Qurupeco Guides

Basic Info

Guide made by: Bonaparrte

Guide for: Qurupeco

Game: MH3

Rank: Village ★★★☆☆

Armor

The Qurupeco is the first monster you encounter in the offline quests that has an elemental attack. As a result it it recommended to have at least +10 fire resistance. This can be achieved either via an armor set bonus or by decorating your armor with 5x Crimson Jewels. Some examples of useful armor for this fight:

• Rhenoplos Armor: At this point of the game this is the only armor with +10 fire resistance. It also has the best physical defense.
• Steel Armor: You have to use decorations to raise the fire resistance to +10, but Critical Eye +1 and the Speed Sharpening help a lot, in particular if you are using the hammer or sword+shield, which lose their sharpness faster.
• Hunter's Armor: Useful if fighting the monster for the first time, as it lets you track the Qurupeco without paintballing it (Auto-tracking skill). It also opens up another space in your inventory since you do not need to carry a map (Farsight skill).

Additional Items

(Get the maximum number of each item unless noted otherwise)

• Supply Items (provided)
• Mega Potion
• Whetstone
• Well-Cooked Steak
• Paintball x2: Two paintballs are provided with the supplies, and you will not need more than four.

Guide

Preparation

• Before engaging the Qurupeco, max out your stamina. You'll be doing a lot of running and dodging, and you don't want to find yourself exhausted in the wrong spot.
• Whenever the Qurupeco changes areas, take the time to top up your health, stamina, and sharpen your weapon.

General Defense

• Get acquainted with the defensive roll. Unless you use a lance you will rely on these to avoid taking damage.
  • The sword+shield and great sword can block attacks, but they are not recommended. The great sword loses sharpness when you block with it, and the sword+shield's blocking ability is less than that of the other weapons capable of blocking.
  • The lance is probably the most difficult weapon for this battle, because the Qurupeco has the ability to call minions. Since you move very slowly with the lance drawn you will leave your back open to attacks from them.
• Dodge after each attack. Most of the time one roll will be enough, but sometimes you'll want to do a second one just to get some extra distance in between yourself and the monster. Dodging after an attack will also speed your recovery from the swing, allowing you to begin your next action right after dodging.
• Keep moving! If you stand still, you will get hit by the Qurupeco or a lesser monster.
  • Getting hit will also interrupt/cancel any charging you do (if the weapon is capable of such).
• Never stay straight in front of the Qurupeco. Move diagonally towards either of its sides. That will keep you slightly off-center from its attacks - Most of them will thus miss, and you can dodge the remaining.
• Become familiar with the Qurupeco's movements and attack area. You want to stay close to him, but still be able to avoid his attacks. All but one of the Qurupeco's attacks are front-facing, so most of the time you will want to roll diagonally (forward and to the side).
  • A side effect of the nature of the Qurupeco's attacks is that with the exception of one attack the area under the Qurupeco is a safe zone.

Reacting to Specific Attacks

• Tail Spin: This is the Qurupeco's equivalent to a sweep, and will hit anything in close proximity of the monster. When it performs this attack you want to get some distance between yourself and the monster. Do not engage until after the second spin, otherwise you will be knocked off your feet.
• Flint Smash: When you see the monster stand still knock the flints on its wings together (it looks like the Qurupeco is 'clapping') you can be certain that it will follow it up with two or three forward jumps that do fire-based damage. The monster will jump in the direction that it is facing, so a dodge to the side will get you out of harm's way. The Qurupeco also has a limited turn range between each jump, so once it's at your side just keep running in an arc towards its tail and the jumps will miss you.
  • Pay attention to the monster's feet when it is knocking its flints together. If the feet stand still, the attack that follows is a flint smash. However, if the bird is jumping from one foot to another, it is actually performing a Taunt. These are usually followed-up with a Roar, so you will want to position yourself in front of the monster and prepare to interrupt the roar with your fastest attacks.
• Roars (Attack, Heal, or Summon): You want to interrupt these. If not interrupted, the Attack Roar buffs the monster's damage, and the Heal Roar restores its health. The Summon Roar summons monsters. If no lesser monsters are around (mostly Jaggi, but sometimes Melynx and other monsters) they will be summoned first. If there are lesser monsters around, a boss monster will be summoned. It is not uncommon for a Rathian to appear, so you definitively want to prevent that.
  • An interrupted roar will buff you instead of the Qurupeco and its minions.
  • To interrupt the roars use your fastest attacks. Each attack has a chance of interrupting, so the more the better.
  • Hits to the head have an increased chance of interrupting.
• Peck: This attack is relatively low-damage, but it will knock you off your feet. If you stick to the standard strategy of side-rolling after each of your attacks, you will not have to worry about this.
• Spit: The three globs of mucus that this monster spews deal moderate damage, but they do lower your defense. The good news is that the hit range of these globs is quite limited. If you're far enough you don't have to worry about them, nor will they hit you if you're to the side. The Qurupeco will spit right-to-left (from its own perspective), so if you're in danger of getting hit by the gobs your best option is to head to the Qurupeco's left side. The Qurupeco's neck will also be exposed while it spits, so this is a good opportunity for you to throw in a few hits of your own.
• Jump Back: This is not a direct attack per se, but it will leave you flinching due to the strong wind. I recommend a quick side-roll once you recover, as it is usually followed up by a forward swoop.
  • When enraged, the Qurupeco will add a flint smash while it jumps back, doing a small amount of fire damage. This is hard to avoid, as there is no warning when the Qurupeco does this. However, as long as you are not directly in front of the monster you will be realatively safe from this.

Miscellaneous

• If the Qurupeco calls a Great Jaggi, ignore it. You can hit it with a dung bomb if you want, but staying mobile will be enough to keep you out of harm's way. If the Qurupeco leaves the area you may decide to finish off the Great Jaggi for a freehunt bonus, but make sure you don't lose track of the Qurupeco.
• Horizontal attacks are good for clearing the minions if their numbers become too great, but don't lose focus of your goal, which is the Qurupeco.
  • Some examples of horizontal attacks are the hammer's wind-up attack and the Great Sword's horizontal slash.
• It is not necessary to paintball the Qurupeco straight away, but it certainly is safer.
• You can try to deduce the Qurupeco's next area by observing its shadow as it flies away.
• If you are on the village quest to trap the Qurupeco:
  • The Qurupeco will almost always start in area 7 of the island and head to area 5 after a while. You should have enough time to grab everything from the supply box, gather herbs from area 2 (near the exits to the camp and area 5), head to area 5, and still be early. When the Qurupeco arrives you will first hear the flapping of its wings, then you will see the shadow near its landing spot. This is a good opportunity to charge your weapon and position yourself for a free hit.
  • Save your dung bombs for the area where you will trap the Qurupeco. There are few things more annoying than having a summoned monster walk into your trap instead of the Qurupeco.
  • Don't place the trap in area 7 of the island. Wait for it to flee to Area 8. Also make sure that no summoned great monsters are in the area, or they may run into your trap instead.

General Offense

• The Qurupeco's weakest areas are its head and neck. Those are relatively high, so you will need to use corresponding attacks.
• Don't bother hitting the tail and wings. You will only waste away your weapon's sharpness.
• If you knock the Qurupeco off its feet then focus on its head.
• Be patient. Your goal is not to kill the Qurupeco fast, but to kill him while staying out of harm's way. The only time you may want to hurry is if you're trying to interrupt a call.
  • This trend will only continue as you encounter tougher monsters. The Qurupeco is a good practice ground for patient offense.

Weapon-Specific Offense

Great Sword

The best great sword you can get at the time you first encounter the Qurupeco is the Buster Sword+.

• Your main choice of attack should be the draw attack. It is the fastest attack, and you will keep the mobility from having the weapon sheathed most of the time. The charged slash also moves in a downward arc, which is great for hitting the Qurupeco's head.
  • With a few exceptions you want to dodge and sheathe your weapon immediately after the draw attack. Those exceptions will be detailed below.
• Refrain from using the charged slash unless you've knocked the Qurupeco off its feet. If the monster is knocked down, aim for the head.

Sword and Shield

I suggest using Assassin Dagger due to its better green sharpness. Keep in mind that this fight can be frustrating with the sword+shield because you will have a hard time interrupting the Qurupeco's calls.

• Your main choice of attack should be the jumping slash. You can keep your distance and wait for the Qurupeco to open itself to attack, then jump in and hit it.
  • I do not recommend using the three-hit combo. Instead, do only two hits and follow it with a side slash (the side slash consists of two attacks - a horizontal slash, followed by a vertical upward return-slash). Rinse, repeat.
• Most of the time you will find that you only have time for one or two slashes before having to get some distance between yourself and the monster. That's ok. The Qurupeco will suffer death by the equivalent of a thousand papercuts.

Hammer

The War Hammer+ has the best sharpness of all hammers available at the time you encounter the Qurupeco. If you need a cheaper alternative, try the Bone Bludgeon, but due to the lower green sharpness you may find that a lot of your attacks just bounce off the monster.

• Hitting the Qurupeco's weak areas is going to be your biggest problem with the hammer, as those areas are relatively high and the hammer's attacks are (mostly) not made for attacks at such a level.
• Your main choice of attack should be the charged attack.
  • A half-charged attack will perform an upward 'golf' swing. This is the easiest way of reaching the Qurupeco's head.
  • There are two kinds of fully-charged attacks; You should use the one that ends in an upward swing like the half-charged attack.
  • Timing and releasing the charged attack at the right distance are key to success here. Your goal is to connect the upward swing portion of your attack with the monster's head/neck area. All other hits are a waste of your weapon's sharpness.
• If the Qurupeco is roaring, you may prefer to use regular attacks to increase your chances of interrupting it. Hit the front chest area as it is weaker than the wings and tail.
  • The ground smash combo is a mixed bag. I personally prefer not to use it as you will be left prone and it swings in the 'wrong' direction. However, some contend that the smashes are still viable since they are still one of the strongest hammer attacks.
  • The side/smash is not too bad of a choice. It's relatively quick, and you can chain it with regular attacks.
• Remember that you are wielding a weapon with relatively lower sharpness than its counterparts. A single well-placed hit near the head or neck is better than a handful of hits to the tail/wings. Not only will it do more damage, but your weapon will keep its sharpness longer and you will have a better chance at stunning the monster.

Switch Axe

Only the Bone Axe will be available to you at this time.

• Your main choice of attack should be the rising slash. Normally that attack will leave your character prone for a second after the slash, but you can avoid that if you perform a side-step when your attack finishes. The Qurupeco will also usually turn towards the position you were at when you hit it, so the side-step will keep you off-center. You can take advantage of this and chain a few such slash-step combos together.
  • The direction of the rising slash means that you will usually hit the weaker underside first, even when attacking from the sides or the back. You will find that this attack bounces a lot less, even when your weapon loses its green sharpness.
• Do not use the hack'n'slash attack. It drains your stamina and leaves you open to attacks.
• If the Qurupeco is roaring, you may prefer to use a regular-attack combo to increase your chances of interrupting it. As always, aim for the weak spots.
• Do not use the sword mode unless you knocked the Qurupeco off its feet. You will limit your running speed, and the sword mode has no rising attack.
• If you knock the Qurupeco off its feet approach it before switching to sword mode. Use the sword mode's element discharge to its full extent until the monster gets up. If your attack is done properly, the element discharge will have drained half the phial and your weapon will return to axe mode once the attack finishes. Conclude by performing a side-step or side-roll to avoid any counter-attack.
• If you feel that the Qurupeco is taking a terribly long time to die, then you're probably missing the weak spots. Remember, you are wielding a blade on a stick, not a woodchipper. A single well-placed hit near the head is better than a handful of hits to the hind section of the body. Not only will it do more damage, but your weapon will keep its sharpness longer.