Out of all the Monster Hunter flagships in existence, Nergigante holds a high spot in people’s hearts. However, Arkveld, the flagship for Monster Hunter Wilds, might just take the top spot for the Extinction Dragon’s biggest fans. While both monsters are powerful and interesting lore-wise, Arkveld has the makings to be one of the best monsters in the series’ long history. That’s incredible considering that it doesn’t even appear to be an Elder Dragon. Here’s how the two fantastic flagships compare when they go head-to-head.
Arkveld is an Intensely Powerful Foe
Among those who have chosen to face Arkveld in the second Monster Hunter Wilds Open Beta Test (OBT), most of them consider Arkveld an incredible foe. With its intimidating chain-like appendages and explosive AOE attack, the White Wraith has been responsible for many carts. It’s only meant for very skilled hunters, and Arkveld proves that by unleashing attacks fueled by the dragon element. Yes, these attacks can give players dragonblight, which causes hunters to not deal elemental damage or status buildup for a certain period of time.
To make Arkveld even more fun to fight, it also has a pin that involves wrapping one of its chains around a poor hunter. It then proceeds to slam the hunter to the ground, dealing massive damage to hunters who are unable to escape. When I was hunting it for the first time, I fell victim to this attack as well as the massive and flashy AOE attack. The quest gives players five lives to use up, and the White Wraith took all of them in quick succession. I imagine it will be a similar story upon Wilds‘ full release. However, its biggest attack is easy to spot since the monster glows like magnesium that’s been lit on fire.
How Nergigante Compares
While powerful in its own way, the base game Nergigante in Monster Hunter World doesn’t deal any elemental damage or inflict any kind of ailment other than stun. The Iceborne expansion solved this by adding Ruiner Nergigante, a monster players can only face when they reach Master Rank (MR) 100. That version can inflict bleed. However, normal High Rank Nergigante is what this discussion is focused on.
Because of the lack of elemental attacks and ailments, Nergigante is all about brute force. It slams, claws, and shoves the players around if they’re not used to dealing with the monster. During the fight, players will notice the spikes that line the monster’s body turning black. That’s due to them hardening, which gives Nergigante a bit of a power boost and allows it to shoot spikes at hunters. However, its most feared attack is the infamous dive-bomb, where it flies into the air, targets one hunter, and uses all its might to try to plant them into the ground. While terrifying at first, it can easily be avoided with a simple dive while running from the monster.
Diving Into Their Monstrous Lore
Perhaps what Nergigante fans love most about the Elder Dragon is its lore. In canon, it’s an aggressive monster that will attack anything without hesitation, especially other Elder Dragons. Nergigante feasts on them to add massive amounts of energy to its internal arsenal. It’s theorized that the monster is a balancing force in nature. Others believe that it’s just a scavenger, targeting Elder Dragons and other powerful monsters when they’re near death. Whatever the case truly is, Nergigante appears to be a creature without fear, especially when one takes its incredible regenerative abilities into account.
Meanwhile, Arkveld’s complete lore is unknown at the time this article was written. All that has been revealed so far is that it’s a creature of legend that can absorb energy from other monsters with its chain-like appendages. It is also clear that it is not an Elder Dragon because it has been proven that it can be trapped, unlike every Elder Dragon in the series. Arkveld is seemingly responsible for a potentially devastating fate that befell The Keepers, a mysterious group of people we’re meant to find in the story. A young boy, Nata, is part of that group, and he holds resentment towards this monster.
A Hunter’s Experience
While not much about Arkveld is known at the moment, I have come to the conclusion that it does top Nergigante on my list of favorite flagships. Nergigante was the first flagship monster that I experienced, but the White Wraith is more powerful and more interesting to me in every way. Yes, an Elder Dragon that aggressively hunts down other Elders is cool, but a seemingly once-extinct species coming back to life and causing chaos is a more intriguing story. I speak for all hunters when I say that we are excited to learn more about this mysterious monster’s lore.
