Part of what makes Monster Hunter such a great franchise is all the depth. This also makes makes the franchise hard to get into, especially for newcomers. With so many newcomers experiencing Monster Hunter: World, here are some tips to help you be successful.
Stock up on items
Monster Hunter: World can feel like a tedious adventure thanks to the need to find and farm certain resources. These would be herbs, mushrooms, bugs and things of the like. A couple items can be cultivated through the botanical research center, which is a great way to maintain herb stock if you’re bad at depositing unused herbs in the item box, but the rest will come from adventures.
The best way to do this is to go to a location, pay attention to where certain resources spawn, something that will always appear on the mini-map and collect them while you’re out there. If you’re proactive about this you’ll constantly have a new stream of items, making it easier to be victorious. Just remember to actually use them, since a well timed flash or right food can make a massive difference.
Many quests give you a couple free resources
At the start of a quest you’ll see an item box in the home base. Going in there you should see some items with an asterisk looking item, which indicates these are quest resources. The idea behind them is to give hunters a couple useful tools to be successful, without it all coming out of pocket. Typically, you’ll get a few potions and some meat, which is enough to give you an edge. Best of all, these items are inventoried differently, so you can exceed the potion cap by using them. However, don’t be greedy. These are shared and increase with every player that joins, so just because you want 10, only take 10 if the other players don’t take them.
Defense Status is a VERY important section
Most players agree that Monster Hunter: World is a game filled with progression blockers or walls for short. Most of these occur for three reasons. Bad player habits, poor gear and/or resistances. While I’ll go over player habits later in this article, the other two are extremely important.
Many walls are due to player progression. A slight difference in defense is not going to make or break you, though it will obviously make it harder, but something small like 30 points can make a significant difference, even if it only comes out to six points per armor piece. By upgrading the armor and/or crafting new armor at a higher defense level, you’ll notice a sharp decrease in difficulty. At one point this was enough to bring a monster’s damage from 100+ to a more reasonable 30~. The other is not as noticeable and deals with resistances.
Part of the reason why so many newcomers have issues with Anjanath is due to this. You see, Anjanath has some devastating fire attacks and a lot of the early armors increase fire damage. Jagras, Alloy, Barroth, Jyura and Hornetaur will bring your resistance down to -5, with it going as high as -15. No matter how many items you use or tricks up your sleeves, it’s hard to deal with that. This is why you want to, in addition to keeping your armor sum up, always be aware of the resistances. And, once you get later in the game, you can start wearing “bad” armor with “good” perks and offset the negatives through your charm and/or decorations.
Bad Player Habits
Monster Hunter: World does a good job of rewarding and punishing players for what they do. It isn’t bad enough where I would say you can’t beat Anjanath without a lot of fire resistance, it’s entirely possible to do it naked if you’re good enough, but there are distinct advantages to playing their way.
To be “good” at Monster Hunter: World you need to accomplish two simple tasks. Know how to read your enemy and how to use your weapon. Using your weapon takes practice and in some cases certain skills and will come with time and likely won’t stop you from beating even the hardest task if you can stay alive, which is the harder of the two.
The trick to being good is knowing what the monster is going to do and reacting to it. Sometimes this can be influenced, like if you attack the tail, there is a chance it will try to hurt you with it, with others being a little harder to predict. The best thing to do is pay attention to whatever action the monster is doing and learning when it will do what. There is no move that isn’t telegraphed or predictable in some way, it’s just a matter of knowing when you can and can’t get away with doing damage. This is especially helpful for moves that take a while to use, since you can plan according to their moves.
An opening doesn’t always mean you attack
One of the most common reasons for fainting is greed. We’ve all been there, you see an opening, you choose to take it and you’re punished for it. I think we’ve all also had a time where you went to do something, be it sharpening or drinking a potion, only to get hit and faint. These can be frustrating but they’re fine if you learn from them.
Like players, monsters have a number of moves that have a lot of build up or go a specific amount of time. These are important to know, since they’re among the best times to use an item. Since the monster is doing whatever, you’re free to do whatever you need to, without fear of death. This can be hard to break, especially since blind attacking is a bad player habit, just be sure you know what you’re doing or you might end up losing anyway.
Sharpness determines whether your blade cuts or bounce back
Have you ever attacked a part and found your weapon was repelled? If so, this means your weapon isn’t sharp enough to cut it. By sharpening your blade or using a sharper weapon, you’ll be able to cut through their armor and deal more damage.
Sell overstock materials for cash
Even though money isn’t terribly important in Monster Hunter: World, it’s easy to run out of it. Doing quests or wearing the bandit cloak is a great way to earn some money, especially if you can quickly solo it, yet there will still be times when you just want your prize now. In the event this happens, you can always sell overstock.
When I say overstock, I don’t mean you should sell your plates or gems, even if they’ll instantly give you as much as 15,000, but rather, things like bones or ore. If you’re anything like me, I tend to loot as much as I can, so I’ll have 80+ Dragonvein Crystals or 70+ Quality Bones, which is more than you’ll likely need in the foreseeable future. By selling half of my crystals I can easily get over 32,000 in cash, making it a good way to get a new piece of armor or just stock up on potions, traps and what have you.
Powercharm and Armorcharm can be upgraded
Arguably the only interesting items in the provisions inventory are Powercharm and Armorcharm. These are items that give something like nine attack and 12 defense, by simply having them on your person. What you might not know is once you unlock high rank and start seeing Bazelgeuse, you can upgrade these to Powertalon and Armortalon.
These items are made by combining Powercharm or Armorcharm with a Bazelgeuse Talon. Not only do these items give a small boost, something like four power and six defense, they count as a different item in your inventory. This means you can purchase another set and receive even more of a boost.
Talk to Ecological Research whenever you discover or max out a monster
The Ecological Researcher is in the main base, to the right at the bottom, sitting by a bunch of books. Talking to them will often times remove whatever research cap you’re at, allowing you to learn more about the monsters in the game. This can be handy, since the hunter’s notes are an invaluable resource.
This item can be viewed by talking to this character or by pushing options, moving to info and selecting Hunter’s Notes. This will bring up a page that shows a couple of things, including the monster field guide. Based off your research level, it will tell you key information about every monster you’ve encountered. These include what they drop, where it drops, what rarity are said drop, strengths, weaknesses, breakable and severable points and more. If you have any questions about how to defeat a monster, check the book before going online, since odds are whatever you need to know is there.
Friendly fire is enabled in multiplayer
Despite being a dual wield main and it being a really fun weapon, it’s easily the most disliked weapon in multiplayer. This is 100 percent due to the fact friendly fire is enabled in multiplayer, meaning careless attacks can and will stun teammates. While accidents happen and sometimes it will be someone else’s fault, you should always be mindful of what you and others are doing. So if you see a dual wield person getting ready to strike one part, consider going to another, just like you might want to stop swinging if you’re interupting someone else’s attack.
Other than that, figure out the mechanics, kick some butt and, as always, have fun.
