Characters / Monster Hunter Fifth Generation Monsters Rise

Monsters that premiered in Monster Hunter: Rise and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak as part of the fifth generation of games. Japanese names are noted in italics; if the English name is identical to the Japanese or is an accurate translation, the Japanese will not be listed. Be aware of unmarked spoilers.

To see Espinas, who made its main-series debut in Sunbreak, go here.

Main Index | Civilization | Hunters | Main Series Monsters | First Generation Monsters (Fatalis) | Second Generation Monsters | Third Generation Monsters | Fourth Generation Monsters | Fifth Generation Monsters (World & Iceborne | Rise & Sunbreak) | Frontier Monsters | Online Monsters

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Herbivores

Gowngoat

Gowngoat (Meruku)

Appearances:
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Caprine-like monsters easily recognized by the long flowing fur on their tails. Some think this fur is used to disguise them as rocks, others think it's to protect their young from the elements.

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• Clothing Appendage: Gowngoats got their name from their tails resembling a really fancy dress.

Bird Wyverns

Theropod Bird Wyverns

Izuchi / Great Izuchi

Izuchi / Great Izuchi (Osaizuchi)

Kamaitachi Wyvern, Trinity of Terror

Appearances:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak

First comes the vanguard, unstoppable tank
Then comes a second, attacking the flank
Finally, the general, the highest in rank
A trio of blades, swift as a gale
They cut to the bone and kill without fail.

These Theropod Bird Wyverns have hook-like blades on the end of their tails. The pack Alpha, the Great Izuchi, will lead its juniors in coordiated attacks.

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• Beware My Stinger Tail: Their tails have blades shaped like scythes and they use them with deadly efficiency.
• Combination Attack: Their forte. The Izuchi trio can attack in rapid succession or all at once with the same move to pressure hunters.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: While the Great Izuchi doesn't have as many minions as the other Bird Wyvern raptors, they make up for it by being much tougher and actually cooperating with each other.
• Elite Mooks: The Izuchi that accompany Great Izuchi aren't as strong as their leader, but they're much more durable than regular Izuchi and coordinate their attacks with each other. This contrasts with the other Bird Wyvern raptors, whose minions are weak and unorganized.
• Feathered Fiend: Subverted; while it looks like the Izuchi are covered in downy feathers, their parts reveal they're actually covered with fur.
• Fragile Speedster: Like many starter bosses, Izuchi is fast, but doesn't hit too hard and is pretty fragile.
• Raptor Attack: After World broke the trend of raptor Bird Wyverns appearing as pack-hunting monsters, with pack hunting Fanged Wyverns taking their place, Great Izuchi marks a return to that trend.
• Spin Attack: Typical wyvern tailspin aside, Great Izuchi's most dangerous attacks is a series of leaps each punctuated with a spinning attack. Thanks to the inability to cut off Great Izuchi's tail, it has a huge range already. But since its flunkies will do their own leaping spin attacks alongside the alpha to cover more distance, it's better to just sheathe your weapon and tank the hit through your "Superman dive's" invincibility frames.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Similarly to Great Maccao, it took Great Jaggi's position as the first large boss and the training dummy in tutorial maps. Additionally, like its predecessors, its primary weapon is mounted on its tail.
• Warm-Up Boss: Like the rest of its early-game raptor Bird Wyvern brethren, Great Izuchi is a simple boss with low health and strength who serves as a way to help newbie hunters ease themselves into the game.
• Yōkai: Based on the Kamaitachi, a weasel with sickle claws for feet. One piece of concept art also mentions that the Great Izuchi's mouth design is based off of the Slit-Mouthed Woman.

Boggi

Boggi (Orugii)

Appearances:
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Theropod wyverns that hunt in packs, they're wilier than they appear, often chasing their prey until it can't run anymore.

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• Fish Eyes: Their eyes point in different directions.
• Griping About Gremlins: Their faces seem to be lifted from the 1984 Gremlins, and they're just as wily as them, though there's no technology for the Boggi to wreck.
• Heinous Hyena: Their spots, manes, and ears resemble those of a spotted hyena.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: A combination of a theropod dinosaur and a hyena.
• Our Goblins Are Different: Their large noses, ears, and eyes are all traits shared with popular depictions of goblins.
• Shout-Out: Their faces look just like those of the Gremlins, and their hyena-like traits combined with their Fish Eyes and Maniac Tongue are evocative of Ed the Hyena from The Lion King.

True Bird Wyverns

Aknosom

Aknosom (Akenoshirum)

Parasol Bird, Feathered Frenzy

Appearances:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak

A bamboo forest at night, the sound of dancing is heard
Resembling a parasol, but in truth a monstrous bird
Be wary of its figure, and its vibrant hue
For once its collar opens, a rain of blood will ensue.

This crane-like Bird Wyvern has a large crest on its head that it folds and unfolds to vary its attacks.

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• Beware the Silly Ones: While it looks the part of a goofy crane and is inspired by an even goofier yokai, Aknosom is surprisingly relentless and has an expansive movepool that can be hard to predict thanks to its vague tells. Its charge attack is tough to dodge since it wildly zigzags after you, its head crest can stun you with wind pressure if slammed into the ground, and if you try to take advantage of its vulnerability after it misses a head slam, it can catch you off guard by suddenly going for another pass, and then another. It's not by any means a hard boss, but Aknosom is a good indicator of when the game's metaphorical training wheels come off.
• Blow You Away: Occasionally, it will try to stagger you with a powerful gust of wind blown by its umbrella-like crest.
• Feathered Fiend: Not only is Aknosom a fire-spitting crane, but it's a bloodthirsty one to boot.
• Irony: Despite pulling from an umbrella yokai, Aknosom is weakest to Water and Thunder attacks.
• Pinball Projectile: Its fireballs bounce across the ground several times before bursting into stationary flames.
• Playing with Fire: Like many early Bird Wyverns, this one also breathes fireballs.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Yet another one to Yian Kut-Ku, being an early-game Bird Wyvern that spits fireballs and can put up a surprisingly good fight against newcomers despite its non-threatening appearance.
• Use Your Head: It uses the crest on its head to perform various attacks, often times slamming it into the ground or using it as a battering ram during its charge; in fact, it can knock you over with a gust of wind by doing the former.
• Yōkai:
  • Based on the Karakasa, a one-eyed, one-legged umbrella monster. Aknosom often stands on one leg, and can hold its wings and crest in such a way as to resemble an umbrella (and some of its body parts are popularly made into umbrellas).
  • Also based on the basan, a turkey-sized chicken yokai with feathers reminicent of tongues of flame, a bright red comb, and fire breath that neither burns nor ignites. Aknosom is colored red, orange, and white (typical colors associated with heat), has a bright orange crest reminicent of the basan's comb, and breathes fire. The only difference is that the basan's fire can't hurt you while Aknosom's fireballs can.

Fanged Beasts

Rodent Fanged Beasts

Bombadgy

Bombadgy (Bunbujina)

Appearances:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak

A tanuki-like Fanged Beast whose body is filled with a volatile gas.

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• Action Bomb: Hitting a Bombadgy will cause it to be launched away like a rocket, causing small explosions from the gas it expels.
• Balloon Belly: They merely seem like they're fat at first, but when you hit them their bellies deflate when they expel the gas that's causing them to swell up.
• Gonk: Their heavily bloated bodies and odd-looking faces make for one unsightly critter. However, Komitsu thinks they have an in-universe Ugly Cute appeal going for them.
• Helpful Mook: While Bombadgys can attack you if you provoke them, they're a much bigger threat to other monsters since you can turn them into living bombs by smacking them into bigger monsters and hurting them with the ensuing explosions. One event quest, "The Tiniest Snowbaron", has you hunt a miniature Lagombi, with a squad of Bombadgies you can launch at it to pile up the damage.
• Tanuki: The way it sits on its tail references the yokai's strangest body part. One drawing has it depicted with a leaf on its head, referencing how transforming animal yokai would place objects (i.e. leaves, reeds or skulls) on their heads to shapeshift. Its name is also a subtle reference to how raccoon dogs are often confused with badgers in Japan, since some of the island's cultures use the terms "tanuki" or "mujina" to refer to both animals.

Primate Fanged Beasts

Bishaten

Bishaten (Bishutengo) (variant: Blood Orange Bishaten)

Tengu Beast, Frenetic Ascetic (Dismal Jester, Scarlet Tengu Beast)

^{Blood Orange Bishaten}

Appearances:
Nominate subspecies:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak
Blood Orange subspecies:
Rise: Sunbreak

On the road to perdition
Stands a false sentry with a devilish mission
Once it spots movement, it puts its tail in position
Its plan to pelt prey coming into fruition
For this is its territory, and there is no admission.

This outlandish monkey-like Primate Fanged Beast has a hand-like tail that it stands on in order to appear larger. As well as this, while it is an omnivore, it likes to eat fruit, and it even has a pouch for storing fruit, which it can use to throw at enemies. It has a subspecies that throws explosive pinecones.

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• Bag of Holding: Its pouch stores a seemingly endless number of fruits, all of which are at least the size of a watermelon.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: It hucks various fruits at Hunters, some of which can inflict Stun or Poison. Whack its tail enough while it's standing and it'll topple over, spilling these fruits, which can be picked up. The Poisonfruits and Flashfruits in particular can be chucked back at it to poison or blind it.
• Dance Battler: Probably the most blatant example of this trope compared to others like Zinogre or Mizutsune, with its constant spinning very much reminiscent of breakdancers.
• Edible Ammunition: The standard variant uses various fruits as projectiles.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: It runs away a considerable bit more than most monsters when near death.
• Helpful Mook: Of the Accidentally Assisting variety. It stores a bunch of fruits in a pouch to throw at you; hit it enough while it's on its tail and it'll crash to the ground, dropping a shiny and a bunch of fruits, which you can then pick up. The orange ones restore about as much health as a Potion when eaten.
• It Can Think: It's intelligent enough to know how to use Flashfruits against its enemies, smashing them against the ground and stunning any unwary Hunters like Tzitzi-Ya-Ku's flashes. It will also cover its mouth when it uses Poisonfruits to avoid inhaling the gas itself.
• Logical Weakness: Bishaten standing on its tail does let it hit hard and pull off its tornado spin move at the cost of more limited movement. However, that also gives it a higher center of gravity, meaning wailing on the tail for long enough will make Bishaten fall over.
• Maniac Monkeys: It's a fiendishly clever feathered monkey monster who loves to pick fights with people.
• Meaningful Name: Its name is a shortened version of the Buddhist/Japanese God Bishamonten, a god of fortune whose night form is said to be a kurama tengu.
• Mischief-Making Monkey: It's a monkey monster and it's very mischievous. It tends to its fight against the player as a kind of game, breaking into giggling hysterics as it chucks fruit at you.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: Is a giant monkey with avian traits like beaked mouth and feathery wings.
• Monkey Morality Pose: It can pose independently throughout the fight as it covers its eyes before throwing a Flashfruit, holds its nose/mouth after smashing down a Poisonfruit and shields its head/ears with its arms when exhausted.
• Not Quite Flight: The feathery wings extending from its arms allow it to glide around in a similar manner to Kecha Wacha.
• The Prankster: It's described as a monster that enjoys playing pranks on both people and its own prey.
• Rare Random Drop: Beast Gems in High Rank, Large Beast Gems in Master Rank.
• Pin-Pulling Teeth: The way the Blood Orange variant ignites a pinecone right before throwing it gives this impression.
• Playing with Fire: Blood Orange Bishaten can breathe fire, which it uses to make the pine cones it throws explode.
• Spectacular Spinning: No. Nothing is spectacular once this tengu monkey starts spinning.
• Stance System: If it's on its arms and legs, its movements are fast and near-unpredictable, making it difficult to guard or dodge its attacks. If it's on its tail, it has noticeably more limited movement but it will hit harder than before. However, its tail stance does give Bishaten a pretty obvious weakness: If you deal enough damage to the tail, Bishaten will lose balance and fall over.
• Status Effects: Some of the fruits it throws can inflict Poison, and it can also occasionally whip out a fruit that emits a stunning flash of light when crushed. It gains the ability to throw paralytic fruits in High Rank.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • One to Kecha Wacha, being a flight-capable monkey-like Fanged Beast that likes to play pranks on others.
  • Also one to Gypceros, being an intelligent, vaguely bird-like monster that relies on trickery to fight foes and is capable of inflicting multiple status effects.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: After smashing a Poisonfruit on the ground, it'll stand there and cover its nose for a while, leaving it wide open to be pummeled. On a lesser scale, the Jumbofruits it carries can apparently restore health, but it never eats one unless tired, instead just opting to throw them at you the majority of the time.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: The Blood Orange subspecies fights by throwing explosive pinecones.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • If Aknosom and its airborn fireballs didn't serve as a good notifier that the game's done pulling punches, then Bishaten and its rapid-fire Confusion Fu tactics most definitely will.
  • Blood Orange Bishaten also serves as a wake-up call for Master Rank, noting how monsters from there onward will have more complex and varied attack patterns, some completely different from what players have gotten used to in Low and High Rank.
• Yōkai: Based on the Tengu, with its monkey-traits coming from various folktales such as The Crab and the Monkey.

Garangolm

Garangolm

Wandering Colossus, Rigid Cloak Beast

Appearances:
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

A pure creature, lingering to its heart's content.
It looks docile and innocent at first glance.
But if it's disturbed from its peaceful desires...
Pure anger becomes pure strength.
As its power grows, so does its fire.
Getting in its way is risking life and limb.
It's already too late to realize...
That this creature's desires are no to be trifled with.

A massive primate Fanged Beast who dwells in woodlands. It has a symbiotic relationship with plant life due to producing a special fluid that promotes growth. Mostly calm, but frighteningly fierce when angered, its immense power has caused it to be designated as one of the Three Lords.

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• Bellyflop Crushing: One of its attacks has it leap into the air before performing a bodyslam.
• Combo Platter Powers: Rather than reflect its dual elemental usage, gear made with Garangolm parts instead have more decoration slots than any associated with the other Three Lords, allowing for more ability mixing and overall customization at the cost of traditional raw utility.
• Elemental Punch: Once it covers its arms with magma and moss, it extends the range of its attacks by allowing it to create explosions of fire and geysers of water by punching the ground.
• Dishing Out Dirt: The sap from its body can harden surrounding soil, and some of its attacks have it launch boulders.
• Frankenstein's Monster: In addition to its golem attributes, Garangolm also resembles the popular image of Frankenstein's monster thanks to its partially green body and squared head. Frankenstein's monster itself can be considered a Flesh Golem.
• Gentle Giant: Absolutely titanic in size, noticeable because primate Fanged Beasts are usually on the smaller side of monsters. It's also normally so docile by nature, that it's treated a major issue in Sunbreak when one suddenly becomes aggressive.
• Golem: Its name and stony appearance are based on golems.
• Green Thumb: Garangolm has sap-like fluids that promote plant growth, allowing it to forge a symbiotic relationship with the plants that grow in its body.
• Ground Punch: Hits the earth with enough force to stagger Hunters without the Tremor Resistance Skill. Only gets upgraded further once it's enraged and creates its magma and moss gauntlets.
• Having a Blast: Walking into the crater it leaves behind after using its Rocket Jump will apply Blastblight.
• It Can Think: Not only is it smart enough to use its fluids to create gauntlets and a helmet for itself when its in a bind, it's apparently also smart enough to know about thermodynamics.
• Killer Gorilla: It's a gorilla-like beast who possesses fearsome power. While it won't normally pick a fight with others, it will definitely put the hurt on anything that decides to get on its nerves.
• Magma Man: When enraged, it covers its right arm in magma, causing attacks with its right arm to deal fire damage.
• Making a Splash: When enraged, it covers its left arm in moss, giving attacks from its left arm the water element.
• Mighty Glacier: Its movements and attacks are slow but powerful but it can cover ground alarmingly quickly with its Rocket Jump attack, especially when you consider its sheer size.
• Rare Random Drop: Large Beast Gems in Master Rank.
• Rocket Jump: When Garangolm punches the ground with its right arm while it's covered in magma, the explosion it creates launches it into the air.
• Super Mode: When it's enraged, it coats its arms in magma and moss to empower them with fire and water respectively and making its ground slams that much more dangerous. When it's enraged and has low health, it'll cover its head in moss and use it as a helmet, making it harder to stun and giving its charge attacks more power. What you should really watch out for is the Limit Break that comes after, where it pulls up a massive slab of stone and blows it up with its right arm.
• Shockwave Clap: Once it gets to the point where it covers its head as well as its arms with magma and moss, it'll start doing this. The shockwave in this case doesn't come from pure strength but from magma and water mixing together and creating steam. One of it's moves involves flinging the Hunter into the air then clapping them while they're falling for incredible damage, unless the Hunter has a wirebug available to escape.
• Token Good Teammate: It's lumped into the Three Lords classification due to being exotic, strong, and previously unique to the Kingdom. However, it's the least aggressive of the trio, which is even reflected in its purchasable painting which shows it relaxing in a forest rather than glowering over its surroundings like Lunagaron and Malzeno do in theirs.
• The Worf Effect: It is defeated by Lunagaron in Turf Wars.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Its fire and water simultaneously when enraged is fairly unique to it. Once enough damage has been done to it, it'll start combining the elements by smashing its fists together to create steam explosions.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Garangolm are normally perfectly docile creatures, but if something were to threaten one, then it will smash them to pieces as its rage builds up.

Ursid Fanged Beasts

Goss Harag

Goss Harag (Goshahagi)

Snow Oni Beast, The Limb Reaper

Appearances:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak

Run! Run! The beast is on its way!
From the snowy depths, it comes to find its prey
With its chilling breath, it forms a blade of ice
Then it goes out hunting for something to excise
One wrong step and it's too late
The beast hears all, returns irate.

This monstrous Ursid Fanged Beast inhales the cold air of its icy environment before breathing it out onto its body, forming blades of ice on its arms.

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• Acrofatic: While it tends to slowly, carefully lumber around, it can pull off surprisingly acrobatic feats such as launching itself across the map or sliding around a'la Lagombi. And since it hits like a truck and can tank hits like one as well, you'll want to tread very carefully around this thing.
• An Ice Person: Its main element is ice, and it freezes parts of its body to create blades of ice.
• Ass Kicks You: Like its Ursid Fanged Beast cousins Arzuros and Lagombi, it'll try to flatten you with its rump should you try to attack it from behind. It can also chain this into a Ground Pound if it wants.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Its claws become more vulnerable to damage when it enters its rage state. When it forms its ice weapons, hitting those weapons does even more damage; hit them enough and they will break, causing Goss Harag to topple over.
• Bears Are Bad News: Especially when those bears are freaky oni-looking abominations that can shape their paws into ice blades.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: While its design takes all kinds of cues from the Namahage, there's no denying that its imposing build, shaggy white fur, and subtle ape traits invoke the yeti as well. The first mission that pits you up against one is even a reference to a frequent yeti nickname: "Abominable Snow Beast". The fully upgraded weapons made from it are also specifically called "Abominable".
• Bitch Slap: During its Turf War with Tetranadon, Goss asserts its dominance over the kappa by slapping it to the ground before jumping on top of it and beating the crap out of it.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Forms a blade of ice over one of its arms using its ice breath. It can Dual Wield two blades on its arms when it's enraged, further increasing its damage and range.
• Clothing Appendage: Depends on what you'd define as "clothing", but its face has hints of a hannya mask.
• Coup de Grâce: Several of its attacks will knock the hunter down for a longer period of time then normal. Fail to wiredash out of the stun and Goss Harag will slowly walk over and deliver an immensely damaging downwards smash to its defenseless opponent.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Goss Harag's Turf War with Tetranadon begins with a mutual sumo charge just like Arzuros, but because Goss Harag is much bigger than Arzuros, not only is it able to match Tetranadon weight for weight, but it then punches the fat kappa to the ground and gets on top of it, delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Tetranadon until the latter manages to push Goss Harag away and flee for dear life.
• Elite Mook: Compared to prior ursid fanged beats which trend towards early- to mid-game fodder, Goss Harag is a far more threatening, late-game challenge.
• Enhanced Punch: It can alternatively coat its other arm with ice to turn it into what is effectively a frosty boxing glove.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: While not exactly "evil", being an animal and all, it looks the part of an ominous ice demon and is a vicious and intimidating monster that comes off as less of an animal and more like a serial killer that stalks the frozen wilds.
• The Grim Reaper: Its title in English is the "Limb Reaper". No prizes for guessing why.
• It Can Think: The fact that it can form blades of ice on its paws to hunt with indicates that it's intelligent enough to understand the concept of tool usage, which is a scary thought given that it's essentially an oni in bear form.
• Lightning Bruiser: Not to the extent of Rajang or Tigrex, but like with real-life bears, Goss Harag is as fast as it is strong and durable. Which is to say, very.
• Moveset Clone: While a lot of its attacks are original, it also borrows the abilities of other ursid Fanged Beasts, such as Arzuros' sitting attack, and sliding around and hurling massive snowballs like Lagombi.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Its Turf War against Tetranadon is this, with the unfortunate amphibian being on the receiving end.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Unlike other Ursid Fanged Beasts, Goss Harang stays on its hind legs when in combat mode, only going on all fours when not in combat or pursuing. Combined with its ability to form sword-like ice blades on its arms, and you've got the closest you can get to a monster that fights like a human in the whole series.
• Ominous Walk: If it stuns you, Goss Harag will slowly, but surely make its way over to you to deal another blow, befitting its boogie man-esque nature.
• Rare Random Drop: Beast Gems and Goss Harag Bile in High Rank, Large Beast Gems and Goss Harag Bile+ in Master Rank.
• Razor Wind: When both of its arms are covered in an ice blade, it can launch discs of air like the Silverwind Nargacuga which can inflict Iceblight. Once you break the blade, it decides to fling the remnants of the ice blades along with the discs, getting rid of the ice in the process.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Both, depending on if it's enraged. Normally it's blue, using slower, more methodical attacks with the occasional leap or charge. Once angered, it literally Turns Red and switches to using its ice blades in faster, more erratic attacks. Not only that, but the further down its health is, the more likely it is to summon a second ice blade on its other arm. Unusually for this trope, rather than being associated with both fire and ice, it instead only utilizes its ice in its red form.
• Sadist: Goss seems to be smart enough to take pleasure from fear, as if you get stunned while it has two blades, it’ll Slow Walk up to you, dragging its swords as you desperately try to mash out of the status.
• Shockwave Stomp: It can create lines of fissures in the snow by performing a Ground Pound or smashing its ice blades into the ground.
• Stout Strength: As one would expect from an ursine monster, its big belly and brutal strength go hand in hand.
• Sword Drag: If you're stunned and its right paw is frozen, Goss Harag will drag its icy blade against the ground Pyramid Head-style as it slowly closes in on you.
• Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: Goss Harag's inspiration is the Namahage, which are boogeyman figures in Japanese folklore (specifically the city of Oga in Akita) that are said to kidnap and eat misbehaving children. And fittingly, the mission that first pits you up against one has the quest giver specifying that she wants it dead because her child can't go to the bathroom by themselves at night because they're scared of its roars, and another quest is given by a mischievous child who was told Goss Harag might eat him if he kept misbehaving. Flavor text for its parts and armor also indicates that children find it scary in general.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: It flings its ice blade once it's broken.
• Turns Red: Quite literally, as when enraged parts of its body go from blue to red.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Weapons made from its parts have very high raw damage, but negative Affinity.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Like many Ice-elemental monsters before it, it can fire a massive blast of ice from its mouth. This also signals that it's about to bring out the ice blades.
• The Worf Effect: Does this to Tetranadon in their Turf Wars, being able to slap the thing into submission with no problem. However, in the introductory cutscene for Gore Magala in Sunbreak the tables are turned when the black dragon shows up and proceeds to effortlessly beat Goss Harag, not even needing to go into Frenzy Mode and easily shrugging off a clean hook to the face, leaving it writhing in pain on the ground and infected by the Frenzy Virus once it leaves.
• Yōkai: Based on the Oni (more specifically, a kind of mountain Oni known as the Namahage). Its title in Japanese literally translates to "Snow Oni Beast". Being a bear-like monster that stands on its hind legs for much of the fight seems to take a bit of influence from the Onikuma as well.

Leviathans

Somnacanth

Somnacanth (Isonemikuni) (variant: Aurora Somnacanth)

Mermaid Wyvern, Soporific Siren / Ice Mermaid Wyvern, Seductive Siren

^{Aurora Somnacanth}

Appearances:
Nominate subspecies:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak
Aurora subspecies:
Rise: Sunbreak

A miraculous spring clear as children's song
Deep runs its stream, elegant but strong
A lullaby is sung, soft sounds of seduction
Its dulcet tones inducing sleep and serpentine destruction.

This multi-finned, fish-like Leviathan breathes out a soporific gas that tranquilizes foes before going in for the attack. It has a subspecies that emits cold air that freezes things around it.

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• Action Bomb: If it pulls out a red clam, get out of the way. This clam is explosive and can inflict Blastblight.
• Belly Flop Crushing: If it rears up and bangs on its drum-like belly, that means it's about to flatten you with it.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Its Turf War with Aknosom is this in Somnacanth's favor. While not as hilariously one-sided as Goss Harag vs Tetranadon since Aknosom gets a solid hit in, Somnacanth quickly turns the tide in its favor by yanking it out of the air and slamming it to the ground, viciously flinging it away with its headcrest, and then putting it to sleep when it tries to retaliate with a headbutt of its own.
• Fragile Speedster: Somnacanth is very speedy and agile, but most of its attacks aren't particularly powerful and its threat level mainly stems from the arsenal of status effects it can employ against the player. Thanks to its huge, easily-accessible weak points, it takes comparatively less effort to kill a Somnacanth than it does with other monsters in its weight class.
• Helpful Mook: Accidentally Assisting type. On occasion, Somnacanth will crack open a clam that emits a green mist that heals hunters standing close to it.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Not the monster itself, but the armour made from it is this. Fitting with the Japanese theme of Rise, its armour looks like a ninja... dressed in bright yellow, purple and neon blue.
• An Ice Person: The Aurora subspecies uses ice attacks and can freeze the ground to slide on ice.
• Logical Weakness: Because Somnacanth was adapted to life in water, it has difficulty moving on dry land. The Aurora subspecies knows this and makes up for it by using ice to aid its mobility.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: It's basically a combination of a reptile and a fish, while its behavior is like that of an otter.
• Moveset Clone: Some of its movements are similar to Najarala's, such as the way it stands on its tail and shifting around while staying upright.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: It's primarily based on the Ningyo, which are Japanese mermaids; much like a ningyo, it looks much more unsettling than beautiful (less "Little", more "Saga"). However, its long, hair-like fin on its head and its high-pitched voice were more inspired off Western mermaids.
• Our Sirens Are Different: Its appearance and fighting style are meant to invoke this, with it being an eerily beautiful mermaid-looking creature capable of stunning or putting a hunter to sleep with its shells and dust. Even its title in English is "Soporific Siren".
• Playful Otter: To describe this thing as "playful" would be very far from the truth, but the way it swims on its back and cracks clams on its belly evokes the image of an otter.
• Spike Shooter: One of its attacks has it shoot a row of spikes across the ground that damage anyone that touches them.
• Status Effects: It can breathe a mist that inflicts Sleep on targets. In addition to this, it can crack open clams that can emit stunning flashes of light or even inflict Blastblight. The Aurora subspecies trades these attacks for powerful ice-elemental ones that can inflict Iceblight.
• Stuff Blowing Up: It can occasionally crack open explosive clams that inflict Blastblight.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Aurora substances to Glacial Agnaktor.
• Yōkai: Based on the Ningyo. Its subspecies adds Yuki-onna traits.

Almudron

Almudron (Oromidoro) (variant: Magma Almudron)

Elderly Mud Wyvern, Hermit of the Swamp / Melting Elderly Wyvern, Scorching Mud

^{Magma Almudron}

Appearances:
Nominate subspecies:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak
Magma subspecies:
Rise: Sunbreak

Playing in the dirt after a hard day's work
A grumpy old beast rises from the murk
Begone! Begone!
A booming voice resounds
None shall ever enter this creature's holy grounds.

This huge, serpentine Leviathan secretes a yellow acid that dissolves the ground from its tail, which is then gripped with its tail itself to splash at hunters in the form of waves. It normally lives high in mountains and doesn't bother people, but becomes a threat should it descend near villages (as happens during Rampages). It has a subspecies that lives in volcanic environments and uses magma instead of mud.

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• Art Attacker: The way it uses its tail to both swipe at foes and stir up movements in the mud calls to mind an artist painting a large picture. In fact, its design was partially based on the art of calligraphy.
• Cat Girl: Female Almudron armor makes its wearer look like she's wearing a robotic cat-eared hoodie, and the huge clawed gauntlets further the feline aesthetics. The Palico armor made from its scraps look like a catgirl robot.
• Covered in Mud: Subverted; although it uses mud to attack and prefers muddy environments, it does not cover itself in mud, for the most part (in fact its scales are noted to basically be impossible for mud to stick to). The one exception is the tip of its tail, which it uses to fling mud and acid around like a paintbrush. Breaking it will cripple its arsenal of mud attacks.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Its turf war with Bishaten. While it starts with Bishaten smashing a fruit on Almudron’s head, Almudron quickly retaliates by grabbing Bishaten with its tail and dragging it halfway into the ground. When Bishaten gets free and tries to jump away, Almudron leaps out of the ground, grabs Bishaten midair, and throws it down hard.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Similarly to Jyuratodus, it uses mud to attack hunters.
• Geo Effects: Similarly to Jyuratodus, it can create piles of dirt that serve as platforms for hunters to stand on; it can even create pillars of dirt with some of its attacks! In addition, it can splatter blobs of golden acid around, creating acidic patches of mud that hurt to stand in. The Magma subspecies can create piles of magma to stand on, but you don't want to stick around on those since they explode after a short while.
• Grumpy Old Man: Its appearance, attitude, and introductory poem all paint it as the monster equivalent of a cranky old hermit who will violently chase off anyone who trespasses on its domain.
• The Hermit: Its English title is "Hermit of the Swamp" and it's noted to prefer to live in isolation.
• Lightning Bruiser: Almudron is durable, has powerful attacks, and can move very fast for its size.
• Limit Break: After using the mud ball as a bludgeon for long enough, it'll do a slam dunk maneuver that destroys the mud ball but leaves everyone airborne, stunned, or both. The Magma subspecies also does a slam dunk with its magma ball, only it can also blow up the magma ball.
• Magma Man: The Magma subspecies can swim through lava and attacks with the magma on its tail.
• Making a Splash: Can splash waves of muddy water at foes with its tail.
• Mix-and-Match Creatures: It's basically an Eastern dragon with the face of an otter, the whiskers of a catfish, a cobra-like hood and the tail of a lobster.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Its appearance is similar to that of Eastern Dragons, what with the serpentine body, the whiskers, and the mammalian face.
• Powered Armor: The Almudron player gear and Palico/Palamute armor crafted from it gives off a robotic look. Its set bonuses even provide boosts to transforming weapons like the Switch Axe and Charge Blade. Even its weapons are all mechanical and robotic themed like having two circular mechanical saws for Dual Blades.
• Prehensile Tail: It has a long tail with articulated joints at the tip that resembles a punching fist when clenched. Its tail can also clench a large ball of mud to hit players with as well as throwing it at them.
• Rare Random Drop: Almudron Plates in Low Rank and Golden Almudron Orbs in High Rank.
• Robot Dog: Its Palamute armor makes its wearer look like a robot.
• Stealth Pun: The Cat Girl nature of the female armor, along with the strangely large claws built into both versions, seem out of nowhere with such an aquatic monster... until you remember one of its main inspirations is the catfish.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • To Lagiacrus, being a huge, aquatic, vaguely Asian Dragon-like Leviathan that stirs up movements in the water with certain movements of its body. It even manipulates the terrain similarly to how Lagiacrus would have if it had appeared in World.
  • The Magma Almudron subspecies acts as this for Agnaktor, what with being a Fire-based Leviathan that heats itself up.
• Yōkai: Based on the Dorotabo, a mud monster that rises from the ground whenever his rice fields fail. It's also partially based on the art of dorodango, polishing a ball of mud into a shiny sphere.

Fanged Wyverns

Magnamalo

Magnamalo (Magaimagado) (variant: Scorned Magnamalo)

Malice Tiger Wyvern, The Wyvern of Malice, Barbarous Beast / Ultimate Malice

^{Scorned Magnamalo}

Appearances:
Nominate subspecies:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak
Scorned variant:
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

A grudge towards all life, given form in flame
Stalks unsuspecting creatures that it seeks to maim
Its prey turns round to face it, preferring a hero's death
Knowing that this purple fire will steal its final breath
Pray for its soul
For this creature of pure evil shall swallow the world whole.

The flagship monster for Monster Hunter: Rise, Magnamalo is an otherworldly Fanged Wyvern that hunts down prey with a relentless ferocity. Upon eating its prey, it gains the ability to create a hot, purple gas known as "hellfire", which it then uses to attack any trespassers on its territory. It is associated with the mysterious Rampage that periodically threatens Kamura Village, and is greatly feared by it as a result. Sunbreak introduces a scarred, vengeful variant with longer arm blades, more mastery over its hellfire, and the ability to cause Dragonblight.

---

• Advertised Extra: Players used to the likes of Nergigante and Velkhana from World may be surprised to see that Magnamalo doesn't play a very big role in Rise's story, since it's a standard monster and not an Elder Dragon. Once hunted near the end of Low Rank as the Disc-One Final Boss, it drops off in relevance since it wasn't really the cause of the Rampage, with actual Elder Dragons Ibushi and Narwa taking central stage during High Rank. It even begins showing up during standard hunts after that point, where it is just as suspectible to Wyvern Riding as any other monster. Subsequent title updates do a great deal to subverting this though, as Magnamalo can show up during a Rampage as it's known to do and attacks the other monsters as its prey, and then in title update 3.0 it shows up to help the Hunter during the final battle against Narwa the Allmother (though sometimes it's Teostra or Kushala Daora who show up instead).
• Almighty Janitor: Downplayed, in that Magnamalo is recognized as a serious danger in-game (7 stars out of the max 10). But compared to similar monsters at that rank (Tigrex, Diablos, etc.), it repeatedly punches above its supposed class, tying in turf-wars with two Elder Dragons and outright beating Bazelgeuse, a monster that the aforementioned Tigrex is shown to struggle against, every time. It even survives an encounter with Narwa The Allmother. Despite all this, it hasn't been officially classed as an Elder Dragon Level Threat. This is subverted with the Scorned variant, which is one of an elite few monsters with a full 10 stars (typically reserved for extreme endgame threats), and is notably the only one of them to not be an Elder Dragon or Apex.^note While Chaotic Gore Magala is also at 10 stars and is technically unclassified, it's the juvenile of the Elder Dragon Shagaru Magala and is partly matured into said dragon.
• Background Music Override: Par for the course, its theme will override the default area theme in the event that you are in the same area as it and a "default area music" monster, as well as the unique themes of some other monsters. But most notably, in "7 red stars" Rampage quests, if it appears its theme will override the normal Rampage theme. However, the Counter Gong theme will still override it.
• Begin with a Finisher: Once Scorned Magnamalo aggroes onto a target when it's not in battle, it opens up with the infamous "pinball of death" maneuver Magnamalo is known to use as its Limit Break.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Magnamalo uses its tail as a spear for both physical blows and to shoot balls of hellfire.
• Big Damn Heroes: It can make an unexpected appearance in the fight against Narwa the Allmother and actually attacks her! While the fight goes very badly for Magnamalo, it does give you the opportunity to ride it to deal massive damage to Narwa.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: It has two serrated, bony blades on its arms. While the normal Magnamalo doesn't put them to use often, the Scorned variant both has significantly longer blades and will use them to slice and dice hunters.
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: When the spear-like tail is severed, it lands with the tip embedded in the ground.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: It can get into Turf Wars with Kushala Daora and Teostra and even knocks them into the ground... only for the Elder Dragons to immediately push it off with enough strength to leave it mountable or deal more damage than it did to them. Somewhat subverted with Scorned Magnamalo; while it still takes a fair amount of damage in the process, in this case it's the Elder Dragons who are left dazed and mountable, with the exception of Malzeno and Velkhana.
• Catlike Dragons: Resembles a cross between a tiger and an Eastern dragon.
• Cursed with Awesome: At level 3, the "Hellfire Cloak" skill on its armor periodically gives you hellfireblight when monsters become enraged. While this may initially seem like a bad thing, this hellfire is special in that it only deals Scratch Damage to you when it explodes while dealing increased damage to monsters. At the same time, the Magnamalo Soul ramp-up ability of its weapons boosts your attack while you are afflicted with hellfireblight. This gives you two options: you can either weaponize the hellfire as a landmine by Wiredashing, or keep the flames as long as possible as a sort of substitute for Agitator.
• Dance Battler: Like Zinogre, it moves with finesse and skill as if it were dancing. Of course, Magnamalo being what it is, it does so to spread hellfire clouds over a wider radius.
• Dark Is Not Evil: While it sports a demonic appearance, uses Hellfire to deal massive damage, has a poem that describes it as a creature with "a grudge towards all life, given form in flame", and has a name that literally translates to "Great Evil", it's no more "evil" than the other apex/flagship monsters in the franchise as it's merely on top of the food chain, and generally tends to leave people alone unless provoked. One will even help you fight Allmother Narwa for a bit, and focuses all its aggression towards her.
• Death from Above: One of signature moves is going on a tackling rampage before jumping into the sky and coming down with the force of a bomb.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: It throws down with Elder Dragons, despite not being one itself. Against Teostra and Kushala Daora, it aggressively attacks them while they're in the air before slamming them down into the ground like a meteor. While it gets tossed aside and takes an equal amount of damage in the process, the fact that it's able to do this to an Elder Dragon at all is quite impressive. Bazelgeuse, another monster described as being a threat on the level of Elder Dragons, gets similar treatment, except it gets beaten outright, with Magnamalo only getting a fireblight in return.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Don't let the credits that roll after its defeat fool you, Magnamalo is the mascot but far from the main threat. Beating it in the Village quests is basically a final exam and the end of the first arc of the story. It's also not responsible for the Rampage, but merely a sign of it as it uses the Rampage to feed.
• Do Not Go Gentle: The poem in its boss introduction cutscene describes how its prey would rather opt to go down fighting against it, rather than flee from certain death. Of course, this happens to a Tobi-Kadachi, who quickly succumbs to Magnamalo in a matter of moments.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: Like the Gore Magala, once sufficiently angered, an extra breakable part will pop out of it; the scutes on its back, in this case. These scutes are needed for almost all of its gear, so you shouldn't go too hog-wild on the attacks, lest it dies before the scutes can emerge or get broken.
• Dragons Are Demonic: It physically somewhat resembles an Eastern dragon (and is classified as a 'Fanged Wyvern' In-Universe, but behaves with the violence of a demon, to the point that the gas it exhales was dubbed "hellfire".
• The Dreaded: During the previous Rampage Magnamalo nearly wiped out the entire village. As such, all of Kamura fears it like a demon.
• Enemy Mine: When it shows up in the final battle against Narwa the Allmother. It's not even trying to fight the hunters and goes straight for the Elder Dragon, clearly recognizing the bigger threat.
• Fangs Are Evil: It sports massive fangs befitting its poetic description as a "creature of pure evil".
• Fearless Fool: It will attack any monster it comes across. Even Elder Dragons are not safe from it. Unlike Odogaron, however, who's clearly out of its league against Elder Dragons, Magnamalo does fairly well against them at first before they retaliate with a stronger blow than Magnamalo's and send it reeling. The Scorned version, however, is just as violent, but is now powerful enough that it can outright beat many apex predators and Elder Dragons its old self would pay for its arrogance against, with the notable exceptions of Malzeno and Velkhana which it can still fight to a draw. Taken to its logical extreme when it makes an unexpected appearance against Narwa the Allmother. While it almost instantly loses that fight, this does give you the opportunity to ride it to do massive damage against Narwa before it flees the scene.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Unlike the rest of the monsters involved in Rampages, Magnamalo is there to feed on other monsters rather than act as part of a panicked and violent mob. Thus, should it show up during Rampage battles in the game it will attack the other monsters instead of just focusing on the gates or the Kamura defenders.
• Glass Cannon: Scorned Magnamalo's equipment skill "Mail of Hellfire" buffs your damage/element at the cost of your defenses/resistances, respectively, depending on which Switch Scroll is in use. Upgrading the skill increases the offense buff, but also intensifies the defense loss.
• Good Armor, Evil Armor: Magnamalo's armor in both Low- and High-rank don't just resemble cursed samurai armor, their descriptions heavily imply that the armor itself will actually harm the user badly simply by wearing it.
  Sinister Helm description: Helm of Magnamalo. The maelstrom's spirit would devour the very heavens.
  Sinister Garb description: Breastplate crafted from Magnamalo. Engulfs the owner in a maelstrom of despair.
  Sinister Gauntlets description: Vambraces that devour the spirits of living creatures, including their wearer.
  Sinister Tassets description: Echoes with an insatiable appetite that threatens to devour the wearer.
  Sinister Greaves description: The never-ending thirst of the void seeks to deliver a new master to ruin.
• Handicapped Badass: Scorned Magnamalo is heavily scarred while missing both an eye and a horn, but this doesn't stop it from being leagues stronger than a normal Magnamalo and being able to throw down with Elder Dragons.
• Having a Blast: Magnamalo's Hellfire is essentially Blast with some extra properties. Its weapons all have the Blast element.
• Hellfire: Although it's explicitly stated to not be supernatural, but rather a byproduct of Magnamalo's own metabolism, the superheated purple gas it spews is known to the hunters under the name "hellfire", and inflicts "hellfireblight" upon its victims.
• Helpful Mook: Of the Accidentally Assisting variety. It can appear in Rampages, and its attacks can put monsters in a mountable state.
• Hitodama Light: The "Hellfire" gas it exhales emits an eerie purple glow intentionally reminiscent of ghostly lights.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Once Magnamalo ignites its body parts with hellfire, its attacks with those parts will become more powerful and explosive, but it also leaves its vents for its volatile hellfire exposed. Doing enough damage to any parts emitting hellfire will cause the gas to explode inside Magnamalo, dealing massive damage and potentially toppling it.
  • Hellfireblight is essentially Blastblight, but a unique feature is the player can get rid of it by Wiredashing, leaving behind a purple flame that explodes upon contact with a monster (or unfortunate ally). On the first hit it's a guaranteed knockdown against any monster that touches it, Magnamalo included.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: It is implied to be able to use this ability in-universe, as it's noted hunting it under normal conditions is rendered much more difficult because if you manage to wound or weaken it then it will simply run off and gorge on the surplus of prey the Rampage offers in order to heal itself and power itself up, rendering any progress a hunter makes against it moot by the time they find it again. Finding a way to put some distance between it and the horde of other monsters is thus a plot point in the story.
• It Can Think: The way it moves and fights is almost reminiscent of Gunlance users. Seamlessly moving between ranged and melee attacks, Recoil Boosting to gain a mobility advantage, even pulling off a charged attack that's almost like its own version of Dragon Blast where it spins its tail around and fires a blast of hellfire.
• Kaizo Trap: When it roars, it detonates some of the gas left in its body, meaning you're in for a very bad time if you're stuck too close to it once it gets suitably pissed off.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Its arm blades are shaped liked katana blades and they extend its attack range when hitting with its claws. There's also two katana weapons that players can forge from Magnamalo parts: a Longsword that resembles the arm blade with a flat tip (which ironically makes it look more like a podao than a katana) and a katana Sword and Shield that has serrated edges in the blade.
• Kill Steal: While it showing up in Rampage quests to attack other monsters is an obvious help if you just want to finish the quest, chances are that you have some subquests to fulfill, and it attacking your targets means less changes to fill out those subquests and improve your quest grade.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After you finish Wyvern Riding it in the fight against Narwa the Allmother it gets the hell out of dodge from the area and never returns, presumably because it figured it can't actually defeat Narwa or the Hunter and cuts its loses with whatever amount of damage it did.
• Laser Blade: Scorned Magnamalo can focus their hellfire and swinging it like a blade, effectively extending the range of the swing in a similar fashion.
• Leitmotif: A suitably dark and climactic piece known as "Barbarous Beast", which features both some traditional Eastern instruments and more conventional orchestral elements, with a side-order of ominous chanting.
• Lightning Bruiser: As usual for flagship monsters, Magnamalo is fast, strong, and can take a serious beating before going down. It even has projectiles and its tail can do insanely far reaching thrusts, guaranteeing that no range is safe.
• Limit Break: Once it's enraged and fully charged with hellfire, it'll roar, start zipping around like a pinball on cocaine, leaving trails of hellfire gas wherever it goes, then jump up and detonate all the hellfire gas left in its body in a massive explosion, also igniting all the clouds it left behind in the process. The Scorned variant starts the fight with this one.
• Mascot: It's the flagship monster of Rise.
• Meteor Move: Any Turf War it gets into with a flying monster will result in Magnamalo jumping in the air to attack it before sending it crashing into the ground with a flying takedown. Even Elder Dragons are not immune to this, though it does take an equal amount of damage itself in the process in their case. This can and will damage you as well if you're unlucky enough to be in the blast radius.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: It's a cross between a tiger and a dragon with some samurai inspired bits thrown in. Mechanics-wise, it's a mix between Zinogre, Nergigante, Valstrax, and Hellblade Glavenus.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Its name literally means "great evil". Its monikers include "Wyvern of Malice" and "Barbarous Beast".
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Hitodama samurai tiger dragon.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Its antler-like horns, dark color schemes, and predilection for using its spear-shaped tail as a weapon bring to mind the famed samurai Honda Tadakatsu.
• Non-Malicious Monster: While certainly dangerous and colorfully referred to as having a grudge against all life, Magnamalo is in practice no more evil than most other apex predators in the Monster Hunter franchise. It actually leaves people alone most of the time, but comes into conflict with Kamura every 50 years because it has learned to take advantage of the Rampage to gorge itself on food and thus power itself up into a town wrecking level of threat as it seeks to stock up on any prey it can.
• No-Sell: In Scorned Magnamalo's unique turf war with Malzeno, it tanks the latter's dragonblight breath by charging right into it, resulting in a massive explosion that damages both monsters. Velkhana's turf war yields a similar result, with Magnamalo powering through Velkhana's ice breath long enough to release an explosion that drives it back.
• Not Quite Flight: It can use its hellfire explosions to redirect itself or even spring up into the sky, much like an Insect Glaive uses small explosions of air to jump. This allows it to have Turf Wars with flight-capable monsters such as Aknosom.
• Oh, Crap!: Starting from the version 2 update, if Magnamalo shows up in a Rampage (you can tell if it will in that horde if you get an optional mission to repel it or not), then the NPCs will react accordingly. For good reason too, it can singlehandily destroy the first gate in just a few attacks.
• Our Manticores Are Spinier: Its design definitely evokes the manticore, as it resembles a big cat with a stinger tail.
• Panthera Awesome: Its design is somewhat tiger-like, with its face and roar resembling that of its real-world inspiration. Some of its movements are also based on those of tigers.
• Playing with Fire: Magnamalo uses its hellfire gas as a way to attack, and can fling balls of this gas at targets.
• Purple Is Powerful: Its color scheme is primarily a royal purple with even its flames matching it. Being a flagship monster, it's very powerful with characters in the trailers saying its name with great caution. It even takes on Bazelgeuse, the Elder Dragon trio, and Allmother Narwa, winning against the first though all the others manage to overcome it even if it deals a rather powerful first blow.
• Rare Random Drop: The standard wariant has Magnamalo Plates in Low Rank, Purple Magna Orbs in High Rank, and Magnamalo Orbs in Master Rank, while MR-exclusive Scorned has Magna Glare Eyes.
• Recoil Boost: In addition to enabling it to get airborne and change direction midair, its hellfire explosions can rocket it across the battlefield with much greater speed than it can attain just from running.
• Red Baron: "Wyvern of Malice".
• Samurai: Its design is based on samurai with its face resembling a samurai helmet, having claws on its front legs shaped like serrated katana blades, and its tail can unfurl so it resembles a cross-blade spear. Its armor set, as to be expected, also evokes this.
• Scratch Damage: The hellfireblight caused by the "Hellfire Cloak" skill from its armour only does this to the hunter when it explodes. Not so much for the monsters, who take a lot of damage from said hellfire.
• Status Buff: Like the Astalos before it, it can supercharge its various body parts with hellfire gas to make their attacks stronger. You can also use the Magnamalo armour's "Hellfire Cloak" and the ramp-up "Magnamalo Soul" ability to buff yourself while affected with hellfire.
• Status Effects: While the normal version of Magnamalo inflicts only Hellfireblight, the Scorned variant takes it a step further and adds Dragonblight to the mix.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Not only it can use its hellfire gas to cause powerful explosions, the hellfireblight it can inflict on opponents can also explode on contact, whenever it affects the hunter, their allies, or Magnamalo itself. At level 3, a hunter can even use the "Hellfire Cloak" skill from its armour to deal massive damage to monsters.
• Technicolor Fire: The flames it uses to fight foes are a ghostly purple in color. They're inspired by ghost flames in depictions of possessed armor. When it supercharges itself, its flames turn magenta-colored. The Scorned Variant has a "Raging Hellfire" mode at low health where it literally Turns Red and begins using red fire that inflicts Dragonblight.
• The Power of Hate: Likely only metaphorical given the nature of the game, but Magnamalo that become Scorned are wounded and shunned by their own kind,^note It has a broken horn, a wound that permanently scars a Magnamalo and makes it considered unfit for mating or leading and become incredibly aggressive as a result, constantly fighting and devouring prey. In the present, not only are they described as twisted, malevolent beings filled with hate and covered in battle scars, they've also become far greater threats on par with a Risen Elder Dragon.
• Wave-Motion Gun: After twirling its tail around like a magic wand, it can fire a massive (albeit short-lived) beam of hellfire. Its Master Rank variation can fire two, and its Scorned variant can fire three, with the third beam being a sustained blast that inflicts Dragonblight.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Its turf wars with any flying monster might be exactly the same, but they deal massive damage to both the monster and you if you're stupid enough to stand still and watch. Subverted with Scorned Magnamalo, who gets a completely different turf war with Malzeno and Velkhana.
• The Worf Effect: After picking fights with Elder Dragons and Bazelgeuse and getting away with it with a tie or a victory, Magnamalo makes a surprise appearance in the fight against Narwa the Allmother to pick a fight with her and gets curb stomped for its trouble, though this gives you the opportunity to ride Magnamalo to inflict major damage on Narwa. On the opposite end, Scorned Magnamalo is introduced making short work of a Zinogre in a Single-Stroke Battle and its turf wars with Malzeno and Velkhana let it fight to a draw. But even Scorned Magnamalo is no match for Narwa the Allmother and fares just as poorly as the original.
• Yōkai: Based on a haunted suit of samurai armor, and the Hitodama, a bright floating light that appears around ghosts.
• You Will Not Evade Me: If a flying monster gets into a turf war with it, it'll fly high into the air and try to do everything in its power to get Magnamalo off it and onto the ground. Magnamalo will just jump right back up onto it before tackling it back to the ground like a giant purple meteor.

Lunagaron

Lunagaron (Runagaron)

Ice Wolf Wyvern, Moonlight Nocturne

Appearances:
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Pale moonlight, barely breaking through the clouds
The creature wanders restlessly through the darkness
Stepping firmly, never dropping its pace
Its entire body honed to perfection
Finally, the clouds split apart and the moon reveals itself
Silver light illuminates the land and the mountains
It dances, it runs, it trembles with unbridled power
And with an entranced roar, it shows its true form.

A wolf-like monster that seemingly grows stronger underneath the moonlight. It possesses the ability to chill the air around it, which helps regulate its body temperature and lets it crystallize the moisture around it. This thermoregulation also allows it to alter its muscular structure to stand on two legs when needed. Its fearsome power has caused it to be designated as one of the Three Lords.

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• Absurdly Sharp Claws: It's rumored that its claws can shred anything to pieces. Correspondingly, it's weapons have pretty good sharpness, with even the basic pre-upgrade weapons having at least a sliver of purple available.
• Audible Sharpness: Once it covers its claws with ice to give them additional reach and power, each swing of its claws will produce a noticeable cutting sound as it swipes with them.
• Breath Weapon: Can release freezing jets of frost from its mouth as an attack, typically jumping across the screen and creating a wave of sleet to catch Hunters by surprise.
• Elemental Armor: It covers itself in ice to use as a suit of armor whenever it goes to its two-legged stance.
• Force and Finesse:
  • It's the Finesse to Goss Harag's Force. Both monsters cover themselves in ice to give themselves a power-up, but Goss only covers its forelimbs and mostly focuses on raw power. Lunagaron covers its whole body and uses both power and agility to trip up monsters and Hunters.
  • It's also the Finesse to Garangolm's Force. Both of them are two of the Three Lords that use Elemental Armor when they're enraged and need a boost, with Garangolm using fire and water and Lunagaron using ice. However, Garangolm's attacks don't change that much once it uses its elements while Lunagaron's do. This change in tactics on top of Lunagaron's agility is what helps it win its turf war against Garangolm.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: While normally quadrupedal, when it's enraged, Lunagaron will fight on its hind legs.
• Fur Against Fang: The werewolf-themed Lunagaron will engage in a Turf War with the vampire-themed Malzeno.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: The ability to alter its musculature so it can stand on two legs. This allows it to take full advantage of its dexterous claws to perform grounded thrusts and strikes. In this state, it can even grapple other monsters more effectively due to its shifted center of gravity, which is how it triumphs over Zinogre during their Turf War when they were originally stalemated in a more conventionally beastly lock.
• An Ice Person: The Lunagaron's main element is ice and can generate it for a variety of purposes, as a long ranged attack or generating it as body armor.
• Lunacy: Subverted. As its anecdote shows, it was initially believed that there was a link between the moon and its armored standing state. Further research into the monster’s species revealed that this ability was not related to the moon, and that it can apply that armor and stand any time it likes due to a unique thermal muscle regulatory system.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: The Lunagaron is based off of a werewolf, given its lupine appearance, growth in power during nighttime, and shift to a bipedal stance when enraged.
• Pre-Final Boss: You fight a Qurio-afflicted Lunagaron at MR5, and right afterwards you fight Gaismagorm.
• Rare Random Drop: Lunagaron Frost Jewels for Master Rank.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Once it's ice armor has been fully formed, it'll be signified by a fierce red glow in its eyes.
• Savage Wolves: It's based off a wolf, and is certainly ferocious.
• The Worf Effect: It is defeated by Malzeno in Turf Wars. To it's credit, it's able to fight back somewhat using its speed and agility, even briefly grappling Malzeno to the ground before getting caught by its tail. Its turf war with Garangolm puts it on the delivering end, however.
• Wolverine Claws: As Lunagaron forms its ice armor, it'll begin coating its claws with ice to create additional icicle claws on top of its regular ones. Especially noticeable with its foreleg claws which practically triple in length by the time it's finished.

Temnocerans

Rachnoid / Rakna-Kadaki

Rachnoid (Tsukehibaki)/Rakna-Kadaki (Yatsukadaki) (variant: Pyrantula/Pyre Rakna-Kadaki)

Empress Spider, Wandering Widow/ Blazing Empress Spider, Parching Puppeteer

^{Pyre Rakna-Kadaki}

Appearances:
Nominate subspecies:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak
Pyre subspecies:
Rise: Sunbreak

Crawling with a mincing gait, dressed in a white gown
Aimlessly she roams, queen without a crown
Her beloved children, always by her side
Share their mother's temper and her fiery pride.

This long-necked Temnoceran wears webs over her body as a way to protect herself from attacks. When fighting foes, she can spit out silk to stop enemies in their tracks before following up with streams of fire from her mouth. In addition to this, she carries spiderlings called Rachnoids on her body, and can release them onto the battlefield to help her fight. It has a subspecies which uses Blast in addition to Fire.

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• Action Bomb: The Pyrantulas store explosive gases inside their bodies that Pyre Rakna-Kadaki can ignite with her webs. The Pyrantulas can also release it themselves to apply Blastblight.
• Adorable Evil Minions: Well, calling animals evil is always a stretch, but the Rachnoids are very cute. They're essentially walking egg sacs that occasionally spit fire. The ones attached to a Rakna-Kadaki are subservient to their mother and fight with her.
• All Webbed Up: Like the Nerscylla and Ahtal-Ka before it, her webs can trap hunters in place. She even wears her silk like a lace gown with her armor sets looking like Gothic fashion.
• Ass Kicks You: In a sense, as Rakna-Kadaki can take the cocoon of webs on their abdomens and slam them against Hunters. Pyre Rakna-Kadaki also has a move where she looks behind herself - bending her head backwards to do so - and promptly launches herself at her target cocoon-first.
• Badass Preacher: The Palico gear crafted from her resembles a bishop, with a book resembling a Bible serving as the weapon.
• Battle Ballgown:
  • The female Rakna armor is an armored wedding dress with a silken veil and skirt.
  • The silk that Rakna-Kadaki covers herself with also gives the subtle impression of a shiromuku, a traditional (and recently controversial) Japanese wedding dress.
• Black Widow: It's implied Rakna-Kadaki kill their mates sometime before they birth young. The male armor's description describes a man dying for their love.
• Egg Folk: Rachnoids look like egg sacs with legs, even though their mother already has a massive egg sac to hold them.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: The left side of the male armor set has Rakna spikes while the right does not.
• Flunky Boss: Throws baby spiders called Rachnoids at her foes mid-fight. They're sometimes used for attacks, but more often used by her like grappling hooks to traverse along the ground. Eliminating them is vital to shutting down her mobility as well as crippling her attack pool.
• Giant Spider: As a Temnoceran, she's naturally this.
• Glass Cannon: The Pyre subspecies has deadlier fire attacks but can't take as many hits as her nominate counterpart, since the webbings on her legs are now weak areas rather than armored ones.
• Having a Blast: The Pyre subspecies uses Blast as an element alongside Fire.
• King Mook: Or Queen in this case. Rakna-Kadaki is the adult version of the Rachnoids that crawl around both the monster and the Lava Caverns itself. She even uses them to add onto her own attacks in battle.
• Mirror Boss: Her use of her children to enhance her mobility during combat strongly parallels Kamura and Elgado's hunters' use of Wirebugs to do the same.
• Non-Indicative Name: Subverted. She initially appears to have four limbs, making her unfitting of the Temnoceran classification (which are a type of Giant Spider), but if you can break the silk covering her belly, you'll see that the other four limbs hold up its egg sac.
• Playing with Fire: She can spew out streams of fire from her mandibles.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Pyre subspcies covers herself in red and black webs while having a black carapace. Subverted since she's an animal.
• Weak, but Skilled: Her weapon sets have pretty good Affinity and are the only weapons in the game besides those of Nargacuga to boast white Sharpness before reaching Master Rank, but they have subpar Attack values for their level.
• Yōkai: Based on the Tsuchigumo and Jorogumo. Her Japanese name "Yatsukadaki" is based on "Yatsukahagi," another name for the tsuchigumo, while the webbings on her body resemble a wedding gown as a reference to the jorogumo's name meaning "Binding Bride." Further, the descriptions for the male armor set outright tell a story of a man seduced by a spider monster in human form and how he happily died by her hand for the sake of being with her, essentially a jorogumo story in all but name.

Amphibians

Tetranadon

Tetranadon (Yotsumiwadou)

Kappa Frog, Amphibious Wrestler

Appearances:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak

Floating in water, it beckons silently
Once its prey approaches, there is no time to flee
Gut and strength alike rank among the greats
Don't get pushed out of the ring, for the abyss awaits.

This strange freshwater Amphibian gulps up stones and gravel from the riverbed, expanding its size and augmenting its attacks.

---

• Angry, Angry Hippos: Its face and plump build are evocative of hippos, as is its violent temperament.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Once all puffed up, its belly becomes much more vulnerable to damage. Attacking it enough in this way will eventually cause it to puke out all of the water and rocks it imbibed, toppling it and dropping a shiny in the process.
• Balloon Belly: It can inflate its belly by swallowing rocks and gravel, which will make it move sluggishly at the cost of giving it a lot more attack power.
• Belly Flop Crushing: It can leap into the air and try to flatten you with one of these.
• Big Eater: In the Turf War with Arzuros, Lagombi, and Volvidon, it tries to swallow the Fanged Beast whole. It can also swallow you whole if you're not careful!
• Bitch Slap: Sometimes Tetranadon will forgo spitting rocks and water or trying to crush you with its immense weight, and simply plaster you against the ground with a vicious sumo slap.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Its spits the dirt and rocks it swallows at hunters, and can pick up large boulders that it can throw as improvised weapons.
• Fat Bastard: Ill tempered and portly, even when it isn't bloated up.
• Making a Splash: Aside from its brute strength and spitting rocks, Tetranadon also fights by spitting water.
• Mighty Glacier: When it gets its Balloon Belly it trades in mobility and speed for range and power.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Resembles a cross between a frog, a turtle, a hippo, a crocodile, and a platypus.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Its Turf War against Goss Harag goes very poorly, with Tetranadon getting bullied to the ground and receiving a vicious flurry of punches before it unloads all of the rock in its belly on Goss Harag and attempts to flee.
• Planimal: Algae grows wildly from its body, primarily the shell.
• Shockwave Stomp: Its sumo stomps create these, and when it has a full belly, they kick up tons of damaging rocks in the process.
• Stance System: Its attacks are slower but more powerful when it has a full belly, and its roars can also stun you without Earplugs to block them.
• Stout Strength: Goes hand in hand with its sumo wrestler inspiration.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • To the Tetsucabra, being a giant frog-like creature that launches rocks at foes and fights via sumo techniques.
  • Also to the Great Jagras, being an early-game monster who becomes stronger, more cumbersome, and heavily bloated by gorging itself during battle, but with rocks and gravel as opposed to Great Jagras' live prey. Its Balloon Belly is also a huge weakpoint, and attacking it enough will cause it to puke out everything its eaten.
• Swallowed Whole: Its pin involves doing this to you. Fortunately it regurgitates you out fairly quickly.
• The Worf Effect: It's a decently powerful monster by the standards of the early game, but it's greatly outclassed by monsters encountered later such as Goss Harag and Anjanath, which viciously beat the tar out of the big kappa in their turf wars.
• Wrestler in All of Us: It attacks with a number of sumo wrestling techniques such as sumo slaps, sumo stomps, and even grapples and throws Arzuros aside like a sumo wrestler would. Most likely an intentional send-up to how Kappas loved to sumo wrestle. The English version lampshades this by giving it the title of 'Amphibious Wrestler'.
• Yōkai: Based on the Kappa. Its title in Japanese also literally translates to "Kappa Frog". However, the algae growing on it standing in for body hair and the fact that you can find it in the Frost Islands might mean that it also pulls from the yamawaro, which are basically hairier kappa that live on mountains commonly found in the winter months.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The flavor text for its Shiny Nacre drops seem to indicate that they're created by the souls of Tetranadon's victims. Given the beast's complete lack of supernatural abilities however, it's likely just a legend or in-universe speculation.

Elder Dragons

Wind Serpent Ibushi

Wind Serpent Ibushi (Ibushimakihiko)

Wind God Dragon, Breath of Ire

Appearances:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak

"Where is my queen? Where is my queen?
I am storm incarnate, I shall wipe the land clean
So we may meet at last in paradise unseen."

The male counterpart to Narwa, acting as the "king" to her "queen." He blasts special gas from his gills to fly freely through the air, which also gives him the ability to control the wind and storms. The destructive storms he stirs up during his search for his mate stir monsters into a terrified frenzy, causing the Rampage and creating the Apex Monsters from those that weather the storms.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: His inflated windsacs are the most vulnerable parts of his body, particularly the one on his chest, and whacking them enough can "pop" them to knock him down.
• Blow You Away: Most of his attacks involve wind or air.
• Character in the Logo: He and Narwa make up the mirrored silhouettes seen on Rise's logo, especially with their prominent crests-like horns.
• Chunky Updraft: Capable of lifting rocks and hunters alike.
• Cycle of Hurting: If you get launched by one of his attacks and are stupid or unlucky enough to Wirefall towards a follow-up attack, you'll wind up getting juggled by this guy. It may be funny to watch, but it's also going to guarantee a cart.
• Draconic Abomination: He's almost too...wrong to even be called a "dragon." He floats using air sacs, Yama Tsukami-style, he resembles a mixture between an eel of some sort and an enormous, hideous seahorse, his vibrations can whip entire ecosystems into frenzies, and he's capable of sapient thought. When Hinoa first resonates with him it is also noted to not be a remotely pleasant experience, the Elder Dragon's mind overwhelming the unprepared Wyverian and leaving her terribly sick as well as mentally traumatized for a time. And Ibushi was not even targeting her with his thoughts.
• Dual Boss: Subverted. The Urgent Quest pitting both him and Narwa together has you fight Ibushi first until you remove a fraction of his health, after which he collapses the floor just like the previous Narwa battle. Unlike then, however, you follow him to the cave below where Narwa is waiting and when it seems you'll have to fight them at the same time, she bites into Ibushi, draining his power and killing him, before becoming Narwa the Allmother and fighting you mano-a-mano.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He actually appears in the opening movie upon starting a new game, though he's partially obscured by clouds.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Ibushi deeply loves his mate Narwa, and will move mountains in order to find her. Ibushi will allow Narwa to kill him and drain him of his energy in order to transfer his wind powers to her, letting her become the Allmother.
• Flower Mouth: His outer lower jaws can flare open not unlike that of the real world fish called the Sarcastic Fringehead. Narwa also has this.
• Giant Flyer: Ibushi and his mate are two of the largest monsters fought in Rise, easily dwarfing Magnamalo and other large monsters. Yet he's capable of freely floating in the air thanks to his air sacs, nullifying any effect gravity might have on him. The only thing dwarfing him in this game just so happens to be his mate, Narwa.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: He fights mainly with physical attacks such as lunges, paw and tail slams, tail swipes, and spin attacks, while Narwa mostly uses her electric projectiles of various shapes and sizes.
• Hold the Line: When you fight him in a Rampage, simply running out the clock before he destroys the final gate is a viable option to win the day.
• It Can Think: He's capable of sapient thought and these thoughts can resonate through certain Wyverians with the gift of resonance.
• Jack of All Stats: Ibushi's armor set, instead of focusing on a few select skills like most sets, has a total of 10 different skills, but at level 1 each, resulting in a set that is very well-rounded but rather inefficient at doing any one thing. Upgrading it using Narwa the Allmother's materials (or by default with its Master Rank version) allows it to take advantage of this using Stormsoul, detailed under Narwa's folder.
• Leitmotif: "Breath of Ire".
• Limit Break: Eventually, Ibushi will curl up into a ball and start charging up power while raising a bunch of rocks around him. You have to knock the rocks away using Rampage installations, then blast Ibushi to topple it, otherwise it'll deal massive damage to the gate. In its hunting quests, instead of launching the rocks at the (now-nonexistent) gate, it'll launch them at nearby hunters for equally severe damage, although the rocks will now also explode to hurt Ibushi if destroyed.
• Monster Progenitor: Although unintentional, Ibushi's storms are what transform certain monsters into Apexes, battle scared beasts that serve as the nominal leaders of the Rampage.
• Moveset Clone: Shares some attacks with Amatsu.
• Nested Mouths: His jaw is like that of a moray eel with the actual biting teeth being tucked away in the back of his mouth as a second set of jaws. It's not a pretty sight.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Averted; while not as vicious as Narwa, Ibushi is still one of few Elder Dragons that are knowingly malevolent instead of natural disasters in the form of an animal. In his case, he's not murderous for the sake of it, but is perfectly content to carve a path of destruction while searching for his mate with no care for those caught in the crossfire. He likewise has no issues with spreading destruction alongside Narwa.
• Orbiting Particle Shield: One of the ways he utilizes his Chunky Updraft. During Rampages, these take the form of massive boulders that he will eventually hurl at the gates. In regular battles against him, these boulders will have cannons and explosives in them, and will be thrown at the Hunter instead.
• Rare Random Drop: Wind Serpent Orbs in High Rank and Wind Dragonsphires in Master Rank.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He's never slain once he appears as the Apex in a Rampage, only repelled.
• Self-Sacrifice Scheme: The Japanese version states that Narwa devouring Ibushi and absorbing his energy is all merely part of the Serpent's lifecycle. By absorbing his energy, Narwa's eggs are fertilized and she inherits Ibushi's power over wind.
• Sexual Euphemism: When 'speaking' with Narwa at one point he states that the time to "converge" has come, when he clearly means to mate. Though given what happens to him later, it may have a double meaning.
• Shout-Out: His intro cutscene gives him the title "Breath of Ire".
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Downplayed, but in his rematch fight, his Limit Break move has him pull up several rocks to use as an Orbiting Particle Shield... that happen have cannonballs in them, which explode when shot. While he does try to throw them at you, he takes a little time to do so, allowing hunters to get up to siege weapons and blast them, potentially toppling him out of the air.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: While far from tiny, Ibushi is significantly smaller than Narwa.
• Walking Spoiler: While he is briefly seen from a distance by the Kamura Hunter during the opening cinematic, his importance isn't made known until the player begins High Rank, and he's revealed to be the cause of the Rampage. Which only turns out to be half correct.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Capable of firing a massive horizontal wind beam that fortunately also creates tornadoes that can be used to leap over it.
• Yōkai: He and his mate Narwa are a reference to Fujin and Raijin respectively.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Like the Apex before him, if you manage to keep the first gate up for long enough, he'll simply blast through it with little to no effort on his part. He eventually reunites with Narwa for the final battle anyways, even after being repelled.

Thunder Serpent Narwa

Thunder Serpent Narwa (Naruhatatahime) / Narwa the Allmother (Hyaku Ryū no Engen Naruhatatahime)^note lit. 'Origin of a Hundred Dragons Naruhatatahime'

Thunder God Dragon, Lady of Lightning / Source of the Rampage

^{Narwa the Allmother}

Appearances:
Monster Hunter: Rise, Rise: Sunbreak
Allmother variant:
Monster Hunter Rise, Rise: Sunbreak

"My king, o my king, come forth now with haste!
With my elegant lightning, let us lay this land to waste.
Tear apart the skies, rend the clouds asunder;
Pave the road to paradise with hurricane and thunder."

The female counterpart to Ibushi, who acts as the "queen" to his "king." She can float in the air by using the sparksacs located on her arms to generate electromagnetic waves, lifting up the very terrain around her and further aggravating the monsters of the Rampage. Narwa the Allmother is instead an empowered form she takes after consuming her mate Ibushi and gaining his powers.

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• Adaptational Villainy: An odd example in the sense that she's far more evil in the English version of Rise: Japanese flavor text for Allmother Narwa reveals that her destructive nature comes from concern for her offspring, and that she's going overboard with trying to eliminate any potential threats towards them. Similarly, her killing Ibushi is part of their natural mating cycle as revealed in the text. However, the English version omits these traits and paints her as a psychopathic megalomaniac seeking to destroy all.
• A God Am I: Refers to herself and Ibushi as "divine beasts," and seemingly has an ego to match this belief.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • While Ibushi and Narwa do meet in a cinematic preceding the Hunter's confrontation with them, it's never specified if Narwa is pregnant or not by the time the Hunter arrives (she displays floating circular structures in her spark sac after absorbing Ibushi, but there was no indication if these were eggs until it was ultimately confirmed in one of Sunbreak's patch notes). On the one hand it seems likely Narwa would not have slain and absorbed Ibushi's powers if she still needed him to fertilize her, on the other her dialog makes it seem possible that becoming powerful and doing all the destroying herself was a option she was willing to take if she had to even if it meant forgoing reproducing for now. It's even possible that this absorption is how Narwa becomes pregnant.
  • Just how different is this Rampage from past ones? Just how different is this Narwa? The Rampage and the courtship of the Narwa/Ibushi species has a long history in the Kamura region, and the devastation it causes has always been temporary and limited, with life returning to normal multiple times within the span of human records and even human memory. Yet Ibushi and Narwa meeting in the game is treated as a potential End of the World as We Know It situation, with Minoto noting Narwa plans to dominate the region for generations, and the poem voicing Narwa's thoughts making it seem she has much bigger ambitions than just the Kamura region. Though this only applies in the English version as the original has Narwa simply doing what it's always done.
  • Her love for her mate, Ibushi; is it legitimate, or is he just a means to an end? Or even bits of both? Killing Ibushi and draining his power in the Final Battle does seem like a betrayal, but spiders and praying mantises do the same as well, typically if they're hungry. For all we know, Ibushi gave himself to Narwa willingly; this could even be a natural part of their species' life cycle. Though the Japanese version texts ultimately clarify that Narwa devouring Ibushi's lifeforce is a part of their natural mating cycle.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Once she kills Ibushi, his corpse becomes a series of three sparkling drops, saving you the trouble of carving him and potentially leaving yourself open to his mate.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Her yellow, swollen belly thunder sac is where she takes the most damage. Normally, she covers it with her claws, greatly reducing any damage to it, but once she's toppled, she lays on her back and creates two platforms upon crashing, which are conveniently located right next to her gut. She also takes her claws off for certain attacks, letting you wail on it provided you don't get hit by whatever's coming out of it. Smack it enough once it's charged up and it "pops", toppling her and temporarily crimping the power of her Thunder attacks.
• Balloon Belly: The thunder sac on her stomach invokes the image of a bloated, pregnant-looking gut.
• Beam Spam: She loves to fire several waves of Thunder beams from her belly once she's near the ground.
• Big Bad: Narwa, along with Ibushi, is the cause of the Rampages and thus the driving threat behind the story of Rise — and unlike other Final Boss monsters that are essentially extremely powerful, destructive animals, except for possibly the Shagaru Magala (who shows signs of genuine malice in his fight), she is intelligent and malicious enough to legitimately be called a villain.
• Blow You Away: As the Allmother she inherits Ibushi's power over wind.
• Bullet Hell: Probably the closest Monster Hunter will get to this trope. Almost all of her attacks involve densely packed volleys of thunder beams, rings, lasers, or some combination of the three, and she blasts them relentlessly.
• Character in the Logo: She and Ibushi make up the mirrored silhouettes seen on Rise's logo, especially with their prominent crest-like horns.
• Cue the Sun: Once she finally dies, sunlight shines over her arena, representing a new dawn from Kamura, finally free from the Rampage.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Has the most health of any monster in the base game, with over thirty thousand with one player and clocking in at over a whopping seventy thousand with a full squad!
• Determinator: After her beau is driven off in the middle of High Rank, as shown by her resonating with Minoto, she absolutely will not stop until whatever is getting between her and her mate has been annihilated; which, in this case, is Kamura Village and its Hunter.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The 7-star Urgent Quest to slay her, "Serpent Goddess of Thunder", gets demoted to this as of the 3.0 update. You defeat her, but then it's revealed that she survived. That said, she becomes a legitimate Final Boss in another Urgent Quest, "The Allmother".
• Disney Villain Death: Once she's sufficiently exhausted, her spark-sacs give out and she crashes to the ground, after which the floor gives way beneath her. She also drops several piles of tentacles in the process, which you can carve for parts. Subverted in the last pre-3.0 update cutscene, which reveals she survived. This is averted in the Event Quest 'Clouds of Narwa Rumble Again', where Narwa (in her basic form) can be killed (and carved) normally like any other monster.
• Draconic Abomination: Like the male, this...thing can barely be called a dragon. She more closely resembles some sort of grotesque seahorse, she hovers in midair, she's apparently capable of sapient thought (something observed in only one large monster, the King Shakalaka and very possibly Fatalis) she has Nested Mouths and a bunch of tentacles on her back, she's capable of whipping hordes of monsters into rabid frenzies, she can summon down lightning from the sky Kirin-style, and, like Shara Ishvalda, she looks at you.
• Dual Boss: Subverted. The Urgent Quest pitting both him and Narwa together has you fight Ibushi first until you remove a fraction of his health, after which he collapses the floor just like the previous Narwa battle. Unlike then, however, you follow him to the cave below where Narwa is waiting and when it seems you'll have to fight them at the same time, she bites into Ibushi, draining his power and killing him, before becoming Narwa the Allmother and fighting you one-on-one.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Her mate Ibushi and their offspring are the only creatures Narwa gives a damn about. Though she kills Ibushi for a power boost, this is a natural part of the Serpents' life cycle; background materials reveal that Ibushi's life energy helps fertilize Narwa's eggs, and she uses the power boost as Allmother to protect her young.
• Final Boss: She's the final boss of the High Rank Hub Quests.
• Final-Exam Boss: Using the Wirebug to get vertical movement and the siege weapons that periodically arrive is essential to victory.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Look closely at her eyes and you'll see that she looks at you, even if there are other Hunters helping you.
• Giant Flyer: Narwa and her mate are two of the largest monsters fought in Rise, easily dwarfing Magnamalo and other large monsters. Her air sacs allow her to freely float around, unburdened by gravity. Notably, once her thunder sacs give out following her defeat, she crashes to the ground so hard, the floor gives way beneath her.
• Glass Cannon: Once charged, her attacks become more powerful, but she also takes more damage.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: She fights mostly with her various electric projectiles, as opposed to Ibushi's mostly physical attacks.
• It Can Think: Like her mate, she appears to be capable of sapient thought, something that has only possibly been seen a few times before in large monsters.
• Jack of All Stats: Narwa's armor set, instead of focusing on a few select skills like most sets, has a total of 10 different skills, but at level 1 each, resulting in a set that is very well-rounded but rather inefficient at doing any one thing. Upgrading it using her Allmother materials (or by default with its Master Rank version, which needs MR Allmother materials to craft) allows it to take advantage of this using Stormsoul, detailed under Magikarp Power.
• Kill One, Others Get Stronger: Narwa does this for you by killing off the already weakened Ibushi to achieve her Allmother form. Justified, since this is part of their natural cycle.
• Leitmotif: "Lady of Lightning". Her Allmother form instead has "The Allmother", which fittingly combines elements from both Ibushi and Narwa's themes to match a "fusion" of the two Elder Dragons.
• Light Is Not Good: She's bright coloured and uses electric attacks, and she's one of the few monsters to outright avert the Non-Malicious Monster trope by her want for 'laying this land to waste'. The Japanese version downplays this by having her flavour text state that her rampage more or less stems from wanting to eliminate any threats to her offspring.
• Limit Break:
  • Once sufficiently enraged, she'll float up, curl into a ball, and start charging up power. You need to blast her with cannon and ballista fire to topple her, otherwise she'll unleash a Thunder bomb that will more often than not One-Hit Kill you.
  • Her enhanced form has a two-part version of this. The first part has her hoist six Dragonators into the air and start spinning them around in concentric circles like tops, with an explosive thunder orb at the middle. Once the orb detonates, you need to move to the center of the arena to avoid the Dragonators. The second part has her charge up an enormous amount of Thunder energy, then release it in a tiny ball which creates a massive explosion, much like Safi’jiiva. This bomb will kill you if you’re not at full health and will stun you otherwise, so you need to get on top of the platforms she raises. You can also shoot her tongue with Machine Cannon fire to get her to choke, canceling the attack and causing her to fall over and expose her thunder sac. Or you can just use Farcaster if you're feeling lazy and not wanting to deal with all that.
• Magikarp Power: Both Narwa and Ibushi's armor sets initially border on Master of None with their large number of low-level skills. However, using her Allmother drops to upgrade the set pieces will give each one a "Stormsoul" skill that initially boosts Dragon/Thunder damage, but at 5 pieces additionally grants 2 more levels to every other skill on the armor. This is enough to bring many of the skills on said armor to maximum level, and the skills can be picked out by mixing and matching the two sets, making the player just short of a Master of All instead. In Master Rank, both Ibushi and Narwa's armor will instead gain the Stormsoul skill by default.
• Meaningful Name: As the Allmother, her Japanese title roughly translates to 'Origin of a Hundred Dragons', referencing the Japanese name of the Rampage ("Night of a Hundred Dragons"). Justified, because she, along with Ibushi, are the true cause of the aforementioned Rampages.
• Monster Is a Mommy: The Japanese version's flavour text for Allmother Narwa states that she's legitimately trying to protect her offspring; her heightened aggression is due to her maternal instincts going into overdrive.
• More Deadly Than the Male: After she begins resonating with Narwa, Minoto states that while Ibushi's thoughts were full of loneliness and desire, Narwa's are full of ire, and that she believes Narwa is both more powerful and more dangerous than Ibushi. Accordingly, her threat level in the Hunter's Notes is one level higher than Ibushi's. She conclusively proves herself the greater threat when she kills her mate by absorbing his energy to gain his power over wind.
• Moveset Clone: Shares some attacks with Amatsu.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Zig-zagged courtesy of translation issues. While Narwa exhibits incredibly destructive behavior and is trying to devastate the region around Kamura, this is because she is being driven by maternal instinct. She wants to ensure her offspring can grow up safely once they hatch, and her attempting to wipe out or drive away other living beings in the area is her way of making sure nothing will threaten her children. This is the Japanese version, by the way; the Western translation removes mentions of her maternal instincts, resulting in her actions becoming more malevolent-seeming. Mind you, even in the Japanese text, she's still dangerous enough that other Elder Dragons make an attempt to stop her, and displays sentience that many other destructive monsters lack.
• Not Quite Dead: A brief scene that plays after you first defeat her reveals that she's managed to survive the fall. You then have to take on both her and Ibushi in order to defeat them once and for all.
• Omnicidal Maniac: According to the Hunter's Notes, Narwa the Allmother "lusts for utter annihilation".
• One-Winged Angel: When she kills and absorbs Ibushi's life force, her spark sacs and tentacles turn purple to drive home her newfound mastery over his wind powers.
• Power Floats: She floats upside-down, almost as if to emphasize how fundamentally wrong she is.
• Psycho Electro: While most electric monsters are amoral and animalistic, Narwa's speech as channeled through Minoto shows that she is a deeply malevolent creature willing to pave the "road to paradise" with the corpses of those she smites with her lightning. She also drains Ibushi to death to become the Allmother.
• Purple Is Powerful: After transforming into the Allmother, her tentacles and sparksacs gain a purplish hue.
• Put on a Bus: Narwa's original Thunder Serpent form is conspicuously the only monster that outright cannot be fought in Master Rank, with her Allmother form completely replacing it.
• Rare Random Drop: The nominate species has Thunder Serpent Orbs in High Rank, while the Allmother has Orbs of Origin in High Rank and Mantles of Origin in Master Rank.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: As the Allmother, her eyes turn from yellow to red.
• Shock and Awe: Most of her attacks deal Thunder damage, and her armor's unique skill improves Thunder resistance.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Xeno'jiiva, being a glowing, unknown Elder Dragon that serves as the Final Boss and turns out to have been the driving force between the ecological phenomenon introduced in the game.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: You're given a Prism Spiribird before you fight her, which maxes out all your stats. There are also two Vigorwasps and a Wirebug in her arena proper. The second part of the fight randomly spawns Elemental Beetles you can use to inflict Elemental Blights, and Aurortles that can prevent you from fainting.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Despite being one of the few monsters that can be considered sapient to at least some degree, Narwa does plenty of things that don't exactly work in her favor.
  • As a whole, she frequently rips chunks of earth out of the ground during her various attacks. However, these giant dirt pieces stay in the air for a while as platforms, allowing you to dodge her attacks and/or use them for aerial attacks, some even providing access to her belly. Some of them even have hunting installations on them, somehow, which can be used to rack up damage or cancel her more powerful attacks. This may be justified in that the Hunter's Notes state her magnetic levitation effects nearby ground, so it's not something she can control all that much unless she turns off her levitation or stays well away from the ground.
  • Sometimes, she whips up concentric circles of thunder, which she then drops on you. However, she does a handstand while she does this, letting you smack her arms, which can topple her when hit enough.
  • She can shoot a bunch of projectiles from her tail, which home in on you. This is almost always accompanied by two floating platforms you can hide behind.
  • Her transitions between phases always have her float and release several thunder rings in the center of the arena... and since they unlock with each phase, this is a perfect opportunity to blow her to kingdom come with the Splitting Wyvernshot or skewer her with the Dragonator.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: While Ibushi himself is by no means 'tiny', when they finally join together, it becomes obvious that Narwa dwarfs her mate.
• Walking Spoiler: After Ibushi's defeat, Narwa's existence is later revealed as the other cause of the Rampage, as well as the "queen" that Ibushi seeks.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Capable of firing a massive thunder beam that leaves explosions behind it.
• The Worf Effect: As Narwa the Allmother, she's the only monster in the game that decisively defeats Magnamalo without the Fanged Wyvern getting to even hurt her. Rarely, Kushala Daora or Teostra may show up to interrupt the fight instead of Magnamalo, but they don't fare any better on their own either, except under the Kamura Hunter's Wyvern Riding. In Master Rank, Malzeno takes the place of the former three and is similarly defeated with little effort. If you've reached Master Rank 100, Scorned Magnamalo may appear in place of Malzeno, and even it is no match for Narwa the Allmother.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Most of her lightning attacks are yellow, but she's capable of firing purple lightning as well.
• Yōkai: She and her mate Ibushi are a reference to Raijin and Fujin respectively.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: You think Narwa's presumed Disney Villain Death would mean the end of the Rampage? Nope; she survives the initial encounter and eventually meets up with Ibushi once more, where she proceeds to become the Final Boss of Rise as Narwa the Allmother.

Malzeno

Malzeno (Mel Zena) (variant: Primordial Malzeno)

Silver Baron Dragon, Scarlet Feast / Legend Resurrected

^{Primordial Malzeno}

Appearances:
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Those who let themselves be lured into the trap...
Will be whisked away by a swift gale, the embodiment of darkness.
A darkness that does not let its victims go.
As they are slowly drained of their life...
The servants keep providing their master with vital essence.
And once the time is ripe, the darkness will show itself, basking in moonlight.

The flagship monster of the expansion Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. A vampiric dragon that resides in the Citadel, it preys on other monsters by draining their lifeforce thanks to a symbiotic relationship with the parasites known as the Qurio. Its frightening power has caused it to be designated as one of the Three Lords. Sunbreak's bonus update added a variant representing its original "pure" form before being tainted by the Qurio, revealed to be a legendary being revered as a guardian in ancient Elgado myths.

---

• Barrier Maiden: Malzeno has basically been the only thing keeping Gaismagorm trapped in the Yawning Abyss, by hijacking its Qurio and using them to suck up all of the life force from the surrounding area so Gaismagorm couldn't feed, as well as its mere presence encouraging Gaismagorm to stay underground to avoid confrontation. Fittingly, the moment it dies, Gaismagorm gets enough energy (and courage) to climb out of the abyss and wreak havoc.
• Bat Out of Hell: It's accompanied by the Qurio, bat-like leeches that help it capture monsters and absorb their energy.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Boasts the most flexible and dexterous one in the game, even beating out Almudron's and Magnamalo's due to the scope of its range and its ability to grab things.
• Boring, but Practical: Primordial Malzeno (initially) doesn't have any Qurio symbiotes helping it, thus it can't inflict Bloodblight on its own or use some of Malzeno's more powerful moves. However, it makes up for it by simply being a highly intelligent Lightning Bruiser with tremendous physicality. This is reflected in the Hunter's Notes, which puts Malzeno at eight stars while Primordial Malzeno is at ten.
• Breath Weapon: Has one in the form of a dragon element beam that it fires directly on the ground, causing an expanding explosion to erupt. It's nuke attack if it isn't taken out of it's Bloodening state also has it fly into the air and shoot in a circle before releasing an orb of dragon energy that causes waves of dragon energy to expand outward.
• Brought Down to Badass: Malzeno might be two stars behind its Primordial variant due to the Qurio affliction draining its strength, but it's still an Elder Dragon and the most dangerous of the Three Lords, meaning it can still wreak havoc on the ecosystem and anything unfortunate enough to get in its way.
• Character in the Logo: The logo for Sunbreak is styled directly after it.
• Chrome Champion: Like Kushala Daora, its scales and other body parts more closely resemble metal than any organic material, doubly so for the Primordial variant who is completely covered in a thick "armor" made of metallic plates and blades. Its roar also has a noticable metallic ringing sound that is unlike that of most other monsters. The Haunting of the Sun ecology book hypothesizes that Malzeno may eat ores or metallic prey to maintain its body.
• Classy Cravat: The Qurio on its throat and chest gives this impression, fitting for a dragon meant to evoke a vampire.
• Cursed with Awesome: The Qurio it commands were meant to be a parting shot by the defeated Gaismagorm in the hopes that they would drain the life of Malzeno and eventually kill it. Malzeno proceeded to become their new master instead, at the cost of mutating and becoming voracious to fuel the symbiosis.
• Death or Glory Attack: Primordial Malzeno enters its Bloodlust state when it's only got a relative sliver of health left, meaning that it won't be able to take a lot more damage before kicking the bucket. At the same time, it dramatically increases its speed and combo potential to the point where it can end you in mere seconds if you aren't careful. One way or another, the fight will usually end shortly after this transformation. The Hazard variant downplays this by entering Bloodlust mode at a noticeably higher HP threshold, giving it more time to lay into you.
• Destructive Savior: “Savior” is stretching it, but to protect its territory 50 years prior, it defeated Gaismagorm in combat. The battle was so fierce that it destroyed the Citadel and killed anyone close enough to see it, making it appear that Malzeno was solely responsible for the devastation.
• Dub Name Change: "Malzeno, One Who Engraves the Primordial" in the original Japanese script. Notably, this gives Malzeno two fairly different connotations: the English title emphasizes that it's a piece of history from an incredibly ancient era, while the Japanese one instead implies that it's somehow shaped history.
• Dying as Yourself: Primordial Malzeno's final, permanent transformation is only dispelled when it's been mortally wounded, upon which it will revert back to its original, knightly form and pass away peacefully.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Malzeno, as it is fought in Sunbreak, is an aberration to its normal state due to harnessing the power of the Qurio and gaining new powers as a result. However, this is also a case of Handicapped Badass, as the Qurio have robbed it of much of its original physical strength despite granting it new abilities. Its Primordial form far surpassses its afflicted one, to the point where it was able to repel Gaismagorm in the past, only being afflicted with the Qurio afterwards.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In Master Rank, it replaces Magnamalo, Teostra, and Kushala Daora as the monster that invades the fight against Narwa the Allmother.
  • Once they realize that Primordial Malzeno is trying to fight off the Qurio instead of establish symbiosis with them, Fiorayne and the Hunter work together with Malzeno to wipe out the Qurio in the area. Afterwards, Malzeno simply leaves in peace without a further fight.
• Face Death with Dignity: On subsequent hunts outside the story's Urgent Quest, in keeping with its honorable knight image, Primordial Malzeno's death animation invokes this, quietly accepting its defeat with honor and dignity in comparison to its regular counterpart futilely reaching up to grasp its fading power. Also worth noting that the Qurio die with Primordial Malzeno, unlike in every other appearance where they flee the moment their host dies.
• Fallen Hero: Primordial Malzeno deliberately invokes this trope to further drive home the Dracula similarities, being a white and gold "guardian knight" that protected the Kingdom, only to become a monstrous and aggressive vampire after a metaphorical Deal with the Devil.
• Fighting from the Inside: During Primordial Malzeno's Bloodlust state, every time it uses its Qurio nova (usually after a sufficiently long string of attacks), it'll briefly collapse as it attempts to reject the symbiosis with the Qurio, leaving it vulnerable for a while as it struggles.
• Fights Like a Normal: Primordial Malzeno, lacking the power provided by the Qurio, instead fights with its natural abilities, which turns out to be just being very physically capable and skilled with its limbs. It still was enough to repel Gaismagorm in the past and more than enough to triple-cart hunters with top-of-the-line gear. As the fight continues Qurio flock to it more and more, corrupting it and granting it more abilities like the original incarnation seen, but made even stronger due to it physically being in its prime.
• Final Boss: As the last monster added to the game post-launch, the Primordial Malzeno acts as this for Sunbreak, in particular capping off the Elgado storyline while Amatsu finishes the Kamura one.
• Flash Step: Malzeno is able to do this in its Super Mode, covering itself with its wings and leaving a cloud of red dust where it once was. While at first it appears to be teleportation, it is actually just moving extremely fast by using the Qurios' energy for a sudden burst of speed.
• Foil: Primordial Malzeno picks up quite a few.
  • In the story, it's one to the Royal Knights, as it's a personal monstrous counterpart to Fiorayne that shares a common foe in the Qurio and their true master.
  • In gameplay, it is a foil to the Sword & Shield (fittingly Fiorayne's own weapon of choice), with how it uses one wing to protect itself and another to attack at high speed. Primordial's official render even has its wings in a stance near-identical to an official render of the SNS◊ made for Rise's initial release. And like the Sword & Shield, its fighting style is Boring, but Practical on paper but devastating in execution, allowing it to comfortably swing well above its weight class.
  • It is also a foil to Scorned Magnamalo from the base game. Scorned Magnamalo and Primordial Malzeno are powered-up incarnations of the mascots of Rise and Sunbreak who battled with Elder Dragons in the past, are both defined by an insatiable hunger in their initial forms, and contrast each other with a samurai and knight motif. However, Scorned Magnamalo is implied to be the Magnamalo that attacked Kamura previously in an advanced state after recovering from severe injury, while Primordial Malzeno is a newly-arrived Elder Dragon who hasn't bonded with the Qurio nor interacted with Elgado yet. While Scorned Magnamalo is even more of a hateful scourge than before, with a fighting style that simply doubles down on the relentless aggression of the base variant, Primordial Malzeno becomes a noble knight who rejects the base variant's poorly-concealed brutality for a genuinely elegant approach to combat until it's corrupted. Furthermore, Scorned Magnamalo's color scheme brings to mind the Apex Monsters, the main endgame variants in Rise, while Primordial Malzeno's Bloodlust form instead invokes the Risen Elder Dragons, the rough equivalent in Sunbreak.
  • Within the fifth generation, it is also a counterpart to (Ruiner) Nergigante in World. Both are Elder Dragons that fight with nothing more than physical strength, and can use metallic parts of their bodies (Ruiner's ironspikes and Primordial's plating) to their advantage, but their overall presentations are polar opposites. Nergigante is a burly behemoth that is brutally aggressive, with a fighting style that damages itself and an armor set evocative of a Barbarian Hero or warlord; meanwhile, Primordial Malzeno is a lithe dragon that fights with refined grace and uses its wings as both shields and swords to simultaneously protect itself and strike enemies, while its armor set is designed like the the quintessential Knight in Shining Armor. Both Primordial Malzeno and Ruiner Nergigante are less aggressive than their usual variants, but in Malzeno's case it's because it hasn't encountered the Qurio yet and isn't compelled to feed as much, while Ruiner Nergigante is hardened by many battles and has seemingly learned to pick its fights better. Both dragons are also speculated to be indirectly responsible for keeping the ecosystem in check, but Malzeno also boasts a better record of actively responding to and dealing with ecological problems, given that we see it taking on Gaismagorm, the Qurio, and even Allmother Narwa (as the normal variant), whereas Nergigante has a more inconsistent track record of dealing with ecological threats and tends to cause as many problems as it fixes whenever it does intervene.
• Fur Against Fang: The werewolf-themed Lunagaron will engage in a Turf War with the vampire-themed Malzeno. Given the power disparity between them, however, this ends in Malzeno curb-stomping it.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Primordial Malzeno is enemies with the Qurio and all their hosts, and its gear is fittingly tailor-made for taking on Anomaly Quests or Investigations. Its weapons' passive boost to Life Drain and its armor's Blood Awakening buffing up offense when stealing enough life make it highly effective against Afflicted monsters or anything that inflicts frequent Bloodblight (including Malzeno itself). While the Risen Elders aren't subject to this due to not inflicting Bloodblight, they also share a universal weakness to Dragon outside of Valstrax (who is immune to every element for a good chunk of the fight anyways), and Primordial Malzeno's weapons are some of the strongest Dragon-element weapons available.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the actual story quest, Primordial Malzeno is merely repelled and is left to its own devices after Fiorayne and the player realize its true nature and help save it from the Qurio. Come every other quest it appears in afterwards, it will instead be slain for real with nobody even commenting on it.
• Good All Along: Downplayed, since despite showing near-human levels of intelligence, it's still instinctively protecting its territory, but Malzeno was actually protecting the Kingdom from the true source of the Qurio, Gaismagorm. After the Qurio lose Gaismagorm and are left struggling to find other potential hosts, Primordial Malzeno steps in to finish off the stragglers.
• Gory Discretion Shot: If it manages to grab a victim, it will folds its wings around them while it drains their blood, obscuring the act from the player. Primordial Malzeno averts this while in its base form, as if it grabs a player, it'll simply observe them before dropping them.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: When enraged and during its Super Mode, its eyes glow red.
• Graceful Loser: When beaten, Primordial Malzeno accepts defeat and proudly collapses instead of struggling.
• Handicapped Badass: As a result of becoming the host of the Qurio, Malzeno gained access to a variety of powers it wouldn't normally have such as super speed and life draining, however it also cost them their natural strength due to their new reliance on the parasites. Notably, when side by side with Primordial Malzeno, those hosting Qurio are noticeably emaciated, being much thinner and lacking most of their natural armour. It's still a powerful Elder Dragon, just not as powerful as it used to be.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Like many endgame final additions to Monster Hunter rosters, Primordial Malzeno's armor and weapons are among the best in the game, mostly because every weapon has three level four decoration slots while its armor set has a whopping ten level four slots (plus three level two slots). As such, it has unparalleled flexibility in build variety in addition to its very synergistic set of skills. This is slightly downplayed in the sense that its gear is generally not considered a one-all-end-all set, with other armors and weapons still remaining competitive.
• It Can Think: Between its skillful usage of its limbs almost reminiscent of a human hunter, its ability to both coexist with humans and hold a grudge against invaders, and seemingly showing gratitude and understanding towards Fiorayne and the player at the end of its urgent quest, it can be assumed that Malzeno is considerably more intelligent than your average animalistic dragon. It's long been theorized in Monster Hunter lore that Elder Dragons may have a level of intelligence rivaling a human (even if said intelligence is not directly comparable to a human's in practice), but Primordial Malzeno is a rare example of one exhibiting that intelligence in a way that shows an understanding of humans and the capacity to ally with them. The Haunting of the Sun ecology book adds fuel to the fire by not only noting how it tracked down Gaismagorm across Elgado to finish it off after repelling it, but also suggesting that Primordial Malzeno attacks the Qurio not only out of a territorial nature, but also out of rage for what they did and continue to do to its brethren.
• Leitmotif: "Scarlet Feast".
• Life Drain: Being afflicted with Bloodblight halves the hunter's healing from items and slowly drains their HP, but attacking Malzeno will restore some of their health. Malzeno's armor set comes with a "Blood Rite" skill that allows you to do this to any monster by attacking broken parts (severed tails included), with higher skill levels increasing the amount of health restored per hit. Primordial Malzeno's gear feeds into this, with its weapons passively increasing the amount of HP restored from Blood Rite or Bloodblight and its unique Blood Awakening skill increasing offensive power proportional to how much HP is stolen this way, regardless of whether you're actually healing health or not - even hitting a monster while using Blood Rite or being afflicted with Bloodblight at full health is enough to trigger the skill.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • Despite its lithe appearance and profound agility (especially in its Super Mode), it's capable of incredibly powerful physical blows that can cause massive explosions or shockwaves, can chain said attacks one after another with alarmingly little delay, and has the most health of any monster you'll fight up until the Final Boss and postgame content. Its ability to inflict Bloodblight also makes its attacks considerably more punishing by neutering your healing.
  • Primordial Malzeno is more durable than a normal Malzeno, frequently chains its wing attacks together to repeatedly hit a wide range in front of it, and in its last Super Mode, will Teleport Spam around you multiple times in a relentless frenzy of fast, hard-hitting attacks. Even Hunters in full Qurious Crafting gear/with full Spiribird buffs have to be careful with the damage it inflicts.
• Limit Break:
  • If Malzeno isn't knocked out of its Bloodening state fast enough, it'll spin around while blasting its surroundings with its Dragon breath, before unleashing a massive explosion that releases shockwaves in all directions. This will revert it to its original state, but will also severely damage if not instantly cart anyone hit.
  • Starting from its Bloodrage state, if not purged of Qurio within a certain time, Primordial Malzeno will fly up and start raining down Qurio orbs and radiating shockwaves in all directions, followed by it teleporting on top of its chosen target and unleashing an enormous, unblockable Qurio explosion that will usually One-Hit Kill anything in the blast. This will leave Malzeno fatigued and revert it to its Bloodening state, unless it's in its permanent Bloodlust state.
• Mascot: Its the flagship monster for Sunbreak.
• Meaningful Name: Its name pulls from mal, the Latin word for "bad" or "evil", and xeno, the Greek word for "stranger" or "foreigner". Given how Malzeno pulls from Western folklore rather than Eastern folklore and how its clearly meant to put out some unnerving vibes, it's safe to assume its name fits.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Part of its name literally means "bad."
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Primordial Malzeno actively hunts the Qurio and is capable of shrugging off their influence by itself. However, once the player and Fiorayne attack it, it becomes distracted enough for the Qurio to overwhelm it, which makes it far more destructive and violent than usual. Fortunately, Fiorayne realizes this after it's first repelled, and decides to put her grudge against Malzeno aside to help it destroy the Qurio.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Invoked. The discovered extra part of the fairy tale about the Archdemon of the Abyss mentions a "Demonlord" summoned by the Archdemon, whose silver spear would purify the land and leave nothing but ashes behind. Everyone initially assumes that Primordial Malzeno is the Demonlord in question and seeks to destroy the entire kingdom by establishing another connection with the Qurio. The truth is that Primordial Malzeno is the Demonlord of the fairy tale, but protects the kingdom instead, and the purification mentioned was directed at the invaders Gaismagorm and the Qurio. Even so, it doesn't seem to protect the kingdom out of benevolence, but rather just to get rid of threats to its territory - it's just content with living peacefully alongside humans, although it certainly doesn't seem to mind any accidental destruction it causes.
• No-Sell: In its Bloodlust state, Primordial Malzeno becomes immune to most, if not all crowd control effects.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Despite the sheer difference in size between them, Malzeno was able to defeat Gaismagorm in personal combat 50 years prior to the events of Sunbreak. Then just to add insult to injury, it seized control of the Archdemon's Qurio and has been using them for its own ends ever since.
• Our Vampires Are Different: A dragon that has vampiric traits in its design and can suck the blood of monsters like Rathalos, though rather than draining it with its fangs, it uses the Qurio as a proxy to do so.
• Rare Random Drop: Malzeno Bloodstones in Master Rank, while the Primordial variant has Primordial Bloodstones.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Though not exactly inherently evil like most other monsters, the afflicted version of Malzeno gives off this feeling due to the primarily dark colors that surround it, as well as its red glow; even more so during its Super Mode, in which its skin darkens and certain areas on its body start glowing red.
• Skull for a Head: Its face is covered in bony plate, making it look like a skull.
• Slasher Smile: While in its Super Mode, the glowing areas on its face give it this.
• Status Effects: It can inflict a status called Bloodblight that makes the hunter heal less from items, but attacking Malzeno will restore the hunter's health. It can also breathe Dragon element, which inflicts Dragonblight, temporarily removing any elemental damage or status effects from the hunter's weapons.
• Strong and Skilled: Individual strikes from Primordial Malzeno inflict devastating amounts of damage and are shown to tear apart the ground, but at the same time it fights with tremendous precision and grace. Rather noticeably, even with the power of the Qurio, a normal Malzeno can only tie against Velkhana while Primordial Malzeno is able to cleanly overpower it through sheer strength and finesse.
• Super Mode:
  • After enough time has passed during combat, Malzeno enters a state called the Bloodening; its skin darkens, its wing membranes and parts of its face start glowing, its tail permanently emits a red substance, and it gains more deadly attacks, including some that use the use of darting at extreme speed to either flank or get close to its foes. Dealing enough damage to its head, claws and chest can knock it out of this state with a guaranteed topple.
  • Primordial Malzeno has three - starting with a normal Bloodening once the Qurio swarm and overwhelm it, then advancing to an even stronger magenta Bloodrage once the infection progresses. When it's about to die, it will enter an even stronger Bloodlust state where its entire body becomes burned black and erupting with molten light, which jacks up its attacks to an insane degree and lasts permanently until it's defeated.
• The Paladin: Seemingly invoked by Primordial Malzeno; it's covered in gold and white armor that is described as pure, is renowned as a heroic protector who smites evil and defeated an "Archdemon" in the past, and wields its wings like a sword and shield alongside its tail as a mace or lance.
• Tragic Monster: Described as such in an interview over its design process, in which it's stated the monster had lived in peace with the kingdom for centuries before the events of the story. This changed however, once Gaismagorm attacked the kingdom and its Qurio attacked Malzeno, who eventually overcame the affliction and became far more aggressive as a result. This is shown in its true form as Primordial Malzeno, who exudes an almost divine air of grace and peace compared to the original and struggles painfully with the Qurio over the course of its fight.
• White and Gold are Divine: Its scales are gleaming silver and gold, and Fiorayne describes its aura as "godlike".
• The Worf Effect: Its introductory cutscene sees it on the giving end of this, with a Rathalos it apparently lured in via the Qurio being sucked dry like a Slurpee. It also defeats Lunagaron in Turf Wars, and the Primordial variant can curb-stomp a Velkhana of all things. Regular Malzeno in turn is on the receiving end of this against Master Rank Narwa the Allmother, where it invades the map instead of Magnamalo, Teostra, or Kushala Daora and meets the same fate as those three.

Gaismagorm

Gaismagorm (Gaiaderum)

Dark Abyss Dragon, Abyssal Archdemon

Appearances:
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

From the depth, its voice can be heard.
"The time has come."
From the depth, it beckons:
"Come to me!"
As it feeds on stolen life, its power grows ever stronger.
Until it finally reveals itself.

An enormous subterranean Elder Dragon and the true master of the Qurio. Once thought to be a mere myth in Elgado legends as the dreaded "Archdemon of the Abyss", Gaismagorm bores open huge pits in the ground and releases Qurio swarms through them, using them to steal the life of creatures so that it may emerge.

---

• All Myths Are True: For years the inhabitants of the Kingdom mostly believed the story of the Archdemon of the Abyss to be a simple fairy tale, until it crawled up out of the abyss and showed them that it was in fact, absolutely real. The game seems to really hammer home the fact that this thing is very much a mythical being too, as pretty much all of Gaismagorm's drops never refer to it by the name it received from the guild, instead referring to it as the "Archdemon of the Abyss" as they describe the destructive omens its awakening is prophesied to bring.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Its inhalation can break the poise of certain stances without needing to do any damage, such as that of the Switch Axe’s Elemental Burst Counter.
• Attack Its Weak Point: In its second phase, Gaismagorm will periodically start climbing the wall of the Yawning Abyss as three orbs of condensed Qurio form on its back, prompting hunters to shoot at them with the provided ballistae. Each orb will briefly halt its climb and deal heavy damage if destroyed, and destroying all three of them will cause Gaismagorm to lose its grip and crash to the ground, leaving it wide open. Failing to do so in time will instead allow Gaismagorm to charge up enough energy to unleash a Limit Break on the ground below, which is a hunter's cue to get out of the way or else.
• Big Red Devil: Its natural coloration is blue, but it will glow scarlet as it absorbs Qurio energy.
• Black Knight: Gaismagorm's armor gained from beating it looks like this.
• Cast From Hitpoints: Gaismagorm's armor has the "Dereliction" skill which weaponizes Qurio to boost the wearer's attacks, at the cost of continuously draining their health. Fortunately, they can heal by swapping their Switch Scroll, with the healing scaling off of how much damage was dealt prior to the switch.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Shara Ishvalda, the final boss of the previous expansion, Iceborne, was often described as "divine" and was heavily inspired by Hindu and Buddhist religious iconography, while Ibushi and Narwa from base Rise were also associated with heaven and divinity while being inspired by Shinto gods. Gaismagorm, on the other hand, is described as an "archdemon" that crawls out of the underworld, and is based on European, Christian depictions of dragons and demons.
• Death from Above: One of its more impressive attacks is to launch an energy ball into the sky that explodes, sending a rain of fiery meteors crashing down onto the battlefield.
• Draconic Abomination: This thing isn't even treated like a proper Elder Dragon most of the time, with most characters in the story referring to it as an honest-to-god demon from the underworld. With its enormous size, monstrous six-armed appearance, and borderline supernatural power over energy and life force, it certainly fits the bill.
• Dragons Are Demonic: Though not an actual demon, Gaismagorm itself is referred to as an "Archdemon of the Abyss".
• Dying Curse: Casted an attempted metaphorical one on Malzeno after the Elder Dragon struck it down 50 years prior to the events of the game, attempting to have its Qurio devour its enemy in one last desperate attack only for the vampiric dragon to resist and wrest control of the swarm.
• Fallen Angel: Invoked with the description of the Archdemon Wingtalon, which mentions that it has "no hint of the divine heights it once knew". The implication is that Gaismagorm as a species used to be able to fly but eventually evolved to thrive underground, with supplementary information seeming to support this hypothesis.
• Final Boss: Of Sunbreak.
• Flower Mouth: It has a bizarre mouth shape similar to a pentagram, that it mostly opens up when sucking things in.
• Gem Tissue: The forearms and back of Gaismagorm are covered in crystallized Qurio. It'll shed this once it's angry enough.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: During the first phase of its fight, doing damage to Gaismagorm will knock off crystal chunks. When Gaismagorm uses its suction breath to draw Hunters in before blasting them, these chunks will fly towards it and do damage. If it inhales a lot of these chunks, it will be knocked over and allow Hunters to get in some free hits.
• Hungry Menace: Most of its natural behavior is unknown, but the only behavior it's been seen exhibiting besides aggression is extreme gluttony, with no qualms about decimating entire ecosystems to feed itself. It even continues trying to devour more of the Qurio's life force as you're fighting it. However, the Gaismagorm encountered in Sunbreak had explicitly been starved by Malzeno until its death, making it especially hungry.
• Leitmotif: "Archdemon of the Abyss".
• Mighty Glacier: As expected from something of its size, its attacks are rather slow and well telegraphed, but deal high damage and cover an extremely wide area.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Much like Shara Ishvalda and Gore/Shagaru Magala, its wings have been exapted into a pair of massive arms that it can use alongside its forelimbs.
• No-Sell: The Kittenator can stagger it for a moment, but unlike what the weapon does against all other monsters (except Basarios), it won’t knock Gaismagorm down. It can also shrug off multiple hits from full, exploding Dragonators with only a brief stagger to show for it, whereas most other Elder Dragons would be knocked down or severely wounded.
• Number of the Beast: An elder dragon called the "archdemon of the abyss" with six legs, six horns, and a mouth shaped like a six-pointed star.
• Omnicidal Maniac: While Malzeno was commanding the Qurio, it would only send them to drain its prey, and usually kept them around itself otherwise. Once Gaismagorm regains control over the swarm, it drives them into a frenzy and causes them to start draining everything in sight indiscriminately to feed it.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: The Qurio that its armor set summons to feed on the player can’t drain them of hit points completely, allowing them to benefit from the attack bonus they provide while only having a sliver of health left.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Downplayed. While the Guild does give it a proper name, Gaismagorm, most of the characters only refer to it by its title of "Archdemon of the Abyss". This extends to its drops, which never actually refer to it by the name the guild gives it, instead referring to it as the "Archdemon of the Abyss" as they describe the destructive omens its awakening is prophesied to bring. However, the drop for Primordial Malzeno's tail refers to Gaismagorm by name.
• Phlebotinum Overload: The Sunbreak ecology book notes that even though it's the master of the Qurio, its final phase is caused by it becoming so overloaded by energy that it needs to expel it. This may be due to its starvation making it not used to intaking such a large amount of life force at once, however.
• Power Gives You Wings: Not to fly though. If it absorbs enough Qurio energy during its climbing segments, a set of crimson energy wings will burst from its back before it performs a cataclysmic fiery barrage on the arena below.
• Rare Random Drop: Abyssal Dragonsphires for Master Rank.
• Recoil Boost: In its final phase, Gaismagorm can use the explosive vents on its arms to launch itself across the arena like a rocket, which covers an alarming amount of distance very quickly due to its size.
• Satanic Archetype: Gaismagorm is called the "Archdemon of the Abyss" and the fact that the shape its mouth takes when open is similar to a pentagram, on top of its five-spiked tail, makes it very likely to be the Monster Hunter equivalent of the Devil. There's also its relation to Malzeno: in most tellings Dracula, the most famous vampire in history, gained his powers through making some form of Deal with the Devil. The vampiric Malzeno gained control over the Qurio after its battle with Gaismagorm.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Gaismagorm spends the majority of the main campaign trapped in its nest, unable to escape due to Malzeno hijacking its Qurio and preventing them from feeding it with life energy. It is only after Malzeno is killed that Gaismagorm is able to take back control of the Qurio and feed on enough life energy to make an escape attempt.
• Sign of the Apocalypse: The weapons that can be made from its parts are themed after fourteen in-universe omens associated with the "Archdemon of the Abyss".
• Stuff Blowing Up: Outside of physical blows, its main form of attack is weaponizing the energy from the Qurio to create massive explosions. It can use these to give its blows explosive impact, create fiery explosive orbs, or even launch itself around like a rocket.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the Magalas as an elder dragon with a symbiotic relationship with another creature that causes other monsters to become more aggressive when afflicted. Downplayed in that the Magalas are in the game, but Gaismagorm still takes the place they had in 4's story in Sunbreak.
• Top-Heavy Guy: It has a set of absolutely gigantic wing-arms that act as its primary means of locomotion while its back legs are so stubby that they get dragged along the ground as it crawls. They are by no means weak however, given the way it can rear up and support the bulk of its weight on them if need be.
• Turns Red: For the second phase of the fight, Gaismagorm will begin to glow red, making it appear even more demonic than before. Later in the fight, it will also burst into flames as it gets even angrier.
• Unskilled, but Strong: All of the weapons made from Gaismagorm's parts are characterized by enormously high base damage and heavy offensive benefits, but a hefty affinity penalty and little to no versatility outside of pure damage.
• Vacuum Mouth: Can create massive air currents from its mouth to draw in both energy and hunters.
• Villain Ball: Rather than use its newly gained power to escape the crater, Gaismagorm will instead use the Qurio energy it (if successfully) absorbed from its wall climb to try and kill the hunters who leapt in after it. Though perhaps Gaismagorm made the connection that the hunters trying to kill it are the ones sending the Dragonators down (which isn't entirely inaccurate), which keep it from escaping and therefore they have to die first.
• Walking Spoiler: It's the true source of the Qurio, after the player (and the Elgado team) have been led to believe that Malzeno was responsible for them. As such, its very existence is a spoiler.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Can fire a massive one from its mouth that leaves behind lingering explosions. It's also powerful enough to create wind pressure, potentially knocking over hunters to leave them at the mercy of the aftershock.

Parasites

”The Anomaly”

Qurio

The Source of the Affliction

Appearances:
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Flying leech-like creatures capable of absorbing the life energy of even Large Monsters. As they cannot efficiently process these nutrients on their own, they cycle what they drain through hosts to turn them into a form they can ingest. The cycled energy supercharges their hosts, but the process is deadly in the longterm for anything short of a powerful Elder Dragon.

They initially existed in a symbiotic relationship with Gaismagorm, but Malzeno was able to take control of them, preventing Gaismagorm from breaching the surface. Once both Malzeno and Gaismagorm are dead, they wander around in search of new hosts, creating Afflicted monsters and the Risen Elder Dragons.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: Afflicted monsters have small swarms of Qurio encircling certain body parts, called Anomaly Cores. Attacking these swarms enough will cause them to detonate, hurting the monster and, if it’s done enough times, will potentially knock it over and cause it to become fatigued for the next while.
• Body Horror: A Qurio infection will pretty much cook monsters from the inside out from the overwhelming energy, and the Risen Elder Dragons are all covered in burns and scar tissue from the struggle. Once they enter the Risen state, their scars start to glow brightly as if the Elder Dragon is still being burned from the inside out by the overflowing energy.
• Came Back Strong: Some Elder Dragons can overcome a Qurio attack as well as the virus, driving off (or even devouring) the Qurio and gaining the ability to wield their explosive life energy. These survivors change over time and become Risen Elder Dragons, scarred and much more powerful variants with new abilities and the ability to enter a flaming Super Mode which enhances their power even further. Bahari names them such because he likens the process as the Elder Dragons having risen from the dead.
• Cast from Lifespan: The moment a monster is infected by Qurio, they gain enhanced abilities and a powerful Limit Break at the cost of their life force being slowly drained until they die.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Any creature the Qurio affix themselves to acquire an absolute immunity to tranquilizers, making it fundamentally impossible to capture them. Note that this only applies to tranquilizers; traps themselves can still be used to bind the monsters in place for an impromptu thrashing.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: To a certain degree of "evil" like most other monsters, but the Qurio are associated with fire and heat, with the way Gaismagorm can use Qurio life energy for fiery attacks and how the Risen Elders are constantly smoldering from the energy they've taken in.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: They’ll engage in symbiosis with whatever can keep them fed, and even when they were enthralled to Malzeno, some of them broke off and attempted to use humans as hosts.
• Lamprey Mouth: The Qurio have the ring-shaped mouth and many sharp teeth seen in real-life lampreys, as befitting their nature as life-drinking monsters.
• Life Drain: Afflicted monsters can all inflict Bloodblight with their attacks, and for a lengthy period of time. A hunter that capitalizes upon this can leech back their entire health bar without chugging a single potion.
• Limit Break: Fail to damage an Afflicted monster's Qurio-infected parts sufficiently and the monster will roar before causing a huge Stun-inflicting explosion that leaves four circling orbs in its wake. Certain monsters, like Garangolm or Seething Bazelgeuse, will instead incorporate this explosion into one of their own attacks.
• Power Incontinence: While afflicted monsters can weaponize Qurio explosions for devastating radial attacks, they can suffer triple or quadruple-digit internal damage due to the parasites, and will eventually die from them.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Their attempt to use humans as hosts decades prior resulted in a deadly plague that ravaged the Kingdom. Now they no longer bother to try due to discovering that people make for poor hosts, which is why the sickness has never resurfaced, aside from Malzeno inflicting it on Fiorayne.
• Red Is Violent: They glow red and they drive their host monsters to aggressive madness, in addition to also making them take on a red hue when enraged and empowered. The Risen Elders won't turn red, but their body parts will instead start overflowing with molten light whenever they enter their Risen state.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • Their penchant for causing monsters to become more aggressive while also changing their appearance to a darker, more reddish hue is similar to the Frenzy Virus from 4, while the Risen Elders overcoming the infection and coming back stronger are akin to the Apex State. Tadori even mentions the similarities between the two.
  • Afflicted monsters seem to take heavy inspiration from the Hyper monsters from Generations Ultimate, involving massively souped-up monsters with moving red weak points that must be targeted, which are sorted into subgroups with each having their own set of drops.
  • Appearance-wise, they resemble a combination of the Giggi from Monster Hunter Tri and the Red Khezu from Monster Hunter G, inheriting the former's size and Vampiric Draining abilities and the latter's wings and color scheme.
• Status Effects: All Afflicted monsters will inflict Bloodblight with most of their physical attacks.
• Super Mode: Once a Risen Elder Dragon takes enough damage, it'll transform into its golden-orange Risen State, granting it massive power, amped-up aggression, and entirely new moves. Dealing enough damage will temporarily suppress this state and knock down the monster, but they will enter the Risen State increasingly often as they near death.
• Vampiric Draining: Once they find a host, the Qurio slowly suck the life force out of the monster until it finally dies, either from being totally drained or from being overloaded by the life energy the Qurio cycle through them. Notably this only happens when the host is not compatible with them, and the Qurio themselves do not seem to desire to necessarily kill their hosts (notably not seeking to attack humans at all after they proved to be a dead end for the parasites). The Qurio's ideal is to find a host that can handle their energy transfer method of feeding, and live upon that host and the food it hunts for them for as long as possible.
• The Virus: In addition to their abilities to drain and bestow life energy, the saliva of the Qurio also transmits a highly potent virus that will greatly weaken, if not kill the victim even if they escape the initial onslaught.
• Walking Wasteland: The Qurio are mainly driven by survival instincts, yet the monster they latch onto influences their behavior. If the host only wants to sate reasonable energy needs (Malzeno), they're content to do so... but when a host wants to drain the land dry without care (Gaismagorm), the Qurio become a subdued, yet horrifying example of this, which is showcased in the penultimate "Gathering of the Qurio" quest. The Citadel map looks normal, but players quickly discover that the locale reeks of death: corpses of various monsters are strewn all over, and there's an utter absence of Endemic Life^note The exceptions being fish in certain spots, since the Qurio seemingly can't operate underwater, and the player's Great Wirebugs who remain in place.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Unless a monster possesses the power of an Elder Dragon, eventually, they will die a slow and painful death on its own. The only way to avoid this once infected is a Mercy Kill at the hands of a hunter.

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