Monster Hunter Rise Magnamalo guide

Magnamalo is the flagship monster for Monster Hunter Rise, and it is no doubt one of the fiercer monsters you will encounter. This devastatingly powerful enemy comes with a lighting-fast moveset and debilitating hellblight skill that will challenge even the most seasoned of hunters.

In our Monster Hunter Rise Magnamalo guide, we’ll offer our best tips to help you properly prepare yourself before engaging the Magnamalo in combat.

Unlocking Magnamalo

The Magnamalo is available to hunt at Hub Rank 3, as it is the Hub Rank 2 Urgent Quest. That puts the Magnamalo at a fairly early unlock for players. In fact, you can fight the Magnamalo within the first three hours of Monster Hunter Rise through the Hub Progress quests, but we wouldn’t advise that for new players.

The Village Rank unlock quest for the Magnamalo becomes available at Village Rank 5, since it’s the Village Rank 4 Urgent Quest for comparison.

The best gear for Magnamalo

Equip yourself with the best gear possible at your respective Hunter Rank before tackling the Magnamalo quest.

This includes the Somnacanth, Barioth, and Rathian gear at the appropriate Village Rank. For Hub Rank, try the Bishaten armor with a weapon of your choosing. (Once again, choosing to unlock the Magnamalo through the Hub quests will be significantly harder and will be much more challenging.)

As you can see in the screenshot below, Magnamalo is extremely susceptible to the Waterblight status effect. Using weapons made from the Somnacanth or the Royal Ludroth will do the trick. However, as we played through the game, we simply picked the weapon that had the highest available attack stat at the time, and we were able to get through the quest well enough.

Best items

Make sure you have plenty of healing items. Stock up on Mega Potions, Max Potions, and Ancient Potions before you head into the quest. You can make Max Potions and Ancient Potions fairly early on in the game with the following materials.

Max Potion

• Catalyst (Bitterbug + Honey)
• Mandragora

Ancient Potion

• Immunizer (Bitterbug + Mandragora)
• Kelbi Horn

Capturing Magnamalo

It’s better to capture the Magnamalo than it is to kill it. Not only does capturing monsters generally yield more rewards, but it will also significantly decrease the time it takes to beat Magnamalo — and the sooner the fight is over, the less opportunity that Magnamalo has to knock you out.

Magnamalo strategies

Use what strategy you feel is best for you, and whatever gets you through the fight. Just make sure you go in prepared, as the Magnamalo isn’t a pushover. Here are several tips for the fight.

Stay close or stay away

The Magnamalo is an incredibly dexterous enemy. If you’re using melee weapons, then stay close to Magnamalo.

When using dual blades and other weapons without shields, we found that it’s most effective to stay around the hind legs of the Magnamalo. This prevented us from getting caught in any dangerous hellblight clouds (more on those in a moment).

If you’re using ranged weapons, it’s best to stay as far away from the Magnamalo and give yourself some breathing room between attacks. If you’re using the Bow, Light Bowgun, or Heavy Bowgun, then let your friends (or your Palico and Palamute) get up close and personal with the monster.

Beware the purple hellblight clouds

Watch out for any purple clouds that appear around the monster. They explode upon impact with the Magnamalo, instantly killing unprepared players and anyone who doesn’t have armor with enough defense.

If you get hit with the hellblight skill (as indicated by a purple fire symbol over your health bar), use the Wirebug to dash and leave the status effect behind you. Literally.

Watch the tail

Pay attention to the Magnamalo’s tail, especially if you see it waving its tail around in circular motions.

It might be about to shoot six projectiles, but the Magnamalo could also shoot a laser from its tail that can potentially instantly down players. You can tell the difference based on how fast the Magnamalo is rotating the tip of its tail and the size of the fire that accumulates there.

Use the Wirebug to escape

Get ready to do a lot of dodging and using the Wirebug to get away from the Magnamalo when it enrages. You can easily tell when the Magnamalo is enraged by the purple fire engulfs the monster, along with the elongated fangs, blades at its forelegs, and the length of its horns.