I'm prepping for the Gore Magala and found a good weapon upgrade for it. However, that weapon upgrade requires Rathalos Scales and Iodrome Hides; I haven't encountered either yet. Can you get either those in the single-player stuff before the Urgent Quest to kill the Gore Magala, or are they gated off until you kill the Gore Magala?

Unfortunately, you can only face Rathalos and Iodrome until after you've faced Gore Magala.

I mean, you could always go into online mode and work your way to Rathalos but people get their panties twisted about people who don't do the village first.

I've been doing fine with my impact charge blade against Gore in the "repel it!" encounters, but I'm thinking now about spending some time fighting Rathians to get a fire element CB to exploit Gore's fire weakness before I try the 4 star urgent quest to hunt it. Does this seem like a good idea, or should I just plow through?

@quid_pro_bono: you could try that, doesn't hurt to get more elemental CBs or you could just make use of the impact phial full charge to ko the gore. Just make sure to get rid of the frenzy virus to get the affinity boost. Nulberries help reset the bar if you can't get rid of it in time.