Dah’ren Mohran
Element: None
Ailment: None
Weakness: Thunder, Dragon
Injured Sign: None
Breakable Spots: Horn, Back of Head, Back ridge, Arms, Spike Cannon
Tips: Dah’ren Mohran may seem like an intimidating elder dragon fight at first, but once you learn the pattern of fighting him, he can consistently be beaten with very little variation. The Dah’ren Mohran fight is one of the only quests in the game to have two active losing conditions. You will lose if your team faints three times, as usual. You will also lose if you fail to repel or kill him before he destroys the Dragonship.
Take Feline Bombardier from the Open Air Cafe if possible before you start the quest, it will increase the cannon damage you deal to Dah’ren immensely. Make sure you pick up the Bombs, Ballista Binder, and Ballista ammo in the blue box at the start of the quest. At first Dah’ren comes up on the starboard side of the ship. You will have to put your weapons away to use any of the ship’s important features. Most of the time you are on the Dragonship, your weapons should not be drawn. This fight should feel a little familiar at this stage to the games' first tutorial.
Use cannonballs located in the back of the ship on him until his arm is within melee striking range from the edge of the ship. You can then easily wound his arms until they shatter. If he appears to rear back from the edge slightly, put your weapon away and run to the opposite side of the ship, because he is going to do a sideways body slam. If he appears to buck, it means he is shooting rocks that lock on to your location, and may temporarily disable a ship weapon.
When the red arrows appear near the back of his arm, jump on his body and make your way up behind his head. There will be a bulb near the crest of his skull, the bulb is very fleshy and can be broken using a high sharpness, high damage weapon or the Dragon bombs provided at the start of the quest. This might sound complex, but in practice it actually feels like a boss battle from any other major action game.
After he bucks you off his back, make your way back onto the ship. If he separates from the ship, use the Ballista Binder ammo on the ballista anywhere on his body to do a large amount of damage and bring him closer to the ship. While he is separated you can get off some ballista shots with the ammo you got at the beginning. When at the ballista, aim for his horn, because breaking it is the secondary quest objective and yields extra materials if you complete the mission. If you successfully break the horn, aim for his back spike.
Dah’ren Mohran will eventually sink into the sand and poke his head up, facing the ship. You can choose to use the cannon on his horn for easy shots and eat the damage when he rams you, or hit it with a weapon and prepare to hit the gong (located in between the two cannons) if it looks like he’s about to ram you or body slam you. The gong has a long cooldown, but it’s still pretty easy to beat Dah’ren without using the gong well, so don't worry if you mess it up.
After having his left side wrecked by you, Dah’ren will do a splendid flip over the Dragonship and rise from the sand on the aft side. Take the opportunity before he rises out of the sand to stock up from the Ballista Ammo pile, located in between the two Ballistas. If you still have cannon ammo left in the pile, shoot him at range with the cannon until he is again close enough to break his arm in melee.
If you get the option to board him, you can take it and wail on the back of his head again, run yourself out of cannon ammo, or carefully aim the ballista at his horn while he is still. By now your Ballista Binder should be up again, you can use it on him when he departs from the edge of the ship to keep him around for a bit longer and prolong the ship battle by a few seconds. He may at some point rise facing the Dragonship and attempt to body slam it, if you decided to eat the horn hit earlier, he can be interrupted from his slam by using the gong.
When you deal substantial damage to Dah'ren Mohran’s right side, he will again sink under the sand. Take the opportunity to gather three or four ballista ammo from the pile between the ballista. Dah'ren will rise out in front of the ship. Get to the forward bridge, there’s a button that activates the Dragonator. Dah'ren will charge, and when he is about to hit the ship with his horn, use the Dragonator.
There is a short animation delay between the time you hit the button and the time the weapon deploys, similar to sounding the gong. It may take you a couple tries to perfect the timing on the Dragonator, but it does a lot of damage as long as it hits him, even if he still hits you and the ship. If timed perfectly, the Dragonator can break his horn. After this charge, Dah'ren Moran returns to the starboard side of the ship briefly, so lay a little extra damage on him before going into the next phase of the fight.
In the final phase of this fight, Dah'ren will be grounded, slowly waddling his way over to the ship to attempt his final blows. A strong enough group will kill him before he even reaches the ship, because hitting his soft legs causes him to drop his head and allow players onto his back again. If you failed to break his legs in the first phase, you get a pretty generous second chance. But be wary that if you kill him too quickly, his head will fall out of the level, and you will not be able to carve anything off of his mouth. You will again have access to all the Dragonship’s features, which you should make use of once he gets within striking distance of the ship.
The Cannon and Ballista ammo piles will be restocked, as well. The Dragonator is now conveniently turned on its side, allowing you to use it to pierce Dah'ren’s soft belly once he is too close for comfort. Make your Dragonator attempt count, because it will likely be on cooldown for the rest of the fight. When Dah'ren rears up and exposes his belly, he’s going to body slam the ship, use the gong to interrupt him again. If he falls on his side with his mouth open, you can choose to get some easy hits on his mouth or mine his teeth. Be aware that once he gets up he does immense damage to you if you are still in his mouth and get flung off.
Repeated hits with the cannon and ballista/ballista binder, combined with the powerful Dragonator, and the gong, will cause him to move back from the ship slightly. If you have a powerful melee weapon or run out of cannon fire, you can take this opportunity to attack his legs again. Every time he flinches it will buy you more time from him hitting the ship and prematurely failing the mission.
Once you land the killing blow on Dah'ren Mohran, get to him as quickly as possible. Because he’s such a big feller, he can be carved a whopping eight times. Carve his mouth four times and his body four times, and you’ll have to farm him much less.
Dalamadur
Element: Water
Ailment: Paralysis
Weakness: Dragon
Injured Sign: His Chest will become Brighter
Breakable Spots: Head 2x, Back, Legs, Chest 2x, Tail
Tips: Dalamadur is an impressively long elder dragon. The level he is in is barely enough to contain his huge body. He is so large he has two map icons, which you can alternate using to focus depending on which area of his body you are trying to attack.
First of all, it is crucial to eat from the Open-Air Kitchen before the battle, and make sure you’re getting Health Up Large if possible. You’re going to need the health cushion for later so you don’t get one shotted by his most powerful attack. Bring Max Potions and Mega Health Potions. It also doesn’t hurt to bring along some Barrel Bomb L+’s for this battle. Gather the bombs from the blue box at the start of the quest (drop down in the space between the mountain spire and his body to get to the “starting area”) and use the Anti-Dragon Bombs along his body coil to knock him down.
It is possible to land on Dalamadur’s head and place Anti-Dragon bombs, but extremely difficult. If you miss his head attempting to do this, you have to climb back up the spire all over again. When he’s down, take advantage by hitting his head. If he opens his mouth, take care not to touch his paralysing snake tongue.
If you are using a ranged weapon or an Insect Glaive, you can be on vaulting head attack duty the entire time, while your team handles the rest of his body. If you are not using the Insect Glaive or a ranged weapon, you will have to climb to the top of the spire when he coils around it and wait for his body to catch up to the top. This is when you will have the option to jump on his head, which is very effective if done correctly, and a complete waste of time if botched.
On top of the spire, when his back is within melee distance, you and your team can wail on it or place bombs. This is the easiest way to break his back. When he falls back down, chase after his head again. The Insect Glaive users and the ranged users will already be close to where his head falls, laying on the damage while the rest of the team has to catch up.
You can set Barrel Bombs next to his chest when he is not coiled around the spire. Any time you manage to knock him down, you should try to capitalize by hitting his head. His chest can be broken twice, but take care not to linger there for too long, because it emits a fiery aura that drains your health, and keeps you in range of his powerful breath attacks. Yes, his neck is so long that he can target you easily while you are hitting his chest and claws.
After a medium length charging telegraph, he will fire a blast in the direction his head is facing. Eventually he will cause it to rain white explosions, they do a moderate amount of damage and are telegraphed by white lines that shoot into the sky all around the level. The more injured Dalamadur is, the more often he will summon the white explosions.
This following bit is extremely important, so we're going to put it in both bold and italics so you read it: TRY TO KEEP YOUR HEALTH FULL AT ALL TIMES. Bring Mega Health Potions and Max Potions, whatever you can get your hands on to keep you (and your teammates) alive. Having someone play a double Defense Up song on the Hunting Horn is also pretty great. The reason? Dalamadur is huge, and his special dragon breath attack sweeps the entire level and is extremely hard to avoid. The breath goes through most terrain and can only really be avoided if you jump to the starting area or climb above its huge range in time. He can do it twice in a row, telegraphing in between, so keep those Max Potions handy.
You cannot trap Dalamadur, don’t be clownin’. After a while of switching between his body parts, focusing on his head when possible, Dalamadur will finally take the big sleep. His body can be carved one billion times (okay not really, but move along his head and body if you want to get everything). If you managed to chop off his tail, you can carve that twice, but there’s probably not enough time left in the day after you carve everything else.
Kushala Daora
Element: Dragon, Ice
Ailment: Snowman, Iceblight, Severe Iceblight
Weakness: Thunder, Dragon, Poison
Injured Sign: None
Breakable Spots: Horn, Wings, Tail
Tips: Kushala Daora is the elder dragon of wind. In single player, this is a scripted fight, and the NPCs will tell you everything you need to do step-by-step to win. In the G rank quests, you will actually need to hunt Kushala Daora down in the Frozen Seaway. Poison will reduce her wind shield when it turns black and stormy, and allow you to get close enough to hit her. She will shoot tornadoes in front of her and quickly deplete your stamina bar if you get afflicted by her Iceblight. Since Kushala Daora is an elder dragon, she cannot be trapped, even though she is small.
Akantor
Element: Fire, Dragon
Ailment: Defense Down, Fireblight, Severe Fireblight, Dragonblight, Severe Dragonblight
Weakness: Dragon, Thunder (when enraged)
Injured Sign: Limping
Breakable Spots: Back Spikes, Tusks, Chest, Back, Front Claws, Tail
Tips: Akantor is slippery for a big guy. When he goes underground, lava flows block his entrance and exit, preventing melee users from getting in hits before and after he digs. If you paintball Akantor and zoom the minimap, you will be able to discern his location when he is underground. When fighting him, try staying to his left and right. Fighting from in front puts you at risk of his heat blast and wind tunnel. His back can be broken by attacking his chest.
Ukanlos
Element: Ice
Ailment: Snowman, Iceblight
Weakness: Fire, Thunder
Injured Sign: Limping
Breakable Spots: Front Legs, Chest, Back, Tail
Tips: Ukanlos is very similar to Akantor in body type and attack range. The safest place to stand when fighting Ukanlos is between his head and his right leg. His sweeping head thrusts and ice beam will not hit you in that spot. Ukanlos armour has very high base defense, and is popular among G Rank hunters.
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- Ruby Basarios, Brachydios, Teostra, Gold Rathian, Rajang
- Dah’ren Mohran, Dalamadur, Kushala Daora, Akantor, Ukanlos
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- Molten Tigrex, Shah Dalamadur, Kirin, White Monoblos, Oroshi Kirin, Raging Brachydios
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