How to find Deviljho in Volatile habitats in Monster Hunter Now

Finding Deviljho in Monster Hunter Now works differently to any other monster in the game.

In the main series, Deviljho (nicknamed ‘pickle’ or ‘Picklejho’ by the community for its green, rounded appearance) is an extremely aggressive predator which can invade any ecosystem in the search of a meal.

Following March 2024’s The Vernal Invader update, Monster Hunter Now can surprise players with a Deviljho encounter under specific circumstances. It cannot be found on the map by conventional means, and requires you to investigate Volatile habitats.

This guide explains how to find Deviljho in Monster Hunter Now, and the list of monsters it can invade.

How to find Volatile habitats in Monster Hunter Now

To start your hunt against Deviljho, you need to explore a habitat that is ‘Volatile’, which has a chance that certain monsters can become Deviljho encounters.

Before we begin, know that Volatile territories and Deviljho are only available to those who have completed the pre-season storyline, which starts with the Prologue and ends with Chapter 13: Sunderer of the Skies.

As you may know, the game world can be one of three habitats – forest, swamp, or desert – each with their own respective monster spawns and resources. Any of these habitats can also be ‘Volatile’, as indicated by the ground pulsing with a blue ‘cracked’ effect, as well as the label of ‘Volatile’ in the upper left corner of the screen.

When exploring a Volatile habitat, there is a chance certain large monsters can be ‘invaded’ by Deviljho, but only when you investigate them. In other words, these monsters will look like a regular encounter at first, and it’s only when you tap them that Deviljho will charge in and appear. (The list of monsters which Deviljho can invade are listed in the next section.)

Image: Niantic / Capcom via Polygon

Which monsters can Deviljho invade in Monster Hunter Now?

In Monster Hunter Now only select large monsters within Volatile habitats can be invaded and become a Deviljho encounter. (It similar to how Ditto in Pokémon Go is ‘hidden’ behind certain creatures.) These monsters are:

• Great Jagras
• Kulu-Ya-Ku
• Pukei-Pukei

The above need to be at least five star encounters, and can appear in any habitat that’s Volatile. Though the upper and lower number of Deviljho which can appear within a Volatile habitat is unknown, players have reported anywhere from two to five encounters per hour.

Image: Niantic / Capcom via Polygon

Note it’s possible the above list will change over time — perhaps as the large monster list rotates as part of future seasonal updates.

What else do you need to know about Deviljho invasions in Monster Hunter Now?

Image: Niantic / Capcom

As well as the above essentials, here’s what else we know about how Deviljho invasions work:

• According to users on the Monster Hunter Now subreddit, a habitat can be Volatile for the entire day, but will only show as Volatile when Deviljho can actually appear. To complicate things further, an area can also initially not appear Volatile if the entire habitat has not ‘loaded’ completely, but can then will ‘activate’ as you walk further into it. There’s an upside of this: If you know the habitat was previously Volatile that day, you can then quickly tell if Deviljho is available or not (at least, until the large monster refresh, which outside of special events, is on the hour every hour). Also, know that once you have found all Deviljho within an area, the Volatile status will disappear until the next refresh.
• Deviljho will match the difficulty of the monster it invades, meaning if you encounter a six-star monster initially, the Deviljho will also be six-star difficulty.
• Once Deviljho has invaded, it will then appear on the map screen if you decide to back out of the encounter. It will then remain there until the next large monster spawn refresh.
• Your Palico can encounter Deviljho and mark it later with a blue paintball, and can also be marked manually with a pink paintball if you want to hunt it later.
• Unlike the vast majority of monsters, Deviljho has its own rank six upgrade material, meaning those investing in its armor or weapons will have to hunt down high-rank Deviljho specifically to keep upgrading them. Good luck!
• In the main games, there are three Deviljho subspecies; Savage, Aberrant, and Four Heavenly King. Though there is no indication these will come to Monster Hunter Now, the arrival of subspecies such as Black Diablos, Azure Rathalos, and Pink Rathian suggest it’s possible.