Hello folks,

So I've been playing me some MH4U and I'm still early in doing the single player quest but was introduced to online via the storyline. Now from looking I get the impression that online plays a large part in MH4U and want to give it a try if I can at some point once I'm further down the road. But is online friendly to those new to MH? And how do I go about joining other players, will I need to hook up with three friends or is there a option to match with random folks?

I tried a simple quest from the guild hall and got my ass handed to me so I'm guessing they're suited to four player groups. How does communication function and work? I get the impression that MH4U is a game where teamwork in key online.

Thanks for helping me out, really appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I never interfaced with the multiplayer in MH4U so I'm not 100% sure on this info. If it's like Tri, you can look for rooms that are open often with tags indicating what the group is looking to do so you can see if it lines up with your goals.

In my experience, Guild Hall quests are best suited for 2 players. With 3 and 4 players it's a lot easier for things to start getting sloppy/messy. As far as communication goes, I believe you just have access to emotes and canned phrases, but in the heat of battle there is literally no time to do any of that stuff anyways. Generally speaking, the better you get at the game the easier it will be to anticipate and interpret your allies' actions based on very little context.

@machofantastico: Teamwork in Monster Hunter isn't as crucial as one might think, at least from my experience. It's more important to just know the basics of what you need to bring with you, like cool drinks or antidotes, and then just try your best to pull your weight in the battle without getting in other people's way by hitting them with your weapon or something. The Online quests are tougher than the offline quests to do solo, but generally easier with 4 people than single player quests are by yourself.

There is some support stuff you can do, like using items that heal your team mates when they're in trouble, but there's plenty of time to get comfortable with the game without engaging with any of that stuff as you rank up.

Just like in single player quests you pretty much always have 2 strikes in a quest before you fail on the 3rd one, only now this number is shared among your group. With 4 people, you can be the only one in your group not to die and still fail the quest, or you can be the only one in your group who dies 3 times and fails it for everybody. The best you can do is be patient with people who mess up and hope that others are patient with you when you mess up, both scenarios are likely to happen eventually. Don't let it bother you too much.

I wouldn't say people are generally unfriendly or hard ion beginners or anything like that. You'll meet some folks that are more chatty than others, and a few bad eggs once in a while, but generally multiplayer is a business transaction with a lot of players being quiet and patient. I don't think anyone would blow you off if you asked about something in chat that you wanted explained, even if the character limit can make communicating a very slow process.

Speaking of communicating, once you go online you can type some text in chat while in the guild hall. Once on a quest, there are pre-written messages you can use to communicate, some of which will automatically trigger when you do things that require the other players' attention, like place a bomb or mount a monster. You can edit these messages if you want to say more specific things or just add a bit of personality to your character. I suggest that you create a locked online lobby and just look through what these messages are, and edit them if you like. Sooner or later you'll figure out if there are some common things that you want to communicate during a quest, or if you just want to yell out some dumb catchphrase in the middle of battle for the heck of it!

I haven't played in a month or so but it always seemed to be relatively easy to find people online. If you have time between now and say....an hour from now, we could play some.

Just throwing my own question in here: Do I miss out on stuff if I don't play online at all? I got this when it was on sale during the holidays, and am having a blast with it. Still only in the second "city" though, so I know I have a lot more in front of me. But I usually don't like to play multiplayer with people I don't know, unless it is a big chaotic free for all like Battlefield. And I don't know anyone who actually play this, so I don't see myself playing any online, unless that means I miss some important content.

@jaqen_hghar: It has been a while, but I want to say that there are definetly a few monsters you can only face by ranking up in the Guild Hall quests. You could theoretically do all of these quests on your own, in single player, but it'd probably be pretty tough.

There are 3 "tiers" of quests in the game. Low-Rank, High-Rank and G-Rank. Each higher tier have the Monsters in them getting a bump in power and sometimes new or enhanced moves. The Monsters also drop new materials for you to craft more powerful versions of their armor or weapons with.

As far as I remember, all of the single player quests are in the Low and eventually High tier, with G-rank quests being limited to the Guild Hall "multiplayer quests". Unless you're counting G-Rank Expeditions, which you still have to rank up in Guild Hall in order to unlock.

Kinda makes me wish there were better ai companion options for these games.

@jaqen_hghar: Yeah, basically online is the only way to access the third tier of monsters/gear. Of course, if you aren't playing online then you don't really need that level of gear, but you're going to be stuck with a bunch of weapons with upgrades that you can't access.

Also back in the MH Freedom days on PSP there was no online play so I had to solo everything. It's definitely doable.

Gotcha. Might have to try it out eventually then.

Thanks for the tips folks, I certainly might give online a go as it seems like an important part of what makes Monster Hunter great from what I can tell. Still might wait till I'm more comfortable with the solo quests for now but knowing what I might expect will certainly help me out.

So far I've had pretty good luck with online randos; despite a lot of them being absurdly high or max rank, they've been pretty open to helping people out and not freaking out when you, say, forget how trapping a monster works. Or you can't seem to stop hurling yourself into the mouth of that Rathalos you're trying to hunt.

Yeah sadly I haven't been having much luck with online, I'm guessing not that many people are playing it any more because it seems pretty bare when I search for rooms. Shame really.

Makes sense considering the age of the game.