Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate has its fair share of aggressive creatures hellbent on nothing more than eating you for breakfast. For most of them, you’d be nothing more than a light snack or the equivalent of finding a piece of potato chip in your teeth four hours after you’ve eaten a bag of them. The trick is killing these gigantic beasts before they stomp on your face. So we at Twinfinite decided it was a good idea to put together some primer guides for taking down each of the more dangerous enemies in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. This one’s about the Zamtrios, a mix of puffer fish and shark that only nightmares are made of.
Also ice, lots and lots of ice. Enough ice to keep a fraternity in cold beer until the polar ice caps eventually melt, then enough left over to recreate the polar ice caps. Don’t forget ice. Not snow, not sleet, just so much ice you’ll get frostbite in your eyes.
Before you even think about going into battle with the Zamtrios in its traditional stomping ground of the Frozen Seaway, get some hot drinks. You’ll likely only need two for the entire fight but it never hurts to keep a full stock of five on you just in case. Also remember to pick up or bring along Sonic Bombs, this’ll become clear later.
First and foremost we have the Zamtrios’ basic ability. This is a very simple claw attack that it’ll use often in the early stages of battle. This generally comes from the monster’s left and, while damaging, can be easily avoided or blocked by even the least experienced hunters.
Its more concerning abilities come when the Zamtrios of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (the creature’s first appearance in the West) rears back onto its hind legs. The shark-like beast will launch a torrent of icy water from its mouth, moving across the creatures vision from its left to right at close range then back from right to a more central point over a longer distance. This’ll afflict you with a somewhat irritating stamina debuff, causing the bar to fill more slowly than usual. It’s a nuisance, but not one that will cost you the fight.
What can be more problematic though is the Zamtrios’ ability to encase you in ice. This is a fairly unique ability to the beast in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. It launches a huge blob of icy water which will encase you in ice to such an extent that even Jack Frost will wince in sympathy. You’ll be able to move when caught in this but that’s about it. Try to get yourself clipped by the more basic abilities of a Zamtrios when this occurs or look to your comrades for aid. If you’re playing in multiplayer and see a colleague caught in this, make a beeline for them and break out your buddy.
This will not only stop you being able to attack. If your caught in the ice and the Zamtrios starts to look as though it’s going to jump (leans onto its hind quarters) get the hell out of its way. Fail in this, and you’ll be gobbled up in a more annoying than actually painful grapple. It’ll hurt, but being unable to control what you do is a problem in itself. Should this ability hit a Palico, actually use them as bait and attack the Zamtrios while it’s munching on your miaowing friend. Being spit out by this launches the target a fairly long distance, often pushing them back into another area or into a horde of smaller creatures.
Being a shark in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, you know the Zamtrios is going to do some sort of Jaws-style submerged stalking. Never one to disappoint, the beast does this all too often. When the creature is submerges its fin can be seen tracking through the ground wherever the beast is. It’s incredibly tempting to hit this fin while exposed but do be mindful of the follow up. Before it reemerges, the Zamtrios will cause the ground to shake. This’ll make you stagger. That’s the cue to leap the hell out of the way before it bursts from the ground. Get caught and you’re going to take damage. Don’t get caught and you’ve got the chance to do a little damage on this fast-moving menace of the ice seas.
Cast your mind back to the start of this guide where we told you to pick up some Sonic Bombs. When the Zamtrios is submerged, you can throw a Sonic Bomb at the fin to force this sharky enemy in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate back to the surface. It’ll be writhing around on the floor and open to a full barrage of whatever sort of attacks you want to throw on it.
A monster isn’t at its scariest when moving. No no, you want to be really worried when anything in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate stops and just looks at you. When it does it and you’re the target, run at a right angle around the Zamtrios. If you don’t, it’ll spring forward with unnatural speed to knock you on the floor and rip a terrible gouge out of your precious health bar. Try to judge where it’ll land and you’ve got the chance to hit it a couple of times before it lines up for another strike.
