[MHP3rd] Guild | ★8-4 | Gold Rathian | Great Sword | 03'48"73

Check the video description for my armor and drink skills.

Absolutely insane.

Despite getting one of the slower spawns, this is the most incredible Gold Rathian run I've ever seen. Not even in practice did I come anywhere close to a time like this. I knew sub-4 was possible, but I never thought I'd break that barrier, let alone this hard and this quick.

The two viable spawns outside the cave are slower and don't get the luxury of breaking a pillar guaranteed, but they do offer an easier pitfall setup.

This run was super clean with only one filler move (the spin, which nearly killed me). Speaking of close shaves, I'm pretty sure I was also one pixel away from death at 3:16. That's a pretty risky punish to go for in that situation, but I went for it anyway. I'm also very fortunate I didn't get any charges when recovering after doing damage on the right wing after knockdowns.

The second rage activation actually caught me off-guard, since it usually takes two hits, but given the insane damage I was doing and the (likely) low HP roll, it makes sense. I didn't have time for the usual punish and I almost went for the second-fastest punish, but it's risky on its followup so I made the split-second decision to go for the third punish timing and managed to land it, even though I couldn't see the wings (I don't know why I didn't just turn the camera, now that I think about it).

On the final knockdown, I noticed rage wear off and decided to go for the shock trap instead of more damage. Knocking it down after the second rage ends is when I go for the capture, so I figured I'd go for it now, and it worked. I got a lot of damage and I'm guessing it was a low HP roll, since the capture triggered instantly.

Again, absolutely insane.

I use a different set than usual for this hunt. The Zinogre GS actually outdamages other options due to the monster's low raw weakness but high elemental weakness to thunder. Since skills such as Punishing Draw and Weakness Exploit are useless for this hunt, we can actually take full advantage of this GS with Sharpness +1, and Earplugs to round out the set, letting us take advantage of roars.

The key to this hunt is stagger management, keeping one wing in stagger range at all times if possible. The left wing is the best for this, since an air knockdown lets me get the safest followup. There are times that force me to switch dominant sides, and I need to keep track of where my staggers are throughout the hunt.

As usual, I use bombs at the start of the hunt to lower my HP to activate Felyne Heroics, which gives me a 1.35x attack boost.

This is Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Version on a PlayStation 3.

Drink Skills: Attack Up (L), Felyne Booster, Felyne Heroics
Armor Skills: Sharpness +1, Focus, Critical Draw, Earplugs

Weapon: Despot's Blackstorm
Armor: Tigrex Cap U, Yamato Doate, Tigrex Vambraces U, Tigrex Faulds U, Storm Pants, Dragon Talisman (+5 Handicraft, +3 Hearing)
Decorations: Draw Jewel 1 (x1), Draw Jewel 2 (x3), Handicraft Jewel 3 (x1)