Beginners' Prep: Zoh Shiah

Gemma: Preparation and knowledge are your two strongest weapons.
A Guide for Beginners on How to Prepare Yourself for Zoh Shia Hunt in Monster Hunter Wilds

Spoiler Warning

This guide is for players looking for tips on how to fight Zoh Shia.
You would not be here if you did not already know what the Zoh Shia monster is - however, this is your warning about spoilers in this guide.

Know Your Enemy: Zoh Shia

You have already fought Zoh Shia in the final story mission.

As a result, the Large Monster Field Guide already contains helpful information about the monster.


The basics which you know from that information are

Traps do not work on Zoh Shia.

So do not bother bringing some.

Flash pods will not be of use either.

Prepare against Blights.

Bring along Nullberries.

The fight will be done in an enclosed arena zone without pause.

There will be no other monsters - you can get out of the arena by using Farcaster or Fast Travel.

It ends either with you fainting or Zoh Shia slayed.

Blights

Dragonblight

Negates your elemental damage and status build up. Means you deal less damage / cannot e.g. paralyse Zoh Shia anymore until you cure it.

Fireblight

You are hot - but not in a good way. Roll / dodge thrice to get rid of it.

Zoh Shia has a fiery breath attack and it will use it often. So try to get your fire resistance as high as possible.

Thunderblight

You are more vulnerable to get stunned.

All blights can be cured by eating a Nullberry

Nullberries should be taken along all the time.

If you manage to get > = 20 elemental resistance on your armour, you can negate blights of that type entirely. E.g. > = 20 elemental resistance against fire will make you immune against Fireblight.

Prepare an Item Loadout

Prepare the items you want to bring along for Zoh Shia accordingly.

A suggestion for a loadout would be



10x Whetfish Fin+
10x Mega Potion
1x Ancient Potion
2x Max Potion
2x Dust of Life
5x Dash Juice
10x Nullberry
1x Farcaster

10x Might Seed
10x Adamant Seed
3x Demon Powder
3x Hardshell Powder
1x Mega Demon Drug
1x Mega Armorskin
5x Adamant Pill

10x Potion
10x Honey

Powercharm
Armorcharm

Optional

10x Immunizer
10x Nourishing Extract

================================

Whetfish Fin+

Allows you to sharpen your weapon in a single strike.
Despite being a consumable, it is quite durable, so five of them will last you through the entire battle.

Mega Potion vs. Dust of Life / Max Potion / Ancient Potion

Mega Potions are fine if you are frugal - but the biggest difference and effect we want is not that Max Potions or Ancient Potions heal more - we want the instant healing. It takes time to drink a Mega Potion unless you have Speed Eating. But taking a Max Potion will heal you instantly, making it the better potion overall. This is the same reason why we bring the Dust of Life, even if we are hunting alone. It is a quick alternative to Mega Potions.

Dash Juice

Whether you dodge a lot or block a lot - the extra stamina regeneration helps you in every situation. A must have unless you maxed out stamina skills with your armour.

Upgrade Items

Mega Demondrug + Might Seed + Demon Powder + Might Pill = they all stack. Same goes for the Armorskin and Adamant types.

While the effects of the pills do not last long, they are still worth to bring along for difficult situations. But the others should be used regularly. The duration times of effects are

Dash Juice = 3 minutes
Mega Demondrug / Armorskin = 50 minutes
Might Seed / Adamant Seed = 3 minutes
Demon Powder / Hardshell Powder = 3 minutes
Adamant Pill = 1,5 minutes
Might Pill = 20 seconds

Due to the short effect time of Might Pill I see it as an optional upgrade item.

Crafting Items

Potions, Honey, Immunizer, Nourishing Extract - those are crafting items for making additional Mega Potions / Ancient Potions on the fly.

Good to know: About Crafting on the Fly

When using the Radial Menu / Hotkeys to use items you have crafting materials available, it will automatically craft one for you once you run out of the items.

Farcaster

Having the Farcaster at the ready is an absolute must. It is your emergency "panic button". Use it if you need to flee an inevitable attack which would otherwise lead to you fainting, or if you need to refresh your item loadout at the makeshift camp.

Customize Your Radial Menu

Customize your Radial Menu accordingly to the fight and your needs.
This is what I am using for Zoh Shia.



Farcaster always at the ready.

This is what I am using for normal hunts



What you can recognise is how I discarded Flash pods and Ghilie Mantle, as Zoh Shia can neither be flashed nor surprised with a sneak attack. I also use Mega Potions as standard healing as normal potions would not suffice.

For the Zoh Shia menu you might feel missing the ailment cure key - I just pre-select the Nullberry in my item bar for easy access to makeup for the lack of slots in the Radial Menu.

Eat, Pray, Win

The Zoh Shia battle lasts in average around 17 minutes.
Make sure to have enough time on your meal timer - better: refresh it so that you have at least 30 minutes left.

The meals you want to take are either from Kunafa or Azuz.
All meal invitations will give you the Insurance Meal, which allows the party to have one faint without it being counted as a penalty.

The Kunafa meal is great for

Lucky Meal

Gives you additional rewards for completing the quest.

Defender Meal (Hi)

Increases overall defense with a similar effect to Divine Protection which also stacks with Divine Protection.

The Azuz meal is great for

Carver Meal

Allows you to carve up to two additional carvings per carcass / cut off monster part. Increases the overall chance of looting a gem from the cut off Zoh Shia tail.

Tumbler Meal (Hi)

Increases invulnerability period while evading.

Grilling a Meal is Insufficient

Not only will you miss out on a powerful meal skill and insurance, but you will also miss out on the stat bonus. It may not seem like much, but it adds up. So make sure you get a meal invitation or use a Pick-a-Meal voucher from the Grand Hub.

Meal Invite - Random Skills

As you may have noticed, when you accept a meal invitation, you get three guaranteed meal skills, plus two additional random skills.

The effects of the random skills are

Balanced Meal
Gives an effect like Flinch Free

Break-time Meal
Gives +15 atk for 30 seconds after using the Sit-emote

Bulldozer Meal
Gives +5 atk for 30 seconds after your attacked has been deflected

Escape Artist Meal
Reduces stamina cost when running away from a monster

Fisher Meal
Increases chance that fish will bite

Fortune Hunter Meal
Increase Zenny reward at the end of the quest by 50%

Hardy Meal
Negates environmental damage

Iron Carver Meal
Prevents knockbacks while carving

Rider Meal
Makes it easier to mount monsters

Riser Meal
Increase invulnerability period when getting up after being knocked down

Piping-Hot Meal
Increase overall atk by 1/3 when health is below 5%

Top Cat Meal
Increase Palico's atk and def

Trainer Meal
Increase Palico's experience gain

Considering the effects and the randomness of getting them, these skills can be ignored. They can sometimes be nice to have - for example, if you actually go fishing after eating - but none of them are reliable to count with.

Mind Your Armour

Make sure to check that your armour is fully upgraded when fighting Zoh Shia.



Every defense point counts.

A classic tip - and still up to date.

Combat Tips

Wylkrystals

Hitting the Wylkrystals with elemental slinger ammunition will cause them to explode and damage Zoh Shia. A well placed shot can deal damage values beyond 1000.

Shrine Fragments

Dropping the shrine fragments on Zoh Shia deal additional 2000 ~ per party member.

Holy Trinity

Not only are Zoh Shia's attack often in a pattern of three - the battle phases are also separated in three.

Starting with armoured Zoh Shia, covered in Wylkrystals, giving it additional defense.

When switching to phase it will do its ultimate attack and lose the defensive armour around its head.

In phase two the shrine fragments become available to drop on Zoh Shia.

Switching to phase three it will lose all its armour and become vulnerable where it was not before.

Remember the "rule of three" regarding Zoh Shia's attack pattern, and you will not be surprised by its attacks.

Surviving the Ultimate

To survive, or rather to escape Zoh Shia's ultimate attack you need to create a safe zone by destroying the Wylkrystals which are multiplying the effects of its breath attack. Alternatively use Farcaster to quickly teleport out of the arena or Fast Travel back to camp, if you are fast enough to navigate the menu.

Armour Skills Suggestions

Shield users should consider using Guard and Guard Up in combination with Dash Juice.

Dodgers, also known as Dual Blade and Bow users, use Dash Juice, Constitution and Evade Window for additional evasion.

For everyone, Divine Blessing and Evade Extender are recommended to increase survivability.

Remember

The best offensive skills are worthless if you are down.
Investing in defensive skills will result in more overall DPS throughout the battle because you will spend less time healing yourself.

Party of Two with Olivia

The best partner to train the fight against Zoh Shia would be support huntress Olivia.

You can call her via SOS flare once you have set the quest to a maximum of two slots and only support hunters. She will help you effectively take down Zoh Shia's Wlykrystal armour, and with only one more support hunter in your party, your Palicos will stay by your side - helping you out constantly with healing and reviving you once if necessary without penalty.

Making the fight overall easier as long as you stick to a party of two.

If you have not done yet, make sure to finish all side quests so that your Palico can revive you once in combat without penalty and that you have access to the Powercharm and Armorcharm upgrade items.

Encore: Fighting Zoh Shia Again

After completing Werner's assignment to fight Zoh Shia it will appear in Wyveria from time to time, usually in the evening during the Wyvern's Awakening (Inclemency).

Thanks for Reading!

Happy Hunting!