7 tips to get you started in Monster Hunter Rise

It may be the most beginner-friendly installment in the series, but new players will still be in need of some Monster Hunter Rise tips. Every Monster Hunter is flush with elaborate mechanics and systems that you'll have to learn if you want to perform most effectively, and that's partly what creates the series' signature depth and investment. 

That said, you can get by without understanding every mechanic from the get-go, then learning most things along the way. In many ways that's the quintessential Monster Hunter experience—still discovering how mechanics work after 50 hours.

To make your early hours easier and help introduce important features, the following Monster Hunter Rise tips and tricks should come in handy. I've included some beginner tips first, and then more elaborate stuff to bear in mind as you delve deeper into the game, from completing quests to increasing your hunter rank.

Some quick-fire Monster Hunter Rise tips

Before the heavier stuff, here are some quick hints:

• Keep your weapon sharp: Dull weapons are less effective and can bounce off monsters. Use the whetstone in your toolbar by holding CTRL and cycling through to 'sharpen'. You can even do it while riding your Palamute.
• Use the supply box: There are first aid meds, stamina rations, and status removers in the supply box at the start of each hunt. Be sure to share with other hunters, though.
• Farm as you hunt: While chasing monsters around the map, grab herbs for potions, honey for mega potions, and any bone piles or mining outcrops you see. You can also grab an extra Wirebug, and Spiribirds for buffs depending on colour.
• Eat your Dangos: Bunny Dangos are a pre-hunt must as they boost health, stamina, and offer skills that tailor your resistances to the monster you're fighting. Be sure to 'Order the usual' to prep sets for specific monster types. To boost skill activation chances, use a Dango Ticket.
• Break monster parts for more materials: Blunt weapons like hammers or those that inflict lots of blast, like Gunlance, are great for breaking certain parts on monsters, which can provide materials. You can also use severing damage to cut off some monsters' tails with weapons like Long Swords, or by throwing Kunai at them.
• Talk to everyone: Especially after you complete urgent quests or rampages. The 'Move Around Village' map shows a speech symbol next to each area with someone who wants to talk. Most features and quests unlock through talking to characters. Also, take part in Kagero the Merchant's lottery whenever you spot a dancing Palicoe outside his shop.

Learn about ailments and status effects

Status is complex, but simply put, there are negative conditions that can affect you or a monster, such as poison or paralysis. Monsters can apply these to you, against which you can often use a consumable, or wear armour of a particular resistance. To apply them to monsters, repeatedly use attacks from weapons of that element until the status activates. After a monster has had an Abnormal Status, it'll take even more to re-apply it. Learn more about monster resistances with the nex tip.

Kill everything once, and use the Hunter's Notes

Beyond ranking up, the way to reveal new armor and weapons is by acquiring the materials that make them. These don't just come from large monsters, either, but from small ones, and even insects and fish. If you kill and carve everything, your range of potential armour increases. Killing large monsters also provides invaluable info in the Hunter's Notes section of the menu.

These include the materials monsters drop and the best way to get them, whether through carving, capture, or breaking parts. It also contains a comprehensive breakdown of damage and abnormal status effectiveness. It's not clear at first, but more stars means better effectiveness. No stars doesn't mean immunity, it just means it's very hard to inflict that status.

Experiment with Wirebugs and Switch Skills

Wirebugs allow you to traverse tough terrain, puppet monsters, use wirefall to recover from being knocked down, and as part of your weapon's moveset. Each weapon comes with two Wirebug-based skills that consume one or two of the Wirebugs at the bottom of your screen. Activate these by holding C and using LMB or RMB when your weapon is unsheathed. 

These skills are both offensive and defensive, but their best use is for dealing mounting damage to monsters through Silkbind attacks. As you rank up you'll also unlock three Switch Skills from Master Utsushi in the gathering hub—to get the final one for each weapon, you'll have to complete a quest. Switch Skills replace regular combos and Wirebug skills, including your Silkbind attack, so it's well worth incorporating them into your playstyle.

I recommend trying all the weapons and Wirebug skills in the training area to determine what's fun for you. You can get there by selecting the 'Move Around Village' option in the menu, or by the lake in the Buddy Plaza.

Fight monsters... with monsters

As mentioned, you can mount monsters if you deal enough damage with Silkbind and aerial attacks. Once you deal enough, the monster collapses, and you can attack it to start Wyvern Riding. This lets you puppet the monster, but more importantly, make it fight other monsters. When one monster hits another, it drops materials, making this an excellent tool for farming. 

When you hit the opposing monster enough, you'll have the opportunity to perform a mounted punisher—a monster super attack. However, if the other monster hasn't been mounted yet, launch your monster into it. This will instantly put the opposing monster into a mountable state, so you can climb on and repeat the process for even more materials. This will only provide a limited amount per monster, though.

Use your furry friends for farming

Materials are a vital component of Monster Hunter Rise, letting you craft potions, ammunition, bombs, traps, as well as shiny new armour and weapons. But you don't have to farm for everything yourself. If you're looking for a particular item, the Argosy can help. You'll find this ship in the Buddy Plaza, and once unlocked, Rondine will trade items for the points you earn completing quests and picking up account items. You can also set up a trade request, sending a buddy out in a submarine to farm a specific item over time. 

Kogarashi and the Meowcenaries are also found in the plaza. Unlocked when you get to two-star hub quests, these buddy expeditions farm and fight monsters before bringing back their spoils, though you'll need some idle buddies for it. You can recruit more with buddy handler Iori, who's just to the right as you enter the plaza. 

Both trade requests and Meowcenary rewards can be boosted with Lagniapples. You get these from quests, or can find them in the secret Cohoot nest in the tree behind Kogarashi—climb around the back to get to it. This nest refreshes with items every few hunts so check back with your feathered friend regularly.

Don't neglect your kit buffs

There are lots of ways to buff yourself and add skills in Monster Hunter Rise besides equipping certain weapons and armour:

• Talismans: Once you unlock Kagero the Merchant's Melding Pot, he creates Talismans for specific skills, but since they're chance-based, you'll have to farm to get the specific skill and level you want. These can be invaluable, though, like the Free Meal skill that means 45 percent of the time you won't consume an item. 
• Petalaces: This bracelet buffs your stats and the effect of Spiribirds. Elder Fugen gives you them for ranking up, and you can equip them at the supply box. 
• Decorations: Once you reach high rank, you can create decorations at the Smithy using monster materials, and depending on how many slots your armor or weapon has, equip them to provide skills. These can be a great complement to the skills your armour already provides.
• Charms: Once you're high rank, you'll be able to buy a Powercharm and Armorcharm from Kagero the Merchant. By keeping them in your item pouch you gain you a passive buff to attack and defense. You can also upgrade these once you fight the Wind Serpent Ibushi.

Also, convince a friend to play Hunting Horn

"Do it for the team."