Monster Hunter as a franchise has a lot of things going for it that it is well known for. The monsters, different weapons, the combat, the ecology, the overarching story.
However, the thing that often gets put aside is something that makes players either have their jaws drop in admiration, or rip their hair out; the Monster’s abilities, and we need to talk about them.
Below is a list of some memorable abilities of Monsters from the franchise in no particular order, that we felt are discussed a lot in the community, or just straight up super cool.
Most unique monster moves in Monster Hunter
Nargacuga bonking with the tail
Nargacuga is an iconic monster that has caused a lot of pain to Monster Hunter players over the years, but it is also a fan favorite for all its incredible movesets.
Nargacuga is dark-furred flying wyvern monster appearing for the first time in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Since then, it has become one of the mainstay monsters that gets everyone hyped up everytime Nargacuga is reintroduced in DLCs in newer games.
The monster has a lot of annoying movesets to deal with that mostly center around its spiked tail, the most iconic being the tail slam that may one shot kill the hunter at times. Nargacuga will suddenly extend the size of its tail and slam it down on the hunter in the middle of fight.
Tigerex’s ADHD run
One of the biggest discussions around this monster is the debate of whether to call Tigerex as ‘Tiger rex’ or ‘Tig-rex’. But let’s not forget the important fact that this monster is an absolute menace to fight against.
Tigerex was originally introduced as the new big bad of Monster Hunter franchise in Freedom Unite, and it lived up to its name as it kept causing terror in the hearts of hunters for generations to come.
Tigerex has the same skeleton as a Nargacuga and is a flying wyvern, but fighting its enormous tool kit of various movesets feels like tackling a war crime.
The most vicious and annyong to deal with move has to be Tigerex’s running moves which it will keep doing multiple times. It has become one of the most iconic monster movesets in the history of this franchise.
Zinogre getting fully charged up
Zinogre is once again another monster that’s fan favorite but unlike the previous monsters, this lighting puppy isn’t hated much and is actually very fun to fight against.
Zinogre is a fanged wyvern that first appeared in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. It has one of the most memorable storylines surrounding its habitat that is the Misty Peaks and Heaven’s Mount.
This monster is a very flexible canine hunter with high speed and agility. Zinogre is constantly moving around trying to lunge on the hunter and in the process there’s a lot of moves that the monster can perform.
The Zinogre is an elemental monster, thunder to be exact and its most iconic move we believe is not actually an offensive ability. Zinogre leaves itself vulnerable when full charging up which is one of its iconic traits, but after it is fully charged up, dealing with its moves gets harder.
Congalala: the walking fart joke
Congalala is one of the fanged beast ape monsters in this series that everyone remembers either fondly or have appalling memories of.
Regardless, the majority of fans wanted this ape back in modern Monster Hunter, and seems like that’s happening.
Congalala is a comic relief of a monster, as its main attack revolves around consuming different kinds of mushrooms that enhance the ape’s breath and farts.
Capcom has tried to emulate the same effect with other monsters, like Volvidon in Monster Hunter Rise but the humor isn’t as effective as it is with Congalala.
Valstrax around the world
Monster Hunter is a series that references a lot of things based on modern reality and gives them fantastical shapes. Valstrax, the Elder Dragon from the series, is such an example. With wings having thrusters based on jet engines, this monster can zoom around at unnatural speeds.
Valstrax’s most memorable attack is called “Around the World”. It sucks air into its chest to the fullest before blasting off into the horizon sky, and then returning back and plummeting down on the player like a falling comet from the sky.
This attack has been so memorable in popular media that it has even been referenced in the boss fight with Starscourge Radahn in From Software’s Elden Ring.
Fatalis’ Flame Breath
This black dragon is one of the most important monsters in the entirety of Monster Hunter lore. He is rumored to have erased an entire kingdom in a single night, razed to ground in hellish fire, and also is known to bring about the doom of human civilization in general for its eternal hatred of humans.
The scariest and most memorable ability of Fatalis is his Flame Breath. This is what he used to raze an entire country to the ground.
Everyone’s first reaction to this ability is one of the most memorable ones, as it is dangerous enough to wipe out the player in a single shot, even if fully prepared.
Teostra and Lunastra bonding
Having defined similarities to a Lion, Teostra is one of the well known Elder Dragons that has appeared in several games in the series now.
Lunastra is its female partner often revered as the ‘Empress of Flame’. The relationship between both these Elder Dragons is the most endearing in the franchise as they often team up to fend off threats.
Both Teostra and Lunastra have a supernova ability which allows them to cause a huge blast of explosion in a considerable amount of area around them.
But this ability becomes ten times more dangerous and beautiful when both the Elder Dragons team up in a fight, and we get to see them dance around in beautiful unison of explosion that causes and even wider area of damage.
Athal-Ka and Tokusatsu
Athal-Ka was introduced in Monster Hunter Ultimate Generations, a Neopteron (Insectoid monster) and probably the only one with the most interesting abilities in the entirety of the Monster Hunter franchise.
Its abilities are based on several phase fights, the most memorable one is Athal-Ka’s Athal-Neset. It digs up a towering war machine made of heaps of scrap metal, and uses fine silk to manipulate the giant robot like a tokusatsu fight.
Its a shame that we have not seen something like this return in later monster hunter games.
When the Molten TigerX speaks
One of the most prominent and hated, or loved monsters in the franchise is TigerX. Having fast manoeuvring movesets, incomprehensive hitboxes that will make you gouge your eyes out, and not to mention, roars.
But the particular type of TigerX we are about to bring up is a rare (and even more annoying) one, found on top of an important tower in Monster Hunter 4.
If every other version of TigerX’s roars made you quit, the the ‘Molten TigerX’ will make you destroy your console.
It can use explosive roars multiple times in succession, enough to stun lock you to death. Trust us if this red crawling dinosaur calls you, do not pick up the phone !
Nerscylla’s domain
The Monster Hunter franchise is no stranger to having bug-like monsters. The most popular being from the Temnoceran class of monsters, and specifically Spider monsters.
Recent games have had few popular spiders, and the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds is also going to have a temnoceran that’s already a fan favourite.
Nerscylla introduced her own nest into the gameplay, which made her abilities unique. She weaves durable silk webs that would give her unique movesets, allowing her to hang upside down and use the environment with her abilities to fight her prey.
It’s a shame she was never brought back in the later games, and new spiders such as the Rakna Kadaki didnt have similar abilities.
