I have bought Monster Hunter Rise and Sunbreak. I have never played a Monster Hunter game before. Pretty excited! What should I know going in?

[AuthenticM]

I wanted to get into this franchise back when World came out, but somehow it didn't happen. I am officially rectifying this in the coming days when Sunbreak comes out. I'm pretty excited. Never played this franchise before outside of the demo of World years ago.

What should I know? Tips, tricks?

Thanks

 

[blueredandgold]

Platform?

I am pretty much in same boat. But I am starting now in vanilla Rise and I think I need to de-program what I remember from my previous foray (Tri/4 etc). Never tried World.

The initial hub is beautiful but while the information being presented is something I'm kinda okay with because I know it's a staple (others might not be keen on the onslaught of menus) I'm left a little confused with two key things:

Hub - the game is seeming to want me to do the missions with the quest-giver upstairs. Does this mean it's pushing me towards multiplayer straight away?

Actual in-missions: the traversal options are insane. I'm barely able to make a dent with the starting weapons but already I've been presented with the wirebug options and mounting monsters and all the wackiness that ensues.

My go-to strategy is 'decide on one weapon only at first to master it' using Sword/Shield while I get my bearings.

Is it just me or are there really advanced quests presented to the player earlier? Stuff like capturing/etc seems like it should be a ways off....

 

[Cenauru]

Your attacks are very deliberate with minimal amounts of move-canceling, also look up moveset guides for the weapon you choose if the in-game tutorial isn't enough.

 

[Actinium]

The basic cycle of hunt monster, use monster parts to make better stuff, hunt bigger monster is pretty easy to slide into. The harder stuff to grok will be all of the many many subsystems around the village and in crafting and managing items and learning to capture rather than kill and managing your palicos/palimutes.

General rule of thumb is to hit the training grounds that can be accessed somewhere in the village hub and there u can freely swap between the most basic version of each weapon that you start the game with to get a handle on which weapon is for you. Each weapon is more like its own fighting game character with its own combos and resource management systems.

 

[Blue Hedgehog]

Platform?

I am pretty much in same boat. But I am starting now in vanilla Rise and I think I need to de-program what I remember from my previous foray (Tri/4 etc). Never tried World.

The initial hub is beautiful but while the information being presented is something I'm kinda okay with because I know it's a staple (others might not be keen on the onslaught of menus) I'm left a little confused with two key things:

Hub - the game is seeming to want me to do the missions with the quest-giver upstairs. Does this mean it's pushing me towards multiplayer straight away?

Actual in-missions: the traversal options are insane. I'm barely able to make a dent with the starting weapons but already I've been presented with the wirebug options and mounting monsters and all the wackiness that ensues.

My go-to strategy is 'decide on one weapon only at first to master it' using Sword/Shield while I get my bearings.

Is it just me or are there really advanced quests presented to the player earlier? Stuff like capturing/etc seems like it should be a ways off....

Click to shrink...

You don't have to do quests in the Gathering Hub right away. You can progress on your own in the village and eventually get additional quests that will unlock new ranks in the gathering hub. Gathering Hub quests can be down on your own but the monsters have more health than in quests from the village.

 

[Purslane]

Don't use the overpowered gear the game gives you at the start, it's meant for speedrunning through low ranks.

 

[Deleted member 56266]

You'll have to "beat" rise first so just look up general tips.

Also, it will feel clunky. Yes this is normal.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

The number of systems can be a bit overwhelming in the beginning, don't worry about needing to know everything just yet.

The core focus is "Hunt Monsters" --> "Collect loot" --> "Craft stronger gear".

 

[Mandos]

I still need to fire up my base switch copy myself. Remember enjoying gun lance in the past

 

[Truly Gargantuan]

You should have someone around to guide you through. This is how I got one of my best friends into the series. I started him with MH4 and when MHW came out he was sold.

 

[Toxi]

• If you have specific questions, ask the community; we love to help new players!
• Zoom out the camera to the highest possible distance in the options. I have no idea why it's so zoomed in by default.
• Try out the different weapons, and don't feel like you're restricted to a single one.
• Use the hunter manual to figure out weapon controls.
• There's a training arena for practice; go across the rope bridge out of the village to reach the trade area, then go to the small boat next to the shore. You can also train by hunting an easier monster.
• Eat before every hunt at the canteen. It boosts your stats and costs virtually nothing.
• Take your time, don't worry about the time limit for a hunt since it's absurdly generous.
• Feel free to explore the areas. There are camps and shortcuts that make them much easier to traverse once you discover them.
• You have 3 faints, so don't freak out if you get KO'd. It happens to all of us.
• Try to recognize patterns while fighting a new monster. When do they stop attacking and allow you to get a hit in? Where does their attack land?
• Different parts of the monster take different amounts of damage. Hitting that soft head is often better than hitting those hard back legs. Of course, this varies by monster.
• Do enough damage to part of a monster's body and it breaks, giving you an extra reward. Horns, claws, tails, lots of things you can break to get more loot!
• You can use the hunter notes in your menu to learn more about monsters you've encountered already.
• It's always better to not get hit than to get hit and heal; likewise, it's better to spend a little time healing than a lot of time running back from the camp after being carted.
• Look up online guides like Arrekz's weapon guides when you feel a specific weapon feels natural and want to go more in-depth.
• Don't sell monster parts. You'll get plenty of money through quests and there are ways to grind.
• Don't focus too much on crafting specific armor for low rank unless you feel it's necessary to pass a difficult fight. You can upgrade weapons between ranks, but not armor.
• Play with other people in the hub if you have online! It's a lot of fun and a very different experience from solo hunting and a lot of fun. Very good for farming specific monsters.
• If you get stuck, don't feel bad playing dirty. You're a hunter, not a gladiator. Use every advantage available: Traps, flash bombs, healing items, armor that negates status afflictions, weapons that hit an elemental weakness, you have a lot of options to even the odds.

 

[Foxisdabest]

I just recently bought MHW for like 14.99, and that was my first MH game as well.

I guess what I can say from my experience is, don't get too anxious feeling like you have to understand everything, and let the game come to you. It wil take time, but eventually you'll come to understand what all the lingo on screen means and how the game works.

My guess is Rise takes a similar approach to World, where the first 10 or 15 hours are more a tutorial disguised as game play that introduces the systems and the works.

So i guess what i am saying is, don't freak out for not understanding what everything on screen means, the game wil eventually explain to you lol

 

[kiich]

Thinking about weapons movesets as characters in fighting games help.
Blunt weapons break things such as claws and slashing weapons cut things such as tails. If you play solo consider equiping your cat/palico with the opposing type you use.
Depending where you hit a monster and with what the damage will be different. These are clled hitzones. You can check them in your hunting notes >large monsters (it will only show monsters you have already hunted). 90% of the time the head is the weakest spot.
Some event quests will have the monsters be wy stronger than usual, do not be intimidated if you die in one hit, they are endgame challenges.
Do not be a completionist at first. Do not try to craft everything and clear every quest, at least not at once.

 

[darz1]

There are already a lot of great tips in this thread.

Don't worry too much about amour and weapon stats in the beginning outside of attack and defence. Once you start facing monsters with specific strengths and weaknesses you can start choosing specific stats.

Don't sell monster parts.

Early missions will teach you the basics about hunting.

Don't get too attached to specific weapons and armour, feel free to change them out often. If you are having trouble with certain monsters, sometimes changing your weapon might be the answer. Blunt weapons to bash, sharp weapons to cut

Your cat is very useful, they can be healing focused or attack focused.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Observe monster behavior. Don't get too greedy. Have fun.

 

[vestan]

• Get used to the wirebug, silkbind and switch skills ASAP
• Don't spam wirefall, better to stay knocked down sometimes for invul
• Stick to village quests, later on you'll get special license tests which will give you access to 2, 3 and 4★ hub quests
• Rise doesn't have much prep before hunts which is a good thing for newer players, just make sure you eat before you set off
• You can sharpen weapons while on your Palamute
• Make sure you stay on top of Meowcenaries
• Always make sure you have a few optional subquests going on

LBG if you want to rush through base Rise in preparation for Sunbreak next Thursday ;^)

 

[Tavernade]

Be prepared and ok with a big learning curve. I was still discovering things 100+ hours in.

Also the game wants you to start with some (or all) Village Quests before moving into multiplayer, so you'll have an easier time going that route than what I did of going multiplayer first.

 

[PKrockin]

Honestly I'm not sure there's anything you need to know these days that the games don't tell you about. Back in the day you wouldn't know how to use important features of your weapon, or how much damage attacks did without weapon tutorial videos, now the Hunter's Notes tell you about most of the important stuff and you can experiment with the training dummy. Rise streamlines a lot of the hunting and prep stuff to fit the portable system it was designed for.

Try out a bunch of different weapons. As someone said, they're closer to different characters in a fighting game than they are to different weapons in a Souls game. A lot of people who love the games only vibe with one or a few weapons while others enjoy a lot of them. If you want to see a quick 1 minute visual demo and explanation for each weapon before you take some for a spin, this is a good video.

 

[jon bones]

does the dlc add anything up front? or should i buy and play through the base game before touching it?

 

[Kinsei]

does the dlc add anything up front? or should i buy and play through the base game before touching it?

Click to shrink...

The new mechanics such as skill swap should be available from the start, but it's really not worth buying the DLC until you've finished the base game.

 

[Mupod]

#1 is try all the weapons. I'm a long, long time veteran of the series and even I watch short youtube breakdowns when I pick up one I haven't played in a while, so I recommend doing that for anything you're interested in.

I think Hammer is a good beginner weapon as it teaches you a lot of good habits like aiming for a specific part (the head) and working around long animations, with immediate positive feedback when you're doing it right (monster knockouts). Charge it up, stand by the back/side of the monster, stand still and drop the super pound on its face as it turns toward you, simple and satisfying. But, again, just pick something that looks cool and go from there, maybe don't do bowguns or Charge Blade right away though. I'm a heavy bowgun main myself but there's a lot of stuff (ammo behaviour) you gotta study up on to be effective.

does the dlc add anything up front? or should i buy and play through the base game before touching it?

Click to shrink...

You'll have to get through the base game to even see the DLC stuff (it's a whole tier of content above what is in now) so no time like the present. I'm sure some of the new moves/features will apply but nothing huge.

 

[Dolce]

if you think a weapon looks cool, try it. in terms of beginner friendly weapons, i'd say Hammer and Light Bowgun. GS used to be but not quite as much anymore. but you have plenty of time to learn any weapon, because you have tons of monsters to fight at each skill level.

 

[megamanofnumbers]

Use the Sword and Shield exclusively, otherwise I'll hate you forever

Don't listen to any elitest complaints about "DONT USE OVERPOWERED EARLY GAME WEAPONS", play the game in any way that will make it more comfortable to you. Worry about being gatekept once you actually get good at the game.

With that said, make sure to commit to only a couple weapons at first (maybe a third weapon if you're feeling so daring). It'll be better for the learning experience for a beginner and because it's a PAIN IN THE ASS to make weapons early game. Once you reach mid to late game, it'll be WAAAY easier to make different types of weapons from grinding. At that point you can go and experiment the entire roster of weapon types.

 

[Toxi]

For bowguns, don't be too intimidated by the ammo system. Use ammo liberally and try out different types. You get a lot of free ammo from quests early on and can buy it in large quantities for cheap, and later it becomes easy to just farm a ton automatically.

does the dlc add anything up front? or should i buy and play through the base game before touching it?

Click to shrink...

Sunbreak content is all waaaaay late in the game (It's G/Master Rank, after the base game's Low Rank and High Rank). Feel free to play through the base content before purchasing it.

 

[PKrockin]

Don't listen to any elitest complaints about "DONT USE OVERPOWERED EARLY GAME WEAPONS", play the game in any way that will make it more comfortable to you. Worry about being gatekept once you actually get good at the game.

Click to shrink...

I forgot about this. Defender equipment is basically made for blazing through Low Rank if you just want to get to High Rank where the harder versions of monsters are. Using them early on is almost like starting a Souls game at level 40. Forging new weapons and armor is the second part of the two-part core gameplay loop of the series, so invalidating all that equipment undermines a big part of the appeal early on. You also might hit a big difficulty spike and struggle a lot once the Defender gear is no longer good enough to carry you through quests later. It has its uses, but I can't really recommend it for the kind of players who are likely to be reading this post. Call this post gatekeeping if you like.

 

[Samurai_Heart]

Gaijin Hunter kind of guides you through the game a bit here if you have the time to check, literally starts at the beginning and tells you what's what

 

[viotech3]

You don't have to do quests in the Gathering Hub right away. You can progress on your own in the village and eventually get additional quests that will unlock new ranks in the gathering hub. Gathering Hub quests can be down on your own but the monsters have more health than in quests from the village.

Click to shrink...

To clarify, village quests have reduced values compared to the normal singleplayer content in the game. Great for onboarding! Let's you learn in a safer, lower damage environment with quests that give monsters less health and makes them flinch from attacks more often. Those quests are solo only, though, as a sort of tradeoff.

 

[Punished Dan]

Don't use the overpowered gear the game gives you at the start, it's meant for speedrunning through low ranks.

Click to shrink...

What should be used instead?

 

[RGB]

What should be used instead?

Click to shrink...

Everything and anything else that seems useful.

The catchup armor is optional and comes close to, if not surpasses, stuff you wouldn't be able to craft until the end of the game. Good for players switching platforms or those that fell off the pre expansion game but are coming back to try out the new rank. Not as good for a new player learning the ropes as it removes a lot of the fun hunting new monsters to get your upgrades that feeds into the classic loop.

Setting yourself mini goals as you go (I'm going to make this armor set, this weapon, etc.) is gone as you'll only need that one set for the entire base game.

Still this is ultimately subjective. If a player is aware they're tougher than they should be there's nothing wrong with them enjoying the game like that.

 

[RGB]

Gaijin Hunter kind of guides you through the game a bit here if you have the time to check, literally starts at the beginning and tells you what's what

Click to shrink...

I really like this ancient one of his for new players. It's timeless advice.

 

[Snormy]

I really like this ancient one of his for new players. It's timeless advice.

Click to shrink...

Oh my god... Paintballs. I forgot all about them. The pain of losing a monster because it flew out of the zone and your paint wore off. :(

 

[The_Noobiablos]

Biggest thing is to find a weapon that clicks with you

Don't use the overpowered gear the game gives you at the start, it's meant for speedrunning through low ranks.

Click to shrink...

Gonna second this for new players. It removes you from the actual gameplay loop of the game: Hunting the monsters, crafting gear and weapons from their parts, hunting stronger monsters, making stronger gear, repeat.

Another part is you kinda miss out on the ups and downs of the difficulty of the hunts from the low and high ranks, and then you hit the DLC stuff and all of the sudden you're getting this huge difficulty spike that you haven't grown accustomed to.

 

[Enforcer]

Learning wirefall. Pretty much a get out of jail recovery move. When you get knocked down use wirefall immediately. I think it's L2+A

 

[northnorth]

Don't be afraid to ask for help. I almost bounced off of MHW the first day after a few hours but someone offered to help me out all day and late into the night. I then proceeded to drop 1000 hours into it and I'm like 500 in MHR endgame on pc and switch

 

[BBboy20]

Wire escape doesn't have Invincibility-frames so don't get spamy with it unless you know the timing of an monster's attack.

 

[Martin]

Be prepared. The learning curve can feel like an android user trying to use an iPhone or the other way around for iPhone users.

Just choose a weapons you think that looks cool and stick to it too learn everything about it.

 

[RankFTW]

Find a weapon you like and stick with it. Some of the weapons have really hard learning curves but once they click it pays off.

 

[danhz]

Try the weapons and go with the one you like more.
I'd would watch some recommendations for beginners and after something like 10h?(when you start to feel comfortable with the game) I would watch some video explaining the weapons combos

 

[Sangral]

I played the series before a lot of times and also played Rise when it was relatively new, but I paused for over a year and started a completely new save on the PC version recently so I can tell you exactly how my experience was for someone who forgot absolutely everything about the game.


In short, it was brutal, you would think me playing the games before would help a lot but oh boy did that mean nothing when you pause for over a year. I felt like I literally never played a video game before, I felt like a nooby casual player getting into this game again. The controls feel horrendous like you need 12 fingers to control everything. You have no idea how anything works in this game and despite it trying to teach you with tutorial stuff and in-game menus, you have to look up YouTube guides or you just can't figure out how exactly a class is meant to be used.
Starting this game is really brutal and hard, you will feel so incredibly lost, but if you stick to it you will get into it. I almost quit my current playthrough because I thought I wouldn't, but a few more hours later and you will get the hang out of it when you focus to one class and then it will be incredibly fun to play and progress.

I do find it hard to test out different classes tho, because the game is so deep, I'm basically scared trying to get into another class and learning completely different mechanics all over again, so I just didn't so far, but maybe that works better for you.
You will also get to the first credits of the game relatively fast, but these credits are basically the credits for the tutorial, I would say the real game starts after that but not even that is true, the real game starts 10-15 hours after that once you reach high rank, that's your goal and I just reached that yesterday again, finally. It takes a while getting to that and it can start to feel repetitive for a few hours before you reach it, cause you're simply grinding through the village hunts, but once you're there, the real game of upgrading, grinding, crafting and hunting begins. Before that, don't try to focus too much on upgrading stuff and crafting armor. Try to get to high rank without wasting too many monster resources. The reason is, once you're getting to high rank, you will unlock the same list of armor you unlocked before all over again, just with better stats, so if you focus too much on low rank gear, the fun of unlocking new and fresh looking armor gets completely lost. I get why people say don't use the free overpowered gear, but still, I think most would agree to not craft or upgrade too many low rank things either.

Oh and look up YouTube guides of course, all the stuff from Arekkz Gaming is incredibly helpful.

 

[Ryu]

TBH, from my perspective, MOHU has a very steep learning curve. Once you get it, it's super fulfilling. Until then, you might do stuff just thinking "Yo wtf am I doing". Damn I just love that IP.

 

[OmegaDL50]

Anyone buy from Voidu before? I pre-ordered Sunbreak from them and my order status says complete but I didn't get a key to register to my Steam account.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

It's a hit and run game until you are comfortable with a fight. Otherwise you're spamming potions almost as much as fighting. Remember, there is a rhythm to it all. From attacks to openings for DPS windows, to the momentum of where it's charges and attacks will carry them, how it changes pace when a monsters enraged combining moves and generally being faster and more dangerous.

When it comes time for you to explore the endgame of planning skills for your preferred weapon type DO NOT undervalue defensive skills. So much focus and attention is put on offensive skills, which can only truely shine when you know what your doing, hitting weakspots constantly with high uptime. Something you aren't achieving when you are learning the ropes. Things like evade window or extender can save your butt and get you close to monsters for greater uptime than sheathing and dodging. Recovery up can make what is a 2 megapition heal into one. Stun resistance is a cheap level 1 deco slot that can make it so you don't go dizzy when your hit too many times in quick succession (it's a hidden meter that decays over time). Stuff like that can keep you alive, which is your goal as much as it is actually hunting monsters.

 

[Rubblatus]

Don't use the overpowered Defender sets.

When you start the game do an expedition mission to explore the first two regions available to you and to gather bones and iron ore. The weapons the game starts you off with (Kamura Weapons?) are tuned for Village Quests which are, y'know, fine. But if you end up trying to go to the Gathering Hub to do those quests with Kamura weapons, your first hunt's gonna take like 25 minutes. The Iron and Bone weapons are both immediately twice as good as the Kamura weapons and will dramatically improve your hunt times from the jump.

While you're out there on that expedition hunt, toy with all the options in the control and gameplay option settings to see what they do and what feels comfortable. Feel free to kill any small monsters you find - everything you can kill and carve can reward parts that you can use somewhere else and it helps to adjust to the very deliberate and heavy weight of combat. Also, being able to traverse around with some comfort with the wire bugs to initiate wall runs or for evading some monster attacks down the road is a good skill to become comfortable with.

/also worth getting comfy with mounting and engaging with your Palamutes. You can ride them to give yourself more mobility while using any item that leaves you exposed in combat, like sharpening stones.

There is a training room in the area past the Buddy Dojo. The camera introducing the area will pan onto a boat at the shore and the island beyond. Climb into the boat and head on down to the training center. You can fast travel to these points once you visited them on your map, but the more important thing is to use this space to quickly and conveniently mess with the weapons. The Palico supervising the arena can be talked to for some minor training options, and you can access your item box there to swap your weapon around freely. Don't spend TOO much time in there, just toy around with the weapons, take note of anything that seems unreasonably cool, and then take those weapons into hunts to see how they play when you're fighting against something that hits back.

On the subject of combat, target lock is a bad idea. Monsters in Monster Hunter have a TON of hit zones that you're going to want to break for staggers in combat, and for more part drops as either flashing lights on the ground you have to pick-up, or as rewards in the results screen. This requires being able to freely position around the monster to target those spots and the target lock-on is otherwise pretty terrible; especially when it locks onto a point that is not stationary, like a head that will gradually rise and fall with the monster's footsteps. The best use of the camera button is to tap it to reset the camera behind you as your character turns to continue to track the monster as it runs around the field or to use the right stick to track the monster's movements when comfortable.

/of course, if you have a M/KB set up, camera tracking becomes a trivial, intuitive thing.

Outside of that, I have no idea the platform or the control method you're using. If you're using mouse and keyboard, gimmie a quote and I can drop all my degenerate mouse and keyboard strategies on you. The mouse and keyboard implementation in Sunbreak and Rise has its shortcomings, but on the whole it's VERY good. If you've enjoyed an MMO, you can make Rise's keyboard and mouse set-ups really work for you.

 

[Synohan]

Prepare to have your ears melted. The OST is fantastic.

 

[TheWildCard]

Don't use the overpowered gear the game gives you at the start, it's meant for speedrunning through low ranks.

Click to shrink...

Definitely this for newcomers learning.

Lots of tips here (Gaijin's videos tend to be very good) but mostly don't expect to absorb everything at once. You just need to get the basics down of the general game loop, and then later you can start digging into the nitty gritty details.

Try out a bunch of weapons in the training room and pick one that looks/feels cool, although be aware that some weapons will feel better at high tiers (like insect glaive) or certain loadouts (charge blade feels way better with faster charge times).

If you have questions later, I'm sure someone will be quite willing to give some pointers in the OT.

 

[Leafshield]

Lots of good posts here, but yeah, I'd start with the in-game weapon tutorials, and watch the basics from Gaijin Hunter or Arrekz on YouTube. It's an insanely deep game where you'll still be learning stuff dozens of hours in. I'm still learning a decade after I played my first MonHun.

One thing I specifically recommend for beginners of Rise though, is to play with the HUD settings in the options. After you've done a few hunts, so you know which items and actions you use the most, go on any basic expedition and play around with them. There's multiple options to set up shortcuts and you probably don't need them all on screen, all the time. You can set some to not be there at all if you're finding it confusing.

 

[Nosgoth]

Anyone buy from Voidu before? I pre-ordered Sunbreak from them and my order status says complete but I didn't get a key to register to my Steam account.

Click to shrink...

Usually these pre-order keys will become available on or a little before release day.