Monster Hunter Wilds Rathalos: What Is It and How to Hunt It🪽
Rathalos is the flying wyvern with red scales in Monster Hunter Wilds. As the husband wyverns paired with Rathians, they are responsible for guarding the wyvern eggs in the game, and you may run into them in the Scarlet Forest, the Oilwell Basin, or Wyveria. With fierce attacks and the ability to spit fireballs continuously, Rathalos can cause you quite a headache when trying to hunt it down. No worries! This post will lead you through all the ins and outs of this monster, including its weaknesses, drops, armor, weapons, and the preparations you need to hunt it down effectively.
What is Rathalos?
In sum, Rathalos is the flying wyvern in Monster Hunter Wilds, mated with Rathians, and has the classic look of a dragon with two wings, two claws, and one tail.
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Basic Information
To start with, as the flying wyvern in Monster Hunter Wilds, Rathalos has the nickname of being the “Kings of the Skies”. It is covered in red scales, with two wings, two claws, and one tail. The size is around 1,500 to 2,000.
It has taken the Scarlet Forest, the Oilwell Basin, and Wyveria as its habitats. After the fall of Zoh Shia, Rathalos can be later spotted guarding their eggs on the elevated platform of the waterfall in the Scarlet Forest. They may appear as well when their mates Rathians are under attack.
Furthermore, the name bears a resemblance to the English word “wraith”, meaning the ghost or spirit of the dead. It can also indicate the deadliness and lethality of Rathalos’ attacks. The suffixes “-los” and “-ian” (from Rathian) are references to the gender of the monster.
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Weakness
Rathalos’s weakness lies at the mouth. At the same time, you can break its wings and tail as well, as the breakable and severable parts. Sometimes it may be difficult to aim accurately at the mouth. In that case, you can try your best to aim at the head, and that should usually do the trick!
The Large Monster Field Guide suggests using the flash pods to daze the monster as well because this flying wyvern stays in the air for most of the time during the quest.
Effective Elements
Generally speaking, it is recommended to use the thunder or dragon element to counter Rathalos. Rathalos deals fire and poisonous attacks most of the time. It may not be as common to see using the thunder element to counter a fire-element monster in the game. On the other hand, considering its classification as a wyvern, it makes sense to bring it down using the dragon-element weapons.
To maximize your attack efficiency, you can prepare the thunder or dragon element weapons before going on the quest of hunting Rathalos. As Rathalos is not from any part of the main quest but from an optional quest called “King of the Skies”, the thunder or dragon element weapons you have unlocked so far are based on your progress in the main story and your survey of the map.
Here is a tentative list of the thunder-element weapons you can make use of:
| Long Sword | Rey Tonitrus |
| Sword and Shield | Rey Kuara |
| Hunting Horn | Rey Perun |
| Lance | Rey Indra |
| Charge Blade | Rey Astrapi |
| Insect Glaive | Rey Halilintar |
| Bow | Rey Perkonis |
Here is a tentative list of the dragon-element weapons you can forge:
| Great Sword | G. Veldian Gladius |
| Long Sword | G. Veldian Ensis |
| Sword and Shield | G. Veldian Mucro |
| Dual Blades | Chthonian Kusarigamas G. Veldian Harpes |
| Hammer | G. Veldian Malleus |
| Hunting Horn | G. Veldian Sibilus |
| Lance | Chthonian Firewheel G. Veldian Lancea |
| Gunlance | G. Veldian Hasta |
| Switch Axe | G. Veldian Securis |
| Charge Blade | Chthonian Flame G. Veldian Labrys |
| Insect Glaive | Chthonian Vajra G. Veldian Trudis |
| Bow | G. Veldian Arcum |
You can also make use of the thunder ammo from heavy/light bowgun as the elemental attacks. Moreover, the thunder pods and dragon pods deal similar elemental attacks, too.
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Drops
Rathalos drops:
- Rathalos Wing: 80% chance
- Rathalos Scale+: 60% chance
- Rathalos Carapace: 60% chance
- Rathalos Tail: 60% chance
- Inferno Sac: 40% chance
- Rathalos Certificate S: 10% chance
- Rath Medulla: 10% chance
- Rathalos Ruby: 10% chance
With these materials, you can forge the Rathalos α and β armor set with Gemma. The alpha set has a higher level of Adrenaline Rush, Constitution, and Evade Window skills, while the beta set has more jewel slots.
Moreover, the weapons made from Rathalos’s drops carry great damage with the fire element. With many other monsters susceptible to the fire element, it is quite convenient to forge a weapon from Rathalos Tree for later use.
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Which Part of the Story Is Rathalos In?
Rathalos is not in the main storyline, but it will only occur on the map once you hunt Zoh Shia and the story enters Chapter 4.
Later when Zoh Shia is down, the Dragontorch releases purer energy for the Forbidden Lands, resulting in more lives returning to the Lands and the monsters getting stronger. The appearance of Rathalos is part of this story’s background.
Later down the story in Chapter 4, the guild will send you an optional quest called “King of the Skies” for you to hunt down Rathalos.
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How to Hunt This Monster?
The general guide for hunting down this monster is to use the long-range weapons or to pair the short-range weapons with the flash pods, because most of the time during the fight, Rathalos will be flying and half-staying in the air, leaving only the tail close enough for you to hit. But before heading into details, let us go through the preparations first!
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Weapon
It would be best to have a long-range weapon as the primary weapon. You can choose among heavy bowguns, light bowguns, and bows. Additionally, you need to choose the ones that have the thunder ammo slots. If it is the bow, make sure that it is the thunder-element bow. The elemental attacks can give you an edge over the fight with Rathalos.
Choose a close-range thunder or dragon element weapon as the secondary weapon. Although you can only reach the tail when the monster is flying, you can still take advantage of the window when the monster is either hit by the flash pods or by the traps, be it shock traps or pitfall traps. As the fight progresses to a later stage, the monster will be exhausted, giving you more time to deal damage when it is on the ground.
Pocket flash pods (from flashbugs), large dung pods (from dung), thunder pods (from thundercrysts), and dragon pods (from wyrmsbanes). As mentioned before, these pods can help you boost your fight. Flash pods can bring down the monster and give you opportunities to use your melee weapons. Large dung pods can prevent Rathian from joining the fight. Thunder pods and dragon pods are elemental attacks that can counter this monster.
Lastly, fill your ammo pouch with thunder ammo and dragon ammo. These will give your shoot the elemental coating that can counter Rathalos. You can make the thunder ammo with the thunderbug capacitors and the dragon ammo with the dragonfell berries. Or you can purchase from Jack as well.
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Armor
To prepare against Rathalos’s attacks, you need to equip your armor with good fire resistance and buffs against the poison.
Firstly, for fire resistance, you can opt for the Quematrice α and β, which can give you 30 fire resistance with 191 defense. Otherwise, you can also go for the Kut-Ku α and β which will bring your fire resistance to 35 and defense to 191. Both these monsters deal fire damage, and, as the game mechanism goes, this means their armor sets have great fire resistance stats.
Other than that, you can pair your armor set with a Fire Charm talisman, or a Poison Charm talisman. Jewels with special elemental buffs can be added to your armor and weapons as well.
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Other Preparations
- Prepare your Palico with good fire-resistance armor and a thunder-element weapon as well.
- Check your item pouch and supply to fill up the potions, mega-potions, max-potions, antidotes, and others.
- Cook a meal from either the tent or the BBQ grill to give yourself extra buffs.
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Attack Strategy
Rathalos attacks through:
- Plunging towards you with sharp claws
- Biting you with the mouth
- Spitting fireballs continuously
- Showering fire onto you
- Smashing you with the end of its tail (poisonous)
The best tactic against this monster is to keep your distance at the start of the fight when the monster spends most of the time half-hanging in the air. You can use the thunder or dragon ammo to shoot at its weak spot, the mouth.
After running out of the special ammo, you can make use of the pods, either from the preparations or from the gathering at the battleground. The game will prepare you with some materials you can take advantage of on-site. By using the flash pods, you can bring the monster down and slash it with your melee weapon.
The fight usually starts from the waterfall platform, where the area is more clear without obstructions. The monster, later, will move to the dense forest area. With the trees growing around, you can hide behind these natural obstructions as blockades from the plunging and fire-showering.
Sometimes, Rathalos also moves to areas with poisoncups. You can blow up the poisoncups with the slinger to deal poison damage. At the same time, prepare to drink the antidote because if you pass by the poisonous area, you will get poisoned, too.
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FAQs
1. Is Rathalos a dragon?
Rathalos is a type of flying wyvern in Monster Hunter Wilds. Wyverns refer to the mythical flying reptiles with two wings, two claws, and one tail. Dragons usually have four legs instead of two. However, the dragon-element weapons can counter Rathalos in the game.
2. Are Rathian and Rathalos the same?
They are two different monsters listed in the Large Monster Field Guide, referring to the same type of species but of different genders. Rathian is the female and Rathalos is the male. Rathian has green scales, while Rathalos is in red. You may encounter both of them as sometimes they will swoop in to help each other in the fight as husband and wife.
3. Is Rathalos male or female?
Rathalos is the male, and Rathian is the female. Rathalos can commonly be spotted at the high point of the Scarlet Forest guarding the eggs. When you attack a Rathian, a Rathalos may come in to help Rathian out as well.
Conclusion
Paired with Rathians, Rathalos are the faithful husbands guarding the eggs in the Scarlet Forest. With Zoh Shia slayed and the Forbidden Lands revived with purer energy, the Forest is more alive with more monsters like Rathalos, making the game more challenging and more interesting as well.
The combination of Rathalos and Rathian gives the Scarlet Forest a more natural touch, as if they are not monsters waiting to be hunted by the players, but the hosts of the habitats who have their own agenda and lives to live there. There are still so many waiting to be investigated and surveyed by the hunters!
