Jumped into the demo and I'm literally stumbling my way through, and since there's no tips in the demo its self any of you monster hunter vets can give us newbies?

If you hit the home button while running the demo, you can bring up a manual which gives a good general explanation. It is admittedly hard at first, but becomes easier very quickly.

Also, monster fights are not 2 minute boss battles. They can go on for a while, so don't give up!

I've never played a Monster Hunter game before, either. I just recently bought a 3ds, so I decided to give it a try. I tried the beginner monster, but I can't seem to land my hits accurately. I don't know if this game is for me. Does anyone know if the official release will support the circle pad pro? I think that might help for this game.

Play around with your weapons for a bit. One of the things that will happen in the actual game is you will get some practice on regular monsters before even getting your first boss "contract". Depending on the weapon, the general trend is X and A are your attacks, R is weapon specific moves (aim, block, etc.), and X+A is some sort of special attack. In reality it's more complex than that but that is a good jumping off point for getting used to weapons and finding your favorite style. Also, for the 3DS version something really useful they added is a boss lock on button (bottom right touch screen). When that is on then anytime you tap L your camera will snap to where the boss is. Really useful since camera controls are really awkward at times.

Edit: Also, checkout the manual that MasonL87 mentioned. Just took a look at it and it does have quite a bit of useful info especially for all of the weapon types.

• The biggest hurdle is to be patient. Don't go in expecting to mash the attack button and win. You have to be very methodical in when you're attacking. Take a few seconds to see if you can notice their pattern and when it would be safe to attack.
• A monster has three states: normal, enraged, and exhausted. You can tell when it's enraged by the smoke near it's head/mouth. They'll be more aggressive, attacks will hurt a bit more, and there will be less time to attack them. You can get a few hits in but it's better to focus on dodging. When they're exhausted, you'll see them drooling. They'll be slower and might trip up on some of their attacks, leaving them wide open for combos, traps, or bombs. The closer you are to beating a monster, the longer they'll be in the exhausted state.
• Every monster has weak points on their body where they take more damage. Some might even have armored parts where they'll take less or make your attacks bounce off of them unless upgraded past a certain point. Attacking certain parts of a monster's body also effects them over time. For example, if you attack one of Plesioth's legs while he's on land enough, he'll eventually fall over and leave himself open for huge damage.
• Get used to rolling. You can cancel the end of some attacks early by rolling out of it, and there are certain frames of the roll that are completely invincible.
• Sword and shield is a very newbie friendly weapon. Fast and safe attacks, no complex mechanics like demon mode or coating, the ability to block (although not as useful or effective as the lance shield), and you can use items while your weapon is out by holding R and pressing Y. Second best newbie friendly weapon would be the long sword. Long reach and huge damage for little risk, although it's generally frowned upon in real multiplayer since it's incredibly easy to hit your teammates with it, interrupting whatever they were trying to do.
  
• When fighting a boss monster, he'll usually rotate who he's going to fight after every attack. Use the time he's going after your NPC helpers to heal or eat a steak, or set up a trap.

Depending on how much you want to get into MH, or if you just enjoy really well-done game guides, you might want to check this out: http://www.kotowari.org/on-sale-now-monster-hunter-beginners-guide-written-by-yours-truly/ The price might seem a little steep, but the folks at 8-4 vouch for it, so buy at your own risk. I haven't picked it up yet myself but probably will out of curiosity some time soon.

Here is the infodump stuff: http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:MH3U

As far actual tips are concerned, I don't know what's in the demo so I can only speak in general:

• Sword & Shield - a great starter weapon, you are agile and can block and use items without sheathing
• Gather everything - fastidious gathering is a necessity for the first dozen or so hours so see if you like/can stand it
• Pay attention - think of MH like a fighting game, where knowing what your enemy is doing is more important than thinking about what you're doing
• React - learn your opponent's attack patterns and tells and play defensively until there is an opening
• Experiment - don't get too stuck on a single weapon type, what works for you may be drastically different from enemy to enemy

I know that's mostly high-concept stuff. If you have any specific questions feel free to @ reply me and I'll answer what I can when I can.

try going after the smaller stuff to get used to the controls. look for something slow moving and just work on killing it before it runs away.

Don't.

Nah I kid, I have no idea whether or not you should. I've just heard some stuff about this series.

Probably from people who haven't actually played it n'est-ce pas?

Type this in the youtube search bar,

"monster hunter [weapon type] tutorial"

Just change the [weapon type] with the weapon you are interested in.

Also this newbie playlist is OLD (MHFU stuff). But you'll get the understanding of how veteran MH players approach Boss monsters.

Edit: Yama is a bad example... Weirdo boss. I'll start the list with one thats in the new game. Nargacuga.

I would advise playing the full game because at least with tri, the game kind of eases you into it. Maybe start with sword and shield since it has the shortest animations. Avoid the guns or bows. Be warned: a lot of the combat is memorizing how long each of your attack animations are and learning the monster behavior. I'm not sure what they were thinking with the demo. Killing a large boss is a very difficult thing to do and thats all the demo is. I suppose you could try and kill the small enemies in the demo to practice.

Sword and shield is very approachable and don't worry about it not having long term use since it's a newbie weapon. It is very serviceable.

People call MH controls sluggish. I'd call them deliberate. The controls are actually very responsive, and your character does exactly what you command. But it often takes a while and few animations can be canceled.

There are a number of clubs devoted to MH fans meeting up to play games in various towns. You might be able to find some people that way depending on where you live.

Sword and shield is the worse in my opinion. As a newbie you aren't doing damage, and you'll never get a reaction out of the monsters because you are generally to short ranged too hit their weak points.

I think it's one of the reasons why people think the monsters don't react to hits at all in this game. Starting weapon is always the SnS afterall.

I feel like SnS is an intermediate level weapon. You need to be right next to the monster and wail at him while blocking and dodging all the attacks. It's like a safer Dual Swords minus the damage output.

@animateria:

So what do you consider the easiest to learn Monster Hunter weapon?

I'd say any burst damage weapon. You don't need to be in the monsters attack radius that often. You only need 1 good hit before running away. And you get reactions from monsters faster.

I think Great Swords are super easy to use once you know the basics. Attack, roll outta the way, sheath then run around then hit at a safe moment.

After that, hammers has always been easy for the earlier bosses. Just charge attack (R trigger) every time and you are set. It gets harder with the faster guys but early on it's easy to kill with.

I don't even use SnS myself, it's hard to deal damage and timeouts happen often as a solo hunter (playing High-rank Multiplayer solo but still), I'd rather take DS at that point.

I think I might need to define what I'm talking about. I'm talking about fresh out of the gate, when you have to go kill Kelbis and Jaggis and make cook a few steaks. When you haven't figured out the controls yet. When you aren't used to sheathing you weapon all the time. Just trying to hit a kelbi with a great sword isn't particularly easy for somebody with no MH experience. My suggestion is using S&S until the controls are comfortable. When you can handle the camera and use items quickly. Then start trying other weapons. So you aren't fighting mulitple game systems at the same time.

So I'm downloading the game on my WiiU as I type this. Never played a MH game before. Played the demo a bit, and didn't like just being thrown in like that, but I see what there is to like here. Does the full game actually explain itself and ease you in better? When is a good time to start hopping into online games? What is the general strategy during a hunt? Do you just ignore the normal enemies and go right for the big bad or take your time and kill all the lesser foes for materials or something?

Also found this youtube channel that seems to be helpful, in regards to tutorials and stuff. Watching some stuff now.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

I had good success with a bow when I first played online because it allowed me to stay back and not die but still contribute to the damage.