MHR Hunting Horn Build: Armor, Weapon, Stats & Skills

What is the Hunting Horn in Monster Hunter Rise?

The hunting horn is one of the 14 weapons of the game, which has quite a peculiar move set. At the same time, certain weapons focus on pure offense and raw might. The hunting horn is known to be the most passive-aggressive weapon in the series. It is a weapon that provides essential buffs and benefits to you & other players.

In previous titles, the weapon was considered one of the most inaccessible weapons to use in the franchise. Thankfully, MHR has completely revamped the whole arsenal and functionality of the hunting horn this time around, giving it a full-fledged melee move-set instead of a buffs-providing musical instrument.

However, like every weapon, the Hunting horn has a learning curve to master in the game. Only through this phase will you then truly appreciate and destroy monsters with the weapon. The game offers an entirely separate training area where you can freely test out weapons and their damage and learn every combo attack.

Where other weapons may shine in delivering chunks of huge DPS, the hunting horn excels in not only dishing out heavy impact damage, but you apply attack buffs and more like it to heavily aid you during tough battles. Players can play notes from the weapon that continuously boosts certain effects and distinctive attributes.

Overall, the weapon does not have a too complicated move set, unlike the almighty Chargeblade or the Bow. Players new to the game can easily pick the weapon up and adjust it to their playstyles. The weapon has silk bind attacks which are a new addition to the series. They are helpful special attacks found in each weapon type.

Hunting Horn Silkbind Attacks

The silk bind attacks are a new feature to exist within each weapon of MHR. Generally, they are based around the wirebugs, which add another layer of maneuverability and other new mechanics to the game. There are different silk bind attacks you can use with each weapon in the game.

However, it is worth pointing out that you will only have 2 active wirebug charges at the start of any hunt. You can replenish these by collecting more of the bugs found throughout the zones. Each wirebug action is different such as negating damage or even allowing you to perform a devastating attack to stagger monsters.

Keep in mind some of the old silk bind moves can be swapped with newer ones. It is a feature only available in the Sunbreak DLC. Following are the main silk bind attacks of the Hunting horn and their explanation:

• Slide Beat: The skill launches the player forward into a spin attack action. It is a helpful attack to adjust your positioning and get up close to the monster. You are immune to knockback during the animation of the attack. Slide beat also provides a minor boost to your strength stat.
• Earthshaker: The attack infuses your iron silk threads into a blade-like stake driver. The hunter will plunge it into the monster. Afterward, it deals additional damage using sonic waves exploding inside the target’s body.
• Bead of Resonance: This skill can be swapped with the Earthshaker. It is a unique skill, unlike the rest, which places a cocoon wirebug on the ground. The cocoon can play songs that can either strengthen your healing potential or boost your attack stats. It can cover long distances to help your teammates from far away.

Hunting Horn Melodies

The melodies of the hunting horn provide useful and game-changing buffs during fights. They are a core mechanic of the hunting horn, one that many players should learn to use to fully embrace its true power.

The melodies can be auto-played as musical notes by using the weapon in conjunction with attacks. They can also be sung manually by inputting each attack in a combo and keeping an eye on the song notes bar on the top left of the screen. Successfully entering the correct notes will play a melody alongside your weapon attacks.

These can range from several types of benefits, from increasing your resistance to certain attributes for a short time to raising your attack or health points. Generally speaking, the best melodies will either be the ones to amplify your weapon affinities, or you might use them depending on the monster type and situation.

We recommend experimenting with each of the hunting horns as they all have different melodies to choose from. These will be important later on as we discuss the best build for the weapon in complete detail.

The buffs that you will want to use on yourself will be the “Mind’s eye” and “self-improvement” melodies. The former will make your weapon attacks hit the hard parts of the monster instead of bouncing off. Self-improvement will allow you to gain increased movement speed, which is essential for almost every hunt.

The Best Hunting Horn Build in MHR

There are quite a few builds to choose from for the hunting horn in the game. However, that is a discussion we will cover later down the road. For now, we are looking at the best hunting horn build of MHR. It is up-to-date with the Sunbreak expansion’s release. The build is designed to be the perfect entryway for the master rank.

The Monster Hunter series is well-known to be a grind fest, especially with how you will be looting specific monster parts and materials out in the world. Players will easily lose track of time or, even worse, get distracted by an unconventional build for their weapon.

You will primarily be spending your time using different horns and swapping between them. Players will be mixing and matching equipment to get them through the early battles of the game. But during the late-to-end game of Monster Hunter rise, you will want to strictly stick to crafting the best weapon and an ideal build for it.

So without further delay, let us discuss the best hunter horn builds to choose from in MHR. It is also considered one of the strongest builds by the community, and veteran horn players still use it with the current meta of Monster Hunter Rise.

The Dragon Heart Hunting Horn Build

As we mentioned before, the build focuses on letting players feasibly enter Sunbreak and Master Rank hunts. Most importantly, players can also use the build as a pre-sunbreak hunting horn build in MHR. What it means is that above Hunter Rank 100+, you will want to focus on making it your primary build for future hunts or events.

The build mainly concentrates on making sure you dish out unfiltered raw damage. That fact alone makes the dragon heart build one of the many strongest build choices to follow and use in the game. You can solely focus on farming parts of only one specific monster since the build relies on a single armor set in MHR.

In addition, from testing in-game, we can confirm that the build goes great with high DPS attacks. Making it an excellent pair-up with the Earthshaker as well as other swappable silk bind abilities. So let’s look at the build and discuss the weapons that you can use with it, the armor and decorations, and your overall stats.

Weapons For Hunting Horn Build

The main two weapons you are looking to use here are the Rampage Agitato S. You have the option to choose the Tigrex Horn as an optional choice for the build. Even after multiple patches to the game and with the release of the latest DLC, Sunbreak. These weapons are awesome to get started in clearing the DLC content.

• Rampage Agitato S: The weapon can be crafted from the parts of the Zinogre monster. He is a thunderous Fanged Wyvern who is highly ferocious and deadly when provoked. His weak spot is his head, as it is also the only way to knock him out of the enraged status and knock him out. The monster has a wide range of attacks, but he can be easily toppled with weapons focusing on his elemental weaknesses, which are ice and water.
• Tigrex Horn: As you might have guessed from the name of the weapon, the parts to craft it can be obtained by farming Tigrex. He is considered just as dangerous here as he was in Monster Hunter World. He is weak to Thunder and Dragon elements. We recommend going hitting its head and forelegs. It will cause him to stumble quite a few times during his charge attacks which can be annoying to dodge.

We advise getting your hands on the Rampage Agitato S, as it is easily one of the strongest hunting horns found in the base game of Monster Hunter Rise. It is an ideal weapon that will “hard carry” you through just about every single content found in the base game as well as Sunbreak.

Rampage Weapon Skills

Also new to the series with MHR is the ability to customize your weapon’s skills. It is a quality of life improvement, one that many players have appreciated since the release of the game. You can freely modify whichever skills may suit your weapon better from the item box in the “Change Switch Skill” menu.

However, it is worth keeping in mind that you can not immediately unlock the feature in the game. You should keep following the “Village Progress” tab quests. You will know it’s unlocked when you are capable of doing three-star rank quests and just before your first-ever rampage defense quest.

In terms of weapon skills for our build, in particular, we are looking to use skills that can bring out any hidden DPS from our arsenal and attacks. The weapon skills that you will want on either of these weapons are:

• Sharpness Type 3 Rampage skill
• Non-elemental boost Rampage skill
• Attack Melody 2 Rampage skill

Alternatively, you can also switch them out for weapon skills like Weakness exploit or Attack Boost skills. Just focus on checking out your weapon tree or any new unlocked skills from time to time to never miss them. You will want to have these on for the best damage output on your hunting horn build in MHR.

If you are playing in a group and like to use beneficial buff skills, then by all means, switch to ones that can be useful for your party of hunters. But with these skills attached, you will have no trouble rapidly pummeling monsters. You will also not have to worry about your weapon sharpness or attack multiplier decreasing.

Armor For Hunting Horn Build

When it comes to it, the armor set for builds in the game is just as important as the weapons as they determine your overall defense stats as well as let you slot them with their skills and various types of decorations.

We will be using the Valstrax Armor set, which can be obtained by farming one of the endgame bosses in MHR. He is called Crimson Glow Valstrax, and it is an Elder Dragon which is the toughest species found in the game.

The decorations in Monster Hunter are also known as Jewels. Do not worry about being overwhelmed at first glance with these, as they are essentially Mods or Attachments if you are familiar with other RPGs and games. These decorations provide additional damage or conditional boosts to various properties in the game.

While on the topic of them, you can farm these jewels from the endgame high rank or master rank hunts. Monster Hunter is notorious for the endgame progression mostly centered around farming for the best jewels, so it can be a frustrating task to do. One that even veteran players get exhausted of doing after several hunts.

For now, let us discuss each armor set piece aswell as the preferred jewels to equip on them. We suggest fully replicating the armor build to make the most out of your entire kit and provide optimal damage.

Headgear

In the headgear slot, you will want to equip the Valstrax Helm. To be able to craft it, you will need the minimum materials of x5 Gleaming shell, 2x Crimson liquid, 2x Valstrax Claw+, and 2x Rakna-Kadaki Glow-gut. The best decoration to have on the piece is Critical jewel 2 and Steadfast jewel 1.

We should quickly mention that farming for the materials needed for the armor pieces can be a time-consuming process. You never know what materials may spawn for you out in your exploration or what the monster may drop, so it is all dependent on luck and RNG.

Chest Piece

For the chest piece armor, we recommend using the Valstrax Mail. To craft it, the player will need to obtain materials; 2x Valstrax Spineshell, 6x Shimmering scale, 2x Rogue Spikewing, and 2x Magna soul prism.

In terms of jewels or decorations, we suggest finding another pair of Critical jewel 1 and Steadfast jewel 1. The two of these again will provide more critical damage as well as chances to resist stun damage from monsters.

Gauntlets

The arm pieces that we suggest using are the Valstrax Braces. To craft them, you will need a 6x Shimmering Scale, 2x Valstrax Claw+, 2x Valstrax Spineshell, and 2x Teostra Powder. You can be rewarded with the Teostra powder via quests related to Teostra or by simply farming it.

For the decorations on the arm piece, we recommend slotting in a Critical jewel 2. Unfortunately, the arm piece only has 1 jewel slot, but that should be enough for our build.

Waist Armor

The Abdomen or Waist armor of the game for our build is called the Valstrax Coil. You will need similar materials as before, which are a 6x Gleaming shell, 2x Crimson liquid, 2x Rouge Spikewing, and 2x Bazelguese fuse. As the item name implies, you can find the fuses by hunting down Bazeleguese or rewarded from quests related to it.

The best decoration to fit in here would be the Expert Jewel 2. The jewel will provide the critical eye stat, which will significantly increase your critical chances with each increasing level.

Leg Armor

The leg armor is the last piece of the set that we need, and it is the Valstrax Greaves. The necessary materials you need are a 5x Gleaming shell, 3x Valstrax Claw+, 2x Valstrax tail, and a 1x Red Serpent orb. The orb is a super rare drop from Crimson Glow Valstrax, so we recommend farming until you can get it to drop from the monster.

The Decorations that we suggest slotting in the greaves are the Expert jewel 2 and Steadfast Jewel 1. These will help you max out the last bit of min-maxing on the critical chance stats and resistance to stun attacks.

Petalaces

These are new equipment items introduced with Monster Hunter Rise. They are essentially bracelets that your hunters can wear for passive bonuses ranging from increased defense to a boost to all of your stats. You will slowly receive new petalaces from Elder Fugen. These can be upgraded to increase their effects.

We advise going with the Absolute Petalace as it grants more health to your character as well as a boost to your overall stats, which is pretty useful for any kind of build in the game.

Best Talisman

Talismans function similarly to decorations in a sense. If you have played other types of MMOs or RPGs, they are based on Artifacts and Keepsakes, which can be a part of your overall armor. Knowing which is the best talisman to go with your build is crucial to perfecting the damage of the hunting horn in MHR.

We highly recommend trying to meld the Fatal Tempest Talisman. Of course, you might not be able to find an exact copy of it since Talismans are entirely luck-based and with what kind of stats they might drop.

The safest bet is to look out if it drops with Critical level 3 or anything that may help increase your raw damage. Players can also opt for using Dual Socket attributes on it, which will allow you to put 2 jewels of your choice.

Stats & Extra Tips on Our Best Hunter Horn Build

If you followed along with our build guide and managed to replicate the exact same or even close to the Hunter Horn build that was discussed. You should have the following overall stats of your character or something similar:

• Attack: 240
• Affinity: 25%
• Defense: 581
• Fire: -7
• Thunder: -7
• Water: -7
• Dragon: -7
• Ice: 18

The armor skills from the Valstrax Set will also provide you with the Dragonheart skill. It will kick in when you have 80 percent or lower health. The skill will then grant you the Dragon Blight buff, which will nullify any element bonus on your weapon or build. But it wouldn’t matter since we are not using an elemental weapon.

However, the advantage of the skill is that whenever Dragon Blight remains active, you will gain +50 points for all of your resistances and +10 points of raw attack damage. So it will heavily compensate for your low base stats. Making it the best armor choice for players looking to craft the Hunter horn build for MHR.

The Valstrax set will also give the Resentment and Resuscitate skills. The latter is a very important skill as it works in unison with the Dragon blight ailment from the Dragon heart skill. Resuscitate will grant you further raw attack from any blight status on your hunter, so it synergizes well with the blight ailments from Dragon heart.

Tips 

Monster Hunter Rise is the latest installment in the critically acclaimed Monster Hunter Franchise. The series was developed and published by Capcom. They are one of the legendary studios that brought the Resident Evil and Street Fighter series to the world. Just like its previous titles, Monster Hunter Rise features a variety of different weapons to accustom every hunter’s playstyle.

To be accurate, there are a total of 14 weapon types that are recurring throughout the entire series. Each weapon may offer drastically unique move sets, from the swift and speedy dual blades or the powerhouse Greatswords.

MHR allows you to customize your hunters with various badass Armor and artillery to craft powerful builds. These builds require you to possess multiple weapon skills as well as other helpful accessories to create them.

The game had a lot of expectations riding on it ever since the huge success of Monster Hunter World. But now, even after the release of the latest expansion Sunbreak. The game continues to rattle veterans and newcomers with its smooth and fluid combat and progression.

Verdict

The Dragon heart hunting horn build is the best-preferred loadout to use if you want to quickly take down monsters with loads of damage on their different parts. But like most builds, it is not perfect by all means.

The slight disadvantages to the build may spur from the lack of defense options with it. Most of the deadly attacks will require you to perform quick evasive maneuvers. The fact that the highest damage will be coming from your health being below the 80 percent threshold may throw some players off.

However, most crazy or High DPS builds in Monster Hunter Rise require you to be under limited conditions to be granted stacking damage numbers. But we assure you that it will destroy any kind or type of monster in a classic speed-run fashion as well as get you up to date in Sunbreak’s gateway content cleanup.

This wraps up our detailed guide on the best hunting horn build for MHR. We hope you are enjoying the latest release of the Sunbreak expansion on PC and if it lived up to your hype. If there is anything that we missed or if you have a question regarding the build, let us know in the comments below!

Next: MHR Sunbreak Prized Pelt