Do I have to play the Story Mode to hunt?

[Bloody Nine]

I've played MHFU back then, and I remember when you start the game you only have to do one quest and then the game lets you take whatever mission available for your rank. So you can take boss missions immediately. Here in MHW it seems you need to do this Story Missions so you can rank up, only then you will be able to hunt bosses. Is this really so or am I missing something very basic?

I've just finished the expedition quest where you find a new base camp, and everything still feel like a tutorial. Can anyone tell me when this tutorial ends and when can I just hunt whichever monsters I want just like a normal monster hunter game?

[AfLIcTeD]

You will eventually need to finish the story in order to progress. You can do optionals and investigations as you go.

[Bloody Nine]

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

You will eventually need to finish the story in order to progress. You can do optionals and investigations as you go.

But there is only a total of 2 optionals for ranks 2 and 3, and I've counted a few at 4 and 5. Does that change as you progress? Like more missions get added up?

Also a bit off topic, does this game become difficult as you progress the story? I was surprised that they gave me such an OP armor right at the very start. I didn't used the armor thinking it must be for new players, but then I went and fight that bird boss in the "New Base Camp" quest and I observed how weak its damage is to the point that I am using the whetstone in front of it, because I don't really care if I get hit.

[Soran]

The guardian / defender armor is what you're talking about I'm assuming, It's meant for players who just wanna get through LR/HR and straight into MR as soon as possible so if you don't want low rank or high rank to be dull and boring don't use that armor or weapon and just use what you can make from monster parts.

[Bloody Nine]

Originally posted by Soran:

The guardian / defender armor is what you're talking about I'm assuming, It's meant for players who just wanna get through LR/HR and straight into MR as soon as possible so if you don't want low rank or high rank to be dull and boring don't use that armor or weapon and just use what you can make from monster parts.

Yeah, that is what I did. I played the first few missions with basic gear thinking the armor is too OP, but was surprised to find out that the boss' damage is too weak anyway. I remember the Kut-ku in MHFU can kill you in 3 hits with basic gear, I assume the bird creature is it's equivalent in this game? So does the difficulty spike when you reach a certain rank?

[ase]

Originally posted by doy0_0:

I've played MHFU back then, and I remember when you start the game you only have to do one quest and then the game lets you take whatever mission available for your rank. So you can take boss missions immediately. Here in MHW it seems you need to do this Story Missions so you can rank up, only then you will be able to hunt bosses. Is this really so or am I missing something very basic?

I've just finished the expedition quest where you find a new base camp, and everything still feel like a tutorial. Can anyone tell me when this tutorial ends and when can I just hunt whichever monsters I want just like a normal monster hunter game?

First of all-welcome back!
Most base world story will be pretty decent-ish(50 out of 100) hard,endgame monsters like Leshen and Behemoth will be quite scary even for experienced player such as yourself.
Iceborne will be harder(60-65 out of 100),and then some black dragons such as Fatalis and Alatreon will be immensely hard,unlike in older games-you ill require probably about a full day of trying to kill just one of them

[Suzaku]

Ditch the Guardian armor and Defender weapons immediately unless you want your gear to carry you so hard that you never properly learn how to hunt. The moment the content outgrows it, you'll be getting stomped by even the easier fights.

On topic, yes, you need to advance the story if you want more things to hunt. More locales, more monsters, higher upgrade levels, improvements to the town, and much more. Stop and smell the roses if you'd like, but know that to advance you'll need to do the story.

[lexilogo]

Originally posted by doy0_0:

Yeah, that is what I did. I played the first few missions with basic gear thinking the armor is too OP, but was surprised to find out that the boss' damage is too weak anyway. I remember the Kut-ku in MHFU can kill you in 3 hits with basic gear, I assume the bird creature is it's equivalent in this game? So does the difficulty spike when you reach a certain rank?

This is hardly news to anyone, but this game is designed to be much more forgiving than Freedom Unite or any MH game before it. Everything up until Anjanath are training wheel monsters that are more forgiving than Kut-Ku. Kulu and Great Jagras especially are more comparable to Great Jaggi from MH3.

With that said, at its peak of difficulty MHW is IMO roughly equivalent to past Monster Hunter games, especially in the Iceborne DLC. The route through the main quest series is much more forgiving but the postgame content has arguably some of the hardest fights in the entire series.


Yes, HR is tied to story quests (Assignments) now. There are points during the main story when there is no active Assignment and you need to collect tracks in the various regions (you're intended to do this while doing other optionals, so these are essentially bursts of "hunt what you want") and as the game progresses it will give you chances to hunt various monsters like Rathian and Kirin of your own volition with them not being tied to any Assignments.

Once you clear all the Assignments your HR is uncapped and progresses simply through any monster hunts.

As for when "tutorial mode" will stop, the game never changes its basic structure back to a traditional Monster Hunter game. However, once you do your first Zorah Magdaros encounter and unlock the 2 new zones afterwards, you will start getting more self-directed hunting targets the game will not force you to hunt and you can do on your own. Once you complete the Zorah Magdaros rematch and move into High Rank, the game throws you straight into HR and trusts you to set your own objectives, while the Elder Dragons (excluding kirin/zorah) are reserved for the Assignments to introduce once again.

Oh, it's also worth noting that the game's Investigation system will sometimes randomly generate special "investigation" quests when you interact with monsters (hunt them, gather tracks, break parts, etc). You can save these at the Resource Centre to put them on the questboard, and they're superior to Optionals for farming monster materials.


Oh yeah, and the super-low star ranks do indeed have barely any Optionals. This is mostly because World has cut the majority of the gathering/small monster slaying quests.

[WinterCreation]

Base game:
5(LR) star quests and bellow is essentially a tutorial easing new players into MH game.
6-9(HR) is the main part of base game, with actual hard monsters in the forn of 9 star event quests.
Iceborn:
1-2MR - introduction to the new map.
3-6MR - equivalent of the old games G. True end game challanges come in a form of 6 star event quests - this is where you want to be to have some challenge.

[Bloody Nine]

@lexilogo this is the explanation I was looking for! I am glad to know that World becomes roughly equivalent with the others at its peak. IMO it is supposed to be the point of most of the hunter genre. I got nervous with this game after suffering from the disappointment brought to me by God Eater 3. MHW seems to have more interesting new features as you have described so this puts me at ease. So really, Many Thanks!