Rathian

Rathian, also known as "Ian", is the female counterpart of the Rathalos. Rathian are green wyverns that slightly differ from Rathalos in looks and attacks. She has a patch of brown thorns on her upper back and her tail spikes are filled with poison. The Rathian fights on the ground a lot more than the Rathalos, who more often exhibits aerial attacks.

The Rathian's wing claws and head crest can be broken, and her tail can be cut off. The tail can be carved once. The Rathian bears longer stamina when charging than the Rathalos, and can fire three fireballs on the ground. She is also capable of a backflip attack during which she poisons you with her tail (even with the tail sliced off it can still poison you but damage and range will be lowered).

The Rathian has two other subspecies, The Pink Rathian and Gold Rathian.

Battle
The Rathian's weak points are the head (regular and pink) and wings (gold). Attacking weak points with a Dragon elemented weapon produces the best results. Cutting off the tail is advised to lower the range of its attacks, although you may still become poisoned. You can anticipate the signature Rathian Flip when she bows her head down, takes a step back, and spreads her wings. She may use this attack twice in succession. This attack deals the most damage and also inflicts poison status on you. So be careful!

When she uses her triple-fireball, she fires the first one forward, the second to her right, then the third to her left. To the player, this would be toward him first, then to his left, and finally to his right. The rathian makes a inner roar before spitting a fireball, at both the single and triple fireball she makes a different roar, so listening carefully to it a few times will make it possible for you to predict how many fireballs she'll shoot at you.

Heres a tip: when she uses her backflip if you time it right you can get a free hit off her head. Here is what you do. Position yourself in front of the Rathian when it does its back flip depending on what weapon your using you have to know the distances of your weapon your using. Right as she drops she pauses for a moment recovering from her backflip that is when you should attack for a free hit, and if you want to you could possibly get in a combo if your using a katana. Also make sure you avoid the backflip while being in front of her.

Trivia

 * The Rathian is often referred to as either the "Queen" or "Earth" in the titles of quests such as "Anger of Heaven and Earth" and "The Queen's Descent"


 * In the MH3 trailer and a few other Famitsu pictures shows that the kurupekko is able to somehow control or provoke a Rathian to attack a hunter in some way