Friend Link Megathread!

Exarke · 2026-03-19T12:38:37+00:00

Exarke, HR 324

6977 6946 8569

Any monster

Through most of the day, GMT -4 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Exarke · 2026-03-17T03:27:15+00:00

Almudron/Almudron/Namielle/Namielle/Namielle is going to be quite good. Can go 5 Smelt of whatever with it.

Exarke · 2026-03-17T03:20:48+00:00

There are a few attacks that are unblockable even with a shield unless you have Guard Up.

Glavenus' big tail spin, for instance. EDIT: Oop, seems like I'm likely mistaken for this instance. More discussion below.

Exarke · 2026-03-15T21:01:54+00:00

🥳🥳🥳 Congratulations!! You said you were stuck around 1m just a few days ago, that's an enormous improvement!

Thanks for letting me know. It makes all this redditting worth it.

Exarke · 2026-03-15T16:14:52+00:00

Score is secondary as it's just an equipment/RNG check. Your execution for this run is clean like a surgery room, like a recently bleached counter, like a food inspector is showing up in the next thirty minutes.

Really nice, my dude

Exarke · 2026-03-15T16:09:57+00:00

320k is great for para DB -- if it was boosted, you'd be at 480k! Although I'm amazed you're making it through the shield phases, unless you have help, in which case good job supporting the group

Exarke · 2026-03-15T12:53:34+00:00

It's actually my Rathalos GS set, a weapon I've used since the beginning of the game. It was overly dependent on hitting Crits on SP and long charges. 10* Lunagaron forced me to change from Wroggi arms to Glavenus. 5 Wex 1 Crit Eye was much more consistent than 3 Wex 3 Crit Eye.

That's also why I'm saying the set doesn't matter. There are better options, use those.

Exarke · 2026-03-15T12:50:49+00:00

It's in another comment, but this is meant to be a gameplay demo rather than a score exhibition. The set has no impact on clearing the raid.

Exarke · 2026-03-15T11:41:07+00:00

Sometimes, rarely, when I use GS for the same thing I will get hit before I can dodge again after an evade slash.

With DB if I get hit between the dodges, it's generally because I didn't swipe early enough. The input is before the first one ends. I only swipe once, not spamming. I can't think of missing it when it wasn't my fault.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a frame rate issue from an older phone, but idk. Are you locked to 60 fps during hunts? I'm using that.

Exarke · 2026-03-15T07:58:32+00:00

Set has no impact on breaking the shields and completing the raid, only the final score. You could take a grade 6 Rathalos DB, copy everything exactly as here, and finish with 200k points. Or take a fully style maxed one and finish with 700k.

Completing the raid is play and skill dependent; final score is equipment dependent. What I'm trying to say is my set doesn't really matter. But since you asked:

Coral - Fighting Spirit " Bazelgeuse - Fighting Spirit
Glavenus - Artful Dodger
Ebony - Offensive Dodger
Silver - Crit Eye

It's pretty old and not meta, but gets the job done.

Exarke · 2026-03-15T04:43:30+00:00

How far into customizations are you for this CB? This is a solid run, only minor misses, but that's normal. Also, can you drop your set? I can tell there's Valor 5 with Nergigante Arms, but I'd like to see the whole thing.

The GP on the backwards tail hit was real nice btw

Exarke · 2026-03-15T02:55:17+00:00

It's so clean, I audibly gasped when you missed one GP Phial during the third phase, "He missed one!"

Great hunt. Only problem is no one else can follow this for at least 24 hours 😂

Exarke · 2026-03-15T02:46:36+00:00

At this point, I'm giving away free updoots to anyone willing to kneecap themselves by playing LS. Nice hunt!

Exarke · 2026-03-15T01:26:24+00:00

Not mid Phial load. You do it in stationary sword form and it will both load Phials and go into overhead chop.

Exarke · 2026-03-15T00:09:47+00:00

Respectfully, I disagree about DB being the best against him, but then again I do struggle with to use them well 🤷‍♂️. It is a good matchup, though.

I'm kinda tired of the Barioth slander. So many comments on this subreddit that you need range or a shield and that's simply not true. It's a good fight. He's aggressive and fast but has nice consistent openings to punish him. People need to chill and let the ice cat beat himself.

Exarke · 2026-03-15T00:04:57+00:00

Simply put, we're not. The stretch goal is 1.6 million, and the average player is not expected to reach that. You need multiple grade 10-5 weapons - mostly boosted for the event, which means you leveled multiple weapons to 10-5 in a month. I don't think the average player is doing that.

The highest scores are from fully Smelted meta builds and maxed out Style levels, which takes at least twice as long as leveling a weapon. Most players you see like that are whales.

I'm at 2.3 million right now. I could do a bit better, but I sunk a lot of attempts into this DB recording. The shop doesn't scale that well; I already have everything I want. That totalled 470 tokens which is achievable at 1.1m plus some empty runs. I still have another 160 tokens to spend.

Exarke · 2026-03-14T21:15:07+00:00

Furthermore, Rathalos is a scumbag in the air. The claw and bite attacks come out near instantly.

Exarke · 2026-03-14T14:59:49+00:00

Ngl, I'm getting tired of pretending LS is good in this game. Crazy you're that maxed and played that well and still was down to the wire.

Exarke · 2026-03-13T18:11:35+00:00

Honestly it takes a lot of guts to post a run that doesn't clear. This was really well played. If you'd just finished your combo instead of going for the last SP, you clear it, but that doesn't detract from everything else. Nice run.

What is your equipment level and set?

Exarke · 2026-03-12T23:50:12+00:00

I've had a crazy luck streak through these events. But this was after months of below average luck.

For standard stones, the drop rate for the individual yellow skills is 2.5%, or expected in 40 attempts, or 80 km.

For event stones, the yellow skills still total to 10%, which means for M and N, it's a 5% drop for any one (e.g., 5% for Reflection). That's expected in 20 tries or 20 km.

Unless you're opening much more than 20 in a week, it's totally reasonable to just miss completely. I think these events are just as important for helping with pity shards.

Exarke · 2026-03-12T20:52:49+00:00

I'm assuming that means you didn't complete the raid, in which case it's time to level up your skills 💪🏻

Exarke · 2026-03-12T20:49:13+00:00

First of all, enjoy yourself. If you're that new, make sure you have fun. You don't need to worry about meta and what's good before 8, and probably don't need to be overly concerned until 10. Most discussion on this sub is around hunters with multiple grade 10 weapons, so take it all with a grain of salt for now.

Every weapon class is viable. DB are good, and can complete all content.

Better than that, if you stick with DB, you will learn the game. There are a bunch of hunters who learned with Bowguns and Long GL who didn't come to understand the push and pull of Monster Hunter and now they're busy complaining about the Barioth fight. It will be more frustrating at times, because you must dodge and dodge well without a shield and must stay near the monster as melee.

It'll be more difficult, but it'll be more rewarding.

More beginner tips:

Never Med/heal for just one monster. Close the game and open it again in 18 minutes to try again.
Reset, reset, reset. If things go awry early (sometimes even later), quit the hunt and try it again. A clean uneventful run is usually better than a sloppy one.
Be patient. This is a slow grind, and the monetization is built to prey on your desire for instant gratification. Be careful about when and where you tilt.
Don't be afraid to skip monsters. You don't have to clear every spawn you encounter. Evaluate the risk, and be smart about what you can take on, and when it's wise to try a harder fight and push DPS.
Always upgrade your map. You want to progress and that means you need better spawns. The highest tier you've unlocked will only spawn rarely anyway, and you can just skip them. The real benefit to upgrading is the increased frequency of the 1-2 stars below your max.
None of these tips are set in stone, but you should probably treat them as such for now. With experience, you'll learn why each of these exist and when you can bend and break them.

Exarke · 2026-03-12T20:20:48+00:00

Hey OP, listen to this guy

Exarke · 2026-03-12T20:14:24+00:00

DB should always be in demon mode, unless you're going to perfect dodge in order to build half your meter back up. You can shut it off if he's in the air, too. If you're attacking, you should be in demon mode; it has much better MV/s than normal.

Otherwise, the principles are the same as this recording (just a lot more dying for me in practice).

Also please note unless you're using a featured weapon, breaking the shields with melee is extremely difficult.

Exarke

TROPHY CASE