Hunting Horn
Low Rank

Hunting Horn is a blunt weapon like a hammer, but it allows you to play Melodies to buff yourself and team mates. As such, Hunting Horn is best utilized in a group setting, but can be used effectively solo.

Each hunting horn has a different set of notes, for different buffs so part of the progression is deciding which buffs you like. Certain buffs benefit certain weapon types more. The “main” path for this guide is extremely easy and clean, and has a reasonable set of notes. Additional hunting horns will be provided to give you options if you prefer their note set. As a quick note, after playing a set of songs, you can immediately play the same set again by hitting R2 again after your songs complete. This lets you easily get into the second tier of songs, or extend them easily. You should utilize this as much as possible.

The short answer is:

Build the Bone Path for the entirety of the game if you can put up with it’s less than stellar sharpness before picking up Dodogama’s Hunting Horn, but you can also pick up the Tobi Kadachi, and Rathian Hunting Horns if you prefer the different buffs they have, at the cost of reduced damage.

Now for the long answer:

The Metal Bag Pipes 1 you start with is good for the first missions. You’ll want to build the Bone Path as soon as possible, as it’s damage is by far and wide the highest of all the hunting horns for the entirety of low rank.

Take a one way trip to the Bone-Zone by making a Bone Horn 1 and upgrade it to a Bone Horn 2 by using 3 Monster Bone S.

The Bone Horn’s Melody effects are Attack Up Small, which can be played a second time for Attack Up Large , Muck Res which will be only useful against Barroth and Jyuratodus, Enviromental Damage Negated, which won’t be particularly useful, and Earplugs (S) which will be moderately useful.

Attack Up L and the high base damage of this horn are the primary reasons for it being considered the “main path”.

You’ll use the Bone Horn 2 to take on the Great Jagras, and the Kulu Ya Ku.

After the Kulu Ya Ku, you have an optional new Horn to make. Upgrade your Metal Bagpipes 1 into Metal Bag Pipes 2 by using 2 Iron Ore. Then upgrade it again into a Kulu Duda 1 by using 1 Kulu Ya Ku Beak, 2 Kulu Ya Ku Hide, and 3 Kulu Ya Ku Scale. You’ll lose 40 raw damage, but gain green sharpness, and 15% affinity, making the damage output of these extremely similar while unbuffed. Green Sharpness is a nice damage buff, but two castings of every hunting horns “self improvement” will give you Mind’s Eye/ESP which means your attacks will no longer bounce off of enemies regardless of Sharpness Level. This is part of the reason why the Bone Path is so good early game.

The Kulu Duda’s melody effects are Stamina Use Reduced S, Wind Pressure Negated, Defense Up S, and Tool Use Drain Reduced S.

The Kulu Duda 1 and Bone Horn 2 will be adequate for moving onto the next monsters

Make your choice, and hunt a Pukei-Pukei.

After Pukei-Pukei, you’ll gain Monster Bone M as rewards, use them to upgrade your Bone Horn 2, into a Bone Horn 3 by using 2 Monster Bone M, and 1 Ancient Bone.

With this upgrade you’ll finally gain green sharpness.

Continue with your mandatory story hunts of Barroth, Jyuratodus, and then Tobi-Kadachi. Tobi Kadachi’s materials may come in handy later.

Now you’ll have to fight Anjanath as part of the story, but you can also optionally hunt a Rathian to upgrade your Kulu Duda 1. Hunting either will also give you Monster Bone L to upgrade your Bone Horn 3.

If you hunted a Rathian, upgrade your Kulu Duda 1 into a Valkyrie Chordmaker by using 3 Rathian Spike, 5 Rathian Scale, and 4 Rathian Shell. By doing this your notes will change, but you’ll maintain stamina use reduced, and defense up S. But you’ll gain Ice Res Boost, and Sonic Waves. Sonic Waves acts as a close range sonic bomb, which can be used against some monsters, most notably a tunnelling Diablos, to stun them.

This is the only upgrade tier to the Rathian path in Low Rank. Right now it’s not great, but it could make a resurgence in High Rank.

After Rathian, or if you hunted Anjanath, use your Monster Bone L to upgrade your Bone Horn 3 into a Hard Bone Horn 1 by using 1 Monster Bone L, 5 Monster Bone M, and 2 Boulder Bone. Boulder Bones can be harvest from bone piles in Wildspire Wastes.

Afterwards it’s Zorah Magdaros…. Setpeice… etc.

In the Coral Highlands, you’re forced into an expedition to explore.

You can mine here for Dragonite Ore. Mine 5 if you’d like to build the really boring tobi-kadachi path. Build a new set of Metal Bagpipes, and upgrade them to Metal Bagpipes 3 by using 8 iron ore, 2 machalite ore, and 2 earth crystals all in

Then upgrade them to a Thunder Gaida 1 by using 5 Dragonite Ore, 1 Tobi-Kadachi Electrode, 2 Tobi-Kadachi Claw, and 1 Electro Sac. You’ll lose out on raw damage, but gain Thunder elemental damage. You’ll also change notes again. Tobi’s path is healing focused. You’ll gain Earplugs (s), and Health Recovery.  Overall, healing isn’t a great feature of hunting horns, because you can just quickly sheathe and throw a lifepowder for the same effect, but depending on who you’re playing with, this may be a valuable option.

Continue progressing by hunting Paolumu, unlocking the Rotten Vale, hunting Radobaan, then returning to the Coral Highlands to take out Legiana

After Legiana you’ll hopefully get 2 Monster Bone+. Use them to upgrade your Hard Bone Horn 1 into a Hard Bone Horn 2 by using 2 Monster Bone+, 1 Monster Bone L, and 4 Sturdy Bones. Sturdy bones can be gathered from the Coral Highlands or Rotten vale.

If you prefer you can also upgrade the Thunder Gaida 1 into a Thunder Gaida 2 by using 2 Monster Bone+, 2 Tobi-Kadachi Electrode, 2 TObi-Kadachi Membrane, and 3 Coral Crystal. Coral Crystal can be mined from mining nodes in the Coral Highlands.

These are your last upgrades for Low Rank.

Finish up your mandatory hunts of Odogaron, followed by Rathalos and Diablos in whatever order you choose. The Lightning Damage on Thunder Gaida 2 will not come even close to the raw power of the Hard Bone Horn 2.

After beating the Zorah Magdaros setpeice, and killing a deceptively strong Pukei-Pukei, you’ll gain access to High Rank quests. Congratulations, the baby gloves are coming off.

High Rank

Our immediate goal in High Rank is a weapon upgrade to compensate for the increased health of monsters, with a long term goal of bringing our sharpness to the next level.

You have a few options once you hit High Rank.

If you’re lucky after the Pukei-Pukei you’ll have received 2 Monster Keenbone. Upgrade your Hard Bone Horn 2 into a Hard Bone Horn 3. By using 2 Monster Keenbone, 2 Monster Bone+ and 2 Quality Bone. You can find quality bones as rewards from early high rank quests or from bone piles in the ancient forest.

The massive power spikes from the Bone path are less prevalent now, but it still has consistently good notes. It’s still a viable path through the majority of high rank.

You can also upgrade your Tobi Kadachi horn if you prefer that. Hunt Tobi-Kadachi, and upgrade your Thunder Giada 2 into a Lightning Drum 1 by using 5 Carbalite Ore, 4 Tobi-Kadachi Scale+, 3 Tobi-Kadachi Pelt+, and 3 Vespoid Innerwing. You can find Vespoid Innerwing from Vespoids. Use red pits on your slinger to avoid destroying their bodies allowing you to carve.

Finally, you can also hunt a Rathian. Upgrade your Valkyrie Chordmaker into a Queen Chordmaker by using 3 Rathian Spike+, 5 Rathian Spike+, 4 Rathian Carapace and 1 Rathian Plate. The plate makes this difficult, but you’ll gain blue sharpness and an improved set of notes. You’ll gain stamina use reduced Large, All Wind Pressure Negated, Defense Up L, Ice Res Boost L, and Sonic Waves. All Wind Pressure Negated isn’t great immediately, but it will be extremely helpful during one of the later fights at the end of High Rank. The rest are just improved versions of the Valkyrie Chordmaker.

Make your choice. They all have their pluses and minuses.

You’ll now have to hunt Pink Rathian as part of standard story progression. After your hunt, you can upgrade your Queen Chordmaker into a Coral Chordmaker by using 4 Rathian Spike+, 5 Pink Rathian Scale+, 4 Pink Rathian Carapace, and 1 Wyvern Gem. Wyvern Gems can be obtained by monsters like Barroth, Jyuratodus and Radobaan.

You’ll now have access to the Elder’s Recess. You can fight 3 new Monsters here, as well as gain access to new minerals. Mine to get Fucium Ore.

Upgrade your Lightning Drum 1 into a Lightning Drum 2 by using 5 fucium ore, 2 tobi-kadachi electrode+, 4 tobi-kadachi membrane, and 3 thunder sac.

Finally, you can hunt Dodogama to upgrade your Hard Bone Horn 3.

Upgrade your Hard Bone Horn 3, into a Gama Horn 1 by using 4 Dodogama Talon, 5 Dodogama Scale+, and 4 Dodogama Hide+.

By taking this upgrade, you’ll gain blue sharpness, a damage spike, blast element and a new set of notes.

You’ll gain Attack Up Large, Health Boost Large, Wind pRessure Negated, and Defense Up Large. This is an extremely valuable general purpose melody set, and it’s on top of having extremely high raw damage with blast element.

Your next mandatory hunt is going to be Nergigante. Any of these weapons will be viable choices, the Gama Horn 1 will be the preference.

After your hunt, if you got 3 Elder Dragon Blood you can upgrade your Coral Chordmaker to a Royal Chordmaker by using 3 Elder Dragon Blood, 5 Rathian Spike+, 6 Pink Rathian Scale+, and 1 Rathian Ruby.

Of course, you should look into building Nergigante’s Hunting Horn, by going through the Ore Path.

Build a new set of Metal Bagpipes 1, and upgrade it to Metal Bagpipes 2, into Metal Bagpipes 3, into Great Bagpipe 1, followed by Great Bag Pipe 2, into Fortissimo 1, and Fortissimo 2, before finally upgrading into the Nergal Groove, by using 3 Nergigante Talon, 4 Nergigante Regrwoth Plate, 2 Nergigante Tail, and 2 Nergigante Carapace.

Congratulations, you now have a weapon that’s completely capable of getting you through the rest of the game, and one of the best Hunting Horns. The Nergal Groove’s high blue sharpness, and high raw damage with elderseal will be extremely beneficial. You’ll lose out on attack up large, but gain access to Affinity Up and Health Recovery Small, and Earplugs Large, which will make your group view you as a tiny god.

This will be more than sufficient for taking out the remaining Elder Dragons, but you will probably want to build the Royal Chordmaker specifically for Kushala Dao-ra.

 All Wind Pressure Negated, which will make the fight with it so much easier it’s difficult to actually put into words.

For final targets, after beating Teostra, and getting Fire Dragon Scale+, you can finish upgrading the Gama Horn 1 into a Gama Horn 2 by using 4 Fire Dragon Scale+, 4 Dodogama Jaw, 3 Dodogama Tail, and 1 Wyvern Gem. Wyvern Gems can be obtained from monsters like Barroth, Jyuratodus and Radobaan. You should pick this up if you prefer the melody set to the Nergal Groove.

After taking out Xeno’jiva, you can upgrade the Nergal Groove one more time into  Desolation’s Overture by using 2 Xeno’Jiva horns, 5 Nergigante Horn+, 5 Nergigante Talons, and 1 Nergigante Gem.

The Gem will make this difficult. If you go for one Hunting Horn, go for Desolation’s Overture because of it’s high raw, good blue sharpness, and reasonable dragon element with Elderseal. It’s melodies will be useful both while solo, and in a party. Earplugs is something everyone loves, and it will serve as a great general purpose weapon