Better Know a Monster: Lagiacrus...Big Bad Blue

By ZANZIBAR

Laggy is the biggest water water baddie and poster child of Monster Hunter Tri. He employs a large number of lightning and dash attacks that can be very problematic for first time hunters.  He is found in the deserted island and the flooded forest and first time hunters should bring a few things along to aid in they're hunts. 


Lightning resists are of prime importance but should that not be an option then stun resistance can help avoid the effects of lightning blight or bringing along a full pouch of stormsender seeds to cure yourself. 


Lagiacrus is weak to fire so having a strong fire weapon can bring him down faster.  Perhaps more valuable than equipment is the knowledge to avoid his attacks. When it comes to lightning attacks he can shoot balls of lightning, a small discharge, a large discharge which looks like fireworks are going off and lasts longer than the small version. He can dash or spin dash which is much faster or can even add electricity to that. 


On land his attacks lose some range but he can coil up and swing his tail around, this attack is best avoided by hugging his left side between his legs. For first time hunters one of the best places to attack him is around his tail area when he's underwater, staying next to the ground will make it difficult for him to hit you. Hopefully this will help you bag your big water dragon. 

Better Know a Monster: Barroth

By ARCHON

Monster Hunter Tri's Barroth features a pretty significant jump in difficulty from all the monsters prior. He his harder and is faster than any before him, and the first few times you face him he can be quite unpredictable. Don't be discouraged if it takes a few times before you beat this foe as the challenge is formidable, but the rewards are worth it. The Barroth armor set is one of my favorites, featuring lightning resistance (useful against the upcoming Lagicrus) and a feature that increases the staying power of your stamina bar.

The Barroth  is unique in that he is weak to two different elements depending on the situation. When he is covered in mud, water attacks are the most useful and help slough off that thick layer of mud armor. Once the mud is washed away, he is weak to fire. So pick a fire or water weapon for this one.

Attacks to watch out for: tail whip, running charge, a head ground-smash that sends bits of mud flying, a sideways head-but, a Great Jaggi-style hip-check, and a mud-flinging shake. Above all avoid his running charge! This attack is by far his strongest and even with substantial armor this move can kill a hunter in one hit. He lowers his head and then charges at you. Block this attack with the lance or GS or dodge out of the way, though not too early as he will curve the path of his charge to intercept you.

Most of the other attacks should be familiar to you from previous monsters, but the mud-shake is new. This attack doesn't usually directly hurt you, but it throws large globs of mud in an area around the Barroth. Getting hit by one of these knocks you back, does damage, and binds your character with mud which slows you and makes you unable to attack for a time. Use the "cleanser" item to quickly knock this off (or have a buddy kick the mud off in multiplayer), or better yet equip the Rinapolos weapon set or a mud/snow gem to negate the binding effect. Without one of these mud-proof implements I suggests staying clear while he shakes it off.

Be sure to paint your target early, as he has the ability to dig underground and scurry to another area. If you have no paint watch for the small puffs of dust to trail him. Attack anywhere you can, but do your best to take off that pesky tail. I have had particular luck using a water lance. I'll block his incoming charge , turn around, and use a high lance-thrust where the sun don't shine...then repeat but don't let your stamina deplete entirely. The bowgun might also be useful since you can keep your distance AND you can switch to water and fire ammo when the situation calls for it (scatter-shot is useful for knocking mud off).

I could go more in-depth as each weapon has its own strategies, but if you watch out for these main attacks (which are devastating) and get your licks in when you can, you'll have him down before you know it.

Better Know a Monster: Royal Ludroth

By ARCHON

The Royal Ludroth, while not an abnormally difficult monster himself, can prove to be quite challenging the first couple of times around since he marks your first underwater battle. Personally, I find him much easier to fight on land than in the water since he seems to become more maneuverable and faster underwater, but the Monster Hunter should know how to fight him in any terrain.

On land he has a multitude of attacks to be aware of: A belly flop, jumping dive, a curling bite, a roll, a spitting water charge, and a biting lunge. (Did I miss any). Most of these just need to be observed to be avoided, but here are a few tips. If he does the curling bite and missed you, get ready to dodge because it is followed up by a powerful tail-flick. When he rears up to roll stand right by his tail and 9 out of 10 times the roll will miss you. Stay to the left and right of him as much as possible to avoid his belly-flop and charges, attacking his mane and tail. He will sometimes spit water globs at you that if hit, will cause water-blight. Also avoid the ground-plumes that result from these globs hitting the ground as they will do the same. He will usually charge 2 or 3 different directions while spitting water, so steer clear until he's done with this attack or you'll be bowled over.

In the water, stay high, near his head and attack the head and mane. Watch out for his charges and dodge to avoid, and for his claw-swipes as he turns to face you.

His weak points are the mane and tail, both of which are pretty large targets so have at it! His tail can even be cut off and carved from, and his mane broken (which sometimes gives you "quality sponge" as a quest reward). He's weak to fire, so bring the appropriate elemental weapon if you have one, or bring plenty of fire ammo if you are using the bowgun. Thunder and Ice will also deal extra damage, though not as much as fire. Good luck brave hunter! The R. Ludroth is but a taste of aquatic beasts to come.

Better Know a Monster: The Great Jaggi

By ARCHON

Zanzibar and I have already created guides for each of the weapons you will find in Monster Hunter Tri. Along those same lines we thought it might be a good idea to feature the boss monsters that you will encounter in the game. Knowing each monster's behaviors and weaknesses is essential to victory. So first up: The Great Jaggi Guide

The Great Jaggi is the first boss monster you will encounter. No doubt many of you have moved well past this foe and killing him is quite easy. But for the rest of you starting out with base level weapons and armor the Jaggi is a formidable opponent.

When he first spots you he will run towards you. Don't hesitate to attack as it usually takes him a few seconds to start biting and ramming. If you see him scratch at the ground, that's your chance as he's gearing up to roar at you which gives you an opening to land several good hits. He will also stand on his hind legs and call for help. Take advantage of this window to attack attack attack.

The Great Jaggi's main attacks are a sideways bite, a tail whip, and a hip-check that will send you flying across the screen. His bite and whip can be blocked but his tail will often reach around your defense, so I suggest rolling out of the way and counter attacking. The Jaggi will turn sideways and leap at you for his hip-check. Block this if possible and get in a few swipes of your weapon. He usually does each of his moves twice or three times in a row. So, if he's just tail swiped, WATCH OUT, another one is coming.

One of the things that makes this foe difficult is all his tiny Jaggi-lackeys. Although they don't do much damage, they will routinely interrupt your swings and occasionally knock you down. Use a horizontal weapon swipe (with the GS, Lance, Longsword, or SA) or a Hammer spinning attack to clear the area every now and again. Pellet ammo is recommended with the Bowgun for this task

The Great Jaggi takes pretty equal damage most everywhere on his body except his head which is the most sensitive. So strike where ever you can but aim for the head. With careful dodging and counter attacking you'll have him down in no time. Good luck!

The Ultimate Monster Hunter Tri Weapon Guide

BY ARCHON and ZANZIBAR
So over the past few weeks we've peppered in posts in our series "Better Know A Weapon" to help the new hunter get aquainted with their gear. Yesterday was the final post in the series. We though it would be nice to have all of these guides in one place, so without further addue I give you:

Trihunter's Ulimate Monster Hunter Tri Weapons Guide

Sword and Shield

Great Sword

Hammer

Longsword (updated!)

Bowgun(s)

Switchaxe

Lance

And one final tiny note. Monster Hunter Tri comes out tomorrow...

Better Know a Weapon Part 6- Switchaxe

By ZANZIBAR

The Switch Axe is a new weapon to the monster hunter universe, it combines sword and axe into a transforming weapon of devastating power. The Switch Axe (SA) has a guage that fills up when the weapon is sheathed or whenever it is in axe mode. This gauge fuels your attacks in sword mode and so balancing the two is the key to achieving victory. Axe mode has faster walking speed but slower attacks compared to sword mode which also has  increased elemental damage. 


Axe mode has four standard attacks, vertical, horizontal, rising slashes and a charging thrust. The big damage from this mode comes from repeatedly attacking with X which will send you into a continuous figure 8 combo that is fueled by your stamina bar, as long as you have stamina you'll keep on slashing. It's a good idea if your gonna be in this mode a lot to stock up on stamina boosting items, the quickest way to get into the figure 8 combo is to use the + button (rising slash) followed by repeated presses of the X button. If the gauge is to low pressing R will "reload" the weapon filling the gauge 1/2 way.

Sword mode can be switched into from axe by a press of the R button from a standing position, comboed into by doing a foward thrust (attacking while in motion) followed up by pressing R or even pulled out from a sheathed position with a combined button press of R+X.  When in sword mode every attack will deplete the gauge regardless on whether it hits or misses. X and A both have combos from repeated pressings, each with good range and speed. The plus button is the Element Discharge, it takes a heavy toll on the gauge but does massive damage and repeatedly pressing + will extend the discharge, best used on monsters that are incapacitated in some way. Once discharged it will automatically revert back to axe mode.

Happy Hunting

Better Know a Weapon Part 5- Bowgun

BY ARCHON

Bowguns may seem like they are only a fit for a supporting role in multiplayer hunts, but with the proper ammo and careful dodging, the bowgun is a weapon class to be respected.

There are three classes of bowguns: Light, Medium, and Heavy but they all play relatively the same. The differences lie in the speed of your characters movement and action, and the power of the ammo. The heavier the gun the more powerful your ammo can be, but the slower your weapon and your character will move.

Controls

"X"-draws your weapon and reloads. Unlike many weapons in MH, you can't come out swinging with the bowguns, so make sure you have your ammo selected and loaded into your gun before you rush into battle. Be sure to reload every time you change ammo as well. Hold "L" and used "X" and "B" (think of them as "up" and "down" on a second d-pad) to navigate through your cache of ammo types. There is no shield to speak of, so like the hammer and switch-axe classes you must dodge your enemy to keep out of harms way. Do so by tapping "B" and holding the direction you want to jump. A+X is a melee attack with the bowgun. Tapping "R" will bring up a scope-view. This is great for shooting monsters at range but does leave you very vulnerable. I find that most ammo veers off if you try to shoot it too far so I rarely use this mode. It might prove more handy when you have other player around to distract the beast. Holding "R" will bring up an aiming reticle with can also sometimes come in handy although I find the most success just "shooting from the hip".

Ammunition:

Using the right ammo in a fight can make all the difference. Each bowgun class has its own special ammo and the heavier the gun, the more powerful its "normal" shots become. The more powerful and special ammo also come with drawbacks; for example some powerful types must be reloaded after every shot, while normal ammunition comes 6-to-a-reload. Here is a quick breakdown of the ammo types in the Monster Hunter Tri demo (this is not meant at all to be exhaustive).

(All three classes have 'normal ammo' which can come in different levels of effectiveness)

MEDIUM

-sleep: puts the monster to sleep. The bigger the monster, the more of these it will take to put the monster out

-exhaust: tires the enemy

-pierce: Shoots 3 rounds one right after another leaving you vulnerable

-slice: rounds stick into enemies and then explode with shards that damage again, and damage nearby monsters

-crag-rounds stick into enemy and then explode, often knocking them back

LIGHT

-poison: only one round in your magazine. Once hit, monster keeps taking damage

-water: shoots 3 rounds, does water damage (useful against fire foes?)

-clust- creates a fire explosion on impact

-para- paralyses your monster. As with sleep, this may take many rounds

-pellet-like a shotgun. A wide spread of pellets. Useful for groups of small enemies

HEAVY

-flaming-1 shot does lots of fire damage

-wyvern fire- charge shot and must be at point blank range. Tons of damage

Better Know a Weapon Part 4- The Long Sword

BY ZANZIBAR

So the big idea here is the more you cut the stronger it gets and then you unleash your built up energy in a flurry of attacks. Basic combo is overhead slash,thrust, rising slash.  The Long Sword (LS) also has an evasive slash to make up for it's lack of blocking ability, with the wiimote/nunchuck combo or CC (Classic Controller) set to attack with the right stick you can control which direction you dodge after your slash with twist of the wrist or flick of the thumb. Setup 1 with the CC only had a backwards dodge.

The thing is if your using set-up 2 on CC or Wiimote combo then you don't have the right thumbstick to adjust the camera; hopefully this will be fixed by release. 


The the spirit gauge will fill up and glow red at it's peak this is the time to unleash a spirity combo by repeatedly hitting R on the CC. This combo has a tremendous amount of power behind it with each slash doing 120% of normal damage.  The running speed while the weapon is out is faster than the Great Sword and falls in pretty close to the middle as far as all weapons are concerned. The attack speed is fairly quick with good reach and the evasive slash can be combed into from any attack giving it good mobility.  


Happy Hunting.


Check out our other weapons guides here:
Great Sword
Sword and Shield
Hammer

Better Know a Weapon Part 3-Hammer-time

BY ARCHON

Monster Hunter Tri's hammer is a slow-moving (but not as slow as the Great Sword) mostly offensive weapon with a wide range of attacks.

 

Unsheathe and strike upward in one motion by pushing "x" while moving forward. Hitting "x" while standing still will prompt your character to simply retrieve the weapon from his back (though any time I'm getting out a hammer I'd want to come out swinging!). Hitting 'A' will trigger a quick horizontal strike that stops directly in front of your character; 'X' will result in a downward horizontal strike, and hitting 'A 'and then 'X' in quick succession will yield a quick two hit combo.

 

If you successfully land a downward strike, keep hitting 'X' for up to a 4 hit combo as you strike at your enemy and hit the ground, dealing elemental damage as well.

 

For many weapons holding down "R" will cause your character to block. The hammer has no blocking move so make good use of your dodges and dashes to get out of harm's way. Instead, tapping or holding "R" for a second or two triggers a wide horizontal (almost diagonal-upward) attack. Keep holding "R" and your character will crouch into position and charge this attack. Hold it long enough to see a quick flash from your hammer, and you can release a devastating spinning attack perfect for clearing out those pesky jaggis. You can even move (at a pretty good pace too) while charging this attack! Be careful though as after releasing this your character is vulnerable for a few seconds while regaining his balance. Keeping this spin-move charged also depletes your stamina.

 

This weapons has medium to short range. It has none of the reach of the Great sword or the Long sword, but it on par with the switchaxes and outreaches the simple Sword and Board (shield). Oddly, it looses effectiveness and must be sharpened after a while. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to put a nail in a board and had to stop to sharpen my hammer just to get the job done!

 

The Hammer is one of my favorite weapons and has a satisfying mix of power and varied attack. Try taking it out on your next hunt!

Monster Hunter Tri Demo Qurupeco walkthrough

BY ARCHON

Someone from Capcom-unity has posted a video that serves as sort of a walkthrough of the  Qurupeco hunter on the Monster Hunter Tri Demo. There are a lot of ways to approach a hunt and your technique will most definitely vary depending on which weapon you choose, but this video is helpful none-the-less. He takes down this difficult monster rather quickly using a switch-axe (the first several times I tried this hunt I ran out of time) and imparts techniques and tips that were both new and very helpful to me, being a Monster Hunter n00b.

For instance, did you know you can roast two steaks at once? Did you know that you can jump off a cliff at a certain point in the demo and end up in a completely new area? I didn't!

 While this is not a step by step of how to beat the Qurupeco, following his lead with bring you a lot closer to victory

Better Know a Weapon Part 2-Great Sword

BY ZANZIBAR

The Great Sword (GS) is an extremely powerful weapon in Monster Hunter Tri with tremendous reach. This is counterbalanced by it's slow attack spead and the slow movement rate that comes with the weapon when drawn. It also has a block function that works well in providing some defense. It's attacks aren't varied but they all have a function. The overhead swing is the default attack and can be charged for alot of damage if it connects. The 2nd blow is an attack with the flat side of the blade and causes blunt damage that will go towards making the target dizzy. Finally the end of the 3 hit combo is a horizontal slash that hits a wide radius around the hunter, great for getting little jaggi off of you. The other combo is to start with a kick, this is done with the plus button on the classic controller and then hit x this brings up the flat side attack and can be used quicker than if you did an over head swing to flat blade combo.  The final attack is a rising slash that is done with a combo of X+A on the classic controller, great for floating Qurupeco's,it can be combo-ed into from the overhead slash.

Great Sword tip, you can roll at the end of any of your swings to cancel much of the time that you would be stuck waiting to return to a neutral state, this is great for repositioning yourself, evading an attack or cancelling a misjudged swing.  The underwater attack are identical to their land based counter parts.  


Happy Hunting!

Better Know a Weapon Part 1-Sword and Board

BY ZANZIBAR

1st in a 9 Part Series

The sword and shield (S&S)is the go to weapon set for versatility in melee combat. It sports the fastest attack speed of any weapon in the game along with having the fastest walking speed while the weapon is drawn as well. This is balanced out by having one of the lower attack power, 4 or 5 swings with the sword and shield combo is roughly equivalent to one swing of the great sword.

S&S has a basic 4 hit combo with 3 sword swings and a shield bash to it, there is also a horizontal slice to vertical ascending that is good for hitting things overhead. The shield can even provide some offense with a 2 hit combo . Underwater things change a little with a 3 hit combo or a shield hit followed by vertical slash that makes you rise up.  The thing to note is any time you connect with the shield it counts as blunt damage rather than slicing, if you can get some head shot with it then it will daze your quarry giving you time to get some extra damage in.

On the defensive side you do have your shield which you can use to block with, it's not as complete as the lance's shield and you will stagger and take a hit to your stamina so watch out! You can attack out from behind your shield but it's only one hit and it leaves you open. The last thing to note with this weapon set is that you don't have to sheath your weapon to use most items, simply block like normal and use your potion or trap at the right time and your ready to go.  Happy Hunting!