Colosseum

The setting for all arena quests, the **Colosseum** is a huge, abandoned amphitheater just outside the Veya Ruins. Once a part of the city proper, it was used decades ago to host public events like concerts, speeches, and tournaments. It never used monsters while originally in operation, but now that the people are all gone the Guild has approved its use as a training ground.

### Modular Design

The Colosseum in its default state is empty, but this isn't always the way it appears! The Guild actually has a plethora of interchangeable components that can be moved in and out of it to create different layouts. Usually this is done to accommodate the specific kind of monster being fought, or to present the hunter with a unique challenge or opportunity. The entire Colosseum can also be flooded, allowing for underwater battles and and differing components.

**Land components:**

* Shallow ledges
* Sandbag walls
* Destructible pillars
* Destructible tower platforms
* Indestructible Boulders
* Falling boulder traps (high chance to topple monsters or dizzy hunters)
* Barrel bomb obstacles (deals more damage to hunters than normal Large Barrel Bombs)
* Beartraps (functionally similar to Shock Traps but can stop hunters too)
* Vine canopies
* Ballistae turrets
* Separator fence
* Dragonator

**Water components:**

* Free floating platforms
* Fixed platform with fishing pier
* Sea mine obstacles
* Frozen surface with destructible openings (also allows for land battles above)
* Ballistae turrets
* Separator fence
* Drain (slowly raises or lowers the water level and pulls/pushes nearby hunters and small monsters)

#### Music Choice

While the Colosseum does have a new theme that plays by default the player can also change that theme to one of several other arena themes from past games. Available tracks include:

* *Monster Hunter Dos - Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Freedom 2 / Freedom Unite - Great Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - Moat Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Frontier G - Great Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Frontier G - Competition Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Tri - Colosseum*
* *Monster Hunter Tri - Bonus Track (Phantom Uragaan)*
* *Monster Hunter Portable 3rd - Small Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Portable 3rd - Large Arena*
* *Monster Hunter 4 - Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Generations - Arena*
* *Monster Hunter World - Medium Monster Arena*
* *Monster Hunter World - Large Monster Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Rise - Arena*
* *Monster Hunter Verge - Colosseum*

The Colosseum's theme can be set at either the player's house or in base camp by talking to the housekeeper. Note that some special quests (mainly Events) have set music that cannot be changed.

### Weather

The Colosseum usually has clear, calm weather with neutral temperatures ranging only from Cool to Warm depending on the time of day. Light rain and snow are not unheard of here, though only snow affects the temperature, lowering it to Cold during the day and Very Cold at night and underwater. Seasonal storms are the arena's rarest condition of all and bring with them heavy torrential rain, lightning, and pitch black skies that make it impossible to distinguish day from night. Rainstorms are dramatic and can dampen the hunters senses but only lower the temperature to Cool.

It's worth noting that the Colosseum, being an artificial and curated arena, has far more static weather than any of the natural hunting grounds. Its weather changes much less often and is rarely so dramatic on "regular" quests like fighting Rathalos. The appearance of rainstorms and snow especially is usually linked with "thematically appropriate" quests like holiday events and battles with monsters from the Glacial Veldt.

### Sparring

One major difference between the Colosseum in Verge and other MH arenas is that most of its quests are treated as non-lethal training exercises rather than hunts. The monsters fought here have already been taken into captivity by the Guild and aren't threatening anyone or anything. There's no practical or ethical reason to bring them harm, so it's actually standard for the monsters to not be injured or killed. Body parts that would normally be severable like tails or horns won't come off no matter how much they're attacked, and upon defeat monsters will play their sleeping or resting animation instead of their death one. Of course this also means arena monsters can't be carved upon defeat, but compared to wild monsters they are more likely to drop shinies throughout a fight.

It's hinted in quest descriptions and NPC dialogue that some of the monsters fought in the Colosseum have been in captivity for quite some time, having names and trusted handlers they interact with peacefully offscreen. The interactions between these monsters and the hunters are described as friendly "sparring matches" where both parties choose to self handicap. Some of them even see it as a form of play behavior and might be having as much fun as the player. There are even a few special quests where these more socialized individuals can fight as allies to the hunter.

There are still some exceptions to this new norm, however. The act of slaying invasive monster species is sometimes approved here, especially when they represent a new threat to the area or are breeding out of control. Captive monsters can also go berserk sometimes, turning too violent to safely reign in or re-wild. The rarest and most dire of these extenuating circumstances is the appearance of wild monsters inside the Colosseum walls; these must be dealt with especially swiftly as they can not only threaten human life but also spread wild illnesses and parasites to captive monsters.