Capture misconceptions: A detailed explanation of loot.

[DarkFenix]

Yes, it's another of these threads. But there can never be enough voices countering the rampant misinformation (read: total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t) going around. So, here's how monster loot works in its entirety:

- Carving: Each carve gives one roll on the carving loot table, there are no known modifiers to the chance. You get to carve any normal monster three times.

- Capturing: A capture gives four rolls on exactly the same loot table as carving. It yields the same items, with the same chance, the only difference is you get four items rather than three.

- Tail carving (ie. parts completely cut off): These are listed in the monster field guide, if the tail says "Tail Carved", what I'm saying here applies. The tail carve has its own loot table, the field guide doesn't list the entirety of it. For example Nergigante's tail lists Nergigante Tail and Nergigante Gem, but as anyone who's farmed him can tell you, other items drop too. Most importantly for the topic at hand, the tail being cut off has no effect on your post-mission loot, the game won't even acknowledge that you did it, because you already claimed the loot.

- Part breaking (ie. not cut off completely): These too are listed in the field guide. It includes all other listed parts and some tails (eg. Legiana, Tobi-Kadachi). Each one of these has its own loot table too, one that doesn't necessarily give anything (eg. Nergigante's first horn break only has a 33% chance to give a horn, 67% chance to give nothing). If the break does give you loot, it will be given to you at the end of the mission, the item in question will have text specifying precisely what you did to earn it. And again, these have no effect on your capture/carve loot.

- Dropped materials: These are the little white items the monster drops in a fight. Monster vs monster fights yield a veritable shower of them, they're listed in the field guide, but I've had drops other than the single item the guide specifies. I'm not 100% on what causes them to drop, but my suspicion is the breakage of parts not explicitly covered in the field guide (of which there are many). These too are completely independent of capture/carve loot.

- Quest rewards: At least there's no ambiguity with these. It's a set of rewards chosen from the "Rewards" loot table in the field guide. The number of these can be influenced by skills, vouchers, etc. but the loot table is usually the worse one, frequently not containing rarer and more useful items.

Originally posted by Example:

Example time! Let's talk about our good friend Rathalos. Rathalos has three breakable parts, one carvable part, and a dropped material.

Let's assume I'm after a Rathalos Ruby, the rarest drop on this table. It's not listed in the "Rewards" table, so quest completion on its own isn't going to help. It is on the carves table though, so killing Rathalos will give me three rolls on that table. On the other hand if I capture, I get four rolls on the table.

On top of this, three parts list the Rathalos Ruby in their loot; the head, back, and tail. Rathalos' tail is one you cut off completely, so ideally I'll do that and carve it during the mission, this gets me one more chance to get a Ruby, but on a different loot table with a different chance.

I will also attempt to break Rathalos' head and back during the hunt. If I succeed, I will get another chance at a Ruby from each one. Note that each of these chances is on its own individual loot table, and I won't receive anything until after the mission.

If all goes perfectly, I'll carve Rathalos' tail, break its head and back, then capture it. In total I will get seven chances to get a Rathalos Ruby.

On the other hand perhaps I screw up, or maybe Bazel shows up and ruins my day, so I don't manage to cut the parts. Now it is better to kill Rathalos. If I can break even two of the three parts, and get the kill, this is better than a capture with no broken parts.

So that's it ladies and gents, it's all about maximising the number of times you get to roll on the loot tables for the item(s) you want. Once you're good at positioning and targeting the right places, it is always better for loot to capture, you get a shorter hunt with more rewards.


Edit: A couple of folks noted a mistake/omission or two, so here we go:

First up, I somehow neglected to think that monsters generally have two wings or front/rear legs. I don't know whether or not each of the two will give you a loot roll individually, I'd appreciate anyone being able to confirm that true or false.

Secondly, you can theoretically get more out of carving, up to 5 carves on normal monsters (3 on tails) using the skills Carving Master and Felyne Carver (Hi). The issue is that the first of these is a set bonus from some distinctly non-combat armour, only obtainable after completing all 1-8* optional quests. And the second is only obtainable with the food buff from 6 perception (green) drinks, meaning you're realistically never getting this without a meal voucher.

[LordBlade]

Nice post. Shame it will be completely ignored. lol

[Davoodinator]

To the OP

make it into a guide and it will get the attention it deserves

[DaveJK]

Originally posted by LordBlade:

Nice post. Shame it will be completely ignored. lol

Ikr, I'm not even suprised by anything that I read in these discussions anymore. So many things answered in the sticky posts that people blatantly ignore.

[GamingWithSilvertail]

Rathalos has 4 breakable parts. Each wing counts seperate.

[Duxa]

good breakdown, thanks!

[LordBlade]

Can it get stickied?

[LordBlade]

Originally posted by NaliWarcow:

Rathalos has 4 breakable parts. The wings count seperate.

Technically 5. Head, back and each wing gets broken. Tail gets severed.
But they were talking about the 3 parts relevant to getting a gem.

[GamingWithSilvertail]

Originally posted by LordBlade:

Originally posted by NaliWarcow:

Rathalos has 4 breakable parts. The wings count seperate.

Technically 5. Head, back and each wing gets broken. Tail gets severed.
But they were talking about the 3 parts relevant to getting a gem.

I was just saying.

[DaveJK]

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Felyne+Carver+(Hi)

Might be something to add but not an increase in chance of a specific item but an increase of carves is possible with food buffs.

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

- Carving: Each carve gives one roll on the carving loot table, there are no known modifiers to the chance. You get to carve any normal monster three times.

So that's it ladies and gents, it's all about maximising the number of times you get to roll on the loot tables for the item(s) you want.

Edit: oops forgot about skills on armor too: https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Carving+Master

[Jupiter Pulse]

Meanwhile if you want the most loot with best drop rates you kill the monster. commision set + Felyne Carver = 5 body carves + 3 tail carves

[DarkFenix]

Originally posted by LordBlade:

Originally posted by NaliWarcow:

Rathalos has 4 breakable parts. The wings count seperate.

Technically 5. Head, back and each wing gets broken. Tail gets severed.
But they were talking about the 3 parts relevant to getting a gem.

Ah, very good point, I missed that.

Originally posted by DaveJK:

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Felyne+Carver+(Hi)

Might be something to add but not an increase in chance of a specific item but an increase of carves is possible with food buffs.

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

- Carving: Each carve gives one roll on the carving loot table, there are no known modifiers to the chance. You get to carve any normal monster three times.

So that's it ladies and gents, it's all about maximising the number of times you get to roll on the loot tables for the item(s) you want.

Edit: oops forgot about skills on armor too: https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Carving+Master

And that too, I'll get all the fact checking done then upload it as a guide.

[Seth]

I always try to capture monsters. I used to think it was the kinder option. But then someone pointed out to me that it's not. I'm only capturing it so that it can be carved up at base in a more resourceful way........

Whoops...

[Goilveig]

Originally posted by Seth:

I always try to capture monsters. I used to think it was the kinder option. But then someone pointed out to me that it's not. I'm only capturing it so that it can be carved up at base in a more resourceful way........

Whoops...

The researcher claims they are tagged and released in one of his dialogs. On the other hand, the rewards can include pieces of the monster's brain...

[DaveJK]

Originally posted by Goilveig:

Originally posted by Seth:

I always try to capture monsters. I used to think it was the kinder option. But then someone pointed out to me that it's not. I'm only capturing it so that it can be carved up at base in a more resourceful way........

Whoops...

The researcher claims they are tagged and released in one of his dialogs. On the other hand, the rewards can include pieces of the monster's brain...

Maybe that brain matter was picked out from between the monster's teeth? We know they have some pretty big Turf Wars.... Or maybe the monster sneezed it out of its nose.

[Antoinette]

Originally posted by Seth:

I always try to capture monsters. I used to think it was the kinder option. But then someone pointed out to me that it's not. I'm only capturing it so that it can be carved up at base in a more resourceful way........

Whoops...

Actually if you talk to the guy that study your captured monster he will tell you that they release the captured monster to the wild (with scoutflies smell for track later or something), so yea it's kinder.