Meet the Ceadeus.
Ceadeus is this behemoth aquatic monster hailing from Monster Hunter Tri and its golden and more mature subspecies , Goldbeard Ceadeus, from Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Ceadeus, according to the game lore, is an Elder Dragon that was supposed to be the final boss in the game, until you go to the online side of the game, that is. He, or she, is this pale white, 190-foot long mix of a whale, a coelacanth, a demon, and Santa Claus because of its body, facial structure, huge ass horns, and his fluffy white beard. Yes, he has a beard and you can cut them off with a sharp weapon.
Players of MHTri can find Ceadeus in the Underwater Ruins beneath your village, because what better place to fight a plane-sized monster than in a sunken ancient village? The hunt for this beast starts off in the canyon entrance to the ruins. Not much of a hunt since he’s just there, waiting for you to attack him on your first try. Hunters can then try and attack him as he swims towards the next area but hunters be warned, he can still kick your ass if you go crazy and hit him with reckless abandon. His tail flicks and sudden turns can still pack a punch on unwary hunters.
After pursuing Ceadeus through the canyons, he will then slam his body on to a pile of rubble, which will then reveal the inside of the ruins. This is where the final battle will begin, or not. Upon entering his “lair” (although having to smash your way into your lair’s entrance is not a very practical way of living), hunters will then be greeted by this short cut-scene where the seemingly asleep and coiled up Ceadeus (hey, most of us would also go to sleep upon arriving home after a long arduous day so don’t judge the guy) uncoils himself and greats his visitors with a “WELCOME TO MY CRIB, MONSTERHUNTERS! TASTE MY SPIT! BLAAAAAAAAARGH!”
After his warm welcome, Ceadeus will then swim around and attack the hunters with several move sets like charging and sucking in and spewing out a large jet of water. His underbelly glows red when he’s enraged and when he’s pissed, expect massive retaliation because Ceadeus will swim faster and hit harder.
Hunters can aim on the different parts of Ceadeus’ body and break them which would enable hunters to get more Ceadeus-exclusive materials after a hunt. They can also concentrate their attacks on Ceadeus’ horns with their weapons or by hitting them with a ballista to break them off and enabling the hunters to get chances to carve off something from the broken off horn.
If the hunter fails to kill off Ceadeus within the time limit, he will swim off to safety and the quest will end but it isn’t counted as a failure since the contract counts repelling him as a success. Hunters can still fight Ceadeus a second or a third time but his health would remain the same from the previous battle, allowing hunters to kill him off easily on every try. Once killed, Ceadeus’ floating body can then be carved from to get more materials. I don’t know how it is possible that his carcass maintains neutral buoyancy and that it doesn’t sink down or float to the surface but I’m just thankful that the other flying wyverns in this game fall down to the ground dead.
Now, why do I like Ceadeus? Sure, upon your first encounter with this beast, you’d also be intimidated and you’d also feel frustrated after every failure of the quest. But after several tries, going through a successful Ceadeus kill is going to be a breeze, not to mention farming for his rare materials will become tiresome. Recalling my past gameplays, I’m even more wary dealing with a Rathalos or a Rathian for the nth time than dealing with a Ceadeus the same number of times because those guys can kill even the high ranked hunters. Add the fact that the wiki entry states that Ceadeus is a gentle and peaceful creature and will not attack hunters unless provoked.
So, why do I still like this seemingly lame boss? Simple: he is such a bro. Well, to be more technical about it, the whole Ceadeus species is such a bro because the one I faced for the second time was probably not the same creature that I killed the first time. My point is, Ceadeus is one of the easiest Elder Dragons you can face in the game after just a few several tries. With all the ferocious and extremely difficult monsters out there, most especially the ones exclusive to the online game, you just need someone to make you feel like you are still good at what you are doing; the Ceadeus species will gladly sacrifice their kin just to do that. It’s just the fact that Ceadeus spares us from the hassle of hunting him down by being in the exact same location every time makes him a nice practice target and is greatly appreciated by amateur hunters like me. Plus, the armors and weapons you can make from his materials look rad; not the strongest ones, but equipping them would still make you look badass.
So, yeah. Thank you, Ceadeus, for making my underwater monster hunting experience a fun, challenging, and memorable one.
