In MHW, Alatreon can come at you in two separate event quests: “The Evening Star” and “Dawn of the Death Star.” Longtime players will know this is pretty unique. That’s fitting, too, because Alatreon is a unique monster. Rather than rely on one elemental damage type, or throw in a status effect for good measure, Alatreon is the master of all elements besides water. You need to contend with fire, ice, dragon, and thunder attacks. But they don’t necessarily come at you in the same order! That’s where the different event quests come in. Find out how and the best ways to contend with either mission in our guide to The Evening Star event quest in MHW!
To kick things off, we should explain how the quests actually appear. Because you won’t see both of them in your mission log whenever you boot up the game each day. Instead, you must first beat the Special Assignment “Blazing Black Twilight.” Doing so will unlock both The Evening Star and Dawn of the Death Star… but not simultaneously. Every Monster Hunter player will instead be randomly assigned a cycle during the period when Alatreon is available. That cycle flips every 24 hours at reset, making the next mission appear in your assignments.
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Put simply: if you log in and see The Evening Star, then the next day you will have Dawn of the Death Star, and so on. Though there’s nothing stopping you from joining other players’ missions! SOS flares and multiplayer matching will work the same as always. Keep in mind that you can read our full Alatreon guide for tips and details, too.
Once you’re actually in the mission, you need to fight that damn dragon. Alatreon is tough. It’s very tough. MHW players have likened it to Behemoth from the base game as one of the hardest monsters of its era. It’s an Elder Dragon, too, meaning traps won’t work on it. You need to knock it out the old fashioned way.
Well… Sort of. Alatreon has a special mechanical called Escaton Judgment. This super-powerful shockwave is enough to wipe entire teams twice over. Its unavoidable using the Superman Dive move and Farcasters don’t work in this mission, either. You will take damage from Escaton Judgment. The trick is reducing said damage enough so that it doesn’t wipe you out in one shot.
That’s where the different event quest names come into play. The only way to stop Alatreon from carting everyone is to deal enough elemental damage to it before it casts its shockwave. Except the Elder Dragon is unique in MHW, in that it switches between three elemental modes during the course of battle. These are Fire Mode, Dragon Mode, and Ice Mode. And each mode is weak to different damage types. Fire takes more damage from ice, ice takes more damage from fire, and dragon is also susceptible to dragon. It sounds tricky, but there’s a set order to the modes Alatreon busts out!
Said order is determined by the event quest. In Blazing Black Twilight, Alatreon always starts by using fire, switches to the dragon element, casts Escaton Judgment, and finally ices up. The same is true for The Evening Star; during this event quest, Alatreon goes from fire, to dragon, to Escaton, to ice.
The trick is to begin the fight with the right element to reduce the damage of Escaton Judgment as quickly as possible. You can switch into something more appropriate (and restock healing items) if you die. Barring that, you can use dragon damage to help break his horns during Dragon Mode… Though I don’t recommend this option. Dragon element works in every stage of the Alatreon fight, yes, but only does a paltry 10 percent of its usual damage during ice and fire modes. If you want to break the horns, it’s better to use opposing elements instead.
This will keep Alatreon from switching modes again — for one “turn” at least — dramatically simplifying the fight. Weapons with natural partbreaker (e.g. Switch Axe, Gunlance, Charge Blade, etc.) are also very helpful. Once Alatreon switches back to its original form, and then dragon mode again, you need to break the second horn.
Once you get the pattern down, and/or break those pesky horns, you should be home free. Alatreon is terrifying with its uncommon tactics. But its basic attacks are also quite telegraphed. As long as you’re doing the damage necessary to survive Escaton Judgment, seasoned hunters should have no trouble taking it down. Happy hunting!
