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Switchaxes and Greatswords are also extremely popular, but in MH4U, it seems like just a ton of people are using the Bug Staff and the Charge Blade. Which makes sense, of course, since they're the new weapons. (I have some gripes with Bug Staff users though, and i'm not convinced many people have a firm grasp of the Charge Blade's extremely complex moveset.) I've never really felt like there's one single weapon type that is being used at the expense of all others though, and in my experience it mostly just comes down to the SNS and the Lances that aren't seen very frequently. Neither of which are bad though. With the SNS, it tends to just be that it's not a very "sexy" weapon, while the reasons the lances often go unused are a little more diverse and complicated... In a good group though, if the Lancer is given the room he needs, it's an incredible weapon. So gems... It's a unique system, so i'm going to run through something i've seen people get wrong, and it's something i myself got wrong with previous Monster Hunter games: So if you go to your status screen, you can look at your skills, right? Skills from your armor and your slotted gems will appear there. The cumulative values of all the points you have in different skills. The thing is, skills do not grow by increments, they have to hit thresholds to become active. (You can see the thresholds for a given skill by selecting it and... hitting Y? I think you hit Y.) This ends up being why carefully choosing your armor is so important. Those pieces end up being the core of your skill set, with talismans and slotted gems attempting to push you the rest of the way to higher thresholds or a handful of additional skills. (Or say you have a -10 skill for attack or something, throw one attack gem into your build to push it up to -9, so it's not at the negative threshold and becomes inert.) Usually the thresholds will look like "+20, +15, +10, -10, -15" or some variation there. (The short gaps between higher levels of positive thresholds means it's easier to double down on skills your armor gives you a foundation for, rather than try to build additional skills alongside it.) SO ALL OF THAT SAID. Defensive armor, and gems to support that, is usually a good place to start. Later on, you'll want to do things like having a set with guard skills for your lances, or a set with status up to improve your status effect weapons. (You'll absolutely want to start creating equipment sets, which will automatically shuffle around gems to different weapons and armor, neatly avoiding both tediously micromanaging your gems or trying to fully slot every piece simultaneously.)

Be careful, the charge exposes you in a pretty huge way. You also have an advancing guard move that lets you approach with your shield raised. That's forward & X while in a guard state, and quickly hitting X again at the end of that does a shield bash which can combo into your A or X attacks, among other things. Once you're there, you have considerable freedom to chain three moves together and then link that to another chain with a side-step dodge. Get a feel for it and you'll find the Lance to be a very impressive damage dealer that works well with every element type or status effect. Also, regarding the lance charge, it has three separate finishers. Simply pressing X will do the most powerful single attack in the Lance's arsenal, holding back and hitting X will do a reverse sweep attack, and holding forward and pressing B will launch you into the air where you can then do an airborne X attack. (This makes the lance one of two weapons that is able to mount a monster without the aid of environment features to launch off of.) You can also just stop the lance charge dead by hitting B with a neutral stick input. Also be very careful about managing your stamina, because if your guard breaks and you start taking a bunch of damage, the lance's awkward dodges, plentiful recovery frames, and generally restricted movement can make it very difficult to extricate yourself from a fight to go heal. That's a very, very basic rundown. The lance is one of the more complex movesets in the game. I'm surprised to see so many people here picking up the lance, because it is not a popular weapon. (That doesn't mean it's not awesome, it's definitely awesome.)

Now i get to be unreasonably paranoid about whether or not i've been impacted by this. Glad i could be of use, at least.

If your weapon is deflected because of physical resistance/sharpness values adding up in an unfavorable way, the weapon does 30% reduced damage - on top of already reduced damage from its perhaps degraded sharpness - and takes more durability damage from the deflected hit as well. Some attacks/skills allow you to ignore deflection, like the spirit combo on the longsword, but will still suffer the above penalties even if it's not visibly deflected. (You will still see "sparks" instead of blood to indicate this.) So, technically, you can brute force through a monster's armor, but your damage will be nerfed so drastically that you're better off just trying to find the weak points. Also, i'm pretty sure the starter pack would have just expired. I think it was only up until the 15th. Some other stuff went up recently though, you can even craft the Master Sword as an SnS. This stuff will apparently remain up for as long as the game's servers are running. (With further free weapons/quests/palicoes appearing monthly.)

There's two types of traps in the game, pitfalls and shock traps. There's some minor differences and special conditions between the two, but they both immobilize the monster for a brief few seconds and open up the possibility of a capture. (When a monster is limping, trap them and hit them with tranq bombs. Sometimes it's required, otherwise it's usually just better loot.) You can carry one of each, you should always carry both, even in a hunt. If you're not aiming for a capture, they're also incredibly useful for giving yourself an opening against an enraged monster. To build them, look at your item combo list, every recipe in the game is in there, look for the ones that use trap tools. Poisoned meat is... To be perfectly honest, i'm not entirely sure what you do with it. I believe you need to be in a stealth state, unnoticed by the monster, and can then use it to lure the creature over to a trap. At least, i think that's how it's supposed to work. In practice, it's easier to just stand behind your trap and use yourself as bait. Also, there's a few very rare conditions in which monsters might be immune to traps. It's not something you normally need to worry about, but you need to recognize it when it happens. If you want to try to figure out as much of the game on your own as possible, definitely at least use what is offered in the game itself. (Purchase the monster guides from the item shops, and play the weapon tutorials offered by the guildmarm, and also look through the move lists under hunter info.) The game does offer basic explanation for most of its mechanics, so it's not completely inadvisable, but you will run into trouble figuring out the conditions for rare drops once you're a ways further into the game. For that, at the very least, you will likely have to turn to wikis and guides. Regarding the long sword, here's an incredibly important thing to know: The fadeslash, which is your X&A attack, if you use it immediatelly after either an A or X attack and combine it with a left or right input, your character will do a sidestep attack that gradually circles around your target. You can then combo out of that fadeslash with another A attack, then do either one or two X attacks back into an A attack or another fadeslash sidestep. (Or just combo fadeslash sidesteps using a single A attack as a link.) Using the fadeslash like this gives you repeatable horizontal attacks and lets you remain in a posture that is both aggressive and evasive. (Which is essential, given that you're constantly racing against the timers on your spirit meter.) The normal backstep fadeslash, btw, doesn't combo back into normal attacks, but it makes your R-button spirit combo one move shorter, and therefore lets it come out faster. (Since landing that last hit is so essential to building your meter, this is crucial.) As for the switch axe, it's not a weapon i or anybody i play with use with any great frequency. It's an extremely high DPS weapon though, with some tremendous range and a broad range of variable effects. (It's also notorious for causing misery amongst teammates when used by a poor player, given its tremendous range and the friendly knockback it inflicts, so take care with that shit.) Anyways, perhaps Look up Gaijin Hunter's channel on youtube though, there are very comprehensive video tutorials there for all the weapon types.

Okay, so it's not just me, then.

Just in case people here aren't using it: This site is kind of amazing. It will be incredibly useful for tracking down obtuse high rank drops. So here's a very important thing to understand about Monster Hunter: For melee weapons, there are two damage types. (Only broadly speaking, it's actually way more complicated and those details will follow.) There is cutting damage, that's your swords and stuff, and there's impact damage. (The two hammers and a few shield bashes in other movesets.) Impact damage is generally more useful, since impact hits exhaust stamina, grows an invisible counter for a knock-out status when striking heads, and is also just generally more effective for breaking parts. Cutting weapons, on the other hand, are useful for cutting off tails... And... Yeah, and that's kind of it. (Again, i'm speaking fairly generally. This isn't absolute, as cutting weapons can sometimes inflict other wounds just as easily as impact weapons, but it depends on the monster.) Every enemy is carved up into usually around a dozen hit zones with different resistances to each damage type. (On top of which is the sharpness stat that will determine whether or not your attacks will be deflected.) Then you get into lances, which are a weird third damage type that hits for either cutting or impact damage according to whichever damage type presents a softer target wherever the lance strikes. (Unfortunately, the lance loses all the peripheral benefits, and also generally sucks for breaking parts.) Then you get into phials on the charge blades and switch axes, as well the gunlance ammo. (That ammo is impact damage, minus the KO chance, as all explosions are.) Theen you get into status effects and elements. (There's also blast, which builds like a status effect but is treated by the game as its own thing with some unique rules. It's also another source of explosive impact damage.) All of this is why i keep saying that it's important to have a diverse array of weapons. You don't have to learn all the different classes if you don't want to, you don't even necessarily need to go to hammers/hunting horns for your impact damage needs, but you do need a range of elements to go to. Being able to contribute to a status effect in a multiplayer game, or bringing the right element to fight a monster, only becomes more and more essential the further into the game you go. I use primarily lances and long swords, but i have four of each of those in my active rotation, and a handful of hammers and heavy bowguns on top of it. Edit: It's also worth pointing out that ranged weapons are another damage type with another set of resistances on top of all of this, nevermind all their variable ammo effects, i don't even want to get into all of that. I'm pretty deep into high ranks right now, with "g rank" quests to look forward to beyond that, and there's still probably a couple dozen major monsters left in the game that i haven't even seen. It's a massively deep dive, and one that kind of lulls you into a false sense of security early on. You can feel like you have a grasp on things, but when you hit high ranks quests, suddenly the game stops handling you with kiddy gloves and starts trying to kick your ass. It's the difference between being given a lot of systems to play around with, and really needing to utilize them to survive. If you feel like you appreciate what the game offers, i'd say it's worth playing at least until the high ranks start, but keep in mind that Monster Hunter games are always such behemoths that it's perfectly reasonable to decide for yourself when you need to stop. (I'm two hundred hours into this game, which will probably make my comment at the start of this paragraph seem kind of ludicrous.) If you ignore the solo game completely, you will find the multiplayer side of the game to become an increasingly untenable grind, since many of the things that let you keep up, like item farms, are unlocked via the solo progression. I will say that, while the solo game starts slow, the missions become more interesting as it introduces more areas and shifts its focus towards more complex fights. Still, if you simply cannot feel engaged with the game as a solo experience, there's nothing else really to say for it, the game will kind of break down.

Like i said, i'm kind of layman with this, so i'm not sure what specific information you want, let me know and i'll send it your way. Looking into it more though, i can definitely see the script and possibly the details that reveal what it is, but it only shows up consistently when i'm in private browsing. It doesn't seem like it appears if i'm logged in? I don't understand, but it seems to mirror what's in that security blog pretty closely though. If really nobody else is seeing it, is it something on my end?

This sounds seriously exciting to me. It apparently aims to be a legitimate, genuine third Ultima Underworld game, they state that they have rights to everything except the "Ultima" name.

This kickstarter is pretty close to finishing up, and they've already hit their goal, so they're just making a final push for stretch goals. They did some twitch streams with a bunch of special guests and old Looking Glass dudes playing old Looking Glass games, but the commentary audio was quite muddled and i found it nearly impossible to make out any of what was being said. Very disappointing.

I just want to be absolutely clear, are you doing the caravan missions, or are you trying to solo the gathering hall missions? Also, the thing about the armor is... That gunner/blademaster divide is kind of a red herring, because even just among melee weapons, you still want to work towards having armor sets specific to your different melee weapons. Something that boosts your block, perhaps, for a lance, while a hammer would benefit from a buff to knockout damage. (You're also not "throwing away progress", the materials you've been collecting are sort of latent potential, you're probably already most of the way towards building some acceptable gear.) Myself, over a hundred hours into the game, i'm running five sets of armor across about a dozen weapons. Where you are at in the game though, i probably had 3 or 4 weapons and maybe two sets of armor. (Gunner/Blademaster Tetsucabra armor, actually. It was just the easiest thing to do at the time.) Anyways, in my personal opinion, and this is an opinion because i know people who have played huge chunks of Monster Hunter games solo with a gunner weapon, i think the gunner weapons are generally more suited to multiplayer. You will be a hero in multiplayer, providing support effects and being able to step back and adjust your ammo type to help double up on the status effect a blademaster's weapon is dedicated to inflicting, all without fighting for melee space in the dogpile by the monster. Still, if you want to solo with the ranged weapons, which is certainly manageable, there's a few things to keep in mind: 1. Don't cheap out on ammo, certain types will be monstrously powerful. (I'll admit that i'm not completely sure how the ammo works out for the bows. I understand the default shot is probably stronger than the the default bowgun ammo, but it's also probably not advisable to rely on.) 2. The ranged weapons can perform mounting attacks as well. (The bowguns do it by reloading mid-air, which turns into a sort of ground pound attack. I'm not sure how the bows do it, i know they actually have a few dedicated melee attacks.) 3. Large barrel bombs exist in the game largely for the benefit of gunners. (Combined with a sleep status effect, you can have plenty of time to set them up and shoot them.) 4. Damage varies a lot by range, and headshots are almost always ideal. (Except when they're not.) 5. Like the melee weapons, you can cancel a lot of move recovery by dodging left or right or forward immediately following an attack. With the bowguns, at least, sometimes blindfiring between these dodges at close range is actually the safest and most effective way to play. (Again, i don't use the bow, it might be a bit different there, but it probably isn't.) All of this said, i generally don't play a gunner, but at least some of this advice comes at me from people who do.

As i've said a bunch of times, you pretty much always need to have a set of multiple weapons. If that weapon set is diverse, you probably don't even need to go back and grind out a bunch of extra stuff, usually just one or two items. As i noted once before, your bow being maxed out as much as possible for where you are in the game doesn't necessarily mean it's all that good for where you are in the game, the progress curves for the weapon trees tend to be seriously uneven. (Alternatively, Gypceros is apparently crazy resistant to shot damage everywhere except his head, so there's that too. If you've been aiming for body shots, you haven't been doing anything.) The gypceros is a really annoying early fight though, but i think he's pretty easy to take down with a lance or a hammer. (With the lance, you can hide behind the shield to avoid his flash stun. With the hammer, you can actually just break his crest to prevent him from doing in in the first place. I'd say go for the lance though, if you're not confident in your evasion. Take advantage of the counter attack and the advancing guard to both set up high-damage chains.) As for poison, all you can really do that early in the game is just stock up on antidotes. Don't underestimate the cumulative amount of damage from that. If you're near an exit, it's worth stepping out of the area and curing it. Also, unlike many others, Gypceros way more dangerous from behind, his tail attacks are seriously hard to avoid. If you feel like you need a lot of durability, the Tetsu armor is pretty much the earliest choice for tanking through lots of damage, and it's worth upgrading a couple of times. With the right gems it's easy to get significant health/defense buffs off of it without any active penalties. (Try swapping out the gauntlets for konchu vambraces, that's what i did.) You'll quickly run into other armors that offer better base defense and more diverse skills, but the testucabra armor's emphasis on durability is a good crutch to fall back on until you have a clear picture of which skills in which armors will actually benefit your builds.

Alright, i'm kind of a layman with this stuff, but i've spent my day reading up and i think i have a guess at what the offending script is. If anybody wants to fire me a private message, we can have a back and forth about it.

Googling came up with this, so is this relevant to what i'm noticing, possibly?

I'm not exactly sure what i should be looking for, but noscript detects it fairly reliably, but only on a first visit with no cookies set. This is the only site i have ever seen that domain.

Okay, i might be going crazy, or there might be something on my end, but if i visit specifically the front page of this forum with cookies cleared - or in a private window as it turns out - my noscript plugin shows that the forum is trying to run scripts from an "alnera.eu" domain, which googling seems to suggest is involved with a variety of driveby exploits. Has the forum been a victim of something?

Keep some forward momentum in the game so you keep running into new stuff instead of the game iterating on what it just introduced a half-dozen times, and definitely get playing some multiplayer with people. The solo stuff stays pretty simple and dull for a good long while.

You know, this whole conversation could have probably been pulled out of this into a relevant BioShock thread, it's sure to be lost in here.

So, was anybody here actually interested in doing any multiplayer? The Sword and Shield definitely seems boring at first, but it ends up probably being one of the more nuanced weapons in the game with its combo trees, in addition to having a few special attacks off of ledges. (Even going -up- them, something no other weapon shares.) Also, the ability to use items from a guarded state without sheathing your weapon seems like a minor point, but it's a pretty huge advantage. Most significantly, it means you can heal more quickly and more safely. (In multiplayer, it also sort of pigeonholes you as the guy who is going to take care of all the items. With certain armor skills, you can even fashion yourself into an quick-acting and effective healer for the team.) The Lance, on the other hand, is the weapon to use if you don't mind trading evasion for tankiness and want to have a very broad range of individual attacks to apply as the situation demands, rather than any complicated combo trees. (Though there are still some extremely straight-forward combos to get a handle on. The general extent of it is 3 X or A attacks and a side dodge to cancel the recovery, back into the 3 X or A attacks.) Also, unlike the Gunlance, you don't give up overall mobility. With the Lance charge, you can move very quickly. Play around with several of the melee weapons, there's no reason to stick to one.

I've been seeing a lot of people complain that the AI is super dumb in Remastered, as opposed to the AI in the originals. It sounds like they might have fucked up a lot of subtle things.

People generally seem super positive about the remake, but it's hard to tell how much of that is simply due to how terrific Homeworld was in the first place. The remake definitely sounds a bit wobbly at present, i think i'll be waiting for a couple patches.

I had to farm the Gore Magala for one of my weapons and that was kind of a miserable thing to do, since one of his things only drops if you wound his head while he's frenzied.

For all their talk in preview materials about not "george lucasing" it, they've apparently made some pretty significant changes. (I guess there's no fuel logistics anymore for HW1 fighters, as an example.) It also sounds kind of busted right now, seems like a lot of people are having a lot of issues. (Formations are apparently incredibly broken right now.)

Very recently, i played the first Dawn of War and its expansions for the first time, and it struck me as a very odd game. I came away with the impression that you have very little precise control over movement micro due to the way the pathfinding shakes out, where in exchange the game emphasizes unit abilities and unit customization to a seriously unusual degree. I often felt like i was spending 80% of the game staring at the game's taskbar, because that seemed to be where the majority of the action was happening.