Monster Hunter / Tropes H to M

Main page | Tropes A-C | Tropes D-G | Tropes H-M | Tropes N-R | Tropes S-Z

• Hailfire Peaks:
  • The Desert in the second-generation games and Generations Ultimate features both hot health-draining desert zones and a cold stamina-draining cave zone, unlike many other maps which only have one or the other type of hazard.
  • Desert maps have hot zones in the daytime. For the ones that have nighttime versions, those hot areas turn into cold zones, requiring Hot Drinks/Meats instead of their Cool/Chilled variants.
  • The second-generation Jungle (also present in Generations Ultimate) has a coastal perimeter in three of its areas (one of them being a small penninsula), so it combines Jungle Japes with Palmtree Panic.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Felyne clothing usually only covers up small parts of their body. Luckily for everyone, they don't have any body parts in need of concealing.
• Hard Mode Filler:
  • In the Updated Rereleases of the games, several of the higher ranked missions are about hunting Palette Swap versions of previous monsters. These revamped opponents are far more aggressive, their attacks may be of a different element from the originals, and they may even have new attacks. Furthermore, at the start, you're placed randomly in a part of the battlefield, far from the resting area(and if you're really unlucky, in the same area as the monster!), and the supplies to help you won't arrive until much later, when there's little time left to hunt the monsters.
  • In addition to new monsters and subspecies of old monsters (described above), the old monsters themselves return in the higher ranked quests as well with buffed HP and attack power. Even the 'Dromes and Great Jaggi can cause trouble at first, and monsters like Khezu and Yian Garuga (1st and 2nd Gen), Gigginox and Lagiacrus (3rd gen), and Zamtrios and Tetsucabra (4th gen) become nightmares because of this.
  • World introduces Tempered Monsters, which can drop augments to further improve equipment that has been fully upgraded. Tempered monsters include every Large Monster except for Fanged and Bird Wyverns and the two story-dependent Elder Dragons Zorah Magdaros and Xeno'jiiva. Tempered Deviljho was introduced in an Event Quest.
• Harder Than Hard:
  • Low Rank is the "beginner" half of the game and High Rank is the "advanced" half of the game. Updated Rereleases introduce G Rank, which is harder than High Rank and regularly has monsters that can kill in one or two hits, even with on-par armor equipped. Furthermore, these updated versions add village High Rank quests but still few to no village G Rank quests, forcing the player to either find teammates to do G Rank with or face a Marathon Boss, since multiplayer quests scale up the monsters' HP to compensate for letting you bring allies into the hunt.
  • Generations doesn't have G Rank; instead, it fulfills this trope through Hyper monsters. Available only in High Rank, Hyper monsters have much more HP, and parts of them glow to indicate which part does more damage and has different attack timings, making them similar to G Rank monsters. Generations Ultimate not only brings back G Rank, but introduces G Rank Hyper monsters. There's G Rank Deviant monsters as well, and after clearing the G5 quest for a given Deviant and reaching HR 100, you gain access to EX Deviants, with HP totals that make G5 Deviants look about as durable as a Great Jaggi.
  • Arch-Tempered Elder Dragons in World are the most difficult hunts in the game, vastly increasing health and damage compared to a Tempered version while also adding new moves to already dangerous enemies. These are specifically limited to Event quests as opposed to being standard hunts.
• The Hat Makes the Man: The various masks that can be equipped by Cha-Cha and Kayamba radically change their personalities... at least, during a hunt, as they retain their normal personalities while in town. This also applies somewhat to the Palicoes in 4/4U, as they can be changed from prioritizing larger or smaller monsters (even to the exclusion of other targets) through the selection of headwear they are given. Less noticeable in the Palicoes compared to Cha-Cha and Kayamba since a healing-oriented Palico remains a healing-support Palico regardless of whether it will target the giant monster, the small pack monsters or both types of monster targets.
• Healing Herb: The Herb is a weak health-recovery item that can be used to make Potions. In World, it is no longer consumable because it is the sole ingredient in basic Potions and is set to automatically craft them by default.
• Healing Potion: The main health-recovery item. Mega Potions recover more than regular Potions, Max Potions restore all your health and increase your maximum health, and Ancient Potions max out your health and stamina.
• Healing Shiv:
  • The bowgun's healing shots.
  • The Majestic Scepter in 3 Ultimate is a hammer that heals other Hunters when you whack them with it.
• Healing Spring: The hot spring in Yukumo Village in Portable 3rd, although it acts more as a "buffing" spring, as it raises your HP and Stamina prior to a quest, as opposed to the canteen Power-Up Food from the rest of the series. This comes full circle in 4U, where the relaxing power of the Yukumo hot springs is condensed into the Portable Steam Bomb, a lasting smoke bomb that cures any negative statues on contact and even resets the Frenzy Virus' contamination gauge. While Yukumo Village reappears in Generations, the hot spring itself doesn't, although a foot bath spring replaces it.
• Heart Container: Nutrients slightly increase the Life Meter during a quest (and its effects are reverted after the quest is over or the player quits or loses). It's possible to upgrade the Nutrients into Mega Nutrients (which grant a greater meter increase) and then Max Potion (which instantly increases the meter to the fullest extent possible, while also healing you to that maximum). Ancient Potions work like Max Potions, but also maximize the stamina bar as a bonus.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: While this has existed early in the series, 4U's bigger emphasis on plot makes it egregious to the point of banging its fists against the Fourth Wall. Special mention goes to the Hunting Trainer from Freedom 2/Unite and the Ace Cadet from 4U, both of whom are in charge of their respective games' Basic Mechanics and Weapons Training sections, though the Guildmarm isn't without her moments.
  Guildmarm: "When you accept a quest, do you imagine colored tickets floating over your head? Because I do."
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: Played with. The monetary reward for a quest is divided up amongst all participants. A quest that rewards 6000 zenny will give 1500 zenny per player in a four-person party^note However, players with the Crazy Lucky Cat skill will get a 75% bonus, while doing the quest solo will reward you all 6000. On the surface, it seems like the best way to make money is to tackle quests by yourself. However, quests go by much faster with a party and don't diminish the item rewards (which can be sold for cash anyway), so repeating the same quest with a party is still a viable option if you're low on funds.
• Herbivores Are Friendly: Zig Zagged. Some herbivores, like the Aptonoth, Gargwa, and Slagtoth, are friendly and will only attack you if you attack them first. Other herbivores are less so, like the Bullfango and Rhenoplos, which will both charge the player on sight. And then there's Monoblos and Diablos, which only eat cacti and yet manage to be two of the most terrifying monsters in the series. Portable 3rd added Duramboros, a hulking tree-eating brute wyvern that smashes foes with its huge tail. Generations added Gammoth, a gigantic herbivore that has no qualms about wrecking your day.
• Heroic RRoD: The Charge Blade's Sword and Shield Mode is made to gather Phial energy by attacking, which increases a charge that can be loaded into the shield to either enhance your axe-mode attacks or boost the defensive power of your shield, but leave off charging the shield with the energy that your sword attacks accumulate and the phial in the blade will move from unlit (no charge) through yellow (3/5 of a full charge) to red (full charge) and then start pulsing angrily while red sparks and vapour starts leaking from the sword, causing your attacks to always bounce off monsters, regardless of Sharpness.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In Unite, the Pokke Guild Hall Manager planned on either fleeing for her life or staying or letting all of her subordinates evacuate because of Ukanlos. Everyone decided to stay and help the village, though no one needed much help thanks to the player hunter.
  • The Guild Sweetheart from Tri puts her own job on the line by lying to the Guild about the evacuation of Moga Village, allowing the player to take on Ceadeus alone.
  • The Master of Defense in 4 Ultimate does this for a then-young Ace Commander by saving his life from a rogue Kushala Daora during a Rathian hunt, at the cost of a Career-Ending Injury.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Most definitely - though gunners and archers are especially good at kiting monsters.
• Hitbox Dissonance:
  • Many of the first and second generation monsters have a hitbox that is way larger than their bodies. Who could forget Khezu's tail hitting you even when it's several meters high, or Rathalos trampling you when you're in the gap between its feet? The worst offender is probably Plesioth and his infamous hipcheck, which can (and will) hit you even if his body doesn't come in contact with yours. Thankfully, Tri mostly fixed this (emphasis on mostly. Almost all monster hit boxes while underwater are ridiculous). Further remedied in Monster Hunter 4 — much to the delight of bowgunners and archers.
  • Monster Hunter 4 does have one glaring example in the form of Savage Deviljho's pinning attack. Touching any part of Deviljho's body as it performs the move will result in a pin, including the lightest brush from the tip of its tail. This also happens to be one of its favorite moves. Hope you packed extra Dung Bombs.
  • Again from Monster Hunter 4, there is Brachydios, whose hitbox on the head has been greatly increased when compared to past games. This causes problems for those who want to break its fore-limbs, since the attacks are more than likely to hit the head instead.
  • The Gunlance's Wyvern Fire is an odd example. Normally, Wyvern Fire is treated as four separate projectiles arranged in a straight line from the weapon's barrel, meaning that a Gunlancer must be reasonably close to a monster for all four shots to connect; the further out you are, the less damage it deals. However, what isn't widely known is that the ability's hitbox also encompasses the area immediately above the Hunter's head as well as the Gunlance's handle, and any monster coming in contact with either of these two sections during the blast will register all 4 hits. This makes it perfectly possible to achieve weapons-grade Offhand Backhands with a Gunlance, as demonstrated here.
  • The wonky hitboxes also work in your favour at times, too. If your weapon just grazes the weak spot, the game will register it as a hit even though it doesn't look like a hit from your perspective. Sometimes, you might break part of a monster's body even though it doesn't look like you did — such as cutting off a monster's tail when you merely poked it or breaking a Kecha Wacha's ears from behind. Because all the monsters have the same animation for the tail being cut off, it sometimes looks funny when you see the tail fly off yet your weapon was nowhere nearby it.
  • Zig-zagged in your favour and against your favour with monsters firing death lasers — you're supposed to run towards them and then hit the dodge button so you fall flat on the ground. Depending on your timing, it looks like it is going right through you, and sometimes if you're not fast enough, you'll still get hit even if you appear flat on your face.
  • In Dalamadur, think you can avoid the beam of death by hiding behind something or going to a lower platform? Haha nope — even if the beam looks like it's twenty kilometers above your head, it'll still hit you if the game doesn't register you as dodging.
  • Glavenus's huge blade tail. It hits so fast and the hitbox is so wide there is almost no way to tell how far away you are supposed to be. Naturally, this can lead to instances wherein it looks like you're pretty far away even though it hits you.
  • Anjanath's attacks have deceptively huge hitboxes in World. It isn't uncommon for players to get hit even if they're behind something. That is, if the Anjanath doesn't just come leaping through it.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • When the Uragaan swings its tail, it sends out lumps of unstable rock that explode when hit or the Uragaan uses its chin slam attack. The Uragaan is not immune to the damage from these explosions, so it is entirely possible for it to kill itself with its own explosives.
  • The Brachydios has an area explosion attack that it occasionally uses. Despite its explosive resistance, it actually is damaged slightly by this attack. It is possible for it to kill itself with that attack if its health is low enough.
  • The Qurupeco can call other monsters to its aid, and it is not immune to their attacks. The monsters will usually not attack the Qurupeco, but they will sometimes catch it in their attacks accidentally, and may end up killing it themselves.
  • Deviljho's hunger not only makes it murderously violent, it also tends to drain his stamina much faster than other monsters, and leaves him very vulnerable to poisoned, drugged, or tinged meats, which will weaken him even further.
  • Frenzied monsters in 4U can infect hunters with the Frenzy Virus, weakening their constitution and health regeneration if the infection completes its incubation period. However, if a hunter manages to stay on the offensive long enough, the Frenzy infection will be dispelled and grant a momentary increase in strength, allowing him or her to fight back more effectively.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: A staple in the series, usually presented early in the game to give players a taste of things to come.
  • In Freedom 2 and Unite, there is a 1-star Village Quest named "A Sinking Feeling" wherein the task is to collect 3 Popo Tongues from the eponymous creatures at the top of Snowy Mountain, during nighttime. Once you get to the upper mountain ledges, however, a Tigrex shows up without warning. Good luck trying to even hurt it with the equipment available at that level, especially since the quest only lasts 20 minutes. Unlike the Lagiacrus example below, however, it doesn't have infinite HP and can be killed but don't expect to do so with the starter equipment or with any mid-game equipment unless you have godly skills.
  • In Tri and 3 Ultimate, the Lagiacrus is introduced in the first tier's quests, and is a 5th tier monster. You can't gain access to better equipment, and your weapons will be doing minimum damage or just bounce off. When he appears, the guild sweetheart immediately tells you to run away just in case the futility of fighting it wasn't obvious. You can fight it anyway if you want. You can actually get some break rewards earlier than expected by damaging it, although it remains unbeatable.
  • 3 Ultimate also has a High Rank quest where you have to hunt Jaggia, with a Great Jaggi patrolling the area... except when you visit the place the Jaggia are expected to be, the Great Jaggi is curbstomped by a Deviljho in a cutscene^note though if its power in comparison to the Great Jaggi is any indication, the cutscene isn't exaggerating by much. You are encouraged to get out and hunt the Jaggia elsewhere, but the Deviljho isn't indestructible; just a great deal more powerful than you're expected to be at that point.
  • Played with in 4U. Once you get the Arluq ship from the Troverians and cross the ocean, the Gore Magala shows up in the midst of a typhoon and attacks the ship. You end up having to fight it on the Arluq's deck, which is only as big as the Sandship's. Thankfully, there are various weapons scattered about for your usage, and you can even jump off the ship in order to get to the supply hold for more items. Plus, unlike the above examples, your only goal is to deal enough damage to repel the creature.
  • In Generations the Fated Four are all 5th tier monsters that all have scripted encounters during your 3-star quests though again, unlike the Lagiacrus, they don't have infinite HP and afterwards they have a chance of showing up again during repeat quests. It should also be noted that, with the exception of the Glavenus, all their quests are optional until you actually reach the 5-star quests; however, even then, each of the Fated Four have twice as much HP as they would normally and give no quest rewards beyond what you can carve off them and what you can break, presumably to deter ambitious players from killing them before they're supposed to. Though some players just end up taking that as a challenge. Especially egregious is that you can capture the Glavenus/Gammoth/whichever, and the town folks will all act as if you barely escaped, possibly even commenting that it's a shame you couldn't slay it, let alone capture it.
  • The third World beta includes a quest to kill Nergigante. Since this is just a beta, you only have a few basic weapons and armor sets, so your attacks may not do very much damage while it hits like a train. You're also given only 15 minutes to kill it, which is barely enough time to do so. If you do somehow manage to kill it (which is nigh-impossible unless you have a full group of four players), you'll get a pack that contains Nergigante parts that you can claim in the full game.
  • Demos are generally major offenders. The Elder Dragon featured in demos usually has massively inflated health in online multiplayer (even moreso than in the full game), the time limit is far stricter than your average hunt, and you're more often than not kitted out with really crappy gear. The demo versions of Gore Magala, Nergigante, and Valstrax are known for being nearly impossible to kill in online.
• Horse of a Different Color:
  • Portable 3rd introduces the Gargwa, Bird Wyverns that look like oversized ostriches which not only serve as prey for some of the larger monsters out there, but are also used by the people of Yukumo as livestock and beasts of burden.
  • Stories is built entirely around this. You can raise monsters and use them as mounts.
  • In World, palicoes can learn to befriend certain small monsters and ride on them during combat. In order to achieve this ability, both hunters and palicoes must gain knowledge from Lynian tribes in the wild, either by proving their worth or helping them with a problem. In Iceborne, hunters have 'Raider Ride', which is the ability to call small monsters and have it transport the hunter to anywhere within the habitat. Examples of small monsters that can be ridden are Jagras, Gastodon and Wulg.
  • Rise introduces palamutes, canine companions that are big enough for hunters to ride on. There is also the ability known as 'Wyvern Riding'. With the help of the wirebug to get a monster into a mountable state, hunters can get on top of the monster and control it for a limited amount of time.

• Hot-Blooded: Several characters across the series, including the Training Instructor from Freedom 2/Unite, the Shakalakas and Moga Fishermen from Tri, and the Ace Cadet from 4U, are this. Also in 4U, the more aggressive Palico classes are a combination of this and Leeroy Jenkins, including Whitescruff, the cowardly Felyne from Cheeko Sands.
• Hub City: One for the story mode quests and one for the multiplayer quests in the PS2 titles. The Portable/Freedom games stuck with just one village for both, but included a Guild-run Gathering Hall for the multiplayer quests. Tri/3 Ultimate actually had two multiplayer hubs — Loc Lac City in Tri and Port Tanzia in 3 Ultimate. 4 has Val Habar, Harth, Cheeko Sands, and Cathar, while the multiplayer Gathering Hall is in Val Habar. 4 Ultimate adds Dundorma for the extended single player campaign. Generations revisits the villages from the three Portable/Freedom games, while adding Bherna Village and the nearby outdoor Hunter's Hub for multiplayer. Stories has Gildegaran. World has Astera.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Inverted in the case of the Seltas and Seltas Queen. Played straight with The Man and Little Miss Forge.
• Human Popsicle: Similar to the Mud status effect, some monsters can leave hunters encased in Snow, which slows down their movement and prevents them from attacking or using items. Later games may also add the Iceblight status on top of this, which can quickly drain Stamina. Monsters that can inflict this status include the Giadrome, Blangonga, Barioth and Kushala Daora, though the latter can only inflict it when fought in snowy areas.
• Humanity Is Advanced: Humans may lack the inherent abilities to fly, fire deadly breath attacks, take boatloads of damage before needing to heal, and the like... but they're capable of creating advanced weaponry (from personal weapons to a massive anti-dragon turret), armor, and other tools that more than make up for it. Which perhaps explains why small monsters will target humans first rather than the huge wyvern that's more obviously terrorizing the place.
• Humongous-Headed Hammer: The hammer has been a core weapon type since the original game; the shafts of these weapons alone are often as tall as the hunters carrying them, and considering they're used to bash in the skulls of hundreds of varieties of wyverns, fanged beasts, and god-like Elder Dragons, they need to be that big.
• Hurricane of Puns: Almost all of the lines of dialogue in Tri are puns or other bad jokes. Moga Village is where the puns reach hurricane levels; between Cha-Cha, the Felynes, the quest descriptions, and one villager who lives for awful puns.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Played straight by both monsters and hunters alike. It's entirely possible for monsters to eat herbivores ranging from a third to half their size in a matter of seconds, and then become starved after another couple of minutes. Hunters can also wolf down as many arm-length steaks as they want in no time at all. Justified to some extent with the Deviljho, who need to eat constantly to maintain their high body heat. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, eating only restores stamina, not health; while there are a few food items that can restore health, they usually don't restore much health compared to even non-Mega Potions.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Punishing Draw and Critical Draw are skills which grant bonuses to attacks as you draw your blade — Punishing may stun, while Critical increases the critical hit odds. Greatswords also deal higher damage on draw attacks. As of the Iceborne expansion in World, longswords have a 'Special Sheathe' move which can be used after any attack. This move can then be chained into either the 'Iai Slash' or the 'Iai Spirit Slash', the latter of which also serves as a Counter-Attack.
• I Choose to Stay: After finishing high rank in World, the entire research commission decides to stay in the New World indefinitely, making Astera their permanent home.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The Tainted Sea in 3 Ultimate, Wyvern's End in Generations, World's End from Frontier G2, and Rotten Vale from World.
• I Know Madden Kombat: The Hermitaur Helm and Cap are respectively a football helmet and a hockey mask.
• I Shall Taunt You: The Hammer's Provoke Hunter Art in Generations causes the user to taunt, drawing the attention of nearby large monsters.
• Immune to Flinching:
  • The Great Sword's Brimstone Slash in Generations consists of a single, extremely powerful overhead slash. While it has a notably lengthy execution time, this is balanced out by the fact that during charging, the Hunter completely negates any flinching or knockback taken from attacks, although they will still take the damage.
  • World gives the Great Sword a new move: a shoulder tackle. What's special about this shoulder tackle is that it deals impact damage at point blank range and has super armor, allowing the player to tank through monster attacks given proper timing, then transition into a charge. You can even interrupt charges with tackles to immediately transition into the next tier charge attack without needing to perform the previous attack in the chain.
• Impending Clash Shot: The covers always feature a Hunter using a Greatsword about to clash with whatever the flagship monster of that game is, background is usually inconsequential (MH:Freedom for one uses a plain white frame and a small circular background in the american box art release).
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Too many to list. Often can range from armor with designs that would be Awesome, but Impractical in real life to outright physically impossible clothing.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon:
  • The Gunlance, a lance fitted with explosive shells that can be detonated on command.
  • The Switch Axe is a mechanical axe that turns into a sword. Like the gunlance, it also shoots explosions.
  • The Charge Blade unsheathes as a sword and shield, but the shield can be combined with the sword◊ to create a massive double-edged axe head. Rather than exploding from the weapon itself, a hunter can utilize special attacks which consume collected charge and leave sticky, detonating charges on the monster similar to a bowgun's Crag shots.
  • The Bow fires arrows that are as big as (normal) spears◊. Justified because of what you're hunting.
  • The Insect Glaive is a weapon that allows you to control a small insect while bashing monsters with a double-ended staff. You can shoot a bullet at monsters to have the insect home in and absorb essences from monsters to power you up.
  • The Hunting Horn plays notes as it strikes, and with the right sequence of notes, you can cut the fighting and start performing, giving you and your partners buffs that can be really useful, such as not running out of stamina or being immune to monster roars.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • While they may have been crafted rather than picked up from the environment, some weapons' designs have you doubting them. Example: A plunger-shaped lance (no, you hold the proper plunger handle — you stab with the plunger head), two stick puppets, and fuzzy maracas. Justified in that some have such terrible stats that they border on being a Joke Item.
  • You know that giant cutlery set your hunter held while waiting for their meal in Unite? It's a craftable Dual Sword set called the Glutton's Tools, complete with two upgrade paths. It can be unlocked for crafting by having your Felyne Chefs handing you a regular meal pass, which in turn unlocks the Felyne Ragdoll and Melynx Ragdoll, both of which are bowguns.
  • The Pink Maracas mentioned earlier upgrade into Jungle Maracas (that look more like pompoms), which, at the endgame, upgrade into Evergreen, considered one of the best dual swords of the game, and require materials obtained slightly earlier than its competition.
  • Tri brings in the Sharq Attaq lance... which is basically a stuffed sharq that you swing around and beat things to death with, and it comes with a 'No Swimming' sign that acts as your shield. It's actually pretty decent.
  • There's also the Pop Corn, which is a giant corn-on-the-cob. You wield it like a lance. It comes with a straw hat to be used as a shield. And most importantly, when you stab things with it, they explode.
  • From Portable 3rd: Hunter Dumplings. They're dual blades that are... dumplings. On sticks. Specifically, dango. The weapon tree branches from there into White, Purple, or Red (Generations) Dumplings. The Purple ones can cause the Poison status effect and the Red ones have Fire element.
  • Also, the Hairtail's Hairblade — a longsword that is, quite literally, a fish on a stick. It does additional Water damage.
  • The Wyvern's Perch, a greatsword that looks like someone cut down a rather thick tree with mushrooms on it and mounted a hilt on one end.
  • Also, the Numbingbird. It's a giant flower that has the hitting power of a hammer and can paralyze monsters to boot.
  • The Type 63 Warmonica (Nibelsnarf Hunting Horn) is Exactly What It Says on the Tin — an oversized harmonica. It's one of the few weapons in the game to get a Water element without needing the Awaken skill, and gets access to Health Recovery (L) at the end of its upgrade path, which heavily (though not completely) mitigates the need for Potions.
  • In games where Speartuna are available, the Frozen Speartuna (which is also exactly what it sounds like — see Shamu Fu) and the Swordfish Bow (made of an entire fish skeleton). Worth noting is that they are actually fairly decent weapons, being available quite early in the game, and in the case of the Frozen Speartuna having a low attack rating but an abnormally high ice elemental power.
  • For Light Bowgunners in 4, one of the most practical weapons is literally a giant syringe.
  • Palicoes in 4/4U can be given standard axes and swords, but they also get funky options such as a monster's paw attached to a stick, a surfboard, and a large syringe that goes well with the aforementioned bowgun...
  • Freedom Unite features the Cactus Creamer, a Hammer that is literally just a ball cactus with a leg bone stuck in for use as a handle.
  • World has the Well-done Hammer, which is a humongous meat drumstick. It has mediocre sharpness, but excellent damage
  • A recurring theme is stuffed toy weapons that cause a Sleep status buildup.
  • And, of course, this is the main shtick of the entire Hunting Horn class of weapons, being primarily meant to provide buffs to a team of players but still remaining an effective weapon even in solo thanks to the surprisingly high damage output for a musical, blunt instrument
• Infinity -1 Sword:
  • The basic Ore-made weapons fall into this category, possessing decent damage against all monster types and several gem sockets to help customize your Armor Skills with. They also have the distinction of being quite easy to make and upgrade, since almost all the items needed to smith said weapons can be found via mining. That said, they will end up replaced with stronger weapons later on, but experienced players will find themselves hanging on to them well into G-Rank.
  • The Research weapons in Generations Ultimate don't have flashy elemental or status properties nor do they have mindblowing stats, but they are still adequately powerful, their materials are not as difficult to get as the endgame Rare 10 weapons, have an Affinity rating that goes up with upgrades, boast a pretty good purple sharpness section when fully upgraded, and have two or three slots.
• Infinity +1 Element: Slime element in 3 Ultimate is this. Repeated hits with a slime weapon builds up until they explode on the target for massive damage, and nothing actually resists this effect at all. As such, it isn't uncommon to see players in multiplayer having a Slime type weapon as their primary or only weapon for every occasion. 4 nerfed Slime (renamed Blastblight), making it still different from the other elements, but no longer above them.
• Infinity +1 Sword:
  • The game manages to avoid having overpowered weapons for the most part, although certain weapons (like the Elder Dragon weapons lineup, especially the Fatalis models) tend to fall into this category.
  • Monster Hunter 4 introduces Relic Weapons, randomly generated weapons which can be obtained through guild quests and expeditions. The highest tier of relic weapons can surpass even the best forged and honed weapons in the game... if you're lucky enough to unearth one.
  • From a lore perspective, the carving knives of the Hunters are treated as this, hence why they can carve materials off of any monster with an equal amount of effort required. Side materials explain that the knives are in fact made from the setting's equivalent of Unobtanium, and put any weapon that could possibly be produced to shame... if it were cost-efficient to produce a larger weapon from the stuff. As it stands, the Hunter's Guild can barely afford to produce the knives, and typically Hunters are required to return them to the Guild when they retire so they can be reused to cut down on the need for producing more.
• Innocent Innuendo: The Ace Lancer in 4U has a doozy of one while during the Gunlance tutorial.
  Ace Lancer: When Gunlancers attack, their vigorous thrusts can result in an explosive climax! ...Hmm? ...Did I say something amusing?
• Instant Sedation:
  • Tranquilizer Bombs, or Tranq Bombs. Damage a monster until it starts showing signs that it's almost dead (usually limping), catch it in a trap and chuck Tranq Bombs at it and you'll capture it by putting it to sleep. Bigger monsters will take more Tranq Bombs before they'll fall asleep, but you can also use Tranq Throwing Knives or make Tranq bullets for use with a bowgun.
  • Averted with the "Sleep" status. Monsters have to be hit repeatedly with sedative-laden weapons to make them pass out, and affected players will be groggy, but able to stagger around for a few seconds before dropping.
• Instant-Win Condition: In the 20-60 seconds after you finish a quest, but before you collect your reward and head home, you won't take damage from anything, even though any remaining creatures can attack you, interrupting if you're busy carving something.
• Instrument of Murder/Magic Music: Hunting Horns. Their main gimmick is their wide array of buff songs to aid the party, though they're also almost as good as hammers at beating things senseless.
• Interface Screw: The "confusion" status, which can be inflicted by the Malfestio, and reverses the player's controls.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • It is easy to tell if a Gypceros is Playing Possum. The quest is not considered complete, you do not get Expedition Points in 4/4U Expeditions, or in two-monster hunts, you will not be shown a "One monster left." message. However, some other telltale signs of a dead monster do appear; you're able to carve, you can walk through its "corpse" (slain monsters do not have any collision detection), and the lock-on icon on the bottom screen dims. The act is less convincing in Generations because attacking the "dead" Gypceros creates splashes of blood, a detail that was present in 4/4U but not Generations. Hyper Gypceros can hardly fool anyone, as its Hyper aura doesn't fade.
  • Before setting sail on the Arluq's maiden voyage, you're told to gear up because anything could happen while you're on board. Sure enough, a Gore Magala attacks the Arluq in mid-voyage, forcing you to repel it in an emergency battle. You're never given this same warning any other time that the Caravan travels, and this is the only time in the game that the Caravan is attacked in mid-transit. Additionally, during the same event, one look at the Quest Info screen will instantly tell you the identity of the unknown monster through the objective tally.
  • In 4/4U, the fact that Shagaru Magala is the adult Gore Magala is spoiled because, to upgrade Gore Magala weapons after a certain point, you need parts from Shagaru Magala. You need to advance far enough in the multiplayer, since those upgrades are mostly not available in story mode until after the revelation. In Generations, upgrading a Gore Magala weapon one time unlocks the Shagaru Magala weapon.
  • Also in 4/4U, the Outbreak warning spoils when quest monsters will Frenzy even if it's supposed to be a shock from a plot standpoint. Then again, sending the player against a Frenzy monster with no warning would be a bit of a dick move.
  • The game image for 4U on the 3DS shows Gore Magala following hunters, entering Frenzy Mode and turning in Shagaru Magala.
  • In quests with unstable environments, the quest's Subquest can sometimes reveal exactly what intruder will show up. For example, the main quest might say to deliver 2 Powderstones, and then the Subquest reads "hunt an Uragaan" or "sever Rathalos's tail."
  • In 4 Ultimate, one of the Dundorma quests requires you to capture a Rathian. If you have the Capture Guru skill and mark Rathian, she starts limping and flees to her resting area before the paintball icon starts flashing, a clear sign that this capture quest isn't normal.
  • In World, after fighting Zorah Magdaros you get materials that are Rare 6, a rarity reserved for High Rank materials, making it clear that you'll fight it again in High Rank.
  • Also in World, the Event subsection of the quest list will show all currently running event quests from the moment the player arrives in Astera, in some cases displaying quests that list every monster native to a locale, including subspecies, and even elder dragons.
• An Interior Designer Is You: Monsters are used for equipment and decoration of buildings and headquarters. In 3U, players could even decorate their own homes with items acquired via trading with the Argosy Captain.
• Interspecies Romance: Well, one-sided romance, anyway. Guildmarm in 4/4U has a crush on a Brachydios, and even writes up an Urgent Quest just so you can find it and tell it about her feelings (which you don't, you just hunt it). Make of that what you will.
• Item Crafting: The only way to get better weapons, armor, and other items.
• Item Farming:
  • This is key to the Monster Hunter games, if you want to get items to forge better armor and weapons, otherwise you won't be able to make much progress. This is why many players have play times in the hundreds of hours.
  • Also comes in a more literal flavor as a farm that produces items.
• It's All My Fault: The Ace Commander feels this way about the Master of Defense's Heroic Sacrifice-induced Career-Ending Injury in 4 Ultimate, something you learn after completing an 8-star Pink Rathian quest.
• I Want Them Alive!: Some quests enforce a "capture only" rule. You kill, you fail! Generally these are related to the quest giver wanting something that requires them to observe a living monster. The Hunter also always has the option to capture the monsters alive (if they have the required trap and tranquilizer items) except if the Quest has "slay" as a condition or it is impossible to capture the monster. Generally captured monsters are studied by people in the Hunter's Guild and then released back into the wild where they will hopefully not cause further problems.
• Jerkass: Several examples.
  • The "Pro Hunter" inside the Guild Hall in Freedom 2/Unite loves to insult your equipment choices and belittle you at every turn. After defeating the Ukanlos at the end of Unite, your character even invites her to join up as a team, which she responds to by saying that you will therefore be her glorious sidekick if it were to happen.
  • The Uppity Instructor from Tri is a combination of this and a Miles Gloriosus, constantly bragging about how rich he is compared to everyone else. He ends up losing it all on a bad business venture, however.
  • The Arena Bambina from 4 Ultimate is either extremely condescending toward you, or really sarcastic. She even doubts if you really were the one who managed to kill the Dalamadur after completing its Urgent Quest for the first time.
  • The Ace Palico in 4 Ultimate has shades of this at the start, even calling you his minion in a manner similar to Cha-Cha and Kayamba. He actually believes it's the other way around, though.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The High Questatrix in 4. She often expresses little confidence in hunters who go to her for quests, teasingly telling them not to die, but once you get out of High Rank, and start gaining Hunter Ranks by the tens, she'll periodically comment on your achievements and express sincere concern for your life.
• Joke Item/Lethal Joke Item: A lot of weapons and armor sets are like this, such as the Vacuum and the Bistro Armor. See Improvised Weapon above.
• Jousting Lance: Lances and Gunlances.
• Jump Scare:
  • The Scare Chord comes off as this, particularly if you were not expecting the incoming monster.
  • It can happen that you walk towards an area boundary, only for a large monster to suddenly pop up as it enters through the boundary you're about to exit through.
• Jungle Japes: The Jungle in Monster Hunter 1 (old) and 2 (new), Portable 3rd's version of the Flooded Forest^note wherein all underwater areas were removed, the Primal Forest in 4, and the Ancient Forest in World.
• Kaiju: Certain Elder Dragon species tend to be huge, to the point where they have no in-game measurement given.
  • Dalamadur and its Shah Dalamadur subspecies are absolutely massive snakes that wraps around a mountaintop as its nest. They're nearly a quarter of a mile long and has two different targeting icons - one for the head and one for the tail. Most of the "cave" section of the Rotten Vale in World is actually two dead Dalamadur.
  • Lao-Shan Lung is directly inspired by Godzilla, being about as tall as The Big G's 90's incarnations.
  • Ceadeus is a 55 meter long sea serpent that is causing the earthquakes in Moga village.
  • Dah'ren Moran and Jhen Moran are the size of whales and treated like sea monsters, except in the desert.
  • Dire Miralis is described only as "Extremely Large" and it's not an exaggeration.
  • Zorah Magdaros is a literal walking mountain - specifically, a volcano. Much like Miralis, it has magma inside its body that is the main cause of concern for its presence, and much like Lao-Shan Lung above, it has a very familiar body plan.
  • Xeno'jiiva is the final Elder Dragon introduced in World. It's merely an infant of its species and it's already the largest monster besides Zorah. Its adult form, Safi'jiva is appropriately colossal and one of the most powerful monsters in the game.
  • Rise: Sunbreak gives us Gaismagorm, the Archdemon of the Abyss, an Elder Dragon abomination who is so huge players are roughly as large as one of its toenails. It's so huge that it takes a battleship with three Dragonators just to force it back into the chasm it tries to clamber out of in its introductory scene, and is so powerful it can tank several Dragonators during its fight.
• Kaizo Trap:
  • If weak enough, it is theoretically possible to die from a monster collapsing on top of you after you catch it. Made impossible in most normal quests, since after the main quest conditions are fulfilled, the player is invulnerable to any monster attack. In quests with multiple monsters, or quests with monsters that appear but do not need killing, monsters like Congalala that have post-death attacks can potentially harm you. Exceptions to this rule include quests which don't end the instant you capture the monster, but a few seconds later. In these cases,, you can effectively die if the monster you just caught happens to fall on top of your hunter. Fortunately, this only applies to first-gen monsters (Rathalos, Diablos, etc.) in older games. Except Rajang and Congalala in 4U. Their death-flails will still do damage if you're within range of their claws.
  • Some of the monsters' introductory cutscenes in 4U are this. Hope you weren't too mesmerized with Gravios to notice it charging a thermal ray in your direction at the end of the cinematic!
• Kamehame Hadoken: As part of the Street Fighter V Arcade Edition collaboration in World, you can purchase a Hadoken Gesture for $3.99. The Hadoken, in addition to looking exactly like its Street Fighter counterpart, deals minor damage if it makes contact with an enemy, in the same manner as the Ninja Star Gesture.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Several Longsword designs are based on the katana. Subverted, however, in that they are not necessarily stronger than other Longsword types.
• Kinda Busy Here: Beginning with the 3rd Gen games, NPCs can occasionally interrupt you mid-fight to deliver an important message or warn you of impending danger, which can be unhelpful if said danger is only a scant few meters away from your face. Thankfully, not only are such sequences few and far in between (with most occurring at the start of a quest), the game also pauses the action during the messages, though this only makes the phenomenon even weirder. The playable demo of 4U was rather notorious for this if a player chooses to turn the "Beginner-Friendly Messages" on. This leads to a case of Now You Tell Me with the Guildmarm regarding the Frenzy virus from the Gore Megala, as she pipes up to explain what happens if you overcome the virus or succumb to it, and lampshades she brought it up right when that's exactly what's happening to you at that very moment in either case.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice:
  • Uragaan, while not particularly just, has a very formidable chin.
  • Its close relative Radobaan is similarly mandibularly impressive.
  • Ukanlos as well, with its mighty shovel jaw.
  • Deviljho has a large, spiky lower jaw. His is closer to an Lantern Jaw of Terror, though.
  • Also an option for character creation. Out of all the examples, the only one that actually signifies heroic status.
• Last Chance Hit Point: The Felyne Moxie and Guts skills allow you to withstand one hit that would otherwise knock you out.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: Judging by how much World deviates from traditional MonHun fare, one may think that it's a spinoff. No, Capcom has stated that it is the fifth mainline game. To elaborate:
  • Sub-areas of maps are now seamless, instead of being separate instanced areas.
  • Instead of using paintballs to track enemies, you now train scoutflies by finding traces like footprints or feathers, then the scoutflies will automatically track monsters on the map for you. In Rise you get specially trained owls called Cohoots that outright locate all the large monsters on the map for you (though you still need to have fought the monster's species at least once for the cohoot to identify what monster it is).
  • You now use the same armor between Blademaster and Gunner weapons. Instead, what differentiates the two types in terms of defense is boosted defense for Blademasters and boosted elemental resistances for Gunners. The change is explained in-universe by the Second Fleet's engineers in the New World having advocated the the barriers between Gunner and Blademaster armors be removed (out of practicality given the lack of resources they had at the time), and the Guild as a whole adopting the change over time in the Old World as well.
  • Armor Skills work completely different than in previous games. Earlier in the series, gear features Skill Points for particular Skills, and a Skill will only activate if your combined gear built up enough points. In World, having a Skill on your equipment outright gives you the Skill's effect. In addition, having more of the same Skill equipped at once can boost the effectiveness of that Skill, and certain Armor sets can have Set Bonuses that grant an additional Skill on top of the ones granted by your Armor if you wear enough pieces of the same Set.
  • Charms and Decorations have switched functions: instead of finding Charms out on the field with randomized Skill Point distribution based on Charm type and Rarity, Charms are now crafted from materials through the Smithy and are upgraded the same way as weapons, with upgrades increasing the number of Skill Points that the Charm grants. Decorations are found as randomized rewards and can be melded into other Decorations, just like Charms used to.
  • The base camp has been substantially upgraded; among other things, you can change weapons and eat at a canteen, where previously you would be stuck once you began a mission.
  • There's actual voiced dialogue now, though you are free to use the traditional "Monster Hunter Language" (as the game calls it) if you want.
  • By default, color-coded damage numbers are now shown for attacks.
• Leap of Faith: There is an Armor Skill in World known as Leap of Faith; while it doesn't have anything to do with a literal leap of faith, having the Skill enables you to perform the dive-evade (popularly known as the Superman dive) while facing a monster^note You can only otherwise perform it while running away and extends its dive distance.
• Let's You and Him Fight:
  • World introduced Turf Wars, an event where two large monsters fight each other if they see each other. Given enough planning, players can lure one monster to another to intentionally start a Turf War for big damage.
  • Rise made the manipulative part of this trope more direct by allowing players to wrangle monsters with the Wirebug, temporarily controlling them and gaining access to all of their moves. This usually does more damage than just letting the pre-canned Turf War animation play out.
• Lethal Joke Character:
  • Playing as a Prowler in Generations can often bring derision to the playing choosing to do so; however, a player who has invested the necessary time and dedication to the right builds can run with a Palico and do just as well as a Hunter, if not better, in expert hands. Prowler teams successfully taking on Elder Dragons without any carts at all is not as uncommon as it would seem.
  • The Gajalakas in World. Their miniature size belies their surprisingly high attack power; one hit from them can deal as much damage as the average hit from a large monster, and they typically show up in packs of three or four.
  • The Greatest Jagras in World appears to just be a ludicrously large version of the game's Warm-Up Boss. However his health and damage numbers have been increased to be in line with a Tempered Elder Dragon, meaning a single belly flop can potentially kill even well-geared hunters.
• Lethal Lava Land:
  • The Old Volcano in Monster Hunter, the Volcano in 2, a different Volcano in Tri, Volcanic Hollow in 4, and Elder's Recess in World. Hope you've got plenty of Cool Drinks.
  • 4 brings us a Lethal Lava Town, Harth, although the lava only shows up after you've defeated the Nerscylla.
  • Several Boss-Only Levels are set in volcanoes, mainly Battleground, Sacred Land, Lava Canyon, Ingle Isle, Everstream, and Deep Crater.
• Level Grinding: Not for character levels as such, but the items: you'd sweat through killing a certain monster sometimes over 20 times only in order to get armor that helps you kill the same monster.
  • 4/4U's Guild Quests have a level attached to them when you receive the Quest, depending on what monsters are involved and what kind of Expedition you received the Quest from. Naturally, Guild Quests of higher levels drop better loot than what you find at lower levels, as well as upgrading the monster in question so that you may some day be able to farm it for G-Rank drops. However, Guild Quests level up by completing them, which means that a Hunter may wind up hunting the same monster over and over again before it actually drops anything of value. Players who are not yet G-Rank have to be particularly careful with farming the same quest; at levels 31, 76, 86, and 126, the HR requirement will increase, so even if you "own" the quest, you won't be able to tackle it anymore until you match the target HR, with the only alternative being to use a new quest.
  • Frontier allows players to unlock brand new moves for all weapons...but only if they manage to grind their Hunter Rank past 500. At this point, you are given a "Skill Rank" for each weapon type, which will only go up the more you use them in quests. At SR1 you will receive a few new moves; reaching SR100 will unlock the rest. In fact, grinding both your HR and SR to maximum is the only way to gain access to the Battle Tonfas.
  • Felyne Comrades/Palicos play this trope straight, gaining levels the more you take them with you on quests. The "grinding" aspect is subverted since you won't notice it much—until you decide to switch Palicos and discover that your new ones get knocked out much more quickly. Cha-Cha and Kayamba from 3U also have experience levels, but the impact of grinding isn't as strong as the Palicos' since you only have the two of them to level.
  • World restricts certain monsters, story quests, and Event quests based on your Hunter Rank and Master Rank in Iceborne, forcing some grinding on lower level hunts to progress.
  • The Guiding Lands in World has multiple zones which can be leveled up to a maximum of level 7, allowing a wider variety of increasingly dangerous monsters to spawn. The only way to increase a zone's level is by grinding and researching related monsters.
• The Lifestream: The New World has the Everstream. It's basically a bunch of lava tunnels that provide the energy for life all over the New World. Zorah Magdaros wants to go there and die. Unfortunately, this would have catastrophic consequences given the immense energy its death would release, so it's up to the Commission to drive it away.
• Lighter and Softer: Over time, the soundtracks of the games have generally gotten lighter in tone, emphasizing the Scenery Porn more than the brutal monster encounters. Compare the oppressive-sounding Verdant Hills theme from the first Monster Hunter to the graceful Jurassic Frontier theme from Generations, for example; for context, both themes are used for their respective games' first maps.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • The Barioth is one of the fastest wyverns... and hits like a giant flying saber-toothed tiger dragon. The same basically applies to the Nargacuga and Tigrex "families", all of which enjoy the collective fan-classification of Pseudo-Wyverns.
  • One of the more famous examples is Rajang, who gets bonus points for actually being able to shoot lightning. From its mouth.
  • Zinogre is a more literal example, being a giant lupine monster capable of summoning lightning storms at will. It can even gather Thunderbugs to supercharge itself, which will imbue its attacks with lightning in addition to making it faster and stronger...and that's not even getting to its actual Rage Mode. Thankfully players can actually delay him from fully charging as long as they keep up the offense, but should they fail to do so...
  • 4 Ultimate's Najarala is a gigantic 40 meter rattlesnake-cobra hybrid. Think it would be painfully slow for its size? Think again; it's roughly as fast, if not faster than, Agnaktor and can easily outmaneuver unwitting hunters by slithering around the battlefield like a viper, setting them up for a nasty constriction attack or coiling up to prepare for a blindingly quick lunging bite.
  • In Generations and Generations Ultimate, any Fragile Speedster-type monster becomes this if they have the Hyper effect, gaining increased attack power especially for attacks involving a currently-glowing part, as well as a significantly higher health pool.
• Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: Rathalos the fire wyvern, and Lagiacrus the thunder leviathan. The two are set up as rivals to one another, with Rathalos being the King of the Skies and Lagiacrus being the Lord of the Seas, and are both weak against the other's element. The intro cutscene for Monster Hunter Tri showcases a battle between the two, and in the first Monster Hunter: Stories, they're more likely to retreat to their dens if defeated by each other.
• Limit Break:
  • The Hunter Arts in Generations can be used after attacking monsters enough to fill a gauge.
  • World imbues the Generations spirit into its Bowguns, as both the Light and Heavy Bowguns are now armed with "Special Shots" that are independent of your normal ammo, are tied to the weapon itself, and can only be used when you have Special Shot gauge left to spare. Special Shots pack an enormous punch and come in several different varieties, like the Light Bowgun's "Wyvernblast", which plants a landmine that can be detonated with attacks or shots, or the Heavy Bowgun's "Wyvernheart" (More Dakka) and "Wyvernsnipe" (Pierce Ammo + Stuff Blowing Up) Shots.
• Long-Range Fighter: Bowguns and Bows are "Gunner" weapons that are best employed from a distance, as in some of these weapons actually do less damage not only from far away but also if you're too close to the target. Further reinforcing this is the relatively weak defenses of Gunner armor in most games and losing out on the Blademaster defensive bonus in World.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • The main difficulty from quests that don't allow you to use armor is that your defense is much lower than usual, causing monsters' attacks to hit much harder, and you can't use any armor skills. However, Generations inadvertently introduced a loophole that makes them much easier. The Prowlers are also forced to go without armor, but they have several traits that make having no armor less crippling to them. They are still able to use skills, since their skills don't come from armor; a Prowler's defense is also increased by its level, meaning a Prowler with no armor has more defense than a hunter without armor; and there's a special skill called "World's Strongest" that greatly increases their attack and defense if they don't wear any armor. All of these combined makes these quests much easier than they were supposed to be.
  • Each Deviant monster in Generations has a quest where you have to capture the monster and the only items you may carry or use are the ones provided in the supply chest, and of the items provided, only a single trap is offered to the entire party. Again, this is where Prowlers shine, because they don't use items.^note They can carry Felvine to avoid having their items stolen by Melynxes, as well as the stat-buffing Charms and Talons, but those aren't strictly necessary to hunt well. Since a lot of their Support Moves are effectively the Palico/Prowler equivalent of items, most notably the Purr-ison line of skills which are traps that run off the Support Gauge and thus can be used repeatedly so long as you rebuild the gauge, and Prowlers have infinite Tranq Bombs that become available when up close to a trapped monster, these "on-site items only" quests are basically just typical capture quests for Prowlers.
  • Counter-Attack Hunter Arts in Generations enter a defensive stance, then bash the monster once hit by an attack. They can deal massive damage when used at the right time; however, the game has some...very strange definitions of what counts as an "attack", including roars. Press the button once you see the monster rearing up to scream at you, get hit by the "attack", watch as the poor thing goes flying from being caught unaware by an attack that hits like a truck, then wail on it because you never got stunned by the roar.
• Loot-Making Attack:
  • Severing or breaking off part of a monster, such as cutting off a tail, creates an object that can be carved for extra loot.
  • Breaking certain monster parts or doing enough damage to specific body parts when conditions are right can generate a "shiny" drop that contains extra loot.
  • Breaking monster parts during a mission adds a guaranteed piece of related loot to the end mission rewards, even if the mission itself is not completed.
• Low Fantasy: Very little outright magic. Instead there's a huge amount of fantastic creatures that are used as raw materials. A number of Elder Dragons such as Fatalis and Dire Miralis, however, appear to be preternatural in nature and skirting on High Fantasy. Pointedly there is also the aspect that in-universe many effects and abilities that would be called magic in other settings simply are not considered magical in Monster Hunter, at least by the people there. Yet, if compared to the real world, there is a lot about both the monsters and the humanoid races that simply couldn't likely function without some level of magic (or magic-based physics) being involved. Notably in crossover events characters and creatures from High Fantasy worlds have little difficulty functioning (and in fact can benefit from ambient energies in the Monster Hunter world), and if given the option in such crossovers characters from the Monster Hunter world can use outright magic themselves.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Sword & Shield, Lance, Gunlance and Charge Blade classes all have shields, and the Great Sword class allows you to use your sword as a shield. Shielding blocks most attacks provided you have the stamina needed to shield them successfully, including physical strikes, breath projectiles, and, strangely enough, stun flashes and roars. That said, there's definitely a hierarchy of shieldiness — lances and gunlances typically have tower shields and correspondingly have the strongest blocking ability. Sword and shield generally has a shield on par with a buckler, and they get pushed around much more than other shield-users. Furthermore certain attacks are impossible to block without having enhanced shield-using ability (as granted by an armour skill), and some attacks will still shove you around and deal slight damage even with Guard +2.
• Luke Nounverber: All of the Deviant Monster names have prefixes in this format. Redhelm Arzuros, Stonefist Hermitaur, Dreadking Rathalos, the list goes on. This was deliberately done to keep the Deviant monsters distinct from the subspecies and rare species by giving them a unique naming scheme.
• MacGyvering: The local smith always seems to be able to upgrade your equipment in seconds, using materials ranging from iron ore, to monster bones, to monster kidney stones, to bugs.
• Made of Iron:
  • The hunters are all about this. Ten story falls? Minor landing stun. Run over by a monster that weighs somewhere around ten tons? Get right back up! Hunter deaths are practically unheard of; running out of health just boots you back to camp with a fresh health bar, or back to port to hunt another day if it was the party's third time. Some NPCs aren't so lucky though.
  • Large monsters in general, even weaker ones like the Bird Wyverns, typically can take a incredible amount of punishment before dying compared to real world animals. Many of their body parts are noted in-universe to be just as strong as metal objects human make.
  • Some of the creatures, such as the Uragaan, have scales or skin that is made of or coated with minerals and ores that greatly increase their durability. There is even a literal invocation with the Steel Uragaan, an Uragaan sub-species which is covered in steel. These creatures are, incidentally, typically the physically toughest monsters next to creatures such as Elder Dragons.
  • Kushala Daora is literally the Elder Dragon of Steel. The outer steel skin doesn't grow well and rusts, which is why Kushala Daora regularly shed skin (the choice of meal for Khezu whelps). The rusted skin may not be immediately shed, especially if the dragon is away from the safety of the mountains. These rusted Daoras are irritable, and don't conduct electricity (thus resistant to thunder weapons/shots) but become vulnerable to water.
• Mammal Monsters Are More Heroic: Most large-sized Monsters and Elder Dragons are based on reptiles, cephalopods, and arthropods. Mammals (known In-Universe as Fanged Beasts) constitute a small percentage of the game available throughout the series and only a handful of them (such as Rajang and Garangolm) are strong enough to go toe to toe with Wyverns and even Elder Dragons (they're both based on primates, which shouldn't come off as surprising, given the presence of Godzilla-like Wyverns such as Deviljho). A Rajang is also plot-relevant in Monster Hunter: World as a Worthy Opponent to the Admiral, who otherwise doesn't address individual monsters during expeditions. Another prominent example is Gammoth, which is so far the only Fanged Beast strong enough to ward off and kill tundra apex predators (the trailer to Monster Hunter Generations: There's a battle between a Tigrex and the Gammoth which ends with the latter flattening the former with its trunk in a first-person view).
• Marathon Boss: Some monsters can take nearly the entire 50-minute time limit to kill. In pre-World games, multiplayer quests in particular are tailored for parties of multiple players, and as such it will take longer to put down a particular monster than if you were to hunt its single-player equivalent (assuming it has one).
• Marathon Level:
  • Quests that pit you against multiple monsters tend to become these if you're hunting solo. Some can potentially take up to the entire 50-minute limit, especially ones like "Monster Hunter!" or "The Five Kings of Destruction".
  • Online quests easily become these if you're playing solo, as these quests have monsters with HP scaled for multiplayer. A monster that takes you about 15 minutes to kill in a story quest might take 30 or even 40 minutes if you hunt its Gathering Hall equivalent.
• Mascot Mook: Felynes often show up in promotional material for the game, as well as in various "technical" screens like loading and installation prompts as stick figure-like drawings doing various cute things.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • Elder Dragons are... strange. They appear to have not evolved alongside the rest of life, use their elements in ways that aren't really justified by the presence of special organs or environmental factors like other monsters, with some of it seeming to border on magic. And World features one that's straight-up extraterrestrial. Whether they're an offshoot of normal life that just makes itself incredibly difficult to study or something else is poorly understood even In-Universe.
  • The Dragon Element. It functions by mentally tormenting its victim, reducing their Affinity or elemental/status abilities and making Elder Dragons' attacks weaker. It's generated primarily by the already-questionable biology of Elder Dragons, their close wyvern relatives, and creatures that hunt them like Deviljho. But the actual mechanics of it are unknown, being referred to merely as a form of energy with poorly understood mechanics. All that's known is that the more intelligent a creature is, the more affected by Dragon energy they are. It's the closest thing to psychic or magic power that exists in-universe.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Lao Shan Lung and Shen Gaoren, both Chinese. Lao Shan Lung means "Ancient/Old Mountain Dragon" and Shen Gaoren means "Godly/Divine Giant."
  • Ceadeus. "Cea" sounds like "Sea", and "Deus" means God. Sea God. The Japanese name, Navaldeus, is even more direct.
  • Trenya, the adventurous Felyne.
  • Deviljho (or in Japanese, Eviljho) is a pretty good name for a belligerent dinosaur that roams around killing and eating everything it sees.
• The Medic:
  • If you have the Wide Area/Range skill, certain flutes, or Lifepowders, you can heal your whole team if they are in the same area; that also includes status ailments, even Blights! The Demon and Armor flutes also allow hunters to have additional stackable stat buffs.
  • Certain Hunting Horns are geared towards this as well; others are built for a more general White Mage role. Of course, they're also pretty effective for actual combat too...
• Medieval Stasis: Averted and played straight with different aspects. The overall tech level has noticeably improved as the series has progressed, but it remains a predominantly hunter/gatherer society which depends on the Hunters for both supplies and safety, which is much more evident in the first game. The first game showed a strongly bronze-age/prehistoria tech level with bowguns, but overtime mechanical contraptions such as the Switch Axe, balloons and dirigibles, and large ships with cannons have been introduced. Considering how long Hunters have existed and the fact that there are still Elder Dragons and other monsters roaming free, it's not surprising that the tech level is slow to advance. However, World's Third Fleet Captain is mentioned to be especially skilled in neuroscience, suggesting the non-industrial nature of their society may be intentional.
• Megamix Game: While newer games have always had monsters from older games, Generations and Generations Ultimate not only bring back a lot of monsters from previous games but also maps and villages as well.
• Meido: A certain line of female armors puts you in french maid clothes - fully done.
• Mêlée à Trois: Unlike previous games, where pissing off multiple monsters in a given area would cause them to gang up on you, World changes how monsters interact so that if another monster enters the immediate vicinity of another, they will sometimes try to fight each other, even if you're in the middle of fighting one of them. The "turf war" mechanic not only gives you a major opportunity to either recover or wail on your target while it's distracted, monster-on-monster combat has been buffed in World so that monsters attacking each other inflict several hundred damage at a time.
• Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty: The many, many armor sets tend to abide by this trope. The male version will often look tough and hide the wearer's face. The female version will generally focus on looking graceful, keep the wearer's face visible, and in some cases, boast a little Fanservice. That said, it's not as lopsided as many pop-culture fantasy games. Nerscylla armour makes both genders look like japanese mecha, including full face-covering helmets. Also Nargacuga mens' fishnet corsets and Male Kirin bare midriffs with bottomless chaps.
• Mercy Invincibility: If an attack causes players to roll across the ground, they're immune to damage during the roll and before getting up. 4 Ultimate even allows players to choose when to get up in order to take advantage of this invincibility, although hunters will get up automatically after a set amount of time.
• Metamorphosis: Gore Magala is the juvenile form of Shagaru Magala. The molting process is traumatic, and interrupting it originates the Chaotic variant, which is a deformed, vicious creature that mixes characteristics from both stages.
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • Invoked as a game mechanic; instead of leveling up your character like many other RPGs, progression depends entirely on crafting and upgrading weapons and armor into increasingly stronger versions of the previous ones. In the case of weapons, it's commonplace to see things like that puny machete you start out with eventually transform into a flaming royal sword that can decimate an Ukanlos with ease through persistent upgrading.
  • The Barrel Bombs in previous games were quite useful in their own right, except when it's raining. Come Tri, however, explosives technology had advanced enough for Barrel Bombs to be usable underwater.
• Mighty Roar: A lot of large monsters are able to shriek so loudly they stun your character, leaving them helpless for a moment. Roars can come in different potencies, some leaving you stunned for longer than others.
• The Migration: The story of World is centered around the Elder Crossing, a phenomenon that for as long as history records has been happening every 100 years, but has more recently sped up to every 10 years whereupon Elder Dragons migrate to the New World. Countless Hunters, scholars, and so forth have been sent from the Commission to the New World in order to investigate and find the truth about the Elder Crossing and why it is happening more often.
• Mind Rape: The Dragon element directly attacks the mind and consciousness of monsters. The more intelligent and sentient the monster is, the more damage the element does to it. In spite of this, some highly intelligent monsters like Doragyurosu are resistant to it.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Artifact, a mysterious golden shard under the Caravaneer's possession that drives 4/4U's plot. The Caravaneer is trying to figure out its origin and the mystery surrounding it, and wants to find willing volunteers to join him in his quest, including the Player Character. As it turns out, it's not actually a mineral, but one of Shagaru Magala's scales.
• Mini-Boss: The series has three groups of large monsters that serve this role: Fanged Beasts (Bulldrome, Arzuros, Lagombi, and Volvidon) Theropod Bird Wyverns (Velocidrome, Gendrome, Iodrome, Giadrome, Great Jaggi, Great Wroggi, Great Baggi, Kulu-Ya-Ku, and Tzitzi-Ya-Ku), certain Neopterons (Vespoid Queen, male Seltas), and Fanged Wyverns (Great Jagras, Great Girros, and Dodogama). These monsters have less HP than others, are considered to have a threat level of only three stars (the lowest possible for large monsters), and usually have a soft-paced battle theme that differs from those of the main areas where they're found; and since they're the lowest-ranked large monsters there's always a Background Music Override upon the appearance of another monster. In the multi-monster quests with two or three monsters, one of these miniboss beasts will appear first and, upon hunt or capture, will be followed by a larger monster.
• Mini-Game:
  • The multiplayer lobbies often have a barrel on which hunters can arm-wrestle while waiting for their comrades or for more hunters to join, which takes the form of a Button Mashing match. Notably, it's present in the Gathering Hall in 4 and 4 Ultimate but absent in the Elder Hall in 4U, the idea being that you're expected to be on your most polite behavior in the presence of His Immenseness and arm wrestling isn't exactly the most classy of things to do around a royal leader.
  • 4 also adds two more minigames, both at Sunsnug Isle near Cheeko Sands. The first is fishing, a rather simple game involving shooting your casting net at schools of fish (or the Plesioth) to catch them. There's also the Meownster Hunters, a much more in-depth game involving sending your palicoes out to hunt monsters, which is accomplished by selecting attacks your foe is weak against, like high-stakes Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors. The Meownster Hunter minigame also gives you scrap which can be used to create palico equipment. Generations redesigns Meownster Hunter into a cannon-firing minigame where circular zones representing monsters and rare treasures are shown on a board and you try to fire your Palicoes out of the cannon such that they stop in one or more of these zones (which can overlap sometimes, allowing a Palico to earn extra rewards for you).
• Missing Secret: In Generations Ultimate, one of the messages you can append to an online lobby is "Playing Advanced!" Advanced quests (which are quests that are significantly difficult for their star rating) do appear in 4 and 4 Ultimate both in offline (Caravan) and online (Guild) quest lists, as well as in Generations and Generations Ultimate in offline (Village Quests), but Advanced quests don't appear in GU online (Hub) at all.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Many of the monsters, especially from Tri onward.
  • The Royal Ludroth is basically a water-based iguana with a lion mane made out of sea sponge. And its cry sounds like an eagle's.
  • The Gobul is a mix between a pufferfish, a stargazer, and an anglerfish.
  • The Barioth is a mostly reptilian wyvern but with the fur, head, and fangs of a sabertooth cat.
  • The Nargacuga is similar to the Barioth, but replacing the sabertooth cat features with bat and black panther features.
  • From Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate the Arzuros, Lagombi, and Volvidon are basically bears mixed with a badger, an arctic hare, and an armadillo respectively.
  • Jhen Mohran: part alligator, part warthog, part mountain. With the swimming style of a sand whale.
    • The Dah'ren Mohran from 4 is the same as the Jhen, but without the warthog tusks. Instead it has just one horn out front, like a narwhal.
  • The Kecha Wacha from 4. Take a lemur, give it a tapir face, a flying squirrel's gliding flaps, and a sloth's claws.
  • Zamtrios is like a frog with a shark's head, and its ice powers can be used to create a narwhal-like horn.
  • Najarala is a snake wyvern similar to a hooded cobra mixed with a rattlesnake, but instead of using its rattle as a warning it uses it as a sonic detonator for its own exploding scales.
  • Congalalas and the smaller Congas are pink poo-flinging gorillas with hippopotamus heads.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: The Gunlance which is a combination of a gun and a lance. The Charge Blade's shield is also the axe mode's blade and can also be used to stab monsters with it while in sword mode.
• Mons: Stories is the series' version of this: The PC and their companions are younger, and their bonds with the newborn monsters often change them into smaller, slightly cuter versions of their full-grown forms. And of course, you gain and collect many of them over the course of the game/series.
• Monster Arena: Some monsters in Monster Hunter 3, 4, Generations, and their expansions are fought in a special Arena battlefield. There's also an underwater version to fight aquatic monsters in 3 and 3 Ultimate only.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • In 4/4U, after finding out that the Ace Palico went after the Ace Cadet and the Ace Lancer, who are being threatened by the Gore Magala, the usual background music will be replaced by a quite foreboding tune when you get control of your character back. The controls are returned only so you have the opportunity to prepare for the mission that will let you resolve the situation as well as you can, so getting a bite to eat from the Street Cook before leaving will probably seem like a good idea. Cue the joyful music that usually plays when the Street Cook is preparing your meal. A simular situation happens right before the Apex Seregios and Rusted Kushala Daora fights.
  • So you're just fighting a lowly Desert Seltas in a G1 quest in 4U, and the pretty mellow Warm-Up Boss theme is playing. You know an intruder monster may show up, but you don't know which one, maybe just another easy but annoying boss. Then you hear a booming Scare Chord, you see not just a Rajang but a super-powered, nearly-invincible Apex Rajang, and the music changes to something that would be at home in a kaiju movie. Have fun!
• Mook Maker: Gigginox, who lays eggs throughout the fight which spew out giggis unless you destroy them.
• More Dakka: The aptly named Rapid Fire Rain Hunter Art for the Light Bowgun in Generations is nothing but this. When activated, the user takes a stationary stance akin to the Heavy Bowgun's Siege Mode, and loads "Rapid" bullets into the Bowgun. While you have Rapid Bullets loaded, you can unload a nonstop frenzy of bullets into anything that stands in your way.
• Morph Weapon: The Switch Axe and Charge Blade are transforming weapons — Switch axe varies between an Axe that builds charge to allow it to transform into a Sword with extremely quick handling characteristics, and the Charge Blade which builds charge as a swift-striking sword and shield so that it can unleash massive concussion-boosted blows after transforming into a great axe.
• Musical Assassin: Some horns get the Sonic Wave song, which is a Brown Note version of the Sonic Bomb item.
• My Blood Runs Hot: Played fairly realistically with the Deviljho, who has a very high body heat and needs to eat frequently to maintain it.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The "ending credits" of Portable 3rd (played after you defeat Zinogre for the first time) features Nyanjiro, the courier Felyne (who can deliver items to your box though a barrel he rolls around once a mission) leaving Yukumo to roam the world of Monster Hunter and deliver invitations to Yukumo's victory party onto every past home village up to that point ^note Kokoto (MH1 offline and MH Freedom), Minegarde (MH 1 online), Jumbo (MH Dos offline), Dondurma (MH Dos online), Pokke (MH Freedom 2), Moga (MH Tri offline) and Loc Lac (MH Tri online) before returning to Yukumo in time for the festivities.
  • In 4 Ultimate, the merchant lady in Val Habar ^note who happens to be the sister of the Fishmongress from Tri informs you that a group of fishermen from Moga Village came begging her for Sushifish because they couldn't catch any, and that they're afraid the person who sent them out will get mad if they don't bring some back. Said person is heavily implied to be the Player Character from Tri and 3 Ultimate, and the merchant lady has no kind words for the Hunter of Moga Village.
    Val Habar Merchant: I hope he goes back to the big bully in Moga that sent him on this wild Baggi chase and socks him one! Hmph.
  • The Argosy Captain and his felyne partner Neko (Means "Cat") from 3U both claim to be adept at a swordfighting technique known as "Dirty Fencing", but never elaborate on the details. In 4U however, meeting them on Cheeko Sands and completing their quest will allow you to craft an armor set that provides the skill itself...and it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin.^note The skill not only makes you stronger each time you faint, but allows your attacks to wear monster Stamina down faster while decreasing your own Stamina consumption. In other words, dirty fighting.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules:
  • Monster has a laser or fireball type attack? Better hope the monster can't shoot through the obstacle you hid behind so you can sharpen your weapon, reload, or heal. What happens if you try to shoot through the obstacle yourself? Your projectile smacks right into it.
  • When using Flash Bombs to blind monsters, players need to make sure that the detonation occurs in their direct line of sight for the grenade to be of any effect. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the Gypceros, Gobul, and Tzitzi-Ya-Ku who can blind hunters looking away from the flash, up to a certain distance.
  • In pre-World games, monsters only leave the current area when they want to. You, on the other hand, immediately leave to go to the adjacent area when you cross an area boundary, which can prove problematic for non-Gunners.