Only a few hours in but I now have what seems like a million optional/event/whatever side missions I can do.

Should I be doing these all or is it more just do the ones that have rewards I want/need? Should I just be mainlining the main quests as much as I can to unlock better stuff? Just curious on the general flow of quests and if I'm wasting time doing all these side things for stuff that could be irrelevant 2 main missions from now

Been sorta wondering the same thing myself, but I'm quite a bit further into the game than you and can share my observations so far. Firstly I can definitely imagine more experienced players will mainline through the low rank stuff (up to 6 stars). Towards the end of low rank you're gonna struggle if you don't gear up though, but you can definitely make up for it with skill. Beyond that you're gonna start hitting a wall. I'm at a point now where my gear is about as good as I can make it and taking on the hardest monsters seem like it would be a total pain in the ass without updated gear.

So, I'd say the best advice is probably to go for it until the game says stop. You still want to make sure you upgrade your base, but killing stuff just to kill stuff or farm gear is probably not worth. Unless you just enjoy doing it ofc. I've been doing every quest myself (so I might just not realize you have to do everything), and I wouldn't say I regret going slow. If anything it's eased me into the pace of the game, and you're gonna have to start grinding at some point anyway so if you don't enjoy that you might as well discover that early.

Having almost cleared high rank (two quests away), here's what I'd recommend, although none of this is set in stone:

-It's worthwhile to get those ingredient and "farm" expansion sidequests done early. Better food means better boosts for missions, and more slots for multiplying items means less gathering headache later on. You'll also get sidequests that will unlock some additional mantles, which are less important since the health booster is usually the way to go anyway, and you'll unlock that automatically as you progress. But you're going to want to do all that stuff eventually, not a terrible idea to just do them whenever they unlock, since much of it gives immediate and ongoing benefit.

-In general, sidequests that aren't going to get you crafting parts you care about atm, and don't fullfill a request from an NPC, can be ignored. You have better things to do. Likewise, you will be accruing vast numbers of "investigations." These are great for getting additional rewards for whatever target monster you're hunting (and hence are the ones you should grind on when you need parts), but should only be done when you're looking to craft something.

In short, I'd mainline the sucker, but pause to fullfill bounties and requests that will give you an immediate boost. Clearly at points you will want to pause and do some equipment upgrading, but when and how often you do that is highly individual/variable decision. I found myself stopping fairly often to grind out equipment, whenever there was a new piece of armor or weapon that caught my eye. Your mileage may vary.

Yup I’m in the same boat. I’ve got so many investigations but don’t know whether to just grind them or not. So far I kinda have been to try and get specific armor but that requires me to avoid capture quests. I wanna ask what is the benefit of capturing a monster rather than killing it but don’t really wanna spoil that for myself...

Most of the optional quests unlock upgrades that are useful long term, like ingredients for the Canteen or upgrades to the garden or new mantles, so doing them sooner than later is good, but I wouldn't say you have to do them asap. Moving on with the main story is how you unlock most of the most meaningful features, so mainlining the story and coming back for the optional content later is certainly a viable approach.

But make sure to do that Horizon Zero Dawn event quest if you want that palico armor. It's only available for another week.

One bit of side content I do recommend doing asap is the quests for the Grimalkyne's in each zone, as they unlock new palico gadgets, all of which are better than the Vigorwasps imo. Also the sooner you get them the sooner you can start leveling them to make them even better.

@sackmanjones: Feel free to ignore any investigations that you're not actively farming for loot. Their only purpose is to act as repeatable quests that provide bonus loot.

There's really nothing to "spoil" when it comes to capturing, there are simply items that only drop from a capture, like a flame sac from an Anjanath. (If you look in the Hunter's guide once you've researched a monster enough, the list on the bottom half is the rewards from capturing.) It's also a way to save some time on a hunt, as you can end the fight instantly as soon as you know it's weak enough to capture.

Are you sure about this? I've gotten flame sacs from hunting Anjanath without capturing him, but it was very rare. I thought that captures just increased your chances of getting rare drops, but that all drops were still possible from kills. But I'm new to these games, so I'm not sure if my understanding is correct.

@savage: Investigations do have a chance of dropping any items from the loot table in the bonus loot, whether you capture or not, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't appear in the standard loot table if you only hunt. I might be wrong about that though.

@zeik: Ok, that would explain it. Thanks!

It kinda depends on you. In past games I would mainline low rank because I know I'd inevitably burn out if I try doing everything, and with games that had low, high, and g-rank you're repeating a lot of stuff, and a lot of monsters were gated by the higher ranks. This game I've been taking my time a lot more because the maps just seem so much more interesting to explore.

Ok thanks for the replies.

I think I was more looking at the investigations and going "holy crap... there is a lot of these". The "Optional" ones I've been doing, b/c there are only a few every now and then, and they seem to have obvious rewards that I should want.

And it seems that those are more for targeted farming, so I'll hold off on those :D

@sackmanjones: actually capture investigations usually give you a good amount of high level rewards in the end, eventhough you're not killing and taking the monster apart. So don't just write them off