MVP research: how it actually works
MVP research follows different rules from everything else in Monster Research, and most of those rules are never explained in-game. Get one of them wrong and you spend an hour hunting for nothing.
When it is worth doing
Do it after your 5 daily MVPs. Up to that point every MVP kill also pays out rewards, so you want to actually fight and kill them properly. Once the daily rewards are exhausted, nothing is left but the research counter — and that changes the whole approach. From that point on you are not trying to win the fight. You are trying to be present when it ends.
Do it solo — and this is etiquette, not preference. Those 5 daily MVPs are what feed the MVP ranking, so if you join a group where someone still has dailies left, your one-hit-and-die run drags their rating down. You have nothing left to gain and they have something to lose.
The exception is when everyone is in the same position: a party where all members have finished their dailies, or that simply is not chasing MVP ranking points, is fine. That is a proper MR run and everyone knows what they signed up for. Just make sure it was agreed — do not assume.
One hit is enough — with one condition
To have the kill counted, you only need to land a single hit on the MVP. You do not need to deal meaningful damage, and you do not need to survive.
The condition is the part people get wrong: you must not leave the map while the MVP is still alive. The counter is awarded when the MVP dies, not when you hit it. If you have left the map by then — including respawning somewhere else after dying — the hit does not count and the hour is wasted.
So if it kills you, stay down. Do not click respawn. Lie there until the MVP dies and the kill registers; a message appears on screen when it does. That message is your confirmation, and it is the only thing you are waiting for.
Finding it without wasting the spawn
MVPs spawn hourly, and each MVP spawns in exactly one map — that is the only sense in which its map is "special"; it is an ordinary map otherwise. Within that map, though, it appears at a random spot, and the map is not small.
That randomness is why the timing matters: the location marker only shows up about a minute after the spawn. So you have two options. Wait that minute and walk straight to the marker, or start hunting immediately with the minimap open, sweeping the map until the MVP icon appears. Waiting is usually calmer; searching is only worth it when you expect someone else to be racing you to the same spawn.
Why some MVPs are worth far more than others
An MVP kill gives a lot of research on its own, but the real prize is elsewhere. If an MVP is the single lowest member of an otherwise complete line, killing it raises the line bonus as well as its own research — and the line bonus jump can dwarf everything else. A single kill in that situation can be worth hundreds of MR.
That is exactly what the planner's MVP recommendation ranks by, and it is why the list sometimes points you at an MVP you would never have picked yourself. Note that it ignores drops entirely — if you are hunting for an accessory, that is a different question.