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07.10.2023 - 01:55 / gameranx.com
Paintballs are a unique mechanic in Monster Hunter Now and one of the most well-received among players. Other augmented reality games haven’t put something similar into practice, so this may open the door to more save-for-later mechanics.
A Beginner’s Guide to Monster Hunter Now | Monster Hunter Now Is Niantic’s Latest Upcoming AR Game With Capcom
There are two types of Paintballs: Palico and regular. Palico Paintballs are blue while regular Paintballs are pink. Both function in the same way, they will mark Large Monsters for you to fight later. Between both Paintballs, you can mark up to 8 Large Monsters at once. You will have 48 hours to hunt them.
When exploring, your Palico has its own stock of Paintballs that it can use to mark any Large Monsters you come across while the game is idle. If your Adventure Sync is on, your Palico will automatically mark Large Monsters even if the game is closed. To take advantage of this feature, you will need to give the app permission to access your location.
The Palico Paintball can be used up to three times per day. You can carry a maximum of three Palico Paintballs at once. When your game performs its daily reset, the Palico Paintballs will restock.
These are use-it-or-lose-it items. For example, if you only use 1 Palico Paintball in a day, you will still be restocked to 3 Palico Paintballs the next day. You won’t have 5 (2 leftovers from the day before plus the 3 from the daily automatic restock).
However, you can pay for increased Palico Paintball inventory by buying the Release Celebration Pass. This increases your Palico Paintball stock to 5 and your Paintball List to 10. However, this will only last for 30 days. After that, your Palico Paintball stock and Paintball List will revert back to 3 and 8, respectively. The Release Celebration Pass is $8.99 before tax. It’s available until November 2, 2023.
Unlike the Palico Paintballs, regular Paintballs need to be used manually. Even if you have Paintballs in your inventory, the game won’t automatically mark Large Monsters with them. You do need to tap on the Large Monster and select the Paintball option. The monster will disappear from your map, but it will show up in your Paintball List.
The regular pink Paintball can be purchased using Gems or buying the Starter Pack. One Paintball costs 180 Gems and 5 Paintballs cost 900 Gems. Unfortunately, there is no bonus savings for getting Paintballs in bulk.
The Starter Pack is only offered once per account and costs $6.99 before tax. It gives you 3 Paintballs, 2 Wander Droplets, 3 Potions, and 1,000 Gems.
Paintballs will also be given as rewards for increasing your Hunter Rank (HR). After reaching HR11, you’ll receive 1 Paintball every 10 levels. Once you reach HR20,
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Following the footsteps of Pokémon GO and its plethora of events, Niantic has announced a Monster Hunter Now Halloween event! Get ready to pick pumpkins, or at least rocks painted like pumpkins that have appeared across the map!
Unlocked after completing Chapter 2 of Monster Hunter Now, the Bow specializes in mid-range charged attacks. Unlike most other weapons with charging mechanics, you can dodge and still maintain your charge. However, after completing your dodge, you will automatically fire your arrow at its current charge level.
The Great Sword is the second weapon you unlock in Monster Hunter Now. As a big, hulking behemoth of a weapon, it’s slow to hit but packs a punch. Coupled with elemental damage, the Great Sword can be excellent for Large Monster hunts, especially if you’re aiming for A Rank. However, you need to get the timing down for both your attacks and your dodges. If you can get a perfect dodge and follow up with an attack, hunts will take no time at all.
The Long Sword in Monster Hunter Now feels like a fusion between the Sword & Shield and Great Sword. Regarding attack speed and power, it falls somewhere between the two. The Long Sword does more damage than the Sword & Shield, but swings faster than the Great Sword.
When you start Monster Hunter Now, your first weapon will be the Sword & Shield. This weapon allows you to attack quickly and guard against incoming attacks. However, you won’t do a lot of damage. In Large Monster hunts, this will be a detriment due to the 75-second time constraint.
Like Great Swords and Long Swords in Monster Hunter Now, Hammers are slow weapons with a high damage output. However, Hammers have the added bonus of potentially stunning monsters. You have a higher chance of stunning monsters if you hit a monster’s head.
Monster Hunter Now currently has two ranged weapons: the Bow and the Light Bowgun. Think of these like how the Great Sword is to the Sword & Shield. While both the Bow and Light Bowgun offer increased distance, the Bow is a slower weapon with a higher damage output while the Light Bowgun attacks rapidly with less damage.
In addition to a weapon’s Special Skill, all weapons and armor pieces in Monster Hunter Now have Equipment Skills. These skills enhance your combat in some way, either by providing stat buffs or reducing monsters’ effects.
Monster Hunter Now focuses on combat, treating exploration as a secondary feature. As such, the game has a simple but expansive equipment system. Equipment is broken up into Weapons and Armor. From there, Weapons branch out into different weapon types and Armor splits into different sets.
Large Monsters are the core of the Monster Hunter Now gameplay. Focusing on combat, the game offers monstrous enemies with unique attack patterns. To master the game, you’re encouraged to learn these patterns and time your attacks and dodges accordingly. But if you want to button (or screen) mash, you can do that too.
When hunting Large Monsters in Monster Hunter Now, you have the option to either solo the hunt or invite other hunters to join you. The Group Hunt feature unlocks at Hunter Rank 6 and allows you and up to three other hunters to form a team during a hunt.