Monster Hunter World Iceborne Nightshade Paolumu guide

How do you make one of the more annoying large monsters from the main game more annoying in Monster Hunter World Iceborne? How about giving it a sleep inducing gas that it can waft around like a bad smell. It makes Paolumu's hard-hitting, but otherwise very avoidable attacks a lot more dangerous. But as long as you avoid the gas clouds, you should be fine.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne Nightshade Paolumu guide

Our Monster Hunter World Iceborne Nightshade Paolumu guide will explain the strategies for defeating the Nightshade Paolumu such as avoiding its sleep gas cloud, detail all of its weaknesses and resistances, and show the loot table for all the items you can get for defeating this beast.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne Nightshade Paolumu guide contents

• Nightshade Paolumu weaknesses and resistances
• How to hunt Nightshade Paolumu
• How to avoid Nightshade Paolumu's sleeping gas
• Nightshade Paolumu materials

Those new to hunting monsters, or if you just need to find a particular monster guide to get up to Hunter Rank 16 - needed to start the Iceborne expansion - should head over to our Monster Hunter World guide hub for a plethora of guides. Once you're ready to begin the expansion, you'll find a few hunters gathered near the gate in Astera.

Nightshade Paolumu weaknesses and resistances

Just like the regular Paolumu, the Nightshade variant has a throat sac that can breathe out sleep-inducing gas. It's by far its most vulnerable point, but only really targetable when it deeply breathes in. Melee attacks are best used on the head, torso, and throat sac, but the breakable parts aren't always weak points. The breakable parts are the wings, tail, torso, and the aforementioned throat sac.

Trying to put this monster to sleep is a rather futile idea, but the Nightshade Paolumu is surprisingly resistant to most elements and ailments. In fact, its only true weakness is water. It could be rather difficult to try and kill it with other elements, but Dragon is definitely one you should not take with you. As for defensive options, any sleep-resistance items and decorations will be valuable.

How to hunt Nightshade Paolumu

While it's flying, there are various tail swipes that Nightshade Paolumu will use when not spitting out sleeping gas. It should be easy to avoid them as there's a bit of windup before it swipes the tail across or slams it to the ground. It does not do many of the attacks the regular Paolumu does, so it's worth taking a step back and learning all of its aerial attacks.

With enough sustatined attacks or a well-placed slinger shot to the inflated part, you'll send the Nightshade Paolumu hurtling to the ground with enough sustained attacks on the throat sac (use the new Clutch Claw to latch onto it in the air can help with this, just be careful of any of its attacks). While it's on the ground, its attacks are more varied, but they also hit for a lot less damage. Sticking to the face is generally the way to go. The only real attacks you'll need to prepare for are its charge attack and tail swipe. It attacks in a very similar way to the regular Paolumu, so have a look at our Monster Hunter: World Paolumu guide for more on those ground-based attacks.

How to avoid Nightshade Paolumu's sleeping gas

The main thing about this fight to watch out for is the location of the sleep gas that Nightshade Paolumu scatters around the battlefield. It lingers for a long time and in the right circumstances, it can even suck in the sleeping gas to its current position. You do not want to ever be in the sleeping gas.

It usually follows up any attacks that create or move the sleeping gas with its new dive bomb attack, which can take off over half a maximised health bar. If you've been hit by the sleeping gas, you'll be able to move very slowly for a short time before falling asleep, by which point the Nightshade Paolumu will be diving right at you.

There are a few other things to watch out for in this fight, so here are a few more tips:

• Latch onto the Nightshade Paolumu and get an attack in to chip off some decent Slinger ammunition. This ammunition when fired at the bloated sac may have a chance to down the Nightshade Paolumu, making it more vulnerable.
• Given that the Nightshade Paolumu can be found in both the Wildspire Wastes and the Ancient Forest, it will not have access to the unique desperation attack the regular Paolumu gains in the Coral Highlands when it's nearly dead.
• You can't sever the tail of the Nightshade Paolumu, so always be aware of the monster's range.

Nightshade Paolumu materials

When you've beaten the Nightshade Paolumu, you'll be able to get a ton of different Nightshade Paolumu materials. These are all the brand new Master Rank items which are used to make tons of Master Rank gear. Below are all the items that you can get for breaking certain parts/defeating the Nightshade Paolumu:

Monster Hunter World Iceborne guides

We have a whole host of other useful Monster Hunter World Iceborne guide pages for your convenience. Why not take a gander? If you want to check out the previous boss guide, head to the Banbaro guide. The game had split around here to include two more regional variants. You can find guide here for the Coral Pukei-Pukei. If you've beaten both of them though, the Barioth is the next main monster to defeat.

Monster Hunter World guide - Our guide hub for Monster Hunter World, including the basics, weapon and armour trees, and boss guides.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne guide - Our guide hub for the Iceborne expansion to Monster Hunter World, including new features, the new hub area, and more.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne armor- All the armor recipes and the best Monster Hunter World Iceborne builds.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne weapons - All the weapons in Iceborne and the recipes for each one.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne boss guide - A collection of boss guides for Monster Hunter World Iceborne, detailing strategies, weaknesses, and loot tables for each.