The Black Dragon and Fade to Black - Fatalis fight complete guide - Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

The last update for Monster Hunter World Iceborne, brings the black dragon Fatalis to life. He looks amazing, but he is also hard for casual players. However, with this guide I would like to go step by step over the fight so that you would have easier time.

Preparation

Item loadout

Now the first thing to be ready for Fatalis is to have a good item load out, which would allow you to maximize your usefulness in the hunt. By that I mean not dying and dealing sufficient damage, as the hunts 30 minute mark may be not enough for some groups.

You should be bringing these items:

• Mega potion – mandatory in any hunt

• Max potion – I would say mandatory in every Iceborne hunt especially after main story

• Ancient potion – additional max potion which also restores stamina

• Mega nutrients – you will need them in the hunt to craft max potions

• Mandragora – same as mega nutrients you will need them for crafting max potions

• Mega Demondrug/Demondrug – raises your attack use the one that is available to you

• Demon powder – increases attack for three minutes for your group, great to be used during his big flame attack

• Might seed – same as demon powder but only works just for you

• Mega Armorskin/Armorskin – increases your defense good against his physical attacks

• Mega Barrel Bomb – great item to have if Fatalis will be put to sleep

• Farcaster – use it to avoid his big flame attacks if you won’t make it or go to camp to restock

• Charms – mandatory in any hunt

• Gloamgrass - used to craft Dust of life

• Godbugs - used to craft Dust of Life

• Dust of Life – can save your party members in critical situation

• Whetifsh Fin/Whetfish Fin+ - I would say it is not mandatory as normal whetstone is enough to be used during his big flame attacks, but I would still use Whetfish Fins as my weapon would lose sharpness fairly fast

Equipment

For weapons you should be using dragon element. However, it all depends on the weapon and your build and you may opt out for Raw.

For armors until you clearly grasp his movesets, please concentrate on having many defensive skills. Personally for me I went with Alatreon Armor set as it has great Fire resistance and also you get increased elemental damage for higher elemental resistances (which you can increase with Defense skill). Here are my skills which I prioritized:

• Divine Blessing – this skill may save you from many carts, be wise and put it in your set.

• Defense – probably best used with Alatreon armor set for increased elemental resistances, otherwise prioritise Divine Blessing

• Health Boost – the more HP you have the better chance you have at surviving his attack which are heavy hitting.

• Fire resistance – You need to have at least 20 so not to get Fireblight, believe me you will constantly be on fire and rolling will only waste your time

• Guard Up – for those with shields I cannot stress enough how many times this skill saved me.

When you get more experienced you can take out some of the skills and switch for more offensive ones. However until that I would recommend concentrating on survivability.

Another good skill to have is Heavy Artillery, however, I would recommend having a specific build for that which would utilize cannons, ballista and roaming ballista the best

Mantles

• Temporal Mantle - I would say this is a must, having in mind how hard Fatalis hits damage you

• Rocksteady Mantle - increased defense and not being thrown of when clutch clawing is essential in this fight

• Glider Mantle - I would suggest using this once you are a bit advanced as you can incorporate more jewels which would in turn increase your offensive capabilities

• Ghillie Mantle - Use this if you plan to use cannons with Heavy Artillery skill at the start of fight, after that use farcaster to change the mantle to what suits you

General flow of the fight

During the fight you your main task (besides killing Fatalis) should be breaking his head two times. So most of your attacks need to revolve around that. However, it may be hard to hit it, so for that you need to attack its belly, so that he would land on his fours. The safest part to hit is his back legs, but they have high defense and your attacks will not deal much damage there

I would recommend doing prioritizing the fight like this:

• Constantly tenderize him: priority should be head but also other parts, especially legs as they are easy to hit if he is standing, so you will be able to deal damage

• Use Dragon pods. He will drop them constantly. Shooting him two times with them makes him flinch, which cancels his attacks and allows you to save your teammates. Moreover, this gives you breathing room for attacking Fatalis.

• Wall slamming. The technique is to get on Fatalis head at the start of the fight or when he loses enrage and flinch shot him (no need to turn him). This will put him on his fours. After this you need to clutch claw again and try to position him for a wall. Then flinch shot him so that Fatalis would wall slam for big damage to his head.

• Mounting - this is tricky as he moves a lot so use dragon pods to calm him a bit which will allow you faster to use finishing blow. For people who are not mounted you should stay away as his attack pattern changes and it is hard to evade attacks which you are not familiar with.

• And of course survive, dead hunter does not deal damage

Fight progression

First stage

Your aim here is to reach damage threshold so that Fatalis would do Flame breath on whole area.

At the start of the fight ask your group if someone has a build with Heavy Artillery skill. If there is no one have a build ready yourself for this occasion. This person should concentrate on using cannons during the first phase. If you manage to hit Fatalis with 5 cannon balls he will be knocked down and you can attack his head.

Try to avoid Flinch shotting Fatalis to cannon platform as it will be destroyed.

For other group members the idea is simple, avoid his attacks, deal damage and try to attack his head.

Now after reaching damage threshold he will lift to the sky and you should be running to the Iron tent to hide from his flame otherwise you will be wiped. During this time use your powders and seeds to buff yourself up and sharpen your weapon

Second stage

Now the fight picks pace and you have a wider arena. The person with Heavy Artillery skill should be using the newly spawned cannon, ballista and roaming ballista to constantly keep Fatalis on his toes.

Also there will be binders available but do not use them yet and save them for the last phase

Now he will start using flying as means to attack you. Your aim is to get him down: ballistas are a great way for that. Moreover you can use dragon pods

So this stage is fairly simple and after dealing sufficient damage Fatalis will fly to the sky again and use his Flame breath attack. Try to run as fast as possible to reach the Barricade and after your party members are in there raise the gate

During this time use your powders and seeds to buff yourself up and sharpen your weapon

Third stage

During this phase a new attack will be introduced, his 360 fire attack. Fatalis will turn around with his flame attack so the best ways to avoid are: superman dive, staying next to him, near his back legs or being far away. Another attack is his pin jump which will catch a character and glue it to his belly. To save the team member from dying use dragon pods to flinch him and team member will be saved.

Moreover, he will enter Hellfire mode, his fire attacks will deal much more damage, however, you can weaken them by breaking his head and if you do that the second time his fire attacks will weaken even more.

Now, this is where binders come in. because you can use them to put him down in place and land some good shots on his head.

As the fight progresses dragonator will become available. Your aim is to have him being hit by both spikes which each deal about 8K damage. This can also be increased if you manage to put him down to sleep by a light bowgun user. Then the first spike will deal 16K damage.

After reaching damage threshold the next phase will start and Fatalis will fly to the one of the sides of the arena and use his Flame breath attack. To survive it, you need to run towards him. Have in mind the attack is cone shaped, so by running by the side of the arena you will get out of the flames faster. Use this time to buff up and sharpen your weapon

If you have Dust of Life use it to heal your teammates while they are running

Fourth stage

From here on out just concentrate on dealing damage, use wall slams when available and survive. If you keep this up he should be dead after one or two more Area Flame breaths.

If everything goes well congratulations you defeated Fatalis. Personally the fight was crazy and I really enjoyed, I saw my group members hands were shaking at the last 5 minutes as everyone was missing their clutch claw attacks or rolling unnecessarily.