Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting Horn Guide-Monster Hunter Wildsfeatures14 different weapons, the same as the previous installments with theHunting Hornbeing one of them. In this Monster Huner Wilds Hunting Horn Guide, we will be taking a look at how to use the Hunting Horn and all Combos, Changes, Buffs and additions. Whether you’re a new hunter looking to join the hunt or veterans looking for a quick refresher to help with the weapon, this MHW Wilds Hunting Horn Guide is here to help you.
Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting Horn Guide to Combos & Changes
The Hunting Horn is probably the most underrated and one of the most overlooked weapons across the entirety of the Monster Hunter franchise. This can probably be attributed to itsplain moveset and apparent lack of special skills, but the Hunting Horn remains the ultimate team player’s weapon. The Hunting Horn can provide hunters with a variety of buffs that differ from one Horn to another, but we won’t cover all of them in this Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting Horn Guide. you’re able to find these on theWikiif you need a full list.
These buffs can range from increasing raw attack, elemental attack, defense, elemental resistance, health boosts, and more.If you want to be the “support” player in Monster Hunter Wilds, this weapon is for you. But one would be remiss to think the Horn only provides support since it can also deal a respectable amount of blunt damage which is great for stunning monsters.
Hunting Horn Mechanics
Although the Hunting Horn has combos like other weapons and you can use these to hit the monster, these are not the main focus when using the Hunting Horn. Each specific button press also serves a different function and since The Hunting Horn, as the name implies, is a musical instrument, you are playing a sequence of Notes with each attack you do and once you have a sequence of Notes, you will have Stocked a specific melody that you can perform.
Notes & Melodies
Each Hunting Horn will have three different types of notes available, which you’re able to press in different orders to be able to perform different Melodies: Y (Xbox) or Triangle (Playstation), B (Xbox) or Circle (Playstation) and Y + B (Xbox) or Triangle + Circle (Playstation).
Apart from the Self-Improvement Melody, which can be performed after two Y (Xbox) or Triangle (Playstation) Notes, the Melodies available to perform by playing specific strings of Notes will vary between each Hunting Horn.
You can Stock up to 3 Melodies before you start a performance with your Hunting Horn by pressing RT (Xbox) or R2 (Playstation). Melodies will be played in the order they were Stocked but you can press RT + Y or RT + B on Xbox if you want to play a different stored Melody: R2 + Triangle or R2 + Circle on Playstation.
Melody Buffs
Some of the Melodies you can play will have multiple levels available to them. For example, the Attack Up (S) Melody that can be performed when using the Hunting Horn can buff the attack stat of your whole party up to two times. You will be able to see at what level the buff is active at the moment by the color of the specific buff that will be shown on the UI when using the Horn. If the buff is yellow, it can still be leveled up. If the buff is purple, then the buff is at the highest available level.
Echo Waves
Echo Waves are offensive melodies that can be performed when using the Hunting Horn and each Hunting Horn will have different Echo Waves. The Echo Waves will deal more damage compared to your normal strikes with the Horn and different Echo Waves will have different damage types. The damage types can be blunt, severing, elemental or status ailments depending on the specific Hunting Horn you are using.
Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting Horn Combos
Players can go into playing the Hunting Horn without worry as the combos are straightforward and the way you play the Horn is mainly dictated by the Notes that the particular horn you are using plays, but we will still list them here just so you may see them.
Basic Combo
Powerful Combo
Basic Perform Combo
Triple Melody Effect Combo
Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting Horn Changes & Buffs
The Hunting Horn is in its best form in Monster Hunter Wilds with the new additions that directly impact how you play the Hunting Horn.
Echo Bubbles
Arguably the best addition to the Hunting Horn is theEcho Bubbles- A + RT (Xbox) or X + R2 (Playstation). These Echo Bubbles provide various buffs to the hunters and you can put down a set amount of these Echo Bubbles at one time.
The buffs these Bubbles provide will vary depending on which Horn you are using.These Echo Bubbles can also damage monsters depending on the type of Horn you are using and the notes that are available to you. Performing a damaging note while the monster is in the range of multiple bubbles can lead to a surprisingly high amount of damage.
Another special feature is you may store Notes while you are putting down an Echo Bubble by timing your inputs but this can take a while to get used to. But if you can get the timing down, this will help Horn players with quickly providing buffs to the team.
Performance Beat
The Hunting Horn also has a special rhythm mechanic which we will cover in this Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting Horn Guide. How this functions is that while you’re Performing Melodies, while each individual Melody is playing, you can press the Perform button again to do a “Performance Beat” and if you time it perfectly it shortens the animation of the current Performance and triggers the next one. This makes Performances much faster, however, the timing for this is strict and will take a while to get the hang of because even though it’s the same timing on each Horn, Horns don’t all sound the same. This can be done once per Melody and with being able to Stock three melodies, you can trigger it 3 times, with the last one triggering Encore.
Focus Strike: Reverb
With the addition of the Focus Strike, the Horn’s focus strike will draw out and stab at the wound with the horn by pressing RB (Xbox) or R1 (Playstation) while in Focus Mode. As the move takes a little while to connect and the range is fairly limited, this can be hard to hit. When the hit lands, it will start the full Reverb Focus Strike, having the hunter play the horn like a guitar.
This also adds another rhythm game mechanic where you can Stock a note with each strum on the Hunting Horn. Again the timing is very strict on this so, it will take a while to get used to it. Each stored note increases the damage dealt with the final hit so, if you can store the maximum five notes, you will get the most damage out of the move.
Riding Attacks
The riding attacks on theSeikretare completely unique for the Hunting Horn as you can fully play and store melody notes or perform them and get the buffs. This is an amazing option to Stock notes and keep your buffs up time to the maximum.
Special Performances
Another interesting addition to the Horn is theSpecial PerformanceB + Y + RT (Xbox) or Circle + Triangle + R2 (Playstation). Special Performances are interesting becauseyou can Stock them by playing them similar to other Melodies, but they are Stocked separately. Each Hunting Horn has 1 Special Performance which is located last on its list of Melodies on the upper right of the UI, and they usually require 4 Notes to Stock.
Offset Melody
The Offset Melody is also new to Monster Hunter Wilds and it is classified as a Special Performance. Offset Melody begins with a quick backward spin followed by a strong attack which is an Offset Attack. Offset Attacks are a new type of attack that was added in Monster Hunter Wilds. These attacks fill up an invisible Offset meter on the monster, much like a status effect, and will topple the monster when you trigger the effect. And like status effects the subsequent triggers will get harder and harder to trigger after the first topple.
The important thing to note with this attack is that the Offset Attack is at the end of the animation so it takes a while in order for it to connect with the monster’s attack as you swing, but the attack can be held before releasing, much like a normal charged attack to better time your swing. Even if the offset attack does not connect, the performance in itself can result in a decent damaging attack so the move is still worth performing.
Resounding Melody
The only other types of Special Performances in Monster Hunter Wilds are theResounding Melodyperformance and theMelody of Life. TheResounding Melodyis another offensive special performance but unlike theOffset Melody, this attack cannot be held. You will perform an attack where you spin the Horn around twice as you hit the monster and end with a slam to the ground delivering a huge strike. At the end of this attack, any Echo Bubbles you have put down will trigger a damaging pulse which will damage any monster that is within its area.
Melody of Life
The Melody of life is a special performance that is not offensive at all because when you play the Melody of Life, it will heal you and your teammates in an area around and any one who is in the echo bubbles at the time. The Melody of life is a great way to heal your teammates over a large area as a support player of the hunting party.
Final Tips
The list of the melodies you may play with each Horn will be listed on the top right side of your screen when in combat and in your inventory screen when selecting the weapon so, be sure to check what melodies and buffs will be available to you whenever you are preparing for a hunt.
Even though you are most likely just supporting the team the majority of the time and not the main damage dealer, be sure not to stay too far away and stay in range of your fellow hunters so they can benefit from your buffs and with the addition of echo bubbles you have more means to provide buffs to your teammates and deal some damage to the monster.
The Hunting Horn also deals blunt damage, so it is still very effective at stunning the monsters if you hit them with the simple combo, especially in the head.
Don’t forget to Stock your notes as needed in between your performances, so you’ll have them ready in case of emergencies like when you need fast heals or stamina boosts. As such, spamming random notes and attacks will be detrimental to your overall effectiveness and Horn users need to be methodical with their notes and performances.
For Secondary Weapons
If you want to be the unparalleled support in a hunting party, you can have a different horn providing different melodies and special performances as your secondary weapon. This will help you switch Horns on the fly during the hunt whether you need a specific buff or a heal depending on the situation.
As a Horn user, you will mostly be at range from the monster and if you want to put in a little damage between your performances, the Bow is a good option with its myriad of shots and combos.
That wraps up our Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting Horn Guide, and I hope you found it helpful, and be sure to check out our otherMonster Hunter Wilds Guides. If you have questions you’re able to leave them in the comments or drop by ourDiscordand ask. We also have aMonster Hunter Wilds Wiki with all the information you could possibly need about the game.
