When you’re done messing around, return to the Research Base and talk to the Third Fleet Captain and agree to descend to the depths of the Rotten Vale. Watch the scenes that follow and you’ll have a close encounter of the Legiana kind, which naturally results in a a withdrawal and a new quest being posted for a plucky Fiver. After some more chatter with the Third Fleet Captain you’ll be able to accept the assignment Legiana: Embodiment of Elegance.

Hunt - Legiana¶

If you’re not using a ranged weapon, you may wish to consider grabbing one. The Legiana is a flier, but unlike the Pukei-Pukei - who rarely uses flight for anything more than fleeing - or the Rathian - which spends plenty of time on the ground - or even the Paolumu, the Legiana is a quicker flier than spends much of its time in the area, launches a great deal of offense from the sky, and is quick and on the ground. A melee weapon with reach like the Long Sword or a ranged weapon is recommended, but the Charge Blade and Switch Abe will work, albeit with some difficulty.

Once your weapon is selected, you’ll need to hunt down the Legiana. Start out near the Northeast Camp, exit by crawling out the hole to the west, then head down a ramp to the south to reach AREA 12, where the Legiana likes to lurk. Failing that, you’ll certainly find some tracks that’ll lead you to more tracks, or better yet, the Legiana itself. The Coral Highlands, like the Ancient Forest, has quite a few vertical elements to it, meaning a flighty foe like the Legiana can quickly ascend or descend to areas that’ll take you far longer to reach on foot. Using the Glider Mantle will help you get around and keep up with the Legiana better, if you can spare the use of another hunter tool. The Legiana’s lair is atop AREA 15, but it’ll also move between AREA 10, AREA 12 and AREA 8 during battle.

As mentioned above, Legiana is an aggressive, agile monster that particularly likes to attack from the air. Its relatively lithe body, quick attacks and delight in aerial assaults can make it a more difficult monster to hit. To attack, it uses bites, an aerial claw attack, tail sweeps and of course the obnoxious “pace back and forth” that somehow counts as an attack which all Flying Wyverns seem to do.

Its most annoying attacks, however, are its ice attacks, of which it has two types - a short range attack where ice is projected in an arc in front of it, and a long range linear attack. Both do serious damage and can inflict Iceblight, which will increase the Stamina cost of actions, and both can be performed while Legiana is in the air. Use a Nulberry to rid yourself of its effects if you get the time, but be wary, as Legiana is a tenacious beast which will give you few opportunities to rest.

That said, Legiana has many weak points, including its head, wings and tail, all of which are breakable (including it body). Its head is especially vulnerable to damage, if you have a weapon capable of making such precise attacks. Legiana is weak to thunder and resistant to ice, and is especially susceptible to the poison ailment.

Kill and carve the Legiana (or capture it) to complete the assignment, after which you’ll get a series of post-quest notifications informing you that you unlocked new safari locales for your Tailraider Safari, you can now upgrade armor further (a much needed upgrade, considering the damage newer foes were dealing!) and you’ve earned the right to take on five-star assignments. If you were lucky, Legiana dropped Monster Bone+ items, too, which are required components for many weapon upgrades… perhaps a few that may be useful to you, as well. This was a milestone assignment!

Afterwards you’ll find yourself back on the Research Base, where the Third Fleet Captain will again wait your word before attempting to descend to the depths of the Rotten Vale again. Unfortunately, you’ll be delayed by new quests popping up… at least if you care to bother with them. At the very least, consider returning to Astera and upgrading your armor. This will likely be an expensive process, setting you back over 10,000z and easily 30+ Armor Sphere+ items, but it could reward you with a 30%+ increase in Defense, which is nothing to scoff at. Afterwards, the new tasks available will be listed below, and when that’s all done, it’ll be time to attempt another descent.

Elder Melder¶

In Astera you’ll find Elder Melder worrying over a massive cauldron in the Tradeyard area, near the Resource Center. Talk to the her and she’ll explain what she’s doing, which naturally is accompanied by a tutorial. The Elder Melder will allow you to “Meld Items”, essentially creating more of one item (chosen from an “Items” list on the left side of the screen), by expending Research Points and Melding Points (as indicated in the center “Item Details” box). How do you get Melding Points? By using up other items! Not every item you want to create can gain Melding Points towards its creation by sacrificing just any item. Oh no, that would be a bit too powerful, being able to scrap common ores to get very rare monster materials.

For example, you can duplicate say, Shock Traps by selecting them on the left menu. Notice that they take thirty Melding Points, which can be obtained by sacrificing items listed on the right menu (under the “Ingredients” heading). If you dispose of ten Monster Bone S items and expend 20 Research Points, you’d get one Shock Trap in return. Meanwhile, a rare item like a Rathian Plate has a much, much more limited selection of possible ingredients, one of which being a Silver Wyverian Print. You can’t just burn dozens of lesser items to reach the 100 Melding Point requirement for it, unfortunately.

All in all melding is a fine way to convert some lesser (perhaps even obsolete) items into superior ones and in the future it may help getting specific rare materials. Use it in conjunction with the Ancient Tree to accumulate the items you need for hunts, as higher-end monsters will require increasing amounts of skill and items to defeat.

Crafting Better Curatives¶

With that out of the way, it’s time to talk about curatives (and support items). While the odd Mega Potions and Antidote may have sufficed back in the day, monsters are growing increasingly more powerful. So are you, but that exacerbates the underlying problem; old healing items aren’t keeping up with the size of health bars and the damage being done. Relying on base defense alone may not be ideal for some fights, and of course, the best defense is often a good offense. To that end, you should start thinking about crafting superior healing and support items, especially since you now have (or should have, if you’ve been following this guide - if not, get questing!) an upgraded Ancient Tree and access to the Elder Melder.

Specifically, carrying around some Max Potions will help for heavy healing, and buffing your attack and defense with Demondrugs and Armorskins are also winning strategies. Below is a table showing the items in question, the components required to make them, and the components required to make those components, too!

As you can see, the fundamental components of this higher-end curatives and support items boil down to the following: Bitterbugs, Blue Mushrooms, Honey and Mandragora. In addition you’ll need Adamant Seeds and Might Seeds for Armorskin and Demondrugs. Focus on cultivating some of these (Adamant Seeds, Bitterbugs and Might Seeds all make good choices, due to their relative scarcity in the field) and use the Melder to get the items you aren’t cultivating for. This doesn’t have to be done all at once, but starting now and paying attention to the Ancient Tree between quests will pay dividends later on.

Princely Prawns¶

Next up, head to the Canteen and talk to the Fiver Bro there, and… you already know how this going to end. That’s right, the Meowscular Chef assigned him another task, and once again he hands it off to you. This gets you the delivery request Princely Prawns, with the humble task of obtaining a Shamos Hide. If somehow you don’t already have one in your possession, make an expedition to the Coral Highlands (or better yet, start up the quest It’s a Crying Shamos), harvest one, then deliver it. Easy-peasy, and it’ll unlock a new ingredient at the Canteen.