Monster Hunter Rise enthusiast Ceph0rend only just finished his 300-hour quest to craft 1,000 of the origami switch axe, and he's already preparing for his next grind. The switch axes have been made, you see, but now they must be upgraded.
"I feel incredibly honored this morning that there are people cheering me on to craft another 1,000," he tweeted on Monday. "That's the plan. Well, phase two to be exact … but like, over time, instead of every day."
When we first spoke to him, Ceph0rend estimated that crafting 1,000 origami switch axes would take him just under 300 hours total, and he hoped to have them all finished within eight weeks of starting. That was a little over three weeks ago, so he's clearly been working hard and working smart.
Beyond putting in some heavy hours – far more than enough for his initial plan to craft 10 or so axes a day – Ceph0rend sped up the process by refining his gathering routine. Each axe needed Alumdron, Volvidon, and Aknosom parts, as well as Kamura tickets, and getting a balance of each required some careful hunting.
"Basically I moved the brunt of the collection all at the start of the sitting so I can place [spamming the short Roly Poly quest] on low-priority and go autopilot for the rest," he explains over Twitter DM.
For phase two of his master plan, he's planning to upgrade all of the switch axes he crafted from their base form to their second form. This will require 3,000 Aknosom Feather+, 2,000 Carbalite Ore, 1,000 Rathalos Marrow, and worst of all, another 1,000 Kamura tickets, which are much more difficult to get than monster parts since you only get five after clearing 30 village quests. The Rathalos Marrow will be tough to get too, but at least Ceph0rend doesn't have to fight Volvidon and Almudron anymore, though Aknosom will still be taking a beating on this grind.
The upgrade process will be more leisurely than the crafting grind, Ceph0rend says. He's planning to chip away at this "over time since most of the materials are high rank and my next hill is grinding to HR999 before Monster Hunter Stories 2 [on July 9]." He adds that, "If I learned anything throughout my initial 1000, it's that a thousand is NOT a small number."
"The plan is to upgrade them to level two so in case my wish does come true, I can upgrade them once more to level three," he explains. "The current final upgrade says 'Your wish has been granted!' and considering my wish hasn't been granted yet, I think I have a bit of time."
To celebrate the completion of the initial 1,000 origami switch axes, Ceph0rend's opened a small charity drive. Any donations he receives (via this StreamElements page) by Tuesday, May 18 will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Australia children's charity.
