Monster Hunter Rise guide: Wyvern Riding beginner’s guide

Wyvern Riding is the new way you mount monsters in Monster Hunter Rise. Instead of climbing on a monster’s back and downing them for bonus damage like in previous titles, Rise lets you ride and control the monsters in combat. If you’re clever, you can use this to your advantage and inflict serious damage to your target monster.

Before diving into our tips, run the “Learning to Ride” Wyvern Riding tutorial mission from the Village. It’ll teach you how to mount a monster, execute a Mounted Punisher, and all of the basics you’ll need to know.

Even when you know how to mount a monster, you’ll still have so much left to learn about Wyvern Riding. In this Monster Hunter Rise Wyvern Riding guide, we’ll set you on a path to mastering this complex system.

You can drive your monsters almost anywhere

Getting a monster into a rideable state is pretty easy — and we’ll cover that in just a second — but once you’re on its back, you can ride a monster almost anywhere. The timer at the bottom of the screen is very generous, so you can cover an entire map and still have time to whale on your monster.

Monsters are actually quite mobile as well. They can climb cliffs or jump down from tall ledges. If you’re curious about whether a monster can climb, push them against a ledge for a few seconds. If they lock into place, they’re getting ready to jump. If you still have control, you may need to take the long way around.

This is a great way to grab a monster that isn’t your target and take them to the monster you’re actively hunting. Which brings us to our next point.

How to put the monster in a rideable position and start every hunt with a Wyvern Ride

Image: Capcom via Polygon

To get a monster into a rideable state, you need to beat on it with aerial attacks or Silkbind moves — you know you’re dealing mounting damage because the numbers will have a blue tinge to them. For target monsters — as in any monster that’s on your quest log, the one you’re actively hunting — the riding threshold is very high, meaning you’ll need to deal a lot of mounting damage to Wyvern Ride them. But there are almost always other monsters on the map. These monsters have a very low riding threshold.

The best way to start a hunt is to approach a monster that isn’t your target. Before it starts attacking you, hit it with a Silkbind attack from your weapon. After only one or two Silkbind moves, you’ll be able to mount the monster. You can ride this monster to your target and whale on them until your Wyvern Riding timer runs out. This is an awesome way to start each fight with some serious damage.

Wyvern Ride twice to reset the timer

Once you’ve ridden a monster, its invisible riding gauge goes way up. It’s rare that you’ll be able to ride the same monster twice in a single hunt, especially if that monster is your target. However, there is one loophole for this. If it’s been long enough, you can use one monster to make an already ridden monster rideable again.

Launching one monster at the other will stun them both, pinning your current ride to the ground and causing the monster you just rammed to be rideable. As long as it’s been about 10 minutes, and that includes monsters you’ve already ridden before. Because of this, you can eventually ride your target monster to one of the non-target monsters you’ve already ridden, launch your target monster to stun the non-target, and swap monsters.

This lets you get a third Wyvern Ride Mounted Punisher against your target monster, which is some major damage.

Here’s what we do to exploit the Wyvern Ride system in most hunts:

1. Mount non-target monster 1
2. Attack target monster using non-target monster 1, use Mounted Punisher combo
3. Wail on target monster with our weapon while they’re stunned from the Mounted Punisher
4. Exit the fight when the target monster runs away
5. Mount non-target monster 2
6. Repeat steps 2 and 3
7. Mount target monster once they’re rideable
8. Bring target monster back to non-target monster 1
9. Launch target monster at non-target monster 1, making non-target monster 1 mountable for the second time
10. Repeat steps 2 and 3 again

It’s a complex system, and one that you’ll need several good hunts to truly grasp. But once you master the Wyvern Ride, you can really put the game’s monsters to work for you.

Use Wyvern Riding to shred parts

Image: Capcom via Polygon

One of the best parts about Wyvern Riding is how many monster parts it sheds. While battling, shiny monster parts break off of the monster you’re whaling on and drop like candy. This is a great way to get even more parts from the monster you’re hunting. But if you’re smart, you can also get lots of parts from one of your non-target monsters.

If you look at the above tip, around step eight, you can eventually bring your target monster to a non-target monster and swap them. But before you do that, it behooves you to whale on the non-target monster with your target monster. This will shred a bunch of parts, helping you collect items from a monster you’re not even hunting. Right before the timer runs on your target monster’s Wyvern Ride, launch the target monster at the non-target monster and make your swap.

Just remember where each Wyvern Ride battle takes place so you can pick up the parts when it’s safe.

Every new monster is a new chance to Wyvern Ride

If you take a while during your hunt — which isn’t uncommon as the hunts get more complex and difficult — non-target monsters will leave the area, and new ones will replace them (usually around the 20-25 minute mark). Since you haven’t ridden these monsters yet, they have a very low riding threshold. This is great news for you, as you can go grab another monster for yet another Mounted Punisher attack.

If you notice a new monster you haven’t ridden yet, it may be worth breaking off your engagement with your target and grabbing a new “friend” to help you out.

You can keep dealing damage before your Mounted Punisher

The tutorial teaches you that you’ll need to deal a certain amount of damage while Wyvern Riding to execute a Mounted Punisher. What the tutorial doesn’t tell you is that you don’t need to execute that Mounted Punisher right away.

Once you unlock the Mounted Punisher, your monster can’t get knocked out, and you’ll have several seconds to hit the combo button before the gauge hits zero. Use this to your advantage and keep attacking your target monster with normal Wyvern Riding moves. You can rack up tons of bonus damage this way.

Just be careful not to get too greedy and miss out on your Mounted Punisher.

Use your Wirebugs to dodge out of combos

Monsters attack very slowly while Wyvern Riding. You can spend your Wirebugs on the monster to dodge out of the way of an incoming attack or even into the attacking monster to interrupt them and deal some damage. That’s a great use for your dodge, but you can also use your dodge to cancel your combo animation. This is especially useful if you’ve knocked your target out and you don’t have to worry about getting attacked.

Once you see damage numbers from your monster’s combo, evade and reset. Monsters normally take several seconds to reset their animations on their own, but by forcing their hand like this, you can land a bunch of extra hits before your time runs out