MHW: Iceborne – Gold Rathian | Lance – 2'42"05 (TA Wiki Rules)

The Gold Rathian hunt with Lance is an extremely intricate challenge — it is like going to a casino and card counting at the Blackjack table, and then rolling a six-sided die in between every Blackjack round. The card counting element consists of counting the damage dealt to Gold Rathian's head, as it flinches every time 1,200 damage is dealt to it. If the 1,200 threshold is met while Rathian is in the air, then it will be air-dunked and stay on the ground for an extended period of time. The dice element (observed by KCGemini) consists of letting RNG decide which action Gold Rathian peforms after every downed state and either responding to the action or resetting the hunt. If Rathian's action involves entering the aerial state (4, 5 or 6 die rolls), then the action can be punished and led into an air dunk. Once Rathian is downed, the Lancer resumes card counting and proceeds to roll another die when Rathian gets up. An explanation of the dice rolls is provided in the description of KCGemini's Gold Rathian hunt:    • MHW: Iceborne - Gold Rathian (TA) / Lance ...   ==================== Dice Rolls ==================== In this particular hunt, the dice rolls turned out to be: • 2 roll ⚁ • 4 roll ⚃ – Dunk #1 – • 4 roll ⚃ – Dunk #2 – • 6 roll ⚅ – Dunk #3 – • 6 roll ⚅ – Dunk #4 – • 5 roll ⚄ – Dunk #5 – These rolls are very similar to KCGemini's rolls, except that this run has an extra 2 roll ⚁ in the beginning because Rathian decided to start running right off the bat. Additionally, this run has a fifth air dunk. The time lost from the 2 roll ⚁ and the time gained by the fifth dunk approximately balance each other out, and as a result, the 2'42"05 time of this run is remarkably close to the 2'42"56 time of KC's run. Although the initial 2 roll ⚁ was undesirable and added unnecessary time to the hunt, I decided to stick with the attempt simply to gain more experience dealing with Rathian's sideflip. You can see my trouble responding to the sideflips at 0:47, in which I am positioned too far forward. I responded to it with a neutral guard and extended backhop, when I should have instead used a backward guard dash and extended backhop to create more distance for the High Thrust I to hit its head. Additionally, after the second sideflip at 0:54, I make the mistake of using a small backhop and walking forward, when I should have hopped farther backward and stayed there. I am lucky that the hilt of the Lance's High Thrust II hitbox connected with Rathian's head, otherwise this attempt would have been toast. ==================== Card Counting ==================== As for the card counting element, I put all the head hits into a spreadsheet to analyze my management of Rathian's head flinch thresholds. Here's the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... After the ten initial thrusts leading to the first dunk, the thrusts following each subsequent dunk went according to plan—although there were some very close calls that could have toasted the attempt. Most notably, the fifth dunk would not have occured if I used a Mid Thrust I instead of a High Thrust I at 2:27, because then the second aerial thrust would have fallen 10 damage short of the 1,200 head HP threshold. My split second decision to use High Thrust I instead of Mid Thrust I in response to the fireball will be long-cherished in my books. Additionally, I should have fit in a High Thrust I at 0'46 or a High Thrust III at 0'57 so that the first dunk would occur on the first aerial thrust rather than the second aerial thrust. Finally, if I tapped guard at 2:07 to trigger Offensive Guard, then the fourth dunk would have occured on the first aerial thrust rather than the second aerial thrust, which would increase the lenience for the fifth dunk. I will forever regret holding guard at this particular moment. Despite these close calls, the cards dealt to me were still favourable, and the five air dunks fell into place very nicely! ==================== Build Details ==================== My build is at 3:00. Coalesence 3 could have been triggered after both fireball attacks if I hopped to the left after the guard dashes, but in the heat of the battle I was too distracted to remember this. ==================== Game Details ==================== • MHW: Iceborne – PC Version 15.11.01 • 6★ Optional Quest – "Special Arena: MR Gold Rathian" ==================== Mods Used ==================== • Daily Food Skills Utility – To ensure Felyne Booster is triggered • No other mods or overlays ==================== Music ==================== ♫ Lorde – Mood Ring It's such a divine feeling when your music syncs up with the action—especially the first dunk at 1'04 and the "Quest Complete" banner at 3'46! ==================== Let's chat or play together sometime! ==================== • Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/Yanxi2446/ • Discord: Yanxi(#)1218 Thank you for reading this and for watching my video!