- How to Make Money Fast in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name - January 6, 2024
- How to Get Sunshot in Destiny 2 - December 18, 2023
- Where Is Hawthorne in Destiny 2 - December 16, 2023
Monster Hunter games are infamously rough on newcomers as the games are crammed full of almost 20 years of content. Monster Hunter Rise has made the series more approachable, but it’s still a deep game full of dozens of complex systems, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
Fortunately, you don’t need to know even half of the game’s nuances to enjoy yourself, and with a bit of base knowledge, the rest will quickly fall into place. I’ve played Monster Hunter for thousands of hours and have introduced many players to the series. The first hurdle is the hardest to overcome, and if you make it over, you’re rewarded with an enchanting skill-based adventure that’s phenomenal, alone or with friends.
If you’ve decided to take your first steps into the ocean of Monster Hunter Rise content, let me show you the basics before you dive in.
Before You Start
Monster Hunter Rise is light on pregame options, with the only choice being your character’s appearance. Character Creation is purely cosmetic but impacts how armor looks.
The game has a male and female variant of every armor set. Often, the male armor is, well, more armored. Female armor tends to be more revealing and/or frilly. Fashion is very important in Monster Hunter, so pick what suits you best.
What to Expect from Your First Few Hours
After you’ve created a character, Hinoa will take you on a brief tour around the village. Speak to everyone with a speech bubble above their heads to advance this meet-and-greet. The game will automatically put a Long Sword on your back, which I recommend changing, but more on that in a moment. Speak with Master Utsushi when you enter the Hub building (The ninja with the red speech bubble above them), and then head outside and return to Hinoa (opposite the shop).
Speak with Hinoa for your quest. There’s only one to take right now: Urgent Quest – Back to Basics. You can depart on the quest by pressing ZR but don’t do that yet. Access the Item Box just next to Hinoa, and if you select Manage Equipment, you can change your weapon.
I Strongly recommend the Sword & Shield if you’re a new player, as it’s intuitive and teaches strong fundamentals. Ultimately, you can make any weapon work, but I would steer clear of the Bowguns and Charge Blade until you’re more experienced.
Optional Training
You can depart on your quest anytime, but I recommend stopping by the Training Area. If you want to give it a go, head across the bridge near the Blacksmith and to the boat at the back by the water.
This Training Area is fantastic and offers a space you can always return to and experiment. You can try out any weapon from the box at the entrance and hit the dummy or targets to your heart’s content. You can also get a feel for movement in general, and there are cliffs at the back you can scale. Once you’re done, leave the way you came in.
Try Some Bunny Dango
Next, speak to the Chef. You want to do this before every hunt, as meals give you buffs for the battle. Pick anything you like, but Dango Defender and Dango Medic are solid choices. With a full stomach, depart on your quest by pressing ZR.
Out on the Field
Back to Basics is a tutorial mission with Master Utsushi. He shows practical examples of how many mechanics work during hunts, including Wirebugs. This is a wordy section, but you get to try each mechanic in a realistic setting, so it’s easy to follow. After you’ve beaten your first monsters and carved your kills, Master Utsushi asks you to Fast Travel back to the Tent. Hold ‘-‘ for a moment for the map to appear to find the menu (this works in the village too).
Back in Kamura Village
Now you’re safely back in Kamura Village, free to do anything you want. If you speak to Hinoa, she offers you Village Quests. If you Speak to her sister, Minoto, in the Hub, you can take Hub Quests.
Hub Quests are designed to be played with a group. Don’t fret if you’re by yourself, as you can open the hunt for other players to join. If you select a quest from the list, choose ‘Yes (Send Join Request) as I have, and other hunters will join after you start.
I recommend doing the Village Quests first, as they are designed for solo play and to tell the story. Quests with the orange logo next to them are Key Quests. If you work through these, you’ll eventually unlock an Urgent Quest. Once that’s complete, you’ll open the next difficulty. You can do any of the Key Quests, but Impious Peons is a nice easy one requiring you to kill 8 Jagras (small Iguana-like monsters), and Roly-poly Lanterns has you collecting 8 Firelanterns scattered across the map.
Conquering Your First Urgent Quest
Your first Village Urgent Quest is Great Izuchi, Great Pain. This is your first battle against a proper monster that will fight back! Ensure you eat before leaving, and bring a stack of potions from the Item Box.
This fight can be tricky as Great Izuchi almost always has a few friends as backup. As this monster is agile, its biggest strength is speed, and most of its attacks are variations of a tail swipe. If you evade the tail slam, it will stick in the ground giving you a window for a few free hits.
Keep an eye on your health. There’s no shame in backing off to heal with Potions if needed. Hold’-‘ if things get really bad and return to the Tent to regroup. There’s a box with extra potions if you need them.
When you’ve dealt enough damage, Great Izuchi will run away and sleep. This means victory is within reach, so hit it with everything you’ve got! When you’ve slain the beast, you can carve it 3 times.
What Do I Do Now?
After returning to a hero’s welcome, you can visit the Blacksmith and start crafting your first armor set. You can repeat this fight as many times as you like for practice or to get monster parts. This gameplay loop of fighting new monsters and making equipment with their parts is at the core of the Monster Hunter experience.
For repeats, the quest is in the 2-Star list. You may need to repeat the battle several times to get enough parts, but you can craft a complete set of Great Izuchi armor and the Izuchi weapon too. After that, you can tackle the 2 Star quests or test your mettle in the Hub.
Core Mechanics
Monster Hunter doesn’t shy away from burying new players with dozens of mechanics. Fortunately, you only need a solid grasp on a handful of them to enjoy the game. These are the most important things to keep in mind.
Never Hunt on an Empty Stomach
Grabbing a hearty meal before a hunt should become second nature as it extends your health/stamina gauges and provides valuable buffs. There’s no reason not to eat before every quest, and much like item and equipment loadouts, you can save your best Dango combinations for future use. Later on, some quests reward you with new Dango options so you can pick a perfect meal for any situation.
Meter Management
There are 3 meters that require your attention during a hunt:
- Green Bar – Health meter
- Orange Bar – Stamina, which is needed for specific actions
- Sword Bar – Weapon sharpness
Health is replenished with Potions and Mega Potions (Potion + Honey), and as a rough guide, try and keep above 50%. Later on, you’ll want to keep it higher than that. Stamina can be replenished with Rations from the Equipment Box or Well-done Steaks.
The Sword represents your weapon’s sharpness and negatively affects your damage if you don’t maintain it. Fortunately, you can sharpen with the Whetstone in your inventory. The Whetstone has unlimited uses, but as it takes a few seconds, you want to do this in a safe place. Ranged weapons don’t need sharpness, but curiously, the Hunting Horn and Hammer do.
Spiribirds
Every map is home to dozens of colorful Spiribirds; collecting them increases your stats for the hunt. The increase is minimal but can help if you’re about to fight a monster you’re unfamiliar with. I only collect Spiribirds if they are in my way, and I won’t deviate too much to grab them. Conversely, my hunting partner swears by them, so use your discretion here.
Sharpness Matters
There’s a lot of maths to unpack with Sharpness, but basically, the sharper your weapon, the more damage it does. Blunt weapons do less damage and sometimes bounce off armored monster hides. At the beginning of the game, most weapons only have a few levels of sharpness, but this is a list of all of them, from worst to best:
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
- Green
- Blue
- White
- Purple
Quest Types
Village Quests: Village quests follow the story of Kamura Village and the mysterious Rampage that causes monsters to relentlessly attack. Village quests are single-player only and are much easier than Hub quests.
Hub Quests: Hub Quests can be attempted solo but are designed to be tackled with a party. These missions are less story-driven, but a light narrative binds them together. Most hunters will spend the majority of their time here.
Key Quests: Key quests are labeled with an orange logo, and a set amount must be completed before the next Urgent quest can be taken. Key quests are important, but don’t ignore the rest, as you’ll find many new monsters there.
Urgent Quests: Urgent Quests are a rite of passage to your next Hunter Rank. Every list (rated in stars) has a more dangerous lineup of monsters to battle. Urgent quests are usually quite tricky, so don’t expect your target to go down without a fight.
Optional Subquests: You can fulfill these tasks while on regular hunts, and they reward you with various items.
Wirebugs
Wirebugs are a new mechanic in Monster Hunter Rise and offer movement options we’ve never seen in the series before. Here are a few things you can do with them:
Wiredash: Wiredashing quickly drags your Hunter in a chosen direction. ZL+A and ZL+X pull you forwards or up, respectively. You can also press ZL+ZR to go wherever your camera is pointing.
Wirefall: After being knocked back by a monster, you can press ZL+B to Wirefall and air-dash out of harm’s way.
Silkbind Attacks: If you hold ZL with your weapon drawn, you can access Silkbind attacks. These are different for every weapon; you’ll earn new ones as you progress through the game.
Always Have an Objective
This may be abstract for a Core Mechanic, but as Monster Hunter Rise is open-ended, it’s easy to lose your way and become overwhelmed and discouraged. An easy fix for this is to always be working towards something. Whether it’s that shiny new Bow you want or that sexy set of Rathalos armor, it feels great to achieve goals, and since Rise won’t always give you one, make sure you set them for yourself.
Core Mechanics In-Depth
Ecology Explained
You know all about Spiribirds, but every map is teaming with endemic life, and you can use a lot of it to your advantage. A strong hunter knows how to leverage the terrain against their targets, so here are a few things you should keep an eye out for:
- Elemental Bugs – Throw them to inflict elemental blights
- Sleep/Para/Poison Toads – Place them to inflict status ailments on the target
- Marionette Spider – Launches target in a chosen direction
- Puppet Spider – Instantly puts the target into a rideable state
Many of these are ‘static’ spawns, always appearing in the same place. Commit a few of these to memory, and even Elder Dragons will regret fighting you.
Weapon Tree
You can access the Weapon Tree at the Blacksmith, and it shows you what materials you need to craft different items. This tree becomes a sprawling muddled web as the game goes on, but it’s fine early on. All the ??? Tree entries indicate weapons made from monsters you’ve not seen yet.
Crafting Armor
Thankfully, armor is much simpler than the Weapon Tree. Each piece of armor lists its required materials. As long as you have those and enough Zenni, you can build it. Crafted armor can be put on immediately or later from the Item Box. Every piece of armor has a selection of Armor Skills. These are nothing special at the beginning of the game, but later, there’s plenty of room to experiment.
Armor Spheres
You can upgrade your existing armor with Armor Spheres. You’ll find lots of these through standard play and Optional Subquests. To apply these to your gear, speak to the Blacksmith.
The Essential Loadout
It’s important that you’re prepared for every situation in your hunts, and you can do this by creating an item loadout. Once your inventory is filled with goodies, you can save it in the Item Box (Manage Items – Item Loadouts – Register Loadout). In the future, you can select the loadout before each hunt and know you have everything you need.
Here is my essential loadout, along with how to get each item. Use this as a guide to create your own. If you’re just starting out, don’t worry if you don’t have all of these right away:
- Potion x10Â – Craft with Herbs or buy from the shop
- Honey x10Â – Find in the wild or trade at Argosy
- Mega Potion x10Â – Potion + Honey
- Well-done Steak x10Â – Cook Raw Steak at Canteen
- Nulberry x10Â – Find in the wild or buy from the shop
- Antidote x10Â – Craft with Antidote Herb or buy from the shop
- Tranq Bomb x8Â – Sleep Herb + Parashroom
- Shock Trap x1Â – Trap Tool + Thunderbug
- Pitfall Trap x1Â – Trap Tool + Net
- Lifepowder x3Â – Godbug + Blue Mushroom *for online hunts only
- Dust of Life x2Â – Godbug + Gloamgrass Bud *for online hunts only
- Farcaster x1Â – Smokenut + Exciteshroom
This may look excessive, but with this loadout, I can use Mega Potions for healing, and I have the ingredients to make ten more (Potion + Honey). Steak replenishes my stamina, and the Antidotes/Nulberries protect me from every status ailment. I can capture monsters, and if it all goes wrong, the Farcaster instantly teleports me to base camp.
Killing vs. Capturing
A blue icon will flash underneath the monster’s portrait when it’s close to death. At this point, you have two choices. Keep attacking your target until it dies or capture it. Capturing requires Tranq Bombs (Tranqs) and either a Shock Trap or Pitfall Trap (all parts of my Essential Loadout above). When the icon appears, monsters will typically leave the area to rest.
Capturing the monster is always quicker, and it’s easier than ever in Rise. If the target is asleep, place a Trap as close as possible to them and throw Tranqs (usually 2) until they are caught. If they are awake, set a Trap and wait next to it. When the monster attacks, ensure the Trap is between you and be ready with your Tranqs.
If the monster is asleep, you can use your Tranqs before you place the Trap to catch them instantly, an exclusive technique to Monster Hunter Rise.
Quicker doesn’t always mean better. If you need specific Monster parts, consulting the Hunter Notes (Start Menu – Info – Hunter’s Notes) may reveal that the parts you need more commonly drop from Carves. You can carve a monster several times after it’s been killed.
Wyvernriding
Mounting, a series staple, has been completely reworked in Monster Hunter Rise and is replaced by Wyvernriding, which lets you ride a monster and even attack with it. Quite the upgrade! The hardest part is getting monsters into a rideable state. You can do this by repeatedly hitting them with Silkbind Attacks, and the effectiveness of those attacks differs between weapons.
Monsters that are not your target will always fall into a rideable state faster than the one you’re there to fight.
Once you’re riding a monster, You have complete control over its movements and actions. If you want to fight, the easiest thing to do is mash the Heavy Attack button until the bar at the bottom of the screen fills up, then use your Mounted Punisher. There’s a button for evading, but it’s completely unnecessary.
If you’re riding a monster and there’s nothing to fight, press the Launch button to throw them into a wall. Immediately after they hit the wall, you can press Regain Footing to stabilize. If you’re quick enough, you can do this up to 3 times.
Multiplayer Etiquette
Hunting with a party is at the core of the Monster Hunter experience, and if you have a few friends to hunt with, you can lose entire nights just questing as a group. If you’re playing with strangers, there are a few unwritten rules that you should know. Follow these, and you’ll be the life of any hunting party.
Sleep Bombing: When a monster is put to sleep, stop attacking immediately. You can usually tell this is about to happen as the music abruptly stops. The first hit on a sleeping monster does extra damage, so a popular strategy is to ‘Sleep Bomb’ the target by placing Barrel Bombs around their head. Add yours to the pile if you have any.
With Bombs in place, the Hunter with the highest damage weapon should aim to hit the monster and bombs at the same time. If there’s a Great Sword user, this responsibility should fall on them. Any hard-hitter will work, but if you see your group standing back, they are usually indicating they want you to do it.
Kill or Capture? If you open your quest for random players to join, they should let you decide how it ends. This doesn’t always happen, and many hunters are eager to capture 100% of the time, but strictly speaking, whoever started the quest has the final say. The only exception to this rule is if your party is one cart away from failing the quest. In this instance, ending the battle however you can is the top priority.
Keep Your Friends Alive: Keeping other Hunters alive isn’t your job, but everyone needs help from time to time. You can restore your party’s health with Life Powder and, later on, Dust of Life. These are optional but fantastic for online hunts. If you enjoy team play, Wide Range is a good Armor Skill as it benefits nearby teammates when you use items for yourself. Finally, if one of your teammates is stunned, you can snap them out of it by hitting them. It’s better you do it than an angry dragon!
Don’t Hit Your Friends: You can’t hurt fellow hunters with your weapons, but you can stagger them. This is why Long Sword users have a ‘reputation’ online, as their wide arcing swings often knock other players. Your team should invest in the Flinch Free Armor Skill for online hunts, but as many don’t, try and keep some distance.
Things We Wish We Knew Day One
Ranged Weapons Need Ammo
Every ranged weapon has a limitless supply of basic ammunition. Unfortunately, it’s usually so bad it’s not worth using. If you’re using the Bow, you can use Close Range coatings on your arrows. It’s unlimited and grants a damage bonus, but you need to get up close and personal.
Stay Down
Don’t fret if you get knocked down by a monster. In Monster Hunter, being on the ground is the safest place you can be, as you’re invulnerable until you get back on your feet. This is also true when you dive (running and jumping near a monster).
You Can’t Trap Elder Dragons
Elder Dragons wield the most tremendous power in the Monster Hunter universe, so it makes sense that petty contraptions like Traps have no effect on them. When you battle an Elder Dragon, it’s a fight to the death.
Flash Bombs Are Amazing
Flash Bombs are easy to craft (Flashbug) and are great for briefly stunning monsters. Their best application is against flying targets, as they can knock those out of the sky. Some aggressive monsters can pin hunters; if you spot that during a multiplayer hunt, a well-placed Flash Bomb will save your friend.
*protip* you can’t Flash Bomb a Khezu because that nightmare fuel is blind.
Things to Avoid
Small Corridors
If you’re fighting in a claustrophobic space, your target doesn’t need to do much to hit you, and you won’t have room to avoid attacks. I see players blindly follow hulking beasts into cramped and dangerous areas all the time. Remember, you dictate the fight; if you don’t follow the monster, they will come to you instead.
Excessive Wirefalling
Wirefalling is a great defensive skill as it drags you out of harm’s way… right? Well, not exactly. Wirefalling quickly pulls you in your chosen direction after getting hit, but it makes you vulnerable to attack. You’re completely invincible during the animation when you fall normally or dive. That’s not the case with Wirefalling, and you can eat follow-up attacks after doing so. Don’t be scared to use the ability, but use it cautiously.
Don’t Die
As I type this, I hear a collective groan but hear me out. Your party can die (cart) a total of 2 times per hunt. On the 3rd, it’s game over. One person can single-handedly lose the quest for the entire team, potentially erasing 30mins+ worth of progress. Even the best players ‘cart’ from time to time, but if you get hit, your priority should be running to a safe distance and healing. If you find you’re dying too quickly, that ties nicely into my next point.
Keep Your Gear Fresh
When the going gets tough, it’s time to upgrade your gear. I usually upgrade my armor after every couple of Urgent Quests. Monster Hunter is most rewarding when you’re not rushing. If you don’t want new gear, spend Armor Spheres on your existing gear at the Blacksmith instead.
Don’t Sell Monster Parts
When you’re short on Zenni, rummaging through your item box and selling your hard-earned monster parts can be tempting. Unless you have a huge reserve of these parts (20+), you may need them later. Monster Hunter Rise likes to throw in the odd curveball crafting material into armor recipes, so be careful if you’re on a selling spree.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Can you mix armor sets?
Answer: Yes, you can, and later on, it’s essential for fine-tuning your build. Don’t worry; you can change your armor appearance when you’ve advanced through enough quests, so you’ll always look cool.
Question: Do Armor/Power Talons & Charms stack?
Answer: Yes, they do. When you have the option to buy these from the shop, they grant permanent bonuses to your Defense and Attack stats at the cost of 4 slots in your inventory.
Question: Is Defender equipment good?
Answer: Defender gear is incredibly powerful and meant for players who want to rush straight through to Sunbreak content. The downside is that entering Sunbreak this way is like hitting a brick wall as the game suddenly gets harder. Defender gear trivializes the base game, so I recommend most players avoid it.
Looking for more interesting readings? Check out: