Monster Hunter World guide: How to beat the Pukei-Pukei

The Pukei-Pukei is the first difficult hunt in Monster Hunter: World. You and your party are tasked with bringing down the dangerous monster in the assigned quest Urgent: Pukei-Pukei Hunt. The monster may have a silly name and a goofy look, but don’t let that fool you. The Pukei-Pukei is deadly and will bring you down fast if you aren’t careful.

In this guide, we’ll teach you how to hunt and take down the Pukei-Pukei before it poisons you to death.

When you’ll fight the Pukei-Pukei

The Pukei-Pukei hunt will be your third large monster hunt in the game. Shortly after killing the Kulu-Ya-Ku, you’ll be sent on the mission Urgent: Pukei-Pukei Hunt. This Assignment will give you a timer of 50 minutes as well as a 2,520 zenny reward. The Pukei-Pukei is native to the Ancient Forest, but it may just show up other places later in the game.

Where you’ll find the Pukei-Pukei

Capcom

The easiest thing about the Pukei-Pukei is finding it. The monster hangs out almost exclusively in sector 6 of the Ancient Forest (see the image above), where you can find a bunch of poison flowers and its den.

While finding the Pukei-Pukei is easy, chasing after it won’t be. This’ll be your first encounter with a winged beast in Monster Hunter: World. Having wings makes a beast a little more aggressive. If things go bad, they can just fly away — and they will. Hunting down a flying beast isn’t like following the Great Jagras as it stumbles back to its den. The Pukei-Pukei will fly above the trees, and you’ll have to rely on your scout flies or map to help you find it.

This will actually work to your advantage, which we’ll talk about in the preparation section below.

The Pukei-Pukei’s weak spots

Grid View

• Capcom
• Capcom
• Capcom

The best thing about the Pukei-Pukei is how many weak spots it has. Its head, wings and tail are all weak to damage. This basically means that you can attack the Pukei-Pukei from any angle and still hit hard.

Their wings, tail and head are breakable while the tail itself can be severed. Removing the tail gives you yet another piece of the monster to carve.

The Pukei-Puke’s poison gives you a reason to stay away. Its weak spots act almost as a reward. If you can get in and make a hit, you get big damage. But getting in close to the Pukei-Pukei can be dangerous if you aren’t watching for its moves.

Preparing to fight the Pukei-Pukei

When preparing to fight the Pukei-Pukei, you need defensive food. The Pukei-Pukei will hit hard, which is dangerous in the early game. Look for food that raises your health and defense.

When it comes to weapons, you have a few options for the Pukei-Pukei. All 14 weapons will be viable, but anything that can strike in the air is best. Ranged weapons are great here, as well as the longsword, charge blade, insect glaive, and switch axe.

As far as elements are concerned, anything fire related, from Anjanath or Rathalos, will do nicely. As will a ice elemental from a Legiana. Dragon elemental weapons are only OK, so stay away from things made out of dragon bone if you can. The Pukei-Pukei is also completely impervious to water, so don’t bring your water weapons to this fight. If you want to prepare right, bring a thunder weapon made from a Tobi-Kadachi. While you may not have access to any of these elements before your fight with the Pukei-Pukei, keep all this in mind when farming them.

In terms of status effects, the Pukei-Pukei is technically susceptible to everything, even poison. However, poison is fairly weak on the Pukei-Pukei, which isn’t surprising considering its affinity for poisoning hunters. The effective status effects are blast and stun. The very effective effects are sleep and paralysis, both of which are great for keeping the Pukei-Pukei in place.

The Pukei-Pukei is the first monster you should prepare items for. Before taking on the Pukei-Pukei, you should have antidotes. They’ll come in handy if you get poisoned. Luckily, these are auto-crafted from the start of the game, so you should have plenty in your pockets. If you’re missing some of want to refill your stock, you can always craft more with the antidote herb.

We mentioned earlier being able to prepare something that would nullify the Pukei-Pukei’s escape. If you can, bring some barrel bombs with you. You can craft these out of a fire herb and a small barrel. The Pukei-Pukei will fly back to its den and fall asleep when it gets close to death. This affords you the perfect opportunity to set up a bomb and blow that Pukei-Pukei up. You aren’t completely out of luck if you can’t make barrel bombs. Trapping the monster with a pit or shock trap can offer some similar damage bonuses.

Capcom

The Pukei-Pukei fight

The Pukei-Pukei is not a simple fight. This monster has lots of moves, some of which may leave you poisoned. The Pukei-Pukei will try and attack you with is its long, sticky tongue to try and push you around. The tongue moves erratically, so it’s best to get behind the Pukei-Pukei when its tongue comes out.

Most Pukei-Pukei attacks will stem from its head. However, it has a few body and tail attacks as well. The most notable body attack is a charge. The Pukei-Pukei will stand on its hind legs and charge at players. Block or roll out of the way to avoid it.

Pukei-Pukei also has a tail swipe. However, its tail is very short compared to most other monsters, so this isn’t a huge problem.

Perhaps the most dangerous Pukei-Pukei move is its ability to spit poison at you. You can roll out of the way of this move to avoid getting drenched in the Pukei-Pukei’s poison. If you become poisoned, you’ll rapidly lose health until you’re dead or the timer runs out. To fix this, simply run away, sheath your weapon and use an antidote.

With all the poison out of your system, stay to the Pukei-Pukei’s side and you’ll take it down after a few minutes of solid hits and patience.