A short Overview on How to make Best of the new Endgame content.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Note: Credit goes to アンジェル
This guide is about the endgame content which has been released with Title Update 1, in August 2022 with Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak version 11.0.1.0
New players beware of eventual spoilers, as endgame content is what you get once you finished the game. Until then the information you find here will not be of much interest.
Why Should I Do Investigations?
Challenges. Craftings. Loot.
The “holy trinity” of the Monster Hunter game loop (as long as you put the story aside).
The Anomaly Investigations are randomised quests which increase in difficulty by their level. They also give crafting materials as loot which are needed for the new armour augmentations, to give your personal hunting style an even more individual touch, beyond your lucky talisman!
This new endgame content ensures that in addition to upcoming new Title Updates quests and Event Quests you will unlikely ever run out of anything to do until the next Monster Hunter game. Joytime with open end, if you will!
Randomised quests, special rewards, augmented equipment – no more doing the same quests over and over again as Anomaly Investigations “evolve” over time if you allow them to do so!
Lock & Load
The first thing you want to learn is to lock interesting Anomaly Investigations quests. That way you will not lose them when the randomiser decides to put them away in favour of new Anomaly Investigations you will find.
Locked Anomaly Investigations quests will remain locked after you completed them. But they will also gain levels which increase the difficulty level and allow the discovery of other new Anomaly Investigations quests with a similar level.
Trivia: The phrase should be actually load and lock.
The nowadays common phrasing is due to John Wayne who has used it reversed in a movie.
Yeah, it never made sense to me lock and load with a rifle, but it makes sense with a quest.
Special Bounties: Research Requests
This part of Anomaly Investigations might be of interest to you if you are suffering frustrations from the drop rates of certain items and crafting materials. While I do not recommend to use this to go after specific items, it is a nice bonus which you should make use of.
At first, the pricing seems quite high. But trust me: you get plenty of reward coins soon enough, especially when you fulfill the special bounties on monsters, known as Research Requests targets.
That is also one of the reasons why it makes sense to look for plenty of different Anomaly Investigations quests. Fulfilling your stamp collection aka ten Research Requests will give you a bonus of 50 coins. The current Research Request can be seen even at the Quest Counters either in Elgado or Kamura.
All the more reason to enjoy the randomised endgame content which helps you getting the crafting material you have longed for. Especially when the target monster which drops them… can be difficult to handle and you like more a diverse approach.
Veteran’s Tip
Research Requests targets will reward you additional points which makes leveling up your Anomaly Research Level much easier. A higher level increases the chances for discovering higher level Anomaly Investigations quests.
It also shows on the Anomaly Investigations quest list if a monster on your list is target of a Research Request.
Getting New Anomaly Investigations
Now let us get to the interesting part.
How to get new and more interesting Anomaly Investigations
Players of Monster Hunter: World have an advantage here, as the principles used by the quest generator seems very similar. Once you understand the basics, it becomes like second nature to aim for your favourite Anomaly Investigations.
- 1) Level Up Anomaly Investigations
Each time you finish an Anomaly Investigation quest, it becomes available again with a higher level. If you keep doing that often enough, you will eventually end up maxing out that very specific quest, with the specific target monster in form of an increased challenge.
That sounds very tedious, does it not? Thankfully there is more to it!
- 2) Gathering at Qurio Afflicted Spots
On your Anomaly Investigations quests you will come across Gathering Spots which are afflicted by the Qurio. Gathering items from those spots will grant you additional Anomaly Research Points which will be rewarded to you by the end of a hunt.
That makes Spiribirds routes quite worthwhile during Anomaly Investigations quests, as you will come across many of those Gathering Spots with traces of Qurio. And with every additional research point you increase the chances for new and eventual more interesting quests.
Veteran’s Tip
In Multiplayer the points you and your fellow hunters are shared 1:1. Which means, you do not need to fight for a Gathering Spot. Whatever you and your fellow hunters collect in additional points will be added to the total points.
However, every time you gather at an afflicted Gathering Spot, gives an extra chance in discovering new Anomaly Investigations. So the more you gather personally, the more chances for new Anomaly Investigations quests you get.
For example: one player in a three player hunt I was with did gather from a lot of resources, while I gathered very little. They unlocked seven new Anomaly Investigations while I unlocked only three as quest end result. For the best outcome in that regards I recommend to hunt in Singleplayer and treat the quest like a semi-expedition until you exhausted all Qurio Afflicted Gathering Spots before hunting down the target monster.
- 3) Hunt Monsters
Okay, I could not come up with a better title for this third point.
At first I was thinking of something like “Hunt target monsters like with sub-quests“.
But that can be misleading. Let me explain to you why:
You get Anomaly Research Points for hunting down your target, breaking parts of your target, and doing much more during a quest. So far, so normal.
The crux is: Anomaly Investigations encourage you to exploit target monsters as much as possible. As in: break everything which can be broken with the monster.
Cutting Barioth‘s tail rewarded me with a new Anomaly Investigation ~
Hunters who aim for a quick kill are therefore in disadvantage (e.g. cheaters who kill a monster with a single shot will have a hard time progressing with Anomaly Investigations).
You do not just hunt down a target monster, but you try to learn as much as possible you can from your target. That accumulates to the maximum reward points and will eventually unlock new quests with different monsters on the similar level.
This is what it looked like when I was hunting an afflicted Barioth and unlocked new Anomaly Investigations quests. One of them turned out a multitarget hunt. Nice!
- 4) Hunt in Together in Multiplayer
This is actually a very fun part of the new endgame. When hunting in Multiplayer with other hunters, you may join them on the random Anomaly Investigations quests they have unlocked. Those can differ entirely from what you have in level and target monsters.
The best thing about this feature is: if you accumulate enough research points during that hunt, which is hosted by another hunter, there is a chance that you can “adopt” their Anomaly Investigation quest to make it your own.
Left image: the quest I have hosted | Right image: the quest my fellow huntress got
Imagine it like exchanging Research Notes between hunters. But doing that with quests which differ in type and level. It is not uncommon for hunters to get together to “trade” and exchange Anomaly Investigations quests that way. Maybe a hunter you know got some juicy research at a high level which is just too cool not to have. Try to gather as many points as possible while joining them for that quest, and the quest might become yours afterwards eventually.
A little like passing on some sort of Qurio-Virus from one hunter to another, if you will… ?
Bonus: Anomaly Quest Rewards
An overview of the rewards you get from Anomaly Quests A1★ to A4★
Veteran’s Tip
Are you qurious what mods I have been using to make my game look like that here and there?
Check out this video and follow the link in the description to learn more about visual mods for Monster Hunter Rise!
“Trivia: The phrase should be actually load and lock.
The nowadays common phrasing is due to John Wayne who has used it reversed in a movie.”
No, it shouldn’t. It’s been documented since the early 1800’s as “lock and load”. This is a complete lie that can be disproven with seconds of research.
Good explanations of the system otherwise though.