User blog:Cottonmouth255/Discussion of the Week: Egg Quests

Hello, and welcome... to Discussion of the Week: Egg Quests!
Greetings, and many great hellos! This is my first time hosting Discussion of the Week, so I really, really hope this is up to your standards.

This week, I thought we could fry up an eggs-tra special discussion about egg delivery quests! But are they all they're cracked up to be? Or just a big yolk?

1st Generation
I don't know much about the first generation of Monster Hunter at all, but I do know that this was where the original 'Wyvern Eggs' quest took place. It involved poaching some delicious breakfast from the wyvern's nest in the Forest + Hills - only for the angry father to ambush you on your way there. It was the first-ever encounter with the King of the Skies himself, Monster Hunter's very own flagship monster. (And one of only two times in the series in which the father was ever seen guarding the nest.)

2nd Generation
Uh... were there any egg delivery quests in the second generation? My mind is kind of scrambled at the moment.

Herbivore Eggs
In Monster Hunter 3 and 3U, this was a very simple quest that acted as an introduction to egg delivery quests - delivering two Herbivore Eggs from the oasis in the Sandy Plains. Not only did the main pathway become blocked (forcing you to take a longer route) after the first egg was delivered, but there were also speedy Rhenoplos, difficult-to-dodge Melynx, and really-freaking-persistent Altaroth to deal with. A simple quest, as egg delivery quests go, but it still took skill and effort to not hard-boil it.

Poached Wyvern Eggs
Thought the Herbivore Egg quest was sunny-side up? Enter the new Wyvern Eggs quest! While no pathways were blocked in this quest, the real challenge was scrambling to avoid the angry Rathian flying around Moga Woods. It didn't help that the base camp was an entire map away, and that a horde of Jaggis stood between you and your goal every time. It was made even more difficult by the fact the persistent Rathian would chase you, and only you, across every area.

Powderstones
While it isn't technically an 'egg' delivery quest, this one was still a massive pain in the backside. There wasn't a mother wyvern hunting you down, but you still had to carry a terribly hot, heavy rock down the slopes of a volcano while your health drained away - and you had to take care not to drop the Powderstone, because it would explode if you did. And I won't mention the wandering Uragaan.

This quest definitely teaches you not to take standard egg delivery quests for granite.

Hardcore Wyvern Eggs
In MH4, they seem to have amped up the difficulty of egg delivery quests eggs-travagantly. For one, the mother Rathian will appear at the very start of the quest in order to guard her nest (a much better mother than in previous games, I must say). For another, she is much more efficient at following you around and making your life hell, changing areas at little more than a moment's notice. For yet another, you have the terrain and all its different slopes, heights, and cliffs to worry about. And for yet another, there are other monsters such as Melynx and Kunchuu to watch out for. Luckily, you only have to deliver two eggs.

Feral Wyvern Eggs
I made the other Wyvern Eggs quest sound rotten - but this one is just flat-out eggs-hausting. The quest is set in the high-altitude Heavenly Mountain, and you need to gather three eggs instead of the usual two. The pathways become blocked by immense boulders one-by-one upon each delivery, until you're forced to travel across practically the entire map. There are Remobras circling from the sky, Rhenoplos charging at you, Melynxes chasing you down - but all that pales in comparison to the parents. Rathalos and Rathian are here, and both of them have been afflicted with the Feral Wyvern Virus.

One thing's for sure - what is certainly the ultimate egg delivery quest will definitely not be over easy.

Questions
Be a good egg and answer these, will you?
 * What is your overall opinion of egg delivery quests?
 * Do you like the changes that MH4 made to make them more difficult?
 * Should egg delivery quests be brought back again for the 5th Generation?
 * What do you think could be done to make egg delivery quests even harder?