How do you ground flying monsters?

[John]

Hi, I'm new to the game.

I'm having some trouble with flying monsters such as rathalos or any other winged creature.

Not so much with them flying away, but during combat they seem to hover around and avoid traps, constantly do flying charge attacks ect.

I've tried shooting slinger shots at wings, faces, and tails; while also targeting wings with some attacks. I have also tried grappling and attacking the wings that way.


I mainly use the greatsword.

Am i missing something? or is it just difficult to damage the wings of a monster?

Any tips or tricks would be helpful! thanks XD

[XenoEvil]

Flash pods or flinch shot if you have iceborne.

[AshenHaze]

You can also try to "trip" them while they're flying. As far as I can tell, all monsters have a specific part that causes them to fall over when you break it (usually the legs, which is why it's called a trip). For flying monsters, this part seems to be the head instead, so as long as you have a weapon with good reach, you can attack the head until they fall down

[Manticore]

Flash pods, but later in Iceborne try clutch claw them..

[John]

Thanks guys! suppose i was using the wrong ammo most of the time, I was using stone or red pit most of the time.

[Manticore]

Originally posted by Skanderborg:

Thanks guys! suppose i was using the wrong ammo most of the time, I was using stone or red pit most of the time.

Yeah to get flashpods, try gather flash bugs (They are a yellow icon in the map), they are always available in any areas and you can craft flashpods from them..

[River Victor]

Aside from people's suggestions, breaking wings will ground them and make it harder for them to take off. They can also flinch while trying to too. A wing has not that high break threshold.

[MeierLink]

use the claw, the flash bomb are nerfed because capcom push to use claw =/

[Preacher JLU]

Originally posted by Skanderborg:

Hi, I'm new to the game.

I'm having some trouble with flying monsters such as rathalos or any other winged creature.

Not so much with them flying away, but during combat they seem to hover around and avoid traps, constantly do flying charge attacks ect.

I've tried shooting slinger shots at wings, faces, and tails; while also targeting wings with some attacks. I have also tried grappling and attacking the wings that way.


I mainly use the greatsword.

Am i missing something? or is it just difficult to damage the wings of a monster?

Any tips or tricks would be helpful! thanks XD

Yeah, it used to be flash pods, but anymore they are pretty worthless since the nerf.

[Tetsu]

Originally posted by Skanderborg:

Hi, I'm new to the game.

I'm having some trouble with flying monsters such as rathalos or any other winged creature.

Not so much with them flying away, but during combat they seem to hover around and avoid traps, constantly do flying charge attacks ect.

I've tried shooting slinger shots at wings, faces, and tails; while also targeting wings with some attacks. I have also tried grappling and attacking the wings that way.


I mainly use the greatsword.

Am i missing something? or is it just difficult to damage the wings of a monster?

Any tips or tricks would be helpful! thanks XD

The entire Rath family can be knocked out of the sky via head damage. Imagine their head having its own health bar, and every time you deal enough damage to that part, you'll get a flinch. When you get this head flinch while they're airborne, they'll fall out of the sky and writhe on the ground for a significant time. This gives you large opportunities for damage. Once you've flinched their head a few times, you should feel more comfortable with exactly how much damage it takes to flinch and have an easier time controlling them. The easiest way to fight Rathalos is to let him fly so you can dunk him over and over.

Aside from that, you can also dunk them early on in the hunt, and then focus on the wings while they're writhing on the ground. 1 broken wing makes it so when they try to fly, they'll stumble and fall back to the ground, giving you more time to deal with their ground moveset. With 2 broken wings, they'll stumble twice, giving even more time. If you have any bomb pods lying on the ground, you can fire one for a long flinch animation that can give you a few seconds to hit the head.

Rathalos actually has a very predictable moveset with a lot of chances to hit the head once you're familiar with him. His fast claw lunge where he quickly slides in a straight line towards you can be dodged by just sprinting away and to the sides of his lunge, and he'll dip his head down for an easy hit after this attack. After his tail swing, he'll dip his head down for an easy hit. His sweeping fire breath attack can be dodged by sprinting away, and then running straight at him through the fire. You'll take fireblight, but it's another easy hit on his head.

A lot of people recommend flash spamming or flinch shot spamming, but the same people who rely on those things instead of studying monsters are usually the first to complain when those things fail to work.

[Kyshion]

Since OP is using GS, I would recommend aiming his tail with a True Charged Slash. It can easily cut the tail and cause a knockout.

[JPM岩]

Originally posted by MeierLink:

use the claw, the flash bomb are nerfed because capcom push to use claw =/

Flash pods werent nerfed at all though, Master Rank monsters have a natural immunity over time to prevent flash pod spam, a major issue with LR/HR.

[GT-R]

Light Bowgun with sticky bombs to monsters' head can ground any monsters (flying or not) multiple times.

[pengtuck]

Originally posted by Tetsu:

Originally posted by Skanderborg:

Hi, I'm new to the game.

I'm having some trouble with flying monsters such as rathalos or any other winged creature.

Not so much with them flying away, but during combat they seem to hover around and avoid traps, constantly do flying charge attacks ect.

I've tried shooting slinger shots at wings, faces, and tails; while also targeting wings with some attacks. I have also tried grappling and attacking the wings that way.


I mainly use the greatsword.

Am i missing something? or is it just difficult to damage the wings of a monster?

Any tips or tricks would be helpful! thanks XD

The entire Rath family can be knocked out of the sky via head damage. Imagine their head having its own health bar, and every time you deal enough damage to that part, you'll get a flinch. When you get this head flinch while they're airborne, they'll fall out of the sky and writhe on the ground for a significant time. This gives you large opportunities for damage. Once you've flinched their head a few times, you should feel more comfortable with exactly how much damage it takes to flinch and have an easier time controlling them. The easiest way to fight Rathalos is to let him fly so you can dunk him over and over.

Aside from that, you can also dunk them early on in the hunt, and then focus on the wings while they're writhing on the ground. 1 broken wing makes it so when they try to fly, they'll stumble and fall back to the ground, giving you more time to deal with their ground moveset. With 2 broken wings, they'll stumble twice, giving even more time. If you have any bomb pods lying on the ground, you can fire one for a long flinch animation that can give you a few seconds to hit the head.

Rathalos actually has a very predictable moveset with a lot of chances to hit the head once you're familiar with him. His fast claw lunge where he quickly slides in a straight line towards you can be dodged by just sprinting away and to the sides of his lunge, and he'll dip his head down for an easy hit after this attack. After his tail swing, he'll dip his head down for an easy hit. His sweeping fire breath attack can be dodged by sprinting away, and then running straight at him through the fire. You'll take fireblight, but it's another easy hit on his head.

A lot of people recommend flash spamming or flinch shot spamming, but the same people who rely on those things instead of studying monsters are usually the first to complain when those things fail to work.

Hey the broken wing is a great tip! I didn't realize it had a impact.

[SadZinny]

on low rank and HR flash pod is your best friend when grounding down monster since there is no flash limit except tempered monster

on Master rank : monster will build up resistance to flash so flinch shot is the only best way to bring it down, otherwise pray to get an experience gunner player to bring it down.

[Vazc0]

rathalos / rathian will often roar with their head really low after some of their arial attacks.
greatsword is really good at hitting the head in that situation.
you can space the tailflip and get a drawslash on rathians head for example. that'll bring him down very easily depending on how hard you hit