Monster Hunter Stories 1: How to Farm EXP Fast at High Rank

High-rank leveling in Monster Hunter Stories 1 feels slow because most players chase the biggest fight instead of the fastest loop. The route that actually levels you is dull and repeatable: equip a Training Charm, grind a short high-rank quest you can already win cleanly, then move into the Tower of Illusion and farm the Barrel Felyne on every floor ending in 5.

The short version

• Always carry a Training Charm. It adds +50% EXP. A high-rank Barrel Felyne goes from 50,000 EXP to 75,000 EXP with it active.
• Early high rank: repeat the high-rank Monoblos subquest One Tall Horn in Trese Desert until your team can clear fights without long healing turns.
• Post-game main farm: the Tower of Illusion. A Barrel Felyne is guaranteed on every floor ending in 5 (5F, 15F, 25F, 35F, 45F). Run floors 1-5, kill it for 50,000 EXP (75,000 with the charm), reset, repeat.
• Burst clear: a leveled White Monoblos one-shots Fatalis in the subquest The End is Nigh with Lock-On + Stab Vitals.
• Passive top-up: the Mount Celion expedition pays roughly 60,000 EXP per hour in the background.

Start high rank with a short repeatable quest

When you first hit high rank or post-game and your damage is still uneven, do not force the Tower. Repeat the shortest reliable fight you can already dominate. The cleanest early loop is the high-rank Monoblos subquest One Tall Horn in Trese Desert — Monoblos is a 6★ hatchable there, the fight is short, and the turn-in is quick. It is not flashy, but it is stable and bridges the gap until your team can clear the Tower without messy resets.

Equip a Training Charm before any long session. It is the single biggest EXP multiplier you can bring, adding +50% EXP to every kill. The Training Charm+ is the stronger variant of the same buff — carry whichever one you have. If you grind without a charm, every route below feels worse than it should.

• Equip a Training Charm (or Training Charm+) before you start.
• Pick a quest you clear consistently, not the one with the highest theoretical reward.
• Favor short animations and clean kills over risky, setup-heavy battles.
• If your team needs too many healing turns, drop to an easier loop until your levels catch up.

Stack a prayer on top of your charm

The Prayer Pot’s Pray With Feeling offering is the accessible boost when you do not have a charm, and it layers on top of one when you do. The tiers cost more zenny for better perks: Just Pray (0z), Add a little extra feeling (100z), Put some soul into it (1,000z), and Bare your heart (10,000z). Two things to remember: you can only hold one charm effect and one prayer effect at a time, and activating a new prayer overwrites the old one rather than stacking it.

The main post-game farm: Tower of Illusion Barrel Felyne

Once your team clears fights quickly, the Tower of Illusion is the best post-game EXP source, and the reason is concrete: a Barrel Felyne is guaranteed on every floor ending in 5 — 5F, 15F, 25F, 35F, 45F. A high-rank Barrel Felyne drops 50,000 EXP with no buff, or 75,000 EXP with a Training Charm active. That is one of the largest single-kill payouts in the game inside a short loop.

How to run the first-five-floors loop

• Enter the Tower with your Training Charm active.
• Push through floors 1 to 5 as fast as your team allows.
• Kill the floor 5 Barrel Felyne — that is the 50,000/75,000 EXP payout.
• Reset and repeat instead of climbing deeper, if pure EXP per minute is the goal.

The trap is greed. Climbing past floor 5 feels productive but lowers your EXP per minute, because the next guaranteed Barrel Felyne is not until floor 15. The loop only works if the kill is fast, so do not bring a plan that burns several turns buffing or recovering. Barrel Felyne farming rewards teams that convert the encounter into immediate damage.

Fastest burst clear: White Monoblos vs. Fatalis

If your build is tuned to end fights fast, a special subquest beats open-world looping. The setup is a leveled White Monoblos against Fatalis in the subquest The End is Nigh. White Monoblos is a rarity-7 (7★) Monstie obtained from the DLC subquest One-horned Menace, and with Lock-On + Stab Vitals it can one-shot Fatalis. Pair it with a Training Charm+ and the clear is near-instant.

Qurupeco is the support pick for grinders. Its Monster Call ability lures or summons specific monsters — Monoblos among them — which tightens your encounter and egg-farming efficiency. It is a utility Monstie, not a damage showcase, but it saves real time once you know the route.

The rule for boss farms is simple: if you kill the target fast, they are incredible; if the fight turns into a war of attrition, they stop being efficient. That is why the Tower stays the more universal recommendation while White Monoblos is advanced optimization.

Passive EXP: Mount Celion

Expedition leveling is background value, not your main grind. The Mount Celion post-game expedition pays about 60,000 EXP per hour passively, which is fine for padding progress between sessions. It does not challenge active Tower or boss farming, so treat it as convenience: send a team out while you do something else, then come back to the Barrel Felyne loop when you need levels now.

Common mistakes

• Grinding without a Training Charm. You are leaving +50% EXP on the table — the easiest fix on this list.
• Climbing the Tower past floor 5. The next guaranteed Barrel Felyne is floor 15. Reset instead of climbing.
• Starting the Tower too early. If floors 1-5 are still slow or dangerous, the One Tall Horn quest loop is faster.
• Stacking prayers. A new prayer overwrites the old one — you cannot run two at once.
• Treating expeditions as your answer to being underleveled. Mount Celion is background value, not an active farm.

Practical takeaway

Start high rank with a Training Charm and the repeatable One Tall Horn Monoblos quest in Trese Desert. When your team is stable, switch to the Tower of Illusion and farm the guaranteed Barrel Felyne on every floor ending in 5 for 50,000 EXP a kill, or 75,000 with the charm — run floors 1-5, kill, reset, repeat. If your build can erase special bosses, a 7★ White Monoblos with Lock-On + Stab Vitals one-shots Fatalis in The End is Nigh. Keep Mount Celion running for passive 60,000 EXP/hour on the side. Stick to that order and you will not waste sessions on the wrong grind.