Bazelgeuse is definitely near the top of the list of Monster Hunter World’s toughest targets. I’ve logged about 300 hours in the game, and of all the monsters I’ve taken on in parties with other people, Bazelgeuse is the dude that carts the most hunters by far. To take him on and win, you’ll definitely need a plan, some decent gear, and a lot of patience.
In this totally awesome guide, we’ll take you through the whole process of bringing down this bombastic beast—getting it to show up in the first place, choosing the right weapons and armor, eating the best pre-hunt meal, tracking down the monster, and bringing it back home dead or alive. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get to it!
In case you need some help with other monsters, we also have in-depth Monster Hunter World Pink Rathian, Anjanath and Deviljho guides right over here.
Unlocking the Quest
Unlike every other creature in Monster Hunter World, there is no particular quest you must undertake in order to get Bazelgeuse to show himself. Once you unlock high-rank hunts (see our Monster Hunter World Pink Rathian guide for help on doing that), Bazelgeuse will start randomly showing up during any other high-rank quests, investigations, or expeditions that you undertake.
Preparation
This monster’s random and unpredictable nature makes it hard to prepare to fight him. Only in rare cases will you specifically set out to hunt him; most of the time, you’ll be in the middle of hunting something else, and Bazel will crash the party uninvited. That’s why he’s such a jerk—at least to some extent, you’ll need to consider how “Bazel-ready” all of your other highly customized gear sets are.
As a starting point, take a moment to study our completed Bazelgeuse hunter notes.
If you plan on bringing a weapon that deals elemental damage, thunder is the clear winner. Dragon and ice will work decently well, but water will do little damage, and fire would be a complete waste of time because he’s immune to it. If status effects are more your thing, Bazel is moderately susceptible to poison, sleep, and paralysis, but mostly resistant to blast and stun.
Armor-wise, blast resistance is a must, at least at the point in the game when Bazelgeuse first starts making appearances. Physical defense and stun resistance are also super important, and if you have some skill slots left over, fire resistance certainly can’t hurt.
Be sure to pack your item pouch with flash pods, dung pods, shock and pit traps, additional trap crafting materials, attack- and defense-boosting potions, status-inflicting bombs and knives, and plenty of healing supplies.
We’d recommend filling your reusable item slots with some combination of a Vitality Mantle, an Apothecary Mantle, an Evasion Mantle, a Fireproof Mantle, and a Health Booster, depending on which would mesh best with your preferred build.
Finally, you’ll need to decide what to eat at the cafeteria before you head out. Bazelgeuse’s offensive stats are off the charts at this point in the game, so we’d advise choosing a meal with high defense- and resistance-boosting properties.
You’ll want to have as much stamina as possible, so a meal that increases your endurance would also be a solid choice. Alternatively, you could focus on eating for defense and rely on well-done steaks or ancient potions to max out your stamina in the field.
Viable Builds
Many monsters in Monster Hunter World can be successfully hunted by either speed- or armor-based builds, but we think that’s a little less true with Bazel. Speed has a clear advantage over tanking in this fight; some of the creature’s nastiest attacks simply can’t be blocked, so getting out of the way is often the only way to avoid taking damage.
If you do decide to bring your heaviest armor, buff your physical defense, blast resistance, stun resistance, health, and stamina as much as you possibly can. You’re going to be taking a lot of hits, so make sure you’ve got enough health and healing supplies to stay conscious throughout several long fights.
Lighter, more agile characters should consider using daggers, bows, insect glaives, or swords n’ boards. Heavier weapons whose attacks can’t be interrupted or canceled will prove to be a liability against Bazel, because he frequently drops bombs that explode after a delay of only a second or two. Avoiding those blasts—which can often chain into devastating multi-explosions—will be difficult or impossible if you get stuck in a greatsword or charge blade animation.
Finding the Monster
Don’t worry about finding Bazel—he’ll find you. He loves to invite himself to other people’s parties, so always keep one eye to the sky when you’re engaged with other monsters. Sooner or later (usually sooner), a Bazelgeuse will swoop right into the middle of the fight if he’s present in the area.
If you’re wondering why we recommended bringing dung pods, this is why. Bazel is the only foe in Monster Hunter World that we use them on regularly. A dung pod or two to the face will drive Bazel away temporarily, leaving you free to finish your original fight if you want to. Like herpes, he’ll be back, but unlike herpes, regularly reapplying dung will keep the problem at bay.
Alternatively, if Bazelgeuse starts a fight with a monster that you don’t care to engage, use your dung pods to chase that monster away so you can turn your full attention to the newcomer.
Bringing it Down
Annoyingly, almost all of Bazel’s attacks involve explosions, so prepare to do a lot of frantic diving and rolling. He can drop his scales in large bunches, which will explode after a set time or when struck by any attack. He’s more or less equally dangerous whether he’s in the air or on the ground, but hopefully you brought some flash pods.
Anytime Bazel takes to the skies, flash him to knock him to the ground and briefly stun him (make sure your flash pod detonates somewhere near his eyes). A few more words about the bombs: they hurt a lot, and you can easily find yourself caught in an inescapable chain of explosions. In easily 90% of cases, when Bazel takes out a hunter in my party, it’s because they got chain-staggered by explosions until they simply ran out of health.
The bombs already on the ground at any given time aren’t the only ones you need to worry about, because he’s almost certainly about to drop more in the very near future. Try to anticipate where bombs will fall and make it your top priority to stay well clear of those areas.
You should also know that, for all intents and purposes, explosions can’t be blocked with shields. Technically, they can, but only directly from the front, and you will almost never take explosive damage only from the front. Nine times out of ten, you’ll get tagged from the side or back by an adjacent explosion and take full damage anyway, so it’s best not to try to block them.
Bazel’s main ground attacks are a charge, a tail whip, a bite/headbutt, and a backward jump that deals minor stun and wind damage. All of those attacks except the headbutt can (and usually do) drop several bomb scales, which will heat up and explode shortly thereafter. When Bazel is airborne, he’ll mostly just do strafing runs and drop bombs absolutely everywhere, but he’ll occasionally dive at you, so watch out for that too.
Speedy characters should make avoiding any and all bombs their first priority and land short chains of fast attacks whenever they can. The safest and most reliable strategy throughout this fight is “death by a thousand cuts.”
Opportunities to land long combos or highly damaging slow attacks on Bazel will be few and far between, so it’s best to poke him briefly and often to whittle down his health gradually over time. Be sure to avoid striking any undetonated bomb scales, as that will set them off.
Mounting large monsters is always a great tactic, but it’s especially helpful here. When you mount Bazel, you’re immune to his bombs—and so are your teammates, because he can’t drop any while you’re on his back. Furthermore, once you knock him down and dismount, you’ll have another five or ten seconds of bomb-free peace and quiet to wail on him. Just make sure your friends know not to flash Bazel while someone is mounted.
Traps are also extremely helpful. Every second that Bazel spends struggling in a shock or pit trap is a second he can’t spend carpet bombing you to oblivion, so don’t be shy about using them. Hopefully, you brought plenty of trap tools, nets, and thunderbugs to craft more traps in the field.
Lastly, make full use of your poison, sleep, and paralysis knives and bombs, too. Bazel likes to drag the fight out by making himself hard to hit, so if you can get some poison damage going, it’ll do its work over time whether you manage to land your own attacks or not.
Sleep and paralysis are your friends, too—every moment he spends snoozing or immobilized is a moment you can spend beating him up without fear of retaliation. Note, though, that status effects get progressively harder to reapply to the same monster each time they wear off.
When Bazel’s health starts to get low, his attack patterns don’t really change, they just get faster and more frequent. Stay on your toes, expect even more bombs during the final phases of the hunt, and don’t get lazy. Keep up the precise, carefully timed strikes and you’ll eventually bring the winged terror down.
Once you’ve taken Bazelgeuse dead or alive, you’ll unlock special investigations that give additional rewards. For the rest of the game, though, Bazel specimens will periodically show up when you least want to see them, so it’s probably best to just start putting dung pods in all of your item loadouts. Gross.
Now that you know how to defeat Bazelgeuse, check out our guides on the best survival games, or maybe some of the most amazing horror games are just right for you!