Welcome to High Rank!
If you’re now at this point (or beyond), congratulations! You’ve steeled yourself as a hunter, overcome the challenges of Low Rank, brought Zorah Magdaros’ quest to its conclusion and likely crafted yourself some rather swish gear on the way! High Rank brings with it a host of exciting new challenges as you encounter new monsters, new locales and the monsters you thought you knew from Low Rank will be even more dangerous, both hitting harder and being able to take more damage before they go down. But with these new challenges comes even more powerful rewards! High Rank monsters yield new parts and materials that you can use to craft even stronger armour pieces and weapons, so it’s probably a good idea to quickly transition over to the new gear on offer, or soon will be once you take down your first few monsters! The good news is, your first assignment in High Rank will help with just that…Finding those ??? Rathian tracks!
Soon after arriving in High Rank you’ll be tasked with investigating some mysterious tracks that belong to an unidentified Rathian! Fear not though, there’s a couple of ways to approach this task that’ll have you filling up that progress bar in no-time and bringing you face to face with your elusive ??? Rathian! Method 1 – Finding ??? Rathian Footprints Whether you’re out on a High Rank expedition, or trying out some High Rank optional quests (denoted by the orange stars, instead of blue), there’s a good chance your scoutflies will discover ??? Rathian tracks when you’re adventuring in either the Ancient Forest, Wildspire Waste or Coral Highlands – however you won’t find any in the Rotten Vale, maybe this type of Rathian isn’t a fan of the smell, after all that particular locale isn’t known for its fresh air! When you see these tracks, simply collect them and you’ll see your tracking progress bar increase! Growing the bar this way is incremental, but it’ll soon add up! You can speed up this process and make finding those tracks even easier by crafting the headpiece from the High Rank “Hunter’s α” set. This specific piece of armour has both the “Scoutfly Range Up” skill, which makes it easier to find traces, and the “Scholar” skill, which increases the total number of research points received – creating a great combo to keep your research rolling! The best bit is, this armour piece is really easy to craft, all you need is some zenny and a few pieces from the High Rank version of the small monster, Jagras:- Jagras Hide x 3
- Jagras Scale x 4
- Barroth
- Pukei-Pukei
- Rathian
