Monster Hunter Tri Diary 7 – The Rathalos Fiasco

As I’m writing this the birds are chirping outside and I have to get up to go to work in just a few hours. What started out as a relaxing evening with Monster Hunter Tri ended up being a incredibly frustrating setback. And it all has to do with my new biggest enemy in the game – the Rathalos.

Rathalos

I’m going to get you! You just watch.

I realized that I have been playing this game for over 70 hours now. I spent most of the time recently collecting various pieces of armor. I did this to prepare to face the next three new monsters: the Barioth, the Rathalos and the Diablos. In the process I got familiar with a new type of weapon. Using my favorite – the lance – I just wasn’t able to cut off the tail of a Barroth. So I used the great sword instead and it worked like a charm. I was able to complete the Barroth armor. So today I finished the last errands and went on to do the remaining quests.

First up I had to capture the fearsome Lagiacrus alive. I did at my first time and it was quite exciting. I used my very last stun bomb to deal the final blow. Happy with my progress I continued to my first fight against the Rathalos. I was expecting this to go quick. I already fought the Rathian and found him to be quite easy. I thought this would go similar. After all, they look almost the same. It was the monster after Rathalos – the Barioth – which was my concern. I heard mean things about that one on the Internet.

But I would never meet the Barioth on this evening. I tried 5 times fighting the Rathalos. I failed all of them. The last 3 were because I ran out of time. The time limit it 50 minutes. I’ve spent over 3 hours fighting the same monster and failed. I can’t remember the last time when I had a similarly frustrating experience in a video game.

I changed my strategy too. I switched from the lance to a great sword. I managed even to cut off Rathalos tail 3 times using the great sword. I’m not necessarily getting smashed either, after all I can survive for 50 minutes. And by the end the monster always looked quite exhausted. However, it always managed to slip by me in the end.

But after investing so much time in this one monster, I’m taking this personal. I’m going to take this beast down. I need some better gear. Word on the street is that the Rathalos is weak to lighting damage. I realized I was so busy collecting armor that I ended up with only a very narrow selection of weapons. So I went back to the drawing board and started gathering resources for a lance and a great sword that deal lightning damage. Guess what monster I need to grind to get the parts? Well yes, it’s the fearsome Lagiacrus. But I’m determined to get properly equipped to hunt Rathalos down, even if it means fighting Lagiacrus over and over again. Grr.

By the way, if you have any hints and advices on how to best deal with Rathalos, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate your support.

Krystian Majewski

Krystian Majewski was born in Warsaw and studied design at Köln International School of Design. Before, he was working on a mid-size console project for NEON Studios in Frankfurt. He helped establish a Master course in Game Design and Research at the Cologne Game Lab. Today he teaches Game Design at various institutions and develops independent games.

4 responses to “Monster Hunter Tri Diary 7 – The Rathalos Fiasco”

  1. GhostLyrics

    Had kind of the same experience recently on my Mass Effect 2 Insanity run. I spent 3hrs fighting the boss in Kasumi’s DLC. AFTER finding out how to beat him on the internet.

  2. chimeraone

    if you still struggle against rathalos or any monster for that matter i could suggest this. I use greatsword, and i took rathalos on first try and farmed him thereafter using rathian gear + sieglander 792attack and 320poison upgrade from valkyrie blade. Main style of GS fighting is to keep weapon sheathed and only do 1-3 attacks on the bosses opening chances – by sprinting to them when you see a chance to attack, so always attack from sheathed position.

    With rath there are many openings to hit him on, when he charges from ground level, or from air. when he fires a fireball, or when he does an attack while still in the air ( upward slashing ).

    In general with the bosses, the system which they have is simple, first fight i recommend observing them. Unless you are confident enough to take them first go.

    I like GS fighting style because i can sprint in do some damage roll out, sheath weapon and wait for another opening.
    i took lagi, globul, giggi, rath,baggi,barioth on first go simply because of being observant of timing.

    hope this helps.

    1. Krystian Majewski

      Thanks a lot! Yeah, I figured out a quite similar strategy using the Great Sword against Rathalos. But I didn’t have the chance to try it again, I recently defeated him but I used the Lance and a different armor. Rathian is one of the monsters I haven’t farmed yet. Does it pay off?

  3. Senith

    Yes I belive it does indeed pay off. The armor stats are not bad and hey, it looks cool. There are a lot of fire monsters ahead so that armor will protect you.

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The Game Design Scrapbook is a second blog of group of three game designers from Germany. On our first blog, Game Design Reviews we describe some games we played and point out various interesting details. Unfortunately, we found out that we also need some place to collect quick and dirty ideas that pop into our minds. Hence, welcome to Game Design Scrapbook. You will encounter wild, random rantings. Many of then incoherent. Some of them maybe even in German. If you don't like it, you might enjoy Game Design Reviews more.

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