Monster Hunter Rise expands on the more user-friendly experience from Monster Hunter World, and many of our Beginner Tips for World still apply to Rise. Hunting huge monsters with only a sword (or lance, bow, etc) can still be a daunting task, however. Check out our tips below to help get started on the right path to protecting Kamura Village.
Village for Solo, Hub for Online Multiplayer
Quests to hunt monsters (or, occasionally, gather materials) can be obtained from two different sources, the Village and the Hub. The Village, offered by Hinoa in the Steelworks area, features single-player only quests designed for a solo hunter. They are generally easier than Hub quests, offering a smooth, steady ramp in difficulty from the simple Great Izuchi to the more powerful threats like Almudron and Rathalos. While the credits roll after defeating Magnamalo, the Village Quests continue up to six star ratings, though still involving Low Rank monsters. That means you won’t be seeing High Rank-only monsters, like Rajang and Jyuratados, in the Village. For those beasts, you’ll need to go the Hub.
The Gathering Hub is where you’ll find Minoto, who offers the Hub quests. These are more aligned with Monster Hunter’s traditional difficulty and multiplayer, allowing up to four hunters to join a hunt. Like the Village they have star ratings, but the the stars are not equal to the Village (a 2-star Hub quest is much more difficult than a 2-star Village quest). Like the Village, after completing 4-5 quests you’ll be given an Urgent quest to finish before the next tier opens up.
After defeating the Apex Arzuros in an Urgent Rampage quest, you’ll unlock High Rank difficulty, where monsters are much more challenging, but you can also craft better armor and weapons. Now the real Monster Hunter begins!
In either mode, make sure you always check the Optional Subquests and always have five selected. You’ll be doing all of them while hunting – gathering plants, defeating monsters, and completing quests in certain regions. The reward of Armor Spheres lets you keep your favorite armor upgraded for maximum defense.
Hunters Rise Up (with Wirebugs)
Wirebugs truly put the “rise” in Monster Hunter Rise, giving each hunter the ability to quickly swing into the sky, or propel forward. Use ZL + X or A with your weapon sheathed to swing in a direction and wall climb (while holding the sprint button, R), while ZL+B can be used to quickly recover from being knocked back by an rampaging monster.
When your weapon is drawn, the wirebug grants two new abilities to each weapon, using ZL+X and ZL+A. For example, the Charge Blade gains a defensive stance that blocks incoming attacks and charges phials, with the other wirebug move sends me leaping forward and shifting into axe mode. Pay attention to your wirebug charges at the bottom of the screen, as they come back after a short cooldown.
Switch ’em Up
Switch skills are new to Monster Hunter Rise, and will gradually unlock as you progress through the story. Switch skills provide an alternate ability that you equip just like a piece of equipment via the Item Box, and they range from minor changes to drastically changing your weapon’s abilities. The first Charge Blade Switch skill completely removes the ability to charge the sword, but transforms the axe into a spinning chainsaw blade of death – if you can risk staying in the slower axe mode for longer.
A total of three switch skills are available for every single weapon, but unlocking the third skill is a bit trickier. You’ll need to start progressing through High Rank difficulty in Hub quests, beginning with four star quests. Every tier a new group of 4-5 quests will unlock with a weapon in the title. Completing the quest will unlock the third switch skill for that weapon.
Wyvern Rider
Technically riding monsters isn’t a new feature, but Rise greatly expands Wyvern Riding by giving you control of the monster. When you deal a certain amount of damage, the option to ride will become available, and you’ll leap onto the monster using your wirebugs.
While riding, you have two main options to maximize your limited time. The first is to simply slam the monster into the nearest wall using Y (and B to recover), causing lots of damage. It’s a solid option for when there are no other monsters nearby. If there are, you’ll want to run toward them and engage in a big beast on beast battle! Using A and X for attacks, and once the meter is full, A+X for a finishing move that downs both monsters (and often leaves the other one ridable). It also drops a ton of monster material you can snatch up from the resulting mayhem.
Fluffy Bunny Dango
“Never hunt on an empty stomach” is just as true in Rise as in previous Monster Hunter games. Before each hunt (or in your tent after the hunt begins) you can select up to three dango balls to feast on. Each has a different beneficial property, like making healing potions heal more, speeding up weapon sharpening, or reducing water elemental damage. There’s a chance they may not activate as each dango includes a listed success rate. Additional dango options will unlock as you progress through the story.
Regardless of which combination you choose, eating also increases your health and stamina by a substantial amount. Eat the right meal for your upcoming hunt, or rely on your favorites.
Hunter Connect with Friends
Monster Hunter Rise doesn’t have Squads like World. Instead you’ll want to utilize the Hunter Connect feature to easily play with friends. It’s not the easiest thing to set up, but in the pause menu, shuffle over to Hunter Connect. Create a new Connect group, turn auto-invite off, then manually invite your friends to your game. Once they’re in the lobby, you can invite them to the Connect.
In the future, you or your friends can go Online and create the Connect lobby, and subsequent friends can quickly join it. One major benefit Rise has over World – you can actually see and interact with each other in the village!
Meowcenaries for Busy Work
Why concern yourself with hunting for certain bones, ores, and small monster parts, when you can hire a team of adorable palicoes and palamutes to do it for you? At the Buddy Plaza you can hire additional buddies to work as Meowcenaries. Select the buddies, the region, and the collection path, and they’ll go to work. You’ll need to wait a few hunts before they return with all the goods. By selecting certain paths you can focus them toward certain creature parts or gather points.
The Argosy’s submarines are similarly related, as you send a single buddy off to gather material by providing one of your own items as a sample. For example, sending them with a spider web may result in different bugs being collected. You can unlock additional submarines by progressing through the story and completing certain requests. The Argosy is also found in the Buddy Plaza, and occasionally has rare goods to purchase directly from the merchant.
Monster Hunter Rise is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
