Welcome to Monster Hunter Wilds! The Monster Hunter series has seen explosive growth in popularity over the past few years, and Wilds promises to continue that trend.

This is a wonderful, quirky series with a lot of content. Each game offers dozens to hundreds of hours worth of entertainment for those willing to dive in. With that amount of content, there is a lot to know, and so much to learn. This guide aims to help ease in new players to the series, or refresh the memory of returning veterans.

Some key things to understand about Monster Hunter:

• This is a notoriously difficult series to get into. It took me three solid attempts over several years to break in and finally "get" it. Capcom has made great strides to make each successive game more approachable, but don't feel discouraged if you don't enjoy the game; it's not for everyone.
  
• Combat is slow and deliberate. It's not a spectacle fighter. When you hit an attack button, you commit to that attack. With few exceptions, you can't dodge or block until it's complete. You have to read your opponent and anticipate their attacks so you can respond in kind.
  
• Your character has no "stats," and doesn't level up. Your character is exactly the same at the beginning of the game as they are at the end-game. The only things that improve are your supplies, weapons, armor, and your own skill and knowledge as a player.
  
• There's only so much a guide can teach. If you know someone who plays Monster Hunter, ask them. Nothing can compare to a veteran teaching you the game and answering your questions as they come up. Even if you don't know someone in-person or online, there's plenty of resources dedicated to helping people learn this wonderful series, including the many discord servers dedicated to Monster Hunter. The Monster Hunter Gathering Hall[discordapp.com] is the officially partnered one.

All in all, there are two priorities in Monster Hunter:

1. Don’t get hit
   
2. Hit the monster

The order is important. If you can remember and abide by that mantra, you’ll be all right.

Trying to learn everything about a game as big as Monster Hunter Wilds all at once can be intimidating. Don't worry! Take your time. It will all become second nature as you get familiar. Monster Hunter is a long game, and you have plenty of time to get acclimated at your own pace.

Keep in mind this game just came out. While most of this guide's information is based off demo playtime and official media sources, some parts are speculation based off trends from previous games. I will update the guide accordingly once information becomes available.

No. The Monster Hunter series has barely any story at all. Most games can nearly all boil down to: "a big monster is threatening the local ecosystem; can you take care of it?" You can jump straight into Monster Hunter Wilds without any trouble.

Take this first paragraph with a grain of salt; very little of it is referenced in the series directly. Some of this info comes from notes from artbooks and concept art, and may or may not be considered canon. Either way, it can be fun to think about.

A long time ago, there was an ancient civilization[monsterhunter.wikia.com] of many races, including humans and wyverians, who are humanoids with four fingers and pointed ears. They possessed great knowledge and had an advanced level of technology unknown today. They exploited the wyverns and elder dragons of their time. At some point, they performed The Forbidden Act, killing numerous wyverns to create their own massive bioweapon lifeform called the Equal Dragon Weapon/Wyvern Machine Soldier. Many of these bioweapon lifeforms were made. This greatly angered the dragons, sparking the Great Dragon War. It was a terribly violent conflict that left the ancient civilization in ruins and most dragons extinct.

With most of the world in shambles and the knowledge and technology of the ancient civilization lost, humans and wyverians adopted a new culture. Instead of directly antagonizing wyverns and dragons, they would instead live alongside them with a healthy respect for nature. This isn't to say conflict ceased entirely: wyverns are a constant threat to humanoids and other monsters alike, and something needed to be done to protect the peace.

The Hunter's Guild was formed to maintain that peace. It's the central governing body of the world, and the primary way monster-related problems get solved. Officially-sanctioned hunters are not out to annihilate all monsters, rather, they're more glorified park rangers. They hunt down overpopulated animals, eliminate disruptive invasive species, and protect towns from marauding monsters. Guild Knights are dispatched to execute poachers that disobey these rules. Everything is done to learn more about the world and protect the world's ecosystem.

The Monster Hunter setting is sometimes referred as something akin to "cave punk", a world where many structures and tools are made of wood, stone, and dinosaur bone. That isn't to say the culture is primitive—alchemy, metallurgy, and aviation are all present. Access to fantastical monster parts and recovered ancient technology has led society to develop airships and advanced weaponry like dragonators and charge blades.

A few months before the game released, Capcom released this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWnKdXMgNeQ It serves as a good introduction to the Monster Hunter world, though some (in good fun) conspiratorially call it pro-Guild propaganda.

A young boy named Nata is discovered near the border of the Forbidden Lands, an area believed to be uninhabited ever since access was restricted a thousand years ago. He wants to return to his clan, the Keepers, who supposedly live there. He fled his village after a monster attacked, and from his descriptions, it seems to be a fearsome monster long thought extinct.

Scholars remained skeptical, until they examined his pendant and found it to be made of material they've never seen before. The Hunter's Guild organized an expedition into the Forbidden Lands to find the Keepers and this mysterious monster. You are among the hunters assigned to the mission to handle any monsters that get in the way of the investigation.

You are leader of the Avis unit, a small team also tasked with protecting Nata during the expedition. Your unit includes Guild Handler Alma, Gemma the Smithy, and your trusty sidekick Palico.

Monster Hunter has a lot of information on screen, so let's break down what you're looking at to get a better sense of what's going on. Click the image below to make it larger if you need to see more detail.



TOP LEFT
Let's start with the top left and go clockwise. At the very top, above the green bar, is a buff icon. If you have any temporary effects, buffs and debuffs will appear here. The green bar itself is your health. The yellow bar is the stamina bar, which depletes with actions such as running, dodging, and some special attacks.

Below the stamina bar are weapon status icons. These may be different depending on what weapon you are wielding. This player is using a hammer, which doesn't have any. Other weapons, such as Long Sword or Gunlance, have special gauges or ammunition displays. Aside from weapon-specific indicators, all melee weapons ("Blademaster") will have a sharpness gauge, which measures your weapon's condition through its color and how full the bar is. Each time you hit a monster, your sharpness decreases. When it reaches a lower sharpness category, it decreases your damage output and can even cause your attacks to bounce off monsters. You'll find a more thorough explanation of sharpness in the weapons section below.

Beneath that is your hunting party. This shows an overview of your group's health, buffs, debuffs, and whether they're in combat with a monster or not (with the red eye icon over their weapon).

TOP RIGHT
To the top right of the screen, we can see the action suggestions. This lists most available actions the player can take, as well as the button prompts to do them. This changes dynamically depending on what the player is currently doing. To the left of that, the large text highlighted in green is your current action. It can help to pay attention to this corner while learning the game. If you find it distracting, you can turn it off in the options.

Below that is the current quest objective and the time limit. This example's hunt is about 4 minutes in, with a time limit of 30 minutes. Pretty straightforward.

Below the objective is a notification area. This is where research, tracking, player chat, NPC chat, combat notifications, environmental events, and acquired loot is displayed.

BOTTOM RIGHT
At the bottom right of the screen is a small version of your item bar. The most prominently-displayed item is your currently-selected one. Pressing the button displayed there while your weapon is sheathed will use that item. You can change your currently-selected item by holding down the button displayed on top of the item bar.

Left of the item bar is a small status indicator of your mantles. It shows whether it's ready, equipped, or on cooldown.

To the left of that is the ammunition currently equipped to your Slinger.

BOTTOM LEFT
At the bottom left of the screen, to the right of the minimap, is your monster lock-on. If multiple monsters are around, you can select different ones to lock on to.

Displayed prominently on the bottom left is the minimap. It displays the general topography and shows points of interest such as gathering points. The outline color of the minimap will show your current status: red in combat, black out of combat, and gray if near a monster that's unaware of you.

Tucked in the corner is the current time of day and weather. In this example image, the ecosystem is currently in Fallow at late night, just before dawn. The colored border around the circle indicates how long each time period lasts and relatively how soon until the next one arrives.

Above the minimap are a list of objects of interest close by. You can usually interact with these with your Slinger. Pay attention for anything you may need, such as Slinger ammo, natural healing sources, or environmental traps to take advantage of.

You can customize many UI elements in the options, including size and visibility.

Let's have a closer look at that top left part of the screen. In many ways, it's one of the most important parts of the UI.



Once again, you can see buffs and debuffs above the Health and Stamina Bar. If you hold down the button to swap items in the Item Bar (left shoulder button by default), you'll see a circular timer indicating how long they will last. When a buff or debuff is about to expire, it will display how many seconds are left.

The long green part of the health bar shows how much health you currently have. The red portion means you were recently damaged. As long as you don't take any more damage, that portion of health will recover over time. The gray, empty part on the right will not recover by itself; you need to heal yourself to restore it. You can do so in many ways, from drinking potions to interacting with certain (green-colored) plants and animals.

Curiously, this stamina bar is blue. Why? Because this player is afflicted with the Waterblight debuff, indicated with the water drop icon above. The abnormal color indicates that something is affecting your stamina usage or recovery.

What might be harder to notice is that this stamina bar is full, even though it's not filling out the whole bar. This is because as time goes on, your hunter becomes hungry. This will cause maximum stamina to become capped at a lower level than normal. You can alleviate this by eating food such as Rations, Well-Done Steak, or any cooked meal.

On the left side of the Health and Stamina bars, you can see green and yellow pips that somewhat resemble an animal's paw. These pips are another indicator of your maximum health and stamina. If all five are bright, you're at maximum potential health or stamina. If some of them are faded out, your health or stamina is capped below the maximum.

Try to always keep your health and stamina topped up. You may need to eat a meal from a tent or with a Portable BBQ Grill.

---

Your health bar also reacts to danger. If you're at extremely low health, it will flash green and red to gain your attention. If a monster is about to use an especially powerful attack, your health bar will go wild:



Getting hit with an attack like that will drop your health quite low, if not knock you out entirely.

Let's bring up the map, shall we? Click the image below if you need to look closer. By using controls at the bottom, you are free to move, rotate, and zoom on the map to orient yourself. You can also fullscreen the map if you need more space.



This time, let's start in the middle with the map itself. Usually, the yellow arrow in the is your character, pointing in the direction your character is facing. If you are playing in multiplayer, players will show up as other arrows in their respective color. No matter what color arrow you are, your icon will always emit small circles to draw attention to where you are. When you open the map, it will usually be centered on your character.

In this example, I'm playing in multiplayer. The host (yellow) is near the river in the top right. I am near a tent, with a circle indicating where I am as the blue arrow. The green player is on a lower level, near a Balahara.

You can see that the map itself is labelled with numbers such as 13, 11, 2, etc. This can be useful when coordinating with other hunters in multiplayer. "Let's hunt the Doshaguma in area 10," for example.

Near areas 9 and 16 you can see camp tent icons, indicating that the player has a tent placed there. You can fast travel to these locations, restock items, change equipment, et cetera. Other potential tent locations are indicated by the small signpost icons. Generally, the more central or open a tent location, the more vulnerable it is to monsters finding and destroying it.

In the top left is the name and icon of the map you're on. Below that is the current time and weather. In this case, the Windward Plains are currently in Fallow during the evening.

Beneath the time and weather is the zoom level. Press the buttons as indicated to zoom in or zoom out. Below the map zoom level is your map elevation. Press the buttons as indicated to change what elevation of the map you're currently looking at. Whenever you bring up your map, it will be at your current elevation by default.

On the bottom left, pressing left or right brings up an extra menu for the map. The first option is Fast Travel, for quick selection of places to fly to. This is usually faster than manually moving the cursor over travel destinations on the map.

By default, there are the many icons dotting the map, showing items you can gather, monsters roaming around, camp locations, et cetera. This is helpful for gathering or determining where to go. You can select anything on the map and hit "Set Waypoint" for your Seikret to automatically travel there, or have Scoutflies show you the way on foot.

If there's too many icons on the map, you can filter icons to your liking. You can choose to only see gathering points, Slinger ammo, traps/environmental notes, endemic life, small monsters, or nothing at all. In my example, I disabled some icons to declutter the map.

By pressing the Environment Overview button, details will show up on the right side of the screen. This will show overall useful info for the map. The first page, Update, shows anything new that's happened recently.



Perhaps more useful is the second page, Current (displayed on the left), which shows every large monster and event that's present on the map at this point in time. The five-pointed star indicates the level of a quest. If the five-pointed star is blue, it's a low rank quest. If it is orange, it is a high rank quest.

The pink/purple four-pointed stars next to a monster show its relative strength compared to others of the same species. You'll also get a preview of some rewards if you hunt that particular monster. Keep that in mind if you're looking for something specific.

The third page, Forecast (displayed on the right), shows what's coming up soon. At the top, you can see the current time and weather. The colored bars show when the ecosystem's weather will change over the next day/night cycle. The large section taking up most of the page shows what monsters (red bar) and events (green bar) will appear and how long they will stay in the area.

You might notice the red monster bar fades while the green event bars end abruptly. Events have a set duration that do not change from outside interaction. Monsters, though, will leave the area at varying times due to outside stimuli. They may leave earlier if they're close to an exit, or stay longer if they're in combat.

Whenever you're taking a break early on, take some time and look through the options menu and make sure everything is to your liking. There are some settings that veteran hunters recommend.

Some options, mainly ones related to graphics, can only be changed from the title screen. The game plays a lot better with a high framerate. On PC, adjust your settings so you have a decently high framerate. On console, set graphics settings to prioritize framerate.

Within the Options Menu:

• If the game looks dull or washed out, chances are your brightness is set too high. Many players found the game looks much better by going into Display ➔ Brightness and tuning Brightness Adjustment 3 (Overall Luminosity) according to the on-screen instructions.
  
• If you have framerate issues while in Base Camp, enable the option to hide other players' Seikrets. That can significantly reduce the amount of models, textures, and animations taking up resources.
  
• Turn off Seikret Auto-Explore. This option affects Manual Control mode. Most players prefer to sit still when not pressing any inputs. Auto-Explore has no effect on how your Seikret moves in Auto Mode.
  
• Set Hold Confirmation Duration to short. This shortens the time it takes to call your Seikret, as well as a few other commands. It may only save a small amount of time, but over a long play session it'll add up. It can also make the difference between carting and getting away in emergencies.
  
• Disable Auto Sheathe. This causes your character to automatically sheathe their weapon while standing still a few seconds. It's a small thing, but it is an interruption to controlling your character. This can cause you to put your weapon away when you don't want to, like locking you into the animation when a monster just spotted you and is about to attack. This option still allows you to automatically sheath when running.
  
• Aim/Focus Mode can be changed to Hold or Toggle. Try out both to see what fits your playstyle. This may depend on the weapon. Some benefit more from being in Focus Mode than others.
  
  • You can also choose to have the Aim/Focus Mode Hold/Toggle set differently between melee and ranged weapons.
• Set Seikret Manual Controls to Type 2. While in Manual Mode, your Seikret will control more similarly to how your Hunter does.
  
• Set Camera Distance: Zoom to 10. The further away your camera is, the more you can see what's going on during a fight, especially against larger monsters.
  
• By default, the camera tries to keep large monsters in view. If you find yourself fighting this automatic adjustment, disable Focus Camera. Despite the name, this is unrelated to Focus Mode.
  
• When you first encounter a monster, the camera will forcefully zoom in on it for a few seconds. You can disable Monster Sighting Camera to stop this behavior.

Here's a few more suggestions that are outside of the Options Menu:

• While in the in-game menu, hit the Sub Menu button to edit tabs. You can enable a Favorites Tab, which you can customize to have your most commonly used menu items for easier access.
  
• During hunts in multiplayer, you may notice that players automatically send chat messages when certain things happen, such as mounting a monster or placing a trap. You can customize these in the communication menu. Enable or disable them as you please. Most players leave them with default settings, but some change these call-outs to say something that reflects their character.
  
• While looking at stickers in the Communication menu, you can press a button to customize the text displayed within the sticker. Using customized stickers can add extra personality to your messages.

Of course, these are just recommendations. Give them a try, but if you prefer the default, feel free to go back. What's most important is using what works for you!

Looking for quest-specific options? You need to talk to Alma. In the Post/Join Quest menu, select Settings.

• You can choose the maximum number of players to hunt with. This can be useful to ensure that groups of 2 or 3 can play together without extra people joining. You can even set it to 1 to always play solo.
  
• Multiplayer Settings let you choose who joins you whenever you use an SOS Flare: only other players, only NPCs, or allow both.
  
• There's an option to automatically shoot an SOS Flare at the start of every quest, to ensure constant support without having to manually do so.
  
• You can also set a Passcode to ensure you only play with people you want to.

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While that covers the basics and will take you through low rank, eventually you're going to want to start customizing item sets, equipment sets, the radial menu, and maybe even the item bar. However, setting all that up at the beginning can be overwhelming at first. They can wait until you're settled in.

These take some time to set up, but save you a lot more time in the long run.

• Saving an item set allows you to quickly retrieve or restock your preferred items while depositing everything else.
  
• Saving equipment sets allows you to change between combinations of armor, weapons, and decorations without having to swap it all out one-by-one.
  • For example, my first equipment set would be a general-purpose loadout used for most hunts. Additional equipment sets are for more situational benefits, such as item gathering. I also build sets to counter specific monsters, such as having one with high elemental resist or poison immunity. Having these saved in advance allows me to change to what I need instantly any time I'm in a tent.
• Take some time to customize your Radial Menu so you have quicker access to your preferred actions. This can include crafting items, using specific items, quick chat, stickers, and emotes.
  
• It's a little unintuitive to control the setup, but you can also customize your Item Bar. This can be immensely useful for sifting through items faster, especially since you can now stack item bar entries vertically. Check your options on different methods of opening and navigating your Item Bar.

It's no secret that Monster Hunter Wilds runs poorly on many PCs, so people have put in a lot of work in squeezing out extra performance without sacrificing visuals too much. These changes require modifying game files and/or installing software, so only look into this if you are comfortable doing so. Results may vary depending on your setup.

Monster Hunter Wilds Performance Megathread

DarkHero 2's Boost FPS and Increase Performance Guide

Monster Hunter Wilds has fourteen different weapon types to choose from. You are not locked in to one. Your character is free to use as many of them as they see fit, and change between them as much as they want.

You start with a basic weapon of every type, so do yourself a favor. This game offers dozens to hundreds of hours of gameplay, so at least spend a few minutes on the training dummy with each weapon to familiarize yourself with each one. Then do a hunt or three with the few weapons that seemed interesting to you. It's fine to "main" a single weapon type, but versatility can be helpful if you want a change of pace.

This is especially true now that we can have two weapons equipped to our loadout. At any time while riding your Seikret, swapping weapons is a button press away. This is great for adapting strategies on the fly!

If you main a blunt weapon, your secondary could be a cutting weapon for severing tails. Maybe you keep a Hunting Horn on the side for buffs, or a Light Bowgun for inflicting status ailments. Perhaps you have a weapon you like while playing solo, and can switch to a weapon your prefer in multiplayer when other players join up. You can even have two of the same weapon type equipped, perhaps to take advantage of elemental weaknesses or status effects.

When choosing weapons, don't compare damage values between weapon types. Only compare Lances to Lances, Bows to Bows, etc. You may notice that Greatsword has a much higher damage value than most other weapon types, but that's because it's much, much slower. So don't worry about finding the "best" weapon type and use what you find works for you. Overall DPS is comparable across the board assuming basic competence with the weapon.

You can change weapon display to show "true values" by going into the Game Settings in the Options menu and setting Weapon Attack Power Display to "Display Without Coefficient". This doesn't change anything gameplay-wise; it's just an alternative way to compare weapons when looking at stats.

You may sometimes see melee weapons referred as "Blademaster" weapons and ranged weapons as "Gunner" weapons; this is a distinction from older games in the series, so the terms are often used interchangeably.

The official Monster Hunter channel has a good video for a quick overview and demonstration of each weapon's capabilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Iwrf2R5Uo
When trying out weapons, it's highly recommended to open up the menu and navigate to:
Info ➔ Play Guide ➔ Weapon Controls
This will show additional information about each weapon, including some combos.

I've linked several guides for each weapon; I recommend watching more than one since no single source really covers everything a weapon is capable of. Many weapons have subtle nuances and hidden peculiarities that are easy to miss. Many of these initial videos were made during the beta tests - some weapons have had movesets adjusted or have new attacks. I'll be adding more links over time as more detailed, comprehensive guides become available.

Without a doubt the most iconic weapon of the series. While slow, it's also capable of incredibly destructive damage. Great Sword users benefit the most from knowing the monsters. They often adopt a hit-and-run style: hit where it hurts, then get out and wait for the next opportunity. The shoulder tackle makes it easy to maintain a charge through monster's roars and get to the monstrous True Charged Slash. When a monster is asleep and you're not capturing it, the Great Sword user is the wake-up call. Just be wary to not overcharge and lose out on damage.
The Greatsword can Power Clash and Offset Attack.
Game8 Great Sword Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Great Sword Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Great Sword Weapon Master Guide
Revvy's Great Sword Beginner's Guide
Arrekz Long Sword Tutorial

With long range and wide sweeping attacks, it's no wonder the Long Sword is so popular. By landing attacks or successfully countering, the Long Sword raises its Spirit Gauge. By hitting the final attack of its spirit combo, the Long Sword becomes stronger. In some ways, it can be considered a weapon of momentum: as long as you can keep your spirit level up, your damage will remain high. It can reposition mid-combo with Fade Slash, and can counter attacks with Foresight Slash without missing a beat. The high-reaching vertical attacks make cutting tails easy, and its spectacular finisher, the Helm Breaker with Spirit Release, is devastating.
Game8 Long Sword Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Long Sword Intro Guide
Revvy's Long Sword Beginner's Guide
LightItUpDan's Long Sword Weapon Master Guide

Often touted as a simple weapon, the Sword & Shield is not to be underestimated. It has great versatility across the board, not lacking in any particular department except attack range. Sword & Shield is unique in that it can use items while the weapon is unsheathed. Best paired with elemental and status weapons. Attacks that utilize the shield deal KO damage and can knock out a monster.
Sword & Shield can Power Clash.
Game8 Sword & Shield Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Sword & Shield Intro Guide
Revvy's Sword & Shield Beginner's Guide
LightItUpDan's Sword & Shield Weapon Master Guide
gaijin hunter's Sword & Shield Tutorial

With fast attacks and dashes, Dual Blades are masters of elemental damage and status application. When engaging Demon Mode and draining stamina, they get a stronger moveset that makes them immune to small forms of knockback. If they deal enough damage to maximize their gauge, they enter Archdemon mode, increasing attack and extending their relentless assault. Perfect dodges before a monster strikes enables a further-powered state where they attack while dodging. The iconic Demon Dance attack has been split into three parts, allowing users to dodge or switch to alternate combos mid-dance. Stamina management is key to their strategy.
Game8 Dual Blades Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Dual Blades Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Dual Blades Weapon Master Guide
Arrekz Dual Blades Tutorial

The Lance boasts the strongest shield, but don't let that fool you: it is among the most aggressive weapons in the game. While other weapons have to sheath and run to dodge dangerous attacks, a proper Lancer stays relentlessly on the monster. They're capable of guarding between nearly all their attacks; doing a perfect guard allows for counterattacks to ensure a continuous assault. When the monster runs away, the Lance can charge and run the poor thing down. They can even joust while on the Seikret. Lances automatically deal blunt or cutting damage, whichever is most effective on the part they hit. Only their shield strikes can KO, however.
The Lance can Power Clash.
Game8 Lance Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Lance Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Lance Weapon Master Guide
AManInTheWest's Wilds Lance in 3 Levels: From Rookie to Mastery

Or "Funlance," as it's often called. A lance with a short-range cannon attached to it. It can stab, it can shoot! It can do both at the same time, with the various Wyrmstake attacks, which stick in the monster then explodes. Gunlance explosions deal damage regardless of how strong a monster's defenses are, which is useful for tough parts that are hard to break. To cap it all off, the Wyvern's Fire takes a while to shoot, but is a huge burst of damage. As a bonus, shells barely use sharpness at all. Rejoice!
The Gunlance can Power Clash.
Game8 Gunlance Guide[game8.co]
CaoSlayer's Gunlance Shell Types Explained
FightinCowboy's Gunlance Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Gunlance Weapon Master Guide
Rurikhan's How to Gunlance

There's beauty in simplicity. Take this big thing, and apply it directly to the monster's forehead. The Hammer is the King of KO's, and has dibs on the head in any multiplayer hunt. They can buff up quickly by Charging, then go ham. The charge attacks are useful for hit-and-run strikes, and the Big Bang combo is best on stunned or paralyzed monsters. As a blunt weapon, it can't cut tails, but its damage exhausts monsters faster.
The Hammer can Offset Attack.
Game8 Hammer Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Hammer Intro Guide
Revvy's Hammer Beginner's Guide
LightItUpDan's Hammer Weapon Master Guide

Everyone loves a Hunting Horn user. Every basic attack with this weapon plays a note. Each Hunting Horn has its own collection of songs. Play notes in the right order and begin performances to give the effects of the song to yourself and anyone else nearby. But don't just play in the corner... you're a battle bard, not a cheerleader! Your songs hit HARD. Kill the monster with the power of music! While everyone love the buffs, what's lesser known is that HH is the King of Exhaust. Monsters hit by a hunting horn tire out much faster than normal, meaning an easy hunt is getting even easier. New to the kit are echo bubbles, which plant a circular zone on the field for bonus effects.
The Hunting Horn can Offset Attack.
Game8 Hunting Horn Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Hunting Horn Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Hunting Horn Weapon Master Guide
Taxman HH's Comprehensive Guide - The Artful Maestro

A Switch Axe is a decently mobile axe with high reach and wide range that has a gauge. With enough gauge, it can transform into a sword that doesn’t bounce off hard monster parts and, when the second gauge fills, also benefits from a phial effect. It could be bonus raw damage, element, status, or KO/exhaust. It has the ability to use an Element Discharge, which deals out continuous damage which finishes in a huge explosion. As long as you have the gauge for it, you can seamlessly switch between sword and axe mode mid-combo for a smooth attack flow. Just manage that sword gauge and don’t get it too low.
The Switch Axe can Offset Attack.
Game8 Switch Axe Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Switch Axe Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Switch Axe Weapon Master Guide
Im a Giraffe's Swag Steps: Advanced Switch Axe Guide
Arrekz Switch Axe Tutorial

Arguably the most complex weapon, but one of the most versatile and rewarding once mastered. The Charge Blade charges up sword energy with sword attacks. Charge up phials with this sword energy to open up options in combat. You can empower your sword with the phials for stronger sword strikes, or for more advanced uses, you can push the charged phials into the shield, empowering your guard and expanding your options when transforming the Charge Blade into axe mode. While charged, axe mode has extra effects with each hit, especially in the empowered Savage Axe mode. However, nothing compares to the flashiness of its capstone ability, the Super Amped Elemental Discharge, which causes a massive series of explosions that cause similarly massive amounts of damage as a satisfying payoff for how long it takes to build up. Just don’t miss!
The Charge Blade can Power Clash.
Game8 Charge Blade Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Charge Blade Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Charge Blade Weapon Master Guide
Arrekz Charge Blade Tutorial
Rurikhan's How to Charge Blade

The Insect Glaive is really a pair of two weapons: the glaive itself, and the kinsect. The kinsect is a flying bug that follows your instructions. Your first priority is to command the kinsect to fly in and hit the monster's various body parts to gather extract and return it to you to give you buffs. This is much easier now with Focus Mode, where the Kinsect attacks alongside your own. You can also charge up your kinsect to have it pierce the monster and gather every extract it can. When fully-buffed up, Insect Glaive is a powerhouse with enhanced attack animations. The Glaive can vault into the air for repositioning, dodging attacks, and attacking the monster from above. Their new Rising Spiral Slash consumes all buffs for incredible damage, but also regains any extracts from any parts hit.
The Insect Glaive can Offset Attack.
Game8 Insect Glaive Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Insect Glaive Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Insect Glaive Weapon Master Guide

Unlike blademaster weapons which deal with sharpness, the bow has infinite arrows but uses energy to give itself special arrow coatings. By applying coatings to arrows, the arrows get additional properties such as increased damage or status effects. When shooting, maintain proper critical distance by ensuring the crosshairs have two complete circles when aiming at the monster. Arrows deal less damage if you are too far away from the monster. Charge shots by holding down the button, or by continuously shooting, to keep up your assault. The Dragon Piercer attack roots you in place while charging up, but deals incredible damage as it pierces through monsters, especially lengthy ones. New to Wilds is the ability to fire Tracer Arrows, which cause all arrows to home in on its location for a short time. Like Dual Blades, stamina management is key to success.
Game8 Bow Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Bow Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Bow Weapon Master Guide
Arrekz Bow Tutorial

The little brother of the bowguns sacrifices a bit of damage for much more mobility. Bowgunners must buy or craft their ammo, though each bowgun has an infinite supply of basic ammunition types. Light Bowgun can enter an "Energy Mode" to fire more rapidly. The Light Bowgun's unique ability is called the Wyvernblast, an explosive mine of sorts. You can place up to three at a time on the ground. Every time damage is applied, they explode, dealing heavy damage in an area around it. Bowguns can be customized at the smithy, allowing you to boost attack, increase range, reduce recoil, and so on. As you upgrade your bowgun, you gain more customization slots. Like the bow, you have to stay within the right distance to deal the most damage, but this varies with the ammo you're currently using.
Game8 Light Bowgun Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Light Bowgun Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Light Bowgun Weapon Master Guide

The heavy bowgun moves slower than the light bowgun, but has larger clips and hits harder. Bowgunners must buy or craft their ammo, though each bowgun has an infinite supply of basic ammunition types. It has the ability to charge its shots, much like a greatsword. The Heavy Bowgun has two different special ammo, depending on the gun. The first is Wyvernheart, which turns your weapon into a machine gun for a while. It can be fired in short bursts or as one continuous stream of bullets. The second is Wyverncounter, which can push back a monster's attack. The Heavy Bowgun can be customized in the same way that a Light Bowgun can, but one of the exclusive options for Heavy Bowgun is a shield that can automatically block attacks for you.
Heavy Bowgun can Power Clash and Offset Attack.
Game8 Heavy Bowgun Guide[game8.co]
FightinCowboy's Heavy Bowgun Intro Guide
LightItUpDan's Heavy Bowgun Weapon Master Guide

While not exactly a weapon, equipping Akuma's Demon armor set from the Street Fighter collaboration quest line gives you access to a fighting style based on using unique items and emotes to attack. You'll still have one of the standard weapons equipped, and your damage will be influenced by your equipped weapon's stats, but you'll largely keep it sheathed in favor of Akuma's punches, kicks, and special moves. You'll have a special gauge that gets spent any time you use the Drive Impact move, which acts as both an Offset Attack and a Focus Strike. You can't use Drive Impact without a full gauge, but it recharges every 30 seconds. There's also a few secret moves or shortcuts if you know the inputs. You still get access to the moveset if you use the Demon armor as a layered set, but it will have reduced effectiveness.
Akuma can Offset Attack, but only with the real (not layered) armor set equipped.
Arrekz Akuma Tutorial
RageGamingVideos' Akuma Testing & Secret Moves
Ms 5000 Watts' Akuma Secret Moves and Quest Guide

Monster Hunter Wilds has new features that extend our capabilities in combat.

All weapons are able to enter Focus Mode. Depending on your options, it's a Hold or Toggle to enter. Whichever method you use, a targeting reticle will show up on the center of your screen. If you're pointing at a monster, it will be orange. Otherwise, it will be gray.

For ranged weapons, orange indicates you're within critical distance, the optimal range for your currently equipped ammo. Gray means that, while you might hit the monster, any shots will deal reduced damage.

With Focus Mode active, you're able to freely aim your camera while attacking. This can be useful for some weapons to attack with more precision. Some weapons change their movesets while in Focus Mode. For example, Insect Glaive's kinsect will fight alongside some of your attacks while Focusing.

Monster wounds are visible normally, but while in Focus Mode, scoutflies will glow red around the wounds, making them much easier to see.

Every weapon has a special attack called a Focus Strike. They're useful moves in their own right, but if they hit a wound, they deal severe damage and destroy it instantly. A few weapons can do focus strikes even while mid-air. Some weapons have special effects with their Focus Strike. Using the Insect Glaive as an example again, its Focus Strike will give them all buff extracts if they destroy a wound.

Many monsters also have a special weak point that act as it it were a wound if hit by a Focus Strike. This is usually somewhat intuitive, such as a soft underbelly, an open mouth, an extended tongue. They're only available for short periods of time, usually right before or after a large attack. You can tell when they appear if you're in focus mode: scoutflies will glow red around it even without a wound there.

A hidden benefit to Focus Mode is that it extends your movement towards monsters during some attacks. You can find an example in this video. The gist is that some weapon attacks will move you a set amount of distance. Having focus mode enabled lets you move further, allowing you to close the distance on monsters that you might not have reached otherwise. It's a good idea to keep this in mind when considering your attack range and positioning.

All weapons that can guard are able to Power Clash. This includes Sword & Shield, Lance, Gunlance, Great Sword, Charge Blade, and Heavy Bowgun.

Every time you guard against a melee attack from a monster, the game invisibly builds up a meter, much like mounting or inflicting status effects. When the meter exceeds a threshold, a Power Clash can occur, where the monster presses up against you while you push back in a small quick-time event.

Mash the attack button to stand your ground. If you fail, the monster will overpower you. Succeed, and you'll deal heavy damage while throwing the monster backward, toppling it.

Perfect Guards, where you block within a short time frame of being hit, builds up Power Clash the same amount as a regular guard, so you don't need to worry about being optimal. The weapon type also does not matter. A Sword & Shield builds Power Clash just as easily as a Lance does.

Even if you've done enough guards to be eligible for a Power Clash, you won't necessarily start one right away. You must block a specific move that can be Clashed.

Blocking ranged attacks do not build up Power Clash, and some monsters cannot be Power Clashed at all.

Some weapon attacks deal "Offset" damage. Weapons that can do this are Great Sword, Hammer, Hunting Horn, Switch Axe, Insect Glaive, and Heavy Bowgun. When using an Offset Attack, if it hits at the same time as a monster hits you, you might knock the monster back, causing them to flinch or fall over. It doesn't last as long as toppling them, but it's a powerful semi-counter that negates their attack. Once an Offset occurs, there's a small cooldown before it can happen again. Some weapons can also follow-up an Offset with a new attack.

Most attacks that can Offset have "Offset" in the name. Similarly, if the weapon can do a special attack after an offset, it will have "Follow-up" in the name.


All weapons are capable of sneak attacks. They are available when you have your weapon sheathed while standing behind a monster that's not aware of you. Most of the time, that's possible at the beginning of a fight. Crouching, hiding in bushes, or equipping a Ghillie Mantle is not required, but it helps.

The monster stops paying attention to you during a turf war. If you sheathe your weapon and get behind it, you may have the opportunity for another sneak attack. You can also get easy sneak attacks mid-combat by using Smoke Bombs or the Ghillie Mantle.

After performing a Sneak Attack, you must wait a while before you can do another on the same monster.

Some weapons get unique benefits from doing a sneak attack. The Switch Axe, for example, gains the Empowered Axe state.

All melee weapons have a colorful sharpness bar, that looks something similar to this:



The colors always go in that order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, White. As you go out on a hunt and hit monsters, the weapon will gradually dull. This weapon would start at white sharpness, go down to blue sharpness, then green sharpness, and so on. Sharpness increases damage based on a multiplier, though differently between the raw damage portion of a weapon and its elemental damage.

Raw Damage:


Elemental Damage:


The size of the color bar indicates how many hits that weapon will take before going down to the next level:


A weapon with this sharpness bar will only take a few hits before the white goes down to blue. The blue will last a while before going down to green. Keep this in mind while hunting.



While out in a hunt, your sharpness bar's overall color shows your current sharpness level. A small colored mark on the blade will give you a rough estimate of how many hits you have before it degrades further to a lower sharpness tier. It will flash and change color when you've moved into a different sharpness level.

Using a whetstone restores sharpness with each "swipe" of the animation. While whetstones are infinite, using a consumable Whetfish Scale will sharpen weapons even faster.

Some monster parts are tougher than others. If you find yourself attacking a part of a monster and bouncing off, your weapon sharpness is too low. Every time you bounce off a monster part, you're stuck in the bounce animation and your weapon loses twice the sharpness it normally would from a regular strike. However, you still do full damage to that part, so if you're trying to break that part, go get 'em, tiger. Bouncing can also be mitigated by a skill called Mind's Eye, which allows you to attack without bouncing (though double sharpness loss still applies). Some weapons have attacks that have natural Mind's Eye built in.

In short, high sharpness good, low sharpness bad. Keep your weapon within its top two sharpness levels at all times.

Note that even blunt weapons such as Hammers and Hunting Horns still need to be sharpened. The Monster Hunter series never really bothered to care why. It's whimsical like that.

Some weapons also have affinity. This is Monster Hunter's term for critical hit chance. A critical hit deals 25% extra damage. Negative affinity means a negative critical, which will deal 25% less damage. It's fairly straightforward. Let's say a weapon has 30% affinity. Every attack has a 30% chance of being a critical hit, which deals 25% more damage. You can tell when it crits by the bright visual effect on the attack.

Some weapons with high raw damage might be balanced with a negative affinity. So, a weapon with -20% affinity will have 20% chance on every hit to deal 25% less damage. Feeling lucky?

The Critical Boost skill increases the bonus damage from critical hits.

Status and Elements are not able to crit by default, but some skills can enable them to do so.

Many weapons deal elemental damage in addition to their raw physical power. As you might expect, these deal extra damage to monsters weak to that element. The game rewards those who prepare and change equipment to counter their quarry.

How do you tell what a monster is weak to? There's a handful of ways. If you hunt a monster enough, its entry in the Hunter Notes will show its weaknesses. If you check that monster's armor set in the Smithy, its armor resistances will roughly match that of the monster itself. If all else fails, you can also just look it up online.

Some weapons might have an element, but it's greyed out with parentheses around it. This means this weapon has a Hidden Element. If you take this weapon out on a hunt, the element has no effect at all, as if it wasn't there. You need a skill called "Free Elem" to awaken the element from that weapon.

Similar to elements, some weapons can inflict status effects on monsters. Monsters may be more or less resistant to each kind, but for the most part, you'll get at least one or two status effects per hunt.

Monster status effects build up behind the scenes. They have an initial threshold that must be reached before the status triggers. Once the status goes off, the threshold increases, meaning you'll have to apply more to get it to trigger again. In addition, if enough time passes without that status applying again, the status buildup slowly wears off. You'll have to keep attacking to ensure the status triggers.

You can continue to apply status towards the next affliction even when the monster is already affected, so your poison procs are not wasted while the monster is already poisoned.

Multiple different status effects can build up at the same time. This video goes more in-depth about how status effects work on monsters.

Weapons with these status effects only apply buildup ("proc") 33% of the time. You'll notice if it applies by a relevant particle effect displaying on hit. This introduces some variability to the hunt, while still overall being consistent over long periods of time.

Poison
The set-it-and-forget-it status, and surprisingly effective on most monsters. When triggered, it deals damage over time to the monster, indicated by frothy purple bubbles around the mouth.

Side Tip: If you're poisoning a monster, you're going to defeat it with fewer attacks, especially if you're capturing it. Be mindful if you're going for part breaks.

Paralysis
The ultimate teamwork status. When paralysis triggers, the monster gets stuck in place, unable to act for a few seconds. This is best done in multiplayer, where it's the cue for everyone to go ham on the monster and deal as much damage as possible. While paralysis and shock traps appear similar, they are considered separate effects and do not interfere with each other.

Sleep
The most technical status effect of the bunch. When triggered, the monster will fall asleep, indicated by the combat music stopping and sleep bubbles coming out of the monster's head. Players have a few seconds in the animation to stop themselves before accidentally waking the monster. The first attack that wakes the monster will deal double damage, so high single-hit attacks like the Great Sword's True Charged Slash is appreciated here. This bonus also applies to barrel bombs that you can place. Thus, sleep is integral to the "sleep bombing" combat tactic. Monsters will naturally fall asleep if they get back to their nest when gravely wounded. Monsters that go to sleep in their nest recover health at a slow rate. Player-induced sleep does not restore monster health.

Side Tip: Some monster animations for falling over and getting up from sleep are longer than others. Because of this, a different tactic is to continue attacking relentlessly when Sleep procs, as it can essentially be an alternative to paralysis, especially on monsters resistant to paralysis and/or weak to sleep. Since this is an uncommon strategy, most randomly-joined players (such as from SOS) will assume they shouldn't attack and not take advantage. Be considerate. Always assume the sleep-bombing tactic in multiplayer unless the group says otherwise.

Blast
Who doesn't like explosions? When enough blast status builds up, it explodes on the part that was last hit, dealing a set amount of damage regardless of the monster's defense. Blast is great for breaking monster parts.


KO
Also known as stun, KO is built up every time blunt damage is dealt to a monster's head. When enough KO has been dealt, the monster falls over with yellow stars over its head, helpless. While most of Hammer and Hunting Horn attacks deal blunt damage, other weapons can do so too in a limited capacity, usually in the form of shield bashes or specific phials and ammo.

Exhaustion
All monsters have stamina. Every time they attack, they use up some of that stamina. When they run out, they become sluggish, they stumble around, and their attacks become weak or unusable. Inflicting blunt damage on a monster drains a its energy, causing them to become exhausted much faster. Monsters can restore stamina by successfully eating or completing a sleep cycle.
For more details, try watching this video.

Enrage
After taking enough damage, a monster can become enraged. This makes them more aggressive, increasing their speed, attack, and sometimes defense. Enrage can alter behavior, such as preference for certain attacks, immunity or vulnerability to items, and so on. Enrage completely overrides exhaustion, though they will return to the exhausted state when enrage is over.
Watch this video for more details.

Tranq
While not widely realized as such, Tranq is a status effect. It's built up whenever a monster is hit by Tranq Bombs, Tranq Blades, or Tranq Ammo, and it can wear off if applied too early.

While not exactly thought of as a status, these effects build up on monsters in a similar way.

Mount
Damage done to the monster while mid-air is considered mount damage. When enough is built up, the mount status triggers and the hunter mounts the monster.

Power Clash
Blocking melee attacks builds up the potential for a Power Clash. When this is high enough, certain monster attacks can be blocked to initiate a Power Clash.

The primary status effects that affect monsters can also affect you. You can also be paralyzed or poisoned, though unlike a monster you don't build a resistance to it after multiple inflictions.

Poison
When hit by a poison attack, your health bar will turn purple and leave behind red health. While poison does wear off on its own, it can take a while depending on the source. You can get rid of it right away by taking an antidote or herbal medicine, being cured by your palico's Purewasp Delivery, or returning to the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to poison with the poison resistance skill.

Venom
Venom is a much more potent version of poison. Your health bar will flash purple and drain rapidly. Curing it right away is highly recommended, as the health loss is deadly. It can thankfully be cured by anything that also cures poison.

Paralysis
When paralyzed, you'll immediately fall to the ground, helpless. If your palico is with you, they'll do their best to knock you out of paralysis. Other players can do the same if they're attentive enough. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for it to wear off. You can reduce or become immune to paralysis with the paralysis resistance skill.

Sleep
Unlike paralysis, with sleep you have a few seconds to position yourself before you fall to the ground. Try to distance yourself from the monster or get yourself closer to allies before you collapse. If you keep energy drinks on you, that will wake you before you fall over. Your palico may attempt to wake you up, or otherwise hope other hunters are willing to help. You can reduce or become immune to sleep with the sleep resistance skill. However, sleep is rarely a threat.

Blastblight
When hit by a blast attack, you may get afflicted by blastblight. You'll be covered in explosive powder. The next time your hunter is hit by an attack, you'll explode. Alternatively, if enough time passes, you explode anyway. Get rid of it by rolling a few times, eating a nulberry, or go into the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to blastblight with the blast resistance skill.

Fireblight
When hit by a fire attack, you may get afflicted by fireblight, which is a fancy way of saying your character is on fire. Your health will slowly decrease while leaving red health behind. You know the drill: stop, drop, and roll a few times to stop the fire. Rolling in water stops the fire immediately. Eating a nulberry or returning to the tent at camp works too. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 fire resistance.

Waterblight
When hit by a water attack, you may get afflicted by waterblight. Your stamina bar will turn blue and recover much slower if spent. This hits dual blade and bow users particularly hard. Wait for the duration to end naturally, eat a nulberry, or enter the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 water resistance.

Thunderblight
When hit by a thunder attack, you may get afflicted with thunderblight. This increases the chances of becoming stunned. Wait for the duration to end naturally, eat a nulberry, or enter the tent at camp. This can also be mitigated by having stun resistance through armor skills. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 thunder resistance.

Iceblight
When hit by an ice attack, you may get afflicted with iceblight. This greatly increases stamina usage, which like waterblight, punishes dual blade and bow users quite hard. Wait for the duration to end naturally, eat a nulberry, or enter the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 ice resistance.

Dragonblight
When hit with a dragon attack, you may get afflicted with dragonblight. This nullifies all element/status damage that you deal, including pods from your slinger. Wait for the duration to end naturally, eat a nulberry, or enter the tent at camp. You can reduce or become immune to elemental blights with the blight resistance skill. You're also immune if you have 20 dragon resistance.

Stun
When hit by a monster's attack, you have a chance to be stunned. You'll stand in place with stars around your head, unable to act. Other hunters or your palico can hit you out of it if you're lucky. You can reduce or become immune to stun with the stun resistance skill.

Bleeding
When struck with a bleed attack, you'll lose health whenever you move. You can recover by consuming any meat item such as rations or well-done steak. If you don't have meat, you can also recover by crouching in place for a few seconds. After you recover from bleeding, your red health will recover faster than normal for a short while.

Webbed
When hit by webs, you will be stuck, unable to attack or evade. You can clear it immediately with a Cleanser item, or escape by swirling the joystick or mashing movement keys on the keyboard. Other hunters or your palico might be able to knock you out of it.

Frostblight
When hit by particularly icy attacks, you may become momentarily caught in a prison of ice. Free yourself immediately with a Cleanser, or swirl the joystick or mash movement keys on the keyboard to break free sooner.

Stench
You've been coated in something extremely unpleasant, and a foul-smelling brown gas surrounds you. While soiled, you cannot eat any consumable items such as potions, rations, or steaks. Wait for the duration to end naturally, apply a deodorant item, or enter the tent at camp.

Defense Down
When hit by defense down, your defense is, well, lowered, and you'll take more physical damage. Get rid of it by waiting for the duration to end naturally, using an adamant seed or armorskin, or entering the tent at camp.

Resistance Down
As it says, if afflicted with Resistance Down, your resistances are lowered and you'll take more elemental damage. Get rid of it by waiting for the duration to end naturally, using an adamant seed or armorskin, or entering the tent at camp.

Frenzy Virus
When first infected, the virus is incubating. It compels you to be aggressive: you have a limited amount of time to deal enough damage to a monster. You can eat a nulberry to extend the incubation period.
If you fail, the virus debilitates you, negating all natural health recovery. In addition, you take additional damage from any frenzy-infused attacks from monsters.
If you succeed and overcome the virus, it transforms into bloodlust. You gain a bonus to affinity and become immune to further infection for a while.

Bubbleblight
If hit with a bubble attack, you may get covered in bubbles. This grants you Evasion+1 and Constitution+1. This is quite beneficial, but if you get more bubbles and receive Major Bubbleblight, you will slide around, making precise movements difficult. Get rid of it by waiting for it to wear off or getting hit by an attack.

Now that you understand weapons, elements, and status, let's go over creating weapons and upgrading them.

Head over to to the smithy and talk to Gemma, the blacksmith, to begin. Select the Forge/Upgrade Weapon option and choose your preferred weapon.



On the left, you'll see the weapon tree. Each row indicates the "family" of weapon it belongs to. For example, the Paralysis tree will have a paralysis effect, while the Quematrice tree are made from Quematrice materials and exhibits traits from the Quematrice (such as fire element).

Some family trees are standalone and don't interact with others, while some trees branch out and can become parts of a different type. The Hope/Expedition tree, for example, is the starter set of weapons. They can be upgraded along the Hope/Expedition path, or branch off into the Ore tree, using metals gathered in the field as material and having different looks and stats.

Most of the weapon tree is obscured at first to avoid spoilers. As you progress through the game and encounter more monsters and materials, more of the tree opens up.

By pressing the buttons indicated on the top left, you can change to a Forge List or Upgrade List view for an alternate perspective of the same menu.

You might notice that weapon sharpness bars in the forge menu have a smaller bit of sharpness on the end:

This indicates how much extra sharpness the weapon will have if you equip the Handicraft skill. This allows weapons to stay at their highest sharpness level for longer. Some weapons can even upgrade to a higher sharpness level with Handicraft. This is quite desirable, since a higher sharpness tier has a higher damage multiplier and is less likely to bounce off tough monster parts.

Around each weapon can be several icons. A blue hammer in the top left indicates a base-level weapon you can craft to start with. An orange padlock cannot be crafted at this point in time, usually because you haven't discovered the relevant monster or gathered the right material. Two green arrows at the top indicates a direct weapon upgrade from the previous tier. A red box on the bottom right indicates that you currently own that particular weapon at that upgrade tier. A yellow checkmark means you have it currently equipped. A yellow circle of arrows means that weapon is equipped as your secondary. An element or status icon on the bottom left indicates that the weapon has that specific element. A weapon with no element icon is elementless, commonly referred to as "raw". They typically have higher attack values to make up for it.

By selecting a weapon and using the submenu, you can add it to your wishlist. This puts a pin icon on that entry, and the game will have the same icon on anything that can provide the required materials, be it monsters, quests, or gathering spots. You'll get a notification as you obtain each materials, and then another notification if you have everything required to make a wishlisted item.

You might notice that weapons come with skills equipped on them. This was something of a design necessity because we can bring two weapons per loadout. Players equip skills that bring the most out of their weapon.

With two weapons, we could have a conflict - some skills don't work with certain types of weapons, or are far less effective. Speed sharpening is nice if you have a melee weapon, but worthless on a ranged weapon. Offensive Guard is a great skill for Lance, but it does little good for a Hammer.

By having specialized skills directly on weapons instead, it opens up more freedom to use whichever pair of weapon types you like without feeling like one of them is "missing out" because it's not using your full skill potential.

As you further enhance a weapon, more skills could be added, the skills could improve, or you could even get decoration slots for further customization. Decorations are explained later in the guide.

The central form of character progression is your armor. It's not just about protecting you, however. There are four major things to consider when forging armor:

1. Can I make it?
Armor pieces require materials to make. Take a look at the required materials to see what you need. You might have to hunt a monster several times before you get the material. Some pieces require parts of a different monster, too. Some armor don't require monster parts at all.

2. Does it have a skill I want?
Armor pieces grant skills, which grant you various bonuses. It might make you resistant to status effects, let you gather more materials, it might boost attack, or mount monsters easier. Similar skills can stack, up to a point. You can specialize or generalize as you please. Some armor pieces have decoration slots, which allow you to slot in a skill of your choice for extra customization.

3. Does it have defenses and elemental resistances I want?
This is a lesser consideration compared to skills. Defense can always be upgraded, and elemental weaknesses can be mitigated somewhat with meals. However, it is something to be mindful of. If your armor set is very weak to fire, you should be cautious around fire-breathing monsters.

4. Do I like the way it looks?
While some players don't care and are fine hunting in a clown suit, you have to admit you'll hunt a bit better if you look cool doing it. Embrace the fashion hunter. As you progress through the game, you'll unlock armor dye options for further customization and "Layered Armor" to completely cover up armor pieces with a different appearance.

Just like when making weapons, you can mark an armor piece in the Forge/Upgrade Armor page to add it to your wishlist. The game will notify you when you're able to craft it.

You can also hit the Submenu Button and select "Toggle Comparison" to open up a window that compares your currently-equipped armor piece to the one you have selected in the menu.

Now, let's say you've made your armor and you like it. Great! However, it can only last you so long before you're getting crushed by monster attacks again. You need to upgrade that armor so the defense is up to par. In the Smithy menu, select Forge/Upgrade Armor. Find the armor piece you'd like to upgrade.

Near the center-bottom of the screen, you will see that armor piece's level, defense, and a bar indicating how many points are required to reach the next level. Throughout the game, you've been getting Armor Spheres from quest rewards and mining. These add points to the bar. Keep in mind, you might not be able to fully level up any given armor piece right away. Not only does it get quite expensive (both in armor sphere points and zenny), you may be limited to a certain level of upgrade until you progress further in the story.

Eventually, you will be able to speak to Roqul at the Smelting Foundry. You can give him monster parts to smelt into Armor Spheres.

Equipping multiple armor of the same set may give you an Armor Set Bonus skill. For example, wearing enough Doshaguma armor will activate "Doshaguma's Might", giving you the Powerhouse skill.

Some pieces of armor are considered part of a "Group". Equipping enough armor pieces of the same group enables a Group Skill. An example would be equipping enough parts from Leviathan type monsters to activate "Scaling Prowess", which gives you the Master Mounter skill.

Once you reach high rank, you'll find that armor sets are a little more complex. There are two armor sets per monster instead of one: The alpha α set and the beta β set. These sets will have a slightly different appearance, but the main difference is how their armor skills are set up.

The alpha set is considered a more "complete" set, with full armor skills baked in. This is more convenient early on in high rank, before you have a good collection of decorations. What are decorations, you ask? We'll get to that in the next section.

The beta set is considered an "incomplete" set, with decoration slots for you to customize to your liking. Most end-game players make beta equipment sets so they are not limited to the preset skills of the alpha armor.

Eventually, you'll receive decorations, which are gems that can be put into slots in your weapons and armor. Each decoration provides you with skill points, just like weapons and armor do. By collecting decorations, you can adjust and improve skill sets to your liking.

However, decorations need to fit. Each decoration has a different size, depending on the skill. The more valuable the skill, the larger it is.


Decorations can only fit in a slot that's big enough. You can't use a level 3 decoration if your equipment has no level 3 slots. However, smaller decorations can fit into larger slots. Level 1 decorations can fit into anything. Keep slot size in mind when crafting weapons and armor. A weapon might look more powerful than another, but if you're hurting for level 3 decoration slots it might be handy to take the weaker weapon that offers two of them.

Monster Hunter Wilds split decorations into two categories: armor decorations and weapon decorations. Decoration skills do not share between categories - for example, Attack Boost decorations always go in weapon slots, never armor slots.

Weapon decorations can only be slotted into Weapon decoration slots. These are usually offensive skills such as:

• Raw (Attack Boost)
  
• Affinity (Critical Boost, Critical Eye, Critical Draw)
  
• KO (Slugger, Punishing Draw)
  
• Elemental (Element Attack, Critical Element)
  
• Status (Status Attack, Critical Status, Poison Duration Up)
  
• Ranged (Piercing Up, Special Ammo Boost, Rapid Fire Up)
  
• Sharpness (Handicraft, Speed Sharpening)
  
• Weapon-Specific (Focus, Guard Up, Power Prolonger, Rapid Morph, Horn Maestro, Load Shells)

These examples are not an exhaustive list - it's just to give an idea of what you can expect to find.

Armor decorations can only be slotted into Armor decoration slots. These are usually defensive or miscellaneous skills such as:

• Defensive (Defense Boost, Divine Blessing)
  
• Utility (Earplugs, Quick Sheath, Evade Window)
  
• Quality of Life & Support (Speed Eating, Wide Range)
  
• Gathering and Items (Botanist, Free Meal)
  
• Stamina (Constitution, Stamina Surge)
  
• Conditional Attack bonuses (Weakness Exploit, Agitator, Peak Performance)

As with weapon skill list above, this is not a comprehensive list of armor decoration skills. These are just examples.

In previous games, you might not receive a decoration that's critical to your build thanks to poor luck. To mitigate this in Wilds, you will be able to craft decorations with a single skill on it if you really need it to fit your build.

That said, it's the randomly-obtained decorations that can have multiple skills or higher levels for more versatility or power. Mixed decorations are typically Level 3 decorations that have 4 points worth of skills, making them quite valuable if you get one with a combination of skills you need. You can obtain mixed decorations as rewards for hunting end-game monsters.

In addition to skills on Weapons, Armor, and Decorations, you'll have one more piece of equipment to supply your skills: Charms. These function similarly to Monster Hunter World, where you use specific materials to create a charm.

Level 1 charms give 1 point in a particular skill. Eventually, you'll be able to upgrade them, giving more points in that skill.

Like in World, there may be a few charms that give multiple different skills, but they're typically reserved for less impactful, quality-of-life skills.

In previous Monster Hunter games, meals were made with ingredients you unlock, but then have infinite supply of. In Monster Hunter Wilds, each meal will require items from your item box. They will deplete over time as you use them, so you must pay attention to keep your preferred ingredients stocked.

You can cook meals in a tent with the "Grill a Meal" option, or anywhere else by using your Portable BBQ Grill item. You do not need to keep ingredients on hand; cooking always takes directly from your storage, no matter where you are.

If you select Recommended Meal, the game will pick the ingredients for you. It's good for standard, low-effort meal-making.
Choosing to Cook Only with Rations uses only the bare minimum to give you max health and stamina. You won't receive much extra in the way of buffs, but it can conserve ingredients if you find yourself critically low.
Making Custom Meals is the best way to maximize the benefits. Choose each ingredient for the buffs that best suit your needs for your current situation. You can save your favorite combinations for quick selection in the future.

Meals consist of three parts: Ration, Additional Ingredient, and Finishing Touch.

• All meals must have a Ration, as that forms the basis for your food. Your choice in ration offers different bonuses:
  
  • Meat increases attack. Fish increase defense. Veggies increase elemental resistance, as well as a smaller defense bonus.
• By default, a meal lasts for 30 minutes.
  
  • Adding an Additional Ingredient increases the duration to 50 minutes in addition to its own bonus.
    
  • Adding a Finishing Touch increases elemental defense in addition to its own bonus.
  Meal effects do not wear off until the duration ends or you eat a new meal to replace it.

As a fun detail, the cooking animation will feature the exact ingredients you picked.

Keep in mind that the Ration item that you can eat to restore max stamina is the same thing as the Ration used as the basis for meals. Always keep a healthy supply! Speak to the felyne Tom at the Ingredient Center in Base Camp to regularly receive Rations.

You can get various ingredients as quest rewards or find them out in the field. Others, you will have to trade for with NPCs among the various people out in the world. Trades are somewhat randomized; the items they give and the items they ask for can differ from day to day, and they only trade so much at a time. Advance time to the next day to refresh their offers.

When you progress far enough in the story, you'll unlock the Village Intermediary in the Base Camp, who will handle item trades for you so you don't have to travel to each individual for trades.

The meal buff pauses while you're in camp, so there's no need to rush while you're buying supplies or crafting weapons and armor.



Some event quests feature ingredients as rewards, if you prefer to hunt instead of trade. They're not always available, however.

At camp, you can do several things. You can go into the tent to retrieve items out of your storage, you can change your equipment, and you can change your palico's equipment. If you forgot to eat, you can make a meal.

In older games, you could get free hunting supplies from a blue box at the beginning of most quests. Since you can start quests anywhere in Wilds, this functionality has been moved to the Seikret. While riding your Seikret with a quest active, check its inventory for some extra items. Some of these may be specifically useful against your target, such as Screamer Pods against burrowing monsters. Keep an eye out for notifications that your Seikret's pouches have been stocked; you may get multiple resupplies in a hunt.

Most items from the Seikret are yours to keep, but a few are marked with a blue guild sigil and labelled as a Supply Item. These are removed when the quest is complete, so be sure to use these items first before using your own supply.

You might notice many small glowing insects forming paths in front of you or flying around objects of interest. These are Scoutflies, tiny bugs that are trained to assist hunters in tracking monsters and identifying useful resources.

While running around scouting, go ahead and be a kleptomaniac. Grab everything you can, as pretty much everything has a use. Over time you'll figure out what items are more useful than others. While travelling through the map with your Seikret, you can easily gather materials along the way with the Slinger. However, the Slinger only works with picking up smaller items. Larger objects such as ore nodes and bone piles must be picked up while being nearby.

Keep an eye out for interactable objects and endemic life. These are used immediately to incur an effect. The Vitalily and the Vigorwasp can both be hit to restore health. The Wiggly Litchi can be eaten to halve stamina usage for a while. The Paratoad can emit a paralyzing toxin that can affect monsters and hunters alike. Most of these can be used by standing nearby or using the Slinger, but some traps require the Slinger to activate. Look around; there's plenty more out there to discover.

Look up! Many hunters don't realize there are often things to interact with above them. Conspicuously large rocks or crystals can be pulled down with the Slinger to drop on the monster's head for massive damage and an instant knockover. Wedge Beetles are bright yellow insects that are placed all over the map overhead. They offer quick ways to dodge attacks, mount monsters, or travel faster around the map. You can tell one's nearby with a distinctive whistling sound.

Look down! As you travel around, you might find some long drops and sheer cliffs below. Never fear! Monster Hunter has no such thing as fall damage! Falling rocks and crystals might damage monsters, but falling humans is a-ok! You can fall hundreds of feet without a care in the world. Your kneecaps are made of armorspheres!

Some environments are excessively hot or cold. Use endemic life, consumable items, or meal ingredients that help you resist the detrimental effects of extreme temperatures.

If you need help, you can fire an SOS flare for assistance. This opens up your game for other players to join. If enough time passes, NPC Support Hunters will arrive to help you instead. If a player does eventually join, they will replace one of the NPC's spots. If you want the NPC hunters to help but don't want other players to join, or want SOS to always be active, you can set the game to do so through quest options when talking to Alma.

While attacking a monster, you might notice the same attack dealing different amounts of damage. Different parts of a monster will be stronger or weaker to different damage types, colloquially called "hit zones". A hard shell might resist slashing attacks, but be weak to blunt damage. Monster heads and tails tend to be softer than the main body. Wings tend to be weak to arrows and bowgun shots. Once you hunt a particular monster enough, your hunting notes will update and explicitly tell you each body part's weaknesses.

While hunting in multiplayer, take note of what weapons the other players are using. If there is a Hammer or Hunting Horn user, let them get priority on attacking the head, so they can KO the monster. Bladed weapons are expected to go for the tail for the double benefit of removing the threat of tail attacks and getting the tail carve.

When monsters retreat to another part of the map, take a short moment to assess your situation. Should you go back to camp to resupply or change weapons? Did you break off a part? Don't forget to carve any tails on the ground or pick up slinger ammo that might have dropped. If you just want to continue pursuit, call your Seikret and give chase. Be sure to heal up and sharpen as you go. Sometimes it will be faster to check the map and fast travel to a camp closer to the monster than to go by foot.

While flash pods are useful for knocking flying monsters out of the sky, be mindful when players mount the monster in multiplayer. Many winged monsters start to fly when mounted, and a flash pod will immediately cancel the mounting attempt, wasting the effort. In a similar vein, try not to use Focus Strikes on a monster until the mount is over.

Sometimes, a monster will specifically focus on you, ignoring other targets. This is indicated by a short red line between you and the monster. Be ready to dodge, counter, or guard without much chance to heal. This can be beneficial: if you're good at keeping attention, other players can attack freely. If you're guarding, this can quickly set up a Power Clash. You can also lead the monster to a better position, such as into traps or environmental hazards.

If you notice the monster slowly falling over and the music has stopped, stop attacking! Someone in your party has caused the monster to fall asleep. The first attack against a sleeping monster will wake it up, but will also deal bonus damage. It’s common courtesy to put down explosive barrels to wake up the monster, but if you don’t have any, just let the person with the biggest single-hit attack (hint hint, it’s usually the Greatsword user) cause the rude awakening. It's rare, but an exception to this is if the person who applied the Sleep continues attacking—they're using Sleep as an alternative to Paralysis. In that case, feel free to continue your assault.

On the other hand, if the hunt is coming to a close, the monster may start limping away and you might find it trying to sleep at its nest to recover energy. The same sleep etiquette applies here, though you can now also capture the monster instead of killing it.

Capturing a monster has three requirements:

1. Monster is at low health.
Easy enough. Beat down the monster, but not enough until it's dead. If the monster starts limping, it's likely capturable. If you look at the map or minimap, see if the monster has skulls flying out of its icon. That confirms that the monster is within capture range.

You can also see its heartbeat become faint underneath its icon at the bottom of the screen, but that's unreliable. If it's exhausted, it might be a false positive. If it's enraged, its active heartbeat will hide the fact that it's low on health.

2. Monster is in a Shock Trap or Pitfall Trap.
If you're feeling confident, you can place the trap mid-combat and hope the monster gets caught in it. You can otherwise wait for the monster to reach its nest and capture it there. It doesn't make a difference whether its in a shock trap or pitfall trap, but shock traps are more common since they're easier to make and deploy faster.

If you place a trap and the monster ran away without triggering it, you can pick it up and put it back in your item pouch.

Even though they restrain monsters, environmental hazards such as vine traps don't allow you to capture monsters.

3. Monster is afflicted with tranq status.
Your hunter throws Tranq Bombs straight at the ground, so get right next to the monster and start throwing. Two bombs is enough to capture a monster. If you're using a bowgun, you can also use Tranq Ammo.

In the item crafting list, you can combine a Tranq Bomb with a Throwing Knife to make a Tranq Blade, which is much more accurate. You have infinite Throwing Knives, so feel free to craft as many as you like. This allows capturing at a distance, especially for Blademasters who don't have access to Tranq Ammo that Gunners do.

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If all three of these conditions are met at the same time, the monster will be captured. Take note, though, that the three conditions don't necessarily have to happen in that order. You can pre-tranq the monster before setting the trap, and it will still capture. If you've tranquilized the monster twice and they're in a trap, their health might not be low enough. Smack them with your weapon quickly and you may have a chance to lower their health enough to capture them before the trap runs out.

Capturing monsters can give different rewards than killing and carving them. If you're farming monsters and aren't getting what you need, try capturing instead of killing, or vice versa.

Additional notes about capturing:

• If the quest provided EZ traps or EZ tranqs in your Seikret Pouch, use those instead to preserve your own supply. If you mess up, you can still use your own.
  
• It does not matter where you hit the monster with tranq. As long as the tranq hits some part of the monster's body, it's applied.
  
• Tranq Bombs and Tranq Ammo deal no damage, so you can apply Tranq on a sleeping monster. Tranq Blades deal damage, so they will wake a monster.
  
• Be mindful that monsters react differently to each type of trap. Some ignore, or are even empowered by, shock traps. Some can fight back while fallen inside a Pitfall Trap. Some can destroy traps without triggering them.
  
• Elder dragons are immune to traps and cannot be captured. There may or may not be elder dragons in Wilds, but it's good to keep in mind while playing older titles.

At the beginning of the game you may have noticed after you made your character, you also made a cat, though in-world that race is called a felyne. That is your Palico, a hunting buddy that will help you out in the field. They wield weapons and armor just as you do, albeit in a smaller scale. While they do take damage in combat, it just takes them out of commission for a while. They do not need consumables for healing and are effectively invincible; you don't need to worry about its well-being.

Your Palico has a level which determines its base stats. This will increase as you hunt monsters with them by your side. If you set them on Standby, they will dedicate their time to training and increase their level so they're not left behind.

While travelling across the map, your Palico (and to a lesser extent, Alma) will gather items as you traverse the landscape. During fights, your Palico fights with the weapon you equip them with, along with some various other gadgets for both damage and support. They can heal you, cure status effects, and provide buffs. If you do your Palico's side quests, they can also loot extra monster materials and save you from carting during a hunt.

At the smithy, choose "Forge Palico Equipment" to make weapons and armor for your Palico. It's incredibly simple to do so, as there are no upgrading or skills to worry about. There's only 3 options per set: a weapon, a headpiece, and a chestpiece. Each equipment only requires one to two pieces of common material to make. Given the effective invincibility of your Palico, hunters often choose armor based on looks rather than stats. Once you're in high rank, your Palico can use layered armor, too, so give them some great armor then layer on your preferred look.

By far, the most popular options for Palico weapons are status effects such as poison, paralysis, or sleep. If the status procs once per hunt, it's worth it. If you notice that the status never goes off, maybe you're better off trying something else.

Some players prefer hunting without a Palico. This is usually to make monsters more predictable as there's fewer targets, though you lose out on the Palico's support. You can choose to set your Palico on standby at any tent or equipment box.

Don't dismiss the Palico as a just a minor addition - they make a bigger contribution to the hunt than you think. If you're finding the game too easy, consider setting your Palico on standby and see how much of a difference it makes.

!! Section under construction. I'll add more information later !!

Just as your Palico is your sidekick, your Seikret acts as your mount. They offer a fast method of traversal to nearly any spot on the map and some extra utility in combat.

• You can call your Seikret at nearly any time to have it approach and pick you up.
  
  • Press Up on the D-Pad or Tab on keyboard to call your Seikret in Auto mode.
    
  • Press Down on the D-Pad or Q on keyboard to call your Seikret in Manual mode.
    
  • Press Right on the D-Pad or X on keyboard to swap to your secondary weapon.
    
  • Press Left on the D-Pad or N on keyboard to open the quest supplies pouch.
  
• While in Auto mode, your Seikret will automatically move towards your current quest objective or map marker. You can increase or decrease the speed by holding the appropriate button. If you intentionally veer off-course or press the Manual mode button, you'll switch to Manual mode.
  
• While in Manual mode, you directly control your Seikret's movements. At any time, you can press the Auto mode button to return to automatic navigation.
  
• If you don't like the way your Seikret controls or behaves, be sure to check the options menu for alternative control methods and default behavior. Turning off Seikret Auto-Explore is a very common recommendation.
  
• Because it's so agile, it can take pathways and shortcuts you can't traverse on foot.
  
• The Seikret can't take you everywhere, however. Some secret locations require you to crouch low or swim underwater where your Seikret can't follow. These are mostly spots for gathering items and endemic life; large monsters likely won't threaten you in these locations.
  
• While riding around on your Seikret, you are able to freely use most items. Heal, sharpen, reload, open menus, check the map... let your Seikret do the navigation work while you focus on being at your best during the hunt.
  
• Most small items can be gathered from afar with the Slinger. You don't even have to look around or aim. This video has a good demonstration of how it works. To grab heavier items such as ore and bones, you'll still need to be close enough to harvest with your hands.
  
• Just as you can pull things in with the Slinger, you can fire Slinger Ammo, too. Make good use of it in combat.
  
• You are able to attack while on the Seikret, albeit with a limited moveset. You can do a jumping attack off your Seikret to deal mounting damage to your target.
  
  • Depending on your weapon, you can do some neat combat maneuvers while riding your Seikret. Longsword users can counter during their dismount, giving them additional spirit gauge charge. Lances and Gunlances can hold their weapon forward in a jousting move, especially useful for running down fleeing monsters. Bowguns can fire while riding for maneuverability and less recoil, at the cost of slower shooting speed and less damage.
  
                                          
  
  
• During quests, Alma puts items in the quest supplies pouch. Pick them up! They're free to use. She may add more items if the quest goes on long enough.
  
• You're still able to call your Seikret even while knocked down to the ground. If you feel like you're in danger, your Seikret can swoop in and carry you away from a large monster, giving you breathing room to recover. Its Auto mode makes a good effort to dodge attacks, but it's not perfect.
  
• Eventually, you will be able to customize your Seikret, including feather patterns, colors, and barding equipment. This unlocks after completing Chapter 1-4, A Hunter's Pride. Head to Kunafa Village and look for a map icon that says "Seikret Customization". Head there and talk to Nona to unlock Seikret Customizations. You can make adjustments here, or at any time while inside a tent.

So you went down to 0 HP and got carted. Don't worry about it; it happens to everyone. The important thing is that you learned from it. So, you're back at camp, maybe without most of your healing items. What now?

First, head back into the tent and restock all of your items. If you have an item loadout prepared, great! That saves a lot of time! If not, you can try the restock button, but that won't work on items you've used up entirely. You'll have to pick those up manually. Before you leave the tent, reflect a moment. Can you change tactics? Maybe swap to a different weapon or armor better suited to the situation.

Second, check if your meal has expired, or is running low on time. If needed, make a meal to refresh your maximum health, stamina, and buffs. It helps to have your favorite meal saved so you can select it quickly.

Third, on your way back to the monster, check your Seikret's pockets to see if there are any supplies you may have forgotten to pick up, or perhaps it restocked since you last checked.

If you’re down to 1 cart left in the quest, be extra careful for the rest of the hunt. If anyone else carts, the quest fails immediately. If you're hunting with Support Hunter NPCs, they don't count against you if they go down.

The developers worked tirelessly to make the game as detailed as possible, in ways that most players would never notice. They wanted Monster Hunter Wilds to feel like a living, breathing ecoystem.

For example, monsters in a herd change their behavior not only by the actions of the leader of the pack, but their proximity to them. Those close to the leader are inclined to follow the leader's actions, while those furthest away are more likely to think based on their own individual needs instead.

Chatacabra coats its arms in different materials depending on where it's located, giving its arm attacks different properties. As an amphibian, if it gets too warm, it will seek out a body of water to cool down in. If it's too cold, it will find a nice spot to sunbathe.

Moving away from minutiae, let's focus on monster behavior as it pertains to gameplay. When out on a quest, keep in mind what monster you're hunting. Particular monsters prefer different locales, and stick to those locations. You won't find a burrowing monster like Balahabra high up in the treeline, for example. If you learn where the monster patrols, eats, and sleeps, you'll have a much easier time finding them on the map.

Some monsters are aggressive, some are passive. If a monster sees you, its reaction can give you some insight on its temperament. It might attack you right away, seeing you as a meal. It might ignore you, considering you not a threat. Once you attack, lesser monsters might run away, while larger monsters (most quest targets) will fight back.

Pay attention to the monster's body during the fight. It has a windup or tell before each attack. If it raises up a claw, it's likely to swipe with it. If it raises its tail up, it's likely about to slam it down. If it curves its tail to the left, it may sweep it horizontally to the right. Over time, you'll be able to distinguish exactly what a monster is about to do. Generally, the more dangerous an attack is, the longer windup will be.

With time, you will be able to read the monster's body language and learn the proper response for any given attack - the places where it is dangerous to stand, whether it is blockable or dodgeable, how long the attacks last, and safe times/locations to attack the monster. For two examples, if Rathalos roars while standing on the ground, it will often follow up by jumping backward while shooting a fireball where it stood. When enraged, Rathian will charge forward, stop, turn, and charge again multiple times in a row.

Keep in mind that monsters will overall become faster and more aggressive when you reach High Rank, and again in Master Rank. What was a safe window before might not be so after. Once you get used to higher ranks, Low Rank monsters will seem sluggish and lethargic in comparison.

With enough experience, you'll begin to read monsters on intuition without even thinking about it, and be able to somewhat reliably predict what moves a monster will do even before they finish the previous attack.

Several times during the hunt, a monster will leave the area and move to a new location. Simply follow it and continue the fight. If you get lost, the scoutflies should be able to guide you. Sometimes, you'll be able to interrupt a monster before they leave, such as with a stagger, mount, luring pod, or trap. Just be wary of fighting in tight spaces that limit your maneuverability. If you're fighting in a bad location, or there are multiple monsters fighting in an area, you can force a monster to relocate immediately by firing a dung pod at them.

When monsters are close together in combat, a turf war might occur. Many of them are unique animations where they fight and deal damage to each other. In some cases, one monster will dominate the other; in others, it will be are more even match. Some monster interactions don't have unique turf wars, but they can still fight each other using their regular attack animations. Fights like those can involve entire packs of monsters.

You can use turf wars to your advantage by intentionally leading monsters close together. Not only will they damage each other, they will no longer pay attention to you, giving you time to recover, continue fighting, or even initiate a sneak attack.

After taking enough damage during a hunt, a monster will become enraged. They usually announce this with a roar. Monsters have unique indicators to express their rage state, such as elemental effects around their mouth or claws, horns or scales become more prominent, body parts begin glowing with luminescence, and more. They attack faster and deal more damage. Fight cautiously when a monster is enraged. If an enraged monster is focusing on you, it will follow you relentlessly. This can be dangerous, but can be used to your advantage. You can lead it to another monster to initiate a turf war, or lure it to an area with environmental hazards to knock it down.

On the other hand, monsters can also become exhausted. Monsters have stamina, which depletes by using attacks and taking blunt damage. If a monster is exhausted, they move and attack slower, and special attacks may fail. This is a great opportunity to deal damage. An exhausted monster will try to eat food, or bite at a hunter, to restore stamina.

Most of the time, when a monster is at low enough health, they will limp and move towards their nest area to rest. While sleeping, the next attack against the monster will deal double damage. People often place barrel bombs next to the monster to provide a burst of damage in addition to the wakeup. Otherwise, the hunter is free to use tranq bombs and a trap for an easy capture.

Most attacks dealt to a monster while a hunter is midair builds up an invisible "mount" meter. Once it fills up, the hunter that dealt the last midair attack will automatically climb onto the monster, called "mounting."

Some weapons have jumping attacks built in to the moveset, such as the Insect Glaive and the Lance. Other weapons will have to use the environment to mount the monster. Keep an eye out for slopes or cliffs to jump off of and make a leaping attack. If you look up, you can make use of Wedge Beetles to zip up into the air and make an attack from above. You can also make jumping attacks while dismounting from your Seikret.

Monsters have a low mounting threshold initially, so you should be able to mount quickly off the first few attacks. Subsequent mounts will take more hits, however.

There are several advantages to mounting a monster. It's a fast and easy way to create wounds on different body parts. Mounting also acts as a soft form of crowd control: the monster's attention is focused on knocking the hunter off instead of attacking. Other players will have the chance to heal up, sharpen, reload, or even continue attacking the monster. Successfully mounting a monster will topple it, granting a huge window for the hunting party to attack weak spots, especially any newly-opened wounds.

So, you've mounted the monster. Now what? You slowly lose stamina while mounting, so you should act quickly. Your options are:

• Weapon Attack will use your weapon to damage the monster. This deals the most damage and creates wounds fastest, but has more commitment than the knife attacks.
  
  • If there's a wound at your location, Weapon Attack is replaced by Draw Finisher, which deals much more damage and destroys the wound. Try to always end mounts with a Draw Finisher.
• Light Knife Attack will deal a small, fast attack.
  
• Strong Knife Attack will deal a more damaging, but slower attack.
  
• Hold down the Brace button to hold onto the monster. This is meant for when the monster is trying to knock you off. This slowly consumes stamina, but you'd lose more if you weren't bracing while the monster flails around.
  
• You can jump around to different body parts by moving in their direction. Monsters typically have two to three locations to hold onto: Head, Body, Lower Back/Tail.
  
• You can also dismount to immediately jump off.

First off, you can ignore bracing. If the monster tries to throw you off (indicated by the edges of the screen darkening or the monster icon in the bottom left changing color), just jump to a different body part instead. It uses less time and stamina, and you can keep attacking while the monster continues thrashing about.

It can be tempting to spam attack and immediately use a Draw Finisher, but there's another option. Try spending some time making multiple wounds by jumping to other parts of the body after making one. That way, you'll have more wounds to take advantage of after the mount. This means you and your team benefit even if you get knocked off. Monsters in the end-game tend to fall over before you can create three wounds, so it may be best to stop at 2 if you intend to use a draw finisher.

You might notice sometimes that the monster will fall over even if you didn't do your finisher. There are several possibilities for this. You might have run out of stamina. The monster itself might have run out of stamina, too (described in the next paragraph). Other hunters, or your palico, might have done enough damage to the monster to stagger it, causing it to fall over. Same goes if they gave it paralysis or sleep, or they break a wound. The monster might have even staggered itself in its attempts to knock you off by hitting a wall or obstacle.

An easy thing to miss is that you're not only managing your own stamina, but you need to monitor the monster's as well. Near the bottom left corner of the screen, the monster will have a rotating colored circle around them while mounted. Blue means the monster has plenty of stamina. It shifts to yellow when it's starting to get tired. Once it's red, the monster is about to fall over, so you should focus on getting a finisher done as soon as possible.

Because of this, I highly recommend that you do not use flash pods or break wounds while someone else is mounting the monster. Giving other players the chance to create more wounds is generally more useful. Save your focus strikes until afterward to maximize the benefits.

For a more visual guide, I recommend Rurikhan's explanation of the mounting mechanics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBirSyplNAM

By default, you have some useful tools in your item bar that don't take up field pouch space. If you don't like these tools clogging up your item bar and don't plan on using them, you can disable each one at any time in the Item Bar customization sub-menu.

Binoculars
These allow you to look closer at anything you like. Whether you need to identify something far away, or appreciate the details of something close, the Binoculars are always ready for your inspection needs. In a series first, the Binoculars also show whether a monster is a crown size or not. This saves a ton of time for crown hunters!

Fishing Pole
Looking to slow down, maybe relax a bit? You can take your time fishing using a fishing pole. Cast out your line, and tempt fish by moving the bobber around. The two main methods are quickly alternating between up and down, or spamming (not holding) down. If one bobber movement doesn't attract a fish, try the other.

If a fish bites, reel it in for a catch. If you fail, the fish will stick around so you can try again. You can optionally use various types of bait to attract specific fish, unlocked by the fishing side quests.

Some larger fish take more effort to catch. If you reel too much, the line will snap. Exhaust the fish first by moving left or right in the same direction the fish moves. When it stops and your character leans back, start reeling. You may have to exhaust a fish a few times before you finally catch it. If you're struggling, the Outdoorsman skill makes it easier.

For more details on fishing, I recommend this guide: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3438935955
Capture Net
Using the Capture Net equips it to your Slinger, where it deploys a short-range net to capture endemic life, including fish. If you're too impatient to use the fishing pole, you can use the Capture Net to catch fish directly, though any you don't catch will flee and the ones you do catch won't count for sidequest completion.

Portable BBQ Grill
Did your meal run out but you don't want to head back to a tent? Portable BBQ Grill to the rescue! You don't need to bring ingredients with you; you have them available no matter where you are. There's no penalty for eating out in the field, except the risk of being attacked mid-animation if you're in a hostile environment. Use your best judgement.

If you have Raw Meat, you can also use your Portable BBQ Grill to make steak. It's a quick timing minigame. If you stop cooking right away, you keep the Raw Meat intact with no downside.

The real timing window is when your character flips the meat over: if you stop too early before the meat changes color, you only get one Well-done Steak and two Rare Steaks. If you hold it too long and it burns, you get two Well-done Steaks and two Burnt Meat. The correct timing is to pull away as soon as the meat changes into a different color. It's an abrupt color/texture change, about 1.5 seconds after the flip. Observe the animated images to the right—they demonstrate what a perfect grilling session looks like.

If you pulled away at the correct time, you start a second part of the minigame. Your hunter will chop the steak five times, matching the beats of the music. Hit the button along with the cuts or music notes.

If you press nothing, you get 6 Well-done Steaks.
Partially succeed and you will get 8.
Do it all perfectly and you earn 12 Well-done Steaks!

Just as with fishing, if you have trouble with the timing, the Outdoorsman skill helps. You can also use your Portable BBQ Grill to Rest, which allows you change the weather and time of day. This is a fast way to refresh the monsters out in the ecosystem. Beware: this does not advance time in a way that preserves the ecosystem forecast. It is a complete refresh, so everything in the forecast will change.

The iconic line only plays in specific conditions: you must cook Raw Meat perfectly using the Portable BBQ Grill while near a Safe-level Pop-up Camp.

Mantles are an article of clothing you equip for a special effect. Most last for a set period of time, but some lose their effects earlier than their stated duration if broken. Once you put on a mantle, a cooldown begins before you can use it again. You can see the cooldown of your mantles any time by looking at the small icons on the bottom right of the screen. You don't have to bother putting your mantle away; the cooldown stays the same regardless.

Your hunter will always keep the Ghillie Mantle in their loadout, but the second mantle can be any of the others you unlock. You can use the second mantle normally, or you can quick-use it by holding L1 + R2. Using the shortcut lets you put on the mantle even with your weapon out.

Ghillie Mantle
Duration: 2 minutes
Recharge: 5 minutes
Effect: Conceals you from monsters, making it easier to escape or approach unseen. If you attack or take any damage, the effect expires immediately.
Unlock: Deliver honey to Jack at the Provisions Stockpile

Rocksteady Mantle
Duration: 1.5 minutes
Recharge: 10 minutes
Effect: Ensures that you don't stagger in any way while taking damage, mimicking the effects of Defense Boost, Earplugs, Flinch Free, Tremor Resistance, and Windproof armor skills.
                             Unlock: Speak to Gemma at the Smithy after defeating the Black Flame.
Beware - monster attacks that hit in quick succession are very dangerous with Rocksteady on.

Mending Mantle
Duration: 1.3 minute
Recharge: 10 minutes
Effect: Grants health regeneration over time.
Unlock: Speak to Gemma at the Smithy after defeating Xu Wu.


Evasion Mantle
Duration: 1.75 minutes
Recharge: 10 minutes
Effect: Increases invulnerability window while evading, and grants a temporary attack boost after evading a monster's attack at the last second.
Unlock: Speak to Gemma at the Smithy after defeating Frenzied Nerscylla.

Corrupted Mantle
Duration: 1.5 minutes
Recharge: 10 minutes
Effect: Infects you with the Frenzy virus. If overcome, grants 5% attack and 10% affinity. Also gives weapon-specific benefits.
Unlock: Speak to Gemma at the Smithy after defeating Gore Magala.

In older Monster Hunter games, you could damage, break, or even sever monster body parts. This usually resulted in extra loot at the end of the quest. If you severed a tail, the monster's tail attacks became much less threatening, and you could carve the tail on the ground for extra materials.

This system has been expanded in Wilds with the addition of "wounds". Repeated damage to a particular body part will form a wound there, indicated by a severe red discoloration. Wounds are much easier to see in Focus Mode, as scoutflies glow bright red around them.

Attacking a wound deals increased damage, indicated by four small arrows pointing at the damage numbers. Deal enough damage to the wounded area to break it, immediately granting you loot for the part break. Depending on the part that broke, the monster will react. If it was a leg or wing, the monster may topple over. Other body parts will cause it to flinch or stagger.

While in Focus Mode, weapons can use a special attack called a Focus Strike. If it hits a wound, it will instantly destroy it for heavy damage. You can also use Focus Strikes while mid-air. Some weapons get special benefits from destroying a wound with a Focus Strike.

Most wounds that get destroyed gives you a monster material as a reward.

Broken wounds will close up to become scar tissue, but can be re-opened to become a wound again if enough damage is applied.

Wound management is a balancing act. Do you want to keep the wounds around for increased damage throughout the hunt? Or do you want to break wounds immediately to secure that loot or gain a special weapon benefit?

You typically want wounds to stick around at least a short while, but if you wait too long you'll destroy the wound without getting the benefits of the Focus Strike. It's up to you to figure out the best timing.

This consideration goes double if you're playing in multiplayer. Be mindful and let other players break wounds too, especially if their weapon benefits from Focus Strikes. If another player is mounting the monster, refrain from using Focus Strikes until afterward, lest you break a part and interrupt the mount.

While you can always fast travel to major points of interest such as Base Camp or other friendly settlements, they aren't always close to where you want to be while hunting. Luckily, you're able to set up semi-permanent tents called Pop-up Camps. These tents are useful in many different ways.

• They serve as fast travel points. Strategically-placed Pop-up Camps can greatly reduce travel time when traversing the map. You can choose to start at any Pop-up Camp when starting or joining a quest, which can speed up hunt times.
  
• They are rest areas. Entering a tent fully heals you and cures you of all ailments.
  
• If you lose all of your HP, you respawn at the tent closest to your location.
  
• You can restock items and change equipment at any time, even during a quest.
  
  • This also applies to managing your Palico's skills and equipment.
• Cook meals to increase your maximum health, stamina, and receive meal-specific buffs.
  
• You can change the time of day/weather by taking a break at the tent. This resets everything in the environment forecast.
  
• You can customize the tent's visuals and place decorations & amenities in the area. You can even set what background music plays while nearby.
  
• You can re-customize or apply layered armor to your character & your Palico, equip decorative charms to your weapons, and customize your Seikret.

While exploring a zone, you might find Endemic Life called Quatreflies. They're marked by a blue butterfly icon on the map. They fly around potential Pop-up Camp locations. If you've been there before or once had a tent there, the map could have the area marked with a small signpost with a blue tent icon on it.

If a spot looks good to you, physically go there and use the Pop-up Camp item on your Item Bar. A window will appear with information about this location.

The most important considerations for a tent is its usefulness as a location for Fast Travel, and its Safety Level. There are three levels: Dangerous, Insecure, and Safe. It's determined by how many monsters tend to wander around the area.

You can also build and customize Pop-up Camps by speaking to a felyne in Base Camp. There's an initial limit of 2 Pop-up Camps per zone, though the maximum increases as you progress in the story. To free up a slot, you'll have to demolish a tent yourself by talking to the felyne next to it and selecting "Remove Camp".

After spending a small sum of Guild Points, your new camp will be built within a few moments. You'll be able to use its amenities immediately.

If a monster finds one of your Pop-up Camps, they're likely going to destroy it. It can happen when you're far away on the opposite side of the map, it can happen while you're inside the tent in question, or you could inadvertently lead a monster to a tent if it chases you to one. Sometimes, it's just bad luck.

If you wait long enough, helpful felynes will repair a destroyed tent automatically, for free.
If you want to restore a destroyed tent immediately, go over to where it stood and talk to the felyne there. They'll make a quick repair if you pay a Guild Point fee. You can also rest to pass the time, which will repair all tents for no additional cost.

If you're having issues finding Pop-up Camp locations, this video features a walkthrough for each location, allowing you to follow along and unlock each spot.

Your Slinger is a versatile mini crossbow/grappling hook strapped to your left arm. Using it properly will make your traversal around the map faster, and your hunts against monsters easier.

While the technical term for pulling things is with the "Hook Slinger", most people just refer to it as the Slinger whether or not it's pulling things in or shooting things out.

When climbing up vines, you can press a button to use your Slinger to grapple upwards. This is faster than climbing normally, but takes up a little stamina.

Some weapons have attacks or maneuvers that utilize the Slinger to move around, such as the Hammer Charged Step or the Dual Blade Focus Strike. It's a nice little detail that shows your hunter's ingenuity with such a versatile tool.

Keep an eye out for Wedge Beetles that are hanging around overhead. Wedge Beetles are bright yellow insects that are placed all over the map, especially near vines and cliffs. They offer quick ways to dodge attacks, mount monsters, or travel faster around the map. You can tell one's nearby if you hear a whistling sound.

While wandering around, especially on your Seikret, you can pull in all kinds of loot with ease, nice and quick.

Environmental Hazards trigger in a similar way. Pull on a hanging boulder, large pillar, or other heavy dangers to cause it to crash down, hopefully dealing massive damage to a monster and knocking it over. You can also use to Hook Slinger to activate endemic life from a distance, such as Great Thunderbugs and Paratoads.

You can equip items to the Slinger and fire them at a target, whether your weapon is sheathed or not. If your weapon is out, enter Focus Mode to aim and fire (L3 by default on controller).

The Capture Net is always with you and can be equipped and unequipped at will. When fired, it will shoot out a short distance. Small endemic life such as birds or insects will be captured. Anything larger will take a small amount of damage.

In some quests, you can find Slinger ammo in your Seikret's supply pouch, such as Screamer Pods. They can be equipped from your item bar just like the net.

You can only have one type of ammo equipped to the Slinger. If you equip new ammo, the old ammo will either go back into your bag if it was crafted, or drop to the ground if it was from the environment. You keep any Slinger ammo you craft, such as flash pods and dung pods.

While most ammo shoots in a straight line, any ammo with "Heavy" in the name don't go far. They fly in a short arc before falling to the ground, so shoot these while close to your target.

Slinger Ammo can be fired even with your weapon sheathed; click in the left stick while in Focus Mode. This doesn't work with Heavy ammo, however.

Some Slinger ammo have different effects if you shoot it directly at a monster, or hit the ground. If a monster is unaware of your presence, you can fire ammo to distract them. If a monster is climbing something, oftentimes hitting them with Slinger ammo can knock them down.

These are always available to you and do not require crafting. You have them in infinite quantities.

Throwing Knife - A small blade that deals a minor amount of cutting damage. Can be used for minor extra damage while you're too far away, and is capable of cutting off tails.

Paint Pod - Marks a monster or location with a circled orange star so they are easier to locate on the map. This can help differentiate a monster from similar species in a pack.

These are found naturally in the environment while out in the field. They cannot be stored in your inventory for later.

Burst Pod - A simple ammo that slightly staggers any monster hit. Obtained from piles of suitable rocks.

Thorngrass Pod - Sticks to a monster. When struck, it deals extra damage to the attached part. Obtained from Thorngrass.

Brightmoss - Glows brightly upon impact. This can light up dark areas, but is most useful if shot at a monster's head. This blinds it in a way similar to a flash pod, making it unable to visually tell where you are. If you strike a monster while it is flying, it will get knocked to the ground.

Brightmoss attracts insects. You can distract them so they don't bother you, or you can hit a large monster to tempt Vespoids and the like to swarm the target.

Torch Pod - Inflicts minor fire damage if fired directly at monsters. More useful shot at the ground, where it will burn in place for a while, dealing constant damage to anything standing on it. Can also be fired at flammable objects to ignite them.

Outside of combat, the flames can repel or attract the attention of monsters depending on their temperament. Obtained from objects such as sparkflint.

Grounding Pod - Discharges electricity. Shoot at Rey Dau when its empowered, or at electrified ground, to dampen electric effects. Obtained from Grounding Stone in electrified areas.

Frost Pod - Pierces the monster, dealing several instances of ice damage. Obtained from cold sources such as Frostlantern plants.

Watermoss - Deals water damage. Obtained from moss growing in damp areas.

Thundercryst - Deals thunder damage. Obtained from electrified sources.

Para Pod - Inflicts paralysis. Can be pulled off the horns of the small monster Rafma.

Bleeding Pod - Pod effective at creating wounds. Obtained from hook slinging serrated material like the Sawhorn of the small monster Gajios.

Monsters sometimes drop ammo when a wound is broken. "Heavy" pods only fly a short distance, but they're also more powerful.

Heavy Severing Pod - Deals several powerful instances of cutting damage. Especially effective at cutting tails.

Heavy Blunt Pod - Deals several powerful instances of blunt damage. Especially effective at KOing monsters or draining their stamina.

Heavy Piercing Pod - Pierces through a monster like bowgun piercing ammo. Deals damage repeatedly as it flies through a monster. Especially effective if shot through the full length of the monster.

Bladescale Pod - Sticks to a monster. When struck, it deals extra damage to the attached part.

You can also craft Slinger ammo of your own. Unlike natural Slinger ammo, these pods are crafted from materials you gather and are retained in your inventory.

Dung Pod - When fired at a monster, it causes them to move to a different area. Useful when scaring off a single target from a group.

Large Dung Pod - These pods explode in a wide area, scattering every monster within its wide area of effect. Useful for scaring everything away and avoiding a fight with multiple monsters at the same time, especially those that prefer hunting in packs.

Luring Pod - This attracts monsters towards a specific location if it hits terrain, or onto you if you hit the monster. Good for luring monsters to other monsters for turf wars, leading them into traps, or preventing them from running. Can also be used by a player that can guard to set up more power clashes.

Flash Pod - When fired in front of a monster, it blinds them, causing them to act erratically as they cannot see. Blinding a monster as it's flying will cause it to fall to the ground helpless, making hunts against flying wyverns much easier. Monsters become more resistant after each successful flash. Ineffective against anything that has no eyes or is otherwise resistant to bright lights. Crafted from flashbugs.

Screamer Pod - When fired above a burrowing monster such as Balahabra, it causes them to emerge from the ground, disoriented. Be wary that some monsters are not affected by Screamer Pods if enraged. If Wingdrakes are nearby, you can grab some Screamer Pods with the Slinger.

Tranq Knife - Used as a long-range alternative to Tranq Bombs.

As said above in the hunting procedures section, conspicuously large rocks or other natural formations can be hit with Slinger ammo (or pulled with the hook) to drop it on a monster for massive damage and an instant knockover.

In addition to the day/night cycle, ecosystems change conditions via a process that's something akin to seasons or weather. It constantly cycles between three periods: Plenty, Fallow, and Inclemency.

Plenty - Season of abundance. The area is rich and lively. Resources are common and endemic life thrive.
Fallow - Season of scarcity. Resources are less common and monsters are more aggressive.
Inclemency - Season of danger. The weather drastically changes and the environment itself becomes hostile.

The current time of day and weather/season is displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen.

As a sandy desert and grassland, this area remains harsh and dry aside from the small oasis, river, and underwater caverns. This is where your expedition settles down into its main Base Camp.

Nestled between the central cliffs is the peaceful village of Kunafa, the Windsong Village. These people live in harmony with nature. They raise Seikret hatchlings and train them to be lifelong companions. They pride themselves on making special cheese from their Dalthydon livestock.

The Windward Plains' Inclemency is called the Sandtide, which begins with a sudden rush of sand as heavy winds start blowing through the area. Humans and monsters alike take cover as the weather intensifies. Be on guard for signs of incoming lightning strikes.



A verdant forest with dense plant growth and abundant water. It's named for the deep red waters that run through the land during Fallow. Keep an eye out for endemic life hidden within the many hiding places among the foliage.

If you search deep in the forest, you may find the Wudwud Hideout, inhabited by a hidden tribe of Lynians called Wudwuds. They live well off the land, gathering fish, mushrooms, and honey as essential parts of their diet.

The Scarlet Forest's Inclemency is the Downpour, a heavy torrent of rain that washes away the red waters and empowers the aquatic creatures that claim the Forest as their domain.



This cavernous basin is rich with resources overflowing from the ground that coalesces into pools of oily silt. Watch your footing when maneuvering around the various mires and mucks that make traversal difficult.

Standing proud within the caves is the mighty Everforge, with the village of Azuz built around it. These villagers are skilled craftsmen, using the special materials of the region to hone their techniques.

The Oilwell Basin's Inclemency is the Firespring, where a sparking event ignites the plentiful pools of fuel. Be sure to keep yourself safe from incendiary threats and face the ongoing inferno.



Little is known about the Iceshard Cliffs. It has a bitingly frigid climate, and it features landscapes and inhabitants that seemingly defy gravity.



The fifth location I'll leave for you to discover. Many of the story's mysteries will be revealed there.

• At the start of the game, you will be hit with a lot of tutorials. Don't worry! You can dip your toes into the game not understanding everything, then you can always reference hunter notes (or guides like this) later once you have a better grasp on things.
  
• Take a thorough look through the options; there's plenty of stuff to customize, like having an outline of yourself while you're behind a monster for visibility, camera sensitivity when aiming, how your Seikret controls, or how long of a button press is required to do certain actions.
  
• Don't like the look of your character or palico? You can change most details via the Appearance Menu while resting in a tent. High-level choices, such as gender, voice, or name cannot be changed unless you use a Character Customization ticket on the title screen. While we may get one or two for free, you'll have to buy paid DLC to obtain more.
  
• Every piece of High Rank armor you create also unlocks that piece's visuals as a layered armor, meaning that you can change any armor in that slot to have that appearance instead.
  
• You can use layered armor by choosing Equipment Appearance in the Appearance Menu while inside a tent. You can do the same for your Palico, too.
  
• When you first visit a new location, take some time to familiarize yourself with your surroundings. Find shortcuts, rare item spawns, pop-up camp locations, and other secrets.
  • It's a good idea to have your Capture Net equipped while exploring like this, so you can obtain a bunch of local wildlife to add to your collection and get easy guild points.
• You may find areas where you can dive into the water. This isn't free swimming like the third generation of Monster Hunter - you're swimming "on rails" to the opposite side. However, you can still look around and gather items with your Slinger or fish with the Capture Net.
  
• If you find Great Thunderbugs out in the field, you can interact with them to cause paralysis in anything nearby. However, it's usually more useful to use a Capture Net on them to obtain a free Shock Trap. You also get some Guild Points as a bonus.
  
• When gathering items where you can get more than one, such as mining an ore node or carving a monster, you can hold the button to continuously harvest it all instead of hitting the button multiple times.
  
• After you gather something, you can check its icon on the map to see how long it will take to respawn.
  
• When you're getting items out in the field, many of those go into your Field Pouch. It's extra inventory dedicated to items like these, but it has limited space. You will automatically deposit Field Pouch items every time you enter a camp tent, so be sure to step in from time to time to free up item space.
  
• You'll sometimes find monster tracks, such as bits of fur or claw marks. Investigate these and you'll often get a free monster part.
  
• The left side of the screen displays nearby objects of interest. Is there something listed there but you can't find it in the field? Select it, then hit left or right on the d-pad. The camera will turn to face the selected item.
  
• Sometimes, items are unearthed when monsters dig underneath the ground. Be sure to pick these rare items up!
  
• You can rarely find Rove caught in webs while exploring the Iceshard Cliffs. Free him for an item reward.
  
• Small insectoid monsters sometimes disintegrate when killed instead of leaving a carveable body. You can mitigate this by killing them with poison, a throwing knife, or by having the Entomologist skill equipped.
  
• Monster corpses decompose over time. If you take too long to carve, you won't get monster-specific loot anymore. You'll instead obtain generic bones and other old carcass-related items.
  
• If you're looking to capture rare endemic life, it may be helpful to equip the Ghillie Mantle and crouch to reduce your presence. You should be able to get closer without scaring your prey away.
  
  • Some endemic life will be stunned if hit by a Flash Pod or Screamer Pod. Use this to get close enough for the catch!
  
• Performing various miscellaneous actions in the game enough times grants you awards such as titles or Guild Card/Hunter Profile backgrounds. Mix up your playstyle every now and then and maybe you'll get something you never would have otherwise. Try fishing or doing more sneak attacks, for example.
  
• This game has auto-crafting: you can set options to automatically craft items when you pick up the raw materials out in the field. The game has most useful auto-crafting on by default, so from the beginning you’ll automatically craft potions out of herbs, for example. Keep this in mind if you realize you picked up an item but can’t find it in your inventory: you probably automatically crafted it into something else. Autocrafting has few downsides, as base ingredients rarely have other uses. If you find yourself needing an item that you’re automatically crafting away, you can always turn off that particular auto-craft in the options menu.
  
• Need more zenny? Don't forget to sell those trade-in items! Go to your item box and select Sell Item. Hit the button to auto-sort your items (it's a good idea to do that every now and then anyway). Go to the final page or two of your items; before all the scraps should be trade-in items. Their item descriptions will say that they sell for a high price. These have no other use except for selling for money. You might want to sell a few extra monster parts you probably don't need, either. Have 25+ Rathalos Shells? You'll never use that many; sell a few!
  
  • Don't get overzealous when selling items; there's no undo button. It's a good idea to keep things that have a small icon on the top right, like the orange knife and fork that indicates food ingredients or the blue quill and parchment for special items.
• Still strapped for cash? You have some options. There's always the classic "hunt monsters and sell the loot" method, but what if you want a break from hunting? Maybe try gathering ore and bones! These materials sell for a low-to-moderate sum, but it makes up for it if you equip Speed Gathering, Geologist, and Master Gatherer skills to speed up and multiply the amount of loot obtained. Take a look around the map for good routes, and have your Seikret do most of the work getting there. Check your map's Environment Overview Forecast and look for things like "Mining Outcrop Upsurge". Take advantage of those events when you can.
  
• If you're looking to farm Guild Points instead, do the same as above but for items that award Guild Points. That would be Fossils, Gemstones, Crystals, Amber, Treasure, et cetera. Pay attention for any applicable upsurges.
  
  • These items are also useful for trading in to certain NPCs to obtain food ingredients and monster parts.
• In the Items & Equipment Menu, access the Login Bonus to obtain free items every day.
  
• You can claim purchased, preorder, beta participation, previous game save data, and community item bonuses from the felyne named Conut at the Support Desk in Base Camp.
  
• Conut also offers Limited Bounties, which are mini objectives you can complete for rewards. They refresh every few days.

• Don't buy too much at the Provisions Stockpile at the start. Occasionally, there will be a sale where many items will cost half as much. Take advantage and buy in bulk during these sales.
  
• Every once in a while, a support ship will arrive at Base Camp to sell rare items. These cost guild points instead of zenny, but can be well worth it. Rarely, they sell items you can't find anywhere else!
  
• Be sure to regularly check the Support Desk / Ingredient Center to obtain more rations. While they build up stock over time, they can only hold a maximum of 10. Take those rations so they can keep getting more.
  
• If your Seikret Pouch supply on a quest gives you extra items you usually don't get, those are hints to exploiting the quest monster's weaknesses or defending against its abilities. For example, if you find Deodorant, you can expect it to be effective against a status ailment the monster inflicts.
  
• Try to bring items that are useful against your target:
  
  • Antidotes or Herbal Medicine to cure poison can save you lots of healing potions in the long run.
    
  • Use Flash Pods against monsters that like to fly out of reach. If you can get a flash in front of their eyes while they fly, it can cause them to fall to the ground, helpless.
    
  • The same principle applies to Screamer Pods against burrowing monsters.
    
  • Deodorant is indispensable against Congalala and its stench.
  
• When figuring out what items to bring with you to a hunt, it may be tempting to bring everything that could be useful. But... do you really need all that? You don't need antidotes while fighting Rey Dau! Holding too much stuff will clutter your inventory and make it harder to find what you want in the Item Bar. Bring what you like, but every once in a while, take note if you're carrying any items you're never using. Sometimes, less is more.
  
  • As an added recommendation, try organizing your lesser-used items vertically on the item bar, since you might not need them as urgently.
• While many items from your Seikret pouch are free to keep, you can't pick them up if you're holding the maximum amount already. it may be a good idea to use an item loadout to keep your inventory half-stocked. That way, each time you use the item loadout, each quest will give you the maximum free supply of potions, rations, and other goodies.
  
• You can use item loadouts inside camp tents, at item/equipment boxes, and at Provisions Stockpile merchants.
  
• Two sidequests in high rank will ask you to fight in the Wounded Hollow arena. They will reward you with a Powercharm and an Armorcharm. These increase your attack and defense as long as you hold them in your inventory. Put them in your item loadout and keep them there forever. If you don't want them clogging up the item bar, place them vertically above something else.
  
• You can also earn the Powercharm and Armorcharm through the standard arena quests in the Gathering Hub.
  
• You can place a barrel training dummy outside of your Pop-up Camps. You can attack it to charge up your weapon gauges before setting out to fight a nearby monster.
  
• Another Pop-up Camp decoration with a potential use is the roasted meat. You can pick up rations from it from time to time.
  
• Every once in a while, you'll be invited to a feast with various people you interact with throughout the story. These provide more attack, defense, resistances, and food skills than you could ever obtain by cooking on your own. Take advantage of these when you can, especially if you're about to take on a more difficult hunt.
  
• Since your maximum stamina depletes over time, you may be tempted to eat a new meal. If you want to keep the previous meal's buffs (especially those from feasts), eat a ration, well-done steak, or a wriggly litchi to restore some maximum stamina.
  
• In the Grand Hub, every once in a while a short concert will begin. If you're near the stage as the song finishes, you'll obtain a random buff of these four:
  
  • Demondrug - Attack Boost
    
  • Armordrug - Defense Boost
    
  • Dash Juice - Reduced stamina consumption
    
  • Immunizer - Faster red health recovery

• Pay attention to the quest objective. If it says Slay, you must kill the monster - attempting to capture will not end the quest. If it says Capture, you must capture - killing the monster fails the quest. If the quest objective is Hunt, then you are free to slay or capture as you please.
  
• If you start a quest from attacking a monster out in the field, you will remain in the world afterward.
  
• If you start a quest from the quest board, you will be sent back to Base Camp afterward, so be sure to carve the monster first before you leave!
  
• Every day you play, you'll gain login bonus items, including a Lucky Ticket. You can hold up to 5 at a time. Spend these when starting or joining a quest to gain bonus rewards. This will apply to everyone in the same lobby. You'll receive a notification if someone else uses a ticket, giving you bonuses on your next quest.
  
• During downtime, Bowgun users can hold down the reload button to sequentially reload everything without needing to do further input.
  
• Don't forget about endemic life while going through hunts. Wedge Beetles, Paratoads, Vigorwasps, and the like can make a difference.
  
• Heatmantle and Chillbugs heal you in addition to the hot/cold resistance effect.
  
• Farming a monster over and over for specific drops? While it is fast to constantly repeat quests from Alma, don't forget to keep an eye out if your target is currently out in the field. You can check the Environment Overview from the map to see what extra rewards you'll get for hunting that particular monster. You might find a guaranteed drop of what you're looking for. Joining other people's SOS quests are another good way to find what you need.
  
• If you find a monster in the field that you want to hunt, you have the option to select it in the map and save it as an Investigation quest for you to hunt later. This can be useful if you don't have the time or supplies to hunt it right now. Talk to Alma to activate an Investigation.
  
  • Investigations can be done up to three times, so if you find a particularly good hunt, try saving it as an investigation to obtain the rewards multiple times. After saving the investigation, you can even hunt the monster directly from the field anyway for a total of four sets of quest rewards.
    
  • Investigations also save the size of the monster, so if you find a gold crown size monster, large or small, you can save it for later to share with friends and colleagues online.
    
  • If you completed a hunt in the field and decided that you should have made it an investigation, it's not too late. Open up your Field Survey history and you'll be able to see recently completed hunts to create an investigation.
• Material rewards can vary between killing the monster or capturing it. Try changing tactics if you're still not finding what you need. Some might even be exclusive to carving severed parts.
  
• Keep an eye out for Event Quests! These are special quests that Capcom releases for a limited time, and usually offer unique or special experiences and rewards. This can range from absurdly big or small monsters (nigh guaranteed crown size), higher-than-average quest rewards (such as for zenny, guild points, ingredients, hunter rank, or decoration drops), cosmetics (layered armor, stickers, emotes), or even unique weapons and armor you can't get anywhere else! You can find an event quest schedule[info.monsterhunter.com] on the official Monster Hunter website.
  
• Similarly, be sure to do sidequests sooner rather than later. They can unlock extra features that can help you in the long run.
  
• Take some time to hunt some small monsters, too. Their parts might unlock armor pieces that you never would see otherwise.
  
• You can carve Gypceros while it is feigning death, but you might take damage for doing so. I've tested and confirmed that this is an extra carve you wouldn't get otherwise, as it doesn't reduce the amount of carves after you slay it for real. Weigh the benefits of one extra carve vs. healing back up.
  
• Monsters of the same species can vary in size. Your hunter’s profile/guild card records the largest and smallest monsters you’ve killed or captured. Exceptionally large or small monsters will show a crown icon when viewed through binoculars. Defeating these will subsequently put that crown on your guild card for that monster.
  
  • If the monster is as large or small as they can possibly be, that will be indicated with a gold crown. Monsters that are close to that threshold, but not quite, will have a silver crown.

• If you're playing alone offline, you can pause the game, even mid-combat. This can be useful if you're expecting real-life interruptions.
  
• Using an item while you're wielding your weapon will automatically sheath and use it as fast as the animation allows.
  
• You can slowly walk around while using consumables like potions, or while riding your Seikret.
  
• Using Optimal Health Recovery or Optimal Status Recovery in the radial menu will automatically choose an item that fits your situation. This is very useful, as it won't waste a Mega Potion if a regular Potion will do.
  
  • If you have honey in your inventory, using Optimal Health Recovery while heavily injured will automatically combine a First Aid Med+ and use it immediately.
    
  • While you can make First Aid Med+ in advance, keep in mind it's still considered a Supply Item, so any that you don't use by the end of the quest will be lost.
• You can dodge during most animations while your weapon is sheathed. If you're drinking a potion and it gets canceled from dodging or being hit, you keep the health you recovered so far but lose the rest of the potion.
  
• Some monster attacks are so dangerous, you need to DUCK AND COVER. That’s where the panic dive comes in! If you’re near a monster and have your weapon sheathed, start running directly away from the monster and hit the dodge button. You will leap into the air and flop ungracefully onto the floor. You are 100% invincible for the duration of this animation, which is immensely useful for the most dangerous attacks that large monsters will throw your way. Just remember these in order to pull it off:
  
  • Your weapon must be sheathed.
    
  • You must have enough stamina to dodge.
    
  • You have to be running, facing away from the monster. This has a different animation than regular running.
• If you get hit hard enough to fall over prone to the ground, you are invulnerable until you get back up. It's sometimes a good idea to not press anything and wait for the monster to finish attacking before pressing any buttons to get back up. This is not a perfect solution, though: after a few seconds you'll automatically stand up, so if the timing is poor you'll just get back up right into another attack.
  
• Listen to your palico during battle. They may shout lines like "It's up to something!" to warn you when a monster is winding up a powerful attack.
  
• Don't be afraid to call your Seikret to get a breather, heal up, and reload/sharpen if things get too crazy to handle.
  
• If you're at low health and close to camp, feel free to run back and get into the tent. It will fully restore your health, cure all status effects, and sharpen your weapon. It can save you some time and consumables. Just be careful not to have a large monster follow you and destroy the tent.
  
• Remember to keep yourself in top condition.
  
  • Maintaining food buffs makes a big difference. You can eat meals any time by using your Portable BBQ Grill.
    
  • Visit the Smithy every now and then to ensure your weapons and armor are upgraded.
• Avoid fighting in small, tight areas like corridors between zones. Try to keep the fight in large open areas to give you and your hunting party more room to maneuver around the monster. You don’t want to be holed up in a hallway of death should another angry monster or two come by.

• If you are struggling against a specific quest solo, try doing it multiplayer. Don't forget about the SOS Flare; that's what it's there for. If you're struggling to do a quest in multiplayer, try doing it solo. Trust me on this, a lot of difficult monsters can be easier to handle alone. Even though their attention is on you more often, they have smaller health pools and deal less damage, meaning less chance of deadly combos or one-shot kills.
  
• Still having trouble with a particular monster? Try this: stop fighting and observe for a few minutes. Learn its behavior: the tells, the attack range, the recovery time. Hunts are very generous with quest timers - slow down! There's no need to rush. Play defensively.
  
  • Part of the issue could be having all attack skills but no quality-of-life or defensive skills. Online guides and meta builds are often all-out offense, but this comes with the assumption that you know how to block, parry, or dodge most of the time. Your DPS is 0 while you're constantly healing or repeatedly carting.
    
  • Many defensive skills, such as Evade Window or Evade Extender, can increase your DPS. By reducing the damage you take, you'll have more opportunities to attack the monster and spend less time backing off to heal.
    
  • Defensive skills are more powerful point-for-point than offensive skills. Number-crunchers determined that, on average, the difference between a a fully-offensive build and a build that prioritizes defense is this: -10% damage output, +35% survivability against raw damage & +80% survivability against elemental damage.
    
  • The Fortify skill boosts raw damage and defense by a significant amount after you've carted on a hunt. The key is that Fortify applies retroactively: you can cart on your main equipment set, then after you cart, swap to a different set that has Fortify. You still reap the benefits. Enjoy up to +21% extra raw damage and 32% extra defense! It's arguably the most bang-for-your-buck skill in the game... provided you cart first.
• If you’re playing multiplayer and another player is frozen, webbed, stunned, asleep, or paralyzed, you can hit them to break them out of their status ailment early. This can save their life if the monster would have hit them otherwise.
• Some monsters are able to grab you. You're not completely helpless; you're able to use a small knife attack or fire your slinger to defend yourself and hopefully break free.
  
• Are you in a real pickle and need to get out quickly? You're still able to fast travel while in combat. You can quickly open the map, hit left on the d-pad, then hit confirm -> confirm to swiftly escape. Alternatively, you can open the map via the menu under the Info tab, or even make it faster by setting it as the top option in the favorites tab.
  
• You'll eventually encounter a very large ice-element monster with an exceptionally dangerous attack. There's two "intended" ways of dealing with it:
  
  1. Use your slinger to pull down an ice chunk; it will create a barrier to block the attack. However, many of the monster's attacks destroy the chunks, so if you bring one down early, it might not be there when you need it.
     
  2. It can't do the big attack at all if you break off the metallic fins on its back. They're quite tough, so use explosives, mind's eye attacks, or focus attacks when it's knocked over.
                and a few "unintended" ways:
  
  1. Bring up the map and fast travel to camp. Simple as that.
     
  2. Place a large barrel bomb and get caught in the barrel explosion so that you're flat on the ground, invincible for the duration.
     
  3. Switch Axe and Long Sword can counter with perfect timing.
     
  4. Dual Blades can Demon Dodge repeatedly if empowered with Demon Boost Mode.
     
  5. Lance and Gunlance can survive if they block with guard, guard up, and effects that reduce stamina consumption.
     
  6. You can also survive with a ton of ice resistance if Divine Blessing triggers.
  
  
• Later, you'll encounter yet another large monster with an exceptionally dangerous attack. This one is less intuitive: It leaves crystallized wylk deposits after many of its attacks. Hit them with elemental slinger ammo to detonate them. Bear in mind, your slinger won't deal elemental damage if you're afflicted with dragonblight! Its big attack has four ways of dealing with it:
  
  1. The large wylk crystal deposits are explosive. They will NOT protect you. If the monster hits them, they damage you. If you detonate them yourself, you can damage the monster instead, and create safe spots where they once stood.
     
  2. Run to the opposite side of the arena; call your Seikret if necessary.
     
  3. Return to camp by using the map or a Farcaster item.
     
  4. The monster is up against the wall the first time it uses the big attack, but every big attack after the first, it's safe to stand behind it.

• Remember that different parts of a monster take different amounts of damage. A slashing attack on a wing might be weaker than that same attack on the tail, for example, but the opposite might be true for a bowgun's shot. If you're not aiming to break body parts, try to hit where the monster takes the most damage.
  
  • Sometimes, these "hit zones" change during the fight. Some monster parts get stronger or weaker when they're enraged. For a more specific example, Gravios takes a lot more damage once its hard shell is broken.
    
  • You can see where monsters take the most damage (and their element/status weaknesses) in the hunter's notes.
• Some late-game monster tails can't be cut until they reach a certain "phase" of the fight. That's not to say attacking the tail early is pointless—severing damage will be saved to the point where it may be cut off immediately once it takes 1 more damage.
  
• Many weapons have small movement improvements. By holding a direction during or between some attacks, you may be able to reposition yourself when you couldn't before in previous games.
  
• Weapons that can guard can guard cancel, which lets them reset animations slightly faster. This can allow you to do more actions in a set amount of time. This video covers the Great Sword, but the general principle applies to all weapons capable of guarding.
  
• Focus mode allows some weapons to change the direction they're facing mid-attack. This is especially useful for Great Sword while charging, or Lance for pin-point precision on weak points.
  
• Focus mode also increases the distance of some movement-based attacks, allowing you to close the distance on monsters faster than normal.
  
• If a monster opens its mouth, that's likely a weak point. Take a stab at those open mouths and extended tongues; it will likely pay off.
  
• You don't have to sheathe to sharpen your weapon. While your weapon is out, simply use your Whetstone or Whetfish Scale and your character will begin sharpening as normal.
  
• It's easy to forget you have a lot of tools at your disposal. Utilize consumables such as Demondrugs and Lifepowders. Lure monsters together to start turf wars. Use traps offensively instead of just for capturing.
  
• Pitfall Traps and Shock Traps hold a monster longer if they're exhausted. If enraged, monsters break out of traps faster.
  
• Large Barrel Bombs can now be picked up, rolled, or returned to your inventory. Check the control prompts to learn these new interactions.
  
• When you place a Large Barrel Bomb next to a sleeping monster, your Palico and Support Hunters will often place their own for a free damage boost. If you're low on supplies, you can put your Barrel Bomb back in your inventory to take advantage of the NPC bombs without spending any of your own.
  
• The Airborne offensive skill says it increases damage done while in the air. This doesn't just apply to jumping attacks; this increases the damage of any attack that has your feet leave the ground during any point in the animation. Pretty much every weapon except the bowguns benefit from this unexpected bonus.
  
• If you like to use Sleep weapons in multiplayer, I strongly recommend going into the Communications tab and enabling the auto-shoutout when Sleep activates. It will be easier for other players to notice when it triggers and prevent mishaps.
  
• You can fire Slinger Ammo with your weapon out. Click in the left joystick while in Focus Mode. This works for most ammo, but heavy ammo dropped from monsters use a different animation and require your weapon to be sheathed to fire.
  
• Late-area tip: Guardian monsters sometimes leave solidified wylk while fighting on top of wylk-infused ground. Shoot them with any elemental slinger pod to detonate them.
  
• Smoke Bombs and the Ghillie Mantle both make monsters lose sight of you in combat. This is an easy way to get more sneak attacks. After you do a sneak attack, you can't do so again for a while, so don't plan on doing this back-to-back.
  
• Throwing Knives deal cutting damage, so they are able to cut off monster tails. Take a few potshots while running up to a monster or when it's unsafe to approach during a dangerous attack. You might just make the cut.

Once you've progressed enough and reached the Grand Hub, you will unlock arena quests. You must be in the Grand Hub and speak to the Arena receptionist in order to start them.



Standard Arena Quests are always available. They play by different rules than a standard hunt. Each arena quest has you pitted against a specific monster or group of monsters, with a specific selection of armor, weapons, and items. You cannot bring your own. It's a test of a hunter's understanding of weapons and item utilization. For one-trick hunters, it forces them out of their comfort zone.

• Arena quests take place in the Wounded Hollow map.
  
• The maximum amount of players that can take on a quest is 2.
  
• You can request an NPC Support Hunter to join you.
  
• Players cannot join an arena quest in progress.
  
• Your palico does not join you for arena quests.
  
• All arena quests are timed, and with rank designations for certain time thresholds. You get more rewards for faster completion.

Challenge Quests are arena quests with the same restrictions above, but they are also time-limited. They usually come with special rewards. After a certain amount of time, they will rotate out and no longer be available. They may become available again at a later date.

Free Challenge Quests take place in the arena, but do not have the standard arena restrictions. You are able bring your own equipment, with up to four players, support hunters, or your palico. These quests are also time-limited, however, so complete them while you can.

Completing arena quests unlock special armor pieces you can't get anywhere else, so give it a try!

Like in Monster Hunter World, late game progression will pit you against powerful versions of monsters, called tempered or veteran monsters. You'll find their icons surrounded by a purple outline. These targets have proven themselves superior in combat, with much higher health and attack compared to their normal counterparts. Their scales or fur will have a slight metallic sheen.

Having survived numerous battles, tempered monsters bear scars from their struggles. By repeatedly attacking these pre-existing scars, you can re-open their old wounds as a special weak point, highlighted with blue scoutflies instead of the usual red. Attacking these points will be especially effective and breaking them drops special loot.

Defeating these monsters grants you mixed decorations for skill customization and Artia weapon parts. By combining three Artia weapon parts of the same rarity, you can craft a customizable weapon of the Artia weapon tree. Different weapons require different parts, and any unwanted pieces can be used as alchemy material.

Eventually, you may encounter arch-tempered monsters. These are the elite of the elite. Their icon is surrounded by an orange outline and are not to be underestimated. They offer unique armor sets.

Another form of "purple" endgame monsters are those afflicted with the Frenzy Virus. These monsters have darker pigmentation, they exhale black virus particles, and their eyes often glow red. Due to the influence of the virus, they have less health, but are much more aggressive than usual. They will attack faster than basic variants, and some of their attacks can transmit the Frenzy Virus onto you.

At first, the virus incubates within your hunter. If left unchecked, the virus will debilitate you, causing you to no longer heal over time from the red portion of your health bar. You will also take increased damage from Frenzy-based attacks.

Embrace the aggression and attack monsters enough before the virus matures. Using a nulberry won't cure the virus, but it will slow it down, buying you some time. If you succeed, you will overcome the infection, granting you increased weapon affinity and temporary immunity to infection.

Tempered and Frenzied monsters represent the most hardened and dangerous forms of these species. It helps to bring your A-game.

• Make sure your weapons and armor are as fully upgraded as possible.
  
• Eat appropriately for the quest. If you're fighting a tempered Rey Dau, it's probably a good idea to eat for Elemental Resistance.
  
• Be prepared: Bring demondrugs, armorskins, lifepowders, flashpods, dungpods, traps, tranq bombs, and more if need be. As you get more comfortable fighting these monsters, you might not need everything, but it doesn't hurt to be over-prepared at first.
  
• Don't forget the offensive and defensive tips listed above. They really make a difference.
  
• Be patient; there's no need to rush. Don't take unnecessary risks and get carted when you could've just taken an extra two minutes and lived. Remember, you can always heal and restock your items at camp.

Monster Hunter Wilds is a little obtuse in how it handles putting players together.

When you start up the game and begin playing, you can choose to play alone offline, or create/join a private lobby or public lobby. Lobbies can contain up to 99 other players. You'll be able to see the chat messages and join the quests of everyone else in the lobby.

It would be a serious drain on resources to render 100 hunters with their Palicoes and Seikrets, so the game randomly chooses up to 15 other players for you to see wandering around Base Camp. As soon as you go on a quest or move out into the field, they'll fade away as you enter your own environment. Other players cannot join you on your hunts unless you allow them to, depending on your quest options and whether you've sent an SOS flare.

The most important thing from here is to make sure you become Friends in-game, to make it easier to join each other in the future. There's several ways to do this.

The first way is to find and share your Hunter ID. You can find this on your Hunter Profile, or by opening the in-game menu ➔ Communication tab ➔ Player List. By default, you will be on top of the list.



Share your Hunter IDs with each other and send friend requests. Alternatively, have everyone join the same lobby via the Lobby ID and send friend requests via the lobby members list. You can accept invitations directly from the game notification. If you miss it, you can accept or decline invitations in the menu under "Invite Notification List".

You can also form a Link Party. This will link you all together in a way that allows you to see and join each other's quests, even if you're in different lobbies. When anyone starts a quest, the game will send an automatic invite to all others in the Link Party. If you missed the invitation, you can also join via the Post/Join Quest Menu ➔ Link Member Quests. You can send friend requests via the Link Party member list.

Once you're all connected as friends, this becomes simpler. On the Title Screen, you can join a friend's lobby by going into Lobby ➔ Lobby Search ➔ Hunter Friend Search. In-game, you can join a friend's lobby via invite, or joining with a Lobby ID code.

If you're just doing quests through Alma, keeping friends together in a Link Party or Private Lobby is all you need to do. If you want to explore the world together and hunt monsters that organically spawn, proceed with the below instructions.

While in a Link Party, there's the option of forming an Environment Link. This effectively turns the game into an exploration, expedition, free-hunt mode. This is the only way for friends to see each other out in the field outside of quests. You'll all share the same environment to explore.

You can start quests against free-roaming monsters in the Environment Link, but the main downside is that you can no longer post quests from Alma. If you're looking to hunt a specific monster but they're not out in the world at the moment, you'll have to leave the Environment Link. In addition, if you abandon a hunt while connected to an Environment Link, you will be removed from the Environment Link.

Link Parties, Environment Links, and Private Lobbies are temporary and you'll have to recreate them for each game session. A way to help alleviate this, aside from being friends, is to create or join a Squad. You'll unlock Squads by talking to Felicita, who is in charge of the Squad Information Counter. She sits just outside the big meeting tent at Base Camp.

A squad is persistent between game sessions, allowing you to create Squad Lobbies that only allow Squad members. You can also send squad messages that other players can read even after you've gone offline.

Being in the same lobby is preferable, but optional. A private lobby will prevent random players from distracting your group, and being in a squad together makes creating lobbies easier.

Joining an Environment Link automatically puts you in the same lobby.

Monster Hunter Wilds features cross-play, so you can hunt with friends no matter if they're playing PC or Console. This is why they went with Hunter IDs—to make it easier to connect players on different platforms without having to sign in to yet another account system like Capcom ID.

It can be done, but it's a little cumbersome. As expected, this is best done in a Link Party. Everyone will need to watch their story cutscenes separately in order to unlock the next hunt. When a cutscene is finished, do not attack the monster to start the quest.

Wait until everyone has finished their cutscene, then have a player attack the monster to start the quest. If you're in a Link Party, the game will invite you to join that player. As long as you're all on the same part of the story, quest progress should count for all of you. After the hunt, you'll be separated again.

If someone started their quest before everyone else finished their cutscene, they may need to back out of the quest and start it again so everyone can join. Some parts of the story require you to find or repel a monster before the quest "officially" starts and you're able to let others join.

For further details, this Steam Guide goes more in-depth. It has great tips on online etiquette and multiplayer tactics!
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3435493455

Seriously, there's enough details packed in this game to make full-on nature documentaries.

This is just a small section to appreciate the little things that can often be overlooked.

• Each weapon has a different animation for a sneak attack done from a higher elevation.
  
• Slow down and observe your walking animations. You'll have different movements depending on whether you're walking on open ground, through grass, stepping in low water, wading through oil, stumbling in sand and snow, carefully maneuvering unstable terrain, and hot-stepping on lava flows.
  
• There's many idle animations while standing, riding a Seikret, or sitting down.
  
• Emotes used to lock you in place in older games. In Wilds, many emotes allow you to move around while gesturing. Try it out!
  
• Have fun with the Fireworks emote. It produces different patterns each time it's used. Use it to celebrate, or call attention to a specific area.
  
• Your hunter reacts differently depending on the size of each whopper-class fish they catch. You go from matter-of-fact acknowledgement of a smaller one to a triumphant cheer on a gold-crown size.
  
• Your waist-slot armor, or layered armor, determine the look of your carving knife.
  
• A few arm-slot armor pieces change the visuals of your hook slinger.
  
• Some armor pieces are living creatures, such as the Amstrigan hat or the frog for your palico. Their facial expressions will change to match that of yourself or your palico, too. It's most noticeable during emotes.
  
• When catching small endemic life that you immediately extract items from, you may have a special animation of squeezing its material into a vial and letting them go.
  
• Felynes in particular have a lot of details put into their animations. Take some time to watch some of the felynes as they go about working in base camp; you may see something entertaining.
  
• Sometimes when you get KO’d, you can follow the Cart Felyne as it runs all the way back to Base Camp.
  
• When you use photo mode, a felyne shows up to diegetically "paint" your screenshot.
  
• Alma will sometimes pull out and admire one of her archaeological artifacts. She will also respond to many emotes, or wave when you point the camera at her in photo mode.
  
• Your hunter, palico, and Alma have idle animations when they're in hot or cold environments without proper protection. Alma will even pull out her own hot drink to heat up.
  
• Your Palico has numerous animations for various situations, such as interactions in a camp tent, animations during quest completion, reactions to your emotes, fishing when you fish, or the fact that they use a little raft when going through water too deep for their legs. If idle near something interesting, they may look at it, interact with it, or even imitate it!
  
• At high vantage points in various locales, you can see the other game environments. The weather over each one will reflect their actual state on your map.
  
• Monsters, endemic life, and NPCs all have different animations and behavior depending on the time of day and weather.
  
• Mimiphyta are endemic life in the forest that mimic flowers during the Plenty and mushrooms during the Fallow.
  
• Nearly all living creatures' eyes dilate and contract according to ambient light, and close their eyes in response to bright lights or dust in the air. Some monsters have nictitating membranes (third eyelids) that reduce their sensitivity to outside stimuli.
  
• Small monsters become more confident and aggressive in large groups. If alone, a small monster may run away from a large monster, but as a pack they're more likely to defend themselves with tooth and claw.
  
• Small monsters and endemic life have small variations in size, color, and other characteristics such as horn shape or number of antennae. Florashell Crabs have different plant growths or dirt clumps, and Dapperwings have various color combinations. Rarely, you can find melanistic Ceranototh.
  
• Speaking of, male Ceranototh can have different configuration of spikes on their backs. Female Ceranototh try to stay near the males for protection from lightning strikes during the Sandtide.
  
• Wind pressure from flying wyverns can scatter petals and leaves on the ground.
  
• Rey Dau's "railgun" attack may leave deposits of fulgurite if the electricity hits sand.
  
• In the rare occasion that a Gypceros feigns death while fighting another monster, the other monster will disengage, thinking themselves victorious.
  
• Bulaqchi can climb walls and ceilings. They may pounce on you from above as an ambush tactic.
  
• Amstrigians (the birds that look like small Pukei-Pukei) make nests in trees. If you capture a parent, the baby birds in the nest will sadly perish over time as the nest crumbles.
  
• Dapperwings can be seen using their wide wings for attracting mates and courting. Some attempts succeed, and others fail.
  
• Dapperwings can sometimes get caught and eaten by carnivorous plants.
  
• You can watch Vigorwasps approach flowers to harvest their healing nectar.
  
• Small bits of monsters can fall off when damaged. Scales, spikes, and fur can fall to the ground when hitting specific body parts.
  
• After you kill a large monster, after a set amount of time, it will begin to decay and rot. This will alter the carve rewards if you haven't carved it already. Fungi may grow on the carcass in rare cases. Small scavenger monsters may come by to snack on the rotting meat.
  
• If a Chatacabra charges into a barrel bomb with its mouth open, its tongue will stick to the bomb and lift it in a special animation before exploding.
  
• In the last area of the game, if you kill a guardian monster atop wylky ground, observe for a few minutes and you'll see the body absorb the wylk and crystallize. You can carve wylky crystals off the body.
  
• Fire damage can cause small brushfires in dry grass or set fire to oilwells, which can deal a small amount of damage to you or a monster. Be mindful of that, especially when fighting with a Gunlance or overcharged Charge Blade.
  
• The glowing water in parts of the Oilwell Basin is caused by bioluminescent bacteria. This phenomenon can rarely be found in real life coastal regions of Japan, Taiwan, Africa, the Bahamas, Mexico, and the United States. This suggests the Oilwell Basin waters are rich in nutrients.
  
• Some events, monsters, or items only show up during certain combinations of time of day or season; and some only show up during certain phases of the moon.
  
• Later in the game, in the town of Suja, you'll find Poogie! Between each hunt, you can pet them. Press the interact button at the right time (with the animation/music as a cue) to get a joyful token of appreciation! It's Monster Hunter tradition to say that petting Poogie helps with item drop RNG.
  
• The late game monster Zoh Shia has a lot of similarities with the legendary dragon Fatalis. They share the same resting pose, and some of its attacks match those of the Crimson, White, and Black Fatalis variants.
  
• In the Gathering Hub, you can find a hidden massive Downy Crake. It sometimes leaves items in its nest. Starting from the Hub entrance, you can find it by hugging the far wall (vaguely in the direction of the barrel bomb bowling), climbing some vines, jumping across some cliffs and through a waterfall.

Unfortunately, Steam sometimes deletes guide images without warning. This has been happening for years, and the pattern of what stays and what gets lost is inconsistent. If this guide references a missing image, or it seems like an image should be somewhere but there isn't, that's probably what's happening. Let me know in the comments and I'll re-upload the file. Cheers, and thank you for reading the guide to the end!

Can't get enough of Monster Hunter Wilds? Try for 100% completion!
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3435493260
The official Monster Hunter website[www.monsterhunter.com] is a great source for basic information, screenshots, footage, and art.

It's new and not fully up-to-date yet, but https://monsterhunterwiki.org/ is a passion project for creating a wiki with higher standards and without the issues other wikis may have.

The Monster Hunter Fandom Wiki[monsterhunter.fandom.com] is a decent repository of information.

An alternative is the Game8 Monster Hunter Wilds Wiki[game8.co].

Kiranico[mhwilds.kiranico.com] is one of the most in-depth databases for the Monster Hunter series.

You can try making your own armor builds by trying out this[www.mhwildshub.com] or this[cecilbowen.github.io].

Arekkz Gaming has a ton of content dedicated to Monster Hunter.

RageGamingVideos is another channel which covers a lot of Monster Hunter content.

gaijin hunter is a long-time Monster Hunter content creator with plenty of insight on the series. Back before the games were simultaneous release, gaijin hunter was often the one who brought news to the west.

dreamingsuntide is great at describing armor and weapon skills in-depth.

Mahnster Hunter is breaking into more educational content for the Monster Hunter series, with a focus on learning how to become a better player.