While this guide might be irrelevant for our veteran hunters on console, a healthy group of new hunters are still out there that may very well just had finish their iceborne story or just getting back into it in time for the console’s third Safi’jiiva rotation or the PC players that are eagerly waiting for their first go at the beast on the 20th of March. So here are a few helpful tips to get you started in effectively hunting, slaying and grinding the beast for another full three weeks.
But before that, hunters that have just finished their iceborne story will still need to unlock the siege itself which consists of a series of special assignments from “The Sterling Pride”, “Reveal Thyself, Destroyer” and finally “Across the Lost Path” before having access to the recon mission and having the full siege unlocked to grind. So without further ado, let’s get started.
Useful Items to Bring for the Hunt
It goes without saying that the most useful tool to bring during your hunt is mega potions to heal which you will be doing a lot throughout your hunts considering how much ground Safi can cover with its AoE attacks and sweeping laser beams. Potions and honey are also useful to be able to craft more mega potions on the fly, max potions for that certain situation where you need an instant full heal aside from mega nutrients and mandragoras to craft more of it. If paired with at least a single level of Free Meal, you can prolong your item usage without having to return to base.
Meanwhile, a dust of life and lifepowder will be the most effective tool for saving lives especially during Safi’s command grab that effectively brings someone down to a single slither of health and when not healed is instant death due to the ground the player is standing on will be on fire.
Lastly, a flash pod is an effective tool that is best used to delay Safi’s ultimate move: Sapphire of the Emperor especially on times where there are no nearby crags to hide on making a farcaster the only thing that can save you from instant death before it reactivates its ultimate. Mega barrel bombs are also very useful but situational in which players would need to have a sleep status weapon or bowgunners that can inflict sleep to place bombs on its head or chest while it sleeps.
Effective Skills to Look Into
Having a specific build is a very touchy subject to even talk about. Not everyone wants to play a certain way and that is understandable, so take this as more of a suggestion and not the end-all and be all to breaking the monster’s parts. For now, let’s talk more about what skills to consider, the main one being Partbreaker because for someone new to the hunt, obviously, they would need to break parts in order to get the specific ones they need to craft the armour pieces and having 3 levels to part breaker makes it easier to break the parts that they need in order to craft the new pieces of armour. Weakness Exploit is also one thing that needs to be considered for weapon and playstyles that does critical hits like hammers and greatswords. Since Safi has a very thick and hard hide, this makes softening hides that much more important to do compared to your normal hunts in order for your hits to not bounce at all.
Critical Eye and Critical Boost are other skills to consider for dealing more damage and effectively making part breaks quicker. Although Artillery, Peak Performance or Attack Boost are what you can consider for things like a Sticky Bow Gun build aside from having Slugger to get some KO and let your team whack the head or other hard to reach places like chest and tail. Additionally, Mind’s Eye is something you might want to consider bringing for the hunt if you’re using a severing weapon and want to target the tail.
Health and Divine Blessing, these are easily the best survivability skills to have during any hunt and even more so on Safi with its large AoE attacks so getting hit is only a matter of when and how often. Having Mushroomancer is good option to have for your extra slots and if you pair it with Free Meal Secret for a 75% chance to not consume items, you’re not going to be worried about getting hit a lot but that is, of course, something you should only consider once you have enough damage output.
On the other hand, a Greatsword user might find some use on a set that uses Earplugs or Handicraft with Master’s Touch to still dish out damage during roars which is especially useful to not get cancelled out of a True Charge Slash when hitting the tail.
For the Hunt Itself
When it comes to the actual hunt, the siege itself is separated into three stages and with the goal of slaying Safi by depleting each of the floor’s energy in order for it to stop healing itself back up. Similar to Kulve Taroth, each hunt’s progress is carried over to the next and resets the energy bar when slayed. The top floor in which where we will be starting off is an area with a few notable points of interest. There are two boulders that can be brought down to Safi which deals a huge 4000 chunk of damage then there’s the unstable ground in the outer layer of the floor. Although unlike a normal hunt, Safi will not be casually running after you should you try to lure him in so in order to get him to these places, you have to hit its body parts enough for it to flinch. If you hit the right side of its legs or wings, it will flinch and go to the left, if you hit the other it will flinch in the opposite direction, now if you hit the head enough to get flinched it will move backwards while hitting the tail causes it to move a bit forward. And learning when and where to hit the monster is the key to effectively using the traps before it flies away to the middle floor.
As for the middle floor, there are a few key changes to the map’s layout. There are now four ledges on each end with one area having an option to do slide attacks. In this phase, Safi will now also move around the area, target a player dealing most of the damage and will do its ultimate move that restricts the use of farcaster during this time and the only way to survive is to hide under the crags that are placed in the sides of the field. One of the most important point to know from here on out is gaining enmity, not only does the Safi depletes energy much quicker it also means someone has to stay on the front for other members of the hunt to be able to cut the tail or break the legs without having him turning around too much. So if you’re a Greatsword or Longsword user that just gained enmity, try asking someone, preferably someone that is focusing on hitting its head or front legs, to take it off you which can easily be done by having slinger ammo and doing a flinch shot to its head similar to how you slam a monster into a wall.
Meanwhile, the bottom floor is more of the same but has a bit more to it. Unlike the middle floor which had unbreakable crags to hide on, this area requires careful positioning because crags break after each ultimate move used and new ones drop after a while of dealing damage. However there are also times that Safi will do two back-to-back ultimates which generally means everyone will cart without any crag insight so having a flash pod ready during this phase is ideal for those situations. Safi will also go into its Supercritical State and during this time, he’s more deadly but also means it’s the best time to deal damage and break parts since it’s hide is now softer especially the chest where it’s the only time you would want to try and break it. There are also patches of green gases that when hit will explode dealing 1000 damage to Safi and on the second time will knock it down giving more opportunities to deal damage on hard to reach parts.
Click here to be redirected to part two where I share more useful information for the Safi’jiiva Siege and some things you can do to efficiently use your dracolites and extra weapons.
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