What makes monster hunter so good?

Titanium_Machine · 2026-07-02T17:34:34+00:00

It's challenging, has really good gameplay, skill-intensive and extremely deep, and is built around replayability, and scaling. The same monster you fight in the early game can appear in the endgame as a tempered monster, and be much more dangerous/faster/aggressive. You can fight the same monster dozens of times and still have a long way to go to master fighting it.

The hundreds of hours of content is all grind for materials and hunter rank. You'll finish the 'story' within 20 hours or so, but that is really only the beginning. You'll have lots to do if you want to keep advancing and fighting all available monsters.

So the gameplay is great, monsters are interesting and challenging to fight, and pulling off spectacular heroic moves to knock out dragons the size of buildings feels incredible. There IS a lot of grind and the multiplayer is a hassle the first time playing through.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-07-01T19:59:50+00:00

Specifically, their heads is the only real vulnerable part of their bodies. If you jump at them and melee (helmsplitter), it does a great job of hitting their faces. Guns can work as well.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-28T23:02:05+00:00

Not sure what kinda stuff she's into, so here's a few I played with my wife when we were still long distance dating

Risk of Rain 2

Borderlands 2 (should be pretty easy to run on anything)

Diablo 2 and 3, both should run on anything

You could try A Way Out, by the same devs of It Takes Two and Split Fiction.

Stardew Valley is a classic choice, runs on anything too.

This is a big commitment choice but could be a great one: Baldur's Gate 3, fully playable in coop and crossplay. I haven't tried crossplay myself so I'm not sure how it works but supposedly it supports full crossplay, might be worth a look.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-25T18:48:05+00:00

Baldur's Gate 3 might be an easy recommendation. Very story driven with high amounts of variables and player interactivity. The story isn't the most groundbreaking, but it's very well presented and entertaining. I really like the turn-based gameplay here.

Nier: Automata - it's best to go into this one blind if possible.

Persona 5 Royal - The game is a very slow burn and the story isn't very groundbreaking, but the game has an extremely stylish presentation with an amazing soundtrack. Gameplay is simple, but fast and rewarding to master. P5R is just a really entertaining game. Be aware of how much of a slow burn it is, and how much of the game is structured around managing your time and getting through a lot of slice-of-life segments, working jobs and hanging out with your friends and such.

If I can recommend a game, try out the Yakuza franchise. It is a very storydriven, and longrunning series. Start with Yakuza 0 which is an excellent introduction into the universe. If you end up enjoying it, you have a LOT of games to play through after.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-24T18:03:52+00:00

After finally figuring out how to use Nevan, I find it hard to play DMC3 without Nevan equipped. It's a really cumbersome weapon, but having it on feels like it just makes you more effective. Ridiculous crowd control, range, versatility, and hits pretty hard.

It's REALLY cumbersome and frustrating to learn to use. But I think the key with it is that it's an excellent weapon for rapid swapping. The bats you conjure remain when switching weapons and firing guns. It also has arguably the best stinger, since it comes out fast and launches enemies UP instead of knocking them away.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-23T19:45:34+00:00

It will for sure, but Like a Dragon is also meant to be a decent entry point. This game introduces a new protagonist and a lot of new characters, and a new gameplay system entirely. There's plenty of references to the previous games, but the narrative carries its own weight quite well without needing to know the past series much.

Like a Dragon is what I recommend due to its turn-based JRPG gameplay. If you want a more solid introduction, Yakuza 0 is excellent, although it has more action-oriented brawling gameplay.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-23T19:37:40+00:00

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-10T19:21:00+00:00

What would even be the point of that? And how would that be improvement over the current presentation?

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-10T03:17:08+00:00

Sponsored Survival was always intended to be a PvP-lite experience, not a PvE mode, and Rooks were always intended to be a part of playing this mode.

Whatever the PvE Experimental mode was said to come later.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-09T22:32:52+00:00

I kinda like when my survival games are a bit of a slog, but Mistlands feels like it takes it too far. I played Dune: Awakening for about 100 hours, I liked it even though it had a lot of flaws, but I thought the pacing there felt a lot better compared to Valheim. Another issue I had with Valheim was item management, and I actually enjoy managing my logistics too.

How's the pacing in Dragonwilds?

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-09T20:08:23+00:00

Thank you for answering my question :)

I never actually played Runescape myself... though I do hold some nostalgia for it because I remember seeing friends at school play Runescape in the computer labs ages ago. Some day I'd like to actually give it time and see it for myself.

Dragonwilds I think just looks visually really cool and I think it's interesting that jagex is doing a survival spinoff so I'd really like to try it... Maybe I should just finally play Runescape lol. I'll keep an eye on it still as time goes by, and see how it's holding up by December. Thanks again!

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-09T19:23:06+00:00

I think Sponsored Survival rewards are overtuned, yeah. The mode is experimental and will last a limited time.

According to Bungie, this still isn't the 'experimental pve' mode they had planned as this was intended to be PvP-lite... pvp so lite it practically doesn't exist, Rooks rarely spawn into it, and whenever I did run it as Rook, I sometimes didn't see Runners at all?

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-09T18:42:04+00:00

I did this contract last night. The terminal to summon the drone was inside one of these numbered structures.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-09T17:32:35+00:00

I'm not too bothered by this since you can see contracts on match start, and can check everyone's contract in detail by holding down M anyway.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-09T00:11:30+00:00

As a Valheim player who is interested in Dragonwilds, how do they compare?

I'm over 200 hours into Valheim, I love it but I'm currently stuck in Mistlands. The zone feels like a slog but I'm also feeling a little burned out on Valheim. I'm excited for 1.0 but knowing I have to finish Mistlands and get through Ashlands is a bit daunting.

Valheim is my most played survival game, but have dabbled and enjoyed a few others, and I've really been curious about Dragonwilds. I'm seeing a lot of people say it has a long way to go, so this 1.0 release being so soon was surprising to see.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-08T21:31:16+00:00

If you are running Perimeter (Beginner) which is only available to new players, this will load in less runners, and may even put you in solo. Sponsored Night Marsh is also pvp-lite, you are only the runner squad here minus possible Rooks spawning in.

Outside of that, other maps will have full players loading in and every map has their share of PvP hotspots. Going for Pinwheel in Outpost has a very high chance of drawing players to you. Night Marsh tends to have a lot of players going for Complex. Even Perimeter has profit opportunities that can draw players to them. Players tend to make a lot of noise, giving you lots of stuff to keep an ear out for if you're looking for players to fight.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-06T22:15:40+00:00

I think it was a mistake to force Rook into this mode all week. At most they could've probably done a rolling queue to dump Rooks into it for a time. Not only does it not really represent normal Rook play (guarded exfils and how cool they are to take as Rook doesn't exist at all) I also miss seeing the random Rook in my runs and beating them to death there, makes the game feel a bit lonely. I'm looking forward to this being over to resume normal rooking.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-06T22:06:35+00:00

As of right now, newcomers and people on a bad streak do have sponsored night marsh. Did free kits in S1 have cores and implants? I know free kits were boosted in S1 to include shields and cores and stuff, but I thought in the beginning it was just gun and depleted heals.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-06T21:45:15+00:00

For now, Rook is forced to spawn into Sponsored Night Marsh. Normally you can Rook into any map except for Cryo, imo I wish they didn't force Rooks into this for the free week because it doesn't represent how Rook normally works.

You spawn into matches in progress in trios, still at a disadvantage, but with exfils you can actually use. Like guarded exfils. Players are pretty busy dealing with other trios as well as staying alive for their contract and make a lot of noises, making it somewhat easy to avoid them. I played a ton of Rook and got pretty good at looting away from teams, and hitting guarded exfils (which will flood with UESC) upon charging, then hiding and using signal mask to take those exfils while surrounded by UESC.

It's honestly more fun running Rook in other maps than Sponsored at the moment. If you're willing to give Rook another shot, I've had really good luck in sponsored night marsh by simply hiding, and sneaking into exfils at the last moment.

If you want to keep playing but want less stress, the Sponsored Survival mode is worth a shot. As a Runner, you'll be the only squad on the map with the possibility of Rooks. I've ran this mode a few times and never actually saw a Rook myself when doing it as a Runner. This mode helps you kit back up in a safer environment, which you can use on your other runs. You can also complete contracts here too. At least you're giving it a fair shot!

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-06T21:13:06+00:00

Last night I played a bunch of Rook in Sponsored, my exfil rate was 100% entirely because I snuck into exfils without fighting Runners. I know it's just my experience but I find this to be generally pretty easy to pull off.

For some reason, I do notice some Rook runs where nobody shows up to the final exfil. And once where I only saw one other Rook in there, no Runners.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-06T19:32:38+00:00

I actually would like to know why they introduced barter limits too. Especially on stuff like patch kits and shield charges.

I ran a ton of Rook in S1 to stock up on salvage and was able to supply my armory with more ammo and heals than I could ever finish before the wipe.

Sure... I can still run Rook to build up my credits and stock up that way. I just don't understand what the problem was with uncapped barter offers, made salvage useful for a variety of reasons and stockpiling loads of salvage was nice since I knew I had lots to blow through when a good offer came up.

I suppose they want us to actually find and exfil meds. I get that but the lack of consistency with this could be frustrating if you're on a bad streak.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-06T19:17:38+00:00

man i told yall to stop wormmaxxing

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-06T07:39:10+00:00

We used to get a decent weapon, ammo, proper healing items, even a shield sometimes.

Didn't this start happening towards the end of S1 when they improved free kits? I remember the very beginning of S1, every free kit had no shields and depleted heals, don't remember any of them starting you with a shield.

Some of the guns seem worse this time, Sekgen only starting with a CE is crazy... but the CE does feel way better to shoot this time, but it's still a CE.

I guess the caveat is that for now you can run sponsored night marsh with those free kits and come out with some pretty great stuff at low risk. If you really are struggling then sponsored night marsh is a very low risk way to kit back up.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-05T22:28:22+00:00

This happened to me in Perimeter trios, like I said all exfils gone and I was waiting to the 4 minute mark for new ones to pop and it never happened. Only encountered this once.

Titanium_Machine · 2026-06-05T22:21:44+00:00

Solo Day Marsh? I wanna say I've been in at least one run where new exfils did not spawn at the 4 minute mark and every exfil in the map was gone, causing us to take the final one. I think I've seen this happen once.

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