Info: I request that you slay the Blangos rampaging through the mountains... A Bulldrome was also spotted in the area. Successfully avoid the Bulldrome and go about your mission. Clear Conditions: Slay 5 Blangos Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Ugh. This is again, another quest you've already done, but this time you need 5 Blangos instead of 3. This time, there'll be a Bulldrome moving around the map too. 5 isn't even that many. Three of them are in Area 8, the other two in Area 7. You might run into Bulldrome, but you can just kill the Blangos in the area and ignore him anyway. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.h] The Taboo of Negligence! [4.2.h] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 300z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Night) Quest Info: I want to pick some of this village's famous Mountain Herbs for my brother in town, but there are too many monsters! Could you please go out for me and bring back 5 Mountain Herbs? Clear Conditions: Deliver 15 Mountain Herbs Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Another repeat quest. At least this one is sorta interesting. This time, you need to deliver 15 Mountain Herbs instead of just 5. Oh, and you only have 20 minutes to do it this time. It's also Night this time, though that doesn't really make a bit of difference. Hopefully you remember where the Mountain Herbs are - Areas 5, 6, 7, and 8. You should get 8-10 in Area 5, 2 in Area 6, and 6 in Area 8. Drop them off and celebrate the fact you're done with the repeat quests... for now. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.i] Hunt Down the Velocidrome! [4.2.i] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Day) Quest Info: It seems a large carnivore appeared as my wife was gathering mushrooms! There is no way I can let her out to pick mushrooms now... Help us defend the safety of the villagers! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Velocidrome Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Boo, just as the repeat quests were coming to an end. This isn't exactly a repeat quest, but it's pretty close to being one. Velocidrome are the Drome versions of Velociprey, who are almost exactly like Giaprey in every single way (The only difference is Velociprey look different and don't spit ice). Velocidrome, as a result, is almost exactly like Giadrome. The only real difference is that Velocidrome doesn't spit ice and he doesn't live in snowy areas. Don't worry, not all of the fights in this game are going to be like this. Hopefully you've done enough Jungle Gathering quests to be used to the Jungle by now. You should find the Velocidrome in the Area 5, 6, and 7 area. If this is the first time you've fought one, he'll be waiting for you in Area 8. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.j] Jungle Menace [4.2.j] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1500z Contract Fee: 250z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Night) Quest Info: I want you to hunt and kill the giant bird-like monster that has appeared in our jungle. It's wreaking havoc on our environment and must be stopped! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Yian Kut-Ku Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This quest must be completed to unlock the "Shadow in the Snow" urgent quest and move up to *** Three Star Elder Quests. Ah, finally, something new. Yian Kut-Ku is the first real wyvern you'll fight in this game, and the first monster who has multiple hitzones. I'll need to explain those... Everything you've fought up to this point has had only one hitzone. It didn't matter if you hit Giadrome in the face or in the legs, your attacks did the same amount of damage. Yian Kut-Ku, and mostly every other boss from this point has multiple hitzones - if you hit him in the legs, it'll only do about 1/3rd as much damage as if you had hit him in the face. That's because his legs are a different hitzone from his head. The difference between doing this quest in 3 minutes and doing it in 20 minutes revolves mainly around these hitzones. If you just hit Yian Kut-Ku wherever, you're going to take a long time. If you focus all of your attacks on his weakpoint instead, you'll be done with this quest in no time. However, there's another thing I need to explain.. Impact damage, Cut damage, and Gun damage. Each hitzone also takes different amounts of damage from each damage type. The weakpoint for Impact weapons might not be the same as they are for Cut weapons, or the same for Gun weapons. If you have one of these weapons, you have an Impact weapon: Hammer or Hunting Horn If you have one of these weapons, you have a Cut weapon: Sword and Shield, Dual Swords, Long Sword, Great Sword, Gunlance If you have one of these weapons, you have a Gun weapon: Light Bowgun, Heavy Bowgun, Bow These two will do either Impact or Cut damage, whichever is highest: Bow's melee attack and Lances Whew, ok, got all of the essentials explained. Yian Kut-Ku's Impact weakpoint is pretty much any bodypart that isn't his legs. His Head is the weakest of all, though. His Cut weakpoint are the wings, and his Gun weakpoints are his head, stomach, and wings (head is weakest). Of course, some damage is still better than no damage. If you can't hit the weakpoint, you might as well hit something else. Now you know where to attack, now for when to attack! Just like Giadrome and Bulldrome, you need to wait for Yian Kut-Ku to make himself vulnerable, then attack while it's safe to do so. YKK might have the durability of a bundle of sticks, but he's also one of the fastest monsters in the game. Don't give him a single chance to hit you or you could get nailed by a 100% combo. So, Yian Kut-Ku's attacks: Peck - This is why YKK is considered a Bird Wyvern. He'll peck forward a short distance, taking a step forward each time. It doesn't appear to be much of an attack, and doesn't even hurt very much when it does hit - but try to block it and you'll get your guard broken for sure. He recovers from this attack pretty quickly, though you can still attack him with a quick attack. Leaping Peck - The same as his Peck, only YKK leaps forward a good distance before doing it. He likes to catch you with this when you think it's safe to stand far away from him. His feet will also do minor damage if you get trampled by them - though sometimes getting hit by his feet causes the rest of the attack to miss you completely. Tail Swing - The tail swing. Almost every monster has it, so get used to it. YKK does a 180 turn counter clockwise, then another turn. When in Rage Mode, these are approxmiate 160 degree turns instead of 180. Though YKK looks like he's biting during the attack, only the tail can hurt you - so as long as you're on his left side (your right), he can't surprise you with this attack. The faster weapons are capable of punishing this attack and following the tail, so that you can punish him further if he does it again (YKK likes to do Tail Swings when you're close to him). Flame Shot - YKK spits out a bunch of flame towards you. It descends quickly, so it usually hits the ground before it hits you, but it does splash damage when it hits the ground. Not too painful, though YKK recovers from this quickly. Flame Shot x 4 - YKK rears up on his legs and spits out four flame shots in a trapezoid pattern. The shots are easy enough to dodge if you're near him, and he's vulnerable to attack during the whole thing. Though unfortunately, his head and wings are usually out of reach... Charge - Same as Bulldrome's, only it's harder to dodge because YKK is... a lot bigger. YKK can also stop mid-charge to do any other attack - an annoying trait you'll find in many of the other monsters who can charge. If he travels more than a certain distance, he'll trip and slide across the floor. In some Charges, YKK will spit fireballs to his sides while running. Since he alternates between left and right and his fireballs suck, it's not likely that he'll hit you though. You can attack him as he gets up if he trips. Fly Back - YKK flaps his wings, causing him to fly a short distance behind him. This creates two waves of Wyvern Wind - one when he gets off the floor and a second as he starts to land. The first wave is nothing to worry about - if you get hit by it, you'll recover from it before YKK does. The second wave can potentially set you up for a combo though, so be careful trying to punish this without Wind Res (it's best to just not try it without Wind Res). Taunt - Ah, one of the few things that YKK doesn't quickly recover from doing. He scratches the floor, laughs four times, and makes his screeching sound. This is a big opening - long enough to nail him in the weakpoint with one of your slow but strong attacks or a long combo. Oh, and I mentioned Rage Mode in there somewhere. When you do enough damage to a monster or do certain things to it, the monster will become enraged and go into Rage Mode. Monsters in Rage Mode are usually faster and hit harder - some also take less damage from your attacks (YKK doesn't). If you can't tell from the speed boost, you can also know if a monster is in Rage Mode if there are flames coming from it's mouth. Yian Kut-Ku's ears are big and sensitive, so throwing a Sonic Bomb at him will stun him for a short moment and hold him perfectly still - good for getting in free hits. The trade-off is that the Sonic Bomb will immediately put him into Rage Mode. It's unlikely that you have Sonic Bombs at this point in the game, but if you do, it's something to consider. Throwing a Sonic Bomb also makes Yian Kut-Ku drop its "shiny" item, which you can then pick up off the floor just like any other floor gathering. Sooo, fighting YKK isn't all that different from fighting the monsters you've fought so far. Stay out of his direct line of sight. Avoid the attacks, punish the attacks that can be safely punished, don't get hit... When circling around YKK to stay out of his line of sight, you'll want to circle around to his left (your right) or counter clockwise - this is because his Tail Swing goes counter clockwise as well - going around him in this direction allows you to avoid the first half of the Tail Swing (which should also let you avoid the second half with ease). When Yian Kut-Ku is weak enough to capture, his ears will droop and he'll try to flee to Area 6 where it can go to sleep (it'll slowly regenerate health while sleeping). Note that his ears can also be shredded - this isn't the same as drooping. When you focus your attacks on the head, you'll eventually "break" it, causing YKK's ears to droop. You'll get a Kut-Ku Ear in the quest rewards for breaking the ears. Until you're experienced with fighting Yian Kut-Ku, you'll probably need to fight him in the cautious method (It's very much possible to beat YKK only attacking him when he taunts). Once you're better at recognizing what you can and can't safely punish and how to avoid them, you can fight YKK with the rushdown approach. YKK has low health compared to the other wyverns in this game, and is a popular choice for farming zenny - many players can kill one in less than two minutes, and the carves and rewards you get for killing one are pretty decent at this point in the game. If this is the first time you've fought YKK, he'll be waiting for you in Area 6. Otherwise, wait for him in Area 1 (You'll want to clear that Bullfango out first) ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.k] Rarest of the Rare Beasts [4.2.k] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1500z Contract Fee: 250z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Night) Quest Info: Do you know of a pink, fanged beast that roams the jungle? That beast has dirtied my shop beyond hope! It's impossible to clean up! Get rid of it before I'm soiled again! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Congalala Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any I like how the guy who requests this quest says he'll never get clean, yet he wants you to kill Congalala before he gets dirty again. This quest must be completed to unlock the "Shadow in the Snow" urgent quest and move up to *** Three Star Elder Quests. Anyway, Congalala is a large, pink gorilla. In comparison to Yian Kut-Ku, he's a bit slower, but also takes less damage from attacks, which tends to give newer players trouble because he manages to outlast them. But, you know, he's slower, so you get more opportunities to attack him. It should balance out as long as you don't get reckless. :) Congalala's weakpoint for every weapon type is his Face. Isn't that simple? Unfortunately, Congalala's attacks make it difficult to hit his face consistantly, at least not without eating a world of hurt. The rest of his body still takes decent damage though, and decent damage is still better than none. Charge - Bulldrome had it, Yian Kut-Ku had it, and Congalala has it too. Congalala's charge isn't anywhere near as dangerous though, since gorillas aren't really built for running. He usually won't charge more than a short distance. You can get in a few attacks when he's done running. Body Splash - Congalala bounces up into the air and attempts to splash you. This attack is pretty easy to dodge if you see it coming, but sometimes Congalala uses this to dodge your attacks and attack you at the same time. Backstep - Congalala leaps back a bit. It's pretty fast, but it's nothing to be worried about. It's just annoying :) Claw swipes - Congalala swipes four times, the fourth swipe being so powerful that Congalala falls forward onto his back. If you're on his left (your right) side, this is your opportunity to get some hits in on his face. Inhale - Congalala gets on his rear legs and inhales deeply, causing his stomach to stick out. He then exhales and falls forward, hurting you with the splash if you're in range. The stomach will deflect almost all attacks while he's inhaling - attack it and you're almost guaranteed to get hit by the splash. Instead, just attack his rear legs. Breath Attack - Congalala eats the mushroom he's carrying on his tail and breathes fire in a 180 degree arc in front of him. (If he's carrying a rock, he'll breathe poison instead). The range on it is pretty short and it's pretty easy to see coming, so it's not too likely you'll get hit by it. Fart - As far as I know, Congalala only does this to signal that he's going into Rage Mode. Causes Odor, that's why you were given Deodorants in the Supply Box. Taunt - Congalala sniffs the air around him. He usually does this before he changes areas or flees. As usual, stay out of his direct line of sight, and try to stay on his left side (your right) so that you can hit him in the face when he does the claw swipes. Hit it til it dies, don't get hit, and you should be done with this quest in no time. A Fire weapon will break Congalala's horn, if you focus your attacks on it for long enough. You probably don't have a Fire weapon yet, but it's something to consider later on when you do and need Congalala items. If you focus your attacks on Congalala's tail, it'll drop the item it's carrying as a "shiny" item. This also disables his breath attack, though imo it's still hardly worth doing. Congalala will be waiting for you in Area 3, if this is your first time fighting one. Even if it isn't, I'm fairly sure Area 3 is where you'd be able to find him. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.l] Hunt the Rare Forest Congas! [4.2.l] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Day) Quest Info: I took a trip to the jungle and saw some beautiful pink animals with fangs. But then when I tried to pet them from my carriage, the beasts made a stink on me! I can't get it off! Punish those meanies! Clear Conditions: Slay 10 Congas Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Mmm. 10 Congas. By now you should be getting the hang of these Hunt XX Monsters quests... but I'll explain how to fight Congas anyway. Congas are the little pink gorillas. If you already did Rarest of the Rare Beasts, you probably saw a few Congas while you were fighting Congalala. Conga's attacks are simple. He's got the charge - it's not nearly as fast as Bullfango's or any other monster's charge, seeing as gorillas aren't really built for running on all fours... should be pretty easy to dodge. Conga also has a body splash where he'll bounce up into the air and try to land on you. This has the annoying tendency to happen just as you're swinging at it - so Conga avoids your attack and gets ready to attack you at the same time. And of course, they have the farting attack, which will afflict you with Odor if it connects. Which is why you're supplied with Deodorants for this quest. Though it doesn't really matter anyway, since you should just rushdown the Congas anyway. There's only 10 of them, they won't survive long enough for the damage or Odor to make a difference. There are 3 Congas in Area 9 (1 respawn), 2 in Area 2 (2 respawn), and 2 in Area 3. So, just go Area 4 > 3 > 9 > 3 > 9 > 2 > 5 > 2 and clear out the Congas you encounter. Oh, there's also a Velocidrome in this quest, but it's unlikely you'll run into him unless you dawdle in Area 5. This is a good quest for getting Kelbi Horns (used for making Ancient Potions) - there are Kelbi in Area 3 and the quest doesn't take very long to do. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.m] Attack of the Giant Bugs! [4.2.m] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Day) Quest Info: My village is under attack by a swarm of bug monsters! It seems there are about 20 of them. One by one they are not a threat, but as a group they are deadly. So be careful. Clear Conditions: Slay 20 Vespoids Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any fast weapon Vespoids are the large flying insects half your size. They can paralyze you if they hit you, setting you up to get hit even more by the other enemies in the area. Vespoids also like to dodge your attacks, which can make hunting 20 of them frustrating. To further add to the frustration, their bodies will shatter upon death, leaving nothing for you to carve. If you use a Poison weapon (or Poison Smoke Bombs, Poison Coatings, or Poison bowgun ammo) and the Vespoid dies from the Poison, the body will fall harmlessly to the floor so you can carve. The other insects in this quest are Hornetaurs - though you don't need to kill them for this quest, it's suggested that you do anyway simply because they'll annoy you to no end if kept alive. Plus, they're easier to kill anyway, might as well deal with them first. Pretty much every area will have Vespoids. Be sure to leave and re-enter areas to make them respawn if possible. If you need Monster Fluid for anything, carving up Vespoids and Hornetaurs is an efficient way to get one. You could also just do this quest over and over and hope you get some in rewards, but it's probably easier to just get a Poison weapon and carve them up. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.n] Collect to Combine [4.2.n] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Day) Quest Info: An affinity towards combining is important, but so are fresh materials! Special Mushrooms from the jungle are sure to improve your hunting life and wallet! Gather 10 of them! Clear Conditions: Deliver 10 Special Mushrooms Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This quest requestor sounds like she's trying to sell me some Special Mushrooms. Anyway, a Gathering quest. Just like with the Mountain Herbs, you need to set out and get 10 of these shrooms and drop them off. There's also a Velocidrome in the area, but by now you should be able to clean the floor with one of them with no problem. It doesn't really matter anyway, because this quest will probably take you a minute to do. From camp, head to Area 1. On your left, you should see a big pink mushroom. 2-3 Special Mushrooms here. Head towards the number 1 on your map and you should see another mushroom. 6 Mushrooms here. Go to Area 2 and head towards the exit to Area 3, in front of the big tree by the exit is a mushroom, another 6 Mushrooms there. See? Quick and easy. Head back to camp however you want. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.o] Hunt the Gendrome [4.2.o] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Desert (Day) Quest Info: My caravans are being hit by packs of Genprey. It appears there is an extraordinarily powerful boss among them! Hunt down the monster and make the roads safe again for all! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Gendrome Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Yawn, a Gendrome. Gendrome is yet another Drome monster who is almost exactly the same as Velocidrome and Giadrome. Gendrome's distinguishing feature? His attacks can paralyze you. All the more reason to avoid getting hit by the guy, though by now you should be experienced enough with fighting these Dromes that you'll have no problem with this at all. This quest is in the Desert though, your first non Gathering quest to the Desert. The Supply Box will supply you with Cool Drinks, so don't worry about that. Gendrome is usually found running around Areas 5, 9, 6, 4, 2, 1, 5, in that order. Just go backwards and you'll eventually run into him. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.p] The Land Shark [4.2.p] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1200z Contract Fee: 200z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Desert (Day) Quest Info: Our pack-animals were eaten by something in the desert. But nobody actually saw the monster attack! Track down this vile beast and take it out! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Cephadrome Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any It's not another Velociraptor Drome boss! Really! Cephadrome is the drome version of Cephalos, a fish wyvern that spends a majority of the time swimming in the sand. Cephadrome's main weakpoint is his neck for all three weapon types. If you're using a Gun weapon, his back/dorsal fin takes as much damage as the neck. Cutting and Impact weapons can also attack the back, though you're better off just going for the neck, usually. Cephadrome actually takes more damage on his stomach with Impact/Cut weapons, but his neck is so easy to attack that you should just go for the neck instead. Cephadrome, in comparison to everything else you've fought, is a weakling. That's right, I said it. He has about as much health as Yian Kut-Ku, but takes so much damage at his weakpoints that he'll die in about half the time. Not to mention he's easy to fight because he's pathetically slow and slow-minded. While it's in the sand, you can only attack its dorsal fin. Obviously, the fight will be much easier if you force Cephadrome out of the sand so he won't be moving around so much. You can force him out either by doing a ton of damage to the dorsal fin, or with an explosion (Sonic Bombs, Bombs, or Crag S). Fortunately, you get some Sonic Bombs in the Supply Box. More than enough for Cephadrome. Throw the Sonic Bomb so that it explodes near Cephadrome and he'll be forced out. Make sure to hit him as he flops around, otherwise he's likely to just jump back into the sand. Once he's on land, Cephadrome is pretty easy to fight and has only a few attacks in his arsenal: Sand Shot - Cephadrome will rear back a bit, then spit out a burst of sand in a straight line. It's more beam-like than Yian Kut-Ku's, but again, it has short range since Ceph tends to aim it at the floor. This is the best chance you have to attack Cephadrome's neck, because he takes a loooong time to recover from this. Hip Check - The dreaded hip check. Hunters despise this attack because it has deceptively large range. If you're standing on Cephadrome's right (your left), you're going to get hit by it. It's just inevitable. In the off chance that he does a hip check and misses you, you can get in a few hits in with a fast weapon. Tail Swing - Cephadrome's Tail Swing goes clockwise, and like every other tail swinger, he does two 180 degree tail swings. If you're on his left, you're probably going to get hit by it. Leap - Cephadrome leaps forward as far as he can with his two swimmer legs. There are two forms of this attack - Cephadrome uses one leap to go back to swimming. The other leap, he merely slides across the sand. Either way, there's not much you can do about it once he does it, aside from dodge it. Is Cephadrome back in the sand? He's got a few attacks there too... Fin Attack - Not an attack, per se, but if Cephadrome's fin hits you while he's swimming, it'll knock you on your butt and do pitiful damage. Surface - If Cephadrome suddenly stops while swimming and you're near by, he's going to do this. He dives deeper in so his fin disappears, then resurfaces a short distance away. He'll roar, and then spit either a single sand shot, or a beam of sand that covers a wide arc in front of him. Fortunately, the attack setup is so slow that you'll see it coming and can get ready behind him to attack him once he's momentarily out of the sand. This is your main opportunity to get him out of the sand if you have trouble hitting his dorsal fin. Leap - Hey, he does it in the sand too! Again, after the leap, he'll either slide across the sand or land back in it and go back to swimming. For some odd reason, this attack can paralyze you. Between the Hip Check and Tail Swing, it sounds like Cephadrome is nearly untouchable, right? Well, he's not a very bright wyvern. In fact, Cephadrome is the easiest wyvern to AI exploit. AI Exploits? It sounds like a dirty tactic, but hey, if your target is an idiot, why not take advantage of it? As long as you stand a good distance away from Cephadrome when he's out of the sand, he will do Sand Shot almost every single time. So, what you should do is bait him into doing a Sand Shot, then attack his neck a few times. Afterwards, simply roll away before he can do a Hip Check or Tail Swing. Repeat until he's dead, which shouldn't take long since Cephadrome takes high damage from everything. Cephadrome will be waiting for you in Area 2. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.q] Liver of Legend! [4.2.q] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 1200z Contract Fee: 200z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Desert (Day) Quest Info: Hello sirs and madams! I deal in rare items that I find in the desert. Recently I've got a buyer for Piscine Wyvern and Sand Wyvern livers. Deliver 3 of them to me! Clear Conditions: Deliver 3 Piscine Livers Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Piscine is French for "fish", by the way. This quest must be completed to unlock the "Shadow in the Snow" urgent quest and move up to *** Three Star Elder Quests. This Gathering quest involves killing Cephalos and carving them for their Piscine Livers. You need three of them. You'll find the Cephalos in Area 2. Well, Cephalos are little fishy wyverns that swim in the sand. You can only tell where they are by looking for their top fins going through the sand. Just like Cephadrome, they're a lot easier to fight when you can get them out of the sand. Getting Cephalos out of the sand is done the same way you get Cephadrome out of the sand. You can either force it out by attacking the top fin until it comes out, or you can use an explosion to blast them out (Bombs, Crag S, or Sonic Bombs) Fortunately, you get four Sonic Bombs in the Supply Box. Enough for four Cephadrome. If you're lucky, you'll get the three Livers. If you aren't, well, there's the attacking the fin method... Attacking the fin sounds hard, but after a while, you should get the hang of timing your attacks to hit the fin. I personally find it easier to do with the slow weapons, since they hit so hard that the Cephalos gets forced out in one or two hits instead of seven or eight. You've already fought one big Cephadrome, so fighting Cephalos should be no problem - they're practically the same monster, just with different sizes and health. There's a Gendrome in the area, too. Oooh, scary. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.r] Gone Fishin' [4.2.r] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Day) Quest Info: Fishing. It carries on in the hearts of children and remains a simple pleasure for adults. Hearken back to a simpler time and bring me back 2 of the desert's most precious gift... Goldenfish! Clear Conditions: Deliver 2 Goldenfish Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any DO NOT TAKE THIS QUEST WITHOUT AT LEAST TWO GOLDENFISH BAIT IN YOUR INVENTORY. I SUGGEST BRINGING FOUR. There, I said it. Goldenfish Bait is created by combining Snakebee Larva + Firefly. Both items can be found in the Pokke Farm or bought from the Red Cat Merchant. Having Goldenfish Bait is essential to this quest - only Goldenfish will try to bite it. Try to use any other bait and you'll have to deal with all the other fish who will go for your bait first, which will make this quest take ten times longer than it needs to (not to mention you'll probably run out of bait). The Goldenfish are in Area 1. Head there and kill everything else, because there's nothing more annoying than being interrupted while fishing. Check the pool of water for any fish that look like they could be Goldenfish - they're big, long, and gold. If there's no Goldenfish in there, simply leave and re-enter Area 1. Check again. Repeat if there's no Goldenfish. This can take a while, be patient. Once you finally do get a Goldenfish, switch to your Goldenfish Bait and use it on the pool of water (If it's X'd out, just run around until you find the spot where you can use it). Fishing is pretty simple, especially since only one fish will be going for your bait. Just watch it as it swims around and get ready when it comes near your bait. Press X when it bites AND PULLS THE BAIT UNDER THE WATER. Simply pressing X when it bites will not catch the fish. Pressing X too late will result in you losing your bait, which is why I suggested bringing four Goldenfish Bait. If the Goldenfish isn't biting (it'll take a while, it likes to swim around and enjoy the lazy life of being a solid gold fish) for a long time, it probably isn't a Goldenfish. Burst Arrowana look exactly like Goldenfish, except they're green (which, in the Desert light, can look like gold). Shake your fist at your PSP and go back to leaving and re-entering the area. This is a time-consuming and rather unenjoyable quest. Most people put it off until later, since it's not essential for anything... yet. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.2.s] Urgent Quest - Shadow in the Snow [4.2.s] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 2100z Contract Fee: 350z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: If it's not one thing, it's another, right? Near the village, a strange flying wyvern called a Khezu has been spotted. It is strong, but I believe you can handle it. Do your very best! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Khezu Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Viper Bite (SnS), Chief Scythe (DS), Ravager Blade (GS), Iron Katana "Gospel" (LS), Iron Striker (H), War Drum (HH), Paladin Lance (L), Steel Gunlance (GL), Rapidcaster (HBG), Shotgun(White) (LBG), Kut Ku Stave I (Bow) Upon clearing this quest, the Pokke Elder will give you access to *** Three Star Elder Quests. This quest will move from the URGENT! quest section to the Three Star section. Oh look, I'm finally suggesting weapons. I suggest not doing this quest until you've upgraded your weapon to one of these points - the difference between fighting Khezu with Bone Club and fighting him with Iron Striker is the Iron Striker will get the quest done 10-15 minutes sooner. The less time you spend out on the field, the less likely you're going to die the three times necessary to fail the quest, amirite? As for armor, pretty much anything will do, as long as it gets you more than 40 defence. 60+ Defence should be more than enough for Khezu. Defence is more important than Thunder Res, but if you've got -25 or worse Thunder Res, you might want to consider something different unless it gives you good Armor Skills. Compared to what you've fought so far, Khezu is a bit like Congalala.. They both take relatively low damage from all attacks, and they're both pretty slow attackers. Often, newer hunters will get annoyed at how slowly the battle is going, and rush in recklessly - which usually ends up in you getting countered badly by Khezu while he takes almost no damage. Not good. Patience is the key to Khezu until you have the equipment to straight out overpower him. Khezu khezu khezu. His attacks are as following: Electric Body - Khezu glows blue and rears his head back a bit to attack. Khezu's entire body becomes covered in electricity - making it difficult to attack him without getting hurt yourself. A few weapons have the range to attack Khezu through Electric Body, but only the Hammer/Lance/Gunlance can do it safely. This is blockable, so immediately go for the block if you don't think you can avoid it in time. Thunder Ball - Khezu rears his head back and gets ready to attack, but he doesn't glow blue - instead, he shoots the lightning in a forward direction, affecting a long cone area in front of him. You can get hit by his head when he drops it for this attack, so watch out for that. As long as you don't get hit by it though, it's a good opportunity to attack Khezu. This is unblockable, so don't try. Leap - Khezu sways his head around a bit, then leaps forward a good distance. If you're directly next to Khezu, you might get hit by his feet, which won't hurt much. If he lands on you, expect it to hurt. Electric Leap - Same attack, bigger hitbox. Khezu covers himself with electricity before leaping, making the attack even more dangerous and giving it bigger range (unlike the normal leap, it's not safe to stand near Khezu as he does this). It also has the tendency to guard break, so you're better off trying to dodge it. Bite - Khezu extends his neck a good distance in front of him and attempts to bite you. You really shouldn't be in front of Khezu anyway, so you should have no trouble avoiding this. Tail Swing - Not much of an attack since Khezu has a cutely small tail. You should be familiar enough with the tail swing by now and be able to land quite a few hits on Khezu while he's swinging. Roar - Khezu's roar is a long one - if you get hit by it, you're going to be stunned for a while. On the other hand, if you block it, you've got a small opening to attack him. If Khezu is in Rage Mode, he can combo you off of a roar. You can help prevent this by making sure you're never in front of him when he roars - if you're behind or at his side, he has to spend time turning, which might be long enough for you to recover and avoid getting comboed. Sniff - Khezu does this whenever he goes into Rage Mode. It's not as long as you think it would be, so be careful while attacking him through it. This time I didn't really say if Khezu recovers quickly or not from these attacks, because he recovers pretty slowly from all of them. However, Khezu doesn't need to face you to do an Electric Body, so even though he recovers slowly, he's able to attack you again much faster than another wyvern who would have to turn to face you first. Keep that in mind as you punish his attacks, and always be ready to block or dodge an Electric Body if you see it coming. Now, as for where to attack Khezu. Gunning weapons have an advantage over Khezu, since they still do decent damage to him. His Gun weakpoint is the Head and Neck. His Impact weakpoint is the Head, though the Neck and Back are also good. Cutting weapons have a harder time with Khezu though - his weakpoint is the Neck and NOT the Head. Hitting Khezu's neck consistently is a pain in the neck, because half the time you will hit Wing or Head on accident. Khezu's Stomach and Back also take decent damage from Cutting weapons. Of course, there's also the knockdown method. Instead of focusing on Khezu's weakpoints, simply attack his legs from behind. It's fairly easy to hit the legs consistently, and it's pretty safe. Though the legs don't take much damage, hitting them enough from behind will make Khezu fall over, giving you a chance to safely attack his proper weakpoint. Aside from that, the usual tactics for fighting monsters. Don't stand directly in his line of sight. Kill other enemies in the area first if they can potentially get in your way. Wait for openings to attack. ...You should know the rest by now. When Khezu is weak enough to capture, he likes to... stand perfectly still. Sometimes he'll just stand there for 20 seconds, sometimes for 5. Eventually he'll get up and fly towards Area 3 so he can sleep. Khezu is blind, by the way, so there won't be an eye icon indicating that he sees you (because he can't), even though he knows you're there. As a result of this, you can't use dives, so remember that you can't rely on those for Khezu. Khezu can also walk on cave ceilings, which he might do in Area 3. Just stay away from his shadow until he comes back down. If he drops acid from the cave ceiling, you can pick it up as a "shiny" item. If this is the first time you've fought Khezu, he'll be waiting for you in Area 3. Otherwise, you can find him at Area 7 (Area 6 if you're fast). If you forgot Hot Drinks or are slow, you can wait for him in Area 1 instead. ====================================================================== [4.3] *** Three Star Elder Quests [4.3] ====================================================================== Don't give up, you're almost halfway there! Three star quests, now the game's picking up. There's a few more repeat quests, but now we're starting to see some original boss monsters that aren't velociraptors. There's eighteen three star quests. Eighteen. Again. In order to advance and unlock the three star quests, you must clear the following quests: - Blango Slaying Tactics - The Lurking Desert Giant - Gypceros: Venomous Terror - A Killing From Mushrooms And then clear the Urgent Quest, The Ruler of the Snow. Wa-hey, five quests this time. One of which is a repeat though, so it won't take long. You've got more armor options now. If you've been farming the Yian Kut-Ku for money, you could also consider making his armor set. The Khezu armor sets give Rec Speed, which is a very handy armor skill if you can get it to 10. Oh, and you can now purchase Trenya's Boat for your Pokke Farm, if you have the Pokke points to do so. You should already have Trenya's Boat if you downloaded it using the Download option at the main menu, though. Trenya's Boat allows you to get various items from each of the zones, but at the cost of Pokke Points for each trip. You'll begin to notice this is where Capcom starts to throw quests at you involving monsters you've already fought, just on a different area. If you've done enough Free Gathering quests, you should eventually get used enough to all the areas and it won't matter to you where you fight a monster anymore. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.a] Gathering - Swamp Zone [4.3.a] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 12z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Swamp (Day) Quest Info: A gathering quest in the swamp. Gather all the materials you can from the field, then deliver the Paw Pass Ticket to finish up. Clear Conditions: Deliver Paw Pass Ticket or Survive until Time Over Fail Conditions: Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Same quest, new area. This is a Free Gathering quest, about as close to free roaming as you are ever going to get in Monster Hunter. The Supply Box has only a Paw Pass Ticket and a Map. Delivering the Paw Pass Ticket would clear the quest immediately. You can go around the Snowy Mountains and gather as many materials as you can, then deliver the Paw Pass Ticket to end the quest. In the Swamp, cavern areas are cold and will have the same effect on your hunter as the cold areas of Snowy Mountains. There are only three cave areas in Swamp though, so it's very possible to get by without using Hot Drinks. If you alternate doing these Gathering quests and visiting the Pokke Farm, you should have plenty of materials for everything in no time. Eh. Swamp's alright. Chances are you've got all the minerals you need for a while, but the Swamp has a good Insect gathering point. Places of interest: Insect Gathering - Area 8. This one seems to give you better insects more often than the other spots. Note that there are two insect gathering points in Area 8. Mining Point - Areas 3 and 9. Spiderwebs - Areas 4 and 2. The Area 4 webs are by the Felyne Drop Point, the Area 2 webs are by the exit to Area 3. Veggie Elder - Camp. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.b] Gathering - Forest and Hills [4.3.b] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 12z Contract Fee: 0z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Swamp (Day) Quest Info: A gathering quest in the swamp. Gather all the materials you can from the field, then deliver the Paw Pass Ticket to finish up. Clear Conditions: Deliver Paw Pass Ticket or Survive until Time Over Fail Conditions: Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Same quest, new area. This is a Free Gathering quest, about as close to free roaming as you are ever going to get in Monster Hunter. The Supply Box has only a Paw Pass Ticket and a Map. Delivering the Paw Pass Ticket would clear the quest immediately. You can go around the Snowy Mountains and gather as many materials as you can, then deliver the Paw Pass Ticket to end the quest. Forest and Hills is the only map that hasn't been changed since the first Monster Hunter Freedom game. If you alternate doing these Gathering quests and visiting the Pokke Farm, you should have plenty of materials for everything in no time. Rare Mining Point - Area 5. Good chance of Machalite. Wyvern Droppings - Area 5. Better than Dung, and as far as I know, this is the only place to get it. Unknown Skulls - Area 5. Probably not the only place you can get these, but you might as well pick one up while you're getting everything else from Area 5. Wyvern Eggs - Area 5. Eggs! The path to take is 5 > 4 > 2 > 1 > Camp. Veggie Elder - Area 7. Insect Gathering - Area 9. You probably won't notice this, but there's a hole in the wall you can crawl into, and there's an insect gathering point there. Honey - Areas 7 and 9. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.c] Shadow in the Snow [4.3.c] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 2100z Contract Fee: 350z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: If it's not one thing, it's another, right? Near the village, a strange flying wyvern called a Khezu has been spotted. It is strong, but I believe you can handle it. Do your very best! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Khezu Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Viper Bite (SnS), Chief Scythe (DS), Ravager Blade (GS), Iron Katana "Gospel" (LS), Iron Striker (H), War Drum (HH), Paladin Lance (L), Steel Gunlance (GL), Rapidcaster (HBG), Shotgun(White) (LBG), Kut Ku Stave I (Bow) After you cleared Urgent Quest - Shadow in the Snow, it disappears from the Urgent quests and becomes this quest. Just in case you want to do it again for Khezu parts. The only thing that's different this time is that the Khezu won't be waiting for you in Area 3, since there's no longer a video to watch since this isn't the first time you've fought a Khezu. You might catch him in Area 6, but if you're slow, you can just wait for him in Area 2. He'll show up after about a minute. The section on Khezu is just a page up from here, so I'm not going to bother explaining how to fight it again. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.d] The Subterranean Glutton [4.3.d] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 1200z Contract Fee: 200z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Night) Quest Info: I'm after the rare larvae of the Khezu. They should be on the summit, so search there. These whelps aren't to be taken lightly. If you run out of Pickaxes, combine a bone with a rock! Clear Conditions: Deliver 3 Khezu Whelps Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Oh, this quest is a pain to do. I suggest buying a Farcaster from the Red Cat Merchant and bringing it with you on this quest. In case you've never used a Farcaster before, it's an item that will teleport you back to base camp. Chances are, you've never seen a Khezu Whelp before... Khezu Whelps can only be mined from a single spot at the summit of the Snowy Mountains. That's right, they need to be MINED, not gathered like herbs or mushrooms. Bring four Iron Pickaxes - you'll be supplied with some Old Pickaxes at camp, but you'll want backup Iron Pickaxes just in case. Take the usual path to the summit: 1 > 4 > 5 > 6 > 8. Once you've entered Area 8 from Area 6, look to your right - there should be a space in the wall big enough for you to crawl into (There might be a rock blocking the space - if so, hit it until it breaks). Go through the space, follow the path, and climb the wall. On your right is a frozen shedded skin of Kushala Daora - you'll have to fight one later on in the game in another quest, but right now, just use your Pickaxe on it and you should get a Khezu Whelp on the first hit. Khezu Whelps drain your health while you're carrying one, and you can only have one in your inventory at a time. It's not like carrying an egg - you still have regular running speed while you have one in your inventory. The only being able to carry one at a time is what makes this quest a pain. Get a Khezu Whelp, run back to camp or use a Farcaster, drop it off, repeat. As long as you don't get hit by anything, you shouldn't ever die from the health draining or need to heal. If you have spare Exciteshrooms (from your Pokke Farm Mushroom Tree), you can combine those with Bomb Materials to create additional Farcasters, which will make doing this quest a lot faster. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.e] Blango Slaying Tactics [4.3.e] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Night) Quest Info: The pelt of a Blango can be made into various pieces of armor that are useful in everyday life. Slay 10 of the beasts and bring me their pelts. Beware of the Giadrome. Clear Conditions: Slay 10 Blangos Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This quest must be completed to unlock the "The Ruler of the Snow" urgent quest and move up to **** Four Star Elder Quests. You've already done this quest before... twice. The reward and contract fee is even the same as it was the last time you did this quest. This time you need 10 Blangos. You can find the Blangos in Areas 5, 6, 7, 8, and the high area of Area 2 (Enter Area 2 from Area 7 to avoid having to climb up there). Don't forget to make the Blangos respawn by leaving and reentering the area after you've killed them, as it's unlikely you'll get all 10 you need in one go. There's a Giadrome moving around the map this time instead of a Bulldrome... at this point in the game, you should be able to kill one no problem. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.f] Aim for the Jungle Crab [4.3.f] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1800z Contract Fee: 300z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Night) Quest Info: I've always longed to go hunting in the jungle! However, if a huge monster appeared, I'd be finished! Maybe you could take out the Daimyo Hermitaur for me? Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Daimyo Hermitaur Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Iron Striker (H), Steel Gunlance (GL) New monster! Daimyo Hermitaur is a massive hermit crab who has taken habitat in the skull of a Monoblos. What's a Monoblos? You'll find out later on in the game... Compared to the monsters you've fought so far, Daimyo Hermitaur is huge. As a result of this hugeness, every attack Daimyo does has a huge attack range. On top of that, a Daimyo Hermitaur in rage mode is FAST (despite how Daimyo is supposed to be a defensive monster). The tradeoff to all of this though, is that Daimyo has absurdly low HP. And that would be why I've suggested using a Hammer for this quest. Sure, it can't block, but it's got tons of brute raw power - more than enough to snuff out Daimyo before he can really do anything to you. But anyway, let's look at his attacks... Shell Slam - Daimyo turns his back to you and walks backwards, attempting to ram you with the Monoblos skull on its back. Due to the huge size of the Monoblos skull and the fact that Daimyo can do this attack when you're behind him, it can be difficult to dodge this attack, see it coming, or punish it if it misses. Side Claw Swipe - Daimyo turns his side to you, raises his claw, and walks sideways towards you. Once he's close enough, he swipes quickly with the claw. Again, the huge claw and the ability to do this attack when you're at his side makes it difficult to anticipate. Claw Scoop - Daimyo raises both of his claws, then scoops the area in front of him with one quick motion. This actually has the tendency to miss the area directly in front of Daimyo. Claw Shove - Daimyo brings his claws in front of his body, then pushes the area in front of him. This is essentially the same attack as the scoop, only a bit faster. It also doesn't miss like the scoop does. Dig - Daimyo digs underground. He might change areas or he might do... Horn Attack - Daimyo pops up out of the ground and attacks you with the horn on his Monoblos skull. Despite the small size of the horn, the hitbox on this attack is very big, and the only way to know Daimyo is going to pop up out of the ground is if the screen shakes (and usually by the time you notice, it's too late). How do you dodge this then? You run. Run as far away as you can and wait it out. Once you see Daimyo dig, roll. Roll until you are nearly out of stamina, then put your weapon away and proceed to run out of the area. If you put your weapon away as soon as he digs, he'll have already attacked you by the time you start running. Rolling gives you a better chance at getting away. Jump - Daimyo jumps up into the air for a short moment, then quickly comes back down to the ground, doing damage to you if you happen to be close enough. You usually will be. Guard Stance - Daimyo bunches up and enters a guarding stance - most attacks will bounce off Daimyo and do less damage. You can force him out of this by throwing a Sonic Bomb at him (which you'll get in the supply box), but you can usually just wait it out. Water Gun - Daimyo raises both of his claws, rears back a bit, and spits out water in the area in front of him. You can also get hit by his claws as he spits - you're more likely to get hit by those than the water attack itself. Daimyo's similar to Khezu, in that he doesn't need to face you to attack you. Standing at his side? He'll do a Side Claw Swipe. Behind him? He'll do a Shell Slam. Unlike Khezu though, Daimyo is a pretty fast attacker, which makes him appear to be incredibly fast. So when do you attack? Well, once Daimyo's chosen an attack, he has to devote himself to it for a good amount of time. Once you've dodged the incoming attack, immediately chase after him to punish before he finishes it and proceeds to the next attack. Dodge that attack, rinse and repeat. You should be able to guess easily what the next attack is by which direction he's facing - if his shell is pointed at you, it'll be a Shell Slam... I suggested a Hammer because the super pound can be charged while you're chasing him, and then released once you're in range. It also happens to do a ton of damage, and the charging makes it easier to dodge the Dig>Horn Attack or the Jump if Daimyo goes for those. Good hammers are also capable of "locking" Daimyo with the super pound, which is the act of knocking a monster down or staggering it as soon as it recovers from the last knockdown/stagger you inflicted on it. This puts the monster in a lock, which it can only really escape by roaring at you (Daimyo doesn't roar, so he's easy to keep locked) I suggested a Gunlance because Gunlances can just completely turtle out Daimyo. Just stand against a wall and you should be able to block everything. Daimyo likes to eat when he doesn't see you. If you let him finish eating, he'll drop a shiny item, which is usually a Crab Pearl. If this is the first time you've fought Daimyo, he'll be waiting for you in Area 3. You can usually find him at Area 3 even if it isn't the first time. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.g] Master of the Giant Lake [4.3.g] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 2400z Contract Fee: 400z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Night) Quest Info: Hunt down the water wyvern that keeps harassing my shipyard! Your target is a monster covered in green scales that is more powerful than its cousin! Heh heh! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Green Plesioth Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Sonic Bow I (Bow), Rapidcaster (HBG) New monster! Well, sorta. Plesioth is a Fish Wyvern, so he bears a good resemblance to Cephadrome... in fact, they have very similar fighting patterns. Plesioth is bigger than Cephadrome... a LOT bigger. Plesioth is the second largest wyvern in the game (and probably fifth largest among all the monsters). This can lead to problems when meleeing him, since his weakpoint will tend to be out of reach. Which is why ranged weapons were suggested... If you still insist on meleeing him... the Cut and Impact weakpoints are the Stomach. The Neck takes good damage as well, as do the tail and feet. His Gun weakpoint is his Neck, Stomach, Head, Tail... pretty much Plesioth's entire main body is weak to Gun. Another reason to use a ranged weapon on him. It also makes him perfect for Pierce shots, since you can just put a Pierce shot through his entire body for massive damage. Like Cephadrome, Plesioth will prefer to stay in the water until you force him out with a Sonic Bomb. Attacking the fin is no longer an option, seeing as you can't walk on water. You can also use a Frog to fish out Plesioth instead of a Sonic Bomb, if he hasn't seen you. It'll do damage and make him vulnerable for a good amount of time. Fish Plesioth the same way you fish for anything else, just be sure to use a Frog. Also, be sure to adore the fin wagging Plesioth does before he eats your Frog :D Sometimes, Plesioth refuses to come out of the water even after you've Sonic Bombed him. In fact, all the Sonic Bomb really does is put him into rage mode, which makes him more likely to stay out of the water. Using the Frog guarantees that he'll be pulled out of the water. Due to this, you'll mostly be fighting with Plesioth while he's in rage mode, so expect him to be pretty fast and hit pretty hard. If you can't get Plesioth out of the water, he has two basic attacks.. Water Blast (Vertical) - Plesioth surfaces for a bit, and then shoots a beam of water in the direction he's facing. Fairly easy to dodge. Water Blast (Horizontal) - The setup for this attack looks exactly like the Vertical version, but Plesioth shoots the beam at the floor a short distance from him and sweeps from left to right. This attack will miss if you are close enough to Plesioth, since it'll pass over you. Since both attacks look exactly the same until water is actually shot, it can be hard to predict which is coming at you. Fortunately, you can easily dodge both attacks easily... just stay near Plesioth, and when he surfaces to attack, move a bit to the side. That way, you're out of the Vertical blast's path, and too close for him to hit you with the Horizontal blast. If you're using a Bow, you can just spray him with shots while he's in the water until he goes into Rage Mode, then he'll come out of the water. If you're using a Bowgun, bring Pierce ammo and try to get Plesioth out of the water when you can (it'll make life easier). Once Plesioth's out of the water, his moveset looks a lot like Ceph's: Water Blast - Plesioth shoots his blast of water directly ahead of him. This is just as easy to dodge as the Vertical Water Blast, just sidestep once you see it coming. If you do get hit by it, it'll likely be a one or two hit KO. It's a little faster than Cephadrome's, so it's harder to punish. This attack will set up Plesioth for Pierce shots - when you see this coming, just put one or two in the head and out the tail and watch the damage rack up. Bite - Plesioth only does this when you're close and in front of him. It has surprisingly good range if you're in front of him, and it does hurt pretty badly. You shouldn't really get hit by it though, since you've got no reason to be standing in range of it in the first place. It's not really punishable. Hip Check - The dreaded hip check. Cephadrome had it and it wasn't very good because Ceph was small, but Plesioth is huge. This attack has disgusting range and is near impossible to dodge if you're already in range of it. Fortunately, it's blockable, and gunners won't need to worry too much about it. Tail Swing - Another basic attack made uber by Plesioth's massive size. You know the drill. You might be able to dodge the tail swing by between Plesioth's legs, if you find that you can't escape away from the attack in time. Body Splash - Another attack Cephadrome had. It doesn't really hurt that much, but it can be hard to dodge if you are busy pumping Pierce shots into him. Run - This actually hurts quite a bit. Plesioth looks silly and runs to the spot of the area where he can jump back into the water. If you don't interrupt him with a stagger, he'll jump back in and you'll have to force him out of the water again. If you're meleeing Plesioth, you have a few options: - Bait him into Water Blasts like Cephadrome, and attack the neck and run. - Turtle with a Lance/Gunlance. - Stay between his legs and go for knockdowns. You'll get hit by hip checks most likely, but you'll suck it up (and a Potion) and get back in there. If you're gunning him, just get him out of the water and unload Pierce after Pierce through his entire body and he won't last very long. To get Plesioth's shiny item, just use a Frog to fish him out. You might want to wait until after Plesioth goes away to pick it up, though. Plesioth can be carved FOUR times instead of the usual three. He's just so big and cuddly <3 There is no video for fighting Green Plesioth (there is one for fighting regular Plesioth), so you should find him in Area 3. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.h] A Swarm of Hermitaurs [4.3.h] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Day) Quest Info: Fishing is no easy endeavor, but lately things have gotten out of hand! While unloading my ship, a swarm of Hermitaurs appeared. Slay 10 of them and let me get on with my work! Clear Conditions: Slay 10 Hermitaurs Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any Is anyone else as tired of these yet as I am? This time you need 10 Hermitaurs, which are just small Daimyo Hermitaurs. You can find the Blangos in Areas 3, 4, 9, and 10. Don't forget to use the respawning trick, etc. etc. You'll be done with this in 4 minutes. There's a Congalala moving around the map, but chances are you probably won't run into him. Just ignore him and get the Hermitaurs. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.i] The Purple Poison Menace [4.3.i] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 2100z Contract Fee: 350z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Night) Quest Info: I saw a gigantic bird-like monster deep in the jungle! It scared everyone so bad that I can't do business with a thing like that out there! Please hunt it down so I can work in peace! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Purple Gypceros Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Any New monster! Gypceros is a Bird Wyvern, and so his fighting style is very similar to the Yian Kut Ku. There are quite a few differences between the two though... Gypceros' projectiles are poison, and not fire. His hide is also rubbery, which causes many attacks to bounce off of it, which will interrupt your attack (you'll still do damage, but you can't complete attack chains). Gypceros also used to be an incredible runner - his body produced Power Extracts, which allow him to run ridiculous distances without ever getting tired. Capcom's changed his behaviour so that he doesn't run around nearly as much, since most hunters regarded it as just an incredible nuisance. Gypceros' head crest is capable of creating bright flashes of light, which will cause you to become KOd if you don't avoid it. You can disable it by breaking the head crest. So yeah. Related to Yian Kut Ku but still pretty different from him. Anyway, Gypceros also shares YKK's weakness of having both low HP and taking very high damage at his weakpoints. Impact weapons will want to aim for his head, and Cutting weapons should aim for the Stomach. Gunners' weakpoints are both the Head and Stomach (the Head is better, but harder to hit), and Fire is particularly effective against Gypceros. If you're using an Impact weapon, you'll pretty much need to wait it out and be patient, as Gypceros will only give you a few openings to hit his head early on. Once you've started to weaken him, he'll give you more and more openings... Cutting weapons shouldn't have much trouble going for stomach hits at all. If you have little trouble with Yian Kut Ku, you shouldn't have much trouble with Gypceros. Gypceros' attacks! Peck - Bird Wyvern standard! The four pecks that like to guard break and have good recovery. Punishable with a quick attack, but I usually just stay back and wait for a better opening. Leaping Peck - The same as Peck, only Gypceros leaps forward a good distance before doing it. Like YKK's, the feet can also hit you for low damage, and he likes to throw this out to try and catch you off guard. Tail Swing - Tail swings. Another standard attack you should be used to. Since Gypceros' tail is rubbery, it stretches out during tail swings and has deceptively good range, so be careful of that. Poison Shot - Poison shot! If you get poisoned by this, it'll shave off about 30 HP of health. Like YKK's fire shot, it also splashes a bit. Since it causes Poison, it doesn't knock you away or do high damage on impact, it just knocks you down on your butt. Bite - Gypceros runs close to you, stops, and then bites forward like Plesioth. This is a short opening to hit the head, but be careful of the next incoming attack. Charge - Another standard attack. Gypceros isn't really all that big, so it should be pretty easy to dodge. He'll also spit Poison shots left and right as he goes, so watch out for those. Fly Back - Same as YKK's. This is one of the few openings you have for a Hammer, since you can charge right through the Wyvern Wind. Fly Up - A new attack! Gypceros flies up a short distance, then lands back on the ground. If he lands on you, it'll do damage, and if it misses, it'll still probably push you away with Wyvern Wind. It's a little too fast to punish, even with Wind Res. Flash - Gypceros snaps his head forward three times, then takes up a tall stance and flashes with his head crest. If you get hit by this, it'll KO you. It also KOs any of the annoying minions in the area. Rage Mode - Gypceros has an animation for going into Rage mode, and it's worth noting because it is a good opening for Impact weapons to hit the head. Gyps hops up and down angrily and swings his head around recklessly. Play Dead - Gypceros appears to die... but the quest isn't over! A while after Gypceros falls over dead, if you go near his body, he'll flail around and do serious damage to anyone who was trying to get close enough to carve. Easy to tell he's playing dead because you won't see the quest complete screen. This is also a good opening to attack the head... just back off and hit the head. The flailing animation is deceptively long, so it's a good idea to not even try to punish the flailing part. Gypceros tends to use Play Dead more when he's almost dead. Let him rest for too long and he'll actually go to sleep and start recovering health! Just keep attacking the weakpoint. Gypceros will seem hard to fight at first, but he'll get easier to fight as you weaken him, since he'll go into Rage Mode and Play Dead more often. Gypceros is also your main method for getting Lightcrystals early on, break his head crest and you'll have a good chance of getting one in the rewards. Gypceros' shiny item will be dropped when you wake him up from Play Dead. You should find Gypceros in Area 5 (Not sure on that, actually). ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.j] The Lurking Desert Giant [4.3.j] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1800z Contract Fee: 300z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Desert (Day) Quest Info: I've always longed to go hunting in the jungle! However, if a huge monster appeared, I'd be finished! Maybe you could take out the Daimyo Hermitaur for me? Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Daimyo Hermitaur Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Iron Striker (H), Steel Gunlance (GL) This quest must be completed to unlock the "The Ruler of the Snow" urgent quest and move up to **** Four Star Elder Quests. Same monster, new map. You're fighting Daimyo in Desert(Day), so be sure to bring Cool Drinks. I'll just copy and paste what I wrote for the previous Daimyo quest, since some of you will probably do this quest and not the other one so you can quickly get to **** Four Star and probably didn't read it the last time... Compared to the monsters you've fought so far, Daimyo Hermitaur is huge. As a result of this hugeness, every attack Daimyo does has a huge attack range. On top of that, a Daimyo Hermitaur in rage mode is FAST (despite how Daimyo is supposed to be a defensive monster). The tradeoff to all of this though, is that Daimyo has absurdly low HP. And that would be why I've suggested using a Hammer for this quest. Sure, it can't block, but it's got tons of brute raw power - more than enough to snuff out Daimyo before he can really do anything to you. But anyway, let's look at his attacks... Shell Slam - Daimyo turns his back to you and walks backwards, attempting to ram you with the Monoblos skull on its back. Due to the huge size of the Monoblos skull and the fact that Daimyo can do this attack when you're behind him, it can be difficult to dodge this attack, see it coming, or punish it if it misses. Side Claw Swipe - Daimyo turns his side to you, raises his claw, and walks sideways towards you. Once he's close enough, he swipes quickly with the claw. Again, the huge claw and the ability to do this attack when you're at his side makes it difficult to anticipate. Claw Scoop - Daimyo raises both of his claws, then scoops the area in front of him with one quick motion. This actually has the tendency to miss the area directly in front of Daimyo. Claw Shove - Daimyo brings his claws in front of his body, then pushes the area in front of him. This is essentially the same attack as the scoop, only a bit faster. It also doesn't miss like the scoop does. Dig - Daimyo digs underground. He might change areas or he might do... Horn Attack - Daimyo pops up out of the ground and attacks you with the horn on his Monoblos skull. Despite the small size of the horn, the hitbox on this attack is very big, and the only way to know Daimyo is going to pop up out of the ground is if the screen shakes (and usually by the time you notice, it's too late). How do you dodge this then? You run. Run as far away as you can and wait it out. Once you see Daimyo dig, roll. Roll until you are nearly out of stamina, then put your weapon away and proceed to run out of the area. If you put your weapon away as soon as he digs, he'll have already attacked you by the time you start running. Rolling gives you a better chance at getting away. Jump - Daimyo jumps up into the air for a short moment, then quickly comes back down to the ground, doing damage to you if you happen to be close enough. You usually will be. Guard Stance - Daimyo bunches up and enters a guarding stance - most attacks will bounce off Daimyo and do less damage. You can force him out of this by throwing a Sonic Bomb at him (which you'll get in the supply box), but you can usually just wait it out. Water Gun - Daimyo raises both of his claws, rears back a bit, and spits out water in the area in front of him. You can also get hit by his claws as he spits - you're more likely to get hit by those than the water attack itself. Daimyo's similar to Khezu, in that he doesn't need to face you to attack you. Standing at his side? He'll do a Side Claw Swipe. Behind him? He'll do a Shell Slam. Unlike Khezu though, Daimyo is a pretty fast attacker, which makes him appear to be incredibly fast. So when do you attack? Well, once Daimyo's chosen an attack, he has to devote himself to it for a good amount of time. Once you've dodged the incoming attack, immediately chase after him to punish before he finishes it and proceeds to the next attack. Dodge that attack, rinse and repeat. You should be able to guess easily what the next attack is by which direction he's facing - if his shell is pointed at you, it'll be a Shell Slam... I suggested a Hammer because the super pound can be charged while you're chasing him, and then released once you're in range. It also happens to do a ton of damage, and the charging makes it easier to dodge the Dig>Horn Attack or the Jump if Daimyo goes for those. Good hammers are also capable of "locking" Daimyo with the super pound, which is the act of knocking a monster down or staggering it as soon as it recovers from the last knockdown/stagger you inflicted on it. This puts the monster in a lock, which it can only really escape by roaring at you (Daimyo doesn't roar, so he's easy to keep locked) I suggested a Gunlance because Gunlances can just completely turtle out Daimyo. Just stand against a wall and you should be able to block everything. Daimyo likes to eat when he doesn't see you. If you let him finish eating, he'll drop a shiny item, which is usually a Crab Pearl. If this is the first time you've fought Daimyo, ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.k] Water Wyvern in the Desert [4.3.k] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 2400z Contract Fee: 400z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Night) Quest Info: Hunt down the water wyvern that keeps harassing my shipyard! Your target is a monster covered in green scales that is more powerful than its cousin! Heh heh! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Green Plesioth Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Sonic Bow I (Bow), Rapidcaster (HBG) Plesioth is exactly like Green Plesioth. Or rather, Green Plesioth is exactly like Plesioth. So I'll just copy and paste what I wrote about Green Plesioth: Plesioth is bigger than Cephadrome... a LOT bigger. Plesioth is the second largest wyvern in the game (and probably fifth largest among all the monsters). This can lead to problems when meleeing him, since his weakpoint will tend to be out of reach. Which is why ranged weapons were suggested... If you still insist on meleeing him... the Cut and Impact weakpoints are the Stomach. The Neck takes good damage as well, as do the tail and feet. His Gun weakpoint is his Neck, Stomach, Head, Tail... pretty much Plesioth's entire main body is weak to Gun. Another reason to use a ranged weapon on him. It also makes him perfect for Pierce shots, since you can just put a Pierce shot through his entire body for massive damage. Like Cephadrome, Plesioth will prefer to stay in the water until you force him out with a Sonic Bomb. Attacking the fin is no longer an option, seeing as you can't walk on water. You can also use a Frog to fish out Plesioth instead of a Sonic Bomb, if he hasn't seen you. It'll do damage and make him vulnerable for a good amount of time. Fish Plesioth the same way you fish for anything else, just be sure to use a Frog. Also, be sure to adore the fin wagging Plesioth does before he eats your Frog :D Sometimes, Plesioth refuses to come out of the water even after you've Sonic Bombed him. In fact, all the Sonic Bomb really does is put him into rage mode, which makes him more likely to stay out of the water. Using the Frog guarantees that he'll be pulled out of the water. Due to this, you'll mostly be fighting with Plesioth while he's in rage mode, so expect him to be pretty fast and hit pretty hard. If you can't get Plesioth out of the water, he has two basic attacks.. Water Blast (Vertical) - Plesioth surfaces for a bit, and then shoots a beam of water in the direction he's facing. Fairly easy to dodge. Water Blast (Horizontal) - The setup for this attack looks exactly like the Vertical version, but Plesioth shoots the beam at the floor a short distance from him and sweeps from left to right. This attack will miss if you are close enough to Plesioth, since it'll pass over you. Since both attacks look exactly the same until water is actually shot, it can be hard to predict which is coming at you. Fortunately, you can easily dodge both attacks easily... just stay near Plesioth, and when he surfaces to attack, move a bit to the side. That way, you're out of the Vertical blast's path, and too close for him to hit you with the Horizontal blast. If you're using a Bow, you can just spray him with shots while he's in the water until he goes into Rage Mode, then he'll come out of the water. If you're using a Bowgun, bring Pierce ammo and try to get Plesioth out of the water when you can (it'll make life easier). Once Plesioth's out of the water, his moveset looks a lot like Ceph's: Water Blast - Plesioth shoots his blast of water directly ahead of him. This is just as easy to dodge as the Vertical Water Blast, just sidestep once you see it coming. If you do get hit by it, it'll likely be a one or two hit KO. It's a little faster than Cephadrome's, so it's harder to punish. This attack will set up Plesioth for Pierce shots - when you see this coming, just put one or two in the head and out the tail and watch the damage rack up. Bite - Plesioth only does this when you're close and in front of him. It has surprisingly good range if you're in front of him, and it does hurt pretty badly. You shouldn't really get hit by it though, since you've got no reason to be standing in range of it in the first place. It's not really punishable. Hip Check - The dreaded hip check. Cephadrome had it and it wasn't very good because Ceph was small, but Plesioth is huge. This attack has disgusting range and is near impossible to dodge if you're already in range of it. Fortunately, it's blockable, and gunners won't need to worry too much about it. Tail Swing - Another basic attack made uber by Plesioth's massive size. You know the drill. You might be able to dodge the tail swing by between Plesioth's legs, if you find that you can't escape away from the attack in time. Body Splash - Another attack Cephadrome had. It doesn't really hurt that much, but it can be hard to dodge if you are busy pumping Pierce shots into him. Run - This actually hurts quite a bit. Plesioth looks silly and runs to the spot of the area where he can jump back into the water. If you don't interrupt him with a stagger, he'll jump back in and you'll have to force him out of the water again. If you're meleeing Plesioth, you have a few options: - Bait him into Water Blasts like Cephadrome, and attack the neck and run. - Turtle with a Lance/Gunlance. - Stay between his legs and go for knockdowns. You'll get hit by hip checks most likely, but you'll suck it up (and a Potion) and get back in there. If you're gunning him, just get him out of the water and unload Pierce after Pierce through his entire body and he won't last very long. To get Plesioth's shiny item, just use a Frog to fish him out. You might want to wait until after Plesioth goes away to pick it up, though. Plesioth can be carved FOUR times instead of the usual three. He's just so big and cuddly <3 You'll find Plesioth in Area 7 (use the well at camp to go to Area 9, then head to 7) regardless of whether this is the first time you've fought one or not. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.l] Slay the Genprey! [4.3.l] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Slaying Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Desert (Day) Quest Info: I'm too injured to go on... The Genprey living in the desert have the power to paralyse their foes. I'd like you to find the pack that did this to me and kill 20 of the fiends! Clear Conditions: Slay 20 Genprey Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any 20 Genprey. You've likely encountered some by now and noticed that they're just Giaprey but with paralysis instead of snow. They also hit a bit harder and have slightly more health. Only slightly. You need 20 of them, and Genprey can be found in pretty much every single area of the Desert for this map. This one will actually take a while, since you'll have to scour the entire map to find all 20 of them. There's also a Gendrome roaming around the map. You've fought one before, and even if you haven't, you should already have a good idea of what he's like simply from the name "Gendrome". ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.m] Gypceros: Venomous Terror [4.3.m] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1800z Contract Fee: 300z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Swamp (Night) Quest Info: The fields all around the town are getting torn to shreds by a gigantic poisonous bird-like monster. Exterminate it for us! Its poison can melt crops, so be careful it doesn't melt you! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Gypceros Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Any This quest must be completed to unlock the "The Ruler of the Snow" urgent quest and move up to **** Four Star Elder Quests. His poison melts crops. Wow. Gypceros is exactly like Purple Gypceros. Or rather, Purple Gyps is exactly like Gyps. I'll just copy and paste some more... Gypceros is a Bird Wyvern, and so his fighting style is very similar to the Yian Kut Ku. There are quite a few differences between the two though... Gypceros' projectiles are poison, and not fire. His hide is also rubbery, which causes many attacks to bounce off of it, which will interrupt your attack (you'll still do damage, but you can't complete attack chains). Gypceros also used to be an incredible runner - his body produced Power Extracts, which allow him to run ridiculous distances without ever getting tired. Capcom's changed his behaviour so that he doesn't run around nearly as much, since most hunters regarded it as just an incredible nuisance. Gypceros' head crest is capable of creating bright flashes of light, which will cause you to become KOd if you don't avoid it. You can disable it by breaking the head crest. So yeah. Related to Yian Kut Ku but still pretty different from him. Anyway, Gypceros also shares YKK's weakness of having both low HP and taking very high damage at his weakpoints. Impact weapons will want to aim for his head, and Cutting weapons should aim for the Stomach. Gunners' weakpoints are both the Head and Stomach (the Head is better, but harder to hit), and Fire is particularly effective against Gypceros. If you're using an Impact weapon, you'll pretty much need to wait it out and be patient, as Gypceros will only give you a few openings to hit his head early on. Once you've started to weaken him, he'll give you more and more openings... Cutting weapons shouldn't have much trouble going for stomach hits at all. If you have little trouble with Yian Kut Ku, you shouldn't have much trouble with Gypceros. Gypceros' attacks! Peck - Bird Wyvern standard! The four pecks that like to guard break and have good recovery. Punishable with a quick attack, but I usually just stay back and wait for a better opening. Leaping Peck - The same as Peck, only Gypceros leaps forward a good distance before doing it. Like YKK's, the feet can also hit you for low damage, and he likes to throw this out to try and catch you off guard. Tail Swing - Tail swings. Another standard attack you should be used to. Since Gypceros' tail is rubbery, it stretches out during tail swings and has deceptively good range, so be careful of that. Poison Shot - Poison shot! If you get poisoned by this, it'll shave off about 30 HP of health. Like YKK's fire shot, it also splashes a bit. Since it causes Poison, it doesn't knock you away or do high damage on impact, it just knocks you down on your butt. Bite - Gypceros runs close to you, stops, and then bites forward like Plesioth. This is a short opening to hit the head, but be careful of the next incoming attack. Charge - Another standard attack. Gypceros isn't really all that big, so it should be pretty easy to dodge. He'll also spit Poison shots left and right as he goes, so watch out for those. Fly Back - Same as YKK's. This is one of the few openings you have for a Hammer, since you can charge right through the Wyvern Wind. Fly Up - A new attack! Gypceros flies up a short distance, then lands back on the ground. If he lands on you, it'll do damage, and if it misses, it'll still probably push you away with Wyvern Wind. It's a little too fast to punish, even with Wind Res. Flash - Gypceros snaps his head forward three times, then takes up a tall stance and flashes with his head crest. If you get hit by this, it'll KO you. It also KOs any of the annoying minions in the area. Rage Mode - Gypceros has an animation for going into Rage mode, and it's worth noting because it is a good opening for Impact weapons to hit the head. Gyps hops up and down angrily and swings his head around recklessly. Play Dead - Gypceros appears to die... but the quest isn't over! A while after Gypceros falls over dead, if you go near his body, he'll flail around and do serious damage to anyone who was trying to get close enough to carve. Easy to tell he's playing dead because you won't see the quest complete screen. This is also a good opening to attack the head... just back off and hit the head. The flailing animation is deceptively long, so it's a good idea to not even try to punish the flailing part. Gypceros tends to use Play Dead more when he's almost dead. Let him rest for too long and he'll actually go to sleep and start recovering health! Just keep attacking the weakpoint. Gypceros will seem hard to fight at first, but he'll get easier to fight as you weaken him, since he'll go into Rage Mode and Play Dead more often (which sets him up for more attacks to the weakpoint, which makes him play dead even more... etc) Gypceros is also your main method for getting Lightcrystals early on, break his head crest and you'll have a good chance of getting one in the rewards. Sometimes you'll get an Iron Ore or a Gypceros Head instead, but you should get Lightcrystals most o the time. Gypceros' shiny item will be dropped when you wake him up from Play Dead. You should find Gypceros in Area 3. There'll probably be Genprey in the area. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.n] Attack of the Blue Kut-Ku [4.3.n] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1800z Contract Fee: 300z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Swamp (Night) Quest Info: That big eared Yian Kut-Ku really made mincemeat of me! It's out of my league, so I want you to hunt it down for me! He's all yours! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Blue Yian Kut-Ku Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Any Blue Yian Kut-Ku is just Yian Kut-Ku with more health. (Quite a bit more, actually). If you've perfected your Yian Kut-Ku technique by now, this will be a good test, and good preparation for the stronger Yian Garuga. But more on him later... If you really need advice for fighting the Blue Yian Kut-Ku, just scroll back up to Section 4.2.j (Jungle Menace). They're exactly the same aside from the difference in health. Remember that this quest takes place in Swamp (Night), so you may get poisoned by the swamp waters in Areas 4 and 5. You may also need Hot Drinks if Yian Kut-Ku flies to a cavern area. I don't remember which area he starts in, just that he goes to Area 2 to sleep and rest. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.o] The Mischief-maker [4.3.o] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1500z Contract Fee: 250z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Night) Quest Info: Do you know of a pink, fanged beast that roams the jungle? That beast has dirtied my shop beyond hope! It's impossible to clean up! Get rid of it before I'm soiled again! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Congalala Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any You've already fought a few Congalala before, now fight him in the Swamp! Even the reward is the same as last time. Refer to Section 4.2.k (Rarest of the Rare Beasts) if you need help with fighting Congalala. Remember that you can't use bombs in Swamp(Day). You can find Congalala at Area 8. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.p] Fang of the Iodrome [4.3.p] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1200z Contract Fee: 200z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Swamp (Night) Quest Info: My village is under attack by a pack of Ioprey, inside their pack, they are led by an incredibly large boss with poison filled fangs. Slay this creature for us! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Iodrome Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Any Iodrome, the last of the velociraptor drome bosses! No, really! Iodrome is the toughest of the velociraptor drome bosses, having the most health and attack out of each. He packs poison attacks, which do a decent amount of damage if you actually get hit by one. Aside from that, he's just like any other drome you've ever fought, and will go down the same as the rest. I don't remember what area he starts in, but Iodrome migrates around, so you'll eventually run into the guy. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.q] Slay the Great Kut-Ku! [4.3.q] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Hunting Reward: 1500z Contract Fee: 250z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Swamp (Night) Quest Info: A bird-like Yian Kut-Ku is attacking people the world over! It has even shown up in these very hills! If it isn't eliminated soon, we're finished! Show me what you're made of! Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Yian Kut-Ku Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Any Yian Kut-Ku. Same monster, new area. You'll find him in Area 9. Head through Area 1 > 8 > 9 to get there quickly. Area 9 is often considered to be a terrible area to fight in, due to the cramped space and the Melynx who will bother you if you get too close. Still, it shouldn't take you very long to do this quest. If it does, you may want to work more on your basic fighting techniques... scroll up to the Section 4.2.j (Jungle Menace) if you really need help. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.r] A Killing from Mushrooms [4.3.r] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 900z Contract Fee: 150z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Jungle (Day) Quest Info: An affinity towards combining is important, but so are fresh materials! Special Mushrooms from the jungle are sure to improve your hunting life and wallet! Gather 10 of them! Clear Conditions: Deliver 10 Special Mushrooms Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapon: Any This quest must be completed to unlock the "The Ruler of the Snow" urgent quest and move up to **** Four Star Elder Quests. There's a Yian Kut Ku in the area. You probably won't run into him if you're fast enough... From camp, head to Area 1. Climb the ledge on your left to go to Area 8. You should see Mushrooms in front of you, gather some here. Turn left and head to Area 7, gather by the large tree. Head to Area 10, gather by the lone tree in the north side of the area. Head to Area 3, immediately turn around and gather from the mushrooms near the 3->10 exit. You should have 10 by now, head back to camp and finish the quest. ______________________________________________________________________ [4.3.s] Urgent Quest - The Ruler of the Snow [4.3.s] ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Quest Type: Gathering Reward: 3000z Contract Fee: 500z Time Limit: 50 Minutes Area: Snowy Mountains (Day) Quest Info: My next request requires a true master... Care to test yourself? I'd like you to hunt down the chief of the snowy mountains. Remember, on this quest negligence is unforgivable. Clear Conditions: Slay or capture the Blangonga Fail Conditions: Time Over, Reward Zero(3 Deaths) Suggested Weapons: Viper Bite (SnS), Chief Scythe (DS), Ravager Blade (GS), Iron Katana "Gospel" (LS), Iron Striker (H), War Drum (HH), Paladin Lance (L), Steel Gunlance (GL), Rapidcaster (HBG), Shotgun(White) (LBG), Kut Ku Stave I (Bow) Upon clearing this quest, the Pokke Elder will give you access to **** Four Star Elder Quests. This quest will move from the URGENT! quest section to the Four Star section. Meh. I hate fighting Blangongas, the guy likes to jump around and just be a jerk to you throughout the entire battle. Blangongas are of the primate family, and are the boss version of the Blangos, who you've slaughtered in, what, four different quests by now? You should already have a good idea of how Blangos fight and can probably imagine what fighting Blangonga will be like... Blangonga's weakpoint for all weapons is the face, just like Congalala. Blangonga moves around a lot more than Congalala did though, so you might find yourself having trouble hitting it. Again like Congalala, the rest of the body still takes decent damage, and some damage is better than none. Blangonga isn't exactly fast, but he moves around a lot. Most of his attacks are in fact punishable, but it's just a huge hassle to chase him down after each attack. As you can see, I suggested the same weapons for Shadow in the Snow - if it worked on Khezu, it'll work on Blangonga. You might want to use a weapon with better mobility, since half the time spent Blangonga is spent closing the distance on his cowardly white butt. Attacks? Forward Lunge - Blangonga pulls his right arm back as if to swing, but then throws his entire body weight into it and flies forward. The startup is pretty slow and it's pretty easy to see coming and avoid. Recovery on it is pretty fast, but you can still punish it if you're close enough, since he'll usually have to turn around to attack you again. Pounce - Blangonga runs a short distance and then pounces forward. A lot faster than the lunge, so it's harder to avoid. If you're near Blangonga, he'll just get you with the run, which doesn't hurt very much. If he gets you with the pounce, expect it to hurt... Don't try to punish this, since he'll usually just do this: Leap Back - Someone's taking lessons from Giadrome? Part of the reason Blangonga is so annoying to fight. He leaps back, just like a typical drome, only Blangonga is a lot faster when doing so. If he collides with you, it'll knock you on your butt and do low damage. Side-side leap - Another annoyance shared by the Giadrome, Blangonga leaps around from side to side. Just like the back leap, Blangonga manages to do this a lot faster than the Dromes do. Again, you can be hurt by it if it hits you. Brush Off - Blangonga brushes his face, removing the effects of Paintball from him. What a jerk. Just repaint him again, if you want to. Rocks - Blangonga sticks both of his arms into the floor and pulls out a massive rock which he throws into the air. When it lands, it breaks into three frags that fly off in 120 degree angles. Getting hit by any part of this can freeze you. Blangonga (facing down) Frag Frag \ / Rock || Frag As you can see, you can dodge the rock and the fragments by staying near Blangonga the entire time. Dig - Blangonga digs underground, and momentarily pops out of the ground and attempts to uppercut you. I've never actually been hit by this the four or five times he's ever done this, so I'd assume that it's not aimed nearly as well as Daimyo's dig attack. Blangonga has a bit of recovery on this, so it's pretty punishable. Roar - Blangonga roars when he goes into Rage Mode, or whenever he feels like it. Blangonga's roar will also call Blangos into the area, who you should focus on clearing out before attacking Blangonga again. Ice Blast - Blangonga gets back on his hind legs, then falls forward and blasts the area in front of him with ice. It'll freeze you if it hits, but it's very easy to see coming and dodge. Easy enough to punish if it misses you. Quake Fist - Blangonga gets back on his hind legs, then falls forward and slams the ground, causing Quake effect on you if you are close enough to get hit by it. If you're too close, you'll get hit by the fists, which do decent damage. The startup looks similar to the Ice Blast, but you'll notice that Blangonga holds his fists up in the air more ferociously when he's about to do this. Hard to punish due to the Quake effect. Claw Swipe - A quick swipe with his left claw. The range on it is pretty terrible, but it can catch you off guard if you're circling around Blangonga to his left. You can avoid it easily by circling around to his right (your left) instead, which is something you should be getting used to doing for the third Primate monster in this game... Anyway, we've got some new status ailments on our hands. Quake will cause your weapon to become sheathed and stun you until you mash out of it. Of course, overmashing may lead you to do something you don't want to do once you recover from it. What can you do? Nothing really, just mash through it anyway and hope you don't screw up. Frozen will disable your weapon/item usage and lower your movement speed, though you can still run. Heal this off with the Thawing Agents they give you in the Supply Box. If you run out (you shouldn't), just leave the area and walk around until you break out of it. In any case, looking over the list of attacks, you can easily avoid most (if not all) of them simply by staying near Blangonga and staying out of his face. Course, you probably won't get as many face hits as you'd like, but it's either that or you make yourself vulnerable to getting pounced and leaped on. As I mentioned earlier, higher mobility weapons will have an easier time with Blangonga, since you can stay on the offensive most of the time without having to bother so much with chasing him down when he leaps around. Slower weapons will mostly rely on the Ice Blast as an opening to attack. Blangonga has as much health as Congalala and takes as much damage as Congalala, so this quest will probably take you a little bit longer than it does to kill Congalala, since Blangonga enjoys leaping around and not giving you an opportunity to hit him. 50 minutes is still plenty of time to kill him, so just be patient and play it safe, unless you want to be on the receiving end of an Ice Blast. Anyway, keep at it and Blangonga will die. To top off the neverending train of jerk moves from Blangonga, he'll try to claw you as he's dying. It won't hurt you, but it's annoying. >:( Blangonga can be found at the summit, Area 8. He goes to Area 3 to sleep. And that's as far as this walkthrough will go for now! ====================================================================== [12] Item List [12] ====================================================================== This item list is not yet complete, but I included it in this version since the information that's already here is still useful. I need to add in some more entries, then work on improving the quality of all entries in general (For example, listing the weapons and armor crafted by a certain item rather than just stating that it's used to craft weapons and armor, and splicing the list together with the gather/carve/reward tables from the MHP2nd guide). An example entry: Item: The name of the item Type: Carve, Account, Usable, Reagent, etc. Use: Effect of the item when used Rank: Earliest point in the game when this item is obtainable Source: Methods for getting item The list is alphabetical. Scroll through to find the letter of the item you want. ============================ ============================ A A ============================ ============================ Item: Akito Jewel Type: Jewel Use: Used to craft decorations Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mining Point+1/+2 Item: Alluring Hide Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Khezu armor Rank: HR1 Source: Carve or capture Red Khezu Item: Alluring Webbing Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Khezu armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Carve or capture HR4+ Red Khezu Item: Antidote Type: Usable Use: Cures Poison Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Blue Mushroom + Antidote Herb Item: Antidote Flute Type: Usable Use: Cures Poison for all hunters in the area. Can be used repeatedly until it randomly breaks. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Flute + Antiseptic Stone Item: Armor Flute Type: Usable Use: Increases defence by 40 for all allies in the area. Can be used repeatedly until it randomly breaks. Also erases the effects of Akantor and Chameleos' Defence Down status. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Mega Armorskin + Med Monster Bone Item: Armor Pill Type: Usable Use: Increase defence by a lot, but for a very short time. Also erases the effects of Akantor and Chameleos' Defence Down status. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Armor Seed + Immunizer Item: Armor Seed Type: Usable Use: Increases defence by 40, but for a short time. Also erases the effects of Akantor and Chameleos' Defence Down status. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Gather it at Volcano 4 Grow them at the Pokke Farm (plant Armor Seeds) Item: Armorskin Type: Usable Use: Increases defence by 6. Also erases the effects of Akantor and Chameleos' Defence Down status. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Armor Seed + Catalyst Item: Armor Sphere Type: Sphere Use: Used to increase an armor piece's level Rank: HR1 Source: Reward for most Elder quests Pokke Farm Mining Point, Mining Point+1 Combine Armor Stone + Machalite Ore or Killer Beetle Item: Armor Sphere+ Type: Sphere Use: Used to increase an armor piece's level Rank: HR1 Source: Reward for most HR1-3 Guild quests Pokke Farm Mining Point+1/+2 Combine Armor Stone + Dragonite Ore or Hercudrome Item: Armor Stone Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations (Armor Sphere/AS+,Hrd Armor Sphere) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mining Point, Mining Point+1 Item: Arrowana Bait Type: Fishing Bait Use: Used to fish. Any fish that is not a Burst Arrowana or a Bomb Arrowana will not bite. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Cricket + Bughopper ============================ ============================ B B ============================ ============================ Item: BattlefieldJewel Type: Jewel Use: Used to craft decorations Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mining Point+1/+2/+3 Mining in Volcano 2 Item: Bitterbug Type: Insect Use: Used in various combinations (Catalyst) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket, Bug Thicket+1/+2/+3 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (White/Black Hammer) Item: Blango Pelt Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Blangonga armor Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Blangos Item: Blango Pelt+ Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Blangonga armor Rank: HR4 Source: Carve from Blangos Item: Blangonga Fang Type: Carve Use: Used to craft various weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Break Blangonga's fangs and receive in rewards Item: Blangonga Fang+ Type: Carve Use: Used to craft various weapons Rank: HR4+ Source: Break HR4+ Blangonga's fangs and receive in rewards Item: Blangonga Pelt Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Blangonga armor Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve Blangonga Item: Blangonga Pelt+ Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Blangonga armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Capture or carve Blangonga+ Item: Blangonga Whiskr Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Blangonga armor Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve Blangonga Item: Blangonga Tail Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Blangonga armor Rank: HR1 Source: Break Blangonga's tail and receive in rewards Item: Blue Kut-Ku Scl Type: Carve Use: Used to craft blue YKK Armor Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Blue Yian Kut-Ku Item: Blue Kut-Ku Scl+ Type: Carve Use: Used to craft blue YKK Armor Rank: HR4 Source: Carve from HR4+ Blue Yian Kut-Ku Item: Blue Kut-Ku Shl Type: Carve Use: Used to craft blue YKK Armor Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve from Blue Yian Kut-Ku Item: Blue Kut-Ku Cpc Type: Carve Use: Used to craft blue YKK Armor Rank: HR4 Source: Carve from HR4+ Blue Yian Kut-Ku Item: Blue Mushroom Type: Mushroom Use: Used in various combinations (Potion, Nutrients, Antidote) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mushroom Tree Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Bomb Material Type: Reagent Use: Used in various bomb combinations (Flash, Poison Smoke, etc.) Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Stone + Sap Plant Item: Bone Type: Bone Use: Used in various combinations (Pickaxes) Rank: HR1 Source: Carve Popos, Bullfangos, Blangos, and Congas Item: Book of Combos 1 Type: Carry Use: While in your inventory, increases the success rate of all combinations by 5%. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Item: Book of Combos 2 Type: Carry Use: While in your inventory and if Book of Combos 1 is also in your inventory, increases the success rate of all combinations by an additional 5% (Total of 10%). Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Item: Book of Combos 3 Type: Carry Use: While in your inventory and if Book of Combos 1 and 2 are also in your inventory, increases the success rate of all combinations by an additional 10% (Total of 20%) Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Item: Book of Combos 4 Type: Carry Use: While in your inventory and if Book of Combos 1, 2, and 3 are also in your inventory, increases the success rate of all combinations by 10% (Total of 30%) Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Item: Book of Combos 5 Type: Carry Use: While in your inventory and if Book of Combos 1, 2, 3, and 4 are also in your inventory, increases the success rate of all combinations by 15% (Total of 45%) Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Note: With Book of Combos 1-5, all item combinations will succeed unless you have an armor skill that reduces your success rate. Item: Bomberry Type: Plant Use: Used to combine many different types of Bowgun ammo Rank: HR1 Source: Gather it at various plant gathering spots Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Bounce Bomb Type: Bomb Use: Bounces in the air. Detonates after a certain distance or on impact. Does 20 explosion type damage. Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on Teostra quests Combine Sm Barrel Bomb + Vespoid Wing Item: Bounce Bomb+ Type: Bomb Use: Bounces in the air. Detonates after a certain distance or on impact. Does 30 explosion type damage. Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on Teostra quests Combine Bounce Bomb + Bomb Arrowana Item: Brute Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft various weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve Popo, Blangonga, Congalala, or Bulldrome Item: Bughopper Type: Insect Use: Used in various combinations (Arrowana Bait) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Gold/Black Hammer) Item: Bugnet Type: Usable Use: Used to gather from insect points. Regular chance of breaking. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Sm Monster Bone + Net Item: Burnt Fish Type: Usable Use: Randomly recovers red HP or hurts you Rank: HR1 Source: Felyne Chef BBQ Service with low-level cats and fish Item: Burnt Meat Type: Usable Use: Randomly increases or decreases max Stamina by 25. The chance of getting an increase is higher when your max Stamina is low, and the chance of gettting a decrease is higher when your max Stamina is high. Rank: HR1 Source: Cook Raw Meat on a BBQ spit (press X late) Felyne Chef BBQ Service with low-level cats and Raw Meat ============================ ============================ C C ============================ ============================ Item: Carbalite Ore Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in HR4+ Swamp 3 and 9, Jungle 8, Desert 10, FnH 5, and Snowy Mountains 8 Pokke Farm Mining Point+2/+3 Item: Carpenterbug Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket, Bug Thicket+1 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (White/Black Hammer) Item: Catalyst Type: Reagent Use: Like all reagents, used in various combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Bitterbug + Honey Item: Chaoshroom Type: Mushroom Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mushroom Tree Item: Cold Meat Type: Usable Use: Prevents health from decreasing in hot areas and increases max stamina by 25 Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Well-Done Steak + Ice Crystal Felyne Chef BBQ Service with low-level cats and Raw Meat Item: Cool Drink Type: Usable Use: Prevents health from decreasing in hot areas Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on almost all Desert, Battlefield and Volcano quests Buy it from the Item Merchant Combine Ice Crystal + Bitterbug Item: Cricket Type: Fishing Bait Use: Used to fish and used to create Arrowana Bait. Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant ============================ ============================ D D ============================ ============================ Item: Demondrug Type: Usable Use: Increases attack power by a tiny amount Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Power Seed + Catalyst Item: Demon Flute Type: Usable Use: Increases attack power by a lot for all allies in the area. Can be used repeatedly until it randomly breaks. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Mega Demondrug + Med Monster Bone Item: Deodorant Type: Usable Use: Cures Odor status caused by Congas and Congalala Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on Congalala quests Combine Bomb Material + Sunset Herb Item: Disk Stone Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in common and uncommon Mining Points Pokke Farm Mining Point, Mining Point+1 Item: Dragonite Ore Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in Volcano 6 and 8 Pokke Farm Mining Point+1/+2/+3 Item: Dragon Seed Type: Reagent Use: Like all reagents, used in various combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Gather it at Volcano 6 and 8 Item: Dragon Toadstool Type: Reagent Use: Like all reagents, used in various combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Gather it at Volcano 6 and 8 Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Pokke Farm Mushroom Tree+2 Item: Drugged Meat Type: Meat Use: If a monster is passive and sees Drugged Meat placed on the floor, it will walk towards it, eat it, and then fall asleep. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Raw Meat + Sleep Herb Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Dung Type: Fertilizer Use: When used as fertilizer at the Pokke Farm, raises a row's level from 1 to 3. Rank: HR1 Source: Gather at various spots near wyvern nests, Areas 1 and 5 of Forest and Hills are best Gather it from the Popo at the Pokke Farm ============================ ============================ E E ============================ ============================ Item: Earth Crystal Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in common and uncommon Mining Points Pokke Farm Mining Point, Mining Point+1/+2 Item: Eldr Dragon Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft various things, also to use the Legendary Sword in Pokke Farm Rank: HR1 Source: Carve Lunastra, Teostra, Chameleos, Kushala Daora, or Lao Shan Lung's back Item: Electro Sac Type: Carve Use: Used to craft various things Rank: HR1 Source: Carve or capture Khezu or Red Khezu Item: Energy Drink Type: Usable Use: Cures Fatigue (caused by Chameleos) and increases max Stamina by 25 Rank: HR1 Source: Rewards for doing Treasure Quests Combine Honey + Sunset Herb Item: Exciteshroom Type: Mushroom/Usable Use: Used in various combinations (Farcaster). Has random effects when eaten. Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mushroom Tree+1/+2 Item: Expand Pickaxe Type: Reagent Use: Can be combined with most insects, minerals, or bones to produce more of that item Rank: HR1 Source: Complete Gravios or Kirin Battle Training Earn a high number of points on a Treasure Quest ============================ ============================ F F ============================ ============================ Item: Farcaster Type: Usable Use: When used, teleports you to base camp. (it can be interrupted) Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Combine Bomb Material + Exciteshroom Item: Firefly Type: Fishing Bait Use: Used to fish and used to create Goldenfish Bait. Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Firestone Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in Volcano 6 and 8 Carve from Gravios and Black Gravios' Tail Item: Firecell Stone Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Mining in HR4+ Volcano 6 and 8 Carve from HR4+ Gravios and Black Gravios' Tail Item: Flabby Hide Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Khezu armor Rank: HR1 Source: Carve or capture Khezu Item: Flame Sac Type: Carve Use: Used to craft various fire weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Capture Yian Kut-Ku or Blue Yian Kut-Ku Capture or carve Gravios or Black Gravios Carve from Rathalos or Azure Rathalos Carve from Rathian or Pink Rathian Item: Flash Bomb Type: Usable Use: When thrown, "flashes" and temporarily stuns monsters looking directly at the flash. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Bomb Material + Flashbug Item: Flashbug Type: Insect Use: Used in various combinations (Flash Bomb) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket, Bug Thicket+1/+2/+3 Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant (You have to have downloaded the Red Cat Merchant's new item list from the Download Center first) Pokke Farm Bug Tree (White/Black Hammer) Item: Frog Type: Fishing Bait Use: Used to fish. Only Plesioth will bite it. Rank: HR1 Source: Gather at Jungle 3 ============================ ============================ G G ============================ ============================ Item: Garuga Ear Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Garuga weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Break Yian Garuga's ears and receive in rewards Capture Yian Garuga Item: Garuga Mane Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Garuga weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Break Yian Garuga's back and receive in rewards Carve from Yian Garuga Item: Garuga Scale Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Garuga weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Break Yian Garuga's ears or beak and receive in rewards Carve from Yian Garuga Item: Garuga Shell Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Garuga weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Break Yian Garuga's wings or back and receive in rewards Capture or carve from Yian Garuga Item: Garuga Tail Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Garuga weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Yian Garuga's tail Item: Garuga Wing Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Garuga weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Break Yian Garuga's wings and receive in rewards Carve from Yian Garuga Item: Giant Beak Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor and weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve from Yian Kut-Ku (rare!) Capture or carve from Blue Yian Kut-Ku (rare!) Item: Giant Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft various weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve Blangonga or Congalala Item: Godbug Type: Insect Use: Used in various combinations (Nutrients) Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+1/+2/+3 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (White/Black Hammer) Item: Goldenfish Bait Type: Fishing Bait Use: Used to fish. Any fish that is not a Goldenfish will not bite. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Snakebee Larve + Firefly Item: Gourmet Fish Type: Usable Use: Recovers all red HP and causes red HP to recover faster for a short amount of time Rank: HR1 Source: Felyne Chef BBQ Service with high-level cats and fish Item: Gourmet Fish+ Type: Usable Use: Recovers all red HP and causes red HP to recover faster for a long amount of time Rank: HR1 Source: Felyne Chef BBQ Service with high-level cats and fish Item: Gourmet Steak Type: Usable Use: Increases max Stamina to 150 Rank: HR1 Source: Cook Raw Meat on a Gourmet spit (press X perfectly) Rewards for Treasure Hunting quests Felyne Chef BBQ Service with high-level cats and Raw Meat Item: Great Hornfly Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various armor Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+1/+2 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Black/Gold Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+1) Item: Great Ladybug Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various armor Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+1/+2 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Black/Gold Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+1) Item: Gunpowder Type: Reagent Use: Like all reagents, used in various combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Fire Herb + Nitroshroom Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Gypceros Head Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Gypceros armor, poison weapons, and Stamina decors Rank: HR1 Source: Break Gypceros or Purple Gypceros' horn and receive in rewards (rare) Carve from Gypceros or Purple Gypceros (very rare) ============================ ============================ H H ============================ ============================ Item: Health Flute Type: Usable Use: Heals all hunters in the area. Can be used repeatedly until it randomly breaks. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Flute + Lifepowder Item: Hercudrome Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+2/+3 Gather at HR4+ Volcano 2 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (White/Black Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+2) Item: Hot Drink Type: Usable Use: Prevents max stamina from decreasing quicker in cold areas (it still decreases, just at normal speed instead of double) Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on almost all Swamp and SnowyMountain quests Buy it from the Item Merchant Combine Hot Pepper + Bitterbug Item: Hot Meat Type: Usable Use: Prevents max stamina from decreasing quicker in cold areas (it still decreases, just at normal speed instead of double) and increases max stamina by 25 Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Well-Done Steak + Hot Pepper Felyne Chef BBQ Service with low-level cats and Raw Meat Item: Hot Pepper Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations (Hot Meat, Spicy Mushroom), used in an Alchemy combo (Fire Herb) Rank: HR1 Source: Gather it at Volcano 3 Item: Hrd Armor Sphere Type: Sphere Use: Used to increase an armor piece's level Rank: HR4+ Source: Reward for most HR4 and HR5 quests Pokke Farm Mining Point+2/+3 Combine Armor Stone + Carbalite Ore or King Scarab Item: Hrd Monster Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft various things Rank: HR4+ Source: Receive it in rewards for most HR4+ quests Carve HR4+ Gravios' Tail, Black Gravios' Tail, or Basarios Item: Huskberry Type: Plant Use: Used to combine many different types of Bowgun ammo Rank: HR1 Source: Gather it at various plant gathering spots Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Item: Hvy Armor Sphere Type: Sphere Use: Used to increase an armor piece's level Rank: HR4+ Source: Reward for most HR6 quests and HR5 Lao Shan Lung ============================ ============================ I I ============================ ============================ Item: Ice Crystal Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in common Mining Points Pokke Farm Mining Point, Mining Point+1 Item: Immunizer Type: Usable Use: Red HP restores twice as quickly Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on quests involving Lunastra and Teostra Combine Catalyst + Dragon Toadstool Item: Insect Husk Type: Insect Use: Used in various combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Gold Hammer) Item: Iron Ore Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in common and uncommon Mining Points Pokke Farm Mining Point, Mining Point+1 Item: Iron Pickaxe Type: Usable Use: Used to mine from mining points. Regular chance of breaking. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Iron Ore + Bone ============================ ============================ J J ============================ ============================ ============================ ============================ K K ============================ ============================ Item: Khezu Hide - Tan Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Khezu armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Carve or capture HR4+ Khezu Item: Killer Beetle Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+1/+2 Gather at Swamp 8 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (White/Black Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+1) Item: King Scarab Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+2/+3 Gather at HR4+ Swamp 8 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (White/Black Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+2) Item: Kirin Azure Horn Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Kirin armor and various thunder weapons Rank: HR4+ Source: Carve from HR4+ Kirin Item: Kirin Hide Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Kirin armor and various thunder weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Kirin Item: Kirin Hide+ Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Kirin armor and various thunder weapons Rank: HR4+ Source: Carve from HR4+ Kirin Item: Kirin Horn Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Kirin armor and various thunder weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Kirin Item: Kirin Mane Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Kirin armor and various thunder weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Kirin Item: Kirin Thndr Tail Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Kirin armor and various thunder weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Kirin Item: Kut-Ku Carapace Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Capture or carve from HR4+ Yian Kut-Ku Item: Kut-Ku Ear Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor Rank: HR1 Source: Break Yian Kut-Ku's ears and receive in rewards Break Blue Yian Kut-Ku's ears and receive in rewards Item: Kut-Ku Long Ear Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Break Yian Kut-Ku's ears and receive in rewards Item: Kut-Ku Scale Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Yian Kut-Ku Item: Kut-Ku Scale+ Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Carve from HR4+ Yian Kut-ku Item: Kut-Ku Shell Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve from Yian Kut-Ku Item: Kut-Ku Webbing Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Yian Kut-Ku Carve from Blue Yian Kut-Ku ============================ ============================ L L ============================ ============================ Item: Lapiz Lazuli Type: Jewel Use: Used to craft decorations Rank: HR4+ Source: Pokke Farm Mining Point+3 Mining in HR4+ Volcano 2 Item: Lg Barrel Bomb Type: Bomb Use: Detonates when attacked. Does 80 explosion type damage. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Large Barrel + Gunpowder Item: Lg Barrel Bomb+ Type: Bomb Use: Detonates when attacked. Does 150 explosion type damage. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Lg Barrel Bomb + Scatterfish Item: Lg Bone Husk Type: Bone Use: Used in various Bowgun ammo combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Receive it in rewards for quests involving large monsters Item: Lg Monster Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft various bone weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Carve Gravios' Tail, Black Gravios' Tail, Monoblos' Tail, White Monoblos' Tail, or Basarios Receive it in rewards for most higher ranking Elder quests and Guild quests Item: Lifecrystals Type: Usable Use: Heals all hunters in the area Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Godbug + Wyvern Fang Item: Lifepowder Type: Usable Use: Heals all hunters in the area Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on all Lao Shan Lung quests Combine Wyvern Claw + Lifecrystals Item: Lightcrystal Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Break Gypceros or Purple Gypceros' horn and receive in rewards Carve from Kirin Mining in Swamp 3 and 9, Jungle 8, Desert 10 (very rare) Pokke Farm Mining Point+1/+2 Item: Lightning Rod Type: Bomb (not considered a bomb but acts like one) Use: Usable only in the rain. Detonates on a timer. Damage is unknown. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Combine Burst Arrowana + Thunderbug ============================ ============================ M M ============================ ============================ Item: Machalite Ore Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in Snowy Mountains 8, Jungle 8, Desert 10, FnH 5, Swamp 3 and 9, and Volcano 6 and 8 Pokke Farm Mining Point, Mining Point+1/+2/+3 Item: Master's Skull Type: Carve Use: Used for crafting some armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Gather at HR4+ FnH 5 and Desert Secret Zone Item: Med Monster Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft various bone weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Carve Aptonoth or Apceros Capture Yian Kut-Ku or Blue Yian Kut-Ku Receive it in rewards for most Elder quests and Guild quests Item: Mega Armorskin Type: Usable Use: Increases defence by a small amount. Also erases the effects of Akantor and Chameleos' Defence Down status. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Armorskin + Pale Extract Item: Mega Bugnet Type: Usable Use: Used to gather from insect points. Lowest chance of breaking. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Med Monster Bone + Net Item: Mega Demondrug Type: Usable Use: Increases attack power by a small amount Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Demondrug + Pale Extract Item: Mega Fishing Fly Type: Fishing Bait Use: Used to fish. All fish will rush towards this bait. Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+2/+3 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Black Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+2) Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Mega Nutrients Type: Usable Use: Increases max HP by 20 until next death or end of quest Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Nutrients + Honey Item: Mega Pickaxe Type: Usable Use: Used to mine from mining points. Lowest chance of breaking. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Machalite Ore + Bone Item: Mega Potion Type: Usable Use: Heals 60 HP Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Herb + Blue Mushroom Item: Monster Bone+ Type: Bone Use: Used to craft various things Rank: HR1 Source: Receive it in rewards for most higher ranking Elder quests and Guild quests Item: Monster Broth Type: Carve Use: Used for crafting some armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Carve from HR4+ Vespoids and Hornetaurs Dropped by HR4+ Great Thunderbugs Item: Monster Fluid Type: Carve Use: Used for crafting some armor Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Vespoids and Hornetaurs Dropped by Great Thunderbugs Combine Ice Crystal + Sleep Sac (requires Alchemy skill) Item: Mystery Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft low-level bone weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Receive it in rewards for Free Gathering quests ============================ ============================ N N ============================ ============================ Item: Net Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations (Pitfall Trap, Bugnets) Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Spiderweb + Ivy Item: Nitroshroom Type: Mushroom Use: Used in various combinations (Gunpowder) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mushroom Tree+1/+2 Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Novacrystal Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various rare armor and weapons Rank: HR4+ Source: Break HR4+ Gypceros or Purple Gypceros' horn and receive in rewards Carve from HR4+ Kirin Mining in Swamp 3 and 9, Jungle 8, Desert 10 (very rare) Pokke Farm Mining Point+3 Item: Nutrients Type: Usable Use: Increases max HP by 10 until next death or end of quest Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Blue Mushroom + Godbug ============================ ============================ O O ============================ ============================ Item: Old Bugnet Type: Usable Use: Used to gather from insect points. Highest chance of breaking. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Mystery Bone + Net Item: Old Pickaxe Type: Usable Use: Used to mine from mining points. Highest chance of breaking. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Stone + Bone ============================ ============================ P P ============================ ============================ Item: Paintberry Type: Plant Use: Used in various combinations (Paint S, Paintball) Rank: HR1 Source: Gather it at various plant gathering spots Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Pale Bone Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Khezu armor and weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Dropped by Khezu and Red Khezu (rare!) Break Khezu or Red Khezu's head and receive it in rewards (rare!) Capture Khezu or Red Khezu (rare!) Item: Pale Extract Type: Carve Use: Used to combine various potions (Mega Demondrug, Mega Armorskin) Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve Khezu or Red Khezu Item: Pale Khezu Steak Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Khezu armor and weapons Rank: HR4+ Source: Dropped by HR4+ Khezu (rare!) Break HR4+ Khezu or Red Khezu's head/back and receive it in rewards (rare!) Capture HR4+ Khezu or Red Khezu (rare!) Item: Parashroom Type: Mushroom Use: Used in various combinations (Paralyze Thr Knf, Para S1, Paralysis Coating, Tranquilizer, Tainted Meat) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mushroom Tree Item: Piscine Fang Type: Carve Use: Used to craft various weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Carve it from Cephalos and Cephadrome Receive it in rewards for quests involving Cephadrome, Plesioth, or Cephalos Item: Piscine Liver Type: Account Use: Worth Pokke Points, used in an Alchemy combo (Power Extract) Rank: HR1 Source: Carve it from Cephalos Item: Pitfall Trap Type: Trap Use: Traps monsters for a longer amount of time than Shock Traps, but does not hold monsters still Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Trap Tool + Net Item: Poisoned Meat Type: Meat Use: If a monster is passive and sees Poisoned Meat placed on the floor, it will walk towards it, eat it, and become poisoned. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Raw Meat + Toadstool Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Poison Smoke Bomb Type: Usable Use: When used, weaker monsters become poisoned and stronger monsters lose some poison resistance (it's the same as hitting them with a poison weapon). Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Bomb Material + Toadstool Item: Potion Type: Usable Use: Heals 30 HP Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Herb + Blue Mushroom Item: Power Extract Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations (Mega Juice) Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve from Gypceros or Purple Gypceros Item: Power Pill Type: Usable Use: Increase attack power by a lot, but for a very short time Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Power Seed + Immunizer Type: Usable Item: Power Seed Type: Usable Use: Increases attack power by a medium amount, but for a short time Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Gather it at Volcano 1 Grow them at the Pokke Farm (plant Power Seeds) Item: Psychoserum Type: Usable Use: Temporarily shows the location of boss monsters on your map Rank: HR1 Source: Buy them from the Red Cat Merchant Combine Cactus Flower + Thunderbug (requires Alchemy skill) Item: Pur Rubbery Hide Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Purple Gypceros armor Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve from Purple Gypceros Item: Pur Gypceros Wing Type: Use: Used to craft Purple Gypceros armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Capture or carve from HR4+ Purple Gypceros ============================ ============================ Q Q ============================ ============================ ============================ ============================ R R ============================ ============================ Item: Rainbow Insect Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+3 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Black/Gold Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+3) Item: Rainbow Ore Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm mining Point+2/+3 Item: Rare Fish Type: Usable Use: Recovers all red HP Rank: HR1 Source: Felyne Chef BBQ Service with low-level cats and fish Item: Rare Scarab Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+3 Gather at HR4+ Volcano 2 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Any Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+3) Item: Rare Steak Type: Usable Use: Increases max Stamina by 25 Rank: HR1 Source: Cook Raw Meat on a BBQ spit (press X early) Felyne Chef BBQ Service with low-level cats and Raw Meat Item: Raw Meat Type: Meat Use: Raw Meat is required to use BBQ Spits. It is also used in many meat related combinations. If a monster is passive and sees Raw Meat placed on the floor, it will walk towards it and eat it. Rank: HR1 Source: Carve it from Popos, Apceros and Aptonoths Combine Burnt Meat + Insect Husk (requires Alchemy skill) Item: Rubbery Hide Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Gypceros armor Rank: HR1 Source: Capture or carve from Gypceros Item: Rubbery Hide+ Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Gypceros armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Capture or carve from HR4+ Gypceros ============================ ============================ S S ============================ ============================ Item: Scatternut Type: Plant Use: Used to combine many different types of Bowgun ammo Rank: HR1 Source: Gather it at various plant gathering spots Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Sharp Claw Type: Carve Use: Used to craft various weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Carve from Blangos, Congas, Hermitaurs, and Ceanataurs Item: Sharpened Beak Type: Carve Use: Used to craft Garuga weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Capture Yian Garuga Item: Shock Trap Type: Trap Use: Traps monsters for a shorter amount of time than Pitfall Traps, but holds them still Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Trap Tool + Genprey Fang Item: Sm Barrel Bomb Type: Bomb Use: Detonates on a timer. Does 20 explosion type damage. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Small Barrel + Gunpowder Item: Sm Barrel Bomb+ Type: Bomb Use: Detonates on a timer. Does 30 explosion type damage. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Sm Barrel Bomb + Burst Arrowana Item: Sm Bone Husk Type: Bone Use: Used in various Bowgun ammo combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Sm Monster Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft many low-level bone weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Carve Aptonoth, Apceros, Velociprey, Ioprey, Genprey, Giaprey Dropped by Congalala Item: Smoke Bomb Type: Usable Use: When used, passive monsters have a harder time noticing you. Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Bomb Material + Ivy Item: Snakebee Larva Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Pokke Farm Beehive Item: Sonic Bomb Type: Usable Use: When thrown, emits a sonic wave that forces monsters out of sand or water, disrupts Chameleos' invisibility, and stuns Yian Kut-Ku. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Gunpowder + Screamer Item: Spiderweb Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations (Net) Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Gather it at Forest and Hills 6, 8, 12, Swamp 1 and 2 Pokke Farm Bug Thicket, Bug Thicket+3 Item: Splendid Beak Type: Carve Use: Used to craft YKK Armor and weapons Rank: HR4+ Source: Capture or carve from HR4+ Yian Kut-Ku (rare!) Item: Stone Type: Usable Use: Used in various combinations Can be thrown to detonate bombs and do minor damage Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in common Mining Points Pokke Farm Mining Point Item: Stout Bone Type: Bone Use: Used to craft various weapons Rank: HR4+ Source: Capture or carve HR4+ Popo, Blangonga, Congalala, or Bulldrome Item: Suiko Jewel Type: Jewel Use: Used to craft decorations Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mining Point, Mining Point+1 ============================ ============================ T T ============================ ============================ Item: Tainted Meat Type: Meat Use: If a monster is passive and sees Tainted Meat placed on the floor, it will walk towards it, eat it, and become paralyzed. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Raw Meat + Parashroom Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Territorial Dung Type: Account Item Use: Worth 500 Pokke points Rank: HR1 Source: Dropped by Blangonga and Congalala Item: Territorial Dung+ Type: Account Item Use: Worth 2500 Pokke points Rank: HR4+ Source: Dropped by HR4+ Blangonga and Congalala Item: Thawing Agent Type: Usable Use: Cures the Frozen status caused by Kushala Daora and Blangonga Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on quests involving Blangonga or Kushala Daora Combine Fire Herb + Rumblefish Item: Thunderbug Type: Insect Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket+1/+2 Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Black/Gold Hammer, requires Bug Thicket+1) Item: Thunderbug Juice Type: Carve Use: Used for crafting some weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Dropped by Great Thunderbugs Trade Battlefield Jewels to the Forest Elder (rare) Item: Thunder Sac Type: Carve Use: Used to craft various things Rank: HR4+ Source: Carve or capture HR4+ Khezu or Red Khezu Item: Toadstool Type: Mushroom Use: Used in various combinations (Poison Thr Knf, Poison S1, Poison Coating, Blue Mushroom, Poison Smoke Bomb, Poisoned Meat) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Mushroom Tree Item: Tranq Bomb Type: Usable Use: Throwing bomb to capture weakened monsters Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on early Elder-level quests Combine Tranquilizer + Bomb Material Item: Tranq S Type: Bowgun Ammo Use: Bowgun ammo used to capture weakened monsters Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied on early Elder-level quests Combine Tranquilizer + Sm Bone Husk Item: Tranq Thrwng Knf Type: Usable Use: Throwing knife to capture weakened monsters Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Tranquilizer + Throwing Knife Item: Tranquilizer Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations (Tranq Bomb, Tranq S, etc.) Rank: HR1 Source: Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Combine Parashroom + Sleep Herb Item: Trap Tool Type: Reagent Use: Used in various combinations (Pitfall Trap, Shock Trap) Rank: HR1 Source: Supplied in many quests Buy it from the Item Merchant in Town Item: Tuna Bait Type: Fishing Bait Use: Used to fish. Any fish that is not a Pin Tuna will not bite. Rank: HR1 Source: Combine Yambug + Worm ============================ ============================ U U ============================ ============================ Item: Union Ore Type: Mineral Use: Used to craft various weapons and armor Rank: HR4+ Source: Mining in HR4+ Volcano 6 and 8 Pokke Farm Mining Point+3 Item: Unknown Skull Type: Carve Use: Used for crafting some armor Rank: HR1 Source: Gather at FnH 5 ============================ ============================ V V ============================ ============================ ============================ ============================ W W ============================ ============================ Item: Well-Done Steak Type: Usable Use: Increases max Stamina by 50 Rank: HR1 Source: Cook Raw Meat on a BBQ spit (press X perfectly) Felyne Chef BBQ Service with high-level cats and Raw Meat Item: Whetstone Type: Usable Use: Used to sharpen weapons Rank: HR1 Source: Mining in common Mining Points Pokke Farm Mining Point Item: Worm Type: Fishing Bait/Fertilizer Use: Used to fish and used to create Tuna Bait. When used as fertilizer at the Pokke Farm, raises a row's level by 1 (requires five worms) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket, Bug Thicket+1 Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Wyvern Claw Type: Bone Use: Used to combine many different types of Bowgun ammo Rank: HR1 Source: Receive it in rewards for most quests involving harder monsters (Gravios, Diablos, etc.) Break the wing claws of any Rathalos or Rathian and receive it in rewards Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant Item: Wyvern Droppings Type: Fertilizer Use: When used as fertilizer at the Pokke Farm, raises all row's levels from 1 to 3. Rank: HR1 Source: Gather it at Area 5 of Forest and Hills (uncommon) Item: Wyvern Fang Type: Bone Use: Used to combine many different types of Bowgun ammo Rank: HR1 Source: Receive it in rewards for most quests Buy it from the Red Cat Merchant ============================ ============================ X X ============================ ============================ ============================ ============================ Y Y ============================ ============================ Item: Yambug Type: Insect Use: Used in various combinations (Tuna Bait) Rank: HR1 Source: Pokke Farm Bug Thicket Pokke Farm Bug Tree (Gold/Black Hammer) ============================ ============================ Z Z ============================ ============================ ====================================================================== [15] Afterword [15] ====================================================================== I wrote this guide mainly using what I've learned about the game while playing it. A lot of the things I learned though, I learned from other users on GameFAQs (I was once a lowly newbie like you, don'tchaknow) and the FAQs and Guides they've written, so it's only fitting that I credit them all now: - Lord Grahf's FAQ on the Melee Damage formula for the original Monster Hunter has been the basis for most, if not all, of what the non-Japanese hunters know about damage in this game. - DS31x's FAQ on the Melee Damage formula contains the new values and variables for Monster Hunter Freedom 2. He had most of the Defence values figured out before I even had the game. :p - vampirecosmonaut and DaiIchiban's FAQ on Bowgun Damage for Monster Hunter Freedom is the primer for anyone who wants to get the most damage out of their ranged weapons. - Boswer Elkei is so inspiring. <3 - Boldrin's FAQ on the Pokke Farm was used to doublecheck some farm items when I wasn't sure if all Insect Thickets could give you this or if it was only +1/+2 and such... - Taphs' Combination List, Boldrin's Combination List, and NecroSen's Combination List. Combos are mentioned quite a bit in this FAQ, and I know for a fact I've only found out maybe one or two combinations on my own without the help of these lists. - naijiao's work with the GS charge teaches newbies to properly use the GS charge and get the full potential out of the GS, a weapon that would probably otherwise be overlooked completely. - Kawakami_Hanabi's Boss Carve FAQ was used to doublecheck some of the more obscure items that I don't get every day (like Lg Monster Bone and Sharp Claws). - Peaceful/Crimson's website, Skies of Crimson, has weapon trees for all weapon types. Most hunters would be lying if they said they never learned a thing or two from looking at them. And of course, thanks to the following: - GameFAQs, for hosting this walkthrough - The GFAQs Message Boards for MHF/MHF2. - Capcom Production Studio 1, for giving us both Monster Hunter and Marvel vs Capcom 2. Yes, they made Marvel vs Capcom 2. - Wakka, wakka wakka wakka. noilleberreven has been playing Monster Hunter since December 2006, when the game was discovered at a Fry's Electronics for the low, low price of $20 USD. noille took a liking to the concept of blasting Velociprey in the face with a shotgun, and so started out in the game with a Light Bowgun. For a month, noille was poor and nubbing around with a weak Light Bowgun and Normal S Lv1. Moral of the story? We all started out somewhere, and Normal S Lv1s suck. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or ideas to submit, I can be contacted at chocori.icy.eyes@gmail.com. Do note that if I can't figure out what you're saying on the first readthrough, I'm probably going to just reply with "lol i dunno". I can also be contacted via AIM at ChocoriEyes, but keep in mind I'm not obliged to drop everything I'm currently doing just to answer your question. Patience. Please do NOT contact me about parts of the FAQ that are not yet complete. They'll be coming soon. No need to bother me about it. "Thanks to modern laws, your FAQ is protected by Copyright law the instant it's published online. For your own protection, you should also always include a one-line copyright notice in your work: Copyright (year) (your name)" Copyright 2008 noille. Happy Picnic Day!