The MHW Stygian Zinogre is upon us! This subspecies of the powerful thunder wolf is the second free DLC monster added to Monster Hunter World. It’s also quite tough, as anyone who has fought the standard Zinogre can likely guess. It sports Dragon damage — and the accompanying Dragonblight status effect — in addition to new attacks that complement its already formidable arsenal. You need to approach this fight a bit differently. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to Stygian Zinogre in MHW, for your hunting pleasure!
The first thing to understand about Stygian Zinogre is how Dragon damage works. It’s not the most common attack type in MHW, so unless you fight Deviljho and Ebony Odogaron a lot, you might not actually know what it does. Here’s what to know.
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Dragon Damage & Dragonblight – Stygian Zinogre MHW Guide
Naturally, armor that is weaker to Dragon damage will take harder hits from it, while armor sets with Dragon resistance mitigate it. That’s standard stuff. What you really need to watch out for is Dragonblight. Unlike most status effects, this debuff doesn’t make you take damage or become more susceptible to it. Instead, it negates the elemental and status effects of your attacks. A weapon with the Thunder element will only deal its raw damage, for instance, while a weapon with Poison won’t build up the toxin at all.
Luckily, there are a ton of ways around this. You can forgo elemental and status damage altogether, for instance! Shara Ishvalda weapons have exceptionally high raw damage with a hidden element. That means they only do raw damage without the Free Element/Ammo skill. You can slot in the Non-Elemental Boost skill for even more potency. Ruiner Nergigante and Rajang weapons also have very high raw damage, despite also having a bit of elemental damage as well.
You can also remove Dragonblight with the Dragonproof Mantle. You get the item itself from “The Food Chain Dominator” mission, where you fight Deviljho, You can also upgrade the Dragonproof Mantle by delivering Master Rank Teostra and Kushala Daora parts to the commission, once you start to encounter those creatures in Master Rank missions. And as with all elemental mantles, this one will automatically remove Dragonblight if you’re afflicted with it when you put it on. Speaking of which, a simple Nullberry will also remove Dragonblight — as well as Thunderblight for that matter. The same goes for the Cleanser Booster — which you can upgrade at Master Rank 4 by completing the quest “Poison and Paralysis Pinch.”
Weaknesses – Stygian Zinogre MHW Guide
Stygian Zinogre isn’t available in MHW just yet. As such, we don’t know exactly what sorts of attacks it can inflict or what weaknesses it might have. Capcom likes to shake up its old monsters in MHW with new moves and interesting wrinkles. However, we can still make some pretty educated guesses!
Stygian Zinogre is, ironically, weak to Thunder damage. At least it is a lot of the time. Whenever it’s charged with red energy, its Thunder weakness skyrockets from level one to level three. And its Blast weakness remains steady at level three throughout the fight! That might make it even more useful to equip the Dragonproof Mantle or Blight Resistance. Twenty dragon resistance built into your armor will also make you immune to Dragonblight. That way you can continue using Thunder damage without worry.
Namielle gear might be helpful here. The Namielle Divinity set bonus increases the elemental damage you do as you continue to attack. And some pieces of the armor itself have Blight Resistance built in. That’s a great combination against a monster that’s both weak to Thunder and causes quite a lot of blights on its own. Not to mention you can pair Namielle Divinity with a Power Element Phial Charge Blade. The set bonus will boost the power of your electrical explosions. You don’t even need Artillery.
The developers have also said that, for Stygian Zinogre, weakness will increase as it charges up with Dragon energy. That’s the best time to hit it with everything you’ve got — and try to stun or flinch it out of its powered state.
Tips & Attacks – Stygian Zinogre MHW Guide
Much like its electric cousin, Stygian Zinogre will sometimes send balls of energy out at the hunter. Whereas the standard version summons them in spinning circles, the Stygian subspecies can fire them directly forward — homing in on targets. In the past, players have been able to dodge this by running behind Zinogre to force the shot to hit the creature instead of them. The “Superman Dive” is also quite useful.
Stygian Zinogre can also send out its Dracophage Bugs to summon lines of energy from the sky, similar to Kirin’s thunderbolts. You can block these (also like Kirin), but the better move might be to simply walk between them. Dodging is riskier, as you have less control over where you stand. But as long as you can see where the bolts are about to strike you should be able to harmlessly weave between them.
That’s not say Stygian Zinogre will give you time to relax. The creature can also slam forward with Dragon-infused claw attacks. Besides simply following up with more slams, Stygian Zinogre can also do a spinning tackle forward directly out of the pound. Stay to its sides as you watch it pull itself forward across the ground! If you do, you might be able to get some counterattacks in as it rushes past.
If you do manage to knock it down, you can also harvest crafting materials from Stygian Zinogre while it’s still alive. Just equip your capture net and fire it into the monster’s back while it’s stunned. It works similar to mining Uragaan and identical to harvesting Fulgurbugs from normal Zinogre. This will collect its powered-up Dracophage Bugs for you.
Speaking of stunning it, by the way, you might be able to use Flash Pods or the Clutch Claw to cancel Stygian Zinogre’s charge-up animation. This would delay its Dragon attacks in older Monster Hunter games. Although it usually completes the charge on its second attempt.
And there you have it! That’s our look at MHW Stygian Zinogre. We’ll be back with updates and more tips as we tackle the monster ourselves. In the meantime, check out some of our other Monster Hunter World coverage for further tips and takes.
