How to actually unlock Lagiacrus in Monster Hunter Wilds

This absolute bastard.

Recently, Monster Hunter Wilds treated us to a fantastic new free update. It adds a ton of quality of life features to the game, gives us a taste of the new Gamma armor type, grants us the ability to finally add weapons to layered armor allowing us to choose however we want our weapons to look, and even gives us two more monsters to fight.

Seregios, the returning champ from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is a shiny gold and red wyvern that has players struggling with the question, "what if Rathalos was faster and wouldn't stay on the goddamn ground?" And also...Lagiacrus. Some would call it the "Lord of the Sea". I would call it things I don't even feel comfy publishing in this article and I own the goddamned site.

Lagiacrus was the "main" monster of Monster Hunter 3 and...goddamn did I hate it. See, I hate aquatic life. Like, they're fine, but I hate having to go anywhere near them as most of them our Lovecraftian shitheels. And, in Monster Hunter 3 and Monster Hunter Tri, they did the very nasty thing of making you go underwater. It SUCKED and the creatures there were really good at just popping up from all directions.

And while Lagiacrus isn't the worst, he brings up a lot of awful memories. Especially of that goddamned Gobul. If you don't know Gobul, he's an angler fish where they took the worst parts of angler fish and moved that slider to max.

And now that they know underwater areas can work well, Gobul is one of like five monsters that went underwater and I just...I'm fine, okay? There's a reason I won't play Skull and Bones even though it's free.

Anywho, if you're fine getting your feet wet, so to speak, updating your game isn't enough to get you to Lagiacrus, as I found out. You actually have to make sure you got a couple other things done.

Step One:

You need to get yourself to Hunter Rank 31+. This one isn't so bad. Just play through the story mode and have fun with people online. You'll get there in no time.

Step Two:

Complete Main Mission: World Turned Upside Down. If you haven't gotten this one yet, this is probably going to be really fun for you. It's an absolute banger of a mission that has you fight against Rey Dau, Uth Duna, Nu Udra, Gore Magala, and a frenzied Blangonga (these guys have Mister Silly's names). But that needs to be done.

Step Three:

Complete Side Mission: Forest Doshaguma for Erik in the Scarlet Forest. Oh this mission. So, this mission is actually pretty easy. You have to go to the Scarlet Forest and CAPTURE (not kill, you stabby fool) a Doshaguma. You could do this in your sleep at this point, especially if you have your flares off and you get a crew together. Just...be warned. Completing this makes Erik a WAY bigger part of the game and...fuck I can't stand him.

Anywho, once you get the mission for Erik over and done with, simply rest to the forest gets reset and you should get the mission. Erik will have you investigate a Rathalos sighting but one thing will lead to the other and...well.

Spoiler alert: