The Bazelgeuse can be a nuisance enemy. In fact, it’s arguably THE nuisance enemy of nuisance enemies in Monster Hunter World, with nary a High Rank investigation or expedition that didn’t see this living bomber pestering you by showing up uninvited. Once you actually confront the beast, it’s not so bad, especially once you learn its attacks and can avoid getting hit by its bombs too regularly. This mission, however, pits you against two Tempered Bazelgeuses, and two such interrupting pests flying about can be a real chore.

Ranged weapons are useful against Bazelgeuse in general, but more-so if you end up having to fight two at once. They allow you to pepper the monster with damage while remaining relatively safe from its explosive scales, and almost any attack it performs to bring those scales to bear should give you plenty of time to dodge away before they actually explode - usually triggered by some follow-up action by the monster itself. In this case, having two Bazelgeuses attempting the same attacks at the same time can get rather tricky, but it’s nothing that a few Dung Pods can’t do.

Yep, the first post-game, Tempered monster assignment, and the humble Dung Pod may be one of the more useful items you can use. Two Bazelgeuses at once is somewhat busy, but if you focus on one at a time, this fight shouldn’t be all that difficult at all.

Once you kill or capture the two Bazelgeuses, your Hunter Rank will again be unlocked, allowing you to advance further… Up to Hunter Rank 49, at least, at which point you’ll have to complete another assignment. But more on that later, as there are some more immediate developments to make note of, first.

Threat Level Two Tempered Monsters¶

Now that you’ve completed the assignment “Beyond the Blasting Scales” and have presumably hit Hunter Rank 30 (or higher) you can now undertake investigations targeting Threat Level Two Tempered monsters, a catageroy which includes the Azure Rathalos, Bazelgeuse, Black Diablos, Diablos, Lavasioth, Legiana, Odogaron, Pink Rathian, Rathalos, and Uragaaan… basically every large monster sans Elder Dragons that you faced during and after the First Wyverian hunts.

Threat Level Two Tempered Monsters function like their lesser fellows in that you can usually only find them on investigations, which you must unlock by looking for blue Scoutfly tracks during expeditions. Save for the aforementioned monsters that fall under this category, the only appreciable difference is their drops. Threat Level Two Tempered monsters cannot drop Mysterious Feystones, removing the least of the decorations from the list of possible drops, but replacing it with a higher chance to drop Gleaming, Worn and Warped Feystones, the last of which has the best chance of being tier 8 jewels. Good stuff. There’s also a small change that these monsters will drop Sullied Streamstones, which, of course, will appraise into a type of Warrior’s Streamstone. The drop rate is pretty dismal, though, so unless you’re dead-set on farming Warped Feystones, you’re better off just going after Tempered Elder Dragons, instead. Finally, instead of dropping Streamstone Shards, Threat Level Two Tempered monsters will drop full Streamstones.

Warrior’s Streamstones¶

While the drop rate is incredibly low (around 3%) there’s a good chance you’ll have to hunt a good number of foes before going from Hunter Rank 29 to Hunter Rank 49. Since it may happen, these drops may as well be discussed now. As a normal reward (either as an end of hunt quest reward, or one of the purple investigation rewards) you may get a Sullied Streamstone, which, like Feystones must be identified to reveal its true form. Sullied Streamstones become Warrior’s Streamstones, when identified, and like Feystones there are various types that allow you to augment different weapons, as follows:

So, what do these curious stones do, exactly? After you acquire a Warrior’s Streamstone (or a Hero’s Streamstone, as the case may be, but since you can’t get Hero’s Streamstones from Threat Level Two Tempered monsters, and they’re four times less common from Threat Level Three Tempered monsters than Warrior’s Streamstones are) return to the Blacksmith and he’ll admire your prize, before he begins openly dreaming about using it to craft gear for you. This will unlock the “Augment Equipment” option in his menu, which allows you to select a piece of High Rank armor that has reached its maximum upgrade level, or a weapon that is the last in its tree (whether it’s a tier 6, tier 7 or tier 8 weapon is immaterial) and use materials to upgrade them further.

Augmenting armor doesn’t actually require any resources you couldn’t have already obtained, but the materials required will vary a bit depending on the actual item and its quality. Tier 5 - 6 armor will typically require Streamstone Shards and Bird Wyvern Gems, Tier 7 armor typically requires Streamstones and Wyvern Gems, while augmenting Tier 8 armor consumes Gleaming Streamstones and Elder Dragon Bones. Augmenting armor is a one-time expense that requires no real choices to be made, once augmented, armor will have its level cap extended, allowing you to boost that piece further… usually scoring around ten Defense per piece. Aside from the actual materials used in the augmentation process, however, upgrading your armor further will consume hundreds of Armor Sphere points and tens of thousands of Zenny. Selling unneeded monster materials is a fine way to stock up on Zenny, and being diligent about completing bounties during hunts and expeditions should see you obtain plenty of high grade Armor Spheres, although practically anything below an Advanced Armor Sphere is useless at this point.

Weapons are a bit more involved. First, depending on the weapon’s tier, it’ll require different materials, and can be upgraded a different number of times. In addition to other materials, Tier 6 - 7 weapons require Warrior’s Streamstones to upgrade, while Tier 8 weapons require Hero’s Streamstones. Tier 6 weapons can be upgraded three times, Tier 7 weapons can be upgraded twice, and Tier 8 weapons can only be upgraded once. While augmenting and upgrading armor is relatively simple - spend materials, unlock more levels, increase Defense as per normal - weapons present you with a choice of options:

With these upgrades, it may be possible for some Tier 6 - 7 weapons to outshine Tier 8 weapons, and it certainly means you shouldn’t let the upgrade level of the weapon be the final word on its quality. The actual augment you’ll want to apply varies by weapon, but the Defense boost is almost always trivial, at best, while extra decoration slots might be nice, but in the long-term a few more level one slots will give you some resistances or quality-of-life skills. Welcome additions, to be sure, but arguably greater Affinity or Attack should be your go-to augmentations, with Affinity usually being the better pick unless you can reach 100% Affinity through a combination of natural weapon bonuses and skills. The Charge Blade’s Super Amped Element Discharge attacks also don’t land critical hits, making Attack a better choice than Affinity.

That information should be enough to get you started with Threat Level Two Tempered monsters, and if you get some Warrior’s Streamstones during your hunts, you may just have some ideas of what to do with them. In the meantime, your next goal is to grind your Hunter Rank up to 49, at which you’ll unlock the next assignment, Thunderous Rumble in the Highlands.