Topic: Monster Hunter Rise

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@NEStalgia
You’re better off sticking with melee weapons until you learn the game properly. Ranged weapons are more complicated, more skill dependent, and you can get wrecked if you don’t know how to use them properly.

The Hunting Horn is my recommendation. They revamped the entire weapon for MH Rise. It’s super fast and simple to use. You could say they dumbed it down, and I wouldn’t really argue with that, but it’s so gosh dang fun to play now, and since it was the most unpopular weapon in MH World- dead last according to Capcom data, I am 100% in favor of the change, and frankly, it might be my main weapon in this game because it’s just an absolute delight, and, it’s easily one of the most powerful weapons in the game damage wise. I think they purposely tuned it to do a little more damage than the other weapons to encourage people to actually use it, given its previous unpopularity. It’s the most wicked, flashy, fast, combo-driven weapon in the entire game now. It’s so good!

I killed all 3 monsters in 34 minutes using the Hunting Horn, and that’s after spending 3-5 minutes collecting spiribirds in the beginning of the quest. Great Izuchi, then Rathian, then Mizutsune, all back to back to back. For comparison, I was only able to manage 37 minutes with Charge Blade to kill all 3, and that’s the weapon I’ve mained for the last 3 Monster Hunter games in a row. So I have well over 1000 hours experience with the weapon- more than any other in the series, and yet I was able to reduce my kill time by about 8% with Hunting Horn, using a brand new overhauled design I had no experience with. With Switch Axe- the other weapon I’ve considered maining, I did it in 40 minutes. Granted, I’m sure once I have experience with it like Charge Blade, I could at least match that 37 minute time. Now, these are just rough times- I didn’t play it back to back, over and over trying to get the best times, I just happened to look at my clear time after I beat them and these were the times I noticed.

The Horn no longer works as it did previously, where you play 3 to 4 notes in a specific sequence for a song, and then use a recital button to activate it. Now, each note played twice in a row auto activates a buff. So X is one colored note, A is another colored note, and X+A is the 3rd colored note. You only have those three colors. Play any two notes in a row (so use the same button to attack twice in a row), and it auto activates Defense Up (S), or Healing Recovery (S), or whatever. The songs will vary by horn of course. But basically, you don’t have to worry about remembering song sequences anymore. Just attack naturally and your songs will stay activated constantly. The exception is self-recovery (boosts speed with weapon drawn, and I think it gives fencing skill to not bounce as well), which only requires one green note (X+A) but needs ZR as a recital to activate. It’s the only one where you have to use ZR to activate it. There is one larger buff that activates all three at the same time, and for that you play one note of each color back to back to back, in any order. Your last 4 notes will show on screen. All you have to do is get a red, green and blue back to back to back in any order. The thing is, when you do all 3 like that, it stores a special attack on your HUD which you can then activate at will whenever you want with ZR+X. It’s a really powerful combo. Save it for when you have a good 5 second opening and let it loose. Then be sure to build one up in storage again so that you have one at the ready at all times. You should be trying to use them as much as possible because the combo does crazy damage. The ZR recital button, aside from activating self recovery, is also just a really cool breakdance move with more i-frames for evasion than Evasion +2 skill. It’s nuts (and yes, you can use it to i-frame through roars, attacks, anything you want it you time it right).

Aside from that, there is one last special move you can do, and it also gets stored on the HUD to be used at will whenever you want. But this one you have to build up over time by dealing damage. It’s just a little circle that starts filling up. When it’s all the way full you can do the move. But this particular move, you want to activate it after that special ZR+X combo, right at the very end by using ZR. So basically, if your circle is full then just spam ZR while you’re doing that special combo to pull it off. It spins the horn on the ground while sticking straight up in the air, balancing on its handle, and knocks the monster several times with crazy damage.

And that’s it. That’s the entire Hunting Horn. Obviously you’ll have to learn the best combos to use but the best thing about the Horn is that you can really use any sequence of attacks in any order, and it’s going to make a pretty good combo. You can kind of button mash, just making sure to use two attacks back to back of each color once in a while to ensure your buffs stay active, or just experiment which sequence of attacks work best for you, and you’ll be fine. There are also the two wirebug moves, One of which (ZL+X) I will describe momentarily. The other (ZL+A) sees the hunter spiking the end of the Horn into the monster, then jamming out a note on the horn to send a Sonic blast and do like 150+ damage. I like both of them, but the one I’m about to discuss in a minute allows you to close distance with a monster, even through roars and attacks.

As for Mizu, he’s tough. When I first played the demo, it took me 40 minutes to beat him alone. I was rusty of course, but keep in mind, I do have over 2000 hours of experience in the series, and it still took me 40 minutes to beat him. Now, I can kill all 3 in 34 minutes, but not at first. It took a few hours of playing the demo to get back in the swing of things, and I slowly started noticing my times improving. 40 min eventually dropped to 30 min, eventually dropped to 20 min, etc.

You have to understand, the demo is tough. You don’t have the advantage of armor skills or eating before a hunt, upgrading your armor for more defense if you need it, etc. What you can do to help yourself survive, however, is collect spiribirds to max out your health and stamina (or come close to maxing out) before you take on the monster. This makes a huge difference because Mizu hits hard. Really hard. And if you don’t have enough health to take a hit or two you’re going to struggle. If you don’t keep your stamina up, you’re going to struggle. Using endemic life to your advantage as mentioned by the other member, such as throwing fire beetles or thunder beetles to blight him, laying traps to get free damage in, etc, can also help.

You also have to learn it’s attack patterns so that you know how to dodge. You have to learn how to discern its tells so that you know what attack it’s going to use and where it’s going to use it before it does it. When you hear the sonic spin dash sound when he’s enraged, you know he’s going to jump and do a massive crash landing doing crazy damage that can one shot you, so when you hear that sound, run or dodge roll out of the way, because he’s going to target whatever location you were in when the sound was made. When he’s sliding around in the water, he lifts his tail up and slaps it down, but he always does it to one side- the same side every time. Take note of that so that you can position yourself with a good dodge roll to avoid it when the time comes. He uses that move fairly frequently. When he’s spinning around blowing his water beam, you can use a well-timed wire bug into the air (ZL+X with weapon sheathed) and press A while in the air to hang from a wirebug for 5-8 seconds until he’s done with the attack. If you have your weapon drawn, and a spare wirebug, and you think you have enough time to sheath it, go for that. If you’re out of wire bugs or you don’t have enough time to sheath your weapon, then you’ll want to try to dodge roll through it with a perfectly timed evasion. It’s hard to pull off but it can be done. HOWEVER, if you’re using Horn (wink wink), and have weapon drawn... just use the ZR recital move the moment before it hits you to i-frame right through it! Or, if you think you can run up close to him before he turns around in your direction, there’s a gap underneath the water beam that you can dodge roll underneath right in front of his mouth. Or, you can just hug his body as he spins around, or if you’re far enough away you can just run away so that you’re out of range.

Aside from that, it’s just getting your reflex skills improved and learning his attacks, because you really have to play aggressively with him to keep dealing damage. It can be dangerous playing aggressive with him because he never stops moving. One of my favorite tricks to close distance with Mizu when using Horn, is using the wirebug attack move with ZL+X when weapon is drawn. You sling your wire bug forward in the direction you’re facing, and then yank yourself forward to close the gap with a crazy spinning move that does nice damage at the end of it, and the best part is, the move has super armor until the end combo, meaning you can use the move right before a monster roars and you’ll go right through it and land a juicy combo at the end of it.

I also recommend plotting out a path for the beginning of the hunt to gather as many spiribirds as possible. I figured out a path that can basically max out my health and my stamina in like 3, maybe 4 minutes. I always follow this path and get the spiribirds because it also gives me the opportunity to collect the puppet spider, which is an automatic mount, it lets me collect at least 2 elemental beetles, and at least one antidobra which both negates water blight from Mizu and prevents it from occurring while the buff is active.

You should Google search best optimal route to max out health. Stamina, I wouldn’t worry about too much that, because you’ll naturally get stamina spiribugs along the way, and it’s not the end of the world if it’s not 100% maxed out, but your health you definitely want to get as close to maxed out as possible. At least if you’re struggling, which... you are.

Also remember, the full game eases you in. By the time you get to Mizu you’ll have better armor than in the demo, can upgrade the armor, you’ll have actual skills, you’ll be eating before the hunt, and you’ll have experience under your belt hunting less dangerous monsters as you progress. You’ll be more familiar with your weapon, and you’ll have the training room to take advantage of to spend all the time you need mastering your weapon of choice (eh hem... cough cough... Horn).