The Iceborne expansion to Monster Hunter World came with a lot of high-level additions to the game. It added new areas and new monsters, and naturally, new weapons, armor, and upgrade materials along with them.
Large Elder Dragon Gems are just one of these new items but they are among the hardest to acquire thanks to their relative rarity. Veterans of the series will be familiar with the frustration that comes with hunting for one or two upgrade materials - the "desire sensors" that the games appear to have - but having the internet at your fingertips certainly helps cut down on time spent.
Monsters That Drop Large Elder Dragon Gems
The first way to acquire Large Elder Dragon Gems is to get them from hunting monsters over and over - the actions you take when hunting monsters will eventually lead to getting some gem drops, as long as you pick the right ones.
Here are the various ways that hunting monsters might secure you a Large Elder Dragon Gem:
- Body carves - this is when you carve the body of a monster you have killed.
- Tail carves - this is when you carve the severed tail of a monster. You must use weapons (or ammo) that inflict slashing damage to sever a tail.
- Breaking body parts - most monsters will have particular parts of their bodies that can be broken, usually their head, horns, armor plating, or claws etc. Breaking body parts can lead to rewards at the end of the current outing.
- Plunderblade - this Palico gadget is obtained by completing the Grimalkyne quest in the Rotten Vale and allows your Palico to steal items from a monster they are fighting.
- Drops - monsters can drop items that take the form of shiny pickups when moving from area to area.
The table below details every monster you can hunt to acquire Large Elder Dragon Gems and the ways in which they can drop the item - along with the percentage chances of such a drop occurring.
|
Monster |
Body Carve |
Tail Carve |
Part Break |
Plunderblade |
Drops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Blackveil Vaal Hazak |
2% |
3% |
2% (Head) |
1% |
- |
|
Kushala Daora |
2% |
3% |
2% (Head) |
1% |
- |
|
Lunastra |
3% |
3% |
3% (Head) |
1% |
2% |
|
Namielle |
2% |
3% |
2% (Head) |
1% |
- |
|
Ruiner Nergigante |
2% |
3% |
3% (Horns) |
1% |
- |
|
Teostra |
2% |
3% |
2% (Head) |
1% |
- |
As you can see, in terms of numerical chance the best method for farming Large Elder Dragon Gems is to hunt Lunastra over and over - making sure that you pick up all possible shiny drops, equipping your Palico with the Plunderblade, and always breaking the monster's head and severing its tail.
Quests That Reward Large Elder Dragon Gems
There are two ways to go questing for Large Elder Dragon Gems:
- In-game quests that may reward the item.
- Going on investigation quests with specific monster targets that have Silver and Gold rewards.
In terms of which monsters you need to 'investigate' to get this item, every monster in the table in the previous section counts. For reference, these are investigations of Blackveil Vaal Hazak, Kushala Daora, Lunastra, Namielle, Ruiner Nergigante, and Teostra.
With these monsters, you have an eight percent chance of acquiring a Large Elder Dragon Gem drop from a Silver reward, and a 16 percent chance from a Gold reward.
As far as quests go, the following have Large Elder Dragon Gems in their list of prospective rewards:
- Divine Surge - Slay a Tempered Kirin and a Tempered Namielle
- Fade to Black - Slay a Fatalis
- Master Hunter of the New World - Slay a Tempered Teostra, a Tempered Lunastra, a Tempered Velkhana, and a Ruiner Nergigante
- The Black Dragon - Slay a Fatalis
- The Distant Dark Tide - Slay an Arch-Tempered Namielle
- The Storm Brings the Unexpected - Slay a Tempered Kushala Daora and a Tempered Blackveil Vaal Hazak
- The Winter Blues - Slay a Namielle and a Velkhana
- We Three Kings - Hunt a Kirin, Kushala Daora, and a Teostra
Some of these quests are event quests and thus may be unavailable at certain times. You can, however, join in another player's quest if they have it and you do not - this can be a great way to farm Large Elder Dragon Gems.
All of these quests are Master Rank, whether they are event quests or not. Unlocking Master Rank requires that you beat the main storyline of Monster Hunter World, reach Hunter Rank 16, and begin the Iceborne storyline. Only then can you start farming for Large Elder Dragon Gems.
The quests Fade to Black, The Black Dragon, and We Three Kings have the best chance of rewarding a Large Elder Dragon Gem at 13 percent.