Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

@CJD87
I think the people focused on "the meta" don't know how to have fun in games. They boil everything down to an equation and find where the derivative is zero. It's all attack, affinity, etc. Like, ya good damage is important but there's a lot of other things that matter too, and many ways to achieve more damage (evasion helps avoid getting hit = more time damaging, less time chugging potions and on the ground, sharpness helps with damage but also prevents bouncing, etc)

I'm probably going for the Scorned Magnamalo one next- depending how good it is. I havent seen the final form yet since I'm only MR75 (but I have a Magnamalo mantle burning a hole in my item pouch so why not). Normally status would be meh for GS, but thanks to the amazing surge Slash combos, they're absolutely viable now.

For about 100 hrs in Sunbreak I wasn't using my Switch Skills. I just preferred True Charge Slash, the normal, old-school 3 charge attacks and the new Strongarm Stance counter.

But then I fought Furious Rajang... ya. Lemme just say, the traditional slower attacks weren't working very well. Swapped over to Blue Scroll with Surge Slash combo, Rage Slash instead of True Charge Slash, and Hunting Edge instead of Strongarm Stance (I keep it on for when I need to do mount damage), and there was an immediate difference. That's when I realized there really is utility in Switch Skill Swap. Sticking with "your favorites" on one scroll only does yourself a disservice. Now I swap back and forth as needed. Seregios, Rajang, Violet Mizutsune... blue scroll all day. But if I can make due with the red scroll I prefer to stick with that if possible.

@StarPoint
Besides just playing and committing to learn the game (no substitute for first hand experience), reading and watching YT tutorials is a huge help, finding a weapon you love and want to master is key, and hunting with others who can teach you the ropes. Unfortunately most ppl here play on Switch and there's no cross play, but you can always play with randoms. Just be aware you're unlikely to find anyone on Steam, as the player pool is about 5x smaller than on Switch, and Steam segregates MP by region which further reduces the pool of potential players, and you're early game, while those still playing are likely grinding end game. But if you have a friend who can hunt with you, I absolutely recommend it. Most of us here, when we got into the series, it was hunting with others that really helped us grasp how the game works.

I did have a starter guide written in this thread from the launch window after base Rise dropped, but you'd have to search for it. Maybe I can dig it up and paste it here. Hold on...

@StarPoint
WIREBUG GUIDE

Weapon Sheathed
ZL + X: wiredash 45 degrees upward in direction character is facing
ZL + A: wiredash straight across in direction character is facing (rarely use)
ZL + ZR: wiredash in whichever direction reticule is aimed, which can be controlled with gyro

• When wiredashing in the air you can get a free mid-air hop/roll to extend your airtime and travel by hitting B. You can also hang in midair by hitting A.

Weapon Drawn
ZL + X: silkbind attack #1
ZL + A: silkbind attack #2
ZL + B: wirefall recovery when knocked down (LEARN THIS, UTMOST PRIORITY, IT NEEDS TO BE INSTANT MUSCLE MEMORY)

BASICS GUIDE

You'll start with a Longsword equipped, but there are 14 weapon types, and each is like choosing a different fighter in a fighting game. They're all completely different and make the game feel completely different to play. Try them all out. You're given one of each in your item box. Go to training room and see which one gels with you best, then practice the combos until you get fluent with the weapon. Hunters Notes has some, or you can watch a YT tutorial.

Then practice the wirebugs. I can't stress this enough. They're crucial to so many aspects of the game, be it traversal, attacking, evading and recovering, etc.

Crafting is important, can be done from the item box and you can enable auto crafting for out in the field when gathering. But to start, you'll want mega potions, antidotes, and well done steaks which come from raw meat. You can trade for raw meat with Kamura points from Rondine at the Argosy, then have canteen cook them into well done steak for you. Beats the old days of having to carve meat from small monsters and cook one by one with your BBQ Spit in the field.

Also, eat a meal before every hunt. No exceptions. It's a must. It increases your health and stamina for that hunt and can give you extra skills.

@StarPoint
15 POINT GUIDE

GAME SETTINGS
Target Arrow: HIDE
Player Silhouette: TYPE 1

CONTROLS
Button Hold: SHORT
Sheath: MANUAL
Dash: L3 or R

CAMERA
Cam Distance: 0

GYROSCOPE
Gyro Functionality: ON
Right Analog Up/Down: ON
Normal Gyro (Camera): OFF

#1 Run by holding R or clicking Left Analog (provided settings match the above recommendations). Cannot run with weapon drawn.

#2 Always grab supplies from the blue item box at the start of a quest. You can enter the tent to restock supplies from your personal stash if you run out mid-hunt.

#3 Holding L allows you access to two menus- the radial menu and the item bar. For the radial menu, use the right analog to point at the shortcut item you want to use. Shortcut items can be changed in the menu via + for Menu, then Radial Menu Settings, then Quests, then Shortcut 1, then use right analog to point at the item to swap out, then select Item Pouch, and find the item to swap it with. For the item bar, simply use Y/A to pan left/right through the list to find the item you wish to use. Press Y while your weapon is sheathed to use a selected item.

NOTE: For Radial Menu, I recommend Mega Potions (heal), Antidotes (cure poison), Well Done Steaks (Increase depleted max stamina) and Nulberries (cure elemental blights), and the Palamute icon (Ride Palamute). You have more slots than that but these are ones that are really useful. Later you may add Max Potions and other such things, but for now, these are the basics.

#4 Try out all the weapons and see which one you like most. MH is a game that’s all about mastering a single weapon, not bouncing back and forth (unless you’re more experienced and have already mastered those weapons). So you should find a weapon you like and then practice, practice, practice. Learn the combos. Take an Expedition quest and sit by camp practicing combos, or, go to the training room. In the + menu, find Hunter’s Notes to see some basic moves and combos for the weapon. Watch a Gaijin Hunter, Arrekz or Rurikhan tutorial on YouTube for your weapon. Make sure it’s a Rise specific tutorial as moves have changed since World. I recommend Long Sword, Hunting Horn or Dual Blades for new players. Sword and Shield is often recommended but, personally I don’t find it very satisfying to use. Perhaps you might though. I prefer the more complex Switch Axe and Charge Blade, which are the two weapons that transition and morph between two forms.

#5 Explore and gather herbs, bugs, seeds, mushrooms, etc. Crafting plays a huge role in the full game. Auto crafting will at least craft some things for you if you gather the right materials. Green Herbs make potions, and Honey with Potions make Mega Potions. Flashbugs make flash bombs, etc.

#6 Always prepare for each quest adequately via eating a pre-hunt meal at canteen in town, and gathering as many spirit birds as possible once the quest starts. Green extend your health bar permanently for that quest, yellow extends stamina, red extends attack and orange extends defense. Always eat a pre-hunt meal to extend your Health and Stamina and apply food skills, but spirit birds also do this and stack, so they should not be ignored. Learn a quick 3 minute path that gets a lot of bang for buck with spirit birds and get used to running that path at the start of every quest to boost your health and stamina before finding the monster.

#7 The wirebug is crucial. Commit it to muscle memory. With weapon sheathed, hold ZL to use the wirebug (NOTE: If using a ranged weapon, since ZL is your aiming button, the wirebug button gets mapped to R instead of ZL). ZL + X = 45 degree angle upwards. ZL + A = straight shot across. ZL + ZR = wherever your reticle is pointing, which is easy to fine tune your aim if you have Gyro enabled with the recommended settings above. In combat, with your weapon drawn, you have two separate wirebug attacks, one with ZL + X and one with ZL + A Learn what they are for your weapon and how you can use them to close distance with a monster or go right into a combo, etc.

#8 Use the Wirefall technique. When hit by the monster and you go flying, immediately use ZL + B + (direction you point with left analog) to spring back to your feet with the wirebug. Since monster Hunter is based on animation commitments, getting knocked down can put you at a serious disadvantage due to the time it takes to recover and get back on your feet. Drill this move into your mind. Etch it in your memory. ZL + B when hit to do a wirefall recovery. Best new move in the game.

#9 Use the camera lock-on via the Target Cam feature. If you click the right analog, it toggles the lock-on icon in the top right between different monsters. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS lock-on to the monster before you start fighting them. Once locked onto a specific monster, tap L at any time to swing the camera directly at them. This is also something you need to etch into your memory. You should constantly be tapping L to adjust the camera as needed during a fight. Not to say you shouldn’t use the right analog stick for the camera at all, but it shouldn’t be your main method of retargeting your camera at the monster. That’s what lock-on is for. DON’T NEGLECT LOCK-ON!

#10 Keep an eye on your health, stamina and sharpness meter. The health bar is the top green bar, the stamina bar is the yellow bar underneath, and the sharpness bar is the knife icon with colors underneath that. Always try to keep your sharpness in the green. Not only do you do less damage at lower levels of sharpness but you can actually bounce off of the monster when you attack. Not good. It locks you into a bounce animation that can get you killed. To sharpen, use a whetstone. You can easily access your whetstone with the radial menu (Hold L, point analog straight up at the yellow whetstone icon and release). You can also sharpen while riding your palamute, which is a good technique to use if you need to sharpen in the middle of combat. As for health, use potions, mega potions or max potions. For stamina, your max amount slowly decreases over time. Any red portion of the stamina bar is lost max stamina, and can be replenished by useing a ration given by the blue item box, or a well done steak (which will also be in your radial menu now if you followed this guide). Always upkeep your stamina. It’s sucks having half a stamina bar.

#11 Don’t leave your weapon drawn in between attacks. Don’t do it! When your weapon is drawn your mobility sucks. It absolutely destroys your movement speed. This is a game where you are supposed to sheath your weapon (tap Y while weapon is drawn) in between bursts of attacks. General cadence of battle should be: wait for opening —> draw attack and follow up with a short combo —> once you see a tell that the monster is about to attack, dodge roll out of the way —> sheath weapon —> run around and reposition —> rinse and repeat. It should be a constant back and forth between attack, then sheath, attack, then sheath.

#12 Experiment with your items. While you should generally keep mega potions selected on your item bar for quick and easy use with Y when in a jam, don’t be afraid to pan through the items and try some of them out. You can lay traps, set bombs (small ones can be thrown, large ones must be detonated with attack), throw elemental beetles you gather, etc. Don’t neglect the tools in your kit!

#13 If a monster is getting low on health, two things will happen. They will start limping if they leave the area, and a small blue icon will appear under their lock-on icon in the top right corner. That lets you know they can be captured (unfortunately you cannot capture in the demo because the game does not give you tranquilizer bombs) and are near death. If the monster retreats to its nest and goes to sleep, the first hit to wake it up does double damage. Try to set larger barrel bombs by its head, then attack his head to wake it up, making sure you hit the bomb first so that the explosion does the first damage and gets doubled. You can also use ZL + X to wiredash into the air at a 45 degree angle, and dunk a large bomb downward onto the monster. If you set two bombs near their head, then bomb dunk them from the sky with the third, not only does it do major damage, it does it with crazy style.

#14 Mounting and riding monsters. Most aerial attacks and wirebug attacks deal mount damage. If you deal enough you can mount the monster and head ram them into walls to do big damage, or use them to attack other monsters. Be sure to do the tutorial quest teaching this mechanic.

#15 Hunt online with others and learn through observation. There’s no substitute for watching a veteran Hunter with your own two eyes.

@JaxonH Thank you for sharing those notes! I will absolutely read over these before playing next

@StarPoint
No problem.

I know it's a lot, and even then it's just the tip of the iceberg, but you don't have to master the game in a weekend. You learn gradually over time. Start with the basics (which I've tried to boil it down to) and go from there. As you play, if something doesn't make sense, just ask here or Google it. You'll accumulate knowledge naturally and before you know it, you'll understand quite a bit.

If you're using a Dualsense or Switch Pro Controller, I have made a Steam community controller config that imitates the Nintendo Switch version with gyro aiming activated with the left shoulder trigger (so you can use gyro to aim the ZL+ZR wiredash and use gyro when throwing items and stuff). The config is also programmed to toggle to a separate Gunner mode that also activates gyro for the right trigger. So one mode for melee weapons and another mode for ranged weapons + Insect glaive. I believe you click the analogs to toggle. Description should say.

Just look for the config posted by username ActionJaxonH

@JaxonH Absolutely. You guys here clearly know a lot about the game so I’m sure any confusion I have will be cleared up here lol. I am using an Xbox controller right now but I will for sure check out that config if I end up using a dualsense

@JaxonH I hard agree 100%

What Youtubers and Speedrunners seem to forget is that 'Meta' often results in Glass Cannon builds... and even a highly skilled player (non-speedrunner) can result in carting when playing at high level!

DPS potential is relative to the player, and where Greatsword is concerned I honestly see a lot more DPS scope by playing Surge Slash / ACS / Rage Slash. Strongarm - - > TCS is for sure a beast with damage, but incredibly tricky to land vs fast monsters (your example of Furious George is on point).
So unless the player is a child-prodigy at landing TCS, I think the other skill options available are more than viable!

On my red scroll (90% use) I have SSC / ACS / RageSlash and on blue scroll (10% use) I have Regular Charge Combo / Strongarm / TCS. Blue scroll and TCS is pretty much reserved for wakeup hits. On both scrolls I use conventional Tackle and the almighty Power Sheathe lol!

Worth Noting - with recent updates, especially new augment process TU3, it is SO feasible to max out the damage items (AB / CE / WEX / CB / Agitator / Burst) and STILL have room for plenty of comfort / QoL.
All my GS builds have WW lv1 / EE lv1 / QS lv3.... can't live without them!

Currently I'm working a blast build using Scorned Magna sword - looks like below:
ATK 404 / DEF 820 (numbers include charms and talons)
AB 7 / CE 7 / Agitator 5 / CB 3 / WEX 3 / QS 3 / StunResist 3 / Defiance 3 / Burst 3 / Handicraft 1 / EE 1 / Flinch 1 / WW 1 / Embolden 1 / Spiribird 1 / Foray 1 / Intrepid Heart 1 / Buildup Boost 1

Using Risen Teostra Head and Chest, Risen Mizuha Sleeves, Onmyo Waist and Flaming Espinas Legs. Charm is AB3/Spiribird1 2-0-0

**NB 1 amazing QoL skill I highly recommend is 'Intrepid Heart'! Comes cheap on Flaming Espinas legs, which are a great armor piece even before crafting! If you play surge slash aggressively you can quickly/easily trigger Intrepid Heart - and it is basically a literal lifesaver. I won't run any sets without it**

@StarPoint Hey! Rise was my entry game to the series, and I found it remarkably overwhelming... with many many mechanics!

@JaxonH has given a ton of sound advise... and I'd recommend you ask on this forum through this thread if you have any questions?

Reddit is pretty vast, and GameFAQs a bit toxic (!), but this thread and group are great.

My personal first tip - try all the weapons and get a feel for what you like. I started with Dual Blades, but found I was terrible with them so then moved on to Greatsword. Greatsword is a relatively simple weapon, and I'd recommend it as it starts to teach you to pay attention to monster pauses/openings - which is crucial in then knowing when to land a hit.
GS becomes even better the more you unlock, and has great versatility in how to play.

But once you find a weapon you 'click' with I'd suggest taking it for a spin, and also watching some Youtube beginner tutorial videos on how to play. The early monsters aren't too rough.

2nd tip - research what 'skills' fit best with your weapon! All armor pieces come with attached skills, and some skills will benefit your weapon greatly whilst others will be effectively useless. So research what skills you should be aiming for and then select armor pieces accordingly. You probably want to start with a nice mix of Damage with Comfort... ensuring you do enough attack, but equally ensuring you don't die!

Let us know what weapon you choose?

@JaxonH Oh yeah, all the different banter is great for sure. Gives me heavy Dragon's Dogma vibes. I hope the follower system becomes a mainstay for the franchise going forward

@MajinSoul
I hope so too. So many great strides forward in Rise Sunbreak that should continue in future entries.

It's gonna be hard adjusting to no wirebugs though. Obviously the wirebugs are a one time deal, and I can't imagine any alternative ideas that would be as fun and rewarding movement-wise. Like, going back to World and MHGU after playing Rise is difficult. The bugs are so integral to the pace of traversal and combat, it's a system shock when you no longer have them.

I suppose palamutes becoming a permanent addition would at least solve the slower traversal. And with a slinger or something there could still be verticality. So maybe it won't be as jarring provided some of these other additions are kept.

But man... I just really love the wirebugs. It makes me sad thinking about how we'll never likely get another MH game with them again. At least Rise + Sunbreak is a fat, juicy game with insane endgame content that can last for a loooong time

Push Square and Pure Xbox have reported on Rise rumoured to be coming to PS5/Series X and a second expansion:

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/11/rumour-monster-hunter...

@Grumblevolcano Just saw that. VERY weird, if true. All I can think is that the next-gen MH home console game is running substantially behind schedule.

This would be the first time a MH game received two expansions in a row as well. Seems weird that Capcom would wait this long to reveal the existence of a second expansion.

@Grumblevolcano
Heck yes!!!

Gimme that second expansion! With the recent leak that the next MH is also coming to Switch 2, I'm perfectly OK with Rise going multiplat. All games go to all systems, as it should be.

I want more content. So bring it!

@Ralizah Could be that Rise massively outsold expectations such that Capcom wants the next MH to release on Switch 2 the same day as the other systems.

@Grumblevolcano That would align with recent rumors about the upcoming MH game, at least.

This rumor only makes sense if the next game is either delayed or launching across all console platforms simultaneously in 2024. Which would also suggest a 2024 release date for the successor, I suppose.

@Ralizah
This is true. Or at least, 2024 at the latest. Basically, Switch 2 should be out by the time the next MH drops. Doesn't necessarily need to be a launch title, but the system does need to be available to be day and date (which I expect it will be).

Just imagine what else they could bring to Rise. Oh my gosh. We could still get Ahtal Ka. Gogmazios. All the big endgame monsters that were MIA in Sunbreak.

It does beg the question though- with how robust the endgame currently is, will a new expansion add difficulty beyond that? It would kinda have to, right? Unless it's just another master rank expansion different monsters.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
Not like the experience would be any different anyways. Aside from having to pay $60/yr to play online. And it'll likely be $60 too. So... not sure why anyone would want to play on PS5 instead of PC/Switch. For PS only gamers it makes sense, but the versions currently available are cheaper and offer advantages that won't be present on PS

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
Pretty sure it'll be the same as the PC version graphically.

Wait, are we sure it was said another expansion is coming? And not that the base game would release, and then afterward Sunbreak?

Cause I'm starting to think a 2nd expansion is not in the cards.

I highly doubt another expansion is happening, if another MH is coming, it's MH5 or a spinoff game of some kind.