Monster Hunter World guide: How to beat the Rathian

In Monster Hunter: World, the Rathian is often referred to as the “Queen of the Land” or simply “Queen.” She is also the protector of the Wyvern eggs. Be careful before venturing into the dragon’s nest.

The first time you fight a dragon in Monster Hunter: World, it’s likely to be a Rathian. Dragons come with their own unique challenges. They’re versatile, unlike the other fights with mostly airborne or a land-based creatures. In this guide, we’ll teach you how to defeat the Rathian.

When you’ll fight the Rathian

You’ll never actually be asked to fight a Rathian for an assigned quest. However, you’ll encounter one in The Best Kind of Quest mission. If you play the optional missions, you’ll be tasked with hunting one in the Royal Relocation mission.

Where you’ll find the Rathian

Capcom

Like many of the bigger monsters, the Rathian is easy to find. Her nest is in sector 12 of the Wildspire Waste. If you want to find her fast, walk into her nest and steal an egg. If you steal her eggs, the Rathian will find her way back home pretty quickly.

The Rathian tends to stick to the northern areas on the map. However, she is able to go very quickly from one location to the other. If you find her in the forest, she can leave to return home quickly.

Rathian weak points

Grid View

• Capcom
• Capcom
• Rathian

While the Rathian is tough, she does have several weak points for you to focus on in her head, wings and tail.

However, your focus should be her tail because the Rathian stores all of her poison capabilities there. If you focus mainly on her tail, you can remove it with a slicing weapon. Removing her tail will grant you extra monster parts and nullify one her strongest features. Make this your top priority.

Preparing to fight the Rathian

The Rathian is a difficult fight that’ll take plenty of time. When you’re preparing food, eat a meal with plenty of health and defensive abilities. The Rathian likes to charge back and forth, which can make surviving against her very difficult if she hits you multiple times. Get defensive perks for your food, and make damage your secondary goal.

Rathian elements

Water and ice (⭐️) are weak against her hide. Thunder (⭐️⭐️) is decent. Dragon (⭐️⭐️⭐️) is very powerful. Around the time you fight a Rathian, you should be able to build a dragon version of your weapon. Fire is ineffective.

Rathian ailments

You can stun (⭐️⭐️⭐️) her effectively with big, beefy hits. Using a weapon like the hammer is great against her. Sleep and paralysis (⭐️⭐️) are decent but not as powerful. Poison and blast (⭐️) are weak.

Useful items

For the Rathian fight, bring all the potions and rations you can fit in your bag (10 of each, including mega potions). You can also flash her to knock her out of the air if you bring some flash pods (made with flashbugs). Finally, bring antidotes to keep her poison at bay.

Capcom

How to beat the Rathian

Bringing down the queen of dragons can be tough if you aren’t prepared. However, you should be in a much better place if you have access to all the tools we mentioned above.

Be patient. The Rathian will spend much of her time flying above you. If you’re using a melee weapon, wait for her to land and then whale on her feet, head or tail.

While you should focus on the tail, it’s also your biggest enemy. One of her main moves is flipping and slamming her poisonous tail onto the ground. This’ll hurt you pretty badly, so be sure to dodge out of the way.

Because of her poisonous nature, you also need to be a bit more careful around her tail swipes. The Rathian’s poison will drain your health quickly. Use nearby brush to hide and apply an antidote. Keep focusing on the tail so you can remove it.

The Rathian is still a dragon. Though her fire breath is not as potent as the Anjanath or the Rathalos, it’ll still cook you if it hits. This brings us to the cardinal rule of dragon hunting: Stay away from the head unless you’re using a hammer to KO the monster.

As long as you stay to her side and don’t get too antsy, the Rathian should go down after a long, hard fight.