Day 1
The main task is complete and the "final" monster has been defeated. Final my ass. There's always another. The Cadeaus was a bitch. II squeaked out the victory in the final minutes of the allocated time. And really I feel a bit guilty about taking the rewards and partaking in the village's celebration in my honor. I didn't really kill the monster. All I did was chop off one of its' horns. How is that a victory again? It's still out there. It can still ram the ocean floor and cause earthquakes. What the hell are these primitive bitches celebrating for? Simple people I suppose.
I also took on my first "Hard" request and took on a Purple Ludroth. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, that thing was shockingly vicious. It's like the creature's sole purpose is to poison as many other creatures as possible. If you get to close to it, it swipes at you with a poisonuous claw attack. If that misses you, it will do a small jump in the air, land with a belly flop. As it lands it emits out poison gas from it's pores in every direction, poisoning everything in the immediate area. If you were are further away, it will just spit out poison blobs of... something at you. And finally if you're not in the direction its spitting at, no need to worry. It'll start running around like a maniac spitting poison in every single direction until it's tired itself out. How does evolution make something that useful? Is this for population control or something? What possible use does mother nature have for something like this? At any rate I can see why they wanted it dead.
That does lead me into yet something else I feel guilty about. It seems like every few times I kill one of these things, the Cheif's dimwitted son calls me over and let's me know that the same monster has now been spotted roaming the woods of the island. Apparently everytime I kill something big, it's family members come to the island seeking revenge for me. So I save the island from being destroyed by an earthquake, but soon it'll be overrun by monsters that would give Godzilla a run for his money. Yep, I'm doing the lord's work here.
Note to self: If it is indeed announced, I need to get myself an umbrella.
Day 3
I had kind of an unusual experience last night. I decided to focus a little more on the group hunts last night, so I went to the port to look for any hunters interested in grouping up. I've only got a Hunter Rank of 2 (totally not an indicator of my ability as I am completely awesome) so I thought it might be hard to find anyone who was low level. Another hunter showed up though who was right around my level, and a few minutes later two other hunters arrived. I was so happy to have a full party, I quickly chose our target and didn't even bother talking to them.
We ended up hunting a Nibelsnarf. It's kind of giant mole monster. It spends most of its time tunneling under the sand, popping out from time to time to attack. It's not terribly difficult, but it's got strong armor, and has a very annoying habit of blasting focused sand storms at anything in its way. It takes a little time to kill, but it's usually a more relaxed hunt compared to the monsters I've been hunting lately. Not this time.
You see, those two other hunters who joined my party were these two bad ass pros that are on a level I never knew even existed. One was weilding a long green glowing sword. It looked like something that would make a Sith lord shit his pants. The other had some kind of projectile weapon that I'm not even sure what it was. It looked like she was throwing some kind of ninja stars though. That's particularly impressive if you're aware that the only project weapons are bows and rifles. Anyway, the weapons looked impressive, but I didn't know how impressive they were until we got to the Nibelsnarf and the entire battle lasted about 4 minutes. This is normally a 15 to 20 minute battle, even with a full party.
Once we got back to the port, the other newbie fighter announced he didn't play with cheaters and left to go back to his home village. These guys weren't cheating though. They were just doing a low ranked hunter a solid, by trying to push me through to the next rank..... and they did. I feel just a tad bit guilty about not earning the rank on my own, but I do know I could have gotten through it on my own in time. These guys just saved me some of the tedium. So.... Hunter Rank 3 ladies and gentlemen!!!!!!! Now the real battles begin
Day 4
A host of new monsters have recently shown up in the guild reports and I'm doing my best to try and kill these bastards. One that recently caught my eye was the Crimson Qurupeco. It offers up some pieces for some really good armor, according to what I've read. The regular boring standard Qurupeco is one of the earliest monsters that the guild sent me after. Despite it's low ranking it's a genuine pain in the ass to kill. It's got a variety of attacks like a fire attack and another one where it spits out some nasty green stuff. It's really good about telegraphing it's moves ahead of time so once you learn how it fights. So why is it a pain? Well, it's also has this obnoxious ability to mimic the distress calls of other monsters. So in the middle of fighting it, it'll call out for other local mosters. Most are smaller ones, but it can summon a Great Jaggi, and early on those things can be a pain especially when you're trying to fight it and the Qurupeco at the same time. So, that's a regular Qurupeco. I have no idea what to expect from the crimson one.
I started the hunt in the Flooded Forest so at least I'm familiar with the territory, and it doesn't take long for me to find it. Turns out he really doesn't seem that much harder.... just redder. He's faster and can jump wider distances, but it telegraphs everything the same way, and in no time I've got him wounded. I pretty much feel like I have it under control, when of course reality shows it's ugly head. It starts to mimic a distress call...
What shows up it something I've only caught a glimpse of once, while I was on another hunt and it showed up out of nowhere and ate a Great Jaggi. I just realized, the Great Jaggi was what the regular Qurupeco summons, and now the Crimson one summons something that literally devours it. I don't even know what this thing is called. I just know it's green and it's big. Biggest land monster I've seen. Picture godzilla on steroids. That's what this thing is, and now the Crimson Qurupeco just brought it into the fight. Guess there's no question as to why this is a 7 star fight huh? This giant lizard is so big I don't even know how to dodge it. How do you roll out of the way of something that's the size of small town?
Anyway the rest of the battle did not last too long. I did my best and managed to keep on attacking the Crimson bastard, and made it flee to another area, but it was always a matter of time before Godzilla's big brother showed up. No way can I take this thing down as it stands. Even coming equipped fully loaded with traps and sleeping bombs will only buy me so much time. I think it's about time for me to upgrade my equipment... just somewhere else for now.
Well, finally got me some sharqskin and repaired the mask. Next time I manage to get some game time in I'm going after the Cadeaus. I care little for fighting the beast, but it seems to be blocking my gateway to more interesting creatures. I'm probably also in for fighting a lot of Quropeco's, as I nead 2 something-something beaks to upgrade my hunting horn
What weapon class are you using Robio?
Yet another classic quote that taken out of the context of gaming sounds absolutely deranged.
Monster Hunter is Japanese. It's probably still deranged in context.
I live and die by my Gun Lance. It's slow as hell and doging can be a pain, but god knows there's something that just feels right about having a 9 foot long sword that turns into a gun and can blast a monster to holy hell. Just upgraded to a Princess Panalopy last night. It's primarily made of advanced Rathian pieces. It's not the strongest weapon you'll find, but this thing has a poison proc, and it's good for at least two rounds of poisoning during a 20 minute fight. Makes a big difference over the course of a long fight. I love it so.
Day 5
I wasn't have a hell of a lot of luck fighting that Crimson Qurupeco due to that Deviljiho that it summons. It turns out that's the name of the giant behemoth that it summons. That thing really is the stuff of nightmares. It sprays what looks like electrified blood. ELECTRIFIED BLOOD!!!!! God, I am so not ready for that thing. I can't honestly imagine every being ready for it for that matter...
What I ended up doing was joining up with a few other hunters who had found a guild request for killing 4 Qurupecos. Two regular and two crimsons. These were slightly smaller ones and they were in an area that they couldn't summon anything like the Devilhijo. Four of them are still pretty freaking tough, and I'm sad to say that I was the lone person who fainted during the battle (but just the once). The good news was there were tons of spoils, and lots of Crimson Q pieces. Enough to make a new breastplate and new helmet. Finally I'm getting some real quality armor. Of course that created a whole new problem.
Could someone explain why the blacksmith can't show me a picture of what he's going to build me before I commit to it? You see, the Qurupecos are still birds and the armor ends up bright and feathery. My helmet is actually a native american headdress. I look like Chief Jay Strongbow now. And with all the sailors that run around this little hole in the wall town, it won't be long before someone asks me to start up a Village People tribute band. OH well, strong armor is strong armor...
I felled a Deviljho once. Well, in an online party of 4, with one othe being my co-op mate who talked me through the whole thing. Common practice in taking these down seems to be to get a shield and lance and poke it's belly from behind a huge shield untill it dies. I don't feel compelled to take one on by myself. Same goes for a Diablos.
You can view your armour in advance. It's hidden deep down in some menu where you can also see the stats of said future equipment. Or you can just google it
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Day 6
While I delay the inevitable battle with the Pink Qurupeco I decided to take on some of the other tasks. I've already tackled most of the monsters that have reappearing with their power upgrades like the Royal Ludroth, Rathian, and Jaggi paks, so most of what are left are the gathering quests. So after hunting down eggs and a few other mind numbing tasks I decided to build up some nerve and take on a real challenge again. And that challenge is pink! The Pink Rathian.
A regular Rathian is no walk in the park, but I've gotten to the point where I can handle one without too much of a threat to myself. They're flying wyverns that are good about swooping down with their claws or tail and poisoning whoever they slash. They also have the lovely habit of breathing fire, which can be generated in smaller burts that will travel a fair distance or they'll just belch out a giant up close and personal inferno. The Pink Rathians, aren't a whole lot different except they're a hell of a lot more aggressive. These things are pissed off and just don't believe in the concept of downtime. As soon as I was eligible for the 6-star quests it was one of the first monsters I fought, and let me tell you that was a stupid idea. I lasted just a few minutes before I was knocked out three times and the guild had to retrieve my beautiful near-corpse. But you can't run from your demons (or monsters) forever so it was time to throw down.
I was a lot more patient this time around, something I'm not good at, and it did pay off. She came close to killing me, but I finally got the better of her, but she had one last surprise for me that makes me hate these pink bastards all the more. Normally when one of these giant monsters is near death it will start to cry out and limp away. It's usually a good opportunity to get in a few good shots before it retreats to a different area. The Pink Rathian on the other hand is a big fat faker. She did the limping away act, but as soon as I started attacking she started the fight back up like it never ended in the first place. She managed to almost kill me because I got just a little too cocky. Anyway alls well that ends well, but that fight ended up being way too close. Guess there's a lesson to be learned there.