Your Hunter Rank, abbreviated by HR, is essentially your “level” in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. To raise your HR, you'll need to complete the Key Quests (basically the "main" quests), which unlock Urgent Quests. Being at a higher HR means access to more quests and potentially earning better gear. To do this, you'll need to go to the Gathering Hall, which is accessible from the map. It's basically the online game hub, so all of the monsters and missions here are scaled for multiple players.
But sometimes, there are just days when it feels like all the groups you’re joining are full of fail. If you plan on solo questing in the Gathering Hall or Elder Hall, do so offline. Don't solo quest in an online room while waiting for other players. Solo questing offline will slightly lower the monsters’ difficulty and allow you to bring two Palicoes with you, assuming you’ve unlocked another Palico in the singleplayer or someone was nice enough to send one to your mailbox. Having another set of paws on the healing horn is immeasurably valuable.
Playing online, you can share Guild Quests, Guild Cards, and Palicoes with other players in your game through the start menu. It can be extremely difficult to unlock some of the Guild Quests needed to access specific monsters needed for crafting special weapons. If you like the people you’re playing with, you can spare them the hassle that you went through to unlock those Guild Quests by sharing with them. If you don’t like them, well, those chumps can do hours of Expeditions on their own…
With all that said, here is that Key Quest list you’re here for:
Gathering Hall Low Rank Quests
HR 1 > HR 2
Bug Burger
Kecha Konundrum
Tackling a Tetsucabra
The Gypceros Project
Urgent Quest – Web Sighting
HR 2 > HR 3
Royal Assassination
A Ghastly Gift
Zamtrios of the Deep
Nix the Najarala
Urgent Quest – Dark Wings, Dark Work
HR 3 > HR 4
Tigrex Tough Love
Temper Tantrum
Royal Audience
Tuff Turf
The Royal Guard
Urgent Quest – Sand Sailor
Gathering Hall High Rank Quests
HR 4 > HR 5
Face Two Face
Purple People Eater
Buffoonish Baboon
Dastardly Duo
Urgent Quest – Rathian’s Wrath
HR 5 > HR 6
Writer’s Block
The Red Menace
Dread Locked
Advanced: Frenzied Foe
Urgent Quest – Ore D’oeuvre
HR 6 > HR 7
Bring Down the Sky King
Infernal Overlord
Ear Ache
Brimstone and Brachydios
Urgent Quest – Stop the Wheel
HR 7 > HR 8
Advanced: Grim Tidings
Advanced: Teostra Tangle
Advanced: Storm Front
Advanced: Fleet Action
Urgent Quest – Speartip Menace
Once you complete the HR 8 Urgent Quest, you become G Rank, which opens up the hardest difficulty of monsters in the game, along with the best gear. You partake of G Rank quests in the Elder Hall, not the Gathering Hall. You will not even be allowed to enter the Elder Hall if you are not G Rank. If you can solo G Rank monsters, you’ve definitely earned some bragging rights.
HR 8 > G
Urgent Quest – Glacial Grinder
Elder Hall G Rank Quests
G1 > G2
If performed in a group, you will still get credit for Part Two quests, excluding Urgent Quests, even though they will not be listed until you have completed all of Part One.
Part One:
Sculptural Seltas
Seeing Spots
Berserker Rage
Line in the Sand
Fashion Victim
Part Two:
Hunter in Green and Red
Grand Finals Confrontation
Serpent Serenade
Hit List: Plum Daimyo Hermitaur
Urgent Quest – Seer of Swords
G2 > G3
If performed in a group, you will still get credit for Part Two quests, excluding Urgent Quests, even though they will not be listed until you have completed all of Part One.
Part One:
Course Correction
The Azure King and the Tyrant
Temper Tantrum
How to Zap Your Zinogre
Part Two:Pestering Pest
Brute Force
Hollow Promise
Fire Drill
Showdown at High Noon
Showdown at Midnight
Urgent Quest – A Plague Awoken
G3 > G3 All Access
Advanced: A Formless Fiend
Advanced: A Storm of Steel
Advanced: Emperor of Embers
Advanced: Icy Investigation
Urgent Quest – Advanced: Quagmire Quarrel
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