Kushala Daora

Kushala Daora is a wind type Elder Dragon. Its wind breath can freeze the hunter if it is in the snowy mountains. It can be found in jungles and snowy mountains. A typical Kushala has silver-colored "skin" which is actually metal plates. Hunters usually fight their first Kushala in elder quests so many think it is a silver dragon.

Like snakes, Kushala Daora "shed" their metallic coats when it becomes too rusted. Hunters can actually find some Kushala in a stage where it is about to shed its skin. These Kushala are brown in color and usually bigger and stronger than the young silver ones. These rusted Kushala can be found in guild quests.

Facts

 * They are one of the most diversified dragons. With the ability to create a wind barrier around them, it can be difficult hunting them.
 * Get rid of this wind barrier by either poisoning/paralyzing it, breaking its horn/wing or cutting his tail.
 * Throwing a Flash Bomb at it while it is in the air will make it fall to the ground for a few seconds before it gets up on its feet again.
 * The trick to making Kushala battles a breeze is to use equipment that gives you the skill called Dragon Wind Breaker, which is Wind Pressure +20. You will be totally immune to its wind aura, giving you the luxury to target it anywhere instead of always aiming for its head first. A full set of Chameleos armour will provide this skill.
 * Kushala Daora have a great weakness to dragon and thunder elements (dragon more than thunder). Best way to damage it is to attack its head with a dragon element weapon.
 * After 25 minutes have passed, if the hunter inflicts enough damage to it, Kusha will flee like other elder dragons.
 * It is advised to stay at medium-close range of the Kushala Daora because if you are far away, and it does its charge attack it will be a lot harder to dodge, this is because of its ability to start charging slow, and then progress to a fast-Leaping sprint. Much like a Lunastra or Teostra.
 * Kushala Daora flies and attacks from the air more than any other Elder Dragon. Thus, it may be difficult to hit him, as he remains airborne for quite some time. He is airborne much more when enraged.
 * Normally, for first-timers, you will not be able to kill it in 1 single quest, mainly because of the lack of high end equipment and perhaps skill.
 * The good news is that all damage done to it will carry over next time you fight it(yes, the parts you broke will still be broken), whether you failed or succeeded the previous mission.
 * Damage accumulation will be separated into Elder quests, Guild 1-star to 5-stars (aka Guild Low Rank quests), and Guild 6-stars to 8stars (aka Guild High Rank quests). So if you fight Kushala in an Elder quest, don't expect the damage to carry into either the Guild Low or High Rank quests, and vice versa.
 * This principle applies to all Elder Dragon damage accumulation in the game.
 * A good first time weapon for all village elder dragons is the eternal strife which can be obtained at village 4 star quests which coincidentally is the same level of quests in which you face your first elder dragon. It can be obtained by mining small ruststones from the volcanic gathering quest in 4 star village quests. they are most common on the volcanic summit.
 * When fighting a Kushala Daora, it will occasionally jump back, which afterwards it will growl giving you a chance to hit it. The only problem is that it jumps back considerably far,so if you are not working with other hunters, you may not get to it in time to hit it. If you are working with other hunters it might jump right at you and it will be much easier to hit.
 * If Kushala is near flinching and it flies up in the air to attack you, you can hit its feet and if lucky you knock it out of the air,similar to a flash bomb but it will not be blind when it gets up.

=Trivia=
 * Kushala Daora is the flagship monster of Monster Hunter 2 and appears in the opening movie and cover of the box.
 * A Kushala Daora skin is found on top of the mountain in Area 8 of snowy mountains, which can be mined.
 * There is a downloaded Kushala quest and like all downloaded quests, you must kill it in that one single quest or it will be a failed quest due to timeout.