Monster not showing a skull icon.

[Peenicks]

A couple of days ago I started no longer seeing monster skull icons when t hey're near death and I always miss captures.

How do I fix this?

I'm HR 49 and doing low tier monsters that I've already killed 20 times.

[WrathOfSammy]

I have had the same problem too. I don't know if this is a recent bug. I was trying to capture a Dodogama that limped away. It met a Uragaan who one-shot it, and I lost the mission. I probably brought it too low, but there was no indication with a skull on the map. It is very inconsistent and buggy.

[Stationary Traveller]

Pick up tracks before the mission starts.
And if you want to know when they're ready to capture, count the pods they leave on the ground. If there are 2 or more of them then you can safely cap.

[Aunel]

If i recall right the little bar you fill up doing tracks will decay eventually, losing you those thresholds for information on them. Like at max it'll always show up on the map regardless. I believe that the skull for near death is tied to that. It's been a long time since limp into flash into cap was non habitual.

[Lemonidas of Sourta]

Just a note though.

Skull icon doesn't show up if, by chance, the monster was enraged (it's map icon eye becomes red and it's heart rate bottom left becomes yellow and spiked) when it became critical health. So you'd only see it if it's in its non enraged state.

I find that counting the pods it drops is a fairly safe indicator on it's health state. Of course, on a multiplayer hunt, it might be difficult to see the pods dropping since the mob isn't jumping around on the map after the ranged guy.

[SmolJoltik]

Look at the monster's icon. If the icon has a green glow, you'll see the death icon. If not, your research level is too low, and you'll have to pick up tracks. If you max out a monster's research level, it'll start with that green glow every quest and you'll also autotrack it every quest.

[Goilveig]

Also, just look at the heartbeat indicator. If it's almost totally flatlined, the monster is generally weak enough to cap.

I think the flatline is 33% health and capture is 30%, so don't do it the very instant it flatlines. Also notice that flatline could indicate KO, exhaust, or sleep, so make sure you're not misreading it.

[SmolJoltik]

The skull icon only shows up if the monster is capturable, also some monsters may need to go as low as 10 or 15% health to capture.

[DoKo_O]

The problem is that your research points for this monster are too low. if you keep fighting it and keep collecting tracks for it it will show sooner where it is, and will show the skull icon if hes about to die

[Goilveig]

Originally posted by SmolJoltik:

The skull icon only shows up if the monster is capturable,

Not true - elder dragons will show skulls.

Skull isn't exactly an indicator of whether it's capturable. Skull means the monster is trying to return to its nest to rest. Some monsters just won't do that right away even when they pass the capture threshold, and non-capturable monsters will still go and rest. It's a good indicator, but not the only one.

[WrathOfSammy]

Limping seems to be another indicator, but it is not always consistent either.

[DoKo_O]

Originally posted by WrathOfSammy:

Limping seems to be another indicator, but it is not always consistent either.

always worked for me with limping

[tag545]

by hunting the same monster over and over the tracking meter temperoraly fills up so you start the next hunt with a higher meter. this decays over time.

if you are going back to a monster that you havent hunted for a while you need to collect a bunch of tracks to get it back to full.

maxing out your knowledge on the monster the stars helps with this as it gives a bonus to your track collecting. at max 2 tracks are enough to fill the meter.

limping and the skull is for when the monster is at low health and not specifically when you can catch them. it is possible that the monster will get to low health limping / skull but still be a few hits away from capture.

[WrathOfSammy]

Originally posted by DoKo_O:

Originally posted by WrathOfSammy:

Limping seems to be another indicator, but it is not always consistent either.

always worked for me with limping

It always works for me IF they limp, but they don't always limp.

[DoKo_O]

Originally posted by WrathOfSammy:

Originally posted by DoKo_O:

always worked for me with limping

It always works for me IF they limp, but they don't always limp.

well if they dont limp at all youre doing great damage :P because then hes too ocupied getting the ♥♥♥♥ beaten out of him to just limp away :D