Monster Hunter World screenshot showing HR 13 hunter

I spent most of Saturday playing Monster Hunter World, and when I finished, I took this screenshot of my save file, horrified at the time played.

You see where it says my hunter rank is 13? That’s because while you work through the storyline, your rank is periodically capped. It’ll stay 13 until I defeat Nergigante, then remain capped at 14 until I finish the campaign. After that there’s a few more soft caps (29, 49, 100) but it becomes largely a status symbol for bragging rights.

Why am I so suddenly obsessed with my newbie hunter rank? Because I’m stuck. So stuck. After so many attempts yesterday, I still can’t kill Nergigante. I’ve successfully hunted, killed and captured Deviljho a number of times, but the Nergigante kill I need to progress eludes me. This is a bit frustrating because this is the first time a storyline monster has got me stumped – everything else has fallen before my longsword without any trouble.

So, I was getting frustrated for sure. But at the end of day, I realised I was still progressing. At the start, I was struggling to stand up to Nergigante. By the end of the day, I was consistently chasing him as he limped back to his lair, tail severed, and with all three of my carts remaining. I’m close. I’ll get him soon.

In the meantime, to break up the monotony of attempt after attempt on his life, I responded to a few SOS flares, concentrating on Odogaron, Legiana and Tobi-Kadachi. I’m doing okay for armour and weaponry; the only thing I really need is a Legiana Gem to craft the Legiana Mail. The wiki (which is terrible, coincidentally) suggests the gem has at best a 13% drop rate as a gold investigation reward, and something like a 1-3% chance from breaking and carving, so unsurprisingly I haven’t seen one yet.

The Greatest Jagras

There’s a lot to do in MHW, and despite this recent Nergigante-shaped roadblock, I’m still hugely enjoying it. The first Appreciation Festival is coming in a few weeks, and promises a hunt for “The Greatest Jagras” as a 9-star hunt. It’d be nice to be able to do that, but I’m not sure how feasible that really is…