Nightmare Fuel / Monster Hunter

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Meet the Savage Deviljho.

While Monster Hunter mainly borders on sheer awesomeness, some of the things present are a little more than sheer terror.

The 2020 Monster Hunter film adaptation has its own page.

Unmarked spoilers below!

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General/Multiple Games

• The Monster Hunter lore had long referenced artificial weapons like Flesh Golems made of Elder Dragon parts as having existed in the distant past. The question is, WHY did they resort to such drastic—if inhumane—measures? Is it because something bigger, badder and smarter than any of the currently known monsters is still out there, waiting to take revenge on humanity for the sins of the Ancient Civilization...possibly as intelligent as Ahtal-Ka if not moreso?
  • Not to mention, the aforementioned Flesh Golem, called the Equal Dragon Weapon, is horrific in and of itself. The Equal Dragon Weapon is a massive, dragon-shaped abomination seemingly cobbled together from robotic parts and the corpses of more than 30 elder dragons. As if that wasn't ghoulish enough, concept art shows what the Equal Dragon Weapon looks like when it's rediscovered many years after the war. It’s badly decomposed, with exposed muscles and bones, a torn-off arm, and organs dangling from between its ribs. Perhaps it's for the best that the Equal Dragon Weapon has never appeared in the games and is of dubious canonicity...
• Try grabbing a Wyvern Egg while a Rathian is present on the map. She will know, and she will come over and make you pay for hurting her children.
  • Rathalos will do the same thing. Good luck if you're an on a quest with both of them!
• In general, being stunned, low on health, and around a monster about to finish you off is this, especially if the next defeat will result in quest failure. It's the series equivalent of a deer-in-headlights moment. You can bet whoever it happens to is desperately mashing the controller to get free and screaming "NO NO NO NO NO!"
  You've fainted. Reward decreased by ____z. Reward decreased to 0z. No continues remaining. Quest failed...
  • Alternatively: Running away from a monster, having the camera shifted towards an exit so you can see where you're going, only for the monster to smack you unconscious from behind with a projectile attack because you couldn't see where it was coming from, or because your stamina emptied out from panic-running.
  • Alternatively: Running away from a monster, having the camera at the monster so you can see what it's doing. You try to run towards the exit using the minimap as a guide. Then you realize you've hit a wall and you've backed yourself into a corner with the exit so far away. The monster lunges and you have nowhere to go...
    • Even worse: Running from a monster, and making it to the next area, only to see another, potentially more dangerous monster waiting for you.
  • Perhaps the worst is if you're in a party of three or four players, everyone's health bars are at critical levels, and the monster is about to inflict a deadly Area of Effect attack on the entire party.
• Some areas have the decomposing carcasses of long-dead monsters stuck in the ground.
• Whenever a large monster in the area sights you, a Scare Chord plays. Just hope the monster isn't right behind you and you didn't expect it, or you're headed for an area boundary and the monster suddenly shows up right in front of you—it has no smooth transition into the area so it just suddenly pops up. It's a Jump Scare both out-of and In-Universe, because unless you have certain food buffs, your character flinches.
  • Alternatively in World, if you are fighting a monster and there's another one like Bazelgeuse or Deviljho coming to join the fray, the music suddenly cracks into a creepy glissando before playing the monster's theme.
• Quite a few of the Monter Hunter ecologies fit into this. For example...
  • Khezu dragging a Kelbi to its doom. By which we mean seizing it by the rump and slowly swallowing it whole while it desperately, but futilely tries to break free. In World, Great Jagras does the exact same thing with Aptonoth, but you can also hit it's engorged stomach to make it puke its meal back up...
  • The Gobul swallowing whole an entire school of fish, which simply disappear in a flash, before attacking and swallowing whole a cow-sized Epioth.
  • The Plesioth attacking an Aptonoth trying to get a drink, dragging it into the water with it making but a token effort to escape its doom.
  • The Gigginox vomiting up its young complete with high pitched gurgling. Lovely.
  • The Nargacuga, circa Tri, at least initially. Pitch dark forest, looking around...then suddenly, a pair of red eyes light up right in front of you. Oh shit.
• Any time an environment is unstable. Any of the already mentioned monsters could appear when you least wanted it, and quite a few players have been introduced to the Gigginox this way...
• Rage Mode, especially for the Deviljho.
• Endgame monsters like Akantor can be pretty scary the first time you fight them, with attacks that can easily OHKO you, being larger than any monster you fought up to that point, and most of the areas you fight them in, you can't get back to the camp once you enter it.
• All monsters from a non-Hunter's perspective. The PC may be a trained and qualified Hunter for whom these monsters are just another day of work for you. But to, say, a trader or a hiker or a child who's never wielded a weapon in their lives? Even small monsters like Izuchi or Renombra can be life-threatening, especially if they happen to gather in large groups and wander near populated areas... without the Hunters around to curb their numbers/deter them from civilization, it'd be all too easy for settlements to be overrun at any time.
• In the classic Monster Hunter games, being inflicted with the Paralysis status simply causes your avatar to stop moving for several seconds. In the more modern games (World and Rise), however, your avatar spasms in an attempt to get up, as if they're having a seizure.
• Elder Dragons are this in-universe, "Elder Dragon" is a classification of Monster that doesn't fit in the ecological "Tree of Life" where everything has it's place, what it does, what it hunts, or is hunted by, etc. Elder Dragons defy the Tree, they do not fit into it, they upset the entire Ecosystem they arrive in (usually by killing or destroying everything in it), most of them have abilities that don't make sense, or are so overpowered the Monster should've destroyed itself, but it didn't. They are also fiercely territorial; most Elder Dragons turn up in the games because another Elder Dragon has arrived and is causing havoc where they live, and they either want to fight it, or, in some cases, are running the hell away from it.

1st Generation

• Khezu. A weird mashup between a traditional wyvern and a Sand Worm with a lumpy, veiny white hide that lives in caves and whose modus operandi involves effectively tasing its prey before devouring them whole.
  • The fact that Khezu's roar sounds exactly like howling wind. So imagine you're a regular, non-hunter human, out trekking through the snowy mountains and you hear that. ...is it just harmless wind? Or a terrifying Khezu that's going to paralyze you with its electricity and then gulp you down while you're still alive and aware? Oops, too late, it already has you!
  • Unlike other monsters, which have their own Leitmotif when they're in the area and attacking you, or have the map's respective boss music play at the least, no music plays when Khezu is attacking you.
  • One of its materials, Pale Extract, which is also shared by Gigginox, is used as material for drinks. This video sums it up perfectly:
    "You're telling me that people take this thing's nasty white mouth juice... And you put it in your drinks? Oh my god, you people really are savages."
  • Frontier's Zenith Khezu has a unique attack where it devours you completely for a One-Hit Kill. It can also inflict an extreme form of Thunderblight that can give you a literal heart attack (see the Frontier section below for more details).
  • Its intro in Rise does a pretty good job at showing just how terrifying this thing is. It sneaks up on a pair of Baggi and shocks one unconscious before stretching its neck out to pick it up off the ground, the poor creature’s limbs still hanging from its mouth until Khezu swallows it whole. The other Baggi is furious and tries to rile the Khezu up, only for it to turn around calmly, giving a disturbingly satisfied smirk before lunging in for the kill.
• The very existence of Fatalis itself. It is an Elder Dragon that once destroyed an entire civilization. It's fire attacks can blast a massive chunk of your HP and its physical attacks hit like a truck, meaning you either have to wear high grade Rathalos Armor or armor made from the beast itself or you'll be introduced to the ground in one hit.
  • Lao-Shan Lung is an absolutely massive dragon bent on plowing through anything in its path, including fortified barriers. That isn't necessarily the scary part. At least one is so fixated on its route because it's running away from a Fatalis. Fatalis isn't even a quarter of the size of Lao-Shan Lung, and yet it's terrifying enough to make the giant do whatever it takes to get away. (The Fatalises are relatively fast, have ranged elemental powers, and have extremely high attack power at their disposal. Lao-Shan's only offensive options are all non-ranged and highly telegraphed, and the thing can maneuver about as well as a tree. Guess who wins?) Slaying Lao-Shan Lung thus feels less like a defense mission and more like punishing it for trying to escape, or at least a Mercy Kill.
  • The real selling point about the Fatalis is its equipment, which according to legends, can kill the user or even make them disappear without a trace if worn too long. It is also said to haunt their dreams and even possess them as they are unconscious. The weapons themselves not only have a demonic feel to them but also said to haunt the wielder's subconscious with abyssal screams and may even EAT OR EVEN TRANSFORM THE USER ITSELF! No wonder it was advised not to wear the armor.
  • The icing on the cake? There are THREE of these bastards alive and this one's only the regular Fatalis. The other two are even stronger than it. The mere thought of the trio together in one place is already outright mind-breaking.
  • One of the biggest not as widespread reasons why it is so terrifying? Its behaviour of using melted remains of its victims as armor is very similar to how hunters use materials to get armor from crafting. So combine this with what was stated above and the true terror of the Fatalis kicks in. It is possible that a few of them you ran into were former hunters and killing them for their gear perpetuates the cycle of "rebirth". In other words, the Fatalis is scary because he is the most cynical and destructive interpretation of the player!!
• The Diablos gives a good Jump Scare whenever it erupts from the sand, and then screeches at full volume.
  • Diablos themselves are just incredibly intimidating monsters to look at, looking like some crazy mix of a T-Rex, Triceratops, dragon and a scorpion. It's also huge, and the screech it lets out can be extremely unsettling.
  • Generations Ultimate introduces Bloodbath Diablos, a Deviant version of the original. Deviant Monsters are already scary enough, having survived various violent encounters to become far stronger than others of their kind and boasting surprisingly punishing movesets and attack power; in short, the unholy lovechild of Subspecies and Apex Monsters. Bloodbath Diablos is not just that, but it has an active hatred of Hunters, due to having been injured by one as a child. As for the fight itself, it starts off with the expected degree of difficulty, but once its second phase begins...the music takes on a terrifying arrangement of the Desert theme, its roar turns into something straight out of Hell itself, and it gains some powerful new attacks, including ones that blow up the ground around it. Oh, and that roar sounding like nothing of this world is the least of its worries: If you get immobilized by it, it will then capitalize on that and charge straight at you!

2nd Generation

• The Rajang, the most feared monster by players besides Deviljho:
  • It looks like a cross between a gorilla and a minotaur, is one of the few non-Elder Dragon, non-Boss-Only Level monsters to have a six-star threat rating alongside Deviljho, can knock back hunters with horrifying distance (we're talking halfway across the area, if not more depending on terrain), has a scream that just sounds so wrong when it fires its thunder beam attack, can lift up large chunks of earth to toss at you, and has a somersault dive attack that can mean sudden knockouts for unprepared hunters. In case you try to make it leave with a Dung Bomb, it won't. In 4 Ultimate, it's one of the monsters eligible for Apex status, and one of its new tricks as an Apex monster is lifting up a much larger chunk of land to hurl in your direction. Worst of all, it can pop in as an intruder on G-rank quests with unstable environments (see general Apex example above).
  • By the way, did you think fighting a Deviljho with no armor in 4 was scary enough? A G-rank DLC quest in 4 Ultimate applies the same "no equipment besides your weapon" rule to a fight with an Apex Rajang. Good luck!
  • In the classic Monster Hunter games, there's mentions of Rajang being a predator to Kirin and eating their horns. In Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, you finally see it in the act, putting it in a chokehold before viciously breaking the horn off to feast on it. This, by the way, is the first time a non-Elder Dragon monster is explicitly shown to be unambiguously winning over an Elder Dragon!
• Chameleos' introduction feels like something out of a horror movie. It first shows itself to the hunter by opening its eye while right next to them, and ends with Chameleos trying to devour the hunter, giving us one heck of a◊ Nightmare Face.
• The Daimyo Hermitaur and the Shogun Ceanataur are based off of giant hermit crabs. So, they'd live in giant shells or rocks, right? No, they live in the massive skulls of other nightmare-inducing monsters.
• The Yama Tsukami is also a little creepy with it looking like a floating Cthulhu head, fortunately it's peaceful in-universe except when approached by hunters.
  • Creepy initially; worse still when you see its mouth.
• Most monster roars merely make you cover your ears, leaving you immobilized. Tigrex's roar, on the other hand, is so loud that if you're in its effect radius, it will damage you. One way to interpret this is that it's so loud that even if you cover your ears, it still blows out your eardrums.

3rd Generation

• The Deviljho, originating from Tri, is the personification of this. They're gigantic monsters akin to a tyrannosaur, but look and act more like Godzilla in a bad mood, and have a roar that, as the Hell Is That Noise entry on the YMMV page describes, sounds less like a roar and more like a bomb going off, while also sounding like the roar of either a lion or a tiger. They're massive apex predators who can wipe out entire species when hungry, and when they get mad, they wreath themselves in their own rage. Its BGM sounds less like something you'd hear in a game about hunting legendary monsters and more like something out of Jurassic Park.
  • They have a nasty tendency to pop out when you're fighting other monsters. You could just be walking around on any assigned High Rank mission, and then BOOM. Deviljho incoming, and all you can think about is getting out of there as quickly as possible. Then there's the Savage Deviljho...
  • To further add to this, the "Everyone So Big-Big!" cinematic contains all sorts of monsters. As Cha-Cha walks along, they all sit tight (except for a Giggi)... but then he reaches the end and a Deviljho appears and starts chasing him and the hunter.
  • A rare occurrence is when a Deviljho moves into the area you're in JUST as you are walking into the stage boundary. You're not expecting anything and then OH MY GOD THERE'S A GIANT FREAKING DINOSAUR RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. And of course it plays the Scare Chord of a monster noticing you. Watch out, Slender Man... there's a new Jump Scarer in town.
  • Remember that Rage mode mentioned above? Well, along with speed and attack boost, the Deviljho is able to hit you with defense down and severe dragonblight. Pants heavy enough? Because it gets better. That stat boost and the ability to induce dragonblight?? That's Savage Deviljho in a GOOD MOOD!
  • A 4/4U quest has you hunt two Deviljho... with no protective armor to save you. Fittingly, the quest is titled "Naked and Afraid".
  • And think this is bad enough? Then how about meeting the Aberrant Deviljho from Explore. Imagine a Deviljho without any skin at all.....yea.
  • Deviljho is confirmed for Monster Hunter: World. In the teaser, it is shown to be able to carry a Great Jagras in its mouth as if it's nothing, and it even uses it as a bludgeoning weapon! The very last shot of it is it staring right at the camera with all the rage and hunger its beady little yellow eyes can muster... Oh! And there's no loading screens to help you this time. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.
    • We always knew Jho was strong but thanks to Turf Wars, we can see it's strong enough to suplex a charging Diablos.
    • Jho received some buffs in World. When enraged, his head swipes now have a slight homing effect. Meanwhile, his tail swipes now hit under him. In other words, anyone used to fighting him from the previous games is gonna have a case of Damn You, Muscle Memory!.
    • Thanks to overconfident newcomers who slandered Jho as too easy, we now have two words to fear: Tempered Deviljho!
    • And thanks to Iceborne: Tempered Savage Deviljho.
    • Iceborne really emphasizes how powerful Deviljho is, because Savage Deviljho can get into fights with four different elder dragons. ALL of them end in ties. If there was ever any doubt about Deviljho's threat level, it's gone...
• Gobul, a giant anglerfish with paralyzing spikes capable of swallowing a cow whole. Here's the rub: The Gobuls you hunt in the Flooded Forest are juveniles, too young to have even developed sexual characteristics yet! Which means that out in the deep oceans is something much bigger and nastier.
• The Qurupeco can mimic another monster's call to summon it, from the lowly Melynxes to the formidable Rathian to the aforementioned Deviljho. Suddenly, High- and G-Rank Qurupecos turn into a game of "OH GOD IT'S MAKING THAT DEEP ROAR TOSS SONIC BOMBS AT IT RIGHT NOW".
• Monster Hunter Tri and onward have a bit of Gameplay and Story Segregation with horrific implications. To harvest Kelbi horns, you need to stun a Kelbi and carve off it while it's still alive. But you can also obtain Kelbi pelts, meat, and liver this way. And afterwards, the Kelbi gets up and runs away...
  • Or, if they're anything like real deer, it could be Gameplay and Story Integration, and you're cutting a chunk of whatever they're eating when you knock them out. In real life, deer are considered herbivores and have the teeth for it but are notorious scavengers and opportunistic hunters. Which is its own level of horror...
• In Tri, one of the stages of the Tundra is an ice cave. The floor of the ice cave is transparent ice, which underneath can be seen thousands of bones. These caves also tend to be the dwelling areas of the Gigginox, who in and of themselves are a nightmare.
  • Much like Khezu, Gigginox is a worm-like creature that lives in darkness. They both exhibit weird sounds, and they tend to appear when you're fighting other monsters, and their sniffing is pretty horrific in-of-itself. If the other entries haven't taught you to fear the dark, try seeking one out.
  • The Gigginox can reproduce by itself and produce hundreds of baby Giggi in one day - take a second to think what would happen if even one day worth of baby Giggi survived into adulthood, all producing more and more baby Giggi. It would be like the Star Trek tribbles overwhelming everything, but not at all played for comedy.
  • One more thing that's always made the Gigginox unsettling is the fact that it's very near bilaterally symmetrical down its waist. It clearly has a front and back end, evidenced by the fact that one side dispenses toxins and the other lays eggs, but they're similar to the point that it can sometimes be hard to distinguish between the two. Of course, on top of that, it raises both ends when it roars (upon seeing you or entering rage mode). So does that mean that it...? ...Ugh.
  • The Giggi themselves are pretty creepy, having no eyes and a gaping mouth with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. They can latch on to you, sapping your HP until you roll them off.
  • In Tri (not Tri Ultimate and Portable 3rd), the caves in Tundra areas 4 and 5 are pitch-black due to a lack of light. All you can see of the Gigginox are its bioluminescent patches. Sweet dreams.
    • Arguably worse is facing a raging Barioth in there...
• The Royal Ludroth's glowing yellow eyes underwater. Imagine that in place of Jaws...
  • Just about any Glowing Eyes of Doom monsters qualify.
• The Ceadeus and Goldbeard Ceadeus, if you think about it. The standard Ceadeus has one horn growing over its eye, which — as evidenced by the Moga earthquakes — causes it an immense amount of pain. To make matters worse, the Goldbeard Ceadeus' eyes have both fallen victim to its horns in the same way, assumedly blinding it entirely. But, like the Khezu, it can still sense where you are. But, unlike the Khezu, it doesn't need to sniff around. It just knows.

4th Generation

• The Nakarkos. To start, it is found in the "Wyvern's End" map (which it turns out is a very appropriate name), which has you doing the biggest jump from base camp since the Sunken Hollow from 4. And then you see what the monster is: A massive tentacled Eldritch Abomination that literally eats other big scary monsters and airships for breakfast, uses monster bones as armor and to harness those monsters' abilities, and lives in a massive pit full of bones every which way with a very eerie theme track. A few of those monsters that the Nakarkos feasts on, by the way, include badasses like Brachydios and even the recently-introduced Glavenus and the ever-dreaded Deviljho. One of its attacks can cause a unique status that covers you in goo that seems harmless at first, until you roll and the goo causes you to be immobilized as the bones on the ground stick to you. Granted, hunters also kill monsters for a hobby and make weapons and armor out of them, but at least the end result looks far more refined and less squicky.
  • It's like Cthulhu is playing with finger puppets made of the bones of fellow monsters.
  • In Generations Ultimate, the client for the G-rank version of Nakarkos wants you to slay it because it ate their entire home village and took everyone they knew with it, yet the client was spared for some reason. Given that the Nakarkos is implied to be intelligent given its resourceful use of monster carcasses and its weakness to the Dragon element, one can't help but wonder if it did that just to send some sort of sadistic message.
  • Nakarkos' first theme is particularly unsettling, combining a Drone of Dread with ethereal noises akin to the River Twygz. It almost sounds like the whispers of the innumerable monsters it's killed... Hits the nail right on the head, considering that the Guild knows almost nothing about this...thing, which, when you're fighting it, appears (at first) to be a Multiple Head Case made of corpses. Its second theme is noisier, but now sounds more overtly urgent as Nakarkos starts to bring out the big guns.
  • During the second phase, the ground around you may start to glow a cyan color. Not only does it look creepy and otherworldly, but it's a sign that Nakarkos is starting to prepare its ultimate attack: a massive Wave-Motion Gun that will certainly send all but the most fortified of Hunters back to camp.
  • Something to note: Nakarkos is the cause of entire ecosystems vanishing into its maw. However, unlike similar Hungry Menace cases such as the Deviljho, it doesn't have a bolstered metabolism to facilitate such an appetite. Now, given that Nakarkos is an Elder Dragon a bit like a cuttlefish (which is known for being a very smart animal,) two possibilities come to mind. Either it's eating everything because it doesn't have anything better to do, or it's stuffing its face because it wants to.
• Generations Ultimate gives us Ahtal-Ka as the game's Final Boss. For the third time in the series the Final Boss isn't an Elder Dragon (the other two are Akantor and Ukanlos), but one can't possibly imagine a giant leaf mantis to be as strong as one unlike the former two, could it? That is, until one discovers that It Can Think as not only does it defend itself by swinging around debris--including discarded Dragonators—at hunters, but it's also capable of literally constructing a Humongous Mecha out of said debris by webbing them together and powering it with the cocooned remains of its mates! And according to its backstory, it had defeated entire armies on its own with said mecha. Think about it: a bug smart enough to utilize human technology to fight against humans. Just how many more of these super-intelligent beasts are there in the wild?
• The Primal Forest. It looks normal, until you realize that entire sections of the stage aren't trees or hills, but the fossilized skeleton of a monster that makes the Mohrans, Dalamadur and Raviente look tiny. Like the Sunken Hollow, it has a massive web area, and yes, Nerscylla can show up here.
• The Heaven's Mount area in 4 and 4 Ultimate is acrophobia fuel. It's more or less a collection of heavily damaged-looking ledges that surprisingly don't just crumble off at the slightest disturbance. You can easily look below to see that you are perhaps a few thousand meters above sea level, judging by the presence of the cloud cover below you.
  • Similarly, Ruined Pinnacle in Generations Ultimate has many vertigo-inducing views, including the Rathian nest area where there's also a perpetual windstorm, and the peak of the area (where Valstrax rests when it's low on health) which extends way above the rest of the map and will make you feel like you're looking down from space. How Hunters can just jump back down without so much as a bone fracture is anyone's guess.
• The Frenzy virus's effect on monsters. To give an example, in this video, you see a pack of Ioprey take down a Zinogre. While this might seem ok by itself, once the frenzied Zinogre strikes back against Iodrome, the Ioprey turn on it and begin cannibalizing it while it's still alive.
  • The ominous jingle that plays when a monster gives in to the Frenzy Virus.
  • When a Frenzied monster spots you, they come with their own jarring Scare Chord.
  • Remember how hunters can overcome the virus and get a stat boost? In 4 Ultimate monsters can do it as well! Referred to as the Apex state, this state gives the monster a massive power boost; No-Sell elemental weaknesses; and have body parts that are Nigh-Invulnerable; while still keeping the ability to spread the Frenzy Virus. Also there is no way to permanently keep them out of this state once they trigger it save for killing them. To make matters worse, one of the monsters that can possibly go into an Apex state is the above-mentioned Deviljho. Apex monsters also have their own Scare Chord distinct from basic and Frenzied monsters, letting you know that you're being targeted by a monster who looks like they came right out of hell and now wants to splatter your guts all over the area.
  • How is Apex status introduced? A cutscene shows an entire flock of Seregios—an otherwise very aggressive and territorial species—fleeing from something. That something, as it turns out, is an Apex Seregios, complete with Glowing Eyes of Doom and that aura that just screams walking death. Said Apex Seregios is introduced by having it toss a dead non-Apex Seregios aside. If just one Apex Seregios can make the rest bolt out of there en masse, well...
  • Think about it from a story perspective: A monster catches the Frenzy virus, but instead of dying shortly afterwards, it survives it. The monster isn't back to normal no, it is now a lot more powerful and Ax-Crazy than before!
  • Think about the fact that the Apex BGM overrides all other BGM, even if the host monster has their own theme. One can interpret it as the Frenzy Virus overriding the monster's brain.
  • Many players hailing from the third gen games know how dangerous quests with unstable environments are, but 4U's G-Rank takes it up a notch. In addition to randomly spawning Frenzied monsters, you will sometimes get a boss monster in a seemingly normal state. Then after fighting or fleeing from it for a while, it may unexpectedly faint and stumble to the ground...only to transform into an Apex monster. Cue the running. Not only can they pop in as early as G1 quests, but one of the first G1 quests they can show up in is a simple Desert Seltas quest, just to amp up the crap-your-pants factor; you're just hacking up a Warm-Up Boss when all of a sudden Apex Rajang shows up and starts punching you to death before you can get yourself together. You won't be able to get Drive Wystones until you get to G2; until then, they're basically unstoppable destructive forces whose sudden appearances mean impending disaster.
  • The Apex status also greatly changes how their roars sound. This makes them sound alot more terrifying than usual, but for Deviljho? It sounds less like a bomb, and more like a DEMON.
• One of the new monsters in Monster Hunter 4, the Seltas Queen, isn't scary on its own (unless you're squeamish about Big Creepy-Crawlies), but its offensive tactics involve snatching the Seltas, its much smaller mate... and then fusing with it.
  • The Seltas Queen and her treatment of the Seltas she summons is really unsettling. In her introduction she seems to go out of her way to abuse the Seltas as much as possible for the hell of it, and if she's hungry she has no qualms picking the poor thing from her back and SMASHING HIM to death so she can eat him. In addition her sounds and movements seem less like those of an insect and more of some horrifying war machine.
  • The Desert Seltas Queen can launch the Desert Seltas at hunters, killing the Desert Seltas in the process when it impacts a wall. And if she pins you, she'll pick you up and do the same to you!
• And both versions, after eating/launching their erstwhile mate, will just dig into the ground with their tails and pull out another Seltas. Just how many of those giant bugs are there!?
  • Oh, and unlike most of the other interactions with other monsters, Seltas themselves are considered large monster. A Warm-Up Boss, yes, but the Queen is tossing around an enemy that would be a mild threat by itself.
• What can be worse? How about Gogmazios from 4U? It IS, probably in the whole franchise, the closest thing to a MUTO or a Class-5 Kaiju, and totally doesn't look out of place in a Kaiju movie. If you think a six-legged, chemical-eating, multi-storey zombie-like behemoth covered with tar doesn't look menacing, how about adding a large-scale tar breath to the mix? And its theme music sounds just downright wrong, having a very foreboding and mechanical vibe implying that the Elder Dragon might be at least part machine in structure, unlike literally anything else found in the nature of Monster Hunter.
  • When Gogmazios flies (yes, this thing can fly), it unleashes an attack pattern which is nothing short of decimating the whole area. No wonder the Guild wants to fix the fort ASAP.
  • Also, unlike other end-game bosses (ala Elder Dragons) in the franchise, which at least have some sort of in-game references (be it poems, documents and else) hinting their presence or origins, there's absolutely nothing hinting the presence of Gogmazios. It really sinks that, when the guild knows nothing about an ancient monster which has the first Dragonator stuck in the tar on its back, then where the hell does this thing come from!?
    • It's not confirmed in-game, but some could imply that this entity might be the aforementioned Equal Dragon Weapon.
• The new flagship monster for Monster Hunter 4 is the Gore Magala, which is essentially a Gigginox, but worse. Take the Gigginox, paint it black, give it an insect-like exoskeleton, and give it The Virus with the ability to start a Zombie Apocalypse simply by having a hunter or another monster touch it or the hair and scales it leaves behind. The end result looks a lot like a Xenomorph. It's theme music isn't that bad, but its "noticed you" Scare Chord is absolutely terrifying. Oh, and the worst part? It's only in its juvenile form; turns out the Gore Magala is a baby Elder Dragon. You fight the adult version of it later in the game, which is even more fun.
  • Could you make it any worse? Well, How about crossing it with Zeruel?
  • Chaotic Gore Magala is what happens when the Gore Magala's molting process is interrupted for one reason or another. It's stated that the resulting Chaotic state is extremely agonizing and is why they're so aggressive; they're begging for something, anything, to put them out of their misery.
• The introductory cutscene for the Azure Rathalos in 4U is a huge Jump Scare. You leap down the ravine from your base camp into the Sunken Hollow, right into Area 1; shouldn't be a problem since Area 1 is normally populated with only Herbivores, right? Well, upon landing, you turn to your left and spot the Azure Rathalos only a few yards from your face, and then a loud snarl to the right of where you landed reveals an angry Seregios...
• A quest in 4 Ultimate to capture a Rathian ends with the Rathian, at her nest with the eggs that she's fiercely protective of (as you've probably seen in one particular "Egg-straction" quest to deliver eggs from a Rathian nest), being invaded by a Seregios. She's so frightened by the new intruder that has invaded her home that she gets the hell out of there, unable to even protect her precious children.
  • Although it may be mostly due to the fact that she's gravely wounded because of the beating she took from YOU, the player, shortly before.
• Nerscylla. Not only is one HUGE creepy crawlie, it preys on Gypceros, quite large dragons, skins them after they're dead, and uses their hide as some kind of armor. (Monster hunters do the same thing with the monsters they kill, but the result is usually refined enough to not look grotesque.) Their home area, the Sunken Hollow (later the Volcanic Hollow), is chock full of massive cobwebs, particularly in Areas 3-6 and 8, and you can see the skinned, webbed-up carcasses of multiple Gypceros dangling lifelessly from the ceiling in Area 5. Hope you're not arachnophobic!
  • Even better is its subspecies, Shrouded Nerscylla. Instead of Gypceros, it uses Khezu hide. Yes, the Khezu, that monster.

5th Generation (World and Iceborne)

• The Rotten Vale is essentially Nakarkos's lair turned into an entire hunting ground. It is made up almost entirely of bones, is full of dark corridors, several areas are filled with toxic gas that turns the wildlife violent, and the inhabitants are all nasty. One of the areas is carpeted with countless bloodied carcasses. Sometimes, a dead monster will fall from the map above. Ironically, said map is the Coral Highlands, one of the brightest and most visually stunning areas in the game. And the kicker? Most of the place is made of a Dalamadur skeleton. And not just any Dalamadur, either—this one is even bigger than any regular Dalamadur. And there's a second, smaller one beneath. How appropriate that the area was revealed the day before Halloween.
  • It being below the Coral is precisely the point. All that vibrant, beautiful life? It's only possible because of that massive graveyard below it filled with metric tons of rotting corpses. All that life is only possible because of all the death that happens below it. Even for a Monster Hunter game, that's pretty grim (and beyond the fact that the process happens on land, realistic too; nature has this system occurring in the oceans).
  • Even more interesting is that there are two glowing rocks in Odogaron's den—the type that sometimes get stuck in the ground when Dalamadur summons its meteors instead of exploding. Those two rocks have been here all this time and they're still explosive and the lingering fire patches do more damage than the acid.
• The Odogaron, one of the inhabitants of the Rotten Vale, looks like a huge skinless zombie dog with massive jaws. Its main feature is its second set of claws, which protrude unnaturally from under its feet. When affected by the toxic gas in the Rotten Vale, the veins on its back glow bright red, Deviljho-style. Its appearances in trailers and pre-release gameplay footage had it brutalize other large monsters, shaking Paolumu like a chew toy and bringing down a Radobaan.
  • And ever so often, it wanders up into the beautiful Coral Highlands, when there's a good chance you aren't yet ready to face it. There, it's bright red hide makes it look more like a Demon freshly escaped from hell and ready to wreak havoc.
  • How it shows up in-game is pretty terrifying as well. The Handler ends up running ahead of you to investigate a new area in the Rotten Vale when the Odogaron leaps in front of her and begins circling her. We see through her eyes the monster slowly stalks towards her, only to suddenly break out in a flat run straight at her. She's only saved by the timely intervention of the Tracker, and after you complete the quest, the poor girl is clearly terrified, sobbing into the Tracker's arms. Not even Zorah Magdaros or Nergigante generate this reaction from her.
• The summoning roars. Rathian and Rathalos, and Shrieking and regular Legiana, have special roars they use to call in backup from one another when hunted. These roars do not sound anything like the common vocalizations of any of these monsters, and if you aren't expecting them can leave you wondering if some incredibly powerful unknown monster is on the map somewhere, homing right in on your location...
• Also in World, Elder Dragons will be able to fight each other. Story and Gameplay Segregation in that these battles will most likely resemble other monster vs monster battles in the game, but In-Universe the concept of such a battle is horrifying. Elder Dragons are immensely powerful creatures and two or more of them getting into a punch-up would devastate the environment the fight happened in. That's not even getting into if the fight happened in a city.
  • The regular monster fights can also be startling. It can be quite sobering to see the Tyrannosaurus-like Anjanath suddenly appear out of nowhere and grab a Great Jagras or Tobi-Kadachi by the neck with its jaws and shake it like a rag doll, only for the Anjanath to later on get blasted in the face by the fireball of a Rathalos and get carried off several yards to get unceremoniously thrown to the ground.
• World gives us a new Elder Dragon called Nergigante as its flagship monster. Take the unholy love child of a hedeghog, Toothless, and Zodd, cover it in dozens if not hundreds of spikes, and give it devil horns half the size of Dragonators, and you have a pretty good idea of how it looks. This thing is frighteningly fast for a creature its size, and those spikes aren't just for show; it can fire them as projectiles as well as grow new ones on wounds it takes, increasing them in size and gaining a huge boost in attack power. Nergigante is going to make you earn that win.
  • It gets worse. Nergigante appears to not possess any elemental abilities and yet, is capable of fighting other elder dragons that do. AND WINNING! Apparently with its sheer aggression alone.
  • Even the early foreshadowing of the monster is horrifying. In a quest to rescue a lost scholar, the player comes across several clusters of thorns littered throughout the area. The ominous background music helps set the scene. And when the player finally does find the scholar, he is cowering by the corpse of a spike-riddled Barroth, absolutely terrified. Take in mind everything listed above about the Nergigante and imagine being defenseless and coming across the thing.
  • Just to add to the horror, this thing's diet? Other Elder Dragons. This is a monster that routinely hunts down, kills and eats some of the most powerful monsters around. Have fun fighting it!
  • What's worse than a normal Nergigante? How about one covered in steel spikes that can't be broken, which does more damage the closer it gets to dying? And that's exactly what we get in Iceborne with Ruiner Nergigante.
• Vaal Hazak, an Elder Dragon who lives in the Rotten Vale. It's covered in what looks like sinewy strips of rotten flesh, implied to be the flesh of another Vaal Hazak, making it revolting already. But that's just the start. Its intro cutscene starts with it draining the life from nearby monsters before bursting out from a pile of bones. In battle, it can breathe toxic gas that lowers your max HP, and it can control dead monsters through said toxic gas. The end result is something that would be more at home in Bloodborne than Monster Hunter.
  • As if regular Vaal Hazak wasn't unsettling enough, Iceborne introduces a new subspecies; Black Veil Vaal Hazak, which has been infested with toxic spores. Not only do these spores make the already monstrous creature look like something out of Resident Evil, they also make its effluvium even deadlier. And to make matters worse, it's invasive, changing the atmosphere of the Ancient Forest entirely. When Kushala is in the Ancient Forest, it's the same, albeit with trees blowing from time to time. When Blackveil Vaal Hazak is there, the entire map, including the sky has a sick, pale color to it.
  • When Vaal Hazak is in the Ancient Forest, it makes the usually docile Aptonoth and Mernos violent. Both species are quite easy to work with, and yet they can suddenly become aggressive at the drop of a hat.
• The way the Paolumu moves when its air sac is inflated is... unsettling.
• In World once the player hits High Rank they may come across the Bazelgeuse, basically this game's equivalent to the invasive Deviljho and Seregios, and is almost like the unholy lovechild of both, being one of the largest Winged Wyverns in the series so far and being what can be described as a Wyvern carpet bomber, liking to fly in the air and shower the ground with its explosive scales.
• Xeno'Jiiva. It's a completely unknown, and presumably new species of Elder Dragon that feeds on the lifeforce of other, dead Elder Dragons, and may actually be the fallen star that gets mentioned repeatedly. The individual you fight in World is the final boss of the game, easily one of the biggest and most powerful encountered in it, and is a NEWBORN. You literally watch it hatch in its intro. How destructive would it have been if allowed to reach adulthood?
  • This question is answered in Iceborne's second free title update: Safi'jiiva is capable of absorbing all the energy in a biome and reshaping said energy as it sees fit. In addition, it can use the energy it absorbs to heal itself completely. Only one other monster could blatantly disregard the balance of nature like this and that was Fatalis. In fact, Safi'jiiva's power was enough for the dormant Fatalis to sense that it had a rival, and thereby awaken to prove who the dominant monster was.
  • Safi'jiiva's regular theme is incredibly awesome, but there is a mechanic in the second phase onwards where a hunter will gain Safi's attention and thus the full brunt of it's aggression. When then happens? The song changes into a horrifying version of its theme complete with hellish droning noises and Inception-style drops. The creepiest detail is the subtle addition of a fast heartbeat in the background and what at times sounds like breathing - suggesting that in-universe, your hunter is terrified.
• It's only fitting that a collaboration with The Witcher ends up bringing some of its horror to the series, namely the Guest Monster that's introduced: The Leshen, a very powerful, very angry forest spirit that tends to slaughter anyone and anything that dares enter its territory. It can teleport, control all manner of plants to choke or stab the life out of any unlucky creature, and is capable of enthralling lesser monsters like Revoltures and Jagras to help protect it. While Geralt is used to fighting these things, Leshens are still some of the more dangerous monsters from his world and something that no one in this world has EVER dealt with before.
  • Geralt accurately points out that the sheer abundance of life in the Ancient Forest means the Leshen has a lot more natural power to draw on, making it several orders of magnitude stronger than it would be in the Witcherverse. Even then, there's still the Ancient Leshen that the Hunters have to deal with, this time without the White Wolf's assistance.
• Barioth returns in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, and with the new gaming engine comes something creepy from the Ice Tusk Wyvern. Normally, Barioth has its eyes squinted due to it being found during the daytime. However, if you encounter it at night, it has the most haunting eyes ever seen on a monster. The fact that it's capable of summoning snow tornadoes doesn't help either. See for yourself.◊
• Shara Ishvalda is a new, Earth-based Elder Dragon who appears to be a walking quarry in the shape of a dragon... until you break its armor off, revealing a gruesome, oni-like face and a twisted, gnarled body. Kinda spooky looking, but otherwise a perfectly threatening-looking Elder Dragon...and then it opens its eyes◊, which never blink and follow you - not the hunter, you - throughout the entire rest of a tense, difficult fight. Not only does it look deranged, but its body is also constantly shaking and twitching as it moves, particularly its wing-fingers when knocked over.
  • Much of the background material often lists Elder Dragons as capable of devastating feats that can wipe out entire ecosystems; Shara Ishvalda is more than happy to show you instead. When it enters its final phase, it sinks its wings into the ground and lets out a mighty roar. The player is then treated to the awe-inspiring sight of the entire landmass around the arena collapsing into the ocean. Before the might of the Old Everwyrm, a whole mountain range vanishes beneath the waves in an instant - and as the rest of the fight goes on, even more crags in the distance fall. The sheer power needed to accomplish such a tectonic feat is as incredible as it is terrifying.
• Behemoth, a Crossover monster from Final Fantasy XIV, is a scary enough beast in its native Eorzea, but imagine being a Hunter in the New World crossing paths with this creature. Up until now, the monsters you fought have been fairly mundane, and even the mighty Elder Dragons' great powers and command of the elements and forces of nature are well-known. Then you cross paths with Behemoth, a monster that doesn't just command the elements and forces of nature, but magic, up to and including frickin' meteors.
  • Whenever Behemoth casts Ecliptic Meteor, it's ALWAYS terrifying. This attack deals absolute One-Hit Kill damage, regardless of armor defense and resistance, around the WHOLE MAP. To evade this, you will need to hide behind a comet that had dropped earlier in the battle. You could alternatively use the Jump emote to evade the attack, or just Farcaster back to Base Camp. But still, when you see that notification appear on the right side of the screen, you need to RUN. NOW.
• If you didn't know Tigrex and Brachydios yet, then their introduction cutscenes in Iceborne make sure you realize what you're up against:
  • Tigrex is shown eating a large cadaver in Radobaan's nest. Rumbling sounds in the distance, signalling Radobaan's arrival. It rolls into Tigrex at full speed and fully covered in bone armor, except Tigrex catches it and stops it dead in its tracks. Tigrex swings Radobaan to the ground and sinks its teeth into its neck. Just after a few seconds Radobaan's tail stops moving. It is dead and Tigrex didn't even allow it to struggle. And then the Roaring Wyvern turns around and sees you...
  • You don't even see Brachydios at first. Instead, Uragaan stumbles into view, its movements slow and its body covered in greenish slime. The camera focuses on its face, revealing its eyes as it stares almost blankly ahead. It opens its mouth and then... the slime on its body explodes violently, causing it to topple over right in front of you. If the blast didn't kill it, then Brachydios, entering the scene, makes sure to finish the job, smashing one of its slime-covered talons into Uragaan's lifeless body. And then it comes for you...
• Raging Brachydios in Iceborne. Typically when a monster retreats to its lair or den, they fall asleep. Raging Brachydios is a different story. Once a hunter joins it, Raging Brachydios will violently pummel the ground before causing the whole area to explode in a blaze of lava and its own explosive slime, which is set to detonate whenever it wants it to as it completely covers large parts of the remaining area. And to make things worse, there is no escape. No exits, no farcasting, no traps either. The only way out of the ring is if someone gets KO'd, be it you or it. This all makes it one of the most dangerous and worryingly cunning monsters in the series.
  • If Raging Brachydios wasn't enough, then deal with Furious Rajang. When enraged, his electric and pin attacks can potentially kill you instantly if not at full health, no matter how much high your defense is.
• Before your first fight with Alatreon in World: Iceborne, the Tracker mentions that all records of the monster were burned by people refusing to acknowledge its existence. After facing Alatreon a few times, the Third Fleet Master says something rather unsettling about her trip to the mainland to relay your findings. She says she was approached by self-important people who urged her to destroy the Alatreon research. She refused (though admitted she was tempted), but is still worried by what they told her: fear the old gods, and some things are better left unknown. So there is a group, a cult-like sect, of people actively trying to destroy knowledge of Alatreon (and perhaps the other Forbidden Beasts) and conceal its existence. And considering how desperate these people seem to be for secrecy, it’s a wonder the Third Fleet Master was allowed to return to the New World alive...
  • Speaking of Alatreon, there's its Secret Art Escaton Judgement, which consists of Alatreon freezing the player solid before setting them on fire and finally electrocuting them. The Hunters we play as might be Made of Iron, but it's safe to say that this would be an absolutely brutal One-Hit Kill on basically anything else. This fan-made video describes just how utterly horrifying Escaton Judgement would be in-universe, for both the victim and for anyone else nearby:
    Throughout our back-and-forth, the beast was constantly powering up, its scales humming with energy. The Insect Glaive-wielding huntress once again proved her foresight - she screamed at us to take our Farcasters and regroup, that we could not weather whatever was coming at us next. Before I could protest, she had grabbed me onto her caster and taken off. But as fast as that was, we were still in range...when it happened. The Guild now calls it the Escaton Judgement, a violent hurricane of elemental wrath unleashed when the Alatreon reaches critical power levels. My words do not do it justice...it was as if the valley was swallowed by a raging sun. Me and the huntress barely escaped, but I...I got to see. I watched the stragglers get caught in it. The rugged Gunner scrambled with his Farcaster an instant too long...and paid a heavy price.
    When we saw our comrades vanish in the light of Safi'jiva's Sapphire, it was quick - a flash, and they were gone. I wish I could say the same for the Escaton Judgement. I saw the Gunner. I watched his skin freeze solid, only to see it burst into a boiling mess. A second later, I watched lightning erupt from his mouth! I can never forget his eyeballs exploding from the heat, I...I must calm myself. He has found peace now, and that is all there is to it.
• The trailer for the final DLC monster has an ominous tinge even from the beginning— Astera has been called to aid a distant fortress, which was attacked by a monster that was supposedly a myth. For quite a while, we don't see what it is, only that it apparently outmatched the fortress' forces even though they knew what they were up against and were prepared for it. Then we get a clear look at the monster, and you can practically feel your hunter freezing in terror: The OG Final Boss and Black Dragon, Fatalis. The Excitable A-Lister even makes a point that you are not fighting a monster, but history itself.
  • In the cutscene before the fight, the Commission discovers that the Dragonator has been boarded up and they make plans to tear it down, only for the ground the shake and for parts of the castle to crumble. The General immediately realizes what's going on and despite everyone being there ready to take down Fatalis, he makes no short order on what everyone has to do.
    General: GET OUUUUT!!
  • It's already terrifying enough to see Fatalis's "Demise of Schrade" attack melt the entire area in the cutscene, but then players get to experience this terror during the fight itself. The first time you're forced to take cover behind a giant piece of scrap metal, it starts melting as you hide until there's nothing left but a molten slag (if that). The second time Fatalis unleashes its flame, you are forced to retreat behind the castle's iron gate, and it too starts melting despite being able to weather Fatalis's firestorm. Bonus points of fright if you barely have time to activate the gate's lever, in which case you can clearly see the gate trembling and crumbling before the dragon's massive firepower.

5th Generation (Rise and Sunbreak)

• The Rise trailer/cutscene introducing the return of Khezu shows it giving the camera a disturbingly obvious smirk, before its neck extends in a wildly twisting manner like a whip cracking.
• Rise introduces a new pair of Temnocerans, the Rachnid and its mother the Rakna-Kadaki. The former has an oversized sac it can shoot fire beams with, and the latter weaponizes those offspring to disgusting effect, and sports a skirt of webbing on her legs.
• The monster intro cutscenes in Rise manage to make even the more minor Large Monsters pretty terrifying. For example, there's Great Baggi's introduction, which is shown from the point of view of a Popo who encounters a bunch of its own kind, all of which are dead. Great Baggi then shoots out its narcotic spit at the unknowing Popo, causing it to doze off as well, before hungrily going in for the kill. Sure, Great Baggi is a Warm-Up Boss for Hunters, but for non-aggressive small monsters and for non-Hunters, falling asleep near their habitats may be the last thing they ever do.
• In Rise, if you enter the Frost Islands at night and make your way to the northeastern reaches where the shipwrecks are, you may hear a low-pitched roar that does not belong to any monster in the explorable region. If you climb onto the bones extending into the little side island, you'll see the source of the roar: the Monksnail, an absolutely massive snail in the distance. While it's docile and does not actually attack the player, it can easily spook out players who didn't expect its appearance.
• A similar occurrence can happen in the Lava Caverns. There's a small crevice far on the northern side of the map that leads into a huge, spacious volcanic crater that aside from a few ore nodes, contains nothing of interest. But when dawn arrives, players are assaulted by a shrill, demonic screech right the hell out of nowhere. Thankfully the creature making that sound, the Hellbill, is a harmless and beautiful phoenix, but it's still quite startling when you first encounter it.
• In some high rank quests, it's possible for an abnormally powerful monster to invade your quests. That monster? Rajang. Fortunately, it spawns in very out-of-the-way locations and sleeps the entire time. But if you, for whatever reason, decide to wake it up, it will immediately flip out, enter its rage mode, and will relentlessly chase you across the entire map^note This can be avoided if you're riding a monster and crash into Rajang to start riding it instead.. It doesn't matter where you go or how far you run, it knows where you are and won't stop hunting you down until its beaten you half to death and gotten revenge for having its sleep ruined.
• Goss Harag has an absolutely creepy-looking face, locked in what looks like a predatory Slasher Smile, which makes it all the worse when it forms ice weapons on its arms. Get stunned by it and it may approach you slowly with sadistic glee as it threatens to rip you a new one.
• The concept of the Rampage. One or two monsters terrorizing a village is bad enough. But in a Rampage? It's a hordes of them, which nearly destroyed Kamura Village 50 years ago. And it turns out this isn't the monsters' natural behavior; this is due to the serpents Ibushi and Narwa attempting to mate, and their mating calls trigger intense vibrations throughout the lands that make other monsters to go Ax-Crazy.
• When Wind Serpent Ibushi makes his introduction, the fact that he's a never-before-seen skeletal-looking serpent is spooky enough, but then Hinoa finds herself unwillingly "Resonating" with him, channeling his thoughts before passing out from the sheer mental stress of having to process his thoughts. When you later go out to stop Ibushi, you may get dialogue from Hinoa about how painful the process of involuntary Resonating is, while Minoto can only watch in sheer anger and hatred for the serpent. Given that her dialogue has rape-like undertones, it's easily one of the most disturbing sequences in the game. This thankfully only happens if you do the quest titled "Serpent God of Wind"; if you take on a Rampage quest from the Rampage quest list with Ibushi as the leader, you just get the generic Rampage dialogue. It's also worth nothing that when this happens, it's because Hinoa isn't prepared for it. She's later able to Resonate with no ill effect as far as the player can see, and she and Minoto use their powers to serve as messengers to Kamura.
  • Thunder Serpent Narwa (or at the very least, the specimen featured in Rise) is even more terrifying than her beau. Why? She's one of, if not the first monster in the series to avert the Non-Malicious Monster trope and be verifiably evil. Even Fatalis could just be construed as a Knight Templar Misanthrope Supreme who just despised humans for the atrocities committed by the Ancient Civilization, and Ibushi at least displays no outward malice towards other life and appears to just be thinking with his dick. Narwa, however, harbors a murderous hatred towards anything that isn't her or Ibushi. She also appears to think of herself as a goddess, and joined up with the Wind Serpent in an attempt to take over the world, if not the universe. Even her love for Ibushi doesn't seem to be genuine, as she kills him, eats him, and becomes the Allmother once the Kamura Hunter repels him a second time, meaning she either just saw Ibushi as a means to an end, or she just wanted you gone that badly. She's enough of a dire threat that Teostra, Magnamalo or Kushala Daora join the Hunters in trying to defeat her, each powerful forces of nature in their own right...and she beats their asses without barely even lifting a claw.
• The initial ending cutscene after defeating Thunder Serpent Narwa. You see Hinoa and Minoto, Resonating together. Through them, the two serpents reveal that they are alive, together, and Narwa in particular is possibly pregnant. Either of those Elder Dragons was already dangerous enough to the ecosystem, as can be seen by the monsters they mass-influence into a destructive Rampage. Why not a new generation of themselves?
• The Apex monsters in this game are absolutely horrifying, even if they aren't the same Apex monsters that overcame the Frenzy Virus in 4 Ultimate:
  • All of their roars are backed by a hellish ringing sound and all other sounds and music briefly fading out.
  • In Rampage quests, they get a shared theme that's backed by an ominous choir and which sounds like it would be at home in a Kaiju chase scene.
  • Every Apex has a special attack wherein it will stop in place and roar loudly for several seconds. Fail to do enough damage to topple it, and face the consequences as the Apex then starts tearing the entire Stronghold a new one.
  • Apex Arzuros. Like Redhelm Arzuros in Generations before it, if you expect it to be just Arzuros with more hit points and a little more damage, you couldn't be any more wrong. In Rampages, it makes its entrance with a roar loud enough to immobilize you. It then starts to tear up the entire stronghold with its absurdly powerful claw swipes, and like Redhelm has a ground pound that inflicts massive damage to Hunters and the gate. Since this is the very first Apex you fight, you will very likely drop bricks when it leaps towards the first gate and destroys it instantly. Watching it swipe the final gate for triple-digit red damage numbers at a time is a sight to behold. Bears Are Bad News? More like Bears Are Worst News!
  • Apex Rathalos makes his introduction by dropping fireballs...that then more or less NUKE your Installations, and is able to do the same to the final gate. You thought he was gonna approach the gate at first? Well, Apex Rathalos can begin charging up this attack at range, and then fly into the sky to become untouchable by most weapons while again obliterating your Installations, the gate, and you while you can only watch and run in horror.
  • Apex Diablos, unlike the other Apexes, doesn't make its intro from above. Instead, it lets out its Mighty Roar from below the ground, pounding on it several times suspensefully before bursting out like a demon out of hell, true to its name. And in standard quests to hunt it, it borrows Bloodbath Diablos's habit of immediately charging anyone who gets immobilized by its roar.
  • If Apex Arzuros being able to inflict triple-digit red damage numbers to the final gate is bad, then Apex Zinogre the Thunderlord takes it up to eleven by being capable of unleashing rapid flying ground slams in its Limit Break attack, all of which inflict quadruple-digit damage numbers to the gate in quick succession. Cue the "Quest Failed" screen.
• Magnamalo and Apex Mizutsune are capable of inflicting a status ailment called Hellfireblight, a variant of Blastblight. The scare comes in the form of an eerie drone you hear while you or anyone else nearby is under the effect.
• Though Valstrax is usually seen as a cool monster, the Crimson Glow Valstrax variant blows it right into Nightmare Fuel territory. Back in Generations Ultimate, Valstrax would often appear as a background feature, showing his presence in the area as a distant comet on the map, but it wouldn't go further beyond. In Rise, Crimson Glow Valstrax can interrupt your hunts like Velkhana and Ruiner Nergigante did in Iceborne, but unlike those two, your only warning is when the game tells you Crimson Glow Valstrax is ambushing you.
  • The introductory scene also leans into this, as Valstrax are normally creatures that stay away from the ground most of the time. However, the Crimson Glow Variant is very hostile to other creatures, which is demonstrated by it bombing the Shrine Ruins with dragon-element bolts. The cause of this uncharacteristic aggression? A build up of too much dragon-element energy, which is causing it a large amount of pain. This shown with the red streaks on the monster's shell, which flares up even more when it gets angry. This increase in power has given it quite a boost from being a simple lower tier Elder Dragon on the level of Kushala Daora or Kirin, all the way up to being on Thunder Serpent Narwa's level of strength.
  • The method of which Crimson Glow Valstrax invades is also terrifying, as while you see the ambush warning, wondering what's going on, Crimson Glow Valstrax interrupts your hunt with it's "Around the World" attack, but it's MUCH more sudden than before. And then if that weren't enough, Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax - shortly after the Ambush popup appears - will rain a full barrage of dragon element blasts upon the ground, specifically to scare you and mess up your timing with "Around The World".
• The Qurio that follow Malzeno and Gaismagorm are this. What appear to be red glowing butterflies are actually more like flying lampreys, similar to Khezu or the Gigginox. Beyond that, their bites suck up the life energy of their victims, driving them insane and, in at least one case, totally sucking its life dry.
  • You'd think that, once Malzeno is defeated, they'd cease to be much of a threat without it commanding them, right? Then you get an Urgent Quest to hunt a Lunagaron in the Citadel, something that should be rather easy compared to Shageru Magala and Malzeno before it, especially considering Lunagaron was already a previous Urgent Quest target beforehand... until you get to the map and find it covered in Qurio energy. Both the player and the Outpost Team quickly realize that the Qurio have killed (and/or made flee) every creature in the area - throughout the entire map, there is no Endemic Life at all, not even Spiribirds or wild Wirebugs, and numerous corpses of small/large monsters are littered about the zones. The only thing you encounter is the Lunagaron, which is being actively swarmed by the Qurio as you fight it, and Lunagaron displays a sudden, unnatural red sheen during the latter half of the fight. From the beginning of the quest to the end, even during battle and after you defeat the Lunagaron - where you'd normally hear the various themes you're used to - the only music is a perpetual violin track with music box-esque chimes and an occasional Drone of Dread, which combined with all the above, makes this one of the eeriest quests in Monster Hunter.
  • As it turns out, Malzeno was actually acting as a limiter for the Qurio because Gaismagorm, the Abyssal Archdemon, is actually the true host of the Qurio swarm. With Malzeno defeating Gaismagorm 50 years ago (destroying Galleus' home town in the progress) and taking over as Qurio's new host, Gaismagorm was forced to stay dormant underground until we kill Malzeno actually and unwittingly helped it to rise again.
  • Speaking of Gaismagorm, think about Gogmazios from 4U and enlarge it. As if Gogmazios can't be reality-defying enough, Gaismagorm has even larger and stronger forelimbs, a large head with a Flower Mouth which we mostly remember from Otachi and its friends, but these aren't the scariest part. Its level of control over the Qurio swarm is downright wrong, from using them as an energy source for its Breath Weapon, summoning numerous explosive spheres or "meteors", granting it a boosted charge like Crimson Glow Valstrax (except it does so by one limb), to giving it enough power to climb out of the hole and, as shown in the fight itself, allowing it to light up a wide area that ended with an explosion (mushroom cloud included)! From what we saw during the game until this point, Qurio swarms aren't supposed to be used like these.
  • And how we're introduced to Gaismagorm? Before you even fight it, this beast tanks two newly-created ranged Dragonators, and took another one - twice as large, and exploded afterward much like the one used to drive Velkhana away - that only sent it back down to the deeper abyss below. Dragonators have consistently been shown to be some of the ultimate anti-monster weapons in this universe, yet Gaismagorm proves that they are far from enough to make him stop.
• Even after Gaismagorm is slain, the Qurio attach themselves to any new host that they can find, leading to Afflicted versions of monsters, who are driven mad by pain as they're slowly being eaten alive... and it's up to us to not only stop them before things get out of hand, but also put them out of their misery. As a result, a good number of monsters hit much harder than you'd expect, and the top-tier ones can legitimately make even seasoned Hunters struggle to prevail. Fail to smack the monster out of its "delirious" state in time, and it screams violently as it causes a nasty explosion, blowing anyone back and stunning them, assuming they didn't faint. And then it leads to...
  • Risen Elder Dragons, introduced in Title Update 2 for Sunbreak. Even Elder Dragons are not immune to the Qurio affliction, yet much as Malzeno did - and much like the Frenzy virus before it - some have learned not only to use the Qurio's power, but also forced the leeches into a symbiosis state to ensure their own survival. Each one has different reflections of this struggle, but one consistent aspect is that parts of their bodies were seemingly burned from the inside-out... and as the fight goes on, said parts increasingly glow as if they're continuing to be burned from overusing the Qurio energy.
• During the fight with Primordial Malzeno, the Qurio will swarm him mid-fight, increasingly fighting to force him into symbiosis, but Malzeno refuses to let them like they achieved with others of its kind. As a result, like with the Risen Elder Dragons, he gains a lot of power yet he's also in agonizing pain trying to keep them from winning - even in his last Super Mode, after the absolute frenzy of attacks he unleashes on Hunters he will then reel back and writhe for a little while, showcasing the agony he's under while trying not to succumb.
  • Even before the fight begins, immediately upon entering the Citadel map, players will recognize the "Gathering of the Qurio" music that's playing (until they encounter Primordial Malzeno, whereupon his theme will override it during battle). Fortunately the map has all the usual life this time around, but it's still very much a musical Oh, Crap! moment that highlights the similar-yet-different stakes of this hunt.

Spin-offs

• Despite being more cartoony then most other games Stories actually opens with the first ever monster attack we see on an actual village by a Nargacuga and it's surprisingly terrifying. The beast shows up out of nowhere, ignores the closest combat-ready defender and instead rampages right into the village. In seconds it utterly decimates a few buildings and kills at least one person before the defenders rally to drive it off. This was the first time we got to see the sheer havoc the monsters can cause if hunters or their equivalents fail to drive them back.
  • A group of young children running off into the woods. Said children stumble into a Rathian nest. Dan's relieved comment about how lucky they are an adult didn't show up likely sent a cold chill down the spines of series veterans who know these wyverns are infamous for their ability to track people who mess with their eggs.
• Frontier-G gives us two extra monsters, also both unknown - in fact they are literally called "Unknown" because they're such a recent and powerful find that no one knows what to name them. There's even a big UNKNOWN stamp on the screen on the start of the quest to warn you that you're about to face one. One monster is dubbed the Black Flying Wyvern, similar to the Rathian and is Red and Black and Evil All Over; the other is Mi Ru, which looks like an odd fusion of Tigrex and Nargacuga with colour-swapping diamonds on its body, and is again red and black.
  • Special mention goes to the Black Flying Wyvern. If you attempt the highest-difficulty version of its quest, you're in for a surprise; it gets a second phase where it suddenly takes off into the sky at incredible speeds, creating a whirlwind and drops massive chunks of the tower on you if you don't move. And when it comes back down, its red parts have become blazing inferno orange and are literally on fire, including two parts on its head which now resemble Glowing Eyes of Doom, and it is now more violent and much more powerful. It gives the vibe that you're not hunting a monster, but rather a demon that crawled out of the pits of Hell. The musical score even changes to reflect this, as if to say, "You're not hunting anymore. You're struggling to survive."
• Frontier's Laviente is the largest monster in the series and possibly one of the most intimidating. When it gets hungry, it gets up and starts wiping out entire ecosystems. It takes dozens of hunters several hours to kill this thing... if they even do.
  • It's introductory video really shows you how hugely destructive this thing is. Depicting a peaceful island, flourishing with life, the mood suddenly gets tense and all the monsters start fleeing from something. Suddenly. the Laviente pops up from the ground, swallows a dozen tank-sized Aptonoth in one bite, then proceeds to destroy everything in its wake. A volcano erupts, the earth splits, and this is all from one monster. It really means something when everything else, up to the Espinas and the Rathian, is running away from you.
• Thought regular Thunderblight was bad enough, with the higher risk of getting stunned? Frontier has an "extreme" form of it where if you take one more Thunder attack, you'll go into cardiac arrest and you have to be revived by another player before your health drains completely.

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Troper has abandoned the quest.

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