Monster Hunter Rise: 15 Beginner Tips the game doesn’t tell you

Given that this is the first Monster Hunter game developed for the Nintendo Switch, we figure it’s going to be the first time for a lot of you. And believe us, we know how daunting Monster Hunter can be to the uninitiated. For that reason, we’ve put together 15 quick tips for newcomers to help you understand some of the things the game doesn’t explicitly tell you – think of this as 15 beginner tips for those new to Monster Hunter Rise.

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Monster Hunter Rise – Beginner Tips #1. Try out all the weapons

This seems obvious, but the 14 weapons in Monster Hunter Rise are all very, very different from one another. They have different moves and skills, different Silkbind techniques, different reaches, damage outputs and defensive capabilities. It’s easy – and tempting – to stick with the Greatsword, or go straight in with Dual Blades or Sword & Shield because they feel immediately familiar, but doing that could make you miss out on a weapon you truly love. I played Monster Hunter World for 800 hours before I tried the Hunting Horn and as soon as I did, I rarely switched to anything else. In the Buddy Plaza, there’s a little boat – take that to the Training Area where you can practice for as long as you like without using up any of your items.

2. Don’t rush to upgrade your armour

It’s tempting to spend Armor Spheres straight away on putting defensive points into your armour, but in the opening 5 – 10 hours you’ll be changing your gear a lot. If you’re struggling with a fight, by all means go and upgrade, but you might be better served waiting until you’ve got a set you’re going to stick with for a bit.

3. Pay attention to armour skills

This is something so easily overlooked by newcomers, but it’s essential. Armour in Monster Hunter Rise is far more than just defensive stats. If you examine each piece, you’ll see that they all have specific skills attached such as Attack Boost, Speed Sharpening, or Stun Resistance. These skills make a major difference in a fight, so try to wear armour that strengthens your weaker areas. Similarly, don’t just build the first elemental weapon you see and use it exclusively – it’ll have a much weaker effect against monsters strong in that element. Try to take the best gear in for the job each time.

4. Village Quests are solo, and Hub Quests are multiplayer enabled

Okay, so the game is pretty clear about this, but it’s worth being aware of. You’ll have two reminders up most of the time showing how many of each quest you have available. If you want to advance the story and unlock new areas and features, it’s the Village Quests. The Hub Quests are separate and designed for multiplayer. The same monsters feature, but they’re usually tougher, and will scale in difficulty dependant on how many Hunters you go in with. There are also Arena Quests available from Master Utsushi in the Gathering Hub, which will pit you against monsters with set gear, items and abilities.

5. Gather everything

You’ll begin with nothing in your item box, but over the course of a few hunts that will drastically change – and very little of what you can pick up and hoard in Monster Hunter Rise is useless. In fact, most of it is essential somewhere. From plants and mushrooms to ore and rare ingredients, monster parts or upgrade material – hoover it all up and store it. You never know when you might need it.

6. Capture monsters more often than you kill them

Although arguably the easier option, you’ll get more materials from capturing monsters alive using traps and tranq bombs. While killing and carving gives you a higher chance of getting rare materials, for the most part capturing will benefit you more. To capture a monster, wait until you get it to the limping stage, and then either track it to its nest and wait for it to sleep, or get a trap down in front of it. Once it’s trammelled, hit it with two tranq bombs to send it into a peaceful sleep.

7. Take the essentials

At the beginning of every hunt is a Supply Chest containing things you’ll need like health potions, rations and curatives. Make sure you raid it each hunt to save your own resources, but also pay attention to what’s inside it. Rise doesn’t always explicitly tell you how to cure certain ailments. For example, chugging an energy drink as you’re being put to sleep will keep you awake, while a nulberry will get rid of most, though not all, blights caused by elemental status build-ups. Learn what you need to take for each monster, and it will make the going much smoother.

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Monster Hunter Rise beginner tips #8. Play with your Buddies

If you scroll your Action Bar, you’ll see an icon that tells your Palicoes and Palamutes to wait. After doing this, you can play with them, pet them, feed them or otherwise muck around in the dirt for a bit. You can also call over your Cahoot, and change its clothes or feed it a treat. Well worth doing, and great for photo opportunities.

9. Don’t forget your camera

Speaking of which, you also have a camera to take pictures of anything out in the world. It’s a bit clumsier than a simple photo mode, but it works well enough. There are even side quests related to snapping shots of rare endemic life and monsters.

10. Train your Buddies

If you go into the Buddy Plaza you’ll find a bunch of features that will make your life easier in the long run. For one, you can hire new buddies to fill a “reserve pool”, which allows you to switch out your regular companions for training in the Dojo. This takes a while (10 quests) so it’s best to do it when you’ve got a bunch of gathering quests or small monster hunts to go on. It’s worth it though, as they will gain levels much quicker.

11. Leave things running in the background

You can also send out “Mewcenaries” to pilfer items from any area you’ve unlocked, or use the Argosy’s submarines to bring you vital ingredients and rare items. Anyone who played Monster Hunter World will recognise the system a combination of the Argosy tradeship and the Botanical Gardens. It’s great to keep these things ticking over in the background to give a you a steady supply of items and ingredients.

12. You can hide equipped armour pieces

If you go to your Equipment Chest, you’ll see an item for Display Options. Click that, and you can choose whether to make individual armour pieces invisible. So if you really want the skills on a piece of armour but it’s hideous to look at, you can do something about it.

13. Use loadouts

This is another feature easily overlooked but it’s important. Your equipment (armour and weapon), field item pouch and even meals you assemble from the variety of Bunny Dango sold in Kamura, can be saved for easy switching later. This is incredibly handy for building armour and gear sets in late game, but it’s a great feature to start using early – especially if you feel you’re spending a lot of time changing your gear.

14. Play with the settings

There are a ton of settings in Monster Hunter Rise that aren’t explicitly shown, what will make your life easier. For example, in Display Settings you can opt to have a silhouette around your Hunter that makes them visible to you “through” monsters and terrain. You can adjust the way the camera locks onto the target, the distance the camera is from your Hunter, allowing you to see more of the screen. You could even swap your Action and Item Bar controls (which I do) or decide whether you manually or automatically sheathe your weapon. A lot of Rise’s quality of life bonuses are in the Settings Menu, so check it out.

15. Use your Amiibos

Scanning your Amiibos every day will allow you to play a lottery with the merchant in Kamura Village for free. Land a jackpot, and you can get your hands on some super useful gear to help you in the field, from potions to materials.

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