Multiplayer sessions confuse me. Is there not a true multiplayer/shared session mode?

[Ghost Rider]

I'm fairly new to the game, and I have a friend that I play with. My friend usually starts a session, and I "join my friend's" session.

But we don't see each other in camp, and can only do some of the missions together. So far, every main story mission we have to do solo to "advance the story" and then we can go back and play it together.

Is that the way multiplayer works in this game? Is there no way to play through the story missions together with my friend, without doing the missions solo first?

Thanks in advance.

[Anoyun?]

all session is shared if you're online what are you talking about?
are you talking about how to join someone else hunt?

[m142]

you can see your friend in one location ... in astera it's ship in sky in ice born it's great hall.
and that's grand design , seing only on hunts is meant to reduce stres on consoles or some ♥♥♥♥ , so get used to that.
there are few quest that can be started with out stupid solo cut scenes but its 10% or less and some of them are end game bosses designed for 4 people , having 0.5s breaks mid atacks and 100k hp to back it up.

[IceCreamVain]

it's annoying but to join someone you need to wait for their cutscene to finish and to be able to join them you need to be be at the same point as them, so usually how it goes is you both start the quest then one of you leave after the cutscene and join the other. Also if you go to the gathing hub you can see eachother. (this only applies if you see the warning about cutscenes so before going through with what I mentioned you should have one person start it and the other confirm if it has a cuscene or not.

[ᔑᓭ∴ᔑリ⊣]

yes the multiplayer was really gimped in this game. Important thing to know, if you're doing the story expeditions and you got the goal to "hunt" a monster (not to be confused with "sight" a monster), you can return to astera via the menu or map and it'll show up as a quest that you can then start with your friend from the get go. its not recommended to hunt monsters in expeditions as you get less rewards and they can leave the map relatively quickly

only area outside quests you can see eachother is in the gathering hubs, the one in astera though is useless to stay in as it has zero access to any facility except the shop, plus you will get teleported back down constantly from the story quests for extremely imrportant npc dialogue, cutscenes and sometimes just for no reason at all, so have fun with that.
iceborne has a far superior gathering hub, but a chunk of iceborne's story is also 'set' in astera so you still have to go back there annoyingly often LOL

if you didn't already realise it, you have to progress the quest enough that you get a notification for "SOS can now be fired", that is the only time someone can join your story quest via the quest board. you don't have to actually fire the SOS, just be in the same online session and it'll appear on the other player's board.
With the exception of expeditions of course, you can't join a friend's expedition at all unless they do fire the SOS and open it to the public for anyone to join...

so yeah, multiplayer is completely consistent and not at all confusing for anyone!

if you don't care about the story, you can get the cutscene skip mod. IMO you should watch all the monster introductions at least, but some of the cutscenes can be boring or drag on a bit too long, especially if all you want to do is play with friends

all of the optional quests, events, and investigations can be done easily together, and the MH community is genuinely one of the best of any game i've ever seen. this all only applies to the assigned story progression. So if you kind of like the game now, you'll probably enjoy it even more later on when you do have more freedom to play how you want

[Popcorn]

Originally posted by Anoyun?:

all session is shared if you're online what are you talking about?
are you talking about how to join someone else hunt?

If you read past the title and the first part, you'll understand what they're talking about.

To OP, most hunts with buddies will be in:
Investigations
Events
And Optional quests

While you can for the story line, as the others mentioned, you'll have to leave and then join your friend after seeing the cutscene.

As for seeing your buddy, you're gonna have to go to the hub or stay in expedition mode to see them.
Sucks, I know.

[Mr. September]

It's a bit backwards, but let me explain. This is going to be long, so grab a snack and make yourself comfortable. I'll provide extensive information about how sessions and quests work, how many types there are, and if they have any restrictions or not.

A session allows 16 different people to join it. Anyone can host a session, and the session "leadership" gets transferred automatically if the host leaves while someone else is inside the session. The session leader can change session information (such as which monster is the focus, and the message) and kick people from the session. You can only see other people in the Gathering Hubs. This means, you either have to be in Astera Gathering Hub (at the peak of Astera) or Seliana Gathering Hub. A session can be private, friends-only or public.

An SOS flare overrides all quest restrictions (such as password, but not quest size), and lets anyone join your quest as long as someone is interested in the content you are running. The odds of you finding players at the start or middle of the game is rather slim, since the main idea of MH titles is usually grinding the endgame for power/fashion/meta builds/achievements. That means, most people who are still playing are in the endgame.

If anyone leaves a quest for whatever reason, the player slot they were occupying gets locked up. No one can join in their place, and the person who disconnected or left can't rejoin either. The only time this isn't a thing is when you play "Expedition" type content, like Expeditions themselves or the Guiding Lands in Iceborne.

Quests only allow 4 people at a time or less. The monsters scale depending on how many people are in a quest. There is scaling for 1, 2 and 3 people, with 3 and 4 having the same scaling. On top of that, different quests have different mechanics or conditions that might make multiplayer a hassle to deal with. These are:

1. Assignment Quests: The game's main story (or, rather, tutorial). A lot of these quests have unskippable cutscenes in them. Both the host AND the people trying to join must see the cutscenes first, if they want to play these together. Considering these are glorified tutorials and don't take very long to go through, it's better to do them alone. The hassle of doing them with someone else is not worth the frustration, even with a mod that lets you skip cutscenes. These quests are not repeatable, unless you join someone else who fired an SOS or posted them.

Only about 11% of the entire game consists of Assignment Quests. Of course, this doesn't mean you will spend 11% of your entire time doing them. You only "have to" do them once, and around half of that is in Iceborne, anyway.

2. Optional Quests: One of the main types of content in the game. Apart from the requirement of capturing certain monsters to unlock their "optional arena" quests, there isn't much else to mention. These can be played by yourself or other people any time.

3. Investigations: These are special, randomized quests with different conditions. The Faint Limit, Time Limit, how many monsters a quest has, and their Threat Level determines how good the rewards are. The rewards range from Bronze, Silver, Gold to Purple boxes. The first three usually reward monster materials and other items, while purple ones reward Decorations.

4. Event Quests: The other main type of content alongside Optionals. These quests usually have unique rewards, and may sport a very high degree of difficulty towards the endgame. They are all repeatable, and apart from exactly one example (Alatreon's daily alternating quest), are always available as long as you are online. Usually, it's a better idea to do these with other people. A few select quests have skippable cutscenes at the start.

5. Special Assignments: Similar to Assignment Quests, these are one-time quests that are unavailable after you do them once. They usually unlock/provide collab content, such as the Behemoth fight (from FFXIV collab). They also serve as tutorials/introductions for certain monsters, and may have weaker monsters or a higher Faint Limit. Once these are completed, you usually unlock the "real" versions of the relevant monsters in Event Quests.

6. Arena Quests: These are quests that require you to use specific loadouts in arena-type quests. They can only be accessed by talking to the specific NPC in Gathering Hubs. All the quests allow a maximum of two players, and even if play solo, the monsters are all scaled for multiplayer.

7. Sieges: There are two of these, and they both reward you with some of the best elemental weapons in the entire game. Even though only 4 people can join a quest, the overall performance of the entire session affects everyone's Siege progress. For example, Kulve Taroth will have her parts break easier once certain thresholds are passed by your party or* other people's parties. The two sieges alternate every two weeks.

TL;DR: Play Assignment Quests alone and team up with your friends or other people for Optional Quests, Investigations, Event Quests and Sieges.

[Roshambo]

Go to Gathering Hub(s) to see your homie in town.

[Ghost Rider]

Thanks to everyone for the helpful advice.

It speaks volumes about the community.

[PyroShark_]

You can play almost every single quest in the game with friends. There are like 3 quests that you must do solo and theres a quest where the first phase is solo only. Best way to play quests with cutscenes is for all players who have not watched the cutscene already load into the quest then pick 1 player and everyone else leaves their quest and join that one. Sadly assigned quests are tedious in the game but it's not a huge hurdle to play them multiplayer. Also cutscenes are always in the same location so if one person finds it they can tell the other where to go to.