Bishaten is one of many new monsters introduced in Monster Hunter Rise. Serving as a bat/monkey hybrid, Bishaten likes to spin around the battlefield and throw fruit at the hunters. While not a hugely difficult monster, it does have some tricks up its sleeves that Monster Hunter Rise players should be aware of.
Prep, Weakness, and Hitzones
Bishaten does not have any particular element associated with it, so there's no specific element that players will want to spec resistance in. Therefore, players can wear whatever armor they feel best suits their playstyle. That being said, Bishaten can still cause poison and paralysis, so it may be wise to spec for resistances to those effects if players feel like they might cause issues. That being said, Bishaten's attacks don't really center around causing status effects, it's more something that occasionally happens. Therefore, just bringing antidotes is likely a more efficient plan. There's no cure for paralysis besides being hit by a buddy, teammate, or the monster, so players will want to watch out when Bishaten has a greenish colored fruit.
As for Bishaten's elemental weaknesses, it is most weak to ice damage. In fact, that's about all it's weak to. It will take a little extra damage from fire and thunder damage, but resists water and dragon damage. As for status ailments, it isn't really weak to much. It has a two star weakness to blast and iceblight. While it may be worth taking a blast weapon into the fight as an alternative to an ice weapon, it's probably not worth going out of the way to find a snow beetle to inflict iceblight on Bishaten.
Bishaten's hitzones are a little more varied than some monsters though, so players will want to attack Bishaten in different places depending on what weapons they're using. Every weapon type is effective at hitting the head, but cutting weapons do good damage to the tail as well, while blunt and shot type weapons just do average damage. Monster Hunter Rise's blunt weapons don't have the best hitzones for anything but the head and slightly the tail, while shot-type weapons have average damage on the tail and wings.
Fighting Bishaten
Bishaten uses mostly physical moves, so Monster Hunter Rise gunners are going to be mostly safe at range, however, like any monster, Bishaten will attempt to close the distance. In general, Bishaten likes spinning moves. One of these spin attacks is considered powerful enough to warrant a callout from the hunters when the attack is about to come out, so as with any other monster, pay attention to the callouts. This particular attack sees Bishaten rush forward, so players who are the target will want to dodge left or right to avoid it.
If hit during some of its other spin attacks, Bishaten will drop some of the fruit that it is carrying. These fruits can be picked up to restore health in Monster Hunter Rise or cause paralysis or poison on Bishaten, so they're worth picking up. The game informs players though that they cannot be kept, though, and will expire at the end of the hunt, so players should use them while they can.
Of course, Bishaten can and will also use these fruits throughout the fight and they also can serve as its long ranged attacks. Yellow fruit is just a standard projectile, purple fruit can poison hunters, yellow-green fruit can cause paralysis. Sometime Bishaten will also grab a fruit and cover its eyes with its wings. When it does this, it's going to cause a flash to stun hunters. Players can typically get out of the stun before Bishaten acts again, but getting away from the flash is generally a good idea.
Like Tobi-Kadachi, Bishaten will also sometimes cling to walls which actually leaves it fairly open to attack. Cutting weapons should try to hit its tail, while shot-type weapons can aim elsewhere. Bishaten will also try to strike hunters with its tail, so players should be aware if its facing them while sitting on its tail.
Monster Hunter Rise is now available for the Nintendo Switch. A PC release is slated for 2022.