Monster Hunter WildsHunting Horn Guide

The Hunting Horn is likely the most unorthodox weapon in the entire series. Originally conceived as a support weapon for multiplayer hunting, the Horn has come into its own over multiple design iterations and is now a true force to be reckoned with in Monster Hunter: Wilds.

The main feature of this weapon is the ability to play music in sequence with your attacks, allowing for party-wide buffs while also laying down sick beats upon the monster.

The Horn is one of two blunt weapons in the game (along with Hammer) and one of the few support leaning weapons (along with Sword & Shield). To learn more about each weapon, check out our "Choose a Weapon" guide.

This article was written by PeanutWizard.

Strengths

• Stellar Team Support
• • The Hunting Horn’s greatest strength is its large variety of buff customization options. Each Horn has its own unique melody list that can grant major boons to your party. These include heavy hitters like Attack Up (L), Earplugs(L), Health Boost (L), and many, many more. A good Hunting Horn player knows which instrument’s buffs most align with their team’s composition and targeted monster.
• Stun the Monster with Big Bonks
• • The Hunting Horn exclusively deals blunt damage, which is great for stunning monsters. Having Mind’s Eye built-in (provided you have decent sharpness) like the Hammer also helps with this tremendously, as your attacks will almost always connect to any part of the monster's body to build up stun.
• Decent Mobility for a Large Weapon
• • Even though the Hunting Horn looks like a large, cumbersome weapon, the move speed while the weapon is unsheathed is quite generous. The moveset also allows you a lot of opportunities to dodge roll out of attacks or during performance combos.

Weaknesses

• Attack Speed
• • Hunting Horn’s base attack speed and damage have historically been on the lower end of the weapons in the Monster Hunter Series given its primarily supportive nature.
• Limited Moveset
• • The moveset can also feel limiting to those who like big, flashy combos. However, Capcom seems to be giving HH more damage and expression each new generation to encourage solo play.
  • I presume Wilds will not be an exception to this, and there are some early hints from Beta that Hunting Horn will be as potent as it ever has been!
• Performing Can Be Tough (Everybody’s a Critic…)
• • It can be difficult to find ample openings during fights to perform your songs without getting hit, especially while playing solo or while facing multiple monsters at once.

New Echo Bubble move with R2+X (the effect while in the bubble is weapon-dependent like melodies) that triggers when you do a damaging move inside of it! Multiple of these bubbles can be placed at a time and they can overlap for a TON of damage.

• Quick queuing notes while holding R2 to spin up a melody queue quicker
• New Focus Mode and Offset Attacks
• Melodies will be more potent on yourself and slightly less potent on your allies. This is likely to prevent HH’s from being mandatory second weapons in multiplayer with the new weapon-swapping system.

The Basics

△: Note 1 (Quarter Note) - Left Swing or Forward Smash if the Left Stick is held forward

◯: Note 2 (Eighth Note) - Right Swing or Flourish if the Left Stick is held forward

△ + ◯: Note 3 (2 Barred Eighth Notes) - Overhead Smash or Backward Strike if the Left Stick is held backward

Backward Left Stick + Any Note input after an attack: Hilt Stab

R2: Perform Melody. This can be aimed better if you hold L2 to enable Focus Mode. You can perform up to three times in a row with the melodies in your queue.

Successfully performing all 3 in a row will increase the effect and duration of the melodies. You can elect to not play in sequential order of the queue by pressing Triangle and Circle for 2nd and 3rd in the queue, respectively.

Note Types

Typically, note colors will help hunters infer what types of bonuses your songs will grant. Each horn will have 3 note types to make melodies from. Here is a rough outline of their properties:

• White Notes - Makes you more powerful (Self-Improvement Effect which grants Mind’s Eye and move speed while unsheathed)
• Purple Notes - Similar to white but more powerful (found on endgame horns)
• Red Notes - Raise your HP, Attack, and Defense
• Orange Notes - Similar to red but more powerful (found on endgame horns)
• Green Notes - Restores health and cures status effects
• Dark Blue Notes - Anti-Wind and Power/Mega Juice effects
• Light Blue Notes - Raises tolerance to disruption effects or grants immunity against abnormal status (i.e. poison, Earplugs, etc.)
• Yellow Notes - Boosts Elemental Attacks and Elemental Defenses, and also some item-like effects like Sonic Waves

Queueing

Playing notes in a certain order will queue up a melody effect from your Hunting Horn. You may only have 3 effects stored at a time, however. Performing your melodies will consume them and you will have to build them up again. Your attacks do not need to hit anything to work, they only need to be played to build your queue.

In this example, to queue up Attack Up L you would need to play this sequence of notes (Note 1 + Note 3 + Note 3 + Note 2).

Depending on your Hunting Horn build, here are the sort of skills you'll often see HH players using.

From the official Monster Hunter channel: