How To Have A Successful Hunt In Monster Hunter: Rathalos

Monster Hunter first came out on Playstation 2 in 2004.  It lets the player take control of a, well hunter, obviously.  The hunter starts off with easy tasks like finding raw meat or a few mushrooms, and culminates in trying to bring down massive Wyverns.

The game starts out rather slow, especially when it comes to the incredibly higher level of difficulty in the larger wyverns compared to earlier ones.  The Ratholos,

is what will cause you the most trouble.  After fighting the weak Yian Kut Ku, the not much harder Gypceros, and the pretty easy Basarios, Rathalos will destroy you, many times unless you either (a) prepare properly and bring an insane amount of gear to fight it, or (b) spend lots of time upgrading your weapon and get lucky.  Odds are, you will need to do both.  Of course, even with all of this, you will still have a tough time taking down the Rathalos unless you know how to fight it.

The Rathalos has a lot of health and does a lot of damage.  If you have an armor that resists fire, equip it.  Make sure you have a powerful weapon.  I would recommend using a high level greatsword.  Now, there are two ways you can go, either attempting to fight the Rathalos commando style, or bringing plenty of gear.  The more gear you bring, the easier the fight will be.  However, the more expensive the fight will be as well.

The bare minimum you can bring to this fight is several well-done steaks and paintballs.  If you’re trying to go in fully loaded, bring the three book of combos, 3 large barrel bombs, 10 potions, at least 6 mega potions, 4 flash bombs, a pitfall trap, two nets, two trap tools, 3 large barrels, 3 gunpowder, 3 small barrel bombs,  3 raw meat, 10 paintballs, at least 4 antidotes and 6 well-done steak.

Now that you’re prepared, if you’re doing the Kill The Rathalos mission in the Forest and Hills region, I can provide more in-depth strategy tips, though most of these will apply no matter where you’re fighting the beast.  (If it’s not at the forest and Hills region, just ignore anything referring to areas)

Tip: Always use your supply items before your own items.

Once you start, use the two rations to get your stamina up to maximum.  The Rathalos always starts in area 3.  Ignore any velociprey on the way and get there as quickly as possible.  He should be a bit in front of you.  Move to the right and toss a paintball at him.  It should collide with his wing.  This should work every single time.  You must tag the Rathalos with a paintball and keep an eye on the clock.  Every ten minutes you need to hit him with another one to keep the effect from wearing off.  The Rathalos likes to fly, a lot, so you’re going to need to constantly keep up with him, otherwise he might go start healing without you noticing.  The places he most frequently flies to are: 3, 10, 9, and 4.  He can heal in 9.  He will also fly to 5 once he is pretty low on health and go to sleep.  If this happens, make sure that you kill all of the velociprey in the area before waking up the Rathalos.  There is nothing worse than getting hit by one of them and knocked into one of the Wyvern’s attacks.

So you know where he’ll fly and you have a paintball on him.  You’re watching your stamina and eating a well-done steak when you need to get it back up.  How do you fight him?  First, he has multiple weak points, the first is his tail, which can be cut off (If you cut it off you can skin something from it.  The second are his wings, where you can break his claws (though you shouldn’t really target his wings, they aren’t worth it) and the third is its head.  You can break his head crest, but after the tail is severed you should always aim for the head.  Of course, severing the tail is easier said than done.  Fortunately,the Rathalos behaves in a mostly specific and readable pattern. (Note: Severing the tail is more important for people who are going in without any equipment)

Ok, first the easy way, you’re decked out with equipment.  Just lure him into a pitfall trap, either by chasing you or by placing raw meat in it, and then place two large barrel bombs on him and detonate them with a small barrel bomb.  Then combine what you need in order to do it again.  With the books of combos you should be able to do this three times unless you get unlucky.  With all of your healing items, there will be no way for him to kill you at this point.  Just hack away at him, throw a few flashbombs.  As long as the bomb explodes in front of his face when he isn’t running then it will work.  You will still have to watch out for his tail swing though.

Now, if you’re not using all that equipment, then you’re going to need a lot more help to get by. (Trust me, I know from experience)  Like I said though, he follows a readable pattern though.  Basically, before he attacks he will turn towards you twice. (It doesn’t really make sense in writing but you will know what I mean when you see it)  If the turns are fast then he’s going to charge you.  This means that you get out of the way.  Sprint and roll, which makes you invincible for a small amount of time and should throw you out of his way.  Never try to attack him when he is running, because that’s suicide.  If the two turns are slow, then now is your chance.  He is about to shoot a fireball.  Sprint to the left or right of him to avoid the fire and get behind him to get a swing at his tail.  Repeat this until it has been severed.  Once it has been severed then aim for the side of his head.  If you do this you should be fine.  Just get that one slash in and back away.  If you hit his head and he staggers it’s usually safe to get in another hit.  Now, if he’s hovering in the air and not flying away then he is either going to shoot fireballs at you, which are pretty easy to dodge, or he is going to try to hit you with his tail.  Blocking either will keep you safe.  Two other moves he has are a bite attack, which is pretty much useless, and a tail swing.  If you stay close to him for two long, or behind him, he may do this move.  There is no warning for it, so just try not to stay close to him for long periods of time because it’s hard to dodge.

When he starts getting weaker, you will see fire coming out of his mouth.  This means that he’s about to attack a lot faster and harder than before.  Just give him some space.  Trying to attack him while he is in that state is never a good idea.  He doesn’t always have to turn, which means a hit to the head can lead to you on the floor when he charges out of nowhere for half of your health.  Eventually he will get slower again, which means to start waiting for him to blow fire and then running to the side of his head and slashing him.  Eventually he will fall, which is an incredibly rewarding experience, especially the first time you do it.

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