Monster Hunter Monster Spotlight: Deviljho

When a hunter makes it to High Rank, their quest can be invaded be other large monsters that aren’t their intended targets. In Monster Hunter 3, the staple monster for that mechanic was the Deviljho. While it may look like someone engineered a tyrannosaurus crossed with a pickle, there is nothing laughable about it. The first thing that should catch your attention is the change in atmosphere upon its arrival. It has its own musical score that plays when it appears and has the ability to escalate a hunt’s difficulty within seconds of its arrival. Being a bulky dinosaur, one hit this thing could easily knock off more than half of a hunter’s health with one hit if they haven’t prepared themselves.  Newly high ranked players are faced with a huge difficulty spike then they come face to face with it. That’s not even ignoring the attacks in the Deviljho’s arsenal. It has standard attacks you’d expect to see such as a forward charge and a tail swipe, the real danger comes from the ailments that it can inflict on you. It can shoot dragon breath that can strip your weapons of their elemental damage leaving you to only rely on raw power.

That isn’t the only danger that comes from its mouth. Obviously, you should stay away from a predator’s mouth, especially while it’s drooling. The Deviljho’s drool, however, has the ability to lower the hunter’s defense stat; increasing the damage from when they’re taking a hit. This beast has only one desire, and that is to eat everything in its path.

Christ, how horrifying.

It’ll eat the player. It’ll eat dead monsters lying around. It’ll eat another Deviljho provided that it’s already dead. Even its own severed tail isn’t immune to its appetite. The feeding frenzy of this “Picklesaurus” has led it to lead a nomadic lifestyle as it will invade every present environment in search of food. The forests, jungle, tundra, arctic, desert and even volcanic landscapes are all fair game for him to appear. When engaging in turf wars against other beasts, you can bet it’ll always come out on top unless they’re and elder dragon. All of these factors, and that’s without mentioning the subspecies known as Savage Deviljho.

Angry pickle is scary pickle

Whereas a normal Deviljho has to be enraged in order to flare up and use its dragon attacks, Savage is angry all of the time. This bad boy is 50% anger, 50% hunger, and 100% bad news for any hunter. Good luck trying to shake him because his ass he will chase the hunter from area to area nonstop. His attacks also take a steroid shot with their boosted range and damage.  The best part about this is the enhanced laser attack it gets. I remember seeing it shoot an actual red laser and thinking, "Don't wanna get hit by that," but also feeling like: 

Against the right opponent, it can even turn into a Dragon Ball style beam struggle.

It’s certainly earned its title as an apex and coming across one unprepared will spell an instant cart for new hunters. Fight at your own risk.