Welcome to the very first edition of Fresh’s Cheesy Tactic of the Week. This is going to be a series of hunting tactics which are not in line with what the elite veterans would tell you.

If you like to clear the game in a purist’s way, or if you are already beyond using cheesy tactics, read on if you want to embarrass yourself. You will read about item abuse, misleading the monster AI, running around instead of attacking head on and using armor skills.

My first take will be on, you guessed it by the title, turtling.

What defines the tactic?
Turtling is using a shielded weapon and attacking from out of your block. In MHFU you will use either a Lance or a Gunlance, as their innate blocking ability is far superior to Great Swords or SnS.

Where can I use it?
Tigrex and Akantor spring to mind immediately. They tend to stay on top of you and that is what you want when turtling. As soon as your prey leaves the range of your lance you give up your block and need to run or charge after. That works pretty good on Tigrex. And Akantor will never leave your thrall.
It works on other monsters too with some problems you must be aware of. For example Rathalos can be turtled only to a certain extent as he runs or flies away much too often to be a good target for it.

So if you have a monster which turns on you, spins on you and otherwise does not move far, turtling may be your way to victory.

How do I use it?
Press the right shoulder button and block to your life’s worth. Stab out of the block. That is pure turtling, you can mix this with short controlled stab/poke combos if you are familiar with the monsters recovery times after an attack or a stagger.
You may want to use Power/Mega Juice but if you know your turtling you won’t really need it. It sure helps against multiple fast attacks like a peck from a Gypceros but otherwise you recover your stamina quick enough to live without.

Especially with some Guard+ skill on, which will be given to you by Hermitaur armors.
Guard+ decreases the stamina loss, damage taken and the pushback from a hit, so that is exactly what you are looking for.
Guard Inc is useful too if you need to take on farts (sleep, poison and the like), because they can’t be blocked off otherwise.

You may want to use a GL in preference to the Lance as the GL stabs upwards from out of the block which will give you more hit opportunities than the Lance’s straight stab. Otherwise they feel equal.

What are the pros?
You won’t die easily. Only if you are too eager with your stabs you will get hit. Patience is a virtue.

What are the cons?
It takes long. Very long compared to most other weapons, but not as long a using a bow, so there. You need a dedicated armor for it, but at least the Hermitaur armors come easy and cheap.

Why is it cheesy?
You are not fighting. You’re hiding and stabbing from your position. You are abusing the wyverns limited motion patterns and you don’t learn anything knew after a very short while.

Conclusion
If you are having problems with, say, Tigrex, turtling him is a possible way out of your misery. I’d recommend turtling on your first two, three quest on a given monster. After that you should try to kill it legit as farming by being a turtle takes lots of time. You know, most turtles aren’t that fast at all.

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