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[sjm9876]

In the early game it's not too bad, you can buy starter weapons of each class or make them pretty easily you start with the weakest of each weapon class, so you can give them all a shot, but it can be a significant investment to get a weapon from there to being endgame level. Personally I'd recommend watching a run through or two of the weapons to try and get a feel for what you might like and then tutorials on those from there. The game does have a training area which is handy for practising trickier moves without the threat of being eaten, but it's not the best for learning from scratch IMO.

More generally, there are the 14 weapon classes, each with completely different movesets and playstyles. They've all got a good amount of depth, so just taking one out blindly can be pretty rough, so most players will have a few classes they actually use and keep upgraded.
Within each class, the weapons have various branching upgrade trees. These usually all function similarly but have different stats, elements etc. Some of the more technical weapons have deeper changes between trees, but most don't.

Spoiler: A grab from images of the workshop page of the insect glaive (click to show/hide)

Tier wise, the game is divided into low and high rank - HR has the same monsters again, but stronger, and with some new monsters thrown in (vaguely like some ARPGs repeat content again but harder). Armour shares these tiers, with low rank armour being basically obsoleted by its high rank variants, hence the previous advice on not grinding too much for LR armour. Weapons have a softer tier progression, with stronger weapon upgrades requiring materials from HR monsters.

[Folly]

Fully upgraded weapons do take a few hours to grind out. But it's an action game, and the hunt is supposed to be fun. If you are finding the grind to be more tedious than entertaining, Monster Hunter probably isn't meant for you.

The meatiest part of the late-game grind comes from farming modular augments. Fortunately these can be socketed and removed freely; so if you find you don't like them in one weapon, you can just stick them in another weapon, with minimal effort wasted on the weapon you end up not using.

Also, many of the live events will outrightly drop endgame quality weapons, so that's an opportunity to obtain and test some different weapon types without having to build and upgrade them.

[Retropunch]

I liked the hammer as a noob to the series - it has simple attacks and does a lot of damage. You also can stun-lock stuff which is helpful.

From the guides I read, you want to have a bludgeoning weapon and a slashing weapon as you'll need one of each for different parts. Long sword is easy to work out, but I hear dual blades are even easier to get your head around.

[nenjin]

So carrying multiple weapons for one monster fight is a thing? Videos implied that weapon switching wasn't a core strat, that you basically picked a weapon and dealt with its short comings (or went with a different weapon before getting in to a fight.)

[sjm9876]

In my experience you do just fine without worrying about damage types. As someone who's never really gone after tails I found I got plenty just through quest/capture rewards.

You can switch equipment loadouts back at camp, but outside of specific endgame hunts it's something I've pretty much never used nor seen used much.

[Ozyton]

They probably mean you hunt the monster once to cut the tail and another time with a blunt weapon to get something like barroth ridges which are harder to get with a cutting weapon. I can't say I've ever had to do anything like that though.

In terms of damage, generally speaking the longer it takes for you to perform the attack (Sometimes called 'motion value', either by how slow the animation is or how many inputs you need to do before the attack) the more powerful the attack is. Slower, hard-hitting weapons are better with raw damage, while quick, fast-hitting weapons like dual blades are better at applying status and doing element damage. This is because elemental damage doesn't care about the 'motion value,' it will do the same elemental damage regardless of if you slapped the monster with the flat of your greatsword or done a full True Charged Slash.

So heavy weapons better for raw, light weapons better for element. That's not to say element is worthless on heavier weapons, it's just not as much of a focus.

In terms of which weapon trees to go for I would suggest lighting or maybe ice. Many monsters in World are weak to lightning or ice or at least not strong against them. There's also dragon element but that won't be available until later in the game.

If you're still not sure then you probably won't go wrong with a status weapon. Poison is nice because it's just straight up damage over time. Paralasys is good because it will immobilize monsters as if they're caught in a shock trap, which is great if you're playing on a team. Sleep is situational and good for weapons like greatsword because the first hit on a sleeping monster does 2 or 3 times as much damage (?), or alternatively use bombs if your weapon isn't a hard hitter. I don't have any experience with blast but I think it deals more part damage (for breaking parts) and it might also ignore armor (deal full damage like bombs do).

[Retropunch]

So carrying multiple weapons for one monster fight is a thing? Videos implied that weapon switching wasn't a core strat, that you basically picked a weapon and dealt with its short comings (or went with a different weapon before getting in to a fight.)

Ahh sorry should have been clearer - you can only carry one weapon out on a hunt with you, but you different weapons are better for breaking off different parts. So lets say you want to get a skull bone for upgrading some armour, you might be better to use a hammer as that's blunt damage, if you wanted a tail you'd bring a long sword (etc. etc.).

The thing is that you don't *have* to do that - you can quite easily stick to one weapon type, it's just how much you want to optimise your strategy - the whole game basically revolves around that though, so if that's not your thing it might not be the game for you. One of the great things about it though is that all the weapons are quite well balanced (for casual play) so you don't have to worry about 'choosing badly' you just choose which is the most fun for your play-style and then maybe pick a secondary. The only ones you might struggle with solo are projectile weapons and the horn (which is made for party play).

Overall, I'd highly recommend it - just don't expect the same sort of RPG as you might be used to.

[nenjin]

Yeah after watching enough videos and absorbing the UI, I realized that you get loot from destroying specific monster parts. So I guess you can do that and run away and come back later with something else to get something else.....or just beat them down the first time you meet them, tutorials and quest-specific things withstanding.

I think I grok most of this. The weapons video went a long way toward explaining some questions I'd had about all the moving parts I'd seen watching various videos. Like the insect things only being relevant to the Insect Glaive.

I'm thinking I'll aim for Long Sword / Paralysis to start with. And I'll move to Sword and Shield if I find things too hard and need to be more defensive.

The thing is that you don't *have* to do that - you can quite easily stick to one weapon type, it's just how much you want to optimise your strategy - the whole game basically revolves around that though, so if that's not your thing it might not be the game for you. One of the great things about it though is that all the weapons are quite well balanced (for casual play) so you don't have to worry about 'choosing badly' you just choose which is the most fun for your play-style and then maybe pick a secondary. The only ones you might struggle with solo are projectile weapons and the horn (which is made for party play).

For me that level of optimization / grinding relies on either how in love I am with the game aesthetically, or if the challenge makes it worth my time. If neither of those are true, I tend to just power through for completion's sake. I'm the kind of player that doesn't necessarily enjoy making things the easiest and most assured for myself they can be. (Like I rarely use consumables if I don't have to.)

Anyways, the hunt begins!

[Ozyton]

I realized that you get loot from destroying specific monster parts.

Funny story about that. I was fighting a later game monster because I just needed a gem (rarest drop) from him. I broke his head and ended up failing the quest because it was a special quest with only 1 faint allowed. The one single reward I got was the gem I needed from breaking the head.

If you carve tails or other parts that fall off the monster, or collect parts from tracks or whatever you will keep those rewards even if you leave the quest (not abandon) or fail.

In other news, the Kulve siege is almost here again. I need to get farming.... E: Nevermind it's already here?

[nenjin]

The first hour of the game or so, including character creation, almost put me off. Mostly because I was spending my time trying to understand all the side bits. So much info to digest....and it's all so pretty it's hard to focus.

But after the first big kill it started to sink in. It's weird how, when you're just flailing around at the start because you've got Dark Souls controls hardwired in to your brain, the game seems slow and awkward. But when you grok the controls and the rhythm your weapon expects, suddenly it starts getting a lot smoother.

And by the time I was running around the Ancient Forest in the dark, I was pretty well hooked. I can see why this game doesn't work for everyone. It's got a weird flow to it. But I enjoyed kicking the shit out of my first monster and am looking forward to more. I think this is a game you gotta really get comfortable with the control scheme before you start appreciating all the options they give you in full.

[etgfrog]

Yeah, don't be like me and wait until your at endgame to finally start to use the quickslots. I just last night set it up so I could fight the lunastra + teostra. Before I was using the arrow keys to cycle through my items or navigating the crafting menu to make more pierce 3 ammo. Now its just press F then 1 to craft more ammo or G then 4 to drink a potion. I recommend setting the quickbar slots to be F, G, T and Y because your hand is right there.

[Kagus]

Yeah, don't be like me and wait until your at endgame to finally start to use the quickslots. I just last night set it up so I could fight the lunastra + teostra. Before I was using the arrow keys to cycle through my items or navigating the crafting menu to make more pierce 3 ammo. Now its just press F then 1 to craft more ammo or G then 4 to drink a potion. I recommend setting the quickbar slots to be F, G, T and Y because your hand is right there.

"This is my pimp hand. And this right here? This is my FGTY hand."

[etgfrog]

So that is a bit interesting, the regular lunastra hunt will have a second elder dragon in the area. I have seen both nergegante and kushala dora engage in a turf war with the lunastra.

Spoiler: Things get a bit crazy when both of them are fighting(Large pic warning) (click to show/hide)

Namely the tornadoes will carry the burning dust if the ground where its created is burning.
It will also become a flaming tornado briefly if flames are added.

[nenjin]

This game....

I'm now officially in love.

And it was over the smallest thing.

I got the quest to Steal Wyvern Eggs from the Ancient Forest.

Knew that there were "upper levels" to the Ancient Forest I hadn't found yet. Didn't think it'd be a BFD, did the Herbivore Egg Stealing quest in the Wastes no problems.

Cue me spending almost 30 minutes just trying to figure out how to get up to the damn place.

I didn't even finish the quest; friends wanted to play another MP game so I had to cut it short.

But man....the experience. The exploration. The visuals. The dankness of the forest paths, the climbing, the shadows...and THEN the actual experience of trying to get that egg back to camp.

So many games I've played in the last decade? try to deliver that "epic" feel and fail miserably. The either try too hard or not enough, or it's just not a complete package in some way. Either the music sucks or the visuals are weak or the actual action isn't satisfying....MHW somehow manages to do all these things right, in the right quantities, with an earnestness that just feels totally authentic. Like, obviously some producer said "this needs to be epic." And yet MHW feels epic because that's the final product, not just because it was something they were working toward. It's a natural outcome of all the good things they do.

This game is so special. Special in the way Dark Souls felt special.

[Dunamisdeos]

There a secret camp you can unlock at the tippy top of the trees that helps with that :3

Also I 100% get you there. Game nails all the details.