So you decided to pick up Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and are feeling a little overwhelmed? Not sure what’s the best weapon to use? What the heck does “Stun +2” mean on a piece of armor? Hopefully this can provide a little bit of help.
1. Take advantage of the tutorials to find out which weapon you like best.
After you get into the game proper and finish your first quest to deliver a steak, a number of other tutorial quests are unlocked under the 1* missions. These cover each weapon in the game against a weak enemy. It’s a great way to try out all the weapons and discover which one(s) you like best. And since the quests are repeatable, you can continue to get in great practice on a weapon that catches your fancy.
2. Skills are activated by accumulating points in armor pieces.
When looking at armor, you’ll notice that they usually have a skill and a number of points attached (example: Stun +2, Gathering +1, Eating -1). That means the armor adds (or subtracts) that skill amount from your character. But the key thing to remember is that those skills don’t activate until you’ve accumulated at least 10 points. So if you want Evasion +1 skill, for example, you’ll need to accumulate armor pieces, decorations, and talisman/charms to help push that total to 10. Many skills have multiple tiers. For example, earning 15 points in Evasion grants you Evasion +2, and 20 points gives you Evasion +3.
You can accumulate too many negative points and earn “bad” skills that will hinder your character, such as making your stamina drain faster, etc. The same principle applies, you need at least 10 negative points to activate them.
3. Gather everything, and I mean everything
That includes taking a Pick Axe and Bugnet on every quest. Mining ore can yield armor spheres and other materials necessary for weapons down the road. Same with catching bugs. Also, if you get into the habit of mining everything, you’ll eventually build up stacks of materials, which can later be sold for a lot of zenny in a pinch.
4. Don’t sell anything. Like, ever.
This contradicts my last point doesn’t it? Yeah, kind of. Don’t sell anything early on, and until much much later in the game when you know exactly what you can live with and without. For example, monster parts, especially at higher ranks, could net you a nice profit. If you find yourself favoring a particular line of monster gear and know you can do without those Lagombi parts, sell some (but never ever sell all, and never if you have less than 10 of them).
5. Skip the monster dying animation for potentially more carves.
You only have roughly a minute to carve monsters you’ve hunted before being taken to the rewards screen. During the animation where the monster is dying, on the lower screen you’ll a SKIP button in the top-right corner. Press it to regain control of your character. While the monster will still be in its death throes, you can get into position to start carving sooner. This is particularly helpful for larger monsters (like Fatalis) who have 6+ carves.
6. Understand what Affinity is on a weapon.
One of the topics that confuses new players is what exactly Affinity is when looking at a weapon. Sometimes you’ll see a weapon with a positive or negative percentage next to “Affinity”. Basically what it means is that there is a percentage chance (the one listed) that the weapon will do a critical strike that does either 125% (if a positive number is listed) damage or 75% damage (likewise, with a negative number listed).
8. Arrange your in-use gear on the last page of your item box
You get a large item box to hold your gear. You start at 10 pages worth of inventory and this can be expanded up to 15 pages. But one thing that has annoyed me about the franchise (going back several years to Monster Hunter Freedom Unite) is that as you gain new gear, they keep getting added to the next available spot in your item box. Which is fine, but a bit annoying to have to keep moving stuff around if I want my most used armor and weapons on the first page to easily access them for upgrades and equipping.
My solution was to move my in-use gear to the last page of the item box, which is one page away to the left when you launch it. That way, new gear gets dumped in the front and you can organize your favorite gear just one tap-away.
9. How do I unlock Fatalis?
Spoiler alert: Fatalis is in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.
- Crimson Fatalis is unlocked in 10* Caravan / Village quests by doing all of the Egg delivery quests in the game. Yep.
- 7* Gathering Hall Fatalis is unlocked when you reach HR 70. It is an “Advanced” mission that appears and disappears like others.
- G-Rank Crimson Fatalis is unlocked via the Scroll quest line post G-Rank (it is the last one, I believe).
- White Fatalis will be available via DLC in the near-future.
10. When in doubt, use these resources
There’s so much to the series and this game in particular. Here are some great resources to keep you going:
Kiranico (comprehensive database of all things Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – items, monsters, armors and weapons, with loot drop percentages and where to find them)
Julio Angel Ortiz | Writer 