After Monster Hunter World and Rise introduced millions of players to the thrill of hunting massive monsters, Monster Hunter Wilds is poised to be the most popular entry in the long-running franchise yet. Even though Wilds does a lot to smooth over the rough edges of the past, it is still meant to be a long and complex experience, especially for newcomers. This isn’t a game where you can grab your weapon, a couple friends, and rush toward your next target without a plan and expect to come back alive. Seasoned hunters will know some of the basics, but there are plenty of new mechanics and tips to get familiar with in order to reach those high rank hunts. Let’s set up camp and go over the essential tips and tricks for Monster Hunter Wilds before mounting our Seikrets and rushing off.
It’s all in the preparation
In Monster Hunter Wilds, your hunt begins before you even take your first step out of your base. You can get by for a little while just rushing your next target, but soon enough you will need to spend a little time in your tent making preparations. The most important part is filling your hunter’s belly with a good meal. Once you unlock the grill, you should be giving yourself the best buffs possible before each hunt. Basic buffs like more HP and stamina are always great, but you can also be more specific and give yourself stronger resistance to whatever damage type your target uses.
This is also when you want to customize your radial menu. There are tons of items in Monster Hunter Wilds you will want quick access to, but not all on the same hunts. Much like your buffs, creating different loadouts for your current objective will save you a lot of stress fumbling in the menus. Sometimes you may want traps and bombs easily accessible, while others call for curative items. You can make and name a ton of loadouts, so spend some time setting a few up to save time later.
Finally, make sure you never run out of those essential items like poitions. On your way to hunts, always use your grapple to snag every resource and material you can spot. The game will automatically craft and refil your items for you when you rest to make sure you’re always stocked up.
Call in support
Your Palico does its best to aid you in battle, but this is a game that demands cooperation. Thanks to full cross-platform support, you have no excuse not to join up with other hunters as often as possible. You can ask for help upon selecting a quest, or while it is in progress by shooting up an SOS flair.
Even if you despise the idea of bringing in other players to your game, you can still call in NPC Support Hunters. They won’t be as effective as a team using diverse weapons and coordinating, but it can at least get you through the story.
Don’t forget your Palico
Speaking of your feline friend, don’t forget to purchase new weapons and armor for them as well. You might not see how much of an impact they have in a fight, but they’re in there doing their best so give them the best shot they can with new gear. If nothing else, new armor and weapons look adorable on them.
Utilize your Seikret
The Seikret is your new mount in Monster Hunter Wilds and is way more than just a quick way to cross the map. You will get in the habit of using it to auto-run towards your next objective right away, allowing you to focus on grabbing materials on the trip, but that is just scratching the surface of its uses.
During a fight, don’t be afraid to treat your Seikret as an assist. You can fight directly from its back to increase your mobility, plus take advantage of a unique dismount attack. This is especially useful when a monster is attempting to run, allowing you to get easy hits in while it flees. For the first time, you can also bring in a second primary weapon to your hunts, but have to mount up to swap them. There’s no need to fully commit to just one weapon anymore, so experiment and keep things fresh by swapping out on the fly.
Most of all, never manage your equipment on foot. If you need to heal and sharpen your blade, get on your Seikret first so you’re not a sitting duck while chugging a potion or working your whetstone.
Always work toward your next upgrade
There are no levels or XP in Monster Hunter Wilds. You can only earn money, Hunter Ranks, and materials. If you want to get stronger, you need to focus on getting better gear. Once you know which weapons you like best, either pick an upgrade path from the forge or follow Gemma’s recommendations. You can’t go wrong so long as you’re making or improving your gear.
To make this process as easy as possible, put whatever your next armor or weapon goals are on your wishlist. This will mark the monsters you need to hunt to get the required materials on the map and any quest focusing on them so you can easily get what you need. We suggest upgrading armor and weapons each time a new monster is introduced before moving forward while in low rank.
Attack with precision
A core aspect of Monster Hunter has always been breaking and cutting off monster parts. Just killing a monster won’t get you everything it has the chance of dropping, but there’s no chance of getting certain materials without deliberately focusing on severing a specific body part.
Holding R2 on a controller will let you manually aim your strikes to hit exactly where you want. It also is how you can create and destroy wounds to knock the monster down and deal a ton of damage.
Besides that, aiming is the best way to make sure your attacks don’t whiff. Once you start a combo without aiming, you can’t correct your direction if the monster moves, leading to a lot of misses.
Understand your weapons
With 14 weapons to pick from, each having its own unique mechanic, you could spend hours just figuring out which weapon you like most. There’s too much to go over here, so check out our weapons guide for more detail on each weapon, but our basic tip is to choose the two weapons you think are coolest first and play with them in the training area. Get a feel for their basic combos and what special properties they have. Once you have a pair you understand, take them out on some hunts.
Never be afraid to change your mind on what weapons you want to main. It is trivial to get early materials for new ones while in low rank, so don’t feel locked into any choice. However, you should nail down a focus at least by the end of the story mode.
Take advantage of the environment
The environment is just as much a tool as any item or weapon in Monster Hunter Wilds. Even a simple change in elevation can let you pull off jump attacks, but the further you get, the more dynamic options start to appear. Things like causing boulders to fall, dams to break and flood areas, or even grappling points to swing around an arena like Spider-Man will appear more frequently. These can cause massive damage, but don’t rush to trigger them instantly. Like traps, you need to lure the monster into position to make sure they hit them and not you.
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