Some tips for Monster Hunter Rise:
* Start off with the beginner intro quest given by Hinoa sitting on a bench outside of the main plaza. You don't need to change equipment for this, master Utsugi gives you a rundown on basic elements in this quest.
* Afterwards stick to Village quests first as a newcomer. These are the quests you get from Hinoa sitting on a bench outside. The quest booth inside are gathering hub quests. They are intended for multiplayer, therefore harder and more importantly have more advanced quests unlocked from the start. Even if you want to play with friends I recommend doing village quests with one star alone first and unlock 2 star quests by defeating Great Izuchi. At that point you may have enough basics down to go online or keep playing offline, whatever you like more. The 1 star village quests include gathering quests and slaying small monsters, which is much easier but helps you to get the controls down, before diving into slaying a big monster.
* All around Kamura Village are Item boxes (also in the area you start the quest is a tent, inside you can also access it). The item boxes allow you to define what you take with you and unload stuff you gathered. I think you start with a predefined item loadout, use that until you define your own.
* The box also has one starter weapon for each type, you can change it at the box. Sword and shield, longsword and dual blades are considered beginner friendly, but your personal taste may differ. The 14 weapon types play very differently. Find out which type feels good for you and stick to it to learn it's details.
* I think after you have done the first quest, you can reach the buddy area (over the bridge to the right of the main plaza or hold -, then select buddy plaza). The buddy plaza in itself is interesting, but you have a single small boat at the shore. This will bring you to the training area and unlocks it also for fast travel. There you can try out the weapon and see on screen the combos you do. There is a red item box as well, so you can quickly change the weapons to try out what feels good for you.
* The Hunter notes (in the menus you access with +) have explanations for a lot of things, there is a list of combos for each weapon type too. You may want to check it in the training area. But if all the combos overwhelm you, stick with one or two first, that feel good to pull off.
* Learn dodge rolls (except you have a weapon with shield, which specializes in blocking instead). The key to slaying big monsters is dodging their hits first until they start to tire and slow down, so you can get hits in. Watch the monsters for signs this is happening. With some damage they may get into a rage, which let's them attack even faster, but that will tire them as well. So in the beginning dodging (or blocking) their attacks until you see an opening.
* Your weapon gets duller on usage. Use a whetstone to sharpen it. You always have one. Hold the L button (left shoulder button) and scroll through the list of items with A or Y (can be changed in the options). The whetstone is yellow. After selecting it release the L button, and press Y to sharpen. If your weapon is drawn the Y sheaths it, then you need to press Y a second time to use the whetstone. Holding L to select items allows you also to select potions (green mostly) or rations (brown) and consume them with Y.
* Learn to manage health and stamina. Health is the green bar at the top, stamina the yellow bar. The yellow bar refills in seconds, but it's maximum gets smaller over time. Eat a ration or a steak to refill this. Consume a potions to refill health.
* Big monsters may flee if they have damage. Your map always marks their position.You can see the meaning of the icons if you hold - for the big map. You can press the right stick to mark an monster icon, this will be marked on the mini-map too. This will help you to follow your prey.
* If you hunt monsters, don't forget to carve them after slaying. Get over the corpse until you see a prompt with (A) and the name of the monster and press A. Small monsters give one or two carves, big monsters give three. The materials you get this way is used later to craft your own equipment.
* After starting with slaying big monsters you probably want to start crafting own weapons and armor. On the main plaza outside the smith is the old guy working on a sword. Inside the gathering hub go up the stairs to the separate room, there is another smith. You can select forge weapon or forge armor and see what materials you need for each equipment item.
* If you select quests, you also want to select five subquests. These are simple stuff like 'gather mushrooms three times' If you do them on your quest, you get items afterwards, especially armor spheres for upgrading your armor.
* Eating Dango is something you can do once you start slaying big monsters. It increases health and stamina and gives additional effects based on the types you choose. The effects of Dango last one quest.
Last edited by Mnementh - on 07 April 2021
