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Elemental blights are common status effects in Monster Hunter Rise. Monsters with elemental affinities will afflict them during battle. There are five blights - one for each element - and they each have their negative effect on the player.
Rise is also the first Monster Hunter game where monsters can get blights as well. Turning the tables like this can be a huge help in a tricky fight. Some blights work differently on monsters than on hunters. An experienced player should know the effects of every elemental blight and gauge the best ways to cure them or how to take advantage.
What Are Elemental Blights?
Elemental blights are a type of negative status effect. They can be afflicted by a monster's elemental attacks, like Rathian's fireballs or Zinogre's lightning. Blights are distinct from other status effects in the game, like Poison or Sleep. Items that cure blights won't help with other status effects, and vice versa. Blights of different elements do stack, so you can have multiple elemental blights acting on you at one time.
When you contract a blight, an icon will appear by your health bar in the top left corner of the screen. If you are playing with other hunters, you can also see these icons by their health bars on the left side of the screen. Note that if you've set it so your name doesn't appear on the health bar, the icons won't appear either.
Despite their names, Blastblight, Hellfireblight, Bubbleblight, and Bloodblight are not elemental blights. They are status effects. Nullberries and the Blight Resistance skill do not affect them.
Curing And Preventing Blights
There are many ways to cure or prevent blights:
- Use a Nullberry. Nullberries cure all elemental blights.
- Evade repeatedly. A few dodge rolls will dispel the blight.
- Use an Antidobra or your Palico's Vase of Vitality. The Antidobra is a common Hunting Helper, and Vase of Vitality is a Palico support move.
- Eat Dango. The Cacaoutstanding Dango will halve the duration of blights if its skill activates.
- Increase your elemental resistance. A resistance above 20 will completely prevent that specific element's blight. Armor pieces have their innate resistances, and you can also eat Dango for specific elements.
- Get the Blight Resistance skill. Level 3 Blight Resistance will completely negate all elemental blights. It's available on the Rathian set as well as a decoration.
Afflicting Blights On Monsters
For the first time in the Monster Hunter series, monsters can be given elemental blights. You can't give blights from an elemental weapon. The most convenient way to inflict a blight is through a Hunting Helper. Look for beetles rolling balls on the map. Once you pick one up, throw it at a monster to afflict the blight. There are beetles for every elemental blight except Dragon, but not all of them are available on every map.
You can also afflict blights by Wyvern Riding. Certain monsters have elemental attacks that afflict blights. For instance, Rathalos' Mounted Punished will give its opponent Fireblight.
Fireblight
Fireblight is the most common elemental blight. It works similarly to the Poison status effect, gradually taking health as the hunter burns. Depending on where you are, this can be the easiest blight to remove. Normally you will have to evade multiple times to clear Fireblight. If you are standing on watery terrain, it only requires you to evade once.
Monsters afflicted with Fireblight will take damage over time. They will also become much easier to flinch. Note that a flinch is different from a stun - a flinch will cancel the monster out of any attack it's doing, while a stun will fully knock them out for a few seconds.
Waterblight
Waterblight will slow down the rate at which you recover stamina. For some weapons, like Bows or Dual Blades, this is especially bad. You can repeatedly evade out of this one, but Wiredashing clears it as well. But since Wirebugs are more precious than stamina, it's best to stick with a Nullberry for this one.
Waterblight softens the hide of monsters. The hardest parts of a monster - places where your weapon would otherwise bounce off - will be able to receive damage. This is very useful if you are fighting an armored monster like Basarios. It can also make it easy to break off otherwise tough parts, like the horns of a Diablos.
Thunderblight
Thunderblight makes it much easier for monsters to stun you. Once you have been blighted, any attack from any monster has a chance to stun. An inconvenient stun can lead to a cart, so this is one of the more dangerous elemental blights.
Monsters with Thunderblight get stunned easier. Not only that, they can get stunned by attacks from any weapon. It even applies to attacks that don't hit the monster's head. The stun status will build up from any attack, but can only be triggered by a hit to the head. A stunned monster will get knocked down for a good amount of time.
Iceblight
Iceblight makes it so your Wirebug Gauge recovers much more slowly. This doesn't just affect your movement, it also puts a damper on your Silkbind Attacks and Wirefall. If you use a Silkbind Attack with an already slow rate of Wirebug Recovery, Iceblight can make it positively glacial.
Monsters with Iceblight will move much slower than normal. They will also become exhausted quickly, especially if they are enraged. Take care not to throw the Snowbeetle at a monster who is already exhausted. It will have no additional effect.
Dragonblight
Dragonblight is a rare blight, reserved for a few monsters (mostly elder dragons), and it removes any elemental damage or status buildup on your weapon. If your weapon is only raw damage this isn't an issue, but if you're leaning into an elemental build, Dragonblight can reduce your damage output drastically. Monsters cannot get Dragonblight.
This elemental blight is also special because it ties into a very powerful build. Crimson Glow Valstrax weapons have a Rampage Skill called Valstrax Soul. If you get Dragonblight with this skill active, it will increase your weapon's Dragon element damage. Valstrax Soul is only really useful if you have a full set of Valstrax armor to max out the Dragonheart skill. At level 5 Dragonheart, you will contract Dragonblight when your health is below 80%. Your attack power and other elemental resistances go way up as well when Dragonheart triggers. If you have Valstrax Soul, you can completely nullify the one downside of Dragonheart by canceling the blight.