Monster Hunter Rise: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

So You Bought Monster Hunter Rise

Look, I'm not going to lie to you. The first time I played Monster Hunter Rise, I spent forty-five minutes fighting a Great Izuchi and failed the quest. Forty-five minutes. I was that guy running around with a hammer, mashing buttons, wondering why the giant lizard wouldn't die. That was three thousand hours ago, and now I'm the guy teaching people how to bully Valstrax with their eyes closed. This game is a lot. It hands you a million items, fourteen weapons, a cat, a dog, and a bird, and says "go kill a dinosaur." It doesn't explain half of what you need to know, and the tutorial text boxes get lost in the chaos. I'm writing this because I wish someone had screamed this stuff at me before I started. This guide won't teach you every combo. It will teach you how to stop getting your face kicked in, and that's way more important at the start.

Why This Game Makes You Want to Throw Your Controller

Monster Hunter is hard in a way that feels unfair at first. It's not like Dark Souls where you dodge roll through everything. Your character is slow, your attacks lock you in place, and the monsters have hitboxes that look like they were designed by someone who hates you. I specifically remember fighting a Barioth and getting hit by a tail swipe that clearly missed my character model by three feet. I screamed into my mic. My friends still bring it up.

The real pain point is information overload. The game throws Comrades, Palamutes, Palicos, Wirebugs, Switch Skills, Rampages, and about thirty different crafting materials at you before you've even figured out which button sheathes your weapon. It's too much. You'll find yourself standing in the village, staring at the blacksmith, wondering "is this armor better?" and the game gives you a spreadsheet with numbers that don't make sense.

And the timers. Oh god, the timers. You get fifty minutes for a hunt, but when you're struggling, the clock feels like it moves backwards. I've failed quests because I spent too long gathering mushrooms. Stop gathering mushrooms. That's a real pain point. The game is also punishing about healing. You can't just pop a potion instantly. You have to stand still and drink it, and a monster will read your input and charge you the second you press the button. That's not a bug. That's the game working as intended. The game is designed to punish bad habits.

Finally, weapon choice is a trap. You pick up the Longsword because it looks cool, then realize you have to manage a gauge, counter attacks, and learn a fifteen-move combo. Meanwhile, your friend with the Lance just pokes the monster in the face and blocks everything. The game doesn't tell you which weapon is beginner-friendly. It just gives you a training room and says "figure it out." Most people don't figure it out. They quit.

What You Actually Need to Do First

Alright, drop everything. I'm going to give you a ten-step plan that will save you about twenty hours of frustration. Follow this order.

• Pick a weapon that doesn't suck for beginners. I love the Great Sword but I'm not a masochist. You do not need to play the hardest weapon first. Start with Sword and Shield or Dual Blades. Sword and Shield lets you block, dodge quickly, and use items without sheathing. It's the training wheels weapon and it's actually good at endgame. Dual Blades are fast and let you dodge instantly out of combos. Do not start with Charge Blade unless you want to watch YouTube tutorials for three hours.
• Talk to the cat in the buddy plaza. This sounds stupid, but the Buddy Recon quests unlock your Palamute and Palico gear. Your pets are not decorations. A good Palico with the Healing Bat skill will save your life more than any potion. I run two Palicos sometimes because I hate healing myself. Don't ignore them.
• Fire up the training room first. There's a wooden dummy in the buddy plaza. Spend twenty minutes there. Just move around, press buttons, see what happens. Do not go fight a monster until you know which button does your charging attack and which does your dodge. I did not do this. I learned the hard way that the Switch Axe has a mode-switch that explodes if you press the wrong button.
• Do the Village Quests first. The game splits content into Village (single-player, easier monsters with less HP) and Hub (multiplayer, harder monsters). I jumped into the Hub with a friend and died six times to a Kulu-Ya-Ku. The Village line is your tutorial. Do it until the credits roll. You'll thank me when you don't cart to a bird.
• Learn the Wirebug immediately. Your Wirebug is a grappling hook that gets you out of trouble. You have two charges by default. When a monster winds up a big attack, use your Wirebug to dash sideways. Do not dodge roll. The roll has like ten frames of invincibility. The Wirebug dash covers twenty feet. I watched a friend stand still and try to roll through Rathalos's fireball. He got cooked. Press ZL (or L2 on Xbox) and go flying.
• Eat before every hunt. The Canteen in the village gives you stat boosts. Always eat for Defense Up and Health +50. If you don't eat, you start with less health. I forgot to eat for a Magnaamalo fight once and got one-shot by his tail slam. Never again.
• Sharpen your weapon when it bounces. Your sharpness bar is at the top left. If it goes into Orange or Red, your attacks will bounce off the monster and leave you wide open. Whetstone is in your item pouch. Use it. I've seen players attack a Barroth with a blunt weapon for two minutes wondering why they weren't doing damage. It's because your sharpness went to zero.
• Gather only what you need. I mentioned this before, but seriously. Honey and Herbs are useful. You don't need to grab every single Blue Mushroom you see. Your item pouch fills up, you can't pick up monster parts, and you fail the quest because you're overencumbered. I have done this.
• Set up your radial menu. The default item bar is garbage. Go into Menu > Customize Radial Menu. Put Potion, Mega Potion, Whetstone, Paintball, and Flash Bomb on easy keys. In a fight, you will not have time to scroll through your pouch to find a potion. You will die looking for it.
• Mount the monster when you see the Wirebug prompt. If you do a jumping attack and latch onto a monster, you get a mounting minigame. Stab it until it falls over. This gives your whole team a free damage window. Do not skip this. I had a random disconnect once because he mounted a Rathian and just sat there. We lost because he was too busy taking a screenshot.

Expert Stuff That Took Me 200 Hours to Figure Out

Once you're past the tutorial stage and you're farming High Rank monsters, the game shifts. It's no longer about surviving. It's about getting aggressive. These are the things nobody tells you that separate a decent hunter from a great one.

• Use the environment. Every map has traps. Stinkmink will lure monsters. Paratoads paralyze things. Marionette Spiders are Wirebugs that hang from the ceiling and let you do a free mount. I spent way too long thinking only my weapon mattered. Then I found a Marionette Spider in the Sandy Plains, yanked down a Barioth, and my friend was like "where did you get that?" It's free damage. Use it.
• Learn the "Superman Dive." When you're sprinting away from a monster (hold R1 and sprint), press the dodge button. Your character will do a huge flying leap that has full invincibility frames. This is the only way to survive attacks like Teostra's supernova. I used to stand and try to block that with a Great Sword. I got vaporized. Now I Superman Dive and laugh.
• Flinch shots are your friend. If you use a Flash Bomb while a monster is flying, it falls to the ground. If you use a Poison Smoke Bomb, it stops healing. If you use Trap Tools + Thunderbugs, you get a Shock Trap. Place traps while the monster is enraged to lock it down. I used to save traps for capturing. Now I use them mid-fight just for damage windows. The monster can't stay mad forever.
• Switch Skills are not optional. As you progress, your weapon gets Switch Skills that change your combos. The default loadout is not always the best. For example, the Longsword has a skill called Sacred Sheathe that replaces your normal counter. It's insanely strong but people never try it because the default works fine. Go to the Buddy Plaza or use the Item Box to swap skills. Experiment. I ran Dual Blades with the Piercing Bind skill and it tripled my damage output because it explodes after a combo.
• Build for skills, not defense numbers. A lot of newbies stack the highest defense armor and wonder why they die. Defense is a flat reduction. The skill points on your armor matter more. Attack Boost is a trap early on because the damage increase is small. Instead, get Critical Eye, Weakness Exploit, and Evade Extender. Evade Extender is the best skill in the game for survival because it makes your dodge roll go twice as far. I slap Evade Extender 3 on everything and my survival rate went from "carting twice a hunt" to "maybe once every ten hunts."
• Palico skills stack. If you take two Palicos with the Healing Bubbles skill, you get double the healing. I farmed Valstrax with two healers and never touched a potion. It's cheesy but it works.
• The Wirebug cooldown is shorter than you think. Each Wirebug regenerates in about 12 seconds by default. If you use a Wirebug Whisperer skill, it drops to 9 seconds. You can use your recovery attack (press ZL + X when knocked away) to instantly use a Wirebug dash and get back on the monster without waiting. This is the "counter" that good players abuse.

Dumb Mistakes That Got Me Carted (Don't Make Them)

I have died in every way possible. Here are the ones that still haunt me.

• Running into a zone with no preparation. I used to fast travel to a camp, then sprint to the monster without checking my inventory. Then I'd realize my Whetstone was gone because I used it on a previous hunt and forgot to restock. I'd be at half sharpness fighting a Diablos with a Hammer. That's a bad time. Always restock at the Item Box before leaving. Press the "Auto Restock" button. It's a button. Press it.
• Chasing the monster when it runs away. This one is huge. The monster will limp away to another zone to sleep. New players chase it immediately. Instead, stop and sharpen your weapon, eat a ration, and heal. The monster is not going anywhere. I chased a Rathalos across three zones, got ambushed by a Jaggi pack, and died. Because I didn't heal first. Wait ten seconds.
• Not using the map. The Sub-Camp system lets you fast travel within the map. You can also see monster locations on the map. I had a friend who spent ten minutes running around looking for a Khezu while it was literally right next to our camp. Open the map (press +), click on the monster's icon, and the game will auto-navigate you. It's not cheating. It's smart.
• Trying to capture without checking the icon. You need a Trap and Tranq Bombs. You also need to know when the monster is capturable. When the monster's icon on the map shows a blue icon (or when it limps), that's the sweet spot. I threw a trap at a Mizu at full health and it just went "lol" and broke out. Wasted my trap. Learn the visual cue.
• Using a weapon that requires constant sharpening without a backup. I love the Insect Glaive, but it burns through sharpness fast. I went into a two-monster quest with a single Whetstone and spent the last ten minutes doing zero damage because my weapon was Red Sharpness. Carry two Whetstones, or use the Grinder (S) item that sharpens faster.
• Playing with randoms who don't know the basics. This is a big one. If you're in multiplayer and someone keeps dying, it's okay to leave. I spent an hour with a group that couldn't kill a Zinogre because one guy kept running into the lightning and dying. Don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm. Also, don't be that guy. If you're dying a lot, play solo until you're comfortable.

This might sound like common sense, but I've seen every single one of these mistakes made by people with hundreds of hours. The game doesn't punish you gently. It punishes you by making you fail the quest and lose your rewards.

Questions You're Too Embarrassed to Ask

I've seen these questions in Discord servers, on Reddit, and in random lobbies. Here are the real answers.

Q: What does "carting" mean?
A: It means you died. The game gives you three lives (carts) per quest. A big cart shows up and drags your body back to camp. Die three times and the quest fails. Yes, it's stupid that it's called "carting." Yes, everyone uses that word.

Q: Should I sell monster parts for money?
A: No. Some parts are needed to craft gear. If you sell a Magnaamalo Orb for 2000 Zenny, you'll later need it for a weapon upgrade and grind for ten hours to get another one. Only sell Bone and Ore that you have too much of.

Q: How do I unlock more Switch Skills?
A: You need to do specific Village and Hub quests. Check your Request Board in the village. There are quests with a little chat bubble icon. Do those. Also craft certain weapons. The game doesn't tell you this. I had to look it up.

Q: What is the best weapon for beginners?
A: Sword and Shield. It's not the flashiest, but it teaches you everything. You can block, dodge, use items instantly, and damage is consistent. The Dual Blades are a close second because your mobility is insane. Stay away from Charge Blade, Switch Axe, or Hunting Horn until you understand the game. Those weapons have complex mechanics that will confuse you.

Q: Why is the Rampage mode so chaotic?
A: Because it's bad. The Rampage is a tower defense minigame where you defend the village. It's not the main game. You can skip most of it if you don't care about the Rampage-only weapons. I did it until I got the Ibushi parts and never touched it again. It's not worth your sanity.

Q: Can I heal while moving?
A: No, unless you have the Speed Eating skill or you're riding your Palamute. While on the dog, you can use items and keep moving. That's the only way. Otherwise, you must stand still. Pop a Mega Potion when the monster is stunned or distracted by your Palico. If you have to, run into the next zone and heal there before re-engaging. This is similar to how you have to manage resources in Sekiro — check out our Sekiro guide for more on staying alive through combat flow.

Q: Why do I keep getting poisoned?
A: Because you aren't using Antidotes or Herbal Medicine. Rathian and Gypceros love to poison you. Carry Antidotes in your pouch at all times. And if you get poisoned, do not stand next to the monster. Run away, pop the cure, heal up, then go back. I have seen people try to out-DPS the poison and die.

Q: Is it worth farming for full sets early?
A: No. Full sets of armor give you set bonuses in Master Rank, but in Low Rank and High Rank, you want to mix and match for skills. Don't waste time farming for a full Barioth set. Just get the pieces that give you Critical Eye or Attack Boost. Move on to the next rank as fast as possible.

Q: I see other players flying around. How?
A: They're using Wirebug and Palamute combos, or specific weapon moves. The Insect Glaive also gives you a jump. You're not missing anything. Just practice the Wirebug. This game's movement system is similar to Ghost of Tsushima — check out our Ghost of Tsushima guide for comparisons on traversal and combat fluidity.