Great Hunt trial guide

Trial quick facts

The Hunt has always been simple business. Snatch a bill from the board, seek out your quarry, and claim your bounty. A peculiar posting in Kugane, however, has complicated matters. What began as a simple hunt in the Azim Steppe has quickly escalated into a harrowing undertaking, with a strange new Felyne companion, and even stranger prey -- Rathalos, king of the skies. With mega potion in hand, you venture into the mountains. But do you have what it takes to stand against his fiery fury?

• Category: Trial
• Difficulty: normal
• First Appearance: Patch 4.36, *Stormblood*
• Level: 70
• Item Level Requirement: 320
• Party Size: Full Party (8 players)
• Required Quest: The New King on the Block
• Entrance: The Azim Steppe
• Entrance Coordinates: 11.3, 11.1
• Location: The Great Hunt
• Region: Othard

Before queueing

Use the quick facts to check level, item level, party size, required quest, entrance, roulette, and time limit before queueing for Great Hunt.

• Repair gear and meet the listed level/item-level requirements.
• Tell the party if it is your first clear.
• Use the local wiki link for exact duty facts and related articles.

Boss and mechanic notes

Great Hunt has local boss notes for: Rathalos, Phase 1: Grounded, Phase 2: Adds, Phase 3: Flying. These notes are pulled from the local wiki and should be treated as source-backed prep unless separately marked as human-reviewed strategy.

• Rathalos has no auto-attacks and is unaffected by enmity, meaning he cannot be tanked at any point during the encounter. Instead, players must keep an eye on his wind-up animations and react accordingly to avoid unnecessary damage. Seeing as targets are random per attack, a good rule of thumb is to keep an eye on the direction Rathalos is facing. If he turns in your direction, it is always best to move out of his path to avoid a potential rush-attack. Melee also needs to keep an eye out for his 360-degree tail-swipe (which will always be counterclockwise) as well as a short-ranged bite/swipe attack which will hit all players directly in front and behind Rathalos. Due to this, anyone close to Rathalos should try to stick to his left-flank whenever possible.
• Whipping Bite is indicated by Rathalos staring slightly to its left while opening his mouth and raising his tail. After a short delay, he will snap at players immediately in front of him while simultaneously swiping behind him with his tail. You can safely avoid this short-ranged attack by moving to either of Rathalos' flanks or by backing away.
• Tail Swipe is a two-part attack indicated by Rathalos looking to his right side and menacingly raising his tail. After a brief delay, Rathalos will swing his tail in a 180-degree counterclockwise motion. Immediately after this, Rathalos will perform another 180-degree sweep after a short delay in the same counterclockwise motion. Anyone caught in the path of a Tail Swipe will receive moderate damage and a massive knockback, with a possibility of being Stunned. To avoid this, players should either move to Rathalos' left flank or move out of range during the wind-up animation.
• Charging Bite is a rush-attack indicated by Rathalos turning towards a player (regardless of distance) and performing a brief roar-like animation. After a short delay, Rathalos will then lunge directly at that player with a vicious bite, be they near or far. All players caught in the path of his charge will be inflicted with moderate damage and knockback, as well as a chance of being Stunned. To avoid it, players should watch out for the brief wind-up animation and side-step out of its path as soon as possible.
• Fireball is indicated by an overhead marker on the target player and is one of the few telegraphed attacks Rathalos uses. After rearing up for a few seconds, Rathalos will expel an unavoidable fireball at the marked player, inflicting moderate splash damage as well as a dispellable Burns debuff. Players with the marker should move away from the party to avoid inflicting unnecessary damage to others.
• Evasive Breath is indicated by Rathalos turning towards a target player and lowering its head and body. After a short delay, Rathalos will blast the area directly in front of him with fire during a backward leap, damaging, Burning and knocking away anyone directly in front of him. This particular attack is one of the most dangerous as the telegraph is very short.
• Bear in mind that the player who mounts Rathalos will take continuous damage-over-time and may require healing - a possible reference to the use of stamina when mounting a monster in Monster Hunter: World. If the player who has mounted Rathalos is reduced to 0 HP, they will be knocked off Rathalos, and the party will wipe to King of the Skies. The Garula's auto-attacks are also incredibly vicious, even against tanks, and it will also frequently perform a frontal AoE cleave for massive damage to anyone caught in its path. This cleave can also hit the player who has mounted Rathalos and quickly lead to a raid wipe. Due to this, it is best to face the Garula away from the party as soon as possible.
• Claw Swipe is another rush attack similar to Charging Bite. After turning towards a random player (regardless of distance) and elevating slightly, Rathalos will swoop at that player with his claws after a brief delay. Players slashed by Rathalos' claws will be inflicted with a dispellable Poison, a brief Stun, moderate damage and a knockback. Just like Charging Bite, players can avoid this attack by quickly side-stepping out of his way before he charges.
• Mangle and Sweeping Flames are frontal-cone AoE's, indicated by Rathalos rearing its head and displaying its flaming mouth for a brief moment. To avoid these, players can either move behind Rathalos, move to his flanks, or move out of range entirely.
• Fireball, unlike phase 1, is now a sharable stack marker. After a brief delay, Rathalos will spit a fireball at the stack-marked player, leaving behind a persistent puddle of flame on the ground that will inflict Burns on everyone sharing the damage and anyone who passes through puddles afterwards. If this ability targets a tank instead of a healer or damage-dealer, the tank may choose to mitigate the fireball by themself using defensive cooldowns. Despite healers being unable to heal other players during this final phase, they can still use Esuna to remove the resulting Burns, or use shield spells to help mitigate incoming damage.
• At this point, Rathalos will continue to cycle through these abilities until he is defeated, the party wipes or the 60-minute duty timer expires.

Duty finder and rewards context

Use this section to decide whether the duty belongs in roulettes, high-end queues, mentor roulette, or repeat farming.

• Duty Finder: Trials (Stormblood)
• Roulette: Trials
• Time Limit: 60 minutes
• Tomestones: 10 poetics

Completion notes

After your first clear, check whether the duty has mapping, clear, Blue Mage, loot, music, or collection reasons to return.

• Music: Phases 1-2: Savage of the Ancient Forest
• Music: Phase 3: Proof of a Hero - Monster Hunter: World Version
• Music: Victory: Quest Complete! - Proof of a Hero Version
• Music: Duty Failure: Quest Failed (Monster Hunter: World)

Verification boundary

This page is generated from local TJPedia wiki data. It does not invent missing mechanics, NPC coordinates, loot tables, or current-party-finder strategies. High-end positioning and current-prog tactics still need human review before being labeled as a full strategy guide.

• Source-backed: duty facts, local boss notes, achievements, and music.
• Needs human review: exact high-end progression strategy.
• Use official patch notes for changed requirements or rewards.

Related on TJPedia

Wiki: Great HuntDungeon route indexTrial and raid routeGuides hub