Starting Iceborne? Here are 6 things you should know - Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

I know there are many people still trying out Monster Hunter World. For those that they finish it, an expansion awaits: Iceborne. You will get a new rank: Master Rank. New monsters will be unlocked, together with new armors and mechanics. I will try to go through some things which I think necessary to know to enjoy Iceborne the most.

1. Prepare for hunt: equipment and mantles

Well, this is obvious unless you used Defender set in Monster Hunter World. Here I recommend preparing for each of the fights. For example, when fighting a monster which uses water attacks, have waterproof mantle and water resistance decorations.

Even though you may feel like a pro after beating the main game, the issue is that monsters are now stronger, with new attack patterns and higher damage. Until you learn them you are back at step one.

Regarding mantles. Rocksteady and temporal mantles are still the best casual hunting mantles in my opinion. So do not forget to do optional quests to obtain their better versions

2. Carry some essential items during normal hunts

Here is my normal hunt loadout:

• Mega potion – essential on all hunts, later in the game you will lose it less and use more Max potions

• Max potions – instantly increases your HP to max and restores all of it. Good for tough situations

• Ancient potion – you will be getting a lot of them through Steam works (will explain about this mechanic below). Good to use at the start of the hunt if you did not get full boost to stamina after eating.

• Cool/hot drink – good for different situations in the game to get cold or hot resistance. As you will be changing maps often

• Armorskin and Demondrug – works through all the hunt increases your hp and defense. Great value.

• Tranq Bomb – have them ready for when you will capture monsters

• Flash pod – as monsters will have higher resistance to them you can still use them from time to time, to take down flying monster or stop him from running away

• Dung pod - I do not know if you have used them in the main game, but here I would definitely recommend. Your hunts will be much more fluent. There will be monsters which will try to ruin your runs (the old Djo) and having Dung pods, will save you time and make him run away.

• Mega barrel Bombs – great for when monster sleeps to get additional damage, you will be getting a lot of them from Steamworks.

• Pitfall/Shock Trap – main traps to capture monsters. When you capture monsters you get additional materials. Also you can use them to dish out additional DPS while monster is under their effect. Have in mind that some traps don’t work on all monsters so be ready.

• Talons and charms – as in the main game always carry them for passive increase to attack and defense.

• Antidote/herbal medicine - poison is irritating. Moreover, if you wait for it to stop you will probably die. Herbal medicine is especially good as it also regenerates your hp for small amount.

Additional items to consider:

• Nullberries - this is an "all in one" solution for blights. So for example if you get waterblight, fireblight, etc. Use this to remove it. This may be better than taking appropriate decorations and armors to increase your resistance, because you can slot in more damage decorations.

• Farcaster - excellent item to have. You can use it to go back to the camp during combat. I would not call it essential but it is good to have on some harder encounters and if you find yourself out of potions often

• Might seed/Demon powder - you can replace them with Demondrug. They provide bigger boost but only work for three minutes. So you will need to use them a few times.

• Rations/Well-Done Steak - if you do not have ancient potions, this is a good alternative to restore your stamina to maximum when it starts to drop in the middle of the hunt.

• Mega Nutrients + Mandragora - this is on more advanced side. you can use these two items to craft max potions during the hunt. So be sure to set up crafting Max potion on your radial menu

3. Clutch Claw

This is a new mechanic introduced in the expansion. You can jump on the monsters part: head, legs, leg and tenderize them. This lowers the hitzone values and increases your damage. Important - if monster is flinched (looking at you from the side and breathing heavily):

Do not forget to clutch claw him. There are two important aspect:

1. You can tenderize or wall slam him safely

2. The animation for flinching will increase allowing your group members to attack for longer

You can also use it to wall slam the monster. Effectively knocking down if the monster hits the wall. You can also do some advanced stuff, like slamming monster to another monster making them both fall down. This also drops additional shinies.

Thing of note: you can do three turns with monster if he is not enraged with clutch claw. After this he will get agitated.

4. Whetfish Fin and Whetifsh Fin+

This is more advanced. It allows you to sharpen your weapon faster, with the + version it is like Speed Sharpening level 3 skill, except you do not need specific armors for that. On some occasions, the fin will not be even used to save some of these precious items. Saves time in tough situations when your sharpness reaches low values.

The fins are especially popular among speedrunners, but because they are fairly easy to obtain why not to use them every time?

You can farm Whetfish Fin+ easily with this guide: https://www.gamestegy.com/post/monster-hunter-world-iceborne/253/whetfish-fin+-farming

5. Steamworks easy way to obtain essential loadout items

Now, this is a fun mechanic introduced in Iceborne. You will have to guess which levers to activate to increase the steam level. It is randomized and sometimes you can guess correctly, sometimes not. You will be able to hold (spacebar on pc, RT on console) button to make guessing automatic. This will save some time for you.

Now, why should you do this? This gives you some great value items: Mega potions, Mega Barrel Bombs, Ancient Potion, etc. Also, you will get some rare items like Celestial Wyverian Print, which can be used to get some rare materials later on in the game. This will save you tons of grinding time.

However, Steamworks is not infinite. You will need to gather Coals, from new territories. They can then be turned to fuel. Moreover, Fuel also restores automatically after each hunt, but that is a negligible amount.

6. Equipment guidelines

As you will be playing in Master rank, your armors will be redundant after the first one or two hunts. At first, try to get the ones which you can get the soonest. However, I would like to point out some items which you should utilize as you progress through the game.

• Nargacuga set – a great benefit that it gives increased evade window, which allows you to learn using iframes (it wil become much easier to roll through attacks). Moreover, your sharpness loss will decrease drastically with this set, if you choose to take full set.

• Fulgur Anjanath – provides equipment with a Weakness exploit. This will increase your critical rate, resulting in more damage.

Regarding some other mechanics, having a higher critical rate is better than a high attack. Have that in mind when putting your skills from decorations.

Bonus: small tips

When hunting with other players have to Flinch free level 1, you will not be interrupted by their attacks

• To lower stamina loss during the mounting mini-game, just change positions, by clicking to the sides when the indicator becomes yellow

• When on your tail rider, you can use that time to sharpen weapons, drink pots (demondrug, armorskin).

• To get the better gear you will need materials, do not forget to do investigations to get materials.

• Beginner Master rank armors have higher armor ratings than late high-rank armors. So craft them

• The materials from the old game are not obsolete, you will need many of them to craft some gear to get access to new trees in Iceborne

• Always eat before the hunt. The price is fairly cheap and you get great buffs. Moreover, you can get a daily feline skill which can have great benefits depending on your build

• Do optional quests: this will unlock mantle upgrades and new canteen food options

Conclusion

I hope these explanations will help you enjoy your Icebrone journey much more. Feel free to leave a comment below if I missed anything of importance