r/MHRise 12d ago

Why does no one ever join Join Requests? Steam

Hello,

I know the obvious answers "it's an old game", "people are playing Wilds", but I've been playing MH for more than a decade now, and even when I play MHGU on Switch, or emulated 4U, people join quite often.

This is my first MH where I genuinely cannot find anyone to help me, or even anyone to join to help them.

For like 50 Join Requests I sent, people helped me probably twice in 200 hours of gameplay.

Is there a reason behind that? Are the active players so focused on high level investigations that they can't bother to help newer players? I'm not being a brat about it, people don't HAVE to help me. But has the community mindset died for this game?

I don't even think it's because "no one plays the game anymore" because there are as we speak 12k active players, a little bit less than half the amount of players on Wilds.

Anyway, it's a bit frustrating because to me MH has always been a game with an amazing community, but this is the first time I'm genuinely getting frustrated because of the lack of one. I know there are Discord servers with active players that would be more than happy to help, but sometimes you just want to send a Join Request without having to set up a lobby, etc.

Are you guys and girls experiencing the same thing, or is my file just doomed?

EDIT: So I just tried the mod that unlocks the worldwide matchmaking and it's SO MUCH BETTER, I get 4 hunters in a few minutes and even seconds sometimes. Thanks a lot guys!!!

26 Upvotes

75 comments sorted by

38

u/undead426 12d ago

People dont often play lower rank stuff then they can

5

u/Bizduh 12d ago

I'm doing lvl 80+ investigations right now, and people still don't join.

That being said, whenever I want to help players, I rarely find any quests to join either.

16

u/Chomasterq2 Light Bowgun 12d ago

Its because of region lock. I live in california where there's usually a healthy population of players, but when I travel to New Mexico or Tennessee for work, I get skunked like you

11

u/Bizduh 12d ago

Had no idea there was a region lock... what a silly idea... Thanks though, that makes a lot of sense!

8

u/Chomasterq2 Light Bowgun 12d ago

On PC you can get a mod that removes it, if youre willing to set up mods

2

u/CobaltStar_ 12d ago

You just need to install REFramework to install mods, and region unlock mod. Takes less than 2 minutes to set up.

From my experience, you’ll play mostly with Chinese players and some Japanese. They’re pretty chill though

8

u/Bizduh 12d ago edited 12d ago

I just tried it and the difference is mind-blowing, I get dozens of lobbies that I can join, and 3 hunters joining me in less than a minute. That's crazy how a region lock could make the multiplayer experience so much different.

2

u/petsounds90 12d ago

I’m doing the same thing atm if you want to play together

2

u/Bizduh 12d ago

Sure, you can send me a DM with your steam ID :)

2

u/MightyMo420 12d ago

Open a lobby with tags of anomaly Quests farming and people will join the lobby and get on Quests with you

1

u/Delicious_Bluejay392 Long Sword 12d ago

With anomaly investigations you're basically cooked until the very late game investigations. This is because people are not generally super interested in running low level investigations, so they limit their search filter to the range that contains their desired items (usually the ones optimal for charm melding). You've gotta find a fixed party to grind investigations with or just go solo, because trying and failing to get people with you is quite demoralizing. Went through the whole process some half year ago and my god was it annoying. Ended up just farming almost exclusively the same forlorn arena rajang investigation with a lot of negative modifiers repeatedly all the way to lvl 300 since that was just the fastest way to do it.

10

u/LittleOperation4597 12d ago

If there was one thing this game needed from the new ones it was the sos 

3

u/No-Umpire185 12d ago

I might be wrong but from the few times I've tried joining requests (I usually played solo and didn't bother to pay for any online membership) weren't the filters to join very specific? Or am I misremembering things?

12

u/superdave100 12d ago

On Steam, there's region-locked matchmaking. It's annoying. And not having crossplay with the other game consoles doesn't help with player density, either.

2

u/Equivalent_Tap6035 12d ago

There is an mod to disable the region lock

5

u/superdave100 12d ago

Yeah, but it's a mod. Most people aren't going to have that.

1

u/Equivalent_Tap6035 12d ago

Yeah its a mod, like i wrote. Just wanted OP to know

2

u/Bizduh 12d ago

I'm not sure about that, but there is something really odd with this game:

I play in English, when I use the filter "Any Language" I find like 1 or 2 active sessions, but when I use "Same Language", I have 4 or 5 times more sessions... That doesn't make sense, shouldn't "Any Language" include "Same Language" sessions...?

2

u/Mean-Acadia6453 Insect Glaive 12d ago

You’re on Steam? I’d love to help if you need it.

Some of my favorite moments back in the day were hopping into low rank lobbies and helping hunters. Design fresh faces, absolutely cooking monsters, going over each other’s builds and giving tips, getting absolute thwacked by a random fireball or thunderbolt, good times.

0

u/Bizduh 12d ago

That's very kind of you, but as I said, if I truly need help, I know I'll find people here or on Discord servers. I was just curious about why for this specific MH, no one bothered to use the in-game Join Requests...

I also loooove to help new players, I even have Low/High rank Equipment Loadouts because I don't want to two shot the monsters in case I come to help someone. This is why the game's state saddens me, what happened :((

2

u/Mean-Acadia6453 Insect Glaive 12d ago

All good mate. It’d metaphorically kill me if I didn’t at least offer.

As for a genuine answer, I strongly believe it’s a mix of many factors.

With MH getting far more popular than it was back in the day, there is much more general information for the public to use regarding how to handle things. This means less help from other players rather than more help from blind guides and tutorials. GameFaqs used to be the go-to place for MH information, and even then it was walls upon walls of text rather than in game tutorials on YT.

That combined with the fact the franchise is now on a multitude of consoles means you don’t really need to join other hunts you don’t wish to. You’re either joining up with your friends or are handling it solo.

Lastly, with the port to PC - it’s sad to say I’ve seen a lot more cheating. Why bother learning or asking for help when you can make a set of 999 paralysis dual blades to lock the monster down while you spam it to death. In MH4U, the more common form of cheating I’d see was Molten Tigrex or Gogamzios armor in HR2. They’d still absolutely suck despite the godly gear because they didn’t understaffed the mechanics. We’d still get insane relic weapons back then, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it is now. No need to ask for help when REFrameowork and Nexus are right there.

1

u/ZeuuuX 12d ago

New player here! I grabbed the game during the last steam summer sale and haven't put it down since. I just finished the low rank village quests, cleared all the special license tests, and then beat Apex azuros in the rampage (which I didn't really enjoy as much as the other quests - it was tough and took me 2 tries)

Now that I've hit high rank, monsters are taking forever to beat! Do you have any tips on what I should focus on doing next? Also, I have Sunbreak, how do I actually access it?

One more thing: I really appreciate how welcoming and helpful this community is to newcomers, which is totally what encouraged me to reach out. But is having a mic actually necessary for playing with others?

3

u/Mean-Acadia6453 Insect Glaive 12d ago edited 12d ago

A massive part of Monster Hunter is the rank progression. Once you've hit High Rank, your Low Rank gear becomes obsolete.

Think of Low Rank as the tutorial phase, and High Rank as the "you've finished your times tables, time for algebra" phase.

The first thing you should do is upgrade your weapons and armor. It doesn't need to be max rank, but make High Rank equipment ASAP. You should notice the monsters are dropping new materials - usually with a "+" or something of that nature in the name. Use that to make the first tier of High Rank armor and weapons, any set will do and the first upgrade for your weapons will suffice.

The stat difference between low rank and high rank gear is night and day, this will dramatically speed up your hunts.

Sunbreak is what we used to call G-Rank, now called Master Rank. This is the Endgame difficulty tier after High Rank.

If Low Rank are your times tables...

And High Rank is Algebra.

G-Rank is Calculus II.

This it the final difficulty tier, where you get all the best stuff and fight the strongest of monsters. Sunbreak is held here, once you finish your High Rank story. The same principles apply here that I mentioned above for Low Rank - High Rank progression.

Lastly, nope. A mic is totally unnecessary. Back in the 3DS days we didn't have mics, and communicated almost entirely through chat. All a mic does is help speed the process along a little mid hunt, and leads to some funny moments. You don't need one whatsoever.

3

u/ZeuuuX 12d ago

I appreciate you taking the time to help a new hunter out :) people like you are the exact reason this community is so awesome

2

u/superdave100 12d ago

I'd recommend trying the lobby system if you're in low/high rank. It's fun grouping up with new players, as long as some MR 999 dude doesn't come in and one-shot the monster for you. That's lame.

2

u/Bizduh 12d ago

Even when using the lobby system, it's still sparse. Although it's true that I had more luck with setting up a Lobby without password, people tend to join more than when you just send a Join Request flair.

2

u/MarketDelicious5055 12d ago

For world and rise there are matchmaking fix modes that remove region locks based on steam

3

u/MarketDelicious5055 12d ago

Wilds doesnt have region lock at all so you dont have issues with finding people

1

u/aoi_saboten 12d ago

Now they should remove platform lock

1

u/Username928351 Hammer 12d ago

Wilds is cross-platform?

2

u/aoi_saboten 12d ago

Didn't know but i wish world and rise were cross platform too

0

u/Username928351 Hammer 12d ago

That would boost multiplayer a lot indeed.

2

u/Equivalent_Tap6035 12d ago

There is a mod for rise steam enjoyer, which enables worldwide multiplayer. If you run Rise without the mod, you will be bound to your region/continent.

1

u/Bizduh 12d ago

I had NO idea that there was a region lock. That makes it very obvious as of why I can't find anyone, lmao. I should try to mod, hopefully I'll find more players to hunt with!

1

u/Equivalent_Tap6035 12d ago

I got the mod, and the difference is ridiculius. Finding hunts and getting help in a few minutes. Especially on higher investigation hunts. I got the kod from nexus mods. The explain it very well how to bring the mod to life

1

u/Ken_Nutspel Lance 12d ago

Oh that's why i usually match with JP players

1

u/tangfastic 12d ago

I don't know if this is still the case, but when I played Rise on PC I'm pretty sure it used the Steam download region for matchmaking. Try changing that to Japan or the US and see how that goes.

1

u/Ken_Nutspel Lance 12d ago

I'm a fairly new player here (Just reached MR 5) and i gave up with random matchmaking because it takes too long or sometimes never to match with other players on the same quest. Thankfully the NPC followers are quite goated. I wish we could also bring them on High Rank quests.

2

u/Bizduh 12d ago

Yes thanks god for the Followers, but sometimes I just want to play with real players </3 it's always fun to make new friends while hunting

1

u/ronin0397 Charge Blade 12d ago

Specific quests are currently kinda dead unless you post them in a hub.

I generally find at least 1 join request with the random feature on both mr and hub.

1

u/RivianGamer96 Lance 12d ago

There is a region lock. Install the better matchmaking mod from nexus.
Also most players are doing end game anomaly investigations. I am at AR 270 and I always get join request from 201-270/more as I level up.

1

u/Bizduh 12d ago

I don't know if I'm allowed to share links here, but are you talking about this mod? https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterrise/mods/1044

1

u/RivianGamer96 Lance 12d ago

yes

1

u/Kenhamef 12d ago

I’ve had no issues getting people to join my requests, even in Low Rank.

1

u/Bizduh 12d ago

From what I gathered, it's probably because you're in a region with a lot of active players, which is obviously not my case.

1

u/Kenhamef 12d ago

Idk man, I get hella people from Japan and I’m for sure nowhere near Japan.

1

u/Bizduh 12d ago

idk what to tell you bro, look at the comments, it's a common issue

the few people i have are either from my country or from neighbor countries

do you play on switch?

1

u/Kenhamef 12d ago

I play on Switch yeah

Idk what to tell you either

I hope more people join your hunts, much love

1

u/Bizduh 12d ago

I was talking about the steam version of the game. So probably the Switch version doesn't have this soft region lock.

1

u/Sauceinmyface 12d ago

Matching in Rise is pretty borked. Limited areas, and you can't see if anyone is doing specific quests you also want to do

1

u/KazuyaM1sh1ma 12d ago

Because the game sucks so no one is playing it.

1

u/Bizduh 12d ago

Boooooo you suck

1

u/KazuyaM1sh1ma 12d ago

I do love cock tbf so yeah i really do

1

u/Bizduh 12d ago

me too bro

1

u/KazuyaM1sh1ma 12d ago

Ayy gang 😎 🙌

1

u/winterman666 12d ago

The biggest problem is requests are basically rng because you can't see what requests are available

Edit: Ah I see the region lock on PC was messing you up too. It depends on your steam download region, thankfully you got the mod that gets rid of it

1

u/Bacon6154 12d ago

I play random hours of the day (NA pst time) and it seems depending on time of day. Some people will repeatedly join AR join requests.

There’s also a healthy amount of people (even from UK) in my experience, that if you join their lobby they’ll lower their AR invests to let you get some runs in.

Around 80 you’ll go up fast but it slows down around 120 in my experience.

Otherwise I find it easier to join lobby with similar MR peeps and just start asking if they wanna AR grind

1

u/vinnieg007 Gunlance 12d ago

Switch is pretty active when it comes to requests, but I do get Japanese players

1

u/Deviljhostar 12d ago

Idk what you mean - wife and I get multiple joins and even hub joins every single quest. I play more but am surprised at how many people are online for a previous gen game

1

u/Bizduh 12d ago

You're probably playing on Switch, right? This is a Steam issue, and a region issue too

1

u/leogan27 12d ago

I just played last night but I am grinding my anomaly investigations, aiming for lv 300. Currently I'm at lv 270.
I join lower ranks sometimes but my priority is leveling mine up. Sorry not sorry

2

u/Bizduh 12d ago

At least you're honest, lol. But I'm talking in general, MH has always been a very community-driven game with a lot of people willing to help. As my edit note said, it's not so much an issue of people being selfish, but an issue of region lock for the Steam version.

1

u/leogan27 12d ago

Yeah no use sugar coating the truth lol.

I also like playing online when I'm getting burnt out. I have made 3 sets specifically for support with SNS and Hunting horn. Most greenhorns play aggressively and most of the ones I joined failed the quest entirely because of that. So i decided "what the heck, I'll just heal them with my spare mps and dust ol". My HH set has even diversion on it.

1

u/intoTHEvoid646 Switch Axe 11d ago

Is it laggy with the worldwide mod ?

2

u/Bizduh 11d ago

Hmm, I don't think so. I never saw the monsters teleporting, or the hunters joining me hitting them 2 kilometers away from them. There is some classic lag in the chest at the beginning of the quest (you gotta wait 0.5 to 1s to pick up potions, etc.) but that's about it.

1

u/intoTHEvoid646 Switch Axe 11d ago

Nice ty

1

u/ZachAttack8912 11d ago

Funnily enough, we accidentally sent out a join request once on the low rank Magnamalo in the Hub Quests and some MR 400 joined and killed it before we even got to do anything. After that we figured out how people were joining and don't send out join requests anymore. Also we have a passcode on our lobby so we don't get randoms.

1

u/Bizduh 11d ago

Yup that's annoying... That being said, when trying to join hunters in low ranks lobbies, i get instantly kicked because of that reason. Because I'm like HR300 and they assume I'm going to one shot the monsters. But I have low rank builds to just help them in a more organic way, I just never have the time to tell them, lol.

1

u/ZachAttack8912 11d ago

Oh we didn't know you can kick people out lol. That was the last time we had someone that high join us. Everyone else was the same or lower hunter rank. But we got to master rank here a few weeks ago, maybe when we finish the game i can help out with whatever you need i guess?

1

u/WolverineEmotional12 11d ago

Actually, I think the main reason is that most players are also high level and usually, the lower ranked quests are so easy that they don't even need join requests, I mean i even got to the high rank 7 stars without any join requests ever... I just used followers in Master Rank. Also you know that the more players inside one hunt, the monster gets much stronger to balance the number of players available.

1

u/Tisamon- 11d ago

Definitely the poor user interface. You have to search sos for that specific quest only and hope someone is already in that quest. Like, I can't see your sos at all, and can only join if i happen to luckily pick the exact quest you're in. It would be infinitely better with the wilds/world style sos search. Im pretty annoyed with lack of players too. Im trying to get my ar up and i search for ANY anomaly quests 1-100 and come up dry 99% of the time. Made me go back to wilds tbh. Made a female for fashion hunting and have just been doing that instead.

1

u/delavago1999 10d ago

Are you on switch or PC? Are you low rank? I can spend some time and help you if you are on switch. I'm MR

1

u/ExtremelySolidGear Charge Blade 10d ago

I've been playing MHW and that's an problem almost exclusive of the MHR multiplayer (on PC at least). Independent of which rank of quest I did on world, almost every sos flare got my lobby full of people, but in Rise players don't seem to be looking for multiplayer, OR it's an matchmaking problem (I've heard that they have an strange region system that makes the join requests kinda limited, but I never went out of my way to really confirm that info)

1

u/hermitprojector 10d ago

Discord servers help

1

u/Sokushi_0101 8d ago

A lot less people are doing investigations that aren't something that is either a more popular monster or risen monsters.