In Monster Hunter Wilds, taking on the Guardian Rathalos is no easy feat. This powerful construct can quickly overwhelm unprepared hunters with its aggressive aerial attacks and devastating elemental strikes. To successfully hunt this fearsome creature, you’ll need a carefully planned loadout designed specifically to exploit its weaknesses and counter its deadly moves.

This guide explains the best armor, weapons, items, and techniques that will help you triumph over the Guardian Rathalos and claim your victory.

Best Loadout for Guardian Rathalos

Understanding Guardian Rathalos

Before diving into your equipment choices, it’s important to understand what you’re facing. The Guardian Rathalos is a constructed monster imbued with the essence of the original Rathalos. It heavily utilizes Fire and Dragon elements in its attacks, inflicting both Fireblight and Poison statuses. It is primarily weak to Thunder and Dragon elements, and resistant to Fire. Knowing this will help you prepare effectively.

Recommended Weapons

Choosing the right weapon is key to defeating Guardian Rathalos efficiently. Given its elemental weaknesses, Thunder and Dragon weapons are your best bet.

Thunder Weapons

Thunder-based weapons are excellent choices, as Guardian Rathalos takes significant damage from them. Consider forging weapons from Rey Dau materials:

• Rey Perun (Hunting Horn): Offers Thunder damage and numerous buffs to support your team.
• Rey Dau Edge (Sword & Shield): Provides mobility and Thunder damage, allowing quick hit-and-run tactics.
• Rey Szelayta (Light Bowgun): Lets you maintain a safe distance while exploiting Thunder ammo for maximum elemental damage.

Dragon Weapons

If you have access to Dragon-element weapons, these can deal considerable damage as well. However, early in Low Rank hunts, Thunder weapons are more accessible, making them your primary choice.

Recommended Armor

To effectively withstand Guardian Rathalos’ elemental attacks, prioritize armor sets with high Fire and Dragon resistances.

Low Rank Armor Set

• Guardian Arkveld Helm
• Guardian Arkveld Mail
• Guardian Ebony Braces
• Guardian Arkveld Coil
• Guardian Rathalos Greaves

This mixed-armor set provides balanced defensive stats, decent Fire resistance, and valuable skills such as Burst and Weakness Exploit. It also grants powerful set bonuses like Decimator and Burst Boost, enhancing your damage when targeting wounds created on the monster.

High Rank Armor Set

Once reaching High Rank, upgrade your armor to the Guardian Rathalos Alpha set for optimal performance:

• Guardian Rathalos Helm Alpha
• Guardian Rathalos Mail Alpha
• Guardian Rathalos Vambraces Alpha
• Guardian Rathalos Coil Alpha
• Guardian Rathalos Greaves Alpha

This full Guardian Rathalos Alpha set significantly boosts your resistance to Fire and Dragon elements, provides increased critical damage capabilities, and improves your overall survivability.

Recommended Skills and Decorations

Enhance your loadout further by equipping useful skills and decorations:

• Weakness Exploit: Deal increased damage to wounded monster parts.
• Critical Boost: Boost damage from critical hits—a perfect complement to Weakness Exploit.
• Burst: Enhances your multi-hit attacks and triggers additional damage effects.
• Flayer: Increases your damage against wounded areas.

Decorations such as Critical Jewel, Protection Jewel, and Physique Jewel can be used to supplement these useful skills.

Recommended Items and Consumables

Don’t forget to bring essential items to the hunt. Pack your loadout with:

• Flash Pods: Essential for knocking Guardian Rathalos out of the sky, leaving it vulnerable.
• Shock or Pitfall Traps: Immobilize the monster temporarily, allowing your team to unleash full-power combos.
• Antidotes and Herbal Medicine: Quickly remove Poison status inflicted by Guardian Rathalos.
• Nulberries: Remove Fireblight and Dragonblight inflicted by the monster.
• Mega Potions: Essential for healing up after taking damage.
• Well-Done Steak: Keeps your stamina topped off, ensuring you always have ample energy to dodge and attack.

Tactics and Strategies

Now that you’ve equipped yourself properly, it’s time to put your preparation into practice.

Proper Positioning and Dodging

Guardian Rathalos spends a significant amount of time airborne, making close-range combat tricky. Stay directly underneath the monster to avoid most of its fireball and breath attacks. Use vertical attacks or aerial moves (if your weapon allows) to reach its weak points.

Use Flash Pods Wisely

Flash Pods are crucial to your success. Wait until Guardian Rathalos takes to the air, then shoot a Flash Pod to bring it crashing down, creating a valuable damage window.

Aim for Weak Spots

Guardian Rathalos’ head, wings, and legs are vulnerable to damage. Consistently target these areas, especially after knocking the monster down or trapping it. Breaking these parts will also yield useful materials.

Utilize Turf Wars

If another monster like Guardian Doshaguma appears nearby, lure Guardian Rathalos into initiating a Turf War. These clashes can significantly weaken the monster, giving you a valuable advantage.

Call for Backup

If the fight proves too challenging solo, don’t hesitate to use the SOS Flare to summon support hunters or friends. Team play can speed up the hunt and reduce your individual risks.

Secondary Weapon Combos

Monster Hunter Wilds allows dual-equipping of primary and secondary weapons. The following combos work exceptionally well against Guardian Rathalos:

• Long Sword + Light Bowgun: Allows fluid transitioning between agile melee strikes and ranged Thunder ammo attacks.
• Insect Glaive + Sword & Shield: Offers aerial maneuverability and ground defense, ideal for evading and countering Guardian Rathalos’ aggressive attacks.
• Great Sword + Hunting Horn: Combines high raw damage with supportive melodies, increasing your survivability and damage output.

Conclusion

Hunting Guardian Rathalos in Monster Hunter Wilds is an intense and rewarding experience. By carefully preparing your gear with elemental advantages, effective armor, supportive skills, and the right items, you’ll significantly improve your chances of success. Keep these strategies and tips in mind, and soon you’ll be turning this challenging encounter into a satisfying victory.

Happy hunting!