Monster hunting in the Playground!

[SKarious]

Greeting, hunters!
Does anyone here play Monster Hunter? I just bought MH:World for my PS4 today, and looking for some jolly cooperation once I get my bearing and find out what's changed with my favorite weapons.
I've been playing MH4U on the 3DS before this one. (Yes, skipped a gen or two)
In 4U, I was a seasoned hunter, useful with the Light Bowgun, the Lance, and the mighty Switch Axe. (G2 rank, about 560 hours in total)

What are your go-to weapons?
Would anyone like to play together? Hunting is best when done together.

Yours, Lucien and Thomas the Palico.

[Sajiri]

I have it on ps4, but didnt want to have to pay extra for online play. Im actually waiting for the PC release thats about to come out so the husband and I can play it together.

I usually always play bow, but I've started with insect glaive to mix it up a bit these days.

[Lord Raziere]

I've got it, but steam won't let me play it until the 9th. this weeks gonna be an interesting one, cause I got both new Hearthstone set and Monster Hunter Worlds dropping, and the next week after this one is gonna Battle for Azeroth finally dropping. so lots of new things. I've played Dark Souls 3, and Monster Hunter Worlds seems like it does something similar, so I'm hoping to have fun with it to.

[chainer1216]

I play on PS4, though im at endgame so i wont really be able to team up with you.

But whooo boy is Behemoth a challenge, i think im doing something like 0 - 30 against him. Ive gotten him to the point of his death meteor a bunch of times but each time something went wrong and we failed the quest.

[Velaryon]

I play on PS4, often with chainer1216 (though I'm usually playing catch-up to him). I also have not been able to best the Behemoth yet.

I'm primarily an insect glaive user, though I'm also fairly proficient with the hammer. I've recently begun adding the bow and the switch axe to my repertoire as well, though I don't feel fully competent with either yet.

[Calemyr]

I play it on the PS4 with my brother and an old college buddy of mine. It's a lot more satisfying than most games.

[kyoryu]

I'm about to do Tempered Kirin on PS4, but mostly am going to switch to PC come Thursday, because my wife hates controllers :smallbiggrin:

I.... may have this on XBox, PS4, and PC. I'd be willing to play with folks.

[Calemyr]

I'm about to do Tempered Kirin on PS4, but mostly am going to switch to PC come Thursday, because my wife hates controllers :smallbiggrin:

I.... may have this on XBox, PS4, and PC. I'd be willing to play with folks.

Oh, man I hate the murder pony. Worst fight in the game I've ever had.

[kyoryu]

Oh, man I hate the murder pony. Worst fight in the game I've ever had.

I think that's the "no, you really do need to gear for specific fights" wall. The elders kind of hinted at it, but I think this is the one that drives the point home.

[Corsair14]

I keep hearing about this game, is it in any way related to the Monster Hunter International book series?

[MCerberus]

Oh, man I hate the murder pony. Worst fight in the game I've ever had.

Ooh, you'll love Super Saiyan Murder Pony.
And tempered Diablo Twins

[kyoryu]

I keep hearing about this game, is it in any way related to the Monster Hunter International book series?

Not even a little bit. It's amazing, though!


Ooh, you'll love Super Saiyan Murder Pony.
And tempered Diablo Twins

So I hear. Tempered Diablos (either variety) is bad enough as it is.

[Calemyr]

Ooh, you'll love Super Saiyan Murder Pony.
And tempered Diablo Twins

What makes the Murder Pony so nasty, in my mind, is the fact that the cues for his AoE attacks are ground level, but the camera is higher, making it much harder to accurately evade them and attack the tiny hitbox he has and dodge physical charges. HR is bad enough because he spams the hell out of the AoE attacks. Tempered is even worse because even a quick one-two can kill you before you can act. He never stops, he never slows down. He can be a little bit fun because it's such an active fight, but when he's the only thing standing between you and level 50...

That said, a friend of mine adores him for one simple reason: apparently the Diablos hammer doesn't bounce off him, even in Elder mode, and there is nothing more satisfying than the feeling of just smacking that horse with a hammer.

[Velaryon]

What makes the Murder Pony so nasty, in my mind, is the fact that the cues for his AoE attacks are ground level, but the camera is higher, making it much harder to accurately evade them and attack the tiny hitbox he has and dodge physical charges. HR is bad enough because he spams the hell out of the AoE attacks. Tempered is even worse because even a quick one-two can kill you before you can act. He never stops, he never slows down. He can be a little bit fun because it's such an active fight, but when he's the only thing standing between you and level 50...

That said, a friend of mine adores him for one simple reason: apparently the Diablos hammer doesn't bounce off him, even in Elder mode, and there is nothing more satisfying than the feeling of just smacking that horse with a hammer.

The Diablos hammer specifically, or hammers in general?

I generally bring my glaive to that fight (Firedance Rathmaul specifically), because even though he's small, I find it easier to keep up with Kirin's constant running all over the place with the glaive than with slower weapons. Still, as a hammer aficionado I will have to experiment with this.

[kyoryu]

The Diablos hammer specifically, or hammers in general?

I generally bring my glaive to that fight (Firedance Rathmaul specifically), because even though he's small, I find it easier to keep up with Kirin's constant running all over the place with the glaive than with slower weapons. Still, as a hammer aficionado I will have to experiment with this.

Slow weapons are terrible against him, though I could see hammers working.

With greatsword you have to completely forego any kind of charge attack. I generally switch to something else for Kirin of any rank.

[MCerberus]

Slow weapons are terrible against him, though I could see hammers working.

With greatsword you have to completely forego any kind of charge attack. I generally switch to something else for Kirin of any rank.

I think I managed to get together a set with the Odogoron claws, decent enough resist, and enough unlock to burn little miss stunlock.

But more importantly the fights where you think "this is BS" like the first time you go up against Flu-season T-rex and get 1 shot by fire are the ones you remember.

You will be ganked by Beetlejuice while fighting two other dragons, and you will tell your friends about it.

[Anteros]

Kirin is tough for me because you have to be patient and it's a long fight. His stuff is easy enough to dodge, but eventually I get tired/bored and I'll get sloppy or greedy for damage and get hit. Probably my second least favorite enemy after the Bagel.


I think that's the "no, you really do need to gear for specific fights" wall. The elders kind of hinted at it, but I think this is the one that drives the point home.

It certainly helps, but I know we did him with negative lightning resist when we were new. Gear isn't mandatory like an mmo at least.

[kyoryu]

I think I managed to get together a set with the Odogoron claws, decent enough resist, and enough unlock to burn little miss stunlock.

But more importantly the fights where you think "this is BS" like the first time you go up against Flu-season T-rex and get 1 shot by fire are the ones you remember.

You will be ganked by Beetlejuice while fighting two other dragons, and you will tell your friends about it.

Ah, yes, the Ancient Forest trifecta of Rathalos, Rathian, and Beetlejuice.

[chainer1216]

I did it! I finally beat Behemoth! After 40ish attempts i finally found a full group of people who knew what they were doing, we had his tail and both horns poped off before he even left the first area.

[Lord Raziere]

I have just started the game. did the first assignment. I have a Palico that I've made with yellow and green eyes, and mottled to have various uneven spots and crooked tail. I call her Miss Match. <3

I have made dual swords out of bone.

I adventure around, killing beasts with my twin bone swords while my cute kitty friend all to eventually slay dragons.

I like this game. I'm sure I'll be getting repeatedly stomped by a big dino someday soon, but I like what I'm getting so far. there seems to be a lot of lore that I'm not privy to, but from what I can tell I'm from this Old World that had monsters in it, and now we're going to explore this New World to find out why elder dragons do this thing. which makes me wonder if there are more civilized areas of this world that are better protected than the one I'm currently in right now. This seems very frontier-ish. There are multiple fleets and weapons and armor, so I assume there is some well-protected place where civilization is strong for all these monster hunters and their support to come from, as well as all the helpful kitties.

[Resileaf]

Game finished installing this morning. I'll be huntin' monsters after work, methinks!

[Velaryon]

I like this game. I'm sure I'll be getting repeatedly stomped by a big dino someday soon, but I like what I'm getting so far. there seems to be a lot of lore that I'm not privy to, but from what I can tell I'm from this Old World that had monsters in it, and now we're going to explore this New World to find out why elder dragons do this thing. which makes me wonder if there are more civilized areas of this world that are better protected than the one I'm currently in right now. This seems very frontier-ish. There are multiple fleets and weapons and armor, so I assume there is some well-protected place where civilization is strong for all these monster hunters and their support to come from, as well as all the helpful kitties.

That's about what I got out of it too. Honestly, the lore seems pretty thin to me in this game. Heck, they don't even bother to name most of the characters. So I treated it as basically just "whatever excuse I need to go and fight the next monster." If you're looking for a deep story, this ain't it. The gameplay is the star attraction here. I'm not familiar with the earlier games in the series, so I don't know whether those were any different in that respect.

[RagingBluMunky]

This game has a relatively deep story. Most MH games don't even need to be boiled to be "protect the village from the threat of the day".

As for the Old World: It's pretty sparsely settled, though there are some large cities. It is as full of monsters as new world, more so maybe, as they often wander close to towns, attack travelers/traders/gatherers. Hunters protect towns by hunting those monsters, and are regulated by the guild.

There are actually a number of monsters from the Old World (i.e. previous games) in MH:W. Barroth, Rathalos, Rathian, Diablos, Uragaan, Deviljho, Lavasioth, Telstra, Lunastra, Kushala Daora, Kirin

Anyway, I really like all the MH games I've played, I main Insect Glaive, and my favorite monster is probably Rathalos or Nergigante

If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them!
(The spoilers are for late game monsters, if you want the surprise.)

[Resileaf]

Monster Hunter is a setting where 10% of the human population has acquired superpowers and immortality to fight giant monsters that have eaten the other 90% of the population.

[huttj509]

Right, picked up monster hunter world for PC, going for bow this time as I have access to keyboard/mouse, so I'll get out of my comfort zone from the 3ds.

Does anyone know a good guide to the bow nuance that lists things by the PC keybinding labels? I can't figure out how I managed to do a jumping melee attack with the bow and a rain of arrows from the sky.

Also, are investigations basically just "self targeted quests," so instead of hunting for a quest that involves a monster you want you can pull up an investigation that gives good rewards for it and do that?

[Anteros]

Right, picked up monster hunter world for PC, going for bow this time as I have access to keyboard/mouse, so I'll get out of my comfort zone from the 3ds.

Does anyone know a good guide to the bow nuance that lists things by the PC keybinding labels? I can't figure out how I managed to do a jumping melee attack with the bow and a rain of arrows from the sky.

Also, are investigations basically just "self targeted quests," so instead of hunting for a quest that involves a monster you want you can pull up an investigation that gives good rewards for it and do that?

Yes, investigations give you a bit of extra monster parts as reward. The main quests and side quests often give other benefits like upgrading the town or unlocking tools though, so make sure you do them at least once.

I can't speak for the controls on PC, but I've heard from friends that the controls are better with a controller than keyboard and mouse, although I know people who do use a keyboard and mouse and they do just fine.

[kyoryu]

Also, are investigations basically just "self targeted quests," so instead of hunting for a quest that involves a monster you want you can pull up an investigation that gives good rewards for it and do that?

Bingo. They also tend to have additional restrictions and later on can involve multiple targets.

Advice: Until you hit High Rank, don't grind to make armor unless you're absolutely stuck on a monster. Upgrading armor makes total sense though. But just make what armor you can from the parts you get from assigned and (reward-giving) optional quests.

[Resileaf]

Bingo. They also tend to have additional restrictions and later on can involve multiple targets.

Advice: Until you hit High Rank, don't grind to make armor unless you're absolutely stuck on a monster. Upgrading armor makes total sense though. But just make what armor you can from the parts you get from assigned and (reward-giving) optional quests.

I've been upgrading the hunter armor since the beginning, and I'm now at the quest where you have to trap the walking volcano. Haven't had much trouble yet, but I suppose that's because it's a good all-around armor with no weaknesses or strengths to speak of.

[MCerberus]

I've been upgrading the hunter armor since the beginning, and I'm now at the quest where you have to trap the walking volcano. Haven't had much trouble yet, but I suppose that's because it's a good all-around armor with no weaknesses or strengths to speak of.

MINE EVERYTHING. That mission gives you early access to some materials that patterns from the latter two zones use.

[Resileaf]

MINE EVERYTHING. That mission gives you early access to some materials that patterns from the latter two zones use.

Your advice will be remembered.
Can't wait to see what upgrades that can give to my greatsword!

[Rising Phoenix]

Barring the connection issues (and they are a huge issue) the pc port is bloody fantastic. Though I can definitely say that the game will need more monsters than the current roster. There don't seem to be enough atm.

[Velaryon]

Also, are investigations basically just "self targeted quests," so instead of hunting for a quest that involves a monster you want you can pull up an investigation that gives good rewards for it and do that?

Yep. You'll pick up Investigations randomly while on other missions, by doing things like killing small monsters, breaking parts off large monsters, picking up tracks, etc. You'll get some ones like "slay 12 Gajau (the aggressive catfish creatures in the Wildspire Waste near Jyuratodus's location)" that are probably not worth doing, but most will be to either hunt or capture a large monster.

There are a lot of variations - some will only give 30 or even 15 minutes to complete, or limit you to a max of 2 players, or allow more or fewer faints before failing the mission. And then there are some where you have to beat two or even three monsters within the time limit.

[Resileaf]

Yep. You'll pick up Investigations randomly while on other missions, by doing things like killing small monsters, breaking parts off large monsters, picking up tracks, etc. You'll get some ones like "slay 12 Gajau (the aggressive catfish creatures in the Wildspire Waste near Jyuratodus's location)" that are probably not worth doing, but most will be to either hunt or capture a large monster.

There are a lot of variations - some will only give 30 or even 15 minutes to complete, or limit you to a max of 2 players, or allow more or fewer faints before failing the mission. And then there are some where you have to beat two or even three monsters within the time limit.

To add to this, investigations will also sometimes have boosts to certain gathering nodes, such as mining or flowers or beetles or whatever.

[Velaryon]

To add to this, investigations will also sometimes have boosts to certain gathering nodes, such as mining or flowers or beetles or whatever.

I forgot about those, so thanks for mentioning.

Investigations are good for when you need more pieces from a particular monster, or just need to build up stronger gear before you can progress the next story mission. Need more thunder resistance to beat Kirin? Grind a bunch of Tobi-Kadachi investigations to make some armor with better resistance. Need a good water weapon for a certain monster? Grind some Jyuratodus investigations til you can finish upgrading one that meets your needs.

[kyoryu]

I've been upgrading the hunter armor since the beginning, and I'm now at the quest where you have to trap the walking volcano. Haven't had much trouble yet, but I suppose that's because it's a good all-around armor with no weaknesses or strengths to speak of.

You're still early. You may find the need to forge/upgrade some different armor as you get closer to the end of Low Rank. That's fine - it won't take that many materials, you should have extras from assigned/optional quests, and you could make a decent patchy set of gear in Low Rank without every grinding.

And if you do need those parts for an upgrade later on, it'll be super quick to get them since you'll be a bit overgeared by the time you come back to them.

[Rynjin]

So what's everybody's weapons of choice? I've been rolling with the Hammer for a while, but looking at crafting a good Insect Glaive as well.

Dunno if it'll be more satisfying than knocking a monster so hard it forgets its momma's name, but it looks fun.

[MCerberus]

So what's everybody's weapons of choice? I've been rolling with the Hammer for a while, but looking at crafting a good Insect Glaive as well.

Dunno if it'll be more satisfying than knocking a monster so hard it forgets its momma's name, but it looks fun.

What's satisfying is using explosive shots on a bowgun and dodging the monster as it dives head first into your proximity bombs at juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust the right moment. "Hey guys, I made diablos horns!"

Also the only way minigun mode on HBGs could feel better is if they gave your character a cigar while your shooting.

Will warn you, bowguns get really, really fiddly with optimization for recoil/reload/range and your dodge game has to be on point.

I also enjoy spinning to win with hammers.

[Rynjin]

Not a fan of the spinny move. Uppercut into combo is where it's at, Bang them Bigly while they're down and you're gold. Spin move is unreliable and feels like it's only there to punish you for charging for too long, or whacking the monster a bunch when they're temporarily resting because you tired them out.

Unless you mean the sliding attack, in which case: yes.

[Rising Phoenix]

Always used longsword as my main. Yeah, I know, I am such a weeb...

Used to also used greatsword and hammer in tri, but I think I'll just focus on building my ls collection for now.

[chainer1216]

I can use every weapon but my favorite are Charge Blade, Gunlance, and Hunting Horn, in that order.

[Eurus]

I really, really want to learn how to make bowguns work well. It seems to take so long to actually kill stuff, though.

[Velaryon]

So what's everybody's weapons of choice? I've been rolling with the Hammer for a while, but looking at crafting a good Insect Glaive as well.

Dunno if it'll be more satisfying than knocking a monster so hard it forgets its momma's name, but it looks fun.

In order of how much I use them, my weapons of choice are: insect glaive, hammer, bow, switch axe.

Insect glaive is tons of fun! To get the most out of it, I recommend when nurturing a kinsect that you prioritize its speed over all else, to make it easiest to grab the buffs you need.

You probably won't feel like you're doing as much damage as you do with the hammer, but in trade you get unparalleled mobility, way more chances to mount, and the relative safety of often being outside the radius of a lot of monster attacks because you're busy flying all around its body stabbing it a dozen times.



Not a fan of the spinny move. Uppercut into combo is where it's at, Bang them Bigly while they're down and you're gold. Spin move is unreliable and feels like it's only there to punish you for charging for too long, or whacking the monster a bunch when they're temporarily resting because you tired them out.

Unless you mean the sliding attack, in which case: yes.

Are you aware that you can interrupt the spinning attack with a hammer uppercut? Once I figured that out it really cut down on the "flailing at empty air" problem. The spin move is a big part of my arsenal against enemies that move around too much to get the longer stationary combos off.

[Rynjin]

You can, but there's still a TON of end lag to deal with. Not saying it's never useful, but you're COMMITTED for a solid 2 seconds minimum once you start, which can give the monster a free hit.

[Doorhandle]

So what's everybody's weapons of choice? I've been rolling with the Hammer for a while, but looking at crafting a good Insect Glaive as well.

Dunno if it'll be more satisfying than knocking a monster so hard it forgets its momma's name, but it looks fun.

I havn't touched MHW for a while, but I was a dual-blades main, supplementing with hammer and bow when I didn't have the right element.

Insect glaive is a lot of fun, but there's an art to GITTING GUD at it, as opposed to my thing where's it's an endless game of "how long can I airjuggle myself?"


You can, but there's still a TON of end lag to deal with. Not saying it's never useful, but you're COMMITTED for a solid 2 seconds minimum once you start, which can give the monster a free hit.
Can confirm, spinny hammer will get you hit a lot unless you use the cancel well.
What you really want as a hammer user is an opportunity to go nuts with O-button spam. A full combo of that on the head will ruin basically anything's day.
Sliding attack with hammer is also second to none: it would be second to dual-blade's slide attack, but I find the latter is super inconsistent in landing the full Levi-spin.
Also you want to use the circle+R1 charge as much as possible, but as you can charge that while moving it's not a big issue.

[Velaryon]

You can, but there's still a TON of end lag to deal with. Not saying it's never useful, but you're COMMITTED for a solid 2 seconds minimum once you start, which can give the monster a free hit.

This hasn't been my experience that often. Rather than getting hit by the monster, what usually happens to me is the monster moves out of my range before the attack animation ends. I really wish the hammer had just a bit wider attack range, as it feels like I just about have to crawl inside the monsters to hit them sometimes.


Can confirm, spinny hammer will get you hit a lot unless you use the cancel well.
What you really want as a hammer user is an opportunity to go nuts with O-button spam. A full combo of that on the head will ruin basically anything's day.
Sliding attack with hammer is also second to none: it would be second to dual-blade's slide attack, but I find the latter is super inconsistent in landing the full Levi-spin.
Also you want to use the circle+R1 charge as much as possible, but as you can charge that while moving it's not a big issue.

Yep, spamming that combo is a good way to deal hilarious amounts of damage. The problem is it requires monsters to more or less stay still for an awfully long time, and so it usually only comes up when they're stunned, and then only if you begin pretty much immediately.
Sliding/jumping attack is wonderful. Creating more opportunities to use it is probably the single biggest area in which I need to improve with the hammer.
Does charging your hammer multiple times stack? I've never been able to tell.

[Aidan305]

Picked this up a couple of weeks ago, I've been having a lot of fun with the gunlance (Explosions everywhere...) to the point where it's been my go-to game for light gameplay for 20mins. World is beautiful, creatures are great, and my palico is a wonderful companion (I particularly enjoy playing with my cat who I named my Palico after sleeping on me)
Currently hunting down a strange rathian-like creature. Looking forward to seeing what it is.