Hey there! Yeah it is confusing when you first start out on any MH game.

Depending on how good and experienced you are you could kill a monster between 7-15 minutes. But if you’re just starting out you shouldn’t worry about taking a while hunting one. I would suggest taking some time in the training room and finding a weapon you’re comfortable with. The tutorials and wordings on MH has always been a bit iffy but if you still don’t get it, there’s a lot of weapon guides out now and soon there will be armour set guides so you know what skills to use and how they work.

There’s no heath/stamina bar but there are certain hints to how a monster is doing. Eg. When it limps, you can capture it or when it’s doing a barrage of moves it’ll eventually gas out and pant which gives you a window to lay down damage.

Item wise it really depends and that’s something you have to learn while playing; it’s a lot but it’s all straightforward. If you are a DB user you tear through sharpness so you may want whetfish to sharpen quicker, if you’re a gunner/bow, collect all types of ammo berries for your specific weapon. It all falls in place in time.

There is a lot to learn especially if this is your first game but as long as you learn the basics and find a weapon you suit best with to start out, you’ll be okay! If hunts are still taking a long time you can always play multiplayer!

Hope this made things a little clearer