As a MH novice, I've just beaten my first Solo Fatalis and a week ago I beat my first Solo Alatreon in MHW - here are my tips for other novices

Hello!

As I described in the title, this week I've beaten MHW endgame by slaying Alatreon and Fatalis solo for the first time. Here are my observations and conclusions regarding these 2 battles generaly and some tips for each of them which other novice my find useful.

General:

  • The endgame is built around comission's group effort, at least storywise. It may sound obvious but as a someone who can easily be pressured into toxic tryhardism I want to say this - you absolutely can learn to beat both these monsters alone. It's doable. I must, however, point out that it's very fun to do it with a team. I played exclusively with randoms since I don't have friends playing MHW (or any MH for that matter) and it was very fun. Yes, F U N. I learned from people I played with, I still pulled my own weight with a build I made myself and doing basic homework about each battle's mechanics. You DON'T have to be alone in this. The Commander and the Field Team Leader treats Kulve Taroth, Safi'jiva and Alatreon as a group task. With Fatalis, surviving untill reinforcements arrive (SOS is unlocked) is a pretty big part of the narrative. Train with others. Farm equipment with others. You will still be tested and challenged but it will be both rewarding and educational. Then think about beating Alatreon and Fatalis alone. My first solo Fatalis was (accidentaly) exactly my 10th.
  • Both battles are very frustrating due to lack of monster's health bar. The only way to ascertain monster's health are phase changes which might be very depressing. For example: with Alatreon you are so hardcoded to never let it shift elements that seeing it do this after second horn breaks might be very upsetting. I can't emphasise it enough - THIS IS FINE. Try to have at least 1 faint to spare, damage it as usual, let EJ swipe you into oblivion and then you'll fight easy element again. It's on deaths door. Just a bit more and it's dead. My first Alatreon kill was literally on the brink of another EJ. It was in dragon mode for some time now, I wallbanged it for some hefty damage and couple of swings of my longsword killed it. Without the wallbang it would most likely win. Same goes for Fatalis - even if you break its head once you save yourself from blue hellfire. BUUUT without the second break his fire will be powerful enough to kill you, his ultimate is still very much deadly AND EVEN WITH SECOND HEAD BREAK his moveset will be faster and with new moves. That being said - IT HITS HARDER BECAUSE IT'S DYING SO IT TRIES MORE. You got this.
  • Use smoke bombs. They are quite handy to sharpen your weapon, catch a breath, reload, craft potions, whatever. They are especially useful for Alatreon since you can't farcast to safety to sharpen or reload your weapon. For Fatalis they are useful to force him to land.

Alatreon:

  • What I discovered was that there's a certain... balance to damage imput required to beat Alatreon. Let's say you fight Fire Alatreon with Frostfang weapon. I have found out that its basic elemental damage is enough-ish for 1st damage threshold but I wouldn't count on it with the rest. Augments are very much important. But where's the ballance thing? Well, elemental threshold is important for nullifing Escaton Judgement, but you still have 52 000 HP monster on your hands so you need all the help you can get. Frostfang is great because it has purple sharpness, reasonable raw damage and can be considered ol'reliable in the fight. For Fire Safi served me well, but it was augmented Frostfang that let me conquer it.
  • Elemental threshold is annoying, required hornbreakes are absolutely infuriating but Alatreon moveset is tough but fair with certain rhythm to it. Alatreon is not a monster on which's ass you can sit all the time and kill it that way. If it were Dark Souls, that boss would test your parring skills and if you have none - teach you. Bloody every single move can be punished in some way. I play longsword and switch axe and oh my have I improved my hit and run tactics.
  • Wallbangs are hard to plan, iffy to execute. Go for them only it's worthwhile or if you need Agitator.
  • GODDAMN BLIGHT RESISTANCE. Must have considering Alatreon can quickly swipe with dragon element in any active mode and each swipe gives you dragonblight which renders your elemental attack useless. Absolute must have skill.

Fatalis:

TENDERIZE. Really, I forgot about tenderizing and oh my god it's so useful. You basically have to spots to hit on Fatty: head and belly. Tenderize both parts for free increased damage. Also, when you feel it's going to unleash its flame soon, tenderize his belly asap. Once first flame is unleashed and roaming ballista is operational you will deal MASSIVE damage to its belly, possibly breaking it. Combine with Heavy Artillery on mantles and you have your answer to its OP flame.

Unlike Alatreon, you absolutely can and need to sit on its ass to kill it. Well, not exactly ass but its belly and head if you have an opportunity. Stay close, hit its belly, if its head drops hit that, if it'll breath fire on its feet go to his back and maybe you will trigger lenghty tail attack that will let you come back between its legs and even land couple of hits.

Breaking Fatty's head is obviously a priority number 1. At least once. Tenderize, wallbang, and land as much hits as possible. Tenderize+roaming ballista+HA skill also works but I wouldn't waste all the ammo on the head. Remember - it's not Alatreon which means that it might be harder to fight blue flame Fatalis but it's not impossible unlike Alatreon. From my experience Fatalis's belly takes around twice as much damage as it's head. I wouldn't waste that.

P A R T B R E A K E R. Seriously, it's a must. I don't know how the skill works anymore due to Fatalis. I thought that every monster part has like it's own health pool. Once it's depleted - that's it. Part breaks and partbreaker had done it's job. BUUUT when fighting Fatalis I had problems with dealing enough damage to warrant flame breaths in third phase. I also couldn't break it's head with helmbreakers (I'm LS main) and generally the fight seemed impossible. With PARTBREAKER 2 (NOT 3, 2), I not only broke it's head TWICE and it's belly, I also forced him to use his flame 3-4 times in last phase. I don't know why but Partbreaker is SO USEFUL, it's honestly as useful as Blight Resistance for Alatreon.

I hope this post will help someone. I love this game, I very much look forward to play older MH that are on my backlog and of course MH Wilds. If you have any thoughts about what I wrote, feel free to join the discussion. Im very curious what others have to say about it. Also, I try to share only those tips that I discovered by myself and which I didn't come across while I looked for some pick me up after many failed attempts.

Happy hunting!