Hardest Games To 100% Complete, Ranked

Monster Hunter hasn’t always had a consistent difficulty level across the series. There are more than 25 Monster Hunter games, counting all the re-releases and spin-off entries, so it would be difficult for that not to be the case. Most of the games tend to load their biggest challenges into the late game High Rank hunts, with many becoming more challenging when the games are fleshed out with DLC or re-release content.

Not every Monster Hunter game is difficult to simply complete. Story campaign bosses often aren’t the games’ hardest, or final, monster. But 100% completing the games is a different proposition. Some Monster Hunter titles have particularly brutal endgames, a long grind to get the best gear sets, or one stand-out monster that brings up the whole challenge level. These are the hardest Monster Hunter games to 100% complete.

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8

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

Uneven Expansion

Systems

Released

April 20, 2010

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Blood, Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence

Monster Hunter games are often made more difficult over time with expanded editions. Monster Hunter 3 (or Monster Hunter Tri) was no exception, with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate expanding the game in several ways. This included the addition of new gameplay elements like underwater fighting, but these new additions didn’t all feel consistently balanced.

Many players felt that the difficulty of certain hunts, especially the underwater ones, far eclipsed the difficulty of other comparable hunts at the same rank. This makes Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate one of the more difficult games to 100% complete, but not necessarily for the right reasons. Fortunately, the game also has some truly memorable encounters, like Brachydios and Alatreon.

7

Monster Hunter

Early Limitations

Systems

Released

September 21, 2004

ESRB

Teen // Blood, Use of Alcohol, Violence

As the first game in the franchise, Monster Hunter had no existing frame of reference for what would be a fun challenge and what players would find too tough or too tedious. It hits the mark more often than it misses, but there are some aspects that make this a difficult game for newcomers. Anyone coming from a more modern Monster Hunter game may be caught off guard by how much monster knowledge matters in both the first and second games.

It will often take multiple attempts at learning a monster’s attack patterns before players can survive the tougher fights in the original Monster Hunter. Some menu delving to learn a monster’s specific weaknesses is also expected. It’s arguable whether the original or the re-release, Monster Hunter G, is harder to 100%. The added Fatalis fight is incredibly tough, but the rereleased game has some additional quality of life improvements, too.

6

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

The High Rank Hub

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, the expanded version of Rise, feels like a much more complete game than the original release. The addition of the Master Rank hunts not only provided an end game that had been mostly lacking, but it also introduced some tough challenges. The new final boss, Gaismagorm, is a memorable hunt, but players can test their hunter skills even further after they’re defeated.

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Anomolies are unlocked after beating Gaismagorm, only available to top-rank hunters, which are much harder variants of existing monsters. Some of these fights are tough even by veteran Monster Hunter player standards, with Risen Shagaru Magala and Primordial Malzeno offering some of the hardest fights in the series. These tougher challenges will definitely test any player going for 100% completion.

5

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Expanded Endgame

Released

September 6, 2019

ESRB

t

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Monster Hunter World had its challenging fights even in the base game. The expansion Iceborne brought some even tougher endgame monsters with it. Many players will remember Alatreon and Fatalis in Iceborne, as these are two tough encounters and their most epic representations so far in the MH series.

Some players will argue that the addition of the clutch claw mechanic made the game easier overall, especially when applied to some of the base game monsters. Yet, with the additional Master Rank bosses and tempered monsters, the challenge certainly ramps up towards the end for players who want to get to 100% completion.

4

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

Hyper Monsters & Deviants

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS
• Release date: March 18, 2017
• Developer: Capcom

The fights found at the highest hunter ranks of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate are some unforgiving tests. With Extreme Deviants, Hyper monsters, and more to deal with, MHGU has some of the most amped-up variant fights in the series. Boltreaver Astalos and Bloodbath Diablos stand out as two of the toughest EX Deviant fights.

It’s not just these variants that can be a pain, though; there are also fights like the Hyper monster duo of Silver Rathalos and Gold Rathian. Then there are the Elder Event monsters, with Crimson Fatalis in particular being a tough fight that can easily cart unprepared hunters with single attacks. Getting through all of these top-rank fights is a test for any Monster Hunter player.

3

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

Old School Difficulty

Action RPG

Fighting

Adventure

Shooter

Systems

Released

March 27, 2008

ESRB

t

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which was essentially the final updated release of Monster Hunter 2, remains one of the most challenging games in the series to 100%. For more modern players, weapons will feel mechanically limited, and the game demands knowledge of the monsters’ movesets and weaknesses to master them.

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There are a lot of monsters in MH: Freedom Unite, which makes fighting through the full roster a challenge in itself. The game also imposes some pretty strict time limits on some later hunts, something that has been massively relaxed in more recent Monster Hunter games. MHFU features some late-game monsters with deadly attacks that must be learned to survive, like Fatalis and Bloodbath Diablos. 100% completion is a long and grueling task.

2

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

G-Rank Challenges

Systems

Released

February 13, 2015

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Blood, Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate‘s highest level of challenge is its G-Rank hunts. These encounters include some of the most challenging hunts in any Monster Hunter game. The Apex variants in MH4U are incredibly tough variants of some already tough monsters like Rajang and Zinogre. Some G-Rank hunts will have players hunting multiple high-level monsters at the same time, and can be incredibly difficult for all but the most experienced players.

Some fights in MH4U take the challenge level to borderline frustrating. Soloing the G-Rank content is inadvisable at best, and any player looking to go back and 100% the game should take an experienced co-op friend along for the ride if they want to enjoy the experience.

1

Monster Hunter Frontier Z

A Long Grind & Vicious Endgame

• Platforms: PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Microsoft Windows
• Release date: June 21, 2007
• Developer: Capcom

Monster Hunter Frontier Z was a Monster Hunter game in the form of an MMO, and as a result, it had one of the longest and most challenging endgames in the series. There are a few reasons for that: the levels of material grinding required in Frontier are more demanding than in the mainline games. The game is an MMO, so a lot of the content is designed for groups, with many of the tougher fights being raid-style experiences.

The overall design and pitch of the difficulty is slightly different from the average Monster Hunter game, as there are stat walls that players won’t be able to pass with skill alone. This forces a lot more of the slower-paced grinding, and means that getting 100% of the way through Frontier is a time-consuming task. Raid boss-style player annihilating mechanics are common, and players will need to get with a guild to fully complete the game. There’s also the difficulty of playing the game, as the official release is no longer supported, and modern players will have to find private servers to access it.

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