Gear Guide: Monster Hunting Equipment & Tips

Are you getting the most out of your gear when it comes to hunting monsters? If you’re not sure of the answer, you might be surprised to find that you can take down high-level monsters using significantly less MP with the tips in this article.

The Best Monster Hunting Equipment

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of optimizing your gear for monster kills, there are a few things that need to be discussed. First, this guide assumes that you have Hero Research completed to at least Monster Tactics 6. Everything after Monster Tactics 6 will require Exalted Hero Research Tomes, which can be found in the Gold Store. Although the research leading up to Monster Tactics 7 is helpful for both monster hunting as well as combat, it is not as essential as getting your Attack Streaks Research up to level 25, which gives over +600% Hero Attack when Attack Streaks are maxed out. Having your Hero Attack Streak at or above level 25 is an essential part of putting down monsters quickly and efficiently, so that should be your first goal if you haven’t done that yet.

Second, Crafting Research is so, so, so very important both for killing monsters and combat. Since all of the monster hunting equipment is usable with a hero level 30 and under, mastering T1 Crafting Research for all pieces of equipment level 1-30 also imperative. Once mastered, this will give you an extra +40% to all of your normal monster hunting gear boosts – including your Attack Streaks! It doesn’t take many Crafting Research Scrolls to complete T1 Crafting Research. You can buy them in packs or get more bang for your buck and get them from the Moogle Marketplace.

Lastly, in this guide you will be changing your weapon, body armor, and all 3 accessories frequently. If competition is fierce for monsters or during monster hunting events, you will need to change equipment as quickly as possible to maximize your damage and get the final attack. This is why having Gear Presets is highly recommended for all of your heroes, or at the very least, for Noctis. You can buy Gear Presets in packs or by increasing your VIP level.

You’ll also see that the two pieces of equipment we do tell you to change in this guide are your helmet and footwear. These are also the two pieces of equipment you want to allocate your very best Monster Gems to. Ideally, both should be Legendary pieces from the Dreadmist gear set. If you don’t have Legendary Dreadmist quality gear just yet, go with Beastmaster gear. The Epic quality Dreadmist footwear is still slightly better than the Legendary Beastmasters footwear, so you can get away with that, but the same is not true of the Dreadmist helmet – you want Legendary only for this.

Gear Set #1: Streak Building

Let’s face it, the first attack on a high-level monster is always the weakest. We need to build up those essential Attack Streaks before we start doing any real damage. So, which equipment do you use?

These are currently the only pieces of Legendary equipment that can increase your Attack Streaks:

• Weapon: Beastmaster’s Claw, +4 Attack Streaks
• Weapon: Dreadmist Plunderer, +5 Attack Streaks
• Body Armor: Hunter’s Carapace,  +2 Attack Streaks

Interestingly, Hunter’s Carapace is the only piece of Body Armor in the game that gives us additional Attack Streaks; however, if your T1 Crafting Research is mastered, then you can get your Attack Streaks to level 25 using only the Dreadmist Plunderer. Unfortunately, Hunter’s gear is also a year old and lacking in the Hero Attack department. Meanwhile, Dreadmist Plunderer gives a robust +5 streaks at Legendary quality, but only +3 Attack Streaks at Epic. It can be very difficult to craft a Legendary Dreadmist Plunderer weapon given the rarity of its crafting materials.

If you have Legendary Dreadmist Plunderers, you should use them with your Dreadmist Cape body armor when building attack streaks. This is the best equipment combination for the first attack on a monster and will get your Attack Streaks to level 25 with an extra 100% or more Hero Attack.

If you don’t have Legendary Dreadmist Plunderers, use Beastmaster’s Claw as your weapon and Hunter’s Carapace as your body armor instead. This combo will still get your Attack Streaks to level 25 in 3 hits, but lacks the Hero Attack of Dreadmist gear.

If you have an Epic quality Dreadmist Plunderer, you will still want to use Beastmaster’s Claw until you’re able to upgrade it to Legendary. The Beastmaster’s Claw is easier to craft in Legendary, but is still useful in lower qualities.

Basically, when you go to attack a new monster, you want to have on as much Legendary Dreadmist gear as possible; however, using either of these equipment setups will ensure that you reach level 25 Attack Streaks after the first 3 attacks on a monster.

Gear Set #2: Maximum Damage

Let’s say you’re attacking a level 7 monster and after your first 3 attacks, it’s only down to about 60% HP. Luckily, you should have your Attack Streaks already maxed out at level 25 after the first 3 attacks.

Ideally, you will be equipped entirely in Legendary Dreadmist gear, with the exception of your weapon, which should be the Giant Slayer for its massive Hero Attack boost. What’s amazing is that the Dreadmist Armbands give so much Hero Attack that even at Rare quality, they are better than any other piece of monster hunting equipment.

This gear setup is also great if you can kill level 1 & 2 monsters in a single hit.

Gear Set #3: Maximum MP

Our final monster hunting gear setup is going to be to optimize Hero MP so we can get in even more attacks. This is the gear setup that should be used every time your hero levels up or when attacking a Realm Boss. This is what a maximum MP gear setup should look like:

For this gear set, we are using a Giant Slayer as our weapon and 3 Noxious Daggers as accessories. If you don’t have enough Bottled Bad Breath to craft 3 Noxious Daggers, you can use a Hunter’s Insignia instead, but you will want to keep working towards crafting 3 Legendary Noxious Daggers, as they will give you more MP than any other accessory, even at Epic quality.

If you’re using the Dreadmist Armband after leveling up your hero, you’re wasting precious MP. If you’re still in the Streak Building phase of attacking a monster, but using a hero that just leveled up, you can use a single attack on the monster while wearing the Maximum MP gear setup, then quickly change over to the Streak Building setup to ensure that you get a boost in both attack streaks and damage. Having the Gear Presets will make this easy.

Other Ways to Optimize Monster Hunting

While gear is the most essential part of hunting monsters, here are a few other tricks you can use to help you slay.

The best hero for hunting monsters is Noctis. He is the only hero who has the skill Hero Attack, which only goes up to 50% when mastered, but it is a worthwhile boost for any expert monster hunter.

In the Order of Heroes, it is relatively inexpensive to unlock the Order of the Hunt, which gives +50% Hero Critical Damage, +50% Hero Attack Bonus, and +100% Monster March Speed.

The Oracle Temple now has 5 handy lifetime boosts for hunting monsters! The +20% Lucky Kill, +20% Lucky Strike and +20% Critical Damage boosts are all relatively easy to unlock, while the +200% Hero Attack and +200% Monster March Speed bonuses will require a bit more work.

Unlocking the new Crystal Nexus has a great boost for monster hunters out there. At level 5, the Tiger’s Eye Core gives us +100% Hero Attack, +1 bonus Streak per Attack and +50% Monster March Speed. See our Crystal Nexus article for more details.

If you still need a little extra boost, here is a brief list of items that will enhance your monster hunting experience. Keep an eye out for any items that increase your hero’s Max MP, as these are a godsend when fighting a Realm Boss. (Read our Realm Boss Guide here).

• +25% Hero Attack Boost (15 Minutes & 30 Minutes) – Can be found in level 1 and 2 of Proving Grounds or purchased for 7,300 and 11,000 loyalty respectively.
• 1,000 Needles Monster Slayer Boost (5 Minutes) – +500% Hero Attack, +250% Monster March Speed, +100% Max MP. The Holy Grail of monster hunting boost. Works great on any Realm Boss. Dropped by Cactuars and found in Item Stockpile Mystery Chests.
• Monster Slayer’s Vigor (15 Minutes) – +25% Max MP, +500% Monster March Speed, +75% Hero Attack. Purchased in special event packs.
• Monster Slayer Blitz (2 Hours) – +25% Max MP, +75% Hero Attack, +500% Monster March Speed. These used to be available to craft using the Magitek Converter and Super Brawl Trophies, but they have since been replaced with the ability to convert Blueprints and Tomes. If you have one, consider yourself lucky.
• Ignis Birthday Monster Boost (2 Hours) – +25% Max MP, +75% Hero Attack, +500% Monster March Speed. Same as above.

Conclusion

To summarize, be sure to optimize your gear into three distinct sets for monster hunting: Building Streaks, Maximum Damage, and Maximum MP. Make use of the Gear Presets by getting your VIP level up, and don’t forget about the many other ways you can optimize your next monster hunt. Lastly, you don’t need a full set of Legendary Dreadmist gear to be awesome at slaying monsters, but it helps.