Tough night in Monster Hunter World last night, but a strange thing happened to me.

I was tasked with hunting Anjanath, the big (early game big, anyway) t-rex with wings and fire breath dude. On my first attempt I took my trusty longsword and went hunting. It was a long and pitched battle. I fainted once early (you get 3 faints per mission) but then I settled into a routine. I hacked off the beastie’s tail and had it limping and struggling to get around. It retreated to its nest for a snooze. I thought the battle was won, and attacked with vigor, but then he became enraged and went crazy on me. He knocked me out twice in quick succession. (Both times I was using the tracking camera — which keeps your quarry in view — and “evaded” into an obstacle. I don’t think I’ll be using that again.) Quest Failed. Time spent was something like 40 minutes.

On the bright side, I’d collected parts from his tail and he’d been dropping scales which may be “intel” and may be materials. I forgot to look. And my kitty side-kick leveled up. Unlike players, the cats do grow stronger as they level. So I didn’t feel like the time was wasted, but still it was a little frustrating.

I decided to try again using the bow, which is new to me. I figured I could stay at range and it would be easy-peasy. It had been the first time I used a bow against a Great Jagras. Another lesson learned. Great Jagras is SLOW compared to some other monsters. It turns out Anjanath can cover the distance between himself and you at bow range really quickly. I was back to evading for my life. I fainted twice pretty quickly, both times when I didn’t anticipate his speed and didn’t evade in time. At about that point an AGE Squad member popped in to help me but it was too late. I fainted a third time. Quest Failed. This hunt had only lasted 20 minutes or so, but I really didn’t get anything from it.

So here’s the strange thing that happened. Instead of being frustrated and rage-quitting because by this time I’d spent my entire night trying to do this one quest and failing, I felt more determined than ever to go back in there tonight. I mean, for sure I was frustrated, but the “I can DO this” feeling was stronger than the frustrations. I say I didn’t get anything from my second attempt but of course that’s wrong. I learned a lot about using the bow against fast monsters. I also learned (the hard way) that the ghillie suit prevents monsters from SEEING you, but they can still SMELL you. LOL

Before I take him on again I think I’ll do some side quests. I’ve been trying to rush through the main quests to get to where I can do the time-limited Horizon Zero Dawn event, but my suspicions are that I’m missing out on some of the tools of the hunter trade by not doing side quests where they are introduced. I think, at the least, I’ll learn about building traps and bombs. When Anjanath was napping, I could’ve set up traps or bombs around him before rousing him, and I bet that would’ve finished him off. We’ll see, I guess.

Anyway, need to start treating the game like a marathon, not a sprint, and special time-limited events can go to hell for now.