Monster Hunter Rise beginner's guide: Tips and Tricks

Monster Hunter Rise can look extremely daunting for new players. There are many game mechanics to memorize, the controls are complex, and there's a cornucopia of monsters itching to crush you to bits. As such, we will provide you with tips and tricks to help you get started on your hunting career in Monster Hunter Rise for Nintendo Switch.

This game is looking to be one of best games for the Nintendo Switch. So make sure you grab one of the best microSD cards for the Nintendo Switch to upgrade yours with enough space to record your adventures.

Monster Hunter Rise Tips and Tricks: Be prepared

Before going off to hunt a monster, you will need to prepare yourself. Build an armor set that enhances your abilities and a weapon that takes advantage of a monster's weakness to elements or status effects. Eat at the tea shop to give yourself a stat boost at the beginning of a hunt. And stockpile as many potions as you can with materials to craft more in battle. The more prepared you are, the easier the hunt will be.

Monster Hunter Rise Tips and Tricks: Take your time

Most hunts in the game have a 50-minute time limit, so you can take your time hunting a monster. You can explore the map to pick up endemic life, gather crafting materials to make more weapons and armor back home, and find abandoned camps that you can rebuild later for fast travel. If you run out of items during a fight, you can fast-travel back to camp to restock your supplies.

When you encounter a monster for the first time, it is ideal that you observe it first to learn its attacks. See the telegraphs for its attacks, so you know how to avoid them. Once you have learned their move-set, you will know when to counterattack the moves that leave a monster wide open. Patience is the key to being the best monster hunter.

Monster Hunter Rise Tips and Tricks: Practice your moves

Monster Hunter Rise has a ton of weapons to choose from, each with a unique move-set. Thankfully, this game has a training room and tutorial missions where you can learn and practice how to use your tool kits. As you advance further into the game, you will unlock new moves to customize your move-set with. Try experimenting with them all in the training room to decide which combination of moves suits your playstyle.

Monster Hunter Rise Tips and Tricks: Customize the radial menu and options

Scrolling through your inventory using the D-pad is cumbersome, especially during combat. It is much faster to use the radial menu because you can assign it with any item you want for easy access. You can also assign emotes, messages, and crafting shortcuts in the radial menu as well. Assigning crafting shortcuts in the radial menu is especially useful for ranged weapons when you need to craft ammo quickly.

Customization does not stop there. There are plenty of options to fiddle around within Monster Hunter Rise. For instance, you can adjust how much your character speaks during gameplay, and you can turn off or on the voices of your teammates' characters in multiplayer. You can change the control scheme, adjust the aiming controls, toggle aspects of the HUD on and off, and much more.

Monster Hunter Rise Tips and Tricks: Keep an eye on your weapon sharpness

All melee weapons have a meter beneath the Health and Stamina bar called Weapon Sharpness (represented by a small knife with a bar inside). Weapon Sharpness determines if your weapon can penetrate a monster's hide, and the higher the sharpness level, the tougher hides you can pierce. Every weapon has different levels of sharpness and they can go from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and finally to white.

However, your weapon will lose sharpness over the course of a fight as you repeatedly hit the monster. If your weapon's sharpness gets too low, your weapon will bounce off a monster's hide and leave you wide open. To avoid this, you will need to use a whetstone to repair your weapon. Be careful when sharpening because it takes a while, and you are vulnerable while doing so. However, you can mitigate this with our next trick.

Monster Hunter Rise Tips and Tricks: Palamute and Palicos

Your animal companions can be a great help during a hunt. Palicos can use gadgets that provide buffs, healing, or traps, depending on what type you bring along. You can also power them up using the Felvine item, so they do more damage.

Palamutes are a hunter's best friend. While they do not have gadgets like the Palico, they make up for it with more attack power and giving you a ride. Yup, you can ride giant dogs into battle in this game. Riding Palamutes will help you to traverse the maps in record time due to their incredible speed.

Here is a useful tip that can be a lifesaver in battle — you can use items while riding the Palamute. For example, if you need to sharpen your weapon, you can mount your Palamute and sharpen it while moving. This will allow you to repair your weapon more safely in battle instead of sharpening normally, leaving you stuck in place and vulnerable to enemy attacks.

Monster Hunter Rise Tips and Tricks: The Wirebug

The Wirebug is one of the most important tools in your arsenal in Monster Hunter Rise. This creature allows you to swing in the air to explore the maps' highest locations, grant you tons of mobility in battle, give you access to powerful Silkbind attacks, and allow you to briefly take control of a monster via the Wyvern Riding mechanic.

I highly recommend you practice the controls for the Wirebug in the training room. Otherwise, you may end up flying into a wall or go tumbling down a cliff in a comedic fashion. Also, don't spam your Wirebug moves carelessly because they have various degrees of recharge times and monsters also have ways to stop you from exploiting areas they can't reach. Knowing when to use the Wirebug is just as important as learning to control it.

Monster Hunter Rise Tips and Tricks: Endemic Life

While searching for your target, it is wise to pick up endemic life along the way. These small critters provide passive buffs that last for the whole hunt or can be used as items to cripple a monster. You can check the map to see where every endemic life is located so you can pick the ones you want.

Are you ready to become a monster hunter?

With these tips, you will be one step closer to become Kamura's best monster hunter and save it from the Rampage. Monster Hunter Rise will release on Nintendo Switch, March 26, 2021.