Monster Hunter variants

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

The next Gunlancer in Rise update will probably come later.  I've started the quest to raise the level cap for the Generations Ultimate cats.  They need to complete a 4* Hub Prowler mission to grow from 20 to 35.  Like in Rise, GU's Hub missions are more difficult than the Village version. 


Yian Kut-Ku was a sort of bird dragon that spat fireballs and dashed around the arena.  BUBSY the Healer cat had no way to cure burn status directly, but it* did have True Healing Horn to restore HP for 3 gauge points.  BUBSY couldn't chug potions like human hunters, and many of its gauge points were reserved for Big Boomerangs and Piercing Boomerangs buffs.  The cat fighting style was to run and evade attacks when possible, not to block them like HERMAN the Gunlancer.  Yian Kut-Ku fell while BUBSY was trying to mount it with a jumping attack.**


Lagombi of the "Is it hare?  Or is it bear?" poem was also in GU, and fought the same way.  The trickiest attack to avoid was a sort of circular slide, though there were sliding dashes and snowballs to deal with too.  Lagombi tossed BUBSY off its back as soon as the mounting minigame began, which I hadn't seen before.  Poison from BUBSY's boomerang may have dealt significant damage, but there was no way to tell without Rise's visible numbers. 


Royal Ludroth was next, and Rise effectively copied and pasted its fighting style too.  Royal Ludroth spat water balls and dashed as if it were related to Yian Kut-Ku.  Sometimes it rolled from side to side, making it difficult to toss boomerangs without getting hit from some angle.  An attempt to mount Royal Ludroth's face was more successful than BUBSY intended when it scored the KO.


In general, the early Hub quests could be completed within 15 minutes, even though Prowlers were weaker than humans.  Blangunga the Urgent Quest macaque took around 22.  Blangunga threw itself across the mountain, breathed snowman status-inflicting ice, and burrowed to strike from underground.  BUBSY had to "revive" itself with both acorns*** during the battle, since Prowlers could be knocked out of Healing Horn.  After a while I thought it was more prudent to go to another screen to heal.  Or at least far enough away from the enemy on the same screen.  (Do monsters recover HP automatically offscreen in GU?)  



*Palicoes are genderless according to the file select screen in GU.


**Mounting in GU is more difficult than Rise's Ride Wyvern feature.  Aerial Style for human hunters is designed around mounting, but Palicoes need to use specific attacks in their combos.  The change to Ride Wyvern made Insect Glaive lose its status as the mounting weapon.  One companion Palico laid a poison trap for Blangunga, and later on BUBSY successfully mounted the boss to knock it down.  A cat never lets its quarry rest, and so BUBSY hurled boomerangs at Blangunga when it retreated to its cave in order to sleep.  


***To make up for the lack of healing items, cats have 2 acorns that they can eat when they run out of HP.  This only restores part of their health, so don't think of it as a full extra life.  There's a move called Furbitten Acorn that sacrifices acorns in exchange for healing and gauge points.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

HERMAN the Gunlancer cleared a Rampage mission called Serpent God of Wind on the first try today, which involved a Wind Serpent Ibushi that used wind attacks and tried to levitate rocks to throw at the gate.  He later fought similar generic Rampage missions with this boss to craft better armor from Ibushi's body since he had been sent to the cart one too many times by 6* Hub monsters.  Rise's difficulty increases dramatically at that point:  Rathalos can one-shot you with its fire breath from more than half HP, even with Fire resistance.


But let's talk about GU cats instead.  To raise the level cap from 20 to 35, the Prowlers needed to ascend to 4* Hub rank.  The difficulty was well above the equivalent 4* Village missions, with some new monsters.  Since cats mainly throw boomerangs, dodge, and heal when necessary, the tactics are the same between each fight.    Okay, I forgot to mention one new move:  Go, Fight, Win!  GFW makes a cat take out pom-poms and perform a cheerleader dance, which decreases the Support Gauge cost of all cat spells by 1.  This means Armor Horn and Big Boomerangs are free.  Prowlers can dodge cancel out of the dance and still keep the effects for a short time, and AI cats can sometimes cast it too.


Gore Magala-The dark dragon liked to glide low above the ground to attack.  It inflicted some kind of darkness ailment that I never figured out and was irrelevant in practice.  Gore Magala caused darkness bursts immediately in front of it, and shot dark spheres at a distance.  GFW helped to maintain Big Boomerangs.  BUBSY the Healing Prowler sometimes had to retreat in order to recover, but it also had to chase Gore Magala around the map.  Gore Magala had a "fury mode" that turned the screen dark.  At one point, the boss was caught in a trap set by another cat.  When BUBSY slew Gore Magala, the Time Left was 28:57.


After that battle, BUBSY put on Guild Headgear which made him look like Puss in Boots.


Mizutsune-If you've fought this long bubble dragon in Rise, you've fought it in GU.  The Time Left was 32:23.


Gammoth-Don't think this monster is reused in Rise.  It was a slow but giant mammoth that stomped around and charged forward with its tusks.  Some of its attacks built a snowman around BUBSY, but the partner cats smacked the snow off of it.  The Time Left was 27:02.


Glavenus-The bladed tail dinosaur hadn't reappeared in Rise as of my current save file.  The twist here was that the cats had to capture the monster instead of killing it.  This actually made it harder, since my only other Level 20 cat was a Protection type that I taught a trapping move.  It didn't have Big Boomerangs either.  A passive ability caused the icon on the map to flash when it was eligible for capture.  Glavenus hardened its tail with volcano heat and whipped it around for good effect.  Time Left was 25:06, not bad for cats missing half their offensive buffs.


Rathalos + Rathian-Yes, this was a required quest for 3* rank.  Even the mission description said it was suicidal to try to take out both dragons during mating season as a dare.  Unlike in Rise where the monsters fight Turf Wars with each other, in GU they team up to take you out if they're on the same screen.  The only hope was to damage Rathian enough that it fled to another screen where BUBSY could pursue it.  Curiously, both died on the same Screen 8 of the map.


Seregios-This was far worse than the "Rath" duo.  Seregios shot needles from its hide to inflict a special ailment that gradually damaged BUBSY whenever he ran or attacked.  The needles were difficult to dodge, and Seregios picked the desert as its battleground, which had high dunes that blocked boomerangs.  BUBSY had to eat multiple acorns and then recharge them by sleeping at the base camp bed.  Still, BUBSY managed to mount it once, and then cut Seregios with boomerangs as it was limping over the dunes.  Seregios fell asleep in a cave, only to die at Time Left 20:20.


Nakarkos-The hydra was the Urgent Quest needed to unlock 4* Hub rank.  BUBSY's mission was to "repel" Nakarkos, not actually kill it.  Good thing too, since the cats only succeeded at Time Left 13:42!  Nakarkos charged with its body and spewed both red and blue lasers from its heads.  The blue lasers circled around a certain distance away, which made it more prudent for BUBSY to get closer to the head shooting them.  If hit by a blue laser, BUBSY would be unable to run or attack for a bit until one of the AI cats beat him out of the ailment.  Nakarkos had a "fury mode" that made the floor shine.  Since Nakarkos sometimes swam out to sea around the arena, it was intended for BUBSY to shoot more bolts from the ballista then I actually used.  But there was one more twist to this fight:  once BUBSY jumped into the arena, there was no way out until it either won or got sent to the cart.  No recharging acorns allowed!  Managed to win by only eating one acorn, surprising for such a hard boss.


As for the quest to unlock the Level 35 cap?  "The Grandmeowster's Trials" only asked for the cats to kill 15 Konchus.  No boss or anything.  Capcom wasn't expecting people to use Prowler as their main character!  BUBSY replaced the 95 power F Seregios Edge with the 106 strength F Fingerlicker, which also provided +5 Defense.  The cats went back and completed other quests to gain levels, such as one mission with a Zinogre.  Zinogre is the same in GU and Rise, down to the "shoot two electric orbs" attack.


Lagiacrus-This was a long dragon that specialized in electricity, either by shooting spheres, causing explosions, or creating a field around itself.  Lagiacrus retreated to a cave and died at 28:50 Time Left.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Played some more GU as the cats.  Now that the cap had been increased, I focused on Village quests to gain levels.  It was amusing to see the game try to intimidate me with intro videos for bosses like Gammoth, Mizutsune, Glavenus, and Astalos after the cats had already killed harder versions of them in Hub missions.  One Village quest was a single Rathalos.  Compare that to the Rathalos and Rathian duo that BUBSY had to kill for the Hub at Level 20!  Sometimes I would still lose at least one acorn since the fights weren't pushovers in spite of being easier.


I may have forgotten to mention Astalos in an earlier post.  It was a flying dragon that shot lightning from its tail, swiped with its wing, and emitted electricity around its whole body.  After killing Astalos, BUBSY grew to Level 25 and gained an extra passive Skill point.  The obvious choice was Counter Boost since it charged the Support Gauge whenever BUBSY was hit.  


Uragaan was a new foe in the volcano whose face reminded me of a hippo.  It curled up and rolled around to attack, and sometimes slammed its head into the ground.  Toward the end of the battle it secreted a burning gas, but Uragaan wasn't too hard for the cats.


During this session, BUBSY upgraded to F Alloy Mail S and F Alloy Helm S.  F Alloy Mail S was a dramatic improvement of 22 Defense, at the cost of having negative Fire, Thunder, and Ice Res.  Unlike in Rise, I don't bother much with elemental armor in GU.  A Healing Prowler is more durable than a Gunlancer.

[Boro]

This is some good read, even a year and a half later. What to say what to say...

Ah yes, I ditched mashu, or at least parked her, as soon as I heard Sunbreak did something with the kinsect.

But before that, there is this one thing about insect glaive and the "ride" status gauge on monsters: Silkbind moves (that cost wirebug gauge) and aerial moves (from ledge hops, insect glaive) boost the ride gauge (they have that blue flash background for the damage number, so even if I'm wrong you know what to look out for), but of course the amount of buildup requires raises with each application, and monsters butting heads + the puppet spider help with getting the first rides a lot that make building up the next ride look a lot les attractive.

So what did the kinsect glaive get?

Shafted that's what. But more on that later, as sunbreak completely changed things for my beloved bugstick. Stay tuned.