r/MonsterHunter • u/adremeaux • Mar 22 '13
A Monster Hunter 3U guide for new players
Here are some tips for noobs that should help you get a handle on the game faster, as well as explain some more confusing aspects of the game.
First off: do your weapon tutorial. (edit: apparently this game no longer has weapon tutorials. wtf? Well, go outside and try to figure out all your moves, see below). Like, right away. Though the weapons don't have huge movesets like Devil May Cry or something, they have enough that you should some time memorizing all the moves of your chosen weapon. Most weapons have three kinds of moves: fast pokes, medium length attacks, and slow, heavy hitters. All of these moves are useful in different situations. Some weapons also have evasive attacks, some weapons have KO attacks, and others have attacks that combo into blocking stance or sheath. There are also some moves that have great vertical reach, and some that have great horizontal reach. Movesets are also slightly different underwater, and some moves underwater hit below the fighter which is very useful.
edit: For your moves: you'll an X attack and an A attack. Try seeing how these two basic moves combo into each other. For instance, Long Sword has X -> X -> A loop that you can repeat. Then try moves with X+A, and see if you can combo these too. Finally, try R moves, which are usually special moves. These may combo or give you powerups, or just block. In addition, some moves can charge (notably hammer and great sword). After you've got all that, check your unsheathe attacks. You'll usually have two different ones: unsheathe with X, and unsheathe with X+A. I don't know the specifics of all the weapons, but with Longsword if you unsheathe with X+A you'll go right into the spirit combo (R button move), and with Switch Axe you'll go straight into sword mode. It's really an enormous shame that the game doesn't have weapon tutorials anymore, I can't believe they would exclude that, of all things.
edit edit: Hunter's Notes > Hunter Info > Basics & Controls > Weapon Guide for a written guide. Not perfect, but better than nothing.
It is up to you to know these moves, and know them well. You will be using all of them.
Questing
There are three types of quests in the game: free hunting, village quests, and guild quests.
Free hunting involves simply leaving Moga Village and killing whatever is around the D. Island. Doing so will gain you Resource Points to use around the village for upgrades, farming, and fishing. Each monster you kill will give you resources, and items you gather in the field can also be traded in for resources. When you've returned from your hunt, talk to the Elder's Son (the guy standing up on the box right in the middle), and pick Hunt Report, and this will tally up all of your kills and additional points, and you'll get some items, too. Normally, you'll want to send most or all of these items to the box, as they are resources for crafting and combining that you don't need to have on your person.
Village quests are the core of the beginning of the game. These are single player quests of modest difficulty and will ease you into the game. You get these by talking to the lady behind the booth in the north west part of town. These involve either gathering a bunch of resources, killing a bunch of small monsters, or killing a large monster. Eventually it will be nothing but killing large monsters once you get far enough.
Guild quests are primarily for multiplayer, though you can play them single player too if you are masochistic. Though they have many of the same monsters as single player, the monsters are significantly harder. They do more damage and take less, and the general difficulty of monsters you fight ramps up way faster. You really shouldn't be touching guild quests until you are comfortable with single player and at least up to 3* village quests. To access guild quests, you need to talk to the guy near the boat and travel to the Marina or Tavern. On the right side of the screen in the tavern, there are 3 people behind a counter that can give you guild quests. If you play online, you'll be getting all of your quests from here.
Quest info
When a quest begins, you'll see a blue box and a red box near your starting position. In the blue box are quest supplies, which you should absolutely take every time you start a new quest. You'll get a map, rations, first aid med, paintballs, mini whetstones, and possibly traps or bombs, cool drinks or hot drinks.
The map is straight-forward: it shows you a map of the area. This is optional, but you probably want it.
Rations are a critical item. The yellow bar up top is your stamina gauge. It starts out with a max of 100. If you eat a ration, it will grow its max by 25. If you eat another, it will go up to 150, it's max. You should eat two rations at the start of every quest. Having 150 stamina is a huge advantage, and basically free since the rations are free at the start of every quest.
While we're on the subject of rations: meat. Many monsters drop "raw meat." Using your BBQ spit, you can cook the raw meat into rare steak (which behaves exactly as a ration), or well-done steak. Well-done steak is like a double ration, growing your stamina by 50. If you run out of rations or don't have any, eat a well-done steak if you need stamina. You should always carry well-done steak around with you.
First Aid Med is the same as a basic potion. We'll cover potions further below.
Paintballs are used to mark large monsters. If you throw a paintball at a monster, it's location will be marked on the map. They wear off after I think 15 minutes, so you'll need to mark them again if the fight is still going on. You should mark every large monster you encounter.
Mini-whetstones are the same as regular whetstones. We'll talk about sharpness below.
Hot drink and cold drink are for cold and hot environments, respectively. To put it simply, if you'll be fighting in the desert, use your your cold drink at the start and you should be fine. For the tundra, use your hot drink. If you don't use these, you'll either lose health or stamina faster.
Sonic bombs, flash bombs, barrel bombs are somewhat more advanced. The first two can be thrown at large monsters at various times to stun them. This is monster specific, but if the bombs are in the supply, you may as well take them and trying throwing them when monsters are doing special things like flying or howling and seeing what happens. Barrel bombs are for straight damage; you can set them up while a monster is sleeping and detonating them by hitting them for an easy chunk of damage.
Traps and tranq bombs we'll talk about below in trapping.
Most supply items are automatically lost at the end of a quest. Map, first aid med, rations, mini-whetstones, "EZ" bombs will be returned. However, paintballs and tranq bombs you get to permanently keep. Sweet!
When a quest is complete, you'll get a handful of rewards, mostly monster parts. Send these all to the box: they'll be used later for crafting weapons and armor. You'll also receive a set amount of money.
Combining
Combining items is key to your success in Monster Hunter. Most combinations can and should be done via the box in your home, using combo list. Do not randomly combine items without the list, there is zero point. All combinations in the game are on the list, so don't start guessing.
When you look through the list, if a spot is greyed out, you don't have the supplies to make it. If the ?????s are white, then you can make it. Do so. Once you've made an item from the list once, the name will be revealed. You should try to make every item in the list once so you know what it is for the future. Your box has tons and tons of space, so don't worry about it running out.
Potions
The most important items you can make via combining at potions. These are the first two items in the combo list: potion and mega potion. A potion comes from an herb and a blue mushroom, and a mega potion comes from a potion and honey. All of these ingredients can be found easily outside of town. A mega potion restores about twice as much life as a regular potion. You can carry 10 of each on your person, and should always do so. Never leave town without 10 potions, 10 mega-potions, a few well-done steaks, and some whetstones.
Farming
Who the hell wants to sit around all day and gather herbs and mushrooms, though? As you progress through the game, you'll unlock things for your farm. Your farm can be used to trivially grow plants, mushrooms, honey, and bugs. The farm can be found via the south east exit from town. Talk to the guy up top and set your cats up to farm whatever you need. To start out, make sure you have tons of herbs and blue mushrooms, and combine them to make yourself lots of potions: you'll need them.
Fishing
You'll soon get fishing boats, too. You can send these guys out to bring you back free shit for the cost of resources. The first page of destinations will bring you lots of fish. Fish are mainly used in creating ammo, but sometimes they are used for some weapons. The second page of destinations will bring you "treasures." Some treasures can be sold for nice amounts of money (the eggs), others can be traded for resources. If you send the boats to the treasure areas, they are self-sustaining in terms of resources used/generated. Trade your rusty parts and broken fossils or whatever to the Elder's Son for more resource points.
Oh yeah, while we're talking about resource points: download all of the DLC next time you boot up your game, one of the DLC's is a free 5000 RPs which is huge. It will automatically install.
Armor sets and skills
Your skills don't activate unless they are at least +10. If you have +7 sharpness, +5 attack, +4 fire resistance, that does absolutely nothing. Thus, you want to pursue full armor sets rather than pieces here and there. A full armor set will always get at least two skills to +10, usually three. I recommend a Great Jaggi set to start with. If you kill 5-10 great jaggis, you can make the full set. It's a great set. Put a few +1 attack gems in it as well to get to +15 attack for Attack Up (M).
Also, always upgrade your armor defense with armor stones right away. You will get tons of armor stones over the course of the game. Don't be afraid to use them, and don't hoard them. Heading into my HR quests, I have 99 regular armor stones and over 50 armor stone+s.
Sharpness
Last part before fighting. Weapon sharpness is critical for fighting. A sharper weapon deals more damage and pierces thick enemy hides. You can see your sharpness in a sword icon below your health/stamina bar. As you attack, your weapon will lose sharpness, eventually taking it to a lower color category, from green to yellow to orange to red. You should never, ever be attacking with an orange or red sharpness weapon. To resharpen, use a whetstone and you'll be back at max.
Generally, you should try to get to a weapon with green sharpness ASAP. Quropeco's wings and all of Barroth will bounce if you are in yellow. If you bounce, you are fucked. Don't bounce. Stay sharp. Check the weapon trees for upgrade ideas. Don't be afraid to run multiple lines of your weapon at once. I've currently got 7 different long swords going.
OK, can we talk about Fighting yet?
Here are some random pointers for fighting big monsters:
If you are getting hit a lot, you are attacking too much. The early monsters all telegraph their attacks. For ultimate safety, after they attack, run in and take a single swing then dodge away and prep for the next attack. As you learn their patterns, you may be able to get in a couple more hits
Hit monsters in the head for more damage.
Sometimes, when you hit monsters with a powerful blow, they will flinch and their attack will be interrupted. Once you get used to the game, you may be able to predict flinching and use it to your advantage.
Pay attention to what the monster is doing, not yourself. When a Great Jaggi pulls back and twists his body, he's going to do his powerful headbutt. When a Quropeco claps its wings together, it's going to do the fire leap. Every enemy attack has a different telegraph, though some are more obvious than others. Learn them.
Arzuros:
Easiest big monster in the game
Don't feel safe attacking his back. He has a nasty turn-around strike. Don't be greedy.
Not much else to say for him
Great Jaggi:
The original easiest monster. Be wary of his headbutt. When he howls, you can land a few free blows.
When he does his tail attack, he's going to do it again. In fact, nearly every monster in the game does their tail attack twice in a row. Get used to it.
He's relatively quick, so play it safe. Don't be greedy. Attack once or twice and clear out.
Quropeco:
The first real tough fight in the game. Has a lot more health than Great Jaggi.
When he claps twice slowly (TAP—TAP) he's about to do his fire leap, twice. When he claps twice quickly then a third time slowly (TAPTAP—TAP), he's going to leap 3 times.
If you are on fire, roll 3 or 4 times to put it out, or roll in the water. Do this before continuing fighting.
He does his tail spin twice in a row.
When he is flying, approach him from an angle. I think his only flying attack is the slimeball spit which hits mostly in front of him. In general, he is relatively safe when flying.
When he puffs up his red thing and starts dancing from side to side and clapping, own the shit out of him. It's a taunt and he'll be vulnerable for quite a while during this.
You are relatively safe right in front of him, but be wary of his charge.
Wings/flints require green sharpness to pierce.
Barroth:
The true trial for most players.
Do not fight him with a weapon without green sharpness, you will regret it.
Unless you are a hammer, do not attack his head. You need blue sharpness to pierce his head. You do not want to bounce.
When he shakes himself out, you can get covered in mud. If you are covered, you can either use a cleanser (they'll be in the supply), or you can just wait about 10 seconds and it will go away. Generally, when he shakes it's worth the risk of running in for a few free hits because mud isn't that bad.
You can break mud off his body parts, leading to extra damage. Also, once the mud is off a part, it won't come off that part when he shakes out. So if you break the mud off his rear, when he shakes out you can freely run in and strike without worrying about getting muddy.
After his charge attack, his tail will come swinging. Watch out.
Pretty much all of this guy needs green sharpness to pierce, at least until the mud comes off. Do not fight Barroth unless you have a green sharpness weapon.
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u/Newshole Mar 22 '13
Fucking fantastic post right here. Thank you sir. Even though I've put a good bit of time into both 3 and 3U, I still learned something. For example, never knew the number of Querepeco taps were linked to his number of leaps.
I am not a clever man.
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u/vazzaroth Apr 22 '13
It's ok, me either.
I've killed like 15 Querepecos and just thought it was random.
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u/Szasse Mar 22 '13
I've never seen anything about weapon tutorials in this one. Not sure where those would be.
To add to the barroth (and later enemies) if you get covered in mud/snow spam the attack button while running, you'll break out in about 3 seconds rather than 10.
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u/Jumbso Mar 22 '13
Dumb question: where do you start the weapon Quests?
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Mar 22 '13
I don't know if there are any weapon tutorials, but there are guides for each weapon in the electronic manual for the game. These include the move sets.
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
Ugh, they can't be true, can it? Tri and P3 both had weapon tutorials. I'm going to go look around for them.
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u/tjsimmons Mar 22 '13
No weapon tutorials in 3U. Guess that's the price for getting dual blades and bow back. I miss my White Fatalis set and Ak(?) bow.
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u/Zemus571 Mar 22 '13
There are still in game tutorials (entirely text based, I guess they are more like guides) for weapons. You can find them in your start menu by going to your Hunter's Notes > Hunter Info > Basics & Controls > Weapon Guide.
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u/Dobeymaster SLASHSLASHSTABSTAB Mar 22 '13
Okay. I'm not sure if this is a dumb question, but...
I can't craft the Great Jaggi chest piece. I've fought the Barroth, and am about to fight Gobul, but there's no option to make the Great Jaggi chest piece! I can make everything else, but not that. Does anybody know what's going on? Does it come later?
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u/sharinglungs Mar 22 '13
No. You need the great jaggi's "King's Frill". Those are his ears basically... you have to break that part of his face when you're doing the quest to fight great jaggi.. it's really simple.. just smash his face a bunch... armor pieces don't just show up.. you need the specific monsters parts, either by breaking / cutting off their parts, and carving the cut off parts, and the monster, or by capturing the monster.
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
You are far more likely to get a King's Frill by capturing him. So, do the capture quest, break his face, then capture him, and you have I think a 66% chance of getting a frill. Then you'll be able to make the chest piece.
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u/ChuckCarmichael Mar 22 '13
I hate that capture quest! You know how normally a monster that's weak tries to limp away? Well, apparently this rule doesn't apply to the Great Jaggis in my game, because I just accidentaly killed 3 in a row during the capture quest
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u/Dobeymaster SLASHSLASHSTABSTAB Mar 22 '13
Thank you! I was wondering what I was doing wrong. I thought you could get Kings Frill in free mode.
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u/Zombiedelight Mar 22 '13
You can very rarely carve it, I think, but you're highest chance of getting it is by breaking it and then capturing him.
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u/PressStart Mar 22 '13
I'm relatively new to MH universe and I have but one question.
Looking into the whole charms and skills and all that, I get confused as to what is better. I mean I understand the higher +skill the better, but what do the slots mean? Why do some charms have one, two, or three O's? Do the 3 slot charms have more flexibility or something?
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
Ah, yes. You can put decorations into the slots, aka gems. The gems will give some +1 to +3 of a skill. So, slots are good. If you use the Great Jaggi set, for instance, it brings you up to +13 attack, which is effectively the same as +10 attack: Attack Up (S). However, if you put two +1 attack gems in two of the three slots, you'll be up to +15, which is the next tier, and will get you Attack Up (M).
Talismans with slots are very good, especially early game, and are quite rare. I've put in 30 hours already and haven't gotten a single slotted talisman.
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u/PressStart Mar 22 '13
Oh ok, so when I am looking at charm tables, and it has a specific charm with +5 of a skill and three slots, that means I can put an extra 3 gems into those 3 slots to upgrade it further? Or cancel out any negative skills?
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
Yep. Good luck getting a 3 slot charm, though.
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u/PressStart Mar 22 '13
Yeah so I have also heard! So can you remove gems that have been slotted?
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u/Alxa Mar 22 '13
Yes - pay the smith and he removes em
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u/TheRamenDon Mar 22 '13
I both add and remove decorations from the "Set Decorations" option in the box.
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u/CatfaceMeowmerrs Mar 23 '13
He doesn't charge any more.
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u/Alxa Mar 25 '13
Found that out this weekend, which is awesome!
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u/CatfaceMeowmerrs Mar 25 '13
Agreed, it was a small amount, but if you're strapped for cash due to upgrading equipment and plan out you selling/purchasing to just barely have enough for the next quest contract fee, that extra fee could force you to root through your chest to see what material you can spare to sell.
In my experience, unless I've been farming a monster, it never feels like I can sell ALL of a single type of monster material, because I always end up needing it for some random weapon soon after. I try to have at least 2-3 of every material.
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u/CatfaceMeowmerrs Mar 23 '13
I've gotten tons of charms with single slots and crappy attributes. I've gotten about 10ish so far in my game but have sold most of them since I mainly just use them for the extra slot. I haven't been farming mining spots either, I only mine when I need to upgrade equipment. I've played about 28 hours. Maybe you have a bad charm table, or yours sucks for early game charms.
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u/adremeaux Mar 23 '13
I'm 40 hours in and have only gotten my first charm with a slot, after some 100+ other charms. And, by and large, it is the only charm of any value I've received at all. I'm getting a shit-ton of bowgun charms though. Ugh.
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u/CatfaceMeowmerrs Mar 23 '13
Damn that's some bad luck. I'd estimate I've gone through around 50-60 charms, and about a sixth of them have a slot, and all of them have stats I don't really care about (but not gunner stats, some are semi-useful)
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u/isbBBQ Mar 23 '13
Hi!
Big noob here with a question/rant:
I'm playing with the longsword. And i just crafted a set of gloves from the Great Jaggi. I went with the ones that gave me some resistence since i thought that would be cool to have and then i used 3 of those "armor upgrading tokens" or whatever the name is. All good and sound until i went to my house to equip them. It then said my hunter type couldn't wear those gloves. So i just wasted a huge amount of things on a couple of worthless gloves. The armorsmith didn't give me any warning or indication at all that i couldn't wear them so i was wondering how you can check that? Is there a way for me to tell when a armor piece doesn't comply with my hunter type?
tl;dr Is there a way for me to tell when the armor piece doesn't comply with my hunter type?
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u/Exotopia Mar 23 '13
If I'm not mistaken, it's because you're using a longsword. The armor you crafted is probably for gunners (you're a blademaster since you're using a longsword). If you want to use the armor you crafted, switch to a bow, HBG or LBG. When you craft items at the blacksmith, you'll see two types for each e.g. there are two types of Jaggi greaves and gloves etc. Look at the other pages, on one of the pages it'll specify blademaster or gunner type armor. Hope this helps.
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u/CatfaceMeowmerrs Mar 23 '13
Just going to add on to this: The blademaster piece is always above the gunner piece, and always has more armor and less resistances, so you probably won't make the same mistake twice if you're paying attention.
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u/isbBBQ Mar 23 '13
Thank you! I just found that i can sort on blademaster armor by pressing the - button. Now hopefully i won't do the same misstake again :)
Also thanks to adremeaux, catfacemewmerrs and LoadingArt who also responded. Upvotes given!
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u/adremeaux Mar 23 '13
Hmm, yeah, I guess that's not clear right away. The top choice for an armor will always be the "blademaster" armor and the second choice will be gunner armor. You can't use melee weapons with gunner armor, and you can't use gun/arrow weapons with blademaster armor. It sucks that you wasted those materials; hopefully there was nothing too tough to come by in those parts.
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u/LoadingArt Mar 23 '13
It says next to the armor in the shop that they're gunner equipment, it is strange there isn't a prompt like when you make a gun wearing blademaster armor telling you that it's unequipable.
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u/mhiggy Mar 22 '13
I am not sure I understand skills completely. I got the charm from the blacksmith, which was supposed to give you auto-block. The charm adds +10 to auto-block, and under my status it says auto-block is activated at +10. I have auto-block under my skill list, but it is grayed out. Am I just reading it wrong and the skill is activated? Or do I need to do something else to activate the skill?
Really helpful starting guide, thank you!
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
Auto-block doesn't do anything unless you are using a shield weapon: sword and shield, lance, or gunlance.
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u/Leorake Mar 22 '13
On large bowgun, there is also an option to put a shield on it, enabling autoblock.
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u/MyNameIsJason16 Mar 22 '13
Or if you use a HH, the green sharpness doesn't matter.
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u/tsarkees Mar 22 '13
Only some HH attacks don't bounce off. Additionally, you can play the self-improvement song twice to eliminate bounce off altogether.
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u/deskdemon Mar 23 '13
I noticed my Barroth armor has a negative stat (hunger) on it. If I get a full set, it's -10 hunger so my max stamina decreases faster. If I wear a decoration that reduces it to -8 hunger, will it remove the negative effect since it's below 10?
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u/adremeaux Mar 23 '13
Yes, that is correct. Most armor sets will give negative stats as well, but they are usually easily cancelled out with decorations.
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u/Pyros_Byrnur Mar 23 '13
Generally a good FAQ/Noob guide; I would however add a small section about 'Breaking'. A good bit of items can only be dropped by breaking a monster's parts (tail, wings, frills, etc).
Additionally, it's easily possible to take down Barroth with a yellow sharpness weapon. Just did it with an early-game LS a few hours ago; still quite a bit of bouncing, but with a decent amount of MH experience it's very doable.
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u/IAmAtomato Mar 23 '13
Is 3U 3DS compatible with CPP?
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u/NonaSuomi Mar 23 '13
Absolutely. It behaves as the Wii U does for analog control, although the only options with regards to ZL/ZR are to mimic other functions- type 1 has ZL/ZR duplicate L/R, type 2 has them as d-left and d-right (pan camera), and the last has them mirror d-up/down (camera angle). Personally, type 1 is the most natural for me.
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u/IAmAtomato Mar 23 '13
This makes me sad.. I installed a Nyko Power Pak Plus into my 3ds. Now what i usually do is play with the NPP+ and then if I'm playing a game that uses CPP, I uninstall it, put in the stock 3ds battery, then put on the CPP, buuuuuut... There's a stripped screw on the NPP+ and because of it I cannot uninstall it. FUCK.
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u/NonaSuomi Mar 24 '13
Yikes. You're going to have a real pain in the ass when it comes to any water fights, just some advance warning.
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u/Baini92 Mar 23 '13
Thank you! I jumped straight onto Qurupeco after 2 of the simpler quests and well, it was hard, especially when this dragon-mutalisk arrived.
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u/DoctorThunder Mar 25 '13
Right? I just took care of him for the first time and he gave me fits. I can't fathom capturing one of those fuckers.
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Mar 23 '13 edited May 30 '17
[deleted]
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Mar 25 '13
Open your start menu. The bottom screen will change, and have a button that says 'Customize panels'
You can set up what you want displayed on your top and bottom screen here.
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Apr 02 '13
I fought the Barroth with yellow sharpness haha Was gonna finish reading this till I just dove into the game but I was too excited! At least it was a fun challenge with my switch axe, next time I'll use something different I guess. Thanks for this info by the way, its awesome!
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May 28 '13
Same, was able to fell him with a yellow sharpness hammer. Bone hammer I think? Anyways, my point is HOLY SHIT LISTEN TO OP. That battle was annoying :)
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u/Chat2Text あら？ Mar 22 '13
I would like to protest saying that First-Aid Medicines are exactly the same as Potions! I can't proc the wide-range effect with them :( But other then that and not able to mix them with honey, you are correct.
Some armor skills don't activate til you get at least 15 (f.e. Load Up). I recommend changing it to "Most of your skills don't activate..."
But other then these minor insignificant adjustments, this is a pretty neatly organized guide though, I'm rather impressed :)
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
These are pretty minor nitpicks that aren't worth confusing noobs with. The vast majority of skills activate at +10, and there is a ton of info in here already, so minimizing small details will help people better retain things. Once they are comfortable with the basics of the game, they can work on the details.
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Mar 22 '13
Two things to add:
It is a good idea to mix armor ONLY AFTER you have enough slots/gems and a proper talisman to maximize skill utility. The +10 rule still applies.
You need hot drinks in some parts of the desert at night. This is true to life in that because deserts are dry, the air has very low heat capacity and cools rapidly. This leads to cold nights.
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u/Binwan Mar 22 '13
So let me ask a quick question, my friends and I all picked this up last night and none of us have even opened that game. Are you saying we should do solo quests before playing the game with each other? Or can we do the story mode with each other.
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
Yes, you guys should do some solo first, or you'll be in for a rude awakening. The really easy quests (jaggi, arzuros) aren't even available online.
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u/vespene_jazz Mar 22 '13
New questions:
I read somewhere that some weapons have elemental attributes; I currently have an Assassin's Dagger (SnS) and the wiki mentions Ice damage but I don't see an ice effect nor does the game seem to mention it ?
Why are carpenter bug so damn rare :(
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
It's probably "hidden" ice damage that gets unlocked if you have a certain ability (don't remember what it's called).
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Mar 22 '13
Awaken/Free Element. Activates at +10. :)
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u/vespene_jazz Mar 22 '13
Reading a bit, it seems you need the skill Awaken to activate this ''hidden'' element which only seem to come in MUCH later in the game I suppose.
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Mar 23 '13
Yep, you won't be getting it until at least High Rank. But at the same time, it can lead to some pretty silly elements cropping up. For instance, the Popcorn Gunlance has something ridiculous like 500 Slime on it. Worth knowing what your weapon will gain if you're aiming for Awaken.
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u/kingsaber Mar 29 '13
You can find carpenterbugs in Area 4 of D. Island, in the little Felyne cave right next to the entrance to the area from Area 3. I usually find one or two there.
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u/sticksman Mar 22 '13
A few questions on farming:
I have a carpenter bug in my stash but for some reason I can't set my farm to grow more of him. Do I need a level 2 bug farm or do I need to have two of them or some other weird requirement?
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
Not sure. It's not that you require 2, I'll tell you that. Maybe you can't farm those kinds.
According to the guide, Tundra area 1 has carpenterbug at 18%, so you should be able to get a few quite easily there. For the guild quests, the first four 1-star quests are all gathering quests, so pick the one for Tundra, run out and grab bugs and then just run back and complete it. The whole process should take less than 3 minutes, and you'll probably get a bug every trip or two.
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u/ksee14 Mar 22 '13
I've seen this mentioned other places but never explained. What does a weapon's affinity mean?
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u/adremeaux Mar 23 '13
Ah, yes. Affinity = critical hit chance. When you crit, you do an extra 25% damage, and I think you also have a higher chance to flinch or stun or apply status (not 100% positive about that bit). Most weapons in the game have 0% affinity (no crit chance), but the Expert skill will raise affinity by 10/20/30% by level (+10/+15/+20), and some weapons also have extra affinity. You can also have negative affinity which can make you critical miss aka -25% damage.
It's a nice thing to have, but it doesn't make too much of a difference. If you 10% crit for 25% extra damage, you are basically raising your average damage by 2.5%. I think that Attack Up raises by 5% per level.
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u/NonaSuomi Mar 23 '13
A side-note on affinity: it does not affect elemental damage, but it does affect abnormal status, so a high affinity weapon will not only deal more base damage (1.25 percent extra per 5 affinity) but will also deal status afflictions faster/more often, but a crit would not increase elemental damage.
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u/Wafflesucker Mar 23 '13
Awesome post, thanks! One quick question about the light bowgun. This is my first MH game, and I have been using the lbg. Will I be able to progress through the game using it, or should I start to use a melee weapon?
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u/hellhound666 Mar 26 '13
LBG is good..but prepare your butt for a longer sitting..OR not..it actually depends on skill and precision...
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u/mithryanna new hunter Mar 27 '13
Question about multiplayer. I heard/read somewhere that multiplayer on the 3DS was limited to local play only. Is this true? I mean, in the manual I think it says multiplayer over wifi. So can I play with my friends that I've swapped friend codes with or do we have to be in the same room and do hunter finder?
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u/sman25000 Naive Mar 28 '13
Multiplayer on the 3DS for MH3U can only be done via ad-hoc wifi, so you must be close to eachother. Only the Wii U version can do true online multiplayer, but you can link the 3DS to the Wii U to play with a friend who owns the Wii U version, using the 3DS as another controller essentially.
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u/Escalotes Apr 28 '13
are you saying that you can basically play through a WiiU on your 3ds to play with other (non-local) wiiu users?
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u/sman25000 Naive Apr 29 '13
There is a way to set up a LAN cable to use the wii u as a packet relay for the 3ds allowing a degree of online play (you cannot start your own rooms from what I hear). But if you've already got the wii u might as well get that version for online and use the 3ds for traveling and hunting.
As for usin the wii u to go online with more than one person, I'm not actually sure about this. Hopefully someone with a wii u can elaborate.
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u/Thaddiousz Sep 04 '13
I plan on getting a Wii U soon. Will I be able to switch by save data between the 3DS and the Wii U? That would be awesome.
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Mar 30 '13
quick question, does a switch axe do cutting or impact damage? or does it depend on the mode?
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u/tacobelmont Mar 31 '13
Thank you so much. I'm completely new to these games and I just bought 3U on 3DS and Wii U on a whim.
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u/brendintosh Apr 01 '13
Are there specific armor sets with weapons? I want to start using the switch axe and is there an armor tree I should build?
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u/GuardianGraves Jul 17 '13
I came to this subreddit to ask the questions that were answered in this post. Thank you.
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u/Blackwing1002 Aug 31 '13
Tutorials like these really help newbie and struggling hunters. Thank you and enjoy the hunt my friend.
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u/Kyouraku_Taicho Mar 22 '13
One thing to correct here is that you don't need a green sharpness to fight a barroth, the only part that will bounce with a yellow sharpness is the headpiece so just stick to underneath hits and behind hits and you'll be completely fine for the barroth.
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
You will bounce off his mud with yellow sharpness.
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u/Kyouraku_Taicho Mar 22 '13
Ohh that's right, sorry I usually use a switchaxe against them and it never bounces which is why I got messed up! Sorry about that.
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u/japiebman Apr 05 '13
Mini whetstones don't actually work EXACTLY as whetstones. they have a diminished effect and bring your sharpness up less.
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u/adremeaux Apr 05 '13
That is incorrect. They do the exact same thing as whetstones. Both of them return you to full sharpness. This is easy enough to test. Get a weapon with only a few swings of blue or white sharpness and test it. Very straight forward.
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u/japiebman Apr 22 '13
i looked it up and it says so on the wiki. i'm not sure how it works but why else would there be long and short bars of red sharpness. it's not like your weapon can break.
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u/kalpour Apr 05 '13
Actually, if I remember right, whetstones don't fully restore sharpness, unless you are within the range. I've done a mission where I had a purple sharpness go down to red, and it took 3 stones to fully sharpen, this was back in MHFU and it was a contest with a buddy of mine against a fatalis.
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u/adremeaux Apr 05 '13
Whether or not that used to be the case I don't know, but it's not true anymore. You sharpen to full sharpness no matter what. Again, this is incredibly easy to test, I don't know why people continue spouting off misinformation like this.
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u/kalpour Apr 11 '13
I just tested it out, and to get my Dual swords from Yellow to White In 3 ultimate, I need 2 whetstones. They do not sharpen all the way.
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u/thegreenbutton Apr 30 '13
One more very important thing
DO NOT WASTE PLATES
Most monsters have a low 2% drop rate item called Plate (Rathian Plate etc) This is usually required for a full armor set.
Do not use this for the first available armor set, even in higher ranks their drop rates are 5-6% and you usually need 2-3 to get max upgrades for certain weapons. Your village armor set will become obsolete right after you beat offline village quests so you're better off just saving the materials for high rank armor/weapons.
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u/adremeaux Mar 22 '13
One more bit:
Capturing
When you capture a monster, you get more rewards than if you kill it, although the treasure table is slightly different. To capture a monster, attack it until it limps off the screen (the limp is usually quite obvious). At this point, follow it to its next screen, and lay down a trap, either the Pitfall Trap or Shock Trap. Let the monster walk into the trap, and then throw a few Tranq Bombs at it. Voila, the monster is captured. If you have it in a trap and hit it with 2 or 3 tranq bombs and it doesn't get captured (the game will immediately tell you if it works), it probably wasn't limping yet.
If you are having trouble getting that last piece needed for a set of gear, try capturing the monster rather than killing it. Or, if you were already capping it, kill it instead. Also, break as many parts as possible. They sometimes drop things right away, and they sometimes will give you additional rewards in the rewards screen. Either way, it's good.