Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’s Anomaly Investigations reportedly easier than EX 5-star Anomaly Quests, even at the highest level

With Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’s new Title Update 1, quests called Anomaly Investigations have been added to the game. As the quest level for these quests are increased, the content gets more difficult. However, it sounds like they don’t quite pack the punch players were expecting.

Anomaly Investigations have a set level, and by beating them, players will be able to challenge the same monster through higher level Anomaly Investigations.

Furthermore, the upper limit of the quest level depends on your Anomaly Research Level which increases by accumulating a set amount of Anomaly Research Points. These points can be acquired by doing things like clearing Anomaly Investigations or cutting off monster parts during these quests. When your Anomaly Research Level reaches 81 or higher, it will become possible to take on EX 5-star Anomaly Quests*.

*Anomaly Quests are a separate quest type from Anomaly Investigations. They range between EX 1 through 5-star difficulty depending on the monster, and like regular quests, have set time limits and conditions.

For Anomaly Investigations, as the quest level is increased, so are the rewards. However, the afflicted monsters that appear also grow more powerful. As of now, the highest quest level is 100, which one might think would produce the strongest monsters in the game. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Twitter user @aru__ch has been looking into the matter and their findings have been drawing attention from fans.

The above tweet shows @aru__ch’s comparison of EX 5-star Anomaly Quests, regular difficulty, and hard difficulty level 100 Anomaly Investigations* using Tigrex’s roar attack.

*These hard difficulty quests have special time limits and failure conditions.

Among these, it appears that EX 5-star Anomaly Quests do the most damage. And according to @aru__ch, EX 5-star Anomaly Quest monsters and regular difficulty level 100 Anomaly Investigation monsters have the same amount of health. To put it plainly, the afflicted monsters that appear in EX 5-star Anomaly Quests are stronger than the Anomaly Investigations versions at their highest level.

Additionally, @aru__ch says hard difficulty level 100 Anomaly Investigations have reduced health to compensate for the time limit. But despite the time limit, if the fights go smoothly, it sounds like you could say these are the easiest of the bunch. And because of the rewards, not only are they easier, but they compensate you more for your effort.

@aru__ch does note that their findings only apply to EX 5-star afflicted monsters, though, adding that the level 100 Anomaly Investigations have stronger monsters than their corresponding EX 3-star and EX 4-star counterparts.

A system where a quest rank raises the strength of monsters harkens back to Monster Hunter 4 and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. For players expecting something similar from Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’s Anomaly Investigations, @aru__ch’s findings may come as a surprise. There have actually been players on Twitter commenting that the level 100 Anomaly Investigations were weaker than they were expecting, so they may not be surprised when they see what @aru__ch posted.

Rather than pushing to raise your quest level for harder quests, @aru__ch’s investigation shows the fixed quests provided are more difficult. While this could make repeated play more comfortable for players, those expecting more of a challenge might be disappointed. It has already been announced that the maximum level for Anomaly Investigations will rise with further Title Updates, so maybe when the level exceeds 100, players will be able to truly take on the game’s strongest monsters.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-08-13 10:01 JST)