We wiped 3 clean in WELL under 150, I think it was closer to 100, even taking our time and experimenting tons. Didn't bother for any completionist stuff (completing armory, etc) though as we just went back to 2G to work on it some more, 3 was a hefty drop off in content and difficulty from 2G
While 3G ramps up the content back to a proper level, I heard with Portable 3rd and 3G they really sliced into the difficulty even more. Getting to be kind of obnoxious, I'm buying the game no matter what but I hope it isn't THAT easy.
I'm gonna keep sayin' it, but if they insist on these things, they need to add in difficulty modes. I still want one to take it back to the classical days. To me, MH1 was what MH is supposed to be (in terms of challenge). Shit all hit like trucks, dropping anything was basically cause for celebration and everything was so damned meaningful. I miss those big gathering sessions before taking on a new boss and having to blow your whole inventory on it.
It was indeed too much for more casual players but hey, I'm just askin' fer a difficulty mode! For a game of this type, you really can't have a final difficulty mode that's too hard. Not that it was unbearable levels of hard or anything, still not as hard as something like a Souls game. Not as long as you went in prepared and smart, anyway.