============================= Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide ============================= by: aquashiram14 contact: aquashiram14 (at) gmail (dot) com -------- PREAMBLE -------- I'm not too much of an artsy ASCII person so don't expect much beyond nice headings and occassional boxes. I've written a guide for Dual Swords, my specialty weapon. Currently I'm proficient with Dual Swords and somewhat proficient with Long Sword and Hunting Horn, both of which I'm learning to use. Hopefully one day I'll take up the Bow because archery is cool. And also I've heard that the Lance is a pretty cool weapon but I'm actually really bad with shields owing to the fact that I'm so used to just never guarding myself (DSes and LSes can't block). So maybe instead I'll try the Switch Axe--that Grim Cat one is fabulous. When I'm not playing Monster Hunter, I'm either drawing, writing, or playing Pokemon and/or Legend of Zelda, among others. Game: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (or Monster Hunter 3G) Console: Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U Cross-platform compatibility? Yes Able to transfer save files? Yes Online capabilities? Yes, only on Wii U Local multiplayer? Yes, only on Nintendo 3DS (or on Wii U copy and one 3DS copy) The Monster Hunter Tri online server for the Wii has been shut down as of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate's release. Every monster can be fought solo offline, but of course every monster can also be fought online/local multiplayer with friends. Please email me with anything helpful and even your own opinions and tips that you want included. LEGAL INFORMATION Guide only allowed to be used by GameFAQs so far. Please give me credit if you recommend it to someone else. Please do not distribute or reproduce for profit or stupid things like that. This is MY work and I reserve the rights to it. CREDITS Capcom for making such a great game Blu for correcting many, many mistakes in my weapons section, and correcting some inaccuracies about Ceadeus weapons vs. Plesioth weapons (among other things). Also he's the author of the Dire Miralis section. Nintendo for allowing this game to be played on their consoles Me for creating this guide You for reading VERSION HISTORY Started May 27th, 2013 July 29th, 2013: Finished the basics and has whole Table of Contents outlined Finished up to Section 3 Ver. 0.10 Not released July 31st, 2013: Finished up to 3-star quests Ver 0.20 Not released August 1st, 2013: Has at least a skeleton for everything Finished up to 4-star quests Ver 0.50 Not released August 6th, 2013: Finished up to 8-star quests (for the most part) Ver 0.70 First version released August 12th, 2013: Finished all the 8-star quests, including Brachydios Correcting minor typos Fixed some inaccuracies Ver 0.75 August 13th, 2013: Finally finished the Zinogre urgent quest (why had I forgotten that??) and begun 9-star quests. Filled out the Arena and DLC quest sections Ver 0.85 August 20th, 2013: School's started, updates are comin' slower. Lots of stuff from Blu, including a new Dire Miralis section Filled out some brief introductions to other G-Rank new subspecies, etc. 9-star quests about 2/3rds done Ver 0.90 Not released August 27th, 2013: Finished off Mark of a Hero and begun a rough draft for Alatreon's village quest "The Brilliant Darkness" Revised some typos, finished off most of the 9-star quests, including Deviljho and Ivory Lagiacrus Fleshed out the G Rank section and corrected minor inaccuracies Can be considered "complete" Ver 1.00 September 13th, 2013: Filling in more G Rank monster infos as I plunge into the deeper throes of G Rank! Beginning to offer more in-depth guides for the new monsters you encounter and added a more in-depth guide on Goldbeard Ceadeus--similar in-depth- ness to the normal Ceadeus quest guide. Figured it'd be handy for all the people farming him for Helios/Selene X/Z armor. ================================================================================ ******************************************************************************** Table of Contents ******************************************************************************** ================================================================================ 0. Preamble, Legal Information, Credits, Version History MOGA 1. Introduction What is Monster Hunter? 2. Your Most Basic Assets Weapons Armor and Armor Skills Farming for Resources Items Quests Combat Capture If You're Defeated Tanzia Port Multiplayer 3. Your Allies Dances Masks 4. The Beginning of an Adventure Moga Woods pt. 1 Moga Woods pt. 2 Moga Woods pt. 3 Moga Woods pt. 4 Moga Woods Freehunting 5. 1-Star Quests Harvest Shroom Farm Aid Guts: It's What's for Dinner No Love for Ludroth Prescription Pickup Goldenfish Opportunity Sunken Treasures 6. 2-Star Quests Harvest Tour: Sandy Plains Pain in the Plains Bear Trap Shakalaka Savior Bug Hunt My Lord's Errand Who's the Boss? Secret of the Crystal Bones No Guts, No Glory 7. 3-Star Quests Harvest Tour: Flooded Forest Playing with Fire Save Our Boat Leading the Charge Accident Investigation Trapping a Trickster A Royal Pain Rhenoplos Rampage! Herbivore Egg Hunt! Toxic Troublemaker Pest Control The Deadliest Catch 8. 4-Star Quests Harvest Tour: Tundra The Snowbound Slider Leader of the Icepack Dragon Lady Trial of the Sea Dragon Fell the Lagiacrus! Hunter Killer Lost in the Blue Cold Stones Poached Wyvern Eggs A Royal Rumble The Creeping Venom 9. 5-Star Quests: The Final Showdown! Harvest Tour: Volcano The Lord of the Seas Heat Exhaustion Shakalaka Savior II Walk 'N' Roll The Desert Gourmand The Wrath of Rathalos A Bard's Tale The Volcano's Fury Save Moga Village! Poison Control Hammer Time The Horned Wyvern The Omen Denizen of the Molten Deep Uragaan's Trail The Decisive Battle 10. 6-Star Quests Harvest Tour: Sandy Plains Harvest Tour: Flooded Forest Harvest Tour: Misty Peaks The Jaggia Menace Field Trip Toxic Troublemaker Bye-Bye, Bloom Pink Queen of the Peaks Splash Damage The Merchant's Mission Current Events Herd Mentality Leading the Charge Desert Warfare Hair of the Dog Double Jeopardy Bully the Bullfango Under the Yolk Siren's Song 11. 7-Star Quests Harvest Tour: Tundra Rockslide Snowball Fight Shocking Development Masked Robbery Scene of the Crime On Thin Ice Leader of the Icepack Research Assistance Designer Antlers Toxin Avenger The Write Stuff Rumble in the Great Desert 12. 8-Star Quests Harvest Tour: Volcano The Fishermen's Fiend Denizen of the Molten Deep The Moving Mountain "Brachydios" Means Trouble Howl at the Moon Troubled Waters The Horned Wyvern The Desert Gourmand The Lost Expedition The Volcano's Fury Twin Peaks [Canteen]The Endless Hunt Clobberin' Time! 13. 9-Star Quests Desert Storm Jumping at Shadows Heaven and Earth Midnight Madness Ace in the Hole Echo Location Conqueror of Land and Sea Into the Fire Mark of a Hero The Brilliant Darkness Azure Attack Triple Threat Operation: Paradise Lost Lurkers in the Woods Triumph of the Tyrants Frozen Bloodlust ============= Introduction ============= Hello everyone, I am aquashiram14. There's only one other guide on Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate out currently so I figured having one more with its own unique insights couldn't ever hurt. I won't call my guide anything special, but considering that I started this game as a total, noob beginner, I will include EVERYTHING that any beginner will need help with. I was a beginner (and still am, in some ways) and so I know what beginners need help that veteran hunters might not even think about. Therefore, if you are a beginner, then this guide should suit you very well. There might be a seemingly large amount of unnecessary information, but believe me, I hung onto every bit of knowledge that I could to get by. Your average Monster Hunter fanbase can be divided into roughly two groups: the seasoned, hardened veterans and the noobiest of noobs. Whenever the latter group asks the former a question, your typical reply is something along the lines of go-away-if-you-can't-even-defeat-[Monster]-then-you-don't-deserve-to- be-a-fan-of-Monster-Hunter. Unfortunately, every new hunter must be a beginner, one does not improve overnight, and so this guide will help you hapless beginners in what is hopefully the best way possible. Research and knowing is paramount in Monster Hunter. But you don't have to dive straight in to know what to do! Whole sites, such as the Monster Hunter Wiki, and many gamers on Youtube have a plethora of monster-specific guides, so all you have to do is Google and you'll find something that'll tell you exactly what a monster can do. That will save you a great deal of frustration. Continue on and let the Monster Madness begin! ----------------------- What IS Monster Hunter? ----------------------- All right, so you don't even really know what this game is. You've picked it up because someone gave it to you, lent it to you, or you were super rich and decided, hey, why not buy the thing and give it a spin. Monster Hunter is exactly what it says on the tin. You hunt monsters. That was the short answer. Here's the long answer. This game operates on a very quest-centered gameplay. What you do is you talk to the Guild Sweetheart (more on that later) and you pick a quest. Then you agree to take it and off you go to your quest. Complete its required objectives, get your rewards, rinse, repeat. But woah! That's too simple for such a great game! Most of the quests involve hunting large, boss-class monsters. They are ENORMOUS. Like, legit, bigger than you. And some of the bigger monsters are so big you can climb them and HARVEST STUFF off of them. Without them noticing. Each monster has its own set of weaknesses and strengths and will roam different set areas (like dungeons, I suppose) that you will roam around looking for the monster and chasing it around. Quests themselves belong to three classes. Low Rank, High Rank, and G Rank. In order of ascending difficulty. Low Rank in 3 Ultimate is much easier with a much smoother learning curve than in previous installments, so kudos to you, you picked a good game to start with :) That said, transitioning into High Rank can be a nightmare...and that's where I will be doing my best to assist you as well! CRAZY preparation is required, as such. Some armor sets have skills that will be great on one monster and useless on another. Some monsters are weak to elements that another monster may be immune to. So you'll need to pick your armor and weapons carefully. You also will have to gather materials to forge said armor. For the most part, such parts come from defeating or capturing boss-class monsters, and the rewards are usually their parts: Hides, scales, fins, beaks, whiskers, etc. (nothing gruesome I promise). Other miscellaneous materials, such as ORES, BUGS, and lots of MONEY will also be needed. Such materials come from you farming around on mineable rocks and fluttering bugs using pickaxes and bug nets. And the money is part of quest rewards. You can also sell stuff. ================================================================================ Your Most Basic Assets ================================================================================ There is a TON of information that will be tossed right at you when you start a new game file. Just take a deep breath, save, and read this. The following will take up a large chunk of this guide but believe me, as a beginner, you will NEED to know everything that I am telling you. NOTE: Press START and you will open up a menu. Find "HUNTER'S NOTES" and you'll find an IN GAME MANUAL. READ IT. First off, the most crucial. Your currency in this game is the "zennie", or z for short. There, now you know. Zennie is very, very important. Upgrading and forging armor and weapons will always require money in addition to the resources (the "ingredients". More on that later). So save up. Second. Controls. It's in your Hunter's Notes in-game, too. These controls are exchangeable between Wii U and 3DS. IN MOGA VILLAGE/TANZIA PORT Circle Pad: Move around D-Pad: Scroll through lists and options (the touchscreen D-Pad will serve the same function) START: Open up the main menu A: Talk to people, confirm choices/options. Press A in front of your bed in Moga Village to save. B: Cancel choices/options. X and Y: No use L: Can target specific people to talk to. Scroll between pages. R: Scroll between pages. HOME: Go to the HOME menu. The touchscreen has several other functions and is fully customizable. OUT IN THE FIELD HUNTING/GATHERING/ETC. CONTROLS THAT ALWAYS APPLY Circle Pad: Move around. Depending on how far in a direction you push it, you'll creep up, walk, or jog. D-Pad: Scroll through lists and options (the touchscreen D-Pad will serve the same function). Also use this to toggle the camera. START: Open the main menu Hold L: Your item menu will pop up in your lower right hand corner of the main screen. Use A and Y to scroll left and right, respectively, between your items. You can also use items by touching them in the touch screen if it's customized accordingly. Circle Pad + Hold R: Sprint/swim fast. Costs stamina! A: Confirm options in the main menu, gather/mine/catch bugs near gathering points. B: Cancel options in the main menu or duck. If you're moving and you press B, you'll roll. Wii U users and Circle Pad Pro owners can utilize the right circle pad/joystick to toggle the camera. If you customize the touch screen with the virtual D-pad, you can toggle the camera via touch screen. COMBAT CONTROLS X: Unsheathe your weapon and do an unsheathe attack if your weapon wasn't previously unsheathed A: If your weapon is unsheathed, you'll do a secondary attack that's normally shorter than your main attack X: If your weapon is unsheathed, you'll use your primary attack R: If your weapon is unsheathed, you'll use your special ability if using Dual Swords, Great Swords, Long Swords, etc., and your shield if using a weapon that includes a shield. Hold L: You can still scroll through your items. Y: Sheathe your weapon. Use item that you've chosen by scrolling around if weapon is sheathed. Tap L: If the monster has spotted you and you've tapped its icon on the touch screen, you can tap L and the camera will auto-lock on the monster. Useful if you do not own a Circle Pad Pro for your 3DS, underwater combat, or if you're a beginner. Circle Pad + R + B: If your weapon is sheathed and the monster has spotted you (i.e. you can auto-lock on it), you will do a "panic dive" that will grant you a moment of invulnerability that's longer than a standard roll. B: Sheathed or unsheathed, you'll go into a roll. Demon Mode hunters will instead do a Demon Dash. While you're moving really fast through the air, you're also invincible for roughly 2/30ths of a second. Complicated? Sure. But it's nothing you can't handle. ------- Weapons ------- Obviously, one of your most important pieces of gear will be your WEAPON. Good for you, Monster Hunter offers an astonishing TWELVE Weapon classes. You really shouldn't have any trouble picking a weapon that suits you. Good piece of advice: Don't pick a weapon right away because it looks so cool. Because it might be a very difficult weapon to master. If you know what you want, though, dive in. But if you have no idea, I HIGHLY recommend you start off with a Sword and Shield. All right. Weapons at their broadest can be divided into two specific classes: Blademasters and Gunners. Blademasters use bladed weapons...or hammer-like weapons. Because apparently all Blademaster weapons lose sharpness, even hammers. Gunners use ranged weapons such as Bows. Blademasters will need to carry Whetstones with them at all times to keep even their hammers sharp, and Gunners will need to carry Ammo and/or Coatings depending on the ranged weapon you pick. Blademasters weapons can be divided even further into two more classes: Cut and Impact. Weapons in the Cutting class deal cutting damage, and can cut tails. Weapons in the Impact class deal impact damage, and can KO monsters (they will fall to the ground with stars above their head, giving you a good few seconds to wail away) but cannot cut tails. Cutting weapons cannot KO monsters. NOTE: If you pick up an impact weapon, aim for the head. The game will start you out with the most basic weapon from each of the twelve classes, meaning it's of no harm to you to try them all out. If you're a total rookie, pick a weapon class you're most comfortable with and keep on upgrading it. Don't worry about having to keep two or more weapon classes continually up to date, it can be an incredibly big drain on your money (upgrading and forging isn't cheap) and can make farming a long and incredibly frustrating affair. Get yourself familiar with the game, love it, and then later on go back and acquire other weapons. Here is a slightly more in-depth look at the 12 weapon classes. GREAT SWORD (GS) ---------------- The GS is the flagship weapon of Monster Hunter and is the most iconic. The boxart shows a hunter in Azure Rathalos armor and the matching Great Sword. It is by far one of the coolest pieces of badassery ever invented and you will likely want to use one straightaway What makes the GS so SPECIAL is its charge attack, which can hit for massive damage. It's a slow weapon, however, because you do have to sit there waiting for the charge, so it will require a lot of prediction and timing on your part. The Great Sword also has the very nifty Guard ability. (Credit to BLU). LONG SWORD (LS) --------------- For those looking for a balance between the power of the Great Sword but the mobility of say a Sword and Shield, the Long Sword may be the weapon for you. Or if you're just obsessed with katanas. The Long Sword has much less power than the Great Sword but it attacks faster. It has a large hit range which is advantageous when you're trying to wallop a head or tail but it's far away from you. Long Sword also has a special "Spirit Dance". If you land a successful hit, your Spirit Gauge fills up. Once it's at least partially filled, you can use the R shoulder button to attack using a special Spirit Attack that does more damage. The drawback is that you can't block. Another common problem if you play online through Wii U or locally through 3DS is that its sheer attack range can often trip other players. You won't hurt them, but you'll interrupt their combos or chargings, which can be annoying. SWORD AND SHIELD (SnS) ---------------------- The basic jack-of-all-stats, master of none weapon. It's light and mobile. What it lacks in power it makes up for in utter simplicity. What makes the Sword and Shield so darned special is that even if your weapon is unsheathed, you can still use items! EVERY other weapon requires you sheathe your weapon before you can use an item. This is what makes it such an especially beginner-oriented weapon. The SnS also (obviously) comes with a shield. Meaning if you can't evade an attack, you can block it. Later on, you can even block very...odd attacks, such as a monster using its lantern as a Flash Bomb to stun you. It's Monster Hunter. DON'T ASK QUESTIONS. The major drawback of the SnS is its low damage output (about as low as the Dual Swords) but with relatively fair damage-per-second, plus all the other things SnS has going for it, makes it a weapon that if well used, can be your pro weapon of choice even into the higher ranks! DUAL SWORDS (DS) ---------------- Referred in the game as Dual Blades, but just about everyone calls them Dual Swords. Also known affectionately as the Spam Attack and the "weapon that makes the game easy". Definitely one of the more controversial weapon classes. Dual Swords are two swords that are dual-wielded. Once again, similar to the Long Sword, you cannot block. In exchange for the highest DPS in the game, you lose out on a lot of raw power and the large hit-range offered by such weapons like the Long Sword. Attacks can be chained together to form long, elaborate combos, but said combos can be stopped anytime by rolling. Dual Swords have their own powerful mode akin to the Spirit Dance called Demon Mode. At a cost of constant stamina drain, your attack power is amped up and you attack faster and dodge faster. If you fill up your Demon Gauge, you enter Archdemon Mode, which is Demon Mode even more powerful without stamina drain. LANCE ----- A heavier weapon. If you use these, be sure to get into the habit of regularly sheathing them when you need to go after a monster who's run away. It attacks with a speed akin to the Long Sword and has a similarly large attack range. Because you don't swoosh it all over the place though, you're less likely to trip other players. It has a shield, so you can block attacks (as opposed to Long Swords, for example, which rely on evasion). The Lances have a counter ability that you can use to counterstab a monster. It might not hit for much damage but it is a useful trait of the Lances that not many other weapons possess. (Credit to BLU). But despite their brute power and stoic wall-ness, Lances can be surprisingly precise, able to attack very much on-target--great for when you're trying to break a specific part. HAMMER ------ One of two impact weapons in the Blademasters class. They are essentially faster Great Swords that aren't so heavy (you can run even if it's unsheathed). As mentioned before, you have the special ability to KO a monster by whacking them on the head enough times. Again, hammers are slow, so you'll need timing in excess and awesome prediction skills in order to get off good hits. Where Cutting weapons fail, hammers often shine, especially on monsters such as Barroth and any other monster with an exceptionally hard head...literally. Like Great Swords, hammers have their own charge mode, but unlike Great Swords, you can still move (slowly) around, making it easier to reach full charge. Hammers also have a special attack where you charge up and then you spin around while holding out your hammer, bashing monsters to pieces and/or sending your allies flying if you're not careful. HUNTING HORN ------------ Very similar to hammer, but because it's a new weapon, it didn't suffer the slight nerf the hammer got in 3 Ultimate. The Hunting Horn's main gimmick that sets it apart is that you can PLAY SONGS, like Link's OCARINA. The bare basics of the hunting horn is that each attack you can perform will correspond to a note of a certain color. If you attack in a certain order, you can get the notes into a specific order. Press the R shoulder button, and you will use your Maestro ability to play a SONG. Songs can do things like boost attack or defense, restore HP...yeah. If you're going multiplayer and someone has a hunting horn, consider yourself blessed. You can also use the songs to heal yourself, meaning if you find the time for it, you have access to unlimited healing! Hunting horn is THE multiplayer support weapon. Play a song and watch the love spread. SWITCH AXE ---------- Most of this information is credited to BLU. New weapon of this generation! The switch axe is a weapon that can switch between a sword and an axe. Pretty cool. Because it can switch very fluidly between the two, it makes for a fantastically versatile weapon. It's like...a Swiss Army Weapon! Also, the Switch Axe has its own special charge meter (like Long Sword and Dual Sword), and once it's filled up you can use it, Blade form only, to attack with enhanced power for massive damage. Just like Long Swords and Dual Swords, Switch Axes can't block. Sure wish they could, and you'd think they could, but they can't. GUNLANCE -------- A bit of a hybrid between Blademaster and Gunner. You can shoot stuff with it. And you can also get up close and attack with its lance. So if you're experienced with Monster Hunter (practice makes perfect) and you kinda want to try out a Gunners weapon but you're not so sure where to start, the Gunlance is a good idea. It is a heavy weapon, so be sure to keep it sheathed when not in use. If you need to score a ton of damage, you can unleash your super-powerful WYVERN FIRE attack, which exchanges a great deal of sharpness for a blast of ammo fire that will rain damage upon your monster. Keep your Whetstones supplies full. Of note is that Gunlances do not use Ammo. Each Gunlance has its own specific Ammo already assigned to it, so you can't change the Ammo nor do you have to bring any. LIGHT BOWGUN ------------ Entirely gunner. You cannot get into melee range with this and expect to make it out alive. So keep your distance and unleash hell on the monster. The Bowgun has a TON of specific attacks to it and the Heavy Bowgun, such as being able to shower all your ammo at once and nuke out the monster. It's also light and mobile, so you can run around while it's unsheathed without worry about it slowing you down. That comes at the expense of power, similar to SnS and DS. Bowguns in general are always great distance weapons in multiplayer. While everyone else is running around attacking it, you could use a Gunners weapon and attack from afar to keep the monster hunter pressure. You can also use your ammo to blow up barrel bombs from afar ;) HEAVY BOWGUN ------------ The more powerful but slower version of the Light Bowgun. Sheathe it if you're not using it. It has much higher raw power, so consider it if you want to save ammo. Otherwise, everything else I said above for the Light Bowgun applies for the Heavy Bowgun. BOW --- A bit of an odd Gunners weapon. You don't need Ammo because you have UNLIMITED arrows (it's like a bottomless quiver). It's a light weapon, like the Light Bowgun, but as with all light weapons, it has lower power. In order to acquire the different characteristics of damage, such as elemental power and status effects, you can combine different items together to create COATINGS. You coat your arrows with it and fire it at the monster. One of the easier Gunners weapons to use because you don't have to worry about ammo, but it can take quite a while to bring down a monster with it. There you have it. Your weapons. YOUR BASIC WEAPONS INFORMATION ------------------------------ You obviously can't stick to your very basic Hunter's Knife or Iron Sword forever. You'll eventually have to FORGE and UPGRADE to get even BETTER weapons with better MAX SHARPNESS and higher RAW POWER. And even better ELEMENTAL AFFINITY. Do NOT confuse ELEMENTAL AFFINITY with AFFINITY. AFFINITY is basically how friendly your weapon is to you. The higher the affinity, the greater the chance you could score a CRITICAL HIT on your monster (i.e. hit for a wallop of damage and maybe even flinch). Affinity really only comes into play once you reach High and G Rank. Elemental Affinity is simply the element of your weapon and the elemental power of your weapon. If a boss monster is weak to a weapon with the fire element, the weapon will strike bonus damage based on the fire element's power. Some weapons that you'll look at don't have any elemental affinity! What??? I thought ALL weapons did. Well, they do. Your Matched Slicers actually have an elemental affinity of Ice 50. It just doesn't show up, nor will it exist even if you fight an ice-weak monster. So what's up with that? Such an elemental affinity is dormant and requires a special armor skill called AWAKEN (G Rank only). You can get through Low Rank and most of High Rank without having to worry one tiny bit about such a thing, but in G Rank is when you'll want to consider if you want to get Awaken to use weapons that need Awaken, or forego it entirely and simply use weapons that have elemental power without any other requirements. Now, then, you can forge weapons. Or you can upgrade weapons. About 90% of the weapons ever in existence can ONLY be obtained via long and ridiculously complex upgrade trees. I'll give you one as an example. The Matched Slicers can upgrade to Matched Slicers+, which could upgrade to Jaggid Shotels (which you could forge off the bat, but for more resources and a higher cost). These in turn upgrade to Jaggid Shotels+, which could upgrade to either Leader's Shotels or Twin Acrus. The Leader's Shotels upgrade to Flamestorm, the Twin Acrus upgrades to Twin Acrus+. Both are upgrade-only. But the Twin Acrus itself can be forged, skipping a great deal of the beginning of the tree, meaning you'll likely take the Leader's Shotels path to reach the Flamestorm, a ridiculously powerful fire weapon based on the Agnaktor. Another example (again, Dual Swords because I am a DS user, bear with me and KNOW that this applies to ALL weapon classes) is the Ludroth Pair. This is splat in the middle of an upgrade tree, again, but can be forged off the bat. It upgrades to either Ludroth Pair+ or Bloodwings. But both are upgrade-only, so either pick one, or forge another Ludroth Pair to get both via upgrade. So as you can tell, you'll probably want an external source. Google is your best friend. ACTUALLY FORGING WEAPONS ------------------------ Cool, now you know. So how to FORGE weapons? Talk to the goblin-like guy named Smithy, he'll forge you your weapons. Your weapons will always last, don't worry about there being any age or wear'ntear mechanic in this game. Let's say you want yourself a cool-looking LANCE. Ah! The THANE LANCE. It's based off the Jaggi and is accessible enough, and is right splat in the middle of an upgrade tree. It will cost you 4,000z and requires 5 Pelagicite Ores, 2 Machalite Ores, and 8 Jaggi Scales. Woah. That's a lot. Forging weapons will require much more than upgrading weapons. Given the option, you might want to consider upgrading instead of forging, unless you want to take both upgrade paths and one is upgradeable and the other is upgradeable or forgeable. So save up your zennie and have fun forging! By the way, it is for this reason that hunters who have mastered several different weapons will always have a harder time scrounging up the materials and zennie they need. ---------------------- Armor and Armor Skills ---------------------- All right. Armor can be a bit more complicated than weapons. The game starts you out with a full set of Leather Armor. Ridiculously generous of them. Monster Hunter Tri kicked you out the door naked. I suppose it's part of the whole let's-try-to-make-this-game-noob-friendly thing. There's virtually a set of armor for each big boss-class monster. If you've defeated a Barroth, sooner or later you'll unlock the Barroth armor set. Some armors don't correspond to any specific monster, such as the Chainmail set and the Bone set. You definitely do NOT need EVERY single monster's armor set. In fact, I strongly discourage you from doing so unless you're aiming for 100% completion or until you hit High or G Rank. At Low Rank, all you need are maybe 3 or 4 different armor sets that are resistant to a wide variety of elements, and that's that. (Same goes for weapons, by the way) Before I dive into the explicit stuff, I'll just tell you some of the better armor sets to have at Low Rank. In fact, these are the ONLY armor sets you'll really actually kinda want to get. Great Jaggi (one of the earliest armor sets, and definitely good) Great Wroggi (negate poison plus razor sharp for blademasters is a godsend) Gobul (actually not required, but you swim faster which will help with the final boss and others) Qurupeco (for its early-game-ness, its defense is awesome) Lagiacrus/Rathalos (its high base defense means it'll help you transition smoothly into High Rank) Certain armors have certain skills that, while certainly not mandatory, can make other stuff easier. For example, the Altaroth, or Loc Lac, armor, increases the speed with which you transport things like eggs and stones. The Bone armor set has the Capture Guru skill, which, if you paint balled the monster (more on all this later), will flash the monster's icon when it's captureable. All right. You're confused now. I can see that furrow in your brow. Don't give up just yet. I'm turning around and going right back into the basics. FORGING ARMOR ------------- All right, well, you can't exactly figure out what armor is unless you've got some. First things first, a full armor set will nearly always have these pieces: Head Chest Waist Arms Legs 99.9% of all armor sets will have all 5 pieces. Some, like the Loc Lac set, only have a few, but these are few and far between. In Moga Village, there's a goblin-lookin' guy named the Smithy. Talk to him, he's the forger who will forge all your armor for you. Don't worry about armor falling apart or anything. Once it's forged, it'll stay together and work like a charm no matter what. Even if you put it away and never use it ever again. (The Smithy also forges your weapons) Pick a piece of armor and you'll see its cost (normally around 1,000 - 4,000 z for Low Rank) and resources necessary. For example, a Jaggi Helm costs 1,150z and requires 3 Great Jaggi Hides, 1 Great Jaggi Claw, 2 Jaggi Scales, and 3 Iron Ores. In order to obtain such materials, you'll have to defeat a few Great Jaggis, a few Jaggis, and mine for some Iron Ores. This is where you'll see the farming aspect of this game occur (in fact, farming is like, the only aspect of this game, but it's still fun). Thankfully, farming boss monsters isn't ever boring. Forging armor is the most basic of basic knowledges you'll need. Good. Now you know. On to armor skills. ARMOR SKILLS ------------- One of the more complicated parts of the game that most beginners choose to ignore, but it can make your game a hell of a lot easier if you take the time to learn. The basic, short answer I could give you is this: Make a full set of armor. Bam. Instant skills. But the longer answer will be more useful to you in the long run. Please take the time and learn and understand. Trust me on this one. Okay. Look at your Leather Armor. Press the START button. Press the right button on the D-Pad to go to the INFO tab. Go one down and you'll see the "Status" option. Press A to open it up. Ta-da! Your current armor status! If you're wearing the LEATHER ARMOR, then likely this will pop up (ignore my weapon and other variable information): Name: foxwaffles Weapon: Dual Blades HR: 1 Funds: 11,307z Res: 4,602p Health: 100 Fire: -5 Stamina: 100 Water: 0 Oxygen: 100 Ice: 0 Attack: 168 Thunder: 0 Element: none Dragon: 5 Defense: 55 Pretty much ignore the left column and look at the right column. Ignore the Res (your RESOURCE POINTS which I will explore later) and look at your elements. There are FIVE elements in monster hunter: Fire, Water, Ice, Thunder, and Dragon. There isn't really a set weakness circle like Pokemon, so you'll likely be researching each monster's weaknesses individually. In general, Fire is weak to Ice or Water, Ice is weak to Fire, Water is weak to Fire. Thunder and Dragon elements are a bit less common in Low Rank. A negative rating will indicate you are WEAK to that element. Don't go wearing this Leather Armor to fight a Qurupeco, now! But a positive rating indicates a resistance. You have Dragon resistance, for example. One very important note. If you forge armor out of a monster weak to an element, the armor will also be weak to that element. So if you need an armor set resistant to fire, don't go making a Royal Ludroth set. Next page. It will show you your current EQUIPMENT and ACTIVE SKILLS. Let's see what we've got Active Skills Weapon: Jaggid Shotels Spirit's Whim Armor Leather Headgear Speed Gatherer Leather Vest Gathering+1 Leather Gloves Leather Belt Leather Pants Charm (none) Ignore charms for now, I'll talk about those later. They're the more intricate aspect of armor customization. The cursor will automatically highlight Spirit's Whim in YELLOW and below a box will show a description of Spirit's Whim "Decreases the likelihood of Pickaxes, Bug Nets, Boomerangs, and Horns breaking." So this skill enables us to gather things easier. Press the down button on the D-Pad to highlight Speed Gatherer. "Increases carving, gathering, bug catching, and mining speed." Another gathering skill that allows us to do it all faster. Move down to Gathering+1. "Sometimes raises the number of times items can be gathered at Gathering Points." Oh, nifty! Means more chances of getting those elusive Carpenterbugs, eh? As you can tell, the Leather Armor is the perfect gathering armor to wear. If you're going out on harvest tours, just stick this on. Other armor sets may be more defensively or offensively oriented. All right. So far, so good? Good. Next page! This is where things can get pretty screwy, so I will take up a LOT of space to be as simple as possible. You'll see a table at the right and a box called "Active Skills" on the left. The table at the right will have the icon for each armor piece across the top and the three skills across the leftmost vertical column. In the table itself, you'll see the there's numbers. For example, "Whim" will have the following numbers in this order: nothing for the weapon, +2 for the head, +1 for the chest, +1 for the arms, +3 for the waist, +3 for the legs, and nothing for the charm. At the farthest rightmost vertical column, you'll see a grand total of +10. What on EARTH does this mean? Each piece of armor has its own unique SKILL POINTS. Press Y on "Whim". You'll see that the Whim Skill class has the following: 15 Divine Whim (blue font) 10 Spirit's Whim (blue font) -10 Spectre's Whim (red font) -15 Devil's Whim (red font) This means that if you had +15, you'd unlock Divine Whim, which is better than Spirit's Whim. But if you had -10 at the rightmost column, you'd have Spectre's Whim, which will negatively affect your gathering skills (i.e. make your nets and pickaxes, etc. MORE likely to break). But with this full armor set, you just have +10 skill points for Whim, so you get Spirit's Whim. Blue skills are good, red skills are bad. Later on, you'll also see NEGATIVE numbers in this table. Just as armor pieces GIVE skill points, they can also SUBTRACT skill points. Arzuros armor, for example, will give you exactly -10 skill points for Paralysis, giving you the unfortunate skill Double Paralysis. This means if you're paralyzed, you'll be paralyzed for twice as long as usual. Never wear Arzuros armor into a fight with Gobul. Besides a full set of armor, how could you get that elusive Divine Whim??? Well, that's where CHARMS and DECORATIONS can come in handy. I hope you understand how skill points work. Later on, you can mix and match armor sets to get the specific skill points you want. For now though, forging a full set of armor will get you the skills you need. CHARMS AND DECORATIONS ---------------------- Charms (also called Talismans by the game) and Decorations (Jewels) can further customize your armor. You won't unlock it at the very beginning of the game-- play through it a bit first! For now, though, I'll go over the basics. It's basically free skill points in a particular skill area. For example, the Blessing Jewel 1 gives 2 skill points to the Whim skill area. Oh, cool, let's equip it to our Leather... ...Darn. The Leather armor doesn't have any SLOTS. Slots are necessary for your Decoration Jewel things. Weapons, armors, and Talismans can each have up to 3 slots. Later on in the higher-up ranks, you could equip so many Jewels to yourself that you could essentially gem in a whole new set of skills! You'll need things like Aquaglow Jewels and Bloodrun Jewels plus random monster parts to forge new jewels. So when considering if you want to gem in a new skill or not, make sure you consider the rarity of the parts in question because sometimes farming for just a set of armor that gives that skill is easier than finding a bunch of very rare carves. Speaking of Talismans, these are much more random. Sometimes in your quest rewards or when mining, you'll get "Mystery Charm" or "Shining Charm" or other. At the end of the quest, these are "appraised" and turn into a charm giving random skill points (or subtracting) to random skills. The main difference between Decorations and Talismans is this. Remember when you were looking at your status? And you saw Charms, and saw that there was a (none) under it? Well, you can equip at most ONE Charm at a time. Or Talismans, as they're also called (jeez, make up your mind Capcom). Pick one and equip it, regardless of your armor. Decorations can be applied to each individual piece of armor only if slots are available, but there'll always be ONE space for a Talisman! And later on in the game, some Talismans will have their own slots, meaning the possibilities for your Jewels are ENDLESS! Similar to armor, Talismans can have NEGATIVE skill points associated with them. Talismans are also very RANDOM. When appraised, you cannot control which one you'll get unless you attempt some pretty hardcore RNG. But this guide will not explore RNG because I personally do not RNG and because as a beginner, you don't need to go RNGing. Keep perservering and you'll find your collection of Talismans slowly growing! --------------------- FARMING FOR RESOURCES --------------------- As you've probably noticed by now, a great deal of forging will require you to farm. You don't just farm for boss monster parts, though. You'll have to farm for ores, bugs, mushrooms, plants, honey...you name it, you'll probably have to farm it. I'll first go over farming for actual materials. If you're roaming around in Moga Woods, you might see a bug that resembles a tan butterfly, or a weirdly shaped and colored blob rock. Or a plant that looks out of place, or a group of toadstools...or even a pile of bones. Or what looks like a grey beehive. If you walk up to them, you'll see a little icon along with A. Press A and you'll GATHER materials from it. If you want to gather bugs, bring bug nets. If you want to gather from those weird rocks, use a pickaxe. Everything else is going to show you a question mark (?) with A to the bottom right of it. Just press A and you'll gather. What you get from these Gathering Spots is purely up to chance. This (?) will also show up over SMALL and LARGE monsters that you kill. Walk up to their carcasses and you'll be able to CARVE. Carving is basically you harvesting parts off of a dead monster. Most small monsters will only allow you one carve before their carcasses fade. Sometimes the big Aptonoth will allow you two. Most boss monsters allow you three, and some of the largest monsters may allow you up to NINE. But for you Low Rank folks, expect three. If the boss monster you're fighting has a tail you can "break" (i.e. cut off), and I will go into this later as well, the tail will usually allow you one carve. Then you'll acquire the respective items. Be aware that your Item Pouch can be filled up. If it fills up, you'll have to either discard what you just farmed or discard something else to make room. So before any quest or freehunt, store your unnecessary items in your Item Box inside your house! You can also actually farm your plants, bugs, mushrooms, and honey. Moga Village has a farm run by cats (called Felynes in this game) and they will happily plant, raise, and harvest for you. In this way, you can harvest tons of things like Herbs without having to go and actually gather the darned things. At first only one Felyne farmhand will be there, but by the time you've completed your 3-star quests, you'll have all three back. Over time, you'll unlock more fields, a Honey Box, an Insect Box, and a Shroom Box. Next are RESOURCE POINTS. These are more annoying to farm for but you WILL need them. VILLAGER requests are going to require Resource Points in addition to actual resources that you'll need to defeat boss and small monsters for and go gathering for. By the way, you'll also need RESOURCE POINTS to send out boats from the Fishmongress and to use the Moga Village FARM. So it's crucial you keep your resource points up. Best way to acquire a few points? Get onto the DLC. Monster Hunter has FREE WEEKLY DLC. Yeah, that's awesome. Search around a bit and you'll find you can download for FREE... FIVE THOUSAND RESOURCE POINTS. It will VERY EASILY get you through Low Rank (unless you use the farm a TON and the fishmongress a TON in addition to EVERY SINGLE villager request lol). Just go freehunting in Moga Woods every now and then and you'll easily be able to stay above 4,000 Resource Points, which you can use for just about anything. So how to EARN Resource Points? You go freehunting in Moga Woods, which you unlock after you can start doing quests. At first, things like Jaggi and Kelbi only get you around 5 resource points, which is hardly anything to be impressed with. But after defeating your very first big monster, the Great Jaggi, big monsters will start showing up in Moga Woods if you go there to freehunt/gather. Just talk to Junior, who stands on a bit pile of boxes/pillar thing, or use your touch screen to access the MOGA WOODS FORECAST. It will tell you things like if there's a ton of Jaggi breeding, or if the herbivores are breeding (a great way to get dung and super-sized dung for your fertilizer), AND if there's been large monster sightings. Large monsters are worth 100 - almost a thousand resource points, meaning you'll be freehunting a lot. You get infinite lives, too, so you can't possibly fail! It'll also be good practice for you too :) ----- ITEMS ----- Your Item Box, as you've probably gathered (no pun intended) by now is pretty important. Go to your room and you'll see a big blue box. Go up to it and press A, and the following options will appear: Store Items (obviously, you store items) Remove Items (remove items) Combine/Manage Items --> Combine Box Items, Combo List, Reorder, Sell Manage Equipment --> Equip, View Talismans, Set Decorations, Reorder, Sell Change Appearance --> Change Clothing, Change Hairstyle, Facial Features, Change Armor Pigment (High/G Rank only) Equipment Sets --> Equip a Set, Register Equipment, Reorder, Remove a Set As you can tell, tons of stuff you do here. You'll want to store your monster carves and quest rewards here, along with spare healing items, etc. You'll want to remove items that you will need for quests (Potions, etc.), but you don't need to remove items necessary for forging, as it is automatically removed from your box once you choose to forge/upgrade. You can COMBINE items here. That means, you take two items, and they mash together to magically form a better item. Crucial combinations: Herb + Blue Mushroom = Potion Potion + Honey = Mega Potion Blue Mushroom + Godbug = Nutrients Nutrients + Honey = Mega Nutrients Antidote Herb + Blue Mushroom = Antidote Bomb Casing + Airweed = Oxygen Supply Catalyst + Popfish = Cleanser Catalyst + Rare Steak = Dash Juice Well-done Steak + Dash Extract = Mega Dash Juice Hot Pepper + Bitterbug = Hot Drink Ice Crystal + Bitterbug = Cool Drink Sap Plant + Stone/Iron Ore = Bomb Casing Bomb Casing + Bitterbug = Deodorant Bomb Casing + Toadstool = Poison Smoke Bomb Bomb Casing + Flashbug = Flash Bomb Bomb Casing + Dung = Dung Bomb Sap Plant + Paintberry = Paintball Bomb Casing + Exciteshroom = Farcaster Gunpowder + Screamer = Sonic Bomb Ivy + Spider Web = Net Net + Trap Tool = Pitfall Trap Thunderbug + Trap Tool = Shock Trap Tranquilizer + Bomb Casing = Tranq Bomb Ammo combinations normally involve an item plus Huskberries, Wyvern Fangs, etc. There's a TON of them out there, Gunners will be using this list a LOT. You can also combine out in the field when hunting. This is a good way to circumvent things like the 10 Mega Potion limit (bring 10 Potions and 10 Honeys to combine more) and for Gunners to make more Ammo on the fly. Be careful though: There is a SUCCESS RATE for each combination, and it's higher in the box than out in the field. If you fail a combination, you get GARBAGE, which is useless. Your box at first can only hold so much stuff, but as you play through Low Rank, the small little shop at Moga Village will stock items like Pack Rat Guide, which will increase the number of item spots up to 10 pages maximum. You can sell items, too. Things like Steel Eggs are utterly useless...sell them. You can also use the Moga Village farm to grow absurb numbers of NULBERRIES (TIP-ALA) and sell them all to make 11,000 z per 99 Nulberries! I do not recommend you go selling monster parts, bugs, or ores. Never sell your bugs or ores or bones, and things like that, and try not to sell your monster parts. That said, if you have like fifty bear asses, go ahead and sell twenty of them or so. Your equipment box is totally separate from your item box and will max out along with your item box, but it fills up much slower. It's where your Armors, Weapons, and Talismans go (Jewels for Decorations are in the item box). You can equip which weapon you want to use here. You could also equip your armor here, but that's time-consuming. Instead... Go to the "Equipment Sets" page, register a custom set of armor (whether it be a full set or a mixed set) and then whenever you need that particular set, you just equip a set rather than having to go through your equipment box! Decorations and Talismans are saved along with your armor, so you don't have to re-gem and re-charm yourself either. ------ Quests ------ As you can probably guess, quests are going to take up about 90% of your gameplay. They're fun, though, so don't expect to get bored or anything! 50% of successful questing is in the preparation. As such, here's the basic process you'll want to use. As you play more, you'll be able to eliminate certain steps because of prior knowledge, but try to follow these very, very stringently in the beginning: 1. Go to the Guild Sweetheart (the girl who has the quest list) and look at the quests available to you. 2. Decide which quest you want to take BUT DON'T ACTUALLY TAKE IT JUST YET. 3. Read through it using the L and R shoulder buttons to scroll through the information. Make sure you learn about the monster you must hunt/materials you must deliver, the area it's in and whether it's day or night, and other special requirements. Also look at the acceptance fee and make sure you have enough z to pay (yes, you must pay to accept a quest) 4. GO ONLINE or use a phone app or guidebook and look up the monster and area you are hunting and exploring in, respectively. This will tell you which armor will give you the best resistance, which weapon will give you the advantage, and what special items you might need or want to bring. 5. Now go to your room and equip the equipment and withdraw the items. Double and triple check! 6. If you've unlocked the Argosy Captain trade feature, you'll be able to check in with the Felyne chef to eat. So swing by before accepting a quest and eat. You'll get better ingredients as the game goes on and you'll be able to get special FOOD SKILLS. Some, such as DUNGMASTER, are super helpful if the environment is unstable, while others, like UNLUCKY CAT, could potentially hurt you. 7. Now go to the Guild Sweetheart and accept the quest! You're all set! Here's a good rule of thumb Item Pouch to keep with you: 10 Potions/Mega Potions (or both) 10 Honeys (to combine with Potions) 10+ Paintballs 10 Well-done Steaks 5 Hot Drinks or Cool Drinks (if the area is very cold or very hot) 10 Dung Bombs 1 Farcaster 8 Tranq Bombs 1 Pitfall Trap 1 Shock Trap 5 Mega Pickaxes 5 Mega Bug Nets 20 Whetstones (Blademasters only, Gunners bring Ammo/Coatings) 10 Nulberries (if a monster can inflict Blights) And Antidotes if a monster can poison you, Energy Drinks if a monster can put you to sleep, Cleansers/Deodorants if a monster can make you dirty, snowmaned, or soiled. Learn this all when you do your research. Once you're at your specific area, you'll appear at your base camp. There'll be a Blue Item Box and a Red Item Box. The BLUE box is where there'll be plenty of SUPPLY ITEMS for you to take. Some are Supply Items that will be returned, like EZ Flash Combs, Mini Whetstones, Mini Oxy Supplies, EZ Shock Traps, Rations, First-Aid Meds, etc. But some are not, and if you take them, even if you don't use them, you keep them, like Paintballs and Ammo. So take advantage of this and take all the non-supply items anyways. But at the same time, do NOT rely on your blue box for crucial items. Someday it will all be taken away from you! The Red Item Box is easily ignored and is only necessary for when you go and do quests where you must deliver items. That's where you deliver the items. So take your items and go forth! You'll have to run around to search for the monster, but if you did your research, you'll have a general idea of where the monster starts, so go look there. Keep on running around and you'll find it eventually. If it's your first time finding the monster, you'll be greeted with a short cutscene that'll later be added to your Gallery to view anytime. Then the fight starts and things get serious! ------ Combat ------ As you can imagine, you'll be stuck fighting monsters a lot. It's called "Monster Hunter" for a reason. If you did your research (I'll be saying this a lot), you'll probably have a vague idea of what the monster looks like and what its attacks might be. Good for you--most attacks are pretty logical and intuitive. A monster with wings might fly and dive at you. A monster that swims might try to swim and bite at you. Both kinds might try to whack you with its tail. However, just because you researched doesn't mean you know everything. Stand back. Evade and block for a few minutes. Every monster gives off certain "tells" before it actually attacks (Arzuros wiggles its butt before sitting on you, to give a blatantly obvious one). Some tells are barely there, other tells can be seen a mile away. The bigger the tell, usually the more deadly the attack. Once you notice such habits, you'll notice the openings between attacks. Abuse these openings and attack! But don't attack too long. Get out of there before you get hurt! Remember the golden rule: DON'T GET HIT! HIT IT TILL IT DIES! (Actually it's a meme but it's a good rule to keep in mind) Something pretty cool is that if you do enough damage to a certain part of a monster, it will break. You will hear a breaking noise and see shards fly off the monster, and the monster will also probably flinch and roar with pain, or be knocked back an absurb amount. Breaks can increase the chances of certain rewards, and can also give rewards only given when a certain break is achieved. Breaking tails can give you the monster's tail as a reward, for example. You can also break things like fins, claws, chests, backs, heads, wings, and just about everything. But tails are the most notable, their breaks are very VISIBLE (90% of monsters have tails that, when broken, are severed off completley), and if the tail can be cut off, the tail gives one extra CARVE! All boss monsters also come equipped with a RAGE MODE. When they roar in rage, causing you to clap your hands over your ears (the armor skill "Hearing" gives you EARPLUGS to prevent this, you know!) and they begin emitting a puff of smoke, or there's roiling fire in their mouths, etc., they've gone into RAGE MODE. They will move noticeably faster, chain attacks together, and they'll hit like a nuclear explosion. You'll want to be especially careful with some monsters in Rage Mode, while other monsters in Rage Mode don't represent a terribly large increase in challenge. All the same, Rage Mode leads to the elimination of many tells and signs. Monsters can become very unpredictable and aggressive. Be on your guard at all times, ready to evade and perhaps even leave the area to heal if you're hurt. The monsters won't be offended if you do. If you really just can't keep it together, leave, go do some gathering, BBQ some Well-Done Steaks, and wait a while for the monster to calm down. Be careful about leaving, though, because just like you, monsters can switch between areas. Bring PAINTBALLS and use Y to toss one at them to mark them on your map. That way, even if they fly away (making them outright impossible to track without a Paintball or a ton of frustration without one), you'll be able to see where they are so you can find them in a timely manner. On the flipside (excuse my cross-video-gaming references), you'll have monsters that are TIRED and that are ready to GIVE UP and that just want to RUN AWAY, SLEEP, EAT, and RECOVER. DON'T LET THEM DO THAT. As merciless as it sounds, you are the hunter, you must SLAY these monsters. When they begin to sit there for a while, giving off roars that don't hurt you and breathing heavily, you'll know they're beginning to tire. Most monsters will leave the area to certain designated spots to kill small monsters and eat them to regain their health. Other times, they will go to a designated resting area and SLEEP. When they're tired enough that they want to sleep, they'll often leave the area in a very odd manner--limping, swim-limping, sand-swim-limping, dragging their feet, etc. The number one way to tell a monster's exhaustion is their limping. Others give off more subtle signs, such as Plesioth's fin laying flat on its back instead of being raised. It's beneficial for you, though. Limping monsters are very vulnerable, and SLEEPING monsters are even more so. SLEEPING monsters take triple damage! If you have BARREL BOMBS, you'll want to put a few next to its face. Or, alternatively, a sleeping monster is a guaranteed capture, so put a trap next to its face and wake it up, then tranq it with no worries. Monster Hunter does not give you a health bar for your monsters. So learn to see the signs. USE YOUR INSTINCTS. AND TRUST THEM. Speaking of capturing... ------- Capture ------- Capturing a monster is one of those more "difficult" aspects that simply gets easier after it's actually done. It sounds so easy but it can go oh so horribly wrong. For one thing, quests that specifically ask you to capture a monster will FAIL you if you accidentally KILL the monster. This isn't helped by things like the fact that the first monsters you must capture are super easy to kill. This means you'll have to be generous and give them many opportunities to run away so that you'll know they're captureable. A way to remedy this is to go forge a set of BONE ARMOR. It comes with a skill called CAPTURE GURU. If you Paintball the monster, the pink icon will flash pink and yellow, meaning capture away! Once the monster has limped off or something or other, follow it and lay a SHOCK TRAP or PITFALL TRAP down in its path. Hopefully, as you stand on the other side of the trap waiting for it, it'll take notice of you and run towards you. It'll get caught in the trap. Now, take the TRANQ BOMBS that I hope you brought and use Y to toss TWO at them. Monsters that are barely capture-ready might need three. Monsters that are almost dead might only need one. You'll get an OBJECTIVE COMPLETE and the monster is asleep and you've done it correctly! Simple, right? But it can go horribly wrong, especially when underwater, where it's only too easy for your TRANQ BOMBS to miss. To remedy this, no matter where you are, be up close and point blank. That way, small minions can't get in your way either, WHICH CAN AND WILL HAPPEN because the game is going to actively work against you. Also, the traps only work for 10 seconds or so. So be right quick about it! You can't put Pitfall Traps underwater. Really. How do you even make a hole in the water I don't even know goodness. You'll learn to love capturing eventually. I capture myself around 65% of the time. Not out of laziness, but because you get more rewards! And some rewards are either capture-exclusive or much easier to get if you capture! Also, something really nice is if you're ordered to simply kill a monster, it's still a QUEST CLEAR if you capture the guy. So if things are dire or if time's running out, you can pull off a capture to save you time, money, and resources and still call it a successful day. ------------ Tanzia Port ------------ Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate has an awesome multiplayer hub. Hunting with others is always hands down more fun! 3DS offers local multiplayer, and Wii U offers online multiplayer. The hub is called TANZIA PORT and it's broken into two sections: MARINA and TAVERN. Go to the left of the Fishmongress and talk to the cat named NEKO ("MEANS CAT") and you'll be able to pick where to go. The MARINA has the forge, a bed, the Streetpass cat for 3DS players, and is the place to change your equipment. TAVERN is where you accept standard quests, challenge quests, arena and grudge matches, or event DLC quests. There is an item box there too, but you can't change your equipment there. You can also have arm wrestles over a barrel...settle any disagreements via arm wrestle! There's a chef Felyne so you can eat too (the Canteen is upgraded seperately). If you're going Solo, there'll be hunters you've met via Streetpass or online (Wii U) that can go on quests for you for a fee. It's a good way to get items you're too lazy to otherwise procure yourself. TANZIA PORT has its own Low Rank and High Rank, as well as the exclusive G Rank. Because it's a multiplayer port, the monsters are designed for up to four players and as such will be difficult to solo because of more health and things like that. As such, a 1-star Tanzia Port quest could easily be a 4-star Moga Village quest's equivalent. Although theoretically you could get all the way up to G Rank in Tanzia and come back to Moga and burn through everything...but don't do that. Talking to the two Guild Sweethearts there allows you to take quests. If you're playing multiplayer, it'll get posted on the Quest Board for others to also accept. Then you can all go and hunt together. ------------------ If You're Defeated ------------------ The following ways are ways for you to DIE: 1. You die three times (or your quest reward hits 0 z) Each time you faint, your reward is decreased by 1/3. 2. You kill a monster you were supposed to capture. 3. You run out of time. If you die, you will keep the items you got, like those Carpenterbugs you were catching when the monster suddenly killed you with its fireball, but you will LOSE all those Mega Potions you burned through. They ain't coming back. You also get no quest rewards. Alternatively, if you're going to fail the quest anyways for some odd reason, or you forgot crucial items, you can ABANDON the quest. Basically, you're deliberately failing. You will LOSE all items you got during the quest, but those 10 Mega Potions, 5 Paintballs, 1 Shock Trap, 1 Pitfall Trap, and 8 Tranq Bombs you burned through as you were about to fail will come back. Either way, that acceptance fee you paid is paid and you've lost a couple hundred (or couple thousand!) zennie. And you will be returned to Moga Village as a failure. Even if you're defeated but once in a quest, it can be pretty painful trying to get back up and keep on going. For one, if you ate before the quest, those food boosts will be gone. G-O-N-E, unless you have the Felyne food skill "Felyne Foodie", which keeps the food boosts in place. Likely though you don't, and if you were relying heavily on the boosts it gave, you might want to consider Abandoning if you know 100% for sure you won't be able to complete it. Then and again, this is why you always bring things like Well-Done Steaks to reboost your Stamina, no? Just keep on trying! ----------- Multiplayer ----------- Having more than one hunter makes quests easier and more fun. Set up your room or join someone else's (many game sites have forums that you could use to your advantage to make sure you have people to hunt with). You can name your room so people have an idea of what you're goal is. So if your goal is to get yourself a full set of a monster's armor, or upgrade a particular weapon line, or to just farm, make sure you let others know through the room name. 3DS players simply select "Multi" when talking to NEKO MEANS TIGER to create a "room" of sorts, or do "Friend Search" if someone else has already set up a "room". There is ONE item that, once you reach high enough ranks, you should always, always, always, always, ALWAYS try your best to have at hand, along with materials to combine to make more: LIFEPOWDER. Why, you ask? The Lifepowder will not only restore your HP, but everyone else's, regardless of whatever armor skills you've got. It's a Cure-Everyone for your entire team! If you see one of your teammate's HP bar dropping like a rock from a cliff, do them a favor and take a Lifepowder if you can, and your entire team will appreciate your efforts. Keep each other alive, okay? Here's some ETIQUETTE, both for online and local multiplayers. Mostly for online. BE PROMPT AND TIMELY. Don't spend a few minutes deliberating over your armors and weapons. Pick the weapons and the armor set quickly, because when you're in Marina, no one can communicate with you and so no one knows where you are. The quicker you are about things, the better your reputation will be. If you're leaving Tavern to go forge something, be sure to LET EVERYONE KNOW so they can wait for you. And don't even dillydally in the Tavern while everyone else is ready to go either. That shows inconsideration of others and irresponsibility. DON'T DO HARVEST TOURS ONLINE. Unless EVERYONE is doing a Harvest Tour for the exact same reason, don't request a Harvest Tour for the sake of your own farming. Oftentimes, ESPECIALLY online, people play together to take down monsters in a boss marathon of sorts. So be prepared for more than an hour of nothing but boss fights, both mentally and item-box-wise. You'll be in for one shabby time if you run out of Mega Potions. If you must farm, simply leave the room and let them know you intend on rejoining after some time. When playing local, people tend to be your actual face-to-face personal friends, so it's a bit easier, but do keep their goals in mind too. KNOW YOUR PLACE Again, more online than anything. Know your weapon and its perks and its weaknesses. With multiple people, you don't have to focus on breaking everything because you've got other players also focused on breaks. So if you're a Hammer user, you can be pretty sure that Blademaster ally is already focusing on the tail for you, so you can focus on bashing the monster's face. If you're a DS user, you don't have to worry about everything being out of reach and you can focus on slashing at the ankles, hoping for a knock-over. If you are a DS user and you decide to hack at the monster's face, you will probably bother a Hammer user and irritate everyone else. BEWARE OF FRIENDLY FIRE. This is what can make people annoyed very quickly. As a group of hunters all wielding instruments of death the size of small cars and/or buildings, it is logical that the programmers made hunters immune to collateral damage, but you're all still prone to being sent flying through the air/tripped/falling back on your butt/etc. from your ally's poorly aimed attack. If a Great Sword user is going to preform a level 3 charge (which can score upwards of 1,000 damage at the higher ranks) and you accidentally whack him with your Long Sword, he won't be pleased that you just wasted his time and denied everyone 1,000 damage and possibly a few minutes. This is especially true if you're in a room where very serious, very efficient hunts are being carried out. The worst offenders are Long Sword users, Hammer users, and any Gunner, especially Gunlancers using Wyvern Fire. This is by no fault of the hunter, the nature of the weapon is very ranged and so it's too easy to accidentally hit someone else. But now that you know this, you can prevent it. Once again, this is more of a bother online. With your personal friends, they'll probably just laugh it off. But, all the same, always be considerate, and be careful. Which leads me to.... BE VERY CAREFUL. If you're simply being "carried" through the ranks of Port Tanzia's quests and you're that one noob that's with veteran hunters for the rewards to get super overpowerful stuff for where you are in the game, you're going to be a BIG liability. Whenever you fight with someone, you don't want to be useless. If you know you'll die in a few hits, and all you do is stay in base camp, you're useless. If you go out and die anyways, you're worse than useless. You know how you have 2 lives in solo and the third time you faint, you fail? Well, that holds true in Port Tanzia multiplayer too, except that this time, the 2 lives are COMMUNAL and if YOU die three times, everyone fails because of YOU. So you'd better be careful and don't die. Once in a while, a freak attack is okay. But all the time? That's a big no-no. So COMMUNICATE! The better you can communicate things like where you are, what you want to accomplish, and your skill level, the more understanding people will be. There are a veteran hunters out there generous enough to take time out of their personal hunting schedules to build up beginner hunters, but just because they're nice doesn't mean you ought to abuse it. Be considerate and ALWAYS be polite, even if you're being cussed at. It will earn you a better reputation from everyone else and you will be liked more! Love each other. That's all I have to say. ================================================================================ Your Allies ================================================================================ There are plot spoilers. At a certain point through the game, you will gain two Shakalaka companions. One, Cha-Cha, returns from Tri. The second, Kayamba, is new to 3 Ultimate. Similar to Felyne Battle Comrades in the past, yet different at the same time, they are pretty much fully customizable. They level up in a more RPG style, with a level cap at 50, and they have stats: Level Valor: Determines how long the Shakalaka will stay in battle before retreating Health: Hit points Attack: Attack power Element: If the mask ability is an elemental attack, the power is shown Defense: Defensive capabilities Stamina: Amount of "hit points" available for dances Recovery: Rate of stamina recovery Plus the mask and the MASK MASTERY LEVEL (maxes out at 5), the masks abilities, which are customizable, and the effects of the dances you have selected. Cha-cha joins in the Shakalaka Savior! 3-star urgent quest. Kayamba joins in the Shakalaka Savior II 5-star urgent quest. Cha-cha will briefly leave after you defeat Lagiacrus, but returns for the final fight against the boss Ceadeus. In High Rank, Kayamba will retrieve an Unfortunate Mask, but throughout High Rank, and by its end, it will have transformed into the Ultimate Mask. At first, Cha-cha and Kayamba won't like each other because they each say the other ruined their quest for the "Ultimate Mask". But if you take them both out questing with you (you should!), they will become friends. This, their "Chum-Chum", will gradually increase to level 5. The higher the level, the more often they will dance with each other, which will amplify the effects of the dances. An interesting "easter egg", if you will, concerning the Chum-Chum is that in Marina, the "Savvy Tabby" will give you Chum Chum Tickets if Chum-Chum has increased by a certain hidden value. The only way to check is to go to Marina and look for the speech bubble. These tickets are only necessary for the Shaka Scarecrows Dual Swords upgrade tree, however. When you talk to your Shakalakas, the following options will appear: Invite on Quest or Leave Behind: Make sure they're with you always Change Mask: Masks give your companions different abilities and personalities. Some are useful, like the Fluffy Mask, which acts as a free Paintball! Select Dances: Pick the dances. Which two you pick changes the effects of the dances. Health recovery is what I recommend as a dance effect. Select Abilities: Change the mask abilities. View Stats: Look at things like their level/valor/etc. all talked about above. Multi: Take Along or Leave Behind: In multiplayer, you can only bring one of the two with you. Pick which one you want. ------ Dances ------ One of the more important features of the Shakalaks is their ability to dance. The effects are akin to Hunting Horn songs, they will give you boosts, restore your health, act as Antidotes, and all sorts of other great things. Each dance, however, costs Stamina points. These gradually recover over time, but don't expect to get two Health Recovery (L)'s in a row because that takes a lot of Stamina! Here's all the dances: Rah-Rah Dance: Default Ooga-Boo Dance: Default Waka-Waka Dance: Rare Trade with Argosy (Hunter Realm) Boom-Boom Dance: After completing 5-star "The Desert Gourmand" or "Walk 'N' Roll", then Rare Trade with Argosy Woo-Hoo Dance: Kayamba's default Here's a list of the potential dances you could have and their effects. Play around with the dances to find something you like! Taunt: Monster will pay attention to the Shakalaka Attack Boost (S): Slightly boosts Attack of your entire party Attack Boost (L): Significantly boosts Attack Defense Boost (S): Slightly boosts Defense Defense Boost (L): Significantly boosts Defense Antidote: Acts as a free Antidote and removes poison Health Recovery (S): Slightly restores health Health Recovery (L): Significantly restores health Hot & Cool: Acts as a free Hot or Cold Drink and gives the respective effects Stamina: Acts as a free Dash Juice Weatherbreaker: Gives immunity to wind and currents (so if a monster takes off, instead of recoiling and shielding yourself, you can still attack and move around) Flash: A free Flash Bomb Sonic: A free Sonic Bomb Blight Res Boost: Increases resistance to the blights (ex. Fireblight) Health Recovery Bonus: Increases health recovery (that red bar when you are attacked is potential health that can be restored back over time) Item Effect Up: Increases duration of items Elemental Attack Boost: Increases elemental damage and Slime resistance ----- Masks ----- As you can probably tell when you receive Cha-Cha and Kayamba, they are a very mask-oriented race. As such, the masks have special abilities. Use these masks to your advantage to make your quests easier! All masks are interchangeable between both EXCEPT the ACORN MASK, which is for Cha-cha, and the PINCER MASK, which is for Kayamba. Here's a list of the masks and their special abilities: Acorn Mask -Cha-cha only- Rage: Attacks rapidly Lamp Mask -Will act as a torch if you signal the wearer- Rage: Throws balls of fire Ancient Mask -Refreshes your oxygen when signaled- Rage: Throws knives Mystery Pot Mask -Give wearer an item and a different one pops out- Rage: Throws Poison Smoke Bombs Fluffy Mask -Shows location of all large monsters when signaled- Rage: Throws Dung Bombs *FLUFFY MASK WILL NOT ATTACK Grill Mask -Acts as a Double BBQ Spit and can cook meat for you- Rage: Attacks with flames False Felyne Mask -Will throw bombs and other explosives- Rage: Attacks with Barrel Bomb L's Pincer Mask -Kayamba only- Rage: Attacks rapidly Mock Melynx Mask -Can steal things from monsters- Rage: Throws Felvine bombs Stink Mask Rage: Throws Dung Bombs if you're pinned or if there's two bosses in one area Whetstone Mask -Is a free Whetstone- Rage: Throws knives Pitfall Mask -Will make a Pitfall Trap upon signal- Rage: Throws balls of fire Nulberry Mask -Acts as a free Nulberry when signaled- Rage: Spreads paralysis *NULBERRY MASK DOESN'T ATTACK Gag Gargwa Mask -Will flee if hit and leaves an item- Rage: Attacks rapidly Rathalos Mask -Can roar and act as a free Sonic Bomb- Rage: Breathes fire Ultimate Mask -Takes no damage until angered- Rage: Attacks nonstop until no more HP Idol Mask -Acts as a free Farcaster- Rage: Attacks with flames Artillery Mask -Launches other Shakalaka at the monster like artillery, sacrificing them- Rage: Attacks with cannonballs Kebab-boo Mask -Acts as a Frog to fish out Gobul and Plesioth- Rage: Attacks rapidly Feeding the Shakalaka companions things like Exquisite Meat, White/Pink Liver, and Well-done Steaks can rapidly increase Mask Mastery, which improves the Shakalakas' abilities to use the masks (ex. Cook better with BBQ Mask). Also, the food skill Felyne Trainer can increase the rate at which Shakalaks gain "Mask EXP" as I like to call it. ******************************************************************************** ================================================================================ Moga Village ================================================================================ ******************************************************************************** ================================================================================ The Beginning of an Adventure ================================================================================ Start up a new file by poking "New Game", toggle your options, and create your character. There's a TON of customization you can play around with, but don't worry about getting it absolutely perfect. Remember: Your true unique hunter self will come from your weapons and your armors (of which there's hundreds of thousands of combinations to choose from!). Name yourself something silly and let's go! Oh, and don't forget to pick how you want your touch screen to look like. If you choose "Standard Mode", your health bars and map will be on the big screen (or the top screen of your 3DS). But if you choose the new "Dynamic Mode", then it'll be on the touch screen (although later on you can choose whether you want one here and one there). Pick one! You will be shown a short cutscene of the life in MOGA VILLAGE, the hub of quests and preparation. You will also see an earthquake and children running in fear (to be honest it really isn't a bad earthquake because the buildings are still standing). The village CHIEF will tell you that the earthquakes are being caused by some strange monster LAGIACRUS and you have come to help hunt this LAGIACRUS and all other monsters between. For the tl;dr it's an excuse plot to justify killing things. You'll also receive some starting funds (not too much) and then you will go talk to JUNIOR. He should have a yellow speech bubble. Yellow speech bubbles mean they have something important to say! You have your own house here (wow so it's like you're permanently moving or something) and you can save on the bed and visit your Item Box which is here. A Felyne Chamberlyne is said to keep your room tidy. Use him to change your furniture if you have some, watch gallery videos of the monsters you've encountered, and access the important DLC. Every now and then a boy named "Future Alpha Male" will be inside with the Felyne guy. He doesn't ever have anything to say, so don't bother with him. Oh by the way, Chamerlyne will give you a mushroom lamp called the "Prismshroom Lamp". You can put it out on your table if you wish! If you don't like the Sword and Shield you are default equipped with, you have one of each weapon in your Item Box, so hoof on over there and change your weapon if you want to. You also have a full set of Leather Armor on. How generous of Capcom! Anyways, exit your room and the GUILD SWEETHEART, a genki kind of girl, is going to want to speak with you! According to her, JUNIOR, that chief's son guy, wants to talk to you, but he's out in Moga Woods right now. Let's finish up the basic tour of the village. There's a girl in blue who owns a small SHOP. It is actually incredibly useful for buying Whetstones and Potions and things, especially in the beginning of the game when trying to find Herbs and Blue Mushrooms just isn't really working out. Later on, stock will be increased and you will inevitably come here to buy things like Trap Tools which can only be bought here! To her left is another cat (well, it's Japan, you surprised?) named NEKO ("MEANS CAT") and he will take you to Tanzia Port if you want to play multiplayer (or just do the Tanzia quests solo). The fat lady in yellow is the FISHMONGRESS, after a while you'll be able to send out "her boys" to various parts of the sea and they will bring back splendid treasures, fish, and maybe even monster parts at the cost of Resource Points. If you continue right of the Fishmongress and cross a small bridge, you'll find a FARM...or what's left of it after the earthquake. His Felyne Farmhands have fled in fear. Oh well. You'll also be introduced to the farm pet, POOGIE the PIG. Name POOGIE whatever you want if POOGIE isn't cute enough and then receive your 5 free BLUE MUSHROOMS. If you need a string of luck, make sure you PET THE PIG OFTEN! Near the Moga Woods next to a goblin guy with a big hammer is a small boy named "CAREFREE LAD". He'll give you 5 free WHETSTONES, useful if you're a Blademaster but useless if you're a Gunner. Keep them anyways. Just a for-your-information, next to the goblin guy is another lady. She sells WEAPONS, but she'll quickly go out-of-use because she only sells the lowest level of weapons in the upgrade tree. Don't bother with her. Let's get started, shall we? Head right into Moga Woods! -------------------- Moga Woods the First -------------------- You'll automatically get a map of the area, and at first you only have access to a pitiful amount of the region (the excuse plot here is earthquake damage). Anyway, the chief mentions that JUNIOR is probably at the base camp, and that hey! He might be a bit hungry! Why don't you go into AREA 2 and kill some innocent, un-harmful APTONOTH who never did anything to you and are in fact beneficial as beasts of burden? Well, fine, Mister Animal Cruelty. Best go do what he says. Go to AREA 2. See those dinosaur-like grey quadrupeds? They're APTONOTH. They're very cute yet you must kill them all, even the babies. They will never attack you, they will instead roar with fright and attempt to run (do you feel guilty yet?). Go ahead and kill a big one (let the little babies live). It will fall, writhe around, shudder, and finally die. Put your weapon away (press Y to sheathe) and you will see an action icon. Press A and you will carve some RAW MEAT from its DEAD CARCASS. Head to the right now and you'll end up at the BASE CAMP area. There will never be chaos here so you can come here to rest up anytime and just put yourself back together. JUNIOR is staring at some rubble that used to be a Base Camp. He's hungry, though, give him the RAW MEAT. Now go back the way you came and return to the Village. Lots more people will want to talk to you now, so talk to them. JUNIOR's permanent spot in the village is on a pile of box things. Feel free to talk to him and he'll explain how Resource Points work (I explained it already up somewhere in this walkthrough), and he will also give you a BBQ SPIT. Cook the Raw Meat with it and you could get WELL-DONE STEAKS if you time it right (wait for the color to change twice), which will boost your Stamina! Take it with you whenever you're out freehunting, or even questing, and cook up some steaks in your spare time. The goblin guy wants to talk to you now. He's the SMITHY and he's called the WYVERN ARTISAN. He forges everything for you. The shopper girl, the GAL WITH THE GOODS, also now sells BBQ Spits if you ever randomly lose yours. Go buy some Bug Nets and Pickaxes from her--you'll need them to farm items, which, as I mentioned above, is important. The important thing you've gotta do now is fix up the Base Camp. Check out Junior's VILLAGER REQUESTS option and you'll see a "Fix up the Base Camp!" ************************ * Fix up the Base Camp * * 30 Resource Points * ************************ So let's dive back into Moga Woods, shall we? Be sure to store your unnecessary items in your ITEM BOX, and why don't you go buy some POTIONS from the shop? --------------------- Moga Woods the Second --------------------- The woods have gotten bigger! Now, you'll need 30 Resource Points. Aptonoth only give 1 Resource Point. Every time you kill something, you'll see a box tallying your points and your kills. Junior will pop up telling you to go kill some CARNIVORES instead, annoyances that actually could potentially hurt you. Head over to AREA 6. Be sure to catch bugs and mine ores and gather from plants and bones and other sparkly areas along the way to start building up some materials! You'll be greeted with a cutscene of JAGGIS, incredibly deadly carnivores who could SNAP YOU IN HALF WITH ONE BITE. You'll finally be getting actual practice! If you can't kill Jaggis without taking considerable damage, definitely either reconsider your weapon or come back here and practice a LOT more. You'll get 6 Resource Points per Jaggi, so kill 5. If you run out, gather from the bone piles and mine the rocks--more will leap out of the surrounding area. Also, be sure to CARVE the dead Jaggi for their scales and fangs and whatnot. Your first ever monster parts! Return to the guild, talk to Junior, and poke the option "HUNT REPORT". This converts your kills to resource points. Hopefully you have 30. Cool. You do. After they're converted, Junior will have some items to give you. They're COMMODITY ITEMS necessary for trading with Argosy (more on him later when he shows up). Then go to VILLAGER REQUESTS and press OK to fulfill it. Your resource points will be taken away (if you downloaded the free resource points DLC, you'll still have 4,900 or so left to spare). The base camp is FIXED! You can now do QUES....no you can't, sorry. The SMITHY guy wants to talk to you. He wants to become your forger, but in order to do so, you'll have to pass a TEST. Go to Moga Woods and use that MEGA PICKAXE he just gave you for free to mine an IRON ORE. All right, well, let's go do that, but first, the chief wants to talk again. He'll talk about using TORCHES to light up the caves and give you some more funding. Torches aren't mandatory in this game, just f.y.i. All they do is attract a bunch of bugs. If you turn up the brightness, you'll be able to see just fine. Let's dive back into Moga Woods! --------------------- Moga Woods the Third --------------------- Head over to AREA 4 and look for the oddly colored rocks. An action icon with a small icon of a pickaxe will appear next to it. Press A over and over again until you've got a couple of IRON ORES (or until your pickaxes break). While you only need one, I recommend you get as many as you can, so mine all the rocks you see. Return back to the village after you're done doing whatever. The SMITHY guy will then explain some basics about upgrading your armor (I went over that up above somewhere). Keep it in the back of your mind. Keep your IRON ORES too, although if you're a Great Sword user you can upgrade your Iron Sword thing already because all it needs is one ore. Lucky you. The rest of you all will have to wait a bit. Talk to everyone that wants to talk to you. The Carefree Lad will give you a free MEGA BUG NET. Go to the farm and one of the Felyne farmhands has returned! In exchange for Resource Points, you can grow plants and later on, mushrooms, bugs, and honey. If you have that 5,00 points DLC, feel free to start growing Herbs now. The Felyne will give you a free SUSHIFISH (kinda useless) and if you want to you can name him something silly. You still can't do guild quests yet, unfortunately, you now have to go...and make a splash! You'll receive some free FISHING HARPOONS and you will now have a new task: Go to the water and hunt a fish called a MOLID. Store your unnecessary items and let's head out. --------------------- Moga Woods the Fourth --------------------- The whole of Moga Woods is open for you to explore now. You'll have to head to AREA 11. In order to do so, you can run up through Area 5 and jump into the water and swim, or you can run left through Area 8 and jump off a cliff to the left. It's a nifty shortcut. The underwater swimming controls are somewhere up above in the guide. Make sure you move the camera a lot--where you're facing (the camera's facing) determines which way you swim. You'll see two large flatfish, they're the Molids and they look suspiciously like Mola Molas (Alomomola?). In order to successfully hunt both these and every other type of huntable large fish (jellyfish, sharqs, etc.) you must WEAKEN them. Think Pokemon, why don't you? Only after they are weak, give 'em a few stabs with your Harpoon. They will die as opposed to running away and leave behind a carveable carcass. While it is quite "cool" in a sense, you're never required to really farm off of fish except for one other time much later on. So do it if you want fish-themed weapons and armors, but otherwise, it's not mandatory that you master it through and through. You might be wondering now how to get back to Moga Village. Press START and you'll see the option "Return to Village". Whenever you're out in the woods for long enough, you can use this option to return without having to walk all the way back. Nifty. The chief will want to talk to you again. He has more money for you. Go buy some Bug Nets and Iron Pickaxes (don't buy the old stuff, it breaks). I recommend you buy the maximum number possible (5). You'll need them. Incidentally, you can also buy COMBO BOOKS to increase the chances of a combo being successful. You don't need NEED them now-now, but if you have zennie to spare, why not? ---------------------- Moga Woods Freehunting ---------------------- You can now to go Moga Woods at your leisure. You have infinite time and infinite lives. It's a great place to get materials and kill monsters, and the only way to keep your Resource Points up, so you'll find yourself coming here often. Later on, LARGE MONSTERS might show up for you to freehunt for even BETTER Commodities and huge Resource Points! Junior can see into the future: Use his "Moga Woods Forecast" option to know where things are and when they'll appear. If there's a "Herbivore Breeding", you'll want to go out and kill the Super-sized Aptonoths to get Super-sized Dung, a great Fertilizer. Moga Woods freehunting is also the most reliable way to get Commodities, and later, RARE COMMODITIES for doing RARE TRADE with Argosy (more on him later when you have access to him). You'll find yourself out there a lot. Well all right. You're ready for REAL QUESTS. And good news for you, they've finally decided to give you some! You can't wait! Let's go! ================================================================================ 1-star Quests ================================================================================ Well here's the bad news: All you're doing is delivering and killing small fry for now. I know, I know, you wanted a BIG BIG monster. Unfortunately, you'll have to get the questing system before you can do any of that, so let's get these 1-star Quests done already, why don't we? I've already gone over how questing works up above somewhere, so read that again if you forgot. Remember that if you accept the quest, you CANNOT access your Item Box! So get your items before you leave, okay? And your equipment. Each quest tier has certain quests called "KEY QUESTS". The game won't tell you they're key, but you MUST complete them to unlock the next tier (no you don't have to complete everything). For your benefit, I will list the Key Quests first unless I REALLY think you ought to do a non-key quest before the key ones. However, the very last two quests in the single-player excuse plot can only be unlocked via doing EVERY SINGLE QUEST, so do yourself a favor and just do them all. It's good practice and more money and rewards. All right, your very first quest...involves getting mushrooms! Now isn't that dandy? --------------------- HARVEST 'SHROOM [KEY] --------------------- Objective: Deliver 3 UNIQUE MUSHROOMS Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Easy (0/10) O-HO! Deserted Island looks exactly like Moga Woods! But you can't return to the village so too bad. If you did some gathering, you'll remember that mushrooms on logs laying on the ground can give you Blue Mushrooms and other useful stuff. Well, UNIQUE MUSHROOMS are an "ACCOUNT ITEM". They do not serve any use other than either to sell as pocket change or to give you Resource Points or, on a quest, extra zennie. Talk to the item box by pressing A and grab yourself the Supply Items, especially the MAP but not so much the torch. That MAP will be invaluable to you as you figure your way around places. NOTE: Some items, like RATIONS, are clearly labeled as "Supply Item". Some are not. You know what that means? Even if you take 'em, you can KEEP 'EM. SO TAKE EVERYTHING BECAUSE YOU CAN KEEP MOST THINGS. Anyhow, UNIQUE MUSHROOMS can only be found in the mushroom gathering sites in areas 2, 3, 6, and 7. Just press A and gather. Tip: If you kneel down first by pressing B while stationary and then gather, you gather super fast! You can also pick up CHOICE MUSHROOMS and RIPENED MUSHROOMS for extra zennie! Once you've got three or three hundred Unique Mushrooms, go ahead and hoof your way back to Base Camp (hope you have your map) and talk to the RED BOX by pressing A. HOORAY! FANFARE! CONGRATULATIONS QUEST COMPLETE! If you're lucky, you'll get the very rare DRAGON TOADSTOOLS. Now these are actually incredibly valuable. They are also a pain to grow because they cost 400 Resource Points per cycle. Hang onto them, okay? If you need more free DRAGON TOADSTOOLS, you can do this quest over and over again! The future alpha male wants to talk to you. He'll give you two free MEGA FISHING FLY. Talk to the Guild Sweetheart after you've saved and you'll see you've unlocked pretty much all the rest of the quests. The key quests here are "Farm Aid" and "Guts: It's What's for Dinner". Store excess items and keep your bag prepared. Also, you might want to go talk to the SMITHY and see if it's possible to UPGRADE anything with Jaggi parts and the whatnot. It's also always good to look and know what you need so you can figure out what you need to farm. So take a look and then prepare for your next quest! --------------- Farm Aid [KEY] --------------- Objective: Slay 5 Jaggia Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Easy (1/10) JAGGIA are the female counterparts of Jaggi and about 30% bigger. They can deal a tad bit more damage and take a tad bit more damage, but the only important thing about them is they give you two carves instead of one. They're scattered around areas 5, 6, and 7 (especially 6), so kill 5 and harvest their parts. You might want to kill more JAGGI, get more BUGS and mine more ORES and whatnot while you're at it as well. Get in the habit of gathering during your quests when you have some down time. Once again, the carefree lad will have a gift for you, two free SNAKEBEE LARVA. That's the game's way of saying that you should combine the two and make GOLDENFISH BAIT to go goldenfish fishing. You can gather more of these lure ingredients at bug spots and honey spots (the grey bee hive things you see). You'll want honey anyways, you can combine them with Potions to make MEGA Potions! ---------------------------------- Guts: It's What's for Dinner [KEY] ---------------------------------- Objective: Deliver 3 Monster Guts Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Moderate (3/10) You are about to be introduced to an "Unstable Environment". I don't think this quest will have a "?" in its information, but whenever there's the big question mark with DANGER! written, it implies that another boss-class monster could potentially show up. If you kill said boss-class monster, you get additional rewards, but usually it's a big fat waste of time to do so. Because it's an optional kill, it will be at super full strength, unlike quests that tell you to hunt more than one monster, in which case the health is scaled down because you're going solo. Anyhow, get your items ready and head over to area 10. Jump on into the water and you'll see these green Nessie-like herbivores that are as friendly as Aptonoths (aha, I can see the guilty look in your eyes...). If you kill them I believe they give you one carve. There's around a 35% chance it could be Monster Guts. Anyways, there's only one or two in the area, so not enough for three even if they both gave you guts, so head over to area 11 where there'll be more... And instead you see a cutscene involving the nasty LAGIACRUS! What is that FIEND doing here?!?! The Guild Sweetheart will tell you to FLEE FOR YOUR LIFE but apparently the guild is heartless and you still have to get your Guts anyways. So SWIM ON OVER BACK TO AREA 10 and kill the Epioth quickly! You'll know if Lagi shows up in your area because the monster icon in the touch screen, if you have customized it to show the icon, will show up and you'll be able to lock your camera onto the monster. If that happens, run as fast as you can onto land and OUT OF THE AREA and just wait--Lagiacrus is on a timer and will return to Area 11 eventually. If you're feeling brave, swim as fast as you can to Area 11 and finish your Epioth hunts. If you've got your Monster Guts and you're in Area 11, swim on over to the surface and you'll see some vines. Just like LEGEND OF ZELDA, you can CLIMB those vines and get to area 8! Lagiacrus can't follow you, so get to Area 8 and head back to Base Camp to deliver your guts and reap your rewards. If you're a dunderhead and you decide to fight Lagiacrus, Lagiacrus cannot be killed. It is programmed to be unkillable, and in any case your small little weak weapon will be bouncing off. Once your quest is completed, you'll have a new VILLAGER REQUEST that you can look at via Junior. ********************** * New Shroom Box! * * 80 Resource Points * ********************** The Fishmongress can now send out one boat (the other two still need fixing up, so it seems). Feel free to go fish hunting or treasure hunting or whatever. You've completed all the Key Quests! A new "URGENT QUEST" will show it. It's a 2-star quest. Complete it and you will access all of the 2-star quests and officially move up a tier! --------------------------- URGENT: No Love for Ludroth --------------------------- Objective: Slay 6 Ludroth Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Easy (2/10) You can take a secret passage from the base camp by jumping into the water and you'll wind up in Area 9 so that you can get to Area 10 easy or just head on over there through the traditional route. You'll see a cutscene introducing the LUDROTH!, alligatorlike things (actually, those are the females, the male Ludroths are actual boss-class monsters called ROYAL LUDROTH). So go hit the girls (how dare you!) and kill 6 of them. There'll only be 4 or so on land, so kill them, CARVE THEM, then jump on in and kill the rest. This is your first foray into underwater battle. The Ludroth are mobile underwater, which you aren't, so they could actually hurt you (but about as much as Jaggia could). So practice up on them. Most Urgent Quests, when completed, become regular quests in their tier so you can do this quest over and over again if you need practice (these small monsters will also be in Moga Woods to free hunt for some good resource points). You've now unlocked the 2-star quests. Either proceed, or finish up all the rest of these 1-star quests (you will have to eventually). Once this quest is completed, it will appear in your 2-star Quest List. --------------------- Prescription Pick-Up --------------------- Objective: Deliver 2 Kelbi Horns Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Easy (1/10) All you have to do is go kill the cute, innocent, friendly deer. Don't worry, you can't kill them, they're made of NINTENDIUM and they will only fall stunned. If you're unlucky, you'll carve their liver (but they still don't die), but you should get some horns. Carve 4 or 5, this quest is a very good way to make EASY MONEY. When you deliver the 2 Kelbi Horns, you'll get more horns as rewards. Do this quest over and over again and deliver your rewards and you can easily make GREAT money, which is of utmost importance for upgrading weapons and making armor! So hey, this non-key-quest is actually quite handy! The Kelbi are hanging around in areas like 1 and 3. You can also find a few in area 7, and if you're lucky, you'll see a super big Kelbi that actually tries to attack you, and you can get a BLUE KELBI HORN which is rare! ---------------------- Goldenfish Opportunity ---------------------- Objective: Deliver 3 Goldenfish Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Annoying (2/10) Fishing taken to a whole new level, yet still quite boring. Anyhow, head to the rightmost area of area 10 and you'll see an action icon to fish. Be sure to grab the Goldenfish Bait in the blue supply box in addition to the 2 lures you should have made by combining your gifts from the carefree lad. Instead of pressing A, scroll through your items and press Y to use your GOLDENFISH BAIT. That means ONLY Goldenfish and Small Goldenfish will bite. Stare carefully at the water and you'll see a fish approach the lure and then suddenly change direction and become attached to it. Press A as soon as that happens and you'll get yourself a fish. If you're too late, the lure will be eaten up and you'll have to use another one, and if you run out you should just abandon the quest and give up. When I did this quest I didn't use my Goldenfish Bait so I had all sorts of random Tunas and things--it took me 45 minutes to get three Goldenfish! Save yourself the frustration and use the actual Goldenfish bait, why don't you? You'll be glad to know that Goldenfish are useless and Small Goldenfish are too but can be sold, and that this quest has a pretty fat sum of money to award you with. ---------------- Sunken Treasure ---------------- Objective: Deliver 8 Red Coral Stones Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Easy (1/10) During your Molid, Ludroth, or Epioth hunts you might have noticed bone piles on the ocean floor. Well now you'll want to actually swim up to them and gather from them and you will get your coral stones. You don't have to leave Area 10 for them because I've never seen bone piles in Area 11. There are SHARQS in the area (they're...sharks) and they might attack you. If you brought a harpoon, harpoon them and carve Sharqskin from them, you'll be needing one later in the game (and if you like Lances the Sharq Attack Lance is hilarious). This quest gives you ores and stones and things and so it's a good quest for getting ores you need to upgrade your weapons and forge better armor. You might find yourself doing it two or three times for that. It's easy. ================================================================================ 2-star Quests ================================================================================ All right, you'll finally get your first boss-class monsters here! You excited? You ought to be. Just know this: Said big monsters could actually KILL YOU! So make sure you follow my instructions and bring all the items you need that I listed up above somewhere in the beginning of the guide. You know, stuff like 10 Potions, 10 Mega Potions if you're a careful person, and 20 Whetstones. But for your convenience, here's all you really need for now: 10 Potions 20 Whetstones (Blademaster) Ammo (Gunner) 5 Bug Nets/Mega Bug Nets 5 Iron Pickaxes/Mega Pickaxes 5 Paintballs (you'll get some soon enough) And as always be sure to pick up everything in the blue supply box. Keep on growing HERBS and BLUE MUSHROOMS and keep on gathering HONEY to keep your Potions and Mega Potions up. You'll also have unlocked ARGOSY TRADE. Use those commodities to fill up a meter. Then pick items from him to fill up a meter. If your meter is larger or the same size as his meter, it's a successful trade. Later on, rare commodities that have stars will be used for RARE trades for better items and furniture! Whenever Argosy's in town, the Gal with the Goods will have sales. She'll be selling Tranquilizers and Trap Tools now--go buy some, you'll be capturing soon. Also, go buy some Hot and Cool Drinks. You'll be needing them. But more importantly, his companion, the Felyne called the ITINERANT COOK, is going to be opening up for business. For a small fee (very small fee), you can eat and get those food skills I mentioned somewhere up above. ALWAYS EAT BEFORE A QUEST ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS. You'll also get a VOUCHER from him. Save it for a free meal or something. Another Villager Request will be here so you can grow INSECTS: *********************** * New Insect Box! * * 150 Resource Points * * Monster Fluid x1 * *********************** Mister Wyvern Artisan wants to talk to you too about charms (I went over those too) and he'll give you your very first PAWN TALISMAN. I believe it's the "Auto-Guard" Charm, put it away and never use it ever again. Learn to use your shield yourself! Don't sell it, though. Anyways, mussy your way on over to the Guild Sweetheart. You'll learn about your new area, SANDY PLAINS. It's a desert and so temperatures can fluctuate, and that's what your Hot/Cool Drinks will be needed for. You will also unlock a special kind of quest: HARVEST TOUR. You will also unlock a second kind of tree that starts with a bone weapon. Consider buying one to upgrade it. Upgrading your weapon is always a priority over upgrading armor, always. See what you need and see if you can get it. Anyways, the Key Quests in this section are: "Bear Trap", "Pain in the Plains", and of course the obligatory urgent quest. NOTE: From now on, I will always list the Harvest Tour quests first because it is a good opportunity for me to introduce the area. You should go on them for the sake of going on them, hm? -------------------------- Harvest Tour: Sandy Plains -------------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Ridiculously Easy (0/10) I will also explain here how Harvest Tour quests work. First off, expect nothing in your supply box except a Map and a Torch. After two minutes, a PAW PASS TICKET will appear. Put this in your bag and then DELIVER IT to the red box and you will get a quest clear. Why don't you explore base camp? You'll see a strange guy. He's called the VEGGIE ELDER and if you trade account items with him he'll give you some pretty neat stuff. He's not that important though. There's a new small monster here too, the RHENOPLOS. They are incredibly annoying--if a large boss monster accidentally hits them (they are not immune to friendly fire), they will target YOU by bullfighting you and they will literally sending you flying through the air. The damage is nominal, but it is incredibly irritating to suddenly see yourself flying right as you're, say, capturing a monster. Anyways, you can kill them and make yourself some Rhenoplos armor if you want. Catch some bugs here and you'll find yourself getting some cool CARPENTERBUGS and THUNDERBUGS and BITTERBUGS and FLASHBUGS. Nothing you couldn't find at Deserted Island or Moga Woods, but hey. There's a TON of places to mine ores from--there are many precious ores here that WILL come in handy. Earth Crystals, for example. Area 6 is, once again, a Jaggi/Jaggia den. You can go there and kill them for parts if you want. Areas 8, 9, 10, and 11 are the wonky areas. If you are out in the day, they're incredibly HOT and you will need COOL DRINKS. If you are out at night, they're incredibly COLD and you will need HOT DRINKS. If you are too hot, you will steadily lose health. If you are too cold, your stamina will deplete very fast and the bar will shrink very fast. They are much more desertlike than the other areas, and you'll see fish swimming about. SONIC BOMBS will get them out wriggling, and you can kill them and carve them (although their parts aren't very important). In one of the caves (I think it's area 7), there is an HERBIVORE EGG NEST. That will come in handy in one of the egg-delivery quests in this tier. As usual there are Altaroth and Bnahabra everywhere. For the next quest I recommend you forge a set of Chainmail armor. Iron Ores and Earth Crystals are very easy to mine in the this quest or the quest called "Secret of the Crystal Bones". From now on, every boss-class monster quest will have a section of items that I recommend you bring! ------------------------ Pain in the Plains [KEY] ------------------------ Objective: Hunt a Great Jaggi Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Somewhat easy (3/10) Items: Potions, Paintballs, Whetstones, Cool Drinks Great Jaggi is of the BIRD WYVERN class, one of the first classes ever. Unlike their name, they cannot fly. They are typically the smallest large monsters and consist of small minions led by one alpha, distinguished by a crest or frill of some sort. The game starts you off nice and easy. Make sure your bag's filled with the right stuff, store your unnecessary materials, EAT SOMETHING, and head on out for your first ever big monster! Great Jaggi is a pushover. As you farm him more and more, you'll be able to kill him in, I kid you not, 1 minute or less. But for now, expect to take no more than 5 - 20 minutes. If you can't get under 20 minutes, then you'd better do this quest over and over until you can. Great Jaggi is weakest to the FIRE element, but you won't have any of that stuff yet obviously. So don't worry--as your very first big monster, it's not a hard fight. But if you're not careful, you can potentially lose a lot of health and DIE so be on your guard, okay? All boss-class monsters (and some small fry) will have their standard physical attacks, which targets your armor's defense, and one or more SPECIAL attacks that are either their gimmicks or their elemental powers. Elemental special attacks play off of your armor's defense AND elemental resistances/weaknesses. Great Jaggi has no elemental attack as his special attack, his only special attack is the ability to make minions appear to pester you. By now I hope you've forged a Chainmail Armor set, it's much better than your Leather set and will protect you better. Anyways, like I said earlier, Great Jaggi's den is area 6, so head on out over there. You'll see a brief cutscene of a VERY LARGE Jaggi creature with a VERY PRETTY CREST. His crest is breakable! Once it's broken it will appear frayed and have holes in it, like worn cloth. But before I get too ahead of myself, and before you get too awful excited, I recommend you clear the den of all the small minions. It will help you immensely because you won't have them all crowding around you and giving you claustrophobia or something. Next: Chuck a paintball at the Great Jaggi. Now a pink icon will show up marking where he is on your map. This is going to save you a lot of pain, because Great Jaggi can navigate a network of caves that YOU don't have access to, and he can use it to jump from area to area in a very illogical way. All right...on to Great Jaggi's attacks! Great Jaggi's standard physical attacks are very standard for Bird Wyverns. He can lean forward abruptly to try to bite you. Sometimes, he'll step forward and bite to the side. It has a surprisingly large range and can make you land on your butt if you're not careful. Great Jaggi can and will use that tail of his too. He'll twist to the side and then twist to the other side, his tail whipping through the air as he tries to whip you with it. It's fairly easy to see coming and very easy to dodge--as he's tail whipping just approach him from the opposite side and you'll be able to land some free hits. Great Jaggi's most dangerous attack (not saying much) can potentially send you flying through the air. He will rush to the side, attempting to bash into you with his shoulder. He will travel very far, so move out of the line of attack and approach him from a diagonal. As I mentioned somewhere up above in this guide, boss monsters can go into rage mode. Great Jaggi can go into rage mode. He'll have a white puff of smoke in front of his face. He'll begin to link attacks together, and he'll move a bit faster and attack a bit harder. Be careful around any monster in rage mode, and Great Jaggi's no different. One think about Great Jaggi that you'll notice is that quite often when you attack him, his head will be knocked back or he'll just fall onto the ground altogether. This will happen a lot, but since he gets up quickly it's not very useful. Other monsters, when they fall over, they will flail there for a bit and give you a chance to land tons of free hits. Great Jaggi's special attack involves lifting his head to the air and howling to summon more minions. Use this chance to attack him, if you land enough hits on him while he's summoning, he'll be cut short and fall over or flinch or something and that means less annoyances for you. As you get more adept at fighting, try attacking Great Jaggi's face to break his crest and get more rewards. The moment Great Jaggi dies, the quest complete fanfare will play and you will have one minute to carve. You can get scales and hides and claws from him, that you will want to keep for both weapon upgrades and armor forging. I consider it practically mandatory to forge a set of Great Jaggi armor, especially if you chose to bypass the Chainmail armor set. Not only will you learn about the intracicies of armor and farming for it, you'll have a set of armor with much higher defense than your Leather and Chainmail sets if you have them. The few weapons Great Jaggi can turn into tend to lead to much better weapons later on in the upgrade trees, and likely they'll be one of your first weapons with any amount of GREEN SHARPNESS, which you WILL need. Make one, why don't you? Anyways, on to your next key quest! By the way, I believe after you've completed this quest there'll be a Villager Request to repair the farm's fields (and level them up so you can grow more things and reap more harvests). ***************************** * A Field Trip? * *---------------------------* * 300 Resource Points * * 2 Dung * * 1 Super-sized Dung * ***************************** Here's how to get Super-sized Dung and Dung: Look for the "Herbivores Breeding" label in the Moga Woods Forecast, then go out and kill all the Aptonoth, including the SUPER HUGE one. Return to the village, get your Hunt Report in, and Dung and Super-sized Dung should be in your Commodities. They're good fertilizer, but Dung is more important for making DUNG BOMBS. ---------------- Bear Trap [KEY] ---------------- Objective: CAPTURE an Arzuros Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Moderately Easy (3/10) Items: Tranq Bombs, Shock/Pitfall Traps Arzuros is a PELAGUS. The Pelagus class consists of more mammalian monsters. They are quadruped monsters that cannot fly. The Pelagus class can be divided into HOMINOIDEA, FANGED BEASTS, and the Frontier-exclusive CANIDAE. Arzuros is of the FANGED BEASTS class, they are very bearlike. From now on, the "Items" will only list items you probably usually don't bring. So while I'm not saying that I recommend you bring Potions, it's implied that you've got them always on your person. Same goes for Whetstones/Ammo. So this is your first capture quest. You'll want to be careful though, like the Great Jaggi, Arzuros is weak and doesn't have a lot of health, meaning you could kill it before it even attempts to limp away. At the same time, Arzuros's claw swipes are nothing to scoff at (unlike Great Jaggi), so you'll want to come up, attack its behind (safest spot), then evade its attacks and see if it'll limp away. Be extra nice and it'll show you when its weak. NOTE: Generally universal with ALL large monsters, once they start drooling, they've begun to tire out. They may not be capture-ready, but if they are drooling, that means that you'd better start watching carefully. You'll find that your blue supply box is being very generous and has 2 EZ Shock Traps for you. Unfortunately, you can only carry one, so if you mess up a catch, you'll have to hoof it back to camp to grab the spare. Also be sure to grab the EZ Tranq Bombs or whatever they're called. Then head on over to Area 3 and you'll be greeted with a cutscene of Arzuros eating honey! Yup, Arzuros LOVES honey! If Arzuros is low on health, he'll try to eat honey! If you're carrying honey, he might pin you down and lick the honey off of you! Arzuros has no special attacks and no element, just like Great Jaggi (unless you call the honey-stealing a "special attack" but it doesn't do much damage). Arzuro will often stand on his hind legs like a person and then swipe at you with his reinforced forearm claws. Remember: they're REINFORCED. They're a lot harder than the rest of his furry self so try not to hit them, your weak weapon will bounce off or will eventually bounce off very quickly. Arzuros's physical attacks are as follows: He might dash towards you in some sort of comical charge but after a certain distance he'll break and stand right back up so it's more of a way of getting nearer to you. He might lunge forward and catch the air with his claws in an attempt to catch YOU and send you flying through the air. He can also do a 360 claw-swipe spin. It's very deadly and has a pretty surprising range. His most annoying attack, and one that he will do very often when he's ENRAGED, is he'll roar a bit and then begin doing claw swipes, one after the other, following you around (albeit very poorly). He might even do it up to 5 times. Just position yourself so that you can attack him the moment he's finished. In terms of breakable parts, Arzuros's only breakable part is the wrists (called by Capcom the "braces"). They are the reinforced forearms. However, if you're intent on making Arzuros weapons or armor, you will need a few braces. They are also capture awards too, but more so if you manage to break them. So give it a go. Arzuros armor is pretty good too--higher defense than Jaggi armor (but Jaggi armor is definitely still good) and has a great arsenal of skills. So if you bypassed the Jaggi armor then Arzuros armor is practically mandatory. Once Arzuros begins getting weak and limping away, go ahead and make chase, then run out ahead of him and lay down your EZ Shock Trap and STAND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF IT. If you lay it down then attack him, he won't pay attention to the trap at all. You have to be the lure. He'll run towards you and then get trapped in the electricity. If there's minions in the way, you'll want to be literally right next to him to ensure your Tranq Bombs don't miss. Press Y to throw them at him--you'll need two--and then you'll get a QUEST CLEAR! NOTE: If you're having trouble pulling off a capture, consider crafting the Bone armor set. It has the skill "Capture Guru". If you PAINTBALL Arzuros, which you should always, then when Arzuros is ready for capture the pink dot will flash yellow and pink. Arzuros again makes good armor, and also makes a great weapon for those who can't make weapons out of Great Jaggi (particularly Long Sword users). Like I said, try your very best to have green sharpness. Finish up the quest, claim your rewards and money, and you'll return to find that some people want to talk to you! The carefree lad has reports of a small knee-high human-like creature running around being all mysterious! Junior decides that this creature must be a SHAKALAKA. What? Oh well, all you need to know is that there's a new URGENT QUEST to go see just what's going on. ------------------------ URGENT: Shakalaka Savior ------------------------ Objective: Protect the Shakalaka Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Lol (1/10) Head out and you'll hear a "HELP!!!" (or see it in your text box) and then, conveniently enough, your hearing is so good you can mark where the cry came from! Go to Area 6. You'll see Mr. Shakalaka being harrassed by Jaggia. Kill them all because they are small minions and if you are having issues go do the Farm Aid quest or something. Seriously. Anyways, if Shakalaka kid takes too much damage and faints you'll get an automatic quest failure, but these are small monsters so they damage him about as much as they damage you. So don't worry. In any case he'll be fleeing a lot so it's not like he'll be sticking around to take the punishment. Kill the Jaggia and carve them, why don't you? After that, you'll see HELLLLP!!!! again and this time, it's Area 9 and there's Ludroth harrassing him. After you hit those girls upside the head (like I said, they're FEMALE Ludroth cos they're teensy tiny) he'll be fleeing again. Make sure you carve them! Aaaaaaaand....HELLLLLP!!!! Go to Area 2 and this time it's Jaggi. They're even more pitifully weak than Jaggia so kill them. Then carve them. After this quest is over, Cha-Cha, as his name is, will explain just what he's doing over here and then say that because you're his number one minion, you will join him and help him in his adventures of mask-finding. Yeah, right. He's OUR minion, not the other way around. But go with it and you have a new Shakalaka companion! Actually, he's from Tri but hey. The good thing about having another companion with you is that the monster will now split its attention between you and the Shakalaka. That means that the monster might ignore you completley and go after Cha-Cha, giving you precious time to lay traps, sharpen weapons, and/or heal. Make sure you have Cha-Cha accompany you on quests always! ALWAYS! With that urgent quest bagged, you will now unlock the 3-star Quests! But here's the rest of the 2-star Quests. You should do them! By the way, now that you've "completed" the 2-star Quests, there's yet another Villager Request coming in, it's so you can grow Honeys, which will become all but essential once you start fighting bigger and bigger monsters (You can combine them with Potions to make MEGA POTIONS, that's why). ************************ * New Honey Box! * *----------------------* * 300 Resource Points * * 2 Cactus Flowers * * 2 Earth Crystals * ************************ Cactus Flowers and Earth Crystals can be found in Sandy Plains. -------- Bug Hunt -------- Objective: Slay 12 Altaroth Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Easy (1/10) This is the quest to get your Monster Fluid for that Villager Request. The blue supply box will provide you with 2 Poison Smoke Bombs. Use Y to detonate one in a group of Altaroth to poison them all. Then, when they die, instead of falling apart, they will leave behind carveable carcasses. This is also the only way to get things like the Altaroth (and other bug-related) armors and weapons (such as the Insecticutters). Monster Fluid is a common carve, so if you've got everything else needed, you can fulfill a Villager Request easy! This is also a good quest to use to gather other materials. Also, sometimes you'll see Altaroth with big fat stomach butt things that are different colors. Instead of poisoning them, kill them, and they'll leave behind a shiny that is usually either the Altaroth's stomach or another valuable item. I will say that weapons crafted from bug parts are unusually capable. ---------------- My Lord's Errand ---------------- Objective: Hunt an Arzuros Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Easy (2/10) Items: The usual. This time, Arzuros starts out in Area 5, I believe, so hoof your way over there. You don't have to capture, so it's basically BEAR TRAP but easier! You should also have some good armor by now, if you don't, this is the better quest to use to farm Arzuros for because capture is completley optional (but you will probably want to anyways for those Braces). --------------- Who's the Boss? --------------- Objective: Capture a Great Jaggi Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Moderately Easy (3/10) Items: Shock/Pitfall Traps, Tranq Bombs I've mentioned this already, but any item in the supply box that doesn't say in yellow "Supply Item" is free for you to grab AND KEEP. That includes those TRANQ BOMBS. So if you use only 2, you'll have 1 leftover to KEEP, so KEEP IT. Same goes for PAINTBALLS and other things not labeled "Supply Item"! This quest can be annoying because Great Jaggi is weak and easy to KILL. So again, give it lots of time to limp away. Be careful when attempting a capture because the minions might get in the way. Again, it is recommended you throw the Tranq Bombs at point-blank range or CLOSER. --------------------------- Secret of the Crystal Bones --------------------------- Objective: Deliver 4 Crystal Bones Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) NIGHT Difficulty: Easy (1/10) Items: Pickaxes of all different kinds, Hot Drinks Grab the Hot Drinks from the Supply Box. Even though you probably won't be going anywhere that actually gets cold (Head to Area 6 because it has a lot of rocks, kill all the Melynxes first so your stuff doesn't get snitched), it's not a supply item so it's free to keep! This is also your very first quest done AT NIGHT. There'll be plenty more of them in the future. Crystal Bones are account items. You'll need four of them. They're actually kinda somewhat rare, but in the process you'll get valuable ORES that you'll need for other things (particularly Earth Crystals). Therefore, this is a good quest to do over and over again for some free ores. You can also use this quest to get CACTUS FLOWERS and whatnot for that new Honey Box that you will be needing. ------------------ No Guts, No Glory ------------------ Objective: Deliver 3 Monster Guts Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Annoying (2/10) Items: Cool Drinks The supply box for some reason gives you free Barrel Bomb S, and three of them to boot. Grab 'em and save 'em for later. You'll NEED Cool Drinks this time around, Delex, the critters that give you Monster Guts, hang around in Areas 10 and 11 only. So head on over there. There is a shortcut you can take from base camp that'll get you to Area 7 and it'll save you time. Before you go, also make sure you grab the EZ Sonic Bombs, it'll make life easier. The Delex are leaping in and out of the sand, they're basically sand fish. If you toss a sonic bomb at them, they'll be ejected from the sand and wriggle. Kill them quick and carve them. If you run out of Sonic Bombs, what you do is you stand in one place. The Delex will swim towards you then pop out of the sand to bite you. Attack them in return and kill them. Another carve you could potentially get is a BIG FIN. They'll be needed later on (and they might be needed for other things who knows). Get your three Monster Guts and head back to base camp. Make sure you drink that Cool Drink or else you'll lose health slowly and steadily. In order to make Sonic Bombs for yourself, you'll want to combine Screamer with Gunpowder, which is made by combining Fire Herbs and mushrooms. You can easily grow tons of those with your FARM!!! A big bonus for completing all the 2-star quests is that your second Felyne farmhand will return! So you can grow TWO THINGS AT ONCE! To make, say, SONIC BOMBS which you'll probably want later on. On to the 3-star quests! Let's a-go! ================================================================================ 3-star Quests ================================================================================ Bigger monsters await you here! Make sure by now you have a weapon of at least Green Sharpness by the time you hit Barroth in his key quest, "Leading the Charge". Anyways, the Key Quests are as follows: Playing with Fire Save Our Boat Leading the Charge Accident Investigation So there's four this time, which is more than last time, but it's all going to be fun! fun fun fun! There's a fire monster and a water monster in this tier, meaning you can make yourself weapons with actual elements if you so wish. It's highly recommended that you do so you can upgrade them and make them BIGGER and BETTER. By now you'd better have some sort of armor not named Chainmail or Leather. Arzuros armor and Jaggi armor are both great sets. In this tier, there's plenty more monsters with good armor, but you'll want some good armor when you fight them too, okay? You'll also want to keep on freehunting to keep your Resource Points up AND to get some new RARE COMMODITIES from those large monsters that are popping up. Then you can do a rare trade with Argosy to get the following items that you should get: DOUBLE BBQ SPIT (for even more cooking!) and BOOK OF COMBOS 4. Later on you can get things to level up the Fishing Boats, furnitures, even cuter outfits for Poogie, and other great things. And as always, make sure Cha-Cha's with you. Customize his dances as you see fit okay? And get the dances from Argosy too. If you still have spare zennie, go to the Gal with the Goods and buy the other Combo Books plus the Books on Monsters so that you'll have a Monster List that can show off to other people you meet and Streetpass the monsters you've killed! As usual, there are Villager Requests. I will simply list them all before the quests and you can check them off as you please. Simply use Ctrl+F to find the request that you want. Can you believe that one single tier has THIS MANY REQUESTS? *********************** * Fluffy Mask * *---------------------* Unlocked after the Qurupeco fight. * 400 Resource Points * Warm Pelts come from Kelbi, and Velvety * 2 Qurupeco feathers * Hides come from Giggi, which you can find in * 2 Warm Pelts * Area 6 if the forecast says "Bnahabra Outbreak" * 2 Velvety Hides * *********************** *********************** * BBQ Mask * *---------------------* Unlocked after Barroth. BBQ Spit comes from * 400 Resource Points * Argosy as a Rare Trade. Capture Qurupeco or * Double BBQ Spit * break its wings for Flintstones. Gather from * 1 Flintstone * Sandy Plains and use the farm for the Fire * 3 Fire Herbs * Herbs. *********************** *********************** * Insecti-pride? * *---------------------* After Royal Ludroth, you can level up your Insect * 400 Resource Points * Box. Kill Bnahabra while freehunting to get the * 4 Funky Pheromones * pheromones as a Commodity. Moga Woods, D. Island, * 3 Carpenter Bugs * and S. Plains can give you Carpenterbugs. *********************** *********************** * Super Shroom Box * *---------------------* After Gobul, you can upgrade your farm shroom box. * 500 Resource Points * Trade with Argosy for the Shroom Germ+ and carve * 1 Monster Fluid * Delex for a Big Fin. * 3 Shroom Germ+ * * 1 Big Fin * *********************** *********************** * Honey to Burn * *---------------------* After Gobul, you can upgrade your farm honey box. * 400 Resource Points * Capture or Carve Royal Ludroth for the Dash Extract. * 1 Dash Extract * Cactus Flowers come from S. Plains and you can grow * 2 Cactus Flowers * some more in the farm, and trade with Argosy for the * 2 Bizzy Bees * Bizzy Bees. *********************** And also after the Gobul fight... (and the last one, huff huff) *********************** * Reel Deal * *---------------------* This will improve the food (called the "Canteen"). * 500 Resource Points * Gobul Whiskers are a quest reward, and you can carve its * 1 Gobul Whisker * whiskers if it hasn't noticed you. Area 10 in Moga * 10 Bones * Woods has a gathering spot where you can find worms... * 3 Frogs * and frogs! *********************** Now, let's begin with the actual quests, shall we? ---------------------------- Harvest Tour: Flooded Forest ---------------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: what difficulty (1/10) You can get really really useful KILLER BEETLES from the gathering points, and there's one gathering spot in area 4 that gives you Frogs! You'll notice that the water is very murky and that overall this place gives you the feeling of either a tropical forest or a swamp. As you can imagine, there will be aquatic battles here, and you'll probably notice that because the water's so darn brown, it'll be annoying. And it will be. Look underwater for mining spots. These mining spots are the ONLY mining spots that will give you the much-necessary and very valuable PELAGICITE ORE. I hate having to look for Pelagicite Ores, it's always that one ore I always have a shortage of. Pelagicite Ores are oceanic ores, so they'll never be found anywhere else. Stock up on them. If you're looking for ores in general, and perhaps AQUAGLOW JEWELS, then Area 8 has tons more ores to adore! After two minutes you can head back to the base camp and deliver that Paw Pass Ticket. ----------------------- Playing with Fire [KEY] ----------------------- Objective: Hunt a Qurupeco Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Somewhat difficult (5/10) Items: Sonic Bombs, Dung Bombs, Paintballs, Cool Drinks Qurupeco is a TRUE FLYING WYVERN. Flying wyverns are some of the most iconic of Monster Hunter and have two legs and two wings. True Flying Wyverns can use these two wings to actually fly, while Pseudo (false) Flying Wyverns use these two wings more as front legs. Obviously you'll also want potions and things, you know. Stock up from the supply box and head on over to Area 8. Be sure to grab the EZ Sonic Bombs! You'll be introduced to the Qurupeco who is mimicking the cry of a GREAT JAGGI who is below it on the ground. Qurupeco will then fly away (to Area 4) and leave the Great Jaggi behind. This is the game's way of keying you in to the Qurupeco's signature gimmick: He has the ability to mimic the roars of other monsters and can SUMMON them, turning a boss fight into a DUAL BOSS FIGHT and no matter how weak the monsters are, you'd better believe a dual boss fight is damn near impossible to deal with. When I first did this quest I just flung Dung Bombs at the Great Jaggi (Dung Bombs will make monsters leave, that's how you deal with 'em) but eventually I ran out and they double-teamed me and I died. So what you should do is... just go kill the Great Jaggi. It's a weak monster and an easy kill. Then you can pursue the Qurupeco. NOTE: In later Qurupeco quests, he will summon much tougher customers. Dung Bombs will be your only feasible option. So if you want Dung Bombing practice, now's the time to get it in! Before you hit the Qurupeco, Paintball him because instead of walking to the next area like Arzuros did, which was easy to follow, Qurupeco will fly away and can make it impossible to track if you don't have a Paintballs. A word of warning: after around 10 minutes or so the paintball wears off, so keep re-paintballing him regularly to save you some pain. Qurupeco can take quite a bit of punishment AND deal some serious damage, making this one of many "Wake-up Call" bosses you'll have in this tier. This is essentially the LETS-SEE-IF-YOU-HAVE-WHAT-IT-TAKES tier so show up that silly bird and prove you're the better of the two! Qurupeco's other gimmick is the ability to use those flintstones on his wings to create fire and attack you with it. Considering your armor's weak to fire, you'll want to steer clear. But let me go over his physical attacks first, okay? No need to get ahead of myself here. Qurupeco will sometimes step forward and dance around and peck you with its big spoon bill. It's an easy attack to see coming, doesn't do a terribly large amount of damage, and makes him look like a chicken! But hey! He is practically a Yian Kut-ku, so he is practically a chicken! Whoa. Qurupeco can also jump and fan out his tail and do two 180's with his tail to whack you with it. Because he is a fairly small monster, you're too tall to avoid the tail so just step back, or shield yourself if you use a shielded weapon. He can also charge at you and then fall on his tummy. Qurupeco will occassionally take off into the air just out of your reach (if you're a Blademaster). When he does, you'll shield yourself from the WIND PRESSURE and this can be EXCEEDINGLY annoying. So step away and hopefully you won't be wasting time covering your face. Qurupeco when in the air will flail around like an idiot and then spit mucus slime things at you. If you're up close to Qurupeco nipping his tail and legs, which ARE in reach, they won't hit you. They don't do much damage but they inflict the "Defense Down" ailment which is bad. When Qurupeco lands, the same WIND PRESSURE will occur, by the way. Now onto Qurupeco's fire attacks. He uses the flintstones on his wings. His most easily-avoided fire attack is going to occur when he claps his wings together. He'll jump towards you, smacking his flintstones together and creating a small fiery explosion. If you run in circles around him he can't hit you. If it hits you, you'll be sent flying backwards and you'll be inflicted with the ailment FIREBLIGHT, which steadily drains your health. Either use a Nulberry if you have one (it cures all blights) or roll 4 times. The next time you fight Qurupeco in a more water environment, simply rolling once in the water will cure the blight. When Qurupeco is enraged, however, he might quickly and abruptly just clap his stones together and explode you. There is no true tell for this, so don't be attacking him front-on, okay? He might also dance from side to side, puff up his vocal sack, and make little flames as he does so. Qurupeco can also, as I've already said, summon other large monsters, or maybe just minions. You'll know the difference. If it's a BOSS monster, he will stand on one leg and lean forward from side to side as he summons (and likely it will be a cry you recognize). Once the boss monster enters, its icon will pop up on the touch screen and the music *might* change, so if your volume's up (and it should be), keep your ears clear. If Qurupeco sings and you see red or green instead with no dancing involved, he is either boosting his and his fellow minions'/other boss monster's attack, or healing everyone. So he's basically Hunting Horn...monster edition. How to mess up his songs to boost YOUR attack or heal YOU? And how to stop him from summoning? Either inflict a ton of damage to interrupt him (like Great Jaggi) or throw a Sonic Bomb. He might drop a shiny too that you can pick up! When Qurupeco's songs succeed, he'll do a small victory dance. You don't want to see it. Now, here are Qurupeco's breakable parts: The 2 Flintstones and its Beak. Breaking the beak can be difficult because it holds its head up so high. Either use a Shock Trap or flinch the guy and you'll break it and get "Strange Beak", which you will need for armors and weapons! After you've killed Qurupeco two or three times it gets easier, as all things do. And you'll want to, because Qurupeco armor, for so early in game, is FANTASTIC. It's also NOT WEAK TO FIRE! Plus if it's available, you'll want to turn Qurupeco into some sort of fire weapon, yes? You'll need Flintstones for a mask for Cha-Cha anyways. (Remember: GREEN SHARPNESS) Once this quest is completed, you'll learn about more quests you should do, and the Wyvern Artisan will talk to you about DECORATIONS, which I have already gone over in the beginnings of this guide. For now, pass on them. You don't need them (later on you'll want to customize more, but now is not later) and they will use up precious materials you need for armors and weapons. The Fluffy Mask request is unlocked after this fight. Let me say that the Fluffy Mask is VERY VALUABLE and acts as basically a free Paintball, and is useful if you either forget your Paintballs or it wears off because you forgot to paintball the guy again. SO GET IT. On to the next key quest. ------------------- Save Our Boat [KEY] ------------------- Objective: Hunt a Royal Ludroth Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) NIGHT Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Items: The usual, plus Oxygen Supplies and Nulberries Royal Ludroth is a LEVIATHAN. They are crocadilian monsters that were also introduced in Tri and are distinguished by their more reptilian, streamlined appearances. They cannot fly. Most are amphibious but some rarely enter the water. Just as a note, when I do difficulty ratings, it's the difficulty an absolute beginner would probably agree with. Any monster over time will gradually go down in difficulty, yes? But the very first time, a monster can be difficult indeed. Yet another night quest. Take those Mini Oxy Supplies and NULBERRIES (which you will want to grow in the farm, not only because they're invaluable but because they also sell for great money so if you're poor you can sell them!). Also take those POISON KNIVES. Chuck four at the guy to poison him, which will help you immensely. Royal Ludroth is hanging around in Area 4, the half land, half water area. You'll be greeted with a short cutscene of him ordering his little harem around and then he'll begin to face YOU in combat. The little Ludroth can be very annoying so clear the area out first. Toss the Poison Knives to poison him and also paintball him as usual (even if Cha-Cha has the Fluffy Mask, just do it). Royal Ludroth is a Leviathan class monster, so as you can imagine, there WILL be some underwater combat. Annoying, I know. But let's get started with his attacks, shall we? I will, as usual, cover his physical attacks first. Royal Ludroth on land, for a leviathan crocodile thing, is much more mobile than a crocodile. His attacks are also very generic for leviathans, so if you study up on them and know them like the back of your hand like you will eventually, it'll come in handy for fights against the almighty LAGIACRUS. Royal Ludroth can lunge forward once-twice and do a once-twice bite to go with it. It's easily avoided. Attack his body for the most part. The mane is his weak spot but it's easy to get bowled over. When he's walking aggressively, he can easily send you flying. If you're behind him and he peeks back at you, that's your cue to get out of the way because he will do a tail two-swipe, one to one side and one to the other and it will send you flying as well. Perhaps Royal Ludroth's most devastating attack is his side barrel rolls (DO A BARREL ROLL!). When not enraged, he will look to the side and lift up his claws in preparation, so move out of its range and let him roll closer to you for easier attacking. When it rage mode, the only tell he'll give you is that he'll suddenly get into what is akin to a kung-fu pose and then launch himself sideways. Here's Royal Ludroth's special attacks. As you can guess, he's a water-element monster. He'll sometimes stand still and simply spit out two waterballs, one front, and two side. The two side ones can be farther to the side than you'd think, so just stay clear of his front. Another one he'll do is where he'll charge forward, spitting bluer waterballs left side-right side-left side-right side as he goes. When enraged, he will somersault at the end and do the same thing in a different direction. Play catch-up with him instead of attempting to dodge them, they have surprisingly good aim. Sometimes if he's feeling lazy, he'll just fire one big waterball while standing still, but it's uncommon. If any of them hit you, they might not damage you too much but they'll give you WATERBLIGHT, which makes your stamina recover at the pace of a snail. Use a Nulberry to cure it--especially if you're underwater where stamina is a must, you will want your stamina recovering at normal pace! As you can guess, fighting him underwater is going to be hard. He's much more mobile. Sometimes he'll torpedo charge at you and then reorient himself and curl around. It's best to dodge UP and DOWN instead of LEFT and RIGHT. Sometimes Royal Ludroth will flip his tail, causing a current of water to go to you. You will do what you did when Qurupeco took off, you will shield your face. If you had the skill CURRENT RES (HI), then you'd be immune, but oh well. Royal Ludroth can still fire off waterballs, but he'll only fire big ones, not the small blue ones. He also cannot barrel roll underwater, instead, he can somersault and do other contortionist-esque moves. Whenever Royal Ludroth is reorienting himself, he'll be swimming with his little legs, and those claws might accidentally scratch you and trip you, so be careful. Here are Royal Ludroth's breakable parts: You can chop off the tail, break the mane, and break his face. If you chop off the tail, you can carve it. It is the only way to get R. Ludroth Tails, which you might need. If you break the mane, you get a higher chance of getting Dash Extracts AND he will drop a shiny you should pick up. If you are a Blademaster, FOCUS ON HIS TAIL to chop it off because in general, monsters with cuttable tails are a lot easier to deal with without the end of their tail. Also, you'll want the practice. If you play multiplayer and you are the swordsman, it is your job to do tailcutting! When Royal Ludroth his tired, he will automatically swim to the "Ludroth Den", which is AREA 8 in Flooded Forest (AREA 12 in D. Island or Moga Woods, btw). Instead of going there immediately and having to fight him even more, wait for a few seconds and you'll be able to see him SLEEPING. If you just so happened to have Barrel Bombs on your person, set some up near his face--monsters take triple damage when they're sleeping and the Barrel Bomb strategy is a common one pulled off online. Otherwise, if you're lazy, since he's asleep he WILL be capture ready, so you could set a trap down and wake him up, then lure him in. Just wake him up and deal with him on land. Be quick about it because he might leave the area again. Royal Ludroth gives Dash Extracts as awards. They're VERY VALUABLE. Combine them with Well-Done Steaks to get MEGA DASH JUICE! You will also have unlocked the second of three fishing boats to send out on expeditions. Royal Ludroth will also be in Moga Woods now (they provide a lot of Resource Points! 600, I believe?), and a new Village Request is in for upgrading your Insect Box. You've now unlocked your next Key Quest. Make sure you turn Royal Ludroth into a weapon pronto, and make sure it has GREEN SHARPNESS. Have a good set of armor, too, this next Key Quest could go very badly if you aren't prepared. ------------------------ Leading the Charge [KEY] ------------------------ Objective: Hunt a Barroth Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Items: Cool Drinks, Cleanser, Paintballs in addition to the usual Barroth is a BRUTE WYVERN, a new class of monster introduced in Tri. Brute Wyverns are basically giant tyrannosaurus rexes that charge at you to hit you like a nuke and are distinguished by their T-rex-esque appearance and anatomical similarities, such as balancing most of their weight on their hips and possessing very small forearms. They cannot fly. Pick up the Cleansers and things from the blue supply box, you WILL need them. Then head on over to area 3 and you'll see a cutscene introducing you to the loveable Barroth, the result of a T-rex and a bulldozer's affair. Barroth's got some really odd elemental weakness thing going on because of his half-blood nature, you know. If he's covered in his muddy armor, then he's weak to Water, but if you break it all off then he's weak to Fire. Not that it matters, as long as you're hitting him you're damaging him, yes? Barroth is the first monster you're introduced to that can make you stop and clap your hand over your ears with his roar--it's that loud. If you want to run through it you'll need the armor skill EARPLUGS, but that's not a necessity, just buck up and deal with it. Barroth will roar when you first encounter him, and when he's about to go into Rage Mode. Make sure you PAINTBALL that sucker because he will dig into the ground to escape you like the jerk he is. Barroth's main gimmick is the ability to shake mud off of himself and thus coat you in mud, making you look like a fat, obese person. And if you know anything, being a fat, obese hunter is a BAD IDEA and you should use Cleansers to get it off! Or if you're right beneath him while he shakes himself you shouldn't get hit. If you don't have Cleansers, Cha-Cha will get the message soon enough and come over and hit you, freeing you. The status, by the way, is called "Muddied" or something like that. Barroth can chase after you trying to bite you, and when he does he'll lean forward and then sweep to the side. It's an easy attack to avoid. He can also do the same double 180 tailswing that Qurupeco does, but because you're short and he's humongous, if you're smacking his WEAK POINT, the ARMS, then you're safe from his camarderie. He can also smash his forehead into the ground to CRUSH YOU BENEATH HIS MIGHT. But his signature attack, and the most dangerous, is one where he lowers his head and CHARGES RIGHT AT YOU. Once he's committed to a direction, he can't change much, so GET OUT OF THERE because that attack will hit you like a nuke and it will hurt and send you flying and possibly STUN YOU. When enraged, he might do this more than once in a row. After his charge, you might think it safe to come up and attack him from behind, but BE CAREFUL because after his charge, he will sweep his tail down and it can easily catch you. Barroth's breakable parts are as follows: You can break the mud off of his forearms and legs. You can break the mud off of his tail, but only after the mud is removed can you chop the tail off. You can also remove the top part of Barroth's head, but his head will bounce you off (it requires a weapon of blue sharpness--a sharpness unobtainable until High Rank) so unless you're very foolhardy or a HAMMER or HUNTING HORN user, don't bother. The mud can be broken off of Barroth's legs and tail over and over again--the tail so long as it's not chopped off. You'll want to try your darndest to chop it, though, with only half a tail his tail sweeps are less threatening and you get Barroth Tails! His arms, as mentioned before, the weak point, and if you're a Blademaster, especially if your weapon is a small one, the safest place to be is right between his legs (this is true for all exceptionally large monsters with legs that can be stood between). Barroth makes for a good early game weapon and armor set too, by the way. After you've completed this quest you'll unlock the 4-star urgent quest for the 4-star Quests, fighting the Gobul. Cha-Cha will have his BBQ Mask idea in the Village Requests section too. ------------------------------ URGENT: Accident Investigation ------------------------------ Objective: Hunt a Gobul Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Somewhat difficult (5/10) Items: Oxygen Supplies, Sonic Bombs, and after the first time, Frogs Gobul is also a Leviathan but he's so fat and wide that he hardly looks like one. The very first time you fight him, you will have to swim your way to Area 6 for the cutscene. That's not how you want to start a fight, right? You'd want to start on land. Well good for you, subsequent fights with Gobul can be initiated on land by using a FROG to fish him out (just how you do that is beyond me but hey, it's Monster Hunter. You don't question it). Gobul's biggest gimmick is that stupid, annoying, pointless lantern of his. It will flash three times, then act as a flash bomb against YOU and stun you. A shielded weapon can shield you from it (wat) and if you have the exact expert timing you can roll through it. Or if your weapon's not out you can SUPERMANLY DIVE and use that invincibility frame to your advantage. Otherwise you're stunned. Rotate your circle pad really fast to recover quicker. Gobul's second gimmick is his tail whack. Like Royal Ludroth, he can tail whack, but it does like no damage and instead paralyzes you. Gobul's final gimmick is the ability to burrow underground and then suddenly leap out of nowhere to bite you or something. Just panic run in circles, okay? On land, Gobul's a fish out of the water and is essentially a fat Ludroth. You'll want to be careful though, his sheer girth means you can't roll to the side to dodge one of his biting charges (in which he CHOMPCHOMPCHOMPS while rampaging forward) because you'll still get hit, so don't attack him head-on. Gobul will puff himself up like a pufferfish and then do barrel rolls similar to Royal Ludroth but they're clumsy and easy to see coming. When he's all puffed up and looking stupid, his spikes will show up. They are DAMAGING and also you will bounce because puffed up hides are extra hard. He shares the same two-step two-bite with Royal Ludroth but it's slower and harder to dodge because he's a fatty. Underwater, Gobul's plain annoying, and the murking water doesn't help. Nonetheless, he will puff himself up when enraged and charge at you, or do a fancy weird somersault thing that can send you flying through the water and stun you. He can't paralyze you underwater. He can still pull off his lantern move. Underwater is where one of Gobul's most signaturely annoying moves comes into use: His vacuum mouth. You saw what he did to Epioth. Well he's gonna use it on YOU. Gobul will burrow underwater--put your weapon away and swim AWAY. When he pops up, only his head and top fins will show and he'll open his wide piehole and SUCK all the water in. What's even worse is that he rotates gradually, meaning it's surprisingly hard to dodge. If you get hit you suffer major damage and will be inflicted with Waterblight, plus you might be stunned. If you're behind him when he does his vacuum move, you can hit him upside the head as he attempts to hit you. Speaking of Gobul burrowing under the ground, he will do that to escape you so paintball him, and sometimes he'll just launch himself upwards into the air and then land back in the water. When you enter a new area, you often won't see him. You'll see his whiskers though. They look exactly like all the other weeds in the area...except that his has additional puffs of air bubbles. You can use this time to CARVE his whiskers to get Gobul Whiskers, ATTACK his whiskers, or you could use a SONIC BOMB and pop him out of the ground! Oh, the options. Gobul will go to Area 8 like Royal Ludroth will to hide when he's tired, but he won't sleep. He'll hide himself. Use your options and do what you will, but kill him and carve his carcass and turn it into a hat or something, okay? Gobul's breakable parts are as follows: You can smash his lantern and disable flashing abilities. It is the only way to get Gobul Lanterns, which you will want whether you need them or not because they're extra rare and shows off your mad skills. It's a small target, so do your best! You can also chop off his tail. If you chop it off he can still paralyze you, unfortunately, but you can carve that tail and get Gobul tails! Now you've unlocked the 4-star Quests. Wow, things are passing by quickly all of a sudden! You'll also have 3 Village Requests (check out the top section and use Ctrl+F to find the request) so get those resources and upgrade your farm! Here's the rest of the 3-star quests for you to try out. -------------------- Trapping a Trickster -------------------- Objective: Capture a Qurupeco Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat difficult (4/10) Items: Dung Bombs, Sonic Bombs, Shock/Pitfall Traps, Tranq Bombs Qurupeco might summon Great Jaggi again. If so, kill it dead. Or, he might summon a RATHIAN, a flying wyvern female dragon that is currently WAY beyond your skill level. Dung Bomb the sucker and get her out of there. Prevention is the best method, so if you can, use a Sonic Bomb to stop Mr. Peco's antics. When Qurupeco limps, don't put the trap down just yet, because he's limping to a particular spot in the area to take off and fly away from. When he lands in the next area (did you Paintball?), then lay down your trap pronto, and somewhat close to him because he could land and take right back off. Be sure to steal that EZ trap and the Tranq Bombs and the Dung Bombs and things from the supply box! This quest nets you better rewards because it's a capture, so this might be the better quest if you're looking for Qurupeco armor. ------------- A Royal Pain ------------- Objective: Capture a Royal Ludroth Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Somewhat difficult (4/10) Items: Oxygen Supplies, Tranq Bombs, Shock/Pitfall Traps When Royal Ludroth is sleeping in Area 8, his den, stick the trap right next to his ugly face and then wake him up. The moment he moves he'll be trapped and it's a guaranteed catch, just throw those Tranq Bombs. Be sure to steal all that nifty-keen free stuff from the supply box as usual. ------------------ Rhenoplos Rampage! ------------------ Objective: Slay 6 Rhenoplos Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: lol (1/10) Items: Cool Drinks Lots of Rhenoplos spawn everywhere, like 1 and 8 (you'll need a Cool Drink to get to Area 8 without losing healthy). You'll get lots of bones and Rhenoplos parts as rewards too. Rhenoplos are annoying, they'll charge at you and send you flying, even if the attacker was another monster (I'm sure you found that out during the Barroth fight). So have your revenge. Rhenoplos armor, stupid as it looks, has an armor skill that will make you immune to the mud from Barroth and later, the snow from Lagombi. Just something to think about. You'll also need Rhenoplos parts if you want Barroth armor, which is again, stupid looking, but pretty practical. ------------------- Herbivore Egg Hunt ------------------- Objective: Deliver 2 Herbivore Eggs Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Annoying (2/10) Carrying an egg is different than delivering shrooms or something. It will actually show up in your arms and it's so heavy you waddle while carrying it. If you run, you'll waddle faster. If your stamina gets red, you'll drop the egg and you'll fail and have to go get another one. You will drop the egg if you jump from a tall height, if you get hit by a small minion or a large monster, or if you purposefully drop the egg. So practice them dodgin' skills (without rolling!). The egg nest is in Area 7, so pick up one and truck it to base camp. Then repeat. Egg quests always give really nice money AND rewards (things like Steel and Silver Eggs can be sold for another couple thousand zennie, they exist as vendor trash). If you want efficiency, get the Felyne food skill Transporter, or if you're really nitpicky, forge the Loc Lac armor. ------------------ Toxic Troublemaker ------------------ Objective: Hunt a Great Wroggi Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: POISON ERMYGERD (3/10) Items: ANTIDOTES This is a quest that you will actually want to do--GET THE WROGGI ARMOR JUST DO IT LISTEN TO ME. For one, Wroggi armor possess the ability to GIVE YOU IMMUNITY TO POISON!!! For another, and this is great for Blademasters, Wroggi armor has the skill RAZOR SHARP which cuts the rate your weapon decreases in sharpness by HALF. HALF!!! I'm a Wroggi armor person, and you should be too. Area 10 is where you'll have to go first time around, subsequent hunts he'll be all over the place. His minions, the Wroggi, are especially more annoying because of Great Wroggi's special attack so clear them out and carve their hides, you'll be needing their parts for Wroggi armor. Great Wroggi's special attack, and his main gimmick, is the ability to spit poison from that big poison sac of his. So make sure you attack him from a diagonal, not straight head on. This is also the reason you'll want to clear out the Wroggis, they can spit small teensy minion-sized poison balls that can also poison you, and if you run out of Antidotes you're going to be in for a rough time. Great Wroggi can also summon in even more minions like Great Jaggi can. He can do the shoulderbarge/hipcheck thing, and it is equally dangerous. He sports the same front and side bites that you'll want to watch out for, and the double tailswing in which he turns to whip his tail at you, just like Great Jaggi. In rage mode, Great Wroggi can, just like Great Jaggi, link attacks together and maybe even do a double shoulderbarge that you'll want to not get hit by because it's no fun. Great Wroggi's only breakable part is his poison sac, but if you break it his poison abilities are greatly hindered and you'll get things like KING'S BEAK and POISON SACS for your Wroggi armor! ------------ Pest Control ------------ Objective: Slay 12 Bnahabra Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: ARGH BUGS (1/10) Items: POISON SMOKE BOMBS BNAHABRA ARE REALLY ANNOYING BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS FLY JUST OUT OF REACH IF YOU WANT IT EASIER BRING DAT TORCH AND SHOW IT OFF TO ATTRACT THEM TO THEIR DOOOOM. Unlike Altaroth, Bnahabra when killed conventionally have a slim chance of dying without falling into pieces, leaving behind a carveable carcass, but if you want that chance to be 100%, use a Poison Smoke Bomb! It can be tricky working with them to aim them right, and likely you can only poison one at a time, but you will be rewarded. Bnahabra armor, by the way, is pimp-tastic and you should wear it and show off what a stylish, gentlemanly kind of hunter lady you are. Because the Bnahabra are so spread out, I'll tell you the route I usually take: Area 4 has lots of Bnahabra, 4 or 5. Kill them, carve them. Then head over to area 7 and kill those. Area 9 has a few more, 1 or 2, and then area 10 usually has around 5 and that should fill your Bnahabra quota. ------------------- The Deadliest Catch ------------------- Objective: Slay 7 Ludroth Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) NIGHT Difficulty: wut (1/10) I feel like they put this stupid quest in this tier to make fun of that intense TV show called "The Deadliest Catch" because we all know little girl Ludroth are oh so deadly. Anyways just get this done. They're everywhere, particularly in Area 8, the Ludroth den. Ludroth armor is very ugly so you shouldn't wear it, but hey, to unlock the VERY LAST TWO QUESTS EVER this quest will need to be completed so just do it, why not. All right. On to the 4-star Quests! ================================================================================ 4-star Quests ================================================================================ This is the tier where Lagiacrus will rear his ugly head. Soon enough, you will face the village's worst nemesis. Are you ready to save the village? The fate of many lies in your hands. There are going to be many more Village requests to level up your farm, which you will want! So make sure you keep on freehunting. You might also get some RARE COMMODITIES so you can rare trade with Argosy and get things like, I dunno, a new dance for your Shakalaka? A Combo Book to increase your chances? Levelling up your fishing fleet? Here they all are: *********************** * Lamp Mask * *---------------------* Unlocked after the Rathian fight. Flame Sacs are a * 500 Resource Points * Rathian item. Machalite Ores can be mined in * Flame Sac * every single area. Try Moga Woods. * Gobul Lanturn * * Machalite Ore x4 * *********************** *********************** * Field of Dreams * *---------------------* Unlocked after "Lost in the Blue". Fertile Mud is * 500 Resource Points * a Barroth item. Catalysts can be made by combining * Fertile Mud x2 * Honey and Bitterbug. If you go to Marina in Tanzia, * Super-sized Dung x2 * Granny Go-to (that old lady with a HUGE sack) might * 2 Catalysts * sell some on certain days. Try your luck. *********************** *********************** * Milk Run * *---------------------* Unlocked after first Lagi Urgent Quest. Ivy can be * 500 Resource Points * gathered from plants. Mega Nutrients = Nutrients+Honey, * Ivy x10 * Nutrients = Blue Mushroom + Godbug. Pale Extract is * Mega Nutrients x10 * a Gigginox item. * Pale Extract x2 * *********************** *********************** * Calling all Bugs * *---------------------* Bugmaker! Pro is from the Argosy Captain, trade with * 500 Resource Points * him to get some. Unlocked after second Lagi Urgent * Bugmaker! Pro x4 * Quest. * Killer Beetle x3 * *********************** Your new hunting area this time around is the TUNDRA, although there's plenty of other monsters in your old stomping grounds. Around this time you can try some of the Tanzia 1-star Quests if you don't have any friends, you should have armor and weapons good enough for it. There's lots of new monsters in this tier, so there's many options. I recommend you go turn Gigginox, Rathian, and Lagombi into weapons if possible. Great Baggi isn't all that important. While there are four key quests, you don't actually have to do all of them. You do one to unlock the first Lagiacrus fight, and one to unlock the second. As per usual though, you'll be needing to do all these quests eventually, so if you don't want to have to come back here later, just do all the quests now, why don't you? You will also probably have some strange items called ARMOR SPHERES. What are these used for? You can use them to increase the defense of your armor. It's like upgrading your weapons but instead you're increasing defensive abilities. You should use them! I will start of as I always do, with the Harvest Tour of your new area. -------------------- Harvest Tour: Tundra -------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Tundra Difficulty: lol (1/10) Items: Hot Drinks Make sure you bring your Hot Drinks, okay? The Gal with the Goods sells them in abundance, just go buy 99 for your box so you won't have to worry for a long long while. You can find more Killer Beetles and Thunderbugs in the Tundra than anywhere else, but there's nothing bug-tacular about this place until High Rank. What makes this place so valuable is its ores. Head on over to Area 4 and mine the place. Did you bring your Pickaxes? You'll absolutely ABSOLUTELY want to get your hands on the precious ISSISIUM and LIGHTCRYSTALS you could possibly find here. You can also mine Armor Sphere+'s, necessary for even BETTER armor upgrades, as well as the account item Bloodstones. But definitely go for the Issisium! Later on in High Rank there'll be even better ores. Area 5 is where there will always be a strange, blobular, writhing nest of... what the hell are those worm things WHAT ARE THEY WHY ARE THEY SUCKING ON MY HEAD OH MY GOD. Yeah, terrifying. I don't find them cute, I find them TERRIFYING. They're called GIGGI and they're Gigginox babies! Awwww aren't they just precious? Actually, some people find Giggi to be kinda adorable. If you give them the chance, they will leap onto your face and suck the life out of you and also grow bigger! Roll 3 times to get rid of them, then kill them and carve them for things like VELVETY HIDES and MONSTER FLUID, both of which you'll need! Unless you destroy the Giggi nest (yes, you can destroy it), there will be unlimited Giggis for you to farm, so go crazy. Those big, friendly mammals you see are called Popo, they don't give anything particularly precious. The small Jaggi-like carnivores that are a pretty shade of blue are Baggis, they're the resident annoying idiots that hang around here. If you're going to be wanting some ice weapons, kill a few so you'll have spare Baggi parts in case you need some. They'll have more health than what you're used to, but they're no problem. That's it for our Tundra tour! When you're ready, hoof it back to Base Camp, deliver the Paw Pass Ticket, and you're done! Our first Key Quest that you will be attempting involves hunting what is a combination of a koala, a bunny, and a penguin. Are you ready? Prepare your fire weapon, if you have one, and let's get ready to...slide! -------------------------- The Snowbound Slider [KEY] -------------------------- Objective: Hunt a Lagombi Location: Tundra Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (3/10) Items: Cleansers, Hot Drinks Lagombi is yet another Pelagus Fanged Beast, similar to Arzuros. As such, you can be expecting this big ol' bunny to share many similar attacks. So grab the stuff (plus the free stuff!) from the supply box and head on over to... Area 2! You'll be introduced to the Lagombi, who slides on ice (and wants HUGS!) to get to you. As you can probably guess now, Lagombi's special gimmick is his ability to slide around on his penguin tummy. Unlike Arzuros, who was a bit clumsier considering his wide girth, Lagombi's love handles don't see to interfere with his ability to fight. If you need practice, Lagombi is the Novice monster in the demo, so download that and have fun. Or you could, you know, read this guide? Lagombi has the standard Arzuros move where he'll step forward and try to catch you with his claws. He does not have the 2 - 5 multi-claw-swipe. He will, like Arzuros, stand on his hind legs like he's a person. The best place to attack him is, of course, his rear end. But even his behind isn't safe. Every now and then he'll give his buttcrack a wiggle and then he'll sit on you. This is his BUTTCHECK attack and it's hilarious looking but can also deal a whopping lot of damage (he's so fat, why wouldn't it?). So roll over to the side when you see it coming and use the attack animation to fix yourself up and reposition yourself for an attack! Now I'll talk to you about Lagombi's icey-slidey attacks. He can torpedo himself forward at you, and he can do this up to 3 or 4 times when enraged, so play the catch-up game carefully or you might be on the receiving end of a hit, and they hurt! Lagombi's most annoying attack to try and dodge is his 180 slide spin. Well, scratch that. It's annoying, and it does a lot of damage, and it's a full 180. But Lagombi has an even specialer move: He'll do a complete 360 donut spin. Unless you're right in front of his nose or super far away from him, expect to get sent flying unless you can use a shield (if you even have one). Lagombi's special, elemental move is, quite obviously, ice, so if your armor's weak to ice, be careful. He'll jump and throw ice-snow-balls at you. If it hits you, you're essentially encased in the ice version of Barroth's mud, and you have the "Snowman" status. As with Barroth's mud, you can use a CLEANSER to get rid of it (or let Cha-Cha hit you). If you dodge the ice ball, be wary because it could still hit you if you run into it--it will continue rolling, getting bigger and bigger (for once it actually obeys the rules of logic) until it randomly vanishes after a certain distance. Lagombi otherwise is a fluffy hair-raising hare and isn't the worst monster ever. He can be made into all sorts of super-duper ice weapons--if you're a Dual Swords user you'd better make the Snow Slicers. Lagombi's breakable parts are as follows: His ears. That's it. They'll both break at one time. His head is a small target and he's constantly standing on his hind legs, but when he's tired and falling over all the time (like Arzuros) it's a good time to bash his face in, don't you think? On to our next Key Quest! --------------------------- Leader of the Icepack [KEY] --------------------------- Objective: Hunt a Great Baggi Location: Tundra Difficulty: Surprisingly not-easy (4/10) Items: Energy Drinks, Hot Drinks Make sure you always bring your usual stock of Potions and Paintballs as well. Similar to all of his "Great"s cousins, he can utilize a network of caves that you can't, so Paintball the sucker. Great Baggi has all of the moves of Great Jaggi and Great Wroggi and is essentially their good aspects mashed together into one. Like Great Wroggi, he can spit saliva and like Great Jaggi he can summon more minions (although Mr. Wroggi can too). So you might be thinking, "Hell yeah! Great Jaggi impersonator! So easy!" and you'd probably be right, because many others think the same thing. But in reality, Great Baggi actually presents a very surprisingly annoying challenge. Don't go diving into this fight thinking you'll get it easy, because Great Baggi can be very very annoying. First of all, head on over to Area 7 where you'll see the cutscene (I believe it is Area 7). You might also see him in Area 2, same as Lagombi. After you're introduced to him and his minions, clear out the minions. Just clear them out. Like the little Wroggis, the little Baggis share Great Baggi's special attack and it will result in much pain. After they're all gone, you can start dealing with Great Baggi. Great Baggi will actually deal out a lot more damage than you'd think, and he can take a ton more punishment than both of his cousins combined. He is very annoying and the first time I faced him, I thought it'd be easy but nope! I fainted instead. Even when not in Rage Mode, Great Baggi can attack very fast. He has the exact same physical attacks (bite, side bite, tail whip, shoulderbarge/hipcheck, etc.) but they hit like a truck so be prepared. He will spam the shoulderbarge attack a lot more than his cousins. Great Baggi's gimmick is a lot deadlier than Great Wroggi's. The saliva he spits out, as you saw in his introduction video, will put you to sleep. As you stagger around and start to fall over, down an Energy Drink. Not only will it boost your stamina, but it'll wake you right back up. The little Baggis can spit little minion-sized balls of saliva that can also put you to sleep, which is why I told you to clear 'em out. However, if you run out of Energy Drinks, try your best to stagger towards a little minion or your Shakalaka companion because if they attack you, you'll wake up but if Great Baggi attacks you, you'll wake up with suddenly no HP and faint, which is never a good thing. Great Baggi's only breakable part is the crest atop his jaw. Pretty thing, I wouldn't want to smash it but let's smash it because he's so annoying. After this quest is over you'll suddenly have a message saying THE LAGIACRUS HAS SHOWED UP OH NOW YOU HAVE TO GO CHASE IT AWAY!!!!! The next Urgent Quest similar to the Shakalaka Savior quest is a one-time-only quest, you can never do it ever ever again! You cannot do any other quests really until you do this one. So get it done. -------------------------------- URGENT: Trial of the Sea Dragon -------------------------------- Objective: Repel a Lagiacrus Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (4/10) Items: Your typical inventory is good enough Head on over to Area 5 and you'll see Jaggi bothering a sleeping Lagiacrus. Lagiacrus will wake up all annoyed and the Jaggi will scamper. Guess we have to deal with the consequences of their stupidity (you can deal with the Jaggi later I'd suppose). Lagiacrus on land is an enormous Royal Ludroth. Just think of him that way. He can do the two-step two-bite, which is easy enough to dodge and brings his head within range of attacking. He can swipe a claw at you. My recommendation is to just stay away from his front end and aim for his tail, especially if you use a cutting weapon. Lagiacrus's new moves that Royal Ludroth doesn't pull off are as follows: He can torpedo forward and then brake and swing his tail a bit to stop himself. It is easy to avoid and you can use the window of tiem that he reorients himself to attack his tail. Lagiacarus also has a HIPCHECK. Similar to Royal Ludroth's barrel roll, he will position himself and then, like a sidewinder, sidewind to the side. It has a very large range and so you'll want to make sure you're on the other side. Then just catch up to him and attack him. Lagiacrus's roar can stop you in your tracks, and he can go into Rage Mode during this quest. So be careful. This fight is scripted in that Lagiacrus will go from Area 5 to Area 9, then Area 10, and finally he'll leap into the water. Dive in after him, attack him some more if you have to, and then you'll get the Quest Complete! fanfare and he'll swim away beyond Area 10 (if you try to chase after him, you'll encounter an invisible wall lol). All of Lagiacrus's parts can be broken in this quest. If you break his front claws, there'll be a scar on top of his feet. If you break his chest, a very big and obvious scar will show up. Break his horns and his head will appear much less majestic than it ought to. Chop off his tail and you can carve it, giving you a Lagiacrus part before you're supposed to get one! Pocket your quest rewards and save them for later. You'll now unlock what is essentially 4-star Quests part 2. So let's get cracking, shall we? ------------------ Dragon Lady [KEY] ------------------ Objective: Hunt a Rathian Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat difficult (4/10) Items: Antidotes, PAINTBALLS, Flash Bombs, DUNG BOMBS By now you'll want to consider always bringing a Shock Trap and Tranq Bombs along with you in case a quest either comes down to the wire or you're facing iminent death and failure...or if you just get lazy and want to save five minutes or so. Grab the Antidotes (or, if you're wearing Wroggi armor, grab them because they are free!) and head on over to Area 3. You'll witness a great big huge FLYING WYVERN swoop down and kill an Aptonoth and roar. She is the Rathian and she is Queen of the Land, and she will kill you without hesitation using her awesome gymnastic skills. Oh, grab the EZ Flash Bombs too. Paintball her before you do anything else, Like Qurupeco she can fly to escape and this can make tracking her annoying. Should you ever forget to tag her though, and if she is visibly exhausted, always go ahead and check Area 8. She also likes Area 2, 3, and 5. Very rarely will she be in Area 7. So, her physical attacks first: She can do a side-chomp thing and lift her tail to her right abruptly. Easily avoided and nothing special, just attack her as she does it, it looks stupider than it is harmful to you. Rathian can also charge forward like Qurupeco. When she's exhausted she'll fall over and have a hard time getting back up. Must be because she doesn't have any front legs. Rathian can also do the double-180 tail swing. It can be very harmful and will send you flying. If you stay between her legs, you should be all right. But when she's moving around swinging her big ol' tail, she could trip you by accidentally nicking you, so be careful. The FELYNE BALANCER skill will prevent you from falling down like a big idiot. Rathian, despite her title, can and will fly up a short distance away from your puny melee weapon (Gunners can still hit her though). This is where bringing items comes in! Toss the Flash Bomb so that it detonates in front of her, it'll bring her down and give you time to attack her! If you don't know how to use your Flash Bombs or you forgot to take them or you're out or whatever, don't fret, she'll land eventually. Her tail will still drag on the ground, too, and so you can nip at her tail. I once chopped off Rathian's tail while she was in the air, that brought her down very easily. When Rathian's in the air, STAY OUT OF HER LINE OF SIGHT. STAY AWAY. AWAY!!! Like an eagle, she can swoop down on you and attempt to maul you. She might charge while flying at you too, and end with the eagle swoop. But most deadly of all, she can do her BACKFLIP attack. If her tail hits you as she backflips, there are poison barbs on her tail. Not only will you likely get up with half of your health left, but you will be POISONED (unless you have WROGGI ARMOR which is too awesome to be poisoned) and you will want to drink an ANTIDOTE and a POTION so you don't die. About her eagle swoops: She has a few different varations but they're all the same and they'll PIN you. The camera will suddenly change, you can't move, you can't use items, and you'll see a pink-purple bar at the bottom of the screen. You are pinned, Miss Rathian is EATING you to restore her own health, and when she's done she'll backflip and send you flying with none of your health left PLUS poison on top of it all. Detonate a poo bomb in her face and you will be freed! FUNNY STORY: Once when I was capturing a Rathian, she landed down as if to pin me but because it was in a very weird corner, she didn't touch me at all and instead landed and began to attack my Shakalakas. But guess what: My hunter still had the pinned animation (on the back rolling from side to side curled up in a ball) and so I had to wait for Rathian to FIREBALL me before I could get back up and lay down my Shock Trap! Now, on to Rathian's special attacks: As you can probably guess, she breathes fire, and lots of it. Mostly she'll stand still and fire three fireballs, one center, one left, one right. If you're next to her, just attack her. She's too busy firing fireballs to notice you. When she's exhausted, she'll attempt to breathe fire and instead will get a small puff of flame. If you're in the line of firing, the fireball will never reach you, but if you're right next to her face, you're still susceptible to fireblight, so roll or use a Nulberry to get rid of it, why don't you? Rathian in Rage Mode can be terrifying, and if she's raising up a bit of a party then lay down your trap and use it to immobilize her. Then if you can land enough hits, she'll be demoralized and she will limp away and you should either capture her for good or head over to Area 8 where she's sleeping, detonate a few Barrel Bombs, and kill her dead. Rathian's breakable parts are as follows: Two wings, head, and you can pop off the tail. The tail has all sorts of rare items just waiting to be carved out of it, most notably the PLATES, so do yourself a favor and chop it off. She can still poison you but it's worth the tail chop. Breaking her head increases your chance of receiving the PLATES as a quest reward, and you'll want them to make Rathian/Rathalos weapons, which are very durable and good. Breaking her wings gives you WEBBINGS and MARROW and you'll also want them. Yup, she's full of precious items. Now the Lagiacrus has returned. Do you have your Fire or Ice weapon ready? If so, go forth and kill it dead! --------------------------- URGENT: Fell the Lagiacrus! --------------------------- Objective: Hunt a Lagiacrus (and save the village!) Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Actually hard (6/10) Items: Nulberries, Oxygen Supplies Too bad for you, Lagiacrus is awaiting your challenge underwater. Grab the supplies and use the shortcut to get from base camp to area 9, then hoof your way over to Area 10 and jump on in. After the opening cinematic, the battle of destiny will start! Bring a Fire or Ice weapon, some Thunder-resistant armor that you have upgraded to the max with Armor Spheres and Armor Spheres+, and why don't you try getting the Felyne skill Thundercaller? It boosts your Thunder resistance even higher, nya? Lagiacrus underwater is much like Royal Ludroth's speed and Gobul's power all mashed up into one enormous LEVIATHAN. As usual, I'll start with the physical attacks, going from the trivial to the deadly. Whenever Mr. Lagi (that's his name now) reorients himself, he'll be paddling with his claws. If you're within range, you'll probably get nipped, similar to Rathian and Royal Ludroth. It's very annoying, especially if you're using a charged attack of some sort. Mr. Lagi can do the same two-bite attack that Royal Ludroth can pull off, and he can torpedo charge through the water and then swerve up and curl his tail to turn around. It causes currents and unless you have the armor skill Current Res (Hi) you'll shield your face. It's not a necessary skill though, just tossing it out there. Mr. Lagi's most deadly physical attack is one where he swims up to the surface. Don't follow him, though, swim away! He'll swim down to the bottom at a frightening speed, and if you're caught in the blast you'll probably end up being Stunned as well as without half your HP! Physically, Mr. Lagi is a giant Royal Ludroth. He has a few special LIGHTNING tricks of his own though. Remember how Royal Ludroth could spit water balls at you? Well, Mr. Lagi can spit thunderballs. If they hit you, they'll cause a new status condition: THUNDERBLIGHT. Thunderblight will double your chances of getting Stunned after taking a hit, so use a NULBERRY and cure it right away because being stunned is super sucky for you. Mr. Lagi has other, far more deadly lightning-imbued physical attacks. He can perform a watery counterpart to his land hipcheck that is much deadlier because he is covered in electricity and if he hits you it'll cause Thunderblight as well as tons of damage. Sometimes Mr. Lagi will curl up for a moment. It's like the calm before the storm--sheathe your weapon and get the hell outta there because he'll then make basically a box of electricity around him. If he curls up for like 1 second, you can take the hit and just Nulberry yourself. But if he's curled up there for what is a very nervewrackingly long time, you'd better GET OUT because that electricity attack is nothing you want to ever trifle with. Kapeesh? Lagiacrus's breakable parts are as follows: You can smash his face, break both of his front claws, scar up his chest, smash the BROWN SHELL SHOCKERS on his back, and pop off the tail. The Shell Shockers are what release the electricity and if you break them his ability to use electric attacks will be hindered. It's very hard to break them, though, so you might want to come back later with a higher powered weapon to try it. Even if you broke parts off in the previous "Trial of the Sea Dragon" urgent quest, he'll have his tail end back for you to pop off again. I didn't mention the Shell Shockers in that quest either because you wouldn't be able to reach them, but underwater now you can. They're the most durable parts of his body though, so do it at your risk. I recommend you smash his face, for horns, and cut his tail, for PLATES. When he's weakened a bit he'll leap up on land and you can handle him just like with the "Trial of the Sea Dragon". On land is the best time to try and attack his chest and tail, and his head because he holds it so low. If you're having trouble with the head, bring a Pitfall Trap. Once he's even weaker, he'll leapt back into the water and swim to Area 12. That's where Royal Ludroth would go to curl up and sleep, and that's where Lagiacrus is headed. If you want it easier, hang around in Area 10 for a while so you don't have to fight him in Area 11 all over again, then make chase. If he's asleep, you can Barrel Bomb him, attack him to wake him up, or capture him (yes, you can capture him). Congratulations on taking on the Lagiacrus! You'll earn the "Tidal Necklace Award" for your bravery and you've now finally stopped the earthq... WOAH WHAT JUST HAPPENED AN EARTHQUAKE? Never mind. On top of that, Moga Woods has Lagiacrus for you to freehunt, AND Cha-Cha has gone missing! Way to get him killed, hey. Way to break it, hero. While you're lamenting over the loss of your method of monster distraction, why don't you soothe your agony and take on the rest of these 4-star quests, hmmm? -------------- Hunter Killer -------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Great Jaggi and 1 Barroth Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (3/10) Items: Cool Drinks, Cleansers, Shock/Pitfall Traps, Tranq Bombs, Dung Bombs This is your first ever two-monster quest, and once again the game starts you off nice and easy. Great Jaggi will be in his den in Area 5 and Barroth will be lurking in the mud in Area 3. Take on Great Jaggi first and don't dawdle too long or else they'll both come to you. If they're both in the same area, follow my Qurupeco advice and Dung Bomb the Barroth, okay? If you're having trouble with the Dung Bombs working, consider getting the Felyne skill Dungmaster when you eat at the Canteen. Great Jaggi should go down really fast because you have better weapons. Barroth will be a bit of a challenge but if you've farmed Barroth a bit (and even if you haven't) it's leagues easier than Mr. Lagi and so it's more of a break for you. Capturing could make things easier, so bring traps if you get lazy or if things go wrong. But don't waste the traps on Great Jaggi. Be sure to Paintball both of them so you know where they're at if they happen to double- team you, or have Cha-Cha wear the Fluffy Mask (if you haven't defeated Mr. Lagi yet, that is). ---------------- Lost in the Blue ---------------- Objective: Slay 20 Baggi Location: Tundra Difficulty: lolkillingjaggis (1/10) Items: Hot Drinks, Pickaxes, Bug Nets, Dung Bombs, Paintballs This is a good quest to do some gathering in if you don't feel like doing the pointless and rewardless Harvest Tours. The Baggi are all over the place, and once you've wormed them all out you'll have to wait for them to respawn, so catch bugs, get honey, and GET SOME ISSISUMS! while you're waiting. Yup, definitely mine some of the ores. They're very very valuable. Get yourself some Baggi parts while you're at it, hey hey! As for the environment, it is an UNSTABLE environment and in case you forgot what that means (go to those Qurupeco quests, you Dory) it means a large monster could show up for you to either run away from or kill. In this case, our honored guest is the GIGGINOX! and she can be very terrifying. Paintball her if you're unlucky enough to see her and just run away, she has her own quest later. ----------- Cold Stones ----------- Objective: Deliver 8 Bloodstones Location: Tundra Difficulty: Very Easy (1/10) Items: Pickaxes, Mega Pickaxes, Dung Bombs, Paintballs, Hot Drinks Yet another quest but this one, like "Secret of the Crystal Bones", pays well in precious ores. The supply box will only give you 1 Old Pickaxe, and because you might become very unlucky, you'd better bring 5 Iron Pickaxes AND 5 Mega Pickaxes because you might get Bloodstones super quick or you might have to wait for the stones to respawn. As you've probably gathered (punintended), you can get the Bloodstones from the mineable rocks. They are an account item as usual. Mine 8 and bring them back to Base Camp. I think Gigginox can also make an appearance in this one, so make it quick (if you can!). Otherwise, tag her and Dung Bomb her away. ------------------- Poached Wyvern Eggs ------------------- Objective: Deliver 2 Wyvern Eggs Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: annoyingmamabear (2/10) Items: Dung Bomb, Paintball, Dash Juice/Mega Dash Juice Like delivering Herbivore Eggs, but there's a unique twist: Rathian is a MAMA BEAR and the moment you grab those eggs from the nest, she'll be coming in after you. How to make it a quick trip from Area 8 to Base Camp? Go to the Canteen and eat a combination of a Fish and a Dairy and get the Felyne Lander skill. This means you can jump from Area 8 to Area 5 without breaking the fragile Wyvern Egg. Then move it from Area 5 to Area 2 to Base Camp and head on back. If Rathian's not in area 8, just Paintball her and run on to her nest, which is (obviously) Area 8. Make sure you watch out for the Jaggis and Bnahabra who will try and break your egg. There will be tons of Jaggis at her nest when you first get there, so kill them all before you get the egg. Then repeat once more and you'll get some nice STEEL and maybe SILVER EGGS that you can sell for a couple thousand zennie, plus nice charms and a lot of money. I don't see why you as a hunter have been tasked with POACHING the eggs. Isn't that illegal? This is morally wrong and against the guild law, yet you are supposed to do it anyways because some guy forgot that he shouldn't have put wyvern eggs on a dinner menu. This is all so messed up! Oh well you're a hunter just do what they say, eh? -------------- A Royal Rumble -------------- Objective: Capture 1 Rathian Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (3/10) Items: Antidotes, Flash Bombs, Shock/Pitfall Traps, Tranq Bombs After you've defeated your first Rathian, there'll be a capture quest. So let's go ahead and do this. Rathian will first be in Area 2 and when tired will go to Area 7, and finally to Area 10 to sleep. But if you're quick about it you can capture her in Area 7 and not have to worry about chasing her everywhere. Paintball her as usual because she flies. Considering you've already hunted a Rathian, you should know that when she's captureable, she'll limp. So let her limp and fly away, chase her into the next area, then set down a trap and tranq her. You should know this stuff by now, shouldn't you? If you can't get it right, just wait till she goes to sleep, then put a trap down right next to her, wake her up, and put her back to sleep. A job well done. ------------------- The Creeping Venom ------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Gigginox Location: Tundra NIGHT Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Items: Antidotes, Hot Drinks, Dung Bombs Gigginox is literally made out of poison. Get your Antidotes and Herbal Medicines together please (or you could, you know, just wear your awesome Wroggi armor?). Gigginox is weakest to fire. Secondary weakness is water. So bring your Qurupeco or Royal Ludroth weapon. Miss Giggles is a very tough little girl and she is one of my favorite monsters. I HATE her babies, the Giggi, and they can make things annoying by latching themselves to you while you're already taking damage, so if you can destroy the Giggi nest. She'll start off in Area 5 so watch the gross cutscene, then paintball her and let's get started! Her physical attacks are very annoying because she is made of rubber and other stretchy things and can stretch and flab her body. Like many other monsters, she can charge forward aggressively and that attack, while it doesn't do much damage, has an unusually high chance of STUNNING you so get out of the way. She will often hang around on the ceiling too, and then land down on top of you. She's easy to avoid when she's dropping down from the ceiling though. Sometimes she'll hang around on the walls and then jump down and belly flop. She can belly flop with creepily good aim. Her more annoying attack is when she arches up and then rears on her hind legs and comes slamming down. If you're next to her tail end, you're safe, but even if you're barely touching her wings, you'll get it. Finally, the rudest attack she could ever possibly have: She will chomp to one side, then the other. Her neck will stretch beyond belief and even if you're at her side, her second neck-stretch-chomp CAN wrap all the way there and smack you. She can do it with her tail end too. Like Rathian, she has a pin attack. If she's dangling by her tail from the ceiling, she might sweep her neck and head around. That's her attempting to cause you to fly through the air. If she gets you, you'll land directly beneath her and--no time to react!--she'll plunge her lamprey jaws on you and finish you off with a poison bomb. But not even Miss Giggles enjoys a Dung Bomb being shoved down her throat (who would enjoy getting poop in their mouth besides squirrels?) so detonate a Dung Bomb and she'll let go of you fast. Miss Giggles will be giving birth during the fight. When she sticks her tail end on the ground and roars with pain, she will then give birth to a new nest of Giggis that you should destroy when you have time. While she's giving birth she'll be vulnerable to attack so attack her, why don't you? She's not like most pregnant ladies, she's ALWAYS pregnant and she's trying to kill you so kill her back. On to her poison. Like I said, she is made of poison. She'll spit poison at you while she backhops away from you. She'll create a poison cloud beneath her and then slowly fall while the cloud spreads. Stay away, it has a very large range. Sometimes, while she's giving birth, it turns out to all be a ruse to lay a poison bomb down that, if it explodes while you're in range, will send you flying and make you...poisoned. Oh wait, I thought it would paralyze me! How does a poison bomb POISON YOU??? If you're poisoned with a ton of Giggi hanging on to you, you'd better do something about that. I've said it before, rolling 3 times gets rid of the Giggi (as does just destroying the nest). Also, when Miss Giggles is on the ceiling, she'll sometimes, instead of attempting to pin you, swing back and forth and fling out poison balls (kinda like Khezu). They have very good aim so you should keep on running. When Gigginox is in normal mode, her head is soft but her tail is hard. When she goes into RAGE MODE, she'll roar her very excruciatingly loud roar (well if she's using both ends of her body, it's obviously doubly loud) and she'll turn black. So it's a very visible change. Gigginox in Rage Mode isn't nearly as scary as other monsters in Rage Mode though. Just play it safe as always. When she is in Rage Mode, her head hardens and her tail turns soft. Because she will always turn to face you, it can be annoying getting to her tail. Gigginox's breakable parts are as follows: You can break her head and you'll know because the markings will dim. You can break her stomach/breast and the markings will dim and she'll drop a shiny that you should pick up. You can break her tail and the markings will dim. But you cannot chop off her tail. Breaking her head and/or tail increases chances of certain rewards you might want so it's a good idea to do that. When Gigginox is weak, she might fly outside. Yeah, I know, those flabby wings of hers can actually lift her up. That's why you should paintball her. When outside, she obviously has no ceiling so she might fly a bit like Rathian. But for the most part, Gigginox will stick to areas 4, 5, and 7. She has a very visible limp when she's tired. I recommend a capture over a kill because you could get Fearsome Maws, which are needed for many Gigginox weapons, and Gigginox weapons are incredibly durable and highly recommended because they can poison monsters, and poison's always handy. Not to mention they've got edgy names and look super cool. Gigginox at her most tired will always return to her den. ================================================================================ 5-star Quests: The Final Showdown! ================================================================================ The Gal with the Goods will have the Pack Rat Guide available which will increase your item box space up to 10 pages. Get it when you can afford it. There's a lot more Village Requests in this tier too that you'll want to get done, and MANY of them are actually mandatory. Hope you've got your Resource Points all ready to be spent. Although some of them require High Rank materials. Just why you get them here is beyond me. *********************** * Ancient Mask * *---------------------* Unlocked after defeating Nibelsnarf or Volvidon. * 500 Resource Points * Harpoon Sharqs to carve them for a Sharqskin. * Lagiacrus Scale x2 * * Sharqskin * * Pelagicite Ore x4 * *********************** ************************* * One Chance * * ----------------------* Necessary for Ceadeus. Rath Talons come from * 1,500 Resource Points * Rathalos (break his wings). * Gigginox Hide x2 * * Rath Talon x2 * * Machalite Ore x8 * ************************* *********************** * Yeast Rising * *---------------------* Slagtoth Hide+ comes from killing and carving Slagtoth * 800 Resource Points * in Flooded Forest. Torrent Sac is a possible award * Shroom Germ+ x5 * from Purple Ludroth or normal Royal Ludroth. Both * Slagtoth Hide+ x5 * items are High Rank only. * Torrent Sac x2 * *********************** *********************** * Nulberry Mask * *---------------------* Bathycite Ore is found in High Rank F. Forest where you * 800 Resource Points * can find Pelagicite Ores. King Scarabs are found * Nulberry x5 * anywhere in High Rank in the bug-catching gather spots. * Bathycite Ore x2 * * King Scarab x3 * *********************** This tier progresses in a very odd manner. At first, you'll only have a few quests available to you. Here they are: Harvest Tour: Volano The Lord of the Seas Heat Exhaustion Fell the Lagiacrus! <--- you just did that one You'll have to do "The Lord of the Seas" because it's a key quest, but oddly enough you can progress through the story by doing "Heat Exhaustion" too. This will unlock an Urgent Quest to get another monster distraction pal. After that's completed, you'll get the following quests to complete: Hammer Time The Desert Gourmand Walk 'N' Roll The last two are your two keys to pick from. Do whichever one you want and then Cha-Cha will come back, so you'll have two Shakalakas officially now! You'll get the ANCIENT MASK request (listed up above) so be sure to fulfill it. The mask behind the waterfall in the farm is that mask, so go talk to it once you have the materials and things. After that, you'll unlock the following quests: The Wrath of Rathalos A Bard's Tale The Volcano's Fury The Horned Wyvern The Omen Denizen of the Molten Deep Hammer Time "The Wrath of Rathalos" and "A Bard's Tale" are your keys this time around. Once that's complete, you'll get the "One Chance" request listed up above. Complete the request and you'll finally fight the final FINAL boss of the game, which then unlocks the urgent quest that will be you first foray into the HIGH RANK, the top godly tier of heaven! Well, not quite, because there's G RANK on top of that but you know. So many new monsters yet again! Can you believe it? At this point there's a ton of armor options available for you and plenty of fire monsters because your new hunting area is the VOLCANO. Got your Cool Drinks? All of the monsters here have armors with top-tier defenses that, if upgraded, can be completley valid in High Rank. So make some and begin upgrading it so that you can survive your first tier or so in High Rank. I recommend Lagiacrus armor and Rathalos armor. They look the coolest and have good resistances. By now you really should have a Rare 3 weapon or higher, and many of them too, to handle all of these monsters. Also, you'd better go farm Lagiacrus and turn him into a Lightning weapon because you will NEED a Lightning weapon for your final Low Rank offline battle! ---------------------- Harvest Tour: Volcano ---------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Volcano Difficulty: it'saharvesttour (1/10) Items: Cool Drinks, Pickaxes, Bug Nets The volcano, once again, has many precious ores AND Rustshards AND CHARMS. So be sure to mine up every rock you see. Area 1 has a guaranteed bug catching spot that you could, if you're ultra lucky, get some nifty-keen Hercudromes from. Little monsters show up in the hot areas, like 7, 8, 9, and 10, and they're called Uroktor. You'll probably need their parts for weapons and armors so I suggest you go kill a few. The mushroom spots could possibly net you Dragon Toadstools. You remember those random shrooms from your very first ever quest? Well now you can get some more. This is one shroom I recommend you gather instead of grow. After two minutes you can deliver the ticket for "easy safe passage home". That was fun, nya! -------------------------- The Lord of the Seas [KEY] -------------------------- Objective: Capture 1 Lagiacrus Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: aarghthewaterhasnovisibility (3/10) Items: Shock/Pitfall Traps, Tranq Bombs, Paintballs, Pickaxes A majorly underwater battle in some of the murkiest, ugliest water ever. Oh well, best to just deal with it and fight this Lagiacrus. In area 4 he might hop onto land if he's feeling merciful, use this opportunity to chop off his tail and see if you could possibly get a PLATE. You can't put Pitfall Traps underwater (really, seriously, how would you even make a hole in the water) so try your best to make sure your EZ Shock Trap AND Shock Trap don't fail. I recommend you bring along Trap Tools and Thunderbugs to cobble more together, along with Tranquilizers and Bomb Casings if you run out of Tranq Bombs. This is one capture quest that, because of the environment, can go so screwy it's not even funny. If you decide to wait awhile after he's exhausted, he'll go to Royal Ludroth's den, Area 8, and you can simply sneak up on him while he's asleep for an easy capture. Otherwise, it's incredibly easy to miss while throwing Tranq Bombs underwater for some ungodly reason, so be careful. What's so annoying is you might do this quest a lot for the weapon and armor. If you want to make your life easier, just do the "Fell the Lagiacrus!" quest instead, you'll get the same awards if you capture him there too, you know? --------------------- Heat Exhaustion [KEY] --------------------- Objective: Deliver 2 Powderstones Location: Volcano Difficulty: aughmyhealth! (2/10) Items: Dash Juice/Mega Dash Juice, Dung Bombs, Paintballs, Cool Drinks This is your basic deliver-the-egg quest but with a twist. For one, it's not an egg, it's a Powderstone. And for another, the Powderstone is REALLY HOT and will continuously drain your health whether you have a Cool Drink or not (but you'd better drink a Cool Drink to keep your health up). Also if you get hit or your Stamina runs low, when the Powderstone is dropped it will explode and take away even more health. Similar to Deserted Island, the Volcano has its own little shortcuts, so get the skill Felyne Lander (or not, if you want to avoid a guaranteed guest monster). Gemming in the Transporter skill might help you too (this is one quest where having Transporter could actually save your life, literally). Anyways, head on over to Area 10 and grab the Powderstone. It's very hot, and the game will tell you that it is. If you've got a Dash Juice, drink it beforehand so you can run nonstop. Jump to Area 5 and immediately run out of the first exit you see before the Uragaan can notice you (he's impossible to miss, he's a large brute wyvern with a humongous chin) because if Uragaan roars then your essential BOMB will detonate. Then you can head on back to Base Camp. If you choose to not take such a risk, or you don't have Felyne Lander, you'll have to take the following path: 10 --> 9 --> 8 --> 7 --> 4 --> 2 --> 1. If you don't have much health left, and even if you have a lot, nap in the bed, then head on back and repeat the whole bonanza over again. After this quest, there'll be sightings of...someone that looks like Cha-Cha! So let's get out there and save him. --------------------------- URGENT: Shakalaka Savior II --------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Duramboros (and save Kayamba in the process) Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Actually difficult (5/10) Items: All the health items you can, Well-done Steaks, Paintballs Duramboros is a BRUTE WYVERN like Barroth with enormous horns and is like a cross between a camel, a mace, and a T-rex. Oh, and toss in a little bit of Grima from Fire Emblem: Awakening because he's got sweet horns. Duramboros is also gigantic. It's to the point where your camera will likely have issues focusing right, so I would recommend instead of rolling, you simply run out of the way because if you roll, the camera's not going to like it. Duramboros is weakest to fire but because he is literally made out of hitpoints and is a big fat stone wall log barrier of steel diamonds a POISON weapon will slice through him like a knife through butter. When I say "poison weapon" I mean "GO KILL GIGGINOXES and get Bloodwings, Bleeding Crosses, etc." So go do what I say and get yourself a poison weapon. I'll be waiting! You got it? Good. Head on over to Area 7. You'll see a cutscene with the sleeping massive thing (that's Duramboros) and a little guy with a blue mask (that's not Cha-Cha). Because this little guy is a big damn idiot, he'll PLUNK Duramboros's big hammer tail and wake him up. Guess who has to clean up this entire mess? You. Don't worry about the not-Cha-Cha, he'll vanish and reappear after you've killed Mr. Has-Sweet-Horns. As you can imagine, Duramboros will normally use his enormous tail. He can do a very slow 360 tailspin. Learn that tailspin, it's going to become a classic move from now on in every brute wyvern, and if you can't dodge that tailspin by the time Deviljho decides to come ruin your High Rank quests, you'll wish you'd learned it earlier. Duramboros can slam his hammertail on the ground too, and this can cause TREMORS and you will stumble arouond because you have horrid balance. Like Barroth, Duramboros can lower his head and charge at you with those sweet horns. It hurts, but you might have to take the hit. Like Gobul, the fact that he's so massively WIDE means it'll be hard to run out of the way. Hope you got some Potions and Mega Potions...and Blue Mushrooms, Herbs, and Honey because this fight can drag on for the full time you're given. Duramboros has other Barroth-esque moves, such as doing a quickcharge and then flinging his head upwards. But Duramboros's tail gives him some unique moves all to his own. His most hilarious looking move, yet incredibly deadly, involves him standing on elegant tiptoe and spinning around in pirouettes like a dancer. If you're right underneath him as he does this, just hit him and you could potentially tip him over. If you're not, run away as far as you can, that tail can swing in a pretty big circle. Once he's done spinning, he'll go into Duramboros Hammer-Tail Project: Phase Two. He'll launch himself up into the air and then LAND VERY HEAVILY. You'd better stay clear. But then of course, Duramboros will get his tail stuck in the ground. You can mine it if you'd like, which is why you were given 1 Old Pickaxe, or, if you have a Hammer, you can break that tail like the hammer wannabe it is. Duramboros's weak points are his humps but because he's so freaking huge you won't be able to reach it. If he falls over though, take advantage of the opportunity and wail away on them. This guide, by the way, makes Duramboros sound easy but he really isn't, he's so big that his bigness makes him almost impossible to dodge properly. Duramboros will dig away to escape you like Barroth, by the way, so do take care and Paintball him. Duramboros's breakable parts are as follows: You can break his horns, but your weapon will probably bounce so be careful about that. You can break his humps, but you'll have to tip him over a lot, and you can break his tail, AND cut it off. Once the tail's off you can mine the hammer, and that's probably the safer route. Cutting and breaking the tail increases the chance of you getting a Duramboros Tailcase, a valuable item. When Duramboros is tired, he'll go to Area 10 like all the other monsters do in Flooded Forest. Just let him sleep. Then trap him because by the time it happens you'll be running out of time or you're otherwise just plain annoyed and you'll want this quest over and done with. So capture him. The not-Cha-Cha that started this whole riot is named KAYAMBA and he will join you whether he likes it or not. He'll know everything Cha-Cha knows, level up appropriately, and be able to use all the masks you got when you had Cha-Cha except the Acorn Mask. Now you have someone else to take the hits for ya! This will unlock the next strain of quests to do. Let's keep going, shall we? ------------------- Walk 'N' Roll [KEY] ------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Volvidon Location: Volcano Difficulty: Easy (3/10) Items: Paintballs, Cool Drinks, Deodorants Mosey your way on over to Area 5 and you'll see Volvidon, who has a very long tongue and likes to eat bugs. He is weakest to water and so you should have yourself a relatively decent water weapon. Just like Lagombi and Arzuros, Volvidon is a Fanged Beast in the Pelagus class, so you can expect him to share many clawing moves with his bear brethren. Volvidon does, of course, have his own share of unique gimmicks, just like the rest of them. Just as Lagombi slides on ice, Volvidon rolls around. He's got the sort of armadillo look to him, doesn't he? When he rolls around, there's not much of a tell which way he'll roll, so just keep your distance and be wary. Sometimes, Volvidon will roll and then launch himself into the air and bounce around. If he's tired, when he finally lands he'll be stuck in a ball. Use the opportunity to attack him lots. Volvidon can also use his overly long tongue to whip you around. Sometimes it's hard to see coming, but it doesn't do a terrible amount of damage and overall Volvidon's easy anyways. Volvidon's special attack can paralyze you. He'll spit a yellow disgusting ball of saliva slime, and if it hits you, it doesn't do much damage but it leaves you paralyzed. If you're lucky, Cha-Cha or Kayamba will hit you to snap you out of it. Just take it like a champ and keep on going, all right? Finally, Volvidon can...fart...on you. He'll be on all fours and he'll act constipated and then you'll see all this brown gas coming out of him everywhere. And if you get hit by it, you get the "Soiled" status and you can't use items. Like, you can't use any items, even those Mega Potions you need because you don't have much HP left. It's disgusting and you should either be able to dodge, or bring Deodorants, like those Deodorants the supply box provided you, because you CAN use those and they'll cure you and make you all clean and not-smelly. Volvidon, like his cousins, only has one breakable part, the shell on his upper back. When he's fallen over or he's stuck in a ball, feel free to attack it and break it, it's not hard to break and you'll get Volvidon Rickracks. ------------------------- The Desert Gourmand [KEY] ------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Nibelsnarf Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: whatthehellisgoingon (4/10) Items: Sonic Bombs, Barrel Bombs, Cool Drinks, Paintballs NIBELSNAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRF. How on earth can I take this monster seriously? Not only is Nibelsnarf incredibly random in terms of name (what was Capcom on when they named this guy) but the battle, half the time I have no idea what's going on. Nibelsnarf would be akin to Gobul but not really. Bring Barrel Bombs, it's funny. Head over to Area 10 (down a Cool Drink before you set off) and you'll see a very comedic cutscene that will clue you in to Nibelsnarf's nature. It's all about that enormous jaw and CHOMPCHOMPNIBBLENIBBLESNARFSNARF. Snarfsnarf (that's the name for Nibelsnarf now) is a very random ADHD monster. For the most part, Snarfsnarf will be swimming underneath the sand and then popping up to attack. He might do a chomp-charge, in which he acts like a Chain Chump and chomps as he charges. Snarfsnarf's weak point is deep in his mouth, the uvula, but attacking it is very risky because as you attack it he might CHOMP and then send you flying. Snarfsnarf also has bright pink-and-purple gills. Sometimes when Snarfsnarf pokes his head up above the sand, he'll send sand flying behind him from his gills. It can easily catch you by surprise and inflicts Waterblight for some reason (I think, anyways). Similar to Gobul's vacuum mouth, Snarfsnarf can also eat up a lot of sand and then spit it out in a big vortex that can also hurt you for a ton of damage. Attack Snarfsnarf's gills whenever you can, they are equally viable weak points. Whenever Snarfsnarf is underground, he's vulnerable to Sonic Bombs, just like the Delex are, so feel free to use the EZ Sonic Bombs you were given, and bring some of your own if you want. Snarfsnarf won't burrow to escape you, but Paintball him anyways. Now, here's the reason I told you to bring Barrel Bombs (and to take those Barrel Bombs given to you). Put a Barrel Bomb down and then stand on its other side. Snarfsnarf will charge at you with his mouth wide open to CHOMP CHOMP (he's like Nah and you're like Inigo and you cheated on her) and he'll swallow the Barrel Bomb, which will explode. Run up to him, quick! You'll see an action icon...for FISHING HIM OUT?! Just do it. Press A, button mash, Circle Pad spam, and you'll fish him out in all his bright-blue-belly-glory. He has a tail, you'll notice, but it's funny because you can't break it nor do you even see it often. Attack attack attack. Feel free to repeat it over and over again. When Nibelsnarf is really tired, he'll go to Area 11, the resting point for most monsters in Sandy Plains that hang around in the hot/cold areas. You can capture him then or kill him dead. His death animation is very funny, like Gigginox he flips over revealing his brightly colored tubby and it's amusing to stare at. Nibelsnarf parts are needed for a lot of random non-Nibelsnarf-related parts so you'll need to farm him a bit anyways. --------------------------- The Wrath of Rathalos [KEY] --------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Rathalos Location: Volcano NIGHT Difficulty: notasbadasrathian (4/10) Items: Cool Drinks, Dung Bombs, Flash Bombs, Antidotes Head over to Area 8 to witness Rathalos's introductory cutscene. He is a FLYING WYVERN who is the male counterpart to Rathian, who you already fought. Unfortunately, Capcom seems to have mixed up their difficulties: I find Rathian to be much more of a threat than Rathalos, and this will hold even truer for their subspecies. Nonetheless, here you are and it's Rathalos time! Rathalos and Rathian share the exact same ground-based attacks, and many flying ones. Rathalos can do the double 180 tail spin, side-chomp, running charge, and he can shoot fireballs while he's standing waiting for you to attack him. Rathalos, however, flies a lot more than Rathian does, hence his title the "King of the Skies", whereas Rathian is "Queen of the Land". Rathalos will do most of his fireball shooting from the air, where you can't hit him. This increases his vulnerability to Flash Bombs though, so spam a few and bring him back down. Hitting his head will damage him more, but because of his charging and his fireballing, you'd best not stand in front of him, just like Rathian. He has his own special reason for this too: Especially if he's enraged, he'll leap into the air backwards and blast you as he does. If you're standing in front of him, the fireball he shoots as he leaps backwards will hit you. It's like Gigginox's poison-shooting backhop. Rathalos, like Rathian, can poison you, but he cannot backflip. Like Rathian though, he can eagle swoop and attempt to gash you, and that will leave you poisoned (unless you have...Wroggi armor!). Rathalos can pin you just like Rathian, too, and his finisher is going to be a fireball. Finally, Rathalos has his own unique sky attack that is a counterpart to Rathian's backflip, only it's stupid and boring to deal with. Rathalos will fly up high but, instead of leaving, you'll notice his Paintballed icon (you did Paintball him, right?) will circle the area you're in. If you use the L-target, you'll notice that he is indeed soaring in pointless circles for no pointless reason at all. Then he'll begin to dive at you. It's super easy to avoid, if you stand still and let him target you, then you run out of the way, he can't swerve to get you. In subsequent matches, Rathalos will be around Areas 1, 2, 3, or 4, and will rarely venture to the hot zones. Once he's exhausted, though, he'll fly to Area 6 to sleep and you can capture him or kill him dead. Rathalos has all the breakable parts of Rathian: Head, two wings, and you can chop the tail. Chopping the tail could give you PLATES so focus on breaking that tail off why don't you? -------------------- A Bard's Tale [KEY] -------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Barioth Location: Tundra Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Items: Hot Drinks, Cleansers Unlike Duramboros, Rathalos, and Lagiacrus even, Barioth focus on all-out speed and so you'll want to be prepared to be rolling and diving a lot, or otherwise playing tag with this guy. Once you've grabbed your supplies, packed a fire weapon, and downed your Hot Drink, head on over to Area 2 to witness Barioth attacking a Popo quicker than lightning. That should clue you in on Barioth's sheer attack speed. If Barioth takes off into the air a little, he might lunge from the air at you, swerving around to catch himself so he doesn't slidey-widey everywhere. His tail is very long and if you're behind him it will probably nip you. Do yourself a favor and try to cut it off. He'll charge at you too, and then he'll suddenly jam his shoulder into your face. His shouldercheck will be spammed a lot. It is very abrupt and will leave you Stunned, so you'd better be careful and make sure you're not on the receiving end of one. He can swipe his tail at you too and otherwise whip it around in the air. Like I said, you should try to cut it off, but his tail's still as long as his body even then and the swipe can still cause Iceblight. Keep your wits about you. If Barioth is in the air, you'd better watch it. Even if he's high in the air and he looks like he's about to leave, be aware that you can lightning-dive at you and then swerve around to catch himself, and if he slams straight into you it will hurt and you will be left with a surprisingly not-a-lot amount of HP. Run around and he might miss you. Barioth's special attack is when he creates an ice cyclone. If it's anywhere near you it'll give you the snowman status like Lagombi's iceballs did. That's what Cleansers are for! Actually I'm just kidding the cyclone's hitbox is generously tiny but that's no excuse to go stepping into it to test how far you can go, so just stay away. When enraged, Barioth can create the cyclone on the ground too. Barioth will use his wings to fly so Paintball him, okay? When exhausted, and in later quests, he will be at Area 6 on top of the plateau. If you run around the plateau, you'll find a spot with a lot of horizontal grooves. You can climb up those and you'll be pleased to know the Baggis and Melynxes hanging around on the ground can't follow you. Barioth's breakable parts are as follows: You can break the claws on his wings, you can break his sabertooth tusks, and you can chop off his tail. If you break his claws, similar to Mr. Lagi, his attack ability will be greatly hindered. His claws stabilize him on the ice and without them, he'll be slipping around and be unable to chain things together, so do yourself a favor and break them. And if you can chop the tail, then he can't hit you with his tail as easily! The tusks can be broken for additional rewards, like AMBER TUSKS which you will want to make Barioth ice weapons which are all very good and durable. ------------------------ The Volcano's Fury [KEY] ------------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Uragaan Location: Volcano Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (4/10) Items: Cool Drinks, Energy Drinks, Nulberries Uragaan is a very big ugly steely thingy. Head on over to Area 6 with your nifty-keen WATER weapon, witness his cutscene, and then prepare for a battle. Uragaan, being the same BRUTE WYVERN that Duramboros is, and looking a lot like him to in both ugliness and size, shares many moves with Duramboros. But before you attack him, you might want to know that unless you're hacking away between his legs and at his arms, you're going to bounce. He has a stone hard hide and so don't bother trying to attack his face, back, or even his tail because you will bounce. Focus on his tummy area. Okay, so for his most generic attacks. He has the same shortcharge that Duramboros and Barroth will use but lacks the longcharge (you know, the one Barroth is notorious for?). He can do a very slow 360 tailspin just like Duramboros, and has the same number of hitpoints as Duramboros too, so it seems (ugh). You'll notice that Uragaan has like this super massive ugly chin. Well, Uragaan will be using that chin a lot to bash it onto the ground and cause TREMORS. If you forge a set of Volvidon armor, you'll get the Tremor Res skill which will be helpful. Uragaan's big one-time chin slam will cause tremors everywhere and blow up explosive rocks, be careful. Uragaan also has a five-chin-slam. That one has a big range over the course of it so stay away from his face (you shouldn't be near it anyways because your low rank weapon will bounce). Uragaan, similar to Volvidon, can roll around. He'll roll himself into a ball and roll around, but in a much faster and much more dangerous fashion. When not in Area 6, he can roll around very randomly and quickly and so you should run around and have your dive ready to use. When in Area 6, he might dig into the ground and then show up on a small plateau that you don't have access to. This attack is Area 6 exclusive, and it can be very dangerous. Then he'll roll and roll down the plateau's slope and roll all over the place before finally unrolling and landing on his feet (and whipping his tail to stabilize himself, as always). It's a very fast roll and so keep your camera on him, okay? Finally, Uragaan, like Volvidon, can fart. But instead of farting, Volvidon will fart fire gas or something, and it will inflict Fireblight on you. The fire gas is orange. If he farts blue gas, that's sleeping gas and you'll fall asleep. I hope you have Energy Drinks. If you don't, run over to a minion or to your Shakalakas and hope they hit you, because if Uragaan hits you, you'll take a lot more damage trying to wake yourself up. Since Uragaan is of the same class as Duramboros, they share similar moves, so if you're having trouble with Uragaan, go fight Duramboros some, and vice versa. -------------------------- URGENT: Save Moga Village! -------------------------- Objective: Repel Ceadeus Location: Underwater Ruins Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Items: Oxygen Supplies, UW Ammo, Mega Dash Juice Well, the time has come. I hope you've used Lagiacrus to forge a lightning weapon, because at this point it's quite likely that you don't have any sort of Dragon weapon (however, if you made weapons forged from bug parts, they will have a minimal amount of Dragon power and that might be preferable). Once you've completed the Village Request "One Chance", you will have the opportunity to complete the Urgent Quest to save Moga Village! Are you ready? Well, of course you are. If you want, you can also do a trade with Argosy to get some Ammo, it'll come in handy. ***MAKE SURE THAT EITHER CHA-CHA OR KAYAMBA ARE WEARING THE ANCIENT MASK*** Anyways, you'll be introduced to the Moon of the Water, Ceadeus. He'll swim away. Once you've got all your items and your Stamina is UP (did you eat?), you can jump on in and follow him. If you swim the wrong way, use the Farcaster and try again. After a little while, Ceadeus will appear. Focus your camera on him and attack. The catch here, however, is this: Ceadeus's hide is very thick and too hard for your low rank weapon to get past, so you'll have to attack either his face or his beard. Definitely his beard, obviously, being in front of him is a somewhat dangerous place to be. This fight, like a great many Elder Dragon fights, is broken into two sections, and if you can't damage Ceadeus enough during the first stage, it's a quest failure and you suck. You'll notice straightaway that Ceadeus doesn't give a half-a-ton-of-Aptonoth- Supersized-Dung about you, so of course, make sure you focus your energies on attacking his beard and keeping up with him. If he so much as flips his fin or his tail to reorient himself, you're going to be sent flying through the water. He's that big. For the sake of it, I'll list his breakable parts here: You can give him a scar on his (very tough) back, you can break off his overly long horn, you can give him a scar on his tail, and you can give him a scar somewhere in between (I believe). Oh, and you can trim his beard. Focus on giving him a beard trim, and if you have successfully broken his beard, you'll know for sure you're ready for Stage Two. Keep your weapon sharp! Every now and then, Ceadeus might shake his head like you're an annoying fly. If you're caught in the storm you'll take a veritable amount of damage. At all costs, though, avoid his WATER BEAM. He'll suck in water and spit it out at you as a blue laser beam-thing. Your Low Rank shield can't block it, so just stay out of the way because Waterblight sucks. Did you bring Nulberries? If your oxygen runs low, call over whoever has the Ancient Mask and they'll replenish your oxygen. If they're unreliable though, and they could be if they're caught up attacking, use those Oxygen Supplies you should have brought with you. Once you get far enough, Ceadeus will use his Water-beam attack, but to blast an opening through a blocked part of the passage. Avoid the attack and then swim on in after him. This will likely take you the better part of 10 minutes. Yeah, it's a long battle. Tough it out! If you've done enough damage, you'll make it to Area 3 and be greeted with yet another cutscene of Ceadeus doing his most damaging attack. Now you know exactly what the tell for that attack is, plus its sheer power. Once you've regained control of your character, IGNORE Ceadeus for now and instead swim up, forward, and left to where you see some golden cubes on the rock. That is called the DRAGONATOR and if you activate it, black spikes will emerge and can deal quite a bit of damage. The Dragonator is practically required at this point if you want to hope to defeat him. The reason you'll want to be incredibly careful with the Dragonator is this: The Dragonator, in all its majestic power, takes 10 minutes to recharge. Yup, that's a long time. So swim there for a bit and lure Ceadeus up. Once his head is somewhat close to you, press A and you will damage him. For the remaining 10 minutes, just wail away on him. Ceadeus's attacks are as follows: Ceadeus can do the same two-bite attack that Lagiacrus does, but since he's so big it's long and slow and easy to see coming. Ceadeus also has a very slow hipcheck, but it does a massive ton of damage as long as you're anywhere near him because of his size, so be careful! Ceadeus also has a pointlessly long attack like Rathalos where he swims around the area to a specific spot, and then torpedoes down like Lagiacrus can do. It is very dangerous to get caught up in and if you're anywhere near his tail while it's whipping around, you won't take damage but you'll be inflicted with Waterblight, which you don't want because swimming is very Stamina-intensive. If you got the UW Ammo from Argosy, on the other side opposite the Dragonator is a Ballistae and near it is a gathering point for Ballista Ammo (unless you have UW Ammo). You can use this Ballista to aim at Ceadeus and deal lots of damage from a safe distance as well. The second time the Dragonator is active, swim on over and lure him over once more. If it hits and the timing is right, you will break off his overly long horn and that will be the victory condition for this Urgent quest. His horn can be carved twice so go ahead and carve it for Crooked Horns and whatnot. Don't worry about trying to forge Ceadeus weapons or armor (and definitely don't bother with the armor, you're about to enter High Rank) for now, wait until you've got better Dragon and/or Lightning weapons with which to kill him with. You'll earn yet another award, the "Gem of the Depths" award and you'll get to see Moga Village partying and preserving your name and your heritage forever. You're still sticking around though, you're Moga Village's offical one-and-only hunter protector person. Now you're going to unlock the Urgent Quest that, if completed, will give you access to the new and awesome HIGH RANK. Plus, you'll be able to hunt previously unknown Monster Subspecies! Oh, and talk to Argosy and he'll give you a special water Long Sword that, I will say, is pretty good. Free weapon for you Long Sword users. ---------------------- URGENT: Poison Control ---------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Purple Ludroth Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Items: Everything you can because there's nothing in the supply box All right, you're going to start off in Base Camp and there'll be nothing for you but a Map and a Torch. Grab the Map, and I hope you're prepared. Look up in the beginning of my guide for what you should always have in your bag at all times. And I hope you've eaten too! Purple Ludroth will start off in Area 9 but by the time you've figured your way out around this place, Misty Peaks, he'll have left so look around in watery areas. There's no truly watery area so you won't have to fight him underwater, good for you. Anyways, in case you haven't noticed yet, the color of poison seems to be pink and Purple Ludroth is very pink and purple. Purple Ludroth, being a SUBSPECIES, is exactly identical to Royal Ludroth in terms of attacks. But, because this is High Rank now, he does have a few new attacks that, while you've seen them before, you've never seen a species of Ludroth do them, so I'll list them here. Purple Ludroth can do the claw swipe and land-torpedo attack that Lagiacrus is capable of. Since he's smaller, it's easier to avoid, but you are attacking a High Rank monster with Low Rank gear so be wary. Purple Ludroth also sports the same Lagiacrus land-hipcheck. Easy to see coming. Now, since this is a poison Ludroth, things are a bit mixed up because it would be boring otherwise. When Purple Ludroth does the belly flop that Royal Ludroth likes to pull off a lot, poison will radiate out of him, kinda like Gigginox. And when Purple Ludroth spits balls, whether it's when standing still or when charging, they're poison balls, not waterballs. If it's taking a while, just go capture him. Oh, when he's exhausted, he'll go underneath a waterfall to restore his moisture and health. Feel free to attack his tail as he does it. Purple Ludroth's breakable parts are as follows: You can chop off the tail, you can break his mane and pick up the shiny, and you can break his face. Just like Royal Ludroth. Beating Purple Ludroth unlikes a new time of day in Moga Woods: Night Mode. Everything is now basically Deserted Islands: High Rank Mode and so there's High Rank gathering items and monsters are all High Rank-level monsters. Up until now, you always went during the daytime because during the night is when the dangerous critters come out. You'll find yourself hunting at night a lot. Oh, and monsters at night give just as many resource points as their daytime counterparts, so too bad. Congrats, you've unlocked the 6-star quests! Now you don't have anything High Rank in terms of gear or weapons, unless you got carried like a noob through Tanzia Port's quests, so I'm going to put a few quests above the Keys because you had better do those first. No, I'm serious. You're going to have to forge new HIGH RANK level armor. It's going to have much higher defense than your Low Rank armor. Visibly higher defense. So go forge some High Rank Jaggi armor or something, please. Also, about the Wyvern Artisan. He's going to give you some Advanced Armor Spheres, good for even better upgrades, and he'll mention he can make even sweeter, stronger gear. High Rank level armor will have an "S" attached to the end of it. Your low rank Wroggi armor was just that: "Wroggi Helm". But High Rank Wroggi armor will say something like "Wroggi Helm S". If there were a Wroggi subspecies (no, there's not), then it would say "Wroggi Helm U". Just so you understand those weird alphabet letters. Make sure you forge S armor, obviously. ----------- Hammer Time ----------- Objective: Hunt 1 Duramboros Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (4/10) Items: Paintballs, Shock/Pitfall Traps, Tranq Bombs This is the Duramboros quest because the urgent Shakalaka quest is a quest you can only do once ever. Now that you're more familiar with Duramboros, he's a bit easier. Bring Poison or Fire weapons, but Poison weapons are highly recommended over anything else. He'll range around the same areas as Duramboros, and when he's tired and wants to go sleep he'll go to Area 10, the Wroggi den. ----------------- The Horned Wyvern ----------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Diablos Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Items: Sonic Bombs, Flash Bombs, Shock/Pitfall Traps, Tranq Bombs Diablos is going to be a hard fight. If you can't handle Diablos, then don't think that you're still a noob because Diablos is actually hard. Area 10 is its starting area, I believe, so you'll witness it fishing some Delex out of the sand. It may surprise you, but Diablos is actually a VERY FRIENDLY HERBIVORE who likes to eat cactus, so you can't put meat on the ground because he won't care. Diablos's major weakness is Ice, but he can also be damaged with Water weapons. Don't bring Fire though. Diablos's roar is a high-grade roar, like Gigginox's, so if you only have normal earplugs, you're still going to cover your face in your hands when he roars. High Grade Earplugs are going to be needed for this guy. Anyways, let me tell you the best strategy to pull on him, which is why your bag is stuffed full of bombs waiting to explode. When Diablos is not enraged, and if he digs under the ground, throw a Sonic Bomb right as his tail begins to disappear. He will reappear in a free Pitfall Trap and you can hit him a lot. As he begins to recover, put your weapon away. He will fly up a little (he'll never fly anytime else) and that's your chance to chuck a Flash Bomb. Make sure it ignites and flashes him so that he can see it--if the bomb detonates behind him then that's too bad for you. He'll come crashing to the ground, just like Rathalos, and you can hit him even more. Remember: This only works when he's not enraged. Speaking of Rage Mode, Diablos's gimmick is that he'll be in Rage Mode. A LOT. When he's enraged, his speed and attack effectively double and you had better stay away, and just wait for him to calm down and then pull that trick on him again. Please. I'll go over Diablos's attacks now. Diablos and Rathalos actually share very similar attacks. Diablos can do the same double 180 tailswing and the same side-chomp (that's very pitifull) and he can do the running charge. Thankfully, Diablos can't breathe anything (if he could it'd be awful). Of course, Diablos has some moves of his own too. First and foremost, and most deadly of anything is his head-charge. Just like Barroth and Duramboros, he's gonna put those sweet horns to good use and he will send you flying higher than he ever could fly, plus take of a huge chunk of your health. Please be careful. Oh, if you're standing in front of a rock, feel free to let him charge at you and then move out of the way and you'll get him stuck. Good chance to attack him. Diablos can also use the axe on the end of his tail (and you thought only his head was deadly) and sweep it across the ground once-twice. This attack CAN hit you, unlike Rathalos's tail, because its hitbox is a bit weird. Diablos can also do Barroth's quick charge, and his tail then can also send you flying if you're not careful. Finally, Diablos can do a one-step two-step as he swings his head from side to side, his tail balancing him and still able to dish out damage. Diablos can also do a hipcheck. It can be very abrupt and out of nowhere, not to mention its hitbox is also a bit off, so stay clear of his hips. I would say the safest place to attack him is his legs, like Rathalos, but it's not because of his absurd tail, so all I can say is use the double-bomb trick to do most of your damage, and try to attack his neck and stay behind his head anytime else. For the love of all that is holy, do NOT be in front of his face. You're just asking to be gored. Finally, Diablos can burrow underground, like Nibelsnarf, and then literally fly out of nowhere RIGHT AT YOU and then land. That attack does a LOT of damage. Put your weapon away and run like a headless chicken why don't you? And, like I said, Diablos in Rage Mode is all the worse--stay away. Thankfully, Diablos actually seems to not have many hitpoints (or am I just using a weirdly powerful weapon?) and so he'll limp quick and then I recommend you just capture him and be done with it. Diablos's breakable parts are as follows: You can break his horns (they break individually) and you can chop off his tail. His tail, if you can, should be your main priority. I find that his danger level decreases dramatically without that axe waiting to cleave you in half. When he's been Pitfalled by a Sonic Bomb or flashed out of the air, feel free to cleave off his horns, though. They get you nice prizes. Not to mention the practically the ONLY way to get his horns is to wound them. -------- The Omen -------- Objective: Hunt 1 Rathalos Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (4/10) Items: Paintballs, Flash Bombs, Dung Bombs Rathalos starts in Area 8 but will probably fly away before you get there-- check for him in Area 3, Area 2, and Area 5, his favorite stomping grounds. He will rarely be in Area 7, and when he's tired, he'll try to go sleep in Area 8. Wait a few seconds before following him so that you can capture him or wake him up or whatever, because sleeping monsters are easy to sneak up on. Remember that Rathalos likes to be Flash Bombed. -------------------------- Denizen of the Molten Deep -------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Agnaktor Location: Volcano Difficulty: lagiacrus (4/10) Items: Cool Drinks, Sonic Bombs, Nulberries Agnaktor will be hanging around in Area 7, so head on over there. Agnaktor, like Diablos, can burrow into the ground, only this time it's ROCK and LAVA. Agnaktor is, otherwise, Lagiacrus on land, with the same two-bite, hip check, coil-tail-swing, and everything else that Lagiacrus likes to pull on land. This time, of course, Agnaktor is a FIRE LEVIATHAN and so you should bring Water weapons. Despite all these similarities to Lagiacrus, Agnaktor still couldn't be much more different, and now it is time to talk about Agnaktor's differences from his thundrous cousin. First things first: Agnaktor can burrow into the rocky lava. Obviously. When he emerges, you'd better be prepared because you don't want to get sent flying through the air. In certain areas, such as Area 7, there is a bit of a ceiling above you guys, and Agnaktor is more than capable of emerging from the ground and launching himself up and burrowing into the ceiling, then emerging and diving down back into the rocky ground. Be prepared to have to use your dive. If Agnaktor is not enraged, use what you learned from fighting Diablos and Sonic Bomb him to bring him right back up. Agnaktor also has a special attack utilizing his nifty beak that Lagiacrus is jealous of. He will jam it into the ground over and over again. If you're near this it'll send you flying. It's mostly easy to avoid though and it looks like it hurts him more than it could ever hurt you (it doesn't but that doesn't keep it from looking stupid anyways). Agnaktor has a ridiculously long tail, all the same, that you'll really want to keep tabs on. Sometimes, Agnaktor will emerge from the ground only halfway, rest his front claws casually on the ground, and then let loose a sweeping fire beam attack not unlike Ceadeus's water beam. It will inflict Fireblight and once more, it cannot be blocked. So run around or, if you're up close to him, use this as an opportunity to simply attack him. Make sure you attack what looks like molten lava spots on him, those are his weak points and your weapon won't bounce. Oh, and Agnaktor will sometimes spit out the firebeam when he's just standin' on the ground chilling. Speaking of his armor, Agnaktor's armor is a very unusual case. When Agnaktor first starts out, you'll see that he's become almost black and, for the most part, you're gonna have a bouncing party. Once he burrows through the lava, however, he becomes soft again and you're able to attack him. If you can break any parts of him, they will remain soft even as he goes into "Armor Mode", as it's called. So in some ways Agnaktor is kinda stupid for burrowing and letting his armor soften up like that. Agnaktor in Rage Mode can become decidedly faster and more powerful, and he can be scary. Sonic Bombs don't work on him in Rage Mode, unfortunately for you, so be careful and just pick your places carefully. If he goes into Armor Mode, just wait for him to burrow so that he'll be all soft and cuttable/smashable again. Agnaktor's breakable parts are...a LOT: You can break the molten core on his chest, you can break his beak. You can break each one of his claws. Yeah. All FOUR of them. You can break the fin on his back. And finally, you can break the tail, and once it's broken, you can chop it off. That's a ton of breaks, and by the time you've got them all (it's easier than you'd think) he'll probably be limping his way over to Area 10 to go sleep. You'll know when a part is broken because the fiery lava will disappear or greatly diminish. Once you've broken the armor off a part, it's just skin underneath and so even if Agnaktor goes into Armor Mode, those spots are still game to hit. You will want to fight Agnaktor a lot, especially if you are a Dual Swords user because Agnaktor, besides Rathalos, is the first monster you'll find that gives you access to fire weapons. And I will tell you: EVERY SINGLE WEAPON that can be created from Agnaktor is, while expensive, EXTREMELY durable and a veritable powerhouse, sporting ridiculously high fire elemental power. You'd better go out of your way to make one, they lay waste to any monster weak to fire. --------------- Uragaan's Trail --------------- Objective: Capture 1 Uragaan Location: Volcano Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (4/10) Items: Cool Drinks, Energy Drinks, Shock/Pitfall Traps, Tranq Bombs Uragaan will start off in Area 6. Make sure you capture him, okay? If you kill him, you fail the quest. So bring some extra traps (but only bring 5 Tranq Bombs so you can steal the 3 that Capcom so generously provides). ------------------- The Decisive Battle ------------------- Objective: Slay or Repel a Ceadeus Location: Underwater Ruins Difficulty: long (4/10) Items: Oxygen Supplies, UW Ammo, Mega Dash Juice You'll want to come back and do this quest once you have better High Rank weapons so that you can actually kill Ceadeus within 30 minutes. Or maybe G Rank weapons, with my best Dragon weapon I still took 35 minutes to kill him, so I had to repel him after 30 minutes, then swim all the way back the second time to kill him. Make sure you use that Dragonator and don't miss, and attack him as often as you can. If time runs out but you have sufficiently damaged Ceadeus, you'll get the "The Elder dragon swam away". Then next time, you can come back, swim to Area 3, and finish him off. Try and break all the breakable parts he has. Oh, and breaking his horn off gives you 2 extra carves but this time, it's not the victory condition. You should break it anyways (use the Dragonator). Once you manage to slay Ceadeus, his body gives you SIX carves instead of the usual three, so don't dillydally about and get to carving. The best things to get out of him is the Luminous Organ and the Deep Dragongem. Unfortunately I seem to be getting nothing but Deep Dragongems and no Luminous Organs, which I actually need. Now, I'm not saying "Don't go making Ceadeus weapons or armor". Well, because you're about to enter High Rank, forging Low Rank Ceadeus armor at this point is somewhat redundant, but if you overforge it it's by no means a bad armor set to go with, and you can mix and match with other pieces too for some cool skills. Ceadeus weapons are extremely durable weapons in their own right and boast a veritable amount of sharpness. Some Ceadeus weapons are the best water weapons in the game, so especially if you're a Lance, Switch Axe, or Great Sword user (credit to BLU), then you'll want a Ceadeus weapon eventually. Like I said though, it's time consuming to farm Ceadeus if you can't kill him within the half an hour given, so come back when you have a more powerful Dragon or Lightning weapon, okay? ================================================================================ 6-star Quests ================================================================================ Welcome to High Rank! I'm going to assume you know to bring everything with you because now the supply box won't be stocked immediately and all you'll have is a Map...if you even land at Base Camp! So I won't be providing item recommendations anymore, it's up to you to know that Rathalos can be Flash Bombed and that the Tundra is cold! I'll remind you in the Quest description because I'm a nice person though. Oh and since I've already gotten past High Rank I can't remember any of the Village Requests, and nowhere online seems to have any of them. If you know any of the High Rank Village Requests and what's needed, I would LOVE to know and you will receive credit. -------------------------- Harvest Tour: Sandy Plains -------------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: lol (1/10) The new Carbalite Ore can be found in every area. Sandy Plains is otherwise the exact same, besides the new items. Oh, and the bug spots have King Scarabs, and you'll want them because they're super rare. Also, from now on, Harvest Tours are unstable and you could run into a large monster. Here it's Great Jaggi. Go ahead and kill him if you run into him with your sweet Agnaktor fire weapon. ---------------------------- Harvest Tour: Flooded Forest ---------------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: lol (1/10) Underwater you can find not only Pelagicite Ores but its even rarer sister, the Bathycite Ore. You'll want a few, they're valuable. King Scarabs and Hercudromes can be found here, you'll want Hercudromes too. A new herbivore might show up here, the green ugly things called Slagtoth. It has its own armor set but it's a very ugly and not that great armor set, but it'll do if you're lazy and its defense is definitely okay. Great Wroggi can show up here. He's weak to Water, remember? ------------------------- Harvest Tour: Misty Peaks ------------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: lol (1/10) Misty Peaks is the same Misty Peaks you found when you had to fight Purple Ludroth, but it is a new area and so I'll go over it. This is a very Oriental-inspired area. Area 2 is the Jaggi's den (sheesh, they are everywhere). You can find sweet Carbalite Ore, among other things, and also in Area 1 there's bird things called GARGWA. They are friendly herbivores that won't attack you unless you attack them. They can lay eggs if you surprise them though (which is hilarious). There's a cave area too, and there's a beautiful ambient music in the background for some reason. Lots of ores to mine here, and lots of Bnahabra to kill and carve if that strikes your fancy. The rest of the areas are all somewhat watery and are otherwise extremely beautiful. The Bug spots can also give you King Scarabs and Hercudromes but are more likely to give the normal: Godbugs, Flashbugs, Thunderbugs. All in all, a very sweet addition. It doesn't get cold or hot because it's a not-too-high mountain so you won't need any special drinks here. Monsters of all sorts will be here, it's a temperate area and a "cradle of life", so to speak. There are no fully underwater spots in this location. -------------- Farm Aid [KEY] -------------- Objective: Slay 10 Jaggia Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: surprise! (2/10) Well now you're High Rank and you're so bad at this that you have to settle for slaying defenseless small girls. Go through Areas 1, 2, 3, and 5, and you'll find that there were only 3 or so Jaggia. Logic dictates that the Jaggi den will have all the rest of the Jaggia you need to kill, so let's head on over there, shall we? And what's this? A GREAT JAGGI? Pfft...that's nothing, I'll just go march up and atta-- WHAT IN THE NAME OF DIABLOS'S ENORMOUS HORNS IS THAT THING??? That, my friends, is G.I. JHOOOOOOOOOOO and you will want to run away from him like the small defenseless girl you are because he can and will one-shot you. But if you're stupid like me, you can run around listening to his SWEET battle theme (which is basically The Rite of Spring). Anyways, pull out your Dung Bombs and shoo him away, then proceed to kill the Jaggia. Carve them--you'll get new High Rank items like Jaggi Scales PLUS and Jaggi Hides PLUS which you will need for your High Rank armor! Also the quest will always spawn two butterflies in Area 5 that can give you Hercudromes and King Scarabs. Sweet. ---------- Field Trip ---------- Objective: Hunt 1 Great Jaggi Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Easy (2/10) I put this quest as one of the first because you'd better get yourself some High Rank armor before targeting this tier's big Key monsters. Just please. Great Jaggi is wandering all over the map and because you get dumped in some random-shit area, you'll have to run around looking for him! If you're unlucky, you might run into Arzuros, the guest monster. Either Dung Bomb him or kill him for extra parts and rewards because he's also not terrible and you could use the practice. Great Jaggi will move noticeably faster and dish out noticeably more damage-- you might find yourself actually using those Mega Potions you should always have on your person. But because Great Jaggi is otherwise so simple and easy to avoid and attack, you really should have no problem taking around 10 minutes to just kill this thing. Carve him and get your rewards, come back, and make yourself a full set of JAGGI S ARMOR. Just like when you first started your game, you made some Jaggi Armor because it was the first bit of good armor, do the same with High Rank. You have to work your way up! ------------------ Toxic Troublemaker ------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Great Wroggi Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Easy (3/10) This is another armor set you will want to forge. In fact, I only forged Jaggi S and Wroggi S, and currently I only use Wroggi S. I've just been keeping up with its upgrades as I unlock the armor spheres and it has served me beautifully. Wroggi S armor is just as good as its Low Rank sister, it has Negate Poison and Razor Sharp, and this time around it also has Speed Eating and Shakalaka Rally. It also has Defense Down as its negative skill but you can easily just stick in a Defense jewel to negate that. Great Wroggi is similarly more powerful than its Low Rank counterpart and will actually give you some issues with both its poison and its attack increase. Bring Antidotes, okay? High Rank Poison drains your health faster than Low Rank Poison (and G Rank is even faster). Great Wroggi this time around for some reason loves to spam the side bite, and its noticeably large range will easily catch you off guard. Other than that he's the exact same and you'd better make Wroggi S armor too, especially if you're a Blademaster. -------------------- Bye-Bye, Bloom [KEY] -------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Crimson Qurupeco Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Difficult (5/10) First things first: BRING 10 DUNG BOMBS, 10 DUNG, AND 10 BOMB CASINGS BECAUSE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY YOU WILL NEED THEM. All right, here's the first of our key quests, the Crimson Qurupeco, yet another subspecies! Are you wearing High Rank armor? Do you have your Ice weapon? Good. There is no introduction cinematic for Crimson Qurupeco, similar to Purple Ludroth. I think he's hanging around in Area 1 or 2, and if he's left, check Area 7. The first thing you'll notice that's new with Mr. Crim is that his roar, unlike normal Qurupeco, can actually stop you in your tracks. He also has, similar to Purple Ludroth and, of course, everyone else, higher attack power and speed. Mr. Crim shares every single physical attack with Qurupeco (he is a subspecies, remember?) but he has some new moves up his sleeve too. Unlike Qurupeco, Crimson Qurupeco is a lightning-based monster. Instead of Flintstones, he's got some nifty Voltstones with which he generates electricity! Instead of Fireblight, he causes Thunderblight, so use Nulberries okay? You don't want to get stunned. His wings are noticeably tougher and you will bounce, but Voltstones are Crimson Qurupeco exclusive and if you want to upgrade your Lagiacrus weapon you'll be needing a few, so just keep on trying (or come back later with a better weapon to try breaking them, hey?). Crimson Qurupeco can use those Voltstones for purposes other than doing that dancing attack that Qurupeco does that's oh so easy to avoid (you know, where he claps his stones and causes fire...or electricity in Mr. Crim's case). You'll know what he does it. He'll smack his volts together sorta gently. He'll also lean slightly forward as he does it. Once...twice...three times... maybe a fourth...and suddenly...wait for it... BAM. Flash of light and you're stunned, just like Gobul. You can roll through it, but his timing is unpredictable so good luck. Tough it out! Crimson Qurupeco can sing attack songs, songs of healing, and a new one, a song that puts you to sleep. Bring Energy Drinks if you're paranoid, he has yet to do it to me. Mr. Crim is also a MUCH MORE AGGRESSIVE SUMMONER than his cousin. Like, every minute or so I had to deal with him and G.I. JHOOOOOOOOOOO in the same room. I counted--he summoned TWELVE times and I only had 10 Dung Bombs. You know how I finally ended the quest? I threw Tranq Bombs at the trapped chicken... with a GI JHO STOMPING AROUND RIGHT ON TOP OF HIM AT THE SAME TIME. Talk about the most epic capture ever, but please don't attempt that. I'm serious when I say that Mr. Crim will summon THE DEVIL over and over again. Because THE DEVIL has a shweet battle theme it overrides EVERYTHING else no matter what it is and so you'll know when he's arrived. If you're lucky he'll stomp in with you retreating into the corner and you'll get Mr. Crim and GI JHO to fight each other. But, trust me, it's a stupid idea to let two monsters into a room at the same time, and if one of them is a DEVIL then you're being even stupider and you'd better toss Dung Bombs. If you're having serious issues try getting the Felyne food skill "Dungmaster". Mr. Crim has the same breakable parts as Qurupeco: Beak and Voltstones. Crimson Qurupeco armor is very lightning resistant, which can come in handy, but its skills are somewhat lackluster. Beat Mr. Crim and he'll show up in Moga Woods for revenge. ----------------------------- Pink Queen of the Peaks [KEY] ----------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Pink Rathian Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Don't worry, Pink Rathian is far too beautiful for the UGLY DEVIL to try and rear its UGLY HEAD in front of her. He's so unladylike that his mere existence would repel her away. But if beauty is a way of gauging power, then Pink Rathian is very, very deadly and you'll want to make sure you've got Antidotes (or Wroggi S armor) and a nice set of High Rank armor on your back to protect you, she won't hesitate to KILL YOU DEAD for fun and she is an incredibly dangerous subspecies. Pinkian will have all the same attacks with her cousin, Rathian. However, she has some new additions that increase her deadliness, in addition to the usual speed and power increases overall. First off, do you remember that stupid, weak side-chomp attack that Rathian, Rathalos, and Diablos like pulling off? You know, that one you never paid attention to because it was a good opportunity to lay down the hurt on her. Well, now it's accompanied with a BLAST OF EXPLOSIVE FLAMES in the vicinity of her jaw and you will want to STAY AWAY because its range is ridiculous. Stick to her legs, okay? Also, Pinkian has another EXPLOSIVE FIRE attack that she will pull on you, especially if she's enraged. She'll breathe fire, and instead of just the usual easy-to-avoid fireballs, it'll be an EXPLOSIVE CIRCLE OF EXPLODING FIRE because she is a pyromaniac and loves it. Pinkian's final new, and most deadly, attack, is her corkscrew backflip. It's as awesome looking as it sounds (Rathalos, you really need to catch up because you're not as cool as a girl is!), but even deadlier. Instead of just backflipping, because that's boring, she decides to add SPINNING to the mix. Like before, it can and will poison you in addition to dealing a nuke of damage. Pinkian can also pull off your standard backflip if she so chooses. Unpredictable little gal, isn't she? Other than that, Pink Rathian has all the same as Rathian. Fire balls, tail swings, eagle swoops, the ability to pin you, and everything else. Oh and if she's in the air you should Flash Bomb her to bring her down. It will put her into Rage Mode, and Pink Rathian in Rage Mode can be terrifying. Pink Rathian has all the breakable parts of Rathian. You can bash her face to destroy her beauty, wound her two wings, and chop off her tail. If you chop her tail, her backflip and corkscrew become notably less deadly because the tail is shorter. Don't let that let your guard down though. Once you've beat her, Pink Rathians will pop up in Moga Woods because the villagers love seeing gymnastics. --------------------- URGENT: Splash Damage --------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Plesioth Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: hitboxdissonance (5/10) I know what you want. You don't want no subspecies. They're boring. You want a monster, a real NEW monster. Well good for you, there's a new monster for you! His name is the Plesioth and you will either love him or hate him. Head on over to Area 10 and you'll be introduced to the lovable Plesioth. Bring a FROG and head to the fishing spot and you'll be able to fish him out of the water just like Gobul. He'll spazz out like he always does and you can lay the hurt on him. When Plesioth finally stands up, you'll notice something: His odd and absurd size. It is this odd and absurd size that gives him some pretty severe (but tolerable) hitbox dissonance, and this can be an issue. Lucky for you, I know most of the issues and so I will be telling you! First, let's learn about Plesioth's attacks. On land, Plesioth is actually not so easy as he is in the water. Strange, I know. Plesioth can wriggle forward similar to Lagiacrus, and if he's tired he'll fall over and spazz out. He can also do a double 180 tailswing and a hipcheck. Finally, he will stand on his hind legs and stand up super tall and fire a water beam. If you're attacking his legs (which you can probably only reach up to there) then you're safe. When Plesioth's about to enter the water, he'll run like...well...nothing's really as traumatic as a Plesioth running, let's just say. Underwater, Plesioth can charge at you super fast. If you're on land and he's in the water, he'll pop up and waterbeam you. It has a ridiculous range so be careful. Plesioth will often leap out of the water like some stupid fish. No monster will ever be as traumatizing as Plesioth, I swear. Plesioth can also do a very spastic figure-8 sorta of random thingy. Its hitbox is very odd, I've seen the end of his tail go right through me and not hurt me one bit. Plesioth's underwater hitboxes are all off--i.e. they're all smaller than they ought to be, so you should take advantage of it. Plesioth's breakable parts are as follows: You can break the fin on his back, you can scar his head, you can wound both his wings. Unfortunately, you cannot chop off his tail. Too bad! Which leads me to his hitbox dissonance. When he was first introduced, his hitboxes were absurd. They've been somewhat fixed, but his size is still very odd and weird and this means his hitboxes are still off. His hipcheck will hit you even if you're right under his tummy with nothing but air above your head. If you're on the opposite side of his hipcheck direction, you will still be sent flying through the air. Stay away from both sides of Plesioth's hips to avoid this issue, please. Plesioth's double 180 tailswing is also perfectly capable of smashing into you even though it's 8 or 9 feet up in the air. Too bad you can't cut it off, like I said. But if you can keep these dissonances in mind, then you'll be fine. The absurdity of his hitboxes aren't as bad as they used to be, and if you've mastered your evasion, you can easily roll or dive or shield, you know. When Plesioth is only land and tired, his head will droop to attacking range, and for a weirdly long time. Feel free to cut his head to pieces. When he's exhausted, his torpedo charge will end in him flinching, falling over, and becoming all spastic, so attack him then too, why don't you? When he's tired he'll attempt to go to Royal Ludroth's den in Area 12 but I've seen him all over the place. I've killed him on land in Area 10 and I've trapped him in the water in Area 11. Plesioth, similar to Agnaktor, makes for incredibly high quality water weapons. Do go ahead and make some (especially if you're a Dual Swords user). Now Plesioth will be hanging around in Moga Woods and also you've unlocked the 7-star quests! Now let's go ahead and do the rest of the 6-star quests, hey? ---------------------- The Merchant's Mission ---------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Rathian Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (4/10) Rathian is basically more powerful and faster now that she's a High Rank Rathian. She does not have the spinny backflip or the explosive fireballs that Pink Rathian possesses, she is a plain Rathian. She'll start and end in Area 8, and if you're lazy, steal a Wyvern Egg to lure her right back. The precious item you'll want from her this time is the Rathian Ruby. Good luck getting one. Rathian will appear in Moga Woods at night now. -------------- Current Events -------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Royal Ludroth Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Medium (4/10) Royal Ludroth is the same as ever. Bring your Fire weapon and break all his parts and be careful of Waterblight, so bring Nulberries too. When he's tired he'll retreat to Area 12 so kill him dead or capture him. His parts are good for upgrading your Ludroth water weapon if you chose to make one, and you'll need Torrent Sacs for a Village Request. -------------- Herd Mentality -------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Great Jaggi and 1 Pink Rathian Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Great Jaggi starts out in Area 6 in his den and Pink Rathian starts out in Rathian's nest, Area 8. This is an "Epic Hunt" so monsters show up one at a time and when defeated give you Mega Potions, so break all their parts and capture them. Pink Rathian will be the first that you have to defeat. Since it's a multi-monster quest their health has been scaled down, so she is notably easier than her debut quest. After that, go kill Great Jaggi. He's super easy and you can either cap him or kill him. I'd recommend just killing him, it's not like he's hard. Use a Lightning weapon. ------------------ Leading the Charge ------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Barroth Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (4/10) Well Barroth gets easier with time and to tell you the truth he's not that bad as other monsters (like Rathian) are in High Rank. Starts in Area 3 and ends in Area 3 of Sandy Plains and can burrow to escape you. Bring Cool Drinks. In High Rank his head cannot be damaged unless you have White Sharpness weapons (which are pretty much unobtainable until G Rank) so unless you're a Gunner or you use Impact weapons stick to his weak point (the arms). New to High Rank is a hipcheck. It's slow and easy to see coming, but I'm just letting you guys know. Defeat him and you'll unlock Barroth in Moga Woods. Interesting. -------------- Desert Warfare -------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Rathian and 1 Barroth Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) This is yet another Epic Hunt. Barroth starts in Area 3 and Rathian starts out somewhere hot, so bring Cool Drinks. Same old, same old. Capture them if you want since they only give Mega Potions, even their tails once you pop them off. Break as many parts as you can to get the Wound rewards. --------------- Hair of the Dog --------------- Objective: Deliver 5 Slagtoth Oil Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Easy (2/10) Slagtoth, as mentioned before, are scattered EVERYWHERE that's terrestrial in Flooded Forest. If you kill them, you have approximately a 30% chance of carving Slagtoth Oil, an Account Item. So go ahead and kill some until you have 5, then return to Base Camp to deliver them. Generic Delivery Quest, not hard. Oh, by the way, this quest is unstable and either Pink Rathian will show you to kill you with her beauty, or THE DEVIL will appear to try and eat everything. Maybe bring Dung Bombs along? --------------- Double Jeopardy --------------- Objective: Hunt 2 Arzuros Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (4/10) The 2 Arzuros this time around will tend to follow each other a lot so it will happen multiple times that they're doubleteaming up on you. You'll run through a few Dung Bombs doing this. This isn't an Epic Hunt quest because they all show up at once so you can kill them. They don't have too many new attacks, but they will use their 360 claw swipe a lot more than they ever did back in Low Rank, and they can hit you for a veritable amount of damage. Hit their behinds, break their wrists, and take the rewards like the greedy hunter you are. Arzuros will appear in Moga Woods at night now. ------------------- Bully the Bullfango ------------------- Objective: Slay 15 Bullfango Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Easy (2/10) The Bullfango are scattered all around Misty Peaks and you should have no trouble killing them and harvesting their parts (which really aren't that useful). Purple Ludroth could potentially show up, just shoo him away. -------------- Under the Yolk -------------- Objective: Deliver 3 Gargwa Eggs Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Easy (2/10) Gargwa lay eggs by you startling them. Go up behind them and attack them so that they drop a shiny. I like kicking them. But you can stomp on them or kickbox them or whatever too. After they've laid their egg or dropped something like Gargwa Guano or whatnot, they might try to buttcheck you. Either kill them and carve them for their pretty parts or just pick up the egg and skedaddle on to Base Camp. You can also trade the eggs with the Veggie Elder for things to sell if you want. Gargwa appear everywhere. Once you've gotten an egg from Area 1, they'll magically disappear so you'll have to look and walk around a bit. Thankfully, no large monster cares about Gargwa Eggs. You'll get lots of nice jewels and things as rewards. ------------- Siren's Song ------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) This is a bit of an oddball quest. The only way to get a Paw Pass Ticket to show up is to defeat 2 Qurupecos. Totally there's 4 Qurupecos plus one monster that may show up if the area is unstable. It should normally be a Rathian, but GI JHOOOOOOOOOOOOO seems to have a bit of a crush on me because he shows up whenever I do this quest. Nonetheless, kill your first Qurupeco and you'll get the message "4 Monsters Left!". Kill the second, and it'll say "3 Monsters Left!". Weird numbers, considering there's only 4 Qurupecos...unless the guest monster somehow figures in? But it's just that, a guest monster, so it doesn't make much sense. Needless to say, just go kill two Qurupecos (or more if you need their parts), solve the mystery if you'd like when you can kill them more efficiently later, and take your rewards. Make sure you Dung Bomb the guest monster. ================================================================================ 7-star Quests ================================================================================ Well you're pretty deep into High Rank now. -------------------- Harvest Tour: Tundra -------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Tundra Difficulty: lol (1/10) There's not much new to the Tundra, but as usual the Ores are just begging to be mined. The very precious GRACIUM Ore is a must-have, and the even rare FUCIUM Ore is a blessing if you can come across any (I myself only have ever had one). Issisium and rare jewels are also commonplace here, as well as Bloodstones and Deep Bloodstones, which fetch money if you choose to keep them. Great Baggi can show up here, by the way. --------------- Rockslide [KEY] --------------- Objective: Hunt 2 Volvidon Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) NIGHT Difficulty: Easy (3/10) This is one of those multi-monster quests where the Volvidon could easily double-team on you, so bring your Dung Bombs and attack them one at a time. Volvidon are soft and weak little Fanged Beasts just like the rest of them. Try to break their backs to get some Rickracks--Volvidon S armor, despite its ugliness, has some nifty skills if you want some. Don't forget your Hot Drinks! -------------------- Snowball Fight [KEY] -------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Jade Barroth Location: Tundra Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (4/10) Area 2 is where you need to go, I believe. Jade Barroth is essentially the shimmering blue, snow-covered cousin of the Barroth (obviously). She shares every single attack with Barroth. No, seriously. She's one of the less unique subspecies out there. The only difference is how she charges. Instead of charging in a straight line like Barroth does, which is easy to avoid, Jade Barroth will charge in curvy lines! She can make surprisingly sharp turns as she does as well, so prepare your dive and otherwise run around as fast as you can because she has surprisingly good aim with that big head of hers. Something more interesting about her is that when she's limping, she'll go over to Area 1. Don't go just yet though, let her charge forward and bust open a path that leads to...secret areas 8 and 9! Where she's sleeping, there's a bug spot that can give you RARE SCARABS and that bone pile could give you DRAGONBONE RELICS. Gather them up before you kill or capture Jade, why don't you? -------------------------- Shocking Development [KEY] -------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Baleful Gigginox Location: Tundra Difficulty: Difficult (5/10) Unlike Jade Barroth, Baleful Gigginox is a tough little cutie with several new attacks up her sleeve. While physically she shares every attack with Gigginox, her special attacks are no longer poison, they are electric, and she can both paralyze you AND give you Thunderblight at the same time! Nulberries, anyone? You know when Gigginox spits poison at you while she's standing? Baleful Gigginox will do that too, only it's a huge electric ball that will split into three and travel in separate paths. The radius is quite large, and you'll want to never face her head-on, because she'll jolt you and leave you paralyzed and Thunderblighted. Baleful Gigginox when attached to the ceiling will throw electric balls instead of poison balls. Baleful Gigginox's biggest attack, however, is when she'll tense a bit, like Lagiacrus, and then suddenly let out an enormous blast of electricity that arcs above her like a half-sphere. Its radius is larger the longer she's tense. The radius of the jolt is very short-lasting, unlike Lagiacrus, but it'll smack you for a whack ton of damage if you're not careful. And leave you paralyzed. Yeah, I'll keep reminding you about that always! If you break Baleful Gigginox's head, her thunder balls change from yellow to blue. Just interesting. Oh, and Baleful Gigginox can't give birth to Giggis anymore (which makes me wonder where Baleful Gigginox come from. Baleful Giggis???). Instead, she will always lay the electric equivalent of Gigginox's poison bombs. When it explodes, however, its range is, of course, far larger and you'd better be careful, even if you're next to her face you could potentially get hit. Baleful Gigginox will turn BRIGHT RED when enraged (definitely not inspired by Red Khezu) and her head will turn hard but her tail will be squishy. Baleful Gigginox, by the way, seems to go outside a lot more often than Gigginox. She'll be in Area 2 a lot when she's weak, although she won't spend a lot of time there. If you're aiming on capturing her, keep an eye out for when she leaves the confinement of the cave. Baleful Giggionx's lightning weapons are more powerful than Lagiacrus's, but lack in sharpness and are a lot harder to get. If you've already got a Lagiacrus weapon you don't need to bother with Baleful Gigginox...unless you think it's too cool to pass up? ---------------------- URGENT: Masked Robbery ---------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Rathalos Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (4/10) Well Rathalos isn't any different. It's just that Rathalos happened to steal Kayamba's so-called "Ultimate Mask" and you have to kill Rathalos in revenge. He starts off in Area 8 but he may well be in Area 3 or something, so check there. He uses the predictable paths of Rathian and when tired will try to go to Area 8. Afterwards, Kayamba will put the mask on and, dispair!, for it is not the Ultimate Mask, Rathalos has RUINED it. Cha-Cha laughs because they don't like each other much (and I thought their Chum-Chum was maxed) and calls it the "Unfortunate Mask". And that is what it is. The excuse plot now is attempting to revive it and turn it back into the Ultimate Mask. By the way, Rathalos will be stomping around at night and you'll unlock the next tier of quests! Getting far into High Rank now, aren't we? ------------------ Scene of the Crime ------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Gobul Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (4/10) Gobul's the same as ever. Go to Area 4 and use a Frog to fish him out. He'll be spamming his Lantern attack more than ever to stun you but if you've mastered the timing, you can in fact roll right through it and make use of the invincibility frame (or dive, you know). He's faster and a bit bigger and he'll leap out at you from underground and all that great stuff. Go ahead and smash his lantern and chop off his tail, why don't you? Defeating Gobul has hordes of Gobul appear in Moga Woods at night. ----------- On Thin Ice ----------- Objective: Hunt 2 Lagombi Location: Tundra Difficulty: Easy (3/10) Just like Volvidon and Arzuros, and having two of them in the same room can make things pretty nightmarish what with both of them sliding around. Dung Bomb one and focus on the other. Use these Lagombi parts to upgrade your ice weapon while you're at it, hey? --------------------- Leader of the Icepack --------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Great Baggi Location: Tundra Difficulty: surprisinglyhard (4/10) Great Baggi is surprisingly difficult, and it doesn't help things that GI JHOOOOOOOOOOOOO could potentially appear and murder you. That's how I died, I got stunned by THE DEVIL and then Great Baggi decided it'd be fun to bite me. Woo. Then I got mad and frustrated and so when I returned I decided to hell with it, I'll like THE DEVIL damage Great Baggi for me, and since neither had seen me yet they were fighting each other. It was funny. But don't do that (although I'll bet THE DEVIL did a pretty large chunk of damage to Mr. Baggi while I vented my rage). Anyways kill him dead as soon as you can with your awesome fire weapon yay! Funny story about this quest too, since Cha-Cha is wearing the Mock Melynx mask (a great mask, everyone ought to wear it!), and the Mock Melynx mask can steal items from monsters, I come back from a frustratingly but enjoyable success and I find that Cha-Cha has a DEVIL Hide. Interesting. I suppose if you hunted quests where GI JHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO could show up enough times you could make his weapons without ever fighting him himself. I find that to be incredibly amusing. ------------------- Research Assistance ------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Gigginox and 1 Baleful Gigginox Location: Tundra Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) They both will double-team you because they both hang out in similar regions. I'd recommend you tackle Gigginox first, who, predictable as ever, is hanging around in her den. Then go and handle Baleful Gigginox, who is the harder of the two. This is a good quest for farming Gigginox parts if you need both for their respective weapons (like, you know, Venom Wings and Boltgeist, heh heh). ---------------- Designer Antlers ---------------- Objective: Deliver 5 Anteka Antlers Location: Tundra Difficulty: Easy (2/10) Anteka are those antelope things with the pretty antlers that are High Rank only monsters, similar to Slagtoth in Flooded Forest. If you shield bash them, they'll be stunned like Kelbi and you'll for sure get antlers, but if you don't use a shielded weapon, killing them has a 35% chance of antlers so never fear! GI JHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO might show up again but this time, it's not biggie. ------------- Toxin Avenger ------------- Objective: Hunt 3 Gigginox Location: Tundra Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) This is not an epic hunt quest, but the Gigginox show up one after another anyways. If you kill them, you'll still be able to carve epic parts. Use your awesome fire weapon to plow through them. It took me less than 15 minutes for each one, and it should take you that long too, because otherwise you're going to run out of time and you'll be sad. If you need a crapton of Gigginox parts, do this quest. Because their health has been dramatically scaled down, it's much easier and you'll get more carves because there's three Gigginox. Each one of them will always start out in Area 2 and will roam around Areas 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7. --------------- The Write Stuff --------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Jade Barroth and 1 Gigginox Location: Tundra Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) This is an Epic Hunt quest. Jade Barroth will appear first somewhere in Area 2, and when she's limping let her break open that secret area and gather stuff, okay? Then head to Gigginox's den and take her down. Capture them unless you need the Mega Potions, but both of them are pretty easy. If you don't have a good weapon though, time could be an issue. -------------------------- Rumble in the Great Desert -------------------------- Objective: Slay or repel a Jhen Mohran Location: Great Desert Difficulty: don't do this now, save this for later (9/10) Well technically you'll save this for like the last few quests of the 9-star tier, but in any case I'll go over it now because it is definitely possible to do around the 8-star mark with good timing, a bit of luck, and much persistence. First of all, you can't do this quest until you fulfill the Dragonship Village Request. It requires 1,200 resource points, among other things. Do it and you'll unlock this quest. It's not key, and you'll only need to do it to unlock Alatreon and other end-9-star quests, so you can come back and do this after a bit. Jhen Mohran's biggest weaknesses are to Dragon and Ice, but unless you've farmed THE DEVIL before doing this, you won't have a Dragon weapon, and in fact a powerful Ice weapon works beautifully. Defeat Barioth, turn him into a weapon, and then come back, okay? Having a good weapon is 50% of winning, here. Armor won't matter as much because Jhen Mohran's sheer size means she won't be attacking you as much as attacking your Dragonship. Your Dragonship is that ship you're on that can TRAVEL THROUGH SAND. It will be taking damage from Jhen and thus has levels you can view in the Quest Info: NORMAL --> LOW --> WARNING --> DANGER. Once it gets to Danger, you really are pretty much going to fail the quest unless you can pull everything off to the millisecond...with a ton of luck. Thankfully, your Dragonship isn't totally defenseless and has many features that you can use to keep Jhen Mohran at bay. If you have the Felyne Skill "Bombardeir" then things might go a bit easier because it increases your Ballista and Cannonball damage, but don't rely totally on it because if your Dragonship is destroyed you'll still fail. The general rule of thumb is this: If you can keep doing steady amounts of damage, Jhen will be forced back and be unable to try and attack your ship via belly flop, the most damaging attack your Dragonship will have to suffer if you're not careful. The moment you're in the quest, get the Ballista Ammo and the Anti-Dragon Bombs, you'll want them. After you've grabbed whatever else you need, head up top and you'll see Jhen Mohran pop up out of the sand. Obviously, Jhen's too far away for you to hit via weapon, and that's what the Ballista are for. Ignore the cannons, you can use them later. Use the Ballista, press R for a more precise aim mechanic, and aim for the TUSKS because you will want to break them. After a while Jhen, will get closer and you'll see a red arrow pointing to her side. That's your cue to jump and get to her back. As you run along her back, you'll see grey, cracked parts. Those are her weak spots, and you'll want to hit them until they break. After a while, though, Jhen will throw you off and you'll have to get back up to the top deck and repeat it over again. If you can break both though, that's a sign you're doing well. Dual Swords users, you'd better be Demon Moding as often as you can--it's literally impossible to break the weak spots unless you are Demon Moding over and over and over again. Great Swords users had better be level 3 charging, and Long Swords users had better be raising their Spirit Gauge as high as possible. Jhen will then leap overhead the ship and go to the other side. While this is all occuring, Jhen may sweep across the ship with her tusks. This doesn't do much damage to the Dragonship (you stay clear), but the attak that follows can be devastating. Did you see the Gong next to the Cannonballs (which you can pick up)? Well, right as Jhen rears and shows of her ugly belly, ram that Gong and you'll knock her back. Sheesh, Jhen Mohran, lose some weight. If Jhen Mohran ever attempts a belly flop again, and the Gong isn't available, go to the Ballista and select the yellow icon BALLISTA BINDER in your item bag which you definitely should have gotten out of the supply box. That'll also stop her in her tracks. After a bit, you'll see that Jhen's ignoring you and is moving her way to the front of the ship. She intends on ramming you face-on. Luckily for you, there is a frontward facing DRAGONATOR, and it is just like the Ceadeus Dragonator. Time it right because if you don't, your Dragonship will be sad and you might as well as abandon because you will NEED the damage output of the Dragonator if you hope to even repel her. As you've probably noticed, Jhen Mohran's actions are all very SCRIPTED and will happen no matter what. This means that even if you fail, you've gotten a good idea of what's going to happen, and so with each attempt you'll get a bit better. Keep trying, watch YouTube videos, read this guide, etc. Or you know, put this off for later and get a better weapon? Anyways, Jhen will then shoot some rocks at you (she'll do it a lot and it'll always hit you unless you move out of the way). Then she'll disappear beneath the sand. Then she'll reappear, a little closer, and she'll twist back into the sand... And the second time she reappears, she'll begin to rear...and...ACTIVATE THE DRAGONATOR!!!! The spiraling spike will stab her in the chest and she'll be knocked back. Continue to gather Ammo and Cannonballs, break her weak points, and if all goes well, you'll be taken to "The Final Showdown". This is when it is absolutely critical you keep your Dragonship in good shape, because this is the stage when many, many things can potentially go wrong. Use the Hunting Gong only when you have to, and if the Hunting Gong isn't working, remember that strange, yellow BALLISTA BINDER you grabbed? Use that instead. Just go over to the Ballistas and make sure the icon over it is yellow, and you'll bind her and cause her to stumble back. During the Final Showdown, your boat will be stationary and she'll be off in the distance. Don't go running up to her, she's nowhere near dead. Instead, collect your Ammo and shoot with the Ballista. As she gets closer, try your hand with the Cannon and use Cannonballs. And finally, when she's really up close, it's time to use the DRAGONATOR again, which is reset and will this time, instead of facing frontward, is facing Jhenward (you'll probably notice that big metal spike). The theme music will change to something incredibly AWESOME and it will feel WORTH IT and you'll feel like the ULTIMATE HERO. But it's not over yet! You'll have to keep on using your Hunting Gong, once she's within the Nator-range, she's close enough to belly flop you over and over and over, and your Dragonship, once it's in the Warning range, can only take so many hits before you fail. If you Gong her at the right time, she'll fall over, her mouth open. Her MOUTH is another big weak point, attack it and you'll see tons of blood and stuff and you can do massive damage. Then you'll want to run back and continue Cannonballing her. ***THE CANNONBALLS AND BALLISTA AMMO WILL EVENTUALLY RUN OUT. THAT MEANS YOU MUST GO ATTACK HER LEGS AND WHEREVER YOU CAN AND PROPERLY USE THE DRAGONATOR, BINDER, AND GONG.*** Later on, you can try to attack her legs too, for Jhen Mohran Braces and such, but for now just focus on keeping the ship happy, okay? Just remember: If you can keep inflicting constant damage, she'll stagger and stop attacking and that's good for both you and your Dragonship. If all goes well, you'll get a Repel and she'll run away, and if things go flawlessly (or you have a really overpowerful weapon) then you'll kill her. You can carve her four times in her mouth and four times in her body, so be quick about it. If you're lucky, you might get Earth Dragongems. Remember: HUNTING GONG and BALLISTA BINDER are your best friends! And if they're not available, break Jhen Mohran's breakable parts! Which are: Her two tusks (use ammo and cannonballs, they're enormous), and her two legs. Oh and the weakpoints on her back, but you knew that already. If you're confident with hunting Jhen Mohran, remember those blue stones you saw? They're mineable, and you can get Jhen Mohran Scales, Bathycite Ores, and Pelagicite Ores off of them. It's a reliable alternative to that annoying Flooded Forest. If you're wondering when I personally defeated Jhen Mohran, it was after I'd unlocked the 8-star Quests and upgraded my ice weapon by fighting Barioth 5 or 6 times. Here's what I used: Armor: Wroggi S Upgrades: All the way up to one Hrd Armor Sphere (don't have many of those) Defense: 320 Skills: Autotracker Speed Eating+1 Shakalaka Rally Razor Sharp Negate Poison Weapon: Blizzarioths I had a Talisman that gave me +10 in Psychic, and then I gemmed in the extra points for Autotracker (a valuable skill). The rest came with the armor, and I gemmed out Defense Down. As you can see, you don't need anything fancy to defeat Jhen, just some luck. It took me 4 attempts (Dragonship died twice, missed with the Dragonator once). Oh, and practice, of course. Don't expect a win on your first try. Finally, some technical things if you're curious: Jhen Mohran staggers every time you deal out 2,000 HP worth of damage. She has around 12,000 - 15,000 total, so you can count how many times she staggers to keep tabs on if you're anywhere near close to killing/repelling her or not. Best of luck to you! ================================================================================ 8-star Quests ================================================================================ This is the second-to-last tier before the almighty G RANK awaits you (unless you've been fighting there and you came back to use overpowered gear. How boring!). This is the tier where you will be introduced to 3 Ultimate's flagship monster, the BRACHYDIOS. In order to unlock him, you'll have to talk to Argosy when he arrives and he'll talk about Brachydios to you. The very thin Unfortunate Mask excuse plot continues and otherwise, it's questing as normal. There's not very many new-new monsters here, so for the most part it's all old hat, the monsters are just more powerful. After completing all the key quests, Kayamba will randomly mention that the Unfortunate Mask is "reacting". That's when the Guild Sweetheart will have the Zinogre (Jinouga?) Urgent Quest for you. He's a big badass wolf with a SUPER SAIYAN mode so Lightning resistant armor will be good for you. --------------------- Harvest Tour: Volcano --------------------- Objective: Deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Volcano Difficulty: lol (1/10) This is where you can mine to get the HRD ARMOR SPHERE, which will be necessary as you continue upgrading your armor. You can also find very rare charms and Rustshards and jewels and everything else valuable. Make sure you bring your Cool Drinks! Some things you can find here: Fucium Ore, Adv Armor Sphere, Hrd Armor Sphere, Dragonite Ore, Rustshard, Timeworn Charm, Shining Charm. Uragaan could potentially show up. --------------------------- The Fisherman's Fiend [KEY] --------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Lagiacrus Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (4/10) Lagiacrus starts in the same area as ever (Area 10) and will wander around Areas 10 and 11. When he's tired he'll swim-limp over to Area 12 and you can capture him if you please. You'll be farming him a lot if you want to upgrade your Lagiacrus weapon. High Rank Lagiacrus really isn't any tougher than his Low Rank counterpart and to be honest, he's one of the easiest monsters in this tier. High Rank Lagiacrus armor is definitely something to consider though, and considering the easiness, you could make some because I recommend you have a Lightning-resistant armor for the urgent quest at the end of this tier. For some reason, I find that this Lagiacrus likes to stay on land a lot. He even went as far as Area 9. So don't be surprised if he does that. It's not like you dislike it anyways, he's easier on land. --------------------------------- Denizen of the Molten Deep [KEY] --------------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Agnaktor Location: Volcano Difficulty: Difficult (5/10) I went over Agnaktor in this quest's Low Rank sister, and now that it's key well you should have fought him in Low Rank anyways for a nice fire weapon. High Rank Agnaktor's Rage Mode, I will mention, can be absolutely TERRIFYING, the speed increase is almost disgusting and he has a new burrow attack where he torpedoes through the rock, and this can easily send you flying. Agnaktor's fire beam will also sweep around much like Plesioth's, only faster and more out-of-control. Have your dive ready or otherwise be ready to stomach Fireblight. Maybe bring Nulberries? Remember that you can't Sonic Bomb Agnaktor if he's in Rage Mode. Good luck! ------------------------- The Moving Mountain [KEY] ------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Duramboros Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficult: Somewhat Difficult (4/10) Duramboros in the new Misty Peaks! It's the same old Duramboros, and since the last tier was chock-full of Gigginoxes, you should have upgraded your Poison weapon by now because Poison defeats Duramboros easily. Remember that when Duramboros launches himself into the air, his aim is oddly good (and defies physics, darn), and you can run all the way to the opposite side of the room and he'll still come crashing down on you. It will guaranteed stun you and even with sweet armor you'll find yourself with 1/3 less health than you had to begin with. It's very easy to get hit by this guy's flying antics. -------------------------------- "Brachydios" Means Trouble [KEY] -------------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Brachydios Location: Volcano Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Brachydios's intro video is up in Area 5. You'll start out in base camp for this one, so feel free to grab the map and then head on up there. Once you can engage Brachydios in combat, you'll notice that Brachydios is...well...different? You'd be right. Brachydios, despite being in the BRUTE WYVERN class, actually has useable forearms, and uses them. Let's go over Brachydios's unique perks first. Oh, and Brachydios is weakest to the Water element, so pull out your Plesioth weapon. First of all, as you've noticed with the unfortunate Uroktor, Brachydios likes to use this explosive green slime. Second of all, the slime will turn from green to yellow to red, and then it will explode, so it's a predictable explosion. Second of all, Brachydios doesn't charge like other Brute Wyverns do, nor does he have many attacks even remotely similar to other Brute Wyverns like Barroth, Duramboros, and Uragaan. So he's a whole new monster. His AI can be pretty tricky too. Even if you brought your Shakalakas along (which you always should), you might find that Brachydios tends to stick to you, especially if you're up close, but the moment you're far away, either he'll leap at you or you go ignored in favor of your companions. Rarely will Brachydios distract himself. About the Slime, too. Slime is a unique element outside of the element circle. It is not an element, nor is it a status, but it is a strange lovechild of the both. Monsters have initial tolerances to Slime that will gradually go up, but it is also an element in that some monsters are actually weak to it and it has its own special characteristic: If you're using a Slime-based weapon, occassionally you'll see colorful explosions. What those explosions do is that the part of the monster that explodes will lower in DURABILITY, the number that must decrease to 0 before a part breaks. That means that using a Slime weapon makes it notably easier to break parts you couldn't break before. Some people say that Slime is a broken element, but I personally see no reason why. If a monster has an elemental weakness, you're better off exploiting that because Slime won't deal as much damage, okay? All right, onto his attacks. Brachydios's attacks will 99% of the time involve those forearms of his, and the other 1% of the time his horn or his tail. First of all, he has the very generic double 180 tailswing that if you're right between his legs (the safest spot, as always) will whoosh right over your head. Let's start with his non-Rage Mode attacks. His most common attack is swiping with his fist at you. If it hits you it won't deal a wallop of damage but it'll give you Brachydios's exclusive element blight: Slimeblight. The Slime will explode, so either roll 3 times, like Fireblight, or use a Deodorant. You brought Deodorants, right? Brachydios might also charge in a straight line, but in his own unique way: He'll punch at the ground 5 times, leaving a neat straight line of slime circles waiting to explode one after the other. Easy to dodge. He might also jump through the air and land heavily on his fists, leaving two slime globs down. Also easy to dodge. Brachydios when not in Rage Mode is prime time for you to attack and break his parts/do whatever damage you possibly can because his Rage Mode is a whole different story. Brachydios has quite a few new and enhanced attacks in Rage Mode. First off, he will move faster and his attack increase is absolutely disgusting. You will be much better off staying away, similar to Diablos, when Brachydios becomes enraged. Brachydios becomes more easily enraged the more tired he becomes, by the way, so you can use that as a tell of whether he's worn out or not. I'll tell you about the differences in his attacks first. The most important thing you'll want to know is that when he's mad, the slime will explode immediately. You'd best not dawdle around him, keep on running. Brachydios's 5-punch attack will, for example, not leave behind a trail of slime, but a trail of explosions. When Brachydios jumps through the air and lands, the slime will immediately explode. Brachydios will also occassionally link a one-punch explosion attack with a swipe, and he can do this up to 4 times in a row, very, very quickly. Brachydios normally won't be linking attacks together, but in Rage Mode he can and he will, and this can make him enormously deadly because if you get one-two punched, you'll get Stunned and that's not a good thing. Brachydios has two new attacks in Rage Mode that involve the use of that magnificent horn on his head. First off, he'll lunge forward and fling his horn into the ground and jerk his head up. This will cause a line of explosions down the line of his sight. If you're out of his line of sight (which you always should be), you'll be safe. His second attack is slower. He'll jam his horn into the ground, and the ground around him will flare orange. If the ground beneath you flares orange, get the hell out of there, because a second later, everything that flared orange will explode in a wide radius around him and it will hit for a hella lot of damage. Oh, occassionally when Brachydios punches the ground he'll leave a shiny, you can pick it up and it might be Mystery Slime and whatnot. And as I said before, Brachydios's weapons are all Slime-element. Also as I've said, I am of the personal opinion that Slime, if used properly, is just as powerful as any other element. Just because it's "special" doesn't mean it's broken. Being able to break a monster's parts easier doesn't mean you're damaging them faster, it just means you're reducing their Durability faster, and that doesn't correlate to more damage, okay? Brachydios weapons are all fine weapons to make and you should craft some. Brachydios's breakable parts are as follows: You can break off the tip of his horn, you can break off the slime coatings on his forearms (both can be broken individually), and you can chop off that blocky end of his tail. This is one monster whose tail really is more useless than anything else, all it does is tailswing and swing to one side after his punching charges. Unlike Duramboros or Agnaktor or any other monster, Brachydios is still plenty deadly without the end of his tail. You should break it off anyways, for Ebonshells though. Oh, and breaking Brachydios's forearms or horn will not hamper his slime abilities. Breaking Brachydios's forearms can, however, inhibit his ability to keep the slime going. If you break his forearms, they'll hold much less slime so he'll have to lick them often to replenish the coating, leaving him more open to attack. You'll need to break his forearms and horn if you want parts like Pounders and Scalps, respectively. **FUNNY STORY: I went Brachydios farming and in one particular run, I picked up a shiny dropped by him (when his slime explodes there's a chance a shiny is left behind) and I got...a BRACHYDIOS GEM (1%). After capturing the guy (for Scalps), the capture reward box gave me...a BRACHYDIOS GEM (2%). And when I talked to Cha-Cha, wearing a Mock Melynx mask (can steal monster materials off a large monster), guess what he was holding? A BRACHYDIOS GEM. Which just goes to show that crazy things like that can happen. ------------------------ URGENT: Howl at the Moon ------------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Zinogre Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Area 7 is where you'll be introduced to the fearsome yet awesome Zinogre. His intro video will show him charging up with electricity and howling at the moon, hence the name of the quest and the reason I hope you brought Nulberries (as you always should no matter what). As you can probably tell, Zinogre likes to breakdance and is an electric wolf who will kill you. He is part of his own class, the FANGED WYVERN class, although he doesn't look so wyvern to me. Zinogre's weakest to Ice. If you don't have one, try Fire or Water or maybe that new Slime weapon you just turned Brachydios into. Mr. Zin (that's his name now) is a much more unpredictable monster for you to fight. Similar to Brachydios, he's got his own unique attack style, although this is more due to his different classification than Capcom deciding to screw with us. When Mr. Zin is fully charged up, his attacks are imbued with electricity. It will give you Thunderblight and he will most likely stun you a lot, and that's no fun. This charged-up-ness is called CHARGED MODE and it is also known by most as SUPER SAIYAN MODE (for obvious reasons). When Mr. Zin goes SUPER SAIYAN he's basically enraged, and he gains a whole bunch of new electrical attacks that are very SHOCKING. First off, Zinogre has a series of punches that he'll do where he smacks the ground with his front paws, one after another. A bit reminiscent of Brachydios's 5-in-a-row punch attack, only like Qurupeco, he's got a bit more space between them, and he can easily change direction to chase you. Zinogre also has a very painful shoulderbarge/hipcheck thing. It's a lot like Barioth's, but it's got a lot more power behind it. Once again, if he's gone SUPER SAIYAN you might get electrocuted. I hope you have Lightning-resistant armor and maybe the Felyne food skill "Thundercaller"? Zinogre can also punch the ground and then swing his body around, also kinda like Brachydios. Hmm...maybe Brachydios was a warm-up for this? Now here's where Mr. Zin gets a bit more unique. Did I mention that he can breakdance? Well, he can, and he will...to kill you. He can backflip and slam the end of his tail on the ground very hard. As long as his body touches you you're gonna be in a world of hurt. Next is Mr. Zin's coolest (and one of the deadliest) attack. He'll spin on a paw and then launch into the air... and then backflip a bit in the air and then land. Very hard. On you. It hits about as hard as Duramboros going flying and if he's in SUPER SAIYAN it will also electrocute you and give you Thunderblight. Mr. Zin, like a lot of other monsters, has an odd attack where he'll pin you and then proceed to eat you. Use Dung Bombs to get rid of him and you'll be okay. I'm not so sure exactly how it happens, he just lunges at you and then suddenly you're being eaten. And he's done it to me three times in a row. It's nothing deadly, and nothing you can't toss a Dung Bomb at to fix. Zinogre can also side-flip through the air and in the process send electric balls flying through the air. They are semi-homing and if you're in front of him you'll probably get hit. While they themselves don't do a terrible amount of damage, they also inflict blights. You noticed that Zinogre charged himself up in the intro video. Well for starters, the next time you do this quest he won't be charged up the moment you meet him. But more importantly, Zinogre can charge himself up in a similar manner throughout the battle. He has more than one level of charge too, and it's only his final charge that he can unleash his more deadly attacks. When he's charging, he'll stand and he'll look like he's pumping himself up. He'll also use that super awesome howl you heard (he's a wolf after all). How to break him out of it? Dish out as much damage as you can, and you'll see the charge shatter and he'll fall over. You can CATCH BUGS ON HIS BACK. No I'm serious. It's the only way to get FULGURBUGS. Or alternatively you can bash his face, his weak point. For now, just focus on attacking him. Later on, when you can defeat him in a timely manner, feel free to get some bugs. When Mr. Zin is at the level one charge, most of his attacks, like his paw stomps, won't give you Thunderblight. He can use his homing electroball attack though, so beware of that. It's level two where he starts getting dangerous, and level three is his SUPER SAIYAN MODE and he's a demon. You'll know when he's hit is SUPER SAIYAN MODE because he'll unleash a flurry of lightning around him that will electrocute you because you were trying to damage him. Once he successfully charges because you fail, there's two ways to break him out of it. One is to flinch him. The other is to knock him over again and catch enough Fulgurbugs from his back. Don't ask questions, it's Monster logic. Safest spot to be? Right at his side between his front and back legs. His backflip will, ironically enough, miss you, and once he starts charging while he punches, you at least won't be crushed beneath his paws. It took me about 22 minutes to defeat this guy first time around. Just keep on dealing damage to him and he'll be hard pressed to charge. But speaking of charging, if you put down a SHOCK TRAP, while he's not immune to it, he will absorb the electricity from it and if you try to use it simply to pin him down for a few hits, you'll have to deal with a SUPER SAIYAN Zinogre for a while. A fully charged Zinogre will break out of Shock Traps straightaway. Play it safe with Pitfall Traps if you must immobilize him for a bit, or if you're capturing, use the Shock Trap and be as quick as you can with the Tranq Bombs. After this, Kayamba will be dancing around in his Unfortunate Mask, which now looks a little less like a big turd and a little more like something out of Egypt. Unfortunately, it's still a bit crusty, as you can probably tell, and according to Kayamba needs a little more electricity. Once the whole excuse plot has moved on, you'll have unlocked the 9-star quests! Before you do those, though, why don't you complete these here? --------------- Troubled Waters --------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Lagiacrus and 1 Plesioth Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Considering they're both aquatic in nature, you're going to have problems with them constantly butting up together. Bring Dung Bombs, and bring lots of them. Use a Fire weapon too, that'll take care of both of them. Maybe fight Agnaktor a lot? Whenever I do this quest, Plesioth's gone within 5 minutes. ----------------- The Horned Wyvern ----------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Diablos Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Diablos is as hard as ever. Remember to use the Sonic - Flash combo and then just stay out of the way when he's enraged. Diablos's health bar seems to be fairly short and after 3 Sonics or so, he's already drooling. Bring your best Ice weapon. ------------------- The Desert Gourmand ------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Nibelsnarf Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: SNARFSNARFNIBBLENIBBLE (4/10) Nibelsnarf is as snarf as ever. Diablos could potentially show up, so bring Dung Bombs. It'd be a monumental waste of time to try to kill Diablos now. Again, weak to Ice. ------------------- The Lost Expedition ------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Barioth Location: Tundra Difficulty: Difficult (5/10) Barioth starts off in Area 6 as usual. He moves EVEN FASTER (can you believe it?) so break his wing claws. That way he can't latch on to the ice and he'll slip around and become slower. You'll also get nice claws as rewards, and you might need them to upgrade your Barioth weapon, which would be useful against Jhen Mohran. Great Baggi can show up. No big deal, just shoo him away. ------------------ The Volcano's Fury ------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Uragaan Location: Volcano Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Uragaan starts in Area 6. Be careful of his rolling attacks. Stay away from his massive chinface. Since he's High Rank, his chin can only be CUT with White sharpness, which you're obviously not going to have unless you got CARRIED to G Rank in Tanzia Port. ---------- Twin Peaks ---------- Objective: Hunt 2 Duramboros Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Two Duramboros means they each have less health, and that makes it overall easier. Bring your Poison weapon and lay the hurt on them. ------------------------- CANTEEN: The Endless Hunt ------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Gobul, 1 Great Wroggi, and 1 Lagiacrus Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) This quest will upgrade the ingredients at the Canteen, so you should do it. This is an Epic Hunt, I believe, so you won't be facing up three at a time, which would be awful. Bring a fire weapon (Great Wroggi is resistant to fire but he's weak enough that it doesn't matter) and be careful, okay? ---------------- Clobberin' Time! ---------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Agnaktor, 1 Volvidon, and 1 Rathalos Location: Volcano Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Yet another Epic Hunt. Agnaktor is hanging around the lava area, and Volvidon will be later. Rathalos follows Rathalos's predictable own patterns. Check for him in Areas 1, 2, 3, or 4. Bring your best water weapon. Time, like in the Canteen quest above, is of the essence here (although in terms of time I never seem to run into too much troubles. That said, be efficient about it anyways). ================================================================================ 9-star Quests ================================================================================ If you've completed every single quest, you'll unlock the two last urgent quests that will truly test your mettle and your heroic heart! Step forth, hunter, for there is little else for me to tell you, and take on the greatest challenge of all! (until G Rank, that is). At first, you'll only have a few quests available. How boring. You'll have to wait until Argosy arrives. Talk to him and he'll talk about this ivory monster sinking his friend's cargo ship. This will trigger a speech bubble from the Chief and he'll begin rambling about the Ivory Lagiacrus being his one nemesis and the reason he quit being a hunter. Then you'll unlock the rest of the quests and once the keys are completed the next urgent quests will be unlocked. Remember though: If you haven't 100% completionisted every village quest you can't unlocked the final FINAL Urgent Quests. ------------------ Desert Storm [KEY] ------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Sand Barioth Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) NIGHT Difficulty: Difficult (5/10) Bring Hot Drinks! Sand Barioth is the exact same as her snowbound cousin. Similar to Barioth, Miss Sandy's claws allow her to move across otherwise unstable sand. If you break them, her mobility is seriously hindered. Sandy does have some new attacks though. For one, that whirlwind of sand she creates can muddy you. And it will stay there for a long time, as opposed to Barioth's whirlwind attack which disappeared after a few seconds. Steer clear, it will send you flying (literally). Sandy can also use this whirlwind to hit like a nuke and send you flying even farther. She'll fly up to it, whirl around it and then BAM! She crashes onto you. If you've seen her official art (which is really ugly because Capcom picks the worst colors ever) that's the exact pose she makes right as she's about to run you over. Just like Barioth, when Sandy's landing in a new location, if you're within vicinity, she won't land normally. Oh, no, she won't do that. Instead she'll do her whirlwind attack but without all the spinning and you'd better watch out. She has the exact same breakable parts and is weakest to Ice. Try to cut that tail off to make her tail swipes a bit less annoying. Break her tusks to get the reward Indigo Tusks+. ------------------------ Jumping at Shadows [KEY] ------------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Nargacuga Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) NIGHT Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Woah! A new monster! Nargacuga is this PANTHERA AWESOME and she'll be packing quite the punch. Head on over to Area 7 to see her intro video. I'll bet you had no idea where she was till her eyes began to glow. Well it's nighttime and she's black and so it doesn't really help much that you can't see her, in addition to the fact that there'll be trees blocking your view. Oh well! Nargacuga is like a very unpredictable Barioth but she has totally different attacks. She doesn't cause any elemental blights though. She's weakest to Thunder (did you turn Zinogre into a weapon if you didn't already have one?). Nargacuga can do a 360 spin like Lagombi, only faster, more powerful, and much harder to see coming. She might also stomp forward once, twice, up to four times, using her wings. If you get clipped by her wings you still take a lot of damage. She can also just do the generic Barioth-style charge. Doesn't sound that bad? It's Nargacuga's tail that earns her her well-deserved fame. That tail is more prehensile than any other tail you'll ever meet. First off, when she's enraged, the tail is elongated and spiky. When she's not enraged, it's of normal length and looks pretty normal. Nargacuga can leap up into the air and then slam her tail onto the ground, kinda like Zinogre's backflip. It is DEADLY and if you get HIT you will SUFFER. She can do this a lot when she's enraged too. Oh and she can do the same tail swipe that Barioth can. With good timing it's totally possible to just roll through it. When Nargacuga does her tail slam, it'll get stuck in the ground for a bit. That's a good chance to land some free hits and cut off the tail for extra rewards and possibly a less threatening tail swipe. Nargacuga might also crouch in front of you and lift her tail up. Get as close to her as you can. When she does this her tail will FIRE SPIKES AT YOU like a porcupine does when it's mad, and those spikes can hurt! Yeah, didn't I already say that she's got like a Swiss Army tail? She does. Cutting it off doesn't help at all, unlike most other monsters. You can chop off the tip but that tail ain't any less of a threat. Finally is Nargacuga's very strange-ish attack. Nargacuga will make the same pose your pet cat does when it's about to pounce. She'll stay there for a second, and then suddenly she'll stomp forward, very fast, very dangerous. As usual she'll swipe her tail a bit to balance herself. You can throw a Sonic Bomb to flinch her when she's in that crouching pose but it only briefly flinches her and then she becomes enraged. Nargacuga may not have the widest attack arsenal, as you can see, but she is incredibly unpredictable and when she's enraged, she can chain attacks together two, three, four times or even more, and that makes her quite a threat. You can't predict what she's going to do (kinda like Monster Hunter Tri's Barioth, if you played that) and so you'd better stay on your guard. Nargacuga's breakable parts are as follows: You can break her beak, her claws on her wings (she'll still be plenty mobile without them, sorry) and you can chop off the end of her tail (like I said, it's next to useless to do it except for extra carves and rewards). Nargacuga's weapons are for the most part pretty mediocre, most of them require the armor skill "Awakening" to possess elemental power. And even with Awakening they're still outclassed for the most part by much better weapons. Gotta say, they sure look cool though. You'll have to wait for Argosy before you can tackle the rest of the keys. ---------------------- Heaven and Earth [KEY] ---------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Pink Rathian and 1 Azure Rathalos Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Since this is the Key Quest I'll go over Azure Rathalos. Azure Rathalos spends even more time in the air than regular Rathalos. I know, right? Well that means you should bring Flash Bombs and flash him (and his female counterpart) out of the sky as often as possible. That said, Azure Rathalos has some new aerial showoffy moves he won't hesitate to use on you. First of all, he can change direction much quicker than normal Rathalos can. Also, you remember the eagle swipe, right? Well, the tell for it is gone. He'll be up in the air. And suddenly he'll swoop down to slash you and then he'll be back up again. Keep your distance from him when he's flying unless you're nipping at his tail (which is a legitimate but risky way to bring him down to the ground also). Azure will also chain several aerial moves together at once at a much more efficient rate than Rathalos ever did. Flash him when he's not changing direction and he'll be a piece of cake. Oh yeah, Azure's tail is really hard. Green sharpness bounces off. If you're going to chop the tail, attack the very end. Pink Rathian, as usual, is going to be the MUCH bigger threat. Her corkscrewing antics and her backflipping and her fire explosions...why is Azure Rathalos introduced later than Pink Rathian is if he's so easy? As for this quest, it's annoying. Bring Dung Bombs. But you might run out. Because they like to STALK EACH OTHER ALL OVER THE FREAKING PLACE and if you Dung Bomb one, the other might leave promptly after and they'll fly to the EXACT SAME AREA. If you get frustrated feel free to just run around and let them beat the shit out of each other as they try to hit you. It's good practice for Mark of a Hero, just saying. I had the luck to witness Azure Rathalos smack Pink Rathian in the face and flinch her out of the sky. It was golden. ---------------------- Midnight Madness [KEY] ---------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Black Diablos Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Very Difficult (7/10) Black Diablos is Diablos but EVEN WORSE. Could that possibly be true? Use the exact same strategy that you did with Diablos, only this time, really literally STAY AWAY from Black Diablos when she is in Rage Mode. Her speed AND attack increase so much it's disgusting and you really don't want to have to trifle with that. Yeah, Black Diablos is a female in heat. She's black so that all the males know to be careful when thinking they can mate with her because she's very aggressive. Gotta protect her offspring! (No, she's not PMS-ing because if she were, she wouldn't be fertile because PMS-ing implies that you're on your period, which means you can't get pregnant then, DURR) --------------------- Ace in the Hole [KEY] --------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Steel Uragaan Location: Volcano Difficulty: Difficult (5/10) Steel Uragaan for me died unusually fast (12 minutes). You know what this means? You shouldn't sweat it. Steely attacks about as fast as Uragaan does and doesn't seem to possess much more health. I used a Plesioth weapon that was upgraded as high as possible for High Rank and so you guys should use your best water weapon too to lay the waste on this guy. Steely will be using the 5-chin-slam attack a lot. Like, he will chain them together. Keep yourself together and stay away from his face unless you're am Impact weapon user, okay? The only thing new that Steel Uragaan has is that instead of giving you Fireblight, he'll fart all over and make you Soiled. He'll also fart out sleeping gas too. I recommend you bring both Deodorants and Energy Drinks, especially if you're a melee user and you won't be able to get out of the way before he gasses you. You can still break his jaw, wound his tail, and then break his tail off, and you can also mine his back as usual to get nifty things like Lava Nuggets and FIRECELL STONES. That said, only mine once you know you can kill him in a very timely fashion. ------------------- Echo Location [KEY] ------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Glacial Agnaktor Location: Tundra Difficulty: Difficult (5/10) Glacial Agnaktor is actually much easier than Agnaktor in that his rage mode is far less threatening than Agnaktor's. I think Glacial Agnaktor is a very fun fight, but I like the Agnaktor family in general. Anyways, Glacial Agnaktor is the Tundra brother to the Volcano-inhabiting Agnaktor. So therefore he shares every quality with Agnaktor...including the ability to burrow, and this time through ice. This brings up Glacial Agnaktor's most challenging barrier: Unlike Agnaktor, whose armor softened every time he burrowed, Glacial Agnaktor's armor will harden every time he burrows, and the longer he's up above the ground, the softer it gets because it melts (you'll know when it's soft, it'll turn a pretty torquoise color). Blue sharpness weapons will bounce if Glacial Agnaktor is in Armor Mode. Obviously, because Glacie burrows a lot, it can make hitting him tough. This is why I must stress this more than ever: You have GOT to break as many parts of him as possible. Just like when you break a part on Agnaktor, you can still hit it easy when his armor gradually hardens, Glacial Agnaktor will remain hittable in a broken part even after he's just burrowed. I'll go over Glacial Agnaktor's unique moves. First off, Glacial Agnaktor can do an ice laser. Unlike Agnaktor, Glacie will sweep it up, down, left, right all over the place, and chances are unless you're hitting him, you're getting hit. You'd better bring Nulberries, because it causes Iceblight AND Waterblight at the same time, and having both at once pretty much renders your Stamina bar useless because it recovers at snail's pace. Glacial Agnaktor's other unique move is that his hipcheck has taken a few steroids and dance lessons. While still telegraphed and easy to see coming, it covers much wider distance and you have less time to dodge, not to mention he twists and "dances" a lot as he does so, making it hit a lot harder. As usual you can break all four claws, beak, back fin, chest, tail, and then you can cut off the tail. And as I said earlier, you'd better be breaking parts. It sucks to bounce every other minute. --------------------------------- URGENT: Conqueror of Land and Sea --------------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Ivory Lagiacrus Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Difficult (6/10) Okay. I know what you're going to say when I say this: Ivory Lagiacrus is a Lagiacrus subspecies evolved to live on land. Here's what you're thinking: Woo! A Lagiacrus on land! So easy! And, well, it would be, if not for...thunder attacks? First of all, Ivory Lagiacrus moves faster on land than regular Lagiacrus, but in terms of physical attacks you really should find no difference. The big difference is in Ivory's electrical capabilities, which you will be very afraid of. You should be. Like Lagiacrus, Ivory has several levels of electricity discharge, and with similar tells. When he dips his head a bit, it's a small range. When he curls up for a second, it's a medium range. The attack to really be wary of, however, is when he curls up for a long period of time, like Lagiacrus. This attack has ridiculous range and duration. Use it to heal up and reload and sharpen your weapon if you avoid it. Ivory Lagiacrus can also spit balls of electricity, and in much wider array than Lagiacrus could ever dream of. First is his most ridiculous attack. He steps back quickly, fires an electroball, and steps back quickly, and does it again, up to three times. Secondly he'll just fire electroballs at you, like Lagiacrus does. His third attack however, is the very reason why you should, at all costs, NEVER be in front of him. He'll swoop his head to the side as he throws an electroball that turns into a WIDE EXPLOSION of electricity. Think of it like Pink Rathian's explosive fire attack but with far more horizontal range. Stay away from it, it hurts. Like Lagiacrus, if he's mad he'll have glowing shell shockers, and if you break them you'll hinder his electric capabilities. He can do an electrified land slide thingy like Lagiacrus can. Bring Nulberries, Thunderblight is never any fun. When Ivory Lagiacrus is exhausted, he'll use a shortcut from Area 7 to Area 11. My recommendation is you go to Area 8 and jump off the leftmost shortcut to land in the water. Then he'll go to sleep in Area 12, Royal Ludroth's den, and you can proceed to capture or kill him. Oh, and Ivory Lagiacrus's head will bounce anything of blue sharpness or lower, and his weakness is to fire. He has all the breakable parts of regular Lagiacrus too: Horns, front left claws, front right claws, shell shockers, and tail. But cutting off his horns at this point in time will be difficult so don't really bother unless you're an impact weapon user or a gunner. Once you're done, Kayamba will finally have his ULTIMATE MASK. Then a short video will play showing a very interesting twist on Monster Hunter Tri's opening video (it's quite funny, I'm not spoiling it). Directly after, you'll play the credits, and FINALLY YOU GET TO HEAR THE MONSTER HUNTER MAIN THEME if you haven't Dragonated Jhen Mohran during the Final Showdown. Then all these new videos will get added to your gallery (definitely watch "Ode to Life") and the next Urgent Quest will be added with no real explanation lol. Oh, something interesting. You can apparently roll through Ivory's hipcheck. Like, if you can time it right, you can just roll straight THROUGH him, similar to rolling through Nargacuga's tailswipe or Barioth's tailswipe. So for those of you who DS or LS or something, fear not! Master the godly ROLL and roll through DAT HIPCHECK. --------------------- URGENT: Into the Fire --------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Deviljho Location: Volcano Difficulty: Difficult (9/10) Your very first Deviljho! Up until now I've been telling you to just run away from THE DEVIL but that thinking is for children and so now it is time to get your revenge on him showing up and having a party in your quests. Bring your best Lightning weapon (there was a Zinogre and an Ivory Lagiacrus, you have no excuses!) and have at it, will ya? Deviljho is actually a hard fight, and if you come unprepared, you might die twice and barely kill him with 2 minutes to spare (like me). Anyways, I didn't write this section until I'd farmed Deviljho five times for his Dual Swords, so I think I know what I'm saying. First of all, here are items you will want to bring. Please bring them. They are mandatory. Very mandatory! Drugged Meat (Raw Meat + Sleep Herb) I think these Tinged Meat (Raw Meat + Parashroom) combos are correct. Poisoned Meat (Raw Meat + Toadstool) Barrel Bomb S Barrel Bomb S+ Barrel Bomb L Barrel Bomb L+ In addition to your usual arsenal of items, please bring those. All right, Deviljho will be hanging out somewhere up in Area 7. Or maybe 4. He roams everywhere except 6, 9, and 10. I'll go over his attacks when he's not enraged. He can do the same criss- crossing step that Diablos and Black Diablos like to do, and with his enormous tail and his fat head, you can get sent flying, and it'll hurt. He can also do an enormous shoulderbarge/hipcheck thing. It's like the Great Jaggi/Baggi/ Wroggi attack but LARGER and STRONGER. He can do the same 360 tail spin that all the brute wyverns except Brachydios can do, and he can do a slow double 180 tail swing that practically every monster with a tail can do. He can also utilize his FACE to HUG YOU with his FACE. He might do a very large side chomp. If he's drooling and your body touches his FACE his saliva is CORROSIVE and will inflict the Defense Down status on you. Trust me: It's not fun. Avoid his face if you can. I will soon present to you the best way to break it. Deviljho can cause tremors too. He might leap through the air and then land in a very stompy fashion--it causes wide tremors. If he lands on you, you'll be pinned and he'll begin eating you and inflicting Defense Down if he's drooling. As usual, fling a Dung Bomb to escape. Deviljho might also lift up his foot and stomp down hard with it, and his belly will crash down onto the ground. If you're far away you won't feel tremors, but if you're up close you'll either get sent flying or you'll wobble. Deviljho has a very special Rage Mode. He'll swell up and turn red (literally) and be panting dragon-red-crackly stuff. Now he has access to his new attack: He'll lift himself up higher and then breathe a sweeping DRAGONBREATH across the area. Unless you have the armor skill Evasion+1 or Evasion+2, you CANNOT roll through it. Either shield, superman dive, or try to be underneath him, behind him, or plain very far away. It can hit for massive damage and cause the issue called "Dragonblight". With Blademasters, it removes the elemental powers of your weapon. And lowers affinity for everyone. Use a Nulberry please. Deviljho enraged has a substantial increase in attack, but his speed increase is hardly noticeable. So he's not terrible in rage mode, he's just hard overall mainly because of his enormous size. Take your time. Now, here's why I told you to bring those meats. When he's drooling, and it'll happen quick because he has a notoriously huge appetite, lay down the Drugged Meat. He'll eat it and fall asleep. Now lay down your 2 Barrel Bomb L+'s. Then put down one Barrel Bomb S+. They'll explode and break his face in the process. Make sure they're next to his face! Next time he's drooling, put down a Poisoned Meat. He'll eat it and become poisoned. Finally, put down a Tinged Meat. He'll be paralyzed (free Shock Trap basically) and wail on him. You can only use each meat once. When he's tired he'll go to an area (I think it's 5) to sleep. Put down your Barrel Bomb L's and a Barrel Bomb S+ or S, whichever one you have. Blow him up again an then you can kill him. Or if you're just aiming for the capture, go ahead and capture him. Oh and before I forget, he can drag his jaw through the ground to fling rocks at you. If he's in the hot part of the Volcano and the rock hits you you'll get Fireblight, so roll around or use a Nulberry. If he's in the Tundra, the rock will inflict Iceblight and if he's in the Flooded Forest his rock will inflict Waterblight. His breakable parts are as follows: You can break his tail off (recommended, as it makes his criss-cross steps and tailspins much less threatening), and you can break his face twice. First time those teeth get a clipping, and second time you'll see a massive scar crossing his face. If you use the Barrel Bomb strategy, it'll break twice and you can get Fangs and Scalps. Some Deviljho weapons require Awakening, like the Long Sword, while some, like the Dual Sword, don't. I recommend Deviljho weapons more if you don't need Awakening, but if you can get Awakening they're all fairly durable. And Dragon weapons in general are hard to come by anyway. ---------------------- URGENT: Mark of a Hero ---------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Ivory Lagiacrus, 1 Brachydios, and 1 Azure Rathalos Location: Land Arena Difficulty: Impossibly Difficult (11/10) **YOU CAN ONLY COMPLETE THIS QUEST ONCE YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE PREVIOUS TWO URGENT QUESTS AND EVERY SINGLE VILLAGE QUEST. LIKE, 100% COMPLETION. Before you take on this quest, SAVE AT YOUR BED. That way, instead of failing and losing your items, or abandoning and wasting your 2,220 zennie, you can just reset the software and not lose anything. Oh man this quest. The other quests are great but this one really is just something you'll have to suffer. The monsters aren't going to have less HP and be softer and weaker either to compensate. They're STRONGER than usual, with G-Rank attack strength. You might want to go get some G-Rank armor before you hoof it back here. This is one time where coming with "overpowered" gear is actually a good idea, given that it's G Rank monsters in a High Rank quest. You are going to FEEL the difference otherwise. The Supply Box won't have much, save First-Aid Meds, Rations, Mini Whetstones, some basic Ammo, and a few Phials for Bow users. It's all completley useless for this caliber of quest and you'd best just ignore them. If you haven't been in the arena yet, it's a small, sterile little place. Circular area. No place to flee. If you have to heal, hope that Cha-Cha and Kayamba have distracted the monsters. Anyways, Ivory Lagiacrus will show up first. Tackle him quick, but since they only give Mega Potions as carves, don't focus on breaks, just focus on hitting the guy until he dies. Time is literally going to creep up on you and if you can't kill Ivory Lagiacrus in under 20 minutes, you're going to have a tough time finishing. Ivory Lagiacrus's attacks will take off anywhere between half to three quarters of your HP, even if he merely pokes you, and his electrical attacks are a thing of the devil. You'd best sprint away as fast as you can if you see it coming. Get the Felyne skill "Thundercaller" or something, or otherwise wear super Lightning-resistant armor, like Zinogre armor. Upgraded as far as you can get. Or you could, you know, go to G Rank and get G Rank armor to make things more fair. After Ivory's dead (you can potentially capture him but he doesn't limp to flee, given that there's no area to flee to), you'll have a brief time, about a minute, to carve Ivory Lagiacrus, get your Mega Potions back, sharpen your weapon, and buff yourself up more. If you find that you faint, try to only faint once with Ivory. If you have a Farcaster, there is a bed for you to sleep in, so you can use that as last resort if you're desperate for a break. Combine and make more Max Potions, Ancient Potions, Mega Potions, whateverpotions, and sharpen your weapon. Down all those Mega Demondrugs and Mega Armorskins and hope for the best. **IF YOU FAINT, IT IS ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY YOU DRINK AN ANCIENT POTION AND THEN COMBINE TO MAKE ONE MORE. YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO INTO THIS SORT OF QUEST WITH YOUR MINIMUM HEALTH AND STAMINA BARS. Azure Rathalos and Brachydios will appear. AT THE SAME TIME. And too bad for you, you can't Dung Bomb one away. You'll have to deal with them both. Try practicing with "Heaven and Earth" and let yourself deal with Pink Rathian and Azure Rathalos at the same time. Or go to Moga Woods and fight two at the same time or something to get a feel for how it works. It's hectic and unorganized and crazy, that's how it works. I highly recommend you have drunken a Mega Dash Juice before they appear. This will let you run around for as long as you need to while they rip each other apart. My best piece of advice for this one? Don't attack them both. Just spend your time dodging and shielding and put Azure Rathalos between you and Brachydios. Brachydios can totally take Azure on in a fight and will maul him to pieces. When you attack, focus your attacks on Azure Rathalos. Azure will die pretty fast. Then hopefully you'll have at least 15 minutes to deal with Brachydios. If not, good luck. The silver lining of having this small Arena is that the monsters can't eat to restore Stamina, so they'll die faster than normal. Not like that's much silver lining though. Although I will say, after about 8 or 9 minutes, both of them were already drooling and being exhausted (and then they both went into Rage Mode and that's when things got...well I will say it didn't end well). As hard as my text is making it sound (or not very?) this quest is just ridiculous. It's pure suffering. Not even fun. But too bad for you, you have to deal with the Guild being super hard on you and wanting to see your TRUE GUTS. Be careful to the extreme with getting your weapon out during Azure Rathalos and Brachydios's rampage. Both times I died (and subsequently failed), it was because I got my weapon out to attack Azure, and then Brachydios snuck up on me. Then they double combo-ed me, and left me Stunned. And then either one would charge me again and finish me off. It WILL happen to you, and you'd best just not even attempt to attack. Shield and dodge. As for items. Well, bring everything you can. Prepare to die twice. Here's a list of what you should bring. You won't have room for everything, unfortunately even if you're a Gunner, so pick and choose what's most important to you. I found that Dung Bombs and Well-Done Steaks weren't actually all that mandatory, each time my Stamina decreased was because my Mega Dash Juice wore off and I'd just down another one. Potions Honey (to make Mega Potions) Mega Potions Max Potions (plus Dragon Toadstools and Mega Nutrients) Ancient Potions Lifepowders Immunizers Kelbi Horns Catalysts (to make Max and Ancient Potions) Antidotes (for Azure Rathalos) Deodorant (for Brachydios) Nulberries (for blights) Farcasters (to get back to Base Camp if you desperately need a break) PLUS the stuff to make more Shock Traps PLUS the stuff to make more Pitfall Traps PLUS the stuff to make more Tranq Bombs (if things really get desperate, it's always worth a shot) Well-Done Steaks Herbal Medicines Herbs Blue Mushrooms Whetstones or Ammo Power Charm Powertalon (Powercharm + Deviljho Talon) Armor Charm Armortalon (Armorcharm + Deviljho Talon) Demondrugs or Mega Demondrugs Armorskins or Mega Armorskins Dash Juices and Mega Dash Juices Barrel Bombs (of all kinds, especially to make Brachydios easier) That's all I can currently think of. If you have any suggestions, feel free to email me. Pack your bag full. It's not like the monster carves actually give you items. You'll just get more Mega Potions. Do NOT focus on breaks. Focus merely on attacking constantly and dealing enough damage. Running out of time SUCKS. Do not hesitate to use your Mega Potions either. There's several gathering spots in the Arena, you can use them to gather Lifepowders and Mega Potions and things. If you're going to craft a set of armor entirely for this quest, here are some skills that would be useful for you to peruse: Evasion +1 or +2 Razor Sharp (for Blademasters) High-Grade Earplugs Oh, the Felyne skill "Defender (Hi)" is surprisingly useful here. You know when you get that skill and when you get attacked, you sparkle? That's the damage being noticeably decreased. If you want, you could try for that skill? As far as I know, Rath Soul armor is apparently a very good set to make and then you can gem in Evasion if you'd like. Other sets to consider are Nargacuga and Rath Heart armor. But Nargacuga armor is very weak to Lightning. So is Vangis too, but Vangis has extremely high raw Defense. If you're having serious trouble, you could go farm Deviljho for his Vangis armor. Or you could go to G Rank and make Volvidon X armor or something. And if you're really willing to do some intensive farming--and make a worthy investment for the rest of your G Rank career--farm Goldbeard Ceadeus in his Urgent Quest "Throne of the Abyss" and make a mixed Helios/Selene X/Z set. If you mix the pieces correctly you'll get such skills like Sharpness+1 and High-Grade Earplugs, not to mention the 600+ defense if you upgrade a bit and you'll find yourself in for a much easier time. Oh, and such a set is what many hunters in the TOP GODLY TIERS of G Rank will continue to use. It's a good investment of time since by now you've probably put a lot of time into this game. Oh, bring an Ice weapon. That'll work best on all three of them. Or a Slime weapon, although Brachydios is sorta resistant to that, you know. A G Rank weapon never hurt anyone either, but this quest is totally doable (barely) with High Rank gear and a hell of a lot of skill...and luck. Good luck! ------------------------------ URGENT: The Brilliant Darkness ------------------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Alatreon Location: Sacred Land Difficulty: Incredibly Difficult (10/10) **YOU CAN ONLY COMPLETE THIS QUEST ONCE YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE PREVIOUS THREE URGENT QUESTS AND EVERY SINGLE VILLAGE QUEST. LIKE, 100% COMPLETION. Once again, SAVE AT YOUR BED before tackling this quest. This quest is basically Mark of a Hero but all wrapped up into one pretty package that is this ridiculous Elder Dragon you now have to deal with. If you invested your time into getting yourself that mix Helios/Selene X/Z set, then you should wear it to this quest too. Bring a SMOKE BOMB along with every single other item you can think of (except traps and tranqs...Alatreon is an Elder Dragon, remember?). When you first enter the Sacred Land, Alatreon will notice you IMMEDIATELY and begin to attack. But if you USE the Smoke Bomb I just told you to bring, he'll remain oblivious, and you can drink your COOL DRINK (because it's basically a glorified Volcano area) and whatever else you'll need to buff yourself up. I recommend you bring materials to combine to make more Cool Drinks, you might run through more than 5 because this quest, like Mark of a Hero, has this habit of really coming down to the wire. Anyways, Alatreon is really elementally unstable, and so he can use them all, but not at the same time. His elemental weaknesses vary too, between Fire and Ice and Dragon and Thunder depending on if he's on the ground or in the air. If he's in the air, it's hard for you Blademasters to reach him, so a well- timed Flash Bomb can hopefully bring him down, or you can hack at his tail and flinch him out of the sky. It's a very legitimate method to use. There's Ballistas and Ballista Ammo near climbable walls too, and if you go there, you can get Alatreon's horns stuck in the wall. That's the only time basically that his head is super low to the ground, and the only way to get this coveted item known as SKYPIERCERS is to break both his horns. Also if you break them both his elemental power goes down. When he's in the air, that's always a good time to attack Alatreon with the Ballista. Got your very best weapon? That's Fire, Ice, Dragon, or Thunder, or more than one? If it's a G Rank weapon that's even better. Got your very best armor? That's hopefully not majorly weak to any particular element? If it's a G Rank armor set that's even better. Got your Smoke Bomb at the VERY TOP OF YOUR ITEM BAG so you can press Y immediately to go unnoticed? Are you ready for THE fight of your life? Good. Let's begin! I'll go over Alatreon's attacks now I suppose, because about 95% of his physical attacks imbue some sort of element. BRING NULBERRIES. He can do a dragonified charge at you that can leave you with no HP left (although this is true of all his attacks) and Dragonblight. He can shoot Lightning forward out in a straight line and obviously this can cause Thunderblight. He might unleash an enormous explosion of fire that's basically a guaranteed OHKO for anyone remotely weak to fire because it's that powerful and otherwise Fireblight and you should roll to get it off. When he charges, he'll still swing his tail like every other monster that charges, but you know that they always swing their tail to the right. Like Zinogre he can also charge and then jerk his head and tail upwards. Well, that's more of a Diablos move maybe. He might do a two-step double-horn swipe forward with his head. If you decide to be a total idiot and stand in front of him (you honestly should never do that with any monster, really) you'll take a faceton of damage. If you're attacking Alatreon from the side, which you should, you're still in perilous danger because Alatreon might suddenly whirl around and then punch you. Kinda like Zinogre I guess. Dragonblight will then proceed to follow... or maybe you'll faint... Alatreon might jump away from you a bit for some weird unknown reason. Don't take that as him being afraid, for he is after all the MONSTER THE GODS FEAR and he'll jump right back on top of you and squish you beneath his ETERNAL MIGHT. Alatreon will then proceed to go into the air and he will now have access to the Ice element and you'd better watch out okay? He can shoot icicles at you and they're really easy to avoid. He might also use that icey breath that Barioth likes to spam (I think). It can cause the Snowman status so bring Cleansers or just don't get hit. Oh and he can cause Iceblight obviously but that's not really an end-all game-all for you, but watch your Stamina carefully in general. Mega Dash Juices are always recommended. While he's using his ice attacks you could get under his tail and hack away at it, but be careful because he still has access to this ridiculous Lightning attack where he imbues himself with Lightning and charges across the map. You'll pretty much die if you get hit. There is a Ballista Binder available to use, and it operates much like using the Binder on Jhen Mohran except that it'll bring Alatreon out of the sky. Lure him on over, fire a few Ballista Ammos at him, smash his face, whatever, while your Shakalakas are distracting him. He'll come crashing down and you can break his face or wings. Both give nice rewards. Skypiercers! Skypiercers! If you're going to Flash Bomb him, you'll have to Flash him between his attacks. If he's attacking and you throw your Flash Bomb, he will be unresponsive because when he attacks he is temporarily blind so he won't get Flashed like the easy Azure Rathalos and Pink Rathian are so susceptible to...and any other monster that flies, basically... Alatreon is a very smart Elder Dragon, do not trifle with him. But you are trifling with him! Oh if he's flyin' around attacking and you can't bring him down, he'll fly all over the place and do this pointlessly long ice attack. It's easy to see coming and easy to dodge but it's pointlessly long, like I said, and when the quest can be decided by the second, you really can't afford wasting time watching him waste time. Alatreon weapons are all fairly nice Dragon weapons, so if your weapon class has an Alatreon weapon available (basically every class present in Tri will have an Alatreon weapon) I recommend you go make one. Yeah yeah I know, farming Alatreon sucks, but at least he's challenging unlike Ceadeus and Goldbeard Ceadeus...and maybe even Dire Miralis. Right? Congratulations you've done all the Moga Village quests! Time to go conquer G Rank or if you've already done lots of G Rank, get even farther in and make MORE armor and master OTHER weapon classes and 100% the game like a madman! And here are the rest of your 9-stars. You should do them. Yup. In fact, you HAVE to do them to even fight Alatreon. Ha ha ha! ------------ Azure Attack ------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Azure Rathalos Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Easy (4/10) Azure starts out in Area 8 and will later move to Area 5 most likely. If not, check for him in Area 3 and Area 7. He follows Rathalos's predictable routes. When he goes back to Area 8 to sleep you can capture him and call it done. Flash Bomb him to turn him into a cake...that is a lie! Really, Azure Rathalos is easy compared to Pink Rathian. It's pitiful. ------------- Triple Threat ------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Nibelsnarf, 1 Volvidon, and 1 Sand Barioth Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) This is another Epic Hunt quest. Bring an Ice weapon since Volvidon's a big fat weakling anyways. Trap them if you're lazy, carve them if you need extra Mega Potions. Remember that Sand Barioth can be a bit tricky. When I did this quest Nibelsnarf died in 7 minutes, Volvidon in 2, and Sand Barioth in 10. ------------------------ Operation: Paradise Lost ------------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Great Jaggi, 1 Duramboros, and 1 Azure Rathalos Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) Great Jaggi is...a Great Jaggi? He dies in under a minute. Duramboros can be annoying, and Azure Rathalos is pretty easy. I recommend you just bring yourself a Poison weapon, their weaknesses are all really random (Great Jaggi and Dura are weak to fire but Azure definitely isn't) so Poison will let you take care of Duramboros better. Remember to capture them if you want to because they only give you Mega Potions. -------------------- Lurkers in the Woods -------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Arzuros, 1 Nargacuga, and 1 Zinogre Location: Misty Peaks (M. Peaks) Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (5/10) This is an Epic Hunt quest (there sure are a lot of these this tier, but get used to it because in G Rank about 75% of the quests involve more than one monster). Arzuros shows up first, then Nargacuga, and then Zinogre. Arzuros should drop in under 5 minutes, Nargacuga around 10, and Zinogre around 10 - 15. Bring an Ice weapon and have your way with them. ---------------------- Triumph of the Tyrants ---------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Diablos and 1 Black Diablos Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Difficulty: Very Difficult (7/10) Oh man these guys. They're annoying apart and impossible together. Do NOT let them attack each other, bring Dung Bombs and please use them. Also bring Sonic Bombs, Flash Bombs, and materials to combine to make more since there's two. Just get this quest over with. Although I'll say, if you farmed Black Diablos as many times as I did (stupid desire sensor) then you'll find that Diablos and Black Diablos when not enraged move REALLY SLOW compared to Black Diablos in rage mode and so it'll be an easier quest than it otherwise would be! I captured Diablos in about 15 minutes and accidentally killed Black Diablos in another 15. Just keep your attacks up. Time really isn't an issue. ---------------- Frozen Bloodlust ---------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Glacial Agnaktor and 1 Barioth Location: Tundra Difficulty: Somewhat Difficult (6/10) This is also another two-monsters-at-the-same-time. Bring Dung Bombs, they like to gather in that small Great Baggi den (Area 7) and that's never any fun. I suggest you take care of Glacial Agnaktor first since I personally find him easier than Barioth. But you take your pick. Remember to bring your fire weapon to kill them quicker. And break parts on Glacial Agnaktor so that you won't have a big bouncefest. ******************************************************************************** ================================================================================ Tanzia Port ================================================================================ ******************************************************************************** Tanzia Port is basically Moga Village on hard mode. Because quests were designed for multiple players, you really shouldn't be soloing these. But if you have the 3DS version, you might have to because Capcom decided that Monster Hunter is as popular in the West as it is in Japan (and it isn't) so you're likely the only Monster Hunterer you know. Oh well! Lucky for you here's how things scale: Tanzia 1-star = Moga 4-star Tanzia 2-star = Moga 5-star - Moga 6-star Tanzia 3-star = Moga 7-star - Moga 8-star Tanzia 4-star = Moga 8-star Tanzia 5-star = Moga 9-star Tanzia 6-star and up = G RANK You can easily do nothing but Tanzia and come back to Moga super overpowered, but it's really only feasible if you've got friends, you know? Getting to Tanzia means talking to Neko (means "Cat"). So go ahead and chat him up. When at Tanzia for long stretches of time, talking to Neko (means "Cat") can allow you to access the farm and fishing fleet at Moga without having to physically go back. Useful, nya? In Tanzia, your HUNTER RANK will increase, which you can show off to other people to show off your SKILLS. Also, a higher Hunter Rank will unlock all those DLC quests with HR requirements. If you do nothing in Tanzia, your Hunter Rank is effectively 1. Table of Contents: 1. Tanzia Low Rank 2. Tanzia High Rank 3. 6-star Quests (G-Rank 1) 4. 7-star Quests (G-Rank 2) 5. 8-star Quests (G-Rank 3) 6. The Arena 7. DLC Quests ================================================================================ Tanzia: Low Rank ================================================================================ Because of the stunning similarity (oh, surprised?) to the Moga Village offline campaign, I will merely list the key quests. The only time I'll bother talking about any specific quest is if it involves a new monster or a new subspecies (I'm talking about you, G Rank). You can do the 1-star quests after doing Moga 3-star or Moga 4-star quests. But because the urgent monster is already Lagiacrus, defeat Lagiacrus first in Moga before hoofing your way over here, okay? Playing with Fire [Qurupeco] Leading the Charge [Barroth] The Merchant's Mission [Rathian] Accident Investigation [Gobul] Urgent: The Fisherman's Fiend [Lagiacrus] There are two Canteen quests you should do to upgrade the food: Goldenfish [6 Goldenfish] The Snowbound Slider [Lagombi] Tanzia 2-star you should do around the time of Ceadeus. It is the last Low Rank in Tanzia. Your hunter rank will now be HR 2! Here are the KEY QUESTS: The Horned Wyvern [Diablos] The Desert Gourmand [Nibelsnarf] The Creeping Venom [Gigginox] Denizen of the Molten Deep [Agnaktor] Urgent: Double Trouble [Rathian and Rathalos] Followed by a Canteen quest: Road Work [Uragaan] Your hunter rank is how HR3! ================================================================================ Tanzia: High Rank ================================================================================ Tanzia High Rank operates the exact same as Moga High Rank. You're dropped someplace random and supplies aren't delivered immediately. Try doing 3-star after you've completed some 7-star Quests, and perhaps even 8-star because the end monster is Brachydios and he's an 8-star monster in Moga. Be careful around that guy, all right? The key quests for 3-star Tanzia are as follows: Splash Damage [Plesioth] Mud Brothers [2 Barroth] Bye-Bye, Bloom [Crimson Qurupeco] Supply Constraints [2 Great Wroggi] URGENT: Brachydios Mio! [Brachydios] There are Canteen quests too: Grab a Gobul! [Gobul] Your hunter rank will now by HR4. Try to do these around the time you're doing 9-star Quests because the end monster is Ivory Lagiacrus. The key quests for 4-star Tanzia are as follows: Unwanted Visitor [Zinogre] Tumble on the Tundra [Baleful Gigginox and Jade Barroth] The Volcano's Fury [Uragaan] URGENT: Conqueror of Land and Sea [Ivory Lagiacrus] There are no Canteen quests this tier. Your hunter rank will now be HR5. You should do the 5-star quests before "Mark of a Hero" and "Alatreon" because then you can get into G Rank and get G Rank gear and weapons so that you'll have an easier time with these nearly-impossible quests. They are totally doable without, but if you want an easier time... Here are your keys: Desert Desertion [Sand Barioth and Black Diablos] Echo Location [Glacial Agnaktor] Dedevil a Deviljho [Deviljho] Azure Attack [Azure Rathalos] URGENT: Throne of the Abyss [Goldbeard Ceadeus] Also apparently Goldbeard Ceadeus armor is really good or something for Alatreon (*hint hint*) so maybe you should forge some for Alatreon? And upgrade it? -------------------------------------- Throne of the Abyss: Goldbeard Ceadeus -------------------------------------- All right. If you can get past this urgent quest, you'll be able to unlock the G Rank, the TOP GODLY TIER OF HEAVEN. Goldbeard Ceadeus is hardly different from his standard brother. There are a few logistic differences, though, and a few personality and visual changes. First off, the battle. Instead of swimming around really slowly, you are immediately at Area 3 in the ruins where Goldbeard Ceadeus is awaiting your challenge. Second of all, there are NO REPELS. You heard me, right? You have to kill him. If you can't, you fail. Too bad. Lucky for you though, you have 50 minutes instead of 30, so you'll definitely have more than enough time to murder him, even if you're playing solo. So let's begin. First off, Goldy has the exact same attacks as Ceadeus, they will just do much more damage (because you're probably attacking him with your petty High Rank gear) and he will attack faster and more constantly, unlike Ceadeus who is pretty much a big fat punching bag. Goldy is an interactive punching bag, so you'll have to learn to interact with him, nya? One thing special about Goldy here is that his waterbeam has received this ridiculous upgrade and a very unusual hitbox. It's not even infuriating like Plesioth's hitboxes, it's just weird and strange and no one knows what or what or who or I don't know really it's just weird. Every now and then, Goldy will swim all the way up to the top of the ruins or down to the bottom. If you happen to be able to follow him all the way up and hack at him next to his tail or up on his back, lucky you. If not, chug a Mega Potion if you're low on HP and suffer his waterbeam. Yeah. You can't block it, you can't dodge it. It will sweep up and down and basically hit the ENTIRE stage. Even if, I've found, you're super far away, you'll suddenly see your HP bar drop and you have Waterblight. Bring Nulberries please, it's no fun swimming around with no Stamina. If Goldy's not swimming up or down to let loose a waterbeam, he has an equally telegraphed tell for it. He'll curl around himself kinda like that annoying thing Ivory Lagiacrus does on land where he'll curl back to his tail, and then he'll face upright and begin sucking in water. Sheathe your weapon and swim down next to his fin and hack away at his fin/underbelly near his fin. That way you will be safe from his attack. If not...good luck. The underwater ruins themselves have hardly changed. The Dragonator is the exact same Dragonator. Since this is a 50 minute quest, you could potentially use it 4 times...maybe 5 if you're super lucky. Whenever Goldy swims up near there, be sure to smash him with it. Since it's a 50 minute quest, especially if you're in a group, it's fine if you miss once. But if you're soloing, please try your best to hit, and if you're hitting, try to hit his head to break his horns, which you'll notice both are weirdly overgrown, so you can break them both for 4 potential extra carves. Good for getting Crooked Hardhorns. If you traded for some UW Ballista Ammo or you gathered some, you'll be happy to know the Ballista is there, and it's another good alternative to breaking his horns off, which otherwise will deflect everything without Mind's Eye or a Gunner class weapon. When in Rage Mode, Goldbeard Ceadeus will actually move pretty fast, and he won't...stop...attacking! Don't fret if you're unable to attack him much at all until he calms down (he'll turn pink and the lighting will change just like standard Ceadeus). You have 50 minutes and even if you solo you will be okay. Bring your best of the best Lightning weapon (or Dragon if you've got one) and you'll be fine. Just remember to use the Dragonator when it's available to speed things along--if you're soloing and you don't use the Dragonator I don't really think it's possible to kill him unless you have weapons at the end of their upgrade tree. After Goldbeard Ceadeus is dead (I take on average 30 minutes to kill him with Despot's Blitz, the Zinogre Dual Swords upgraded as far as High Rank will allow me. So if you're a DS user, you should use those too), you have 6 carves from him, just like standard Ceadeus. The rare materials here are Dark Dragongems. Ceadeus gave you Deep Dragongems, Goldy gives you the Dark kind (and Jhen Mohran gives you the Earth kinds!). You'll need all three Dragongems to forge the Helios X/Z or Selene X/Z armor. As for breakable parts. Goldbeard Ceadeus can have both his horns chopped off, and they will yield you 2 extra carves each--you could theoretically, if all goes well, get 10 carves off of the guy!, you can shave his beard TWICE since it's really really long, and then you can obviously break his back, body, and tail. Try to break as many parts as possible to increase your chances of Luminous Organs, Crooked Hardhorns, and Dark Dragongems. Also let me say right off the bat: I highly recommend that you get yourself the Helios X/Z (if you're male) or Selene X/Z (if you're female) armor. It will be one of the best investments you can make in this game and will be useable even up all the way to the very end of G Rank. It will take you time, and lots of it, to get FIVE EARTH DRAGONGEMS for example, but it will pay off. The most common mixed Helios/Selene set is called the "Cookie Cutter set" and basically has everything Helios/Selene Z except for the waist, which will be Helios/Selene X. That way, you get High-Grade Earplugs and Sharpness+1 without the Blunt Edge. Those two are key blademaster skills, and HGE is great for any hunter. Here are the blademaster skills that both sets give: Helios/Selene X High-Grade Earplugs Awaken Partbreaker Helios/Selene Z High-Grade Earplugs Sharpness+1 Water Atk+1 Blunt Edge Gunners have practically identical skills except that Sharpness+1 is replaced with Load Up and Blunt Edge by Recoil Down. So basically Helios/Selene X Gunner would have HGE, Awaken, Partbreaker, and Load Up, while Helios/Selene Z Gunner would have HGE, Load Up, Water Atk+1, and Recoil Down. I think. Someone correct me if my math is wrong or if my skills are incorrect or if what I said was incorrect. ================================================================================ Tanzia: G Rank: 6-star Quests ================================================================================ G Rank is exclusive to Tanzia Port, and soloing in G Rank is something truly worth respect. But you have no choice sometimes if you're a 3DS player so get used to it. You'll want to be quite careful with G Rank at first if you're soloing because you have no G Rank gear or weapons. In G Rank, there's nothing in your supply box, not even a Map, so don't bother. Also you can't sleep in your bed anymore. So bring a lot more items than you'd normally bring, okay? In G Rank, monsters are EVEN LARGER and EVEN FASTER and do EVEN MORE DAMAGE. And something else: Every single quest, unless specifically told otherwise, has a risk of a guest monster. It will normally be another monster that lives in the area. For example, the G Rank Plesioth quest in Flooded Forest normally will have a Gobul come to gatecrash your quest. Deviljho can be common but Savage Deviljho is incredibly rare unless you do special Event Quests. That said, always bring Dung Bombs. Don't be an idiot. G Rank is also the time to really fill your bag. I highly recommend you bring an Ancient Potion--that way if you cart (and you will), you can drink one and maximize your health AND stamina bars right back to where it was after you ate at the Canteen (which you should always do). Things like Powercharms, Armorcharms, Dash Juices, Demondrugs, and Armorskins that you normally wouldn't use in Low and High Rank are great to bring and use. Start on something simple (Arzuros, perhaps?) and make some simple armor before you tackle the keys. One of the G Rank quests, "Sweltering Showdown", allows you easy access to Great Jaggi and Volvidon, two of the easier monsters to fight. Turning Volvidon into a set of armor (or Great Jaggi) is probably your best bet to ease yourself into the flow of G Rank. The G Rank quest lists have around FIFTY quests, and like Granny Go-To, you won't see them all on one given day, so if the quest you want isn't there, go do a Harvest Tour or do some random quest or something and advance a day, then check back. The very first time you get access to G Rank, you won't see anything but three pages of keys and other extraeneous quests. Do some keys and you'll start to see the quests switch up, along with some "[ADVANCED]" quests. Currently I have no idea just what that means or how it's unlocked, it's all really weird. But most of them involve hunting 2 or 3 of the same monster in rapid succession. Here's your keys: The Cherry Blossom Queen [Pink Rathian] The Green Flash [Green Plesioth] Playing with Fire [Qurupeco] Sweltering Showdown [2 Volvidon and 2 Great Jaggi] Avenge the Fallen Hunter [Barroth] The Desert Gourmand [Nibelsnarf] Axe to Grind [Rust Duramboros] Snowball Fight [Jade Barroth] The Creeping Venom [Gigginox] Thunder on the Tundra [Barioth and Baleful Gigginox] URGENT: Sticky Situation [2 Brachydios] Yikes! That's a lot of keys! Good luck! If you use a weapon class that has Gigginox weapons, I HIGHLY recommend you focus on upgrading it to G Rank rarity. Gigginox weapons are extremely durable and great for when you're easing into G Rank due to high natural sharpness and power. Oh and monsters are always prone to poison and the materials needed, for the most part, aren't terribly rare. At the very least--no gems! There are no Canteen quests. Once you've completed all of these, your hunter rank will go up to HR7. -------------- Green Plesioth -------------- Green Plesioth is a Plesioth Subspecies who essentially uses every single attack Plesioth can, but GREENER. The only difference is that, obviously, Green Plesioth is more powerful and more deadly, and also Green Plesioth's waterbeam attack no longer stays straight but swoops around a lot like High/G Rank Agnaktor and Glacial Agnaktor. As always beware the double 180 tailspin and the hipcheck, the hitboxes are tolerable now, but that doesn't mean you can be next to its neck and escape getting hit, because you won't and you'll just have to suck it up. --------------- Rust Duramboros --------------- Rusty is a rusty version of Duramboros who prefers the desert as opposed to forests and mountains. He is brown and instead of a hammer he has this... axe...thing. As you can expect, Rust Duramboros is also more powerful but otherwise sports identical attacks to Duramboros, only with more PUNCH and more TAIL. Oh, Rusty gets up faster after being a ballerina and flying through the air. Head's up! And unlike Duramboros, Rust Duramboros can inflict the muddy status on you, like Barroth and Sand Barioth. Bring Cleansers, why don't you? ================================================================================ Tanzia: G Rank: 7-star Quests ================================================================================ Well you're pretty deep into G Rank now, just keep on going, okay? Again, there are like 50 gazillion quests that will rotate on a daily basis, but as usual there's Key Quests. Key Quests: Night Stalker [Green Nargacuga] The Horned Wyvern [Diablos] Desert Storm [Sand Barioth] Volcanic Activity [Rathalos and Steel Uragaan] Deep-Six a Deviljho [Deviljho] A Sea of Wyverns [Ivory Lagiacrus and Gobul] Infernal Overlord [Stygian Zinogre] Denizen of the Molten Deep [Agnaktor] URGENT: The Black Flame of Calamity [Dire Miralis] Dire Miralis is an Elder Dragon bearing similar behavior and longevity to the Fatalis family. Oh, "Night Stalker" gives a very high chance of Savage Deviljho appearing, so that's a good quest to try and farm him from. Just make sure you get the Felyne skill "Gamechanger" from the Canteen. --------------- Green Nargacuga --------------- Green Nargacuga, obviously enough, is a more powerful and deadlier Nargacuga subspecies (although he's a joke compared to Lucent Nargacuga). He's also the ugliest of the trio. Ugh, where'd they get the idea to turn him green? Even a White Nargacuga would have looked better. Hmm...Snow Nargacuga? White Nargacuga? Even that sounds cooler than GREEN Nargacuga. Anyways, Green Nargacuga is basically that--he moves faster and deals out more damage, so keep yourself on your toes. He can do new things with that stupid tail of his too, you know how Nargacugas are with their Swiss Army tails. Things like double-tailslams and more spikes and the like. Remember to stay clear of that tail. Oh, cutting it off doesn't do a thing, just like all the other Nargacugas. --------------- Stygian Zinogre --------------- Stygian Zinogre is the Zinogre who decided to TAKE A TRIP TO HELL AND BACK. Then he sold his soul to Dire Miralis and this is what he has become. He's the exact same as normal Zinogre, but obviously faster and deadlier and much more powerful. Just like Zinogre, Stygian Zinogre has his SUPER SAIYAN MODE and you'll want to watch out and be on your guard if he gets there. Stygian Zinogre has a new unique attack. You know when Zinogre would do the sideflip and sent electroballs flying at you? Stygian Zinogre can do it too and he'll send out up to 5. Some are next to him, some are in front of him, you'll have to adjust the camera a bit to make sure you see them all because after a few seconds, they'll zoom towards you. None of the zooming out right from the start, they'll hover there...luring you in...then BAM! DRAGONBLIGHT! But in all honesty if you know that they're there you can dodge them, and if you're right up next to him attacking him they can't hit you. ------------------------------------- Black Flame of Calamity: Dire Miralis ------------------------------------- Section written by BLU and edited by me. Congrats, you lucky hunter, you made it to Dire Miralis!! Unfortunately, not only are you fighting the volcanic dragon from hell, you'll be in a long lasting fight through hell. For those of you who fought the Fatalis in MHFU, this is pretty similar, with a few twists. I highly suggest either a Slime weapon (fully upgraded of course), a Dragon weapon, or an Ice element weapon. Even then I had Sharpness+1 to improve it even further. To start off the fight, Dire Miralis will start bombarding you with fireballs from an awesome cutscene to immediately where you stand. Even if you skip the cutscene, there will be a fireball that will land where you're standing. Be careful! After dodging the mandatory brimstone rain, you have several options. Let's look at the map first. Note that you're on a beach near Tanzia, with ruined ships and a cave with a supply box (and Ballista Ammo) as your humble base camp is unreachable by all but Farcaster (maybe bring one?). Directly LEFT of where you begin, there are some ruined crates that hold First-Aid Meds and EZ Max Potions. If you're fighting solo, I highly suggest grabbing these and every potion you can possibly hold. Directly RIGHT of you is a wrecked ship with Ballista ammo, a nearby Ballista, and a button for a handy dandy Dragonator. DO NOT use these Ballistas yet, even if you're fighting in a group. Hold your trigger finger guys. (Another useful note, you each gather separately in a group. So if you grab 10 Ballista, then your 2 other buddies could each grab 10 even though you can't gather anymore.) On the far left of the map, past the crates/relics is another ship, but with only Ballista ammo and a Ballista nearby. Underwater in front of you is a very large and largely empty bay. At the top left of the map there lies another Dragonator, and Ballista crates. These tools are absolute godsends to Blademasters, who without fighting underwater need a powerful ranged weapon to hit Dire Miralis's weak points. Now to actually begin the fight, it depends on what type of hunter you are. If you're a Blademaster, you'll have some trouble reaching his weakpoints, and will be VERY annoyed getting him out of Armor Mode (more on that later). If you're a Gunner, you'll have a great time shooting his weakpoints and have no trouble with Armor Mode, but you have to be insanely careful because you're likely to be one-shotted by his fire tornado or other similarly overpowered attacks. He'll start by coming up out of the water. Begin by either hitting his legs, or attack the glowy, swirly magma spot in his tail directly behind his legs (such spots are his weak points). Breaking this glowy spot will earn you Miralis Smelters, a rare item. After enough hits on the legs, he'll fall over, giving you free hits to his chest. I don't care what you're doing, unless you need to heal badly, you'd better take this opportunity to land in some hits. When he goes underwater, wail on his arms and chest and head. It's entirely possible to break everything on Miral in one go, even as a solo Blademaster. Gunners, you have range, and therefore options. His chest should be your main focus until it's broken (it will cool and harden to stone), but his glowy shoulders and his face and wings are also plausible attack options. Breaking his wings will give you Miralis Hellwings, his face (which will also cool) will give you Miralis Evil Eyes, and his chest will give you Immortal Hearts and Dire Dragongems. The Dire Miralis itself has 7 breakable parts on him: his head, two wings, two arms, his chest, and his smelter located on his tail. His main attacks include constant brimstone barrages from his wings, powerful fire balls that he can fire from his mouth, the dreaded fire tornado that basically is a Wyvern's Fire Gunlance attack used against you, the "Snap-n-Drag", (he'll start biting, and will lunge forward twice in a huge attack that does lots of damage) the Hell claw (he slams his claw into the dirt, causing a mini fire spread attack that does a LOT of damage to you), obnoxious Tail Swipe and the Whine-fall (he creates a high pitch whine sound and literally falls on you, doing major damage). Breaking his wings will temporarily decrease his Brimstone ability, and breaking his arms will PERMANENTLY hinder his wing ability. So you should try to break his arms, if at all possible. He gets angry often, and has a hugely long scream animation that's just plain annoying. After around 5-10 minutes on land he moves underwater, and moves back after 5-10 more minutes. When he's underwater, lure him over to the Dragonator at the top left of the map and blast him with it. When he is climbing out of the water, lure him over to the Dragonator at the bottom right of the map and stab him with that too. (These recharge separately, no worries.) NOW, there comes a point when he gets very angry, but suddenly your Blade weapons will bounce off everything that's not a glowy magma part. Say what?? Even with Purple Sharpness?? Yep. This is called Armor Mode, and is awfully annoying. Remember those Ballistae lying around? NOW is the time to use them. Start by blasting his face off, then move to the chest. If you manage to break his chest quickly, go to his arms. Continue Dragonating him as usual. Now when you've run out of Ballista ammo, attack his Smelter, or...his groin. I kid you not, this is a semi-weak point. You won't ever bounce, so it is a very safe spot to hit him under. Eventually, he'll move back underwater and you can break his chest and arms. If his chest is broken, he will revert to Regular Mode. (Rumors of him turning to Reg Mode after enough damage has been dealt are still unconfirmed.) But after many long minutes of grueling fighting, he will eventually die. You can carve 3 times from his head, center, and tail, 9 carves total. Be quick about it! Congrats, you just went to, conquered, and carved hell!! Miralis weapons are decent but not unusually phenomenal. They have average attack, but godly sharpness and absurd fire element. The Gunner weapons, Long Sword, Sword and Shield, and Dual Swords are the only plausible weapons. Maybe the Hunting Horn for the rare songs, but that's about it. The armor is not worth it. But seriously, the Bow and Heavy Bowgun especially are beastly. Earn them, learn them, love them. One other thing: The Rising Tempest Black Diablos Lance can be Awakened to give massive Slime Element. With Awaken and Sharpness+1, this Lance is amazingly powerful. With similar skills, the Diablos Great Sword is also absurdly powerful. ================================================================================ Tanzia: G Rank: 8-star Quests ================================================================================ Most consider Dire Miralis the very definitely final boss, so this tier is basically you farting around doing whatever you want. After all... You're here. The very end. There's nothing left for you to play! Oh no! Well there's always making good time records at the Arena...and...well...there ARE those DLC quests that could make the game go on...forever... Actually basically as of September 10th, 2013, the DLC has officially stopped. I know, it sucks. If we do have new DLC (because I don't get Internet at this sucky dorm room for my 3DS) then I will correct this statement. Here's your keys...I'm just kidding! This tier has no keys. This is the tier where your hunter rank no longer ties to your quest tier, it will go up all on its own because each quest gives a hidden value of rank points that will increase your hunter rank. Each time your hunter rank reaches a certain landmark, you'll gain access to a new and hard quest. So have fun! I'll list all the quests for you since there's not many: Hot and Bothered [Rust Duramboros and Black Diablos] Ring of the Golden Lune [Gold Rathian] Ring of the Silver Sol [Silver Rathalos] The Hammer and the Axe [Duramboros and Rust Duramboros] Fang, Fang: You're Dead [Zinogre and Stygian Zinogre] Qurupeco Two-Step [Qurupeco and Crimson Qurupeco] Ode to Barroth [Barroth and Jade Barroth] Eyes of the Storm [Barioth and Sand Barioth] Opposites Detract [Agnaktor and Glacial Agnaktor] Festival on the Sea of Sand [Hallowed Jhen Mohran] Operation: Last Stand [Diablos, 2 Volvidon, and Sand Barioth] Tundra Trump Cards [Jade Barroth, 2 Lagombi, and Glacial Agnaktor] Mountain Massacre [Nargacuga, Rathian, and Zinogre] Now here's the quests that are tied to your hunter's rank: HR20: All-Terrain Terror [Rathalos, Lagiacrus, and Brachydios] HR25: Awesome Maw [Nibelsnarf] HR30: Best of Enemies [Purple Ludroth, Volvidon, Steel Uragaan, Great Wroggi] HR40: The Invisible Predator [Lucent Nargacuga] HR45: Rage Match [Deviljho] HR50: Moonlit Tryst [Silver Rathalos and Gold Rathian] HR55: The Earth Quakers [Pink Rathian, Rust Duramboros, Brachydios, and Stygian Zinogre] HR60: The Sea Shakers [Royal Ludroth, Gobul, Plesioth, and Lagiacrus] HR70: Abyssal Awakening [Abyssal Lagiacrus] HR80: Four Point Formation [Nargacuga, Barioth, Green Nargacuga, Sand Barioth] HR90: Clobberin' Time! [Black Diablos, Jade Barroth, Uragaan, Duramboros] HR100: The March of Victory [Brachydios, Rust Duramboros, Ivory Lagiacrus, Stygian Zinogre] Plus your all-important Canteen quests: Submarine Struggle [Green Plesioth and Royal Ludroth] ------------ Gold Rathian ------------ A beautiful golden-colored Rathian. First off, her head and tail and pretty much her entire body's super duper tough and you'll want Purple sharpness or else you'll have this big fat bouncing party. Gold Rathian obviously attacks faster and can chain even the randomnest attacks together for as long as she wants to. Like Pink Rathian she's got the explosive side-chomp, backflip corkscrew, and explosive fireballs, and like Rathian she's got ye olde backflip and stuff like that. Other than that, there's not much new to her except that she likes to chain things together. And spam lots of explosive attacks. Remember that if you're hacking away at her legs, she will use her corkscrewing backflip and kill you. I know, Gold Rathian and every other Rathian can be really annoying because of their awesome gymnastics. This will be one of your first quests in the TOWER area. It's basically a glorified Arena, and there's also an area where you can gather up rare items and things if you feel so inclined. Unlike the Arena, however, the Tower has this like super hard ground or something like that and so you can't put down a Pitfall Trap. You can capture Gold Rathian but since there's no area to flee to she isn't going to limp. It'll be either a ton of trial-and-error or you should just kill her. Maybe you should bring Flash Bombs? --------------- Silver Rathalos --------------- Ye olde handsome silver-colored Rathalos acts exactly like a souped up Azure Rathalos and will chain stuff and attack faster and etc. He's nowhere near the threat that Gold Rathian is. If you can handle Gold Rathian then you can handle a Silver Rathalos. Remember to bring a purple sharpness weapon if you are a Blademaster (or pack Sharpness+1) because like his golden sister, his hide is super tough. Oh, and Silver Rathalos will still very frequently use that pointless attack where he pointlessly soars around the Tower in a very pointless fashion. But he'll also chain that directly into another attack, so be careful. Oh and bring Flash Bombs? You can capture Silver Rathalos but just like any other Arena-ish quest, there's no area to flee to so just kill him I guess. -------------------- Hallowed Jhen Mohran -------------------- Hallowed Jhen Mohran is, basically, a purple Jhen Mohran. However, despite such a similarity, Hallowed Jhen Mohran's scripted battle is far, far different from normal Jhen Mohran. For example, Jhen Mohran starts off far away, so you have to use Ballista and Cannonballs. Hallowed Jhen Mohran immediately does a frontal ram from the right of the boat. Hallowed Jhen Mohran can also spit out sand much like Nibelsnarf (snarf snarf warf warf). Otherwise, the two-stage battle is the exact same and you need to keep your Dragonship happy. Kapeesh? ---------------- Lucent Nargacuga ---------------- Lucent Nargacuga, or Lucy as she is henceforth called, is a souped up Green Nargacuga. With pretty colors. And faster attacks. And super hard fur. You'll need Purple sharpness to hit her most of the time. Oh, and no, I do not know how fur can be hard. What makes Lucent Nargacuga so special is that she can turn invisible. When she's not enraged, tough luck. When she is enraged, follow the trails of her red eyes (similar to the other two Nargacuga species). Thankfully, Lucy will ONLY turn invisible when she's moving/defending herself. When she attacks, she'll be visible and you can dodge. Still, her invisifying antics will require that you be fast on your feet. Keep your weapon sheathed as much as you can, and maybe consider gemming in Quick Sheathe--it's surprisingly handy, especially for heavier weapons. Lucent Nargacuga attacks very fast and doesn't make many mistakes about her attacks either. The spikes she flings from her tail will POISON you, so bring Antidotes, and her tail overall is just that much more deadly. Keep your wits about you. When Lucy gets all tired she'll slow down and whatnot. When she's tired her speed decrease can be very dramatic, so if it catches you off guard, just tell yourself that she's tired and reaccustom yourself. Oh and if I haven't mentioned it yet, I'll mention it again: You cannot put Pitfall Traps down in the Tower! The ground is "too hard". It's totally possible to capture her and like every other monster in the Tower but since it's only one area, they won't limp to flee so you're better off just killing her. Here's silver lining I guess if you're discouraged: They can't flee so they can't eat! Isn't that wonderful? ----------------- Abyssal Lagiacrus ----------------- Here is your rare species of Lagiacrus, just like Lucy is a rare Nargacuga. You'll face off with her in the underwater ruins, same place as Ceadeus and Goldbeard Ceadeus. Like Goldbeard, Miss Abyss (her name now) is going to be in Area 3 awaiting your challenge. Miss Abyss is distinctly dark blue with glowing electric blue (no pun intended) shell shockers. Similar to G Rank Sand Barioth, she does have a new attack that Ivory Lagiacrus and Lagiacrus don't have, and that's to create several whirlpools. Otherwise, she's a very souped up Lagiacrus but surprise surprise! You can't fight her on land! Too bad! Miss Abyss also has the same electric power of Ivory Lagiacrus. As in, you remember how Ivory Lagiacrus created the wide electric field that was even larger than normal Lagiacrus? Well, Miss Abyss can do that too, but now it's underwater so it's in all three dimensions and you really need to watch out. Abyssal Lagiacrus can also shoot some pretty souped up lightning out of her mouth. Watch out for it. Because this is in the Underwater Ruins, the Dragonator is available for use. I highly recommend you use the Dragonator. Don't miss, okay? --------------- Savage Deviljho --------------- Savage Deviljho can only be fought alone in his special HR8 event quest, "Bottomless Beast", which is available via DLC. His Japanese name is actually "Hungry" Deviljho (as if he wasn't hungry to start!) and so I will be calling him that because it's more awesome. If you want to fight Savage Deviljho but you're not HR8 yet, go ahead and try the event quest "An Ominous Cry". The Qurupeco will always summon Mr. Hungry. Also, if you don't have Internet, try out the quest "Night Stalker" involving a Green Nargacuga and an unstable environment. Get the food skill "Felyne Gamechanger" to guarantee an appearance and it could be HUNGRY DEVILJHO coming over to plaaaaaaay. Hungry Deviljho has the exact same icon as Deviljho (actually, he did used to have a unique icon but it got "dummied out" so to speak). Except that he's already in rage mode! Oh no! Well...if he's just in perma-rage mode, he couldn't POSSIBLY get worse... Right? WRONG! VERY WRONG! HUNGRY DEVILJHO will get very mad and he'll have an eternal red haze over his eyes, turning him into a true DEVIL. His speed and attack increase exponentially. He is VERY SCARY. His Dragonbreath, which he will always have access to because he's always in some sort of rage, will about triple in range. Stay away, shield yourself, or master the roll with Evasion+1 or +2. HUNGRY DEVILJHO is still vulnerable to all sorts of meats, so bring some. Put him to sleep with Drugged Meat and Barrel Bomb him, it's a very common strategy to blow his face up as quick as possible. Try to chop off his tail if you can to make his tail swings a bit less threatening. Stick to his belly, his weak point. Did I mention that HUNGRY DEVILJHO is ANGRY even when he's asleep? HUNGRY DEVILJHO can definitely be an extremely hard fight, given his grossly increased power, but treat him like a Deviljho and you'll be okay. Some items you can only get from HUNGRY DEVILJHO so you'll have to farm him a few times anyways. Just be wary, heal when necessary, and don't be afraid to leave the area to pull yourself back together. If you're not in a very HUNGRY DEVILJHO mood and he shows up to give you a hug WITH HIS FACE go ahead and shoo him away with Dung Bombs. That's why you should always carry a stack in your Bag! ================================================================================ Tanzia: The Arena ================================================================================ The Arena is basically the game testing your skill. Unlike other quests where you can buff yourself up with great items and great armor and the bestest weapon you've got, the Arena will give you a list of preset weapons, armors, and an Item Bag that you'll be stuck with. For example, if the Arena sics you on a Low Rank Rathian, you'll be given Low Rank armor, a Low Rank weapon, and a Low Rank Item Bag. Also, not all Arena quests have presets for every single weapon. Some might have presets for, say, Hunting Horn, Dual Swords, Great Sword, and Bow, but not any other weapon. The nice thing about Arenas though is that it's also a great place to practice. You lose no items, you pay no acceptance fees. It's just you and the monster (sorry, Cha-Cha and Kayamba cannot accompany you) and if you die you don't lose anything because of it. If you need to get your game on, or you haven't touched the game in a while, try your hand at some Arena quests and see what happens. All Arena quests go the exact same way: Choose a quest, go to the dock, pick the weapon-armor-bag preset, you'll wind up in Base Camp and then you jump on in to the Arena where the monster...or monsters...will greet you. The rightmost Guild Sweetheart handles the Arena Quests, by the way. Talking to the normal left girl may get you some quests that are in the Arena, but you still pick your own bag, weapon, and armor. One reason you should do Arena quests is because of the rewards. You won't get monster parts (not even from carves) but you get special COINS that you can use to make all sorts of cute armor and stuff like that. Arena quests are broken into two categories, although there really isn't a difference between the two. There's Arena, and then there's Challenge. They're, like, the same. Owing to the fact that many Arena quests (or maybe all) are from the FREE WEEKLY DLC that you should totally take a look at, this list is ongoing and will go and go and go until Capcom decides to stop giving us DLC. Hope that doesn't happen for a while. Some of the Arena quests have HUNTER RANK requirements. Until you've reached HR8, for example, you cannot take the Deviljho Challenge Quest. ARENA Grudge Match: Lagombi Grudge Match: Purple Ludroth Grudge Match: Barioth Grudge Match: Plesioth Grudge Match: Gigginox Grudge Match: Pink Rathian CHALLENGE 1: Slay a Brachydios (Land Arena) 2: Slay a Green Plesioth (Water Arena) 3: Slay all large monsters (Ivory Lagiacrus, Azure Rathalos, Brachydios)(Land) 4: Slay a Deviljho (Land Arena) 5: Slay 2 Arzuros (Land Arena) 6: Slay a Rathian (Land Arena) 7: Slay a Crimson Qurupeco and a Pink Rathian (Land Arena) 8: Slay a Purple Ludroth and a Black Diablos (Land Arena) 9: Slay an Agnaktor and a Sand Barioth (Land Arena) 10: Slay an Uragaan and a Nibelsnarf (Land Arena) ================================================================================ Tanzia: DLC Quests ================================================================================ These are basically ye olde quests. What makes them special though, is that some of them allow you to fight monsters without having to make the actual requirements (one particular DLC quest allows you to fight a Lucent Nargacuga even if your HR is at 8 but isn't high enough for the 8-star Lucy). Even more than that are the rewards they give. About 80% of the time, the DLC Event Quests give you a special item, like the "Shadowed Edge", which is necessary to forge a SPECIAL weapon unobtainable ANYWHERE ELSE. Other Event Quests give you items that are necessary to make special MASKS for Cha-Cha and Kayamba, or special ARMOR sets. Such Event Quests are the ONLY want to get weapons like TENEBRA, BUSHIDO, etc. For the most part, said weapons look awesome and are pretty good. So you'll want to do some of these. You'll also get monster parts too. Again, many of these event quests have Hunter's Rank requirements attached to them. Even if you download some of them, you won't see them pop up until your Hunter Rank is high enough. ------------------------- Streaking with Bullfangos ------------------------- Objective: Slay 20 Bullfango Location: Land Arena Reward: Medal Voucher L Medal Voucher L can make the ML001: Baltzenger, a special Lance, and Baron's Blazon, a special Gunlance. You cannot wear any armor or talismans for this quest. ---------------------- The Dark Demon's Sword ---------------------- Objective: Slay 1 Gigginox, 1 Great Baggi, and 1 Barioth Location: Tundra Reward: Shadowed Edge The Shadowed Edge is necessary to forge Tenebra, a special Long Sword. This is an Epic Hunt quest. --------------------------- Flooded Forest Free-for-All --------------------------- Objective: Slay 1 Royal Ludroth, 1 Lagiacrus, and 1 Gobul Location: Flooded Forest (F. Forest) Reward: Captain's IOU The Captain's IOU is necessary to make the Hell Hunter Jacket / Hell Hunter Leather, Black Leather Chaps / Black Leather Pants, and Shadow Shades, a three piece armor set. This is an Epic Hunt quest. --------------- Island Egg Hunt --------------- Objective: Deliver 3 Wyvern Eggs Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Reward: Exquisite Meat The Exquisite Meat is necessary to craft the Kebab-boo Mask for Cha-Cha and Kayamba, a Village Request in Moga Village. As with all wyvern egg fetches, Rathian could potentially appear to have her revenge. --------------- Colorful Beasts --------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Nargacuga, 1 Rathalos, and 1 Zinogre Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Reward: Top Secret Formula The Top Secret Formula is necessary to forge Sinister Saints, a special Switch Axe. This is an Epic Hunt quest. Brachydios might appear. Must be HR3 at least. --------------- A Strange Breed --------------- Objective: Hunt 2 Baleful Gigginox Location: Land Arena Reward: Flashbolt Diploma They both appear at the same time. Deal with it. The Flashbolt Diploma is necessary to forge the Voltage Verve, a special Hunting Horn, and the Rising Soul, a special Long Sword. Must be HR3 at least. -------------------- Herald of Prosperity -------------------- Objective: Slay or repel a Jhen Mohran Location: Great Desert Reward: G-rank Jhen Mohran parts This is the only G-rank Jhen Mohran quest. Do this to farm for G-rank Jhen Mohran. Must be HR8 at least. --------------------- Volcano Rock Festival --------------------- Objective: Deliver 3 Powderstones Location: Volcano Reward: Charms and ores This quest gives some really nice charms. Must be HR7 at least. --------------------- Cruel King of the Sea --------------------- Objective: Hunt an Ivory Lagiacrus Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Reward: Thunderclap Manual The Thunderclap Manual is necessary to forge the Lightning Blaze, a special Gunlance. This quest's Ivory Lagiacrus is what is known as a SUPER SAIYAN Ivory Lagiacrus. Its attacks will more than easy defeat the hunter, no matter what type of armor you are running, within 1 - 2 hits. Tread with caution. Interestingly enough this quest will always have a Silver Crown Large Ivory Lagiacrus. Must be HR6 at least. --------------- Gigginox Buffet --------------- Objective: Hunt at least 2 Gigginox before time expires or deliver a Paw Pass Ticket Location: Tundra NIGHT Reward: Lion's Claw The Lion's Claw is necessary to forge Lion's Bane, a special Great Sword. A Paw Pass Ticket will only show up after 2 Gigginoxes have been defeated. Must be HR3 at least. --------------------- Where's the Uragaan!? --------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Uragaan and 1 Volvidon Location: Land Arena Reward: Miniature Ticket The Miniature Ticket is necessary to forge Sanctioned Sword, a special Sword and Shield. Similar to Monster Hunter Tri's "The Phantom Uragaan", this quest features a mini Uragaan (smaller than even Jaggi) while the Volvidon is of normal size. Must be HR6 at least. ---------------------- Gathering of Songbirds ---------------------- Objective: Hunt 2 Qurupecos and 2 Crimson Qurupecos Location: Deserted Island (D. Island) Reward: Sparkly Fragment The Sparkling Fragment is necessary to craft the Cosmic Mask for Cha-Cha and Kayamba, viewable in the Village Requests in Moga Village. All of the Qurupecos and Crimson Qurupecos are in mini form, similar to the Uragaan quest up above, and as such they are extremely tiny. All carves will always be Sparkly Fragments. Must be HR3 at least. -------------- An Ominous Cry -------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Qurupeco Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Reward: Normal monster parts Must be HR6 at least. Savage Deviljho is the summoned monster in this quest. This is one way to farm Savage Deviljho. -------------------------- The Mountain in the Desert -------------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Rust Duramboros Location: Sandy Plains (S. Plains) Reward: Far East Sword The Far East Sword is necessary to forge the Bushido, a special Dual Swords set. The Rust Duramboros is always Gold Crown in terms of size. Must be HR6 at least. ------------------------ Where Gods Fear to Tread ------------------------ Objective: Slay 1 Alatreon Location: Sacred Land Reward: Normal monster parts Normal Alatreon quest, only it's the Tanzia High Rank counterpart to Moga's. -------------------- Deviljho in the Buff -------------------- Objective: Hunt a Deviljho Location: Tundra Reward: Fierce Soul The Fierce Soul is necessary to forge the Eisenfaust, a special Great Sword. You cannot wear any armor or talismans for this quest (basically, a mandatory naked run), and you have to be HR6 at least. ------------------- Hard-Hitting Lineup ------------------- Objective: Hunt 1 Diablos, 1 Uragaan, 1 Black Diablos, and 1 Steel Uragaan Location: Land Arena Reward: Medal Voucher G The Medal Voucher G is necessary to forge the Dragon's Roar, a special Switch Axe. Must be HR6 at least. ---------------- Bottomless Beast ---------------- Objective: Hunt a Savage Deviljho Location: Tundra NIGHT Reward: Normal monster parts This is the only quest that is a guaranteed Savage Deviljho. The only other way to farm Savage Deviljho for its unique parts is to have it come as a guest monster in other G Rank quests. ----------- Motley Crew ----------- Objective: Hunt 1 Barroth, 1 Plesioth, 1 Nibelsnarf, 1 Steel Uragaan, and 1 Gigginox Location: Land Arena Reward: ? Must be HR6 at least. ----------------------- A Father and Son Outing ----------------------- Objective: Hunt 2 Green Plesioth **Actually, only one needs to die to fulfill the quest** Location: Land Arena Reward: ? One of the Green Plesioth is of gigantic size, while the other Green Plesioth is a mini Green Plesioth, meaning it's tiny. I am still of the opinion that they need to make a mini Deviljho quest. Seriously. Must be HR6 at least. ------------------ Descent into Hades ------------------ Objective: Hunt 1 Stygian Zinogre Location: Volcano Reward: Hades's Skull The Hades's Skull is necessary to forge a special weapon. Interestingly enough, the Stygian Zinogre will always been of a Gold Crown size. It is also a Super Stygian Zinogre. Similar to the Ivory Lagiacrus, its damage output is exponentially increased. ------------------ Fanning the Flames ------------------ Objective: Slay a Dire Miralis Location: Tainted Sea Reward: ? Generic Dire Miralis quest. Must be HR7 at least. --------------- Clashing Fists! --------------- Objective: Hunt a Brachydios Location: Volcano Reward: ? Must be HR6 at least. ----------------- The Second Coming ----------------- Objective: Slay an Alatreon Location: Sacred Land Reward: G-rank Alatreon parts This is that super-Alatreon everyone's been talking about, and it's much, much worse than those High Rank Alatreons you've been farming. Unfortunately, if you want to either max out your Alatreon gear or get the G-rank Alatreon armor, you have no choice but to come as a brave yet humble hunter into the most dangerous of all quests... Must be HR8 at least. ------------ Sight Unseen ------------ Objective: Hunt a Lucent Nargacuga Location: Tower Reward: ? Must be HR8 at least. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for reading!