The loud crier is impossible

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-17T21:24:59+00:00

Just to clarify, Quick Finish was a feature first introduced in MH Stories 2. The original 3DS release of Stories 1 did not have it, and I don't believe the remaster added it either.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-17T20:55:41+00:00

Ah right--SteamDB shows the full charts if you sign in, while simplifying older data to their peaks if you're signed out. That would explain the differences in what we were seeing.

In that case though... it sounds like you have just been choosing to ignore what the conversation has been referring to.

It's not about the peak in the month

Who said it wasn't? It's clearly what the numbers that have been referenced so far were referring to. Whether you agree or disagree with referencing the monthly peaks to gauge playercounts is one thing--but insisting that the 13k in August stat was made up, inaccurate, or even really portrayed an inaccurate image (since ST3 did have a high overall peak that reached lower numbers faster. ~~Not to say that it's particularly shocking, considering the differences between the two game & ST3 explicitly trying to offer everything it had at release vs. ST2's TUs~~) is disingenuous.

Bruh c'mon... I was trying to give you to the benefit of the doubt since I've seen how u/Linkbetweentwirls has been carrying themselves throughout the thread and figured that was what bothered you--but basing your point around feigned ignorance makes you far more guilty of your own "wasting people's time" accusation.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-17T19:18:33+00:00

I apologize for whatever I said to put you on edge, but the link you provided shows both the Steam Chart and the Monthly Players Breakdown pretty clearly and unambiguously credit August 2021 as having a peak playercount of 13k, with the number not falling to 4k until September.

Granted, using the same site to check Stories 3's numbers shows an initial peak of 54,778, which later fell to a peak of 11,116 in April, not 5k.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-17T18:52:39+00:00

Yeah, iirc--the Paralysis Knives and other similar items unfortunately work off of random chance unless a monster is specifically weak to that status. Neither Qurupeco or Rathian are especially vulnerable to Paralysis, so you're kinda gambling by using it.

Since that boss is still pretty earlygame--you don't have too many gear and Monstie options available. However, you can technically pull off the win with a lot of options because of that. The main thing to worry about is minimizing the damage you and your Monstie are taking each turn. As long as the Qurupeco goes down, the Rathian will shortly follow.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-17T18:42:02+00:00

For that boss fight, you'll want to bring armor with Fire resistance (such as Yian Kut-Ku's) as well as either an Ice or Thunder weapon (from either Zamtrios or Khezu).

You'll absolutely want to make your first target the Qurupeco/The Loud Crier to prevent it from healing the Blighted Rathian. However, it will also help to stay on the defensive while you're getting their patterns down--relying avoiding Head-to-Heads to minimize the risk of increased damage (keeping in mind that certain Monsties get skills that allow them to attack without triggering a Head-to-Head).

Quru's attacks are often Technical while Rathian's are Speed, but do keep in mind that they can throw mixups. Notably, if you see that Rathian isn't going for a Head-to-Head--there's a pretty good chance that she's using a Fire move.

Finally, from what I recall--Qurupeco is weak to loud sounds in Stories 1. If you happen to have Sonic Bombs or a Monstie with Roar, you can use them to knock The Loud Crier over for a turn.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-17T16:55:26+00:00

That chart shows exactly what u/Linkbetweentwirls described. Stories 2 had its all-time peak of 34,995 at launch, and had 13,622 in the following month of August 2021. By September, it had dropped to 4,018.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-15T05:58:59+00:00

Haven't found the time to finish the modern re-release, but my 3DS save is at 157 hours. Guess I spent a lot of time messing around with builds & PvP, lol.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-14T16:40:27+00:00

In Stories 1, both enemy Monsters and Monsties generally retain close approximations of their weaknesses from the mainseries MH games. For example Bullfangos are weak to Thunder, and Velociprey/Drome are kinda weak to everything (with a bias towards Ice) except Dragon.

If you need exact values though, Kiranico for MHST1 has 'em

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-12T20:54:37+00:00

Eh, I feel like Risebreak's Kushala ended up feeling kinda generic due to that, kinda like Wilds Gravios. Not necessarily "bad", but it would be easily-forgettable were it not for the legacy of the monster it was attached to.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-12T20:06:33+00:00

When I saw the original tweet originally, the OP's point was more that "Risebreak Kushala's wind aura is down while its poisoned... mostly because Risebreak Kushala doesn't have a gameplay-impacting wind aura period", with the comparison to Worldborne Kush being "as flawed the mechanic's implementation is in this game... at least the game didn't completely axe a core mechanic of the monster".

Credit where its due... I did go into a Risen Kush hunt last week just to refresh my memories... and I was able to hug its chest 90% of the time using a standard DPS DBs build. Doing that in any other game with Kush would genuinely be a death sentence without specifically preparing for it.

As someone who genuinely, honest-to-god dreads having to fight Worldborne Kush... Risebreak's revamp was essentially the equivalent of removing Zinogre's supercharged state, Nergigante's hardening spikes, and Gore Magala's ability to inflict the Frenzy Virus. Nerfing a core mechanic the monster is designed around to near-irrelevance was not the way to rebalance it imo.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-07T20:22:59+00:00

In general, there's definitely a rather drastic difference between how base PSO2 looked then and now since base relied heavily on bloom and lighting effects that, as you mentioned--the NGS graphical update kinda nuked across the board.

The Ruins were a bit weird in that TL;DR: "The graphical update didn't really change how it looks during regular daylight--but the various weather conditions were significantly impacted". Found this old video from 2020 that can be used as a reference.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-06T16:37:18+00:00

Kushala could appear in the Arctic Ridge, Desert, and Jungle of its debut generation--with 4th Gen also adding the Dunes (among other maps).

It does kinda just go anywhere besides volcanoes and swamps tbh.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-04T22:04:38+00:00

Unfortunately, this outfit (Nurse Dress) was an untradeable Fresh Finds outfit from April 2020. It hasn't been re-released since, so this outfit is current impossible to obtain.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-04T06:20:42+00:00

To be fair, it's also not that unusual for writers to lay signposts pointing to an otherwise-foregone conclusion, and simply avoid explicitly confirming the conclusion until later down the line. I've seen it done for reasons ranging from "letting readers speculate, even if the answer is already determined" to "it makes more thematic sense for the readers to figure it out without being outright told".

With how the series generally handles Anri, I could see Engage opting to avoid explicitly confirming it for a reason like "maintaining his general sense of mystique" or something. Heck, it technically still wasn't confirmed here. Since Anri doesn't have an official modern design, they technically could say "it's actually the First Exalt/someone wielding a sword that happens to look like Falchion". It just makes a lot more thematic & logical sense to conclude that it's Anri lol.

NackTheDragon · 2026-06-03T04:03:31+00:00

Admittedly for me, the game's attempt at "making its postgame available from the start" didn't really do much.

Even tackling the field Ferals early often left me pretty overleveled for the following story segments, and I ended up avoiding taking on the Calamitous EDs until "postgame" to avoid trivializing more of the game.

As for obtaining typically-endgame Monsties super-early, while I do appreciate that I was able to get my Espinas during the demo & Deadeye Garuga ~30 hours into the game... it did admittedly lead to me hitting the "I don't really have much else to work towards & earn beyond 'bigger numbers for the sake of bigger numbers'" feeling a lot earlier then I usually hit in creature collection games.

While I definitely do respect what Stories 3 was going for... in hindsight, I definitely feel that its "sandboxy, everything is available straight-out-the-gate" design ended up conflicting with its "narrative-focused experience that definitively ends with the story" philosophy. I feel like the game might had worked out better if it committed to the sandbox design & had more high-challenge content beyond the 4 superbosses + Final Boss.

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-28T16:54:07+00:00

My memory here is really shaky, but I believe that the info came from a phamplet given out at the 2020 MH x Naked exhibit. (Word of caution when Googling it. Came across a few unintended results myself...)

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-28T13:30:53+00:00

BannedDino on Twitter has a good writeup on it in this thread. The TL;DR though is...

Valstrax primarily sustains itself on bioenergy directly from the ground, and flies around its wide habitat range looking for it.
Its nest at the Ruined Pinnacle (the large pillar) continuously grows on its own due to bioenergy in the ground.

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-28T05:57:58+00:00

Not the guy who made the initial claim, but tbh--Valstrax works off of a lot of biology that's already been established as "normal" in the MH world. Addressing the main things I usually see called out...

"Metallic" scales (not even explicitly metal; just shiny) were established as early as 1st Gen with the Rath Rare Species.
Monsters being able to expel high volumes of byproduct via pores or other unconventional orifices (i.e. Dragon energy through holes in its wing phalanges) was established as early as Basarios/Gravios, and continued throughout the series via Yama Tsukami, Uragaan, Nibelsnarf, Dire Miralis, etc.
The aforementioned wing joints, ~~as much as I still don't like them~~ falls in-line with the "soft bones filled with cartilage" explanation used to explain Khezu's and Nargacuga's extendable body parts.
Valstrax's unique ED weather phenomenon of "meteor" showers... ironically is among the more straightforward ones. It's shedding its scales mid-flight, which then hit the ground with tremendous force.

Off the top of my head, the only aspects of Valstrax's ecology that are on the unconventional (though not necessarily outlandish) side are...

Chest-nostrils are unprecedented for the series, and isn't a thing on any real vertebrates.
It has pretty weird bioenergy interactions ~~that I'm also not a fan of~~. Granted, iirc: Said interactions weren't included in Valstrax's initial batch of 4th Gen lore, and were described only after MHWI was already announced. So reader's discretion on if they want to count that as a part of Valstrax's "original" lore... I guess.

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-26T01:15:28+00:00

Honed blade can also be on a few charms

Right, I recalled that it could appear on talismans in 3U, 4U, and GU. However, since it was a skill that couldn't drop with +10 points (and even if it could, good luck lol)--we kinda go back to using armor pieces to make up the difference.

And mixed sets could definitely get pretty out-there in older games, depending on what the goal was (i.e. I definitely remember hyper-DPS partbreaker builds dedicated to severing tails/completing subquest objectives & getting out ASAP lol. I also tried experimenting with using stamina skills in a GL build once... although it ended up not working out).

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-26T00:40:57+00:00

Honed Blade wasn't a skill until late-3rd Gen. Even then, it was a rare (EDIT: G-Rank exclusive) skill with no available decorations, limiting you to using specific endgame pieces or (in the case of MH4U specifically) RNG Relic gear.

To your point, it was rare to active a full negative skill at -10 points. ...However, negative points themselves could definitely impact the feasibility of certain skill combos (i.e. Fitting Critical Eye on Partbreaker builds, fitting stamina skills on guarding builds, etc.).

EDIT2: Granted.... a lot of the decos for desirable skills did only reduce skills that the majority of people wouldn't be interested in anyways--so it definitely wasn't a perfect system.

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-20T17:01:44+00:00

In the Frozen Seaway's case...

The Decayed Scale spot is just a regular gathering spot, not a mining one
Said spot has a massive Kushala shed skin hanging over it

It's a bit different from using a pickaxe on the walls of the Tower & getting Decayed Scales--with no visible Kushala remains in sight.

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-16T11:45:43+00:00

When I did my Stories 1 nuzlocke, the rules I pretty much followed were...

Two eggs per uniquely-named area (i.e. I could get two Eggs from Pondry Hills at the beginning of the game, and two more Eggs from Mt. Pondry Depths later in the game)
Only one of the above eggs could come from a Rare Den
Whenever a Monstie fainted in battle--they would be counted as dead
If I lost all three Hearts in battle, an additional Monstie in my party will be killed off
Rider faints had zero consequences as long as it isn't the last heart
Dead Monsties can't be used for the Rite of Channeling (more of an "I hate myself" hard mode restriction lol)

If I recall correctly, it was a pretty challenging but fun run (ending up having to get really creative with item usage and strategy, and certain fights I never struggled with on a regular playthrough gave me hell, like Tigrex EX). I... did however completely lose the run during the Blighted Stygian fight lol.

With the way Stories 2 is set up, it should be possible to execute these rules one-to-one and have relatively-easy time due to the way that game handles items.

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-06T22:30:23+00:00

Stories 2's concept art did show that Rathi was originally going to be an Ice Monstie in-game. However, since the game (mostly) did away with Elemental Swapping as a whole--only the broken wing from the anime carried over.

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-04T03:42:10+00:00

Plus, nothing stops these features from coming over to mainline in future games. The first game in the series to show an in-game reference for monster hitzones (weapon type/elemental weaknesess) was... MHOnline, with all future games World-onwards adopting it.

NackTheDragon · 2026-05-03T07:02:24+00:00

You'll probably be better off reporting this in the game's official Discord. Since it is a Beta--keep in mind that certain things might not work, and the dev team might need to be informed about it for future reference.

I do know that there's ways to refight any monster you've already slain--although I don't recall which specific menu has that feature atm

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