Monster Hunter Stories 3 Best Monsties: The Ultimate Tier List
Raising the wrong digital dinosaur is a fantastic way to get flattened by the first late game boss that looks your way.
You can certainly use the gene editing mechanics to make almost any creature vaguely viable, but you are deliberately making the game harder on yourself if you ignore base stats. Some monsters are just mathematically superior. They come out of the egg with better stamina recovery, higher innate damage multipliers, and exclusive skills that completely break the combat economy.
If you want to spend hours force feeding genes to a basic herbivore just to prove a point, go right ahead. If you actually want to optimize your time and build an unstoppable roster, you need to hunt down the absolute heavyweights. I have spent entirely too much time testing these beasts in the field, and I am going to tell you exactly which ones are worth the grind.
The Absolute Heavyweights
These are your endgame goalposts. Obtaining them requires significant investment in the ecosystem mechanics, but they will completely trivialize the hardest encounters in the campaign.
Dreadqueen Rathian
This is arguably the strongest damage over time Monstie in the entire game. The Dreadqueen Rathian boasts absurdly high base HP, massive Fire Resistance, and a starting attack stat that makes most other monsters look pathetic.
Her main draw is her ability to inflict Noxious Poison and Burn simultaneously through massive area of effect attacks. She does not just hit a single target. She expels a toxic cloud that melts the entire enemy lineup. You do not just find her wandering around, though. You have to earn her. You need to push the Rathian or Pink Rathian Ecosystem Rank to S by releasing them into the wild, and the specific habitat must contain at least three Poison monsters. If you are still confused about how to manipulate these spawns, go read my MHS3 egg farming and habitat guide.
Boltreaver Astalos
If you need raw, unfiltered burst damage, this is your primary target. The Boltreaver Astalos has a ridiculously high critical hit rate and a Kinship skill that naturally buffs its own attack power.
Getting one is a massive headache. You have to travel to the isolated mountain area in the northwest part of Mirror Lake, use updrafts to reach the peak, and murder an Invasive Seregios just to get the base Astalos egg. Then, you have to mutate it by raising its habitat region to A rank in an area with a Lightning element, while ensuring there are three Thunder monsters present. It is exhausting. If you have not even unlocked the fast travel points to reach Mirror Lake efficiently, you need to check my guide on MHS3 fast travel and Feral Monsters before you attempt this trek.
Purple Gypceros
Sometimes you do not need raw damage. Sometimes you just need to completely disable the enemy so you can heal your dying party.
The Purple Gypceros is the undisputed king of crowd control. It comes naturally equipped with Tail Stun, which entirely stops enemy monsters in their tracks. It also learns Flash to inflict Darkness, making incoming attacks miss, and it can casually inflict Poison on top of all that. It is an incredibly annoying monster to fight against, which makes it a perfect addition to your own team.
The Best Early Game Carries
You cannot start the game with a Dreadqueen Rathian. You need reliable beasts that can carry you through the early chapters while providing the necessary traversal skills to actually explore the map.
Royal Ludroth
Not having a monster that can swim early in the game is incredibly frustrating. Large sections of Azuria are locked behind deep water. The Royal Ludroth solves this immediately.
You can find Potent Royal Ludroth Eggs right in Azuria during the first chapter. In combat, it functions as a Power Water type that can simultaneously debuff a target's offense and defense. If you pair that defense reduction with a hard hitting teammate, you can clear early boss fights in half the time. Plus, it covers your Swim requirement, which you can verify in my master list of MHS3 riding actions.
Nerscylla
This giant spider is an absolute necessity for early game progression. First, it gives you the Wall Climb action, which is a hard requirement for reaching hidden dens.
Second, it completely dominates early encounters using Sleep mechanics. The Nerscylla puts enemies to sleep and then follows up with a Sleep Chaser attack to land heavily amplified critical hits. If you run into a tough Feral Monster that is wiping your team, putting it to sleep gives you a free turn to either nuke it or frantically dig through your pockets for healing items. If you are out of supplies, you should probably consult my MHS3 combination recipes list and restock.
Blue Yian Kut-Ku
You start the game with a standard Yian Kut-Ku, but the Blue variant is a direct mathematical upgrade that you can unlock almost immediately through basic Habitat Restoration in Azuria. It hits significantly harder and brings a reliable Burn status effect to your technical attack lineup.
The Solid Performers
If you cannot be bothered to grind for the SS tier mutations right away, these monsters will easily hold the line and keep you alive through the mid game transition.
Build a team out of these recommendations and you will stop seeing the game over screen quite so often. Before you ride your newly optimized team into a boss fight, make sure your own gear actually matches their power level. Nothing is sadder than an S Tier monster carrying a rider dressed in garbage tier bone scraps. Use my MHS3 layered armor guide to fix your look, and then go dominate the ecosystem.
