If you’re reading this, I am going to assume that you are brand-new to Monster Hunter: World and that you’re just now jumping in after you realized how amazing the Iceborne expansion is, and if I’m correct, then these tips and tricks will surely help you out.
And if I’m wrong and you’re an experienced hunter, then several of these tips should prove to be helpful to you as well. Let’s dive in.
Master a Weapon
The absolute first thing that you should be doing when you start Monster Hunter is learning which weapon type you want to master.
Since there are over a dozen different weapons that play entirely different from one another, I recommend going into the training mode and experimenting with the ones that interest you the most.
Play around with what feels right and once you find one, stick with it for the majority of the game. Learn all of its combos, master the movements, and get a feel for how it all works.
When I first played MH, I started off with the Sword and Shield as it’s known for being great for beginners, but then I moved on to the Great Sword and have never looked back.
Find what weapon speaks to you and go on from there. Once you feel like you’ve grown tired of using it, then you can try to master a second one, and then eventually a third, and so on and so forth.
Eat Before Quests
Whenever you first go on a quest, you might notice that your maximum health and stamina are a bit low.
This is because you haven’t gone to the canteen to fill up your body with delicious food that’s cooked by adorable kitty cats –don’t worry, they wear gloves.
By heading to the canteen before quests, you can pay money or research points to raise your maximum health, stamina, attack, defense, and some other stats.
The chef’s choice is the best option as it maxes out your health and stamina. If you forget to eat before you leave on a quest, you can also eat at the starting area by your tent in any location; just go to one of the wooden seats and press the eat option.
Item Management Tips; Traps, Potions, Etc
Before you leave on any quest, making the necessary preparations are crucial if you plan on succeeding on your mission. The first thing is to make sure you have healing items in your pouch or at least in your box.
Having 10 potions, 10 mega potions, max potions, ancient potions, and antidotes (for poison) are just some things that are must-haves.
To make mega potions, you’re going to need to combine honey and potions, and while honey is easy to obtain in the field, we recommend talking to the botanist and he will grow honey for you if you select it in the menu.
After each quest, more honey will grow and then you can collect from the harvest when you’re in need.
Also, having traps and tranqs is important if you’re planning to capture monsters… which leads to one of the next tips.
Capture Monsters When Possible
Most assigned quests will prompt you to hunt X monster, which means that you can either slay or capture the beast to get that mission complete screen.
Slaying just means that you killed the monster but if you want to capture a monster, you will need a pitfall trap or a shock trap, and some tranq bombs to put it down.
Why would you want to capture a monster you ask? Well, not only do you get more rewards and materials from the hunt, but it also cuts the hunt down a few minutes, saving you precious time.
You’ll know when a monster is ready to be captured when its icon on the map has little skulls hovering over it or you can tell by the monster’s appearance because it will start to limp.
It has to be caught in the trap and then hit by two tranq bombs before its captured.
If you fail to capture it or waste a trap somehow, you can craft a shock one by combining a thunderbug with a trap tool or you can make a pitfall by combining a net with a trap tool.
Use That Clutch Claw
The inclusion of the Clutch Claw is one of the best updates to Monster Hunter World as it lets any weapon user clutch onto a monster part at any time and softens up the parts of the monster.
By softening up the part of the monster, that section of the body will take more damage for a few minutes, giving monster fights an entirely new level of strategy.
If you’re having trouble killing a monster, try to use the claw on the head or the legs and you will definitely see that the monster will slow down and get tired more easily.
Read Your Hunter’s Notes
When you first discover a new monster in Monster Hunter, you won’t have much info on it besides its name, but the more of its tracks that you investigate and the more that you actually fight the monster, your research points will go up, allowing you to fill in your note pad with neat info on the monster.
To open up your Hunter’s Notes, just go into the options and under the info tab, you will see the large monster guide in the notes.
If you have the necessary investigation points, you can see things like the monsters weaknesses, resistances, breakable parts, and what kinds of material that comes from the monster parts.
The tips are really handy if you’re looking for a particular piece of a monster for a new weapon upgrade or something and it can help you take down a monster much quicker.
Don’t Forget About Your Palico
Upgrading and buying new weapons for yourself will be your biggest and most important task, but your furry partner can get upgrades too and will need them if you want them to actually be useful out on the field.
By going to the smithy, you can forge Palico armor and weapons by using materials, essentially the same way that you forge any other weapon.
You won’t have to micromanage your Palico too much but you should be on the lookout for stronger upgrades when you can.
Those are some of our tips and tricks for Monster Hunter World Iceborne. If you’re looking for some more relevant content, be sure to check out our extensive Wiki Guide on MHW and our scored review on the expansion.
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