The Hunting Horn is a song-playing blunt weapon that mixes concussive hits and rhythmic melodies to support oneself and allies in Monster Hunter Wilds. See all the new moves for the Hunting Horn, its mechanics, controls, best ammo, advanced tips, and how good it is!

Hunting Horn Guides
Weapon Guide	Builds	Tree

Hunting Horn Mechanics

How to Use Hunting Horn
Build Preset Songs with Notes Use Perform, Performance Beat, and Encore Extend Overhead Smash with Follow-up Use Echo Bubbles for Buffs and Damage Save and Use Special Performances Prepare 5 Notes with Focus Strike: Reverb

Build Preset Songs with Notes

The core mechanic that the Hunting Horn uses is its ability to play notes with each of their attacks on the meter found below the Sharpness meter. Each Hunting Horn has their own set of notes, meaning every Hunting Horn is composed of different songs you can play during the hunt!

Note colors will differ per Hunting Horn but their input is the same; paying attention to the note shape of the 3 different Note types will make it much easier for you to read songs.

Hunting Horn Songs and Effects

Compose Melodies for Different Buffs

After understanding how to play notes and stack them up on the meter. Lining up and combining different notes will allow you to perform distinctive songs that provide buffs to you and your allies.

The only universal buff that each Hunting Horn has is the Self Improvement buff, where you get increased movement speed and an innate Mind's Eye.

For reference, you can see the melodies your Hunting Horn can play by checking the top right portion of your screen. Each song has its respective notes that you need to play in order.

Use Perform, Performance Beat, and Encore

After lining up to a total of three songs, you can then perform the songs to apply the buffs to you and your allies. You can find your lined-up songs on the right side of your Note Meter. Depending on what move you used last and your directional input, the attack that comes with the performance also changes!

How to Use Performance Beat and Encore

While performing, you can use either Performance Beat or Encore to buff your songs! Performance Beat is best used as a perfect input button to the start of your songs on your meter, while encore is best used as an additional buff to existing songs (hence its name).

Extend Overhead Smash with Follow-up

To further improve Hunting Horn's punishment on topples and dodged attacks, its Wilds iteration extends the Overhead Smash by repeating the same input. This follow-up attack lets your hunter spin quickly before smashing the Hunting Horn down.

While basic, it can be transitioned into different moves instead of defaulting to a Backwards Strike afterward like with past titles. This leads to more combo paths, additional safety, all the while incentivizing on-the-fly decision-making and creativity.

Use Echo Bubbles for Buffs and Damage

The Echo Bubble is a powerful move that surrounds a Hunter with a field that grants buffs to hunters and produces damage to any monster within it when the Hunting Horn is swung. Each Echo Bubble lasts for 1 minute after deployment.

Attacking with the horn will also cause these bubbles to deal damage, making them a very effective DPS move against stationary targets.

As an additional note to consider, you can input up to 3 notes of your choosing to prepare for a melody while your Hunter is dancing! Furthermore, you can get up to 3 Echo Bubbles in total.

Save and Use Special Performances

Special Performance Melody	Melody Effect
Offset Melody	Performs an Offset Attack. This is a very useful counter move against monster attacks, causing knockdowns when successful.
Resounding Melody	Performs a very powerful piercing attack that goes through a monster, dealing multiple damage hits. This is an ideal damage dealer during openings in-between monster attacks and when the monster is toppled.
Melody of Life	A powerful Special Performance that greatly restores health to you and other allies in the vicinity. Note that this does not deal any damage.

Special Performances are new additions to a Hunting Horn's melodies. What separates them from other songs is that they are very powerful melodies that have a unique position in the song queue for playing.

Once they are prepared, they will not disappear from your queue until used and will not interrupt the sequence of any other song!

Playing them only requires inputting the prescribed Special Performance input, meaning that you can use them on demand. You do not have to play them during a performance!

How to Use Special Performances

Special Performances are played in the same way as any other Hunting Horn song; you must build up the notes first, then play by following the above input for Special Performance!

Prepare 5 Notes with Focus Strike: Reverb

The Hunting Horn's new Focus Strike: Reverb is an attack that, upon hitting a wound, lets you prepare 5 notes in succession within a guitar solo animation. The best way to input these notes is by pressing them in beat with the guitar solo. Successfully inputting all 5 notes adds an extra attack at the end.

Using this attack on a wound successfully will potentially interrupt the monster's attack. During the guitar solo, you also have hyper armor, reducing the damage you receive and preventing you from being knocked back during this time.

How to Use Focus Mode and Focus Strike

Hunting Horn Controls

Basic Controls

Notes with '+1' mean that they allow 1 additional note of your choice as an additional input.

Hunting Horn Best Combos

Basic Hunting Horn Combos
Quick Hit Combos Fast Echo Wave Topple Combo Fast Offset Melody Buildup Combo High Damage Offset Melody Buildup Combo Basic Topple and Punish Combo 3-Song Echo Wave Combo
Advanced Hunting Horn Combos
Echo Bubble into Focus Strike Reverb Echo Bubble into Resounding Melody Focus Strike Reverb into Resounding Melody
Combos laid out in the following sections are mainly based around the melody list of the Hope Horn. It can serve as a guide until you start getting used to sight reading inputs from other Hunting Horns with different note sequences. Note that melody list inputs vary and it will be indicated if a combo follows a specific Hunting Horn's moveset.

Quick Hit Combos

If you are facing a monster known for its speed and relatively quick attacks that leave little-to-no windows to punish, use this 2-3 second combo for sneaking in some damage.

Completing this combo with Flourish's 2nd note as Note 2 will also give you the song Echo Wave (Blunt). This can be performed immediately after or saved for later use.

Fast Echo Wave Topple Combo

Inputs following Echo Bubbles (with '▶︎') means to input them during Echo Bubble setup.

This 7-second combo is potentially your strongest and fastest option against toppled monsters, using only 1 Echo Bubble and Echo Wave.

It is best that you have the full buff (purple level) of Self Improvement applied to maximize the damage of this combo. This can be prepared beforehand while you are on your Seikret or on foot with Left Swing into Hilt Stab.

10-Second Version with an Extra Echo Wave

A stronger version of this combo involves basically adding a second Echo Wave into the song line up. Just like Self Improvement, this can be prepared before you make use of the above combo.

Fast Offset Melody Buildup Combo

Inputs following Echo Bubbles (with '▶︎') means to input them during Echo Bubble setup.

This the fastest buildup combo for preparing Special Performance Offset Melody via shortcut with Echo Bubble. With this combo, you should be able to have Offset Melody ready within 7 seconds.

High Damage Offset Melody Buildup Combo

Input '▶︎' means to input it during Overhead Smash's 2nd hit.

This is the go-to 8 second high-damage combo if you do not plan to use an Echo Bubble. Take advantage of Overhead Smash's 2-note input, add Overhead Smash Folllow Up, then go for a Hilt Stab for a fast note-stack for preparing Offset Melody.

Basic Topple and Punish Combo

This is repeatable 4-second combo for punishing monsters and hitting them while toppled quickly, offering more damage than repeatedly using other regular swings.

3-Song Echo Wave Combo

Inputs following Echo Bubbles (with '▶︎') means to input them during Echo Bubble setup.

This is a 18 second-long combo setup that focuses on setting up 3 Echo Bubbles and unleashing Echo Wave as fast as possible.

While this is a high damage combo, you may only find this combo most effective in niche cases where you are able to hold down a monster for 18 seconds (such as extending a 10-second topple with a trap).

After having used up all 3 Echo Bubbles, your best combo rotation to synergize with it would be use note-stacking moves such as Stab Hilt and Flourish to quickly keep repeating Echo Wave songs within these bubbles.

Echo Bubble into Focus Strike Reverb Combo

This is a good combo for stacking up to 8 notes quickly, with 3 coming from the Echo Bubble and 5 coming from Focus Strike: Reverb on hitting a wound. You can then follow this up with an extra note to finish your 3-song queue and activate Perform form a lineup of buffs or Echo Waves!

Echo Bubble into Resounding Melody Combo

This is a good combo for Hunting Horns that have the Resounding Melody Special Performance (such as Resounding Galahad). You get 3 notes first from Echo Bubble and then finally stack the last 1 note with an attack to complete the 4 notes required for the Special Performance.

Focus Strike Reverb into Resounding Melody Combo

This is an optimal and safe combo for using the Resounding Melody, since it allows for a setup with a temporary stun on the monster on using a Focus Strike on a wound. Within the 5 note stacking of Focus Strike: Reverb, input the 4 required notes for the Resounding Melody then activate Special Performance.

Hunting Horn Advanced Tips

Advanced Tips for Hunting Horn

Maximize Flourish and Overhead Smash Unsheathe Forward Smash into Another Note Use Hilt Stabs for Fast Note Stacking Always Keep Self Improvement Active Always Use Echo Bubbles Always Have Special Performance Ready Forward Input Perform is the Fastest Other Weapons Do Not Work with Echo Bubble Performance Beat Perfect Input Timing Play Notes While Riding a Seikret Combo 2 Horns with All Melodies Extended Prepared Songs are Saved on Weapon Switch

Maximize Flourish and Overhead Smash

Flourish and Overhead Smash are double swings that allow you to sneak in one extra note input of your choice on their second attack. When the Hunting Horn is swung for its second attack, press whatever note you want and it should appear on the Note Meter.

As an additional tip, you can cancel the first instance of the attack by dodging If you feel like you are about to get hit by the monster!

Unsheathe Forward Smash into Another Note

When unsheathing the Hunting Horn with Forward Smash, you can cancel it near the beginning of its animation to any of the 2 moves Right Swing and Backwards Strike, allowing you to start off with a different note than the single non-flag notehead. This is useful for getting the first input of specific songs quickly.

Use Hilt Stabs for Fast Note Stacking

While the Hilt Stab deals miniscule amounts of damage, it more than makes up for the utility it provides during a hunt! A long-time user of Hunting Horn makes use of this underrated move in a variety of ways:

• Play any notes in a fast manner as an extension.
• Helps to line yourself up to monsters when out of position.
• Used to unconventionally sever monster parts since it deals slashing damage.

Sample Note Stack Combo

Inputs with: '▶︎' means while in transition to Flourish's second attack.

You can efficiently stack up your notes by using this combo with Hilt Stab and Flourish, being able to build up enough for Self Improvement and Echo Wave (Blunt) in under 5 seconds.

This move doesn't exactly offer a high damage output, but it is one fast approach to getting your offensive songs out.

Always Keep Self Improvement Active

As a general rule while playing Hunting Horn, make it a habit to always keep Self Improvement active. Self-Improvement at the 2nd level (purple) boosts damage of each of your hunting horn attacks by around 20%.

For the most part, it should be in your best interest to integrate Left Swing or Hilt Stab between your combos to actively line up Self Improvement!

Always Use Echo Bubbles

Echo Bubbles, in addition to allowing you to store 3 notes immediately when used, will also significantly boost the Hunting Horn's overall DPS potential since they deal damage on nearly every Hunting Horn action.

With well-placed Echo Bubbles, each of your attacks will constantly have added damage to the monster, and this is magnified by other buffs such as Self-Improvement and Attack Up. Using these bubbles offensively is best paired with Echo Waves.

Being in Echo Bubbles also give you increased Evasion and Movement Speed, putting you and your allies in a good defensive position as a bonus.

Always Have Special Performance Ready

Special Performance melodies can be prepared and stored for later use anytime. It will also not interfere with the sequence of notes you prepare with standard melodies; you only have to trigger its input like any regular attack.

Having it prepared beforehand will allow you to use it quickly in crucial situations. For example, having an Offset Melody will come in handy when you plan to counter a monster's attack for a knockdown.

Offset Melody Counter Timing

The timing for Offset Melody is ready to release once your character finishes getting into a stance. You can hold this stance for a long while before releasing it at an oncoming monster attack.

Forward Input Perform is the Fastest

Above inputs are performed after using an Echo Bubble.

Of all of the directional Perform inputs you can do on the Hunting Horn, forward directional input Perform is the fastest in a combo and is the 2nd fastest outside of one by a small margin (no input directional input Perform being the next).

It is best to use the forward directional input Perform in nearly all cases due to its speed. Its other directional variants may be used in more niche cases such as repositioning early in anticipation of an attack.

Other Weapons Do Not Work with Echo Bubble

Swapping to another weapon to try and combo with the Echo Bubble will not proc the bubble's damage effect. Thus, making use of the Hunting Horn is necessary for fully using the Echo Bubble's offensive capabilities.

Swapping out your Hunting Horn, however, does not reduce the lifespan of your Echo Bubble (it's still 1 minute long). So you can still use its defensive effects as an advantage.

Performance Beat Perfect Input Timing

Above is our video on Perfect Input timing. Unmute the video to listen to the beat of the metronome!

To get the perfect input timing of Performance Beat, you will need to time it with the start of a song. The first song is always the hardest to perfect due to it starting a bit on off-timing, but the rest will be easy to follow.

For the above video using the Hope Horn, input timing for Performance Beat seemed to follow a tempo of 90 BPM immediately at the start of the first song. Perfect timing is at the start of every bar (the 1st beat after the 4th). Alternatively, you can pay attention to the sound of the horn.

Hitting Performance Beat on time with the start of a Hunting Horn song will boost the damage of your attack during that instance. Depending on how many songs you will play, you can perfect input Performance Beat up to 3 times.

Play Notes while Riding a Seikret

You can play notes one-by-one while riding a Seikret by doing a Riding Attack with the corresponding note button! This will allow you to prepare notes in advance before fighting a monster if you are travelling via Seikret.

Notes can also be played while jumping or via Dismount Attack in the same manner, giving you more ways to get a head start in setting up a song list.

Seikret Mount Features and Abilities

Combo 2 Horns with All Melodies Extended

In the video above, we activated Gramklang's buffs first, then switched to Resounding Galahad and activated All Melodies Extended.

Active Hunting Horns buffs from both your primary and secondary slots can be extended with All Melodies Extended by 20 seconds on each perform including Encore which repeats all songs in the queue. So far, All Melodies Extended can be found in the Veldian Sibilus weapons tree which includes the highly-recommended Resounding Galahad.

This can potentially make your Hunting Horn buffs infinite so as long as All Melodies Extended is played repeatedly. Extension times stack, so 3 successive plays of this melody with Encore gives a total of 2 minute melody extension. This is great for pairing with damage and healing buffs such as the Affinity/Recovery Speed melody provided by the Kummerklang line (Gore Magala).

Make these buffs much easier to manage by adding in Horn Maestro (make sure to add them to each Hunting Horn) which greatly increases melody duration, Echo Bubble duration and size, and increased healing chance from Health Recovery songs.

Prepared Songs are Saved on Weapon Switch

Switching out your Hunting Horn to another weapon will preserve its prepared song queue but not its notes on the Note Meter. Take note of this if you want to perform songs as soon as you dismount your Seikret.

How Good is the Hunting Horn?

Tier List Ranking

Weapon Ranking
Damage Type	Entry Barrier	Difficulty to Master
Blunt Sever (Hilt Stab only)	High	★★★★★
Pros and Cons
Excellent Support Capabilities Above Average Damage High Stun Potential with Blunt Damage Buffs and Song Dependent Highly Mechanical and No Guard

Entry Barrier pertains to how easy it is to learn the weapon from scratch, while Difficulty to Master is a rating on how difficult it is to perfectly execute the weapon mechanics.

The Hunting Horn is currently ranked as a B Tier weapon. This is mainly due to its difficulties for dealing damage, but it is still a great weapon due to its high stun potential, above-average, Echo Bubble combos, and great support capabilities through its songs.

It struggles for a higher tier placement due to its highly demanding mechanical skill requirement. It can take a while to memorize Hunting Horn notes, especially when your swinging to a new song list another horn type.

Best Weapon Type Tier List

Great Support and Damage

The Hunting Horn is unique blunt damage weapon that excels the most in a support and buff-oriented playstyle. Depending on the horn you use, you can give you and yourself some very useful buffs.

This an awesome weapon to have for a well-coordinated team and can still reliably hold its own even in solo hunts due to its access to high damage with moves such as Echo Bubble and Offset Melody, and songs such as Self Improvement and Echo Wave.

Mechanically Demanding

The Hunting Horn is, however, highly mechanical and dependent on buffs, making it one of the weapons with the highest skill ceiling in the game.

You will need to split your concentration between queuing your melodies and attacking the monster, and your only defensive option is still dodging and Offset Melody.

Monster Hunter Wilds Related Guides

All Weapons and Guides

All Weapon Guides

All Weapon Tutorials
Great Sword		Long Sword		Sword & Shield
Dual Blades		Hammer		Hunting Horn
Lance		Gunlance		Switch Axe
Charge Blade		Insect Glaive		Light Bowgun
Heavy Bowgun			Bow

All Weapon Trees

All Weapon Trees
Great Sword		Long Sword		Sword & Shield
Dual Blades		Hammer		Hunting Horn
Lance		Gunlance		Switch Axe
Charge Blade		Insect Glaive		Kinsects
Light Bowgun		Heavy Bowgun		Bow