This (Mod-Approved) guide is to help you tell when an an attack is coming that'll kill you

outright, regardless of how good your Defence is. And a sort of Kill-guide for bow users.
(But you probably don't need it, you top-class hunters you! )

UPDATE: All moves that are merely really powerful, but not actual Insta Kills will have the tag
(SMD) or SuperMassively Damaging before the description.

SMD moves can still kill you in one hit, but there's always the chance to survive if you have
great armour.

PREPARATION- THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A

FATALIS BATTLE.
Felyne Kitchen: Eat Meat and Veggies to get health boost large and attack up.
Assuming you've gotten 5 cats (which you should, at HR 6!) here's the foods.

Bigmeat |Meat |
Dragon Head |Meat |
Dragon Tail |Meat |
King Turkey |Meat |

Fatty Tomato |Veggie |

King Truffle |Veggie |
Demonshroom |Veggie |
ie. combine Dragon Tail with King Truffle to get the results listed above.
If you can't get those, just eat 2 meats or 2 fishes. Meat for HP, OR fish for attack.

ITEMS:
10 Potions
10 Mega Potions (Potion+Honey)
1 Ancient Potion (Immuniser+Kelbi Horn) -Restores health and stamina to 150, all the way to
the end of the screen.
5 Nutrients (Blue Mushroom+Godbug)
5 Mega Nutrients (Nutrients+Honey)
10 Immunisers + 10 kelbi Horns (combine for more Ancient Potions)
5 Mega Jiuces (Well Done Steak+Power Extract) THIS IS IMPORTANT IF YOU'RE BOWING!
Powercharm
Armourcharm
Book of Combos 1 2 and 3
AND/OR Powertalon (Pcharm+Lao Shan Claw) and Armortalon (Acharm+Lao Shan Claw)

 If you take an Armourcharm, as well as an Armourtalon, both will boost your defence.
the same goes for the Power items. expensive, but worth it in the long run.

Armour:
I recommend trying to get Rathalos Soul U gear, Reckless Abandon plus hear protect (you'll
really need High Grade Earplug) is good. the downside is the health taken off, but if you drink
an Ancient potion at the start, then retreat and combine another, it should work out.
Also, try to get quick eating skill using gems, it really helps out a lot. Fatalis isn't that quick,
you see...
Alternatively, you could use the Tigrex S armour, it gives speed eating and High Grade
Earplug (if you Gem it)

The Demonic Protection is a downer, but on the other hand, its not like you'll be any worse off
against the power of Fatalis...
Because the Protection Skills activate more when you take loads of hits, reducing/increasing
damage. And if you play it right, you'll never be hit by Fatalis, so you work it out.
In fact, there's no point wearing high defence armour, find some really good skill armour
that'll give you HGE, Reckless Abandon +whatever, and maybe Quick Eating or Divine
Protection.

Try not to get ANY negative skills whatsoever. But if you have to, just try and work around
them.

Weapons:
Ok, here's the lowdown. this isn't going to be easy, especially with the paltry weapons you
have on offer as of right now. The best bet would be to craft the Dragon Bow Earth, and use
loads of Power Coatings plus Empty Bottle+Nitroshroom to combine more.
Even better would be to get a friend to help you, but that can't always happen...

THE BATTLE:

Black Fatalis:
Ok, so it's the easiest Fatalis (to most), but it still packs a punch and will wipe the floor with
you if you get careless.

And that's without Insta-kill moves...

Move - High Flying Meteor Attack
Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)

Fatalis will beat its wings and fly several metres into the air. It will hover there, then fire
meteors at you. Yes, Meteors. They're too big to be mere fireballs.

The safest place is underneath him, running in circles around the edges of his shadow.
See?

You can tell when he's about to land, as he'll start kicking up dust. that's a good time to put
some distance between you and him.
If you stand facing, then the dust kicks up, run to the left or right of it to avoid being landed
on.

Alternatively, you could try running as far away as possible, and get out of range of the
blasts. just make sure you can get out of the way of any meteors he sends your way.

If he has his tail spread out behind him, then he's going to land normally. But, if it's curled
underneath...

Move - Low Flying Meteor Attack

Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)
Fatalis will hover a couple of metres off the ground and fire meteors at you from that close
range. It's a lot harder to dodge than the first Insta-Kill, but it can be avoided sometimes by
running in circles, sort of diagonally towards Fatalis. you need to avoid the tail, because it'll
hit you and throw you right into an oncoming meteor
If you get far enough away from him, he'll just land without shooting meteors.

Move - Snap and Drag

Regular: SMD
Enraged: Insta-Kill

Occasionally, Fatalis will crouch down on all fours, and rush forward, snapping at anything in
front of him. This doesn't mean you're safe at his side. During this animation, if he's Enraged,
touching any single part of Fatalis is an instant kill. Best to give it some distance.

Move - Meteor Blast

Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)
After walking forward a bit, he'll rear up and shoot a meteor directly in front of him. Dodge it.
Need i say more?

TACTICS FOR BLACK FATALIS:

BOWING
Oh, this is laughably easy. Stay in front of him, but slightly to the left, about 15 metres or so
(about 40 feet) and charge shots to hit him in the face/neck/chest, his weak(er) spots. if you
can, lure him to the massive gate between the two arenas, it'll drop on him giving you a
moment to attack or heal.

Because you keep so far back, you can anticipate his movements without going out of range.

Try to keep moving, if you keep running left to right in front of him, he'll turn (Very slowly) to
face you. And when he's turning, he's not attacking. Capiche?

When he flies into the air, hightail it as far away as you can get, toward the other arena. If
you can, go through the gate and get to the other side, he'll have a 60% chance of landing
again without shooting meteors.
OR
Walk underneath him. He'll fire a meteor, then, after 3 seconds, either fire 3 more meteors or
start to descend. if you count (one one thousand, 2 one thousand, three one thousand) and
he doesn't fire a meteor, run out.

Don't bother with the Dragonator in the southern arena, unless you're doing it with friends
who'll distract him. Don't bother going on the ledges either unless you got a good reason.

BOWING THE DOWNLOADED FATALIS:

The downloaded Fatalis quests are much, much harder than the unlockables. You only get
one round (50 minutes) to kill the monster of get hit with a Quest Failure screen. This means
you really have to kick things into gear and pull out all the stops.

First, bring 5 Mega Juices and (Kelbi Horn+Immuniser) to make more. then, charge up to the
second level of bow, and as soon as that little flash tells you it's charged, shoot him! Stay
close, and harass him with Pierce shots as much as you can. If he flies into the air, that's a a
whole half a minute you can't land any hits on him, so try to keep him grounded.
If he flies out of range, run and fire at him as soon as you think you can hit him with Pierce
Arrows (They travel the furthest). I can't stress this enough, you can't back off for a second or
it'll be too late.

CANNONLOCK: Climb up on the ledge that leads to base camp, then Get the Fatalis to walk
over. Retreat into the camp area, get a Cannon S (from the cannonballs on the floor) then run
out, fire at him and go back to camp. He'll stay in the one spot, allowing multiple consecutive
hits., possibly until he's dead.
 Don't attempt cannonlocking if you're going solo on Fatalis, as there is no good
opportunity to attack. K3 and myself have tried cannonlocking solo, and met with
failure.

MLIR and BlackJackH3 go into more detail about cannonlocking the Black Fatalis here.

CRIMSON FATALIS:
Definitely a leap up from the regular kind, the Crimson variant is vicious and introduces new
attacks to the battle.

Move - Claw Swipe

Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)
Crimson introduces this attack, where he'll swipe the ground in front of him. generally, he'll
initiate it when you're close by, but I've seen him do it from up to 100 metres away...
My advice is to look at his head. if it's not visible, and is above the top of the screen, then
you're probably unsafe from the claw attack. Using the default up/down view (the camera
angle at the very start of every quest), gauge the distance and try to keep his eyes at
about... the very top of the screen.

Move - Meteor Roar

Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)

Crimson will step forward, and do a smallish roar.

The Meteor Roar doesn't make you cover your ears.
It summons (you guessed it) meteors that shower down from the sky. they're really powerful,
but they illuminate the ground before they strike, giving you just a little warning to hightail it
out of there.

Note that the area about 5 or 10 metres in front of the Fatalis is a safe zone- no meteors will
strike in there.
Move - High Diver
Regular: Insta-Kill
Enraged: Insta-Kill

This is oner of the few completely Insta-Kill moves that the Fatalis have. Enraged or not,
you're in danger.
Once you piss him off enough (or wander far enough away, I'm not sure) he has a random
chance of flying up really high, past the usual meteor blast height.

He's about to dive bomb you so make sure you're not directly in front of him. He'll fly down,
and travel roughly half of hte battleground in the Insta-Kill animation, then crash land.

Move - Standing Start Dive

Regular: Insta-Kill
Enraged: Insta-Kill
Same as above, but he leaps forward without warning and kills you...

ENRAGED CRIMSON FATALIS: Beat him up enough, and he'll start looking like this:
NOTE: There are actually 2 stages of Crimson Fatalis Rage, the one above, as well as a
normal-looking state but he huffs bright blue smoke.

Basically when he gets enraged, everything's an Insta-Kill. You know how i said that the flying
Meteor shooting thing he does is only an SMD? not when fatty is angry...

WHITE FATALIS:
The most glorious, deadliest Fatalis. This variant has more Insta-Kills than the other two.
There's only one word to describe facing the White Fatalis for the first time... Epic.

PREPARE TO DIE.

The White Fatalis has the normal move list of the crimson Fatalis:

Move - Claw Swipe

Regular: SMD <verified>
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)
Just like Crimson's, keep the head in view to keep alive.
(UNCONFIRMED) White Fatalis may also swipe with his left claw, but I haven't gotten a
screenshot as of yet.

Move - Meteor Attack

Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)
Move - High Flying Meteor Blast
Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)

He'll fly up and launch meteors. getting far enough away is problematic, seeing as eh top of
the Tower isn't the largest battleground, but it can be done.

Move - Low Flying Meteor Blast

Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)
I'm sure you'll know what to do here, if you've beaten the other two Fatalis.

Move - Lightning Roar

Regular: SMD (?)
Enraged: Insta-Kill (?)
Just like the Crimson's Meteor Roar, but summons red Lightning.
These bolts of red lightning are frighteningly fast, and are comfirmed to be Insta-Kills.
They have a zone (fully in the white) that will kill you, but in the faded part and the area
around it is just an SMD attack. still, try your best to not get hit...
BUT!
Just like Crimson, the area in front of White is safe from attack!

Move - Super Lightning Roar

Regular: ??? <note that White usually only does this move while enraged>
Enraged: Insta-Kill <verified>
White will fly very high in the air, then make his way to the pinnacle of the tower. There, he'll
roar 3 times, sending down showers of lightning at you. Insta-kill!

But Never fear, for i have a trick! see that boulder blocking the entrance?

Yes, that's the one. Run towards it, facing Fatalis.

Yes, just like that! now, when he roars, sprint toward Fatalis. if you see any lights on the
ground at your feet, do the invincible leap to avoid it!
UPDATE: 99% of the time, no lightning bolt will get close enough to actually hit you. And
even if it does and you're caught unawares, its 99.999% going to be far enough away that
only the splash damage will hurt you.

And thanks to our very own Ladydragon, here's another spot where the Lightning rain won't
hit.

The square I'm on, and the one ahead of where my player is facing are safe.
Move - High Dive/Meteor Snipe
Regular: ??? <note that White usually only does this move while enraged>
Enraged: Insta-Kill (High Dive)/SMD (?)

Occasionally White Fatalis will fly up high, but not go to the tower. This means he'll either
launch some meteors at you from great height, or dive bomb you.
EQUIPMENT THAT CAN BE MADE FROM FATALIS:
BLACK FATALIS:
Dragon S Armour (Blademaster)

Dragonhead S: NO DATA YET

Dragonhide S
Defence- LV1 : 70
LV12: 92
Fire Res: 0
Thunder Res: 2
Dragon Res: -5
Water Res: 2
Ice Res: 2

Open Slots: 1
Skills: Sharpness+2
Fencing+2
Stamina-3

Dragonclaw S
Defence- LV1 : 70
LV12: 92
Fire Res: 0
Thunder Res: 2
Dragon Res: -5
Water Res: 2
Ice Res: 2

Open Slots: 2
Skills: Sharpness+2
Fencing+2
Stamina-3

Dragonspine S
Defence- LV1 : 70
LV12: 92
Fire Res: 0
Thunder Res: 2
Dragon Res: -5
Water Res: 2
Ice Res: 2

Open Slots: 1
Skills: Sharpness+2
Fencing+2
Stamina-3

Dragonfeet S
Defence- LV1 : 70
LV12: 92
Fire Res: 0
Thunder Res: 2
Dragon Res: -5
Water Res: 2
Ice Res: 2

Open Slots: 3
Skills: Sharpness+2
Fencing+2
Stamina-3

More coming later...

ADD!: a section of screenshots of weird Fatalis glitches, and now also cool pics as well.
Yup, hes walking on air over there... too bad i couldn't get closer.

WRAWR! IM'A SHOOT MY CANNON!

How is that not one of the coolest reward screens ever!?