Tips for MH4U?

[DisobeyedCargo]

I played this game like a year and a half ago and got pretty far, but I was horrible at the game. I wanted to start playing again, and wanted to see if you guys had any tips.

[LuxSpes]

This is what I can think of off the top of my head right now:

-¸Don't hesitate to try out various weapons to see which one works best for you. And even if you find 1 main weapon that you prefer, don't discard using other weapons entirely. For example, I main Dual Blades, but I sometime switched to other weapons for specific hunts since the small reach of DBs was making the hunt harder.

-Learn the weak zones of the monsters and their elemental weakness. Every monster have hard and soft spots, which can change depending on whether you're using a blunt or sharp weapon. It's incredibly hard to figure out in-game though(the elemental attributes of a monsters armor can give you an idea of the elemental weakness of the monster), which is where the next tip comes in.

-Use Kiranico.  I always have this open when I'm playing because every thing you would want to know is there. 

-If you weren't doing it already, do the offline quests. The monsters there are weaker than online and soloing monster is a great way of getting used to them.

-Related to this, always try to pay close attention to the monster. Monsters often have specific 'tells' that will allow you to predict which attacks they're about to do. Also learn which attacks leave an opening for you to attack.

[DisobeyedCargo]

15 minutes ago, LuxSpes said:

This is what I can think of off the top of my head right now:

-¸Don't hesitate to try out various weapons to see which one works best for you. And even if you find 1 main weapon that you prefer, don't discard using other weapons entirely. For example, I main Dual Blades, but I sometime switched to other weapons for specific hunts since the small reach of DBs was making the hunt harder.

-Learn the weak zones of the monsters and their elemental weakness. Every monster have hard and soft spots, which can change depending on whether you're using a blunt or sharp weapon. It's incredibly hard to figure out in-game though(the elemental attributes of a monsters armor can give you an idea of the elemental weakness of the monster), which is where the next tip comes in.

-Use Kiranico.  I always have this open when I'm playing because every thing you would want to know is there. 

-If you weren't doing it already, do the offline quests. The monsters there are weaker than online and soloing monster is a great way of getting used to them.

-Related to this, always try to pay close attention to the monster. Monsters often have specific 'tells' that will allow you to predict which attacks they're about to do. Also learn which attacks leave an opening for you to attack.

I tried out a bunch of weapons. I remember trying dual swords but lack of range bothered me. I think I settled on a sword tans shield that converts to an axe, can't remember what it was called though.

one of my gripes was that I always seemed to move so slow, and everything took FOREVER. 

Elemental weaknesses, I legit completely forgot about those in game.

[LuxSpes]

You're probably talking about the Charge Blade. I haven't played too much with it since it's very technical and pretty slow. Regarding being slow, don't hesitate to sheath your weapon when repositioning in a hunt. If you can get over the slowness and master it, the Charge Blade is one of the best weapon on MH4U. Otherwise, the Insect Glaive is also really good and it's much faster than the Charge Blade while having more range than the Dual Blades. Upgrading Insect Glaives can be a bit of a pain though. You'll want to look for guides to get the best Kinsect if you do use them.

Though speaking of which, looking up weapon tutorials on youtube (Arekz Gaming and Gaijin Hunter had good ones) could help both master and choose a weapon since they give you the best attack combos, general strategies and useful skills.

Elemental weakness is more useful for fast hitting weapons like the Dual Blades than slow hitting ones like the Great Sword or the Charge Blade. 

[DisobeyedCargo]

4 minutes ago, LuxSpes said:

You're probably talking about the Charge Blade. I haven't played too much with it since it's very technical and pretty slow. Regarding being slow, don't hesitate to sheath your weapon when repositioning in a hunt. If you can get over the slowness and master it, the Charge Blade is one of the best weapon on MH4U. Otherwise, the Insect Glaive is also really good and it's much faster than the Charge Blade while having more range than the Dual Blades. Upgrading Insect Glaives can be a bit of a pain though. You'll want to look for guides to get the best Kinsect if you do use them.

Though speaking of which, looking up weapon tutorials on youtube (Arekz Gaming and Gaijin Hunter had good ones) could help both master and choose a weapon since they give you the best attack combos, general strategies and useful skills.

Elemental weakness is more useful for fast hitting weapons like the Dual Blades than slow hitting ones like the Great Sword or the Charge Blade. 

Ah yeah the charge blade that was it.

i really liked it since I have good defensive capabilities with the shield, but when the monster was down I was capable of raining hell upon it in axe form. There also some way to charge the shield but I digress. 

Something else that puzzled me was calico teams and armor. There were SO MANY choices for armor that I was so stuck on what to use and what attributes to focus on, that and calico armor. Any tips for that?

[Ottservia]

Just now, DisobeyedCargo said:

Ah yeah the charge blade that was it.

i really liked it since I have good defensive capabilities with the shield, but when the monster was down I was capable of raining hell upon it in axe form. There also some way to charge the shield but I digress. 

Something else that puzzled me was calico teams and armor. There were SO MANY choices for armor that I was so stuck on what to use and what attributes to focus on, that and calico armor. Any tips for that?

ah yes the charge blade my personal weapon of choice. It may be a tad slow but it's a very reliable and high power weapon. though it is a very technical weapon and I would not recommend it to those just starting out with monster hunter. the key to using the charge blade is charging the phials in sword and shield form then charging your shield and finally pulling super elemental discharges when the monster is vulnerable while using axe mode for that added damage when you can use/need it. to charge the shield you have to press X+A while in axe mode with full phials and as you wind up for the attack press R and you'll cancel out of the animation and into sword and shield form and by the phials you should see a red shield icon and your shield should be glowing. There are also guard points but you should probably hold off on using those until you've mastered everything else about the weapon.

[DodgeDusk]

Something I see people neglect a lot are items. If, for example, you're fighting Rathalos and not using Flash Bombs, all you're doing is making the fight more difficult for yourself. If you have the means, abuse them. Another thing to note is you do have 50 minutes to do a quest. Yeah, it's nice to hunt a monster in less than 10 minutes, but there's nothing wrong with adding a few overall minutes if it means you're not going to cart and fail the quest. Patience really is important in this series. Apart from that, just fight the monster over and over again until you can pick up it's tells and attack patterns. Know when to attack and when to retreat, etc.

[peener weener]

the game is not a hack and slash, and if you want it to be one you're going to get frustrated. try thinking about it in its own terms. the pace is very different and the combat is supposed to be methodical and careful. abuse all your advantages and learn how your weapon works.

 

honestly don't worry about palicos too much. just get them abilities you like and an armour set that looks cool. they're pretty useful but not life-changing. focus on your own armour sets first.

[DisobeyedCargo]

1 hour ago, fartboi said:

the game is not a hack and slash, and if you want it to be one you're going to get frustrated. try thinking about it in its own terms. the pace is very different and the combat is supposed to be methodical and careful. abuse all your advantages and learn how your weapon works.

 

honestly don't worry about palicos too much. just get them abilities you like and an armour set that looks cool. they're pretty useful but not life-changing. focus on your own armour sets first.

 

Yeah I figured it wasn't hack and slash from how much I was getting tossed around.

What kinds of traits should I focus on on my own armor 

Edited April 7, 2018 by DisobeyedCargo

[peener weener]

4 hours ago, DisobeyedCargo said:

 

Yeah I figured it wasn't hack and slash from how much I was getting tossed around.

What kinds of traits should I focus on on my own armor 

it depends on what weapon you use and what playstyle you like. defense is important especially if you're starting out, but skills are really the core mechanic. there's not a whooole lot you can get fancy with at lower levels, but try to make full armour sets instead of mix matching pieces, since you want skills to be activated. in general terms, you can't go very wrong with skills that increase your damage output, and skills that provide effects you can easily supplement with food buffs or consumables aren't that useful.

 

edit: also prioritizing weapon upgrades before armour upgrades can't go wrong either

Edited April 8, 2018 by fartboi

[DisobeyedCargo]

2 minutes ago, fartboi said:

it depends on what weapon you use and what playstyle you like. defense is important especially if you're starting out, but skills are really the core mechanic. there's not a whooole lot you can get fancy with at lower levels, but try to make full armour sets instead of mix matching pieces, since you want skills to be activated. in general terms, you can't go very wrong with skills that increase your damage output, and skills that provide effects you can easily supplement with food buffs or consumables aren't that useful.

 

edit: also prioritizing weapon upgrades before armour upgrades can't go wrong either

Ah okay

i liked the playstyle of the charge blade, it served me very well 

[peener weener]

the charge blade is one of the more complex weapons in the game, but also it has some of the highest dps. it's a pretty good all-arounder, though, since it can do a little bit of everything basically. i recommend taking a look at gaijinhunter's video guides, he explains the weapons pretty well. for charge blade, guard points are hard to pull off but strong, shells are super useful (can ko), the super discharge is really strong, and you generally want to stay in sword mode unless you get a big opening

 

 

Edited April 8, 2018 by fartboi

[DisobeyedCargo]

1 minute ago, fartboi said:

the charge blade is one of the more complex weapons in the game, but also it has some of the highest dps. it's a pretty good all-arounder, though, since it can do a little bit of everything basically. i recommend taking a look at gaijinhunter's video guides, he explains the weapons pretty well. for charge blade, guard points are hard to pull off but strong, shells are super useful (can ko), the super discharge is really strong, and you generally want to stay in sword mode unless you get a big opening

 

 

Ah I'm actually watching those now. That was generally how I played, guarding and getting in what swings o can get u till the monster is down, then RAIN HELL ITSELF DOWN UPON THEM.

also do fights usually take a long time.ive had almost all fights last a stupidly long time?

[peener weener]

yeah. you get 50 minutes for a reason. i've had fights go to the last 5 minutes. look up monster hunter speedruns to get an inferiority complex, though

 

once you start getting good the time does go down considerably, but usually doesn't get much shorter than 15ish minutes if your gear is appropriate to the level unless you really start pushing optimal strategy

Edited April 8, 2018 by fartboi