Monster Hunter Rise is a game that's all about epic confrontations against majestic creatures in the wilderness. Once a player embarks on a quest in Monster Hunter Rise, they are expected to track down the target creature and make use of the environment to increase the odds of a successful hunt. Once face-to-face with a monster, it isn't a simple matter of hacking and slashing and moving on to the next quest quickly. Hunts can be long, drawn-out encounters where the player must wear down the monster with clever strategies and skillful thinking. With some quests taking 20-3o minutes or more, it stands to reason that busy players will have to pause the game sometimes - but this feature is actually somewhat hidden.
One thing to note upfront is that pausing is only possible when playing in single-player modes. When in a party with other hunters, one player can not simply pause the game for the entire lobby. However, it is possible for a solo player to pause the game during Hub quests, even though the Hub is considered the multiplayer mode. As long as the player is offline and has no other human companions in the party, pausing is possible.
To actually pause the game, the player must open the menu with the + button. From there, they must toggle over to the System tab at the far right of the menu. The Pause Game option is found at the bottom of this list. To pause the game most quickly, the player can press + > (Left D-Pad) > (Up D-Pad) > A. The game will also pause automatically if the player returns to the Switch home screen with the Home button. However, this obviously does not apply if the user is in a multiplayer mode with friends.
Pausing the game is an important thing to do for players who need to step away from the game. While there are some safe places to idle, such as any area's base camp, the clock will continue ticking. Every quest has a time limit, with the typical deadline being 50 minutes. Some challenge quests are particularly strict, offering as little as 15 minutes. Pausing the game is the only way to stop the clock - even returning to the base camp tent to switch out gear or items will not halt the countdown.
Another reason to make sure to pause the game is the in-game time of day. Over the duration of a quest, the game world can transition from day to night or vice-versa. Some players may prefer to not hunt in the dark if given a choice, and neglecting to pause the game when called away from the console could place them in such an undesirable situation.
While Monster Hunter Rise offers a pause feature in its existing Switch version, it's worth mentioning that Monster Hunter: World also had a pause feature on consoles that was dropped for the PC version. PC players of Monster Hunter World were not given the option to pause the game, even when playing solo or during story-related quests. It remains to be seen if the upcoming PC version of Monster Hunter Rise will follow this same strange trend.
Monster Hunter Rise is available now for Switch, with a PC version releasing in 2022.