Games

7 Monster Hunter: World tips that every player needs to know

These are the essentials that will help you get off to a great start when the Capcom's action role-playing game launches in early 2018.

By Ian Dransfield

5 min readPublished on 08/22/2018 · 11:26 AM UTC

Monster Hunter: World is a lot of fun, especially amazing with friends. However it’s a bit of an overwhelming one for those who haven’t stepped into any monster hunting shoes to battle massive beasts with their buddies. With that in mind, we’ve put together a few tips for beginners that will help you find your feet quickly in a series of unparalleled depth.

1. Pay attention at the start

Making your hunter personal to you and equipping them are key factors in any Monster Hunter title. While the default loadout will serve you well, it pays to experiment – do you want a fast weapon like the Iron Bang, or something slower and more powerful like the Binding Rock? Do you favour status effects? What Ghillie bonus works for you? Pay attention to the equipment and don’t let it define you – you need to use it to your advantage, not just settle for what’s offered.

2. Don’t fire the fireflies

Monster Hunter: World is all about tracking your prey – well, it’s about hunting, so tracking is just part of it, but it’s a big part of it so bear with us here. Basically, pay attention to your fireflies, who buzz off in front of you and will mark out any clues they discover. Once you’ve checked out enough small clues – footprints, scratchmarks and so on – your little green buddies will buzz off to something bigger (maybe a carcass) and, eventually, your prey itself. If you’re ever lost, if you’ve ever got yourself turned around, look for these little critters. They’ll never lead you astray.

3. C-c-c-combo breaker!

Combat in Monster Hunter: World is more technical than you might initially think. More than just hammering a button until your prey has fallen, it’s about mixing things up – introducing rising attacks to knock them off their feet, dodging and rolling before striking, charging up your giant hammer of doom before unleashing its full destructive potential.

Again, it’s something you need to figure out for yourself when it comes to what does and doesn’t work for you, but as long as you’re varying your approach to combat and trying out new things (look to the top right of the screen for pointers), you’re sure to find a battling style that suits. Or just spam the hammer-spin attack.

4. Focus

When things pick up and become hectic, it can be hard to stay focused on what’s going on. Additionally, when you’ve knocked a beastie down in health, it will tend to retreat to familiar ground to try and heal itself. In both cases, you need to keep an eye on where your prey is. Click the right stick in. Simple as that. Even from a distance and with obstacles in the way, you’re able to lock on to your target and keep track of their movements. Though obviously you have to have found them first.

5. Gutting

It’s not just about gutting your prey once they’ve been defeated, though don’t forget to do that in the 30 seconds cooldown time you get at the end of a battle, otherwise you’ll miss out on some goodies. It’s also about picking things up as you go – have a finger always hovering on the interact button and tap it liberally as you’re searching for your prey or just exploring. Eventually you’ll have too much rubbish to know what to do with, but picking up enough ingredients to get some fine chow cooking never hurt anyone. Always be picking stuff up when you’ve got pocket space.

6. Make some friends

If you’re not au fait with your Monster Hunter, you might not realise just how at home this series is when played with others. So wherever possible, play the game with friends. It’s infinitely better in a crowd. And you can still play online even without actual friends, thanks to the matchmaking option – so feel free to take advantage of that.

7. Get a better view

It might not seem like much, but the ability to change the zoom level on your hunter is one of those wonderful little tweaks that helps you get the most out of Monster Hunter: World. Adjusting your viewpoint isn’t just a comfort thing – it can be a genuine help to... well, see things. And it’s simple enough to change your zoom: Go into options, camera controls, pop into the camera distance setting and change it to what fits you. Genuinely, it’s useful.

And your bonus tip!

If you’ve got a PS4 Pro, settings can be changed according to how you want to play. It’s recommended that you go with the option that favours framerate stability over shinier graphics, just so you can be sure you’re getting the best possible experience on a hunt. Unless you’re desperate for things to look a bit nicer, of course.

And, of course, happy stalking of creatures! Or ‘hunting’, if you will.

To recap, here's what you need to know to get off to a great start in Monster Hunter: World

Pay attention at the start
Pay attention to the fireflies
Mix up your attacks
Focus on the prey at all times
Gut beasts you've defeated
Play with friends
Change the zoom level

Monster Hunter: World is out on January 26 on PS4, Xbox One and PC

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