Monster Hunter: World

• Even if you don't have the expansion, the game now starts new players with super powerful armour and craftable weapons that are intended to (and do) make the base game an absolute breeze, so you can get up to speed for the expansion. If you want any challenge at all, ditch them.

• Don't treat it like Dark Souls, treat it like a rhythm game. The game isn't very fast-paced, careful positioning and aim are far more important than quick reflexes. Locational damage matters in a big way, so know where you want to hit and use an attack with a swing arc that will hit the right area.

• There is effectively no penalty for death. Dying dumps you back in camp with nothing lost. Quests have limited "lives" and if you die that many times, you'll have to restart.

• Explore everything. The zones are big, layered and full of secret nooks and crannies that can and will have resources you need to upgrade your equipment.

• "Investigations" are selected from the trio on the platform in the Tradeyard. To start the Investigation, select it as a quest from the quest board. Investigations are your friend, they will give you money, monster parts and many other rewards in addition to anything you get just from the hunt itself.

• Capturing requires at least two Tranq Bombs and a Trap. If you take a Capture Investigation, you will get these for free from your in-mission equipment box. Try to max out your tracking level by examining monster trails in-mission. At the maximum level, the map icon will show a little skull on the monster icon when it is weak enough to capture. This is important, because killing a monster during a capture mission is an instant fail.

• After a certain point the game will stop giving you supplies at the camp (and sometimes won't even start you in the camp to begin with), so don't get used to relying on the item chest for free potions/traps/etc.

• Try to progress through the story quests quickly, your maximum equipment level is capped by game progress. They're quick and mostly very forgiving. Once you have unlocked the major zones, you can start worrying about optimizing your equipment.

• Try out the different weapon types before you commit. Most people tend to use bow as a secondary since it's very useful against certain hunts.

• Ranged Weapons don't require sharpening, instead they rely on ammo types.

• Weapons have different tiers of sharpness that will reduce with use. Higher levels deal more damage than the ones below.

• Mounting requires you to attack while jumping. Mountable monsters have an armor threshold that you must break before they become mountbale. After a mount, that armor resets and goes up.

• Holding R1 while moving will make jumping to vines easier and is an alternative to sprinting with L3.

• Look for yellow Wedge Beetles hanging on overhanging tree branches as you can "use" these to swing yourself to different locations.

• Trapping monsters requires a pit trap or a shock trap (much easier to make), and 2 tranquilizer bombs or tranquilizer ammo. This can only be done when a monster is near death (has skulls on their map icon) and is easier to pull off when they return to their nest to sleep.

• Pinning map icons with R3 will give you a trail to your target.

• Poison weapons are strong starting weapons, but eventually you will want to move on to owning an element of each type.

• Yellow damage numbers are critical hits. Hitting any weak point will display these numbers.

• Affinity is your critical damage stat. Blue damage numbers means you're hitting below the standard threshold.

• Monster parts you don't pick up or carve will eventually despawn.

• You cannot capture Elder Dragons. Instead, place explosive barrels on them when they sleep.

• Elder Seal is a condition that will nullify or remove buffs/gimmicks on Elder Dragons after so many hits with your weapon.

• Your sling is very important. If a monster is flying, chances are you can use a flash-pod to bring them down or pelt them on their face to stun them.

• Shooting a monster with dung will chase them off.

• Gear with parentheses surrounding elemental damage means it requires the armor skill "Free Elem" before it's useable.

• Your Palico can get new tools/gear. Look for Doodles during an expedition. This means there's a cat tribe you can discover so you can get new tools. The last two will require a guide (knife and bomb).

• You can fish with your net.

• Use items, use the environment, abuse small ledges, kick frogs, etc

• You can create equipment loadouts and customize your item bar in the item poach menu.

• Don't forget to re-sharpen your sword during boss hunts. I stopped doing damage to that big-headed thing in the swamp and couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong for about 10 minutes, then re-sharpened my sword and killed it in like 5 more hits.

• A new tier of encounters and armour is unlocked after the second encounter with the big bad. So don't feel obligated to grind hunts for upgrades that aren't necessary before then. The new gear is way better.

• A ways into the game 2 charms appear in the supply store. They give a nice bonus to your attack and defense by just putting them in your pouch. Later on you can use them to craft even nicer versions- then buy the originals again for even more bonus.

• Early on you unlock the Tailraider safari, a posse of cat friends who bring back lots of useless loot. Except! Some bosses drop essences or elemental sacs of which you will need many to craft charms and high level potions. So send the tailraiders out instead of repetitively grinding Pukei and Paolumu and so on.