Specifically Rise. My first entry of the series. I almost feel like Witcher 3 was more accessible for newbs like myself. Maybe I should try playing when I'm not tired lol. 

Can you explore freely or is every quest/mission timed? What happens when you run out of stamina? How much inventory can you have? 

The controls themselves are kinda difficult for me to get used to, but navigating through the tutorials is something else... Just feel like it throws a lot at ya. I know, I hear that Rise is probably the most accessible to newcomers, but I can't imagine what the others are like then.

Thank you in advance :P

Hunts and gatherings quests have a time limit, but you can go on expeditions that have no time limit. When your stamina gets to minimum you can no longer sprint and can only climb a very short distance. Inventory pouch has 24 slots but items stack and this doesn't include endemic life, so basically don't worry about inventory space, grab everything.

Some general tips:

- Sword & Shield is the easiest weapon to start with as it is simple, fast, and allows you to block. The lance is also a good starter for its ability to block and play defensively.

- Don't get greedy when going in for hits; it's better to leave a combo unfinished than to leave yourself wide open to getting hit.

- Eat a meal before each hunt, and once on the field, before heading to the monster, spend some time exploring to gather buffs and helpful endemic life.

- Get into the habit of always using wirefall (ZL + B) after getting hit, to escape getting combo'd.

- Pay attention to a monster's tells; they have specific vocal and animation cues before each attack, so learn these to tell what they're going to do next and act accordingly.

As a newcomer to the series with Rise this is my perspective.

At first combat was mostly button mashing, but while playing I’ve started to actually be aware of what I’m doing. It has come organically for me by just playing.

But I’m still a n00b, only items I still use are healing, antidotes and cooked meat (to increase stamina). It will probably be easier when I learn to use other stuff too.

Once I figured out wall running and wirebug mechanics no part of a map is inacessible, just as in BotW.

So far I love the game. It floats my boat by focusing on game play above ”cinematics”, ”story” and being pretty.

I play Dual Blades, tried a little Switch Axe but feel I have to try out the other weapons later on.

Rise is the first MH game for me as well. I feel completely lost between all the items, crafts, exchanges, shops, substitutions talents, chumskys palicos and how to improve them, etc.....

But everything curl-6 said is very usefull! One more thing I learnt though is to check the Monsters weaknesses and strengths before going to hunt.

If I never fought the Monster I look it up on the internet, once I met it, I go to the Compendium to see all the infos about him.

- What I look for the most is the Element of the monster (to increase my defense accordingly by eating the right dango, change my armor, my talisman and bring the right items

- Second thing is what Element the Monster is weak against. That way I can choose a weapon with that element that can do more damages

- Third thing is which part of the monster in the most vulnerable (often head and tail tip) to try to hit those spots while fighting.

I use double blades and for now i'm mostly smashing buttons, I should try other weapons and learn the combos!

- Another thing I understood quite late is how to use Endemic Life. it's like an object, you choose it by pressing L and scrolling with A or Y. Then press Y to use it in battle, It can be very usefull, especially to gain health, to stun monsters or give them damages.

- Take all the colorful bird you come across until you're maxed out before going to face the monster

- Never forget to sharpen your weapons when you have time to do it. The more you hit the monster the more your weapons becomes weak and the more the monster can counter your attacks. So shapening is very usefull.

-Try as much as possible to ride your chumsky while you take an item (potion, meat, etc...) or when you sharpen your weapons. If you're mobile while doing that it's easier to avoid being hit.

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.

Tip #1.... clear your schedule because that sht can get addictive.

Priority 1: Don't get hit
Priority 2: Don't hit your mates
Priority 3: Deal damage

Where you'll be dealing damage depends on your weapon. For example, longswords generally take the tail and I believe hammers typically take the face (but I don't regularly play face weapons). Otherwise, just learn your weapon and learn the monsters and I feel like the combat will all start to make sense. What weapon have you been playing?

No tips. Just keep playing. Thats the best tip I can give you.
A lot of people find the series to be unfriendly to newcomers but tbh I never had that experience, just keep experimenting and trying everything the game offers as it becomes accesible to you or you simply become curious about it. Very quickly you are gonna learn how customization of every element works.

Maybe the one tip I'd say is do try the combat tutorials for weapons and use the one you like the best and feel the most comfortable using. When it comes to combat I'll honestly wouldnt worry about "which weapon does what better" yet - let experience teach you that, or research the info later, when it becomes relevant to you, since as of now you are being bombarded with a lot of info to focus on specifics. Learn the generals first. MHRise is in my personal experience the easiest MH so far, so getting comfortable with weapons, upgrades and combat gameplay should be your priority. Just keep playing. Dont give up.

Also, as you progress through the quests tiers (e.g. 3 star, 4 star) a good idea is to make a new set of armor each tier as the higher the tier of the monster, the higher its armor's base defense, and your 3 star monster armor will probably be a bit inadequate once you start taking on 5 star monsters. You can also upgrade your armor using armor spheres which you mostly receive as quest rewards.

Building multiple sets per tier is a good idea too, as each armor has certain weaknesses and strengths, and you don't want to be taking armor that's weak to fire against a Rathalos for example. You'll also just get more combat practise this way.

Your weapons will similarly start to get a bit ineffective if you don't take the time to upgrade them.