Monster Hunter World is an incredible game, no one can really dispute that. The title has singlehandedly pulled millions of new fans into the fold of the legendary franchise and hooked them for life. And with the launch of upcoming Iceborne expansion, a lot of fans and new players are starting to trickle back into the game.
And since a lot of new people are coming in, they might be lost as to what they should be doing, so ISKMogul is here to help. Here’s a helpful guide that lays out all of the goals you should have ahead of the launch of the new expansion.
You don’t necessarily have to do these things in this order, but we’ve laid the post out in a natural way that follows the progression of the game itself. Don’t feel bad if you’re a new player and can’t get all of this done in time for Iceborne though. You have all the time in the world to do most of this stuff. The only time-limited goals are related to Event Quests, and Capcom will undoubtedly bring those back around at some point in the future.
Complete the Campaign
The campaign doesn’t end when you polish off Zorah Magdaros. There are greater challenges that lie ahead in the climb to HR 50 and beyond. One of these is the brutally tough Xeno’Jiiva. This mutation of Bioenergy offers some really stiff competition for new and experienced hunters alike, but beating it is necessary to progress into the higher levels of the game.
You also have to finish the Xeno’Jiiva fight to unlock the story quests that lead into the expansion, so you need to do that ahead of the launch next month.
Do all Optional Quests
Doing all of the optional quests (meaning you will see a red “Completed” stamp next to the star rating for that tier) will not only help you grind out needed Hunter Rank XP, it also unlocks some special new quests that offer a final greater challenge with multiple Tempered Monsters. I won’t spoil it but it’s something you really want to do.
Keep in mind that the Arena brawls that spawn when you capture monsters are counted as well. So make sure you start capturing once you hit High Rank to unlock these HR Arenas. There are also some optional quests that lead into our next point, so be sure to complete those as well.
Unlock all the Palico Gadgets
And yes, Capcom is planning to completely rework these gadgets, and alongside the new tracking abilities, things are about to get very interesting in the New World. Palico Gadgets like the Vigorwasp Spray are really helpful for new players, as the increased velocity of healing allows for much more damage uptime. Other items like the Plunderblade speed up farming efficiency.
All in all, you really should have these unlocked before jumping into the Hoarfrost Reach.
There’s no need to level up your Tailraider Unity all the way before Iceborne, as you should be focusing on getting the tougher objectives in this list first. Simply unlock the Gadgets and move on. Luckily we can speed up the process with another video guide, check it out:
Unlock all the Mantles and Boosters
One of the other reasons you want to do this is that Iceborne is completely rebalancing Mantles and Boosters. Many of the weaker ones like Glider will be getting Decoration slots that grant buffs as long as the Mantle is active. This can really scale up the damage of your builds, as well as help with tanking tougher fights. You will also definitely need Mantles like Temporal and Rocksteady for the harder hunts in the game. Here’s a video guide on how to do it all by the excellent Arekkz:
Get to HR 50
Hunter Rank 50 isn’t easy to get to, it takes a lot of time, but the rewards are well worth it. Streamstones unlock Augmentations and a new level of other upgrades which allow you to further increase the power of your weapons and armor.
The event quest for Tempered Bazelgeuse, No Tomorrow for Usurpers, is relatively easy once you’ve built a good set to counter his damage. Ranged weapons are a good start here. Fighting Tempered Bazel is not easy, but once you get used to his pattern, the challenge is a lot less threatening. Plus, you get bonus HR for completing it. This means that roughly every 2 completions will give you one Hunter Rank level up to 50.
The biggest hurdle for most players on the road to HR 50 is of course the High Rank Kirin hunt. The usage of a Fire-based BowGun build is vital here. Melee players can do this hunt, but it is much more challenging as high lightning attacks are deadly if you’re hit even once. Make sure to stack Thunder resistance and bring along both Temporal and Thunderproof Mantles.
But there’s another thing that many players overlook. You can run this quest to farm traps for Tempered Investigations. Set up a farming set that focuses on generating as many Research Points an getting extra carves from gathering nodes, then run this quest. Kirin will remain passive until you deal damage to him. Simply follow him around and pick up his tracks. These won’t always spawn an investigation for a Tempered target, but the rate of acquisition is steady enough that it only takes an hour or so to unlock dozens of investigations. It’s also very helpful to have the Scholar Skill when doing this, just change your other farming charm, probably Geology if you’re like me, for a Surveyor’s Charm.
Stockpile Items
That farming set I mentioned in the last tip is vital for this. Having Geologist, Botanist, Intimidator, Stealth, Detector and Master Gatherer are all part of a well-rounded farming set in this game. Luckily, most of the decorations and armor pieces for these skills are easy to obtain. If you want a bit more focused farming, Forager’s Luck and Honey Hunter can help with targeted gathering of some resources as well as rare spawns. Master Fisher and BBQ Master can be gotten on a single charm, but should really only be used in a dedicated set for fishing.
Simply throw on your desired farming set, make use of your item loadouts to speed up changing sets, and then go on an expedition to any area. The Elder’s Recess and the Blue Beryl and Amber deposits are he best source of RP in the game, as a single gather loop can yield thousands of points through rare drops.
Bonepiles and Ore spots are only really worth it until you build up a couple hundred of the basic Bones and Ores. By that point, you should have enough to build all the basic armor sets and weapons. I wouldn’t recommend target farming for Bones or Ores unless you’re in the Elder’s Recess and looking for Dragonbone Relics, Fucium Ore and Firecell Stones.
Your real goal is to farm consumables. You want Honey, Thunderbugs, Nullberries, Flashbugs, Parashrooms and Sleep Herbs to be your primary goal for early farming. Other items worth farming for include Dung, Devil’s Blight, Nitroshrooms, Might and Adamant Seeds. These items are all incredibly useful in crafting healing and buff items, and you’re going to need hundreds of Mega Potions, Max Potions, Dash Juice, Demon/Armor Drugs and more in your time in Iceborne.
Do all Event Quests
Most of the higher-end events unlock once you hit HR 50, and with the promotion Capcom is doing ahead of the launch of Iceborne, you’ve still got a few more days to unlock those Arch-Tempered quests. The Omega armor sets unlocked through these hunts will definitely outclass most other armor sets of Rarity 8 and below, but the new expansion will no doubt shake things up by introducing new rarity tiers and the like. So if you miss out, don’t fret as the new content is likely to be more powerful anyway.
So while grinding out the AT armor sets might offer a fun challenge for experienced hunters, newer players will want to focus on the other objectives, as they are unlikely to get to HR 50 before August 29th, when the current stable of event quests ends.
Keep Doing Bounties
Bounties from the Resource Center in-game offer two reward tiers. During normal play, there are normal bounties which you manually select, which normally reward a little bit of RP and some Armor Spheres. During Festivals however, the Limited Bounties get a major buff. Every 24 hours, you get a set of four specific hunts aimed at completing Event Quests. Completing these each day earns Armor Spheres. RP and the all-important Gold Wyverian Prints. These special items can be traded to the Elder Melder to get Gems, the rarest drops from Large monsters. These Gems are useful for crafting high-end armor and weapons, so having a small stockpile to trade in at the start of Iceborne is helpful as you won’t have to farm for them then.
You’ll want to do these ASAP, as they normally rotate out each week, so get on it.
Unlock Canteen Ingredients
The Canteen is a major source of buffs in MHW, and will continue to do be so in Iceborne. After all, the more ingredients you have, the larger the pool of fresh ingredients, meaning you get access to better and better buffs when eating at the Canteen. The biggest sources of Canteen ingredients are as follows:
- Quests from the Meowscular Chef and the Fiver Bro inside the Canteen
- Rare spawns from gathering nodes
- Researcher/Fisher Quests out in the wild
Find and complete as many of these as you can to expand your pool of available dishes, this will make tougher hunts a bit easier.
Farm for Decorations
Decorations are vital to crafting builds in MHW. You will be very surprised just how much your DPS and survivability increases when you get key additions to your builds. The sheer volume of skills and Decorations means that you’re going to be doing a lot of farming though.
This is really the last step in your prep work for the new content. The legendarily annoying “Desire Sensor” will mean that you could spend hours grinding and not get the higher-end Decos. Tempered monsters are your best source for the Tier 2 and Tier 3 drops, but there is another method. Two event quests, The Greatest Jagras and The Name’s Lavasioth! are part of the rotation in MHW.
These two quests are both HR 50, so you need to do some work to unlock them. But running these quests are an amazing source of Decorations. Bring a Bandit Mantle for easy Zenny farming as well. The goal here is wait for Jagras to vomit, and pick up the gold drops that spawn in that area. Lavasioth will spew lava, and the golden drops will spawn where it lands. Each drop you pick up is a Decoration reward at the end of the quest.
Monster Hunter World is out now for PS4, PC and Xbox One. The expansion is due to launch for PS4 and Xbox One on September 6th. Unfortunately if you’re like me and you’ve fully switched to the PC version, you will have to wait until January 2020 to get back into the hunt with the PC launch of Iceborne.
