(Fixed Terms! 02.23.15)

There is a new system called 極限状態 (kyokugen-jyoutai) that many of us are just calling “Extreme”.極限 means to the limit, or extreme, to the edge of what is possible. The Official EN term is “APEX”.

There are a few ways this new concept affects gameplay in Monster Hunter 4G.

First, monsters. When a monster catches the Frenzy, it used to be then last legs of the monster and they would stay like that until they died. The hunter, on the other hand, could conquer the virus and gain raised affinity and power.

Apex Monsters

When a monster overcomes the Frenzy they enter what is called Apex condition. They get insanely powerful, most attacks will bounce off them, they get fast and erratic, elemental damage/status damage won’t penetrate them, they are immune to traps, etc. Basically they are walking walls. So what do you do except use mind’s eye or run for your life? Wystones!

Wystones

As you progress in single player village, you’ll unlock a shop that makes wystones. You don’t buy them they are just available to choose from. Select one to set it and you’ll take it with you into hunts.

A Wystone can by used over and over again, but there is a cool down period. It’s like sharpening your stone, you do a single swipe to coat your weapon with its power and you’re good to go. A gauge is shown to let you know when the effect will wear off. Then you have to wait a few min. after that to use it again.

What a Wystone does is let you deal more damage/take less damage, etc. when hunting a Frenzied/Apex monster. Once you get to the point in the story where they explain Apex Monsters, you unlock a new type that lets you knock a monster out of Apex state so you can actually hunt it, provided that you hit it enough times with the Wystone effect active.

There are several LV of stones to unlock, so plenty of reason to do the solo village. There is on LV2 stone in particular that gives your mind’s eye, so it’s great for attacking an Apex monster to knock it back into normal state.

After a monster is in normal state for a certain period of time they will re-enter Frenzy/Apex state, so be careful!

Weapon Honing

The second system takes advantage of a special Apex Orb (not sure what the real name is…) you get when you defeat Apex monsters. You can take 3 of them along with 3 rare orbs and an item to give your rare 8+ final form weapons one final boost (Large Apex Orbs which are very rare are needed for weapons with a rarity of 10, while normal Apex Orbs are used for rarity 8-9). You get 3 choices (you can change it later but it’ll cost you more rare items):

Attack boost (raw power + 20)

Defense boost (defense bonus of +60 + divine blessing)

Health boost (after every few attacks you’ll restore a little health)

All in all, Monster Hunter 4G has a ton of stuff to do, and new ways to personalize your normally crafted weapons (guild quest weapons do not get this option) is a nice balancing feature.

Happy Hunting!