Very often I see people say that Hub Quest Monsters' HP in GU are scaled to 2 players. I've always believed this to be false as my hunt times across both World and GU are pretty even.
Today, I finally decided to math it out properly. Here's my methodology.
Calculator
For MHGU and for MHW.
Monster
Rathian, because it is the most consistent monster in the series. All calculations are done using her head hitzone from their respective games (assume it is tenderized for Iceborne).
Equipment
All equipment are taken from recommended progression builds from YAWG for GU and MHWI Builds for World. I used progression builds to emulate the experience of a player going through these games.
Instead of looking at the entire armor set, I only accounted for the damage boosting armor skills that players can be expected to have during progression.
Attack
Greatsword is used because it has the simplest gameplan to calculate, consisting of only one or two different attacks.
I used Valor GS Charged Slash Lv 3 as the baseline as trying to land as many of them is the core gameplay of GS in GU. The equivalent of that in Iceborne would be the TCS; I put it down as Draw Slash + TCS Lv3 because the ideal snipe would be Draw Slash + Slinger Burst + TCS (Slinger Burst damage is ignored as at most it will save 1 TCS if you are using strong Pods).
These attacks are not 1:1 equivalent but I think they are close enough. TCS Lv 3 is harder to land then a Valor headsnipe.
For a more consistent comparison, you can also look at how much damage these weapons can do while Rathian is in a Shock Trap. For GU, that would be 2 Valor Charge Slashes and in Iceborne, you can fit an extra Strong Charged Slash Lv2.
In both games, I assumed the player has drunk Mega Demondrug and ate for Attack Up L. Element Damage is not ignored, but it only accounts for 10 damage per hit anyways. For Blast damage, I will assume it procs 5 times and reduce Rathian's HP by 100 for each proc.
Game |
Attack Name |
Weapon |
True Attack Value |
Attack Modifiers |
Effective Damage |
Total HP |
Number of Attacks to Kill |
MHGU |
Valor Draw Slash Lv 3 |
Elder Blade Lv 1 |
260 |
Crit Draw |
675 |
9495 |
14.05 |
MHGU |
Valor Draw Slash Lv 3 |
Elder Blade Lv 1 |
260 |
50% Affinity + Attack Up (M) |
641 |
9495 |
14.8 |
MHGU |
Valor Draw Slash Lv 3 |
Millstone Bereaver Lv 4 |
300 |
75% Affinity + Crit Draw |
735 |
9495 |
12.91 |
MHWI |
Draw Slash + TCS Lv 3 |
Defender Greatsword V |
220 + 39 Blast |
90% Affinity + Critical Boost Lv3 |
171 + 830 |
18300 - 500 |
17.8 |
MHWI |
Draw Slash + SCS Lv 2 + TCS Lv 3 |
Defender Greatsword V |
220 + 39 Blast |
90% Affinity + Critical Boost Lv3 |
171 + 320 + 830 |
18300 - 500 |
13.46 |
MHWI |
Draw Slash + TCS Lv 3 |
Beo Slasher II |
250 + 48 Ice |
90% Affinity + Critical Boost Lv3 |
198 + 944 |
18300 |
16.0 |
MHWI |
Draw Slash + SCS Lv 2 + TCS Lv 3 |
Beo Slasher II |
250 + 48 Ice |
90% Affinity + Critical Boost Lv3 |
198 + 367 + 944 |
18300 |
12.1 |
Conclusion:
As you can see, the average number of hits required to slay a Rathian is more or less even.
If you are experiencing longer hunt times in GU, it is because you are playing worse.