The Great Hunt

You did it! You slew the Meownster!

Palico

The Great Hunt is a Trial from Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, and is the main part of the Final Fantasy x Monster Hunter collaboration event. The fight takes place in an arena in the Azim Steppe.

Story[]

Normal[]

The Hunt has always been simple business. Snatch a bill from the board, seek out your quarry, and claim your bounty. A peculiar posting in Kugane, however, has complicated matters. What began as a simple hunt in the Azim Steppe has quickly escalated into a harrowing undertaking, with a strange new Felyne companion, and even stranger prey—Rathalos, king of the skies. With mega potion in hand, you venture into the mountains. But do you have what it takes to stand against his fiery fury?

In-game description.

Extreme[]

You believed the day won with the Rathalos brought low, but a recently made friend—and alleged hunting rival—brings news to the contrary. There yet exist Rathalos of an older, more powerful brood—a higher rank, if you will. The Hunt beckons you back to the Azim Steppe for greater trials and the chance for still greater bounties.

In-game description.

Progression[]

Normal[]

Unlike most Trials, Rathalos has some attacks that don't have AoE markers, he will do these often during the first and second phase of the fight. The only attack with a marker is his fireball attack where he will target a random player and deal fire damage to them.

• Clockwise tail swipe – he will swipe his tail behind him and move it clockwise.
• Counter-clockwise tail swipe – start the swipe on his left and move his tail behind him.
• Fire breath and rear tail slam – he will lift his head up with fire in his mouth, avoid front and rear.
• He will target a random player and turn to face them, he will then breathe fire directly under him stunning and giving players burn.
• Rush – will turn to face a player, roar and charge at the target.

During the second phase the local wildlife will come and attack Rathalos, though will attack other players if attacked or left on their own. These adds can be hit with Rathalos's attacks, so be sure to tank them close to the boss, or stack with them when targeted with the fireball marker.

Once the boss goes under 70% of their HP, Rathalos will move to the center of the arena and stun all players, and a Garula comes in to knock the boss over. One of the tanks needs to take the Garula and face it away from the party because it will cleave occasionally, and a DPS needs to mount Rathalos and start an Active Time Event, the healers needs to heal the DPS while they're are mounting as they are taking consistent damage. (Although it is possible to kill the add quickly without mounting Rathalos, but it requires very high DPS from each player) After defeating the Garula the players need to hide behind its corpse to avoid Rathalos's firebreath attack that will cover the arena.

Once the final phase starts players will be affected with the debuff "Scalebound", this debuff makes it so players can't heal besides the duty action "Mega Potion." In this phase Rathalos is flying in the air and has a Down gauge, once this bar reaches 100, he will fall to the ground and lose his vulnerability down buff and take more damage. In this part of the fight you have to watch for his attacks as he is flying.

• Rush – Rathalos will target a player and swoop down to hit them, anyone hit will be inflicted with poison and stunned.
• Mangle – breath fire directly in front of him in a short range.
• Sweeping Flames – will breath fire under him in a sweeping motion.

Once he falls down for the first time attack his tail to deal extra damage for a total of 1,166,268 damage. During the final phase his fireball mechanic is turned into a stack marker that leaves a puddle that does gives a fire DoT buff to players.

Extreme[]

The preferred way to complete this duty and farm the mount is to join an Unrestricted Party ("unsyncing") using Party Finder. A party of four level 80+ characters is effective, although this duty can be completed solo with one level 90 player. In North American and European data centers, it is strongly not recommended to queue for Extreme trials using Duty Finder.

The Extreme version of the fight is wholly similar to the Normal version with a few changes, that reference the gameplay of Monster Hunter.

• The party consists of 4 party members instead of 8.
• The is a limit of three KO's, on the third KO the party wipes and the duty ends.

The first phase is exactly similar to the first fight, avoid his attacks and deal damage, take care of adds, and kill the Garula. During the Second phase you have to be even more careful as he can target you more than once and kill stunned or unsuspecting players. It is useful for healers to have Esuna during this part of the fight, as any fire inflicted damage stacks on the players. When doing the stack mechanic you can have the tank soak the stack solo with cooldown's and Invulns, its also best to have the fire puddles on the outskirts of the arena to avoid having to move around them and dodge Rathalos's attacks.

Loot[]

• After every fight the players can loot scales from the Rathalos corpse. In the extreme fight there is a chance that a treasure chest appears as well. The contents from the chest include the "Proof of a Hero - Monster Hunter: World Version" orchestrion roll, the Poogie minion, and the Rathalos mount whistle which players can roll on.

Quests[]

Achievements[]

The achievement for completing The Great Hunt (Extreme) is titled "Extreme Rathalos Hunter".

Musical themes[]

The Great Hunt features music from Monster Hunter: World. "Savage of the Ancient Forest" plays during the first phase of the fight, and "Proof of a Hero - Monster Hunter: World version" plays during the second phase after Rathalos takes to the skies.

Gallery[]