Will i have a good time playing solo?

[Kungralle]

Hello.
Been looking at buying Monster Hunter for a while now, and with iceborn out it looks even more interesting, only thing that is holding me back is that i mostly play solo.

None of my friends want/have time to play this game. While i have loads of time to play. I also have a hard time making friends in game *using voice* cause of my stutter.. It can get pretty bad at times. Will i be able to play it solo with proper mechanics and stuff like that or will the gameplay suffer cause i play solo?

Iv read somewhere about flares you can throw up and people join ur game or something? How does this work? Can someone please explain?

Thanks for now.
Kind regards,
Rasmus

[DaBa]

I played MH solo since I first got my hands on it, and I can say with confidence that solo is the definitive experience. Multiplayer is the optional game mode. You'll both have a better time being able to accomplish things on your own, you'll also learn important lessons about your weapon and game mechanics you wouldn't learn in multiplayer environment. People who play this game in multiplayer only are noticably worse at it because of those reasons. And also, probably the most importantly, the game just work better when you play it alone. Fighting monsters with others has it's annoying negatives like the errativ behavior of the monster jumping between players, bloated status thresholds that make some weapons and builds much less useful and fun, and other people who might ruin your hunt due to their own inexperience. If you are a solo player, there's nothing to worry about.

I can see how the end game grind can get boring playing solo, but the story content and normal quests, which can easily take you over 100 hours to beat already if you go for all of them, is already enough content to justify the price. It's even better if you factor the content the expansion adds. When you get to the actual end game grind, which takes A LOT of time on your first playthrough, your best bet is looking for a premade group on discord or somewhere else and sticking with them, rather than playing with randoms.

One tip: if you do buy it, DON'T use defender armor or weapons. They will make the game feel much easier and less punishing than it actually is, and it will inhibit your learning process and teach you the wrong lessons. Have fun!

[Mr. Orion Quest]

Yes you can most definitely play solo. The game actually defaults to solo play, but you get put in a session with 15 other players. These other players CAN join you on missions but most of the time this doesn't happen. As for the flares, yes if you need help on a run you're having a hard time with, you can shoot an SoS flare, which is answerable by players from any session in your sever's region.

[NoobMaster69]

Absolutely you can play it solo. I'm 310 hours in and played 95-98% of that solo That said if you want someone to play with who doesn't care about voice stutters I'm often available though to just have some fun. I'm not a hardcore pro build player, I just enjoy getting in and smashing monsters.

Happy to help you learn the ropes if you'd like too. Always fun watching a new player discover the game for the first time and to watch them getting their bum whooped by an angry monster.

[DaBa]

Also, if decide to dive in, I'll be happy to help and provide directions when necessary. This is not your typical action game with your typical combat system or mechanics. It can get a little bit weird and overwhelming with it's uniqueness, my first steps with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate were also really hard and painful. If you'd like that, you can hit me up.

[Tresh]

Solo is definitely viable. I play solo a lot because my buddies aren't in DLC yet and I'm having fun. SOS Flare is something you can fire from the menu to get up to 3 extra random players into your mission.

I'd suggest not to use SOS in your first monster encounter and I second DaBa's suggestion not to use defender set, as it is way too powerful for early game, makes hunts trivial and makes you pick up bad habits. The only reason to use it imo is to get a second or third character up to DLC

[Xedhadeaus]

"fire SOS flare"
That's it really. firing the flare basically makes your quest free for all, so anyone can help. At any rank, the rewards for people helping you are pretty fantastic, so you'll always get help. especially on story quests.

Game is brilliant, but end game and weapon creation is useless if you already know what you want. There are lots of different builds to make, however, the new decoration and charm levels make some of the decorations kind of useless. And it seems the guiding lands is a big ticket to endgame, which is just a big map where you kill stuff and get rare materials... probably will get boring.

You can join people who fire flares too. Helping others or jumping into a quest with people is pretty great, Probably the only thing aside from making armor setups that remains fun after you beat the game.


It's still fun solo, however, after you figure out how to use the mechanics, it's simply just maximizing your setups for particular monsters.

[legojoe]

The game itself has been designed around solo play. As many people mentioned, multiplayer is an optional game mode. You can even go into the Gathering Hub to do quests and frolick about even though the hub was intended for multiplayer. Quests received from the hub are the same quests if you received it from your handler or quest board, nothing changed about them.

There are arena challenge quests in the hub in which you use a preset equipment build to defeat monsters for a time challenge. I don't know if Capcom patched it but these challenges were always intended for duo play unless you're a ridiculous player who makes no mistakes and kill the monster within A rank time frame.

The thing about Monster Hunter and why it still is such an amazing title after more than 15 years is the solo play. You learn about a monster, its characteristics, weaknesses, strengths, and how to go about fighting them. Your preparations is also a key point as well: bringing traps, flash bombs, and other kind of utility.

Monster Hunter World even lets you observe the life of a monster albeit not very fleshed out. Don a ghillie and bring binoculars.

Overall you will not experience any loss of gameplay by going solo. In fact going multiplayer with random people may even sour your experience. If you truly cannot a type of monster after an hour or two of bashing heads, I suggest you ask for tips first before firing a signal flare for help.

[Buurt]

ive got around 400 hours in this game (100 on PS4) and on all MH games together maybe 3000 hours or something and ive played 85% of it solo and i always have fun with it, but in world its so easy just to get good randoms in your team that even playing with randoms i count as solo soo for me this game is one of the best solo grind games.
But when you get yourself a nice group of hunters with discord or something its even more fun.

[MajinSoul]

Originally posted by DaBa:

I played MH solo since I first got my hands on it, and I can say with confidence that solo is the definitive experience. Multiplayer is the optional game mode. You'll both have a better time being able to accomplish things on your own, you'll also learn important lessons about your weapon and game mechanics you wouldn't learn in multiplayer environment. People who play this game in multiplayer only are noticably worse at it because of those reasons. And also, probably the most importantly, the game just work better when you play it alone. Fighting monsters with others has it's annoying negatives like the errativ behavior of the monster jumping between players, bloated status thresholds that make some weapons and builds much less useful and fun, and other people who might ruin your hunt due to their own inexperience. If you are a solo player, there's nothing to worry about.

I can see how the end game grind can get boring playing solo, but the story content and normal quests, which can easily take you over 100 hours to beat already if you go for all of them, is already enough content to justify the price. It's even better if you factor the content the expansion adds. When you get to the actual end game grind, which takes A LOT of time on your first playthrough, your best bet is looking for a premade group on discord or somewhere else and sticking with them, rather than playing with randoms.

One tip: if you do buy it, DON'T use defender armor or weapons. They will make the game feel much easier and less punishing than it actually is, and it will inhibit your learning process and teach you the wrong lessons. Have fun!

This is pretty accurate tbh

[Dregora]

I'm mostly a solo player due to social anxiety in a lot of other games. For me this severely inhibits a lot of games that have a strong multiplayer focus if it requires voice chat.

However, ironically, I have a blast with the multiplayer in MHW. Yes, as many others have said, you can play the game fully solo. There's no real downside to it at all and it's probably balanced around it.


However, I do have to point out that I think the games multiplayer is equally as good, even if it's different. You don't need voice at all. In fact I do multiplayer a lot (except the first times of a new mission, I do those solo). To me, it's not really about doing a monster solo the fastest way. I get why people enjoy this, but to me that's not really what I like. I've never been a sucker for doing things the most efficient or fastest way. Hell, I think a lot of people would probably laugh at the unoptimized way I play a switchaxe. But I am having fun with it. A lot. No one talks in random groups, at all. No one chats. People just go nuts on a monster.

For me this allowed me to enjoy multiplayer. Everyone is essentially doing their own thing, but together, if that makes sense.


At the end of the day, both solo play and co-ordinated multiplayer is possible, but you can get away just as much with yolo multiplayer where no one communicates, but somehow it still works. Ofcourse you won't beat records like this, but if that's your aim of the game, then you're probably already in the top.. 2% of the playerbase.


Casually? You can't go wrong. Solo, multi, anything will work. And to me that's why MHW is so fun. I can do whatever I want really. I'm not looking to break records, i'm just looking to have some monster fun.

[Saber]

I have absolutely zero friendos and I enjoy multiplayer very much.

You will too.

The multiplayer part I mean.

[Gin-chan]

Yes. and SOS flares for playing with randoms can be fun too.

[Unit076]

Absolutely. I always fight my first monsters solo and the whole game is still a blast; and it's also 'easier' playing solo because there are monster's HP and status threshold multiplier when playing with others.
After you know some parts of in-and-out of the game then just hop online to help other people for fun. People barely use voice chat anyway, any kind of communication mostly comes from text chat and the quick chat/gesture options.

Just make sure you don't skimp on defensive stats and give your cat partner (Palico) Sleep-inducing weapon so you have (more) breathing rooms in hunts.

[NoobMaster69]

Basically OP, you can't go wrong whether you want to play solo or multiplayer. The game is amazing either way.

[Lars]

I'm having a blast solo. I play multi sometimes too and it's nice, but only for monsters I already beat by myself.