How to Beat Lunastra in Monster Hunter World

how to beat lunastra

Capcom

Lunastra has returned in Monster Hunter World. The female counterpart of Teostra first introduced in Monster Hunter 2 was added with the 4.0 update to the game and is quite a fearsome monster to contend with, especially when paired with her boyfriend.

Here’s how to beat Lunastra in Monster Hunter World.


How to Find Lunastra

To fight Lunastra, you need to talk to the Huntsman at the lower right corner of Astera. Then you have to complete a quest called “The Blazing Sun” where you fight Teostra in the Wildspire Waste. After you complete the quest, you then get a quest called “Pandora’s Arena” where you are tasked with repelling Lunastra from the special arena which is done by simply dealing enough damage to it before the time expires. Then talk to the Huntsman again to get the final quest of “No Remorse, No Surrender” where you have to face off against both Teostra and Lunastra.


Best Build

Correction: We previously reported that Lunastra was weak to water like Teostra, but that was assuming she had the same weaknesses as her counterpart like how the Pink Rathian has the same weaknesses as the Rathian. It turns out that she’s only mildly susceptible to water.

Like her male counterpart, Lunastra is weak to ice element weapons while strong against fire. However she is only mildly susceptible to water, unlike her boyfriend. She is also moderately susceptible to blast and stun. You also need high fire resistance to survive as well as resistance to Blastblight.

Head: Dragonking Eyepatch α, Rath Soul Helm β, Dante’s Hair α
Chest: Rathalos Mail β, Dante’s Coat α
Arms: Rathalos Vambraces β
Belt: Nergigante Coil β or Dante’s Belt α
Legs: Rathalos Greaves α or Rath Soul β

Weakness Exploit is one of the best skills in the game as getting it to level three increases affinity of attacks that hit weak spots by 50 percent. So any combination of the Dragonking Eyepatch, Rath Soul Helm, Rathalos Mail, or Rathalos Greaves that make it go up to level three is essential. We like using the Rathalos Mail with Dante’s Hair as it grants level three Weakness Exploit but adds Critical Eye which raises affinity even more. The Rathalos Vambraces add much needed fire resistance. The Nergigante Coil increases attack power while Dante’s Belt extends the invincibility window of dodges and grants the Latent Power skill which boosts affinity by 10 percent and reduces stamina depletion by 10 percent if you either take 180 damage or fight for more than 5 minutes. The Rath Soul Greaves contributes to the Focus skill which is useful for increasing the charge rate or weapon gauge rate of certain weapons. Wearing at least two Rathalos or Rath Soul armor pieces earns the Critical Element skill which increases the elemental damage of critical hits and having at least four pieces prevents your melee attacks from being deflected and reduces the distance needed before ammo and arrows reach full power.

For decorations and charms, anything that grants extra attack, anti-blast, elemental power, and Critical Eye would be much appreciated. Having a level three Blast Resistance skill will make you immune to Blastblight. You can use any weapon with a water or ice attribute.

As for Specialized Tools, the Fireproof Mantle is an obvious choice to resist Lunastra’s fire attacks. The Vitality Mantle fits a similar purpose as it negates a certain amount of damage before its effect ends. The Health Booster pairs wonderfully with any of the two mantles while the Affinity Booster is great for when you’re on the offensive.


How to Beat Lunastra

Much like Black Diablos or the Pink Rathian, Lunastra is essentially a palette-swapped and stronger version of her counterpart. That means that many of the same tips that apply to Teostra can apply to Lunastra. However, her attacks are wildly different to Teostra’s. Her fire breath attacks appear to cover a wider area and her tail swipe attack starts up faster.

Instead of spreading black powder everywhere that can ignite with flame breath like Teostra does, Lunastra spreads blue fire spots around the arena. She does so with much more frequency and coverage than Teostra’s powder, with even her tail swipe spreading the spots. She can light it with her breath attacks just like Teostra’s powder, but instead of exploding it will scorch the earth for a while before disappearing while doing much more damage to the player if he/she is caught in it. The spots disappear when hit with a weapon with the water element, but you’d be wasting your time by putting out fires instead of fighting the boss. The flames as well as the dust around Lunastra can explode when hit with a bomb pod or a Crystalburst.

Lunastra also has a heat attack similar to Kulve Taroth, where she swings her head forward and sends a line of heat quickly in front of her that leaves a trail of flame spots.

Lunastra heats the air around her and does damage similar to the lave areas of the Elder’s Recess. That means you need to take a Cool Drink before fighting her. The blue flame spots also do heat damage, but they can still damage you even if you drank a Cool Drink. This heat damage depletes the health bar but leaves it red instead of completely gone, which means it can be healed with Astera Jerky to restore it and boost recovery rates according to the Fextralife wiki.

Her supernova attack is also different from Teostra. Teostra’s attack is clearly telegraphed as he rises in the air and starts charging power for a few seconds before exploding in a huge and damaging radius around him. Lunastra’s supernove is less telegraphed and potentially more dangerous. From the ground she sends out two heat waves; the first wave leaves flame spots around and deals heat damage while knocking the player back and the second one blows up all the flames on the floor and does massive heat damage, as explained by The Hawkeye Guy on the Monster Hunter World subreddit.

The best course of action is to simply run away and not stand around in any of the flame spots. The Fireproof or Vitality Mantle can be absolute lifesavers here. Throw one on if they’re available. When fighting in the special arena, you can move up to the top floor to evade the waves entirely. If fighting in the Elder’s Recess, you can use the Farcaster to escape the blast as AHA points out in the comment section below.

But Lunastra is truly devastating when teaming up with Teostra. They appear to coordinate their moves with one another and even combine their supernova attacks to blast three times with larger range and damage, according to the wiki. However this blast is clearly telegraphed as they fly around each other, giving you ample time to run away or fire a flash pod at them. You’ll also have to contend with both the black powder of Teostra and the blue flames of Lunastra. So just keep being spatially aware and move away from the powder, blue flames, and supernovas when you can.

As they are agile monsters, your best bet for attacking them is to keep close to the chest and face, according to the wiki. However, keep somewhat to the sides to avoid their charge and breath attacks. The face is one of their weak spots along with their wings and tail, so be sure to focus your attacks over there. The tail is severable so be sure to attack there if you have a slicing weapon.

Lunastra will also get into Turf Wars with Nergigante and Kushala Daora, according to the wiki. The Turf War with Nergigante will deal 2,000 damage to Lunastra while the Turf War with Kushala Daora will deal about 3,000 damage to both Kushala Daora and Lunastra.

Once you learn when and where to dodge their attacks and stay out of the way until you are certain you can attack back, you’ll take Lunastra down in no time. Be sure to take advantage of environmental traps like the falling rocks in the Elder’s Recess.

Have any more tips for beating Lunastra? Let us know in the comment section below.


What Rewards Do You Get for Lunastra?

After you beat No Remorse, No Surrender, you’ll get the Temporal Mantle specialized tool, which makes you automatically evade monster attacks as long as it’s active.

The parts you get from Lunastra will let you craft the Lunastra armor sets. The alpha set grants you level four Wide-Range, level three Attack Boost, level three Health Boost, level three Blast Attack, level three Tool Specialist, level two Peak Performance, and level two Evade Extender. Meanwhile the beta set grants you level two Wide-Range, level three Attack Boost, level two Health Boost, level two Tool Specialist, level two Peak Performance, and level two Evade Extender while granting no Blast Attack. Both sets are very generous with their decoration slots but the beta set as always is especially so. Wearing two armor pieces from the Lunastra set increases your stamina cap while wearing four pieces prevents your melee attacks from being deflected and reduces the distance needed before ammo and arrows reach full power (same as the Rathalos armor).

We especially like the Empress Mail β thanks to its three level one decoration slots and level two Peak Performance skill which grants +10 attack if at full health.

However the weapons are the most interesting reward. Each of the 14 weapon types have a Lunastra weapon and they can be upgraded into one of three different forms depending on if you use a Bazelgeuse, Nergigante, or Xeno’jiiva Gem.

The Bazelgeuse path has balanced blast element power, high affinity and grants the Guts skill which allows you to withstand an attack that would normally cart you (make you faint) if you’re above a certain HP threshold meaning that you can potentially live after taking a supernova if you have high HP. The Nergigante path has high attack, low blast power, no affinity and grants you the Hasten Recovery skill which regenerates your health as you attack. Finally the Xeno’jiiva path has balanced affinity, high blast power and grants you the Razor Sharp/Spare Shot skill which halves sharpness loss for weapons and makes bow and bowgun shots have a chance to not consume coatings or ammo. Essentially you can get the set bonuses of the Bazelgeuse, Nergigante or Xeno’jiiva armor without equipping any of their armor just by equipping the Lunastra weapon that uses their Gem.

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