Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate is a game that people may not always have the luxury of playing with other people. After all, you might be taking your Nintendo Switch on the go. You may not have access to the internet, which means not having possible immediate access to up to three extra hunters. Fortunately, this installment does a lot to make it easier for someone to function on their own.

Part of this comes from Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate’s size. Players start out in Bherna, but there are actually four towns you can visit in this entry. Kokoto, Pokke, and Yukumo are all in the game as well. While Bherna is exclusive to Generations and Generations Ultimate, these other three appeared in past games. Kokoto was the hub in Monster Hunter Freedom, Pokke showed up in Monster Hunter Freedom 2 and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd was where someone may have seen Yukumo. Visiting these places is an offline affair. In addition to local flavor and tapping into nostalgia, it gives you access to quests you can not take online. You need to prove yourself on your own.

You can contribute to each village by taking general and key village quests given by the chiefs and people looking for help. Completing these quests gets you points for each village, which can let you unlock more quests and specific rewards. You could end up earning Village Tickets from taking part in these quests, which can be used for crafting. Since playing online takes you to a hub, you can only take these sorts of quests on alone. These are both educational and challenging, not to mention they were made with offline adventures in mind. All of them are absolutely doable and doled out as you show you can handle things on your own. Think of them as not only a way to prove yourself to these village elders, but to yourself. Then, when you do go online and play with others, you do not have to worry you are being a drag on the community.

The use of felynes in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate also help with the solo experience. You can have two of these cat friends by your side on a hunt, which is handy. Since they can have different sorts of biases, which might make them better attackers, supporters, or gatherers, you can build up teams of kitty friends who can be set for any sort of offline situation. If you take one of the quests where you are just trying to get at least 1000 points or gather in a space for 50 minutes, then having gatherers on your side can be a huge help. When you go into an actual fight, having a felyne that loves to use bombs or bring out a healing horn would be a good idea. Having these two extra AI allies is quite a boon, if you find yourself needing to go it alone.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate’s Prowler mode is another fun way to play when you can’t get together with some friends or strangers. (You can be a felyne both online and offline.) This puts you in the shoes of one of your felynes. It is one of the better ways to stockpile crafting resources. When you are a Felyne, you do not have to waste pouch space on equipment like bug nets or pickaxes. By building up this foundation as a felyne, you might have all of the items in your box to automatically craft Mega Potions, gathering tools, and other helpful equipment when in an online hub, so you do not have to waste time gathering when on a hunting mission with other people. A lot of my offline time has been spent using a fuzzy friend to collect Bnahabra and Vespoid parts, as an example, as it can be tricky to get all the bits and pieces you need and I would feel bad making other people waste their time while I made butterfly armor.

Ideally, you should eventually be playing Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate with people as often as you can. Working together as a group, cooperating and supporting one another, is what makes Monster Hunter games really shine. But with Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, we have an installment that works really well for when you do have to go it alone. The four villages offer different places to visit, each one offering quests that boosts your standing there and allows you to work toward rewards like new crafting options or items for your cards. When you are offline, having two felynes with you lets you have some palico pals who compliment the situation and provide specific sorts of help. I even feel like Prowler mode, where you can be a felyne, can be more fun and helpful when you are playing alone, since you can work at your leisure to gather the items you might need on online adventures. Being with other people is probably best, but going solo can be quite fun and productive in this entry too.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate will come to the Nintendo Switch on August 28, 2018.