Clearing Up Misconceptions and Misinformation on how Hunts Work

[Scipo0419]

There’s been a lot of misinformation and confusion on how monster materials work so I figured I’d put this together.

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How to Read the Field Guide:

In the field guide for a monster there are four reward groups: Target, Carve, Broken Part, and Wound.

Target Rewards: the rewards you gain for completing a quest with this monster as a target. Almost every reward can be a Target Reward and some Target Rewards, like Sacs, can only be gained as a target reward. You will never get these from a carve, capture, broken part, or wound break.

Carve Rewards: the 3 (or more) rewards gained from carving a monster you killed or the 3 (or more) rewards gained immediately upon capturing a monster. Yes, they’re called “Carve” rewards, but you can absolutely gain “Carve Only” rewards by capturing the monster, meaning that capturing pulls from the same loot pool as carving. ( Proof, courtesy of Platapoop[imgur.com])

Broken Part Reward: these used to drop as shinies on the ground but are now sent straight to your field pouch upon breaking a part.

Wound Break Rewards: these work exactly the same as part breaks but come from wounds.

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”Capturing is better than Carving”

You may see this claim a lot, but, as you saw from the previous section, there are no differences in the reward pool when capturing vs carving. The only difference is the time spent in the hunt. Capturing is roughly 1.5m faster than killing (not including the end hunt timer/time to carve), so based off a 10-minute kill vs an 8.5m capture, you’d be able to capture 7 monsters in the time it took to kill 6. Any less and you’re not being any more efficient. Having the requisite buff (Carving Pro vs Capture Pro) is the only thing that will truly dictate which is more efficient, otherwise it’s player preference. I see many people recommending only capping to stop a triple cart, which is a good rule of thumb if you’re only needing one or two materials.

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”Only Kills count towards the Milestones”

This claim is another false one that stems from people not understanding the difference between “hunt” and “slay”. In your field guide you may see something like “Hunts: 36 Captures: 9” and think “that’s 45 hunts but I still don’t have the 40-hunt milestone! Captures must not count!”, they do… you’re just confused because the 36 Hunts includes those 9 captures. You’ve slain 27 and captured 9 for 36 total hunts. 4 more hunts, even if they’re all captures will net you the 40-hunt milestone.

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That’s all I have for now, if anyone wants to add anymore in the comments feel free.

[Fluffy Monster Thing]

Another note is that Tempered monsters don't drop more mats than Non-tempered. Non-tempered investigations can actually provide more parts/decorations as completions rewards while tempered provide more melding related rewards.

This should be planned around based on what you need.

You can actually get dozens of free parts, and guaranteed double gems, just from using a lucky ticket on the right investigation/sos flare. It doesn't matter if it's a cap or kill.