Monster Hunter World

[kryss]

Tried to help Hoolak with Xeno. As the windrake dropped me off I got blasted with the beam stream. Then as trying to get up, blasted again.
We failed the mission about 4 minutes later.

[Neon Ignition]

Conveniently ended up with an actual evening's play last night which meant a fairly robust opportunity to try out the game properly, make some progress and familiarise myself with a few more of the systems. I've settled into a pattern of quickly dashing to the ! markers in the hub before checking if any weapon upgrades are available, then posting a mission and quickly downing a Fish Meal to buff my defences up.

My character held to using the single time levelled up samurai sword all night and the slightly upgraded leather outfit. I pretty consistently have to sharpen my blade between or during fights as it blunts fairly quickly and when full sharpened typically does 17-20 damage at best. I didn't need to stock up on health much as my items box had plenty in it to begin with so jumped straight into the fray against the Pukei-Pukei (I think). To an extent I'm alright, things come unthreaded quite quick when another large monster enters the area and last night they seemed to mostly ignore each other and give me grief so I fainted twice. Fear not though, as I shuffled on to my last available push along came [MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION] to bring the pain with the beast falling soon after.

The co-op aspect definitely elevates the game though even though I got to proceed through the story missions I can see how irritating the difference is between pre and post game players is in terms of the way it affects co-op play. The need to disconnect at the end of a mission and the other players rejoin when the suitable point in the mission has been reached is so unnecessary and it isn't even for the newer players benefit. By god, I couldn't care less about the intrusive cut scenes, it's all just a case of go to A and kill B so the cutscenes break the flow too much making it clear how much better the endgame likely is when all that's out the way.

Not too long later [MENTION=5011]vanpeebles[/MENTION] joined in too and several more missions were slain through. The last one to fall before calling a night around 3 hours later was Anjanath. By that point we were still working through the missions at a good pace without any fail states but I could definitely tell how much QC and VP were carrying the brunt of it for me, the enemies starting to punish me that bit more that if I was playing solo I think I'd have had to back off sooner.

It was great hearing QC and VP's directions and advice, QC providing incredibly useful insight which was always well timed even when I was stuck in a solo part. I'm going to double check but I think that most expendable part of the PS4 package, the cheap included earphone headset isn't there for some reason so I'm some literal silent partner

Before the nights gameplay I switched HDR off and changed the graphics options away from prioritising resolution to graphics. It didn't make a huge difference but the alteration of the colour and brightness settings has made it less of a thought as to how saturated HDR looks in comparison so I'm happy with it now. I set the camera to far as well, it's not a dramatic change but the small amount of extra viewing space helps in groups and I only had to reposition the camera every now and again.

In terms of where I'm at now. Just before switching off for the night I headed to the weapons shop and had a look at what the nights hunting had made available. My weapon was available for one more upgrade and another default weapon in my inventory (the dual sabres) also had an upgrade to I applied that as one of the key areas I'm lacking in at the moment is weapon selection. QC would regularly give heads up as the weaknesses of the next beast but I don't have any elemental weapons so couldn't take advantage of that advanced warning. I'm definitely of the MrKirov approach of 'if it bleeds, it dies' and just caning them but the current sword will hit a wall or unsuited enemy at some point. My supplies are starting to diminish a little too despite having auto-craft enabled. I put a lot into armour last night, I have a really mismatched outfit now but it's taken my armour defense up from 2 to around 14-16 which should help a lot moving forward. It's very much my weapon holding me back now due to the low damage it's doling out on these harder enemies.

That being said, last nights progress was solid and was certainly enough to make this the first MH game to win me over so I'm going to stick it out and keep pushing through the initial game and see how I go. Last night saw my character propped up from HR2 to HR5 and from what I can gather around a third of the story missions are done now.

If I get on the games today I'm going to focus on Battlefield 1 to decide whether that one needs to be wrapped up, I'm thinking yes, but if I get on this at the weekend I think the main port of call is to spend a little breathing time in Expeditions building up my research, resources and upgrades so I'm more in line with the story missions again. If I do that then I should be in a better position to face another push through the monsters of the story missions next week.

Thanks again to Vanpeebles for helping to fell these foul beasts and QualityChimp for his sage like advice and leadership through these missions, definitely would have been slower progress last night without these guys.

[hudson]

Is Xeno's laser blast a guaranteed faint no matter what? I was climbing up those big crystals thinking I could mount him, but after umpteen attempts I'm starting think that's a no.
[MENTION=9333]kryss[/MENTION]. I guess that's something to think about when joining in a Xeno SOS call. Make sure it's just kicking off

[kryss]

I got blasted twice before I could recover. It's not a one-hit kill with decent defense, but bad timing and STUPID drop location changes everything.

[QualityChimp]

I'm so chuffed you're enjoying it, mate!

I've settled into a pattern of quickly dashing to the ! markers in the hub before checking if any weapon upgrades are available, then posting a mission and quickly downing a Fish Meal to buff my defences up.

Yeah, that's a great routine. ALWAYS get a meal first. I told you it was streamlined!
You can dine with the cat at the hub (Meowscular Chef) or at the tent.
I usually just get the chef's special, but later on, you can pick and choose meals.
Doing some of the Chef's missions increases the menu, so go have a chat with him (go around the counter to talk to him).

My character held to using the single time levelled up samurai sword all night and the slightly upgraded leather outfit. I pretty consistently have to sharpen my blade between or during fights as it blunts fairly quickly and when full sharpened typically does 17-20 damage at best.

Yeah, starting swords blunt quicker and take three scrapes to resharpen, but later swords stay sharper and certain armour reduces sharpening time.
Here's a nice starting armour set. My fave feature is the greaves (gloves) that give you an affinity boost when you slide, so you are more likely to land a critical hit.

->Open Spoiler<-

things come unthreaded quite quick when another large monster enters the area and last night they seemed to mostly ignore each other and give me grief so I fainted twice.

If you wait, one of the monsters clears off after they've tussled so keep moving out of their range.
Or you can fire a Dung Pod from your catapault to drive a monster away.

Fear not though, as I shuffled on to my last available push along came QualityChimp to bring the pain with the beast falling soon after.

It's nice to feel like I'm the hero, rather than the weakest link!

The co-op aspect definitely elevates the game though even though I got to proceed through the story missions I can see how irritating the difference is between pre and post game players is in terms of the way it affects co-op play. The need to disconnect at the end of a mission and the other players rejoin when the suitable point in the mission has been reached is so unnecessary and it isn't even for the newer players benefit. By god, I couldn't care less about the intrusive cut scenes, it's all just a case of go to A and kill B so the cutscenes break the flow too much making it clear how much better the endgame likely is when all that's out the way.

It's a ball ache and as MrKirov has said, really obtuse, but you get used to it.
In a party? Join off-game chat to communicate.
You can say when the cut scene is over and continue chatting.
There's not that many cut scenes, so it's completely tolerable and everybody is cool with waiting as we're all happy to help and we went through it too.

Not too long later @vanpeebles joined in too and several more missions were slain through. The last one to fall before calling a night around 3 hours later was Anjanath. By that point we were still working through the missions at a good pace without any fail states but I could definitely tell how much QC and VP were carrying the brunt of it for me, the enemies starting to punish me that bit more that if I was playing solo I think I'd have had to back off sooner.

That Anjanath mission is a toughie, so I'm glad we were able to help.
We weren't carrying you though, mate. Every time I was getting stuck in, I'd see you there too.
Did you practice that combo I showed you? Speak to the landlord cat in your bedroom to go to the practice area and get used to it.
LVP goes to VP for hitting me with his hammer more than the dinos!

It was great hearing QC and VP's directions and advice, QC providing incredibly useful insight which was always well timed even when I was stuck in a solo part. I'm going to double check but I think that most expendable part of the PS4 package, the cheap included earphone headset isn't there for some reason so I'm some literal silent partner

Deffo get a mic. It just makes life easier. I just use the boxed one.
Don't forget to Hoover up the drops. I had my cat's Plunderblade and Bandit cape knocking loads of drops, but you caned it off after the limping beast. Stop, sharpen, heal and collect, then move on. You missed the Pukei Pukei's tale, I think! All those go towards unlocking new armour and weapons.

I set the camera to far as well, it's not a dramatic change but the small amount of extra viewing space helps in groups and I only had to reposition the camera every now and again.

Every little helps and when you're in the heat of the battle, you don't want your view to be obscured by a dino's crotch.

My weapon was available for one more upgrade and another default weapon in my inventory (the dual sabres) also had an upgrade to I applied that as one of the key areas I'm lacking in at the moment is weapon selection. QC would regularly give heads up as the weaknesses of the next beast but I don't have any elemental weapons so couldn't take advantage of that advanced warning. I'm definitely of the MrKirov approach of 'if it bleeds, it dies' and just caning them but the current sword will hit a wall or unsuited enemy at some point. My supplies are starting to diminish a little too despite having auto-craft enabled. I put a lot into armour last night, I have a really mismatched outfit now but it's taken my armour defense up from 2 to around 14-16 which should help a lot moving forward. It's very much my weapon holding me back now due to the low damage it's doling out on these harder enemies.

The beauty of this game is how flexible it is. It's not a Metroidvania game where you HAVE to have the boomerang bombs to access the next stage. You can just get the biggest sword and clobber the monsters into submission.
You can also invest time researching the weaknesses and replay a few missions to get some kit.

So we fought the fish-face (Jyutodus), dropping water boosts. Next boss was the electric weasel (Tobi-Kadashi), whose weakness is... water! You can farm the fish to get a water weapon, but most people want to progress as far as possible before needing to investigate crafting element-based weapons.
We'll get some more components on our next session and look at what you can upgrade. It gives a nice sense of purpose aiming for a specific weapon or armour.

That being said, last nights progress was solid and was certainly enough to make this the first MH game to win me over so I'm going to stick it out and keep pushing through the initial game and see how I go. Last night saw my character propped up from HR2 to HR5 and from what I can gather around a third of the story missions are done now.

Do the first batch of missions and you unlock High Rank with tougher versions of existing monsters and some new ones.
There's another set of missions, but you can continue at whatever pace you enjoy.
I'm happy to redo anything to help.
Don't forget we've caught every monster we found so we can fight them in the arena!

If I get on the games today I'm going to focus on Battlefield 1 to decide whether that one needs to be wrapped up, I'm thinking yes, but if I get on this at the weekend I think the main port of call is to spend a little breathing time in Expeditions building up my research, resources and upgrades so I'm more in line with the story missions again. If I do that then I should be in a better position to face another push through the monsters of the story missions next week.

Thanks again to Vanpeebles for helping to fell these foul beasts and QualityChimp for his sage like advice and leadership through these missions, definitely would have been slower progress last night without these guys.

Again, glad you enjoyed it!
Knock BF1 on the head and get huntin'!

This game is like an iceberg with a small percentage on display but with loads more below the surface.
So much information is word of mouth, it's ridiculous and because you're playing solo there's lots of things you might have missed. So bear with us if we're repeating the obvious, but a lot of people don't know about holding circle when carving/digging, holding R1 to run or holding X to clear all the winnings at the end of a hunt.

If you've got time, here are a nice few starter videos and I'd be amazed if you knew everything in them!

->Open Spoiler<-

[Lebowski]

good little quality of life tip that i picked up off a youtube vid. If your sick of monsters limping away or fleeing an area, the slinger pods monsters drop when you break bits off them will instantly agro them again. It also stop them fleeing the closing bits of battle and can lead to a quicker kill or capture.

[QualityChimp]

Great tip! I didn't know that.
See? Most advice is word of mouth on this!

[vanpeebles]

I had to get Hoolak to help me with the rathalos mission, I’d been trying on and off all day, and was fed up with it!

[hudson]

We was like back to back like Stallone and Snipes. No one could stop us.

[J0e Musashi]

Here’s a tip. Sell everything you aren’t going to or cannot use. I’ve just swapped a load of useless materials for 1400000z.

[QualityChimp]

Don't forget flash pods bring those flapping scoundrels back down to Earth!

[vanpeebles]

Anyone on tonight? I need help with the second Zorah quest

[Tobal]

got myself the new wriggler head from the event quest... immediately swapped out the eyepatch for it and maxed out the defense (including augments)

[QualityChimp]

Sorry buddy, I'm watching telly with the missus tonight.

[vanpeebles]

sniffle