Astalos' body is almost entirely covered in sharp, dark green plating, although it has a more bright-colored underside. Unlike any other Flying Wyvern, Astalos' wings resemble those of an insect, most precisely a Glasswing Butterfly's wings. Its thin legs have three toes. Its tail is long, making up almost half of the monster's length, and it has two pairs of earwig-like pincers at the tip. It has a relatively small head, with a large horn on top of it. Its eyes are green.
Abilities
Astalos can generate green electricity by moving its body parts and it is able to release it from its wings, tail, and horn. Its wings have sharp claws, which it uses in ferocious dive-bombing attacks. It can paralyze prey with a strike from its tail, as well as fire bolts of electricity from it. Its horn can create a blade-like current of electricity, which extends the range of its horn attacks and also imbues them with the Thunder element. It can also breathe blasts of electricity which can split into two pillars upon impact with the ground.
Behavior
Astalos is hyper-aggressive towards Hunters and other monsters alike.
Astalos' Japanese name, Raizekusu, comes from a combination of the Japanese word for Thunder, Rai (雷)/(ライ), and the German word for insect, Insekt/Inzekuto (インゼクト).
Known as the "Thunder Wyvern," Astalos can charge itself with electricity from the furious movements of its wings, tail and crest. In its charged state, the membrane in its wings take on a beautiful glow that only barely offsets the terrible nature of this monster.
The idea for its wings to generate electricity came from crickets, which use their forewings to chirp.[1]
Astalos's design is heavily based on insects. Its tail comes from Dragonflies and its comb, or horn, comes from Treehoppers.[2]
Astalos was created after pterosaurs.
Astalos can electrically charge its head, wings or tail when attacking to increase the power of its attacks.
When it charges its head, its eyes will turn neon green and its horn will get an axe-like shape.
When it charges its wings, the webbing will turn transparent and the veins and spikes will glow bright green.
When it charges its tail, the "pincers" at the tip will glow green and change shape. It will also be able to inflict Paralysis with some of its tail-based attacks.
However, it's also more susceptible to damage and Elements on the charged body parts.
Astalos' horn, back, and both wings can be broken and its tail can be severed.
Breaking a charged body part will make it return to normal and also cause it to drop a shiny.
Staggering Astalos by hitting a charged body part will also return this body part to normal.
Astalos recovers stamina by eating from a carcass.
When exhausted, Astalos will lose all body charges it has at that moment.
Similar to Zinogre, Astalos can be fully charged by being caught in a Shock Trap. However, Astalos can also lose its charge from Shock Traps if a part is fully charged.
Astalos' roar requires Earplugs to block.
In-game, the Astalos encountered are always male.[3]
Astalos can knock down hunters during its death animation, when it falls down after trying to stand back up. This deals no damage, however.
G-Rank Astalos gains a new attack where it plants its tail into the ground and releases an electrical blast, paralyzing those in contact with the tail and stunning those blown away by the blast. It also uses two wing slams in succession instead of only one.
