Everyone that plays Monster Hunter knows how the right weapon can make all the difference in a fight. No one however seems to ever thank the good old carving knife. Without it you could never carve any parts off of your kill and would be stuck with just the rewards from a quest.

Anywho I have a few ideas on how the carving knife could be improved and made into a more important tool.

Make the carving knife an equipment slot.

The knife can be upgraded with monster parts for various effects when carving. For balance the knife will have a sharpness level that cannot be restored and once depleted, the knife is gone. As each wyvern has its own hardness, you may get say a total of 15 carves from a stone carving knife when carving a kut-ku, while only getting 5 carves when carving a gravios.

The carving knifes will be mainly based on ores with the ability to be upgraded with monster parts. I.E studding a stone carving knife with Ceantuar claws to increase its sharpness level. Also studding a knife with say a ruby from a wyvern will slightly increase the chance of carving rare items but perhaps affect carving speed or durability of the knife. However the knive would have unlimited use on normal monsters (effects of the current knife wouldn't do anything). I.E prey and minions are normal monsters.

Some of the effects that could be put on the carving knives:

+/- carving speed (could be as a result of the weight of the ore it is made of)

+/- number of carves per carving spot (the blade's cutting accuracy... how fine the blade is. could be altered by studding or sharpening the  blade against high grade ore)

+/- chance of rare items

+/- rewards (by using a proper knife the monster is left intact and more rewards can be harvested)

Maybe even the ability to customize the color and look of your carving knife to match the style of your character.

and many others could be added. I think it could definitely add a new flavor to the game. Those are my thoughts. Free feel to comment or pm me.

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