Explaining Buddy Skill/Move Randomness in Monster Hunter Rise: Weighting and Support Type Influence @KJP_mhYT

KJP It turns out that Buddy Skills and Moves aren't equally weighted, but are subject to a variety of factors. Targeting more powerful skills or selecting skills/moves that do not align with a cat's support type may make things far more difficult.
All in all, your chances of scouting your perfect buddy are likely quite a bit lower than you realise.

Timestamps:
Intro and Definitions - 00:00
Palamutes and Skill Weighting - 01:41
Palico Types and Support Move Chances - 03:08
Palico Types and Skill Weighting - 05:03
Basic Verification and Testing - 06:25
Summary and Utilities - 15:20
Table of Probabilities - 17:22

updated 4 years ago

Explaining Buddy Skill/Move Randomness in Monster Hunter Rise: Weighting and Support Type Influence

KJP 2022-02-13 | It turns out that Buddy Skills and Moves aren't equally weighted, but are subject to a variety of factors. Targeting more powerful skills or selecting skills/moves that do not align with a cat's support type may make things far more difficult.
All in all, your chances of scouting your perfect buddy are likely quite a bit lower than you realise.

Timestamps:
Intro and Definitions - 00:00
Palamutes and Skill Weighting - 01:41
Palico Types and Support Move Chances - 03:08
Palico Types and Skill Weighting - 05:03
Basic Verification and Testing - 06:25
Summary and Utilities - 15:20
Table of Probabilities - 17:22

Rapid Morph Comparison (Charge Blade) [Monster Hunter: Wilds 1.000-TU1]

KJP 2025-03-15 | Visual comparison of (hopefully) all Switch Axe moves affected by Rapid Morph.
Still accurate as of TU1, see here: youtu.be/mdQptynTtCU

Differences are visually minor between levels of RM, the difference in speed can be more easily seen by covering the middle 2 tiers.
I'm also not too familiar with CB, so may have missed a relevant move.

Timestamps (later):

Rapid Morph Comparison (Switch Axe) [Monster Hunter: Wilds 1.000-TU1]

KJP 2025-03-11 | Visual comparison of (hopefully) all Switch Axe moves affected by Rapid Morph.
Still accurate as of TU1, see here: youtu.be/mdQptynTtCU

Differences are visually minor between levels of RM, the difference in speed can be more easily seen by covering the middle 2 tiers.

Timestamps:
00:01 - Full Effect
01:08 - Partial effect
01:47 - No effect

How to Self-Trigger the Switch Axe Elemental Burst Counter with Bombs [Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak]

KJP 2022-06-29 | Amp whenever, with the press of several buttons.
Text Post: old.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterMeta/comments/vnl23z

Basics and issues with self-triggering - 00:00
Method 1 - 01:34
Method 2 - 02:24
Method 3 - 02:52
Useful scenarios and other thoughts - 03:22

Greatbow Only: Malenia [Elden Ring]

KJP 2022-05-22 | Actually putting the data from this vid into practice:
youtu.be/x7EyGS64cqk

The Effect of Phial/Power Prolonger on Switch Axe Amp Uptime: A Computer Vision Study of 100+ Hunts

KJP 2021-07-04 | In text form here:
old.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterMeta/comments/oduimx/the_effect_of_phial_type_and_power_prolonger_on

Even though the amped state contributes a significant portion of Switch Axe damage, past estimates for Switch Axe amp uptime haven’t been great.
This video takes an experimental approach towards resolving this.
Through the use of a large-scale observational study, better values are found for the different phial types, as well as at different levels of Power Prolonger.
You also get a very simple intro to observational studies and traditional computer vision.

The build damage calculations at the start/end were put together by Ralph (Dreamingsuntide)
youtube.com/channel/UCFOXXKzRiU5gc8tmRfxhH8A

The runs in the video used to showcase the CV script come from:
Fox Invictus:
youtube.com/user/pspinsider3004
RuseEXE:
youtube.com/channel/UCaUTAapR-uJo1_Ds1Z4Bcng

Hunts from these runners were used in the data set, listed somewhat alphabetically:
Azael, Benji, Booper, CantaPerMe, CaolanBerg, Deaga, Flawless, Fox Invictus, GOYU, Puni, RuseEXE, shima【モンハン】, すぷかれ〜, ナーベ , バーン - BURN Channel, ゆづ_yudu

Everything else in the video is mine, unless it is Capcom’s.

Timestamps:
Amped Uptime, and Why it Matters - 00:00
A Computer Vision-based, Observational Study - 03:10
Analysing Runs with Traditional Computer Vision - 05:48
A General Overview of the Dataset - 09:13
The Results of the Study - 11:17
How this Changes Build Calculations - 14:42
A Summary of the Video - 17:14

[MHW:IB] Special Arena: MR Diablos (Switch Axe TA Rules) [34800]

KJP 2020-08-12 | Somehow the 0 knockdown tradefest is the one that ends sub-4.

[3'48"00] Switch Axe (TA Wiki Rules) PC

[MHW:IB] Special Arena: MR Uragaan (Switch Axe TA Rules) [41953]

KJP 2020-08-10 | Uragaan's AI is pretty much what you'd expect from a monster with a rock for a head.

[4'19"53] Switch Axe (TA Wiki Rules) PC

[MHW:IB] Special Arena: MR Black Diablos (Switch Axe TA Rules) [50518]

KJP 2020-07-30 | Reached the point where I somehow kinda enjoy this monster.
SA isn't the greatest matchup for it though.

[5'05"18] Switch Axe (TA Wiki Rules) PC

Passing Alatreons DPS Check with Nothing but Snowballs (ft. bad commentary)

KJP 2020-07-24 | Turning Alatreon into a snowman while rambling in the background.

4:50 sums up how I felt after doing this.

I was originally motivated to do this after reading a good amount of opinions which could be summed up with "Alatreon's the only monster that requires a specific build; no matter how skilled you are, it's impossible to kill it with a raw weapon and 0 carts."
Following this, I do believe it to be possible, albeit with far better play than what I'm capable of.
If one were able to get the snowball topple during fire phase, they would have all of dragon phase, as well as all of the time until the second judgement to kill Alatreon.
With conservative snowman use, one could even dampen a second nova.

[MHW:IB] Special Arena: MR Diablos (Switch Axe TA Rules) [41921]

KJP 2020-06-14 | Lost a significant amount of style points (and about 500 damage) by hitting the head at 3:15.

[4'19"21] Switch Axe (TA Wiki Rules) PC

[MHW:IB] Special Arena: MR Acidic Glavenus (Switch Axe TA Rules) [43993]

KJP 2020-05-23 | This is about as low as I can get this time.
Maybe an actual SA speedrunner will find a faster strategy in the future.

[4'39"93] Switch Axe (TA Rules) PC

[MHW:IB] Special Arena: MR Brachydios (Switch Axe TA Rules) [45005]

KJP 2020-05-10 | [4'50"05] Switch Axe (TA Rules) PC

No skill, just ZSD.
This is an awful fight for switch axe, luckily Brachydios can't cover its tail.

[MHW:IB] Special Arena: MR Glavenus (Switch Axe TA Rules) [40833]

KJP 2020-05-08 | I might be the only person to have ever been hit by the tailspin.

[4'08"33] Switch Axe (TA Rules) PC

cursed_quest

KJP 2020-05-06 | ...

[MHW:IB] How to Roll Namielles Nova

KJP 2020-05-04 | reddit.com/r/MonsterHunterWorld/comments/gdeyuj/psa_one_point_of_resuscitate_lets_you_easily_roll

[MHW:IB] Transitioning From a Mount to a Grappled Wall Slam

KJP 2020-04-19 | tl;dr:
A normal clutch claw input during a mount puts you in the grappling state.
Players are invulnerable during the transitional period.
This has some utility with the SnS finisher, as a monster can be struck several times before finding itself acquainted with a wall.

Video examples at 1:45

ordained knight ascends from his lowly standing while civilians scream in existential terror

KJP 2018-03-24 | why

Dark Souls: Ornstein and Smough, Dual Pierce Shields

KJP 2017-08-21 | ...

Dark Souls SL1: Manus, Father of the Abyss, No Pendant

KJP 2017-08-16 | ...