How’re the hunts treating you?
In this post we’ll be welcoming you into High Rank and providing some pointers to help you settle into the next stage of your adventure, including some advice on your first High Rank challenge, tracking down the elusive ??? Rathian!
We know a lot of you hunters know exactly what monster this is, but for the sake of avoiding a quest spoiler for our newer hunters, we’ll leave discovering exactly which monster this is to you!
Welcome to High Rank!
If you’re now at this point (or beyond), congratulations! You’ve steeled yourself as a hunter, overcome the challenges of Low Rank, brought Zorah Magdaros’ quest to its conclusion and likely crafted yourself some rather swish gear on the way!
High Rank brings with it a host of exciting new challenges as you encounter new monsters, new locales and the monsters you thought you knew from Low Rank will be even more dangerous, both hitting harder and being able to take more damage before they go down.
But with these new challenges comes even more powerful rewards! High Rank monsters yield new parts and materials that you can use to craft even stronger armour pieces and weapons, so it’s probably a good idea to quickly transition over to the new gear on offer, or soon will be once you take down your first few monsters!
The good news is, your first assignment in High Rank will help with just that…
Finding those ??? Rathian tracks!
Soon after arriving in High Rank you’ll be tasked with investigating some mysterious tracks that belong to an unidentified Rathian!
Fear not though, there’s a couple of ways to approach this task that’ll have you filling up that progress bar in no-time and bringing you face to face with your elusive ??? Rathian!
Method 1 – Finding ??? Rathian Footprints
Whether you’re out on a High Rank expedition, or trying out some High Rank optional quests (denoted by the orange stars, instead of blue), there’s a good chance your scoutflies will discover ??? Rathian tracks when you’re adventuring in either the Ancient Forest, Wildspire Waste or Coral Highlands – however you won’t find any in the Rotten Vale, maybe this type of Rathian isn’t a fan of the smell, after all that particular locale isn’t known for its fresh air!
When you see these tracks, simply collect them and you’ll see your tracking progress bar increase! Growing the bar this way is incremental, but it’ll soon add up!
You can speed up this process and make finding those tracks even easier by crafting the headpiece from the High Rank “Hunter’s α” set. This specific piece of armour has both the “Scoutfly Range Up” skill, which makes it easier to find traces, and the “Scholar” skill, which increases the total number of research points received – creating a great combo to keep your research rolling!
The best bit is, this armour piece is really easy to craft, all you need is some zenny and a few pieces from the High Rank version of the small monster, Jagras:
- Jagras Hide x 3
- Jagras Scale x 4
So just head out into a High Rank Expedition or Quest in the Ancient Forest, hunt down some Jagras and that armour will be yours before you know it!
Method 2 – Completing High Rank, 6-Star Optional Quests
Another way that will rapidly fill up your investigation bar is simply completing High Rank optional quests, which will provide you with a sizable chunk of progress, even if you don’t find any ??? Rathian tracks in the hunt itself!
This also has the benefit of giving you the opportunity to farm out some of your first High Rank armour pieces and weapons to prepare you for what’s ahead!
The available quests will let you choose from the following monsters to hunt:
- Barroth
- Pukei-Pukei
- Rathian
And maybe a surprise guest….
If when you check the quest list, you can’t find a quest for any of the listed monsters, simply head out into a High Rank expedition, “spot” the monster up close and their quest will be added into the 6-star line-up.
You can repeat the same quest multiple times too and still get investigation progress, so go for whichever one suits you best / which one will help you get the gear you’re after!
To summarise, fear not this assignment! By simply doing some High Rank hunts and picking up tracks on the way, you’ll soon be coming face to face with ??? Rathian and a whole host of other monsters as you proceed with deeper into the New World and High Rank!
Just make sure to swing by the Smithy to craft that High Rank gear, you’ll definitely appreciate it!
Monster Hunter Stories returns this Summer!
This week we were excited to reveal that the first instalment of the Monster Hunter Stories series is
back and coming to Steam this Summer!
For those of you unfamiliar with Monster Hunter Stories, instead of hunting monsters as a hunter, you assume the role of a Rider, hatching, raising and battling with your favourite Monsties in an epic RPG adventure!
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This updated version of the original game includes refined graphics, a new Museum mode, full English and Japanese voice over, as well as content previously only released in Japan.
The Steam Store page isn’t up just yet, but we’ll make sure to let you know when it is. Ride on!
Quest Complete – We’ll see you next time!
That wraps up our latest post, thanks for checking it out!
Good luck to all hunters who are about to arrive at, or have just hit High Rank, you’ve got this!
We’ll see you in the hunt!
- The Monster Hunter Community Team
