breaking monster body parts

[Solvaring]

In my last few hunts I always get awarded 'most body parts broken'

When i bust a monster in a specific place and remove that body part at what point do i pick it up or carve it? If it's in the middle of the fight and the monster runs away to another part of the map, do i need to scour the area for drops before giving chase? or does s/he drop the parts i've broken only once s/he is dead?

[Stormsong]

Some tails come off and have a physical presence. Little shiny crystals will drop items they are shown in the "Dropped material" category in the Hunter's Notes (though these can also be wyvern tears, dragon treasure's and maybe the plunder blade has more crystal drop options?). For the rest, hover over each of your bonus rewards at the end of a hunt and you'll see why you got it. It will tell you if it came from something you broke.

[Katitoff]

Only nergigante spikes(at times) and tails can be picked up/carved after breaking.

All the other parts, you're going to get additional reward once mission is finished.

[TGC> The Games Collector]

Dropped materials also appear a lot when 2 monsters are fighting each other. As in, the shiny items that drop off them.

Plunderblade will always drop materials. It's a nice way to get armor from and for particularly annoying opponents. (for instance kirin materials for a good thunderproof armor).

[Xerain]

When you break a part of a monster that gives rewards, such as the horns, you get the item as a reward. You do not need to capture the mosnter to get the part break reward. In fact, you can do a "Horn Run" by smashing the horns the picking return from quest form the menu. You don't even need to defeat teh mosnter to get the reward. So you can smash teh face in of a non-target monster, then hunt the target monster and still get the break rewards for the first one you fought be didn't defeat.

[LordBlade]

It depends on the monster.

All monsters have a chance of dropping "<Monster Name> Material", which will just be a shiny item on the ground. These are usually just common bits like scales and such, but can sometimes be rare drops.

For monsters with a cuttable tail, the tail will actually be laying on the ground and can be carved. This applies to the Raths and their variants, Barroth, (Black) Diablos, etc. It's usually safest to carve the tails once the monster's wandered to a different area.

A lot of monsters only "break" their tails, like Legiana, so there's nothing to carve.

Barroth is special in that his forehead can be broken off (by blunt attacks). It can be carved like a tail can.

[Monoxide]

I didnt see anyone mention that you can "break" reinforced parts of certain monsters that (as far as I know) do not provide anything additional.

An example would be breaking the mud off of a Barroth. He rolls in the mud to reinforce himself, and you can break this mud off by consistent damage or water attacks. Breaking this mud coating makes him easier to attack, but does not provide any bonus loot wise (again, as far as I am aware).