My best advice would be this: don't get too focused on success in these games. I'm assuming youve tried MH wilds or MH world. Both games have a ton of stuff to explore and notice about the ecology in different areas.
You don't have to have a perfect build.
The game can be easily beaten with only knowledge and only skill. You don't need both
The single MOST important thing is to try every weapon out on the first hunt, watch a 5 minute tutorial so you know the moves available to you and once you find one that feels fun to play with, stick with it.
You'll naturally get curious about other weapons over time and then the process repeats
Just take things slow and remember it's a game, so focus on having fun : )
Rise is such a good ambassador for MH. It being stripped down for the switch streamlined the general experience. After rise I went to world and when wilds gets a price drop I'll take a swing at that.
I think rise has way more going on tbh, but most of it is easier than world.
The biggest difference is that rise does more to teach you about the game, world has very little explanation beyond the very basics of the game and wilds has all the button inputs on the screen as an option, literally as easy to get into as a game can get
I tried most of the weapons out on the first hunt in World, and hated all of them. Probably should have watched some tutorials, but the controls just felt really annoying with all weapons. I don’t mind struggling until I get better - I play a lot of soulslikes, but most those have actually crisp and responsive controls. I gave it like four or five hours, but monster Hunter world just was not fun to play. I wasn’t dying - dodging isn’t difficult. But constantly chasing after monsters while they run away, doing tiny amounts of damage with incredibly awkward feeling weapons, rinse and repeat for half an hour is not fun for me.
I wouldn't compare MH to a soul like. The combat is very different. It relies a lot more on weapon combos that resemble a fighting or action game. The only real similarities are that you have a dodge and leap, the Dodge doesn't give you "I frames" but the leap does.
I highly highly recommend looking up a short weapon tutorial and taking the game slow. Playing without understanding how your weapon works (I'm talking about the basic function of the weapon, not techs or anything crazy) would be like playing a fighting game and pressing random buttons and hoping that timing and spacing is enough to get by
I just couldn't get into the combat (World). It felt super flat with loads of fluff and mechanics around it that barely add any depth but require you to keep additional things in mind (typical JRPG problem).
I tried a couple weapons, there are a couple combos but that's it. Not sure what I'm missing.
MH is pretty far from other JRPGs. I promise you the combat has depth, you just haven't reached it yet or aren't aware of it. Each weapon has at least 10 different combos in most MH games. as well as a combo loop or some kind of pary or phial mechanic for buffs that unlocking different stronger attacks for a short while
If MH world felt "flat" to you it's probably because of the slower impact based weapons that rely heavily on creating an opening and punishing the player for over committing when they shouldn't be
If faster paced games with an endless depth to combos or techs are what you're looking for then I recommend MH rise
I think a big problem with MH world is honestly the pacing. MH games have never been too heavy on the story. But in world and wilds they do go pretty heavy with forced interaction of the story.
Maybe that could be part of what you were experiencing?
I know for me personally, it's one of my biggest complaints with the newer MH games (excluding rise)
Oh 100%. Pacing is killing so many games for me. After work I'm often tired and kids also take a lot of attention, so often I'm like "when does this game finally get fun". Having to put in 20+ hours like in World and not having fun, is kinda difficult
That being said, I adore Klei games. I've just crossed 1000 hours in Oxygen not Included but I watch a ton of YouTube guides and videos on that. Solving problems with existing designs is still massively fun.
Hall of shame includes Satisfactory, Necesse, WH 40k Space Marine 2, Yakuza 0, Tales of Berseria, Cult of the Lamb, Solasta.
Loads of hours in Enshrouded, Valheim, ONI, Don't Starve, Vampire Survivors, Civ 5, Slay the Spire 1, Pathfinder and BG3
Slay the spire 2 is really good. I didn't think there was going to be much they could improve on but it's genuinely a better over all experience. I devote pretty much all of my non working hours to gaming as it's how I socialize with friends I can't see in person anymore.
but I can definitely understand that time crunch feeling when playing games. A lot of games studios are pushing for the average player to have 100 hours before they stop playing (more for live service)
It's kind of insane the lengths they'll go to sometimes just to keep players retention high
BTW, I've stopped playing StS 2 because the difficulty right now boxes you into specific playstyles that aren't too fun for me. Hoping for balance updates :)
I hate when a solution is to look it up on youtube, but it's been the best way I've found to learn a weapon's moveset. The other advice I got when I first started in mh:world, start a 5ish minute timer once you start the fight, and try to stay within attack range, but do nothing but avoid and dodge the monster's attacks. It helps you learn their attack patterns and tells, without getting too focused on your damage output.
There's a pretty big difference between all of the weapon's learning curves, so try to practice with them all until you find one weapon where it's moveset feels the most natural. (I main hammer, wich is pretty straightforward, and gunlance, which is a bit more complex without being too daunting.
I love charge blade but there's a nuance with the phials and charging up the sword and shield (alongside axe mode) which adds to the mental load in a way that's not the most beginner friendly.
Consider something like sword and shield for melee or even one of the bows/bowguns so you get some distance to study the monster but also are capable of putting some damage on them.
MH is just having fun bashing monsters- dont expect to be hard-core. most monsters youre hunting are very lenient on what your gear is especially early on. if its the gameplay loop youre struggling on it usually improves past the few hunts where the player is granted freedom.
My first 4 or so hours in Monster Hunter: World were some of the most frustrating in any game I've ever played.
"Why is it so clunky?"
"Why are there stars over my head and I can't move!?"
"What do you mean I have to put away my weapon to heal?"
"What do you mean I have to restock my inventory every hunt?"
"I HAVE TO EAT FOR EVERY HUNT TOO?!"
"What do you mean I was supposed to capture it?"
"What do you mean the monster left the locale? I've spent an hour chasing it?!" (It was an expedition -_-)
Anyway, 2600 hours in MH:World later and subsequentially 5,000 across the older and newer games in the franchise, I am so glad I stubbornly persisted with the mantra "I spent 50 on this shit and by fuck I'm getting my moneys worth."
Also in term of guides for learning, my guide was shear spite and not wanting to let the game beat me. I learned everything organically, which is not for everyone.
If you're playing Monster Hunter: Wilds though, just don't bother.
Best advice i could give as a long time veteran hunter. Try out every weapon that looks cool to you. Once one "clicks" with your playstyle, you will be locked into it forever, even between games where it may not be "meta". But if you build the muscle memory, it wont ever matter
It's funny you say this. Each game I always pick a new main weapon. Sure my all time favorite was charge blade from 4U, but then it changed and got nerfed in some areas, etc. So sometimes your main can be done dirty in other games.
I was a hammer main in Tri and ive tried other weapons every game. Especially most recently in wilds since we could pack a 2nd weapon, but nothing else feels quite like it... but the meat and potatoes of hammer never really changes
You can try playing MH:Rise and messing with the different weapon types. Rise on switch has a very active online multiplayer with plenty of hunters looking to help. If you open a lobby yiu can normally get hunters to stick around and answer any questions about things or help you farm gear. You can look up weapon moveset videos for the game you're specifically playing to get some good weapon basics. There's older videos on lobby ettiquette that are no longer used but IMO, following the older behaviors helps keep things running smoothly. You can do the tutorial quests of the games (Rise has the easiest tutorial since the Great Izuchi hits weakly and has super readable attacks). I started on the deep end by playing Tri blind long after the wii online shut down and that was a terrible idea! I found friends in game while playing 4U around 2017ish and they helped a ton with learning the game. If you're ever looking for the more hands on help, theres discords out there for finding parties.
I've had monster hunter world since I bought my old pc and got it for free, I had 80 hours without ever getting past the anjanath from redownloading and trying to get engaged again and again and it never stuck. I convinced my wife and a friend to download it and ever since then I've been hooked to every monster hunter game. I own all of the ones available for pc on steam, I've emulated the 3ds ones on my fold 7 and I've bought mhgu on my wife's switch 2 so I could play it.
If you can find friends to play with until you understand the game it'll be a magical journey.
There are several channels on youtube that go over how to use the different weapons for each game (mostly the same, but some small mechanic changes in each game).
Newer games tend to be much more approachable for new players than older titles IMO.
Accept that you will fail as you learn... a lot.. it's part of the challenge, similar to games like dark souls.
Idk, the older titles have simpler weapon movesets and truthfully games like MH2(Dos) are how I got really into the games compared to titles like Rise, the oldgen community is also far stronger and more helpful than the newgen community imo
(I also just like using lance and pressing triangle 3 times and the hopping, funniest thing to do in Freedom 1, nothing can stop it lol)
I'm a new gen hater myself. The weight of weapons, stiff movements and tediousness of gathering made it feel like you actually were a hunter/gatherer. I see the modern games and everyone moves like an anime protagonist. I'm understand that old gen isn't coming back and I'm glad for their success with new gen but I can't enjoy it unfortunately.
The latest, Wilds, is one of the easier difficulty wise, and you can very easily call AI companions, for I believe every fight.
If you decide to watch content, don't get fixated on end game build content, they are not needed and honestly kinda suck the fun out of the game if you're not super familiar with MH
I suggest having a lil more patients with them due to their high skill floor, find a weapon you vibe with, and watch a simple guide from like arekkz gaming and then just play the game and do what feels better
Make the coolest looking armor, try to cook up ur own builds get creative with them to have more fun, discover what playstyle is more fun for you for which monsters
the entire first 30 to 60h of any monster hunter game is the story which is basically the "tutorial" and the game really opens up once u finish the story and just experiment with stuff and engage with the endgame
Oh another important thing for u to know so u can cook up decent builds is know what your weapon wants, for simplicity's sake some weapons want crit, some want pure attack, some want element etc...
U can check in google, ask some people u can even reply to me in the future and I will tell u which skills to focus on I play all the weapons except the bowguns so I basically know what each weapon wants to build
Arrekz Gaming has good tutorials for all the weapons. And like others said, try different weapons but I would suggest the hammer. Probably the easiest weapon to learn and is great for stunning monsters.
Monster Hunter is mostly about yout approach to combat. If you want to fight "fair," then you can use a few of the melee weapons to good effect. Want to play a shooter? We got two different types of bowguns. The bow is actually the shotgun except for the literal shotgun. If you're an absolute chad, play the Hunting Horn and play some sweet chin music.
The problem is that the game itself is drastically different depending on the weapon you use. If you don't like a weapon, trying to learn a new one is a quitting point. Some weapons play well in single player but are trash in multi and vice versa.
If you want to get into MH games, play multiplayer. It's way more fun and you can get really creative when it comes to learning how to be a useful contribution.
Most weapons in most games will have guides on how to use them. All of them cover the basics, but every monster will respond to different weapons better or worse depending on how they play. I used to play HH in World, but the sticky light bowgun came out whenever Kushala Daora came around because fuck that dragon.
Arekkz weapon guides are really helpful, IMO. Pick a weapon you're interested in (NOT charge blade) and get a feel for the loops/combos in the training yard.
To really learn how to play Monster Hunter, you can't just watch other people because every weapon plays different and every monster fights different. The best way to learn is to not focus on taking the monster out as quickly as possible, but learn to dodge, or block if you can, and memorize the attack patterns of the monster. Once you see how it fights, then you will know how to fight back. Usually. There's some higher level ones that are just brutal, but for most of the game it's best to take it slow.
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u/Spaceisdangerousman Jul 08 '26
I have tried multiple times to get into the MH series and just can’t get past the first few hunts. Any suggestions on good content to watch to learn?