Remember when I said I was taking a break from Monster Hunter to focus on different stuff? Me neither.
This one has some foul language, so keep your kids away from it.
Turns out my addiction is stronger than I thought, which is fine because I still enjoy this game.
For those just joining us, G Rank is the final final part of almost every monster hunter game. In short words this is "Dark Souls in Hard Mode" mode, where everything can kill you in one hit and if it doesn't it can kill you in two.
In a lot of more words, G Rank is the same thing as the rest of the game but with the monsters having some changes on their movesets and AI, as well as having more health and way more power behind their attacks.
G Rank is the part where the "real" monster hunting starts and also the one most filled with bullshit- I mean, cheap shots.
Here's my mascot "Lorenzo Jamon". He has nothing do with G Rank but he's adorable.
This time I "branched out" and started fighting different monsters than before, thanks to not having to grind for another armor set that would be replaced 2 hunts later, which gave me a revelation of sorts...
G Rank may be hard, but it's still monster hunter. At the end of the day you're still hunting the same monsters in the same game so the same rules apply.
Don't get hit and hit it until it dies.
The monsters in G Rank may be tough, but you have to look at those mean creatures right in the face and tell them: "I've fought uglier."
...It doesn't make you succeed but it puts you in the right mindset for this mode. Being afraid of a monster and wasting time running around in circles is, after all, a waste of time you could be using to kill it dead.
In today's episode of "what are we hunting today?" I'll be fighting individuals like Zinogre and Zamtrios, who are my favorites, and then beings like Tidal Najarala and Shrouded Nerscylla, who were designed to be assholes.
The first thing I fight is a Zinogre, because the quest to kill one just so happens to be a "Key Quest" as in, I need to kill one dead to progress in G Rank. Since I'm a person who really likes the design of the monster and its armors I've fought Zinogre countless times on previous ranks, so I figured starting with him and seeing how the fight goes would be a good indicator of what to expect of G Rank.
At this point I'm on "G2", which is like "G Rank level 2", so it has harder monsters, you could say this is the part where the hard stuff really starts.
The last time I rambled on about this game I mentioned how monsters have some changes to their movesets, which I also mentioned before in this post, G Rank's effects on Zinogre are a little bit more obvious than other monsters.
For starters, thunder doggo has one move in lower ranks where he spins around and throws lightning balls at you but in G rank, almost every move results in a lightning ball being thrown at your face, so you have to keep an eye for those.
He can also mix up some of his stomp attacks. Those are harder to keep an eye out on, since they usually have a rhythm to them and him mixing up things throws of said rhythm.
He also hits like a truck.
Surprisingly, I didn't faint even a single time with him and I was able to deal with him easily so I guess this means that G Rank won't be that hard.
I hope...
Anyway, killing thunder pupper unlocks a new quest by the name of "A Bolt of Pink", which I had to do to get some armor.
Yes I know I said I wasn't grinding anymore, but now that we're getting into G Rank proper I think it's time I got into mixed sets properly, so it's time I shamelessly steal something off from reddit and use it.
But wait, "A Bolt of Pink" has a frenzied monster! That's 4 Ultimate's new mechanic, alongside ledges and monster mounting. Frenzy is a virus that spreads to monsters and makes them stronger, it can also spread to the player but they can fight this off by killing everything in their general vicinity, that's known as "fighting off the frenzy" and gives you a decent buff. Failing that, the player gets the opposite of said buff and becomes weaker to frenzy.
Thankfully, the game also introduces a cool way of fighting said frenzied critters. Wystones are special little things that give special effects once applied, they don't take any space in your inventory and can also, once you hit the monster enough, supress their frenzied state for some time.
The downside is that you have to work to get better, and more useful, wystones so I have to work on upgrading that so that I can do "A Bolt of Pink"
The first upgrade that you get for wystones comes from story mode, and the second from completing two G Rank quests.
First I have to kill a Tigerstripe Zamtrios, which is a subspecies of Zamtrios.
Zamtrios are giant frog-like and shark-like creatures that live in very cold areas, if they existed in real life they would probably live in places like Canada, or Antarctica, or the poles.
They have three forms, their regular sharkfrog form, an "armored" form that they use when they're angry and a fatness form that comes straight out of DeviantArt, the final form is the one where most hunters go "heyyyyy free damage!" because of how Zamtrios just turned its entire body into a big hitzone.
Tigerstripe Zamtrios, on the other hand, are Zamtrios who went to the desert for a business trip, liked it and decided to stay.
They live on the desert and are very different from regular Zamtrios. Since there's no more ice for them to make themselves an armored form, they just go fat.
Unlike a regular Zamtrios, Tigerstripes have weaponized their fatness and are even faster once they put on the extra kilos. Able to switch between thicc and thin at a moments notice, their wild and, different from regular Zamtrios, movesets are the first "walls" people face on G Rank.
Not me, I read on the guy a little before fighting and knew what to expect.
...
I have to stop doing that...
Here's a comparison between a normal Zamtrios and a Tigerstripe, the Tigerstripe is frenzied.
The Tigerstripe vs The Zamtrios
I would have taken more Tigerstripe pictures if he didn't stay on fat form all the time.
The next thing I fought was a Shrouded Nerscylla, I had to kill one and then fight two of them back to back to get the last part of the upgrade.
Shrouded Nerscyllas are Nerscyllas that live in the desert, and unlike their normal counterparts, they watched the original Spider Man movies and practiced swinging like Spidey does.
Notice the yellow-ish spikes on its back? If while swinging, one of them so much as graces the air that you breathe you'll end up in a deep coma from which you'll only wake up once your cats see that you're unconsious or after Nerscylla ground pounds you.
Paralysis aside, these two weren't that hard, by the time I was killing the second Nerscylla I was getting used to its new moves.
Doesn't make its wild swinging any less scary though...
Mom the spider is doing the thing again!
Finally, I had upgraded my wystones, more like the establishment that gives them to me.
Now I had access to two more Wystones, Element and Drive.
Drive is the meta wystone, able to supress the frenzy of monsters faster than any other wystone, while Element just makes is so that the elemental properties of your weapons actually affect the frenzied monsters.
Because I suck at this game I picked Element for this quest, while Drive is technically better there's just no way I'm hitting any frenzied monsters enough for it to work, so I'll pick Element instead.
Finally, I had to upgrade my stuff. I needed a G Rank Zamtrios quest to upgrade my weaponry and, the only way to do that, is to kill a Molten Tigrex in story mode. Yes, I know, it's a weird thing, bear with me for a moment.
The usual Tigrex is a fan favorite, because it traumatized too many players when it first appeared in the series, known far and wide as the freight train (because he charges like a train and even turns like one) and Molten Tigrex is the result of the devs going "hey, what if we picked a regular Tigrex and gave it explosions?"
It's bigger, explodier, scarier and angrier (it has two rage modes) and his freight train is faster than Sonic the Hedgehog.
He also looks demonic.
Anyway, getting rid of Molten Tigrex unlocks solo G Rank quests, which is the only way I'm getting a G Rank Zamtrios quest. There is one with two Zamtrios but they're frenzied and I'm not grinding that hot mess.
Completing Molten Tigrex also makes my favorite characters show up.
The greatest characters ever I tell you, I love them.
Once my gear is up to snuff I finally challenge "A Bolt of Pink", which features a regular Zinogre which I thought was frenzied and an actual frenzied Pink Rathian.
Pink Rathian is technically the very first "wall" in this game, which you first encounter in High Rank. It's the reason I went through all of the effort to grind and upgrade wystones, since I actually struggled with the beast.
Now, normal Rathians are green wyverns usually seen next to a Rathalos. All Rathians are female and all Rathalos are males.
While Rathalos goes out to buy supper for his wife and their many children (read: eggs) the Rathians stay home and keep an eye out for intruders.
They also like to perform sick aerial backflips, which they use to challenge intruder Rathians looking to steal their man.
Pink Rathians, on the other hand, are professional backflippers, capable of weaponizing even the weakest of flips and performing sick combos that will leave you not only dead and poisoned, but humiliated as well.
How can a demon like that look so peaceful when sleeping?
Yes, that's right, they practice the ancient art of "stylin' on your opponents"
A Frenzied Pink Rathian not only does the sickest of backflips, but does so with a speed that leaves Molten Tigrex in the dust.
Here's a comparison of a normal Rathian and a Pink one.
In the end however, my paranoia won and thanks to my wystones and upgrades she died. Not before hitting me with those backflips several hundred times.
Completing this hellish quest lets me trade Zinogre materials for Nargacuga ones, which I'll need in order to make me a mixed set that will (probably) last until G3.
Of course, I have to kill other stuff too to finish it. Let me see what's on the list...
...
Oh boy.
Come join me next time, when I continue to plunge my self in the deepest parts of G Rank in the never ending quest for better armor.
Like always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great day.