If you’ve found yourself here you probably need help beating Kirin in Monster Hunter World. Stun, paralysis, knockdown, and a “shocking” amount of damage… you name it Kirin’s got it. Here, we talk about all things KIRIN!

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Kirin Guide Summary: Basic Info | Strategy | Armor Set | Weapons

Kirin – Basic Monster Info

GeneralRewards
Kirin Physiology
Weakpoints Elements
Part Slice Blunt Pierce Fire ♦♦♦
Horn ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦ ♦♦ Water ♦♦
Thunder Χ
Ice ♦♦
Dragon
Ailments
Breakable Parts Poison
Horn Sleep ♦ ♦
Paralysis Χ
Blast ♦ ♦
Stun
Habitats Coral Highlands
Class Elder Dragon
Kirin Rewards
Low Rank   High Rank
Carves Rarity   Carves Rarity
Kirin Thunderhorn ♦ ♦ ♦ Kirin Azure Horn ♦ ♦ ♦
Kirin Hide ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Kirin Hide+ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Kirin Mane ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Kirin Mane ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Kirin Tail ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Kirin Thundetail ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Rewards Rarity   Rewards Rarity
Kirin Hide ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Kirin Hide+ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Kirin Thunderhorn ♦ ♦ ♦ Kirin Mane ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Kirin Mane ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Kirin Thundetail ♦ ♦ ♦
Kirin Tail ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Novacrystal ♦ ♦
Lightcrystal ♦ ♦ Elder Dragon Bone ♦ ♦ ♦
Elder Dragon Blood ♦ ♦ ♦
Horn Broken
Kirin Thunderhorn Horn Broken
Kirin Thunderhorn
Dropped Material
Kirin Mane Dropped Material
Kirin Hide+
Clarifications

Broken Parts – I swear I broke more than one… lemme get back to you on this. Hitting the horn almost exclusive and bouncing off the rest of it doesn’t help researching this…

Elemental Weakness per hitzone would be nice.

Strategy – Beating Kirin

The problem with Kirin is that it’s largely optional. So for many hunters Kirin is a very big change of pace when they eventually have to face it HR or tempered. “Yeah lemme get my full long combo off”… In the Coral Highlands – Kirin combos YOU.

Beating Kirin is ALL ABOUT PATIENCE and survival. Kirins HP is seemingly a lot lower than the other Elder Dragon so there’s no need to rush. You’ll pay DEARLY for greedy full combos versus Kirins extremely punishing moveset.

Kirin Tips Summary

OFFENSE

Determine lightning type > Punish > Chill (Kick or lightning?) > Punish > Repeat

“Face is the place”attack Kirin’s horn and head as much as you can. Hell, I don’t think it’s worth attacking any other part.

CC and Mount as much as you can. Use Glider Mantle when fighting Kirin “up there”.

Either use Elderseal or a godlike Fire damage setup. The former is usually easier to achieve (simply use Nergigante tree weapon) than the latter…

Let Kirin go to sleep peacefully. Go to camp, get bombs, get Glider Mantle and come back with a vengeance.

DEFENSE

YOU WILL GET HIT BY LIGHTNING. Preparing for the eventual hits (Thunderblight, Stun, Paralysis).

There are seemingly many ways to reduce getting CC’d by Kirin’s thunder attacks. I don’t know exactly the threshold for each, but try high Thunder Res. Paralysis Resistance III. Unless you’re confident – going to Kirin with Negative Thunder Resistance is a bad idea.

Nulberries are great if your setup gets tagged by Thunderblight a lot. Rejoice sword and shield users, and Critical Draw builds (lol).

OffenseDefense

Kirin’s Horn is its only reliable weakspot. “Face is the place”. You should be getting used to focusing damage all on Kirin’s head – the tempered version is a lot more punishing to non-face hits.

CC is extremely effective versus Kirin. However, KIRIN IS EXTREMELY STURDY AGAINST MOST HARD CC! The most reliable form of CC for any weapon? Mounting. While Mounting is sometimes seen as “DPS loss” for most monsters, it most definitely is NOT for Kirin.

Glider Mantle is an underused tool in this regard. If Kirin does a transition to the mountaintop, simply make a short detour to camp and change up one of your used up mantles for Glider. EZ TRAVEL, EZ HEADSHOTS, and EZ MOUNTS when launching yourself up from the steam vents.

While not everyone has access to hard CC – try to use everything in your disposal. Get creative (IE Glider Mantle, Sleep Coating).

Why is CC so good against Kirin? Again, Kirin has LOW HP and an extremely punishing moveset – both exploited by any form of CC.

Abusing weaknesses? Elderseal is reliable, stops super-saiyakirin cold, and comes with the amazing Nergigante tree weapons. If you are NOT using Elderseal, the only feasible “replacement” is a HIGH (Anjanath tree, I guess) Fire Damage setup.

Bombs. Look, if you’re having a hard time versus Kirin you must give yourself EVERY ADVANTAGE. Kirin goes to sleep? Let it freely go! Once it goes to sleep plant those sweet mega barrel bombs on its head.

Poison? Is actually not bad versus Kirin if you can pull it off. While Kirin is relatively resistant to poison, “free damage is free damage”. Most builds, weapons, and players will have a low DPS uptime on Kirin making Poison a strong source of total damage. IF you can get it off.

Reconcile with the fact you will get hit by a thunderbolt. Or 10.
Be prepared for it – instead of getting salty you were zapped.

Rocksteady Mantle is, to nobodies surprise, great here. Kirin’s multiple forms of CC are nullified by it. Be careful though, Kirin’s DAMAGE is still there.

Thunderproof Mantle is the next best thing. This oft forgotten item is great here. I feel like I cannot die versus Kirin while it’s on.

Thunder Resistance. Walking up to Kirin with negative thunder resistance is “not ideal” to say the least. The popularity of Nergigante Armor will have many people facing this ordeal upon reaching tempered Kirin. This is most easily solved by eating 6x Plant food for Elemental Res Up (L). Getting 1 or 2 shot by bolts is a huge difference versus “I survive an average of 2.5 bolts”.

Getting CC’d is a sure death. Plan in advance how to stop this.

Thunderblight is a real problem. DO NOT SLACK OFF ON NULLBERRIES. Does high Thunder Resist stop this? I noticed the lack of Thunderblight in some of my experimental runs.

Paralysis Resistance? Oddly, I didn’t feel like I ever got stunned on Kirin fights when I tested Paralysis resistance III. Or was it high thunder resist? Need some more tests.

Divine Blessing (Protection jewel) is surprisingly great if you’re in the market for defense, as with any boss which has massive damage chunks. With Kirin, that’s an accurate description for every lightning bolt.

Ultimately, you can never truly “TANK ‘N SPANK” Kirin.
You can only hope to mitigate risk with defense.
Dodging and “git gud” really pays off here.

To experiment, I tried an PURE DEFENSIVE and beat tempered Kirin in 15 minutes WITHOUT A SINGLE OFFENSIVE SKILL. It ain’t a fast run by any means, but when you get a 4 box 1 feint, it’s an option.

Like always, after a certain level of git gud and a little luck – “DPS all the way”.

Kirin Armor – Summary & Discussion

A basic rundown of all the Kirin Armor pieces.

Kirin Armor Set Summary
Rarity 8 DEF Fire Water Thunder Ice Dragon
Resistances 64 -3 -2 4 -2 -2
Skill Head Chest Hands Legs Boots Total
Kirin A
Blight Resistance 1 1
Divine Blessing 1 2 3
Free Elem/Ammo Up 2 2
Thunder Attack 1 2 2 5
Thunder Resistance 2 2
Marathon Runner 2 1 3
Slots X X X X X X
Kirin B
Blight Resistance 1 1
Divine Blessing 2 2
Free Elem/Ammo Up 2 2
Thunder Attack 2 2
Marathon Runner 2 2
Slots s s ss sss ss 9s
Set Bonus: Kirin Favor
Capture Master 3 High chance of increased capture rewards. (No effect when joining mid-quest.)

Kirin Armor set: Discussion

The boots are notable. Free/Elem Ammo Up 2 with 2 small slots is pretty damn good.

Capture Master is questionable. I personally don’t really like it. It may be nice to own Kirin 3 as a measure to counter “I need low rank/ez monster loot – need2farmfast” situations, but as the game progresses this becomes less and less relevant.

Kirin Weapons – List & Comparison

Kirin Weapons are, for the most part, characterized by their EXTREMELY HIGH thunder damage. Here is a list of all Kirin tree final weapons.

Kirin Weapons
Type R ATK AFF Element EDMG H? Slots
Greatsword 8 768 0% Thunder 540
Sword & Shield 7 224 0% Thunder 360
Lance 8 368 10% Thunder 540
Switchaxe 8 560 0% Thunder 420
Insect Glaive 8 496 0% Thunder 360
Dual Blades 8 224 0% Thunder 270
Hunting Horn 7 672 0% Thunder 540

Sharpness? Averages to about 15% blue, and a HUGE green bar.

Before I add the Heavy Bowgun and Light Bowgun info – I have to fix the formatting. Also adding Hunting Horn info.

Hammer, Longsword, Gunlance, Bow, and Chargeblade DO NOT HAVE A Kirin tree weapon. Is it worth listing down their closest counterpart? Or should that be saved for a “Thunder Elemental Weapon comparison” kind of thing?

Weeeeelp that’s about it for our little guide for Monster Hunter: Worlds version of Kirin. I’ll be adding a bit more info on here soon (video, some screenshots, maybe a gif or two). In the meantime feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Kirin became one of my favorite monsters ever since that 2 Kirin Event quest came. Luckily my first time hunting a Kirin went on SOS, because I did a lot of SOS quests after failing at Tobi Kadachi.

    I counted LR Kirin’s HP, it’s around 5K-6K for that Optional Quest: Gone in a Flash. And it’s about 800 Damage to knockout. For normal Kirin, I use Rocksteady and Vitality Mantle, but AT Kirin I don’t use Rocksteady.

    Aerial Attacks makes killing Kirin so much easier. Like you said, patience is really important when fighting AT Kirin.

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