Monster Hunter Tri [Wii]

Wii Online Operations
You can only send someone a friend request by sending them a message, and you can only send a message to another player when they're online. It's annoying but at least once they're on your list they stay on your list. Note that messages in your inbox are deleted when you go offline. Unfortunately, you can also only send messages/add friends when the person is in a city and not on a quest.

When you create a character, you are immediately put in Moga village in the single player form. If you want to jump straight to online, choose "Quit Game" and then select the option "Mode Select." When you are at the mode select screen, choose "City" (the option on the right).

Trapping and Capturing
Playing the single player mode is a great idea, especially through the missions where you have to capture beasts. "Capturing" is an important skill to learn, and nothing makes you look like an awful player online like picking up a trap in the supply box and immediately setting it down on the ground. If no one has materials, the mission is pretty much failed.

Three steps for trapping:
(1) Weaken the monster until it is limping,
(2) drop a trap either in a path where it will go or while it is sleeping,
(3) hit it a bunch of times with tranq bombs/tranq bullets until you get mission complete. Stronger monsters (meaning both less damaged/more powerful) need more tranq shots.

Item Combinations
For those newbies starting out, here are some useful item combinations to get you started. Note that you will not find (or see) some of these items until a little later in the game!
Potion: Herb + Blue Mushroom
Mega Potion: Potion + Honey
Goldenfish Bait: Sneakbee Larvae + FireFly
Paintball: Sap Plant + Paintberry
Pit Trap: Net + Trap Tool
Shock Trap: Thunderbug + Trap Tool
Old Pickaxe: Stone + Bone -or- Stone + Mystery Bone
Tranquilizer: Sleep Herb + Parashroom
Tranquilizer Bomb: Tranquilizer + Bomb Casing