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JAZZ FOR YOUR SOUL: A HUNTING HORN GUIDE AND COMPENDIUM FOR MONSTER HUNTER WORLD

NOTE: This guide is out of date, I've been away from the game since before Deviljho's release and can't promise anything here is still relevant, and with Iceborne's release and changes to movesets there will likely be little of worth here. Hope this guide helped at least some people while it was current!

So I started this almost as soon as the game came out because I hadn’t seen much information about the Hunting Horn around and I’m reasonably experienced with it. However, I’m very slow because I keep playing instead of writing and I’ve since seen several guides posted, including GaijinHunter’s Hunting Horn tutorial video. It seems someone posts some sort of Hunting Horn guide or tips every day. Which is great! The more people that see those and decide to play Horn the brighter and more musical the World becomes. I’ve decided to still post this since some people prefer text guides, and I’m attempting to cover everything I can think of that a newer Hunting Horn player might want.

As for me, Hunting Horn has been my main and favorite weapon since Freedom Unite. While I definitely wouldn’t consider myself an expert player, I have gotten to end game with Horn in 3 Ultimate, 4 Ultimate, Generations, and World (currently working on XX, I'll go back to Freedom Unite someday), a good deal of it solo, so I’m at the very least a persistent player if nothing else. What initially drew me to horn was finding out I could kill monsters with a guitar, and it has been love ever since. The songs helping my allies as well is just a bonus. Sadly, guitar Hunting Horns didn't survive the transition to the New World, but this version of Hunting Horn is still definitely my favorite in the series.

I’ve seen lots of talk about how great the Hunting Horn is online, but I hardly ever see another out in the wild, which is a shame. With World, we have a lot of new players, and so I’m hoping with this guide going through the basics up to more complex mechanics of the weapon such as chain queueing songs, armor skill choice, and horn choice, that a player who is just starting with horn can pick it up and have a chance. But more importantly, decide to pick it up and give it one. (Seriously, the in-game weapon notes for horn do a terrible job of explaining how to actually use it, and until you know the basics it is one of the worst feeling weapons.)

This guide will be quite long; a player looking for a quick visual primer would be better served watching the GaijinHunter video guide I linked above.

I noticed when viewing the guide on mobile that the table of contents that allows you to go straight to a section isn't available, so here is the table of contents. Search for the bit in brackets to jump to that section.

  • WHY USE THE DOOTING SNOOT BOOPER? [sec1]

  • HOW DOES IT PLAY? [sec2]

  • THE BASICS [sec3]

  • ADVANCED PLAY [sec4]

  • HORN RECOMMENDATIONS [sec5]

  • ARMOR SKILLS [sec6]

  • DETAILED MOVESET INFORMATION [sec7]

  • SONG LIST [sec8]

WHY USE THE DOOTING SNOOT BOOPER? | sec1

Because it is the best weapon in the game, of course! But if you want reasons, I’ll give you reasons. The Hunting Horn has great reach with its attacks, it can KO monsters, it exhausts monsters, fast movement speed when drawn assuming you keep the Self Improvement song up (more on that later). The moveset is simple but efficient and so satisfying. You get to beat things to death with a bagpipe on a stick! Ever have your weapon bounce off a hard part of a monster? Sucks, doesn’t it? Not with Hunting Horn! Never bounce again (you should still usually avoid hitting parts you would bounce on)! You can even (technically, very technically) cut tails if you hate yourself enough to try!

Oh yeah, and the SONGS! Want to hit things harder? There is a song for that. Tired of Rathalos’ “roar-then-fireball” combo? There is a song for that. Hate every single ailment and wish they weren’t even a thing? There is a song for that. And even better, they work for all your friends, too! (provided they are within hearing distance)

As a beautiful and flawless Horn user, you will be smacking the monster's big dumb head while also performing the most brutal of horn solos. The radness of your music and muscles will, of course, inspire your allies while simultaneously stunning and exhausting your foes. All hunters in the know will rejoice when they see that little Hunting Horn icon next to your name. All of nature's precious creatures will be bonked upon the head; they'll be seeing stars because you are one.

HOW DOES IT PLAY? | sec2

To put all of that in game terms, the Hunting Horn is an impact weapon, like the hammer. Its attacks cause monsters to more quickly become exhausted, and when hitting the head, are capable of stunning them. You will want to keep up the songs that you want active while hitting the monster in the head as much as possible, for a very simplified idea of the playstyle.

The Horn's basic moveset is quite simple, with only the Performance, the Encore, and seven basic attacks. You use the basic attacks to set up songs, with the seven different attacks each adding one of three notes, and then use the Performance to play the songs. After a Performance, if there is a big enough opening, you can then perform an Encore to double up on the songs and also do a ton of damage. Many of the Hunting Horn's actions are determined not just by which button or buttons you press, but also the direction you have the left thumbstick set in relation to your character's facing, so it is important to pay attention to how you have the camera.

There is a lot to learn to master the Hunting Horn, but the basics can be picked up quite easily.

Typically, you will want to be doing your best to stick to the monster's head, both because it is usually a weak point and because as an impact weapon you can stun the monster, allowing the party to get in free damage. The REAL reason to hit the head, however, is because of the satisfying sound it makes when you do so. The Hunting Horn has mostly slower attacks, and so frequently you will get a swing or two in and then need to roll away to avoid terrible death, which gives it a bit of a hit and run style, particularly since it has high movement speed compared to most other weapons when drawn and the end of many of its attack animations can be cancelled by rolling. I prefer to be aggressive in my play possibly too aggressive , but regardless as a Hunting Horn user you should be focused on hitting the monster. The songs the Horn brings are amazing and can really add a lot to a party, but if you are just sitting around all hunt playing songs and not fighting you aren't making use of the best aspect of the weapon: the big heavy hitting part. No song is good enough to make up for losing out on an entire player's worth of damage, and you can hit monsters while playing your songs. A hunter must hunt.

THE BASICS | sec3

Pick up a horn, step out into the forest, and give it a few swings! Walk around with it, maybe attempt to kill a poor harmless aptonoth. Now, a few things probably went through your mind:

Wow! I can barely swing this thing!

Wow! I can barely walk with this thing!

Wow! My UI is filled with a bunch of garbage!

All of those are reasonable observations. But each of those issues can either be mitigated or are important.

Let’s start with the first one: The basic attacks. More detailed moveset information will all be explained more fully later in the guide, this is just bare bones tutorial stuff to get someone totally new to Hunting Horn out and hunting.

NOTE: I will be describing button inputs with Playstation 4 controls. I don't own an Xbox and don't have any idea what the controls would be. I'm assuming they are the same with the buttons having different names, but I can't be certain.

The Hunting Horn has seven basic attacks, and very simple combos with those attacks (any of these attacks can follow any other attack as long as it isn't the same move twice in a row). If the weapon is on your character's back, press △ to draw it, press △ while moving, jumping, or falling to do a draw attack that swings the horn the direction the thumbstick is set, or press △ while sliding down a slope to draw the horn and jump up and swing it down in the direction the thumbstick is set.

Once the horn is drawn, you can:

  • press △ while the left thumbstick is at neutral to do a swing from low left to high right. This is the Left Swing. Pressing △ again will use the following attack.

  • press △ while moving/the thumbstick is set the direction your character is facing to swing the horn overhead forward while moving with the swing. This is the Forward Smash. Pressing △ again even with the thumbstick set the direction your character is facing will use the previous attack.

  • press ◯ while the left thumbstick is at neutral to do a swing from low right to high left. This is the Right Swing. Pressing ◯ again will use the following attack.

  • press ◯ while moving/the thumbstick is set the direction your character is facing to do a fast swing from mid right to mid left followed by a second fast swing from low right to high left. This is the Flourish. Pressing ◯ again even with the thumbstick set the direction your character is facing will use the previous attack.

  • press △+◯ while the left thumbstick is at neutral to do an overhead swing from front to back that moves your character back with it. This is the Backwards Strike. Pressing △+◯ again will use the following attack.

  • press △+◯ while moving/the thumbstick is set the direction your character is facing to do a swing from right to left followed by a big slam straight down and forward. This is the Overhead Smash. Pressing △+◯ again even with the thumbstick set the direction your character is facing will use the previous attack.

  • hold the left thumbstick directly opposite the direction your character is facing and press either △, ◯, or △+◯ after any of the previously listed attack to do a quick stab with the end of the handle of the Hunting Horn. This is the Handle Stab.

  • press ⧠ to put the horn back away.

With that, I recommend grabbing a Hunting Horn, going into the training area (while in Astera, open your map by pressing in the touchpad, press ⧠ to go to the world map, select Astera, then select training room! Alternatively, go into your room, which is accessed through a door in the side of a ship on the lower level of Astera near where the Commander is, talk to the felyne that is standing near your item box, and choose the option to go!), and practice with these moves on the barrels and the big pole until you feel comfortable with how they swing and how they move your character. In particular, practice with chaining different moves together. Because which attack is used is determined by the direction the left thumbstick is set in relation to the direction your character is facing, becoming comfortable inputting the correct direction to use the attack you want is very important in the heat of battle. If your character is facing to the left of your screen, you will need to hold left on the left thumbstick to be considered holding "forward".

Feeling like you have a handle on the basic attacks? Good. With those you could kill any monster in the game if you felt like it, but you would be missing out on the best part of the Hunting Horn: playing songs to hit monsters! and also for the songs themselves

Here is a labeled picture showing how I will be referring to different aspects of the UI.

While practicing the basic attacks, did you notice the different musical notes appearing on the staff in the upper left corner underneath your sharpness bar? Each basic attack adds a note to the staff, dependent on the input used to initiate that attack. You can see which notes a horn has in the equipment menu when looking at a particular Hunting Horn, or in the upper right corner of the UI when the horn is drawn. Different horns have different combinations of notes, typically. A basic attack that is initiated by pressing △ will add the first note to the staff (you will notice that every single horn has either a white or purple first note), an attack that is initiated by pressing ◯ will add the second note to the staff, and an attack that is initiated by pressing △+◯ will add the third note to the staff.

To prepare a song, decide which song you want to play from the available songs (sheet music), then use attacks to add the required notes in the correct order to the staff. Once a string of notes that corresponds to an available song has been placed on the staff, it is immediately added to your queued songs list. It may sound complicated on top of trying to fight, but it all flows together quite nicely once the attacks themselves are second nature, which shouldn't take much practice.

Trying it out will make it more clear. With a Hunting Horn equipped, press R2. This is the Performance. If you haven't queued any songs, your character will swing the horn and then go back to idle. If you did have some songs queued from swinging it around, then your character will swing and you will see a shockwave appear. Then, starting with the song at the top of the queued songs list, the character will play one followed by the next until all of the queued songs are played. After that, you should have no notes on the staff and no queued songs, and the character will return to idle.

Press △ to attack and add the first note to the staff, then press △ again to add another of the first note to the staff. You will see that the song Self-Improvement will be added to the queued songs, and you will still have the two first notes on the staff. If you press △ a third time, you will add a third of the first note to the staff, and another instance of Self-Improvement will be added to your queued songs. Why is this when you only played the note one additional time? The game checks the staff any time you add a note to it, and the staff can hold four notes. If, starting from the right, you have notes that correspond to a song, that song is added to the queued songs. Since you had two of the first note on the staff, then added a third one, the game sees that the notes starting from the right again correspond to the Self-Improvement song, and so it is again added. If you keep using △ attacks, it will keep adding the Self-Improvement song every note as long as no other notes are placed in between.

Now that you have at least one instance of Self-Improvement queued, press R2 to play it. After the song is played, you can press R2 again before your character returns to idle to perform the Encore. This move does a large amount of damage over multiple hits, and then plays the song or songs just played in the preceding Performance again, but takes time so should only be used when you have an opening (nothing feels better than getting a full performance and encore off on a monster's head, but getting locked in a long attack animation is super risky against the more dangerous monsters. Be careful!). This song is very important, and every Hunting Horn has access to it. Playing it once greatly increases your movement speed while you have the Horn drawn. If you play it a second time while the song is still active, it will also prevent your attacks from ever bouncing off of a hard monster part. Unlike other Hunting Horn songs, however, this one only affects your own character. Try and always have this song active.

But what about playing songs for your team? Horns have many songs to choose from, some situational, some always useful. As you get more familiar with the Hunting Horn you should start to choose a horn with a specific list of available songs for each different monster, but for practice and for this guide let's go with the Hunting Horn you start the game with, the Metal Bagpipe I. If you equip it and pull it out, you will see that you have the songs Self-Improvement, Attack Up (S), Defense Up (S), Health Boost (S), and Wind Pressure Negated in the Sheet Music. Every song listed except for Self-Improvement applies its effect to allies within range as well as yourself. But how do you decide which songs to play, and when? What do these songs even do? Okay, most on this horn are pretty obvious but bear with me for the sake of example.

Let's go over the different songs this horn has. Attack Up (S) will increase the Attack of every affected player by 10%. If this song is played a second time while still active it will upgrade to 15%. This is a very large increase, and when applied to four hunters can drastically increase the parties' damage output. Defense Up (S) does the same for defense and can also be upgraded by playing twice. Health Boost (S) increases the maximum health of all it is applied to up to the standard maximum health (so if it is already at 150 from eating at the canteen or from nutrients/mega potions, it won't increase above that value). This can be useful early on when your canteen isn't upgraded and you don't have the materials to chug a max potion at the start of the quest. Another use for it is if it isn't applied yet, even if you have 150 max health, it will still heal for the amount it would raise the health by. This can only be done each time the song wears off but something to keep in mind. And finally, Wind Pressure Negated. This song negates the effects of wind pressure, as the name suggests. This allows you to be near a wyvern when they flap their wings near the ground, Paolumu's wind blasts, etc. without flinching.

So, with this particular horn, you will want to keep Attack Up (S) and Defense Up (S) active. If you have hunters that do not have their health maxed out, feel free to keep Health Boost (S) up as well. Otherwise just save it and maybe throw it out as a heal if you happen to have it queued. Wind Pressure Negated you will want to keep up against monsters that have wings, mostly, but particularly Paolumu and Kushala. Against other winged wyverns/elder dragons it will just occasionally allow melee players to get a few hits in when the monster lands after flying. If you are fighting, say, a Tobi-Kadachi, this song isn't important to keep up. As with all horns try and keep Self-Improvement on.

Different songs have different durations, and the armor skill Horn Maestro increases the durations. Playing a song again while it is active will refresh some of the duration (but not all of it), and songs do have a maximum duration. You can't just play Attack Up ten times in a row and have it last all hunt. All of this information is in the Song List section at the end of this guide.

How do you know if another hunter will receive the benefits of your songs? Take a look by their health bars and if you see that icon of a hunting horn with sound waves coming off of it then they can hear you and will get any group-wide songs you play.

With that, you can use the seven different basic attacks, you can set up songs, and you can play songs. That is plenty to go out and hunt, and with practice you will get a rhythm going where you position yourself to be able to use your attacks to both hit and add the note you want for the song you want to set up. It all starts to flow together and becomes a ton of fun.

ADVANCED PLAY | sec4

While the Hunting Horn has a simple moveset, there are lots of little and not-so-little aspects of it that really allow you to make the most of the weapon. This section will go over the things that one should strive to make use of in their play, but are more suited to being learned after the basics.

Animation Cancelling

This is probably the most important concept to understand and use. Many of the Hunting Horn's attacks have a long ending animation. Your character slowly swings the horn back before you are able to resume walking. There are two mains ways to cancel this. The primary one is just swinging again immediately after. You can go straight into another attack without waiting for the ending animation. The second method is to evade after an attack to cut out the ending animation. Utilizing this is a big part of the Hunting Horn's playstyle, using its reach to get in a quick hit or two and then rolling away.

Something important to note, sometimes you want to use a performance or encore for damage and don't need the song played, or you start one but need to escape. After the attack portion of the performance or encore, you have a brief moment to evade before your character actually starts to play the song. Doing so will cancel the actual song playing, so you don't get the benefits of playing the song, but you can start attacking again sooner or move out of the way.

Exhaust and Stun

While fighting a monster, have you ever noticed it start to act sluggish, stand around, drool leaking from their mouth? That is a monster that is exhausted. Similar to how hunters have a stamina bar, monsters have stamina (although its exact level is hidden like their health). When they run out of stamina, they enter an exhausted state which leaves them open to attack. They stand around more, they tend to fall over, some of their attacks fail, etc. You might think that this is just from them running around attacking, but it is actually possible to speed up their stamina loss.

As a Hunting Horn user, every time you hit a monster they will lose an amount of stamina dependent on the attack (except with the handle stab, which is actually cutting damage). In past Monster Hunter games, the Overhead Smash drained by far the most stamina, and the Flourish drained the least even including its second strike. Since this is something that will happen as you hit a monster, regardless of what part of them you hit, it isn't really something you need to worry too much about, but it is another aspect of the Hunting Horn that makes it useful, and if you want to speed the process up using the Overhead Smash more often is the way to do it.

For more detailed information about exhaust, check out this video by GaijinHunter. It is from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate but the information is still (likely) good for World.

Stun is another aspect of attacks that deal exhaust damage. If an attack that exhausts hits the monster on the head, it will also deal Stun damage. The exhaust value and stun value of an attack are not the same; each attack has a seperate value for each.

Like poison or paralysis, a monster has a tolerance for Stun (which can be seen in the Hunter's Notes in game, the more stars the lower the tolerance). Once that level is reached from landing attacks to the head, the monster will be stunned, falling to the ground with stars over their head. Because of this, Hunting Horn (and Hammer) users tend to aim for the head when fighting since these stuns are huge openings for the party to damage the monster. Like with exhaust, for more detailed information check out this GaijinHunter video. Again, it is from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate but should still be relevant.

In Monster Hunter World, in hunts with more than one hunter, the monster's tolerance for stun goes up significantly, and it can take much longer to get a ko if you are the only one doing stun damage. While in single player it is common to get several per hunt, it can seem tough to get a single one in multiplayer. But that one stun in multiplayer will allow the entire party to deal damage, so it balances it out even if it is disappointing that you can't smack monsters around quite as easily in a group.

Flourish and Handle Stab

These two moves are unique in the Hunting Horn moveset; they can add any of the three notes to the staff!

For the FLOURISH, the first swing will always add the second note. However, if you do an input just before or as the second swing passes the character's right foot, it will add an additional note. △ will add the first note, ◯ will add the second note, and △+◯ will add the third note. Use this to quickly set up songs when needed.

For the Handle Stab, the note added corresponds to the input used to initiate the attack (first note with △, second note with ◯, and third note with △+◯). Additionally, if you input a Neutral Performance (a Performance while the left thumbstick is at neutral) your character will instead do the Quick Performance, which has the same damage as the Neutral Performance but is much faster. Because the damage of the Handle Stab is so low, and it doesn't deal exhaust damage, only use this when you need a song up quickly and are willing to sacrifice damage to do so.

Song Queuing

There are a few mechanics of song queuing that are important to know for improving play.

A simple one that is probably obvious from looking at the UI is that you don't have to play the most recently queued song first. Hitting R2 will play the top song (most recently queued), △+R2 will play the second queued song, and ◯+R2 will play the third.

When you play a song, it will play the song you chose and then, if you don't input an Encore or evade, it will start at the top of the list and play the remaining songs in a single Performance. So, playing the first song will then play the second then the third. Playing the second song will play the second, then the first, then the third. Playing the third song will play the third, then first, then second. This allows you to use a single Performance to get up multiple songs.

Another that might be familiar to Horn users from Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is that when a song is queued, the notes on the staff remain, allowing you to queue songs faster by lining up notes correctly. For example, with the Metal Bagpipe I, the song Attack Up (S) is queued by putting white-red-red notes on the staff in that order. Health Boost (S) is queued by putting red-blue-white on the staff. You can queue both of these songs by adding white-red-red-blue-white, since the red at the end of the Attack Up (S) song will still be on the staff for the Health Boost (S) song to use. The staff is only cleared when you do a performance, so be sure to look for ways to chain queue songs. You can even link more than the last note if the songs allow. For example, Defense Up (S) can be chained into Wind Pressure Negated by adding white-blue-blue-red to the staff, since the double blue at the end of Defense Up (S) lines up with the double blue at the start of Wind Pressure Negated.

You can also have multiple of the same song queued. If you allow the Performance to play more than one of them, you can get the effect and the replay effect of the song without doing an encore.

Performances and Encores

There is a lot of play to the Performance and Encore. There are several different versions of each, which all attack with different swings, some even hitting harder or more times. All of these will be explained in the Detailed Moveset section of the guide, but I wanted to discuss their play here since it is important.

If you are want to do a Performance that isn't a followup to another attack, your only options are the Neutral Performance and the Forward Performance. However, as part of a combo (following any other attack) you have a few more options. Holding left, right, forward, or back in relation to your character's facing while pressing R2* will do different Performances, each moving the character in that direction while also swinging the horn a different way. If the previous attack was the Handle Stab, a Neutral Performance becomes the Quick Performance, which is much faster. If the previous attack was any attack that ends with the horn on the ground straight ahead of your character, such as the Forward Smash or Overhead Slam, a Forward Performance has a much faster animation.

You have the choice of five different Encores, performed by pressing R2 for the Neutral Performance, or R2 and either forward, left, right, or back in relation to your character's facing to perform a directional Encore. In general, you will want to aim for the Forward or Backwards Encore, as they hit the most time. The Backwards Encore is the strongest, but some monsters it can be difficult to make every hit hit the head/weak point/even just hit the monster, and so I find I use the Forward Encore a bit more often even though it strikes one less time.

Another important aspect of the Encore when being used as an attack and not just to play songs is that an Encore performed after a Performance that had the Self-Improvement song as the first song played will have a shorter animation and hit fewer times. So if aiming to use an Encore as an attack, don't play Self-Improvement as the start of your Performance (it can still be one of the songs played as long as it isn't the first for the stronger but longer encore).

Shockwaves

In World, they reduced the damage of the Hunting Horn's basic attacks in comparison to past games, which is of course disappointing. But they gave us something in return: Shockwaves. These shockwaves are additional hits with some very interesting properties that they added to the Performance and Encore swings. They are the bursts of sound that happen as you swing the Hunting Horn during a Performance or Encore. In general you can just look at them as additional hits, but if trying to understand the mechanics of the weapon and figure out how they work, read on.

The shockwave hits are very different from any other attack. They have a motion value (how much of the weapon's attack they deal as damage before taking into account the target's hitzones) like any standard hit, they apply elemental damage like a regular hit, they can apply status like a regular hit. They even deal Stun like your other attacks (and presumably exhaust but I haven't been able to test for that accurately).

So how are they different?

Well, they completely ignore sharpness. The higher the sharpness of a weapon, typically the higher the damage of its hits. Each color of sharpness has a multiplier for raw attack damage and a seperate multiplier for elemental damage. The shockwaves ignore this sharpness multiplier, and instead always go with x1.0, which is almost all cases makes them weaker than their motion values would seem to suggest (with an interesting but not very useful exception; at yellow sharpness, normally raw attack is at x1.0 and elemental is at x0.75. Since it ignores both of these and just takes the damage at x1.0 no matter the sharpness level, high element horns at yellow sharpness can do more damage with shockwaves than some other attacks that have higher motion values, because it is applying 100% of the elemental damage rather than 75%. If you let sharpness drop even lower, the damage of shockwaves increases in comparison to other attacks even more, but you really shouldn't be below yellow even with the very beginning horns). While these shockwaves don't get the sharpness modifier, they also don't lower sharpness of the weapon.

Another big thing, the shockwaves can never critically hit, from either positive or negative affinity. I'm not big on math so I can't say for certain, but I think that leaves some interesting decisions about the popular crit focused builds, since although they still might be optimal, at least for the shockwaves they won't be quite as effective. This might mean depending on how the numbers come out focusing on raw damage increases rather than affinity might be superior? Again, I don't have the mind for mathing all this out but some smarter people will I'm sure solve the damage game.

With all this, basically higher sharpness and positive affinity don't increase Hunting Horn damage quite as much as they do for other weapons, and negative affinity and lowering sharpness doesn't decrease damage quite as much. Because sharpness scaling favors raw damage over elemental (the multiplier is higher for raw at any given sharpness level), and because the shockwaves makes the horn actually hit quite a lot with the performances and encores, it may make elemental and status weapons more attractive than in the past for horn (although horn has always been pretty good with element since they had relatively low motion values). The amount these will affect you will depend on how often you make use of performance and encore hits as attacks

Tips for All Weapons

This section will just be a collection of useful information and tips that isn't specifically geared towards Hunting Horn but I felt would be worthwhile.

  • Carry Whetfish scales! If you are a melee player, chances are at some point you will need to sharpen your weapon in combat. Whetfish scales may not be unlimited use like your whetstone, but they sharpen significantly faster! They are trivial to fish for in many different fishing areas.

  • The default option settings in World are a bit odd. I strongly recommend going into the settings and turning off auto sheathe, since there is basically no case where you'd want the game to do that for you and many cases when you would want to keep your weapon out. I'm really not sure why that is even a setting since there is already a dedicated button for doing so. I also recommend changing the radial item menu to type 2. This makes it so you have to click in the right thumbstick to use the item rather than it being used immediately, which makes it much less likely to accidentally use the wrong item. I personally hated the new focus camera and immediately switched it to Target, which is how it worked in the past few games. Maybe a new player could like it but I found it nauseating. There is also a setting to hide your helmet if you want to see the beautiful face you carefully crafted. Really, check out options in new games if you don't normally! Sometimes it really pays off to not just go with the default options.

  • Speaking of the radial menu, the item setup for it is saved with your item loadout. So if it keeps going back to default that is why! You can also put crafting recipes there, gestures, stickers, etc. It has four pages so make use of them!

  • Navigating these multi-leveled maps can be confusing (at least for me they can be…), but if you open your map and click the right thumbstick with the cursor over a monster or item or researcher or camp, the scoutflies will be set to that and you can follow them right to it! I'm fairly certain the game tells you this but I apparently forgot until randomly noticing it tens of hours into the game. Very useful! Particularly on multi-monster hunts since the scoutflies don't update to follow your next target.

  • Once you get into High Rank quests, you should make sure to always bring flash pods, flash bugs to make more flash pods, dung pods, large or (preferrably) mega barrel bombs, max potions, traps, life powders, and a farcaster. They are just too generally useful to not always have on you. Life powders are fast to use and can save the life of a stunned fellow hunter, so I usually also bring materials to make more. Flash pods are the best against any wyvern or elder dragon that is ever dumb enough to fly. Dung pods for a certain friend that will be showing up in every single hunt to say hi come high rank.

Weapon Design in World

This isn't really an Advanced Play tip, but this felt like the best spot for it regardless. Like many veterans of the series, I too was a bit disappointed with the weapon selection in World. The weapons feel great (better than ever in most cases for me, although I actually prefer 4th gen Bowguns), but the variation (or lack of variation) in Horn designs hurt me. I don't want to focus on what we didn't get, however. Instead, I'd like to mention something I haven't seen discussed. While it is true that many of the horns follow the same few base designs with some monster parts stapled on, it isn't entirely true that every horn with the same base design has the same sound for its songs, which I've seen posted a few times. They actually did something cool with the limited designs. Each base design has a sound for its various songs. If a horn is from the same base design but has different monster parts on it, if you listen you can actually hear a different sound layered onto the base song, which I really enjoy. For example the Kulu Duda, which is a bagpipe with Kulu Ya-Ku parts, has the base bagpipe song, but also some nice drum beats with it. I think it is a clever way to make the best of the repetition in design. Horns that are the exact same design with a slightly different color and no monster parts appears to have the exact same song in most cases, sadly (notable exception to this being the Valkyrie Chordmaker and the Coral/Royal Chordmaker, which despite just being different colors of the same model have different sounds).

Also, each horn has three different sounds it can play while playing a song, depending on if you start a Performance with the first, second, or third queued song. Check them out!

Something else interesting while on the topic of sound, if you listen closely (I needed headphones for most horns but that might just be my speakers) you can hear different swinging and sheathing sounds for different horns. Drums have a drum beats, the Chordmaker's make a bell chime, etc. Each horn type also has its own sound when doing the finishing hits of a mount (the bagpipe is hilarious and I very much recommend checking it out).

HORN RECOMMENDATIONS | sec5

In this section I will go over which final form horns I like to use for each monster in a multiplayer hunt. When soloing I usually go straight offense and fit my armor skills to cover things like earplugs if needed, but any of these recommendations should at least be solid for solo use. You can extrapolate which to use based on this if you don't have the final form, since for multiplayer I usually choose my horn based on songs more than anything else. In general I like to go with the optimal party damage option, I like to be aggressive and I like to get quick kill times. And unfortunately the Attack Up songs are just way too good, which makes a lot of horns not optimal when in a party of hunters you trust. You will see a lot of people recommending either a horn with Attack Up (L) or Desolation's Overture with its Affinity Boost, which is weaker than Attack Up (L) in basically (probably literally) every situation, but it has Earplugs (L). And this list isn't going to be any different, I do recommend damage boosting horns primarily, but I will also generally include a more defensive or support oriented horn for each monster since when playing with random strangers you can't always rely on them to stay alive, and also I really enjoy mixing up which horn I use. Offensive songs are stronger than defensive songs... until hunters start carting, and then maybe keeping them alive would have been better. While it isn't your responsibility to keep others alive, you have tools to help, and the goal should be to finish the hunt successfully.

A solid all around horn when playing with random players is Fortissimo II with level 3 Free Element for the paralysis, or Non-Element Boost if paralysis isn't very effective against the target. It doesn't have the more specialized support songs like All Ailments Negated, Earplugs, Tremor Resist, etc, but it has Attack Up (L), Defense Up (L), Health Boost, Wind Pressure Negated, solid raw, two level 1 slots, and it is rarity 6 so you can augment it a bunch. And, I just love the bagpipes. I don't want to put this in every single entry as an option, so just assume it is always a decent middle ground if you want good attack and good defense.

If you are in a dedicated group with voice chat and communicate that you are going to be using a sleep weapon beforehand (I've had a lot of bad experiences trying to sleep with random people, not usually worth it) , the Baan Horn III can be fun. It has good raw, it is rarity 6 so it can be augmented a lot, it has Attack Up (S) which is only 5% lower than Attack Up (L), and sleep bombing in a group is a lot of fun. I'm not going to list it anywhere in this list since I don't want to recommend a sleep weapon in a general recommendations list, but it's a good horn.

I'll do this in alphabetical order by monster so it's not a nightmare to look through.

ANJANATH

Water Tamtam III is a solid pick, it has the always loved Attack Up (L) song, plus Earplugs (S), and Anjanath is pretty weak to water on the head and nose. A fun alternative is the Lumu Barone III with level 3 Free Element, which gives it the highest element number of any weapon currently in the game if I recall at 570 water. The total group damage likely won't watch up to the Water Tamtam with its Attack Up (L) and Earplugs, but it trades that for Stamina Use Reduced, Defense Up (L), Tool Use Reduced, and Stun Negated, which can help keep people alive.

AZURE RATHALOS

Desolation's Overture is a solid choice. Great raw, some dragon, an affinity boost which is always welcome, and Earplugs (L) to help against the roar-fireball combo. Legia Secotored will do less damage but it can have decent white sharpness with a few points in Handicraft, Azure is decently weak to ice, and its combination of Stamina Use Reduced L, Wind Pressure Negated, Defense Up XL, and Health Recovery M + Antidote can keep a team you don't trust as much alive much longer. Also It's just a way cooler weapon than Desolation's Overture and I like to find opportunities to use it.

BARROTH

Heavy Bone Horn II or Water Tamtam III. They have the same songs, Attack Up (L), Earplugs S, Muck Res. Water Tamtam will do more damage while it has mud on, the Heavy Bone Horn will do more when the mud is removed. I honestly haven't paid enough attention to the fight to notice how long its mud lasts since it dies so fast, but I'm willing to bet that Heavy Bone Horn II beats out Water Tamtam in the end, especially if you have access to Non-elemental Boost. Both are solid horns here though.

BAZELGEUSE

Desolation's Overture is likely the best option. Great raw, Bazelgeuse is weak to dragon almost as much as it is weak to thunder, and affinity and earplugs are pretty universally useful. I personally also like the Thunderbolt Horn II, if for no reason other than I want an excuse to use it after fighting all those high rank Kirin to make it. Elemental Attack Boost, Divine Protection, and Health Recovery (S) is easy to stack for quick Performance/Encores and to do some spot healing. Divine Protection can save some lives if you are lucky. If you don't have either of those two, Lightning Drum III is solid, with Health Recovery and Earplugs.

BLACK DIABLOS

Personally, I'd go with Desolation's Overture. The fact that Black Diablos doesn't take any dragon damage doesn't mean much when you have so much raw, and the affinity boost is of course nice, but the main reason I recommend it is for Earplugs (L). If you want something easier to make, or just want to use something other than Desolation's Overture, the Datura Horn III is pretty solid as well. Damage wise it won't be at all as effective, but poison is fun, it still has Earplugs (L), and Health Recovery (L) can actually heal a decent amount. Just make sure to still actually fight and not spend the whole hunt trying to be a healer.

DIABLOS

Desolation's Overture is likely the best bet. If the party has Earplugs, and you happen to know they have Earplugs, then the Dragonbone Auldhorn III can be good to mix things up. Diablos is pretty weak to dragon, and it gives Tremors Negated which can be useful, as well as Elemental Attack Boost. Datura Horn III is another option if you don't have Desolation's Overture but still want Earplugs.

DODOGAMA

Dodogama dies super fast and has kinda weird hitzones. It's weakest to thunder but personally I'd just go with the Heavy Bone Horn II for Earplugs (S) and Attack Up (L) if I had Non-Elemental Boost. Water Tamtam III is another option with the same songs and water element if you don't have a Non-elemental Boost decoration. Both give Envir. Damage Negated which can be kinda useful if Dodogama wanders into a lava area.

GREAT GIRROS

Another short hunt. I'd go for the Water Tamtam III for the Attack Up and water Element, plus it can negate the damage the party takes from the environmental effluvium so you don't have to bother with torch pods. Alternatively, go for the Bazelreid Rookslayer if you don't care about the effluvium.

GREAT JAGRAS

Any final form Hunting Horn will kill this thing in no time. Probably the optimal choice would be Bazelreid Rookslayer, since you don't need the earplugs from Heavy Bone Horn II, but its dumb head is pretty weak to fire so you could use the Anja Barone III if you want to, just to mix things up. Really though, just go with whatever you want.

JYURATODUS

Heavy Bone Horn II is my choice. Attack Up (L) and Muck Res. and you are good to go. You can use the Water Tamtam III if you want, but as soon as the mud is knocked off the Heavy Bone Horn will out damage it, and the mud doesn't stay on very long in my experience.

KIRIN

A lot of people hate fighting this thing, which I get. I actually enjoy the fight since it feels really different from every other monster. My primary recommendation when in groups is Teostra's Orphée. It makes the party immune to stun, which is big against Kirin, plus Divine Protection is always great. Abnormal Status Attack Up (S) is another nice bonus, which will make the blast on it even higher. It's just an all around good horn for this fight. If you want to fight a Kirin but don't have this horn yet, Kirin is weak to fire, so the Anja Barone III can work with its great raw, great fire element, Defense Up (L), and it can even throw out the occasional small heal. Or if you just care about the explosions and don't want the more defensive songs, Bazelreid Rookslayer is a great option with high raw, great sharpness with handicraft, Attack Up (L), two level 2 slots, and a good bit of blast. Recovery Speed Up is actually more useful than it might initially seem, as well.

KULU-YA-KU

Another monster that dies so fast and does so little damage you might as well just go all in on offense. So for that, I recommend the Bazelreid Rookslayer as long as you have enough Handicraft to give it enough white sharpness. If you don't want to deal with Handicraft a Non-elemental Boosted Heavy Bone Horn II is great as well. If you don't have a Non-elemental Boost decoration, the Water Tamtam III is a good alternative since Kulu-Ya-Ku is weak to water.

KUSHALA DAORA

I like the Xeno Manasheena. It gives Attack Up (S) + Defense Up (S), Defense Up (L), Stamina Use Reduced (L), and best of all All Wind Pressure Negated. Kushala isn't particularly weak to dragon in this Monster Hunter, but it is still a great all around horn for this hunt. Alternatively, the Queen Vespoid Horn trades a good amount of Attack and the Attack Up (S) for some paralysis. It's not as good as the Xeno Manasheena, but it is reasonable and also it has a really beautiful design, so any chance to take it out is welcome. Another solid option if you don't have the Xeno Manasheena is the Royal Chordmaker, which has the same songs as the Queen Vespoid Horn, and will deal more damage in exchange for the paralysis (thanks for the reminder u/ES_Legman!)

LAVASIOTH

Water Tamtam III is my choice. Water is good against Lavasioth, Attack Up (L) is always good, and Lavasioth likes lava so Envir. Damage Negated gets some use. Lavasioth actually takes some (not a lot) fire damage according to Kiranico, and fire weapons can soften the hardened lava (I'm almost positive this is the case) which will help out your allies from bouncing, so if you want to do that Anja Barone III is a reasonable choice since it has Stamina Use Reduced (L), Defense Up (L), Health Recovery M + Antidote, great raw, and really high fire. I'd go Water Tamtam personally for the extra damage but it's an option to mix things up.

LEGIANA

I like the Royal Chordmaker for this hunt. Legiana is pretty weak to fire, and it has great songs. Defense Up (L), Stamina Use Reduced (L), All Wind Pressure Negated, Ice Resistance Boost (L). All around great choice. The Queen Vespoid Horn trades higher damage for paralysis if that is your jam. Legiana is weakest to thunder, so the Lightning Drum III is also solid, which has Health Recovery (L) and Earplugs (L). If you just want damage Desolation's Overture gives great raw, Affinity Boost, and Earplugs (L).

NERGIGANTE

Desolation's Overture, the weapon made from Nergigante parts, is my favorite to use against Nergigante. High raw, Earplugs (L), plus some bonus affinity to everyone. If you don't have it, which is reasonable if you are fighting Nergigante, Lightning Drum III has Health Recovery (L), Earplugs (L), and lightning element which is Nergigante's main weakness.

ODOGARON

Teostra's Orphée is a great weapon here, good raw, great blast, Divine Protection, plus All Ailments Negated will prevent bleed which is nice. Odogaron is weak to ice, and I really love the design of Legia Sectored, so I'm also going to recommend it here just because. It has Defense Up (L), Stamina Use Reduced (L), and Health Recovery M, so defensively it is still solid.

PAOLUMU

Royal Chordmaker is an easy choice, fire damage, All Wind Pressure Negated, plus it has Stamina Use Reduced (L) and Defense Up (L) for good measure. Since it has the exact same songs and a great design, Queen Vespoid Horn is another option if you want to go with lower raw, no fire, but paralysis. Short pointless aside, I wish its final form had been called Glass Royale rather than the lower ranks of it. It is a better name in my opinion.

PINK RATHIAN:

Heavy Bone Horn II with Non-element Boost is likely the best option, despite Pink Rathian's large dragon weakness, just because it gives Attack Up (L) which is quite a bit stronger than Desolation's Overture's Affinity Boost, and they both give high enough Earplugs to block her roars. Desolation's Overture is still a very solid choice. Xeno Manasheena is also a good choice if you want some more survivability for your team, with its Defense Up (L) and All Wind Pressure Negated, plus Stamina Use Reduced (L) can be nice. If you don't have that yet, Lightning Drum III does decent damage, has Earplugs, and Health Recovery (L).

PUKEI-PUKEI

Another short hunt, I don't see much point in going defensive or healing unless you are trying to babysit a new player. Non-elemental Boost Heavy Bone Horn II once again, just kill it as fast as possible, and it has Earplugs (S) so you can even hit it while it yells. If you want to cure poison and heal, Legia Sectored or Anja Barone III will work and still do decent damage.

RADOBAAN

Radobaan is weak to just about everything once you break its bones off, which doesn't take much, and since that includes water, the Water Tamtam III makes a return as a great option for its Attack Up (L) and Earplugs (S). Bazelreid Rookslayer is another solid choice since Radobaan is weak to blast as well and it still gives Attack Up (L). Radobaan is weakest to dragon, and likes to shake you up, so Dragonbone Auldhorn II is an okay choice with its super high dragon element and Tremors Negated, plus it has Elemental Attack Up (S).

RATHALOS

Desolation's Overture is my favorite for this fight. Great raw, lots of blue sharpness, Affinity Boost, and Earplugs (L), plus a little bit of dragon element. Lightning Drum III can also be a decent choice, it still gives Earplugs (L), and it has Health Recovery L which can occasionally be useful.

RATHIAN

Heavy Bone Horn II if you have Non-elemental Boost, Water Tamtam III otherwise. They have Earplugs (S) which is enough for Rathian, and Attack Up (L). Really all you need. Xeno Manasheena and Desolation's Overture are both solid choices as well.

TEOSTRA

My favorite choice here is the Water Tamtam III, Attack Up (L) is just so good. That is the all in offense choice. Alternatively, for some survivability, the Lumu Barone III with level 3 Free Element has a ton of water, a level 3 and a level 1 slot, and it gives some good songs in Defense Up (L), Stun Negated, Wind Pressure Negated, Stamina Use Reduced (L), and Tool Use Drain Reduced (L).

TOBI-KADACHI

For just killing it as fast as possible, the Water Tamtam III is a great choice, for the reason I've stated above many times (it and the Heavy Bone Horn II are just all around great offensive horns against monsters with small roars). If you want to be more defensive I really like using the Lumu Barone III with level 3 Free Element, which gives the great songs listed right above on top of incredibly high water element.

TZITZI-YA-KU

Another quick and easy hunt with a monster that is weak to just about everything, I'd personally go with the Bazelreid Rookslayer or the Water Tamtam III, but if the flashes bother you go with Teostra's Orphée with its All Ailments Negated or Lumu Barone III with its Stun Negated.

URAGAAN

In a shocking turn of events, the Water Tamtam III is my choice for this monster (water is a really good element in this game and the Water Tamtam has great songs). Earplugs (S), Attack Up (L), plus Envir. Damage Negated if you have to go into lava. Another solid option is the Dragonbone Auldhorn III, which gives Tremors Negated which can be quite useful against Uragaan (thanks u/tacocat__tacocat for the reminder! I remembered to put it for Radobaan but somehow forgot for Uragaan)

VAAL HAZAK

Teostra's Orphée is a pretty easy recommendation. I see a lot of people going into this fight without level 3 effluvia resistance, and this horn just takes care of that, in addition to having a ton of blast and also being an all around cool weapon. If you don't have that horn yet, Anja Barone III is a pretty decent choice with lots of raw and fire element, plus some good songs in Defense Up (L) and Stamina Use Reduced (L). Desolation's Overture is another great option if you have it, giving +20% affinity and Earplugs (L) for a more offensive slant.

ZORAH MAGDAROS

Dragonbone Auldhorn III if you want to be immune to the tremors, Water Tamtam III if you want to do more damage to the magma cores and be immune to the heat damage without using cool drinks. Really though nothing matters in this fight.

FINAL MONSTER

My personal favorite here is the Dragonbone Auldhorn III. It gives Dragon Resistance Boost, Elemental Attack Boost, and Tremor Resistance while also having a ton of dragon element.

HORNS I DIDN'T RECOMMEND EVEN ONCE

Some might notice that the only final form horns I never once recommended were the Fortissimo II, the Baan Horn III, the Dancing Davul III, and the Gama Horn II. Well if you read my notes before the list you'd see why I didn't recommend the Fortissimo or Baan Horn in this list (The Fortissimo is all around solid and I didn't want to repeat it for every entry. The Baan Horn is a sleep weapon which I don't think is particularly great in my experience when playing with strangers, which is what this list is focusing on). The Dancing Davul when awakened with Free Element has a ton of sleep and is a lot of fun but for the same reason I didn't recommend the Baan Horn I can't recommend it. The Gama Horn… I just like the Fortissimo better. If you don't have Free Element or Non-Elemental Boost, or really like blast, then the Gama Horn can be my all rounder recommendation in its place.

WHAT ABOUT AUGMENTS?

Basically, I like straight up Attack unless I need a slot for something. I'm not really a fan of the healing augment although I know some people live by it (heh). I like having good survivability but +10 defense seems way too weak compared to the other options, although to be honest I've never looked into the damage formula for monster damage so maybe that is better than I think. If you are using a crit boost build, affinity up can be good if you need it to hit or get closer to 100% affinity, but otherwise the attack boost is a higher damage increase.

ARMOR SKILLS | sec6

I'm not really big on number crunching to find the absolute best skills for optimal damage, and I also don't enjoy just looking up builds others have put together. I like to choose what I like and go with it. That said, I also tend to focus almost entirely on offensive skills. I've been playing Monster Hunter games since 2006, and it keeps things interesting. If you are a newer player, struggling to get through a quest and not just looking for the fastest times, defensive skills are there and you should use them! No amount of attack boost will make up for repeatedly carting, and there isn't any shame in using defensive skills while you learn fights, or even after you are comfortable fighting if they make the game more fun for you.

All that said, here are my opinions on some notable armor skills in the order that I thought of them.

HORN MAESTRO

Most people will see this skill and assume it is necessary for a Hunting Horn player. This isn't really true. It all comes down to opportunity cost and skill. What does it cost to play a song? Since your Performances and Encores are your big hits, does it even have a cost assuming you are hitting the monster? The answer is yes, conditionally. It all depends on your horn, how skilled you are, what you are fighting, etc. If you are able to do a Performance and transition that into an Encore with both hitting the monster, and then roll out of the actual song playing part of the encore, and are able to use just a single song in each performance to keep up every song you want, then Horn Maestro won't do anything for you. Each time you have to let a performance play out multiple songs, or use an encore and then stand around at the end of the encore to get the song out, you are losing time that could be spent hitting the monster or positioning to hit the monster. Horn Maestro reduces how often you need to play during your Performances and Encores. On some horns it's easy. If you only need to keep up Self-Improvement and Attack Up then it can be simple in many fights to keep them up with Performance -> Encore chains. The more songs you want to keep up, the more time you will need to spend just playing songs. The more time you would waste playing songs the more of an offensive boost adding this armor skill can be. So, is it a crutch for bad players? I don't think so. Regardless of skill level, Horn Maestro will let you cancel the song playing animation more often, and that makes playing Hunting Horn smoother. Is it necessary? Not really. But at a single level 1 decoration slot to add it in you aren't sacrificing too much usually to get it. And there is no denying that it can make it easier to get a handle on juggling multiple songs. For me, if I'm using a horn that I plan on keeping up 3 or more songs, I'll usually try and slot it in. If you really like the healing songs, this also makes them heal a bit more, so that's something.

SLUGGER / STAMINA THIEF

These skills at level 3 will usually only allow you to get a single extra stun or exhaust per hunt in solo, and probably won't do anything other than speed up when you get that stun or exhaust in multiplayer (if you even get one). Probably not worthwhile.

POISON / PARALYSIS / SLEEP / STUN / BLEEDING / EFFLUVIA / BLAST / BLIGHT RESISTANCE

All I really want to say here is that it is important to remember with defensive skills like these that time spent healing damage from ailments, or removing ailments, or being disabled from ailments is time you aren't hitting the monster. They do at times have offensive benefits in addition to making certain fights much less of a hassle. If you never get hit with them, then you are fine to skip them for more offensive skills, but don't turn your nose up because the internet has taught you using anything but pure damage skills is a noob trap. Those hyper-specialized speed runs are not normal play, and in any standard multiplayer content you should be looking to make the hunt a success, which means dealing damage but also means surviving. For a speedrun getting hit at all usually means a failed and then quickly abandoned hunt. You will (most likely) be continuing any hunt you happen to get hit in, and so you should prioritize accordingly. If you are a speedrunner reading this, keep being awesome and pushing the limits of the game mechanics, but also I doubt there is anything useful here for you; you likely know it all and more already.

FIRE / WATER / THUNDER / ICE / DRAGON ATTACK

Horn actually makes pretty good use of elements, and if the monster is weak to the element of the horn you are using, typically one point in the associated elemental attack skill will add more damage than one point in Attack Boost. However, keep in mind that because of the cap on Element (which is 130% of the base element amount, rounded to the nearest ten), for almost all weapons 3 points in one of these skills is as high as will have an effect. +2 for several of them. The breakdown is as follows:

  • At 190 or lower base element, a weapon will only make full use of 1 level in the corresponding Elemental Attack skill.

  • At 200 or higher base element, full value can be gained from level 2.

  • At 340 or higher base element, full value can be gained from level 3.

  • At 400 or higher base element, full value can be gained from level 4 (level 4 adding 20 element, with that value increasing as the base element value increases).

  • At 500 or higher base element, full value can be gained from level 5 ( levels 4 and 5 adding 25 element, with that value increasing as the base element value increases).

  • At 600 or higher base element (a value no weapon currently reaches), levels 4 and 5 will add 30 or more element, matching or surpassing levels 1 and 2.

  • At 800 or higher base element (a value very few weapons have ever reached in previous games, and then only in G Rank), levels 4 and 5 will add 40 or more element, matching or surpassing level 3.

Special note regarding the Dragonbone Auldhorn III and the Thunderbolt Horn II: These horns have quite high base element values, but because of their Elemental Attack Boost song (which add +40 element and abides by the elemental cap), the level of their corresponding Elemental Attack skill that they can make use of is lower than the breakpoints above would suggest. The Dragonbone Auldhorn III only gets full value from levels 1 and 2, level three giving 30 before capping (still probably worth the third level since it is the same as 1 and 2). The Thunderbolt Horn II can make full use of 4 levels, with the fifth only adding a tiny amount before it caps.

CRITICAL BOOST

Has a translation error; it doesn't increase the damage of critical hits BY 30/35/40%, it improves the damage increase from critically hitting from 25% TO 30/35/40%. Still a strong damage increase if your affinity is high, +5% damage at 100% affinity is a high increase for a single armor skill, even if Horn doesn't make quite as much use of it as other weapons.

CRITICAL ELEMENT / CRITICAL STATUS

If you are already going for a critical build, and happen to be using an elemental or status weapon, and getting one of these doesn't detract from your build, go for it. Know that Critical Boost DOESN'T increase the elemental damage from Critical Element, although they naturally both fit well on a critical build. Critical Boost only increases the physical damage of a critical hit. I assume Critical Boost also has no effect on Critical Status but I haven't tested it.

WEAKNESS EXPLOIT

Almost all monsters have the head as a weak point. You should be aiming for the head when possible (regardless of weapon you should be aiming for weak points! But this is a Hunting Horn guide). Personally I feel this skill is more useful when soloing. Even if you are the only impact weapon user I find random players don't let you have the head all that often, and with four hunters it can be hard to catch the monster's head before it turns again. 3 levels in this skill will add 12.5% damage (averaged out) to all of your non-shockwave attacks, and that amount goes up to 20% when combined with Critical Boost lvl 3. Very very good skill, but only if you can reliably hit the monster's weakpoints.

HANDICRAFT

Hunting Horn swings pretty slowly with its basic attacks, and shockwaves don't lower sharpness. As such, it is easier to make use of a shorter sharpness bar than with weapons like Sword and Shield or Dual Blades. However, this skill can on some horns increase the sharpness level (such as the Bazelreid Rookslayer which gets entirely white sharpness from this skill). Going up a sharpness level is a large damage increase and for weapons that get a higher sharpness level from Handicraft it is a very strong skill, even if shockwaves don't use the higher sharpness modifier, and if it gives you enough sharpness to avoid sharpening every ten hits it can be quite useful.

LATENT POWER

In past games the "certain conditions" of this skill were: after fighting the monster for 5 minutes or taking 180 damage, it would activate for 90 seconds. I believe they are roughly the same in World, but I have only tested it in a few hunts. The stamina use reduction isn't particularly useful for Horn, so instead look at the affinity to decide if you want it. +50% affinity, if it doesn't go over 100% affinity, is a roughly 12.5% damage increase for non-shockwave hits without the armor skill Critical Boost. Weakness Exploit gives the same +50% affinity. Weakness Exploit only requires 3 points to reach that level rather than 5, and also is always active as long as you are hitting the weak points. So if you can consistently hit a weak point I'd say it is the better skill. Still, they are separate skills and you can have both. I don't really feel Latent Power is worth building towards, but when it activates it is a pretty strong effect. Perhaps a playstyle focused on letting the monster hit you and healing yourself until it activates could work? I dunno.

AGITATOR

This skill activates when the large monster you are fighting is enraged. Many endgame monsters seem to be enraged all the time, and if you are confident enough to fight them well while they are enraged this is a nice damage increase for the points.

PEAK PERFORMANCE

If you have a way of always staying topped off from chip damage (either the Vaal Hazak set bonus or a healing augment on your weapon) then this is a more efficient Attack increase for the points than Attack Boost. If you don't, then it won't be all that useful since you will quickly notice how often you take small amounts of damage from things.

HEROICS

If you are confident enough to never ever get hit, this skill is for you. It's a lot of fun and very tense to know that you are basically always a hit away from death (since it's your choice to be that low, that is), and unlike naked runs Heroics actually increases your kill speed assuming you don't cart. Incredible damage increase, probably shouldn't be used when playing with others. I'm not sure how this interacts with the canteen skill Felyne Heroics, unfortunately. I'll test this if I think of it.

BLUDGEONER

Its Attack boost won't make up for the loss of damage from going down a sharpness level, so all it really does is make it a little less bad to keep hitting for a bit without sharpening when your sharpness goes down. It isn't a bad thing to have, but in general other attack skills will be better. Yes, Hunting Horn doesn't bounce, and the shockwaves ignore sharpness modifiers, so lower sharpness isn't AS bad for us, but they weren't nice enough to give us a really low sharpness really high raw horn this game (rip Akantor Dark Melody) so I don't think this skill has much of a place yet.

NON-ELEMENTAL BOOST

If I recall, this is a 10% damage increase to weapons without an element or status, which is very high. The main horn to pair this with is the Heavy Bone Horn II. 190 true raw, Attack Up (L), a level 3 slot, and can be augmented 3 times, it reaches some ridiculously high Attack, plus it has Earplugs (S). Fortissimo II is another good user of it, with 10 less true raw, two level 1 slots instead of a single level 3, and Defense Up (L) instead of Earplugs (S).

EARPLUGS

This skill is mostly an offensive one, allowing you to get in damage while a monster spends time roaring. Some monsters do have follow-up attacks to roars, however, and in those cases earplugs can also help protect you from that (Rathalos and his fireball immediately after a roar for example, Uragaan and its chin slams, etc.). Several horns have an Earplugs song, so if using one of those (that has an earplugs song that is the correct level for the roar) don't bother with the skill. Personally I can't stand being stunned during a roar and I like to have this skill basically always if I'm not using an earplugs horn against a roaring monster.

TREMOR RESISTANCE

This skill is similar to earplugs, except with... tremors. It prevents the staggering that happens when a monster shakes the ground, which is mainly useful since it allows you to get some free hits in. I haven't tested to see which tremors count as minor and which count as major, so I can't speak on that, but this skill can be useful against mainly Radobaan and Uragaan's chin slams, both Diablos when burrowing, and the Final spoilery monster. (thanks u/zenconnection for reminding me to include this skill!)

EVADE WINDOW

Evade Window is a defensive skill, but it is also an offensive skill assuming having it allows you to be more aggressive. Some people seem to have a supernatural ability to dodge through attacks with the default invincibility frames. I am not one of those people, and some attacks can't be rolled through regardless of skill. I'm iffy on using it myself, though. While I like how aggressive it allows me to be, it feels so bad to go to not having it. I adjust way too slowly to playing without it, and so I prefer to focus on positioning and straight damage boosting skills. Still, a very good skill up to the level that allows you to comfortably roll through attacks. If you time it right you can even use rolls to avoid roars, and so this skill can be used in place of Earplugs if you remember to do that (you can roll through (some? most?) roars even without this skill but I can only time it reliably in World with a point in this because, again, I'm not one of those people).

EVADE DISTANCE

I like Evade Distance. It still allows you to be more aggressive in your play by making it possible to dodge away from attacks you normally wouldn't be capable of, but it doesn't mess me up nearly as much as Evade Window when I stop using it. I still don't often use it, however. I think it is worth experimenting with to find your comfort level.

HEALTH BOOST

This skill used to be basically entirely useless in past Monster Hunter games, but in World its health increase is seperate from the health increase that eating at the canteen and nutrients can give you, allowing you to increase your health even higher. As such, this skill can actually help quite a bit to improve your survivability.

WIDE RANGE

This is another skill I see people either espousing or hating on online. I'm in the middle. In my experience, even when playing with a set group with voice chat, they can't rely on you to heal them, so often you just both use a healing item. The spread buffs are nice, but most experienced players should be giving themselves those buffs anyway. Which mostly leaves it to spot healing, which life powders can do just as well if not better without the skill. Still, it's fun to be able to save a stunned player with a clutch mega potion/mushroom, and I've noticed a lot of my SoS hunts have players who seem to think healing themselves isn't important and in those cases Wide Range can save a hunt. Hunting Horn is only an average user of it, however. It has a pretty fast sheathing speed, but it has such a fast movement speed when drawn and can only get the first note when it is sheathed unless you do the slow standing draw, so typically you won't want to put it away very often in a fight. It's fun, and can be useful in group hunts with random players who don't take care of themselves, but isn't particularly useful with players that know what they are doing. If you enjoy using it, and you make sure to still focus on actually fighting, go for it.

SPEED EATING

Sometimes you need healed and you need healed right away. This can both save your life if you are in a bad spot and get you back into the action faster after chugging that mega potion. I like this skill. As long as you get hit occasionally it will have some use to you.

FLINCH FREE

As far as I know a single point in this is enough to stop all friendly hits from knocking you back other than attacks that send you flying, which makes this an A+ skill. While a swinging Hunting Horn is safe from the endless stunlocking of a dual blade user who decided they should have the head, it's still annoying being stuck next to a monster's leg as you try to position to the head because the long sword user went ham with you in the way. I've never had someone try and prevent me from carving by hitting me, but this skill should help that too. I never leave home without it.

DETAILED MOVESET INFORMATION | sec7

Basic actions that can be performed while the Horn is sheathed

  • DRAW ATTACK: This move is performed by pressing △ while moving. It is a slow overhead swing from back to front in the direction your character is moving. Hits high up. Moves your character forward as they swing so be aware of that for positioning. If a Forward Performance is used immediately following this action, the transition animation into the Forward Performance is significantly shorter.

    • Adds the first note to the staff.
    • Motion value of 27.

  • DRAW JUMP ATTACK: This move is performed by pressing △ while jumping/falling. It is a fast overhead swing from back to front. Swings in the direction the left thumbstick is set, allowing you to, for example, jump past a monster and swing backwards towards it. If a Forward Performance is used immediately following this action (after landing), the transition animation into the Forward Performance is significantly shorter.

    • Adds the first note to the staff.
    • Motion value of 19.
    • As an aerial attack, it deals mounting damage.

  • DRAW SLIDING JUMP ATTACK: This move is performed by pressing △ while sliding down a slope. your character lifts the horn up and then swings down in the direction the left thumbstick is set. More powerful than a standard Jump Attack. If a Forward Performance is used immediately following this action (after landing), the transition animation into the Forward Performance is significantly shorter.

    • Adds the first note to the staff.
    • Motion value of 56.
    • As an aerial attack, it deals mounting damage.

  • DRAW: This move is performed by pressing △ while the left stick is at neutral/you are not moving. Simply draws the Horn without attacking. Useful for when you don’t want to do the Draw Attack, usually because you don’t want the first note added to the staff.

Basic actions that can be performed while the Horn is drawn

Actions Which Add the First Note to the Staff

  • LEFT SWING: This move is performed by pressing △ while the left thumbstick is at neutral. A swing from low left to high right. Because of the angle of the swing, typically you will want your target to be slightly in front and to the right of you.

    • Motion value of 22.

  • FORWARD SMASH:Performed by pressing △ while moving/the left thumbstick is set generally towards the directions your character is facing. Identical to the Draw Attack.

  • If △ is pressed repeatedly while the left thumbstick is either neutral or set in any direction other than directly away from the direction your character is facing, your character will alternate between these two actions.

Actions Which Add the Second Note to the Staff

  • RIGHT SWING: This move is performed by pressing ◯ while the left thumbstick is at neutral. A swing from low right to high left. Because of the angle of the swing, typically you will want your target to be slightly in front of and the the left of you. Deals more damage than the Left Swing.

    • Motion value of 26.

  • FLOURISH: This move is performed by pressing ◯ while moving/the left thumbstick is set generally towards the direction your character is facing. A fast swing from mid right to mid left, followed by a second fast swing from low right to high left. The second swing can be cancelled by rolling before it starts. This attack in past games has been poor for dealing KO and exhaust damage, with both swings combined dealing less of each than any other impact attack in the Hunting Horn's moveset, which probably still holds true in World (more testing needs to be done to confirm this).

    • VERY IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING THIS MOVE: During the second swing, if a second input is pressed just before or as the second swing passes your characters right foot, an additional note can be added to the staff. Pressing △ will add the First Note, pressing ◯ will add the Second Note, and pressing △+◯ will add the Third Note. This can be very useful for quickly preparing songs that utilize the Second Note, which is the primary use for this attack. It does swing twice rather quickly, so if you are using a Hunting Horn that can inflict an ailment and happen to care more about inflicting that ailment than KOing or exhausting the monster, it can be useful for that.
    • The first swing has a motion value of 15, second swing has a motion value of 13.

  • If O is pressed repeatedly while the left thumbstick is either neutral or set in any direction other than directly away from the direction your character is facing, your character will alternate between these two actions.

Actions Which Add the Third Note to the Staff

  • BACKWARDS STRIKE: This move is performed by pressing △+◯ while the left thumbstick is at neutral. Swings starting low in front and going backwards overhead to land behind your character. Hits very high, and moves your character backwards with it, so keep that in mind for positioning. Because of the arc of the swing, it can either be used facing the target to hit and move away or facing away from the target to move towards it and hit. Very good for hitting heads, and my favorite basic action in the Horn's moveset. I recommend practicing with the movement from this one in particular. Deals more damage than either the Left Swing or Right Swing, and has in past titles dealt more KO damage than any other single attack in the Hunting Horn moveset.

    • Motion value of 35.

  • OVERHEAD SMASH: This move is performed by pressing △+◯ while your character is moving/the left thumbstick is set in generally the same direction as your character is facing. Does a weak swing from low right to low left, followed by a strong overhead slam in front. Once this attack is started you have to follow through to the end, it can't be cancelled by rolling after the first swing like the Flourish. The second hit of this action has in the past dealt the most exhaust damage of any single hit, and likely does the same or similar in World. It is pretty slow, and the second hit is where most of the damage comes from, so I only recommend using this attack when you are fairly certain both hits will connect, otherwise you are probably better off using a different action. If a Forward Performance is used immediately following this action, the transition animation into the Forward Performance is significantly shorter. In past games this attack has sent hit allies flying, but from my testing in World it appears to only stagger like basically every other attack does. Still try not to hit your friends, they won't appreciate it.

    • The first swing has a motion value of 15, second swing has a motion value of 40.

  • If △+O is pressed repeatedly while the left thumbstick is either neutral or set in any direction other than directly away from the direction your character is facing, your character will alternate between these two actions.

Basic Actions Which Can Add Any Note to the Staff

  • FLOURISH: This is the same move as the Flourish under Actions Which Add the Second Note to the Staff, repeated here for completeness since the second swing of the Flourish can add any note.

  • HANDLE STAB: This action is performed by pressing △, ◯, or △+◯ while the thumbstick is set backwards relative to the direction your character is facing. Can only be performed AFTER any other attack action, and can't be chained with itself. A quick weak stab with the end of the handle (many fully upgraded horns have sharp ends to represent this. I'm not sure how the totally flat ends of the early game horns cut but they do!) straight forward that adds a note to the staff corresponding to the button combination used to do the action. △ = First Note, ◯ = Second Note, △+◯ = Third Note. A Neutral Performance immediately following this action has a different, much quicker animation that swings upwards rather than side-to-side, dealing the same damage. Also unique to this action in the Hunting Horn moveset, it deals cutting damage rather than the impact of every other action. Because of this, this action deals no KO or exhaust damage, but can be used to cut tails (I do not recommend trying this, the attack is weak and can only be used when following a different, impact attack). Use this move to get a quick note onto the staff, to get to the faster Performance animation, or both, not for its damage or cutting potential.

    • I haven't found a source for the motion value of the Handle Stab in World, but in past games it had a motion value of 10. When I have it figured out I will update the guide. It is certainly quite weak damage-wise.

Performances

-The R2 portion of input for every performance will have the performance play the top song in the queued songs list. Instead, △+R2 can be pressed to start the performance with the second song, or ◯+R2 can be pressed to start with the third.

-After a song is played, if you don't press *R2** to go into an encore or X to roll, it will move on and play the next song that is queued, until all queued songs are played. It will play the chosen song, then will return to the top of the list and play them in order from top to bottom.

-While the songs are playing, it is possible to move somewhat. It is a weird and slow walk but it can allow you to reposition slightly for a following encore.

-In the motion values for Performances, values in parentheses are shockwaves. Shockwaves ignore the sharpness modifier, do not decrease sharpness, and are not affected by affinity. They do apply elemental damage and status as usual, and do otherwise normally scale with Attack like a standard attack. They deal blunt damage, and can stun (and probably exhaust).

-A performance that is performed with no songs queued will still swing the horn, but the shockwave portion of its damage will not go off, and no song will be played.

-After the damage portion of any performance, it is possible to roll to cancel the song playing. This can be useful if you don't have time to play the songs, or if you were just playing a performance to get to an encore for damage but don't end up having time for the encore.

  • DRAW PERFORMANCE: Performed by pressing R2 with the horn sheathed. Draws the horn, swings it from left to right, then plays queued songs..

  • Motion value of 31 + (28).

  • NEUTRAL PERFORMANCE: Performed by pressing R2. Identical to the Draw Performance.

  • FORWARD PERFORMANCE: Performed by pressing R2 with the left thumbstick set forward in relation to your character's facing. Swings the horn forward then kicks it upward, then plays queued songs.

    • Has a faster animation if performed after a Draw Attack, Draw Jump Attack, Draw Sliding Jump Attack, Forward Smash, Overhead Smash, Jump Attack, or Sliding Jump Attack.
    • Motion value of 30 + (28).

  • BACKWARDS PERFORMANCE: Performed by pressing R2 with the left thumbstick set backwards in relation to your character's facing. Swings the horn from behind overhead forward, then steps back, then plays queued songs.

    • Motion value of 31 + (28).

  • LEFT PERFORMANCE: Performed by pressing R2 with the left thumbstick set left in relation to your character's facing. A swing from behind overhead, then a spin and step to the left, then plays queued songs.

    • Motion value of 30 + (28).

  • RIGHT PERFORMANCE: Performed by pressing R2 with the left thumbstick set right in relation to your character's facing. A swing from behind overhead, then a spin and step to the right, then plays queued songs.

    • Motion value of 30 + (28).

  • QUICK PERFORMANCE: Performed by pressing R2 with the thumbstick set to neutral immediately after performing a Handle Stab. A quick swing up with the horn, then plays queued songs. A faster animation than a standard Neutral Performance.

    • I couldn't find the exact motion values for this performance, but its damage appears to be the same as a Neutral Performance, so it is likely either 31 + (28) or 30 + (28).

Encores

-All Encores are performed by pressing *R2** plus a direction with the left thumbstick corresponding to its name in relation to your character's facing after a song is played during a Performance. *

-*After an Encore is performed, you character will again play every song that was played during the Performance that led into the Encore all at once.

Encores that are from a performance that started with the Self-Improvement song

  • NEUTRAL ENCORE: A swing from left to right, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28)

  • FORWARD ENCORE: A forward swing, followed by kicking the horn up, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + 29/31 + (28). Not positive on that middle hit, sorry!

  • BACKWARDS ENCORE: A backwards overhead swing, followed by another swing to the front while stepping back, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28) + 29/31 + (28). Again, not positive on the second non-shockwave hit.

  • LEFT ENCORE: A swing to the left while moving, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28).

  • RIGHT ENCORE: A swing to the right while moving, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28).

Encores that are of any song other than a Self-improvement performance

  • NEUTRAL ENCORE: A swing from right to left, then a swing from left to right, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28) + 35 + (28).

  • FORWARD ENCORE: A swing from low right to high left, then an overhead swing forward, then the horn is kicked up, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28) + 29 + 31 + (28).

  • BACKWARDS ENCORE: A swing from low right to high left, then an overhead swing back with a step, then a swing from low right to high left, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28) + 35 + (28) + 31 + (28).

  • LEFT ENCORE: A swing from right to left, then a swing from right to left, followed by a spin to the left, them plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28) + 35 + (28).

  • RIGHT ENCORE: A swing from right to left, then a swing from left to right, followed by a spin to the right, then plays songs played during previous performance.

    • Motion value of 35 + (28) + 35 + (28).

-All motion values are from here. In my very basic tests they have appeared at least close to correct but know that these are not fully tested by me yet and are just here to show the damage differences between attacks. Once I’ve fully tested all motion values I’ll update the guide.

-As far as I am aware no numbers for KO and exhaust values have been found in World, so I will not be listing either even if they are likely mostly the same as in 4 Ultimate. I will mention which attacks were particularly good for KO and exhaust based on those 4U values, however.

SONG LIST [STILL UPDATING AS I TEST THINGS] | sec8

Songs are arranged in alphabetical order.

Duration is the length of the song when played once.

Replay is the amount of time added to the remaining duration when the song is played again while still active.

Duration Cap is the maximum duration; if a song has a duration cap of 180 seconds and an extension of 60 seconds, playing the song with a remaining duration of 150 seconds will only add 30 seconds because it will hit the duration cap.

Values in parentheses are the values with the Horn Maestro armor skill.

Effect is the initial effect of the song when played once.

Replay Effect is the effect of the song if played a second time while the initial effect is still active. From that point onward as long as you keep refreshing the duration it will stay with the Replay Effect. If the Replay Effect is the same as the Effect, I'll put "Extends the duration." to show that it still increases the songs uptime.

I tested and timed every song (that has information currently), so they should be correct, but if there is a mistake I apologize and please let me know.

ABNORMAL STATUS ATK. INCREASED

  • Duration: 90 (120) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 150 (210) seconds

  • Effect: Increases status value on weapons that have one. (Still need to test exact values but status values DO have a cap that can be reached with the associated skill and this song)

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

ALL AILMENTS NEGATED

  • Duration: 120 (150) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 180 (240) seconds

  • Effect: Prevents all ailments (Poison, Effluvium Buildup, Paralysis, Sleep, Stun). Does not prevent blights (fireblight, waterblight, iceblight, thunderblight, dragonblight, maybe blastblight? Need to check that one). Also does not remove ailments that are present when the song is played.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

ALL WIND PRESSURE NEGATED

  • Duration: 180 (240) seconds

  • Replay: 90 (120) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 270 (360) seconds

  • Effect: Negates the effects of all wind pressure. (Still testing, the only things I have found that this covers that the standard Wind Pressure Negated song doesn't is Kushala Daora's strong wind blasts and strong wind aura.)

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

AFFINITY UP AND HEALTH REC. (S)

  • Duration: 120 (150) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 180 (240) seconds

  • Effect: +15% Affinity and restores 10 Health (15 Health).

  • Replay Effect: +20% Affinity and restores 10 Health (15 Health).

ATTACK UP (S)

  • Duration: 120 (150) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 180 (240) seconds

  • Effect: Increases Attack by 10%. This bonus is applied from the BASE attack value of the weapon, before the Attack Boost armor skill, canteen attack boost, (mega) demon drug, might seed/pill, and power charm and talon. It does interact with Non-elemental boost, which is a +10% bonus to attack that takes the song-buffed attack value into account for its bonus. I am assuming other percentile damage bonuses work the same, such as heroics, but I have not yet tested them.

  • Replay Effect: Increases Attack by 15%. This bonus is applied from the BASE attack value of the weapon, before the Attack Boost armor skill, canteen attack boost, (mega) demon drug, might seed/pill, and power charm and talon. It does interact with Non-elemental boost, which is a +10% bonus to attack that takes the song-buffed attack value into account for its bonus. I am assuming other percentile damage bonuses work the same, such as heroics, but I have not yet tested them.

ATTACK UP (L)

  • Duration: 90 (120) seconds

  • Replay: 30 (60) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 120 (180) seconds

  • Effect: Increases Attack by 15%. This bonus is applied from the BASE attack value of the weapon, before the Attack Boost armor skill, canteen attack boost, (mega) demon drug, might seed/pill, and power charm and talon. It does interact with Non-elemental boost, which is a +10% bonus to attack that takes the song-buffed attack value into account for its bonus. I am assuming other percentile damage bonuses work the same, such as heroics, but I have not yet tested them.

  • Replay Effect: Increases Attack by 20%. This bonus is applied from the BASE attack value of the weapon, before the Attack Boost armor skill, canteen attack boost, (mega) demon drug, might seed/pill, and power charm and talon. It does interact with Non-elemental boost, which is a +10% bonus to attack that takes the song-buffed attack value into account for its bonus. I am assuming other percentile damage bonuses work the same, such as heroics, but I have not yet tested them.

ATTACK AND DEFENSE UP (S)

  • Duration: 120 (150) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 180 (240) seconds

  • Effect: +10% Attack and +10% Defense. Do not stack with other Attack Up or Defense up songs, but also do not overwrite larger bonuses from them. The Attack bonus is applied from the BASE attack value of the weapon, before the Attack Boost armor skill, canteen attack boost, (mega) demon drug, might seed/pill, and power charm and talon. It does interact with Non-elemental boost, which is a +10% bonus to attack that takes the song-buffed attack value into account for its bonus. I am assuming other percentile damage bonuses work the same, such as heroics, but I have not yet tested them.

  • Replay Effect: +15% Attack and +15% Defense. Do not stack with other Attack Up or Defense up songs, but also do not overwrite larger bonuses from them. The Attack is applied from the BASE attack value of the weapon, before the Attack Boost armor skill, canteen attack boost, (mega) demon drug, might seed/pill, and power charm and talon. It does interact with Non-elemental boost, which is a +10% bonus to attack that takes the song-buffed attack value into account for its bonus. I am assuming other percentile damage bonuses work the same, such as heroics, but I have not yet tested them.

DEFENSE UP (S)

  • Duration: 120 (150) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 180 (240) seconds

  • Effect: +10% Defense.

  • Replay Effect: +15% Defense.

DEFENSE UP (L)

  • Duration: 90 (120) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 180 (210) seconds

  • Effect: +15% Defense.

  • Replay Effect: +20% Defense.

DIVINE PROTECTION

  • Duration: 120 (150) seconds

  • Replay: 90 (120) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 210 (270) seconds

  • Effect: Gives a chance to take reduced damage from an attack. (This one might take a while to figure out values for.)

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

DRAGON RES BOOST (S)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +5 Dragon Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +7 Dragon Resistance.

DRAGON RES BOOST (L)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +7 Dragon Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +10 Dragon Resistance.

EARPLUGS (S)

  • Duration: 180 (210) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (150) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 300 (360) seconds

  • Effect: Nullifies weak monster roars (Weak roars are from Anjanath, Barroth, Dodogama, Paolumu, Pukei-Pukei, Pink Rathian, Radobaan, Odogaron, Rathian, Tobi-Kadachi, and Uragaan).

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

EARPLUGS (L)

  • Duration: 180 (210) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (150) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 300 (360) seconds

  • Effect: Nullifies weak and strong monster roars (Strong roars are from Azure Rathalos, Bazelgeuse, Black Diablos, Diablos, Kushala Daora, Legiana, Negigante, Rathalos, Teostra, Vaal Hazak, and the Final Monster).

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

ELEMENTAL ATTACK BOOST

  • Duration: 120 (150) seconds

  • Replay: 90 (120) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 210 (270) seconds

  • Effect: +30 Element (on weapons that have an element). Still abides by the elemental value cap (130% of the base element value rounded up to the nearest 10).

  • Replay Effect: +40 Element (on weapons that have an element). Still abides by the elemental value cap (130% of the base element value rounded up to the nearest 10).

ENVIR. DAMAGE NEGATED

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: Prevents damage from hot area, lava, environmental effluvium, and the pools of acid in Rotten Vale.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

FIRE RESISTANCE BOOST (S)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +5 Fire Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +7 Fire Resistance.

FIRE RESISTANCE BOOST (L)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +7 Fire Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +10 Fire Resistance.

HEALTH BOOST (S)

  • Duration: 180 (240) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 300 (420) seconds

  • Effect: +30 to maximum Health and restores 30 Health. This is the same health bonus as that from eating at the canteen, nutrients, max potions, and ancient potions. They all work together with a cap of adding 50 total. The Health Boost armor skill is it's own separate bonus that can stack with these. Will still receive the healing even if the full maximum health increase is unable to be applied due to hitting the health cap. Health will only be restored when the buff is applied; reapplication will not restore health.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

HEALTH BOOST (L)

  • Duration: 180 (240) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 300 (420) seconds

  • Effect: +50 to maximum Health and restores 50 Health. This is the same health bonus as that from eating at the canteen, nutrients, max potions, and ancient potions. They all work together with a cap of adding 50 total. The Health Boost armor skill is it's own separate bonus that can stack with these. Will still receive the healing even if the full maximum health increase is unable to be applied due to hitting the health cap. Health will only be restored when the buff is applied; reapplication will not restore health.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

HEALTH RECOVERY (S)

  • Duration: N/A

  • Replay: N/A

  • Duration Cap: N/A

  • Effect: Restores 10 Health (15 Health)

  • Replay Effect: N/A

HEALTH RECOVERY (S) + ANTIDOTE

  • Duration: N/A

  • Replay: N/A

  • Duration Cap: N/A

  • Effect: Restores 10 Health (15 Health) and cures Poison.

  • Replay Effect: N/A

HEALTH RECOVERY (M)

  • Duration: N/A

  • Replay: N/A

  • Duration Cap: N/A

  • Effect: Restores 15 Health (20 Health).

  • Replay Effect: N/A

HEALTH RECOVERY (M) + ANTIDOTE

  • Duration: N/A

  • Replay: N/A

  • Duration Cap: N/A

  • Effect: Restores 15 Health (20 Health) and cures Poison.

  • Replay Effect: N/A

HEALTH RECOVERY (L)

  • Duration: N/A

  • Replay: N/A

  • Duration Cap: N/A

  • Effect: Restores 20 Health (25 Health).

  • Replay Effect: N/A

ICE RESISTANCE BOOST (S)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +5 Ice Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +7 Ice Resistance.

ICE RESISTANCE BOOST (L)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +7 Ice Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +10 Ice Resistance.

MUCK RES.

  • Duration: 180 (240) seconds

  • Replay: 180 (240) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 360 (480) seconds

  • Effect: This song reduces how stuck you get in the mud globs Barroth and Jyuratodus leave. You will still get stuck but can quickly roll out rather than slowly struggling out or diving.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

PARALYSIS NEGATED

  • Duration: 180 (210) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 300 (390) seconds

  • Effect: Prevents paralysis. Does not remove already inflicted paralysis.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

RECOVERY SPEED (S)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (150) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (330) seconds

  • Effect: Increases recovery speed of the red portion of the health gauge by approximately x3.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

RECOVERY SPEED (L)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (150) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (330) seconds

  • Effect: Increases recovery speed of the red portion of the health gauge by approximately x4.

  • Replay Effect:

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

  • Duration: 180 (240) seconds

  • Replay: 90 (120) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 270 (360) seconds

  • Effect: Increases movement speed with weapon drawn, by approximately 45% (very rough approximation based on time to run from very corner of training area to the pole, but I did make several runs to make sure of the time). With this song active walking with the weapon drawn is about 10% faster than walking with it put away; only affects the user.

  • "Interesting" note: With testing I found that after the movement speed increase Hunting Horn moves faster with the weapon drawn than with it put away, same as past games (still slower than sprinting, however.) I then decided to test the walking speed of every weapon when drawn. The numbers are too rough to bother putting here, but the very very rough speed tier in order of fastest to slower was Dual Blades in Demon Mode, Hunting Horn with Self Improvement up, Dual Blades out of Demon Mode, then SnS and LBG approximately tied. All of those were faster than walking with the weapon put away. Slowest weapon was Heavy Bowgun by a large margin, then Greatsword, Lance, Gunlance, Switch Axe in Sword Mode, and Charge Blade in Axe Mode were all roughly tied for second slowest, with Hunting Horn without Self-Improvement a bit faster. Insect Glaive and Bow appeared to be exactly the same speed as walking with no weapon out. Long Sword, Hammer, Switch Axe, and Charge Blade all were a bit slower than with the weapon sheathed, but faster than Hunting Horn without Self-Improvement.

  • Replay Effect: Prevents weapon bouncing when attacking and increases movement speed with weapon drawn, by approximately 45%. With this song active walking with the weapon drawn is about 10% faster than walking with it put away; only affects the user.

SCOUTFLY POWER UP

  • Duration: 180 (240) seconds

  • Replay: 180 (240) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 360 (480) seconds

  • Effect: Increases the tracking level of all present monsters by 1.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

SONIC WAVES

  • Duration: N/A

  • Replay: N/A

  • Duration Cap: N/A

  • Effect: Replicates the effects of a Screamer Pod.

  • Replay Effect: N/A

STAMINA USE REDUCED (S)

  • Duration: 90 (120) seconds

  • Replay: 30 (60) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 120 (180) seconds

  • Effect: 50% reduction in stamina usage.

  • Replay Effect: 50% reduction in stamina usage.

STAMINA USE REDUCED (L)

  • Duration: 120 (150) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 180 (240) seconds

  • Effect: 50% reduction in stamina usage.

  • Replay Effect: 50% reduction in stamina usage.

STUN NEGATED

  • Duration: 180 (210) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 300 (390) seconds

  • Effect: Prevents stun. Does not remove already inflicted stun.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

THUNDER RESISTANCE BOOST (S)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +5 Thunder Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +7 Thunder Resistance.

THUNDER RESISTANCE BOOST (L)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +7 Thunder Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +10 Thunder Resistance.

TOOL USE DRAIN REDUCED (S)

  • Duration: 30 (60) seconds

  • Replay: 30 (60) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 60 (120) seconds

  • Effect: Extends the duration of active tools by 10%. Haven't tested whether it has any effect on the Vitality Mantle's damage absorption.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

TOOL USE DRAIN REDUCED (L)

  • Duration: 60 (90) seconds

  • Replay: 60 (90) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 120 (180) seconds

  • Effect: Extends the duration of active tools by 10%. Haven't tested whether it has any effect on the Vitality Mantle's damage absorption.

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

TREMORS NEGATED

  • Duration: 180 (210) seconds

  • Replay: 180 (210) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 360 (420) seconds

  • Effect: Prevents staggering due to tremors (burrowing Diablos and Black Diablos, Radobaan and Uragaan chin slam, Final Monster falling over, etc.)

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.

WATER RESISTANCE BOOST (S)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +5 Water Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +7 Water Resistance.

WATER RESISTANCE BOOST (L)

  • Duration: 120 (180) seconds

  • Replay: 120 (180) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 240 (360) seconds

  • Effect: +7 Water Resistance.

  • Replay Effect: +10 Water Resistance.

WIND PRESSURE NEGATED

  • Duration: 180 (240) seconds

  • Replay: 90 (120) seconds

  • Duration Cap: 270 (360) seconds

  • Effect: Prevents the effects of wind pressure. (still testing, the only wind pressure I've found that this doesn't cover is Kushala Daora's strong wind blasts and strong wind aura).

  • Replay Effect: Extends the duration.