There are quite a few rare and deeply specific materials, like Shadowcore Ore, to be found in MHW. But find it you must! Those hard-to-make charms aren’t going to craft themselves. And Shadowcore Ore is vital for maxing out several top tier charms in Monster Hunter World. Thankfully, most crafting materials are easy enough to locate and collect. If you don’t know where to get it, odds are that they’re in the Guiding Lands. If they’re not just growing in the Guiding Lands, odds are you need to kill a Tempered monster. Simple! Now let’s determine where to find the elusive Shadowcore Ore in MHW.

More MHW Iceborne:

Like quite a lot of endgame crafting materials in MHW, Shadowcore Ore is gated behind your Master Rank. That usually just means you need to hit rank 69, to uncap zones in the Guiding Lands, or fight variants like Brute Tigrex. Other times it’s a bit more complex than that. I’m sorry to say the Shadowcore Ore location is one of those times…

Well, “complex” might not be the right word. It’s actually just a huge grind. Specifically, you need to grind your Master Rank high enough to unlock a Level 7 Guiding Lands region. Just about any region will do! Although you will need to hunt in one specific location, over and over again, to raise it that high.

Even just getting there is the real climb. That’s because Guiding Lands regions can only reach their maximum level once you hit Master Rank 99. At that point, you will receive a mission to uncap your Master Rank one final time in this expansion. From there on out, every major feature of Iceborne (as well as Shadowcore Ore) is available to you. Except some specific Assignments will still be locked behind even greater Master Rank… ranks.

Shadowcore Ore Location – MHW Iceborne Guide

The reason behind all this? It’s because there isn’t actually a “Shadowcore Ore location” in MHW. You don’t mine it, or buy it, or harvest it like bones. It only drops from Tempered Elder Dragon Investigations. And you can only get said Investigations when you gain access to Master Rank Tempered Elder Dragons (what a mouthful) when you hit Level 7 Guiding Lands.

At this point, you can acquire Tempered Elder Dragon Investigations in a number of ways. The most obvious is to fight Tempered Elder Dragons in the Guiding Lands (where they will spawn naturally and mostly at random). Make sure you pick up their tracks! These are the number one source of Investigations in MHW. As such, they’re vital for farming Shadowcore Ore in Iceborne.

Your other option is to just search for SOS flares. Specify Investigations, and perhaps pick a particular Elder Dragon you’d like to battle, to increase your odds of finding the right mission type. There’s a very good chance you’ll find other players trying to knock out Tempered Elder Dragons as well — whether it’s for the Shadowcore Ore or not. Just watch out for special rules! MHW Investigations can have special attributes, like fewer or greater total “carts” per mission, compared to normal Assignments.

Shadowcore Ore Location MHW

Shadowcore Ore Uses – MHW Iceborne Guide

Shadowcore Ore isn’t used when crafting very many items. And, at the launch of Iceborne, you only need a total of nine pieces to create everything it’s used in. That’s still a tall order, given how rare Shadowcore Ore can be, but it ought to give you a goal.

Here’s a list of every charm that requires Shadowcore Ore in MHW:

Awakening Charm III (Free Element/Ammo Up)
Critical Charm II (Critical Boost)
Evasion Charm IV (Evade Window)
Focus Charm III (Um… Focus. The Focus Charm gives the Focus skill. I don’t know why this one doesn’t have a special name or anything, like most of the others.)
Fury Charm IV (Resentment)
Grit Charm IV (Heroics)
Handicraft Charm IV (Handicraft. Again, there’s no special name. Why is this so inconsistent, Capcom?)
Invigorate Charm III (Power Prolonger)
Phoenix Charm II (Coalescence)

And there you have it! That’s everything you need to know about Shadowcore Ore and its location in MHW. We hope this guide helps you locate the stuff. Because we sure haven’t had much luck getting nine whole pieces! Damn RNG…

MHW Shadowcore Ore Location Guide - Where to Find Shadowcore Ore

Need the Shadowcore Ore location for Monster Hunter? We've gotcha, baby.

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