Monster hunter tales 3 players will encounter Espinas sleeping in a hidden cave in the Broadleaf Basin area of Azuria. While his sleeping form may not seem menacing, he is easily one of the most dangerous monsters in the area.
The cave behind Espinas contains a chest, some resources, and a Poogie, so players will have to fight it to unlock these items. We will walk you through the weaknesses of the Espinas, the best way to wake them up, and how you can win the fight against them in this one Monster hunter tales 3 guide.
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Monster Hunter 3 Stories Espinas Weaknesses and Resistances
Espinas is a dangerous monster whose weaknesses and resistances depend on his condition. For Espins sleeping in Azuria, the three states they can be in are sleeping, awake when normal, and awake when enraged.
Espinas Weaknesses and resistances in normal sleep or wakefulness
- Elemental Weaknesses: No
- Weaknesses of the disease: Blastblight, Darkness, Sleep (awaken only)
- Attack Type: Urine
When asleep or awake in a normal state, Espinas is highly resistant to all elements and has resistance to most diseases. In addition, he will use Power moves with the element of fire.
Espinas is most dangerous when he is asleep Sleep Counter Skill. This skill will allow Espinas to directly counter any attack your party makes and deal tons of damage to the attacking party member. The only way to avoid this is to not use any attacks against the sleeping Espinas while waiting for him to wake up, or wake him up as soon as you enter the fight.
Since your NPC companion and their Monsties will likely attack Espin while he's sleeping, it's safer to wake him up.
Due to the dangers of sleeping, you should be careful not to put Espinas to sleep after he wakes up. However, this does not mean that fighting him in normal state is also easy. Since he still has a lot of resistance in this state, the first goal players should have after awakening Espinas is push him into a frenzy.
Furious Espinas Resistances and Weaknesses
- Elemental Weaknesses: Ice, dammit
- Weaknesses of the disease: Explosion, darkness, sleep
- Attack Type: Speed
Espinas is most easily defeated when enraged due to a change to his elemental resistance. Instead of having high resistance to all Elements, he will only be highly resistant to Fire and somewhat resistant to Thunder. It will have no resistance to non-elemental and water attacks, a slight weakness to dragon attacks, and a large one weakness to ice attacks.
While enraged, you'll want to keep an eye on his skill Raging Rush, which deals high damage to everyone in your party. If your party is high enough, you'll be able to use this skill at least once while keeping everyone alive with low health. If not, the best option is stun Espiny before he uses Raging Rush.
Best Monsties to use against Espinas in Monster Hunter Stories 3
- Recommend Monstie Element: Ice
- Monstie's Recommended Attack Type: Technical
Since Espinas is easiest to defeat while enraged, you'll want your Monstie to use tech and ice attacks to take advantage of his weaknesses in this state. The Aurora Somnacanth is a tech and ice type Monstie found relatively early in the game, making him an easy choice for this fight.
Players will find Aurora Somnacanth v Canalta Timberland Frozen Cave Area.
The main downside to using Aurora Somnacanth is its weakness to Fire Element attacks. If you're worried about this weakness or trying to fight Espinas at a lower level, you can use the Channeling Rite in the stable to transfer Aurora Somnacanth's ice-type abilities to the new Monstia instead.
The best companion against Espinas in Monster Hunter Stories 3
Gaul he is the best companion for this fight thanks to his support abilities and his ice monster. The Gallic inventory contains a lot of useful items, with the most important for this fight being Dust of life. This item heals your entire party to full health, making it ideal for healing after charging one of Espinas Raging Rush skills.
While Galia is extremely useful for her healing, she will also deal her own fair share of damage when not healing. Additionally, his Monstie companion, Legia, will work hand-in-hand with your Ice-type Monstie and deal a lot of Ice damage to Espinas.
How to awaken Espinas in Monster Hunter Stories 3
Espinas will wake up naturally after passing three turns. However, during these first three turns, any attacks your party makes will be directly defended by the Espins. Sleep counter skill. To avoid this, it requires players not to make any attacks against Espinas, which is difficult since the NPCs on your side and their Monsties will choose their own actions.
We recommend instead of waiting using the Big Barrel Bomb against any part of Espinas on your first turn. Not only does this instantly wake up Espiny and completely avoid the Sleep Counter skill, but it instantly turns her into his enraged state. This allows you to take advantage of his Ice Element weakness in the first few turns instead of waiting for him to wake up and go berserk.
How to beat Espinas in Monster Hunter Stories 3
You can find that Espinas in a hidden cave in Broadleaf Basin area. Before you question it, you'll want to upgrade your party to a minimum of up to the mid-forties. You'll also want to make some preparations ahead of time, including the following:
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Add your Ice-Type Monstie and Gaul to your party.
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Have at least one A large barrel bomb created.
- Eat either meat or fish dishes which increases your fighting power, like Bubbling magma stew.
- Save before battle in case you want to start over.
Once you're ready, enter the cave and walk into the sleeping Espinas to start the battle. Your first step should be use the Big Barrel Bomb. This wakes up Monstie, preventing him from using his Sleep Counter skill, and immediately pushes him into his enraged form.
Since Espinas wakes up and goes berserk on this first turn, they won't use any attacks or skills. This makes the first turn the perfect time for your Monstie to use any skills that will boost its attacks. Gaul will likely use this move to use a potion to prevent a future status effect, and his Monstie will take the opportunity to either cast a skill that buffs his ice attacks, or use an ice attack against Espinas with no effects.
In the second round of the battle, Espinas will most likely use his Raging Rush Skill attack your entire party. Since players won't have their Affinity meter built up enough to perform the Affinity skill, their only option to avoid Raging Rush is to try to stun the Espins. However, if your team is leveled high enough, you can also tank the first use of this skill.
If your team takes a hit from Raging Rush, Galia will use Dust of Life an item that heals your entire team back to full health. This gives you an opportunity to focus depleting Espinas' Wyvernsoul Gauge. Depending on your weapons, you may want to attack the gauge directly or destroy it by breaking Espinas parts.
We found it easiest to focus both our Monstie's attacks and our attacks on the part of Espinas that took the most damage and take it down until it breaks. Keep doing this with each part of Monstia until her Wyvernsoul Gauge is broken.
Keep a close eye out for any potential when attacking Espinas Head-to-Head attacks. Losing one of these is an easy way to lose one of your three lives, so make sure you and your Monstie only use tech attacks when a direct attack is possible.
Since Espinas is a regular monster and not wild or invasive, lowering his Wyvernsoul Gauge will knock him down and allow you to deal some extra damage via Synchro Rush. This will also help fill your kinship gauge so you can perform the kinship skill on your next turn.
After completing Synchro Rush, your Affinity skill should be mostly filled, if not completely. Gaul should also have a kinship meter built at this point. Execution Dual Kinship Skill here, it should be enough to defeat Espinas, or at least drain his health to near zero.
After defeat, there is a small chance that Espinas will retreat to the Lair, allowing you to collect his eggs.
- Released
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March 13, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen violence/fantasy, mild themes, in-game purchases
