Monster Hunter Iceborne recently came out and we at Gaming Instincts bet that many veteran hunter and probably new players will want to tackle these monsters head on with their high-tier gear. Well they’d be wrong as the monsters in Iceborne are both dangerous and crafty. That’s something to expect when the Hoarfrost Reach introduces players to Master-Ranked battles to deal with as soon as they start the new expansion.
The very first battle that players will meet in this new world is something a bit familiar, the Beotodus. The Beotodus may be similar to other Piscine Wyverns of the past like the Jyuratodus and the Lavasioth, but it’s distinct revving of its roar and snowy armor will leave unprepared players traumatized.
The Beotodus is seriously no joke and will dance around your attacks as you try to hit him. You’re going to need a lot of damage and defense if you wish to survive the many hit’s you’ll no doubt take while fighting this fiendish fish. Generally you’ll want to be fast as the snow covering the creature will add some defense to it, so deal damage to the back, tail, and head in order to take it all off. If it stays on you won’t be able to do jump attacks to mount it.
Additionally it’s an Ice-type creature so it will give the hunter Iceblight during a few of it’s attacks. Though if you damage the creature’s legs and feet the Iceblight will happen a bit less. This also means that the Beotodus is incredibly weak to fire-type weapons with a three star rating. Your second best bet against it will be thunder with a two-star weakness. Also water-type weapons are only a bit effective with a one-star weakness.
The Beotodus is a Piscine Wyvern, meaning that it is completely unaffected by dragon-type weapons and it being ice means that it is also unaffected by ice-type weapons, so just use a element-less type weapon if you can.
The creature is not particularly strong against any ailments so feel free to poison it, make it sleep, paralyze it, or stun it’s head. Since the creature is always covered in snow and requires quite a bit of damage to fully remove it, I recommend using blast-type weapons so you can hopefully remove its snow armor quickly.
If anything, buff your attack and defense at the canteen in order to get the most out of your attacks. While you’re at it bring some Mega Demondrugs and Armorskin potions to make yourself even beefier.
You can expect to bring your typical items like 10 mega potions for health and 10 regular potions with 10 honeys to make more mega potions. You’ll also be able to grab a few herbs and honeys during the fight, so don’t worry too much. Additonally, bring some well-done steaks along with both Max and hopefully Ancient Potions if you happen to go down and lose your buffs.
Items that especially useful are flash pods used to blind it temporarily. More importantly, bring screamer pods made with Scream Sacs. This will temporarily cause the Beotodus to be knocked out of swim-mode in the snow and will be vulnerable until it decides to go back underground.
Of course, bring nullberries to get rid of iceblight when the Beotodus uses its ice-based attacks. Finally, you’ll need hot drinks to survive the cold. Luckily, peppers can be found during your time here, but if it’s your first time, just grab them while you can.
If you want to make the fight slightly easier for yourself, bring some traps and tranquilizers to hopefully capture it. It’s generally easier to capture creatures and you don’t have to deal with the rage attacks for when the Beotodus is on its last leg.
As said before, the Beotodus is quick, elusive, and constantly moving. The thing just about always wants to stay underground, keeping it’s important weakpoint safe, it’s legs. If you use a screamer pod or mount the giant fish, you’ll be able to knock it down and attack its legs. When it gets back up, it will walk around and use it’s over-ground attacks. His more powerful moves aren’t used in this mode, but he can still pack a punch, so keep hitting his legs during this.
If he decides to go back underground, keep attacking from the sides and try to aim for its fins as they are another weakpoint. You can also attempt to break its horn and cut its tail too as it being submerged underground makes its face, back, and tail pretty close to the ground.
Unfortunately when its underground, you’ll have to pay attention to what the Beotodus does to predict some of the more dangerous iceblight attacks. You can easily tell when it will do these attacks when it decides to completely submerge. It will either cause a big ice splash from underground which does a decent amount of damage, jump towards you with shards of ice, and attack from below as well. Also look out for the Beotodus’ unique revving roar as it will definitely try to charge you or do another iceblight attack.
Of course if you’re caught in iceblight, you can use one of the may hotsprings to get rid of the debuff and feel a bit refreshed as well.
If you want to get more damage in between these attacks, aim for its head and try to use your clutch claw to weaken it. It’s pretty easy to clutch claw this thing when it’s above ground and walking, but it’s also doable when it’s swimming, albeit harder to do.
Near the very end of its life, it will start to be dazed and just stand around being tired. This is a great chance to set up a trap to try to capture it, though if you’re like me and don’t have any traps, some Bomb Barrels will do, if it actually decides to sleep. If you don’t have these items, get ready to take on a barrage of attacks and poke it to death.
The Beotodus is one of the more annoying creatures to fight the first time, but once you get how it moves and how its attacks work, you can defend, dodge, and simply stun the Piscine Wyvern into submission and claim your rewards after your successful hunt. Be warned that the monsters don’t exactly get easier from here, so be prepared for a Master-Rank adventure in Iceborne.
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