Gathering Phase | Journal #6 | Monster Hunter World: The Board Game
Now we’ve revealed our first four hunters, it’s time to learn how quests work! Starting with phase one: the gathering phase.
If you’ve heard us mention choose-your-own-adventure mechanics and are curious how they tie into the game, all will now be revealed…
(Well, not all, but enough. No sense in giving everything away—yet!)
Did you miss the hunter blogs? Check them out below:
Now, on to the hunt!
Choosing Your Own Adventure in the Gathering Phase
From the journal of Jamie Perkins, Lead Developer
When you’ve chosen a monster to hunt, you’ll need to do exactly that: hunt. Yes, just like the video game, you have to track the beast down before you can do battle.
(After all, it’s not called ‘Monster Wait-Around-For-You-To-Attack World’, is it?)
You’ll do this using your wit, your cunning, your ever-helpful Scoutflies and, of course, your quest book.
Using the Quest Book
Each monster has a unique set of adventures for use during the gathering phase. These can be found in one of the game’s quest books.
For example, all the adventures for the Ancient Forest monsters are conveniently located in the Ancient Forest quest book.
Each monster has its own section in the quest book. So, the first thing you need to do is find the section for the monster you’re hunting.
We don’t want to give too much away, so I won’t show you a full page just yet. Suffice to say you’ll be presented with a page of potential starting points for your quest.
(You’ll also see other useful information, such as the different quest types you can choose for that monster.)
These starting points contain sections of text, known as ‘entries’, that will offer you a choice. Just like a choose-your-own-adventure book, the decision you make will determine which entry you turn to next.
As you progress from one entry to the next, you’ll discover monster tracks (i.e. track tokens) and useful snippets of information to help you find the monster as you explore the New World.
Again, each entry will usually present you with a choice and its associated results. Sometimes a choice will cost you time. Sometimes, a choice will grant you bonus resources that are useful for crafting new weapons and armour.
A word of caution: don’t be too tempted by bountiful scavenging. Gathering resources is great, but it may not be the most efficient route to the monster.
TL;DR - Try to balance your “Oooh, shiny!” tendencies with your monster hunting instincts.
Example Choices
Now, let’s take a look at an example entry from a Great Jagras adventure:
As you can see, one choice is only open if you’ve collected certain resources. In this case, you’d need to have a Great Jagras hide. Gated choices like this mean different paths might open up in later adventures.
Speaking of later adventures, each time you track a monster, you’ll begin from a different starting point. So, your experience in the gathering phase will be different even when hunting a monster you’ve hunted before.
However, that doesn’t mean every part of your adventure will be unique. Just like in the video game, as you’re exploring, you may find yourself on a path you’ve seen before. You might even choose to repeat choices on purpose as you begin to learn the terrain, to produce certain effects.
Or you might make a different choice the next time around, to explore somewhere new!
Whatever you decide, one thing’s for certain: you’ll eventually find the monster, and that’s where the track tokens you’ve been gathering come in.
Track Tokens
Once you’ve successfully tracked down the monster, you’ll flip any track tokens you’ve collected along the way. Each track token has a number on the back to show the number of tracks you discovered.
More or less tracks isn’t better or worse — it simply determines the state you find the monster in and changes how it behaves during battle. Yep, you got it: even monster behaviour can be different from one battle to the next, depending on your choices.
After all, they are wild and unpredictable beasts—and it’s your job to hunt them down.
Welcome to the Fifth Fleet. We’re SO glad to have you on board!
~ Journal Ends ~
