Hiya!  Time for another long long long guide xD

Shen Gaoren, the ridiculously huge hermit crab that somehow found a dead Lao-Shan's skull (probably from all the Lao-shans the hunters are killing.  Then again, why the heck are there so many Lao-Shans?).

This fight is similar to the Lao-Shan Lung quest, but with a little difference.  Shen ACTUALLY ATTACKS YOU!  Yeah, it does.  It stomps the ground a little, then drops its claw in front, hoping to hit you.  Unless you were silly enough to stand there and Gawk "OMG HE'S ACTUALLY ATTACKING", you shouldn't be hit by this, so don't worry. :)

As usual, I'll be writing a long comprehensive guide with everything on exactly what to do.  I can guarantee a kill with this method, provided you do everything right. :)

I'll be addressing both Guild Fortress and Town maps.  Guild Fortress comes first (as the town map one is pretty straightforward and simple).

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My method is by using a DS (Hi Twin Flames).  Hi Twin Flames is a strong low rank Fire DS that can kill both Shen Gaoren and Lao Shan Lung (low rank).  Armor required would be either full Blango Set (for the Quake resistance) or just plain good timing (if your timing is good you don't need the quake resistance).  You can gem Blango Set for Sharpening Skill Increase (SwdShrpnr) to lower sharpening times.

Hi Twin Flames is upgraded from the creatable SnS "Red Saber" (upgraded to Twin Flames, then Hi Twin Flames).  It uses mainly low rank Rathalos and Rathian materials.

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Now for the long-long-long guide xD

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First off, the only Items you really need to bring are:

10 Mega Potions (just in case you get stomped on)

5 Mega Juice (duh, no Mega Juice, no unlimited Demonize, no damage, no kill)

20 Whetstones (need to sharpen em lousy DS)

2 Paintballs (yeah, you only need 2.  Well if you wanna bring 29482346 Paintballs go ahead, not a problem :P)

10 Bomb Material

10 Exciteshroom (these are for farcasters)

Combo Books 1-4

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See?  so few items, you be needing, young padawan.  Cheap, simple.

Now we go onto the "what to do".

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First off, paintball it.  This is to make sure you know exactly where it is for the long long long walk to Area 2.  Once it's paintballed, run in, take 1 ration from the blue box (you get 2 in 1), eat it up.  DO NOT TAKE THE BALLISTA S.  Grab a map if you want, and the Anti-Dragon bombs (and Supply Large Barrel Bombs if you want, but you'll need to throw something at it to set it off).  Go to the next room, look for the Spear Stand (the place with a lot of Spears on it, it's next to the box with cannonballs) and GATHER there.  You'll get Ballista S, usually 6 or 8 if you're alone, and 5-7 if you're with someone else.  Gather until it says "there's nothing left".

Next, go to Area 6 (it's the alley that leads to Area 5, the last area).  There'll be a bunch of Iopreys running around.  Kill em!  kill em all!  they'll respawn a lot, but it's not unlimited (I estimate roughly 15 iopreys in all?).  Just keep killing them until you see your paintballed Shen Gaoren in Area 2.  Leave it and continue killing iopreys.  On a usual basis, it will turn around slowly, fire its acid ballz of doom, then turn around again, THEN walk in.  So just keep killing em iopreys until you see the paintball marker slowly moving again.  That's you're cue to hop skip and jump to Area 2.

Once you're in Area 2, make sure your weapon's sharp, drink a Mega Juice, and go after its legs.  I'll explain the legs here:-

There are 4 legs in all.  Shen has a set walking sequence: Right FrontLeg, Left BackLeg, Left FrontLeg, Right BackLeg.  Just listen to the 'boom boom' sounds, and keep counting 1-2-3-4.  Keep your #1 count on its Right FrontLeg.  Eat a Mega Juice, Demonize mode on (you can insta-demonize mode by pressing [R]+Tri+O all at once), and go nearer to the front leg.  If you have blango set on, you can stay nearby without fear of the quakes.  Watch and count the Leg-Booms.  Once Boom #1 (Right Frontleg, remember?) goes down, run in and demonize the leg.  You can roughly get 2 demonizes in if it's not in Rage (in Rage it just moves faster).  Continue on the same leg for a while, and it will stagger, with the leg turning a little bit Red/Inflamed (it's visible).  CONTINUE ON THE SAME LEG until it staggers AGAIN, and the leg turns BRIGHT RED.  This time, it will fall to the floor and stay there for a bit.  You can get 3 demonizes in (4 if you were quick) on the FRONT OF ITS BODY.  This is the only weakspot for blademasters (the weaker spot is inside the shell >_>).

Note: I don't have to tell you that you'll need to sharpen your weapon when it gets to jagged, or eat a mega juice when it runs out...  but try to keep it to 1 mega juice per Area.

Once it stands up, work on the Right BackLeg.  this time, wait for Boom#4.  Same deal, Demonize till its leg turns slightly red, then Bright red.  Again once it falls down run to the front and demonize what's supposed to be its face.  From the back you may only get 2-3 demonize in, but it doesn't matter much.  you can also plant the Supply Large barrel Bombs on its face here and throw a stone or anything you have (paintball if you brought 2948234) to set it off for extra large damage.

Now as it passes though Area 2, you should notice that as it approaches the middle it'll start to stand up on its legs really really high.  when it does this, DON'T ATTACK IT.  You can if you want to, but you won't get the free carves or get to plant the anti-dragon bombs if it staggers.  Instead, run up the ramp on Shen's Left, and up the ladder, onto the bridge, and just wait there.  CAUTION: DO NOT STAND IN THE MIDDLE.  It will walk towards the bridge slowly, or turn around first, whichever way it goes, it will make the Lao Skull face the bridge.  It will then charge and fire its acid ballz of Doom.  IF YOU ARE HIT BY THIS YOU WILL DIE.  Just stand about 5 steps away from the middle and you're fine.  The moment it shoots, run to the middle, directly in front of the skull and watch as it recoils from the shot, and come back to the bridge slowly.  As it recovers from the recoil, this will be your chance to RUN JUMP (just run off the bridge, your hunter will jump) and Ta-Daaaa you're standing in Lao-Shan's skull!  Carve Twice if you're lucky, or plant the Anti-Dragon bombs, then get 1 carve in before it blows.  The bombs will not hurt you, so don't worry.

After that, it'll make its way back down.  Once down, it'll start turning around to face front again.  The Legs turning sequence however is different from the normal walking one, but still follows the 1-2-3-4 step, so count your booms, and hit accordingly.

If you did it all right, by the time it leaves are 2 it SHOULD have at LEAST 2 highly inflamed, bright red legs.  If you were fast and did well, it could have 3, or all 4.  when the last leg leaves the area and you are unable to hit it any longer, combine a Bomb Material and ExciteShroom to get a Farcaster, and use it to teleport back to camp (whoaaa teleporttttt).  Sharpen your weapons, etc etc, continue on Iopreys for about 20 seconds, then run back to Shen (area 3 now).  It won't do the acidballz thing, so just continue on legs.

Somewhere in Area 3, you SHOULD have gotten ALL  legs in Blazing Red.  Now all you have to do is continue working on 1 leg again (I suggest Right BackLeg, since that's the last to move, but whichever rawks your boat), and after a while, it will 'break', and Shen will fall down for a VERY LONG TIME (well not too long, but longer than normal).  Go have fun demonizing its head all the way and spam spam spam that demonize.  When it falls down this time, all the legs will 'reset', meaning the fire redness will go off.  So once it stands up again, you can start working on the legs all over again.

Note however that in Area 3, it sometimes likes to AcidBallz on the half-bridge (I call it Pride Rock, reference to Lion King).  If it starts standing tall halfway, you can either go climb the ladder and try to jump in for more carves (max is 3 carves in all), or you can just continue spamming its legs.  if you spammed it just nice, you'll have all legs red and ready for another loooong break before entering Area 4.  before it leaves the area, paintball it again, then farcast back to camp.  Continue on Iopreys if they're not all dead yet, watch for the paintball marker, and go for Shen again.

Area 4 is a repetition of Area 2.  Just hit legs as much as you can, face when it falls, jump off the bridge if you want more carves or haven't planted the Anti-Dragon bombs, and continue like normal.  You should get the 10 minutes remaining warning while it's about halfway through area 4.  continue as normal, farcast when it's out of the map.

Now that it's on its way to the final area, grab a Cannon S from the box on the floor with the cannonballs around it.  It's heavy like an Egg, so make your way to Area 5 (this is why we kill the iopreys, to make sure they don't interfere with the Cannon S carrying).  Once there, stand on the Cannon to the left of the big red button (that's the dragonator by the way) and...  Wait. :)

Once Shen enters the area, wait for it to appear through the fog.  Once the blurry Lao Shan's upper spikes are visible (you know, the spikes on top of Shen), Press [O] to shoot the Cannon S, and hope you hit (it aims randomly at times).  Then use your Ballista S on the ballista next to you and spam the shots at its Face.  Spam it all, then run down and continue demonizing the legs again.  Leave the dragonator alone.

Now here's the important part.  Watch for when Shen starts Standing up tall.  when it does, immediately Farcast back to camp, grab the 8 Ballista S from the Blue Box (that's why we don't take it at the start), run to Area 5, and when Shen is close enough Dunk that Dragonator (it'll probably hit the legs, but that's fine).   Use the Ballista S to deal more damage.  By now it SHOULD be dead, but if it's not, run down and continue demonizing the legs, as per usual.

And if you did it all right, you should have a Big Dead Hermit Crab xD

WAIT!  WE'RE NOT DONE!  you have 7 Carves on the crab to get.  so carve it all off and get your Gaoren mats xD

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That was for the GUILD FORTRESS.  For the Town Map, all you have to do is spam demonize on the legs and face.  Don't bother about the Dragonator or the Ballista S, the time it takes for you to run up and down the ladder is better spent demonizing its legs.

You can always Farcast back to camp to run in and pump the Dragonator, but I don't find this necessary.

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That's all folks!  As always, good luck, and happy hunting! xD

Hello you!  You're probably reading this because you have problems KILLING Lao Shan Long.  Normally you can use almost anything to drive it off (the favourite is the hammer), but here, I'm going to offer an even simpler method that requires not much thinking whatsoever!

There are two Lao Shans that most people ask about (because they are the first, and the hard ones).

Lao Shan Lung (Low Rank / Elder Quest)

Ash Lao Shan Lung (High Rank).

I'm not going to address the G-Rank one because once there you'll have the imba weapons and armor skills you need to kill it. :)

The main difference between Normal Lao and Ash Lao is the HP Difference.  Ash has a whopping significant higher HP than the Normal Lao (duh, it's High Rank whaddya expect?).  The tactics used for the Normal Lao that I will be posting here to KILL the Normal LRank Lao will only REPEL Ash Lao.  Yes, that means the exact same weapon and Armor set AND the exact same tactics, WILL repel Ash Lao.

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Armour and Weapon

Weapon (DS): Hi Twin Flames (Upgrade from the creatable SnS "Red Saber" to Twin Flames, then to Hi Twin Flames.  Uses Low Rank Rathalos and Rathian mats).

I know Lao's bigger weakness is Dragon, so if you were fortunate enough to get Wyvern stones you can go ahead with Eternal Schism.  But for those who are less fortunate, Hi Twin Flames does the job fine.  I won't list down the other Dragon DS here, because they all require Lao Shan mats to make.  And we're here to tackle Lao Shan, right? :)

Armour: Ceanataur Set + Genprey Vambraces (Add in a Defence Gem and some Strength Gems and you'll have Sharp Sword, Sharpening Skill Increase, Health +20 and no negative Defence).

Reason why I chose this set is for the Sharp Sword and Sharpening Skill Increase skills.  These help in keeping your DS sharper for just a bit longer, and to lower the precious time it takes to sharpen your DS.  You want more time to do damage, less time wasted sharpening. :)

This set WILL KILL LRank Lao Shan, and WILL REPEL Ash Lao Shan.  I can guarantee it.  >_>

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Lao Shan Lung

Now let's address the Old Mountain Dragon (that's his name translated from Chinese).  It has mainly 5 breakable parts: Head x 2 (horn and the spikes around his head), shoulder plates x2 (just at the top of its front legs next to the body) and the Back spikes (you'll be able to break this from the Ballista).

Weak Spots are Back (most), Belly, followed by Legs.

With this guide, you'll be guaranteed to break head twice, and the Back.  I can't say for sure about the legs, as it's unnoticeable to me since I'm always under Lao.  Sorry for that x_x

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Items

Now let's address the Items that you'll need to be bringing.  Since I don't have a pic, I'll just state it here.  This is in order, as it'll be easier to manage.

 

Page 1
Large Barrel Bomb	3
ScatterFish	10
Large Barrel	7
Gunpowder	7
Large Barrel Bomb+	2
Small Barrel Bomb	7
Bomb Material	10
ExciteShroom	10
Page 2
Mega Potion	10
Mega Juice	5
Power Seed	10
Whetstone	20
Paintball	2
Ballista S	6-8
Supply Large Barrel Bomb	2
Anti-Dragon Bomb	2
Page 3
Combo Book 1
Combo Book 2
Combo Book 3
Combo Book 4
Armor Charm
Armor Talon
Power Charm
Power Talon

I'll explain everything along the way, don't worry.  The Italics are things you get from the Blue Box, and from gathering at the spear stand (it's in the room next to the blue box room.  DO NOT take the ballista S from the Box, it'll be explained later, gather the Ballista S from there first).  If you don't have the Charms and Talons, ignore them. :)

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Fighting Lao Shan Lung

To start, I usually recommend to eat whatever increases your Attack to Attack Up Large (with 5 cats, it's Fish+Fish, or Meat+Veg) from the kitchen.  I recommend Meat+Veg as it gives the health boost as well.  please note that this is for 5 cats.

Alright here we go.  We all start off at the epic balcony and see Lao passing by.  Throw the Paintball on it (no seriously, throw it).  Aim for the main body and throw it there, then run in.  Now that it's paintballed, take 1 of the Ration (it has 2 in 1), and eat both for full stamina.  Grab the Suply Lg Brl Bmb, the Anti Dragon Bombs, then head over to the Spear Stand in the next room (next to the box of Cannonballs).  Gather there until it says "there's nothing left", you'll usually either have 6 or 8.

Now face the Blue Box, and run [Right] (this will take you to the alley before reaching the final area 5).  There will be 3 Iopreys waiting for you.  Kill them and more will spawn.  Keep killing them (in whatever fashion you want, demonize or normal attack) until Lao Shan appears in Area 2 (watch the paintball).  Once it's in Area 2, give it 20 seconds (keep killing them iopreys, there are 15 iopreys in all) and leave the remaining Iopreys alone.

Move to Area 2 and Lao should still be on its way in.  Gauge where its head will pass and plant the Supply Large Barrel Bombs and wait.  Once its head is almost over it, plant a Small Barrel Bomb and run.  Repeat with Large Barrel Bomb+ and continue making and bombing its head until the BELLY area has passed the line of Rocks.  Eat up a Power Seed and Mega Juice.  run to its BELLY, there shold be a part of it which hangs especially low (like a beer belly rofl), just a little in front of its hind legs.  Demonize that, and continue demonizing until the Ramp Up to the Bridge is at the Front Leg of Lao.  Make sure you don't get trampled, and Run up the ramp, onto the Bridge.

Just to mention (in case you didn't know) that you should sharpen your DS everytime it goes to Jagged.  No point wasting time with little hits.

With some luck, Lao will stand up, and attempt to Bite at the middle of the bridge (just stand at the side >_>).  If you're unlucky, Lao will ram the bridge, causing the place to shake and giving you plenty of damage.  Don't fret, just eat your pots.  [At this point when it rears up, you can also jump back down and get in some extra demonizing onto its belly, though it's not really necessary].  If you're even luckier, it'll just walk by underneath without bothering about you.  At this point, run to the Middle of the Bridge (there's a chain to the top part of the hanging.. chain-ropething>_>) and tilt your camera as low as possible to watch Lao.  Take note of its back: there's a big flat part between two plates of Spikes.  That's where you'll be jumping.  Yes, jumping. >_>  Watch closely for the first row of PlatesSpikes to reach the bridge.  The moment it's within about a Melynx's width away (picture a Cat standing next to the bridge), jump off (Run off the bridge and your hunter will automatically jump).  There you have the time for 3 Carves.  After carving the 3rd time, Plant the Anti Dragon Bombs and wait.  It'll explode and send you flying, but dealing no damage whatsoever.  Once that's done, watch for its feet and continue demonizing its belly.

Note: Don't worry about missing the jump.  You can try again at Area 3 and Area 4.

Once the belly is close to the line of rocks, make a Farcaster (Bomb Material + ExciteShroom) and use it; it'll teleport you back to camp.  This is to reduce the hassle and risk of getting hit by the tail while trying to get out.  Besides it friggin hurting and always sending you back to Lao's hind leg, it can kill.  So just teleport. >_>

Once you're back, spend about 10-20 seconds on the iopreys again, then run back to Area 3.  Run straight for Lao's head, and continue the bombing.  By now you should've expended all your bombs, so demonize its head if the belly isn't reachable yet.  If it is aim for the belly.  Demonize demonize demonize until it's head reaches the Pride Rock (that half-bridge on the RIGHT of Lao, you need to climb a ladder to get up there).  At this point if you haven't planted the bombs yet, you really should climb up (watch the legs, they tend to send you flying from the ladder) and jump on and plant it.

Once its belly has reached Pride Rock (yes it's a reference to Lion King), I suggest that you get out from under the belly and stand as close to the side of the wall as possible.  There is a Blockade in place of the line of rocks, and Lao will crash itself into the blockade twice to break it.  If you're under it, you'll get hit as well, and it WILL HURT and CAN KILL.  Stand to the side and watch it crash in twice.  Oh, Paintball it too.  Once it's done, run in and get a few demonizes in. Then combine and farcast back to camp.

Continue on with the iopreys (there are a LOT of em, 15 in all, but they will die off eventually), and when it's at the entrance of Area 4, as usual run in and bomb (if you have any left) or demonize on its head.  Same ordeal as Area 2, it also has the same bridge.  Don't jump off onto its back if you've already finished your anti-dragons and carved 3 times, just continue demonizing its belly.  Once again once at the edge of Area 4, farcast back to camp.

By now, all the Iopreys should be dead.  If not, kill off the rest of em (you should be able to) and grab a Cannon S from the box of cannonballs.  It's as heavy as an egg, so make your way to Area 5 (that's why we killed the Iopreys earlier, so they don't annoy you and make you drop it).  Once there, wait by the LEFT Cannon, and...  just wait.  Lao will come and you'll get your epic music Playing.  Wait till the moment you see its Head appearing in the mist.  Once the head is even a little bit visible, fire the Cannon (press O) and hope that it hits (the aiming is random and can sometimes miss >_>).  Then go to the ballista next to it, and use your Ballista S.  Press [R] and aim above the head (for its back).  Fire away and you should see your shots connecting to its back (small purple blood splurts).  Continue firing on its back until you're out of shots, MAKE A FARCASTER, RUN DOWN and start demonizing it.  Demonize Demonize Demonize until it reaches the fort.  Once at the fort, it will do 1 of 3 things:

Walk to and Ram Left
Walk to and Ram Right
Stand up (to go closer to ram Fort)

Demonize and demonize until it decides to Stand Up (pay attention to it).  The moment it stands up, Farcast back to camp.  Grab the 8 Ballista S from the Blue Box (there are 8), run like hell back to Area 5, and prepare yourself on the dragonator.  Once you're in, give it 5 seconds, and Ram the Dragonator (big red button. ooooo), you should hit it without letting it ram into the fort.  Once done, Run for the Ballista, use your Ballista S and Prepare to take aim.  There'll be a looong off-camera after using the Dragonator, so wait for it and the moment your view is back to normal, aim for Lao's back and shoot all the Ballista S in.

Hopefully you'll stagger it and it won't ram into the fort while you're still on the Ballista.  With some luck it won't, and you'll use up all your Ballista S.  jump down and continue demonizing its belly (again).

If you've done everything right, with around 5 minutes or more (or less) left on the clock, you should score the kill.

Congratulations, you've just killed the epic Lao Shan Lung!

WE'RE NOT DONE YET!

There are 3 CARVE SPOTS on Lao Shan, with 3 carves each:

The HEAD
The FRONT LEG
The HIND LEG

Press [Select] to stop the cutscene short.  We'll aim for the Hind Legs first (it's easier to go for that if it's closer to the fort).  Watch as it falls down.  Many times, the blasted HEAD lands INSIDE the fort (beyond the walls).  If that happens, you won't be getting the carves on the head :/  But the Hind legs are the safest, so go for that first.  To recognize where the hind legs are, go INTO Lao Shan (you cna get an inside view rofl) and look for the Spike that sticks out inside.  That's Carve Spot 1.  Once you've carved 3 times, run towards the front and look for a lump of random meat.  That is the Front Leg, and is Carve Spot 2.  And if you're lucky, run to the Head for Carve Spot 3.

Note: to speed up carving, Squat Down (X) THEN start carving.  This stops your hunter from doing the "oh I have to bend down to carve" and the "oh I have to stand up after carving" animations, thus making carving a little bit faster (works for Gathering too).  If you did it right, you should manage to get 7 Carves (if the head isn't stuck in the wall; I've gotten 8 carves before 8D)

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Ash Lao Shan Lung

Is the same as Lao Shan, just with an incredible increase in HP.

I've tried many things over and over, and the first time I killed it was with:

Weapon (DS): GraDios Ultimus (Uprade of Hi Twin Flames)

Armour: Kut-Ku U Set (+Gems has Reckless Abandon+3, Elemental Attack Increase, Sharpening Skill Increase, and Health-10).

Don't need to explain, basically just increases in Damage.

Also instead of waiting on the bridge for Lao to swipe head and slowly make its way down, after it stands up I immediately jump down and continue demonizing.  After it lands back on the ground, I run back up (there's enough time), carveX3 and anti-dragon bomb.  It's risky, but gets in some extra damage.  The same goes for Area 4, I lure it to stand up so I get extra demonizes before it continues moving forward.

Even then, I only managed a kill with 6 seconds on the clock left.  So it's not exactly stable.  Only if you upgrade to Corpse Blades or use Dual Dragon Ultimus or Eternal Schism does it become a stable kill.

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With that (incredibly long..  orz) guide done, I wish you:

Good luck, and happy hunting. :)