Frontier: Sky Corridor

Introduction
The Sky Corridor (Japanese: 天廊, Romaji: Ten-rou) is a special area exclusive to Monster Hunter Frontier G. It was introduced in MHFG6 and is currently being investigated by the Guild of Mezeporta.

The Sky Corridor is located on a desolate island in the middle of the ocean and was built by the elusive civilization in the Monster Hunter Universe known as "The Ancients".

Unlike its counterpart that was built near the Great Forest, also known as the Old Tower, the Sky Corridor is heavily guarded by all sorts of deadly traps and Monsters to prevent unwanted visitors from discovering its secrets and treasures.

As of MHFG8 there are 2 districts (or wardens) that are available for exploration. The first district can be accessed without a paid subscription, starting at HR1. The second district, however, requires players to be at least HR100 and TR51 to initiate/join the quest.

Finally, it is one of the 4 major "rotation events" that cycle with each maintenance on each Wednesday of the week. The other events are Conquest War, Parone and Hunter Festival. All of these are required to obtain the items necessary for crafting the "Ninfa Armor" and "Rou-weapons" (G-Rank only).

How it works
The Sky Corridor always consists of 2 to 4 floors that must be cleared in order to complete the quest. Subsequently, each floor also always consists of at least 2 rooms. In rare cases a floor consists of 3 floors and when this is the case the final room will always be a save one. These rooms always contain a lot of treasure chests, Felynes or shiny crystals that can be picked up. Therefore they are also commonly referred to as "Treasure Rooms" or "Bonus Rooms".

The Sky Corridor randomly generates 2 to 4 floors that must be cleared in order to complete the quest. In turn, each floor also always consists of at least 2 rooms that are divided by a gate. This gate can only be opened by clearing the room's unique objective. These objectives can be one of the following:

1. Slay the big monster(s) in the room. 2. Reach the gate at the end of the room. 3. Hit one or more buttons, levers or switches scattered across the room. 4. Direct the energy shots (fireball, lightning orb) into certain objects or other traps. 5. Destroy certain objects. 6. Carry and pass certain color auras from energy stones to the appropriate unlit statues.

In rare cases it will also occur that a room does not consist of just 2 but even 3 rooms. Whenever this is the case the final room will always be a save one without traps or monsters inside of it. On the contrary, these rooms will always be filled with either treasure chests, shiny crystals ready for pick-up or felynes that hand out special medals to buy some unique and exclusive items from the Sky Corridor Shop.

In short, the player will inevitable comes across both small and big monsters, traps, treasure chests and Felynes that are part of the investigation and exploration team. The last 2 are the most important in regards to maximizing the rewards, profits and benefit from doing the Sky Corridor.

Shops & Resources
At Mezeporta Square there is an NPC that not only allows players to initiate Sky Corridor Quests but also claim rewards for clearing the Tower and buy exclusive and unique items from the Tenrou Shop. This shop sells a bunch of unique items that can otherwise only be obtained through special events and a some other exclusive items.

While on a Sky Corridor Quest there are 2 NPCs that serve as vendors for all sorts of supplementary and combat items. This includes potions, whetstones, bombs, ammo, sword crystals and some other unique items in case Duremudira can be fought.

On the airship there is a young man with a suspicious smirk on his face who keeps his arms crossed and looks around staring into the infinity of the horizon waiting for someone to come and buy his stuff. Inside of the Tower there is a Felyne backpacker in what looks like excavation equipment who also sells the same items. This Felyne can be found at the start of each floor and occasionally in one of the bonus rooms of the 2nd warden.

The benefits
There are multiple benefits to doing the Sky Corridors quests for players of all ranks. This means that both new and veteran hunters have plenty of reason to bother and clear as many floors as they can. The benefits of doing these quests are:

1. Collecting materials to craft Sky Corridor Equipment (weapons and armors). 2. Collecting monster materials both normal and special (normal, Hardcore and G-Rank). 3. Collecting items to upgrade "Transcend" much easier and faster. 4. Collecting items to create the Ninfa armor and "Rou"-weapons (G-Rank only). 5. Collecting medals to buy additional gestures from Legend Rastas to use for fun while inside a lobby. 6. Collecting "Tenrou Gems" to equip to "Tenrou Weapons" and activate more skills than otherwise possible. 7. Collecting special "?"-items to craft special and exclusive armors only obtainable through clearing Sky Corridor Quests. These armors are all very good once upgraded fully into their GX-forms at G-Rank. 8. Challenging oneself and fellow Hunters by taking on the most difficult monster in the game, Duremudira.

As may have become apparent, there are a lot of benefits to clearing the Sky Corridor Quests. The only problem that may arise while doing so is that, at one point, it may become monotonous and boring. Other than that, it is a perfectly enjoyable activity as long as players can stay motivated and are able to enjoy the randomness of the Tower and its dungeon-like setting.

Sky Corridor Equipment
Sky Corridor Equipment (天廊装備) always has a connotation in their description written in a green font reading either <天廊武器> or <天廊防具>.

Sky Corridor Equipment is special in that both the weapons as the armors are elaborately customizable to one´s personal preferences. For example, the weapons can be equipped with any combination of the 5 main elements and a status ailment imaginable. These weapons can also be equipped with special gems obtained from clearing the Sky Corridor called "Tenrou Gems". They instantly activate an Armor Skill based on the gem and its level (I to V) without taking an armor skill slot. In other words, they bypass the skill limit.

The Sky Corridor Armors, on the other hand, can be given almost any bonus effect from all the different types of special armors in the game such as Skill Rank Up and Damage Reduction.

Viability of Sky Corridor Equipment
Sky Corridor Equipment is well worth the effort that they require in order to be fully upgraded and are also a viable choice for setups throughout the entire process.

Unfortunately this does not quite as much apply to the Sky Corridor Armors. These armors have low defense and mediocre skills. Their maximum potential is situational at best and even then rarely a chosen option at the end-game meta for mixed sets.

The Sky Corridor Weapons, on the other hand, are a whole different story. Though perfectly balanced and probably the go-to option for new players who are going through the ranks on their way to G, some of these weapons are exceptionally powerful especially when fully upgraded.

In a few cases they even can be by far the most powerful possible weapons when equipped with certain elements or ailments and customized carefully. For instance, the Sword and Shield has an insane amount of Raw power and completely decimates all competition if given Paralysis. It wins by a landslide even if one would have the maximum possible Attack Power Up Sigils on any of the other competitors (Paralysis Sword and Shields). Its only competition is from the Lv.100 Netcafe Sword and Shield and solely because it has 2200 Light Element.

Another example is the Great Sword. When optimally upgraded for Raw and Sharpness it becomes the most powerful Raw Great Sword in the game, unbeaten by any other.

In the more general sense it can be said that one cannot go wrong with Sky Corridor Weapons. If upgraded carefully after doing a good amount of research they can be the go-to weapons in many situations. The fact they can also be equipped with gems that bypass the skill limit also serves as a plus to solidifying their spot among the best of the best weapons in the game.

Sky Corridor Weapon Simulator
Capcom has developed a Sky Corridor Weapon Simulator which can be accessed publicly through the following link: http://members.mhf-g.jp/contents/quest/tenrou/weapon_sim.html.

The Sky Corridor: Basics and Fundamentals
Here is a list of notes about all the things that one needs to know about the Sky Corridor and how it works:

Quest Time and Floors

 * 1) The Quest stats with a time limit of 10 minutes.
 * 2) Clearing a floor will add another 10 minutes to the time limit.
 * 3) Fainting will reduce the time limit by 1 minute.
 * 4) The Quest always randomly consists of 2 to 4 floors to clear.
 * 5) Every floor consists of at least 2 rooms (3 in rare cases).
 * 6) Every room has its own unique but fixed objective to clear.
 * 7) Every room is separated from each other by a Gate that opens upon clearing the objective.
 * 8) Monsters, traps and chests are fixed for each room (although some have varying big monsters).

Traps

 * 1) All traps ignore defense and elemental resistance stats and deal a fixed amount of damage.
 * 2) Traps can have different strength levels in different rooms.
 * 3) All traps can be protected against with Sky Corridor Skills (in the sense of damage reduction or reducing health draining speed or trapped time duration).
 * 4) All traps are exceedingly stronger in the 2nd district than they are in the first (capable of killing in a single hit).
 * 5) The 2nd district has its own unique traps and upgraded versions of traps found in the 1st district.

Treasure Chests and Felynes

 * 1) Treasure Chests spawn in fixed locations and inside of fixed rooms.


 * 1) Treasure Chests can be opened by hitting them but require fencing to prevent bouncing.
 * 2) Treasure Chests in the 2nd district can contain traps that inflict a multitude of status ailments (Paralysis, Poison, Snowman and Defense Down).
 * 3) The 2nd district has a bigger, ornamented special type of chest that harbors more and unique rewards otherwise not obtainable.
 * 4) Felynes come in different skin textures and equipment colors. There are 6 types of Felynes that all give a different range of medals for use in the Sky Corridor Shop. These are Brown, Red, Blue, Purple, Green and Yellow. The color refers to their helmet and scarf.

Obstacles

 * 1) There is a variety of obstacles that can be destroyed either by hitting them over and over or by shooting them with Cannons or Ballistas.
 * 2) There are also rooms in which certain obstacles that are otherwise destructible are not.
 * 3) It requires a lot of effort to destroy obstacles with weapons and it is therefore recommended to equip the "Destruction King" skill to speed things up.
 * 4) Most obstacles will cause weapons to bounce off if hit.
 * 5) Fencing +2 (further) speeds up the destruction of obstacles.

Duremudira

 * 1) Duremudira will appear for the first time at the 10th floor. After this it will appear at the 40th floor and then once every 40 floors until floor 480. Then it will once again appear at0 floor 500 and once every 20 floors beyond that point.
 * 2) Duremudira is currently the hardest monster in the game and impossible to defeat for any player that is not G-Rank and in at least maxed out end-game gear. It has 2 phases in the 1st district and 3 in the 2nd district.
 * 3) Duremudira is an optional boss that can be skipped.
 * 4) Abandoning a quest in which Duremudira appears will cause it to disappear until the next required amount of floors has been cleared for it to show up again.
 * 5) The "Deadly Encounter" Sky Corridor Skill allows Duremudira to show up instantly after leaving the airship. Although chances of this happening remain very low.
 * 6) Slaying Duremudira will notify the entire Land in which a player resides about the party's victory.
 * 7) Players who slay Duremudira in the 1st district are awarded with the 極氷 (Extreme Ice) title. Those who slay Duremudira in the 2nd district are, in turn, awarded with the 絶氷 (Absolute Ice) title. There is also a title for slaying 50 Duremudira in both district respectively.
 * 8) Slaying Duremudira in the 2nd district allows players to obtain a Red and Grey Liquid that are necessary for creating G-Rank Tenrou Gems and G-Rank Tenrou Sigils.

The Sky Corridor: Traps, Switches, Levers and Artillery
The Sky Corridor features a wide variety of traps, obstacles and mechanisms that can either kill the player or be exploited by them to kill monsters with. Here is a list of the different types of things and their variations that one can run into:

Traps

 * 1) Spinning Blades
 * 2) Heat Exhaust Holes
 * 3) Flamethrowers
 * 4) Rotating Flamethrowers
 * 5) Swinging Boulders
 * 6) Ballistic Energy Crystals
 * 7) Rotating Shock Trap Spikes
 * 8) Spikes
 * 9) Darts
 * 10) Reflector Orbs
 * 11) Heat Bombs
 * 12) Trap Chests


 * 1) Steamrollers (2nd district only)

Switches and Levers

 * 1) Small Ground Switches
 * 2) Large Ground Switches
 * 3) Wall Switches
 * 4) Wall Levers
 * 5) Ground Levers

Artillery

 * 1) Cannons
 * 2) Ballistas

The Sky Corridor: Chests and Felynes
There are 2 types of Treasure Chests and 6 types of Felynes that can be found in the Sky Corridor.

In the 1st district there is only 1 type of Treasure Chest as shown in the picture below. There are no Trap Chests in this district so they can all be safely opened by hitting them once.

In the 2nd district there is another type of chest that is bigger and ornamented as shown in the picture below. These offer greater and rarer rewards than normal chests do and are not as common as the regular chests are.

Technically there is also a 3rd type of chest, which is the Trap Chests but they are not counted as their own separate type. They are just the 1st type of Treasure Chests with a trap built into them that activates upon opening the chests. These traps inflict 4 different status ailments which are Paralysis (yellow smoke), Poison (purple smoke), Snowman (light-blue smoke) and Defense Down (white smoke).

It will sometimes occur that these Trap Chests, when opened, do not hold any treasure at all and will give a different popup message than when they do. So they can either contain treasure or not. Both are possible and is subject to the randomness factor (RNG).

Felynes that hand out medals for use in the Sky Corridor Shop come in 6 variations. They differ from each other in skin texture and the color of the helmet and scarf they are wearing. The latter is the actual relevant detail of the two. Every color of differently geared Felyne offers a different range of medals. The Felyne with the Brown helmet will never hand out more than 2 medals while the one with a Yellow helmet will never hand out less than 5. The yellow ones hand out the most, which is 5 - 10 medals at a time while the brown ones hand out only 1 or 2.