Hunting 101: 17 tips for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate newbies | Technobubble

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Newbies. Beginners. Fresh-faced victims.

Every player of Monster Hunter has been just that at some point in their monster-hunting career. Take me for example. I remember progressing through the village quests in my first monster hunter game, which was an import copy from Japan. Many hours in, I was wondering why I was taking so much damage while tickling monsters to death in hunts that took close to 50 minutes. Then I realized you could upgrade your weapons and armor.

Doh!

You, on the other hand, don't have to be a noob like I was. Out of the kindness of my heart, I've compiled tips for beginners, which I've culled from hours and hours and hours of playing the Japanese and Western versions of various Monster Hunter games.

To borrow a phrase from movie Loki, "When do we sta~hht?" Right now, my friend. Right now. Here are some tips to get you started on the right track for Monster Hunter Ultimate 4, which is arguably the best Monster Hunter game to date.

Get rollin': I've personally introduced three people to Monster Hunter, who ended up being lifers of the game. And yes, that is suspiciously the same amount of people I need to form a full hunting party. That, my friends, is what Will Ferrell's George Bush calls "strategery." So what was the first thing I taught them? Learn to roll, that's what. See, in addition to dodging attacks, rolling is also a great way to cancel combos so you can reposition in a jiffy if you have to. If you're constantly getting mauled by monsters because you're waiting for your attack to naturally end in order to move without rolling, well, you're doing it wrong. Also note that you're invincible for fractions of a second at the start of your roll so use that to your advantage. Pressing the roll button while on a wall also lets you dash climb as well.

It's a bird, it's a plane: So what's the second thing I teach beginners, you ask? That would be the Superman dive. A turbocharged version of the roll, you can initiate the dive by hitting the roll button while dashing with your weapon sheathed. Thanks to its long invincibility, the Superman dive serves as a useful emergency maneuver when all heck breaks loose. Just use it judiciously as it roots you to your landing spot for a while and makes you a sitting duck as you stand up. I guarantee it'll save you several times in your monster hunting career, though.

Stay on target: As someone who used to channel my inner Vulcan and do "the claw" to move my character and the game camera at the same time, I was one happy camper when the targeting camera was introduced. Since then, I've rarely used either the physical or virtual directional pad to keep track of the game's boss monsters. To activate it, just tap the boss monster's icon on the touchpad when available then tap the "L" shoulder button once (a double tap resets the camera to the front of your character). If you insist on using the virtual pad, do not use the stylus for goodness' sakes. That's doing it wrong, too.

Step away from the mounted monster: Mounting is one of several new additions to MH4U. Just keep in mind that attacking a monster while a teammate is mounting it is a great way to make the mount attempt fail. Don't be Mounted-Monster-Hitting Rob Lowe. Just pop a potion, sharpen, dance, pick your nose, whatever — just don't hit a monster being mounted.

Just sheathe, baby: The best way to get grief online is by moving around with your weapon out, especially when using, say, a Great Sword or Lance. Yes, there are times when it's OK to move with your weapon out, especially when you're right next to a monster and using a weapon that doesn't reduce your mobility as much. When closing a large gap between you and a monster, however, it's generally better to move with your weapon sheathed so you can cover space faster.

It's a trap: There will be times you'll want to trap a monster instead of just exterminating it. Perhaps the quest requires capturing the monster, which is indicated by a white icon instead of red. Maybe capturing provides a greater chance of obtaining a part you want than carving a dead beast. You may even be involved in a hunt that isn't going well where you or your team has fainted twice and you don't want to risk a third faint that fails the mission. Regardless, capturing a monster requires having a trap, at least two tranquilizer bombs and a greatly weakened monster. You'll know when you've dealt enough damage to trap a monster when it starts limping away. Otherwise, having the skill Capture Guru let's you know a monster is ready for capture because its map icon starts blinking (via paintballing it or having the Autotracker skill active). Here's a tip for throwing those tranq bombs. If a monster is far away, pressing forward lets you hurl the tranq bomb, well, forward. If you're too close to a trapped boss monster, however, especially smaller ones, doing so can let the tranq bomb sail over them. In that case, just have the directional stick in the neutral position so you aim the tranq bomb at your feet.

Satisfy your hunger: No, you don't have to grab a Snickers. But unless you're doing a Paw Pass mission or a quest that's super easy, you'll want to eat at the canteen before every mission to increase your life and stamina for the hunt and also activate Felyne skills. These skills vary and can do things like boost your defense or even weaken boss monsters. You can also use food to temporarily nullify an elemental weakness in your armor prior to a hunt, which helps if your armor has a severe fire weakness, for example, and you're facing a fire-breathing monster. On a related note, you'll want to level up the canteen through village and online quests or villager requests to get the best bonuses.

The gathering: Get in the habit of using gathering spots in the various maps or carving meat from certain monsters, especially at the beginning of the game. This will allow you to get the necessary mats to create Mega Potions to refill your health or Well-done Steaks to replenish your stamina. It also helps speed up crafting gear. Lord knows how many times I needed to make a weapon or armor and I already had a Hercudrome or Machalite Ore handy while my cousin has to go run and do a Paw Pass gathering mission to get them. Tools you'll want to buy early on include pickaxes for mining, bug nets for catching insects and a barbecue spit for cooking well-done meat (just look at the bone while cooking and wait for it to change color as the jingle ends before yanking it from the spit. You can look at the meat, too, but I find looking at the bone makes it easier to spot the color change). Start buying book of combos as money allows to increase your success rate for combining items as well.

You got the touch: You got the power~. Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Anywho, take the time to customize your touchscreen to streamline normally cumbersome operations like picking or combining items. Whatever makes hunting more efficient helps the overall experience.

Level up the Wyporium: The Wyporium duplication cart that's operated by the Wycoon replaces farms for acquiring plants, insects and mushrooms. This is great later in the game so you don't have to go out and gather stuff like herbs, sap plants, honey and blue mushrooms anymore. Just make sure you have one of the items you want in your inventory so it can be duplicated (not everything can be but a lot of useful stuff is possible to duplicate). You can also trade for items in the Wyporium so you'll want to expand its selection. To level it up, you'll need to do stuff like go through your village quests and unlock villager requests. Doing so will increase your number of carts and markets to trade with. To increase the number of items produced with each duplication, keep duplicating items and it will upgrade the yields for each category.

Village people: Speaking of the village, it's in your best interests to go through the village quests. For starters, it helps ease you into the game and learn the finer details of hunting without being carried by other players. It also helps you level up stuff like your blacksmith, carts and canteens as well as unlock the Wyverian research facility that provides Wyceum items and those all important Wystones you need to effectively fight extreme monsters.

Cat's meow: Cat helpers known as Felynes can be an important asset in the game, especially for beginners, so you'll want to level them up. Like human teammates, they can attract a monster's attention to give yourself a breather during solo or two-man hunts. They can also inflict damage on monsters — I remember bringing two cats during a Tigrex hunt and they managed to cut its tail without me even hitting the tail once. Healer cats can also cure you of poison or heal your life bar in a pinch. Yes, they can make a monster less predictable or difficult to chase around sometimes. Overall, though, they can be useful, especially for new hunters. Plus they can help you fish out stuff like Scatterfish, Arrowana, etc., via a mini-game.

Fairy tail: Speaking of tail cutting, you'll want to get used to slicing off monster tails when using edged weapons for extra carves. This allows you a chance to get extra monster materials, including those rare plates and rubies. You can also break or wound a monster's body parts like their head, back, chest or wings for extra rewards at the end of a mission.

Camper amazing: Yeah, that was a horrible pun. What's not horrible, though, is the ability to heal your HP and get rid of status ailments by taking a nap in camp during the middle of a hunt. This is especially useful when you're running out potions or get poisoned and have no antidotes in your pouch. It doesn't heal stamina though so make sure you have rations or well-done steaks.

Chest-oh: Supplies from the item box found at camp can be quite useful, especially at low rank when you're not quite as stocked with supplies and still can't make stuff like paintballs. The rations are also helpful for maxing out your stamina at the start of each hunt without tapping into your steak supply or before you get your canteen leveled up. You can even use it to stock up on items like bullets, for example. As someone who normally guns, I usually start playing as a Blademaster first to save money and raid the item boxes for bullets. By the time I switch to gunning, I've got a bunch of ammo ready to go without spending a dime.

Mad skills, yo: As you progress through the game, you'll want to start paying attention to stuff like your armor skills as well as elemental strengths and weaknesses of your gear and the monsters you face. You can manipulate skills through armor, talismans and decorations.

Depending on your playstyle and weapon of choice, you'll want to tailor your skills to maximize your fighting prowess, whether it be getting Guard Up for shield-bearing weapons or Fast Charge for weapons with charge attacks. Some weapons also have special properties of note. Did you know, for example, that the Altair insect glaive made from Seregios parts automatically sharpens itself a bit when you roll? That's actually pretty neat!

This is the end: If a hunt is really going bad, you can do a few things. One is to quit the quest, which fails the mission but restores all your pouch items to their original state before the hunt. If you want to salvage part of the quest and keep stuff you've acquired during the hunt, however, another thing you can do is fulfill the mission's subquest. Once you do, the option to end via subquest becomes available via the pause menu.

Got any more tips to share? Post them in the comments and I'll add the good ones to the article.

MORE TIPS!

On your knees: Sometimes, it's a great idea to get down on your knees, and I'm not only talking about it as a way to get rid of that nasty Seregios laceration status. Crouching is also a great way of speeding up gathering for stuff like herbs and honey. It's also great for ensuring you get all those carves against large monsters like Dah'ren Moran. To crouch, make sure you've got your directional stick at neutral and press the roll button.

Egg-cellent tactics: Tired of chasing around that Rathalos or Rathian? If a map happens to have a dragon nest that allows you to pick up a wyvern egg, go ahead and take one. Like Charlie Sheen to tiger blood, the dragons will actually be drawn to you and head for your location. That's normally a pain in egg quests but quite the convenience in regular hunts.