First and foremost, there are two Monster Hunter World achievements involving SOS Flares:
- “I Am the Reinforcements” – Respond to 10 SOS Flares.
- “Help!” – Fire off your own Monster Hunter SOS Flare for the first time.
How Do Flares Work?
Whenever anyone needs a hand during a quest or expedition, they can fire an SOS flare! You can fire an SOS flare by accessing Start Menu > Quest > Fire SOS Flare.
Once someone fires an SOS flare, other players may come to their aid – regardless of whether they are in the same Online Session. This is a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of.
Farming Materials
As an avid Monster Hunter since the Wii Days, I’ve found some of my friends who are new to Monster Hunter are having trouble farming mats (materials) for weapons and armor. They keep repeating “Assigned Quests”. Yes, you can get mats that way, but it’s not the easiest, best, or fastest way to get mats.
If you want to farm Tobi-Kadachi, then you should be doing “Investigations”. Go to the Resource Center and Register for Investigations involving Tobi-Kadachi. You will get additional “Rewards” for doing Investigations that you wouldn’t otherwise get from doing Assigned Quests. There are copper, silver and gold rewards. Gold will give you the rarest material drops.
I have found the fastest way of farming materials is by Answering SOS Flares fired off by others.
Just run to the Nearest Quest Board and click “Respond to SOS”.
Now you can set some parameters if you want, and narrow down who you want to farm. You can set the Quest Type to Investigations. You can set your Target to Tobi-Kadachi, and search for Openings. I personally like to set the Quest Type to “Investigations” and leave the rest default. I seem to be making gear and weapons from lots of different monsters, and I pick and choose from the results that show up.
I have found that some quests can fill up quickly, so if there’s a vacancy for something you really want, don’t hesitate! You should jump in quickly. I have also found that quests can change quickly, so if you aren’t finding what you want. Refresh and search again. Tweak the parameters as you see fit.
The 10 Minute Rule
Ideally, you always want to try to get into a quest within 10 minutes of the quest starting. If you join after 10 minutes, your rewards will be reduced. You also don’t get credit for completing the quest (if you haven’t completed it yet).
Your search results will show you the open quests, the levels of the hunters currently in the quest, and what weapons they’re using. If you get lucky, and you just want a quick farm, you might find a higher ranked player has fired off an SOS Flare, and is already 7 minutes into his quest. They’ll have already located the target and done some damage. You’ll be able to jump right in, assist in quest completion, and get your carves in!
Don’t be that guy!
Don’t ruin someone else’s quest! Pay attention carefully to the Quest Details before you just jump right in to battle!
- Are you killing or capturing the beast? Don’t ever ruin a a capture quest by attacking a limping monster!
- What are the maximum # of Players? It might only be two.
- Is there a very short time limit to finish the quest? If so, don’t stop to pick herbs.
- How many deaths are allowed? Sometimes a quest might fail if anyone dies even once!
Farming mats can be easy by answering SOS Flares. You’ll be geared up in no time! Well, at least for the next higher ranked monster.
Happy Hunting!