In this Monster Hunter World Combat Guide, we will share some pro tips and strategies with you regarding the most important aspect of Monster Hunter World, combat. Monster Hunter World is the newest installment in the Monster Hunter Franchise.
We have curated this Monster Hunter World Combat Guide so that you can easily understand the basic as well as some advanced mechanics of the combat system of Monster Hunter World. It features a variety of mechanics when it comes to combat and the game heavily depends on efficient use of these mechanics so it is vital that you have a stellar understanding of the combat system of Monster Hunter World.
Monster Hunter World Combat
Here in this Monster Hunter World Combat Guide, we have detailed information about different mechanics relating to combat such as how you track the Monster, dodging and blocking Monster attacks, normal and elemental weaknesses of enemies and other advanced mechanics such as using potions and food items to replenish health and trapping injured Monsters.
Our Monster Hunter World Combat Guide details everything that you need to know about combat in Monster Hunter World. Below you will find a detailed guide covering all aspects of combat in Monster Hunter World.
Understanding Monsters
It is very important that you understand the Monster that you are going against because understanding the Monster type will greatly help you in your battles. There are different things about a Monster that you need to be aware such as their habits, what type of Monster it is and how you can inflict different types of status ailments on them.
Before you go on a hunt, you need to be well aware of the Monster that you are going to hunt. The Monsters in Monster Hunter World belong to either small Monsters category or large Monsters category. Small Monsters do not pose much threat and they sometimes will accompany large Monster. They will cause problems if they come in large numbers and you are unable to manage them along with large Monsters.
Along with normal Monster, you will also encounter special more powerful variants of normal Monsters called Tempered Monsters. These Monsters are only unlocked once you have unlocked their tracks during High-Rank Expeditions. Once you have located a specific number of tracks, you will unlock the encounter.
Coming to habits of the Monsters, there are different things that you must keep in mind. Monsters have unique movement types, some are diggers, and some are swimmers while some are even flyers. Each Monster will use different movement style to get around the world so make sure you are not coming with melee weapons to a flying Monster type. Make sure you are prepared to tackle the Monster properly
Just like you, the Monster also has stamina. As it attacks, it will consume stamina. Once out of stamina, it will take a break to recover stamina before it attacks again. Deal enough damage to the Monster and it will enter Rage Mode. During this mode, it will become very hard to handle. It will attack with more ferocity and some may even have new attack moves for aggressive modes.
After the Rage Mode, once you have dealt enough damage, the Monster will try to run from the battle to its nest to recover health. This is the prime time to set traps and capture them before they escape to their nests.
Tracking Monsters
The first step in every hunt is to track down the Monster. In every quest, you will get some sort of a hint of a location where the Monster usually hangs around or was recently sighted; you will head there and look for any clues that will help you track the Monster or its hideout. Once you spot a clue or in most cases footprints, scoutflies will gather and they will help you find the Monster.
Once the scoutflies pick the trail of the Monster, they will lead you right to the Monster. Therefore, once you start following the scoutflies, be
on your guard as you can come across a giant Monster anytime.
Dealing Damage
Once you have located the Monster, it is time to start the fight. You will be required to then attack the Monster with your weapons to deal damage until it is weak and it tries to run away from you. Every weapon that you own will have special moves and combos. Before going on a hunt, make sure that you using a weapon that you are comfortable with. Practice a bit with the weapon and find the weapon that best suits your playstyle.
Some weapons are fast-paced while some are slow damage dealers. Each weapon will behave in different ways when in combat so it is vital that you learn how to use your weapon before heading into a Monster fight. Remember to keep this in mind that in every battle, you will be the weaker one so do not be on the offensive always.
Sometimes playing defensively will save your life. During combat, you must never stay too close to the Monster because most of the Monsters are very big in size and they will deal some serious damage even by simply putting their foot down near you. Always maintain a safe distance from the Monster. This is unique for every Monster so make sure that you are using the correct strategy against the Monster you are up against.
You can also use your slinger during the battle in various ways to deal ranged damage to the Monster. It offers a variety of things to be loaded into it and launched at the Monster. Each item will have a unique status effect on the Monster. They could be poisoned, stunned or paralyzed. This is a very handy tool, therefore, make sure that you use it effectively during battles.
During the normal battle phase, you should try to be focused on dealing as much damage as safely as possible because once enough damage has been dealt, it will enter Rage Mode. This is the time when you should switch from offensive to defensive. Avoid all Monster attacks and keep avoiding until the Monster is tired and enters the stale mode. This is your time to shine so take out your weapons and deal as much damage as possible until the Monster is down.
Another trick to deal massive right at the start of the battle is to sneak up on the Monster. Place some explosives near its weak spots and fire on them to cause a huge blast and deal massive damage to the Monster. This damage is only caused when the enemy is sleeping so make sure that you always try to use this when the enemy is asleep.
Exploiting Monster Weaknesses
Each Monster in Monster Hunter World has two types of weaknesses. A weak spot and elemental weakness. Weak spots are physical spots on Monster body, which are super sensitive to attacks, and they will not resist attacks much. It must be your priority to locate each Monster’s weak spot and attack at the same spot to deal maximum damage.
This can be easily checked because every time you hit the Monster, damage dealt is shown in a specific color. If this color is purple, it means that part of the body is resisting damage. If the color is orange, it means that the body part is a weak spot and it will take maximum damage. Make sure you keep an eye on the color of these numbers so that you can easily tell which part of the Monster is a weak spot and which part will resist the most damage.
The second type of weakness of a Monster is an elemental weakness. Each Monster has a certain weakness towards any one of the five elements. This is not shown to the hunter just that easily so the hunter must experiment with all elements until he finds the right one. It is also judged in the same manner.
Orange color shows that the Monster is weak against that specific element. Purple color will show resistance so avoid using that element. If the damage dealt is coming in white color, it means that the Monster has a neutral effect on that specific element. Finding out the correct elemental is crucial because sometimes they can be benefitting the Monster as well if we keep using the wrong elemental against them.
Avoiding Damage
Dealing damage is not the only thing you will be doing while fighting Monster, you will also need to avoid the attacks launched by the Monster which will deal severe damage to you if you are not careful. Either you can dodge the attacks or you can block the attacks.
Dodging is simple and requires you to simply push a button while pointing towards a direction, however, keep this mind that every time you dodge; you use a bit of your stamina. Dodging too much will deplete your stamina and you will be unable to attack after a dodge.
The best way here is to be conservative with dodge and play strategically so that you do not have to dodge all the time. Be mindful of what the Monster might attack next. Sometimes attacks can be easily avoided by simply walking in an opposite direction. Be on the lookout and use dodge effectively. In most cases, you will have a window to land a few hits on the Monster after a successful dodge.
When you dodge the attack, you enter a special window called the evading window. This is a small time in which you are invincible and the Monster will not be able to hit you. This window can also be increased by upgrading certain skills and it also depends on what type of weapon and armor you are using.
In case of running away from the Monster, if you use evade, you will perform an Emergency Evade, which is longer than a normal evade. Although during the long dive, you may become invincible, however, the main problem after the evade is the recovery time. Recovery time for an Emergency Evade is pretty large and you may be hit if the Monster attacks you during this time.
Another way to avoid the damage dealt by the Monsters is by blocking their attacks. You are a human after all and you have your limitations. Blocking does not completely block the damage and sometimes you will still have some damage from the sheer force of the attack. It also depends on the weapon that you use for blocking the attacks. Blocking an attack also consumes your stamina and harder attacks will drain more stamina as compared to lighter attacks.
Some weapons have better blocking such as Lance and Gunlance as the best when it comes to blocking. On the other hand, Greatsword and Charge Blade have the weakest blocking ability and they will let quite a lot of damage to pass through to you. We will recommend that you skip blocking most of the times and focus more on dodging. Only use a block if dodging is out of the question.
Keep in mind that every time you block an attack, you will use some of your stamina. Sometimes if the attack is too hard, the attack will even push you back a little. So be aware of your surroundings during blocking and evading attacks. If the attack is more powerful than your stamina, it will not only drain all your stamina but also deal damage to you so it is better to evade rather than block in such situations.
Also, keep in mind that not all attacks can be blocked no matter how powerful you are or which weapon you use for blocking. To block these attacks you will have to equip a special skill called Guard Up skill. Once this skill is equipped, you will be able to block nearly all attacks no matter how powerful they are.
If you have taken a lot of damage and are about to die, there are different things that you can use to increase your health back to full. You can eat different food items and drink potions that will restore your health back to full. Eating before a battle also increase your battle stats so always go into a battle with a filled tummy.
Status Ailments
Using Special Weapons can inflict special status ailments on the Monsters, which will cause them to take damage over time or affect their behavior in certain ways. These are applied by coating special items on the weapons and then using them to damage the Monsters. There are six types of status ailments that you can inflict on Monsters for extra damage. We have explained all of them below:
Paralysis
When applied, the Monster is unable to move. Follow up with attacks so that you take advantage of this opportunity. This is good when the Monster is nearing death and you want to deal maximum damage quickly.
Sleep
It causes the Monster to sleep but when you attack or it falls into a trap, the Monster will wake up. The first attack that will wake up the Monster will get a damage boost and inflicts 2.0x times the normal damage. All following attacks will deal normal damage. However, if you do not attack during the sleep time, the Monster will wake up itself after some time.
Poison
Poison causes the Monster to take damage over time. It is great for constantly dealing some damage to the Monster. Once poisoned, the Monster will continue to take damage until it recovers. However, once recovered if the Poison damage exceeds the tolerance threshold, the Monster will become poisoned once again and it will keep on taking damage.
Blast
The blast causes a small explosion and damages the Monster. You will be required to accumulate enough blast damage before the explosion can be triggered.
Exhaust
Exhaust causes the Monster to tire out. It basically drains the stamina of the Monster making it unable to attack, run and use special attacks. The Monster once exhausted will take frequent breaks to get its stamina back giving you enough time to land some combos and attacks.
Stun
Stun knocks out the Monster giving you ample time to deal some major damage to the Monster. You can knock out Monsters by attacking their head. A good hit on the head will knock it out, making it unconscious. This also gives you a good window to deal some serious damage to the Monster.
Trapping Escaping Monsters
In the last phase of the battle, once the Monster has taken too much damage. It will try to run away from you and escape to its hideout to sleep and regain health and energy. To prevent this, you can bring some traps to the battle and set them up to lure the Monster in them. There are different types of traps in the game and different traps work on different Monsters. Make sure you are bringing traps that are most effective against them.
You can lay down some traps along escape routes and then when the Monster tries to run from the battle, it will become trapped in them and this will give you a good time to deal some serious damage. Use this time to deal as much damage as you can because the Monsters eventually escape from the traps. You can also use these traps mid-combat. Place them around the battle area and lure the Monster in them by using different tactics.
These traps can also be used to capture the weak escaping Monsters. You will need to ensnare the Monster first. You can use traps for this and once the Monster is in the trap, use tranquilizer items to capture them. Keep in mind that putting them to sleep does not capture them.
Also, you can only capture those Monsters which can be trapped. Monsters immune to traps cannot be trapped and captures such as Elder Dragons. There are different types of traps in the game that you can use to capture Monsters. We have detailed the types of traps you can lay down below.
Ivy Traps
Ivy traps are used to capture and hold Monsters in vines. They lack the ability to make Monsters weak enough to be captured so they are only good for slowing down their movement.
Shock Traps
Shock Traps will electrify any Monster that steps on it. Any Monster who steps into a shock trap is unable to move until the trap is destroyed. It does not deal any type of damage to the Monster as it restricts their movement. Once restricted, they can be mounted, stunned, paralyzed or put to sleep. Shock traps are one of two types of traps that allow you to capture Monsters.
Pitfall Traps
Pitfall traps are placed around so that running Monsters can fall in them and be restricted. When you place a pitfall trap, it creates a deep pit in which Monster running over the trap will fall and be stuck. Any Monster stuck inside can try to escape and this causes the trap to become weaker and weaker if the Monster stays inside for a long time.
You can capture Monster stuck inside the pitfalls and when they fall in the pit, they receive more damage while they are inside a pitfall trap. Although Pitfall traps allow you to capture a Monster, they do not allow you to mount them.
This concludes our Monster Hunter World Combat Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below!
