Welcome! Monster Hunter Rise marks the sixth generation of Monster Hunter games. This is a wonderful, quirky series with many obscure and sometimes unintuitive game mechanics. With many games worth of series experience under my belt, I wanted to help those new to Monster Hunter, and perhaps those returning, with a guide to make things easier. I'll never claim to be an expert, but I'll provide plenty of resources for further clarification and research to help you understand the game. If you come across a term or phrase you don't understand, try the glossary near the bottom of the page.

Some key things to understand about Monster Hunter:

• This is a notoriously difficult series to get into. It took me three solid attempts over several years to break in and finally "get" it. With the release of Monster Hunter World, Capcom made great strides in making the series approachable to new players, and Monster Hunter Rise took many of those lessons to heart. Still, don't feel discouraged if you don't enjoy the game; it's not for everyone.
  
• Combat is slow and deliberate. It's not a spectacle fighter. When you hit an attack button, you commit to that attack. You can't dodge or block until it's complete. You have to read your opponent and anticipate their attacks so you can respond in kind. That said, Rise is the most fast-paced game in the series yet!
  
• Your character has no "stats," and doesn't level up. Your character is almost exactly the same at the beginning of the game as they are at the end-game. You can unlock new moves for weapons throughout the game, but they're a far smaller contributor to your success than the major things that improve, which are your supplies, weapons, armor, and your own skill and knowledge as a player.
  
• There's only so much a guide can teach. If you know someone who plays monster hunter, ask them. Nothing can compare to a veteran teaching you the game and answering your questions as they come up. Even if you don't know someone in-person or online, there's plenty of resources dedicated to helping people learn this wonderful series, including the many discord servers dedicated to Monster Hunter[top.gg]. The Monster Hunter Gathering Hall[discordapp.com] is the officially partnered one.

All in all, there are two priorities in Monster Hunter:

1. Don’t get hit
   
2. Hit the monster

The order is important. If you can remember and abide by that mantra, you’ll be all right.

This guide was written using information, screenshots, and sources based on the Switch version of the game. There will be minor differences between PC and Switch versions due to updates, options, and button prompts.

Throughout the guide I will also provide links to other useful sites, videos, and informational images where appropriate. The Monster Hunter community is full of people willing to help!

Some of you may remember my Monster Hunter World guide, which this guide is based on. While much of it is the same, you may want to check out the sections related to the notes below, as these cover the big stuff added in Rise.

The following are the biggest changes:

• Vertical movement has been greatly expanded; you can now run and jump up walls and are encouraged to do so.
  
• The clutch claw in Monster Hunter World Iceborne does not exist; it is replaced by the Wirebug, which assists in both combat and movement around the map.
  
• Weapons now have Switch Skills, where parts of your moveset can be swapped out for different ones.
  
• Monsters can be affected by blights.
  
• The monster mounting system has been revamped into Wyvern Riding, where you take control over the monster. You can run around and attack other monsters for extra loot drops, knockdowns, and heavy damage.
  
• Quests are separated by village and hub quests again. Village quests are solo only and only cover low rank. Hub quests are scaled for multiplayer, but can be done solo if desired. Hub quests also scale differently depending on how many hunters are in the quest.
  
• Instead of crafting talismans and having decorations as RNG drops, the game has returned to crafting decorations and having talismans as RNG drops. Good luck!
  
• You now have access to Palamutes! These Canynes are the dog-equivalent to Felyne Palicoes, and are more offense-oriented. You can ride them for faster ground traversal, even in town.
  
• This game features Rampages, a quest type where you defend against waves of monsters by placing turrets and NPCs, making strategic use of wyvern fire and dragonators, or swinging into the fray yourself.
  
• Endemic life has been expanded to help you get permanent or temporary buffs for the quest, or Hunting Helpers which can inflict status effects or alter monster behavior.

No. The Monster Hunter series has barely any story at all. Most games can nearly all boil down to: "a big monster is threatening the local ecosystem; can you take care of it?" You can jump straight into Monster Hunter Rise without any trouble.

Take this next paragraph with a grain of salt; very little of it is referenced in the series directly. Some of this info comes from notes from artbooks and concept art, and may or may not be considered canon.

A long time ago, there was an ancient civilization[monsterhunter.wikia.com] of many races, including humans and wyverians, who are humanoids with four fingers and pointed ears. They possessed great knowledge and had an advanced level of technology unknown today. They exploited the wyverns and elder dragons of their time. At some point, they performed The Forbidden Act, killing numerous wyverns to create their own massive bioweapon lifeform called the Equal Dragon Weapon/Wyvern Machine Soldier. Many of these bioweapon lifeforms were made. This greatly angered the dragons, sparking the Great Dragon War. It was a terribly violent conflict that left the ancient civilization in ruins and most dragons extinct.

With most of the world in shambles and the knowledge and technology of the ancient civilization lost, humans and wyverians adopted a new culture. Instead of directly antagonizing wyverns and dragons, they would instead live alongside them with a healthy respect for nature. This isn't to say conflict ceased entirely: wyverns are a constant threat to humanoids and other monsters alike, and something needed to be done to protect the peace.

The Hunter's Guild was formed to maintain that peace. It's the central governing body of the world, and the primary way monster-related problems get solved. Officially-sanctioned hunters are not out to annihilate all monsters, rather, they're more glorified park rangers. They hunt down overpopulated animals, eliminate disruptive invasive species, and protect towns from marauding monsters. Guild Knights are dispatched to execute poachers that disobey these rules. Everything is done to learn more about the world and protect the world's ecosystem.

Since ancient times, the people of Kamura Village have fallen victim to numerous rampages, a calamitous event where many monsters attack the village all at once. The last rampage that occurred 50 years ago nearly wiped out the entire village. Tired of living in fear, the villagers have banded together to train themselves and fortify their home by building a stronghold to repel the rampage. The reason why these rampages occur is unknown.



Kamura is your home town; you were raised here. The villagers are essentially family. Hinoa and Minoto are your childhood friends, and they supported you in your training to become a full-fledged hunter. With your newly-finished training, you will sharpen your skills, equip more powerful weapons and armor, and work together with everyone to help repel the invasions. With any luck, perhaps you can help solve the mystery behind the rampage and end them once and for all.

Monster Hunter has a lot of information on screen, so let's break down what you're looking at to get a better sense of what's going on. Click the image below to expand it if you need to inspect closer.



Let's start with the top left and go clockwise. Fittingly, we have the red clock. The white hand starts from the noon position, then slowly moves to indicate how long the quest has been. In the example, it hasn't even budged yet, indicating the quest has just started. The orange hand of the clock indicates the quest time limit. Most quests have a time limit of 50 minutes, though some may vary. To the right of the clock is the player's name, along with your current weapon's icon.

Below the name is the green health bar. While this character is technically at full health, the white empty portion represents the potential max health your character can get if they gather enough green health spiribirds. The size of this bar can change depending on your equipped Petalace (which we'll describe later). If you ever take damage, some of your health bar will turn red. The red portion will heal slowly over time, as long as the player doesn't take any further damage.

Below the health bar is the yellow stamina bar. It acts similarly to the health bar. You can get more max stamina for a hunt by collecting yellow stamina spiribirds. The red outline here indicates my character is hungry; eating steak or rations will fill up the red portion. You will naturally get hungry over time, though there is no penalty to being super hungry other than a small stamina bar.

Below the stamina bar is the weapon status icons. Keep in mind that these icons will vary depending on the weapon type you're currently using. This player is using a gunlance. The four shells and the blue spike are gunlance icons, but the horizontal sword between them is common to all blademaster weapons, and is very important: the sharpness bar. It indicates how sharp your weapon currently is. In this example, this player's weapon is at full green sharpness. During a fight, the green sword around it will fade away, indicating how close it is to dropping into yellow sharpness and thus, less damaging. You'll find a more thorough explanation of sharpness in the weapons section below.

Below the weapon status icons are your buddies. You have their names, health bars, an icon of whether they're a palico or palamute, and a space for what action they're currently doing/what status effect they're affected by. If you are in multiplayer, other players will have their names and weapon icons displayed here.

The top right on the screen is for large monster icons. They'll show what monsters are currently on the map (or show a question mark if unknown). You can press the indicated button to set a target. If a blue monster head shows below the monster icon, it is ready to be captured.

Below the monster icons is a notification area. This is where sidequest progress, player chat, NPC chat, and acquired loot is displayed.

At the bottom right of the screen is a small version of your item bar. The most prominently-displayed item is your currently-selected one. Pressing the button displayed there while your weapon is sheathed will use that item. You can change your currently-selected item by holding down the button displayed to the left of the item bar.

To the left of that is the action bar. By default, this contains actions such as posing, chat, and emotes. It also has contextual differences depending on whether you're in town or out in the field. While in town, you have easier access to fast travel, and during hunts you can instruct your palico to use a felvine.

At the bottom of the screen are your wirebug charges. You usually have two wirebugs, though you can gain a third. In this example, one wirebug was recently used and the cooldown is displayed in a radial timer.

The bottom left is the map. It'll show general topography. Colored-in sections are the "standard level" areas where large monsters typically spend most of their time in. Dark gray sections of a map are areas that are much higher or much lower than the standard level.

If you hold the radial menu button, not only will the radial menu appear, but the map will zoom in and display extra points of interest such as gathering points.

Lastly, above the map is your quest objective.

In Game Settings, you are able to select HUD settings to enable/disable every one of these UI elements to your preference.

While you may want to get out there and get killing right away, you need to get ready first.
The following is the core gameplay loop: You go out in the field to gather materials and hunt monsters. You return to town to make supplies, arms, and armor to take on tougher monsters. Repeat.

Every time you speak to the quest gals Hinoa or Minoto, they offer Subquests. These are bonus objectives for you to complete for bonus rewards, the most important of which are armor spheres. Always make sure you have 5 subquests selected before each hunt. Pick the ones you're most likely to complete within the next few hunts; there's no point in holding onto a "Harvest Honey" subquest if you never bother picking them up.

Throughout the game, various characters will have an icon above their head indicating they want to speak with you. There's a good chance they'll give you an item or ask you to complete a request for them. This may involve completing a certain quest, killing a specific monster, or delivering some items to them. This is important for unlocking new weapons, dango recipes, and other beneficial rewards.


Kagero the Merchant stands across the path from Hinoa at the Steelworks (center of town). Maido the Merchant sits next to Minoto in the Gathering Hub. Both offer the exact same services as basic item vendors. Go to them if you're low on potions, barrel bombs, trap tools, ammo, coatings, and such.

If you hear a distinctive whistling music while standing near them that drowns out the usual music, a sale is going on. Almost every item they have will be half off, and that is the best time to buy items in bulk. This happens every few quests. You can sell items to them in order to make zenny, though you can also just sell items directly from your item box. As the game progresses, their inventory expands with new items for sale.

Decently far in to the game, they'll start selling Power Charms and Armor Charms. They'll never be discounted for 50% off, but you should buy them and keep them in your inventory, as they give an attack and defense buff just by holding onto them.

While a sale is going on, they also offer a lottery. For a small fee, you can enter the lottery and get immediate rewards. Most of the time you'll get useful hunting items like traps, bombs, immunizers, and the like, but if you hit the jackpot you can get items you can't get anywhere else, such as room decorations. You can only use the lottery once per sale.


The Farm is where you can quickly and easily obtain items essential for hunting without actually gathering them out in the field. Head to the Buddy Plaza and talk to Rondine, select Order Items -> Trade Requests, choose a buddy and your desired item, and as you complete quests, that item will fill up in the harvest box. If you choose to order rarer items, you'll only get a few per quest. If you order more common items, you'll get more. You can also choose Buddy Bargaining to increase item yields, make items come by faster, or get more chances at getting rare bonus items. Using these requires your selected buddy to be a certain level, however. As you get further in the game, completing sidequests can unlock more submarines.

When in doubt, farm honey. Honey is your lifeblood. It's used in many common useful crafting recipes, including the Mega Potion.

Rondine is also a source of some rare items that you can buy. Check her inventory every now and then.

Soon enough, you'll unlock the Meowcenaries. This allows you to dispatch your buddies to hunt monsters and gather materials on your behalf, at the cost of some resource points. It's fairly straightforward. You can dispatch them by talking to Felyne Chief Kogarashi or the Housekeeper in your home. Simply look through all the options and see what route contains the monsters or gather points you want the most, then select that destination and route. Then, choose four buddies to search that location. The higher level the buddies are, the more rewards you'll receive. From there, you're done! It will take five quests for the Meowcenaries to complete their mission. If you want to cancel it early, you may do so from the menu and reap the rewards they earned up to that point. Otherwise, you'll be told in the chat log when the Safari has returned after you've completed enough quests.

You can get rare materials you can't get anywhere else from the Argosy Submarines and the Meowcenaries which can be used to make unique weapons and armor.

The Kamura Training Area contains all manner of amenities to practice your weapons and mobility in a safe area. You first access this place from a boat in the Buddy Plaza, but from then on you can access it from fast travel.

Near the entrance is an equipment box for you to switch around your weapons and armor; handy for testing different builds right away. To your right from the entrance is a series of moving targets for testing ranged weapons.

The most prominent feature is the Toadversary, a felyne-powered mechanical training dummy for you to attack. It will provide damage numbers for your combos, has different hit zones with varying degrees of hardness, and can be configured (via the menu) to act differently - including the ability to attack you with physical or elemental attacks, allowing you to test counters or blocks.

Above the Toadversary is a series of ropes, platforms, and cliffs to test out your skills in maneuvering through the air with the wirebug.

Though the text is in Japanese, this video is a good preview of what to expect when using the training area.

Monster Hunter Rise has fourteen different weapon types to choose from. You are not locked in to one. Your character is free to use as many of them as they see fit, and change between them as much as they want. Every weapon type is viable.

You start with a basic Kamura weapon of every type, so do yourself a favor. This game offers dozens to hundreds of hours of gameplay, so at least spend 5-10 minutes in the training area with each weapon to familiarize yourself with each one. The training area is accessible from a boat in the Buddy Plaza, and from then on you can go there with fast travel. Do a hunt or three with the few weapons that seem interesting to you. It's fine to "main" a single weapon type, but versatility can be helpful if you want a change of pace from your main, or need a tail cut when you main a blunt weapon, or your main weapon isn't well suited to fighting your current target. Don't worry about finding the "best" or "meta" weapon type. Monster Hunter is about using what works for you.

When choosing weapons, feel free to compare damage values between weapon types. Capcom has opted to use comparable damage values in the menu rather than the arbitrary bloated values they used in World. This means that in Monster Hunter Rise, weapons that have the same damage values will deal roughly equal damage if played at a similar level. So, a greatsword with 120 damage will have similar overall damage throughout a hunt as a set of dual blades with 120 damage.

It's difficult to get the gist of the weapons just through text. Seeing them in motion is a lot more helpful. Here is a good, quick overview of each weapon type, some basic combos, and main concepts.

Often touted as the de facto beginner weapon of the series, the Sword & Shield is not to be underestimated. It has decent versatility across the board, not lacking in any particular department except attack range. Sword & Shield is unique in that it can use items while the weapon is unsheathed. Best paired with elemental and status weapons. Attacks that utilize the shield deal KO damage and can knock out a monster.
Rurikhan SnS Guide
Arrekz SnS Tutorial

With fast attacks and dashes, dual blades are masters of elemental damage and status application. When engaging Demon Mode and draining stamina, they get a stronger moveset that makes them immune to small forms of knockback. If they deal enough damage to maximize their gauge, they enter Archdemon mode, increasing attack and extending their relentless assault. Stamina management is key to their strategy.
Rurikhan Dual Blades Guide

With long range and ease of use, it's no wonder the Long Sword is so popular. By landing attacks, the Long Sword raises its spirit gauge. By hitting the final attack of its spirit combo, the Long Sword becomes stronger. In some ways, it can be considered a weapon of momentum: as long as you can keep your spirit level up, your damage will remain high. It can reposition mid-combo with Fade Slash, and can counter monster attacks without missing a beat. The high-reaching vertical attacks make cutting tails easy. The high damage and strong counters make this an offensive and defensive powerhouse.
Rurikhan Long Sword Guide
Arrekz Long Sword Tutorial
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2723481313
Without a doubt the most iconic weapon of the series. While slow, it's also capable of incredibly destructive damage. Great Sword users benefit the most from knowing the monsters. They often adopt a hit-and-run style: hit where it hurts, then get out and wait for the next opportunity. The shoulder tackle and wirebug techniques makes it easy to maintain a charge through monster roars and get to the monstrous True Charged Slash. When a monster is asleep and you're not capturing it, the Great Sword user is the wake-up call.
Rurikhan Great Sword Guide
Arrekz Great Sword Tutorial
Xan MH’s Beginner and Advanced Great Sword Guides

The lance boasts the strongest shield in the game, but don't let that fool you: it is among the most aggressive of the weapons. While other weapons have to sheath and run to dodge dangerous attacks, a proper Lancer is relentlessly on the monster, unfazed. The attack cadence is sometimes compared to a dance. When the monster runs away, the Lance can charge and run the poor thing down.
Rurikhan Lance Guide
Gobul's Lantern's How to be a lance pro

Or "Funlance," as it's often called. A lance with a short-range cannon attached to it. It can stab, it can shoot! It can do both at the same time, with the Wyrmstake, which sticks in the monster then explodes. Shots from a Gunlance always do a set amount of damage, which is useful for hard parts that are hard to break. To cap it all off, the Wyvern's Fire takes a while to charge up, but is a huge burst of damage. The three different shelling types are favorable to different playstyles, offering gunlancers among the widest variety of strategies within a single weapon.
Rurikhan Gunlance Guide
The Absolutely Complete Gunlance Guide
Caoslayer's Playlist: A Gunlance Expert

There's beauty in simplicity. Take this big thing, and apply it directly to the monster's forehead. The Hammer is the King of KO's, and has dibs on the head in any multiplayer hunt. They can buff up quickly by charging, then go ham. The charge attacks are useful for hit-and-run strikes, and the Big Bang combo is best on stunned or paralyzed monsters. Hammer attacks tend to feel especially satisfying on impact. As a blunt weapon, it can't cut tails, but at least it exhausts monsters faster.
FlorBroMH's In-Depth Hammer Tutorial
Rurikhan Hammer Guide

Everyone loves a Hunting Horn user. Revised in Rise, Hunting Horn has gotten a new surge in popularity. Every basic attack with this weapon plays a note. Play two notes in a row to automatically play a song and get its benefits. Play one of each note and start a performance to give the benefits of all your songs at once! But don't just play in the corner... you're a battle bard, not a cheerleader! Your songs hit HARD. Kill the monster with the power of music! While everyone touts the buffs, what's lesser known is that HH is the King of Exhaust. Monsters hit by a hunting horn tire out much faster than normal, meaning an easy hunt is getting even easier.
Rurikhan Hunting Horn Guide
Arrekz Hunting Horn Tutorial
Hunting Horn Sound Showcases

A Switch Axe is a decently mobile axe with high reach and wide range that has a gauge. It truly shines when it transforms into a sword that doesn’t bounce off hard monster parts and, when the second gauge fills, also benefits from a phial effect, depending on what axe it is. It could be bonus raw damage, element, status, or KO/exhaust. It has the ability to use an Element Discharge, which deals out continuous damage which finishes in a huge explosion. As long as you have the gauge for it, you can seamlessly switch between sword and axe mode mid-combo for a smooth attack flow. Just watch that manage that sword gauge and don’t get it too low. Ever wanted to reload an axe?
Rurikhan Switch Axe Guide
gaijin hunter Switch Axe Tutorial
Nazorius's High Rank Guide to the Switch Axe

Arguably the most complex weapon, but one of the most versatile and rewarding once mastered. The Charge Blade charges up sword energy with sword attacks. Charge up phials with this sword energy to open up options in combat. Your weapon can transform into an axe, which can use those phials for elemental discharges in axe form. For more advanced uses, you can push the charged phials into the shield, empowering your axe mode and expanding your options further. However, nothing compares to its capstone ability, the Super Amped Elemental Discharge, which causes a massive series of explosions that cause similarly massive amounts of damage as a satisfying pay off for how long it takes to build up. Just don’t miss!
Rurikhan Charge Blade Guide
Arrekz Charge Blade Tutorial

The Insect Glaive is really a pair of two weapons: the glaive itself, and the kinsect. The kinsect is a flying bug that follows your instructions. Your first priority is to command the kinsect to fly in and hit the monster's various body parts to gather extract and return it to you to give you buffs. Most important is red buff, which increases your attack power and gives you much stronger attack animations. Once buffed up, you can command your kinsect to attack the monster at will, then attack the monster yourself. The glaive has aerial attacks which makes it easier to pester monsters from above (and break their back!), but the most damaging combos are the ones on the ground.
Rurikhan Insect Glaive Guide
Arrekz Insect Glaive Tutorial
Ratatoskr's Advanced Insect Glaive Tips

Unlike blademaster weapons which deal with sharpness, the bow has infinite arrows but has to bring along consumable coatings. By applying coatings to arrows, the arrows get additional properties such as increased damage or status effects. When shooting, maintain proper critical distance by ensuring the crosshairs have two complete circles when aiming at the monster. Arrows deal less damage if you are too far away from the monster. Charge shots by holding down the button, or by continuously shooting, to keep up your assault. The Dragon Piercer attack roots you in place while charging up, but deals incredible damage as it pierces through monsters, especially lengthy ones. The bow also has the ability to provide buffs and heals.
TwoSixNine Bow Guide
Poogie Boogie Bow Guide Playlist

The little brother of the bowguns sacrifices a bit of damage for much more mobility. Bowgunners must buy or craft their ammo, though there's usually some free ammo in the supply box at the beginning of each hunt. The Light Bowgun's unique ability is called the Wyvernblast, an explosive mine of sorts. You can place up to three at a time on the ground, or even on the monster itself if you drop it from above. Every time damage is applied, they explode, dealing heavy damage in an area around it. Bowguns can be customized at the smithy, allowing you to boost attack, increase range, reduce recoil, and so on. As you upgrade your bowgun, you gain more customization slots. Like the bow, you have to stay within the right distance to deal the most damage, but this varies with the ammo you're currently using.
RazzleDazzleHour's Comprehensive Bowgun Tutorial (Light Bowgun)
Sam Pham Tips and Tutorials: Light Bowgun Guide

The heavy bowgun moves slower than the light bowgun, but has larger clips and hits harder. Bowgunners must buy or craft their ammo, though there's usually some free ammo in the supply box at the beginning of each hunt. It has the ability to charge its shots, much like a greatsword. The Heavy Bowgun has two different special ammo, depending on the gun. The first is Wyvernheart, which turns your weapon into a machine gun for a while. It can be fired in short bursts or as one continuous stream of bullets. The second is Wyvern Snipe, a single explosive piercing shot. If fired correctly, it can ruin a large monster. The Heavy Bowgun can be customized in the same way that a Light Bowgun can, but one of the exclusive options for Heavy Bowgun is a shield that can automatically block attacks for you.
RazzleDazzleHour's Comprehensive Bowgun Tutorial (Heavy Bowgun)
Genoen N. Jun - Heavy Bowgun Guide

All melee weapons have a colorful sharpness bar, like so:



The colors always go in that order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, White. White is the sharpest a weapon can be in Monster Hunter Rise. As you go out on a hunt and hit monsters, the weapon will gradually dull. Thus, this weapon would go down to blue sharpness, then green sharpness, and so on. Sharpness increases damage based on a multiplier, though differently between the raw damage portion of a weapon and its elemental damage.

Raw Damage:


Elemental Damage:


The size of the color bar indicates how many hits that weapon will take before going down to the next level:


A weapon with this sharpness bar will only take a few hits before the white goes down to blue. The blue will last a while before going down to green. Keep this in mind while hunting. You restore sharpness by using a whetstone, which maximizes weapon sharpness.

In addition, some monster parts are tougher than others. If you find yourself attacking a part of a monster and bouncing off, your weapon sharpness is too low. Every time you bounce off a monster part, you're stuck in the bounce animation and your weapon loses twice the sharpness it normally would from a regular strike. However, you still do full damage to that part, so if you're trying to break that part, go get 'em, tiger. Bouncing can also be mitigated by a skill called Mind's Eye, which allows you to attack without bouncing (though double sharpness loss still applies). Some weapons have attacks that have natural Mind's Eye built in.

In short, high sharpness good, low sharpness bad. Keep your weapon within its top two sharpness levels at all times. Still confused? Perhaps this video will explain it better. It's for Monster Hunter 4U, but the main principles still apply.

Note that even blunt weapons such as Hammers and Hunting Horns still need to be sharpened. The Monster Hunter series never really bothered to care why. It's whimsical like that.

Some weapons also have affinity. This is Monster Hunter's term for critical hit chance. A critical hit deals 25% extra damage. Negative affinity means a negative critical, which will deal 25% less damage. It's fairly straightforward. Let's say a weapon has 30% affinity. Every attack has a 30% chance of being a critical hit, which deals 25% more damage. You can tell when it crits by the bright visual effect on the attack. Some weapons with high raw damage might be balanced with a negative affinity. So, a weapon with -20% affinity will have 20% chance on every hit to deal 25% less damage.

Monster status effects build up behind the scenes. They have an initial threshold that must be reached before the status triggers. Once the status goes off and the duration passes, the threshold increases, meaning you'll have to apply more to get it to trigger again. In addition, if enough time passes without that status applying again, the status begins to decrease buildup. You'll have to keep attacking to ensure the status triggers.

Multiple different status effects can build up at the same time.

Unlike element attacks which apply on every hit, primary status effects only apply on a percent chance. While you can't change that, you can increase the strength of your status buildup with skills.

Poison
The set-it-and-forget-it status, and surprisingly effective on most monsters. When triggered, it deals damage over time to the monster, indicated by frothy purple bubbles around the mouth.

Paralysis
The ultimate teamwork status. When paralysis triggers, the monster gets stuck in place, unable to act for a few seconds. This is best done in multiplayer, where it's the cue for everyone to go ham on the monster and deal as much damage as possible.

Sleep
The most technical status effect of the bunch. When triggered, the monster will fall asleep, indicated by the combat music stopping. Players have a few seconds in the animation to stop themselves before accidentally waking the monster. The first attack that hits the monster will deal double damage, so high single-hit attacks like the Great Sword's True Charged Slash is appreciated here. This bonus also applies to barrel bombs that you can place. Because of that bonus, some players use a sleep-bomb combat style. Monsters will naturally fall asleep if they get back to their nest when gravely wounded.

Blast
Who doesn't like explosions? When enough blast status builds up, it explodes on the part that was last hit, dealing a set amount of damage regardless of the monster's defense. Blast is great for breaking monster parts.

KO
Also known as stun, KO is built up every time impact damage is dealt to a monster's head. When enough KO has been dealt, the monster falls over with yellow stars over its head, helpless.

Exhaustion
If a monster has saliva dripping out of their mouth, they are exhausted. All monsters have stamina. Every time they attack, they use up some of that stamina. When they run out, they become sluggish, they stumble around, and their attacks become weak or unusable. Blunt weapons and exhaust ammo deal exhaust damage to monsters, causing them to become exhausted much faster. While they recover over time, monsters can restore stamina faster by successfully eating or completing a sleep cycle.

Enrage
If a monster has white puffs of air coming out of their mouth, they are enraged. After taking enough damage, a monster can become enraged. This makes them more aggressive, increasing their speed, attack, and sometimes defense. Enrage can alter behavior, such as preference for certain attacks, immunity or vulnerability to items, and so on. Enrage completely overrides exhaustion, though they will return to the exhausted state when enrage is over.

Tranq
While not widely realized as such, Tranq is a status effect. It's built up whenever a monster is hit by tranq bombs or ammo, and it can wear off if applied too early. Tranq is for no other purpose than capturing. It won't calm down an enraged monster, for example.

Mud
Some monsters cover themselves in mud, which protects them and alters their elemental weaknesses. Hit them with water damage to remove the protective mud.

New to Monster Hunter Rise is the ability to afflict Blights on the monsters. Throughout the maps, you can find beetles that you can pick up and use later. If you use these beetles and hit a monster, they're likely going to be affected by the respective beetle's elemental blight. Similarly, mounting a monster and using its elemental attacks on another monster is another method of applying blights to your opponents.

Fireblight
A Fireblighted monster takes damage over time and is easier to flinch (see flinching below).

Waterblight
The monster's hide becomes softer while affected by Waterblight. The harder the body part was before the effect, the weaker it becomes. So, hitting soft body parts will receive a small damage increase, but hard body parts will receive a massive damage increase. Use this as an opportunity to damage or break the monster's hardest parts.

Thunderblight
A Thunderblighted monster is able to be stunned by non-blunt weapons. While hits to the head are most effective, hitting other body parts will contribute to stun. However, you must still hit the head to act as the trigger for KO once it receives enough stun damage.

Iceblight
The monster will move more slowly while affected by Iceblight. This slows regular movements and increases time between attacks, but beware, as attack animations themselves are still at their regular speed. However, Iceblight does not affect exhausted monsters. Time your Iceblight attack while they're in a normal or enraged state.

The following three are not exactly thought of as statuses, but they build like one.

Flinch
Monsters have hidden HP for each of their body parts independent of their full health. If you deal enough damage to a particular part, the monster will flinch, which is a small animation that stops them from acting for a second.

Trip
A stronger version of flinch. Dealing enough damage to a monster's means of locomotion (as in, legs on a monster on the ground and wings on a monster that is flying) will cause the monster to trip. They will fall over and flail about, unable to move for a few seconds until they get back up.

You can see more detailed info on flinching and tripping here. The video may cover World, but the same applies throughout the whole series.

Mount
Dealing damage to a monster while you're mid-air, dealing damage with a wirebug move, or hitting a monster with the Puppet Spider deals mount damage. When enough is built up, the monster will fall over, bound by ironsilk. Pressing the button prompt near a monster in its mountable state will cause you to jump on it and start Wyvern Riding (see the section on Wyvern Riding below). If you're Wyvern Riding and throw a monster at another monster, the second monster will take extremely high mounting damage.

The primary status effects that affect monsters can also affect you. You can also be paralyzed or poisoned, though unlike a monster you don't build a resistance to it after multiple afflictions. Some of these may not seem like status effects, but the game itself classifies them as such, so they'll be listed here.

Poison
When hit by a poison attack, your health bar will turn purple and leave behind red health. While poison does wear off, it can take a while depending on the source. You can tell it's about to expire if the poison icon is flashing. You can get rid of it right away by taking an antidote or herbal medicine, using an Antidobra, or returning to the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to poison with the poison resistance skill.

Venom
Venom is a much more potent version of poison. Your health bar will flash purple and drain rapidly. Curing it right away is highly recommended, as the health loss is deadly. It can thankfully be cured by anything that also cures poison.

Paralysis
When paralyzed, you'll immediately fall to the ground, helpless. If you have buddies with you, use your map signal to tell them you're in danger, and they'll knock you out of paralysis... if they feel like it. Other players can do the same if they're attentive enough. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for it to wear off. You can reduce or become immune to paralysis with the paralysis resistance skill.

Sleep
Unlike paralysis, with sleep you have a few seconds to position yourself before you fall to the ground. Try to distance yourself from the monster or get yourself closer to allies before you collapse. If for whatever reason you keep energy drinks on you, that will wake you before you fall over. Use your map signal for your buddy, or hope the other players are willing to help. You can reduce or become immune to sleep with the sleep resistance skill.

Blastblight
When hit by a blast attack, you may get afflicted by blastblight. You'll be covered in explosive powder. The next time your hunter is hit by an attack, you'll explode. Alternatively, if enough time passes, you explode anyway. Get rid of it by rolling a few times, eating a nulberry, using an Antidobra, or go into the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to blastblight with the blast resistance skill.

Fireblight
When hit by a fire attack, you may get afflicted by fireblight, which is a fancy way of saying your character is on fire. Your health will slowly decrease while leaving red health behind. You know the drill: stop, drop, and roll a few times to stop the fire. Rolling in water stops the fire immediately. Eating a nulberry, using an Antidobra, or returning to the tent at camp works too. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 fire resistance.

Waterblight
When hit by a water attack (or you just walked into monster mud...whoops), you may get afflicted by waterblight. Your stamina bar will turn blue and recover much slower if spent. This hits dual blade and bow users particularly hard. Wait for the duration to end naturally, eat a nulberry, use an Antidobra, or enter the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 water resistance.

Thunderblight
When hit by a thunder attack, you may get afflicted with thunderblight. This increases the chances of becoming stunned. Wait for the duration to end naturally, eat a nulberry, use an Antidobra, or enter the tent at camp. This can also be mitigated by having stun resistance through armor skills. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 thunder resistance.

Iceblight
When hit by an ice attack, you may get afflicted with iceblight. This slows down your wirebug recovery time. Wait for the duration to end naturally, eat a nulberry, use an Antidobra, or enter the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 ice resistance.

Dragonblight
When hit with a dragon attack, you may get afflicted with dragonblight. This removes all element/status from your weapon. Wait for the duration to end naturally, eat a nulberry, use an Antidobra, or enter the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 dragon resistance.

Hellfireblight
When hit by a hellfire attack, you may get afflicted with hellfireblight. If you get knocked back by an attack, you will explode. Alternatively, if enough time passes, you explode anyway. Get rid of it by rolling a few times, using an Antidobra, going into the tent at camp, or ideally doing a wiredash. If using a wiredash, you will leave the hellfire on that spot. If a monster attacks that hellfire, they will be damaged by the explosion.

Stun
When hit by a monster's attack, you have a chance to be stunned. You'll stand in place with stars around your head, unable to act. Rapidly rotate your movement or hit buttons to recover a little faster. Other players or your buddy can hit you out of it if you use your signal. You can reduce or become immune to stun with the stun resistance skill.

Webbed
When hit by webs, you will be stuck, unable to attack or evade. Get rid of it by using a cleanser or by moving around and mashing buttons.

Stench
You've been coated in something extremely unpleasant, and a foul-smelling brown gas surrounds you. While soiled, you cannot eat any consumable items such as potions, rations, or steaks. Wait for the duration to end naturally, apply a deodorant item, use an Antidobra, or enter the tent at camp.

Defense Down
When hit by defense down, your defense is, well, lowered, and you'll take more physical damage. Get rid of it by waiting for the duration to end naturally, using an adamant seed or armorskin, using an Antidobra, or entering the tent at camp.

Resistance Down
As it says, if afflicted with Resistance Down, your resistances are lowered and you'll take more elemental damage. Get rid of it by waiting for the duration to end naturally, using an adamant seed or armorskin, using an Antidobra, or entering the tent at camp.

Leeched
A small monster has attached itself to you. Your health will constantly drain. Get it off by rolling several times, using a wiredash, or throwing a kunai.

Bubbleblight
If hit with a bubble attack (or have the level 3 Bubbly Dance armor skill), you may get covered in bubbles. This grants you Evasion+1 and Constitution+1. This is quite beneficial, but if you get more bubbles and receive Major Bubbleblight, you will slide around, making precise movements difficult. Get rid of it by waiting for it to wear off, getting hit by an attack, or use a cleanser or antidobra.

Bleed
When afflicted by Bleed, the next hit you take does additional Bleed damage against you. Most actions such as running, dodging, and attacking will increase the damage taken if Bleed triggers. Crouching, eating Jerky, Sushifish, Immunizer, or a Well-Done Steak removes the effect. You can also wait for bleed to wear off on its own.

Bloodblight
Your blood has been corrupted. Most forms of healing have reduced effectiveness. However, you now heal when you deal damage to monsters. Health restored on hit corresponds with how heavy the weapon attack is.

Frenzy Virus
You're infected with the Frenzy Virus, which begins to incubate over time. If it fully resolves, all natural health recovery (red health) is negated and all monster attacks that inflict frenzy deal more damage. However, if the hunter deals enough damage to a monster during the incubation period, the hunter overcomes the virus and becomes more powerful, gaining 15% affinity and immunity to re-infection for a short time. Incubation can be delayed (but not cured) by nulberry. The full virus is cured by waiting it out or entering the tent at camp.

Muck
Some monster attacks leave behind snow or mud that slows you down while in them. Simply leave the mucky area to remove the effect.

Pinned/Engulfing Attack
A monster has grabbed you or otherwise knocked you into a position for their follow-up attack. Dodge out of the way, preferably with a wiredash, to avoid taking further damage.

Now that you understand weapons, elements, and status, let's go over forging weapons and upgrading them. Click the image below to make it larger.



When you run up to the Smithy and select Forge/Upgrade Weapon, then the weapon type, this menu will pop up. If it doesn't, look at the top of the screen and press the button prompt there is to see the Tree tab. This is a good way to visualize the upgrade paths your weapons can take. You start with the Kamura tree, Ore tree, and Bone tree on the far left. As you use materials and zenny, the upgrade trees will "branch" and options will open up, offering a wider selection of possible paths for your weapon to be upgraded to.

If the rightmost part of the weapon tree has a question mark, that means that you cannot upgrade further past that point until you progress further in the story. The white lines for each tree is a visual representation of whether a particular upgrade path continues, ends, or branches further.

You may see icons all over the weapons in the tree. In the top left can be a small hammer icon. This indicates that the weapon can be created directly with base materials. This applies to the basic ore and bone tree for each weapon, but also can happen to a few weapons further up the tree to skip a few steps and allow you to create a stronger weapon without having to upgrade first.

The bottom left can contain a variety of icons; you might recognize them as the icons of the elemental blights or status effects from the above section. This means that weapon deals that form of elemental or status damage in addition to its base damage. So if you see the thunderblight icon under a weapon, that weapon deals raw and thunder damage. If nothing shows in the bottom left corner, it only deals raw damage.

If the bottom right of the icon has a red box, that means you have a copy of that weapon in your equipment box already. If it's a green E, then that means you have that weapon currently equipped.

If the top right of the icon has a pin on it, that means you have it on your wishlist, which you can view at any time in the menu. You will be automatically notified if you obtain materials related to creating this equipment.

After you've upgrade a weapon, it will stay that way. However, if you decide against it, you can revert weapons to an earlier state. You'll regain the materials used to make the upgrade, but the money used will be lost. A few weapons with a solid boundary cannot be reverted to an earlier upgrade, but the game will warn you if this happens.

Once you finish your first rampage, you'll unlock Ramp-Up Weapon upgrades. Select that option at the Smithy and choose a weapon you want to give a ramp-up weapon upgrade to. Most weapons have only one ramp-up upgrade slot, and within that slot you can choose from a small set of options. The exception is the Rampage Weapon tree, which has multiple slots for rampage skills, have more choices per slot, and these weapons can be color-customized as well!

If your weapon has a ramp-up skill equipped and you upgrade the weapon itself deeper into its tree, it will retain the skill. This can be useful, as the rampage skill choices can be different after the upgrade. So keep an eye on ramp-up options while upgrading your weapon; you may prefer a ramp-up skill from earlier in the tree that's normally unavailable once upgraded.

When at the forge, select Forge Equipment, then Forge Armor.

The central form of character progression is your armor. It's not just about protecting you, however. There are four major things to consider when forging armor:

1. Can I make it?
Armor pieces require materials to make. Take a look at the required materials to see what you need. You might have to hunt a monster several times before you get the material. Some pieces require parts of a different monster, too. Some armor sets don't require monster parts at all.

2. Does it have a skill I want?
Armor pieces grant skills, which grant you various bonuses. It might make you resistant to status effects, or make you gather materials better, it might boost attack, or mount monsters easier. Similar skills can stack, up to a point. You can specialize or generalize as you please.

3. Does it have defenses and elemental resistances I want?
This is a lesser consideration compared to skills. Defense can always be upgraded, and elemental weaknesses can be mitigated in the canteen somewhat. However, it is something to be mindful of. If your armor set is very weak to fire, you should be cautious around firebreathing monsters.

4. Do I like the way it looks?
While some players don't care and are fine hunting in a clown suit, you have to admit you'll hunt a bit better if you look cool doing it. Embrace the fashion hunter. As you progress through the game, you'll unlock armor dye options for further customization, or even "Layered Armor Sets" to completely cover up armor pieces with a different appearance.

You get bonus elemental resistance if you equip multiple armor pieces of the same set, but keep in mind it's not necessary. You can if you want, but you don't have to. In fact, many people mix and match different pieces to get the armor skills and looks they want, as skills have a much bigger impact on your hunt.

Click the image below if you need a larger size.



Let's explain the UI here. On the left we have all the available armor sets you have unlocked. On the far left is the name of the set, and to the right of the name is the set itself, in the order of the headpiece, chestpiece, arms, belt, and legs. If an icon is bright, that means you have the materials to make that piece of equipment. If it's dark, you do not have the materials to make it. The slashed circle icon means that item does not exist. Not all equipment sets are a set of 5; there are a few sets of 3, 2, or even 1 item. The box icon in the bottom right of an icon means the item was crafted, but not equipped. The green E over an armor icon indicates that it is currently equipped on the player. You can see the Rehnoplos Greaves S has an orange pin in the top right. This indicated the player has pinned that piece for their wishlist.

In the middle of the screen is the info for the currently selected piece to craft, in this case the Rhenoplos Greaves S. You can see the required materials and quantities in the center: 2 Rhenoplos Carapace, 2 Monster Bone M, and 2 Carbalite Ore. The Rhenoplos Carapace is highlighted red, showing that the player is missing that material to craft. To the right of those materials you can see a small red box icon with some numbers. Those indicate how many of those items are currently in your item box. This means that the player already has most of the materials to craft, except for the carapaces. At the very bottom you see it will also cost 4000 zenny.

At the right you'll see the statistics of the armor piece. All crafted armor starts at level 1. It will level up when you upgrade the armor. It's a rarity 4 equipment, being from a high rank but small-game monster. It offers two level 1 decoration slots. The greaves give 42 Defense, 2 fire resistance, 0 water resistance, 0 thunder resistance, -2 ice resistance, and 0 dragon resistance. These numbers can be red, green, or white. This is a comparison to the player's currently-equipped armor in that slot. As in, these greaves offer less raw defense, more fire resistance, less ice resistance, the same dragon resistance, and so on.

At the top of the Equipment Info window, you can see that there are six total pages. Press the button prompt to page 2 in order to see that armor piece's armor skills. In this case, the greaves give one level in Pierce Up, which increases damage dealt by piercing Ammo and Piercing arrows. That's great for bowgunners or bow users that use that type, but useless for anyone else. It will also give one point in Tremor Resistance, allowing you to keep your footing from small tremors when monsters slam the ground. Many other skills will be less straightforward with their naming scheme, so check the button prompts to read the skill description to see what each skill does before committing to a piece of equipment. Notice there are 3 boxes in both skills - one filled up and two blank. That indicates that the maximum number of effective ranks you can have is 3 for these skills.


Now, let's say you've made your armor and you like it. Great! However, it can only last you so long before you're getting crushed by monster attacks again. You need to upgrade that armor so the defense is up to par. Select Upgrade Equipment in the main Smithy menu, and select the armor piece you want to upgrade. If you can't find it, try looking for the button prompt to sort your equipment box.

Again, click the image below if you need a larger image.



Now that you've selected the armor you want upgraded, you'll have to upgrade it with armor spheres. Armor upgrades use a point-based system. Use enough points to reach a certain threshold, and the armor will increase a level and become upgraded. The table is fairly straightforward: Material is the name of each armor sphere you own, Value is how many points it gives when used, Owned is how many you have available, and number is how many you are currently using. Thus, in this example image, basic Armor Spheres only grant one upgrade point, and the player has 60 of them. Armor Sphere+ grants 5 upgrade points, and the player has 78 of them (and is currently putting 3 into the Wroggi Helm). As the player puts more in, the bar on the right fills up. Each time the bar completes, an upgrade can be done. Select the Confirm button to pay the armor sphere and Zenny cost to upgrade your armor.

The Lv 13/16 displays the current upgrade level compared to the current maximum. The maximum upgrade level can get higher the further you progress into the game. You are free to craft new armor or upgrade your old armor as you see fit.

Like most things in Monster Hunter, this may seem overwhelming at first, but you'll get the hang of it after a while.

Once you reach high rank, you'll find that armor sets are a significant jump in statistics. It's recommended to make an armor set from high rank materials as soon as you can.

Yet another form of equipment-based customization you unlock a little ways into the game. Head to the merchants to meld talismans. They'll unlock more options as you progress:

Reflecting Pool melding provides you with simple, low-impact skills such as elemental or status resistances, quality-of-life skills such as botanist and geologist for gathering. Despite that, there are some impactful ones for more specific builds, such as Horn Maestro or Fortify.

Haze melding offers some medium-impact skills that are generally nice to have. This includes elemental and status attack boosts, quality-of-life skills like Quick Sheath or Reload Speed, and situational skills like Windproof or Bubbly Dance.

Moonbow melding gives you the high-impact skills that people generally want and build for, such as Critical Eye, Weakness Exploit, Evade Window, and Evade Extender.

Wisp of Mystery melding results in talismans with random skills and decoration slots. Why would you want that? Well, the above melding options may let you pick a skill, but it won't have many slots or have mulitple skill levels. You want to run Wisp of Mystery when you can in the hopes of getting the "god roll" talismans: stuff with two awesome skills and/or multiple large slots to fit decorations into.

Rebirth melding is similar to Wisp of Mystery, but instead of providing crafting materials, you offer up other talismans. This is a good way to recycle talismans you'd never use.

During Master Rank, you unlock the highest tiers of melding:

Anima melding is similar to Wisp of Mystery, but the talismans can potentially offer an even higher level or amount of skills.

Reincarnation melding is similar to Rebirth, where you can put in unwanted talismans to create potentially better ones.

Aurora melding is unlocked very late in progression, but has higher chances of creating great talismans.

The complexity never ends, does it? Later in the game, you may craft or receive decorations, which are gems that can be put into slots in your weapons, armor, and talismans. Each decoration provides you with skill points, just like armor does. With that, you can adjust and improve armor sets to your liking.

However, decorations need to fit. Each decoration has a different size, depending on the skill. Generally, the more valuable the skill, the larger it is.


You can quickly determine the size of a decoration or slot by the number of triangles at the bottom of the icon.

Decorations can only fit in a slot that's big enough for it. So, you can't use a level 3 decoration if your equipment has no level 3 slots. However, smaller decorations can fit into larger slots. Level 1 decorations can fit into any empty slot. Keep slot size in mind when crafting weapons and armor. A weapon might look more powerful than another, but if you're hurting for level 3 decoration slots it might be handy to take the weaker weapon that offers two of them. That skill boost may make up for the difference.

Head to the armory to craft decorations you desire. Of course, better decorations tend to require harder-to-get materials.

New to Sunbreak, master rank weapons have a Rampage Decoration slot. These special decorations are forged with materials at the armory just like regular ones, but they can only fit in weapon Rampage Decoration slots. Their skills are similar to the effects of the high rank rampage weapon skills, such as Anti-Dragon for increased damage to most Wyverns, or Buddy Rally to increase palico and palamute attack and defense.

Petalaces are unique extra equipment for Monster Hunter Rise. The one you choose to equip determines the balance of stats you have during a hunt, so you can opt in for more health, stamina, defense, attack, or a balance between them.

Your Petalace will determine your stats at the beginning of a hunt, as well as how much bonus stats you gain when you collect spiribirds. For example, the Demon Petalace will start you off with more damage and you gain even more damage per red spiribird than if you have any other type of petalace. However, you'll also have less health, and gain less health, per green spiribird you collect.

Hinoa and Minoto will give you a Hunting Petalace I to start with, and you can unlock more varieties (and their stronger versions) by progressing through the game. Elder Fugen will give you new petalaces as you unlock them.

At the beginning of the game you may have noticed after you made your character, you also made a dog and a cat, though in-world they're called canynes and felynes. Canynes and felynes that partner up with hunters are called palamutes and palicoes. They are your hunting buddies that will help you out in the field. They wield weapons and armor just as you do, albeit in a smaller scale. While they do take damage in combat, it just takes them out of commission for a while. They do not need consumables for healing and are effectively invincible; you don't need to worry about their well-being. Give them gear that looks good! Don't worry about your palico/palamute defense too much. Better to give them armor that looks cool or cute than going by armor or element resistance.

You have the option to bring two palicoes or two palamutes with you on hunts, but it's highly recommended to bring one of both while you're still learning the game. The palamute is great for getting around the map quickly and dealing damage, while the palico support and free gathered materials is fantastic.

If you're looking to deal a lot of damage and move around along the ground quickly, you can't go wrong with two palamutes to tear things up. If you've got a handle of traversing the map quickly on your own via wirebugs and subcamps and prefer utility and extra loot, two palicoes may be for you. Having one of both is a decent middle-ground. Do what works best for you!

If you play multiplayer, only one buddy will fight alongside you, so you'll have to make a choice between a palico for their combat support or a palamute for their speed.

If you don't want the assistance of buddies at all, you can put them on standby. Why would you want to do that, you ask? Some master-level players know monsters so well that they can predict their moves and position themselves accordingly. It disrupts their ability to play to their fullest if the monster targets another combatant.

That said, having buddies around has another benefit: you get buddy tickets roughly once per 15 hunts alongside your palicoes and palamutes. They're used for crafting special weapons or armor you can't get anywhere else.

Palicoes and palamutes are sometimes quite the lifesaver - if you're stunned, paralyzed, asleep, or otherwise not in control of your character, they can hit you to knock you out of the status effect. If you ping the map, your buddies are more likely to notice if you're in peril.

Buddies will not assist you in arena quests.

At the smithy, choose "Forge Palico Equipment" to make weapons and armor for your Palico. It's incredibly simple to do so, as there are no upgrading or armor skills to worry about (though there are buddy-specific skills - see below). There's only 3 options per set: a weapon, a headpiece, and a chestpiece. Each equipment only requires one to two pieces of common material to make. Given the effective invincibility of your palico, hunters often choose armor based on looks rather than stats.

Indeed, armor stats don't mean as much, because although your hunter doesn't have any inherent stats, your Palico does. It gains experience after each quest, and its attack and defense increase each time it gains a level. Your Palico gets progressively stronger as you play.

All the above details also apply to palamutes, though they also get access to different equipment to aid you in the hunt.

Aside from forging equipment at the smithy, all other management involving your buddies is done at the Buddy Plaza, across the bridge on the right side of the main intersection in Kamura.

Sooner rather than later, recruit a bunch of palicos and palamutes from Buddy Handler Iori. Then train them at the dojo, especially with a lagniapple. The higher level your buddies, the more effective they are in combat, and the more items they gather for you when dispatched as meowcenaries or on the submarine expeditions! Be sure to check back at the plaza every now and then to recruit new buddies, train them, collect rewards, and send them on new expeditions.

You can climb the back of a tree in Buddy Plaza with a Cohoot nest at the top. Every few quests, the nest will get some eggs, which you can then pick up for rare and valuable items. This is the primary source of lagniapples. There is an additional Cohoot nest at the top of the command post in Elgado, nestled within the crenelations of the castle walls. The Cohoot nests gather items separately, so you can pick up items from one, then go to the other to pick up more.

There's quite a few things to consider when recruiting new palicoes. Here is a fantastic overview of buddy skills, gear, and recommendations.

Don't forget to equip your buddy skills! At higher levels, more skills and more skill slots unlock.

While out on a hunt, your buddies will act on their own and contribute even without input. However, you can increase their effectiveness by issuing commands manually.

The "Let me ride!" command on the action bar instructs your palamute to run up to you as fast as it can so you can ride it sooner. While riding on a palamute, you can move quickly around the map and are free to take actions while also moving around, such as gathering or using items. Hopping on a palamute mid-fight can allow you to run away in an emergency, or heal/sharpen while actively evading. While you are able to tell the palamute to attack while riding it, it's not nearly as effective as fighting separately.

"Use the Felvine!" makes you throw a Felvine Bulb on the ground, which gives your palicoes random buffs while it lasts. It can heal them, increase their attack damage and frequency, increase the rate at which they use their support actions, or allow them to dodge more often. It will be more effective if you have two palicoes instead of just one.

The "Wait!" command puts your buddies on standby, in case you want them to stay behind on a hunt, or if you want to walk up to them to have some fun interactions. You can instruct them to continue to follow you afterward.

You can change how fast you mount your palamute in the options.

While dashing on your palamute, you can't turn as tightly. Stop dashing and slow down to make a sharp turn, then dash again to keep up your speed once you're at a straight stretch of land ahead.

Palamutes can climb up viny surfaces, allowing you extra vertical mobility while riding one.

There's a fantastic Sunbreak Buddy Guide here[docs.google.com] with plenty more details on how to get the perfect palico or palamute. I don't know who made it since I was given the link second-hand, but if anyone knows who did, please, I'd love to credit them for their hard work!

A hunter doesn’t hunt very well on an empty stomach! Eat some dango at the tea shop canteen before each hunt to enhance your stats and grant yourself buffs and unique effects. The system behind food buffs has been greatly simplified over previous games. Instead of juggling many different factors to get a super optimal food combo (or giving up and just ordering the premade choices), in Rise you choose the three dango pieces you want the most. The order in which you choose ingredients does not matter.

Each dango type has a skill attached to it, which is easy to understand from the skill description. You'll unlock more dango options by completing requests for Yomogi the Chef. Your already-unlocked dango can get more powerful by progressing through the story (village or hub).

Each dango type also has a percent chance of skill activation, so it's not guaranteed. If you want to increase the chances of getting a skill with a low activation rate, use a Dango ticket. You usually get those as rewards from dango-related requests, or using the Motley Mix feature of the canteen.

If you want to farm up a lot of Dango tickets easily, the conventional method is to go to Rondine and buy a bunch of Raw Meats from her with Kamura Points, then cooking them all with Motley Mix. However, if you want something more useful than Well-done Steaks, try farming Popfish and using those for the Motley Mix. That will get you Dango tickets, Catalysts, and the amazing healing item, Gourmet Fish.

Note: Unlike in previous games, using a ticket does NOT guarantee skill activation. It only adds 40% to the success rate. While this makes it 100% activation for most dango, some skills such as Dango Feet, Dango Marksman, and Dango Bombardier will still have a chance to fail.

If you find it tedious to pick and choose dango ingredients each time, mark a combo you've made as a favorite, so it will show up when you "Order the Usual". You have room for 32 "usual" combinations, which should be more than enough to cover any situation you want to save time on.

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New to Sunbreak is the option to select Hopping Skewers. This adds a small additional layer of complexity to food skills, but if used right you can greatly benefit.

While normally the order does not matter when choosing dango, Hopping Skewers alters the Level and Activation Chance of each choice separately.

The first/top dango chosen has its dango skill become more powerful, but its activation chance is reduced by 20%.

The second/middle dango chosen will become slightly more powerful, and its activation chance is reduced by 10%.

The third/bottom dango skill will be weaker, but its activation chance will increase by 10%.

You can see the heightened or lowered effects of the food skills by reading the description on the bottom right of the dango screen.
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Always eat at the tea shop! It's extremely cheap and the HP/Stamina bonuses are more than worth it.

Similarly to how hunters utilized scoutflies in Monster Hunter World, the hunters in Monster Hunter Rise befriended their own glowy insects called wirebugs. These beetles are able to fly out quickly, hold position, and pull you towards them with their special bright green silk.

Every action that uses a wirebug consumes one or two wirebug charges, which will recover somewhat quickly over time. By default, you have two wirebug charges you can use at once, though you can expand it to three by finding wirebugs out in the wild. Basic uses typically use up only a single wirebug, but more advanced moves require two.

With your weapon sheathed, you can Wiredash forward or upward into the air, giving you quick movement capabilities throughout the map. Dashing towards a wall will allow you to begin wall-running. You'll jump off automatically unless you start sprinting, allowing you to run sideways, upwards, or diagonally for as long as your stamina lasts.

While mid-air, you can hold the confirm button to throw out a wirebug above yourself, allowing you to hang in place for a while. This allows you to take a short breather and recover stamina.

The wirebug charges recover any time you're not actively using a wirebug, so with a combination of Wiredashes, mid-air dodges, and wall-running, you can get yourself some considerable air-time.

Alternatively, if climbing a tall cliff, you can wirebug into it to start running up, jump off when low on stamina, hold still mid-air with a wirebug, then jump back onto the cliff to continue upwards. The wirebug will recharge while running up, and your stamina will recharge while holding midair. Maintaining a good flow can get you higher than you'd expect.

If you get hit by a heavy attack from a monster, you may get pushed over or knocked back. If this puts you in a bad spot, you can use Wirefall to pull yourself in a new direction and get you right back on your feet faster. You can do this to retreat and recover, or get right back into the fight towards the monster. But beware - being knocked over gives you invulnerability until you stand back up. Using Wirefall at the wrong time removes that invulnerability. If you get hit again right after, you'll be in a worse spot than if you didn't Wirefall at all. Be mindful of this technique and learn when is a good time to use it.

The wirebug also enables Wyvern Riding, but that's covered in a later section of the guide.

You are able to customize your weapon moveset. Every weapon has switch skill slots, with at least two options for each. Each choice gives you a new move in your regular arsenal or a new silkbind move that utilizes the wirebug (and consequently, the wirebug gauge).
Here are the following ways to unlock switch skills. You can do them in any order.

• You get one set of switch skills from completing your first rampage (Low Rank to High Rank quest)
  
• Another set is obtained by crafting/upgrading 8 weapons from that weapon type (for example, craft different 8 hunting horns to unlock this switch skill set for the hunting horn).
  
• Yet another set is obtained by completing a specific high rank quest. These quests have the name of the weapon in the title, so they're easy to find.
  
• You'll obtain yet another set of switch skills upon reaching Master Rank 1.
  
• The last set of switch skills will be given to you upon finishing the Urgent quest partway through Master Rank 4.
  
  Here is a showcase of the available switch skills in action.

And here is a showcase of the new switch skills unlocked in Master Rank.

New to Monster Hunter Sunbreak is the ability to swap your Switch Skill moveset out in the field. Now, you have two sets of skills - Red and Blue, and both are fully customizable from the item box or the hunting tent. You will start your hunts with your Red switch skill set active, and can freely switch to your Blue set and back at any time.
It's recommended to keep your primary switch skills that you use the most on your Red set, and have more situational backup skills set on Blue, but if that's too much, you can always have both sets identical so you can Skill Swap freely without disrupting your moveset.



You also have access to the Skill Switch Evade, which is done by dodging immediately after a Switch Skill Swap. It has extra invincibility frames, so it can be used actively as a more powerful defense, or reactively in case you mis-timed your swap and are about to get hit.

Unlike Monster Hunter World, Rise has gone back to the series' tradition of having separate progression for village (solo) and gathering hub (solo/multiplayer) hunts. While you progress both separately, they don't interfere with each others' progress, either.



Village Quests are considered the start of the main story of Monster Hunter Rise. It is solo only, so no help from other players here. You accept Village Quests from Hinoa, sitting in the middle of the village (or from the quest boards posted around town, or even directly from the menu). Once you finish the village quests it's highly recommended to move on to the Gathering Hub to take on more challenging quests.




Gathering Hub Quests are considered the online portion of the game, where you are free to tackle quests solo or with other players. While these are generally more difficult than village quests, these quests scale with the number of hunters, so don't fret over difficulty too much. You accept Gathering Hub Quests from Minoto, sitting behind the desk on the left.

Talk to Senri the Mailman in the center of the village to open up a multiplayer lobby or join someone else's.

If you're playing solo in a Gathering Hub quest and need extra help, you can send a join request from the Quest menu to summon players to assist you. This only works in the hub quests, of course. Conversely, you can answer other peoples' requests for aid from the quest board. You get rewards for helping hunters lower-ranked than you! Join request players are not added to your lobby and will automatically leave when the quest finishes.


When you select quests, the ones with the Hunter's Guild crest are considered "key quests". Once enough key quests are completed, you will be given an urgent quest. Completing the urgent will increase your hunter rank and give you access to more quests and features.




New to Sunbreak, Follower Quests are optional content to embark on hunts alongside characters of Kamura and Elgado. Completing these quests will unlock new armor sets, weapon trees, and the ability to have those characters tag along with you for additional quests.


If at any time you want to go out into the field to gather materials or hunt monsters without embarking on a quest, you can do so by talking to Hinoa or Minoto and entering an expedition. While on an expedition, you have no time limits or cart limits to worry about.

Consider doing expeditions from time to time. It gives you a stress-free environment to explore, gather, practice, and perhaps find things you wouldn't have found otherwise while focusing on a quest.

At camp, you can do several things. You can go into the tent to retrieve items out of your storage, you can change your equipment, you can change your palico's equipment. If you forgot to eat, you can grab food at the mini-canteen.

Before you leave camp, be sure to visit the blue box and take the free items inside. If you're in a multiplayer quest, be courteous and only take one of each item, as the contents are shared. If you're solo and planning to use a gun or bow sometime later in your playthrough, go ahead and grab the ammo in the box, too. It'll go to waste otherwise. If nothing else, you can sell them later.

If an item from the blue box says (Supply Item) in the description, such as First-aid Meds, EZ Shock Trap, or EZ Tranq, those items will be removed from your inventory when the quest ends. Therefore, it's advisable to use those items first before you use your own supply.

While running, riding, or wire-slinging around, go ahead and be a kleptomaniac. Grab everything you can, as pretty much everything has a use. Over time you'll figure out what items are more useful than others.

Items you can gather and keep have a green icon. These will make up the majority of what you find out in the field. As you gather items you might notice you're also automatically crafting items such as potions. That's a convenience feature that you can enable or disable per item in the options menu.

Instant-use objects and endemic life have a reddish-brown icon. These are used immediately to incur an effect. The vigorwasp can be hit to restore health. The paratoad can emit a paralyzing toxin that can affect monsters and hunters alike. Keep an eye out, and there's plenty more out there to discover.

Look up! Monster Hunter Rise is the most vertically-oriented game in the series. There will be plenty of cliffs to climb which can contain endemic life, items, and vantage points.

Look down! As you travel around, you might find some long drops and sheer cliffs below. Never fear! Monster Hunter has no such thing as fall damage! You can fall hundreds of feet without a care in the world. Your kneecaps are made of armorspheres!

Gold spiribugs often hang around cliffs that are good traversal spots. Each spiribug gathered restores a bit of stamina, giving you a boost up the cliff. Try following these paths to discover new ways around the map.

Keep the Great Wirebugs in mind while going around the map; they're a great way to travel large distances quickly.

See some bushes? Take a quick swipe at them; you'll often find endemic life inside.

If you’re hunting in multiplayer, take note of what weapons the other players are using. If there is a hammer, hunting horn, or (new to Rise) a wide-shelling gunlance user, let them get priority on attacking the head, so they can KO the monster. Bladed weapons are expected to go for the tail for the double benefit of removing the threat of tail attacks and getting the tail carve. Weapons with shorter range such as Sword & Shield or Dual Blades can contribute by attacking the legs to trip the monster. Some weapon attacks disrupt other players by tripping them or knocking them away. Please be courteous and refrain from using those attacks unless you are at a safe distance from each other.



If you are fighting the monster and notice the monster is suddenly slowly falling over and the music has stopped, stop attacking! Someone in your party has caused the monster to fall asleep. The first attack against a sleeping monster will wake it up, but will also deal bonus damage. It’s common courtesy to put down explosive barrels to wake up the monster, but if you don’t have any, just let the person with the biggest single-hit attack (hint hint, it’s usually the Greatsword user) cause the rude awakening.

On the other hand, if the hunt is coming to a close, the monster may start limping away and you might find it trying to sleep at its nest to recover energy. The same sleep etiquette applies here, though you can now also capture the monster instead of killing it.

Capturing a monster has three requirements:

1. Monster is at low health.
Easy enough. Beat down the monster, but not enough until it's dead. If the monster starts limping, it's likely capturable. A blue monster head beneath their icon in the top right corner of the screen confirms that the monster is capturable. You can capture even before the blue skull is displayed, but the blue skull is a sure indicator.

2. Monster is in a shock trap or pitfall trap.
If you're feeling confident, you can place the trap mid-combat and hope the monster gets caught in it. You can otherwise wait for the monster to reach its nest and capture it there. It doesn't make a difference whether its in a shock trap or pitfall trap, but shock traps are more common since they're easier to make and deploy faster. The traps your palico puts down will work, too.

3. Monster is afflicted with tranq status.
By default, your hunter throws tranq bombs straight at the ground, so get right next to the monster and start throwing. You can also throw bombs if you use the aiming reticle. Two bombs is enough to capture a monster. If you're using a bowgun, you can also use tranq ammo.

If all three of these conditions are met at the same time, the monster will be captured. Take note, though, that the three conditions don't necessarily have to happen in that order. You can pre-tranq the monster before setting the trap, and it will still capture. If you've tranquilized the monster twice and they're in a trap, their health may not be low enough. Smack them with your weapon quickly and you may have a chance to lower their health enough to capture them before the trap runs out.

Additional notes about capturing:

• If the quest provided EZ traps or EZ tranqs in the box at camp, use those instead to preserve your own supply. If you mess up, you can still use your own.
  
• Beware of using shock traps against monsters that are empowered by Thunder energy.
  
• It's possible to have multiple monsters caught in the same trap if they're close enough together.
  
• Elder dragons are immune to traps and cannot be captured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6D8QcyeQ9s

So you went down to 0 HP and got carted. Don't worry about it; it happens to everyone. The important thing is that you learned from it. So, you're back at camp, maybe without most of your healing items. What now?

If needed, head back into the tent and restock all of your items. If you have an item loadout prepared, great! That saves a lot of time! If not, you can try the restock button, but that won't work on items you've used up entirely. You'll have to pick those up manually. Before you leave the tent, reflect a moment. Can you change tactics? Maybe change to a different weapon or armor better suited to the situation.

Then, make sure you're confident with your current max health and stamina. If not, be sure to gather more spiribirds to increase your stats before re-engaging the monster. Perhaps change your Petalace to a different one that buffs you more offensively or defensively, depending on what you need.

If you need food to recover the red-outlined part of the stamina bar, try looking in the blue supply box for EZ rations. Eat those first. If not available, try a regular Ration or Well-Done Steak. If you don't have one, you can kill any herbivore in the area, carve it, and cook one up with your BBQ Spit.

If you’re down to 1 cart left in the quest before the quest is failed, you may want to consider backing out of the quest. There’s no shame in retreat! You can always try again later. When you go into the options, you’ll find Abandon Quest, and Return from Quest. They sound quite similar, so it's important to remember the differences.

Abandon Quest means that you are reverting back to a state as if you had not gone out on the quest at all. You will lose all items you found in the quest, including items picked up and carved, but you also get back all the items you used up, including potions, pills, drugs, etc. Abandon Quest is like a reset button. This can be useful if you used up a lot of valuable consumables for a quest and have nothing to show for it.

Return from Quest means that you come back from the quest as you are now. Items you used during the quest are lost, but you get to keep anything you’ve found during the quest. This may be useful if you didn’t use a lot of consumables or you found some rare materials out in the field.

The developers worked tirelessly to make the game as detailed as possible, in ways that most players would never notice. They wanted Monster Hunter World to feel like a living, breathing ecoystem. For example, a Pukei-Pukei's poison attacks have different properties depending on what nuts and berries it had most recently snacked on in the map.

When out on a quest, keep in mind what monster you're hunting. Particular monsters prefer different locales, and stick to those locations. For example, you won't find a Basarios hiding in water. Azuros love to eat honey, so they're often searching for beehives. If you learn where the monster patrols, eats, and sleeps, you'll have a much easier time finding your target at the beginning of the hunt before the monsters on the map are identified.

Some monsters are aggressive, some are passive. If a monster sees you, its reaction can give you some insight on its temperament. It might attack you right away, seeing you as a meal. It might ignore you, considering you not a threat. Once you attack, lesser monsters might run away, while larger monsters (most quest targets) will fight back.

Pay attention to the monster's body during the fight. It has a windup or tell before each attack. If it raises up a claw, it's likely to swipe with it. If it raises its tail, it's likely about to slam it down. Over time, you'll be able to distinguish exactly what a monster's about to do. Generally, the more dangerous an attack is, the longer windup will be.

Several times during the hunt, a monster will leave the area and move to a new location. Simply follow it and continue the fight. If you get lost, their location should always be shown on the map. Sometimes, you'll be able to interrupt a monster before they leave, such as with a stagger, mount, or trap. Just be wary of fighting in tight spaces that limit your maneuverability. If you're fighting in a bad location, or there are multiple monsters fighting in an area, you can force a monster to relocate immediately by firing a dung bomb at them.

When monsters are close together in combat, a turf war might occur. In most cases, the more dominant monster will win the turf war and deal a massive amount of damage. However, in some rare cases the lesser monster may win, especially if it is enraged while the dominant monster is weakened and exhausted. Some monsters are on more equal footing and the battle may go either way. You can use turf wars to your advantage by intentionally leading monsters close together.



After taking enough damage during a hunt, a monster will become enraged. They usually announce this with a roar, then have some other indicator such as smoke or flames coming out of their body. They attack faster and deal more damage. Fight more cautiously when a monster is enraged. If an enraged monster is focusing on you, it will follow you relentlessly. This can be dangerous, but can be used to your advantage. You can lead it to another monster to initiate a turf war, or lead it to an area with environmental hazards to knock it down.

On the other hand, monsters can also become exhausted. Monsters have stamina, which depletes by using attacks and taking blunt damage. If a monster is exhausted, they move and attack slower, and special attacks may fail. This is a great opportunity to deal damage. An exhausted monster will try to eat food, or bite at a hunter, to restore stamina.

When a monster is at low enough health, they can be captured. The next time they leave the area, they will limp and move to their nest area to go to sleep. While sleeping, the next attack against the monster will deal double damage. People often place barrel bombs next to the monster to provide a burst of damage in addition to the wakeup. Otherwise, the hunter is free to use tranq bombs and a trap for an easy capture.

Be wary of elder dragons after they return to their nest. They cannot be captured as they are immune to traps. They are more dangerous when fought at their nests, be it from their expanded moveset or from the nest itself. It's recommended to kill an elder dragon before they reach their nest if possible. Monsters stop retreating if they get staggered.

There are four distinct methods to set up Wyvern Riding:

• Dealing enough "mounting damage" to a monster: this is done with either silkbind moves or regular attacks while you are mid-air. Indicated by blue flashes around your damage numbers.
  
• Using a puppet spider and have it hit the monster with its web.
  
• Two monsters attack each other in a turf war.
  
• While already riding another monster, you launch it into the other.

When any of these conditions are met, the monster will fall over, bound by ironsilk. Pressing an attack button near a monster in this state will have you jump on and start Wyvern Riding.

There are several advantages to mounting a monster:

• It acts as a soft form of crowd control: the monster is unable to harm you or your buddies while mounted.
  
• Attacking other monsters with your mount is not only easy damage, but you can also inflict blights on your target if you hit them with your mount's elemental attacks.
  
• You have the upper hand when the mount ends, as you can deal extra damage by throwing it into a wall and can topple it over (and possibly another monster while you're at it, too).
  
• It's also a good method of fast travel, as monsters move quickly and you don't have to deal with stamina.

While wirebug attacks are simple ways to add mount damage, you may consider trying aerial attacks to build mount while the wirebug gauge is recharging. Some weapons have jumping attacks built in to the moveset, such as the insect glaive and the lance. Other weapons will have to use the environment to mount the monster. Keep an eye out for slopes or cliffs to jump off of and make a leaping attack.

When you finally jump on, you control the monster's movements and facing. Hitting attack buttons combined with holding different movement directions allows you to use a variety of attacks.

At any time, you can launch the monster forward. If it runs into a wall, it takes a lot of damage and you're thrown off, though if you have extra wirebugs you can get back on it and launch it again. After being launched, it will topple over, granting a huge window for the hunting party to attack weak spots. It will deal a lot of damage to both monsters if you hit another monster while launching.

You can also dodge while controlling the monster, which consumes a wirebug. If you evade just before you're hit by another monster, you will shrug off the attack.

While mounted, the Wyvern Riding Gauge appears on screen. It looks like this:



The left diamond is an analog clock that shows how much time left you have before you're automatically thrown off the monster. Try to launch the monster or use the Mounted Punisher before then, as discussed below:

When you use monster attacks against another monster or successfully evade another monster's attacks, the orange meter on the right will build up. Once it's full, you can use a Mounted Punisher, which is a powerful attack you can only use once during the mount, as it will end the mount once it's finished. The meter constantly depletes once it is full, so if you intend to use it, be sure to unleash it before the timer ends and you're booted off the monster automatically!

Other members of your hunting party are free to attack your mounted monster. Since you have control, they are not at risk of taking damage, and they can't hurt your mounting attempt as it doesn't affect your mount meter. However, your mount takes significantly less damage while being ridden, so it may be more useful for other hunters to sharpen, reload, heal up, eat for stamina, gather nearby items, etc.

Non-quest objective monsters have much lower mounting thresholds. A good strategy is to find a non-quest-objective monster first, mount it with a few sinkbind moves, advance towards your quest target, attack your target while mounted (with heavy attacks), launch your mount into your target to knock it down, mount your quest target, then launch it into walls. It's a good start to a hunt as it yields a lot of easy damage to your target with little risk to you, and both monsters will drop several items on the ground.

Wyvern Riding a particular monster has a cooldown before you can knock it down again:

You have to wait 5 minutes before you can knock down a monster to mount it if you use a different mounting method than before (mounting damage, puppet spider, monster attack, monster launch).

You have to wait 10 minutes before you can knock down a monster with the same method.

Basically, mix and match your tactics if you want to mount the same monster as much as possible. Wyvern Riding can be a very powerful tool at your disposal. See this example of killing an elder dragon in less than 9 minutes using only Wyvern Riding.

Endemic Life are small creatures that live in the zones you will be hunting in. Using your Petalace and Hunting Helper Cage, you can gain buffs or use them as tools to help you in your hunt.

The images in this section are small, but you can find large wallpaper-sized versions in an album here[imgur.com]. If they look squished, just click on the image to see the real aspect ratio and size.

The endemic life below provide a buff that persists for the entire current hunt.

Spiribirds are small, colorful birds that, when touched, grant you a buff depending on their color.

The Red Spiribird increases attack.

The Orange Spiribird increases defense.

The Green Spiribird increases max health.

The Yellow Spiribird increases max stamina.

The Prism Spiribird increases attack, defense, health, and stamina to the maximum allowed by your petalace.

As the name implies, these creatures provide a temporary boon that either has an immediate instant effect, expires after a set amount of time, or lasts until you lose all HP.

When touched, the Butterflame emits a red cloud of dust that temporarily boosts the attack of any hunter that enters it.



When touched, the Clothfly emits an orange cloud of dust that temporarily boosts the defense of any hunter that enters it.



When touched, a group of Peepersects emits a yellow cloud of dust that temporarily boosts the max stamina of any hunter that enters it.



When touched, a cutterfly emits a cloud of pheromones that increases affinity (crit rate).




When attacked, a vigorwasp's sac bursts, emitting a healing mist that instantly heals any hunter close nearby.



When touched, a wirebug will remain with a hunter for a short time, granting an additional wirebug for the wirebug gauge. This allows more wirebug attacks and movement.



When touched, these shinier wirebugs will empower a hunter's wyvern riding. The hunter deals more mounting damage, making it easier to start a wyvern hunt, and the Wirebug Gauge recovers faster. All morphed wirebugs bestow these effects, but only one of their additional unique effects can be active at a time:

The Ruby Morphed Wirebug causes mounted finisher attacks to deal more damage.

The Golden Morphed Wirebug increases the chance of monsters dropping materials when attacked while wyvern riding.



Like spiribirds, Lampsquid come in different colors, each with a different effect.

Red Lampsquid grant bonus affinity.

Green Lampsquid emit a small healing burst.

Yellow Lampsquid increases defense.

Golden Lampsquid provide the effects of all the other lampsquid: it heals you while also increasing your affinity and defense.

Hunting Helpers are held in your Hunting Helper cage, allowing you to save them and use them as if they were items later. You can only hold five helpers in your cage at a time. All Hunting Helpers are released at the end of a hunt.

When used, a hunter throws trapbugs at their feet. They act as caltrops, slowing down the movements of any monster that steps on them. A retreating monster will stop in its tracks if it comes into contact, so it's particularly effective to place them at a monster's escape route.

Found in star-shaped patterns on walls. Starburst Bugs will stationary until physically hit by a monster, upon which the dust covering their shells explode. Their dust can absorb elemental blights; if you throw an elemental toad or have a monster hit them with an elemental attack, the Starburst bugs will change color and inflict that element's blight on a monster that hits them.

When thrown, a Thorny Toad will stay in place until attacked. It will then release a severe gastric acid into the air, causing any monster hit to recoil.



When used, the antidobra temporarily increases resistance to ailments and instantly cures all status ailments currently affecting the hunter. Don't let the name fool you; it cures everything, not just poison!


When used, a Brewhare will buff the effects of some of the items a hunter can use. For example, it boosts the healing of a potions.



When used, an Escuregot emits a healing mist in a large area and lasts for a while.





Firebeetles will inflict Fireblight on any monster it hits.

Mudbeetles will inflict Waterblight on any monster it hits.

Thunderbeetles will inflict Thunderblight on any monster it hits.

Snowbeetles will inflict Iceblight on any monster it hits.



When thrown, a puppet spider will throw ironsilk wherever it lands. If it hits a monster, it will take massive mounting damage.



When thrown, a marionette spider will use its silk to attach to a monster. You'll know if it was successful if you see a string between you and the monster. Hitting the "use" button again pulls the monster towards the hunter. Useful for making monsters hit walls for extra damage, particularly if that wall has additional effects such as starburst bugs or lava geysers.

When used, a wailnard will shriek, attracting large monsters to the location it was placed. Affected monsters will have an increased chance of starting a turf war when they arrive. You can tell it's working by a pink pawprint underneath their icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

When used, a stinkmink coats the hunter in a pheromone that attracts monsters. The monsters will continue to follow the hunter wherever they go, until the effect ends. A monster lured this way has an increased chance of starting a turf war. You can tell a stinkmink is working when you see a white mist around a monster's head.

A lanternbug attaches to the user and explodes if struck, deflecting some of the attack and reduces damage to the user.



When placed, a gustcrab shoots out a powerful gust, blowing the user high up into the air.



When used, the next time the hunter takes a fatal blow, the Aurortle will absorb the damage instead. It has the same effect as the dango skill Felyne Moxie, and they even stack!

If attacked, a rock lizard sheds crafting materials. Hit it with a kunai to drop more.




If attacked, a Boulder Lizard sheds rare crafting materials. Hit it with a kunai to drop more.



If attacked, a scale lizard drops monster materials. Hit it with a kunai to drop more.





If large monsters are in the right area of effect, Ensnaring Life will affect them.

If attacked, a flashfly will emit a bright flash, mimicking the same effect as a flash bomb. If a monster is facing this light, it will flinch.



If meat is left nearby, Giganha will go into a frenzy, damaging monsters that get too close.



Spearsquid heads are so sharp that they deal damage to anything caught in its swimming path. Lure a monster in front of a spearsquid to inflict heavy injury for relatively little effort.



If disturbed, a poisontoad will emit a poison mist that inflicts high amounts of poison status.

If disturbed, a paratoad emits a paralytic gas.

If disturbed, a sleeptoad emits an effective sleeping gas.

If disturbed, a blastoad explodes, dealing high damage that is likely to trip a monster.

If disturbed, a tricktoad flares up and attracts the attention of nearby large monsters.


Echobats release explosive powder into the air. They often "attach" themselves to large monsters and explode if hit.




Found hanging on cliffs and walls. Pincercrabs will shoot out small rocks that stagger nearby monsters.



Much like Pincercrabs, Slicercrabs attach to cliffs and walls and will fire crystalline shards at any large monsters that are found nearby.




These creatures, if found, increase quest rewards.

When interacted with, completing the current quest will reward additional zenny.




When interacted with, completing the current quest will grant additional quest reward items.




These endemic life are exceptionally rare.

This Fox is rarely found atop a shrine at night in Shrine Ruins. If you try to high-five it, it will high-five you back.



This giant beast will rarely be seen off the eastern coast of the Frost Islands at night. It may roar if it sees you emote at it.



This wingdrake is rarely found deep in the ruins of the Sandy Plains during the daytime. If attacked, it sheds some minerals.



At dusk, this small divine snake may rarely emerge from its nest inside a hidden chamber of the giant pyramid in the Flooded Forest. It can dance in response to you.



This phoenix-like being can be rarely seen flying around in the deepest part of the Lava Caverns volcano at dawn.





These bugs are often found in rows along cliffs to help point out ways to traverse the map. Touching one recovers a small amount of stamina, to help you climb just a bit further. They're often a subquest target.


A larger variant of the golden spiribug that will recover a larger amount of stamina.




Given to you by Senior Hunter Hanenaga in Kamura by the bridge to the Buddy Plaza, and Fran the Stalwart by the giant stack of pretzels in Elgado. If you find a Jewel Lily out on a hunt, you can place one in it, where it will stay indefinitely. When interacted with, it carries hunters over great distances along a set path.


Sometimes I wonder why I bother putting in the effort when I later find someone else did it so much better: Here's the illustrious Azilorn's reference sheet for endemic life[i.imgur.com]!
And here's Azilorn's guide to the Rare Creatures[i.imgur.com].

Immediately as you load in after a hunt, you'll get updates on things that may need your attention on the right side of your screen. It will tell you things such as when you have enough items to craft something in your wishlist, when your farm is full, when the Meowcenaries have returned, and so on. Take note and adjust your route as necessary.

In many ways, your post-hunt routine is just your pre-hunt preparation for the next quest or expedition. This checklist can help you remember if you're missing anything between hunts, but most of the list can be skipped if you're in a rush. If you are unfamiliar with something in the list, continue on and it will unlock later on in the story.

• Check the Fast Travel option; you'll get icons at each location that asks for your attention. This can involve story, delivery requests/rewards, or new features you've unlocked.
  
• Check the Argosy (the farm) and retrieve the items your buddies have obtained. Change out items, buddies, or refresh their skills if needed.
  
• While at Rondine, check her other wares since her inventory changes after each quest.
  
• Monitor Meowcenaries progress; take any rewards and dispatch them again if the previous expeditions are complete.
  
• Check the Cohoot Nest atop the tree next to the Meowcenaries for extra items (especially Lagniapples). Meowcenaries and the Nest both take five quests to fully complete, so an easy rule of thumb is: if you're refreshing Meowcenaries => check Cohoot Nest.
  
• Check with Buddy Handler Iori and hire any new buddies that you may want.
  
• Train your buddies to raise their levels.
  
• A lot of the above (though not all) can be done through your housekeeper; speak with them to handle those activities if you wish.
  
• Speak to the Kagero the Merchant, especially during sales. You can refresh hunting supplies or meld new talismans.
  
• Go to the armory, create new weapons/armor/decorations, or upgrade existing equipment.
  
• Speak to anyone with something above their head indicating they have something to say. This is sometimes tied to main story progression, and sometimes involves optional quests that give you benefits upon completion.
  
• Talk to Hinoa or Minoto and check subquests; choose some you'll finish in a quest or two.
  
• Use the quest board menu option or talk to Hinoa/Minoto and choose a quest.
  
• You can also access the quest board through your action bar. This is especially useful for accepting quests while online, so you don't have to find a quest board while wandering around.
  
• While the quest is loading, go to the item box and change items and equipment appropriate to the quest you've just chosen. Use item sets and equipment sets to expedite the process.
  
• Go to the tea shop/canteen and choose a meal appropriate for the quest.
  
• Ready up and embark on the quest. If you haven't eaten, you can go inside the tent at any campsite to eat (though you can't choose the daily special).

• At the start of the game, you will be hit with a lot of tutorials. Don't worry! You can dip your toes into the game not understanding everything, then you can always reference hunter notes (or guides like this) later once you have a better grasp on things.
  
• Never, ever forget subquests. Always be working on subquests throughout the game, as the armor sphere rewards are important. Choose ones that you think you'll complete within the next few quests; don't sit on a bounty with a high reward if you won't complete it for a while. You're making the game much harder on yourself if you don't keep a steady supply of armor spheres and keep your armor upgraded to a reasonable level. You don't need everything maxxed out to succeed, but any level of defense boost is better than nothing.
  
• Hire a good amount of buddies early; you want to train at least 7 and have them high level, to cover the submarine farm and meowcenary dispatch as you unlock them.
  
• Don't hire too many early on, though, as buddies will get a higher starting level the further you progress. They start around level 1-4 at the beginning of the game. Once you reach High Rank in the Gathering Hub, they'll be able to hire them around level 20. When you unlock your Hunting Rank (at 8), they'll start out at level 30.
  
• Some monster attacks are so dangerous, you need to DUCK AND COVER. That’s where the Superman Dive comes in! If you’re near a monster and have your weapon sheathed, start running directly away from the monster and hit the dodge button. You will leap into the air and flop ungracefully onto the floor. You are 100% invincible for the duration of this animation, which is immensely useful for the most dangerous attacks that large monsters will throw your way. Just remember these in order to pull it off:
  
  • Your weapon must be sheathed.
    
  • You must have enough stamina to dodge.
    
  • You have to be running, facing away from the monster. This has a different animation than regular running.
• If you get hit hard enough to fall over prone to the ground, you are invulnerable until you get back up. It's sometimes a good idea to not press anything and wait for the monster to finish attacking before pressing any buttons to get back up. This is not a perfect solution, though: after a few seconds you'll automatically stand up, so if the timing is poor you'll just get back up right into another attack.
  
• Don't be afraid to quickly jump away to higher ground to get a breather, heal up, and reload/sharpen if things get too crazy to handle.
  
• If you're at low health and close to camp, feel free to run back and get into the tent. It will fully restore your health, cure all status effects, sharpen your weapon, etc.
  
• Listen to Hinoa or Minoto as they talk to you. They may remind you to eat if you've forgotten to do so, or they may ask you to look into a special quest if you haven't taken it yet.
  
• You can eat dango at camp during hunts if you forgot to eat, but the Kamura Daily Special won't be available.
  
• Listen to your own hunter. They may shout lines like "It's up to something!" to warn you when a monster is winding up a powerful attack.
  
• When fighting a monster and it runs away to another part of the map, don't just run after it; prepare. Heal up, sharpen, reload. Sometimes it will be faster to check the map and fast travel to a camp closer to the monster than to go by foot. If you're feeling cheeky, go to a nearby unrelated monster to mount it and bring it to the next part of the fight.
  
• If you are struggling against a specific quest solo, try doing it multiplayer. Don't forget about the Join Request function; that's what it's there for. If you're struggling to do a quest in multiplayer, try doing it solo. Trust me on this, a lot of difficult monsters can be easier to handle alone. Even though their attention is on you more often, they have smaller health pools and deal less damage, meaning less chance of deadly combos or one-shot kills.
  
• Don't forget about endemic life while going through hunts. You'll survive a lot more if you take a short time picking up spiribirds to increase your stats, and Hunting Helpers can turn the tide of battle in a pinch.
  
• Spiribirds are most likely to be found in higher elevations, so take the high route when seeking them out.
  
• You don't have to sheathe to sharpen your weapon. While your weapon is out, simply use your whetstone or whetfish and your character will begin sharpening as normal. These are the only items that you don't need a sword & shield to use while unsheathed.
  
• Avoid fighting in small, tight areas like corridors between zones. Try to keep the fight in large open areas to give you and your hunting party more room to maneuver around the monster. You don’t want to be holed up in a hallway of death should another angry monster or two come by.
  
• Pitfall Traps and Shock Traps hold a monster longer if they're exhausted. If enraged, monsters break out of traps faster.
  
• Bring some flash bombs against monsters that like to fly out of reach. If you can get a flash in front of their eyes while they fly, it can cause them to fall to the ground, helpless.
  
• Fighting a monster over and over to get its materials? Mount another monster and use strong attacks on it; the extra monster drops on the ground might be what you need. It can also help to bring a Gathering palico or two.
  
• If you're planning to use a bowgun at some point, pick up the free ammo in the blue supply box at the beginning of each hunt and deposit it in your item box in Kamura for future use. Just be careful if you're in a multiplayer hunt; you wouldn't want to steal the ammo from an actual gunner. That would be rude!
  
• If the supply box at camp gives you extra materials you usually don't get, those are hints to exploiting the quest monster's weaknesses or easy uses to environmental hazards. For example, if the box has poison kunai, the monster is weak to poison. If there's EZ Raw Meat in the box, you'll likely be fighting the monster in the water, and you can use the EZ Raw Meat to attract giganhas to attack the monster without having to bring your own.

• The blue glowing shrine in the buddy plaza remains sealed until you first defeat Magnamalo in the village questline.
  
• At some point in the game, the Power Charm and Armor Charm will be available for purchase from the merchants. Simply keep them in your inventory and they will provide a bonus to your attack and defense stats respectively. Later on in the game, you'll fight a special monster that drops their talons. By using item combination, you can combine the Charms with that monsters’ drops to create the Power Talon and Armor Talon, which have a stronger effect. These effects stack with the Charms, so go ahead and buy another set from the merchants. From then on, always keep the Power Charm, Power Talon, Armor Charm, and Armor Talon in your inventory, as they are permanent stat buffs.
  
• If you’re playing multiplayer and another player is stunned, asleep, or paralyzed, you can hit them to break them out of their status ailment early. This can save their life if the monster would have hit them otherwise. However, if the other player has the flinch-free skill equipped, you may not be able to help them, as your attacks will be ignored. A guaranteed way to help another player with flinch-free is to throw a mini barrel bomb at them.
  
• This game has auto-crafting: you can set options to automatically craft items when you pick up the raw materials out in the field. The game has most useful auto-crafting on by default, so from the beginning you’ll automatically craft potions out of herbs, for example. Keep this in mind if you realize you picked up an item but can’t find it in your inventory: you probably automatically crafted it into something else. Autocrafting has few downsides, as base ingredients rarely have other uses. If you find yourself needing an item that you’re automatically crafting away, you can always turn off that particular auto-craft in the options menu.
  
• Take a thorough look through the options; there's plenty of stuff to customize, like having an outline of yourself while you're behind a monster for visibility, or choosing how fast you mount your palamute.
  
• Disable auto-sheathe in the options. Despite the name, you'll still sheathe automatically when attempting to run or use items. It just turns off sheathing when standing still for a few seconds.
  
• Customize radial menus. You can use items much faster if you become accustomed to the radial menu.
  
• Set up item sets[clips.twitch.tv] to reduce down time between hunts. Save item sets after radial menu customization, as radial menu setups are tied to item sets.
  
• The same applies to equipment sets. If you have different armor or weapon setups, using loadouts will save a bunch of time.
  
• Try not to sell talismans. It's recommended to hold onto them until you can recycle them into a possibly better talisman with Rebirth melding.
  
• Need more zenny? Don't forget to sell those trade-in items! Go to your item box and select Sell Item. Hit the button to auto-sort your items (it's a good idea to do that every now and then anyway). Go to the final page or two of your items; before all the scraps should be trade-in items. Their item descriptions will say that they sell for a high price. These have no other use except for selling for money. You might want to sell a few extra monster parts you probably don't need, either. Have 25+ Rathalos Shells? You'll never use that many; sell a few!
  
• Still strapped for cash? It's time to go mining! Keep an eye on expeditions with "Locale Info: Upsurge: Mining Outcrops". Go around on a palamute mining every node you can, gathering 9 ore with each hit rather than 1 or 2. If you have a maxxed out Geology skill (easy with low level armor or decorations), you'll get 12! Just note that you only get 10 minutes before the upsurge expires. GaijinHunter has a great example of a route here. If you're handy with the wirebug for traversal, you can take this more lucrative route. If you want variety, here are some more routes for each map. Here's a route available in Master Rank.
  
• If you're on the hunt for Kamura points instead, here is a map to gather account item nodes using a similar method to the zenny farm.
  
• To speed things up a little more, you can skip the end-of-hunt cutscene by being mid-air when it ends. The easiest way to pull this off is to hold onto a wirebug when there's less than 10 seconds left.
  
• Not terribly useful, but you can attract a Rathian or Rathalos to your position if you pick up an egg from their nest.
  
• If you're carrying a heavy item for a quest, you're still able to use your wirebug to move around faster. Long gone are the days of dropping the egg accidentally while trying to move.
  
• Need an egg from a Gargwa? Sneak up from behind before attacking it, and it'll lay an egg in surprise. You can use a kunai from a distance if you're having trouble.
  
• Small insects such as Bnahbra and Altaroth have a high chance to disintegrate if killed, making it so you can't carve them. They'll have a higher chance of leaving behind a carveable body if you kill them with throwing kunai, and a 100% chance of leaving behind a body if you kill them with poison. Altaroths will leave behind extra items if you wait until they gather from a nearby area, in which case they'll have a bright-colored sac.
  
• Kunai deal cutting damage, so they are able to cut off monster tails. Take a few potshots while running up to a monster or when it's unsafe to approach during a dangerous attack. You might just make the cut.
  
• While in the volcano area, you can make good use of the geysers embedded in the walls. Place a bomb next to one, then detonate it while a monster is nearby to deal heavy damage, knock it over, and inflict fireblight or waterblight to it.
  
  
• Perhaps an easier method of the above is to simply launch a monster into the explosive wall while riding it. The effect is the same!
  
• Rock Lizards, Boulder Lizards, and Scale Lizards only provide one piece of loot when kicked or directly attacked. You can get up to three items if you throw kunai at them instead.
  
• If a Diablos charges at you and hits a wall or pillar, it can get its horns stuck, giving you an opening.

• Remember the Felvine option in the Action Bar during hunts! It will tell your palico to use felvine and make them much more active. They will use their skills faster and they will attack more ferociously for a while. It's completely free, and recharges at a decent rate.
  
• Don't forget you can use items while riding on your Palamute. You can sharpen or heal up while chasing a monster as it runs. You can also ride mid-fight to heal up while still being able to dodge attacks.
  
• Your palico can tell you when a monster is ready for capture, even before the blue skull icon appears.
  
• Multiple monsters can be hit by the same trap if they're close enough together. This can give you a good opportunity to lock them in place to attack both at once, or even capture them at the same time.
  
• You can throw small bombs and baits by using them while aiming as if you were going to use the wirebug.
  
• If you use barrel bombs while in the air, you will throw them straight down and they will detonate immediately on impact. It's a neat trick to style on a monster during a fight, or give you extra airtime while traversing the map.
  
• You can place a barrel bomb in front of a burrowing Basarios to not only damage and stop its attack, it will get struggle in place as if it got stuck in a pitfall trap.
  
• You can get more distance mid-air by rolling between each wirebug jump.
  
• You don't have to spam the button to carve a monster; holding it down will allow you to continuously carve.
  
• Your whetstone is infinite use, so feel free to sharpen whenever you like, as many times as you like!
  
• You may find some small, closed-off areas while exploring that, if you approach, the game will tell you that you have discovered a good spot for a subcamp. Once you go back to town, Kagero the Merchant will offer you a request that, when completed, will add a tent to that area and allow you to fast travel there during hunts. Here[i.imgur.com] is Azilorn's guide to all sub camp locations and unlock criteria. Here are the camp locations for the new maps in Sunbreak, courtesy of Team Darkside.
  
• In addition to camps, each large map has two Buddy Recon spots. Upon discovering one, you can report back to the Meowcenaries to set it up as a fast travel location. However, there are restrictions on this method:
  
  1. Only one recon spot can be active per map at a time.
     
  2. You can only fast travel there once per hunt.
     
  3. It costs 100 kamura points each time you travel via Buddy Recon.
• You'll get Kamura tickets at regular intervals by completing villager requests and rampages. They are used to craft unique weapons and armor.
  
• Items out in the field respawn every 4 minutes.
  
• Watch out for aggressive felynes out in the field. They're called Melynx, and if they successfully hit you, they will steal an item and try to run away. You get it back if you attack them, but if they successfully flee, you have a second chance by going to the Melynx's home on the map and picking it back up at the location marked "Melynx's Gatherings".
  
• These quests unlock particularly important features and can be missable if you're only focusing on the story, so keep an eye out for:
  
  • Only the Good Eggs - Unlocks Dango Insurance
    
  • Cultural Exchange - Unlocks second Argosy (farm) slot
    
  • Economic Stimulation - Unlocks third Argosy (farm) slot
• One of the best healing items in the game is hidden. Fish up a popfish anywhere, start farming them with Rondine's submarines, then go to the canteen and use the Motley Mix to cook them into Gourmet Fish. It takes a moment to eat, but it heals all red health, then heals you over time for a full 90 seconds afterwards. You also get a lot of dango tickets and catalysts for this!
  
• If you see requests that reward weapon designs, those are unlocks for new weapons to craft at the smithy.
  
• Tired of hearing the same music while wandering around? Talk to your housekeeper; they have an option to change the background music that plays around different parts of town.
  
• If you progress through most of the village quests, you are able to take on Special License Test quests which will grant you the ability to skip low rank online progression.
  
• You can view all cutscenes you've already seen by talking to your housekeeper.

Standing by the water in the Gathering Hub is Master Utsushi. Speak to him to accept Arena quests. These are challenge quests that play by different rules than a standard hunt. Each arena quest has you pitted against a specific monster or group of monsters, with a specific selection of armor, weapons, and items. You cannot bring your own. It's a test of a hunter's understanding of weapons and item utilization. For one-trick hunters, it forces them out of their comfort zone.

• Most arena quests take place in the arena, a specific small area built for these quests.
  
• The maximum amount of players that can take on a quest is 2.
  
• Players cannot join an arena quest in progress.
  
• Your palicoes and palamutes do not join you for arena quests.
  
• All arena quests are timed, and with rank designations for certain time thresholds. You get more rewards for faster completion.

At first, you only have access to a few arena quests. You'll unlock more as you progress through the main storyline. Many hunters ignore the arena, but there are weapons and armor that unlock exclusively through arena rewards. Bow users especially should look at arena rewards. It's a good idea to complete each arena quest at least once to see what it has to offer.

Note: A few arena quests actually take place in the regular maps, and unlocked subcamps carry over. Since arena awards are tied to completion time, it is highly recommended to unlock the subcamp for the map.

Rampages are a special type of quest where you are tasked with defending Kamura Village from attacking waves of monsters. You are able to defend with the aid of turrets, villagers, siege weapons, and power-ups not unlike a Tower Defense game.

• Every Rampage occurs on the Stronghold map made specifically for this quest type.
  
• There are three major sections of the map. One is the Stronghold Base where you start the quest, and has all the amenities of a base camp including a tent and supply box. The other two are a series of sequential areas to defend. If a horde of monsters break through the first area, you will be forced to fall back to defend the second area.
  
• Smaller rampages may only use the first area, but most larger rampages will make use of two.
  
• There are multiple different map configurations. You'll always have one zone with Dragonators and the other zone will have the Splitting Wyvernshot, but the layout and order they come in will be random for each rampage.
  
• In these quests, the failure condition isn't carting three times, it's having the final gate being broken. NPCs will warn you if it is under attack.
  
• Since there is no limit, don't feel bad if you cart. The only major penalty for losing all HP is the run back. If you do cart 3 times, you'll get slightly less quest rewards, but it's nothing major.
  
• The quest immediately ends in success if the "Major Threat" monster of the final wave is defeated.

• The first horde of monsters attack at the 2-minute mark after the quest begins. Use that time wisely.
  
• A rainbow spiribird will be at camp when you enter the quest. Grab it and your petalace stats will be maxxed out.
  
• Make any last-minute changes at camp if needed, such as changing weapons or eating dango.
  
• When ready, head out to the first area's line of defense, the tunnel to your left.
  
• You will find square outlines spread throughout the area. These are Installation Platforms, where you can use resources to build defenses.

The first category on the top left, highlighted in yellow, are Mountable installations. These require a hunter's input in order to function.

• Ballistae - Fires quick shots that move in a straight line. Ballista Shots are the standard ammo that deal a normal amount of damage. Crag Shots stick to a monster and explode. They deal stun damage if it hits a monster's head. Retreat Shots can cause monsters to flinch and possibly fall back a short distance.
  
• Cannons - Fires explosives in an arc. All cannonfire deals AoE (area of effect) damage on impact. Cannon Shot is the standard ammo. Charged Piercing Shot can penetrate through multiple monsters. Holding the button to charge deals more damage. Charged Thunder Shot inflicts Thunderblight on targets, and can also be charged to increase damage.
  
• Machine Cannons - A Gatling gun that fires quickly. Quick Rapid Shots reload faster as long as you successfully hit monsters. Quick Cluster shots are short range, but deal great damage. Silkbind shots pull the target closer towards the machine cannon.

The second category, highlighted in red, are Auto installations that are operated by NPCs and don't require your input after installed.

• Defender Ballistae - Similar to the Mountable Ballistae, except they only fire the standard ammo and will un-deploy if out of ammo or destroyed. If your Stronghold Level is high enough (more details below in Rampage - Part 2), they upgrade to Wyvernblast Ammo, which sicks to monsters and explode for extra damage if hit by any other attacks.
  
• Defender Cannons - Also similar to the Mountable version. They only fire regular cannonballs, unless your Stronghold Level is high enough that they upgrade to Thunder Ammo, which inflicts Thunderblight on their targets.
  
• Wyvernfire Artillery - Unlike other Auto Installations, this one can be mounted in order to "configure" its aim and ammo type. Think of it like a tripwire that you set and it will activate when monsters cross its path. Incendiary Rounds will fire an explosive shot. Column of Flame will shoot out jets of fire that pierce through monsters. Once aim and ammo are configured, it will operate automatically.
  
• Bamboo Bombs - A bomb that detonates automatically when a monster gets nearby. These can only be placed on the ground level.

The third category, highlighted in purple, are unique or special installations that have limited uses during each rampage.

• Dragonbait - Attracts monsters to the space around it, which is effective when paired with Area of Effect installations or dragonators.
  
• Dragonbait Warriors - Similar to Dragonbait, except more powerful. Put them next to dragonators or AoE installations.
  
• Warriors of Kamura - Summons an NPC such as Fugen the Elder or Hinoa & Minoto to the fight. Each villager has a unique effect, varying from attacking monsters or increasing the effectiveness of nearby installations. You only get to use them once per rampage, so proper timing and placement is key.

These installations are in preset locations throughout the Stronghold map. They have powerful effects, but have a long cooldown before they can be used again.

• Dragonator - The famous dragonator is a massive lance that shoots out, dealing incredible damage to any monster unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end. Hit the use key/button once to mount the switch, then hit it again to activate. Be sure to time it right in order to hit your target! If you mount the switch and the opportunity doesn't present itself, you can dodge out of the switch.
  
• Splitting Wyvernshots - Effectively, heavy artillery that fires massive shells that explode on impact. Just like the Dragonator, hit the use key/button to mount, aim, then hit it again to fire. Dodge to leave the installation without firing.
  
• Counter Gong - When hit, they initiate a Counter Signal that substantially increases all hunter attack damage with their regular weapons. The higher the Stronghold Level, the higher the attack bonus. Jump in there and wreak havoc!
  
• Power Kiln - A furnace that a hunter can add fuel to. Each bit of fuel added to a Power Kiln reduces the cooldown of all Heavy Installations, allowing you to use Dragonators, Splitting Wyvernshots, and Counter Gongs sooner. It's a great option during the downtime between waves. You are able to leave the Power Kiln at any time.

Monsters will attack in waves, called hordes. Each horde has a few lesser monsters led by a Major Threat monster. The number of hordes varies from 1 to 3, depending on the quest. Between each horde attack, you'll get a short break to reposition, build more defenses, change your gear, etc. You are able to start each wave early if you are ready.

Each monster is given a specific role during a rampage, which determines their behavior.

• The blue icon, indicating the Gate Crasher monster type, focus mostly on destroying the gates. They will usually ignore hunters, but can still fight back if threatened. These should be high priority, especially when they're already at a gate, since gate health is directly tied to success or failure of the quest.
  
• The red icon of the Stalker type indicate monsters that focus on attacking hunters directly. These will get in your face and make things troublesome, and will also damage any installation you are manning.
  
• The green Targeter monster type also focuses on attacking hunters, though instead of fighting face-to-face, they prefer to use ranged attacks. They can rack up a lot of damage if you're not paying attention. Most flying wyverns will be given Targeter roles.
• The pink icon is for quest target monsters. This is usually reserved for the final boss monster for the quest, but it can also mark an invading Magnamalo that sticks around for a single wave.

In addition to the above, some monsters will have an extra modifier that increase their strength, and make them a priority target.

• Ruffians are larger and have more health than a regular monster of their type, but will give more Stronghold experience accordingly when defeated.
  
• Apex Monsters are strong enough to not only destroy installations, but also the terrain they're situated on, eliminating the installation permanently for the rest of the rampage. They cannot be trapped or wyvern ridden.

Located above the minimap is the Stronghold Level. As you defeat monsters in the rampage, you will gain "experience" that will eventually level up your Stronghold. Higher levels unlock more hunting installations or make existing ones more powerful.

In addition to repelling monsters, on the left side of the screen will be a list of sub-assignments that will also boost Stronghold Level if completed. These are randomized between rampages. You can find more details in the Tips & Tricks section below.

The higher a Stronghold Level you have at the end of a rampage quest, the more rewards you receive, so it's a good idea to complete as many sub-assignments as you reasonably can. Rampages are the main way to receive Defender Tickets, which are important for crafting weapons, armor, slotting in Ramp-Up skills, and are a high-value item if used for melding talismans.

Stronghold Level does not carry over between quests; it resets to zero between rampages.

Reading about it is one thing, but the best way to learn about the complexities of rampages is to see it in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpgWAdMHQIE

• Ballistae function best around the middle or back of each map, as you need line of sight to each monster's head if you want to reliably stun them with Crag Shot. If they're placed too far forward, you'll quickly find yourself facing each monster's backside.
  
• Cannons tend to be best near the front, given their short range and area damage potential. Each wave will have monsters jump in around the same time, allowing you easy hits on multiple monsters at once before they start spreading out.
  
• Machine Cannons are best around the middle, allowing them to fire practically everywhere on the map, but most importantly, using Silkbind Shot to pull monsters away from blockades and gates.

Don't forget that you can guard while on an installation! Better to stop firing a moment and stay standing than getting pushed off, taking damage for both yourself and the installation.

• Bamboo Bombs are, of course, best on the ground in the path of the monsters. When you pick up monster shinies and obtain elemental barrel bombs, place them near a Bamboo Bomb so that they'll detonate together. However, don't put a Bamboo Bomb at the final installation platform before the gate; it's better to use a Kamura Warrior there. You can't place a Kamura Warrior while a Bamboo Bomb is charging.
  
• Defender Ballistae are versatile and can go just about anywhere you don't plan to put a Manual Installation.
  
• Defender Cannons are similar to the Defender Ballistae, but have obnoxiously low range. Best to put these guys on the ground where you don't already have a Bamboo Bomb.
  
• Wyvernfire Artillery are often placed on the two platforms adjacent to the final gate, aimed so that they'll automatically fire at any monster attacking it. Use Column of Flame if you're in the first area, where it'll often be attacked by multiple monsters. Incendiary Round is better vs. a single target, so use that in the second area where it's usually only the final boss monster that approaches the gate. You can also place them facing high-traffic areas, using Column of Flame to pierce through multiple monsters at once.

• Dragonbait and Dragonbait Warriors are best placed in front of Dragonators, making it easier to hit multiple monsters at once. If you don't have a Dragonator on the current map, it's still useful to group monsters together for a Splitting Wyvernshot. Even they're on cooldown, having one is better than nothing when you've expended every other Limited Installation.
  
• Warriors of Kamura are more complex than at first glance, to the point where each one has an ideal circumstance of when to use them. Nearly all of them are best placed on the ground near a bunch of a group of monsters, except Yomogi:
  
  • Hinoa & Minoto are only available during the same wave you unlock them, and you lose the ability to place them if not used. So place them as soon as you can! They deal a massive amount of damage in the area around them.
    
  • Iori & Buddies are similarly only available during the current wave they're unlocked. Use them right away! They will inflict a lot of blights on every monster around them.
    
  • Elder Fugen is usually available during the first and third waves. He deals a massive amount of damage in a wide area. I'm not kidding, I've seen him hit monsters from this far away for full damage:
    
    Even if you use him during the first wave, he'll become available a second time during the third wave, so feel free to use him right away.
    
  • Master Utsushi has a special property where each regular monster he hits will become mountable. He's best used during the final wave, where you can simultaneously take out a wave of monsters, then use them against the final quest target. He has a similarly massive range like Elder Fugen.
    
  • Yomogi the Chef uses a Machine Cannon, which means she has a larger effective range than others. While on the map, she strengthens all other Installations. Unlike other Warriors of Kamura, Yomogi sticks around until she runs out of ammo instead of leaving after a set amount of time. That means if you place her in a corner far away from monsters, her installation buff can remain for the rest of the rampage. It's up to you whether to use her for her Machine Cannon damage or her installation buff.

Naturally, if you're playing multiplayer, other players may have other ideas on what should go where. Don't bother fighting it; just roll with whatever you've got. Rampages aren't particularly difficult.

While you can't place these, it's good to know where these installations are and when to use them:

• If a Dragonator is on a map, there's usually two of them available. When used, they'll fire out massive barbed lances that will deal several hits of damage to every monster in its way. Best used against at least two monsters, but don't feel shy of using it against just one if you're struggling. The two dragonators have separate cooldowns, so you can use one and still fire the other right afterward.
  
• The Splitting Wyvernshot is a massive artillery. When you mount it, you're able to aim almost anywhere on the current map before you fire. It deals immense damage to every monster in its vicinity, and effectively one-shots any monster that's not the final quest target.
  
• While the Dragonator and Splitting Wyvernshot will recharge on their own, it's quite slow. You can shovel coal into a Power Kiln to reduce the cooldown of everything on the map. This includes both Dragonators, the Splitting Wyvernshot, and refreshing any Installation that's recharging. If you have free time between waves, use a Power Kiln so everything's ready at the start of the next wave. Splitting Wyvernshot is so powerful that spamming it via the Power Kiln is a decent strategy.
  
• The Counter Signal is a gong that, when hit, gives you 60 seconds of a massive damage increase to your main weapons. The buff is so strong that it's often better to jump in and fight monsters directly instead of using the Manual Installations. The Counter Signal will be rung automatically a few times throughout the rampage, but you can hit one manually to start it yourself. However, this has two caveats:
  
  • You can't hit the Counter Signal while an automatic one is already active.
    
  • Once used, you can't use that map's Counter Signal again. It does not recharge.

You might notice that you don't have access to some installations until later in the rampage. This is because of your Stronghold Level, which determines what installations are available as well as how strong they are. You'll level up the Stronghold Level slowly over time, but the fastest way to level it up is to complete the randomized Sub-Assignments on the left side of the screen. There's a variety objectives it can give you. Some are easy, some are hard; just do your best to complete them if you can.

Most are straightforward, like "Repel using Ballista" or "Pick up Monster Drops". As long as you put in a modest amount of effort, those will be completed with ease. Others may take a little finesse:
Set Up Hunting Installations - an easy freebie. While you'd naturally complete this throughout the quest, you can finish it right away by repeatedly dismissing and setting up an installation. You can even finish this before the first wave, and get access to cannons before a single monster shows up.
Inflict Elemental Blights - Use the cannon's Thunder Shot, fully-charged if possible. If you get any elemental barrel bombs from monster drops, place them next to a Bamboo Bomb or right in front of the entrance where you'll be able to detonate them on a group and (with luck) inflict the blight. You can also set Wyvernfire Artillery's Column of Flame in a high-traffic area and it may inflict fireblight.
Inflict Status Ailments - More difficult. The easiest way is to bring your own status weapons and use them during the Counter Signal. You can also mount a monster that inflicts status effects, but this is hardly reliable.
Stun a Monster - Use the ballista's Crag Shot on a monster's head to stun it. Most monsters will become stunned after a single hit. They become resistant to stun after the first time, so it's best to focus on stunning a different monster each time instead of repeatedly trying to stun a single one. Don't bother trying on the Apex and other stronger monsters; it'll take too many shots.
Repel using Weapons - Deal finishing blows to monsters with your own main weapon. You do too little damage normally; jump in during the Counter Signal to complete this one.
Repel with Village Defenders - Difficult, but not impossible. Place them throughout the map and weaken any monster that passes by. Stop attacking monsters when they get low health (the blue icon on the minimap/top right of the screen) and hopefully the Villagers will pick them off.
Repel Using Bamboo Bomb - Honestly, don't even bother. It's too difficult to do reliably without also putting your progress at risk. Place 3 Bamboo Bombs and hope for the best.
Use a Dragonator or S. Wyvernshot - The phrasing is misleading; it's not good enough to simply use them, you must get a finishing blow on a monster for it to count. Use them as much as you can, refreshing with the Power Kiln if necessary.

While most sub-assignments can be done throughout the entire rampage, you can rarely get a sub-assignment that exists only for a single wave. These ones will be at the bottom of the list, highlighted in a dull red. Focus on completing these first, if possible. Most of the time it's one of the regular sub-assignments above, but there is a special one:
Repel Magnamalo - Magnamalo will appear this wave. He has quite a lot of health, but he'll focus more on the monsters rather than you. He will leave if not defeated by the end of the current wave.

There's also a hidden sub-assignment to cart less than three times. It doesn't have an effect on Stronghold Level, but it does factor into your rating at the end of the quest, which in turn affects your quest rewards.

Final tips:

• Stay aware of your surroundings. There is a lot going on during a rampage. If you focus too much on one thing, you may not notice other monsters about to attack you, or they're about to destroy the gate behind you.
  
• Do rampages multiplayer if you can. There's so many moving parts in these quests that trying to do everything yourself can be an overwhelming and sometimes miserable experience.
  
• When in multiplayer, try diversifying your roles. You're much less effective if everyone's doing the same thing. 2 ballista and 2 cannons will perform better than 4 of one or the other. The only exceptions are at the very beginning of the rampage, where you have nothing better than 4 ballistae, and the very end, when almost everyone should be attacking the final monster with the Counter Signal.
  
• Try to be aware if there's something missing. If no one is using the Dragonators, Splitting Wyvernshots, Counter Signals, or setting up Auto or Limited Installations, step up! Using them at a suboptimal time is still better than never using them at all.
  
• Don't fight monsters directly if the Counter Signal isn't up. It's not worth it. Either wait until it automatically goes off or hit it manually. Don't tunnel-vision once it's up, either - the Counter Signal has a limited duration, and you don't want to keep attacking a monster long after it's run out.
  
• When an Apex monster arrives and you're still in the first zone, they will very quickly destroy the gate. Don't worry - this is supposed to happen. The Apex always fights in the final zone. Get a few potshots on the Apex in the first zone if you can, preferably with a Dragonator or Splitting Wyvernshot, but your window to do so is quite short. Be ready!
  
• When the first gate is broken and monsters are running to the next zone, running alongside them is very inefficient. There's an EZ Farcaster in the supply box at camp; use it as soon as the monsters leave the first zone so you can immediately run to the next area. This will give you time to set up installations and get ready before the monsters even get there.
  
• You might find explosive kunai when picking up monster drops. Use these against flying monsters to quickly knock them down to the ground.
  
• Monsters that become mountable are considered already defeated. If you don't plan on mounting them, they can be safely ignored.
  
• If you're at the end of a wave and are still riding a monster, the wave won't end until you get off. Launch the monster to save time instead of waiting around for nothing to happen.
  
• While on a cannon, you can still fire the normal cannonballs while charging a Thunder Shot or Piercing Shot at the same time.
  
• You receive a lot of Defender Tickets at the end of each quest. While these are useful for Rampage weapons and Ramp-up Skills, you'll likely use them most for melding talismans, as they are plentiful and worth a lot of points. If you need to meld talismans, rampages are one of the fastest ways to go.
  
• During the final wave against the boss monster, the Splitting Wyvernshot and Master Utsushi are the most effective means of wiping out extra monsters. Hold onto them until the monster reinforcements arrive, then defeat them in one swoop by using one or the other.
  
• It's not as effective, but if your final map has a Dragonator instead of Splitting Wyvernshot, try the Wyvernbait strategy.
  
• The only monster that "counts" as hunted during a rampage is the final boss monster. Everything else is considered filler and won't give you carves or crowns for achievements. They may give you drops in the quest reward screen, however.

• Hub quest supply boxes have more items in them. Be courteous and only take one share of each item from the supply box at the beginning of the quest. Other players would like to have those too!
  
• At the end of every quest, you have the option to like other hunters. Unless you have a specific reason, always like all the other hunters! It gives everyone friend points, which grants extra support-style items such as lifepowders via Senri the Mailman. More support items means more successful hunts!
  
• Please be mindful of your attacks that can disrupt other players. Some weapon attacks can trip, stagger, or even launch other players, which overall is frustrating and slows down the hunt. Longsword users are particularly infamous for tripping other players. Keep your distance! Same thing with Gunlance Wyvernfire - the area of effect is bigger than you think. Aim carefully!
  
• This should be obvious, but don't join a hunt then not participate. It's fine to go around at the start to pick up Hunting Helpers and Spiribirds then jump in. If you're just gathering items or standing at camp, that's wasting everyone's time.
  
• Unless otherwise stated, the typical way to decide quests in lobbies is Round Robin. The host will post the first quest, the second person to join will post the second quest, and so on.
  
• If you're fighting a monster and notice it slowly toppling over and the music has stopped, the monster has fallen asleep. It's common courtesy to stop attacking and give everyone an opportunity to heal up, sharpen, reload, and lay down bombs next to the monster. Since the first attack against a sleeping monster gets a bonus modifier, the hunter with the most powerful attack is expected to wake it (usually, the greatsword user).
  
• Be mindful that monsters have different drops depending whether you capture or carve it. A hunter you're playing with may want to kill a monster instead of capturing, or vice versa, to get what they need. If no one mentions anything beforehand, then don't worry; anything goes. Best etiquette is to listen to others' preference on kill or capture, or bring it up yourself if you need it. Most of the time, people will listen. That said, it's acceptable to capture a monster you'd normally kill if:
  
  • The group is at 1 cart left and the group is in danger of failing the quest.
    
  • The monster is nearly dead and someone just carted. Chances are you'll kill the monster before they can get back, which means they won't get any carves.

The main endgame of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is dealing with monsters possessed by the Qurio. The Qurio grant them greatly increased health and damage, effectively making even weaker monsters dangerous and relevant to players in fully upgraded gear.

When an afflicted monster is present in an area, small red particles can be seen in the air. Afflicted monsters themselves have darker coloring, red eyes, and a reddish glow or sheen to their entire body. Their appearance intensifies or lessens depending on the stage of the fight.

When pacified, the Qurio influence is held back, and the monster is effectively a normal version of themselves. Over time, the Qurio turns the monster delirious, making them faster and hit harder. Reddish "cores" of energy will concentrate around several body parts of the monster. Prioritize hitting those glowing cores to make them erupt, dealing heavy damage to the monster. The cores will reappear elsewhere on the monster over time.

If enough cores are destroyed fast enough, the monster will be knocked over and returned to the pacified state. However, if the monster spends enough time in the delirious state and not enough cores were destroyed, the building energy will overflow and explode in a wide range around the monster, posing heavy risk to all hunters around it.

Afflicted monsters are able to inflict bloodblight, so be prepared.

Afflicted monsters will drop exclusive afflicted materials used in crafting end-game weapons and Qurious Crafting, which will be explained in the next section.


Once the main story of Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak is completed, you'll unlock Anomaly Investigations when talking to Bahari the Scientist. For those familiar, these quests are like a mixture of Monster Hunter 4's Guild Quests and Monster Hunter World's Investigations.

Each Anomaly Investigation is randomly generated with a combination of random monsters to encounter, locale, time limit, faints allowed, and number of hunters allowed. Each time you complete an investigation, it will level up and the quest target will become more powerful, but you'll be able to obtain more rewards if you complete it again.

You can randomly generate additional Anomaly Investigations by obtaining Anomaly Research Points, gained by doing these during an investigation:

• Hunting non-target small or large monsters
  
• Breaking monster parts
  
• Harvesting from afflicted gathering points
  
• Completing investigations

Anomaly Research can be boosted by completing Bahari's Research Request, which will give a high bonus if you kill the listed afflicted monster he's asking for.

Anomaly Quests are another feature similar to Anomaly Investigations, except that there is no randomization: the quest parameters are set and never change. Investigation progress is reduced when doing Quests.

As mentioned in the previous section, Afflicted monster parts are used to craft end-game weapons, but they are also used in Qurious Crafting, which can augment weapons and armor further than their usual maximum. Only fully-upgraded gear can be enhanced this way, and only master rank armor can be augmented.

Weapon enhancement is fairly straightforward. Each weapon has augmentation slots that can be filled in. You can fit in as many augments as you have slots. Some slots are locked off at the start, and must be unlocked by using high-level anomaly monster drops.

Augment choices are what you'd expect: damage increase, sharpness increase, affinity increase, and other similar types of bonuses.

Armor augmentations are much more complicated, as the results are randomized. By using Qurious Crafting on an armor piece, a variety of effects can occur, such as:

• Increase or decrease existing skills
  
• Increase or decrease armor
  
• Increase or decrease elemental resistance
  
• Add a new skill
  
• Add or remove decoration slot
  
• Increase or decrease size of existing decoration slot

While some of these effects are negative, the overall effects are usually positive. For example, you may get four positive effects while taking only one negative effect.

After augmenting armor, that "roll" of random effects are saved and applied to that armor piece. If you roll again, you can choose to ignore it and keep your old augment roll, or take the new one and discard the old augments.

While it is tempting to only augment high-rarity armor sets, don't overlook lower-rarity armors, as they tend to get a much larger boost out of the augmentation system with much less investment. Some low rarity armor can match or exceed rarity 10 armor pieces because of the higher bonuses.

Capcom loves to put little touches of detail into Monster Hunter games since the beginning. Look no further than the "So Tasty!" on cooking a Well-Done Steak. Rise is similarly full of little details that you can find if you look around.

• The tent in camp has a healing mist dispenser inside, providing an in-universe explanation to your instant heal upon entering.
  
• In the food cutscenes, the dango is precisely in the same order as you entered.
  
• In that same dango cutscene, if all three dango skills activate, you will see a lucky stem in your tea.
  
• When you send buddies to adventure, you can sometimes see them drift by along the river in the Gathering Hub.
  
• The short cutscene you get at the end of each hunt factors in your current state. You'll get a different outcomes depending on what combo of palico/palamute you have, whether you're mounted on a palamute, have an extra wirebug, and more.
  
• Large monsters close their eyes somewhat when flashed.
  
• Badum and Tish in the Hunting Hub hit the drum according to the beat of the music. If you change the music for the Hub, they will instead take a break.
  
• There are many idle animations among you, your buddies, NPCs, monsters, and endemic life. Some are rarer than others.
  
• There are a lot of easily-missed sounds. Try turning up your volume and hear the unique cries of endemic life, or notice that sound echoes differently depending on the size of cave you're in.
  
• If you notice anything or anyone atop high places in town, try calling your Cahoot and sending it at it.
  
• If you stun the Toadversary, the felyne controlling it has to get onto its back and wind it back up.
  
• Your palamute takes defensive postures to protect you while you are transporting heavy items.
  
• There's a secret area in the training zone. Can you find it?
  
• There's a hidden NPC in your room that you can talk to. They will gossip and divulge secrets about the other villagers.
  
• Great Izuchi will lay down and play with or clean the regular Izuchi it hunts with.
  
• Pukei-Pukei's poison attacks have different attributes depending on what plant it had most recently eaten.
  
• Bishaten covers its mouth when throwing poisonfruit around to avoid poisoning itself.
  
• Tigrex loves to charge back and forth. If you break its claws, it has to spend more effort to move around since it loses traction on the ground.
  
• Somnacanth picks up shells from the water and can play with them, or in battle use them as a weapon against you. If left alone, Somnacanth can also sing a tune that resembles the combat music of whatever locale it's currently in.
  
• After a quest is finished and the timer ticks down, the grains of sand in the hourglass indicate how much time is left in each 10 second interval.
  
• Combat music starts when a monster sees you. Since Khezu has no eyes and can't see you, no music plays when fighting it. It's a long-running joke in the series.
  
• If you take pictures of monsters or endemic life, you have the option to replace the painted icons in your notebook with your own. Those watercolor paintings are done by Master Hojo, and you can sometimes see him rapidly paint in the Gathering Hub.
  
• Minoto also dabbles in watercolor painting, but and she's self-conscious at how bad she thinks her art is. You can see examples of her art here and also in this next detail:
  
• If you look at the character introductions[www.monsterhunter.com] in the monster hunter website, you'll find that the names of the default male character is Lance Gunn, the female default is Ran Page, the palamute is Pup R., and the palico is Kit T.
  
• There are three picture frames in your house. You can put any photo you've taken in them.
  
• Guild Master Hojo is riding a baby Tetsucabra, a monster from Monster Hunter 4 and Generations. Its name is Tetsy.
  
• Rakna-Kadaki sometimes pulls itself via a web. If you're positioned well, you can cut the web to disrupt it.

This section has nothing particularly important about gameplay. It's just some trivia to help give context about the world.

• Magnamalo is the flagship monster for Monster Hunter Rise.
  
• Rathalos is the de facto flagship monster for the Monster Hunter series as a whole.
  
• All Rathalos are male, and all Rathians are female.
  
• Similarly, all Teostra are male, and all Lunastra are female.
  
• Diablos are herbivores.
  
• Diablos is classified as a "flying wyvern", even though they can't fly.
  
• Valstrax are nomads and are typically not hostile. However, they become agitated and aggressive if inundated with large amounts of dragon energy.
  
• Despite what it seems like from the end-game, elder dragons are supposed to be incredibly rare. Seeing one is canonically considered a once-in-a-lifetime event.
  
• There are ten relics and two rampage messages hidden in every major map. Each gives you a piece of the history of the map and the mystery of the rampage. Look high and low to find each one, or if you're impatient, here is Azilorn's guide to all relic locations[i.imgur.com].
  
• Hunters, or at least the higher ups of the guild, are a superstitious lot. Long ago, a group of five[monsterhunter.wikia.com] experienced hunters went out to fight an elder dragon. Though victorious, a hunter died in battle. Ever since, sending five or more hunters was considered bad luck. That is why no more than four hunters are ever dispatched to a quest, even against the most dangerous of monsters, with very few exceptions. Makes sense? No? Too bad, this is Monster Hunter. We have sand whales.

So, you've diverted the danger of the Malice Tiger Wyvern, uncovered the mysteries of the Rampage, and even conquered the Apex and Elder Dragons. There's nothing else to do then, right?

Well, Capcom has a very good track record of continuing to support and update content for the Monster Hunter series, and Monster Hunter Rise is no exception. As time goes on, more monsters, more quests, and more events will become available for you to conquer.

Look forward to it, hunter!

A list of words or phrases you may come across while interacting with the Monster Hunter community. Not all of these are relevant to Rise specifically, but are included in case you come across them.

Affinity - Critical Hit Chance. Positive affinity grants 25% additional damage. Negative affinity grants 25% reduced damage.

Carting - Alternative name for dying, being knocked unconscious, or otherwise being brought to zero health. Your character is brought back to camp on a cart drawn by felynes contracted by the guild to rescue you.

Carving - Obtaining an item from a slain monster or its severed body part. Carving the tail is often referred to as a Tail Carve.

Desire Sensor - An all-knowing entity that prevents you from obtaining the material you want. If you need a gem from a monster, and you hunted it 12 times and it still hasn't dropped, that's because the Desire Sensor knows you want it, and is preventing you from getting it.

Farming - Doing a quest over and over to receive a specific resource you want, whether it be kamura points, zenny, monster parts, an item gathered from the map, or even just an opportunity to find a rare spawn. Can also refer to using the Argosy submarines to gain items, much like the farms in older games.

HR - High Rank. Designated in World by Orange-Star quests. Monsters have more health, more attacks, and are more aggressive. New materials are available in High Rank maps.

Je suis monté - A semi-derisive catchphrase from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, where many french or french canadian players would use the insect glaive and spam the mounting attack and mount the monster, which would result in their character saying "Je suis monté!"

LR - Low Rank. In Village quests, these are 1 to 3-star quests. Monsters have less health and the basic set of attacks. Often described as the "tutorial" by series veterans.

Mind's Eye - An armor skill in the game that allows attacks to not bounce off a monster's harder body parts regardless of sharpness, though the sharpness still degrades faster. Some special weapon attacks always have this effect active without the armor skill.

Naked Run - Completing quests without armor.

Panic Run - With your weapon sheathed, running while facing away from a large monster puts you into a Panic Run, which is a different animation that goes a little faster but drains slightly more stamina. This enables a Panic Dive.

Panic Dive / Superman Dive - While Panic Running, dodge to do this maneuver. You will be completely invincible from the beginning to the end of the animation as you dramatically flop onto the ground.

Quest Board - The board in the guild hall where you can accept quests that other hunters have put up. You can also go on other players' Join Requests from here.

Slash Axe - Japanese name for Switch Axe.

Zenny or (z) - The main currency of the Monster Hunter setting.

This guide is far from comprehensive. Feel free to check the other steam guides out there, as well as these fantastic sources:

The officially-partnered Monster Hunter Discord[discordapp.com]
Kiranico, The Monster Hunter Database[mhrise.kiranico.com]

Well-known content creators that make guides, tutorials, and tips for the Monster Hunter series:
Rurikhan Youtube Channel
Arrekz Youtube Channel
Gaijin Hunter Youtube Channel

And for crazy videos in general:
Team Darkside, pushing Monster Hunter to the limits

Have you powered past this guide, ready for more? Why not aim for absolute completion?
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2717041847
If you'd like some intellectually-stimulating analysis of the biology of the monsters and the ecosystems they live in, Glyde Borealis and Unnatural History History Channel offer great insights.

Monster Hunter is a massive game with a lot of mechanics. There are many things that had to be left out of this guide for brevity's sake. There are probably several things that I'm mistaken about, due to lack of testing, misunderstandings, or differences in game versions. Please let me know in the comments and I'll make adjustments as soon as I can confirm and make a correction. Monster Hunter is all about cooperation!