~ mazereon presents ~ _________.__ _____ .__ \__ ___/| |__ ____ \____\ __ _______ | | | | | | \_/ __ \ | | \| | \__ \ | | | | | Y \ ___/ | | \ | // __ \| |__ |__| |___| /\___ > /____ /____/(____ /____/ \/ \/ \/ \/ _____ .___ / ___/_ _ ___________ __| _/______ \__ \\ \/ \/ / _ \_ _ \/ __ |/ ___/ / \\ ( _> ) |\/ /_/ |\___ \ /___ / \/\_/ \___/|__| \____ /____ / \/ \/ \/ ________ .___.__ \_ ___ \ ____ _____ ______ ____ ___ __| _/|__|__ __ _____ / \ \/ / _ \ / \\____ \_/ __ \ / \ / __ | | | | \/ \ \ \___( <_> ) Y Y \ |_> > ___/| | \/ /_/ | | | | / Y Y \ \_____ /\____/|__|_| / __/ \___ >__| /\____ | |__|____/|__|_| / \/ \/|__| \/ \/ \/ \/ For Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G/Freedom Unite v 1.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================= Contents Introduction Change History Part 1: Dual Sword Basics BSC I Basics ATT II Controls and Attacks NUM III In-depth information 1. Attack Powers 2. Sharpness Values 3. Elemental Damage 4. Dual Element Dual Swords 5. Element and Status Dual Swords 6. Comparing Sharp +1 and EAU 7. Raw duals GDST IV General Dual Sword Tactics SDS V Suggested Duals ASK VI Armour Skills SAS VII Suggested Armour sets for Elder, High Rank and G Rank Part 2: Strategies for Slicing Every Creature LYN I Lynians NEO II Neopterons DRM III Dromes BWY IV Bird Wyverns WYV V Wyverns PSC VI Piscines CPC VII Carapeceons PRI VIII Primatus EDS IX Elder Dragons Part 3: The Monster Hunter Quest INT I Introduction LOS II Rathalos REX III Tigrex NGA IV Naruga Kuruga/Narcuga RAJ V Rajang Credits and Contact Info ============================================================================= Introduction ============================================================================= Welcome, sais, may your days be long upon the earth. In looking to fill the void between Monster Hunter releases on PSP, I've experimenting with other weapon classes aside from the Bowguns I habitually used for a long time. One of the classes I've spent some time getting to grips with and enjoying is Dual Swords. Duals are a very stylish, fast weapon class to play with, and they have a fascinating amount of depth as a class. However, perhaps due to this complexity, people have tended to just use one attack with them, the demon dance. While it's a high damage attack to use, it does leave you wide open and very vulnerable to attacks in return. Since many people tend to just spam Mega Juices and demonise everything they can, duals have gotten a bit of a bad reputation as a one-trick pony. The aim of this guide is to demonstrate the depth of duals as a class and offer tactics for use that do not depend on mashing O + /\. Presented here are tactics for killing every creature as well as the Monster Hunter quest, the notorious final offline Urgent quest. Please note that these tactics are my own and there are other viable ways to use dual swords. Ideally, the dual sword acolyte will use this information as a launch pad for developing and perfecting their own strategies. Currently this guide is also in an final draft stage and no doubt it'll undergo significant edits before becoming more finalised. I'm aware Monster Hunter Portable 3rd is being released in around six months, and this guide aims to be still relevant then. While there is a new 'Super Demon' mode in the new game, I imagine most of the regular attacks and strategies will be enhanced by it instead of totally changing the way the class is used. Throughout the guide there are YouTube links. To view these, copy the link and paste it into your browser. - mazereon ============================================================================= Change History ============================================================================= v1.0 All sections now added. Minor revisions made throughout, Chameleos video added. v0.95 Added Kushala video as well as Carapeceon and Pelagus creatures. Fixed some syntax issues. v0.9 Added the rest of the wyverns and Piscines strategies. v0.85 Added strategies for Dromes, Bird Wyverns and some Wyverns. Added Rathian video. v0.75 Added the MH quest section and some more armour skill sets. Fixed numerous spelling errors (thanks FluffyNimbus and GiddyPinata). v0.55 Added a couple of missed points and added the MH Quest and Tigrex videos. v0.5 First (draft) iteration of the guide released. ============================================================================= Part 1: Dual Sword Basics ============================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I Basics BSC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Much like their name implies, Dual swords (duals) are a weapon class that features two one handed blades that deal Cutting damage. Dual swords cannot guard and have fast mobility when unsheathed. They also have very short reach, the smallest of any of the melee classes. They have no attacks with an area of effect, so you will have to learn precision. And as they attack very quickly, they will lose sharpness fast, too. As they can't block, a good duals user will be relying on evasive tactics. You'll quickly come to understand in Monster Hunter that you can't simply trade hits with a creature and then heal up, so you'll need to become proficient at understanding exactly how long your attacks last for and when you can roll out of an attack. As with most weapon classes that can't block, duals feature superior offensive options. When unsheathed, pressing the R trigger will send you into Demon mode (called 'demonising'). When in this mode your attacks largely change and your damage rises - most attacks do just over a third more damage (34% more). However, unless you're using mega/power juices you'll notice when demonised your stamina quickly drops. While demon mode is very powerful, you must carefully manage your stamina since finding yourself without enough stamina left to roll with will mean you'll eat an incoming hit. It's only in Demon mode that you have access to the Demon Dance (DD), the most powerful combo you can do. It's for this reason that the above mentioned Power and Mega juices are very popular with dual sword users. A Power juice completely stops your stamina decreasing for three minutes and a Mega juice for six minutes. With these you can stay demonised until they wear off, allowing you to use your more powerful attacks at will. However, people have usually used this to simply spam DDs over and over again, which has contributed to the impression duals are a limited class. You do not need juices to be an effective DSer, but they are extremely useful. No creatures require them, but on a fast paced fight like Tigrex where you'll want to roll a lot and attack at will, the last thing you'll want to do is be micro managing your stamina. Another reason people often tend to shy away from using duals is that they are not a versatile class. You will need to make several sets of duals to be able to take on every creature, unlike classes like Hammer or GS in which you can just focus on raw damage. Although, Raw duals can be excellent and certainly deserve more use than many hunters give them. Duals have a lot of limitations. Short reach, very fast sharpness loss, heavy stamina reliance and no blocking ability means they aren't well suited for new players. But the other side of that equation is huge mobility and enormous damage potential. You won't be killing as fast as HBG, Hammer or GS in most cases, but they are a high damaging class and they have a lot of variety and they look much more stylish than the guy running around with GS and only ever using unsheathe hits :D So read on, and arm yourself with the information and understanding you'll need to kick ass with both hands. Wait... both feet? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- II Controls and Attacks ATT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Duals actually have a wealth of attacks and it can be overwhelming at first look. I recommend you load up a gathering mission to practice these moves on a Popo or similar creature. First off, duals have two 'modes': Normal and Demonised. 1. Normal Mode attacks Pressing Triangle once will make you do a single quick hit right in front of you. Pressing Tri multiple times will chain this into a six hit combo that does moderate damage, but is somewhat slow to pull off. You can hit X to cancel the attack after every couple of hits as long as you haven't pressed Tri yet to continue it. When using this combo, it's tempting to mash Tri over and over, but this is a temptation you'll have to learn to resist. Pressing circle will do a three hit whirling attack which has a decent vertical hitbox. It can be used to clip tails, but does quite limited damage. it can be chained into the above combo but pressing Circle at certain points (the same as where you'd roll cancel it). Pressing Tri and Cir together makes you do a forward lunge that hits twice. It does modest damage, but it's very useful for closing ground. You can also use it to start your Tri attack combo. After you've rolled you can hit Tri for a single attack. While it's not always practical, it's a single quick hit and it actually does the most damage of any of your normal mode attacks. Your unsheathe attack is the same as the lunge attack - you press Tri while moving and you'll lunge forward. 2. Demon mode attacks Press R trigger to demonise. The normal mode Tri combo and individual hits are the same in Demon mode, except they do around 27% more damage. Pressing Circle makes you do a revolving slice, similar to Normal mode. But in Demon mode, you'll do a second three hit revolution that reaches higher. You can hit X to roll out after the first revolution though. Immediately after you demonise or after the first revolution of your Cir hit, you can hit Tri. In both cases, this makes you do a lunge attack like normal mode's Cir + Tri. Again, good for covering ground, but trickier to use since you can't use it to start a combo. The rolling slice - pressing Tri after rolling - is the same as normal mode. And it's actually got a decent damage attached to it. Demon Dance - this is the classic move duals are known for. Pressing Circle and Tri in demon mode causes you to do an 11 hit combo that does huge damage. It uses more of the dual's power than the third level GS charge or Hammer golf swing, but you're stationary for about two seconds while attacking. Importantly, the demon dance has ESP. That means it will not bounce off any creature as long as you have at least yellow sharpness. However, if you are hitting a creature and getting the bounce animation you'll still lose sharpness at the doubled rate that comes with bouncing. 3. Combining Attacks The dual swords have a unique modular attacking mechanism that essentially lets you combine attacks into a combo in almost any way you see fit. The Circle attack is quite powerful in this regard. In demon mode, you can cancel it after the first revolution into a: >Roll (press X) >Demon Dance (Press Tri + Cir) >Lunge (press Tri). >Or, let the attack finish with the second revolution (press nothing). This means if you have a small attack window, you can initiate the twirl and see what happens. You can either roll out if you're about to get hit, or pick a more damaging attack to launch into based on what happens after the first few hits. If you get a stagger, follow it up with the lunge. If it's taunting or staggers on the spot, demon dance. Or if it's reared up, let it finish the slices. In normal mode, I typically start combos with the lunge. It's great for covering ground and it's easy to roll cancel with X or start the longer normal combo with Tri. And if I'm going with the Tri combo, I can roll cancel that or go for a twirl attack with Circle, or even stop the combo to demonise and start a new combo in Demon mode. It is quite overwhelming compared to other classes that have much fewer attacks, but you'll quickly find attacks you're comfortable with. Due to the nature of the attacks, you'll find some are rarely practical and so in practice most fights will feature only a few combos. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- III In depth information NUM ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This section is going to be a little more number and analysis heavy, so if you're totally new to duals it might pay to have a play around with them in game first before diving right into this. This is very important information to know though, and you really can't master duals without understanding these principles. Take it slowly if you're not really a numbers person and you'll get it. It's not as daunting as it looks, promise. 1. Attack Powers ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every single attack from every single weapon in the game uses a different amount of the weapon's power. Just because a weapon says it has 1,000 raw doesn't mean it uses it all on every attack. Below are the damages from each DS attack, and you'll need to understand how much damage each attack does relative to each other. If you're wondering why each is listed as a '%' it's because it fits into the longer melee damage formula. This information is drawn straight from the Melee Damage FAQ and is credited to DS31. I've changed the last hit of the demon combo to reflect it's actually two hits now instead of one as per Freedom 1 & 2. Normal mode ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Regular combo (Tri x3): 18%, 10% & 8%, 6% & 12% & 18% (6 hits total, 72%) Revolving slice (Cir): 15% & 10% & 6% (3 hits total, 31%) Charging slice (Tri + Cir): 12% & 11% (2 hits total, 23%) Rolling slice (Tri after roll): 19% Unsheathe attack: 12% & 11% (2 hits total, 23%) Demon mode ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Regular combo (Tri x3): 24%, 13% & 10%, 8% & 16% & 24% (6 hits total, 95%) Revolving slice (Cir): 20% & 13% & 8%, 20% & 13% & 8% (6 hits total, 82%) Charging slice: 16% & 14% (2 hits total, 30%) Rolling slice (Tri after roll): 25% Devilish dance (Tri + Cir): 33% & 8%(x8) & 20% (x2)% (11 hits total, 137%) What does this jumble of numbers actually mean? Firstly, it should be obvious now why it's good to demonise - the attacks all do noticeably more damage. The regular Tri combo jumps from 72% to 95%, which in game terms is a big deal. Otherwise, what you should be doing is looking how long each attack takes compared to how much damage it uses. While the unsheathe/lunge hit is a modest 23%, it's very fast and versatile. 2. Sharpness values ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Obviously, weapons in Monster Hunter have various levels of sharpness. Not only does having more sharpness mean you penetrate tougher parts of monsters (go on, have a giggle, you know you want to), but it also increases your damage. A weapon with 1000 raw and yellow sharpness does LESS damage than a weapon with 700 raw and purple sharpness. Sharpness levels increase raw damage, but also crucially it changes how much elemental damage you do. Again, this is drawn from the Melee Damage FAQ. Raw Sharpness Multipliers: Purple: 1.50 White: 1.30 Blue: 1.25 Green: 1.125 Yellow: 1.0 Orange: 0.75 Red: 0.50 Elemental Sharpness Multipliers: Purple: 1.20 White: 1.125 Blue: 1.0625 Green: 1.0 Yellow: 0.75 Orange: 0.50 Red: 0.25 You don't need to know how to work the whole damage formula, but this should help you understand certain weapon recommendations. Also, there is a rumour that dual swords have built in Sharpsword skill. This is not true at all. One important facet of sharpness to note that's quite important for duals is hitlag. When you hit a creature's weak point, you'll notice that you'll take a split second longer to complete a hit, and this slight pause is called hitlag. Blue and Purple sharpness both have a quite strong hitlag (Purple especially). When you're doing multiple hit combos like the demon dance, 11 hits worth of slight lag really adds up and can throw off your timings. White sharpness is quite important in this regard because it doesn't have a hitlag nearly as long as Blue or Purple, allowing you to keep your timings intact. I'm not suggesting that you don't use Sharp +1 to hit Purple, but don't feel that you need to break off and sharpen the second you drop to White either. There are some viable White sharpness sets in later game too that can be used with surprising proficiency. 3. Elemental Damage ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- One thing duals are known for is pumping out elemental damage at phenomenal rates. This is because elemental damage is calculated quite differently from raw damage in the game's damage formula. Monsters have different levels of resistance to elemental as well as cutting and impact damage, but all weapon classes have the same elemental damage formula. That means if I have a Greatsword with 200 Fire damage and a DS with 200 fire damage, each hit from both weapons will do the same amount of fire damage regardless of what hit I use. That means a GS third level charge does the same elemental damage as each individual hit of the duals' demon dance. GS hits very slowly, and so a tiny amount of elemental damage here and there isn't worth much. But since DS hits so often, with often small %s of the weapon's raw, the fixed elemental damage quickly adds up. Often with slower hitting weapons, it's not really worth hitting a creature unless you're hitting a raw damage weak point. But duals can exploit cutting damage and elemental weak points, sometimes offering more damage opportunities. And on creatures that are quite weak to element, the amount of damage duals can deal can be crazy. Still, while you should always match element to the creature you're fighting, duals that are mainly elemental with low raw values are of limited use (like the True Eternal Schism - 182 raw and 510 dragon). It's worth noting elemental damage is unaffected by Affinity. That means when you get a positive critical hit you'll do 25% more raw, but the same elemental. Ditto a negative affinity hit - your elemental damage is unchanged. You should note that Monsters are never 'healed' by an element. Some monsters are totally resistant to an elemental damage but even then your raw damage still works as normal. So use a set of Thunder duals on Rajang if you want to! The damage formula was changed between Freedom 2 and Unite though, to use more of the duals' raw damage and less of its element. 4. Dual Element Dual Swords ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the new parts of Freedom Unite/2G compared to older MH games is that DSs can now have two elements, one per blade. Examples are the Black and White Fatalis duals, that have Thunder and Dragon; the Lavasioth/Plesioth duals with Fire and Water damage, or the Kushala/Teo duals with Fire and Ice. You'll notice that if you do the single hit attacks like the single Tri hit, you'll only do one of the two elements effect. The blades are separate, so if you're not seeing one the two elements' special effect then it's not hitting with that element. In practical terms it means little since few people just use single attacks, but it's important to know. While dual element duals look cool, they are mediocre in practice. In single monster hunts they are useless as monsters will often have multiple weaknesses, but one primary one, rendering the secondary element pretty useless. Even monsters that require an element to break a part of their body (Like Fire for Blangonga's fangs) are weakest to that element anyway. So there's little point in taking a 200/200 Fire/Water set of duals to a Blangonga fight when you could take a 200 Fire set and do much more damage. Even for a creature that's weak to both of your elements, like Kusha in the case of the Thunder/Dragon duals, it's weaker to Dragon. So why bother taking Thunder? Occasionally dual element duals will be worth using, but that's often because they hit a better sharpness grade or have much better raw. While these cases do exist they aren't frequent. The one area where they have potential is Marathon/Epic quests, where the monsters don't share a common elemental weakness. In the Pride on the Line quest (Naruga, Black Diablos, Black Gravios) there's no common weakness. But with the Fire/Water duals you can do serious damage to Naruga and Black Gravios. Still, you're left with a pretty crap pair of duals for Black Diablos though, so perhaps a set with very high raw damage would still have been better. They do of course look very cool though, so if killing speed isn't a big concern to you then by all means use them. 5. Elemental and Status Dual Swords ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Much like their dual elemental brethren, these are pretty limited in practice. Examples of these are the Fire/Poison, Ice/Poison, Thunder/Paralyze sets. The problem with them is the status tends to be much lower than normal, so over the course of a fight you'll typically only get one or two inflictions. The benefit you get from one or two paralyzes or poisons just isn't worth the damage you lose from only having one sword worth of elemental damage. If certain sets existed, these would be amazing (like Water/Poison for Gravios, or Ice/Paralyze for Rathalos/Brown Blangonga/Rajang). As it stands, they are pretty limited. The best of these is the Thunder/Paralyze sets, but mainly on creatures that are paralyze weak such as Daimyo Hermitaur and Shogun Ceanataur. 6. Comparing Sharp +1 and Element Attack Up ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a comparison of the benefits of these two skills at G rank. People know it's good to have elemental duals, and this is going to demonstrate which skill it's better to have and why. Both of these skills are 10 skill points. First of all, this test will be using the Corpse Rippers, the final Gold/Silver Ian/Los duals. They have white sharpness, no affinity, 350 raw and 400 fire. We'll be doing a full demonised combo on a G rank Naruga. Once we've run the numbers, we'll do it again to see how they benefit from having Sharp +1, and then from having Elemental attack up. Here's the damage formula: [ATP x TYPE x CRITICAL x SHARP x HITZONE x DEFENSE x RAGE x VAR]/[CLASS] = Total + [ELEMENT x ESHARP x ELMNZONE x DEFENSE x RAGE x VAR] / [DIVIDER] = Total If you want to know the exact figures and an explanation of each variable, look at the melee damage FAQ (linked above). Plugging in the variables, we get: [350 (raw) x 1.37 (demon dance) x 1 (no critical) x 1.3 (white sharpness) x 0.5 (Naruga's head) x 1.0 (normal mode, i.e., not raged) x 0.7 (G rank quest defence modifier) x 1.0 (no elemental multiplier here)] / 1.4 (class mod for DS) = 155 raw damage (the game rounds down fractions). That's our raw. Our elemental damage is: [400 x 1.125 (white sharpness) x 0.35 (Naruga's fire weakness at the head) x 1.0 (normal mode) x 0.7 (this is the multiplier for DS elemental damage)] / 10 (all elemental attacks get this divider) x 11 (for 11 hits in the demon dance) = 121 elemental damage. If we were using Elemental Up, it's a 20% boost to elemental damage. So, we simply multiply 121 elemental damage by 1.2 and get 145 damage. So, with elemental attack up, you're doing 155 raw + 145 = 300 total damage. To see Sharp +1 instead, we need to slightly rework the above formula. Instead of writing it out again, when you run it, swap in 1.5 for the raw sharpness and 1.2 for the elemental sharp variables. When you run the formula, you instead end up with 179 raw and 129 elemental damage. That's 308 total damage. So, even on an elemental weak creature with a massive amount of elemental damage on your duals, Sharp +1 is still better. And on duals and creatures that aren't so elementally weak, the damage margin will be even bigger. Conclusion, if none of that made any sense: Sharpness +1 is a better damaging skill than elemental attack up at G rank. 7. Raw duals ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the end of the game, you'll find a number of sets of raw-only duals that seem extraordinarily powerful. And while it may seem an antithesis of what dual swords stand for to use raw ones, they can be devastatingly good. By the end of the game, you should be quite familiar with cutting damage weak points and openings to exploit them. These duals will work exquisitely if you're able to consistently hit the head (or other weak point), but if you're not quite at the stage of proficiency, you'll still benefit from elemental duals since they can do decent damage to multiple hitzones. The Akantor Sharp Talons, Ucamulbas Claws, Last Battleaxe and Legendary Replica G are all examples of very powerful raw DSs (yes, I know LB has Poison attribute too). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV General DS Tactics GDST ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Right, now you're armed with knowledge and understanding of how your two blades work. So what now? The first and most crucial rule is to know your prey and thus, know your openings. You have to know how long each of your attacks will last for and exactly what your roll cancel windows are like if you want to be an effective DS user. There's nothing worse than misjudging a stagger and being stuck demon dancing while you're staring down a Tigrex charge and there's nada you can do. Once you know how long you can afford to whack something for, you have to know where you're going to whack it. Below is a link to the Melee Damage Formula - open it and read it. Whenever you're fighting something for the first time, open it up and see where the cutting damage weak points are and what elements a creature is weak to and where. There's a lot of people who misunderstand elemental weakness - they think if Naruga is weak to Fire it's weak to fire everywhere. That's not the case, and on some parts of its body, Naruga will actually take more damage from Thunder. So, look up the formula, and make some decisions about where to hit your prey: http://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/943356-monster-hunter-freedom-unite/faqs/53339 Note primary and secondary points, too. Diablos takes the most cutting damage on the tail, but you're not often going to be able to hit there. But its legs take an acceptable amount of cutting damage too, and if you attack them enough you can trip it over, giving you easy access to the tail. Note also Diablos' elemental weaknesses. Everyone says it's Ice, which is true for most of it, but look how much Ice damage it takes on the legs - less than Dragon and Thunder. In practice, since you'll be hitting the legs mostly, it's often best to take Dragon or Thunder duals since they do more damage to the legs and only slightly less to the tail. After you've chosen your weapon and prey, consider your openings. You'll learn to develop your own strategies, but in the short term, try and divide openings into tiny, small and long. In a tiny opening, you can fit in a single Triangle hit before rolling out or repositioning. Now, that's not a big damaging attack, but it's certainly better than not hitting something at all. Over time that damage will add up, and it can be useful to know how many hits will lead to a stagger. In a small opening, use the circle twirl attack (assuming Demon mode). This gives you many options, as you can chain it to many other attacks and of course, roll out if need be. In non Demon mode, use the lunge + Tri hit for decent damage and the re-positioning it allows you. After the Tri hit, re- asses your opening. In a small opening you can alternatively use a Tri x 2-3 combo before rolling. This will do a few % more damage than the O twirl, but requires a little more precision as pressing Tri too much will end up with you stuck doing the full combo and that can lead you getting hit. And in a long opening, you should demonise and Demon Dance. This should come naturally to most MH players. In very long openings, start with the Tri x 3 combo and then cancel into a demon combo with Cir + Tri to add a little extra damage. By now you should be familiar with Demonisation mode and all the cool stuff that comes with it. When demonised, you get free Wind Press skill (the same as High grade wind press, so anything that isn't Dragonic wind won't knock you over) and you actually run slightly faster too. But now I can hopefully convince you that you shouldn't use it all the time. In Demon mode, a lot of your attacks are very linear. It's harder to use the lunge attack to cover ground, and your regular combo is highly damaging but tricky to aim, and takes longer than is ideal. And while it's quite possible to farm Mega juices the whole time, it can get pretty tedious. You will lose some damage from not demonising, but you can often make up for it by being able to attack more freely and often in non demonised mode. Of course, if you trip a creature or otherwise incapacitate it, nothing will beat a demon dance on its face. But don't feel as if you are limited to only using Demon mode while 'juiced. If you are wanting to be demonised in most fights, you can minimise the time you spend on farming juices by: 1. Always getting a low level cat to cook for you between fights They'll often give you rare steaks, which you can combine with Catalysts for Power Juice. 2. Send Trenya to the Swamp for 500/1000 points This has a good chance to net you Power extracts for Mega juices. Doing this between every quest means juices shouldn't take long to accumulate. If you do get stuck, take a G rank HBG to the 5* Elder Dual Gypceros quest. Fire S on the head should always flinch it and you can clear the quest under 2 minutes quite easily. When you start the quest, run to zone 1, then 2. Kill the Purple Gypceros and then run to zone 1. Sometimes the normal one will fly there first, but if it's not there it'll be flying to zone 3. Once you've killed both (and carving has good chances for Power extracts) make sure you're cooking Rare steaks while waiting for that minute to end before getting zoned back to Village. You're guaranteed at least two Power extracts in the normal rewards, and can get lots more from normal and break rewards. If you repeat this cycle, you'll quickly have stacks of juices. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- V Suggested Dual Swords SDS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- DS is a class that is highly specific. Picking the right set for the right levels of raw, element and sharpness is crucial. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I'm going to link you to Boldrin's Weapon Guide. This has the best weapon for each element at every level of the game. http://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/943356-monster-hunter-freedom-unite/faqs/57283 Please do note the 'Raw duals' discussion above in the in depth analysis section though. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI Armour Skills ASK ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Much like how the weapons are specific, so too are your armour skills. There are many which are helpful, some useless and some virtually crucial to effective DS using. Of course, none of these are required and you can do naked DS runs, but you'll find the learning curve much less intimidating if you aren't fighting with your armour set. Sharpness +1 (10 points into Artisan): This skill is excellent for duals and should be considered a priority. It increases the level of sharpness of your weapon and in virtually all cases upgrades the maximum sharpness colour of your weapon. Since duals are very sharpness dependant as it boosts your raw damage, elemental damage and importantly, time before you have to sharpen, this should be a skill you base other skills around. Sharpening Skill Increase (10 points into Grinder): This is an excellent skill for duals. Since you'll be hitting so often (and thus burning through levels of sharpness) being able to sharpen in small openings is very useful. While it doesn't directly boost your damage, your damage over time will rise. And best of all, it comes in easily made +2 gems, so it's able to be fitted into most armours. Sharpsword (10 points into Sharpness): This is another great skill, but a second choice compared to Sharp +1. It halves the rate at which your sharpness decreases, which can mean that duals with a sliver of their highest sharpness grade can be a bit more useful. I strongly recommend duals users take *at least* one of the above three skills, and more often than not, having two is ideal. Many end-game sets have Sharp +1 and Sharpsword and work great together. Earplugs (10 points into Earplug, 15 points for High Grade Earplugs): Since you cannot block, it's often important to think about defensive tactics you'll need to engage in. If you're fighting a creature with a big area roar and one that roars often (like Rathian, Rathalos or the Blos family) then earplugs give you more attack openings and mean you're not caught in a situation where it roars and there's nothing you can do to stop you getting combo'd to death. Evade +1/2 (10 or 15 points into Evade+): This is a crucial skill to learn to use. Since dual sword users will be rolling round a lot, you'll quickly notice that your roll has a frame or two of complete invulnerability. This is called your 'moment of invincibility' (MOI). Evade+ extends this time, allowing you to roll through more attacks and play more aggressively. It also allows you to roll through most roars in the game, negating the need for earplugs in some cases. Some creatures have roars that stun you and damage you or push you back (like Tigrex and Rajang). Earplugs won't stop you getting pushed back, but rolling the roar will. Elemental Attack Up (10 points to ElementAtk): Gives a 20% boost to your elemental damage. On end game dual sets it's not as good a boost as Sharp +1 (see analysis section) but it is very close. To get the most from this, you'll want to have at least 300 of your chosen element at end game, as it adds a % and not a fixed number. At low rank or High rank it's less important as you can't stack as many skills, so it's usually worth having. Evade Inc (Points into Evade Inc): Makes you roll further. It's handy to have in some cases but not many armours have it and it's not that useful in many cases. On a creature like Gravios though where you can use it to roll in to attack the belly and then back out again to avoid damage it's handy. Reckless Abandon +1/2/3 (Points into Expert): This raises you chance to get a critical hit (+25% raw damage). Each level adds 10% affinity, which over time means about 2.5% extra damage per level. Since it only boosts raw damage and not elemental, it's not as good on duals as it is on Hammers/GS/LS. Attack Up Small/medium/Large (points into Attack): This adds a set numerical boost. It's +14 raw with small, +21 for Medium and +28 for Large. Needless to say, this is lame on duals. A 20 point skill at G rank that adds about 8% raw damage to end-game duals is mediocre. Still, on duals of less than about 370 raw it'll boost your damage more than RA+3. Status attack Up (points into Special Attack): Gives you a 12.5% boost to Status infliction. Not really massively useful in all honesty. Defensive Manoeuvres +1/2 (points into Technique): You'll be rolling a lot with duals, but you'll often have infinite stamina anyway. In the cases where you don't, it's handy being able to roll with less stamina, but it's not worth gemming in. Runner (Points into Stamina): Means your stamina decreases at half the normal rate. It's very useful for DS users, but since Mega Juices give a superior effect and you don't need to take up armour skills with them it's a second option. It's great not to have to worry as much about stamina but you never want to be in a situation where you're trying to roll but can't because you're on too low stamina. Bomber (Points into Bomb Strength Up): A 50% bonus to bomb damage. Great for Fatalis and Gravios runs. Adrenaline +1/2 (Points into Potential): +1 is useless, but +2 is a 30% attack boost at 40% HP or less. It's great for more stationary targets like Lao and Shen, and ones where you can always predict movements well like Yama. Still, given the foot chip damage you'll be taking lots of, it's not always good for general play. Survival (Points into Survival): When you're on 65 HP or more, no hit in the game will kill you (it'll leave you on 1 HP instead). 1 Mega and 1 Normal pot later and you're back to Survival threshold. It's handy on occasion, but for most creatures you'll end up taking little damage points randomly, often pushing you under the required threshold. Observer (Points into Observance): When a monster is painted and is at HP low enough to be captured, the paintball icon will turn yellow. This is great for creatures like Tigrex and Diablos that constantly rage around death and can really cut time off fights. It's also only 5 armour slots. Recovery Speed (Points into Rec Speed): This can be handy for all classes. Quick Eating (Points into Cooking): Being able to eat power seeds, juices and potions in half the time is useful, but there are usually long enough openings without it anyway. Fishing Expert: Adds nothing useful for DS users... except mega style points. See also: BBQ Celebrity. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VII Suggested Armour sets for Elder, High Rank and G Rank SAS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Low Rank - Hr 1 - 3, Village Elder ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battle Armour: Attack Up and Grinder. This is a great set in the early game when you'll be stuck with duals with crap sharpness levels. Kut Ku D: Points into Elemental Attack (you'll need to reach the 5* Kirin to make two +1 EAU jewels to activate it) plus Attack Up and Reckless Abandon points. It's not a hugely damaging set, but for adding up damage in low rank it's useful. Garuga (with the Garuga Mask): You'll get sick of seeing this armour as it's so damn good you'll be wearing it for hours. With the Garuga Mask, you can have Sharp Inc, Sharpsword, Earplug and RA+1 which for duals at this level is amazing. You can also get RA+, HGE and Sharpsword with some re-gemming. Diablos D: Sharpsword, Sharp Inc, High Wind Res (and with a two slot weapon, you can have another 5 slot skill, like High Speed Gathering for Lao). Another great low rank set and one that's perfect for doing Lao runs if you've got a half-decent hammer. And since the best Dragon duals before G rank need Lao horns, you'd better get used to the idea of farming Lao. Ceanataur: Points into Sharp +1 (though you'll need five Monoblos hearts...), Sharpsword and Sharp Inc. It's OK, but totally outclassed by Garuga. Shinobi Sun: Elemental Up, Evade+: A good low rank set, especially when paired with Sharp Inc. Though you'll not often get a huge benefit from EAU at this stage. Remobra body and four Torso Inc parts: Runner and Sharp +1 in a relatively easily made package. You'll need to do Training School for the Black Belt arms and head, but you should be doing it anyway. Chrome Metal waist (Or Remobra waist) and Chrome Metal legs round out the set. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- High Rank, HR 4 - 6, Felyne Elder ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full sets ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ceanataur S: is just awesome. with no weapon slots you can gem it for Evade +1, Sharp +1 and AUSmall. With one slot you can get AUMedium. The other option with a single slot is Sharp Inc, Attack Up Large and Sharp +1. It's a great set for any melee class. Akantor: RA+2, Sharp +1, Earplugs (or lose Earplugs and get RA+3). A great damaging set. Rajang: Adrenaline +2 and Sharp +1: Makes Shen fights much easier. Handy to have Dragon resistance, too. Rathalos Soul U: High Grade Earplug, RA+3: A classic high rank melee set. Butterfly/Obituary S (Evade +2, Sharp Inc): a good poor man's set for experimenting with duals. Combined Sets (These are all from Blueyx's excellent thread on Minegarde). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- No slots required High Grade Earplug/Sharpness+1/Reckless Abandon+1. Available at HR6/Nekoht 9* Garuga Mask Dark Akantor Dark Akantor Dark Akantor Rathalos Soul U Jewels: 3 Earplug Jewel, 4 Artisan Jewel Sharpness+1/Reckless Abandon+2/Earplug. Available at HR7/Nekoht 9* Skull Face Dark Akantor Dark Akantor Dark Akantor Chrome Metal Boots (Or any armor piece with Torso Inc) Jewels : 4 Earplug Jewel , 2 Expert Jewel OR 1 Celebrity Jewel Sharpness+1/Adrenaline+2/Any 5-slot skill. Available at HR6/Nekoht 9* Golden Hair Tie Golden Haori Monodevil U Monodevil (Low Rank) Monodevil U 5 slots spare (No other jewels) High Grade Earplug/Reckless Abandon+3. Available at HR6/Nekoht 9* Blango U (Gunner) Rathalos Soul U Rathlos Soul U Garuga S Rathalos Soul U Jewels: 1 Hermit, 2 Celebrity Jewel, 2 Earplug Jewel Sharp Sword/Element Attack Up/All Resist +3. Available at HR5/Nekoht 9* Kirin S Kirin S Ceanataur U Kirin S Hi-Metal U Jewels:8 Razor Jewel, 1 Element Jewel Sharpness+1/Reckless Abandon+2/Sharpening Skill Inc. Available at HR7/Nekoht 9* Skull Face Ceanataur S Ceanataur S Dark Akantor Dark Akantor Jewels: 2 Celebrity Jewel, 4 Grinder Jewel Reckless Abandon+1/Sharpness+1/Sharp Sword. Available at HR5/Nekhot 8* Skull Face Ceanataur U Ceanataur U Ceanataur U Ceanataur S Jewels: 6 Artisan Jewel, 1 Expert Jewel, 1 Cutter Jewel One Weapon Slot Armour combos RA+2/Sharpness +1/Sharp Sword Dark Akantor Cean U Cean U Cean U Dark Akantor 6 Artisan Jewels 1 Cutter Jewel 1 Expert Jewel (thanks DoctorNotAnon) Sharpness+1/Sharpsword/RA+1/Sharpening Skill Inc. Available at HR5/Nekoht 8* Skull Face Ceanataur U Ceanataur U Ceanataur (Low Rank) Ceanataur (Low Rank) Jewels: 2 Artisan Jewels, 2 Razor Jewels, 1 Celebrity Jewel, 1 Master Jewel, 3 Grinder Jewels Sharpness+1/Sharpsword/Evade+1. Available at HR6/Nekoht 8* Giaprey U (Gunner) Ceanataur U Ceanataur U Giaprey Tasset U Ceanataur (Low Rank) Jewels: 2 Master Jewel, 1 Cutter Jewel, 2 Dodge Jewel, 1 Artisan Jewel Sharpness +1/Sharp Sword/RA+2. Available at HR6/Nekoht 9* Skull Face Ceanataur U Ceanataur U Garuga (Low Rank) Ceanataur (Low Rank) Jewels: 1 Master Jewel, 2 Celebrity Jewel, 3 Artisan Jewel, 2 Razor Jewel Two weapon slot armour combos Sharpness+1/Earplug/Reckless Abandon+3. Available at HR7/Nekoht 9* Dark Akantor Rathalos Soul U Dark Akantor Rathalos Soul U Dark Akantor Jewels: 1 Earplug Jewel, 4 Artisan Jewel, 1 Expert Jewel, 1 Celebrity Jewel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- G Rank, HR 7 - 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- By now you should be equipped to make decisions about what skills you find useful and what you look for. Instead of re-hashing the many resources available, I'll just link you to them. DevilTrigger has put together a great library of custom sets here: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://forums.minegarde.com/index.php?/topic/ 171-deviltriggers-armor-combo-library-its-getting-there/ When you copy that in, make sur you get both lines of text as one long unbroken line. BlazerMFT has another library here: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/943356-monster-hunter-freedom-unite/43471307 And AthenaADP has made an excellent armour skill calculator. If you put in the skills you want, it'll tell you if it's possible and how to get them: http://forums.minegarde.com/index.php?/topic/217-athenas-armor-set-search/ Having said that, there are certain full armour sets that are very useful. Here are my picks for what to make as a DSer, and you'll find the parts of these sets tend to be in most of the armour combos. Diablos Z (Sharp +1, Sharpsword, Earplugs, RA+1): My most used melee set and a great full set to use. Also doesn't have -dragon res, making it a good choice for Tigrex assuming you can roll the roars well. Ceanataur Z: (Sharp +1, Sharpsword, and any other skill you want). Versatile and powerful, and again a good set without -Dragon resistance. White Fatalis Z: (Attack Up Large, Sharp +1, Rec Speed +1, any other skill) It's been given a bad name by gamesavers, but this is actually a powerful and versatile set. Farming White Fatalis is a little tedious though. Fatalis Z (Adrenaline +2, Evade +2, sharp Inc, Sharp +1): A great set for advanced users and those looking to have some fun with Adrenaline. Kirin X (Runner, Elemental Up, Divine Protection): this is a somewhat under- rated set, and it's great for old school style DS use when you didn't need no stinkin' juices. It's not a stand out set compared to many others, but it is useful for the times when you don't want to waste a juice on a simple target. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================= Part 2: Strategies for Slicing Every Creature ============================================================================= Firstly, please note furthermore that there is no ‘right’ way to kill any creature, there is only effective and not effective. These strategies are ones that work for me and don't require any luck or excessive practice to pull off. Bear in mind that this guide is intended to be a launching pad for Duals users to expand from, rather than the definitive statement of everything duals related. Recommended damage: This lists the elemental damage you should aim to use. It's going to be based on the elemental damage taken on the part of the creature you should be hitting most often, which is typically its cutting damage weak point. In cases where that value is very low, raw damage will be recommended instead. Cutting damage weakpoint: This is where the monster in question takes the highest amounts of cutting damage. In many cases, two points are listed if the first one isn't easily hit. There's a number listed too, which is the amount of the weakness. Higher numbers indicate more damage taken. Armour Skills: You can of course DS everything naked if you so desire. This section is a list of armour skills I find helpful when tackling the given creature. It'll be split into 'Recommended' and 'Helpful'. Difficulty to DS: Not all creatures are fun to DS. Because of their limitations, some creatures are much more difficult than others. Status Use: This section will note if paralyzing or poisoning the creature is of particular use. Remember that you can use Ctrl+F and type in the name of the creature you want to jump right to that section. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I Lynians LYN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- King Shakalaka Recommended damage: Fire Recommended armour skills: None Helpful Armour skills: Sharp Inc, Evade Inc, BBQ Celebrity Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: N/A King Shakalaka is a fast little bugger, and it's pretty deadly at short range. It looks like a joke creature, but it can actually OHKO you in G rank so tread carefully. You'll want to either lunge at it or just do a couple of Tri hits and roll out. Demon dance when you knock it over, and otherwise be damn careful. Don't pick up the shinies it drops as they can actually explode on you. You'll soon find there's a rhythm for slashing it and rolling around, but be careful of the rage mode speed buff and damage buff. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- II Neopterons NEO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Queen Vespoid Recommended damage: Fire > Water = Ice Recommended armour skills: None Helpful Armour skills: None Difficulty to DS: Low Status Use: N/A Queen Vespoid takes a lot of Fire and Cutting damage, and it's reasonably slow, making it prime DS fodder. It's very easy to dodge, so waiting until it attacks and then demon dancing under it is effective. Your O spins are useful here since they are more vertical attacks. Take armour seeds if you're really stuck since they'll cure that -defence status it can inflict. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- III Dromes DRM ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Giadrome, Velocidrome, Genedrome, Iodrome, Bulldrome Recommended damage: They all take decent Thunder damage, but Fire is better on Giadrome. Recommended armour skills: None Helpful Armour skills: N/A Difficulty to DS: Low Status Use: N/A The dromes are all excercises in the basics of DS use. Even with the very first set of bone duals and the time spent running from base camp, these quests should be well over before the 5 minute mark. You don't even need juices, as it's easy to see openings to demonise, DD and then un-demonise. It's a good chance to practice the lunge -> Tri x 2 moves, as well as Tri x2 -> O spin. The bulldrome even flips over when flinched making it prime dancing fodder. If you're new to the game or totally new to duals use, this is a good place to start and chasing around the dromes will quickly get you used to DS's controls. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV Bird Wyverns BWY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yian Kut Ku, Blue Yian Kut Ku ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Water > Ice Cutting damage weakpoint: Belly (80) and Wing (75) Recommended armour skills: Any damage boosting skills Helpful Armour skills: N/A Difficulty to DS: Low/Moderate Status Use: Paralyze on Blue Kut Ku lasts a while, but isn't really worth making an effort to bring. Yian Kut Ku is the traditional first test of a new MH player, and so it's a good theme if you're learning to duals from the start of the game. It's a matter of dividing your openings into appropriate lengths and then using the best attack, but you have to be careful of tail-whips. They aren't that deadly but they are very, very annoying. Sometimes it'll just twirl in circles by itself while you wait for it to finish. Kut kus are usually small enough for you to hit the wings with a dance, but on larger ones you'll need to decide if you're going to go for hits on the belly or take a safer but longer strategy and hit the legs until it trips, then attack the belly/wings. Otherwise, apply your normal Kut ku fighting tactics - don't get charged, stay out the way of the fire balls, and try and stay away from walls so it can't peck/charge combo you to death. That's a common theme for duals you'll come to notice: You can usually attack head on if you're confident, but hitting the legs until it trips is also often effective, albiet slower. Yian Garuga, One Eared Garuga (‘Devil Garuga’) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Water Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (65) Recommended armour skills: Earplug Helpful Armour skills: Sharp Inc, Sharpsword Difficulty to DS: Moderate/Hard Status Use: Paralyze (15 seconds) is useful in multi. Garuga actually takes the most Water element on the stomach (40) and tail (30), aside from 70 on the back which is nigh on impossible to hit as a melee user. Garuga is a hard fight for a DS user, in my opinion. Being at extreme close range puts you right in the sweet spot for it to insta-charge you, and without earplugs you know it's going to scream and fireball you. When it gets low on health, it'll go into Rage mode with every hit, much like Tigrex. This is a similar fight to the other Bird Wyvern creatures, in that you're going to want to be hitting the head often with single Tri attacks and rolling out, and hitting the tail when you can't get the face. The tail actually takes a lot of damage, and once it's removed you should attack the feet. Getting a demon dance on the tail when it's fireballing is ideal, and you can start a dance when it's hovering and about to land. Time it carefully and the most part of the combo should hit the end of the tail, where you won't get the bouncing animation and so lose sharpness slower. Garuga's head stagger animation is relatively long, so if you're confident that a dance will stagger it after the first few hits then do so. Try and not combo it head on, but at a 45* angle to the faceas the front of the head is somewhat narrow and some of the hits may not connect. Gypceros, Purple Gypceros ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Fire Cutting damage weakpoint: Stomach (80) and Tail (90) Recommended armour skills: Elemental Attack Up Helpful Armour skills: The usual. Difficulty to DS: Easy Status Use: N/A Gypceros takes a scary amount of cutting damage on the tail and belly, so the ideal attack is to get under it, facing the tail, and combo. None of its attacks hit under it and with Wind press in demon mode its fly up and down attack won't phase you. On smaller Gypceroses, it's easy enough to get behind it and use Tri x 3, and if you get a stagger, immediately cancel into dance. Beware of the tail whips it does, but once you're under it and dancing away, it'll usually keep spinning. Just keep hitting it until it stops, basically. While it's preparing for the flash attack, unless you're on low health (in which case you should sheathe and superman dive) just hit the belly/tail with a dance. Odds are you'll stagger it and even if you get dizzied it's got few attacks that are a worry as it usually does the fly up and down thing that wind buffs you anyway. When it's playing dead, don't get close if you're not familiar with it. That playing dead attack is quite lethal in rage mode. You'll always know if it's playing dead since the quest won't have ended, or in a dual Gyppie quest you can check your quest screen and see if it lists the Gypceros as being killed or not. You can either wait for it to wake up (it's a good time to sharpen) or go for a quick tri hit on the end of the tail or the face. Just make sure you don't start attacking again until it's totally finished the getting up animation though. There's not really a whole lot of complication or strategy here, just get under it and slice. Hypnoc (Hypnocatrice) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Raw = Fire Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (65), Stomach (50) Recommended armour skills: Standard damage boosting skills. Helpful Armour skills: Sleep negate Difficulty to DS: Easy Status Use: N/A Let's be honest: Hypnoc is Sleep Kut ku. It's got the same animations and a similar body structure. The only major difference apart from where you hit it is that you have to watch out for the loping jump attack it does, but that's a simple matter of watching for the attack and getting far to the side or behind it ASAP. Hypnoc doesn't take a lot of Fire damage. It takes 25 on the face at most, so picking a set of good raw duals will work fine here if you don't have a good Fire set. Given that its head is low to the ground, it's a lot easier to hit that Kut ku's. Getting off Tri x 3 is pretty simple, and it actually takes pretty decent cutting damage on the foot so the 'hit legs till it trips and wail on the head' option is actually pretty effective. You'll need to be careful in rage mode, as the jumps really hurt and it gets much faster. But a lot of the attacks it likes to do are wind-press related like Gypceros, and you'll typically be demonised at most points so it's not a pain. Do try and avoid getting hit by sleep attacks though, as at G rank if it jumps on you after sleeping you it's going to leave a mark. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- V Wyverns WYV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rathian, Pink Rathian ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon = Raw > Thunder Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (80) Recommended armour skills: Earplugs, Sharp +1 Helpful Armour skills: Sharp Inc or Sharpsword since you'll be hitting it often. Difficulty to DS: Easy/Moderate Status Use: Poison works well on Pink (360 damage over 1 minute). I've listed this fight as Easy/Moderate, but in reality if you've fought a few Rathian before it's easy. Also I've listed raw damage as useful since at the head it takes 80 cutting damage and 35 Dragon, so while Dragon is handy if you've got a good pair of Raw duals they'll work better. Rathian gives you a *lot* of openings to hit the face, and because it takes so much damage managing staggers is easy. Work out how many Tri x 3 combos you need to do to guarantee a stagger towards the start of a demon dance and you'll butcher it in no time. If you know it'll stagger, you don't need to worry about the flip it'll often do after fireballing. The fake charge it does is annoying, but as long as you're not sitting right in front of it the whole time you'll be fine. When it does the fake charge (aka the chin poke) into a bite, wait till the attack stops and then get in for a Tri x 1-3 depending on your opening. Otherwise, it's quite a simple fight of waiting for it to fireball and avoiding the telegraphed charges and poison flips. Here's a video of the high rank Rathian done with raw duals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwkhMfsE2tQ&feature=email Gold Rathian ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Thunder Cutting damage weakpoint: Wings (50) Recommended armour skills: High grade Earplug, Sharp +1 Helpful Armour skills: Elemental Attack Up Difficulty to DS: Moderate/Hard Status Use: Poison works (360 damage over 1 minute). This is a much harder fight than Goldy's green and pink sisters. She takes much less cutting damage, and the area she takes the most (wings) is a pain to hit. And given how much HP she has, this fast becomes a very annoying fight. It takes the second highest amount of cutting damage on the feet (35) so this is a pretty clear case for attacking the feet till it trips, and then wailing on the wings. Don't bother hitting the head at all, and it's not worth trying to hit the wings when it's firballing, because it's got a 50% chance to go for a flip afterwards and it's going to hit you. When it's fireballing, run in and go for a Tri x 3 in normal mode on the legs and Tri x 1-2 in rage. As you get more familiar with her movements, go for more attacks. Always go for the leg closest to you and don't run under it since the flips are damn fast and really hurt. While it won't lead to an especially fast kill, you can use the Thunder/Para duals to decent effect here. Paralyzed monsters take 10% more damage, so spamming hits on the feet and alternating between tripped and paralyzed can mean lots of openings. Rathalos, Azure Rathalos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Raw > Ice (Dragon on Azure). Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (80) Recommended armour skills: Earplug, Sharp +1 Helpful Armour skills: Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: N/A on regular, Poison works (360 damage over 1 minute) on Azure. Rathalos is another case where raw duals will work well, since it takes such a massive amount of cutting damage. And as with Rathian, it's all about stagger limits, baby. First, hit it in the head with two or three Tri x 3 combos. You'll quickly establish the stagger limits based on your duals, but for a good pair at every rank, two Tri x 3 hits should mean it'll stagger a few hits into a demon dance after that. You can typically get Tri in hits as it's landing, if you time them correctly. Once you've established how many hits you need to get in to prepare it for a stagger, keep tabs on damage. That way, you'll know exactly when to attack it to flinch it, and can do a Tri X 1 into a demon dance for consistent staggers. And since the first few hits should stagger, all the rest of the dance hits after that start counting towards the next stagger. This means you'll quickly get into a rhythm with it, and as long as you don't mis-predict staggers, it should be a simple fight. If you're not keeping track of staggers and attacking randomly, you'll find this an extraordinarily frustrating fight, as it flies back and forth and charges around. And taking risks means eating insta-charges. But if you keep your head about you, Rathalos will become much less intimidating. Always demon dance it when it's fireballing, if you're close enough. This is actually a creature where duals are right up there with hammer in terms of kill speed. Silver Rathalos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Thunder = Water Cutting damage weakpoint: Wings (50) Recommended armour skills: High Grade Earplug, damage skills Helpful Armour skills: Evade Inc, Elemental Up Difficulty to DS: Hard Status Use: Poison works very well (420 damage over 1 minute). This is without a doubt one of the most frustrating weapon/monster match ups you're likely to face. Silver Los takes low cutting and low elemental damage and is fast. Like, really fast. You have very limited range and it's easy to get frustrated and try to spam attacks, but that means you'll end up eating damage. One redeeming factor of this fight is that Silver Los takes a lot of Poison damage - almost as much as Black Grav. And while it's poisoned, you can build up poison attribute so the next time you hit it with poison damage, it'll get re-poisoned. If you poison it three times in a fight, that's 1260 HP it lost. The High rank Gypceros based DS has decent sharpness and poison attribute, as does the Chameleos DSs. Basically, replicate the Gold Rathian tips, except you won't be able to get as many openings because it doesn't fireball often. While you're trying to poison it, remember that number of hits is what you're aiming for regardless of hit location. Other than that... use a hammer :D Khezu, Red Khezu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Fire (Water on Red Khezu) Cutting damage weakpoint: Neck (60), Back and Stomach (50) Recommended armour skills: High Grade Earplug, Elemental Up Helpful Armour skills: Difficulty to DS: Easy Status Use: N/A Khezu is a walking punching bag for DS users. As long as you don't start getting greedy and spamming DDs, this guy is cake. Khezu's neck is often tricky to hit normally, but his legs have very low stagger limits and you know what that means: You wail on them until he trips, then run over and demon dance his neck. Try and orient yourself so that the hits land on the neck and not the head, although you might find it tricky to see where the neck begins at first. As long as you have HGE, the only attacks that should be a worry are the thunder coat and the thunder jump if you're next to a wall and don't roll out in time. As long as you're careful with your Tri x1-3 combo on his legs and rolling out, he should never get you. People seem to use Poison on Khezu a lot in videos, but it's not very effective at all. Even on Red Khezu who takes more Poison damage it's still not that useful. Basarios ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Water = Dragon Cutting damage weakpoint: Broken stomach (75) Recommended armour skills: Earplugs, Bomber Helpful Armour skills: ESP, Trap Master Difficulty to DS: Easy Status Use: N/A Basarios is the younger version of Gravios, and it's not really a challenge for DS users if you're prepared to bomb it. Otherwise, especially at lower ranks, it's annoying dancing its chest and losing sharpness quickly, but you can do it without bombs if you want. If you run up to it as it's finished charging past you, you can place two LBB+ next to it and set them off with a stone or a SBB. With Bomber, this will quickly crack the chest plate off, giving you access to its stomach and doing it a lot of damage in the process. Then, running in and starting a dance will usually flinch it and it'll stop you bouncing since some hits can hit the non-broken parts of it. This really is a lame fight for DS users. Basarios just runs back and forth for most of it and chasing it around gets really old, really fast. Before the stomach breaks the cutting damage it takes is also very low. Gravios, Black Gravios ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Water Cutting damage weakpoint: Broken chest (80), Tail (25) Recommended armour skills: Elemental Attack Up (Black Gravios), Bomber, Sharp +1 Helpful Armour skills: Trap Master, High Grade Earplug, ESP, Evade Inc Difficulty to DS: Moderate/Hard Status Use: Poison (Black Grav) is extremely effective. Gravios is very similar to Basarios in terms of DS strategies. You can either wait until it beams or uses a gas attack and demon dance the tail or you can trap it and bomb the chest plates off. Once those chest plates are off, the damage it takes soars and on Black Grav, the Water damage it takes goes from useable to totally brutal at 90. Pitfall traps followed by multiple LBB+ is very effective at removing the chest plates, and once they're off, waiting until it beams before dancing the stomach will kill it quite tidily (slightly slower on the regular variant). Evade Inc is handy for getting in an out of chest range, since when you're under it it'll quite often do a gas attack. When the plates are off it'll stagger quiet often on the chest, though managing and predicting staggers is trickier than Rath wyverns. Apart from bombing off the chest, demon dancing the unbroken stomach or tail with a Water DS is your best bet. Once the tail is cut off though it becomes trickier; and often you can't run to the tail in time to dance it which is why you'll see people dancing the wings. They don't take a lot of damage, but if you're packing Poison you can easily poison it by attacking the wings. And Black Grav's taking 480 damage per poison, meaning if you poison it three times in a match it's lost 1,440 HP when you've barely had to do much. Still, without bombing it, Gravios is an annoying melee fight at the best of times and dual's short range does it no favours. Monoblos, White Monoblos, Diablos, Black Diablos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Monoblos: Raw > Thunder > Ice Diablos: Ice > Thunder = Dragon = Raw Cutting damage weakpoint: Tail (80 on Monoblos, 60 on Diablos) Recommended armour skills: High Grade Earplug, damage skills Helpful Armour skills: Evade+ (at G rank) Difficulty to DS: Moderate (Monoblos) and High (Diablos) Status Use: White Mono and Black Diablos take decent Poison damage (360). All the Blos class wyverns can be fought in much the same way. Their tail is the cutting damage weakpoint, but typically it's far to high to hit in most cases. So, the typicaly strategy is - you guessed it - leg trips then tail shots. HGE is really important here, since the Bloses love to roar and getting charged while stunned hurts. It's also a great chance to dance on the tail. Now, you shouldn't only be going after the legs, as there are many openings to hit the tail when it's not knocked over. You can clip it with Tri hits or your O spin while it's burrowing, and when it's surfaced you can also hit the tail with Tri if you're behind it and to its left as it surfaces. There are decent tail hitting openings, but if you're an advanced user you'll want to only hit the tail at certain times, like when it's burrowing. That's because you can't actually cut the tail off then. Sound dumb? Well, the tail is fairly big, and you can usually get good damaging shots in while it's burrowing. But if you sever the tail too quickly, the major damage point suddenly becomes a lot smaller as you have to then hit the tail stub. You should always be attacking Blos's left (your right) leg. When it goes into rage mode, the right leg moves around and chips you, whereas the left is static. Sheathe when it's in Rage mode and burrows if you're not close enough to the tail. If you are attacking the tail, roll OVER the spot it just went in after it's fully under. It'll almost always miss you and re-surface close by. If it's done a fail-dig where it's confused and stays underground for longer than usual, take the chance to sharpen or have a powerseed etc. The Black Blos especially loves to hoon around like a mad man, so stay close. This encourages it to do the short charge, giving you lots of foot openings. When it's on low health it'll rage every hit which gets tedious, but if you stay close and keep the pressure on you'll kill it. Tigrex ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Raw > Thunder Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (75, and 80 in rage mode) Recommended armour skills: Evade+ or HGE Helpful Armour skills: Sharpsword Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: N/A Tigrex is one of the creatures that duals excel on. It's quite an intimidating fight because you have to be right in its face, but if you keep the pressure on and don't lose your nerve you can kill them extremely fast. Tigrex takes a lot of cutting damage on the face, and if you stay right next to it you'll bait it into not using its charge often. It'll usually roar, spin, throw rocks or bite at you. While all these attacks can be rolled through just using your MOI, using Evade +2 makes it much smoother and it means that you can get right through the roar (as even with HGE you need to roll back to not get caught by the shockwave). Harass it with Tri X 1-3 attacks depending on your opening, and really get to understand staggers intimaitely. You'll see in the video that I'm usually able to know exactly when to stagger it with a short Tri combo instead of risking the full demon dance, and staggering it with the first hit - which means it'll usually recover before you're finished the attack and it'll wail on you. You can get a full dance it when it spins, and when you roll the roars. And when it does the rock throw, if you quickly face the same way as it, you can get a couple of sneaky tri hits. If you do have to break off to sharpen/heal, get close to it again and wait until it uses a short range attack since once it starts charging it seems to take a little while to 'calm' again. Here's Land of Tremors done in 8:31, with HR5 gear - so you can use the same gear on your first attempt at it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0qfLNy0q1k Naruga Kuruga (Narcuga) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Fire Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (50, 55 in rage mode) Tail (35) Recommended armour skills: Evade+ if you're not used to fighting it Helpful Armour skills: Earplug Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: N/A Naruga is a somewhat tricky creature for newer players to fight, but as soon as you're up to speed on your MOI usage you'll find it reasonably simple to beat down. Firstly, every attack of Naruga's apart from the tail smash can be rolled with your MOI. So screams, tail whips, boomerang jumps, everything. This means that with good timing skills, you can sit right in front of his face attacking almost constantly. It also turns to you twice, then pauses, giving you even more openings to attack. If you're new to fighting Naruga I really recommend Evade+2 armour, such as Butterfly/Obituary S. Tri x3 on the face with Fire duals should be your go-to attack in many cases. A few hits like this and then rolling through on-coming jumps if effective. If it's doing the tail whip attack and you're right in front of it, roll in towards the neck. You can usually fit in a demon dance here, but be careful to hit the head and not the neck. Naruga's got a small head and it's easy to end up getting a lot of neck shots in at reduced damage. When it jumps back in rage mode, it's probably going to do a spike throw. If you're close this is a great time to dance the head, but make sure you're on your right (it's left) of the head, as on the left of the head the spikes can actually hit very close to it. If it's in rage and doing the two jumps, then big jump finish attack, get in close and dance the tail, just where it meets the back legs. While you can cut Naruga's tail off, it's actually pretty difficult unless you focus on it. You first need to scar the tail and the when it's in Rage mode, cut it off which takes two to three staggers. Don't worry too much about it because it doesn't lose much range with it cut off. As long as you're keeping the pressure on with Tri hits on the face when you can and dances whenever the openings are there it shouldn't be too hard. Akantor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (50) Recommended armour skills: Damage skills Helpful Armour skills: Sharp Inc, HGE Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: N/A Akantor is an unusual wyvern in that when it's in rage mode, the elemental damage it takes changes. It drops from 40 Dragon on the face to 20, and Thunder on the belly goes from 15 to 40. Still, you don't want to be under it so Dragon should be the priority. Akantor is an intimidating but slow creature. It's quite big, but it gives many openings for attacks and when you're familiar with its patterns, beating it down should be simple. With High rank gear (Cean S and the Crimson Lotus Blades, for example) it shouldn't take much more than 15 minutes on a standard run and even faster is possible if it doesn't spam digs. Basically, stand right in front of it, and react as follows. When Akantor roars, get about a body length away from it and on the immediate left of its head. You should always have time to get there once it starts the roar animation. And in that position, none of the lava pillar formations will get you. When it's tail whipping, get on its left side. You can do a O first revolution on the head before the tail whips around, and you can start a demon dance where it's head will end up. If it decides to do two tail whips, just follow the same princples. When it's doing the soundwave breath, your first priority is to get the hell out of the area. If you're close enough and it's safe, combo the front arm closest to you. If it's doing the short range lunge bite, try to roll into the arms. They'll bump you over, but it does much less damage than getting hit by the mouth. When it's charging from long range, sheathe and sprint in one direction and superman dive. It's not that hard to avoid as long as you dive just before the arms get you. Annoyingly, when it digs it's probably going to hit you. It's just an attack melee users are going to get hit by if they can't block and you're in front of it to head the face. Don't forget to bring armour seeds as they cancel the defence down status Akantor can inflict. When it's dug under, it'll either surface where you were when it dug, where it decides to (if it's sending up lava pillars, watch for the 9th ish one. When you see two pillars appear in the same spot, it's going to surface there) or it'll surface in one of three pre-determined spots. If it's dug under and is taking ages to surface, sprint around. When you're running towards its underground location you'll run normally, and when you're running away from it you do the OH CRAP style run. Use this to find where it's going to be. if you can't get the head, pick one of its back legs. They take decent Cutting damage and you can focus on one to trip it over. Then, free face hits are yours. So just take it easy and keep the pressure on. Stay at 75% ish HP and you shouldn't end up getting beaten or taking too long. Ucamulbas / Ukanlos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Fire Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (50) Recommended armour skills: Damage skills Helpful Armour skills: HGE, more damage skills Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: N/A The strategy for Uca is basically identical to that of Akantor, since it shares the same attacks for the most part. The major difference is the surf attack it does instead of charge spamming, and the ice beams. The surf is best avoided by sheathing when it dives and supermanning over the fin, but you can roll over it too. Just wait until the lowest point of the bobbing and roll. The ice beams and chin dig attack can be quite dangerous for DS users, so unless you're quite experienced it will probably be safer for you to adopt the secondary Akantor strategy. That is, stay under it and pick a leg to wail on, and then sprint to the face to attack. Alternatively, roll under it as it falls and hit the legs. They take less damage, but you can hit them more and it'll set it up better for the next stagger. Take thawing agents. Getting frosted and not being able to get out of it means there's an odds even chance it'll combo you. so, fight some Akantor first to get the hang of it and then bring you fire duals for some chillaxed slicin'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI Piscines PSC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cephadrome ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Raw Cutting damage weakpoint: Stomach (120) Neck (110) Recommended armour skills: Damage skills Helpful Armour skills: Felyne Tutor, BBQ Celebrity Difficulty to DS: Low Status Use: N/A This guy takes so much cutting damage that getting under it and dancing will just about flinch lock it. Even the hip check that's dreaded on other Piscines has limited effect here. So take sonic bombs, get under it and spam. It's got limited health and takes so much damage that a detailed strategy is a bit wasted. Plesioth, Green Plesioth ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Raw Cutting damage weakpoint: Stomach (100), Foot (50). Recommended armour skills: Evade+ Helpful Armour skills: Damage skills Difficulty to DS: Easy (with Evade+) Hard (without) Moderate (with great MOI timing skills). Status Use: Poison (360) on Green Plesioth You'll notice I've listed this fight on all parts of the difficulty continuum, unhelpfully. Allow me to elaborate. Plesioth's most dreaded move is of course its infamous hipcheck. If you don't have understanding how MOI evasion works, you're going to get Plessy's invisible junk slamming in your face over and over as while you're under it, it's going to hip check you. Rolling through the hipcheck is counter intuitive because the visible hitbox and attack frames don't look like you'd expect. When it rears back to thrust at you, there's a split second at which you have to roll, before it starts the attack itself. With Evade+1/2, this window is much, much more forgiving. And of course, with dual's limited reach, you're basically always in hipcheck range. That being said, with cutting damage weak feet and a very cutting damage weak point you can't normally hit, want to guess what the strategy is? That's right: run in for Trix 1-3 hits, demon dance if it's tail whipping over your head, and always make sure you're ready to roll (no, really) because it hipchecks most of the time when you're under it. Don't spam demon dances becuase it'll catch you out. When you trip it, combo where the belly is. But since it thrashes about you'll probably end up hitting the back but that's to be expected. Once you get your strategy down, you'll find duals are a decent class to use here, but you need to manage the hipcheck somehow. Personally, unless you feel you have something to prove, I'd use Evade+. If you really can't stomach the rolling idea, its neck is also quite cutting weak at 60. You can bait it into doing a water cannon by standing away from it and then running in for a dance when it's blasting, but there are less chances to attack that way and the neck will mean you'll bounce often. Since Green Plessy is much faster than the regular one, you can use this strategy if you get really stuck. Volganos (Lavasioth) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Water > Raw Cutting damage weakpoint: Tail (40) Feet (30) Recommended armour skills: Quake Resistance, Elemental Attack Up Helpful Armour skills: Evade +, damage skills, Evade Inc Difficulty to DS: Moderate/Hard Status Use: Paralyze is effective Volganos is Plesioth's hot cousin. And If there's one thing Pokemon has taught us, it's that fire based creatures are weak to Water, and that's true here. Volganos is quite different from Plesioth in that it's much less cutting weak and isn't as stationary as Plesioth tends to be. Volganos loves to do a land swim attack where it charges across the map on its belly. It's painful in normal mode, and in rage mode it's faster and can turn around mid swim. Also, its long range attack which is a fireball that tracks you as it releases and has shards fly off it that fly off in random directions. It's got a whole lot of HP, too and isn't a lot of fun to fight, to be honest. At least it doesn't hip check as often. Evade+ is useful for rolling the quakes, tail whip and first part of the landswim when it's next to you (which can otherwise do serious damage), as well as the hipchecks it will do. Running under it and aiming the Tri x 1 hit to get the belly will do good damage in a small opening, but otherwise circle it counter-clockwise and when it fireballs, dance the legs form the side (not from under it). When it's hipchecking, you can just run away from it and as long as you're not behind the head you should be OK. And of course, if you do find yourself presented with a head shot, take it if the belly or tail isn't open. Sheathe when it swims around in rage mode. There's a very high chance it'll get you otherwise as those hitboxes are really wide. Quake Res is very useful since when it does the belly smash it'll usually do it twice in a row. If you go for a demon dance just be careful not to start a second until you're sure of its next movements. Because it's got huge health, huge damage with wide area coverage and isn't cutting weak, this isn't a fun fight for DS users. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VII Carapeceons CPC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daimyo Hermitaur, Purple (Plum) Daimyo Hermitaur ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Thunder (Ice > Thunder on Purple) Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (50) Recommended armour skills: N/A Helpful Armour skills: Evade+, EAU Difficulty to DS: Low Status Use: Easily paralyzed Hermitaur is a great place for newer DS users to practice their craft and to get used to fighting without 'juices. Daimyo is reasonably slow and doesn't hit that hard in most cases, making it quite forgiving. For most of the fight, you can effectively lunge (O + tri) when not demonised, get your combo on to an appropriate length, and then roll. Rolling through his legs to behind him is very easily done and with a basic awareness of his attack windows, you need never get hit. Staggering the head is also easy, since it takes good cutting and Thunder damage and has a low stagger limit. Once you've established the rough number of hits to stagger, you can demonise and prepare for the stagger by doing Tri x 1-3 and cancelling into a demon dance. That amount of damage will set it up very well for the next stagger, too. Daimyo tends to "nickle and dime" players to death, in that its bigger hits are simple to avoid, but it gets you with a lot of low damaging attacks. Be careful about getting carried away and then getting hit by a water cannon if you get greedy and get caught in a dance. The jump attack is another one to be wary of. With demon mode's built in wind press skill it's less annoying than other classes, but this can lead you to be cocky and stay too close. The hitbox on that attack extends much further than Daimyo's body, so play it safe. Also, when you're behind it, always assume it will do the shell charge so make sure you don't try demon dancing the skull. On Purple, if you're unclear about your stagger limits or damage, you can keep harassing it with charge attacks or Tri hits on the legs. They take good enough cutting damage at 35 for you to wail on them until you get a trip. It seems to stay tripped for a long time too, allowing two or three dances on the face. Shogun Ceanataur, Red (Terra) Shogun Ceanataur ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Thunder Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (45) Body (35) Recommended armour skills: Evade+, Sharp inc Helpful Armour skills: Damage skills, Rec Speed + Difficulty to DS: Easy to Moderate (G rank Shogun) Moderate/Hard (Terra) Status Use: Low paralyze limits Shogun Ceanataur is in many respects the bigger, harder version of Daimyo. It's worth practicing on Daimyo first, since many of its attacks and patterns are replicated here. Shogun has a much longer reach and is faster than Daimyo and is much deadlier. Most of its attacks do much more damage and many won't actually knock you over if you're demonised. This is dangerous because it'll chain attacks quickly and it's possible to not realise how much damage you're taking and suddenly get killed. It also love to burrow and those un-burrow attacks can be quite random and deadly. But on the plus side, duals are a good class for Shogun. Being fast and able to roll-cancel many attacks and combos allows you to get more hits in than many other classes with relative safety. While Shogun can attack quite randomly at times, if you keep your cool and stick to safer openings you should be fine. And you'll want to get used to fighting it, since Ceanataur armour is among the very best sets for DS users. Since you don't have much time to demonise at will, it's better to stay 'juiced and demonised the whole fight. Attacking the legs isn't as good as on Daimyo, but it's certainly better than hitting the shell or pincers. Be aware too that the head is the pointy bit that sticks out of the body, and not the body itself. It's usually too high for you to hit, so body staggers will be your raison d etre here. Many of its attacks leave the body open, like the single claw hammer it does or the water cannon Terra will do. Use these openings and be really careful if you're planning to dance, since in rage mode it really recovers fast and it'll put the hurt on you. So as with many fights, it's about hit and run here. Given how fast and damaging Shogun is, there's a lot of merit in players using the Thunder/para set of duals. Many quick hits adds up the para attribute and paralyzing it three times means nine free demon dances which is good fun. Note that Terra is even faster than regular Shogun and hits harder. It's got the same weaknesses though apart from Water on the shell, but it's not weak enough there to warrant using water duals. Shen Gaoren ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon > Fire Cutting damage weakpoint: In shell (80), Body (40) Recommended armour skills: Damage boosting, Quake Res Helpful Armour skills: Damage boosting Difficulty to DS: Low Status Use: N/A Shen is a boring, boring fight. On a personal level I'm annoyed Capcom would put two 'wall' creatures in (this and Lao) since they aren't hard, they just take a half-hour of mindless attacking. If you want to clear this example of bad game design as fast as you can, I recommend you look up my Shen Gaoren HBG guide on YouTube. It takes very little effort, requires no tactical skill and clears Shen faster than any other class. If you do want to DS it, I recommend you get a Quake Res armour and some Dragon duals and then just follow it as it walks. Pick a leg, and keep track of it mentally, and wait until that leg has moved. When it's stopped, get in and demon dance to your hearts content, as long as the leg is going to be moving away from you (so, don't combo it if it's about to kick you). You'll soon enough make the leg bright red. Keep hitting it until it becomes darker red, and then switch to another leg. Once all four are dark red, pick any one and keep hitting it until all four legs turn grey again. Shen will now flinch and fall down for a long time. Roll into his body and hit the weak point (for massive damage, of course). The weak point is tough to describe, but roll between the back leg closest to you and the shell, and if you've done it right, at the end of the roll you'll end up just inside the shell. If you've done it right you'll notice massive hitlag. Keep demon dancing until it gets up. You should always be hitting the legs unless it's tripped, in which case you should go for the weak point. In the Town Shen missions, when it's walking around close to the ground, hit the body instead. Try and stay on near max HP, because when it falls over with a flinch it'll land on you. And that's pretty much it. You hit the legs or body, and the in shell weak point when you can, and kiss goodbye 20 odd minutes of your life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIII Primatus PRI ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Congalala, Green/Emerald Congalala ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage Congalala: Raw Green Congalala: Ice Cutting damage weakpoint Congalala: Head (65) Green Congalala: Tail (50) Recommended armour skills: Damage skills, Sharp inc Helpful Armour skills: Evade Inc, Rec Speed +, Quick eating, Quake res Difficulty to DS: Low/Moderate Status Use: N/A While these two creatures have the same body shape and similar attack patterns, they have quite different strategies to DS because of the different weak points. Congalala's quite traditionally weak in the head, while Green's much more element weak and the tail is your target. Congalala feels like it has reasonably high stagger limits, and a stagger doesn't give you much more of a chance to attack, so it's safest to play assuming you're not going to get a stagger at all. Keep up the damage with Tri X 1-2 normally and Tri x 1 in Rage mode in tiny openings, and if it's puffing its chest out, get in for a dance on the tail. It'll tend to charge twice before going for a longer attack like a belly flop, so stick close ish and let it run around. It's pretty consistently cutting weak all over, so after a belly flop run in for a combo anywhere (obviously the head if you can, though). It'll often do the four claw swipes followed by the falling over. If you're on its left as it starts that attack, you'll be in prime position to roll in for a dance on the face. On the right hand side of it, just stay out of Quake range if you need to and run in for a dance on the arms otherwise. That's basically it. Don't stand in front of it since it'll charge you, but if you stay to the sides and let it attack past you, you can your dance on. Green/Emerald Congalala is a lot trickier. The tail is the weakest point, but as you'll probably know, it's got some pretty nasty gastro habits. If you're not aware, Green Congalala loves to use fart attacks and they have a reasonable area of effect. It also tends to be a fair bit bigger as it's G rank only, which is where Evade Inc becomes handy. There are far fewer openings to dance that don't require that you risk a gas attack, and the damage it does take isn't that high, especially relative to its mammoth HP. It's going to be a frustrating hit and run excercise, and you'll often be waiting for it to belly flop to run in and hit the tail. It'll fart as it's getting up from many attacks, too, including the four swipes. The fart attacks it does randomly also do huge damage in rage mode. Make sure you take deoderant to this fight! Blangonga, Brown Blangonga ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Fire (Blangonga) Ice (Copper) = Raw Cutting damage weakpoint: Face (70 on normal, 65 on Copper), Tail (50 on both) Recommended armour skills: Earplug, Evade+ Helpful Armour skills: Damage skills, Quake res Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: N/A While the two monkeys don't take much elemental damage, it's recommended because it's required to break their fangs. After they're broken, roars don't need earplug and the regular one can't summon Blangos any more. Regular Blangonga isn't too bad to DS. It's fast, but so are you, and most of its attacks don't have a massive range. If you get right under it too, it can't seem to target you properly. This fight won't involve many demon dances, so leaving your 'juices at home (man, that sounds wrong) is a fine idea. While not being demonised means your hit and runs aren't as damaging, it does mean you're more easily able to lunge attack with Tri + O. This is a great way to start combos and make the most of openings created by your initial attacks, and that's a flexibility not possible with demon dances. So, harass it. Lunge in, and start hitting X to roll out before the lunge finishes if you're not sure of the opening. Targetting the face is really important, but after the fangs are gone, hitting the front quadrant of the body is very useful as the front arms take decent cutting damage and a trip means free hits. If you can, get used to MOI rolling the quake shock waves. You shouldn't be in the range of the ice breaths, and following them up with a lunge to Tri x2 is going to add up damage fast. The boulder throw is irritatingly random in terms of shards, so attacking the face/front arm is a risk I usually take. Taking Thawing Potions helps a lot at higher ranks. Be very careful with healing, since it can jump and cover a LOT of ground in a very short space of time. Copper Blangonga moves similarly, but has two new main attacks to watch out for: A short range 'fan' of boulders right in front of it (avoid by rolling them head on or by sticking to the sides) and a long range single bouncing boulder attack (avoid by sheathing to superman dive if you see it coming but preferably, stay closer). Don't bother attack Coppers's back legs or body; they take much less damage than the normal one. And since it likes to do the breath and boulder attacks more, there are more changes to dance the front arms. Still, going for a non demonised lunge into a roll or more Tri hits is quite effective. Keeping either of the Blangongas still for any length of time is hard. And when not raged, they have the very annoying habit of randomly jumping around, often thrwarting attacks. Just keep your cool and stick with it. It's also very important to clear minions from the map you're fighting in. If you have Earplugs and don't need fangs, you can go for high Raw damage instead of using elemental. Rajang, SSJ2 Rajang ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Raw Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (60), Tail (50) Recommended armour skills: Damage skills, Evade + if you need it Helpful Armour skills: Quake res, quick eating Difficulty to DS: Moderate/Hard Status Use: N/A Rajang can be killed quite efficiently with duals, but you'll need to be quite familiar with its movements and openings. If you get an opening wrong, it's often going to kill you. First of all, the Golden Rule to Fighting Rajang: RUN LEFT. If you run on your left of it, it can never get you with attacks if you're close enough. It's going to be freaky for newer melee players to do this, but you have to stay close. If you don't, it's going to zig-zag hop on you and you'll feel the pain. Also, don't stand right behind it because it'll randomly hop on you and that attack really hurts. While you want to hit the face when you can, it takes good enough cutting damage all over, meaning that while it beams go for a demon dance anywhere. Tail is best, but it's not worth missing the last few hits by starting your dance late if you're not in the right position. When Rajang is turning to you, you can get a Tri hit safely if you're on a 45* angle to where it will be facing. Start your hit just as it starts the second turn towards you, and if it's timed right it'll connect on the horn. Obviously, roll towards and under it ASAP as it'll usually punch at you afterwards. If you start the attack too late, you'll probably get punched. On very large Rajangs (like the second one in The Final Invitation) angle a little differently, as you need to, and you might start the hit a fraction later to get the face as it's lowered. Using the exact same timing as on smaller ones can mean you'll miss on the bigger monkeys. For advanced dual users, you can actually clip the back legs as it punches past you if you're in the right position. Stick to a Tri hit, though. If you have Quake res, you can follow it a bit closer and get in a couple of Tri hits as it finishes the attack, but be aware of the insta-back hop. When it does an energy ball and jump back, it's a great chance to run in and get a couple of Tri hits on the horn. You can even get three hits in in normal mode, and if it's jumped back into a wall so you don't have to run as far you can risk a dance. After a zig-zag jump, it'll always jump back. As soon as you see where it's going to land, face there and start a demon dance before it hops back. If you've positioned well, it'll jump over you into a demon dance. In rage mode, if it body slams, it'll always follow it up with a jump back into energy ball attack. So if you see it body slam, go for a limited attack on the horn and get ready to run back to where it'll end up for Tri x 2-3 on the horn. Rajang will take a bit of work for most duals users, but apart from GS, Rajang is tough to melee. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- IX Elder Dragons EDS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kirin ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Raw Cutting damage weakpoint: Horn (90) Recommended armour skills: ESP, damage skills Helpful Armour skills: Evade Inc, Sharp inc Difficulty to DS: High Status Use: N/A Kirin with duals might be the worst monster/class match up the game. Given Kirin's capacity to lay waste to the area around him with such short notice and duals' short reach, you're going to need to approach this fight very carefully. The key to this fight is Kirin's unique stagger mechanism. Most creatures have a different stagger for each body part, while Kirin just has one. If you stagger it while facing it, you'll make it briefly flinch its head to one side. But if you stagger it from behind, you'll knock it over. This is crucial for duals as it's the best chance you get to hit the horn. Kirin doesn't have a huge amount of health and the horn takes a lot of damage, so if you flip it over a few times and position well to demon dance the horn afterwards you should find it dies fast. Once you've established a rough number of hits per stagger, try and keep a pretty careful track of this, so when you're approaching that number you can start only using hits from behind it. And as soon as you knock it down, follow it up with a danceo n the horn (careful not to hit the head). Kirin has multiple lightening summons. Recognising the different patterns is really important to knwoing safe attacking windows. The first pattern is a slightly longer load up animation, involving Kirin rearing up on its hind legs. When it's doing this animation, it'll call lightening down right on top of itself, making the surrounding area safe. The second and third summons are visually harder to tell apart, but the summon animation is much shorter. The second one summons thunder all around it randomly and must be avoided. The third summons lightening in a small pocket a couple of body lengths away from Kirin, so it's safe to attack When it's doing the targetted lighting strike, it'll often taunt afterwards. Use that loading up animation as notice to get close to it and ready to demon dance the hind quarters. After a dance behind it, always be ready to roll forward if you've flipped it for an immediate dance on the horn. Apart from it taunting, the best way to get attacks in is Tri hits in small openings, and a O twirl which you should start just before it turns after a thunder summon. That way, if timed well, the hits should connect with the horn or head. This is going to be a frustrating fight, so take it easy. It'll charge back and forth and sit there doing the lightening calls over and over and there'll be very little you can do. Just wait for your openings and make sure you adjust to the stagger limits. Kushala Daora, Rusted Kushala Daora ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon > Thunder (Water on Rusted Kusha) Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (50) Recommended armour skills: Earplug Helpful Armour skills: Damage skills, Sharp Inc Difficulty to DS: Low/Moderate Status Use: Paralyze is very effective Kushala is a fun fight with duals, as long as it's not flying constantly. While you can kill it in one round without flashbombs, you will be waiting for it to land which isn't a lot of fun. Kusha has quite a weak head and a stagger that gives you a lot of free hits. If you're savvy about managing stagger limits, you can really keep it flailing on the ground. You should be focussing on the head the whole time, unless you know it's on less than 30% HP and so the tail can be cut. The horns won't break until it's at 60% HP, and it doesn't need Dragon damage to break them off. Once the horns are gone, it loses the wind aura permanently and can't resummon it. Helpfully, flinching it also removes the aura temporarily. When you send it into rage mode, it'll often roar a second time to re-summon the wind aura. If you're on low health it's best to play it safe and get a decent distance away when it goes into Rage mode in case it does the second roar, since the wind buff has a massive area of effect and it can often lead to combos. The strategy to fighting it on the ground is simple enough - use Tri x 1-3 whenever you can - usually following ice blasts - and Tri x 1 when it turns to you after charges or when appropriate. When it flinches, go for a couple of Tri hits, but get ready to position yourself for a full demon dance on the head. This sets it up very well for a stagger soon after. while you can't quite soft-lock it, you can dominate the fight fast enough when you get into a rhythm. When it's flying, try and stay under it and abuse O attacks. Be careful though of the tail attack, but that's avoided by just running to one side when it slowly floats forward. Here's a video of the second round of a G rank Kusha to demonstrate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kuM0vvFz8s Chameleos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon > Fire (same damage, but Dragon can remove the horn) Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (50), Hind leg (30) Recommended armour skills: Damage skills Helpful Armour skills: More Damage skills Difficulty to DS: Very Low Status Use: N/A This is a uniquely boring fight with duals; it's akin to Lao Shan farming. The strategy is thus: You run up to its back right leg (so, the back leg on your left as you look at it), wait for it to start an attack and demon dance. it'll soon trip, and then run between its flailing legs and angle yourself so half the hits get the chest and the other half get the legs. This sets it up well for the next stagger, which will quickly happen. And that's pretty much it. You can kill a G rank Cham in less than 15 minutes solo using this abuse, which is a great way to farm for Elder Dragon Jewels. If you're using Dragon damage, run up and combo the head instead for one stagger, that should be enough to remove the horn as it doesn't have a HP requirement. Also, towards the end of the fight, try and land a few hits on the tail when you can to remove it. Here's video evidence of brutality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC0rpHAkMog Lunastra ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon > Ice Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (40), Body/Front legs/Tail (all 35) Recommended armour skills: Earplug Helpful Armour skills: Damage skills, sharpsword Difficulty to DS: Low/Moderate Status Use: Luna takes poison damage in a unique way - 300 HP in 30 seconds. If you're not concerned about Horns, the Ice/Poison duals can be useful at lower ranks. Lunastra and Teostra are very similar fights. Both the Manticores have the same attacks, but the major difference (apart from elemental weakness) is that Luna is easier thanks to the fact she telegraphs her charges. When you see her doing a weird pose and walking forward a few steps, it's your cue to get out of the area. Since Luna takes virtually the same cutting damage on the belly, forelegs and face, get used to hitting there. The head is your desired spot to attack when you can obviously (and especially with Dragon damage) but the forelegs are often accessible and mean you're much less likely to get charged or bumped. When it's doing a flamethrower, dance the front arms. If you start it early enough, you can usually position yourself for a Tri x 2 attack on the face when it's stopped. Try and approach from the side so you don't get knocked over when it extends its forearms forward at the start of the attack. When it's jumping or charging around, it's best to let it stop rather than rushing in. You can get a Tri x 1 and roll out if you start the attack as it's turning to you if you time it right. Most of the time though, it's best to sheathe and chase it around, waiting for it to get bored of running. When you head flinch it, get Tri hits in as appropriate, and position yourself ready to dance the head as it's getting up, like you would on Kusha. This is important to do as it keeps the damage up and preps it for the next flinch. If you try dancing as soon as it flinches, you're going to miss many of the hits when it's thrashing around. A couple of tri hits comboed into a dance is ideal if you get the position right when it's first flinched. You also need to recognise the two explosion ring patterns it has. If it's surrounded by red sparks and is flapping its wings fast, it's a close range explosion and you need to roll out. If it's yellow sparks and slow wing flapping, then get in and dance the head as it's a long range explosion ring. Be careful of the paw-swipes. While they are more annoying than anything else, they can set you up nastily for a combo. Either roll into the body or MOI through them if you're positioned well. If it's tail whipping, either stay back or roll under the lower body and start a combo for some free damage. Teostra ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon > Water Cutting damage weakpoint: Head (40), Body/Front legs/Tail (all 35) Recommended armour skills: Earplug Helpful Armour skills: Evade+/Inc, Sharpsword Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: Poison works very fast, paralyze works for 15 seconds. Essentially, this is the same fight as Lunastra, but with a few differences. For the basic strategies, see above. The major difference in the fight is that Teostra doesn't telegraph his charges like Luna does. Instead of a short animation before rushing, Teostra just charges at you. It does a LOT of damage and it's sometimes tricky to work out if it's a straight or curved charge. If you're not experienced at fighting Teo, take a cautious approach and don't stand in front of it. With Luna, when it jumps back and taunts, you can often get some face hits in; but with an enraged Teo it's best not to unless it jumped back into a wall close to you. It's also weak secondarily to Water rather than Ice, which isn't particularly useful as the Water duals tend to be mediocre if you don't have access to the Red Lobtser Duals. Other than that, apply the Lunastra strategies. Lao Shan Lung, Azure Lao Shan Lung ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon > Fire Cutting damage weakpoint: Stomach (55) Recommended armour skills: Damage skills, grinder/sharpsword Helpful Armour skills: More Damage skills Difficulty to DS: Very Low Status Use: N/A This is a very, very boring fight for DS. With some 'juices you can really get an effective strategy going. You don't even need to bring them beforehand, as you've got time to cook Rare steaks while waiting for Lao in each zone and combine with Catalysts for Power Juices. Set up the supply LBB+ in the middle of the first zone you fight Lao in. As soon as it's close enough, set them off and demon dance the head a few times to get the horn off. Keep dancing the head until the belly is accessible. Sharpen, then get under the lowest part of the belly and keep demon dancing. Because demonised mode gives you wind press, you don't need to worry about getting too close to the feet and can just spam demon dances over and over. Repeat in every zone. Farcaster home if you need to avoid the tail, but you can just sprint home hugging the wall on the left. Superman dive if you think the tail's about to swing your way. When it gets to zone 5, load the Ballista. As soon as the eye icon appears by your name, you can hit it. Move the ballista crosshair (in first person mode) across right a few degrees, until it's equally between the two canyon walls on either side (see my Lao Hammer guide on YouTube if you need a visual demo of that). It's not pretty, but it works. Yamatsukami ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Ice > Dragon Cutting damage weakpoint: Mouth (80), Body (65), Tentacle (55) Recommended armour skills: Survival (if required), Sharpsword Helpful Armour skills: Sharp Inc, Evade inc Difficulty to DS: Moderate (Low/Moderate once you get the patterns down) Status Use: N/A Yama is a very intimidating and weird fight the first few times you attempt it. While it seems a little like Shen and Lao in that it's a HP tank, it actually fights back and is a more dynamic battle than the other two. Not by much, sadly. While other classes can hit Yama while it's floating about before it attacks, duals reach means that you usually can't, forcing you to play a battle of reaction. While the mouth and eyes (90) are the best spots to hit it with cutting damage, there's not often much scope to attack them. But if you can, they should be your first targets. When it smashes down with the two inner tentacles, dance the 'shoulder' region, and be ready to run. It's got a 50/50 chance to begin the vortex attack after a few seconds, which is a OHKO. If it does start the vortex, sheathe right away and sprint away. If you've predicted it, switch to your tranq bombs and throw two. It'll drop down to the bottom pit, and you should drop onto it and demon dance the mouth over and over. It'll require one more tranq each time you do this though. If you haven't predicted it, just sprint away. If you're going to run out of room, jump off the platform onto the ground and then back up. If it hits the platform with two tentacles but doesn't do the vortex after a few seconds (you'll get a feel for how long to wait) then it's safe to attack the tentacles with impunity. If it hits down with all four tentacles, it's safe. Run in and combo the inner two. If it does the helicopter attack, you've got a few options - either do the 'despair' gesture, sheathe and crouch, time a superman dive well, or my personal favourite, sharpen. The sharpen animation makes you crouch, getting under the attack if you start it at the right time and has the bonus of getting you back to max sharpness. It won't work with Sharp Inc, though. When it's flailing at you with either the one or two tentacle attack, try and get between the tentacle and the edge of the platform just after the attack hits. You can get a few hits on it before it pulls back. When it comes close to release thunderbugs, spam dances on the mouth like there's no tomorrow. If you pick the right spot, you'll kill the bugs as they come out, but if you don't, jump off the platform after the attack and climb back up as this always gets rid of all the bugs. They are extremely annoying and their bump attacks can lead to you getting comboed or kill you outright if you're not careful or unlucky. When it's in rage mode, the eyes glow yellow and it's going to be a little faster, so watch out for those flail attacks. Yama is a big balloon, and you'll notice as you attack it the belly (full of hot air) begins to shrink. This is a great way to guage its health. After a certain amount of damage, it'll drop down for a while to re-fill. Either jump on it to carve or plant the anti-dragon bombs. Yama takes a while, so you'll learn to get into a rhythm. Stay back from the platform if you're unsure of attacks, and always keep moving if you're about to get hit and you should be OK. Fatalis ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon Cutting damage weakpoint: Face (80), Head (50), Leg (20) Recommended armour skills: Sharpsword, Sharp +1 Helpful Armour skills: HGE, Grinder Difficulty to DS: Low (once you're used to how it moves) Status Use: N/A Fatalis is a very intimidating fight for most players. It's been the unofficial end boss in various MH games for years, and there's still a lot of trepidation surrounding fighting it melee. While it may take most players over an hour to kill a Black Fatalis, it's actually a reasonably easy fight. Fatalis is a very predictable dragon once you've observed how it moves. It will walk on the spot for a few seconds, and then: >Belly Smash This is when it just falls down. It'll do moderate damage if you're under it, but as the belly/crotch doesn't take that much damage there's no reason you should be in danger of getting hit by this. >Belly smash, then snap'n'drag This is more common than the simple belly smash. It drops down, and then instead of getting up, it wriggles forward. Touching any part of the body at this point will either kill you or do massive damage. It can continue to wriggle for long distances so be careful. >Fireball Fatalis rears its neck back and spits a fireball that goes in a straight line. It's got no area of effect and it's telegraphed well in advance, so it's not really an attack you need to worry about. >Fake summon Fatalis leans forward and waves his head around a little bit, mimmicking the attack Crimson and White do to summon meteors/thunder. It doesn't do anything. >Staunch Walk Fatty gets all up in your grill by just walking at you. Doesn't do damage, but it can belly flop on you which does. >Roar Pretty obvious: it screeches. It requires HGE to negate, but doesn't offer many damage options if you do have it. Unless you're right in front of it, it'll turn to you, giving you time to recover before it can hit you. >Claw Fatalis swings at you with a claw attack that's niggly in normal mode and lethal in rage. As long as you're not right in front of it, you'll be fine. >Fly When Fatalis flies up, it'll either be switching sides of the castle (it'll stay up in the air for a long time before moving), it'll be doing fireballs (either single, triple or both), it'll land right away (listen for the distinctive growl) or it'll hover at you. If it's hovering, run at the shadow until it stops moving, then run back away. Until the shadow gets close to you it'll keep chasing you. Once it's caught up with you, it'll either come right down or do one or two fireballs. These are avoided by just running back far enough. Key times to attack Fatalis are when it's landing, as you can get a O twirl into a demon dance on its face (stick with just the dance unless you're used to the timing). Otherwise, the major attack you'll be doing is demon dancing the legs as it walks around. Often, if you're comboing the back leg, it'll keep belly flopping into the wall, over and over again, letting you wail on it for minutes at a time. It's a quite poorly coded creature, IMO. Since the tail doesn't take much damage, try and get your combo to land on the legs exclusively. Other than understanding its attacks, there's not a lot of strategy to Fatalis. Keep hitting the legs when it's walking around as it's basically all you can hit. The chest takes very little cutting/dragon damage, so even when it flinches, keep hitting the legs. Crimson Fatalis, White Fatalis ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended damage: Dragon Cutting damage weakpoint: Face (50 on Crimson, 80 on White) Recommended armour skills: Damage skills, Survival if required, Bomber (White) Helpful Armour skills: Damage skills, HGE, Bomber Difficulty to DS: Moderate Status Use: N/A White and Crimson are a boring fight in much the same trench warfare is supposed to be boring - long periods of monotony interspersed with brief periods of terror. The cutting and Dragon weak zones are the same as Black Fatalis, and they take the same damage apart from Crimson's stronger face. The tactics are basically identical as for Black, except for the differences noted below. Both Crimson and White have summon attacks that cause massively damaging attacks to lang in pre-determined positions on the battlefield. Being behind the right leg means you're safe from all but one of White's summons, which you can avoid by staying in front of the right leg instead. While they are doing the step forward to summon is the main time you'll have to attack the legs with a dance, and then step out a little so you don't get clipped by the foot as it turns. Neither White or Crimson snap'n'drag, but both can belly flop, so hanging out in front of them isn't advised, especially as the belly takes little damage. As with Black, attacking the head as it lands is your best bet for adding up damage. Crimson can also do a dive-bomb attack, but it's easy to see coming and it flies in a straight line. White will sometimes step from foot to foot and then do a claw swipe. It's quite obvious after the first time you see it coming, so as long as you realise it can slightly alter direction while doing the 'I have to pee' dance you'll be fine. Both Crimmy and Whitey have armour modes. When active, all damage done to them in all hitzones is reduced to 10, including elemental damage. For Crimson, this is every time it's in Rage mode and for White, it's from 50% HP to 20% HP. This is why bombs are important, as they do a fixed damage that ignores armour mode. Bomber lets you do 50% more bomb damage, and Felyne Gunpowder turns all your LBB into LBB+. This is very helpful with Alchemy, as it lets you make more LBB. Bombs are crucial for the Downloaded Fatalises as you need to kill them in one round, and very important for both unlocked, although you can bounce your way through them if you so desire. Bombs can be planted every time it flies, as well as during summons. Igniting with SBB adds a little extra damage, but stones or paintballs work just as well. When in armour mode, bombs should be your absolute priority. So as with Black, this is a very anti-climactic fight. Demon dance the leg as it summons and if you have ESP/purple sharp get in some Tri X1-3 hits otherwise, and manage armour mode with explosives. ============================================================================= The Monster Hunter Quest ============================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I Introduction MHQ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a guide within a guide for the final Felyne Elder quest, titled Monster Hunter. This contains suggestions on gear and tactics, but as always, how you complete the quest is up to you. This guide is divided into a number of sections intended to be read in order. Firstly, knowledge. ------------------- Have a detailed read through the below sections on each creature you'll face, and watch the YouTube videos associated with each creature. Still, there is no substitute for experience. Go, fight the creatures yourself. Once you can kill each one without flashes, you're ready to start the quest. Bear in mind this quest is tough, and it's meant to be. This is the final offline urgent quest and is one of the biggest tests of your hunting ability you'll face. Secondly, equipment. -------------------- You can do this quest a variety of ways. This suggested gear is just one variation of many, but it is my most recommended option. I suggest you use: Akantor Sharp Talons Diablos Z (Hermit Jewel) Diablos Z (Celebrity jewel) Rathalos Soul Z (Cutter jewel) Diablos Z (Celebrity jewel) Rathalos Soul Z (two Earplug jewels) This gets you the skills: Reckless Abandon +3, High Grade Earplug, Sharpsword. This gear will require you to have killed Ucamulbas, Akantor, G rank Black Diablos and G rank Azure Rathalos. This gets you a set with a massive raw damage duals set @ 65% affinity. That means two out of every three hits are going to be positive criticals. Also, your shouldn't need to sharpen much due to the length of sharpness and Sharpsword, and you won't be affected by any screams thanks to High grade Earplugs. Green sharpness also has a very fast hitlag, so you can actually get in more attacks in many cases. Another good option is the Last Battleaxes with full Diablos Z, gemmed for Sharpness +1, if you're not up to Ucamulbas. Thirdly, items. ----------------- Mega Juices should be obvious, and power juices won't hurt if you're attempting this for the first few times. Ancient potions and max potions are important since you'll get hit, as are Mega potions. Whetstones should be a given, and power seeds are very handy for taking between creatures for a three minute power boost. Taking traps and tranq bombs can be handy as sometimes the creatures will be on very low health but jumping around wildly. Power/armour charms/talons offer a free boost, so bring them along. But apart from this obvious stuff, it's up to you. I really don't recommend you bring flashes, as holding the monsters still while you beat them up really defeats the challenge of the quest. Of course, play it how you like, but for a lot of people the fun of MH is in the challenge. The Quest Itself ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be Captain Obvious, it's a marathon/epic quest featuring Rathalos, Tigrex, Naruga and Rajang in the Great Arena. Normal marathon rules apply in that you carve mega potions from the dead creatures instead of normal carves. The quest is a high rank quest that features G rank monsters. That means while their health is somewhat diminished because it's a marathon quest, they have G rank stagger limits, defence and attack values. They hit hard and Rathalos's insta-charge and Tigrex's charge will almost OHKO you. Consider yourself warned. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- II Rathalos: Initiation LOS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rathalos is an irritating DS fight for the most part. It'll be flying around much of the time, and charging across the map. If you stay close to it though, it tends to do the fake charge more instead of running back and forth. The basic strategy is to manage stagger limits, and know when to cancel your Tri combo into a demon dance. When it lands from flying, you can get in a Tri x 3 combo. After two of those, it'll flinch the next time you demon dance (as long as you don't expect the very first hit of the dance to flinch it). Use this to your advantage. You can also demon dance it when it roars or fireballs. When it does the fake charge, get in between one and three Tri hits (depending on the length of the opening). If you flinch it, immediately cancel into a demon dance with Tri + O. When it's doing the fly back fireball, you can clip the tail with a Tri hit if you're behind it. It's not going to do much damage, but every little bit helps. Annoyingly, you're going to risk insta charges, unless you play it super safe. Just make sure you maintain your HP above 70% ish HP so you won't get OHKO'd. So keep your cool and stick to the strategy, and try and avoid getting frustrated, as you'll start taking risks. Once you get some practice in and a compliant Rathalos, you should have it killed in around five minutes. If it's taking you much longer and you need another juice, use a Power instead to save your megas for the harder creatures. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- III Tigrex: Frustration REX ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you've killed Los, make sure you sharpen. Wait a minute and ten seconds after it's been killed, and take a powerseed and Mega juice. Tigrex is a good match up for duals, but it can still be a worthy opponent. When it spawns, welcome it with a Demon dance and then see what it does next. The basics here work in rage mode too, but bear in mind your openings will be shorter. And while you have HGE, you can't stand too close to Tigrex when it roars since there's an area of effect on the scream. When it roars, roll once away from the head, and asap get back in and start a demon dance. When it spins, make sure you're clear and on your right of it (Tigrex's left) and then approach from a slight angle and begin a dance or Tri x3 as appropriate. Always stay on Tigrex's right (your left). When it starts a charge, it raises its left arm, making it very easy to roll under. And if you're positioned properly, it'll go right by you and you won't need to roll at all. If it's throwing rocks, you should be safe on the left side. You'll be able to get the first part of the regular Tri combo if you're savvy with positioning, too. When it's doing the bite attacks, you either run right a little or roll through them. If you're not familiar with using the moment of invulnerability then I recommend you go around it. You can hit the tail with a Tri attack when it's gone past you, but it's better to stay 90* from its head, forcing it to so a short turn instead of the double 90* turn. Much like Los, you have to manage your stagger limits. A full demon dance won't always stagger Rex, so getting in a Tri x 3 hit when you've previously just staggered it is a better idea, and means when you next attack it, it's going to stagger. You have -dragon res on the recommended armour, meaning that the charge (which is Dragon elemented) is going to hurt. Make sure you stay on around 70% HP minimum. Keep the pressure on, and STAY CLOSE. If you do, you'll bait it into using short range attacks. If you stay at distance, it'll almost always charge at you which eats up time and is very frustrating. Staying right in Tigrex's face is pretty intimidating if you're not used to it, but it's the safest place to be. If you need to re-juice or sharpen, farcaster home if you're not confident about your openings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV Naruga: Understanding NGA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once Tigrex has bit the dust, wait just over a minute and then re-buff as you did after Rathalos died. Naruga doesn't take a lot of cutting damage, but it's also got the least health of any of the creatures here. It's a unique fight that's quite MOI heavy, so I really recommend you get used to fighting it before you attempt it here. If you can't roll the tail whip consistently, for example, you're not ready for this fight. You're going to want to harass Naruga with a lot of Tri hits, but there's also a lot of chances for a Demon dance since it turns slowly and pauses briefly before attacking. When it's in rage mode and jumps back, it'll usually do a spike throw. The longer it takes to prep that attack, the further it'll throw spikes. But if you're very close and on the right side of its head (so, its left, same as Tigrex). Demon dance the head if it's doing a long or medium throw, and the body otherwise. When you're close and it keeps doing the tail whips, that's actually a great chance to attack. If you're near the head and close in to the body, the tail whips will never actually get you, so you can spam attacks with impunity. Just be careful with your openings, since if you've just started a dance when it's decided to tail smash you're in for a world of pain. When it jumps into its stance, you can either roll through the oncoming attack or more simply, run towards and around it before it jumps. The latter is better only if you're quite close and not attacking when it's in stance, though. When it's enraged and doing the two boomerang jumps and then the big jump slam finish, get in close and combo the leg/tail joint, and be ready to hit the face when it turns. This will either be a very easy or very frustrating fight depending on your experience with Naruga and evasion. Apart from the tail smash, every single attack can be rolled without any Evade+ skills. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- V Rajang: Ascendancy RAJ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- By this point of the quest, you're probably pretty tired, and you're probably a little stressed out about the time remaining. But take a breath, you're almost there. As with the others, sharpen and pop a seed and one of your last remaining Mega juices. Rajang spawns in a different place to Tigrex and Naruga, so orient yourself accordingly. Remember it takes the most cutting damage on the horns, secondly the tail, and then it's basically the same over the body. The major thing you're going to want to do is harry it with Tri hits, since it's got few openings for a dance apart from when it beams/blasts. As it turns to you, you can always get in a Tri hit on the horns. When it's jumped back, if you're close enough and it's jumped into a wall, you can actually risk a demon dance, but otherwise Tri x 3 is a safer option. When it's beaming, run in and do Tri x 3 or the first revolution of the O attack, then cancel into a demon dance. If it's just doing the energy ball, stick to a demon dance. When it's in rage, it'll always jump back after a zig-zag hop, and you can actually time a demon dance so the last few hits (including the two 20% ones) hit the horn. Just be very careful of your distances and timings, otherwise it'll jump onto you or recover before you do. In rage, after it's done a body slam it'll jump back and energy ball. if you're positioned well you can dance or go for the Tri x 3 combo, but be careful not to end up eating the energy blast. After you've gotten a tri hit on the head as it turns, it'll usually start the punch attack. You can actually get a sneaky Tri hit on its back legs while it's punching past you, but don't get so close you get hit by the quake it generates at the end. And it should go without saying you always, always run left. It can't hit you with anything there, but it will zig zag hop you on the right. Keep up the pressure and try not to risk dumb hits unless you've seriously run out of time. Rajang should only take you around ten minutes, so take it easy. If you start getting reckless you'll most likely get torn to shreds. So, that's basically the quest. Once you've cleared it, pat yourself on the back because it's no mean feat. Personally I go to the guild hall and have a few drinks after a major quest but how you celebrate it up to you. Here's a first draft of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-rvBRkViXA Please note this was a first cut on that quest, and should only exist to demonstrate basic DS use. If you use the equips suggested at the start you'll be doing a lot more damage and finish the quest faster. Pkoepkoe on YouTube has an excellent DS video of this quest, using slightly different gear. I highly recommend it. ============================================================================= Credits, Contact & Copyright Info ============================================================================= blueyx and DevilTrigger for their great work on the melee armour set threads. DS31 and Lord Grahf for their work on the Melee Damage FAQ. Boldrin for his weapon guide. ffha for his Yama = hot air balloon thread on Old Minegarde. GiddyPinata, Knyxc, Jask, VioletKIRA, and FluffyNimbus for their help on proof-reading. This guide may not be reproduced under any circumstances without permission, and without permission it should not be on any site except: *GameFAQs *Minegarde To my brothers Vash_TS and Knives; you guys have made me the hunter I am today. Mad love to you both. All trademarks are © Capcom. All analysis © mazereon, 2010.