The Brilliant And Amazing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Monster Guide: Gore Magala (Low rank and High rank)

Batman.

That's right, this thing is the Batman of wyverns.

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

Gore Magala is a complicated piece of work as well as the flagship monster of MH4U, he's the big bad you gotta fight, he hounds you on a ship, he fights you in the everwood.

and finally, here you are, in front of his strange secondary rage mode wonder just what, or where, this thing came from.

But enough about that silliness! you want BLOOD-

So let's get right to it then!

This thing is unique for a couple of reasons. 

The first and most obvious, it uses frenzy virus. I'm unsure of how to avoid the pools of virus it spills, but if you're going melee, you want to get infected.

the drawback is you have a limited amount of time before the frenzy virus fills and your defense and regeneration are lowered.

silver lining? if you hit this thing really, really hard, you can instead get a frenzied boost which gives you a little more attack and a slight crit boost.

The second problem is also the larger of the two, gore has a second form it's been hiding from you for most of its appearance in the game, and it only pulls it out right at the final encounter. 

naturally, many of you will shit yourselves when you see this thing's highly convincing batman impersonation, but fear not, you can still bring him down!

Let's talk his attacks now, for expediency's sake i'm going to pretend that gore is two different monsters and list attacks accordingly, i'll also include recommended weapons with the attack list because that's kinda vital information to include with his form's attacks, as he's a very strange fight to begin with.

I

First Form and Attacks

recommended weapons to approach the first form with? light bowguns and bows.

Strangely, gore's two forms are anti-class, his first form is anti-blademaster, hence his pools of virus always being around his body, his unusual array of zigzagging charge attacks with a high chance for knockback and knockdown, gore's first form is a real piece of work.

1. The bite attack.

Gore uses a fairly fast rushing bite attack, it only comes out once and deals virus, so be ready for it, when you're in close range he likes to hit you with it, it you're too close to his front he'll knock you back with it.

2. The spinning tail swipe

This attack is strange in that it's less a normal tail swipe and more of a biting turn, both ends of gore, the head and tail, are dangerous during this swipe. as a blademaster you should pay very careful attention to the tail, as it'll do the most harm and knock you away.

3. The zigzag rush

This one's a bit more rare, but what gore will do is rush forward in two different directions, first to the left and then to the right (i think) this attack hits hard and will increase your frenzy virus gauge, so pay close attention and be ready to dodge aside if you see it coming.

4. The true rush

He runs forward until he gets in close before pausing to follow up with an attack, either his fireballs o or tailswipe. just dodge to the side or something, it's really easy to avoid.

5. The wombo combo.

This is gore's most bullshit 1st form attack and the reason he's anti-blademaster to begin with, basically what he does is he does a flyback windpress stagger.

okay, so do all other wyverns, right? right?

NO!! THIS MOTHERFUC-

ahem, then he shoots a fireball at you before you can recover. gore's air fireballs are extremely damaging, and he always follows up before you can recover from the windpress. your only hope for avoiding this attack combination is the instant you see his shoulder talons move, get away.

6. Flying fireball.

very damaging, avoid it at all costs.

7. The zigzag flying rush.

fairly hard to avoid, but once he commits to the rush, you can get away if you superman dive or if you're outside the range of his zigzag, it flies on a set path, so no need to worry.

8. Flying melee blast.

He inhales and then fires out an exploding wave of purple fire in mid-air, this is mostly to keep people who are directly below him from attacking. he also uses his tail to attack anyone right beneath him, so keep that in mind.

9. Grounded melee blast.

same as the flying version, but with him on the ground, both of gore's blasts will hasten the virus meter, so do NOT get hit by either of these, they're his most damaging attack.

10. Triple fireball.

Useless. there's hardly a way to get hit by his ground fireballs.

he fires three fireballs that crawl along the ground before exploding into pools of virus, these are easy to get past and leave him wide open for an attack. the center one travels in a straight line, the other two zigzag.

11. Frenzy Pools
In Low rank the pools are small and fill frenzy at a moderate rate. he scatters these every time he stops moving, it's a constant threat when you're weakened by frenzy and a constant nuisance when you're not infected and would like to remain uninfected.
In High rank his frenzy pools grow in size to encompass half of his full size, and as a result, make approaching gore without suffering from frenzy impossible for melee. both forms have this and it's extremely dangerous in high rank for anyone suffering from frenzy weakness due to the size of the pools.

Breaks.

During normal mode his face can be broken, his tail can be cut and his wings damaged. he can also be tripped if you attack his front arms enough times.

if you insist on being a blademaster focus on these, roll liberally and often.

II

Second Form and attacks.

recommended weapons to approach with? greatsword and longsword. lances are okay too.

Light bowguns are the only safe bowgun to use here.

Just as his first form is more or less anti-melee, his second form is more or less anti-gunner and gunners will have a hard time doing any damage consistently for his wide hitboxed charges and flying slams. he becomes an entirely different monster with a radically different moveset.

he still uses pools of virus, so keep that in mind.

1.The explosion of doom

His most common attack, he inhales then unleashes a blast that explodes three times, only travels left to right but has a really large radius. be behind him when he does this, preferably near his tail and midsection.

2. Almighty smash

He lunges up on his hindquarters and immediately slams his frontal claws into the ground, lifting stones from the ground and sending hunters dumb enough to be near his head flying. this attack autocorrects, so he can change his direction depending on how close to his head you are.

this is mostly meant to trap people who are trying for a horn break.

3. Grab smash

a super inaccurate grab smash with his right claw, misses every time, if you get caught by this you did so on purpose.

shame on you.

it counts as his pin animation, so if you just want to see what it looks like, have the presence of mind to bring a dung bomb and be soloing him when you do.

masochist.

4. Double strike + Almighty Smash

He stomps the ground with his left, then right wing claws, if he's in range he'll then follow it up with the aforementioned almighty smash.

don't be near him while he does this.

5.Sliding Swipe.

Though rare, he may sometimes perform a charging swipe attack that rushes forward and has fairly good range to it, this attack has two hits, it's very dangerous, so superman dive if you see it coming.

6. Turn swipe.

If you're behind him he'll turn around and immediately backhand you with his wing claw, this is a very dangerous attack, so be careful, you'll know it's coming when he turns his head to glance at you.

7. Wide angle charge

A common charge attack with a twist, his wing claws now serve to enhance his range. if you see this coming, sheath your weapon and run outside of his range. (this is also the reason he's anti-gunner, it takes time to put bowguns and bows up.)

You need to be running with your weapon sheathed when he does this, so don't bring a weapon that can't be immediately put back in the holster.

8. Flying wide angle charge

he jumps into the air and flies at you. this is a bit different from his zigzag charge because he immediately lands with a spin. this is also what makes him anti-gunner in this form, if you're at the end of the charge when you attempt to dodge, you'll find out the hard way that this was a bad idea when he slide-spins around.

Breaks in this form are his horns, his tail can be cut as well.

the problem with the horns is this, he HAS to be in rage mode in order to break the horns. if he isn't, you'll just reset him to anti-blademaster mode, which means he has to be angry in his second form to get a horn break.

III 

Weaknesses for both forms

He's weakest to fire, followed up by thunder, then finally dragon.

IV

Your general approach

It should be noted first and foremost that his frenzy virus is useful, but getting infected by it has a drawback. the more often you get infected, the longer it takes for your to enter a frenzied state through striking the monster, as such you need to be careful and only suffer 3-4 infections, after that your next frenzied state will have scaled to the point where your gauge will fill before you can enter a frenzied state. also, when gore is out of the area, your gauge fills rapidly.

first thing's first, in his first form your target should be the forearms and the head, roll often as a blademaster, that way you're always ahead of his strikes and attacks. once you enter frenzied state he loses the ability to see you again unless you step into his virus pools.

whenever he does his triple fireball, strike the forearms until he's knocked over, it becomes much easier to land a knockdown after dealing enough damage to both arms, so take advantage of this as often as you must. mount him too if you can.

when he enters rage mode he'll immediately take to the air with his wombo combo, if you fail to avoid the windpress, suffer through the damage.

when he's in the air just stay back and wait for him to land, he may fake you out a couple of times with his zigzag charge pausing so he can turn and fireball you, don't fall for it.

eventually his glowing colors will turn a rich lavender in hue and he'll let out a strange new roar, this is rare but sometimes he won't enter his second form right off, but when he does this he's signaling that he's now second form ready and will enter it upon his next rage.

once he does, the fight gets much harder.

now he deals a lot of damage, jumps all over the place and is incredibly hard to hit, his tail, however, is no longer covered by his wings and much easier to break.

you should only go for direct head damage right after almighty smash, he recovers from everything else too quickly, but if you want those horn breaks, you gotta do it reliably.

most of the second phase consists of wide angle charges and explosions of doom, he sometimes does the double smash, sliding swipe, etc, but he always uses explosion, so keep to his sides as often as you can and counter accordingly.

eventually you'll do enough damage to his head when his rage-state ends to literally knock him out of his 2nd form, when this happens he'll flee after dropping a shiny.

after that, not much else to tell, roll a lot when he's in his first form and focus on knockdowns, chase him around and stick to his sides, only hitting his head when it's necessary (it's very, very risky to hit his head.)

the last bit of information here is vital, if you manage to get weakened by frenzy virus, his virus pools become a new hazard, they'll deal steady damage to the hunter, making approaching him while suffering from frenzy weakness extremely dangerous and a bad idea. so do NOT let this happen unless you want to spend time in another zone waiting for it to wear off.

A lot of this fight should be spent attacking his back legs and front legs. stay close to him at all times if you're going for blademaster, especially in his second form. if not then as a gunner you need to worry about those pools.

another thing to note, how and when he transforms might be dictated by how often you get infected by frenzy virus and for how long. I can't confirm this, but several players have mentioned it many times, so it's useful to note. the game even screams it at you "avoid the black mist"
Finally, for heavy bowgunners, astragon provided a useful ammo list, the recommended ammo type for a gore magala is pierce, aim from head to tail and wing to wing for maximum effectiveness.

V

Useful things

Gore Magala is blind, he can't actually see you unless you're infected by frenzy virus, which serves as his vision. if you're infected by the virus he'll home in on you.
To prove this to any skeptics, try this.
Throw a flashbomb at it.
Gore is immune to flashbombs for this very reason, it has good hearing and can generally place where you are, but without virus its attacks will find their mark less reliably.

Another thing to note is that the glow underneath gore's wings is actually a sort of "frenzy gauge" that slowly fills the longer you remain infected. when you step into gore's virus pools while he's enraged, his wings slowly begin to turn blue starting from the claws and moving all the way to the wing tips. when they finish turning blue he lets out a roar, this signals the second filling state, and gore will also become a bit more aggressive and take to the air more often.
during the second filling state his wings will slowly fill with a lavender glow until they fill entirely, resulting in him entering frenzy mode.
during frenzy mode this "Gauge" visibly depletes as he continues attacking you, once his lavender glow empties out entirely his horns will begin slowly pulsing from lavender to mute gray, this is a signal that he can be knocked out of his frenzied state.

If not infected, his attacks become less accurate (not the same as horribly inaccurate, he can still figure out where you are) and he'll spend more of the fight using attacks meant to feel you out. he CAN hear you, but even then his attacks will still be awkward and inaccurate until you're infected. if you manage to enter frenzied state, he immediately stops being able to see you again unless you step into his virus pools.

as mentioned before, his second form horns can't be broken unless he's enraged, if you do manage to knock him out of his second form, he'll always drop a shiny and immediately flee the area, every time.

if you need a break, try focusing on his head and knocking him out of his 2nd form, do that and he'll run away the moment you do.

if you manage to get hit with weakness from his virus, his pools of virus suddenly become hazard zones that deal more continuous damage than being near a lava pool, do NOT let that happen in this fight, get frenzied.

His fireballs have wall crawling properties and will chase you across the environment, regardless of how vertical it is, so keep that in mind.

Gore is an engaging and complex monster in this game who adds much in terms of story as well as yin-yang symbolism, he's a handful to fight, but he's never too hard. he's a balanced monster that can be fun and engaging for anyone to fight.

that wombo combo though? that can go straight to hell.

fuck whoever programmed that in.

I'll think up more monsters to give guidance on, have fun!

TL;DR version?

Avoid the black mist, roll often and stick to his hindquarters, but hit his forelimbs when he throws out fireballs, as they leave him wide open. avoid getting hit with windpress, his followup is devastating. his pools turn the floor to lava if you're suffering from virus weakness. use pierce shot and remember that his forms make him very different depending on what form he's at. first form is melee focused, the second form has fewer attacks but hits like a truck and has crazy range.