MHW Beginner’s Guide: Gearing Up, Weapons, Killing & Capturing Monsters…

Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter World has been out for some time but there are still new players and veterans of previous games that are coming into the wild new frontier of Monster Hunter World.

This is a short rundown of the basics for new players and to showcase some of the quality of life improvements that are new for veterans of the old Monster Hunter games.

A lot of information in Monster Hunter World can seem very overwhelming, but this guide hopes to unravel some of that into easy to understand snippets of information.

Starting The Game

Monster Hunter is not your typical game and it has no difficulty setting where your experience dictates how easy or hard any mission would be.

Much like if you were the hunter themself that just arrived in this new world, making it a sort of immersive experience.

The game itself provides any player the basics of how to act and move in this new world and taking it a step forward by adding a lot of interactive menus with playable short clips that are easy to understand.

That can be quite handy for newbies and veterans alike, who would like to gain information quickly and get back into the action right away.

The Avatar you create has no stats or skills to speak of, the allure of Monster Hunter World is the feeling of freedom to choose your path.

Just hunt and fight, then craft items from the resources gathered from Monsters, and also the various things in the frontier from bugs to ores and even bones.

Gearing Up

In Monster Hunter World, you would need to hunt, craft and gather resources to hunt bigger and more challenging monsters.

So this is a brief overview of the arsenal of things that might be new for most players or to check out if you are missing out on something in the game.

The more you progress throughout the game, the more gear you will come across and eventually you will work your way up to crafting and upgrading to the strongest equipment.

Weapons

Currently there are 14 weapons in Monster Hunter World which include 11 Melee Weapons and 3 Ranged Weapons and all of them are unique, powerful and when mastered can dictate how you play Monster Hunter World.

Each Weapon can be crafted with different stats and features that have different designs to further give an immersive experience to the player.

You can use the terrain to your advantage to perform aerial attacks and maneuvers to gain the upper hand in your hunt.

The different weapons have their pros and cons but here are some brief descriptions of them that are simple to understand.

Basically Melee weapons have different styles and movesets but the good thing about them is that they don’t need ammunition but you would still need to sharpen them when they get too worn down.

Ranged weapons are rather basic as you simply need to point and shoot but the great thing about them is that they can be loaded with different status ammunition and can even use tranq ammunition for capturing immobilized monsters.

1) Melee Weapons

  • Greatsword – A slow moving weapon with powerful heavy slashing attacks.
  • Long Sword – Wide arching slashes that increases your power as you attack.
  • Insect Glaive – Quick aerial attacks that uses Kinsects to gain buffs from monsters.
  • Hammer – Fast and heavy blunt strikes that can knock monsters over.
  • Horn – Heavy blunt slams while playing music that can do self buffs or team buffs.
  • Lance – Heavy precision attacks with high defence that can charge towards monsters.
  • Gunlance – Medium precision attacks with exploding spear tips.
  • Switch Axe – Fast combos that deal medium to heavy attacks with minimal defence.
  • Charge Blade – Fast short range swings that morph into strong elemental attacks.
  • Sword & Shield – Short range attacks that are open for utility and gear usage.
  • Dual Blades – Short range burst damage with high maneuverability.

2) Ranged Weapons

  • Bow – Mid ranged attacks coupled with unlimited ammunition
  • Light Bowgun – Different bullet types that can support rapid fire ammunition.
  • Heavy Bowgun – Slow movement with heavier armaments that can equip shields.

Armor Sets

Are craftable equipment that also use resources to make, and unlike previous games any armor that is made can now be used with both Melee and Ranged weapons.

There are a couple of tiers of armor that can be made that varies from Monster to Monster or quality of resources you may need to craft them.

The Following are pieces of armor that can be equipped:

  • Head Armor
  • Chest Armor
  • Arms Armor
  • Waist Armor
  • Leg Armor

Armor parts you will be crafting will have slots on them that allow you to alter it with decorations that can modify the stats and customize the armor more to your liking.

A thing to remember about armor sets when starting is just simply three things:

Purpose

Armors made of a specific monster will gain some of their traits like elemental defence or abilities like suppressing hunger or resistance to cold.

These can help adjust your character to suit your playstyle and make your character more comfortable to use..

Function

Different armor can affect the way you play while some may have stats to help your character cope with your playstyle or the weapon you are using and others may provide you with bonuses that improve your character’s capabilities.

Style

When it comes to fighting monsters, nothing beats fighting in style as there are different parts that you can mix and match to make you feel more in sync with your character and not to mention look like a total badass.

Charms

Charms are special trinkets that are unlocked as you progress the instructional story mode of the game.

They can give or even enhance abilities of the armor sets that you wear, improve specific buffs and even improve protection so as not to interfere with your armor pieces.

So feel free to mix and match whatever best suits you or the mission you are about to partake in.

Palico

These are your indispensable felyne companions, they have been around forever and they are very loyal and useful.

They level up as you do missions that give them a boost in health and other stats. Every Palico is different in some way since they can be customized with different armor pieces and weapons for them to use.

They will either help you attack or draw the monsters attention from you to give you an opening to attack, they can also heal you or use bombs and even traps they themselves bring into missions which can really make a difference from time to time.

Also while on the field you can get another companion if you see another palico on the field wandering around your Palico will interact with them to ask for their assistance, you can also get your friends Palico by getting their Guild Cards so you will have a chance to see them on missions.

Palico’s will upgrade with a lot of features as you do Quests while out on the field. While progressing through your career as a Monster Hunter.

Missions In Monster Hunter World

There are many Quests you can do in Monster Hunter World that are not limited to just killing the Big Monsters which is not a bad thing, although Here are some missions that can be very useful for you or you might be missing out on.

Quest Types

  • Assigned Quests – This is your main storyline quest that lets you unlock more areas of the world map and introduces you to the diverse things to check out in Monster Hunter World.
  • Resource Center Quests – these are add on quests to whatever you are doing in the missions. Which can give you Research Points to use as a sort of currency to use in the cultivation farm or pay for a meal at the canteen.
  • Optional Quest – these are repeatable quests that are missions that you have done before as assignments or slaying a captured Big Monster in the arena so you can finish them off and gain a bit more of that specific monster’s resource.

Delivery Quests – these can be accessed through the resource center. You can get these quests from any random NPC with a gold exclamation mark over them. They will have a delivery quest for you, these are for improving your Headquarters and or but not limited to building Camps on other areas of the world map.

Hunting Ranks

Hunting Ranks or more commonly known as HR is your level in the game as you progress through your Handler Assignments or Joining other players in their Quests. which can go up to a maximum rank of HR999.

This also dictates what type of Monster you can hunt for resources and also areas you are given access too in the game.

Monster Hunting

This is the main thing you do in this game to put it simply there are two ways to go about it, the fun way and the easy way. Both are good options but may yield different values than the other.

Killing a Monster

Pretty straightforward, gear up and hunt the monsters to slay them which mostly is done when a certain quest requires you to do so or if you are not in the mood for capturing them.

With this method you can take the time to break and shatter parts or cut tails to harvest them before slaying them then carve out the rest for yourself.

Capturing Monsters

This method needs you to take your time fighting the monster and wait until it starts limping away or shows at a weakened state.

Once it’s in such a state, you can set up a pitfall trap and then throw tranq bombs or tranq ammo to knock the monster out to capture it.

This method can yield more items but can be a mixed bag rather than directly getting tails or other pieces from the Monster.

Then they will be available as an Optional Quest to finish them off to gain more resources from them you can also view your captured monster near the research deck sleeping.

Any of these two can be your easy or fun method depending on your playstyle and skills, which means there is no pressure of the right way to take on the monsters unless a specific objective is set.

Meal Buffs

Never forget to stop by and eat at the canteen before you do your quests, these meals can add specific buffs to you and your palico and don’t worry about them wearing off while on the field.

You can have another meal when you go to the base camps while on the field to regain your buffs again so you can get back to fighting monsters without the need for going back to your Headquarters.

Scoutflies

These are one of the standard items in the Monster Hunter World and whatever your loadout or gear is they will always be there at your side.

They are able to guide you by lighting the way for you when you are out hunting monsters or searching for resources.

The Scoutflies will glow and swarm over things that you can interact with, making it easier for you to find items or gatherable resources around you.

Map

When you open the map on the field it can be quite hard to understand but once you get the hang of it you will be constantly checking this thing.

Basically the map is automatically marked with all the items you can find, every small icon is either an item or a gatherable resource for you to get.

You can highlight every item with your cursor to check out what item you are looking at, making some of the resource gathering quests a breeze to go through.

One of the best things about the map is that you can also use the map to interact with your Scoutflies, allowing you to mark your destination to have them guide you to it.

Poogie

Poogie is a small pig that runs around your Headquarters that you can interact with and some have speculated that Poogie can give you luck before going into missions.

It has been confirmed by the game developers that this is not true and the animation itself of Poogie is for practicing to cook well done steaks in the field but if you are a superstitious hunter it wouldn’t hurt to rub the pig for luck.

Overview

Monster Hunter is a game where you, as Hunter of the Fifth Fleet, will need to hunt down large monsters as you progress your Hunter Ranks while unlocking a very engaging and well made story.

You will face a lot of monsters in the game that will put your skills to the test as you need to adjust to different environments, change your fighting tactics, and even mix and match your gear to best suit your mission.

With a large arsenal of weapons, armor and items that you can craft that makes you feel powerful. The more monsters you hunt and more equipment you craft and equip can be the most interesting part of the game.

So what are you waiting for? Gear up and set forth into your new adventure as a whole new world of action and adventure awaits you in Monster Hunter World.

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