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1[[VideoGame/MonsterHunter Main page]] | '''Tropes A-C''' | [[MonsterHunter/TropesDToG Tropes D-G]] | [[MonsterHunter/TropesHToM Tropes H-M]] | [[MonsterHunter/TropesNToR Tropes N-R]] | [[MonsterHunter/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]
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3* OneUp: Starting in ''Generations'', one of the meal buffs you can get is Felyne Insurance (Dango Insurance in ''Rise''), which makes the first faint not count for penalty purposes (the victim will still be escorted back and lose the stat gains from their meal though). Yes, this also applies to the "faint once and you fail' G-Rank Deviants in ''Generations Ultimate''; the skill does let you get away with a single cart. However, the effect will only apply once per quest; if more than one player gains the buff, the party will not get more free carts. ''World'' introduces the Felyne Safeguard food skill, which stacks with the aforementioned Felyne Insurance (which is only available as a random food skill rather than a specific combination of ingredients) to give you two extra carts. Interestingly, this requires [[GargleBlaster five Preparation-type Liquor ingredients]]; in older games, the only thing mixing a bunch of booze would give you was the [[PoisonMushroom stamina-lowering Unlucky Cat effect.]]
4* AbnormalAmmo: Really, it's amazing what you can load into your Bowgun. From seeds and raptor teeth to Whetstones and ''live fish.''
5* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Or Hammer, or Lance, or Horn, or Glaive. Normally, your weapon will dull as you use it and become unable to cut through certain monster parts, resulting in a bounce effect. However, if you possess the Armor Skill "Mind's Eye", your weapon becomes able to cut through ''anything'', regardless of its Sharpness value or the monster part being attacked (although you still experience reduced damage). As of ''World'', the Charge Blade specifically has a built-in [[SuperMode powered mode for its Sword]] that allows you to gain this ability as an inherent weapon feature.
6* TheAce:
7** [[InUniverse In-universe]], the player character is considered this after completing all of the Village and Guild Hall quests in each respective game. The NPC dialogue even changes to reflect on your achievements, with people praising your feats left and right.
8** Your Main Palico in ''4/4U'', who is the Ace Palico. Many other Palicoes look up to him as a sort of idol, especially the ones occupying Cheeko Sands. You, on the other hand, are just his minion.
9** The Ace Hunters in ''4U'', a group of high-level hunters regularly assigned to dangerous tasks by the Guild. [[spoiler: In an inversion, they get hit hard by TheWorfEffect and have to be bailed out at least once or twice by players.]]
10** The Fifth Fleet in ''World'' is an entire group of ace hunters tasked with making headway in The New World. Your hunter in particular eventually gains the title of ''The Sapphire Star'', a reference to the creation myth of the Monster Hunter universe, highlighting just how much of a badass your hunter is in-universe.
11* ActionizedSequel:
12** While the games have always had a lot of action in them, ''World'' made a number of changes that help ramp up getting to the action in general, mostly through making gunners much more active participants in battle, although they aren't the only ones. The biggest changes that help are that monster tracking is now an active mechanic that will let the player quickly lock onto their monster of choice and follow them easily, whereas before it could take a little bit to find out where the monster was if you didn't know beforehand without an armor ability. Other changes include the armor system being redone so customizing skills is much easier, making crafting automatic at the player's discretion, speeding up gathering, and providing bowgunners with plenty of ammo types at the beginning of a mission, instead of only a select few types based on the monster meaning they spend less time crafting desired ammo types. There are lots of little changes like that to help the player jump right into fighting large monsters.
13** ''Rise'' takes the action further by introducing the Wirebug, a GrapplingHookPistol that allows players to scale sheer cliffs, break a fall in midair, use it in a whip-like fashion, and even wrangle a monster to make it attack other monsters around it.
14* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: The more you apply the poison status to a monster, the more resistant it will become to poison. The same holds true for other status effects.
15* AdaptiveAbility: Played with regarding Deviant monsters from ''Generations'' and ''Generations Ultimate'', which are creatures that managed to survive encounters with Hunters, to the point where they grew much stronger and developed new methods of defending themselves. Several monsters from ''Frontier'' play this trope more literally by adapting to whatever ''weapon'' the Hunter brings to battle.
16* AdmiringTheAbomination: Given that this series is rife with FantasticScience, this tends to pop up every now and then in both dialogue, quest fluff, and the Monster Journals you can purchase from the store. In ''4 Ultimate'', the Guildmarm is this for the ''[[GoodOldFisticuffs Brachydios]]'' of all creatures, ''[[InterspeciesRomance big time]]''.
17--> '''Guildmarm:''' ''Those strong arms! That explosive personality! And he's right there in the [[LethalLavaLand Volcanic Hollow]]...Oh, I could faint! Be a dear, Doodle, and give him a wink for me, okay?''
18* AdventureFriendlyWorld: The world of ''Monster Hunter'' seems to be a very SchizoTech one, with BambooTechnology and medieval weapons created and infused with modern technology. The number one job is hunting the monsters that roam the world for the materials you can harvest from them and their habitats, and there are PLENTY of them. With the absence of airplanes and other powerful modern weapons though, the primary way of hunting them is of course getting up close and personal.
19* {{Aesop}}: No matter how vicious, scary, or outright ''massive'' the obstacle, with [[CrazyPrepared preparation]], [[ThePowerOfFriendship teamwork]], and [[TheDeterminator a hell of a lot of persistence]], you can make it fall!
20** Humanity does not live apart from nature. Failing to respect that (and understand that humanity has a crucial place in the global ecosystem, like all animals do) will inevitably lead to destruction. The Ancient Civilization didn't really understand this message, and were wiped out after hunting the Kushala Daora to near extinction.
21* AfterTheEnd:
22** The sheer number of ruins and ancient monster skeletons implies that ''Monster Hunter'' takes place after the fall of a great, highly advanced civilization that dominated much of the world. [[spoiler: If certain early concept information is regarded as canon, said ruins of bygone days are the result of a world war between the [[AbusivePrecursors Ancient Civilization]] and the Elder Dragons, eventually leading to the former's demise. In turn, the modern-day Hunters (and perhaps humanity in general) are the descendants of the Ancient Civilization's SuperSoldiers, thus explaining their prodigious strength/durability.]]
23** In general ''Monster Hunter'' represents quite a positive version of this trope, as the various peoples of it are quite happy and thriving to some degree. However, there are also the many ways the series shows that humans genuinely have to eke out their own relatively small niche in the world rather than being the single most dominant species that can go wherever they want and live wherever they want. Human societies are typically small, scattered, and situated in fringe environments that monsters avoid or find difficult to attack (such as high in mountains, surrounded by canyons/mountains or on the ends of peninsulas). What decent-sized cities exist usually must have high walls, be surrounded by water, etc. and have powerful Hunters on standby to stay relatively secure. Humans as a rule, including soldiers and most Hunters, are depicted as having a hard time dealing with even mid tier monsters. The few Hunters that can actually slay high tier monsters are thus all the more valuable as they are essentially the only things serving as a deterrent against the (admittedly rare) events where high tier monsters target human societies (them and the high power weapons the Guild puts great effort to keep at the ready in strategic places). Despite the often frivolous reasons given for hunting quests, actually fully exterminating monsters from a given region is never really seen as a viable or even positive outcome, with the usual end goal being simply to keep their numbers down near human civilizations and/or keep particularly dangerous or powerful ones from taking over. Basically, monsters rule most of the ''Monster Hunter'' world, humans just live in it as best they can to achieve some kind of balance.
24** Some societies, such as Rider and Wyverian villages, live in greater peace with monsters. However, this is due more to the monsters accepting their presence for various reasons rather than the people being too strong for the monsters to eradicate if they chose to.
25* AllForNothing: Went through the trouble of trapping a monster at critical health in an Unstable Environment? Better hope that Deviljho doesn't come charging in while you're lining up to throw your Tranq Bombs. Or if you managed the task of cutting off his tail? Make sure you're clear to carve it, because getting knocked down will leave enough time for him to eat it.
26* AllLoveIsUnrequited: In ''4U'', the Ace Cadet develops a crush on Guildmarm, but she won't even give him the time of day, so you need to kill a Gore Magala before he does something stupid. At the same time, [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Guildmarm has a crush on a Brachydios]], and they aren't exactly the human-loving type. And then before the follow-up quest to hunt a Rajang, when Guildmarm is asked if she's falling for the Ace Cadet, she responds that she's starting to fall for Rajang.
27* AllMythsAreTrue: At this point, the Guild really should stop being surprised with monsters that they thought were myth appearing. The Fatalis trio, Garuba Daora, Alatreon, Dalamadur...
28* AllThereInTheManual:
29** In earlier titles, some bits of information and trivia about monsters can only be found by reading the in-game Monster Encyclopedia, the contents of which players can even expand by purchasing Monster Info books from the store. Quite a few important hints on how to deal with certain monsters can be easily missed by glossing over said info books.
30** The female Guild receptionists encountered in the games actually have real names despite the prevailing EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep policy, as revealed on [[http://wikiwiki.jp/nenaiko/?FrontPage this Japanese wiki]] (name translations can be found at [[http://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/30cajp/newbie_doodle_here_guildmarm_is_amazing_were_the/ this subreddit thread]]).[[note]]The proper link to the page doesn't display right due to the number of percentage signs in the link[[/note]]
31** A good amount of backstory for the Monster Hunter world has been revealed in Japan-only artbooks and interviews. Stuff like the origins of the Wyverians (they actually evolved from reptiles), why human Hunters are able to accomplish superhuman feats (they're descended from the {{Precursors}}' {{Super Soldier}}s), what exactly the Dragon element is (it directly attacks the mind), and the ecology for the Elder Dragons (researchers can't find a way to link them to the other monsters' evolutionary tree, for one).
32* AllYourPowersCombined:
33** Many of the new non-Virus or non-Bleeding-related Skills in ''4U'' are essentially combinations of various other Skills into one, rare Skill. This includes Skills such as Enlightened Blade (Awaken, Element Atk Up, and Status Atk Up), Clandestine (Load Up, Combination +20%, and Sneak), and [[MythologyGag Pro Dirty Fencer]] (Fortify, Marathon Runner, and Stamina Thief).
34** Several high-level monsters are designed to be this. The most notable examples are Alatreon and Dhisifuroa (both have access to multiple Element types unlike most Elder Dragons), Hyujikiki (can inflict all Status effects at once), and Black Flying Wyvern (can use other monsters' signature attacks).
35** The combination elements in ''Frontier'' play with this trope. These include Light (Fire and Thunder), Sou (Water and Ice), and Frozen Seraphim (Fire, Ice and Dragon).
36** Apex Monsters gain the attacks and abilities of their subspecies and close relatives. For example, Apex Diablos can use an aimed charge like the White Monoblos and jump out of the ground like the Black Diablos.
37** The special armor skills for Deviant monsters in ''Generations'' combine existing skills into one. For example, the Silverwind Soul skill on Silverwind Nargacuga's armor combines the effects of Evasion +2 and Critical Eye +3.
38* AmplifierArtifact:
39** Talismans, first introduced in ''Tri'', are this. Wearing them can augment existing armor skills, or in rare cases, even provide an entire skill on their own.
40** The Ahtal-Ka armor set has two unique skills that amplify the effect of skill points: one adds 2 to all other skill points, while the other ''doubles'' the skill points granted by Talismans.
41* AnachronismStew: Early on this was very prevalent; in the first game the world of Monster Hunter was implied to still be based heavily around tribal societies that operated on hunting and gathering, despite the existence of advanced metallurgy and chemistry. Subverted by later games when it was revealed that agriculture ''does'' exist and hunters exist primarily to protect humanity from the giant monsters and dragons that live in the wilderness, with gathering food being a lesser priority; in most cases after the first game when hunters are tasked with gathering food it's usually either part of the tutorial quests teaching you about barbecuing, or hunting for rare delicacies that can't be easily farmed like monster guts or unique mushrooms. Most interestingly, the bowguns pre-date the bow weapon in Monster Hunter. Presumably society managed to retain the basic chemistry needed to mix gunpowder, even though they forgot how to make spring steel. (hence crossbow-driven firing pins)
42* AncestralWeapon: Weapons come with a description that can fit either this, EmpathicWeapon, or EvilWeapon. While most seem to be merely flavor text, others carry more disturbing implications.
43** Every Fatalis type weapon or armor piece that doesn't praise the dragons as gods will have flavor text ranging from "rivers of blood" to "eternal darkness" or "glittering divine light". To make matters worse, the flavor texts briefly hint -- in a sinister fashion, no less -- that all pieces of Fatalis equipment could eventually ''drive their wielders insane'' or outright ''kill them'' if used too much.[[note]][[GameplayAndStorySegregation Thankfully they don't affect players in that sort of way whatsoever during the game itself.]][[/note]] What's more, ''Unite'' strongly hints that said equipment somehow retains their source creature's regenerative powers...
44** There's a gigantic ancestral Fatalis Great Sword in a cave next to Pokke Village that is held in check by having fragments mined from it. The blade regenerates more Fatalis materials in between quests.
45** Tenebra - "A dark blade that pulses with the lifeforce it saps from any who wield it..."
46** ''Every single Dire Miralis weapon.'' If its description isn't about setting everything on fire, then it's about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. The flavor text of the long sword says a single swing can set the world ablaze for seven days and nights.
47** The Gigginox hunting horn. "A coffin-like weapon sealed with Gigginox hides. At night, the wails of the dead emanate from the inside." It sounds like a description befitting a black metal hunting horn.
48** All of the [[AnimalisticAbomination Gogmazios]] weapons not only have despair and the netherworld as their theme, but a number of them also look like epitaphs, coffins, or ''torture devices''.
49* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing:
50** Naturally, defeating the flagship monster of the game results in this. Special mention, however, goes to ''Portable 3rd'', which features a festival for which Yukumo invites people from across the realm (explaining several cameos from previous games).
51** Defeating the final boss of the single-player quests, typically an Elder Dragon, will also result in this.
52* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: With Xeno'jiiva's defeat at the end of ''World's''' story, the mysteries behind the Elder Crossing are solved and the Commission's mission is technically over... But they're given the option to stay in the New World to continue their research.]]
53* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Played with -- straight in that you usually make either armor or weapons with materials gleaned from dead or captured monsters, while averted in that the "clothes" are far from useless, with many being awesome and completely practical. Since you are making clothes out of monster parts, you can pick and choose what you make, so getting a full set is actually a lot easier than just getting [[RainbowPimpGear anything that looks good]] (that and the prospect of {{Set Bonus}}es). Sometimes you will actually obtain an exclusive piece of armor for accomplishing certain tasks like completing the Arena quests.
54* AntiAir:
55** If you detonate a Flash Bomb within the eyesight of a flying monster, they will come crashing to the ground and writhe helplessly for several seconds.
56** Inflicting an anti-mobility status ailment (Paralysis and Sleep) on a flying master will cause it to crash to the ground, get back up, and then go through the respective animation for the status you inflicted.
57* AntidoteEffect: Who actually bothers with the Lightning Rod? Same with the Tranq Shot (which, like every Shot, will default to the Ammunition/Coating storage, which ends up saving space for valuable equipments, carves and gathers). This trope is averted with status-healing items, including [[TropeNamer Antidotes themselves]]. The real-time battle system means that using such items to keep your health/stamina/mobility up are a prerequisite for not dying.
58** No longer the case for Tranq Shots in ''World'', where the increased ammunition capacity and separate loading for each type of shot greatly enhances their usability.
59* AntiFrustrationFeatures: There are a few in place.
60** The Farm mechanic used in ''Freedom 2'', ''Tri'', ''4/4U'', and ''[=Gen/GenU=]'' is one of the most notable, allowing you to multiply the amount of natural items in your stock that don't belong to monsters or are acquired from rocks. ItemFarming is definitely still there, but at least they make it so you can focus on gathering monster materials rather than having to spend hours gathering herbs, honey, and the like. ''World'' made this even easier, with a quickly upgraded Ancient Tree that allows plants, mushrooms, honey, and insects to be quickly multiplied.
61** Ever wanted to cook Raw Meat en masse? ''4/4U'' has you covered with the Fancy Spit, a kitchen upgrade that lets you cook up to ''ten'' chunks of Meat at once. If you get the optional Cook's Spit upgrade, you can cook up to '''15''' chunks of Meat in one go. ''Generations'' has the Rife Roast, which automatically cooks up to ten Meat during a quest.
62** High Rank missions usually deliver supplies late, which can be extremely punishing if one or more players forgot their Hot or Cold Drinks in areas with extreme conditions. In ''4/4U'' they will always have Cold or Hot drinks always ready at the beginning, hunters simply have to head back to base to get them.
63** One of the more tedious non-quest aspects of the earlier generation games involved checking and maintaining the Farm after each quest to produce new supplies. In the third and fourth gen games, they remedy this by allowing hunters to place an extended item order with the farm liaisons, to be received at a later time (e.g. after 3-5 quests) for bigger item gains. The Wycoon in ''4U'' even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this:
64--->'''Wycoon:''' ''"After all, who wants to request multiplying items after every single hunt anyway? Heh!"''
65** Normally, being in open desert areas during the day will sap at your health unless you use Cool Drinks or Chilled Meat, or have enough points in Heat Res for Heat Cancel. Both Jhen Mohran and Dah'ren Mohran are fought in a massive expanse of desert, but unlike regular desert maps, the Great Desert doesn't have the health-draining heat property.
66** Before ''Tri'', the only way to finish a quest was by completing the objectives, abandoning the mission, or failing it, the latter of which penalizes you in cash. When the third generation rolled around, the Subquest system from ''Dos'' made a return, which lets players complete optional sidequests for extra profit...but this time, it also gave the players [[TakeAThirdOption another way]] to complete quests without risking the loss of zenny and gathered items from failing it, by choosing to "End via Subquest" from the in-game menu. ''3 Ultimate'' didn't use it, for whatever reason, but every game since has. ''World'' added the ability to "Return from Quest", which ends the quest without the full reward but includes bonuses for breaking off Monster Parts and items collected without any other penalties.
67** Village Quests used to only go as far as upper Low Rank in terms of difficulty, or in the case of the {{Updated Rerelease}}s, High Rank [[note]]with a few notable exceptions, such as ''Unite's'' "Monster Hunter" and ''3U's'' "Mark of a Hero" and "The Brilliant Darkness", all of which are G-Rank[[/note]]; G-Rank level monsters could only be fought via the Gathering Hall, which means said monsters are scaled up for multiplayer hunts. In ''4U'', once you hit the highest level Caravan Quests (10* difficulty), you can unlock G-Rank monsters whose health pools are scaled for ''single player'', mitigating some of the incredible difficulty G-Rank is notorious for and allowing players easier access to loot.
68** The most well known anti-frustration feature happens to be the consolidation of Online-only quests into Offline single player, which came about with the first wave of Portable games on the PSP. Prior to this, certain monsters and powerful endgame equipment can only be accessed by going online, greatly limiting the amount of content for many players and [[TemporaryOnlineContent screwing everyone over once the servers are shut down]]. Once the Freedom/Portable series was introduced, getting one's hands on the advanced content was no longer a matter of being forced to connect to a server... except in the case of ''Tri'', which inexplicably went back to the [=PS2=] "Online-only" model for High Rank.
69** In the early generations, Khezu technically cannot spot you, which disables the "panic run" (which depletes your Stamina faster than the standard run) but also prevents you from doing a panic dive. In ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate'', it can now grant "spotted" status, allowing you to dive as well as to shift the camera in its direction if it's in the area but you can't find it.
70** This is the point of the beamed eighth notes for the Hunting Horn in ''Generations''. When you strike a monster with the Horn, the note you played becomes a beamed eighth note. If you play a song entirely composed of beamed eighth notes, you will not only play the new song, but you'll also repeat the last song you played and gain its Encore effects. Not only does this save significant time by removing the need to replay music, it also enforces the intended MagicKnight playstyle of the Horn as opposed to standing in a corner and playing WhiteMage while you cheer on your friends doing the actual work.
71** In ''Generations'', hitting a monster while it's mounted no longer carries a chance of knocking the mounting player off. Instead, the reverse has been put into effect; getting hits in helps to increase the topple meter. This is further helped by now allowing the whole party to see just how far the meter is progressing.
72** Gathering has been made much easier in ''Generations'' as well. Previously, the fastest way to gather items was to crouch, then press the A button every time the player got an item. Now players can just hold the A button to gather items continuously, which is even faster. There's also Prowler Mode, which is one of the best ways to make gathering fun -- Palicoes have infinite stamina and don't require specific gathering tools (pickaxes, bug nets, fish bait, etc.) in their inventories. Palicoes also can't use human items, meaning they can enter a gathering run with a completely empty item pouch -- a vital bonus for getting as much out of a gathering run as possible. Beyond this, the [[PunnyName Transpurrter]] -- a Felyne with a barrel that sits at your base camp -- will allow a hunter a once-per-quest service of bringing back a decent chunk of your goods directly back to your item box back home, which will give you a second chance to go out gathering with a nearly refreshed item pouch. And for "account items" that cannot be given to the Transpurrter, you can simply drop them in the red deposit box at any time, even if they're not a quest objective (in previous games, only quest objectives could be placed in the deposit box).
73** The overhauled weapon upgrade system in ''Generations'' is all about this, allowing most materials used for upgrading to be selected from a category, with the specific items there as more of a progress gate than requiring three hunts for a single lucky drop. Additionally, every weapon will eventually reach a viable (though not necessarily ideal) endgame strength if upgraded enough, reducing the old problem of a player getting wedged when they discover their only good weapon caps out at rarity six.
74** Low-rank armor sets in ''Generations'' generally don't require RareRandomDrop components like Plates, giving the [[RandomNumberGod Desire Sensor]] less chance to discourage new players by denying them items before they properly understand the game.
75** ''Generations Ultimate'' does this twofold for Hunting Horn.
76*** Hunting Horn buff notifications are moved to the bottom of the screen, alleviating the old problem of buff popups blocking the center of the screen.
77*** You can add a Song cheat sheet to the bottom screen. A common practice for Hunting Horn mains playing prior titles is to stick a Post-It to their 3DS or other related object with a handwritten Song list on it to remember what Songs they have; this function removes the need entirely.
78** ''Generations Ultimate'' also introduces Trap dismantling. A recurring issue is if you set a Trap, but the monster doesn't run over it and it fails to trigger, the party is forced to wait for that Trap to despawn before another can be set. ''Generations Ultimate'' enables you to destroy Traps manually by walking over a set Trap and interacting with it, significantly hastening this process.
79** If a subquest says to hunt an "intruder" monster (as in, one that can appear but is not part of the main objective), it's a guarantee that that monster, and ''only'' that monster, will intrude on your quest (as opposed to there being a pool of different randomly-chosen intruders). So if the subquest tells you to hunt a Velocidrome or Rathian, you know that only those monsters can interrupt. Of course, this isn't exactly an Anti-Frustration Feature if the monster mentioned in the subquest is, say, ''Deviljho''...
80** Normally, only Sword & Shield allows using items while your weapon is drawn. In ''GU'' however, every weapon allows you to use the Alchemy Barrel right after a sidestep dodge.
81** One of the main draws of ''World'' is that it streamlines or simplifies many, many, ''many'' of the mainstay features from previous games to make the game more accessible without detracting from the game's complexity. It has its own page [[AntiFrustrationFeatures/MonsterHunterWorld here]].
82* AntiGrinding: In ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate'', if you're not G-Rank yet, the Guild Quests' levels are this. At Level 31, a Guild Quest will upgrade from Low Rank to High Rank and its HR requirement will be bumped up by three. At Level 100, the quest will upgrade again, from High Rank to G Rank, and the HR requirement will increase yet again. This puts a cap on how much you can farm the same quest until you increase your HR accordingly; alternately, you'll just have to get a fresh new quest to use, either [[RandomlyDrops randomly from Expeditions]] or from other players. There's also the matter of monsters getting tougher as you level up their respective quests; a Level 1 Velocidrome is merely a FragileSpeedster WarmUpBoss, while a Level 100 one is a LightningBruiser.
83* AntiMagic: Certain monsters, usually Elder Dragons, have the ability to inflict a status called "Dragonblight" on a Hunter; this [[BroughtDownToNormal strips the special elemental/status properties from the weapon]], and forces the Hunter to rely on raw damage from that point on. Luckily, this is easily cured with a nulberry.
84** From the Hunters' side, Dragon-element weapons have an Elderseal effect that saps the Elder Dragons' special abilities.
85* ApocalypseHow:
86** Continental, Physical Annihilation; towards the end of the Low Rank questline in ''World'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:the Zorah Magdaros that was supposed to have died in the Rotten Vale has instead redirected its attention toward the Everstream, a network of underground energy that connects the entirety of the New World; if it dies there, the bioenergy it releases will surge into the Everstream and overload the network, making the entire New World go kablooey and take everything and everyone on the continent with it.]] The last few Quests in Low Rank are thus spent trying to avert total annihilation.
87** Global, Societal Collapse; the current world is a semi-industrial, partly hunter-gatherer society built on the remains of an older, much more technologically advanced Ancient Civilization. The Ancient Civilization had machinery and biological engineering capabilities far more advanced that what seems to be currently viable. A lot of their research was based on ethically questionable methods that involved treating Elder Dragons like cattle. The final straw was Kushala Daora being hunted to near extinction to use their metallic hides to build the Sky Corridor, causing the Fatalis trio to strike back in retaliation. This led to a war between the Elder Dragons and the Ancient Civilization which led to the complete collapse of society, with the survivors eventually forming the Hunter's Guild and attempting to live more in balance with nature.
88* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit:
89** Hunting parties have a limit of up to four people. It was mainly a gameplay decision, as the online mode versions of Large Monsters and Elder Dragons are balanced around being beatable by a 1-4 person team. From an in-game lore perspective, it's because a team of five hunters went against a Lao-Shan Lung and the fifth member got killed, so the fifth spot remains unfufilled out of respect for the fallen hunter and superstition (nobody wants to tempt fate and be the fifth member again). However, ''Frontier'' features 32- or 100-player raids against Laviente, justified by the monster's absolutely humongous size and threat level, and ''Rise: Sunbreak'' allows what's basically five-human parties, with four player-controlled Hunters and one Follower who's accompanying the quest host.
90** Only two Large Monsters can be on the map at any one time. This becomes advantageous in multi-monster hunts and when fighting [[SummonBiggerFish Qurupeco]], because the last thing you need is three or more Deviljhos breathing down your neck.
91** If an Elder Dragon is present, no other large monsters can show up, as if the Elder Dragon counts as two large monsters.
92** As of ''World'', these limits have been increased. 3 large monsters can now appear per map. Multiple Elder Dragons can be on the same map (and can even fight one another!), and, while hunting parties are still limited to a maximum of 4 at a time on the same mission, the pre-hunt lobbies are now able to host up to 16 players, who can freely change around what other players in said lobby they hunt with.
93* ArbitraryMissionRestriction: Several quests throughout the series play with the usual limitations:
94** One Episodic Quest in ''4 Ultimate'' requires you to deliver Fulgurbugs. The quest bans you from bringing any of your own items (instead, you have to use the items provided in the supply chest). Why you can't just yoink Fulgurbugs out of your Item Box if you have them already and instantly complete the client's request (which the limitation prevents) is never explained.
95** The second capture quest for each Deviant Monster in ''Generations'' once again requires you to initiate the quest with an empty Item Pouch. The quest description does state that supplies will be provided, but not why you're not allowed to bring in your own items.
96** ''Generations Ultimate'' has the G4 quest for each Deviant, wherein the number of faints to quest failure drops from three to one. This is once again mentioned in the quest description, and once again without any rationale to the tightened limit.
97** The Investigations in ''World'' have this as their main gimmick. Investigations you can partake in can have one or more limiting factors tacked on to increase the Quest's difficulty, such as restricting the number of players that can join the Quest or adding or subtracting the maximum number of carts you can take before the Quest fails.
98* ArbitraryWeaponRange: Gunner shots typically have a "critical distance" from which they do the most damage. Note that while shots from too far will fail to inflict full damage, so can shots fired from too ''close''. The Shot Booster armor skill expands your ammo's criticial distances, making it a bit easier to achieve the correct spacing needed to optimize damage.
99* ArcNumber:
100** "4" for ''Generations''. There's four Hunting Styles, four villages, four flagship monsters, and the "X" in the logo even divides the square behind it into four parts. According to WordOfGod, most of this was completely coincidental; they just happened to want four flagship monsters and four Hunting Styles and such.
101** "5" for ''World'', where the player character is part of the Fifth fleet. It also introduces the "Tale of the Five", a CreationMyth centered around five dragons, and has five maps, all on the first game of the fifth generation of ''Monster Hunter''.
102* AreaOfEffect: Some items heal or buff up all players within the area, such as Lifepowders and support Horns. In addition, the Wide-range skill will transfer the effects of some self-healing items to all other players in the area. For example, rather than just carrying one Antidote Horn that takes time to apply its effects and has a chance of breaking with each use, you can also carry 10 Antidotes that will work all the same with less activation time.
103* ArmorPiercingAttack: Normally, if your weapon is not sharp enough for the monster's hide, it will just bounce off. You'll still do a little damage, but your combo will be disrupted and you'll flinch back, potentially leaving you vulnerable to attack since you can't dodge until the animation finishes. Fortunately, there are workarounds that prevent attacks from bouncing, but the monster will still reduce the damage:
104** Getting 10 points in the Fencing armor skill to get the skill Steady Hand.
105** Playing the Hunting Horn's Self-Improvement song twice to gain Attack Deflection Prevention.
106** Using ranged weapons like Bowguns and the Prowler/Palico's Boomerangs.
107** Using explosives, such as Barrel Bombs, the Gunlance's shells, and Slime/Blast weapons.
108** Doing a jump attack.
109** Using an attack-type Hunter Art like the Sword & Shield's Sword Dance or the Longsword's Sakura Slash. In fact, a few Arts' descriptions advertise their bounceproof properties and encourage the user to deploy them against hard body parts to do elemental damage, status damage, or break these parts.
110* ArtEvolution: The main series monsters that have appeared in multiple generations have undergone sometimes substantial design changes from one generation to the next. In part this is simply due to greater graphical capabilities allowing the monsters in the games to look more like their original designs intended, but some changes go well beyond this (such as coloring changes, extra joints or spines on the wings and such). Sometimes the changes actually are intended to be in-universe differences between monster populations (such as the New World versions of Old World monsters having evolved a bit differently in appearance and behavior due to their isolation), but usually it's just to make the monsters look better/fresher. Different games also may have different styles that get reflected in the designs (such as ''World'' being less colorful and more "realistic" in appearance than other mainline games).
111* TheArtifact:
112** Sharpness levels originally topped out at white (after red, orange, yellow, green, and blue) to give the impression that it's the ultimate level of sharpness, but then later games introduced a sharpness level above that, which is colored [[PurpleIsPowerful purple]]. That said, white sharpness still remains the maximum in many games that don't have G Rank, with purple only being added back in when the UpdatedRerelease puts G Rank in. ''Frontier'' takes this a step further by adding cyan sharpness after purple.
113** In ''4'', you can trade for materials of monsters that don't appear in the game. Some of these monsters were added to ''4 Ultimate'', but you can still trade for their parts. This includes Cephalos/Cephadrome, Daimyo Hermitaur, Ukanlos, and Chameleos.
114** The "X" design in the logo of ''Generations'' is retained from the Japanese logo, although it no longer means anything due to the change in title.
115** ''Generations'' and ''Generations Ultimate'' recycle several maps from previous games, but certain areas that previously featured unique setpieces no longer serve any special purpose.
116*** In ''tri-'' and ''3 Ultimate'', Deserted Island area 1 features a wooden gate leading back to Moga Village. In both versions of ''Generations'' (and the older ''Portable 3rd'', incidentally), this gate is simply an impassable wall. Area 4, meanwhile, is home to a Giggi nest, but Giggi don't appear in either version of ''Generations'', so their visible burrows are seemingly abandoned; the area's only remaining functional feature is a Felyne hideout.
117*** In ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate'', the Sunken Hollow (later Volcanic Hollow) features gigantic webs holding Gypceros carcasses due to local Nerscylla preying upon them. However, in ''Generations'' and ''Generations Ultimate'', where the Volcanic Hollow returns, the webs and Gypceros carcasses are still there, even though neither monster ever appears in this map in those games. At least these features are explained in ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate''; ''Generations'' and ''GU'' don't even give you the rundown on why one-third of the areas are a web-filled horror show.
118*** Heaven's Mount from ''4'' and ''4U'' doesn't appear proper in ''Generations'', but its base camp does, and that's only because it's shared with hunts that take place at the Sanctuary. You can clearly tell that the boulder at the camp is blocking the path to the rest of the Heaven's Mount map.
119** The Felyne Courier shows up in the 3DS games as a way to receive Guild Cards and other [[PlayerDataSharing player-shared]] goodies like Palicoes, Guild Quests, and Special Permits via [=StreetPass=]; in other words, [=StreetPass=] data is explained in-universe as mail from other Hunters. However when it comes to the Switch version of ''Generations Ultimate'', there's no [=StreetPass=], so all he does now is automatically receive Special Permits after every quest so that he can pass them down to you. Those who have never played the 3DS games may wonder why a mail carrier gives them Special Permits.
120** In High Rank you will occasionally be dropped off somewhere besides camp, forcing you to take extra steps to retrieve supplies. You also have the chance to spawn in a hidden area with rare gathering points. The random location spawn still happens in ''World'' but is close to pointless since the game introduced fast-travelling to camps outside of battle and removed secret spawn points. The other key risk of this High Rank quirk ''is'' still present--there's a chance you may spawn right in front of your target...
121** An example exclusive to the export market: Some players may wonder why ''Generations Ultimate'' looks underwhelming for a Platform/NintendoSwitch game, with limitations that shouldn't be there given the hardware (such as loading screens between areas and relatively blocky textures and polygons). This is because in Japan, ''Generations Ultimate'', known there as ''Monster Hunter XX'', was released first on the 3DS, and both versions of the game are in parity in order to allow cross-platform multiplayer; the Switch version in particular is called ''Monster Hunter XX [[SuperTitle64Advance Nintendo Switch Ver.]]'' (this is analogous to the case of the PSP's ''Portable 3rd'' and the 3DS's ''3 Ultimate'' when they were ported to the [=PS3=] and Wii U respectively, having both the ''HD Ver.'' moniker in their names). However, [[invoked]][[NoExportForYou the 3DS version was never localized]], so as far as Western players are concerned, ''Generations Ultimate'' looks like an upscaled 3DS game for no good reason.
122** ''World'' features the Gathering Hub, an online multiplayer lobby, just like previous games. The thing is, those previous games were offline until you entered the Hub, and there was a separate list of multiplayer quests. ''World'' is ''always'' online, and ''any'' quest is multiplayer if other people happen to join. There's really no reason to bother going to the Hub anymore unless you're going to take on an Arena Quest.
123* ArtifactName: The Moga Woods is named the Deserted Island in Guild documents such as quest files, as the island's human population is supposed to have evacuated the island due to a series of unnatural earthquakes [[spoiler:caused by Ceadeus]] (but a few strings are pulled in order to allow the villagers to stay). The name might've made sense in ''tri-'' and ''3 Ultimate'' where Moga Village is the player's base of operations and they're trying to stop the earthquakes so that the villagers can stay safely, but in ''3 Ultimate''[='=]s village High Rank campaign, the source of the earthquakes has been eliminated (as a result of the Low Rank campaign) and the evacuation order has been called off, yet the map is still officially called Deserted Island. Weirder yet, characters from Moga appear in ''Generations'' and their dialogue makes it no secret that Moga is still thriving and it's implied that some time has passed since the earthquakes, yet the game ''still'' refers to the Moga Woods as the Deserted Island.
124* ArtifactTitle: The [=PS3=] version of ''Monster Hunter Portable 3rd'' still keeps the "Portable" part of the title despite the [=PS3=] being a home console rather than a handheld/portable one.
125* ArtificialAtmosphericActions: In some of the games' gathering halls (such as the Gathering Hall in ''4'' and the Hunter's Pub in ''Generations Ultimate''), the game tries to give the impression that the hall is crowded with fellow Hunters by having a continous crowd chatter sounds, even though the number of [=NPCs=] present can be counted on one hand and very few of them are shown talking unless you speak to them. You can collect Guild Cards so that other Hunters do appear (for Hunters for Hire), but all of them are silent. And while you can have up to four players present in the hall and chatting with each other, the chatter sound clearly sounds like more than four people.
126* ArtificialStupidity: Your CPU-controlled Felyne Comrades and Shakalakas, while generally useful as support characters, aren't exactly the brightest minds on your side:
127** They will often follow you if they're not targeting a monster or gathering items, which means if you're presently fighting a large monster, they'll most likely get whacked around to the point of retreating and depriving you of support. They will do this even if their headwear makes them deprioritize or outright avoid attacking large monsters. If your allies are offense-oriented (such as Shakalakas with the False Felyne Mask and Palicoes with the Fighting Forte), being near the monster is the whole point, yes, but it's particularly bothersome if your allies are geared more towards non-combat support (such as Shakalakas with the Nulberry Mask and Palicoes with the Healing Forte).
128** They're oblivious to any hazards a monster may have left on the ground, like Brachydios's slime, meaning more often than not, they'll just walk into it. This is worse with the Palicoes, which tend to go into a panic the instant they get slimed, cutting you off from any meaningful support until they explode. Palamutes in ''Rise'' are no better, as they suffer a [[WebAnimation/NCHProductions doge.exe Operation Error]] when subjected to Hellfireblight.
129** They will refuse to heal themselves just because they're low on health or put out status ailments and blights that their abilities can prevent. If they ''do'' use them, it's because you commanded them to (for example, the Shakalakas' Nulberry mask is triggered by a Signal) or because you are in need of healing yourself; healing themselves is simply a side effect.
130** While the Palicos are smart enough not to attack a monster you're mounting, they still stand right next to the monster while it's trying to shake you off, getting hurt in the process.
131* ArtStyleDissonance: The series is known for dangerous, scary monsters rendered in a gritty, photo-realistic art style, and all the human characters are rather realistic-looking as well. On the other hand, ''Monster Hunter'' also has a goofy sense of humor, [[VoiceGrunting NPCs that use weird groans and wild gesticulations instead of actual language]], and pun-slinging talking cats...playing these games can be kind of a weird experience, to say the least.
132* ArtisticLicenseBiology: A well-done steak of the size the hunter is shown to eat should leave someone short of breath/in a food-coma, rather than instantly letting them sprint for days. On the other hand, optimal cooking makes the most nutrients biologically-available. (Colour-text aside, edible meat comes in 3 flavours: undercooked -- ''rare steak'' provides minimal stamina recovery, overcooked -- ''burnt meat'' which might drain stamina, and just right -- ''well-done steak'' provides greater stamina recovery.) Additionally, you can receive 2 or more tails from a monster after cutting it off, one from carving the tail and receiving it as the reward, one off of the monster's body as a carve reward, and again as a quest reward for hunting the monster or because of carve-boosting meal skills.
133* AscendedGlitch:
134** In ''4/4U'', rolling at a climbable wall and pressing the button before the roll finishes allows the hunter to grab on while completely skipping the animation to do so, even with their weapon drawn. This was most often used to spring right back off again, making for one of the quickest ways to perform an air attack. Come ''Generations'', the Aerial Style's signature move is performed near-identically.
135** In ''P3rd'', a glitch allowed a player with the Auto-Guard skill using a Gunlance to automatically guard attacks while firing shells and performing quick reloads. This was turned into a game mechanic for the Charge Blade, and in ''Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate'', the new Valor Style adds such "Guard Points" to many other weapons, including the Gunlance, who regains its infamous ability from ''P3rd'' as an intended feature.
136* AscendedMeme: There are a couple:
137** The game's much-loathed [[RandomNumberGod Desire Sensor]] was named as such by players who desperately needed just ''that one rare part'' from a monster -- ''any'' monster -- yet failed to get it even after dozens upon dozens of hunts. Cue Capcom [[http://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/images/fotolife/d/dawnpurple/20100103/20100103215259.jpg officially releasing T-Shirts]] with the words "Desire Sensor Begone!" emblazoned in front.
138** Two of the game's [[TheDreaded most feared]] monsters, Rajang and Deviljho, tend to get pitted by fans against each other in dream matches. Then came the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVWMlmszwOs Monster Hunter 10th anniversary video]], in which Rajang is shown [[DynamicEntry barreling down from the sky]] and landing in front of a Jho. The two behemoths ''immediately go into Rage Mode'', roar in unison, and engage in a staredown. To say nothing of the quest in ''4U'' that pits you against ''both'' monsters [[OhCrap at the same time]].
139** Deviljho's FanNickname of the "pickle" has become this in ''World'', with a number of pickle references and jokes in its quests.
140* AttackDrone: The Insect Glaive's Insect Swarm Hunter Art summons a swarm of bugs that flies around you. While the effect is active, the swarm will attack monsters standing in direct proximity to the Hunter.
141* AttackItsWeakPoint: For the higher rank monsters, this is the only way to inflict decent damage to them. Traditionally, weak spots are found by either the "softness" when a weapon hits (fountains of blood with some hit lag as the blade is simulated to be piercing deeper flesh) or by the ease you can flinch the monster by hitting said spot. The "Weakness Exploit" armor and Palico skill applies an [[CriticalHit Affinity]] bonus when hitting these weak spots.
142* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: The purpose of the game is to fight these things. Examples including Lao Shan Lung, Shen Gaoren, and all the other ''really'' huge stuff.
143** Taken to new heights in ''Monster Hunter Tri''. While exploring the woods outside your town, you may encounter super-sized versions of normal creatures with increased HP but much better drops. While not as big as some of the elder dragons, they can still be quite massive, with the super-sized aptonoths appearing to be around 30 feet tall.
144** In the online event quest World Eater, you hunt a Deviljho so huge you barely come up to its ankles. Its attack power and range increase proportionally.
145** Coincidentally, the trope is inverted in the form of several monsters (usually unique to specific quests or events). Namely, the Phantom Uragaan, in which it's almost one-tenth of the the size of a normal Uragaan but retains all of its power (normal Uragaan are around 2500cm, the Phantom is around 400 cm). The equally tiny At Bird's Hill Yian Kut-ku (making the Kut-ku and chicken parallels all the more appropriate). Lastly, the high-pitched, tiny Khezus, which shoot dangerous normal-scale lightning.
146** Frontier manages to beat them all with the Laviente. He's so big that up to 32 players can hunt him at once in 8 groups of 4 hunters each (it's a server-wide battle) AND has an entire quest just to get carves off of him. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sDpGYrhqzc Just look here if you want to see for yourself.]] And even then, it can't be completely carved, although that one is an inventory limitation.
147** The offline ''Monster Hunter'' games finally get a creature to rival it with 4's Dalamadur, the first creature in the Colossal size category to not be a type of Laviente.
148* AttentionDeficitOohShiny:
149** While battling monsters, sometimes they'll drop a flashing object on the ground. These are often referred to as "shinies" by players and will either be a Tear or Sob item (which are both worth a decent chunk of change) or a random and potentially very rare drop from that monster. Of course, true to this trope, some players actually try to get the "shiny" as soon as possible even though the monster is still in the same room (and possibly ''still attacking''), as the shinies will disappear after a set time. The Hellblade Glavenus deviant in Generations actively encourages this, as it has an item that can ''only'' be obtained from a shiny drop -- you cannot get it from carves, broken parts, quest rewards, or capture rewards.
150** When a large monster gets low on stamina, some (like Tigrex and especially Deviljho) will stop attacking to snarf down any old piece of meat that has been conveniently placed on the ground where they can see it, ignoring the bloodthirsty hunters who are right there attacking it. Of course, never mind that the hunters themselves probably drugged the meat and placed it as a trap... And in the case of Deviljho, severing its tail might [[ImAHumanitarian make it decide to snack on it]] if there's no other monsters or food around.
151* AwesomeButImpractical:
152** Most of the Dual Blades that feature two elements. They look awesome at first, but in the 2nd Generation games, the combinations of elements are unwieldy, i.e. monster is weak against one but immune to the other. The notable exception is the Fatalis/White Fatalis duals, which are dragon/thunder endowed, given most end game monsters weak to thunder are also weak to dragon[[note]]In Epic Hunting Quests, however, monsters with vastly different resistances are sometimes presented. This is where some awkward combinations shine, especially when appropriate raw damage weapons are not available[[/note]]. Later games fix this by offering Dual Blades with a damage element and a status element, making them far more practical.
153** Prior to the Third Gen games, Gunlance shelling was largely seen as this due to dealing a minuscule amount of fixed (albeit unblockable) damage that doesn't scale with anything apart from the weapon's innate shelling level and the "Artillery" armor skill, and was only viewed as a quick way to extend your regular melee combos with, since Shelling also consumes weapon Sharpness quickly. Thankfully, the new mechanics introduced in ''Tri'' onwards have addressed this issue to an extent.
154** Some monster attacks. An example that springs to mind is [[PlayingWithFire Agnaktor's]] [[EnergyWeapon Magma Beam]]. It's an incredibly powerful attack that can inflict severe burns and has a great aesthetic coming off of one of the most metal monsters going, but unless it actually bothers to spin around, anyone with half an idea of what they're doing (which, by the point where Agnaktor is encountered, you should) will find it so easy to avoid that it's essentially a few free hits.
155** Pellet/Spread shots for Bowguns have huge spread and thus can hit a monster multiple times per shot, but taking full advantage of this [[ShortRangeShotgun requires being up close to the monster]], which defeats the point of Gunner hunting and puts the user at risk due to Gunner armor having weak defenses compared to Blademaster armor. They get even more impractical in multiplayer, where the pellets can hit other hunters for constant {{knockback}}. ''World'' makes their effective range (as in, doing ''any'' damage) closer than the reach of a Great Sword and with rapid drop-off that means they're most damaging when fired inside the monster's hitbox. The best time to use them is situational at best - while the monster is trapped or asleep.
156** The Heroic Blade you can get in ''4U'' by completing the Cowardly Palico quest line has a high Affinity rating and a Blast element...that's locked and needs to be triggered with the Awaken skill. It also can only be upgraded once to a Rare 7 weapon that still only has 224 Attack, and you can't even Hone it. While it may be useful for High Rank if you can somehow put together an armor set that gives you Awaken, it's straight-up BetterOffSold once you get to G-rank; the Blast weapons you can get by farming Teostra, Brachydios, and Crimson Fatalis can be upgraded to be far more powerful.
157** Both Nakarkos armor sets in ''Generations''. They look extremely menacing and both give two valuable skills, but only have one slot per armor piece, have low elemental resistance all-around, and have no other points towards any other skills. The Astral Armor's a little better with higher elemental resistances and defense, but has little to offer other than helping with Hunter Arts.
158** The Bludgeoner armor skill grants a sizeable damage boost to weapons of green Sharpness or lower. However, the damage modifiers for blue (1.20x) and white (1.32x) Sharpness are much greater than they are for green Sharpness (1.05x), meaning that in most cases, a blue-Sharp weapon with average raw can outdamage a green-Sharp weapon with Bludgeoner and above-average raw. Plus, having a lower Sharpness makes your attacks more likely to bounce off and potentially unable to exploit certain weakpoints, further lowering your damage output. While this skill works fine in early High Rank, when blue Sharpness portions tend to be short if present all, the only sets with Bludgeoner are Bone S and Konchu S, both of which are very early in High Rank and thus miss out on better skills and defense, and Akantor and Akantor R, which are very late into the endgame. Only a handful of weapons are actually useful with Bludgeoner.
159** Fortify grants you a stat boost every time you faint. In "expedition" modes where there's [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist no limit on how many times you can faint]], assuming a particular game has one (''tri-'', ''3U'', ''4'', ''4U'', ''World'', and ''Rise'' have them, but ''Generations'' and ''Generations Ultimate'' strangely don't), this is useful if you plan to hunt for a while, but in quests this is generally a waste of an armor skill; why have a buff that increases each time you faint when you can only faint up to two times and still clear the quest? This is worse in multiplayer, where the 3-faint limit is shared amongst the party; it's possible that you can't make use of this "cart boost" at all because your teammates took the first two carts. ''Generations Ultimate'' additionally has Deviant quests that end on the first cart, making the skill completely worthless for those quests.
160** The Negative Crit armor skill in ''Generations'' causes feeble hits to have a chance to instead become a critical hit. Problem is, for the chance to get crits out of this to improve, you need a weapon with high negative Affinity, and such weapons are quite rare at endgame tiers.
161* BackgroundBoss:
162** ''Tri'' and ''Portable 3rd'' have Jhen Mohran. It swims in the sand surrounding the sandship the player is on, only occasionally getting close enough to attack directly. Most of the rest of the fight is using cannons and ballistae to damage it from afar. Its second phase is fought on foot, making this a ZigZaggedTrope.
163** ''[=4/4U=]'' basically ''opens'' with Dah'ren Mohran, which is almost identical except for having a single Dragonator-like horn instead of two tusks. The opening fight only requires fending off an already injured Dah'ren and doesn't move on to the second phase. Later rematches have one at full health with both phases. Both phases are nearly the same in strategy as with Jhen, so again only the first phase counts.
164** In ''[=4/4U=]'''s online mode, Dalamadur spends most of the fight slithering around the outside of the arena with only part of its body moving through the area the player can move around in.
165* BackgroundMusicOverride: Generally speaking, if the battle music suddenly changes, something more powerful has showed up:
166** ''Monster Hunter Tri'' has four possible battle themes for each stage: The Great Jaggi/Baggi theme, each stage's normal Monster Battle theme, the special track for the Arena, and the theme for the online-only nomad beast "Deviljho". Each overrides the themes before them (Jaggi/Baggi < Stage = Arena < Deviljho). ''Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate'' adds a few more songs to the mix, thus becoming Jaggi < Arzuros < Stage < Nargacuga < Zinogre < Brachydios < Tower = Arena < Deviljho.
167** ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate'' introduce a slew of new themes, each having a different degree of overriding privilege, but of note is the theme used for monsters in Apex status, which has maximum BGM priority, overriding even the Arena's and Deviljho's themes.
168** ''Generations'' gives the Deviant theme maximum priority as well, even over the Arena theme.
169** ''World'' adds the theme for the High-Rank wanderer Bazelgeuse, which, like Deviljho's, overrides all other themes. Of course, once it attacks, you soon understand ''[[StuffBlowingUp why]]'' it starts off sounding like an [[DeathFromAbove Air Raid siren]]. ''World's'' first DLC pack added the Deviljho, whose theme overrides Bazelgeuse's in turn.
170* BadassAdorable:
171** Your Felyne Comrades, or Palicos in ''4U''.
172** Felcote is an example of a Felyne who attained the rank of Guild Knight. Guild Knights actually outrank hunters, and are tasked with hunting down poachers and criminals as well as enforcing Guild policy and hunting restrictions. They also act as elite guards, protecting [=VIPs=] and major civilian population centres from monster attacks.
173** The playable Prowlers in Generations, Felynes which can dish out just as much hurt to monsters as any hunter.
174** In games based on Moga Village, Cha-Cha the Shakalaka. ''3 Ultimate'' adds Kayamba.
175** Poogies in ''Frontier'', where they take the place of Palicos.
176* BadassBoast: The Argosy Captain in ''Tri'', on the concept of trade: "Men die, but trade lives on!"
177* BadassCape: A lot of upper High Rank and G Rank armor sets will include a really awesome cape. Thankfully, it's not a hindrance in combat.
178* BadassNormal: The Hunters in general, though one tends to wonder how "normal" they are. [[spoiler:Zig-zagged a bit since later games reveal that Hunters are the descendants of [[SuperSoldier Super Soldiers]] from a fallen ancient civilization.]]
179* BagOfHolding: The storage boxes and the hunter's (unseen) item bag. Q: How does a hunter store dozens of claws carved from the GiantEnemyCrab? A: In a BagOfHolding, of course! [[CloudCuckoolander Guildmarm]] in ''4U'' even lampshades this.
180--> '''Guildmarm''': Take me with you! Put me in your Pouch! [[AvertedTrope ...What do you mean "I WON'T FIT"!?]]
181* BagOfSpilling: Downplayed and lampshaded in the opening of ''World''. It's heavily implied everyone in the Commission fleet had to leave most of their gear at home, since there's only so much space on the ships. Depending on character creation, the PC might start with a basic set of armor, but loses whatever weapon they had during the ActionPrologue. Of course it could have been much worse, one NPC hunter seen during the initial tour laments she had to ditch all her gear just to make it ashore.
182* BalloonBelly: Several kinds of monster can rapidly inflate their stomach, and typically proceed to weaponize it.
183** The Congalala introduced in Gen 2 uses this defensively, puffing out its stomach to deflect your attacks (Which may also trigger [[{{Fartillery}} a retaliatory fart]] if you keep hitting it there).
184** The [[ThreateningShark Zamtrios]] uses this offensively, puffing out its belly if it manages to swallow you, afterwhich it'll start hitting it against the ground to cause damage to you and anyone else in the vicinity. Further, if you provoke it by breaking its ice armor, it'll temporarily inflate itself to point of looking more like a BlobMonster then a shark, switching to bouncing and rolling attacks instead of its usual biting and clawing as long as it remains in that state. Unfortunately for it, it's a lot more vulnerable once inflated and can be easily killed, or at the very least severely weakened, while in its inflated state. [[ThatOneBoss The Tigerstripe variant however knows how to switch between its normal and bloated states on the fly, and is ''seriously'' dangerous while fat.]]
185** The Great Jagras from ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'' will periodically swallow an Aptonoth or Kestodon whole and become severely bloated as a result, not unlike the Zamtrios mentioned above. While bloated, its fighting style changes to where it will not only try to flatten you by rolling over, but will also periodically [[{{Squick}} vomit up chunks of partially digested monster flesh]]. The Greatest Jagras variant is so huge that when it bloats up, a lot of its movements can trip you up with violent tremors [[ThatOneBoss which is a very bad thing given its monstrous strength.]] You can force both the normal and Greatest variants out of their "fat mode" by continuously attacking their bellies until they vomit up the rest of their prey, with the latter spewing a huge amount of shiny drops in the process.
186** [[MixAndMatchCritters Platypus/frog/kappa monster]] Tetranodon from ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterRise'' can stuff itself full of gravel and river rocks, causing its belly to swell up which will slow it down, [[MightyGlacier but also make it hit much harder]] as a trade-off.
187** [[spoiler:Also from ''Rise'' is Thunder Serpent Narwa, whose thunder sac is a near-literal example of this trope. It's a swollen organ attached to her stomach, and is filled with tons of electric power at the cost of making her look like she's sporting a heavily bloated gut.]]
188* BanditMook: The moment a wild Melynx (black Felyne) sees you, it'll rush up try to steal something from you. If it succeeds, it will try to escape as soon as possible. You can retrieve your stolen items by attacking the Melynx before it escapes, or checking their stash at the large cat statue in that area. Gypceros and Chameleos are also noted for occasionally stealing items (though it isn't their defining trait), and in their cases you won't get the item back.
189* BattleCouple:
190** Rathian and Rathalos are implied to operate like this. They're actually the female and male of the same species, and their descriptions often refer to them hunting together as a couple. There are even a few missions that pit players against a Rathian and Rathalos together. During these hunts, one of them will become enraged if the other one is hurt too much. In ''World'', they will actively seek out and protect their counterpart if both are present on the same map and one is attacked.
191** The giant wolves Kamu (male) and Nono (female) Orugaron from ''Frontier'' are the Fanged Beast versions of the Rathalos and Rathian. Unlike the Raths, they often fight in tandem, and the [[HarderThanHard Hardcore]] versions even gain [[UnstoppableRage major power boosts]] should either of the pair get hurt or fall in combat.
192** Teostra and Lunastra are an Elder Dragon battle couple. Subverted, however, in that prior to ''World'' they are never fought at the same time due to the game's OneSteveLimit mechanic regarding Elder Dragon-type bosses. However, played devastatingly straight in ''World''; they gain a new attack that combines both of their Nova Blasts. They're also the only large monsters that don't fight each other, making the quest to hunt both at once one of the hardest that doesn't require special unlock conditions.
193** Lolo and Ray Gougarf from ''Frontier'' are another pair of Fanged Beasts that are ''always'' seen together. This is justified, as their primary combat gimmick happens to be MagnetismManipulation, but subverted in that the two have wildly different temperaments and behavior, with Lolo being the more [[{{Determinator}} headstrong]] of the two and Ray being a CowardlyBoss.
194* TheBattleDidntCount: You can get your own literal version of this in ''Generations'' with the "Felyne Insurance" meal skill. If anyone in the party is holding onto this skill, the first faint of the party doesn't count, effectively giving you ''four'' carts instead of three.
195* BattleshipRaid: Jhen Mohran in 3 and Dah'ren Mohran in 4 are more of this than Colossus Climb, since they're vaguely ship-shaped dragons that swim in the sand. You begin the fight on the deck of a sandship, engaging them in a cannon duel, and then proceed to a ''boarding action'' (optional but recommended) where the dragon's back is shaped conveniently like the deck of a very long ship. Dah'ren takes the trope even further; it has a back-mounted spike that can be fired just like a missile to disable parts of your ship, if you don't destroy it during the boarding action. (Demolition charges are, again, optional but recommended equipment when boarding.)
196* BearsAreBadNews: ''Portable 3rd'' introduces [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Arzuros Arzuros]], the first bear-like monster throughout the series. It even eats honey to restore stamina. Also in [=P3rd=] are the Lagombi, a hare-like bear that lives in cold regions, and the Volvidon, an armadillo-like bear that lives in hot places. ''Generations'' introduces Redhelm Arzuros and Snowbaron Lagombi, {{Superboss}} versions of these ursines (but not Volvidon, oddly).
197* {{BFG}}:
198** Bowguns in general, but Heavy Bowguns in particular. Special mention goes to the [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/UltimateLao-ShaoCan Ultimate Lao-Shan Cannon]], an anti-materiel rifle on ''steroids''.
199** The Gunlance is technically a short range BF flamethrower-shotgun.
200** [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/MH3:_Hammer#Gun_Hammer_series The Gunhammer]] appears to be this, but [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] it due to being a pure melee weapon with no ranged capability.
201** The Demolisher in ''4U'' is a giant anti-Elder Dragon cannon [[spoiler:that can knock the wind out of a Rusted Kushala Daora in ''one blast'']]. It returns in ''Generations Ultimate'', this time used on a Lao-Shan Lung.
202* {{BFS}}: Comes in four varieties; the bulky [[MightyGlacier Greatsword]], the slimmer [[GlassCannon Longsword]], the smaller [[LightningBruiser Charge Blade]][[note]]Most of the blades are as long as a hunter is tall. At first, that seems small in comparison to the other BFS until one notices that the blades are swung one-handed.[[/note]], and the [[GlassCannon Switch Axe]][[note]]Which rivals the Greatsword in size when it transforms[[/note]]. Some examples:
203** The [[http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120512011217/monsterhunter/images/5/50/2ndGen-Great_Sword_Render_004.png Akantor Broadsword]] (Great Sword) is absolutely humongous even compared to other Great Swords.
204** The [[http://blog-imgs-26.fc2.com/m/h/f/mhfyukis/mhf_20090727_080158_650.jpg Huge Dragon Sword "Olympus"]], which makes even the ''Akantor Broadsword'' seem tiny.
205** The [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140309081051/monsterhunter/images/5/54/MH3U-Long_Sword_Render_047.png Tenebra]] is a Long Sword that's ''bigger than most Great Swords'' and is even ''bigger than its own sheath''. Makes more sense when you consider the sword contains what looks like a miniature black hole. [[note]]The Japanese version of the weapon was the Tessaiga from ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'', a semi-sentient weapon that masquerades as a battle-worn katana and who's true form is a katana with a massive blade.[[/note]]
206* BigDamnHeroes:
207** It's implied in some minor dialogue that the Felyne rescuers who haul injured hunters back to base camp perform this regularly. Of course, they don't do it for free, either; The Guildmarm notes that the cash penalties for failing actually go into their payroll.
208** Pulled off at the end of ''4U's'' Story Mode. [[spoiler:The Ace Cadet, thinking that the Kushala Daora has been slain, runs over to check on the dragon and is [[PlayingPossum promptly blown away by Daora's]] BreathWeapon. The Ace Commander rushes over to try and protect the Cadet from a second blast, but just as they were about to be struck down, the Ace Lancer {{No Sell}}s the attack with his shield, and they manage to recover and drive off the creature for good.]]
209** Some of the in-game intro cinematics feature this, with one or more hunters bailing out a comrade right as they're about to get killed. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egJerhtlMHY#t=161 Here's a sample.]]
210* BigEater: The Handler's character schtick in ''World'' is that she ''loves'' food.
211* BitchInSheepsClothing: The High Questatrix from ''4 Ultimate'' often lets slip how much she enjoys watching people get hurt, makes a lot of {{Evil Laugh}}s, and likes to make {{Stealth Insult}}s at you, before hastily adding she hopes you don't get hurt. She does acknowledge her true nature when comparing herself to the [[{{Jerkass}} Arena Bambina]].
212-->'''High Questatrix''': If you think I'm cold and brutal, just wait until you see what she has up her sleeves. Heh heh...
213* BizarreSexualDimorphism:
214** The Great Jaggi is an adult Jaggi; they mate with the female Jaggias, which look like mere toddlers when they stand next to a Great Jaggi.
215** The Royal Ludroths are only males of the species; the regular Ludroths are mostly female, and they are easily less than 1/4 of a Royal Ludroth's size.
216** The male Seltas is a [[FragileSpeedster rather fragile]] flying insect the size of a small car. Seltas Queen, on the other hand, is the size of a couple of tanks ([[MightyGlacier and moves like them, too]]), flightless, and bears a [[BewareMyStingerTail wicked pincered tail]].
217** Downplayed with Rathalos (male) and Rathian (female). Their builds and abilities are very similar, but they are colored differently, Rathian has more varied habitats, and how they ''use'' those abilities is very different.
218* TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn:
219** The "Throwing Knife" items. In addition to always landing (hitting) blade in, they fly ''[[NoArcInArchery perfectly straight]]'' as well. These throwing knives have diplomatic immunity from the laws of physics.
220** If you're armed with a cutting weapon, you can sever part of a monster's tail. Do this to a Glavenus's swordlike tail, and the severed piece always lands impaled vertically in the ground.
221* BladeBelowTheShoulder: The Gore Magala Dual Blades.
222* BladeSpam: The Sakura Slash Hunter Art for Longsword involves the user performing a single advancing Spirit Slash, which deals numerous slashes moments later.
223* BlatantLies: One endgame sidequest chain in ''4U'' involves helping a Felyne of the Assembly follow alleged Hell Hunters, who are traveling across the land in search of a Lunastra and an Ashen Lao Shan-Lung. If you hop over to the Wycoon, you'll find out very quickly that neither a Lunastra nor an Ashen Lao Shan-Lung live anywhere near that particular region of the ''Monster Hunter'' world. [[spoiler:Eventually subverted: once players complete the final quest in the chain, the felyne janitor who sent you on the quest reveals that they actually did manage to locate a Lunastra and Ashen Lao-Shan Lung after a lengthy journey, defeating them in combat and trading their materials with the Wycoon. If it weren't for the players clearing their path of other monsters, however, they probably would not have made it back to Dundorma safely.]]
224* BlessedWithSuck: The Felyne Insomniac meal skill renders you immune to sleep status. So immune, in fact, that the skill also prevents you from sleeping on the quest bed, depriving you of a means of emergency healing and, if you're playing as a Prowler, the only way you can recover Acorns. Of course, since some one-area maps don't have a quest bed, this isn't always an issue.
225* BlindedByTheLight: Flash Bombs, the ''Monster Hunter'' equivalent of a flashbang. It tends to only work when tossed in front of a monster who's facing the point of explosion[[note]][[MyRulesAreNotYourRules which doesn't apply when monsters do it to]] ''[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard you]]''[[/note]], but if it's successful, it can daze a monster for a while, allowing Hunters to get free attacks in. If the monster was in the air, it's an automatic topple. This only doesn't work on monsters with no (functioning) eyes, such as Khezu and Gore Magala, or Gypceros, who has a biological flashbomb built into its forehead and [[RequiredSecondaryPowers developed an immunity to bright flashes of any kind]].
226* BlingBlingBang: The El Dora weapons in ''Generations'' and their Lost upgrades are gilded weapons forged from gold artifacts. They're rather expensive and lacking in power compared to other weapons of their rank, but the Greatsword and Sword and Shield make up for it with high sharpness while the Light Bowgun boasts multiple slots, positive affinity, and just about every type of explosive ammo.
227** And with ''World'' we have Kulve Taroth, who drops a gilded variant of just about every weapon in the game, and a few even more elaborate, engraved weapons of her own.
228* BloodlessCarnage: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. There's little splashes of blood when you hit an enemy, but given the damage you can do, there should be ''far more.'' Most egregious is when you cut off a monster's tail; you can see muscles, bones, layers of fat and skin... but not one single ''drop'' of blood. The flesh isn't even red!
229** Played even straighter in ''World'' which downplays the splashes of blood (which indicate hitting a weak point), in favor of raw damage numbers.
230* BookEnds: In ''Generations Ultimate'', the first quest for each Deviant monster that debuted in ''Generations'' has you hunting just the monster in the quest title, in a stable environment. As you make your way up the quest list, there are various conditions in place to mix things up, like capture quests, hunting the title Deviant in addition to another monster, or hunting multiple of the same monster. The EX quest has you once again hunting just the monster in a stable environment, except way, way more powerful than when you first hunted it.
231* BoringButPractical:
232** Keeping the monsters dazed with flashbangs, rooted in successive traps, or staggered by Slime explosions, and shooting them to death with a team of gunners.
233** Hunting monsters with other players, especially the full 4 member team, is easy in general. It's solo hunting monsters that can kill you in 1-3 hits that are the hard fights of this series.
234** The Fluffy Mask in ''Tri'' and ''3 Ultimate''. Oh, sure, it's probably the second or third mask you'll unlock, and the partner wearing will not attack, but the ability to know where EVERY large monster on the map is located, as well as their type (Brute, flying, etc.) and whether or not they're still aggressive towards you, without having to invest in the Autotracker skill is invaluable. In particular, this makes High-Rank quests and their tendency to throw Deviljhos at you at random much easier, since it decreases the odds of being ambushed.
235** Despite all of the elemental and status abilities the Shakalakas can be taught, it's usually smarter to just give them Weatherbreaker and Earplugs, which like the Fluffy Mask are obtained pretty early on. Since their attack power is much weaker and less reliable than the hunter(s) themselves, focusing on ways to prevent their supporting dances (particularly healing dances) from being interrupted and turning them into dedicated [[TheMedic medics]] or {{White Mage}}s is usually much more effective, even if it means doing all of the damage yourself.
236** Earplugs as a companion skill once again become this in ''Generations'', where not only are they extremely useful for Prowlers, but it's easy enough to scout a Palico that has the skill and then spread it via the Palico Dojo. This takes a lot less effort and specialized equipment than trying to get Earplugs as a Hunter, as it's an armor skill for them and only a few armor sets can grant Earplugs.
237** In a similar vein to the employment of Shakalakas as support comrades, the Healing Forte is usually a reliable standby, especially when fighting more dangerous monsters. Having less rate of damage is a small price to pay to have healing that is done without having to use items, especially in two-player hunts[[note]]Palicoes are not allowed in hunting parties of three or four[[/note]] where you want to be able to keep yourself ''and'' your partner alive due to the "three combined faints and you're out" mechanic; the Healing Horn and True Healing Horn act as free Lifepowders and Dusts of Life, respectively.
238** While the obvious benefit of Support Forte Palicoes is their trap-setting, their EnemyScan ability is what makes them really useful: pinpointing large monsters as they spawn, warning you when a Paintball is about to wear off, informing you when a monster is weak enough for capture, and so on. Additionally, while most Palicoes panic if a monster becomes enraged or two large monsters appear in the same area, the Support Palicoes will only panic if the player takes too much damage or is pinned by a monster. Monsters becoming enraged is inevitable, and two monsters appearing in the same area is a very common occurrence in High Rank and G-rank quests, but taking too much damage and getting pinned can both be avoided with enough skill, causing the Support Palicoes to be more consistently useful than the others.
239** While it's tempting to change the Ace Palico's default Leadership Forte into something else, it does have a very useful aspect that the other fortes don't: it never panics[[note]]he still panics if he gets Blastblight, though[[/note]]. In fact, with the Leadership Forte, the Ace Palico often becomes stronger in a situation where most palicoes would panic.
240** Craft dozens of weapons to adapt to every situation and punish your target's elemental weakness! Or, [[ChargedAttack if you use a slow weapon that deals a few big hits]] rather than many small blows, just go for the one with the highest raw power and clobber everything with brute physical damage. [[labelnote:*]]This is because elemental and status effects both are actually less effective on slow weapons, the latter because each hit has a set chance to proc the status making faster weapons more consistent, and the former because slow attacks have a damage multiplier that only applies to physical.[[/labelnote]] Later games would introduce buffs for either equipping a weapon with a dormant element but not awakening it, or provide a boost to attacks with no elemental component to them.
241** The Hunting Horn's basic Self-Improvement song provides a movement speed increase, allowing you to move as fast as with Sword & Shield and Dual Blades, as well as buffing the horn itself to cut through the enemy in situations where the attack would otherwise bounce off.
242** The Leather set you start the game with in ''3 Ultimate'' (and can buy from the start in ''Tri'') may have pitiful defense and resistance, but it comes with a SetBonus that grants you extra uses at gather points, extra-fast gathering, and decreases the chance of your tools breaking. The gloves and helmet are socketed as well, so if you get a weapon with a socket, you can easily increase your gathers even further.
243** Basic gathering. Until you gain access to services like item replication in ''4'' or personal farms in ''3 Portable'', it's the only way to grind for the ingredients to make important items like Mega Potions.
244** In ''Generations'', this is what the Guild Hunting Style is being promoted as. Unlike Striker, Aerial, or Adept, Guild is a completely straightforward gameplay style that greatly resembles the gameplay of previous mainline ''Monster Hunter'' titles. That being said, this doesn't make Guild Style any less effective than the others when it comes to hunting.
245** The Sword and Shield in ''Generations''. It doesn't do a lot of damage per swing, lacks the flashy moves of the other weapons, and it being your default (as in "beginner's weapon") does not attract it to newcomers [[note]]the Charge Blade and Insect Glaive, which are very stylish and have great damage potential, all see plenty of use in the early game in comparison; even in ''World'', they are among the top five most statistically used[[/note]]. However, it can do a lot: charge attacks, blunt damage for stuns and exhaustion, blocking, easy ledge mounting without the Aerial Style, and its unique ability to use items while drawn give it unparalleled versatility, and a competent [=SnS=] stocked with Lifepowder and Dust of Life, or using the Wide-Range ability, can save a hunt from total disaster. The Oils the weapon can use also expand its versatility, allowing you to easily break parts, KO a monster, or pile on the pain without having to allocate skills, or amplify it with the corresponding skills in place; the Hunter Art "Chaos Oil" gives the benefits of all the oils at once and allows for maximum carnage. The Oils are tossed out in ''World'', but are traded for the Slinger, which can still be used freely with this weapon and give a viable ranged sabotage option while sacrificing literally nothing else.
246** The Haste Rain Hunter Art in ''Generations'' is like Self-Improvement for Bows. It's not very fancy as far as other Hunter Arts go, nor is it even offensive. However, casting it bumps up your movement speed significantly and decreases charge time for shots, giving you much higher mobility while allowing you to pop off more charged shots in a shorter amount of time for more damage.
247** Many Hunter Arts in ''Generations'' are flashy and deal a lot of damage, but experienced players swear by Absolute Readiness. It can be used by any weapon, charges quickly, grants a significant invincibility period, and, most importantly, ''automatically restores Sharpness or reloads ammo''. Few Hunter Arts can compare in terms of utility. You can potentially go an entire prolonged fight without having to sharpen your weapon. This also applies to its cousin Absolute Evasion. While it doesn't restore Sharpness, it charges faster and automatically sheathes your weapon, allowing for a quick panic dive if the initial dodge didn't send you out of harm's way.
248** For Light Bowguns in ''Generations'', there is the Full House series of Hunter Arts. It loads all of your ammo at once and lets you switch between ammo types without having to reload, much like removing the Limiter in previous games (but without sacrificing Rapid Fire!), making it great for prolonged sessions of MoreDakka. It charges pretty quickly and ignores your weapon's innate reload speed. [[GatheringSteam Once you get the ball rolling]], you can pretty much just rely entirely on Full House to reload, particularly if you use multiple ammo types. Its only catch is that the first two tiers of Full House will not reload your Rapid Fire ammo, but Full House III will, allowing you to much more easily do Full House barrages. It's also worth noting that the effects of Full House take place at the start of the Hunter Art animation, so even if you get interrupted by someone or something else's attack, you'll still have that sweet full reload.
249** In ''World'', your Palico starts with the Vigorwasp Spray. Despite being the very first Palico Gadget you have, it's easily just as useful as any of the other Gadgets you get down the line; the free healing is a godsend in the middle of large monster hunts and saves you Potions and Mega Potions, your Palico uses the Gadget with decent frequency, and at higher levels its potency rises and your Palico gain access to a stationary Vigorwasp that you can trigger on demand for free healing and Vigorwasp Delivery, a signal-based version that allows you call upon its effect whenever as long as it isn't on cooldown.
250** The Ghillie Mantle, also from ''World''. It makes you completely invisible to monsters, who stop targeting you once you've put it on. They may sniff around and attack randomly, but aren't particularly likely to hit you if you move. This gives you time to set up bombs, traps, bait, or sharpen your weapon while then look around confused. This is in comparison to most other hunting tools, particularly other mantles, that let you float on updrafts, ''attract'' monsters, or resists elemental damage.
251** Alternatively, the Healing Booster, the first booster item you get. Other boosters might buff your damage or affinity, but having an area-of-effect healing item, especially in multiplayer, allows you to play somewhat less cautiously to finish your missions a little faster.
252** The Recovery Up skill. It won't improve your damage, but it will let you get more mileage out of your limited supply of healing items.
253** Adamant Seeds only boost your Defense by a negligible amount, but eating one while under the effect of Defense Down (which cuts your Defense by roughly a quarter) or Severe Defense Down (which cuts your Defense by roughly ''half'') will negate the effect to give you Defense Up (since both Defense Up and either flavor of Defense Down cannot be active at the same time). While other means of raising Defense will also cure Defense Down, you can carry up to 10 Adamant Seeds, unlike Armorskins, Mega Armorskins, or Adamant Pills which each cap at 5.
254** The Poison status effect. It doesn't hamper the mobility of monsters, just doing a DamageOverTime effect. But that effect can shorten a hunt when applied repeatedly. In ''Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak'', having the Foray skill will [[StatusEffectPoweredAbility deal additional damage to monsters undergoing status effects that persist for a period of time]], Poison being one of them, and unlike other status effects besides Blast in ''Rise'', Poison can be realistically applied multiple times to the same monster (i.e. you don't need a specialized team to inflict it more than once in a hunt).
255* BossGame: Despite the fact there are collection quests and stuff like Treasure Hunting, boss/monster fighting takes up about 90% of the game.
256* BossOnlyLevel:
257** Most Elder Dragons are fought in an exclusive map comprised of basically just the base camp and a singular area to fight the dragon in. In the case of the Underwater Ruins, the lair of Ceadeus, it's also the battlefield to fight [[spoiler:Gold Ceadeus]] and [[spoiler:Abyssal Lagiacrus]].
258** In the event that you fight an Elder Dragon in a regular zone and not a specialized arena, the ''entire map'' becomes eerily devoid of any other monsters. It's justified since Elder Dragons are so strong, almost every other creature on the map has [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere already hightailed it out of there]] long before you arrived. The only exception in the 2nd gen games is the "Tower 1" zone, where the entire fight is restricted to the rooftop, and the rest of the Tower below that particular area is still populated with the local wildlife.
259** The Tower is a large battlefield set in a field of abandoned ruins, and often is the location where [[{{Superboss}} Rare Species]] are fought.
260** The Sanctuary in ''4'' is where you fight the final boss of the storyline, [[spoiler:Shagaru Magala]].
261** [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Wyvern's End]] in ''Generations'' is where you fight the online final boss, Nakarkos.
262** The Forlorn Citadel in ''Generations Ultimate'' is the site of the Ahtal-Ka's stronghold.
263** ''World'' has five: the Great Ravine, where you first fight Zorah Magdaros, the Everstream, where you drive it off for good, the Confluence of Fates, [[spoiler:the comet holding Xeno'jiiva]], Origin Isle, where you fight Ruiner Nergigante [[spoiler:and then Shara Ishvalda]], the Secluded Valley, the site of the siege against [[spoiler:the adult form of Xeno'jiiva, Safi'Jiiva]], and the Caverns of El Dorado, the site of the Kulve Taroth siege.
264** ''Rise'' features the Coral Palace, where you fight the source of the Rampage, [[spoiler:Wind Serpent Ibushi and Thunder Serpent Narwa, the latter eventually ''eating'' the former to become [[OneWingedAngel Narwa the Allmother]]]].
265* BossRush:
266** The "Epic/Marathon" Hunting Quests. Made particularly difficult because you can't change your weapon mid-hunt and each monster is easier/harder to deal with using certain weapons more than others (e.g Dual swords on a Plesioth is pain incarnate; a bow or bowgun with Pierce shots will make sashimi out of one). In ''3 Ultimate'', these missions become the largest part of the final rank chapter (9 stars). On the plus side, these quests usually [[ConservationOfNinjutsu give each individual monster reduced health]], as they would take well beyond the 50-minute time limit if you had to fight each monster at normal health.
267** A few select quests, such as the notorious "Caravaneer's Challenge" from ''4'', requires you to fight at least two or more Large Monsters in the same map at the same time. Due to the difficulty in fighting two or more monsters simultaneously, one of the recommended strategies for these quests is to [[SetAMookToKillAMook open with a Smoke Bomb, then run away and let the monsters kill each other.]]
268* BottomlessMagazines:
269** Bows have unlimited arrows despite their quiver being quite visible.
270** While Gunlances have to reload, they never run out of ammo. Guess those bullets were just for Bowguns after all.
271** Normal Shot level one for the Bowgun, and (at least up until ''Unite'') the Autoreload skill actually makes it so you don't have to reload, either.
272** In ''3 Ultimate'', limit-breaking a Light or Heavy Bowgun lets you cram more ammo into them than should be logically possible: loading all types of ammo to their max capacity at once for the Light Bowgun, and getting a ''huge'' magazine limit increase and the ability to use Wyvern Fire shots[[note]]these were originally only usable in Gunlances[[/note]] for the Heavy Bowgun. [[DiscardAndDraw It comes at the cost of their respective Rapid Fire and Crouching Fire abilities, however]], though you can return them back to normal whenever you want.
273* BraggingRightsReward:
274** If you can clear all the training missions with all the weapons, you probably don't need that Sword Saint Piercing. Same goes for the stuff that's unlocked once you clear G Rank in ''Unite'' and ''Ultimate''. Also applies for getting a full set of White Fatalis armor.
275** In ''Tri'', most [=HR51=]-armorsets count (Deviljho, Alatreon, High-Rank-Ceadeus, and High-Rank-Jhen-Mohran). Getting these means you already killed everything you can kill. Multiple times.
276** In ''3 Ultimate'', crafting a full set of Nether armor means you've hunted literally every monster in the game, due to being made from parts from the last three monsters available, one of which requires hunting every monster before it.
277** In ''4/4U'', the F Bannerman set for Palicoes. If you can already defeat Akantor, chances are you've already got much better equipment for your Palicoes than the F Bannerman set provides, despite being unique.
278** The GX Esurient Armor in the November 2015 update also doubles as a SelfImposedChallenge to wear into hunting. Unlocking enough tickets for a full set requires mutiple successful runs on hunting a strengthened Apex Deviljho, which is basically a hunter's nightmare. The armor itself provides only mediocre physical defense for G-Rank with abysmal elemental resistances, no gem slots, and only two reward enhancing skills along with [[AttackItsWeakPoint Tenderizer]] and the worst weapon affinity penalty, requiring any hunter with the greed to use it to essentially go on a NoDamageRun and focus only on the target monster's weaknesses.
279** In ''Frontier'', the Battle Tonfas are seen by some as this. Despite being considered an overpowered weapon by a number of players[[note]]itself a contested claim, with some players noting that its performance is actually only mid-tier among all weapons[[/note]], the main requirements to craft it involve getting to G-Rank, then finishing a lengthy series of story quests handed out by the Diva NPC. A later patch allows players to [[BribingYourWayToVictory pay real money in order to be able to craft Tonfas without the need to unlock them]]...but the premium weapons are mediocre in quality by comparison, forcing players to [[EarnYourFun accomplish the above questline]] in order to craft endgame-level Tonfas.
280** Defeating the Phantom Doragyurosu in ''Frontier'' grants you rare scales that are only useful as trophy items.
281** The [[Franchise/FireEmblem Lodestar armor]] in ''Generations''. It has decent stats, a good amount of slots, and some excellent skills in Antivirus[[labelnote:*]]reduces rate at which the Frenzy Virus gauge fills and raises the immunization affinity boost to 30%[[/labelnote]], Critical Boost[[labelnote:*]]boosts crit damage to 40%[[/labelnote]], and the coveted Weakness Exploit[[labelnote:*]]+50% affinity to weak points[[/labelnote]]. However, crafting it not only requires parts from the most end-game of the end-game enemies (Alatreon, Gold Rathian, Savage Deviljho, Rajang, Nakarkos, and Silver Rathalos), but requires numerous runs against [[SuperMode Hyper]] [[MadeOfIron Silver]] [[ThatOneBoss Rathalos]], one of the hardest bosses in the game, to obtain the items and even ''more'' runs to fully upgrade it.
282** In ''World'', the Fatalis set qualifies as this. The Beta set in particular comes with ''three'' level four Decoration slots on each piece making it a good base set for just about any build, especially when paired with the set bonus that grants extra health and stamina naturally as well as granting the [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Razor Sharp]]/[[BottomlessMagazines Spare Shot]] skill. As such, it makes any other hunt in the game that much easier. Unfortunately, this requires defeating [[TheDreaded Fatalis]] multiple times.
283* BratsWithSlingshots:
284** Uruki are lynians that look like monkeys. They use slingshots as their main weapon.
285** ''World'' introduces a new mechanic called the "Slinger", a wrist-mounted slingshot. The Slinger can be used to fire either makeshift projectiles gathered from the environment or various inventory items such as the Knife items at monsters and other objects with precision accuracy. Just like items, the Sword and Shield weapon class is able to fire their Slinger without sheathing their weapon.
286* BreakableWeapons: Downplayed, as they don't really break, but lose sharpness. Losing sharpness lessens the damage they do and also will make them bounce off of the monster's hide, interrupting your combos and reducing your damage output further. So while you never lose your weapon, it can become next to useless if you don't keep it sharp.
287* BringMyBrownPants:
288** In ''3 Ultimate'', the Argosy Captain brings this up when he gives you your first Brachydios quest.
289---> '''Argosy Captain:''' ''"Very big monster, very violent, very kowai. [[GratuitousJapanese "Kowai" means scary]]! You goran for yourself, you hear its '''[[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud DOKAAAAAN]]!''' Mayhap bring extra pair dry britches."''
290** Implied in ''4U'' for laughs: hiring [[spoiler:Konoha the Yukumo Sweetheart]] as your new housekeeper will sometimes cause her to comment on the [[BrainBleach unusually big pile of underwear stashed beneath your bed]], which she found while tidying up your room. Justified, considering [[DavidVersusGoliath what your character does]] for a living.
291* BroughtDownToNormal: ''4 Ultimate'' introduces Wystones, items with a {{cooldown}} that provide your weapon with a temporary buff. They allow players to bring Frenzied monsters back to normal for a while if they attack the monster with their Wystone-enhanced weapon enough.
292* BrutalBonusLevel:
293** In some games, completing all the village quests or certain online quests unlocks a special quest that pits you through a BossRush against three or more powerful monsters, often multiple at once. They are usually High Rank-level (if the villages' quests are Low Rank at most) or G Rank-level (if the villages' quests are High-Rank at most) and sometimes have special modifiers like being enraged, fully-charged or (specifically in the fourth-generation games) powered with Frenzy or Hyper states. And since they're village quests, you can't bring in other players. Only the best hunters can hope to complete these. Such examples include "Monster Hunter!" (''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterFreedom2 Freedom Unite]]''), "Out of the Fry Pan" (''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterPortable3rd Portable 3rd]]''), "Mark of a Hero" (''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunter3Tri 3 Ultimate]]''), "The Caravaneer's Challenge" (''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunter4 4]]''), "The Master's Test" (''4 Ultimate''), "The Field's A Stage" (''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterGenerations Generations]]''), "[[TitleDrop Ultimate Generation]]" (''Generations Ultimate''), "The White Winds of the New World" and "The Sapphire Star's Guidance" (''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld World]]''), and "Advanced: The Veterans' Gala" (''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterRise Rise]]'').
294** The Deviant Monster / Special Permit quests in ''Generations'' and ''Generations Ultimate'' are not required to beat the game. Should you choose to take them on however, they'll pit you against [[UpgradedBoss beefed-up variants of existing monsters]] with disproportionately high attack power and health for their Hunter Rank requirements. Some of the quests have restrictions to make them harder, such as requiring you to capture the monster, capture the monster with only items that are provided on-site, or hunt the monster in addition to another one (at the higher levels, this may entail a Hyper monster or another Deviant), or failing the quest after only one faint. If that's all not enough for you, in ''GU'' each Deviant has an EX version that has astronomical HP and damage output and whose quests don't give you any supplies whatsoever; your reward for beating these sadistically hard quests is [[CosmeticAward being able to use their armor for Armor Fusion and glowing armor pigments]].
295* BubblegloopSwamp:
296** The Swamp in ''1'' (old) and ''2'' (new). Subverted in that the muck is only ankle high in a few places at worst and never impedes movement, although poisonous gases do flood certain sections at nighttime.
297** The Flooded Forest in 3rd generation games combines this and JungleJapes. Subverted in ''Portable 3rd'', wherein the submerged parts of the forest have dried up due to the summer season.
298** Portions of the Primal Forest in ''4/4U'' appear to be marshland, especially the outer plains and inner regions. An interesting variation occurs in that the poisonous muck ponds that appear in the innermost areas may not be naturally occurring [[spoiler:but are rather remnants of a long-dead Dalamadur's venomous bodily fluids]].
299* BullyingADragon:
300** Measly raptors are liable to attack and wake up nearby sleeping wyverns of any kind, including apex predators. [[TooDumbToLive That's right Baggi, go ahead, bite that sleeping Brachydios.]]
301** '''Anytime''' you take a Wyvern Egg from its nest will earn you the righteous fury of either a [[MamaBear Rathian]] or her mate [[PapaWolf Rathalos]] (if they're on the map). The second you pick up that egg, they'll know, and they'll come from whatever part of the map they're on to kick your ass; heaven help you if they're ''[[BattleCouple both on the map]]''!
302* BurningWithAnger:
303** The Elder Dragons Teostra and Lunastra take this trope literally, coating themselves with a flame aura that damages anyone nearby.
304** Most fire-breathing wyverns have a lasting flame lingering near their mouths when enraged. The Diablos and its subspecies also pant black smoke whenever they're angry, too.
305** The Deviljho starts breathing dark lightning when it goes berserk, [[BreathWeapon which it will then weaponize.]] Even more so with the Savage Deviljho, which starts ''[[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111201100051/monsterhunter/images/thumb/6/6c/MH3G-Hungry_Deviljho.png/400px-MH3G-Hungry_Deviljho.png spraying so much dark lightning out of its back]]'' that it becomes completely wreathed in the stuff.
306** Bazelgeuse's explosive scales glow bright red when it's enraged.
307* ButtMonkey:
308** The Aptonoths seem to be at the very bottom of the food chain. They're preyed on by both hunters and monsters, and they almost never fight back.
309** The carnivorous (Great) Jaggi have been either eaten by Ludroths, killed by Lagiacrus, Barroth, or Rathalos, or stomped on then mercilessly eaten by a Deviljho. It can be done [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPmsCMv8N-o among players as well]]. Its punching bag status had gotten so bad that the Great Jaggi isn't present in ''Generations'', where [[ThrowTheDogABone the developers thought it was time to give the poor things a break.]]
310** Felynes also occasionally suffer some abuse from the larger monsters, particularly in the "Monster Life" videos. One gets chased by a pair of Uragaan in its life video, and another is sent flying during the Brachydios Life after being caught up in a fight between a Brachydios and an Agnaktor.
311** Jagras become this in ''World'', being the Jaggi {{Expy}}. The smaller ones are usually used to demonstrate the danger of larger monsters. The Great Jagras goes from legitimate threat to bottom of the totem pole so quick, the ''Anjanath's'' intro video has one being dragged around as a meal. Then, Deviljho uses one as a ''flail'' during the early part of its Special Assignment.
312* CallBack: In ''4U'', one of the Assembly Songs you can unlock is ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ARog0IeLeg Abyssal Moon]]'', the theme of Ceadeus.
313* CallingYourAttacks: In ''4U'', the Ace Palico does this with the Horn skills and Team Attacks. Justified in the former case, because the Ace Palico can learn many different types of Horns, so having him call out what kind of Horn he's using helps the player understand what kind of effect they're going to get.
314* CameBackStrong:
315** With the Survivor skill found on equipment such as the [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/HellHunter_Jacket HellHunter Jacket]], your attacks get a stackable boost each time you faint. Do note, however, that the "three faints within the party and you're out" limit still applies if you're on a quest and not an expedition/exploration-type mode, so be careful taking advantage of this buff.
316** Apex Monsters in ''4U'' are this, having successfully resisted the Frenzy Virus to become immune and gain a tremendous boost in power instead of dying like other Frenzy victims.
317** Felyne Helpers/Palicoes can have an ability called "Fall 7x, Get Up 8x" (''Unite'') or "Nine Lives" (''4U'') in which they resuscitate with a stacking buff each time they faint. For the former, this affects attack and defense, and stacks up to eight times, while the latter affects either attack or defense, depending on the variant, and stacks up to nine times. While some Palicoes may come packed with either the Attack or Defense variant of "Nine Lives", the unique Palico Smirk [[spoiler:AKA "Whitescruff"]] specializes in this, wielding ''both'' "Nine Lives" skills.
318* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Vaal Hazak]] in ''World'' has the ability to bring nearby Girros back to life. When they do, they're loyal to it (except any your Palico manages to recruit) and they have an effluvium aura that can halve your total health.
319* CaptainObvious: The Moga Sweetheart, or rather, her guidebook.
320-->"Let's see, Flooded Forest... a forest flooded with water. Okay then."
321* CanisLatinicus: Some (if not most) English versions of the monster's names are in either Pseudo-Greek (Rathalos, Akantor, Lagombi, etc.) or Pseudo-Latin (Ceadeus, Lagiacrus, Vespoid, etc.).
322* CanisMajor:
323** [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Zinogre Zinogre]], the flagship monster of ''Portable 3rd'', combines lupine features and an ability to [[ShockAndAwe generate electricity from its body]].
324** The [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Stygian_Zinogre Stygian Zinogre]] is a Zinogre with ''dark lightning!''
325** [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Kamu_Orugaron Kamu]] and [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Nono_Orugaron Nono Orugaron]] along with their relative [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Midogaron Midogaron]] from Frontier.
326** The [[http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Odogaron Odogaron]] is a giant red doglike beast.
327* CassandraTruth: [[spoiler:Evidently, the reason there's no records on Alatreon available for the New World Hunters is because its PowerIncontinence ability was too far-fetched for the higher-ups to believe...and so all records of Alatreon were burnt as nonsense.]]
328* CareerEndingInjury:
329** In ''Freedom 2'' and ''Unite'', the ex-Hunter who rescues you from the the Tigrex at the start of the game was forced into retirement by a Blangonga.
330** In ''3 Ultimate'', [[spoiler:the Village Chief]] was forced to retire from hunting after getting beaten down by an [[spoiler:Ivory Lagiacrus]].
331** In ''4 Ultimate'', [[spoiler:the Master of Defense]] retired from hunting after a horrendous encounter with a [[spoiler:Kushala Daora]].
332** In ''Generations Ultimate'', [[spoiler:the Questender]] retired after botching a hunt against the [[spoiler:Bloodbath Diablos. The Pub Manager decided to retire as well]].
333** Ayame from ''Rise'' is a high rank hunter who received a bad leg injury prior to the events of the game and returned to her hometown to recover. She's well aware she'll never be able to fight the way she did before ever again and spends most of her time in a wistful funk. [[spoiler:She's actually a subversion, as the protagonist hunter's exploits and the support of Kamura's townfolks eventually inspire her to get back to hunting, even if her injury means she has to give up her old Great Sword in favor of a less taxing Light Bowgun. She even seeks to match or surpass the player character.]]
334** Despite all of the above, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation this never happens to the]] PlayerCharacter. [[MadeOfIron You can get beaten down by those same monsters all day every day and you'll be perfectly fine every time you return to town.]]
335* CatsAreMean:
336** Melynx, black Felynes who tend to snitch Hunters on sight, charging at and sometimes knocking them out. Can be irritating during those egg fetching quests.
337** "Wild" Felynes can be just as bad. Though they have to be provoked first and don't steal your items, at least Melynx don't go around tossing ''explosives''.
338* ChainmailBikini: Uses and subverts it as it pleases. Most female armor sets cover just about as much as it does on males, with the occasional bare midriff or ZettaiRyouiki, and sometimes, you get armor that's even skimpy on the men too. Then you have Anjanath's armor from ''World''...
339* ChainsawGripBFG: Both Light and Heavy Bowguns are used this way.
340* ChainsawGood:
341** The Prototype Saw-slicer. ''[[DualWielding Dual-wielded]]'' chainsaws. There is also the Chain Blade/Chainslaughter, a ''BFS''/''[[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]]'' chainsaw. Both of which do ''lightning damage''. ''World'' introduces the Freeze Chain, a set of dual-wielded chainsaws that deal ''ice damage''.
342** The Switch Axe can perform chainsaw-like attacks. In particular, the Mundus Switch Axe has a ''buzzsaw'' tip that transforms into a literal chainsaw sword. ''Generations'' introduces The Shredder, a chainsaw axe just like the Chainslaughter.
343* ChallengeGamer: In games that allow modding, many players produce differently sized, stronger or more numerous versions of regular monsters. Many also stick to one 'trademark' weapon regardless of how suitable it is for a quest, refuse to use items and traps, or decide to solo online-only superbosses like the infamous Fatalis (which is pretty much the only option for those on portable games prior to ''4'' that lack local hunting partners). There are players who do all of that and more.
344* CharacterCustomization: Creating your hunter in the [=PS2=] and PSP games was ''very'' limited: name, gender, face, hairstyle, hair color, voice. By the time of ''Tri'', you could choose between different underclothes, add facial features like face paint or facial hair, and change skin tone (which was previously tied to which face preset you took). ''4/4 Ultimate'' re-added the ability to change your eye color from the original version of ''Tri''. ''World'' has the most robust creation system in the main series yet, letting you choose from a list of preset pieces and modify them from there.
345* CharacterLevel: Notably absent; your character only grows stronger because of better equipment and improved player skill. Hunter Rank is somewhat similar in that it requires grinding for points and unlocks new quests. Your combat partners, the Palicoes and Shakalakas, meanwhile, have fairly typical leveling systems.
346* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Your hunter, a normal-ish human, can fish out a 20-30 meter Plesioth, as well as lift, wield, and strike with weapons up to twice their own size.
347** Could be [[AvertedTrope averted]] with the reveal that the playable Hunters are all descended from a SuperSoldier program created in ancient times. Said program was developed to de exactly what you're doing in the games themselves -- fight monsters.
348* CharacterSelectForcing:
349** Tends to be [[ZigZaggedTrope zig zagged]]. Any monster can be killed with any weapon once you understand the limitations and openings specific to each weapon. However, some weapons have a huge advantage over others against certain monsters. e.g. Any close range weapon against a Plesioth is frustrating as hell since it has the [[HitboxDissonance hitbox from hell]] and it sometimes refuses to leave the water [[note]]although the Plesioth is actually far less threatening in the water, since it can no longer hipcheck, tailspin, or slither, and is limited to dashes and lasers[[/note]]. A bowgun or bow prevents both of these. In ''3 Ultimate'', it's possible to fight it underwater, but Plesioth becomes good at fighting there as well.
350** Played straight by the Treasure Hunting quests in ''Freedom Unite''. Due to many regular routes and shortcuts in Treasure Hunt maps being blocked off by giant boulders, and the general difficulty of procuring Barrel Bombs to destroy them with in said maps[[note]]further compounded by the "No Personal Items" restriction[[/note]], the best weapons for these quests tend to be the Hammer and Hunting Horn, both of which can be used to shatter rocks with ease and the latter providing its own MagicMusic bonuses.
351** Subquests or the rare Event Quest with "Sever the monster's tail" as the objective require you to use a cutting weapon, a Bowgun with Slicing shots, or a Bow with the Blade Wire Hunting Art. Anything else, and the subquest may as well not be listed at all or you've made the quest UnwinnableByDesign. Reversed for any subquest that requires ''breaking'' a monster part, which sometimes requires blunt weapons or specific elements.
352** Capture quests effectively force you to make an armor set with Capture Guru so that you don't kill the monster by mistake. As of ''Generations'', you can go as a Prowler with Monsterdar (alongside a Purr-ison skill, which is mandatory without teammates just like traps), but being a Prowler has its disadvantages, such as lower damage and having to manage the Support gauge.
353* ChargedAttack: Comes in ''ten'' different flavors (as of Monster Hunter 4)!
354** Collect Type: Long Swords, Switch Axes, Dual Swords, Charge Blades (It's even in the name!);
355** Hold Type: Great Swords (main modus operandi), Hammers, Bows, Gunlances, Charge Blades (again!), Sword and Shield;
356** Literal Type: Lance. You duck behind your shield, hold your lance close to your body and pointed outwards, then run as fast as you can forward. Run far enough and the power of your attack increases.
357* CherryTapping:
358** It's possible to kill a monster by ''kicking'' it, as demonstrated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwautVeV5RE here]].
359** A Plesioth can die by being ''fished out of the water''. Taken to extremes in ''4U'', where this happens to it ''every time it's caught'' during the Fishing minigame.
360** In rare cases, boss monsters can die ''by accidentally getting hit by a {{Mook}}''. Unfortunately, this can also happen to players who are very low on health...
361** In ''Tri'', letting Cha-Cha get the kill can feel like this; though he ''can'' reach decent levels of power, he's still not nearly as strong as your hunter. Same goes for Kayamba in ''3 Ultimate''.
362** Felyne Comrades/Palicoes in ''Unite/4U''. Similar to the Cha-Cha and Kayamba example, it's very possible for them to topple or even finish off monsters with a well-placed hit. Made easier by the fact that players can craft stronger weapons for them to use in ''4U''.
363** Seregios, a flying wyvern introduced in ''4U'', has a fighting style centered around this trope, preferring agile multi-hitting attacks and bleeding out its prey as opposed to dealing heavy damage in one blow, though it does have a couple of hard-hitting moves.
364** For players, simply getting ''stepped on'' by the larger Wyverns is one of the more humiliating ways to go.
365** Thrown objects do damage to enemy monsters, albeit the bare minimum you can inflict. It is possible to kill a monster with a Paintball, or if you're extremely unlucky, a monster you're supposed to capture instead of kill by way of a ''[[DeathByIrony Tranq Bomb]]''.
366** The Capture Net in ''World'' does 2 damage if shot at anything other than an endemic creature. This has a surprisingly wide range of applications; Kelbi Horns can almost always be extracted from Kelbi if you shoot the net at a Kelbi enough times, and the net can be used to kill insects like Vespoids without breaking them.
367** A handful of Gestures also do minuscule damage if you can hit a monster with them, in a similar vein to the kick. Also similar to the kick, it's entirely possible to kill monsters with them.
368* ChessMotif: The 1-6 Rarity Talismans have this. In order from the most common to the rarest, there's the Pawn, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Queen, and King Talismans.
369* ChromaticArrangement: The sharpness levels come in the following flavors: red (weakest), orange, yellow, green, blue, white, and [[PurpleIsPowerful purple (strongest)]]. White sharpness falling between blue and purple can be partially explained in that purple sharpness didn't exist at first.
370* ChunkySalsaRule: Monsters can explode into gibs if they take too much damage over what is already enough to kill them, leaving no corpse and thus denying the player the carves. This is usually only a problem with Vespoids and other bug monsters, for whom the margin of error is so narrow that the only viable option of actually getting corpses from them is the use of Poison Bombs. It's not that big of a problem with other mosters, but once you have strong enough weapons, it's not unusual to occasionally see the mook monsters completely fall apart.
371* CivilizedAnimal: The Felynes.
372* CloudCuckoolander: Guildmarm in ''4/4U'', a GenkiGirl and CuteClumsyGirl who appears to have a couple screws loose. Her introduction has her nicknaming you "Doodle", and it only escalates from there. In spite of all this, that doesn't mean she can't be [[ObfuscatingStupidity surprisingly deep at times.]]
373* ColorCodedItemTiers: Each rarity rating has its own color, which is applied to equipment icons and the on-screen rarity ratings. As of ''Generations'', the colors are as follows: 1 = white, 2 = purple, 3 = yellow, 4 = pink, 5 = green, 6 = blue, 7 = red, 8 = teal, 9 = orange, 10 = hot pink, X = indigo. ''World'' follows a different set of colors: 1 = white, 2 = grey, 3 = yellow, 4 = green, 5 = teal, 6 = blue, 7 = purple, 8 = orange.
374* ColossusClimb:
375** Many of the larger Elder Dragons, such as Jhen/Dah'ren Mohran, Lao-Shan Lung, Yamatsukami and Shen Gaoren, are big enough to walk on. Zorah Magdaros in ''World'' takes this up to eleven; the Elder Dragon's back ''is its own field'', and when encountered in the story, you have to fight a Nergigante on its back, meaning you end up fighting an Elder Dragon ''on another Elder Dragon!''
376** Mounting, a mechanic introduced in ''4'', allows you to hop on a monster's back by performing an aerial attack. While Mounted, you can hack away at the monster using a carving knife, which will fill a gauge; if you can successfully fill the gauge without being thrown off, you'll knock down the monster and get a chance to attack. ''Generations'' buffed the mechanic by allowing other player attacks to boost the gauge instead of knocking you off, while the mechanic is changed in ''World'' to be Stamina-dependent and allows you to execute a unique Mounting-based FinishingMove if you can substantially damage the monster while Mounted.
377* CombatAndSupport: This is how hunter teams are composed in ''World''; one Hunter, who handles the field work and the monster hunting, is paired with one Handler, who manages all the Quests and paperwork to send them on monster hunts.
378* CombinationAttack: In ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate'', having two Palicoes to a team allows them to do one of these on occasion (or on demand, if your Sub Palico has a particular skill). Each Palico knows one of three different kinds of attack: the [[MagicMusic Purrtuoso]], the [[RocketRide Flying F-Bomb]], or the [[TankGoodness Rath-of-Meow]]. Some Palicoes may even have elemental or otherwise unusual variants of the above, such as the Rath-of-Signal, a Rath-of-Meow that the player can summon on command with the Signal button.
379* CommonplaceRare: The Disposable Earplugs in ''4U''. They function identically to the HG Earplugs skill, but ItOnlyWorksOnce. You would think that earplugs would be all over the place, but Disposable Earplugs aren't available until ''very'' far into the postgame, and must be purchased from a special shop that only deals in Caravan Points (which are harder to accumulate than Zenny). However, granted that it gives you the power of HG Earplugs without needing the skill, they are ''very'' useful.
380* CompetitiveBalance: Each weapon type has its strengths and weaknesses which make them suited for different playstyles and sometimes different hunts:
381** Sword and Shield: JackOfAllStats[=/=]FragileSpeedster. Relatively poor attack and guard strength, and a very short reach, but the high attack speed and often abundant elemental damage make up for it. You can run and even use items while the sword is drawn, including bombs, potions and the sling introduced in ''World''.
382** Dual Swords: FragileSpeedster. Similar to the Sword and Shield, losing the item use and guard but gaining even higher attack speed and Demon mode for DeathByAThousandCuts.
383** Great Sword: MightyGlacier. Some of the hardest hitting attacks and a decent guard, but the considerable wind-up for your swings means that you need a good understanding of timing and positioning for each monster and yourself. [[DifficultButAwesome If you don't know what you're doing, prepare for a clobbering.]]
384** Lance: StoneWall. Originally a MightyGlacier, the Lance's damage potential has been consistently nerfed with each game. However, the tower shield offers a guard superior to the Great Sword and the Sword and Shield, plus the ability to adjust facing easily. The reach is also excellent.
385** Gunlance: MightyGlacier. What the Lance loses in offensive force the Gunlance gains in return for losing more mobility options and the more unique defensive abilities with its shield. The Gunlance's unique shelling option ignores defense (barring very specific occasions), and it has an array of built in explosive attacks that can rack up damage and break parts with ease; all that with a shield equal to the Lance's. However, though its shield is just as capable as the Lance's the Gunlancer cannot perform defensive counters and parries like its cousin; and presumably the weight of the weapon prevents Gunlancers from being able to shift positions as easily as a Lancer.
386** Hammer: GlassCannon, emphasis on power. The Hammer does one thing, and it does it well - it pulps monsters with damage superior to even the Great Sword, but guarding is impossible. If you abide by the phrase "the best defence is a good offence", the Hammer is your number.
387** Longsword: GlassCannon, emphasis on speed. This weapon doesn't hit like the Hammer, but it hits almost as fast as the Sword and Shield and has a Spirit gauge to increase attack power. Still no guard though, so exercise caution.
388** Hunting Horn: A bit of an oddball SquishyWizard, plays like the Hammer with a lack of the one thing Hammers have going for them: damage potential. However the potential for attack and defence buffs to other hunters in the group make it a boon nonetheless.
389** Light Bowgun: SquishyWizard, oh so much. A ranged weapon which features rapid reloads, running while drawn, and the widest choice of ammo types. But it has the lowest damage potential of practically any weapon.
390** Heavy Bowgun: MightyGlacier. With a slow firing rate, draw speed and reload speed, Heavy gunners are vulnerable but their sheer firepower and availability for damaging shot types make them more competitive for damage. You can also equip a barrel shield to allow for a rudimentary guard akin to the Sword and Shield.
391** Charge Blade: JackOfAllStats. Wields a StanceSystem much like the Switch Axe that gives access to the Sword and Shield Mode (moderately fast/strong short range attacks with a good shield) and Axe Mode (immensely strong and slow mid-range attacks) that allows it to adapt to most situations. Also qualifies as DifficultButAwesome due to its comparatively complex mechanics but huge payoff if you master them.
392** Switch Axe: LightningBruiser. Has the potential for some ludicrously high damage output as well as some extra mobility while in Axe form despite the weapons large size. Turns into a MightyGlacier when in sword form, especially when the weapon phial has been properly charged and activated.
393** Insect Glaive: MechanicallyUnusualFighter. The only weapon with access to an aerial moveset, making it a prime candidate to take advantage of the Mounting mechanic. [[MagikarpPower Starts off weak]], but by using your Kinsect to gather Extracts, you can power up into a LightningBruiser.
394* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard:
395** Missions where you need to carry something in your hands back to the base camp are hated for this. At first, the map looks normal with the usual mix of docile and violent creatures running around... until you pick up the object in question, causing ''every'' area to be filled with violent monsters ''just to make you drop it''. Even worse, the quickest path back to camp is often not an option because of enormous, area boundary-blocking boulders that appeared out of thin air.
396** Hunters immediately get taken to another area when touching an area boundary. Monsters, on the other hand, are not affected by this, only moving to the adjacent area if they choose to. This means monsters can waste your time hanging around outside the boundary, and if you slay a monster while it's beyond the area boundary (easily possible with ranged weapons), no carves for you!
397** Monsters can also shake off hunters mounting them by carrying the hunter right through an area boundary.
398** [[BlindedByTheLight Flash Bombs]] require that the bomb be within the monster's vision for them to take effect. Meanwhile, monsters' flash attacks only require you be in their AreaOfEffect, no matter what direction you're facing.
399* TheComputerIsALyingBastard:
400** To make a [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/762804-monster-hunter-4-ultimate/71419688 long story]] short: Traditionally, the displayed attack values of weapons are actually their "true attack" values ([[GuideDangIt not shown in-game]]) multiplied by values specific to each weapon class (also not shown in-game), and thus are not actually used in damage calculations. ''Generations'' fixes this by just showing each weapon's true attack power and as such all weapons of a given rarity are roughly equal in terms of on-screen attack stats, so while you still need to figure out each attack's "motion value" (the "[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} base attack]]" of a given move, which is multiplied by your Attack, attack type, and elemental power, then put against how weak the monster part you're hitting to calculate how much damage each hit deals), at least the game no longer tricks you into thinking that your "1000"-attack Hammer inflicts way more damage per second than weapons of different classes in the same tier. Unfortunately, ''World'' reverses this change, going back to the usual "true damage × weapon-specific multiplier that we're not telling you" method of displaying weapon damage. ''Rise'' goes back to showing true attack.
401** Frankly, the Deviant monsters in ''Generations'' have deceptively low HR requirements. The Redhelm Arzuros, Snowbaron Lagombi, and Dreadqueen Rathian for example only require HR 2, which means you can take them on when you're only 1/3 into Low Rank, but they are effectively late High Rank monsters in terms of attack power and health. It's not uncommon to hear stories of Low Rank players taking them on, assuming them to be mere subspecies monsters and expecting an easy fight, only for the quest to either end with less than 10 minutes remaining on the timer or a [[GameOver triple cart]].
402* ConfusionFu: One reason why Frenzied monsters are so dangerous is just how random they are. They don't follow the monster's usual attack patterns, they can perform combos they can't normally use, they move either slower or faster than usual, sometimes within the same move if it consists of multiple attacks, and they constantly switch between being exhausted, neutral, and enraged. Sometimes they'll even attack empty space for no reason. In a Frenzied Brachydios's case, this even applies to its slime, as they gain a randomness property where slime will either take a ''really'' long time to explode, or spontaneously explode even if it's not enraged.
403* ConservationOfNinjutsu: In quests where you have to hunt multiple monsters, each individual monster will have less HP than if it were to be fought alone, in order to keep the quest completable within a reasonable amount of time. However, this does not apply to "intruder" monsters; they will have full HP.
404* ContinuingIsPainful:
405** If you faint in a mission, your reward money is cut by a third, which is painful if you already spent most of that money on ammunition and supplies. If you faint three times, however, all items you used on the mission disappear, you lose a small amount of money, and you have to repeat the mission again. And the worst part? Most missions usually take around 20 minutes to complete. You do still get to bring home anything in your inventory, which may or may not contain rare monster tails/drops obtained from battling monsters. This sort of thing could be hard to keep track of. To put it simply, if you complete a quest or fail it by getting knocked out three times, you don't get back anything you used up, but you keep whatever items you found. If you abandon a quest, you get back whatever items you brought and used up, but anything you found is lost.
406** The first time that you are KO'd in a mission, you'll lose any boosts that were earned from eating (or hot spring bonuses) before the hunt (aside from those earned from the food's skills) unless the meal provided the "Felyne Foodie" skill. If a monster was already taking out half of your health in one shot despite the health and defense boost from your feast, for instance, imagine trying to do ''the rest of the quest without it.'' Consumed-item related boosts (such as demondrug, armorskin, nutrients, power juice, etc.) are also lost after fainting.
407*** Slightly less painful in ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld World]]''. As part of its AntiFrustrationFeatures eating is on a 10-minute cooldown. As long as 10+ minutes have passed since the last time you ate, you will be able to eat again back at camp.
408* ContinuityCameo: There are lots of them in ''4U'':
409** While a real Plesioth is nowhere to be found, you can catch a Young Plesioth and Green Plesioth on occasion in the Casting Machine minigame. This is required if you want the Plesioth armor sets and weapons in ''4/4U''.
410** Trenya the Felyne treasure hunter from the 2nd gen games sometimes appears in the Meownster Hunter minigame, especially when rare Treasures are available.
411** After getting to G-Rank and completing the dual Cephadrome quest, you may find the Argosy Captain and Neko (Means Cat) on the shores of Cheeko Sands, who proceed to explain that they let a Zamtrios chase them until they wound up there. Unfortunately, the same Zamtrios won't let them get back to Moga Village, so you have to hunt it.
412** The first DLC Episodic Quest "Down to Business" features the felyne courier Nyan Jirou (renamed "[[Film/TheTransporter The Transpurrter]]"), the felyne Bartender, and the questgiver Konoha (renamed the "Yukumo Sweetheart" in a nod to ''Tri'') from Yukumo Village, who ask you to help them fetch materials for their hometown's budding tourism industry. [[spoiler:Finishing the questline will allow you to [[{{Fanservice}} hire Konoha as your new housekeeper]], replacing the Felyne butler you get at the start of the game.]]
413** The second DLC Episodic Quest "Code 16010" features a felyne named "Felcote" as your questgiver; observant veteran players may recognize her to be the ''Freedom Unite'' questgiver "Nekoht".
414** The third DLC Episodic Quest features Cha-Cha, Kayamba, and Aisha the Moga Sweetheart on a harebrained adventure to recover yet another Shakalaka mask.
415** The fourth DLC Episodic Quest features the Guild Sweethearts from Port Tanzia, Jumbo Village, and Minegarde having you go on quests to gather various items from monsters so they can compare the sizes of their "you-know-whats". Said you-know-whats ends up being footcorns.
416** The fifth and final DLC Episodic Quest features the Jumbo Village Chief trying to find the meaning of an ancient tablet he found on Heaven's Mount that spoke of an ancient disaster.
417** Being an anniversary game, ''Generations'' features a lot of places and people from previous games.
418* ContractualBossImmunity: Averted. Most monsters can suffer from practically any status effect, and may be particularly vulnerable to one or two.
419** Played straight with Elder Dragons, who are immune to pitfall and shock traps, and thus cannot be captured.
420* ContinuityNod: ''4/4U'' seems to like these.
421** The Val Habar Market proprietor has a twin sister who happens to be the Fishmongress of Moga Village. Bonus points when the three fishermen from ''Tri'' contact her regarding a quest, and she [[MythologyGag makes an indirect reference]] to the PlayerCharacter from the third game.
422** ''4'''s Wycoon replaces the Farm by allowing you to send materials to other locations in order to get them replicated. The places you can send carts to reference previous locales in the series, such as the Pokke Village Farm and the Kokoto Mushroom Farm. He can also trade you parts of monsters not in ''4'' to make armor sets and weapons of monsters from previous installments.
423** You can make a Palico version of the Mafumofu armor and the clothes Felyne Guides in Loc Lac City wore for your Palicoes.
424** A downloadable Episodic Quest features Nekoht, the Pokke Village Felyne Elder from ''Freedom Unite'', as your questgiver, albeit renamed as "Felcote". And she's still every bit as secretive as before.
425** ''4U'' particularly likes referencing Yukumo Village from the unlocalized ''Portable 3rd'':
426*** Yukumo armor for both Hunters and Palicoes can be crafted at the smithy.
427*** Portable Steam Bombs, said to be made from Yukumo Hot Spring steam, can be acquired late in the game.
428*** A downloadable Episodic Quest involves helping the felyne courier, felyne bartender and Guild receptionist from Yukumo acquire supplies for the village's tourism industry.
429*** There is an NPC in Val Habar wearing the Yukumo armor set and a Long Sword, the same ensemble worn by the male hunter in the intro to ''Portable 3rd''. His speech pattern is even similar to the Argosy Captain's from ''3U'', minus the [[TooLongDidntDub gag dubbing]].
430** In one sidequest chain, the Grand Guru of Cathar receives a message from his brother, who happens to be the Wyverian chief of Jumbo Village from ''dos''. [[spoiler:The message warns the Grand Guru about a Kushala Daora that had previously terrorized Jumbo Village and Pokke Village and is en route to Cathar.]]
431** Once you get the airship, a cutscene shows your caravan flying over what appears to be the Snowy Mountains from the second game, complete with a group of hunters waving at you.
432** Trenya, the Felyne treasure hunter NPC from ''Unite'', occasionally shows up during the Meownster Hunter minigame.
433** Guildmarm heavily implies that she's close friends with the Guild Sweetheart, as she mentions an "island friend" who runs the Quest Counter there in one of her dialogue lines.
434** A downloadable Event Quest has the hunter helping defend the Argosy in the Great Desert from a Dah'ren Mohran.
435** The Argosy Captain and Neko (Means "Cat") show up in person on Cheeko Sands to request the player's aid in fighting off a Zamtrios.
436** Cha-Cha, Kayamba, and the Moga Sweetheart appear in a downloadable Event Quest while searching for a Shakalaka mask. Naturally, they mess things up by getting sidetracked and losing said mask ''yet again''.
437** The biggest continuity nod is Dundorma City itself, previously the location for online quests in ''Dos'' before its servers were decommissioned, as well as the map used for the Town quests in the 2nd gen games.
438** Once you clear Low Rank in ''World'', you unlock the Argosy, whose Captain (who is, unfortunately, not the same Argosy Captain as in ''3'') will sell you item packages imported from the Old World, allowing you to potentially purchase materials and items that cannot otherwise be acquired through the course of normal gameplay.
439* CookingMechanics: The PlayerCharacter can harvest raw meat from herbivores, usually Aptanoths, Apceros', or Kelbis, and cook said meat on a barbecue spit. The meat's quality and effects are affected by how long the player cooks it. For example, cooking for a short time results with rare steak (moderate stamina increase), cooking for a little longer results with well-done steak (maximum stamina recovery and reduced natural stamina decrease), and cooking for too long results with burnt meat (small stamina increase).
440* ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted ''and'' played straight, depending on the example.
441** Averted, in that if you go to a volcano, you'll take continuous damage unless you use a Cool Drink, or have the Heat Resistance skill up to 10 points. Stepping close to or on lava (in some games) will also cause heat damage. Terrain skills reduce at 10 and provide immunity at 15 to lava, and in some games, Heat Resistance at 15 points provide immunity to both types of heat damage.
442** The elder dragons Teostra and Lunastra have this as a battle mechanic, so much so that Kushala Daora armor sets, designed for use against them, have Terrain Damage Negate (or in 2 cases, the end-game Anti Fire Dragon skill) on low, high, and G-rank.
443** Played straight in ''4U'', once you get the lava flowing freely through the mining town of Harth. There's a ''river'' of it running through the middle of town, and not a single soul is complaining; in fact, the native Troverians even ''love'' it when the lava is present, since they use it for their livelihood.
444** The Zorah Magdaros in ''World'' is an absolutely gargantuan Elder Dragon that's similar to a cross between Akantor and Lao-Shan Lung which also happens to have ''lava flowing through its body.'' This trope is played straight, since you do not experience any form of health drain while on or near it and the lava it spews from its body only inflicts moderate damage with Fireblight.
445* CoolButInefficient: "Costume"-type equipment (such as armor designed to look like major [=NPCs=]' outfits and the Moofy-shaped hammer) may look cute or handsome to wear or wield, but they tend to have middling stats and questionably useful armor skills. Thankfully remedied in ''Generations Ultimate'' onwards with Armor Fusion / Layered Armor, which lets you fuse the visual characteristics of one armor piece with the functional parameters of another, and ''World: Iceborne'' lets you do the same for weapons.
446* CoolShades: The Shadow Shades in ''Tri''.
447* CoolShip: The sheer number of water-based ships, sand-based dragonships, and [[CoolAirship airships]] used to hunt Elder Dragons certainly count.
448* {{Cooldown}}: The Gunlance's [[LimitBreak Wyvern Fire]], various maps' [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice Dragonators]], the Restraints and [[FixedForwardFacingWeapon Demolisher]] in the Battlequarters, various ships' Ballista Binders and Hunting Gongs, and the Frenzy-suppressing Wystones, among many, many other things have cooldown periods on the order of minutes. Using one of these ineffectively can be very costly in a quest.
449* CordonBleughChef: You can invoke this yourself by creating any food combination that grants the "Unlucky Cat" skill. The result winds up so bad that you collapse onto the floor, and as long as you hang around in town, you lose the ability to run and start collapsing randomly. Taking this skill into a Quest will start you with either 25 Health, 25 Max Stamina, or both if you're particularly unlucky. Although in town you can regain your balance after checking out the Item Chest, which has rather amusing [[VomitDiscretionShot implications]].
450* CorpseLand:
451** Wyvern's End in ''Generations'' is a huge pit absolutely carpeted with the bones of countless monsters.
452** The Rotten Vale in ''World'' is a large cavernous valley carpeted with countless bones and monster remains, made largely of the fossilized bones of a Dalamadur. [[spoiler:It's also the reason why the Elder Crossing occurs; Elder Dragons who are at the ends of their lifespan go to the Rotten Vale to die.]]
453* CosmeticAward:
454** The Awards page in your Guild Card, which is filled up as you complete tasks such as defeating certain storyline monsters or leveling up your companions to their respective level {{cap}}s. ''4 Ultimate'' features six different categories of awards, the most prominent being the "G rank" category that's reserved for the most difficult awards and has ''two pages'' of awards unlike the other categories. ''Generations'' has five award categories, one for each village and one for the general "complete all quests" and "obtain most of the combinations" awards and the like.
455** The only unique rewards for defeating an [[HarderThanHard EX-level]] Deviant in ''Generations Ultimate'' are the privilege of using that monster's armor for Armor Fusion and a glowing color for your armor that represents that Deviant. You do get monster parts as carves and post-quest rewards, but nothing you can't get from a lower-level quest.
456* {{Cosplay}}:
457** A paid DLC cosmetic for ''World'' allows you to dress up The Handler in The Guildmarm's outfit.
458** Event quest materials can be used to make armor based on [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], [[{{Franchise/Metroid}} Samus Aran]] (Varia and Zero Suit), and [[VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn Aloy]]. There are also Full Armor Sets based on Franchise/StreetFighter and VideoGame/TheWitcher, but aren't cosplay so much as cameo characters.
459** Palicos also have their own cosplay armors. They can dress as [[VideoGame/MegaMan Mega Man]] (both 3D and 8-bit), [[Anime/OnePiece Tony Tony Chopper]], [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Jotaro Kujo]], [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario, Luigi]], [[Franchise/StreetFighter Chun-Li, Blanka]], [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]], and a few characters from Japan-exclusive series.
460* CounterAttack: Both hunters and monsters can pull this off.
461** The [[JoustingLance Lance]] and [[SwissArmyWeapon Charge Blade]] both have special counters as part of their arsenal, which players can choose to build around. The Lance can initiate a special guard stance which automatically results in a powerful counter thrust if the hunter blocks an attack with it, while a regular block or Guard Point using the Charge Blade's shield [[note]]the latter of which is itself a counterattack, provided your shield is in Element Up mode[[/note]] allows a counter into an Axe slash or an [[LimitBreak (Super) Amped Elemental Discharge]]. Both will only work if the hunter wasn't knocked back too far, though.
462** G-Rank Plum Daimyo Hermitaur in ''4U'' is fond of this, briefly holding its claws in front of its face to fake out players with an impenetrable guard before unleashing its water blast.
463** At higher ranks, Zinogre gains several fake-out moves by delaying its attacks during a combo. Among the most notorious are its [[VideoGame/FatalFury Rising Tackle]] right after a leaping bodyslam, its hugely delayed lightning claw slam combo, or its shoulder charge following a tail slam. Overzealous players will quickly find themselves {{Cross Counter}}ed if they rush in without a thought. In ''3 Ultimate'' G Rank, it can perform a flip kick immediately after getting up from a knockdown.
464** Gold Rathian is one of the most deceptive, performing tail somersaults at the end of its bullrush attack when it would otherwise be vulnerable. Worse yet, it can also do this immediately after getting up from a ''knockdown''. It almost seems as if it took [[MediaNotes/FightingGame wakeup antiair]] lessons from [[Franchise/StreetFighter Guile]].
465** In ''Generations'', certain weapons get this in Adept Style. For example, a Perfect Evade with the Dual Blades not only attacks the monster if the Hunter dodges ''through'' the target, but also allows the Hunter to rush up to the target and perform a quick multi-hit combo. A Perfect Evade with the Long Sword allows the player to fight back with a wide strike, which can then be followed by two Spirit Slashes, the latter of which counts as a finisher.
466** ''Generations'' grants the Long Sword the Critical Juncture Hunter Art. When initiated, the Hunter assumes a guarding stance. If attacked while guarding, the user immediately strikes back with a powerful overhead slash. You can even cancel out of certain animations into the Critical Juncture.
467** ''Generations'' additionally gives the Lance another unique counter in the form of the Enraged Guard Hunter Art. This causes the user to assume a guarding stance, and if attacked, the user converts the power of the attack blocked into stocked Lance power. This, in turn, boosts the strength of the Hunter's next attack relative to the strength of the attack blocked.
468** ''World'' adds a new move to Long Sword's arsenal called the Foresight Slash that's ''very'' reminiscent of Valor Style's evasion action. By pressing R2+O at any time, even during a combo, you will dodge backwards, then execute a horizontal slash. However, if an enemy strikes you during your invulnerability frames, you will leave behind a blue aura "ghost", and, following the horizontal slash, you can perform a Spirit Slash that can be immediately chained into your Spirit Roundhouse finisher, even if you have no Spirit Gauge.
469* CoveredInMud:
470** ''Tri'' introduces the Barroth, the love child of a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' and a Bulldozer that is often covered in mud. It has a habit of shaking said mud off, and any hunters unfortunate enough to get hit by the flying globs are covered in quickly-hardening mud that makes it impossible to attack (and open to getting plowed under by the Barroth!).
471** ''World'' Introduces Jyurodotus, the non-magma relative of the Lavasioth. It has a layer of caked on mud that protects it from its Thunder weakness (while making it weak to Fire in the process). It can also spit out globs of mud, or kick them up if it's submerged, which has the same effect as with Barroth.
472* CraftedFromAnimals: The game. You are a hunter tasked with killing/capturing monsters, using their body parts to build and upgrade armor and weapons, and use them to hunt even stronger monsters. Notably these items crafted from monster parts are usually superior in power and ability compared to what can be made from natural ores, manufactured metals, etc. (albeit the weapons often combine steel and other ores with the monster parts).
473* CrazyPrepared: Playing this game requires you to equip yourself accordingly to whatever you're going up against. In some cases, you simply won't win or get what you want without the right tools. For the record, this means arming yourself with the proper weapon, an armor set that complements this weapon or is useful against the monster, and several items ranging from healing potions to Flash Bombs to traps. Hell, you even have to consider details like keeping your hunter well fed, his or her weapon sharp, being ready to deal with other large monsters, and looking out for the climate of the area you're going to (going into the desert without something cool to drink is generally a bad idea) and even the weather (some tools do not work in rain or snow, others ONLY work there...)
474* CreationMyth: The "Tale of the Five", first introduced in ''Monster Hunter: World''. [[spoiler:It describes reality before creation: a white, unending void inhabited only by humans and five dragons. When asked why nothing had a beginning or an end, instead of answering, the dragons vomited an ocean and swam away to combine their bodies to form the New World. One man managed to find the island with the guidance of the Sapphire Star and brought back scales from the Five, which the humans used to create the Old World themselves, and time began to flow...but the New World would remain in the collective memory as a sacred site and an uninhabited, untouched paradise]].
475* CreatorCameo:
476** In ''Frontier G'', the was a briefly available (if it's not still there) quest that had you hunt the director. He's dressed up as a [[{{Gasshole}} Congalala]], carries a cartridge of ''Frontier G'' around with him, and fights like a normal Congalala, but with some variation in his attacks; for example, his claw attacks throw confetti, and he may set up fireworks. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGOHulq9G1U Observe.]]
477** As an April Fool's joke, Capcom released a quest in ''Frontier G7'' that involved hunting the producer. He's dressed up like a purple Gogomoa, and his attacks include using a Gunlance to produce fireworks which spell out, "Thank you for your continued help!" in kanji, landing on his rear to make copies of Frontier G7 fall from the sky, and throwing confetti. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2lYjx6ECaw See it for yourself.]]
478* CreatureHunterOrganization: The Hunter Guild, since they only hunt monsters. Unlike many other examples of the trope, the Guild isn't actually interested in wiping out monsterkind entirely. Their actual purpose is to make sure humanity lives in harmony with nature, and hunts usually only occur if a monster is threatening a local settlement or causing damage to the local ecosystem.
479* CriticalExistenceFailure:
480** Played straight for hunters, at least in the health department. As long as you've got the stamina, you can hit just as hard and move just as quickly even if you only have 1 HP left. That said, the Stamina bar shrinks over time as the hunter gets tired and hungry, and will shrink faster from taking too much damage, meaning fewer dodges or stamina-based attacks before needing to rest.
481** PlayedWith for monsters. While monsters can still be in rage mode, moving faster and hitting harder when they should logically be barely able to move. They even rage more often when near death. But they also are easier to stagger and stun, and will probably limp when trying to escape. This is when they'll try to find a place to sleep to recover stamina (but not health), and they take extra damage when sleeping. Some of their attacks will become weaker or even useless if certain body parts are broken as well. That said, with few exceptions parts will simply take a certain amount of damage to break without a reduction in power or visible damage.
482** Played straight with the Dragonship when fighting Jhen Mohran in ''3 Ultimate''. In spite of all the abuse it takes, it looks perfectly intact up until the moment the Jhen Mohran delivers the finishing blow, and then all of a sudden, ''QUEST FAILED.'' Same goes for its relative, the Dah'ren Mohran, in ''4 Ultimate''.
483* CriticalHit:
484** Each weapon has an "Affinity" stat that determines the chance of one upon contact. A positive Affinity percentage will allow a weapon to nail Critical Hits; the higher the stat, the better the odds per hit. Affinity can be buffed through a wide variety of means, such as the "Critical Eye" series of armor skills and the Sword-and-Shield-exclusive Affinity Oil, and the Critical Boost skill raises the damage of critical hits.
485** A negative Affinity inverts this trope with a chance of "feeble hits" that do less damage than normal.
486** Weapons made with Chaotic Gore Magala parts in ''4 Ultimate'' are notable for having separate positive and negative Affinity ratings, meaning your hits can randomly do extra damage, the usual amount of damage, or less damage. However, if you get hit with the Frenzy Virus and recover out of it to gain the attack and Affinity boosts, the negative Affinity will turn into additional positive Affinity that lasts for the duration of the Frenzy recovery buff.
487** An armor skill introduced in ''Generations Ultimate'' gives feeble hits a chance to instead deal a more powerful critical hit.
488* CriticalHitClass: It's possible to build a set entirely around dealing as many critical hits as possible through skills like Critical Eye+, Weakness Exploit, Antivirus, and more. ''Generations'' makes this strategy more viable and effective by introducing the Critical Boost skill, which increases crit damage to 1.4x, as well as more ways to increase Affinity. With a certain combination of skills, weapon, and sometimes item, it's possible to achieve ''100% Affinity'' and effectively have a ''40% damage boost''.
489* {{Crossover}}: DLC missions often reward the player with gear based on some other franchise.
490** ''4'' features, among other crossovers, a Long Sword version of ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}''[='=]s Tessaiga. [[NoExportForYou International versions changed this to an original weapon called Tenebra]].
491** ''4 Ultimate'' has a Hunting Horn with the likenesses of [[VideoGame/TaikoNoTatsujin Don and Katsu]] on it, making it one of the few pre-''World'' crossovers with a non-Capcom, non-Nintendo game.
492** ''World'':
493*** On the [=PS4=] version, some DLC missions will reward you with gear based on ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' that will give the player (male or female) the full appearance of Aloy if they wear the full set. You can also earn Watcher-based armor for the Palico, and forge Aloy's bow at the workshop.
494*** ''Franchise/StreetFighter'',[[labelnote:*]]A full armor set that changes the player character in Ryu, with a second based on Sakura[[/labelnote]] ''Franchise/MegaMan'', [[labelnote:*]]Palico armor based on Mega Man, and his Mega Buster as a Palico weapon[[/labelnote]] and ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' content[[labelnote:*]]A full armor set changing the player character into Dante, with a Charge Blade based on both Force Edge and Alastor[[/labelnote]] DLC has also been released.
495** More literal examples in ''World'':
496*** ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': A Moogle shows up through a portal and tells the Research Commission about a lost crystal that it needs to recover. It gets stolen by a Kulu Ya Ku that grows to enormous size that has to be put down. Once recovered, a Behemoth appears in the Elder's Reach and threatens to destroy the New World. [[ThatOneBoss It's generally considered the toughest fight in the game by a wide margin.]] It's the first Raid Boss to be introduced to the game and requires a balanced team including a healer. Starting the quest line changes the music in Astera to the Final Fantasy main theme, which stays until you've completed the Behemoth Special Assignment.
497*** ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'': A nekker shows up in the Research Base because of a portal [[spoiler:opened by a Leshen]]. Geralt of Rivia also arrives, having been pulled through at the same time. The commission requests that he find the monster responsible and take it down, since [[OutsideContextProblem they don't know what they're up against.]] Completing the story quest allows the player to join in a related Quest [[spoiler: to hunt a far more powerful Ancient Leshen, which is treated as a raid boss]].
498* CrutchCharacter:
499** The Elder weapons (red reskins of the starting weapons) in ''Generations Ultimate''. Right out of the box these weapons have damage potential exceeding anything available in High Rank, with decent white Sharpness, higher raw than all but the AwesomeButImpractical options, [[note]]The only weapons that come close have terrible Sharpness and/or Affinity and require a specialized build[[/note]] and can be made after completing a single G-rank Harvest Tour. However, they lack element and slots and can only be upgraded once before beating the final boss, so their main purpose is to have an edge against the early G-rank monsters and get older weapons upgraded to G-rank level.
500** Clearing the 6★ Urgent at the end of the Low Rank questline in ''World'' nets you a package of Zorah Magdaros parts, which can be used to create ''High Rank'' '''Blast Element''' weapons and Zorah α/β armor that couples the weapon with Blast Attack, both of which are reasonably stronger than any of the other High Rank equipment you can create from the High Rank versions of previously-encountered lesser monsters.
501* CursedWithAwesome:
502** The Frenzy Virus in ''4''. If it fully infects, it stops your natural health regeneration. However, attack enough while in the process of being infected with it and you not only recover, but also gain boosts to your attack power and Affinity. In fact, being infected is ''a really good idea'' if you're using a Chaotic Gore Magala weapon, as CGM weapons carry "[[CriticalHit feeble]] [[InvertedTrope hit]]" chance alongside straight critical hit chance and getting the post-Frenzy boosts turns your feeble hit chance into additional crit chance. ''Generations'' introduces the Frenzy Fever Hunter Art, which inflicts Frenzy Virus on you in hopes of taking advantage of it (since the mechanic of non-Magala monsters being able to get infected by and spread the virus was removed in ''Generations'').
503** The "Taunt" armor skill, earned with -10 points of Sense or less, [[DrawAggro makes enemies more attracted to you]]...which can be useful for drawing monsters away from your allies, especially if they're seriously damaged or if they're [[GlassCannon gun]][[LongRangeFighter ners]], if you're using Adept Style and want to draw all the attacks towards you for Insta-Evades and Insta-Blocks, or if you're trying to lure monsters into traps. One NPC in ''Generations'' even discusses the practical applications of such a "negative" skill. Perhaps due to some players wanting such a skill, as well as the removal of "negative" armor skills, ''World'' onwards makes Taunt into a separate skill that is much easier to obtain by use of positive armor skill points, called Provoker (in ''World'') or Diversion (in ''Rise'').
504** The Bubbles status in ''Generations'' has two stages. The second stage prevents you from attacking and makes it harder to move. There's also a skill that causes the hunter to get covered in bubbles if they roll. So why would you want this skill? Because the first stage just grants the effects of Evasion +1 and Constitution +1, meaning if you fight a monster that can't cause Bubbles (everything but Mizutsune), you can enjoy the beneficial first stage without having to worry about the hindering second stage. Additionally, the first stage of the Bubbles status is technically considered a negative status, meaning if one has the Crisis skill (which the Stonefist and High and G Rank Mizutsune armor sets so happen to have, though the second one needs it gemmed), which raises attack if you have a negative status, one can get a free attack boost with no downsides. Just don't use it against Soulseer Mizutsune, who becomes enraged if anyone is bubbled.
505* TheCutie: The Guild Sweetheart in ''Tri'' and ''3 Ultimate''. The Guildmarm in ''4'' is a combination of this and a CuteClumsyGirl.
506* CycleOfHurting: If you are unlucky or trapped into a corner, some monsters are just too happy to kill you with a cheap infinite combo that you can't get out of. ''Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate'' introduced the possibility to wait a little before getting up after being knocked down, which helps the player to avoid such situations by waiting for the right opportunity to get up. In a case of VideogameCrueltyPotential, a [[ThePowerOfFriendship well-coordinated team]] can inflict this on monsters -- once a monster is knocked over, stunned, or paralysed mid-match, it's easy for a full hunting party of 4 to pummel a monster from one distress state into another -- going from a fatigued monster being battered until it flinches from body parts being broken, to being knocked over, to being caught in a trap, to being beaten into a dizzied state, to someone mounting the thing and rendering it knocked-over again, so that the cycle can be started all over.
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