Monster Hunter Rise tips for beginners to help you in the hunt

Don't be intimidated by the depths on offer

Monster Hunter's been going for well over 15 years now, and in that time an already dense game has acquired a whole load of systems and clutter.

Monster Hunter Rise does well to chart a course through all that for new players, but stray away from that path and it's easy to get lost in all the many things that Monster Hunter offers - Meowcenaries! The Argosy! Buddy training! - but don't be intimidated by it all.

It's easy enough to ignore all that and come back to it later once you've grasped the fundamentals, and you won't be penalised for doing so.

Don't worry too much about the Hub missions at first

Monster Hunter Rise returns to the series' tradition of splitting up single player and multiplayer progression, which can be initially confusing for starting players. There's no need to fret, though, as Rise is smart enough to have progression in one area carry on to another.

These are split up as Village quests and Hub quests, and are picked up from two different vendors. The simplest distinction is that Village quests are single player only, while the Hub quests can be played both solo and in multiplayer.

Village quests are best considered an introduction to Monster Hunter Rise. Not only do they introduce concepts of the game more gradually, but the monsters within are easier to take down. Whether you're new to the series or not, it's best to start there.

The Hub is where the end game of Monster Hunter Rise thrives, especially as the addition of multiplayer allows you to execute more elaborate strategies.

The good news is that as you progress through to the later stages of the Village questline, you can complete licences which jump you up the Hub quest structure.

These are pretty challenging - tasking you with hunting multiple creatures in one go - but means you aren't starting over from scratch, and can get to High Rank hunts faster.

Spend some time to acclimatise yourself with the wirebug

The wirebug is Monster Hunter Rise's big new trick, though it's entirely possible to play through the entire game without engaging with the new method of traversal. Don't do this!

The wirebug opens up maps to an incredible degree, and introduces a whole new layer to combat - it's worth spending some time simply strolling around new areas and seeing where your wirebug can take you, as with a couple of well-timed bursts you can reach pretty much anywhere, or make any shortcut possible.

Likewise, don't forget to lean on your new wirebug attacks, which can make a devastating addition to your combos and can seriously eat into a monster's health.

Make sure to give gyro aiming a try on Switch

If you've ever played Splatoon you'll know how much gyro aiming can bring to a game, and that's just as true of Monster Hunter Rise - only this time out, you'll have to enable it yourself.

There are a handful of options to cater to various tastes - you can just have the gyro enabled for aiming, which makes getting about with wirebugs much zippier, and makes ranged weapons much more palatable.

Or you could have it turned on for camera control too - our own preference - which means movement and placement are that much more precise, which in a game like Monster Hunter Rise makes all the difference.

Learn to love Monster Hunter's camera

Yes, there's no hard lock-on when it comes to taking on big beasts in Monster Hunter, which might initially be off-putting, though it is the Monster Hunter way.

The camera's a much better behaved beast than it was in the past, though, and there's a few handy tools to make things that much easier.

First of all, do see if gyro control is to your liking as it gives you more fidelity, and even if it's not it's worth remembering you can always snap to the direction of the monster you're hunting with a touch of the shoulder button - something that's easy to forget in the heat of combat, but something that can more often than not prove to be a lifesaver.

Take time out to do special requests

Villager requests are a staple of Monster Hunter, and in keeping with Rise's credo they're now much easier to track.

Speak to anyone with a speech bubble in the village (press and hold the minus button to open the map and shortcut your way to each one) and they'll typically have a request for you.

These are often simple tasks that are worth fulfilling, such as finding a rock lizard - as the rewards are more than worthwhile, whether that's new dango varieties that grant you stat boosts, giving you great wirebugs to act as shortcuts to higher locations, or unlocking whole new camps that make getting to your prey that much quicker.

They're also often a nice way to unwind away from the action and drama of mainline monster hunts - and allow you to go resource gathering for ores and bones.

The Palamute is a hunter's best friend

Monster Hunter Rise sees your trusty feline palico joined by a second, canine palico - a Palamute - on hunts.

As well as getting stuck into battle, it's also a boon for exploring. Press and hold the A button when it's nearby, and you'll start riding - allowing you to traverse any biome far faster than you would on your own two legs. Even better is the ability to use potions, sharpen your weapons, and gather resources as you go - so there's no need to hop off each time.

Though mastering the wirebug is still highly recommended, the canine palico is also useful if you need a quick getaway during battle, or to stay mobile while a monster calms down during a frenzied phase - we recommend relying on one during your first encounter with Magnamalo, which can really punish you if you're in its way.

Learn how to start Sunbreak - the first expansion - and from there, how to unlock Master Rank, use Switch Skill swap, and progress onward with our Monster Hunter Sunbreak walkthrough. There's also a monsters list, as well as individual pages on beating Garangolm, Lunagaron and Shogun Ceanataur. For the base game, we have a number of Monster Hunter Rise tips and lists of ore locations, bone locations, weapon types, how to use Insect Glaives and Kinsects, details of how to join friends in multiplayer, how to capture monsters and learn about wirebugs and great wirebugs.

Collect everything you see - even if in a rush

As you explore each area, you'll encounter plenty to collect - from endemic life to plants and mushrooms.

You'll want to investigate everything you see; honey is particularly useful as it will automatically be crafted into Mega Potions if you have regular Potions on you, while ores and bone piles have their own weapon trees, allowing you to use your monster parts on other things.

There's a lot out there, and thankfully, you can pick up everything at a sprint or on the back of a palico.

Don't worry about grinding too much (to begin with)

As you make your way through those Village quests, don't worry about replaying a hunt to get a complete set from a monster so early in the game. Monster parts will increase in power so quickly that it's best to keep pressing on.

If you get stuck on an Urgent quest, then it's worth going through the list of armour you can craft and cobbling together random pieces from what you have gathered so far - a helmet here, some gloves there - to raise your overall defence level. Remember, ores and bones also allow you to forage materials instead of carving them for certain upgrades, plus individual armour pieces from the smaller creatures are quick and easy to make.

That said, if you really enjoyed a particular hunt or love the look of a particular monster- we were huge fans of the Bishaten fight, for example - then it's incredibly rewarding to take the time to farm a complete set. But don't feel you have to - we recommend pressing on until the Hub and the High Rank before that, where you'll get the most out of your time and effort.