Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting Horn Weapon Guide

Some weapons in Monster Hunter are easy to wrap your head around. The Great Sword, Dual Blades, Lance, and so on. And then there’s the Hunting Horn. It is support and attack all in one, kind of like giving a bard a hammer. In Monster Hunter Wilds, the Hunting Horn is still one of the most essential weapons for any hunting party.

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Thankfully, the Hunting Horn isn’t actually as complicated as it looks or sounds at first glance, it just takes a little getting used to. Read on to get an overview of everything tune the Hunting Horn can play. You’ll be dooting your way to success in no time, smashing skulls and giving buffs galore.

The Hunting Horn

The Hunting Horn is what would happen if someone in an orchestra suddenly became very angry. It can take on many different forms, from bongos and drums, to tubas and flutes. It’s not playing support one moment and then offense another. Instead, the Hunting horn is both at the same time. Let’s see why.

Playing Notes

The basic principle of the Hunting Horn is playing musical notes. Each attack button (Y, B, and Y+B) produces a musical note. There are a few different colours of notes, though any single Hunting Horn only ever has three, and this determines what Melodies it has access to.

For example, say you have a Hunting Horn with a White, Red, and Yellow notes, and they are tied to the Y, B and Y+B attacks respectively. Performing a Y, B, and then Y+B attack in that order will produce White, Red, and Yellow notes in that order. They will appear on the track in the upper-left corner of the screen.

However, the order in which you play notes is important, as notes must be played in the correct order to gain a melody. If a melody has two White notes and a Red note, you can’t perform a Y, B, Y combo. You must perform it in the correct order, which would be Y, Y, B.

Building A Melody

When you play the right notes in the right order, this will produce a Melody, which is then stocked. Melodies have a massive variety of effects, each of them unique to the Hunting Horn you have equipped. They might be something like Health Restoration, Reduced Stamina Consumption, or Earplugs.

Up to three Melodies can be stocked at a time, which will remain stocked until they are performed or replaced. Because only three can be stocked at a time, this means if you produce a new Melody before playing the already stocked ones, it will replace the oldest one. As such, make sure you are playing your Melodies as they are stocked so they don’t get accidentally overwritten.

This is where the Hunting Horn really shines. Melodies of course affect you personally, but they are also applied to any fellow hunters in your vicinity. This means even when you are in the midst of combat, you can be restoring the health of and buffing your teammates.

Up to five notes are stored on the track at a time, but these can comprise multiple Melodies. For example, one Melody needs a White, White, Yellow note combination, and another needs White, Yellow, Yellow. Despite this being six notes, you could achieve it in just four with the White And Yellow notes from the first Melody comprising the beginning of the second one.

Special Performances

Each Hunting Horn comes with its own a Special Performance, which is stocked and performed differently from other Melodies. These typically require at least four notes to stock, and are performed by pressing Y+B+RT all at the same time. There are three Special Performances in total, which are:

• Offset Melody – This acts as an Offset attack, letting you counter a monster during one of their powerful attacks while also dealing high damage.
• Resounding Melody – This attacks an enemy multiple times, and deals extra damage at the end if the final hit piercing sound wave strikes.
• Melody Of Life – This takes a few seconds to activate, leaving you open to attack, but restores a great amount of HP to you and your allies.

Unlike regular Melodies, Special Performances can’t be overwritten. As such, it is best to stock them in advance and then perform them when they are most needed.

Hunting Horn – Skills And Abilities

Now you’re getting the hand of how to play some tunes on the Hunting Horn, you have to put on a performance. Don’t worry though, this is the easier part. Once you have those Melodies stocked, actually playing them is easy-peasy.

Echo Bubbles

Echo Bubbles are a new additional mechanic of the Hunting Horn, letting you place up to three AOE circles on the ground that give buffs to any hunters inside them. All Echo Bubbles function the same in principle, though the buffs they provide are unique per Hunting Horn. Here are the six Echo Bubble Effects:

Aside from their unique effects, Echo Bubbles have two other benefits. The first is that you can perform any three notes quickly during the set-up animation to quickly stock melodies.

The second is that any attack you perform while inside the Echo Bubble will resonate in the centre of it. This will deal extra damage to any monster inside the Echo Bubble. This applies to Performances as well, letting you deal massive damage with the right positioning.

Performance And Encore

These form the core of the Hunting Horn moveset. Perform has you play your stocked Melodies, and can be used so long as there is even a single stocked Melody. Pressing RT will have you begin performing your stocked Melodies, though you can press a combination of either Y+RT or B+RB to play a specific Melody first.

Once you start a Performance, you will perform every stocked Melody you have, though this can be canceled by dodging. With the right timing, which is by pressing RT just as the next Melody is played, your Hunting Horn will flash red and you will perform the Melody faster and deal more damage.

Once you have performed all of your stocked Melodies, you can do an Encore. This is performed by pressing RT after your Melodies have been played, and gives a boost to every Melody played during that Performance. If you had Health Restored and Stamina Reduction, then it might restore more HP and make Stamina Reduction last longer and further reduce the stamina consumed.

Directional Attacks

The attacks with the Hunting Horn are rather slow, and that’s why it’s incredibly important to take advantage of directional attacks. While the regular moves are powerful, they can lock you in place and make it quite hard to quickly build a Melody.

For example. If you press forward on the left stick while pressing Y, you will instead perform a Forward Smash rather than a swing, which also brings you forward a bit. Meanwhile, moving the left stick in any direction after using the default B attack will perform a Flourish, a very quick attack.

Y+B by default strikes behind you and pulls you backwards, but doing it while pushing forward does a slow but high damage Overhead Smash. Following it up with the same combination does a Follow-Up Overhead smash that is performed more quickly.

The most powerful of these attacks is Hilt Stab. This can be performed mid-combo with any button combination by holding back on the left stick and pressing the respective attack button. This is a very short-range attack, but can be performed faster than any other Hunting Horn attack. It deals low damage, but lets you build notes quickly without going through longer animations.

Reverb

Reverb is the Focus attack of the Hunting Horn. When striking a Wound with it, it connects a string to the monster and deals high damage once it completes. However, it also lets you perform up to five notes during its duration, which can let you potentially build up a full stock of Melodies, or refresh your Special Performance.

If you perform these notes in time with the animations, then the Reverb attack will deal even more damage.

Hunting Horn – Tips And Tricks

Time Your Performances

While you can perform your Melodies whenever and however you want, you do want to get the most out of them that you can. That’s why you should always be active when playing them, as pressing the Perform button just as the next Melody is played will cause the Hunting Horn to flash red and deal more damage. This can be done for each Melody in the performance.

This applies to Hilt Stab and the Echo Bubble, too. If you press the Perform button just as the animation ends on these, you will quickly jump into your performance and deal even more damage than usual.

Aim For The Head

It can be easy to get bogged down in building up Melodies with the Hunting Horn, but it’s important not to forget it is a devastating weapon in its own right. The Hunting Horn is a blunt weapon, and does absurd damage when striking the head. Not only that, but hitting the head has a much higher chance of stunning a monster. So keep to the front and get swinging. The monster won’t be able to handle your swings.

Use Hilt Stab To Speed Up Combos

Hilt Stab is incredible because it comes out so damn fast. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t land, because it will have already performed the note you need. Not only that, but it can be used an infinite amount of times in a single combo. After doing a Hilt Stab, doing any other move and then the very next one can be a Hilt Stab again.

Stock Melodies Outside Of Combat

Melodies are one of the most important parts of the Hunting Horn, especially since they benefit your entire team. However, it can sometimes be hard to actually nail the right Melody in the heat of combat. And that’s OK, the Hunting Horn is generous.

Your attacks don’t actually need to hit the monster for it to produce a note. Rather, as long as the attack is performed, you get a note. That means you can stock all three of your desired Melodies and Special Performance before you even start a battle. It’s OK to come prepared.

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