A Veteran’s Guide to Monster Hunter Wilds

Hello, fellow hunter! If you’re reading this, you’ve solved the mysteries of the Forbidden Lands and you’re looking to better yourself just that little bit more. Heck, you might have read my beginner's guide! At the time of writing, I’ve reached HR 100+, so you’ve come to the right place. I’ve assembled some information you might need to know while tackling the whole new set of challenges you’ll face as a High Rank hunter in Monster Hunter Wilds.

Investigations

Bring on the hunts!

Investigations work a little differently than what you might be used to from Monster Hunter: World. They are created by you for monsters you want to fight again at the cost of a few hundred points. Just select a monster you want to fight again on the map (or go to the Field Survey tab in the Quest Board) and create a quest from there. Now you can go and fight them on your own time… or hunt them without worry of missing out on their potential rewards.

Investigations yield good rewards, but don't forget you have optional quests if you just need specfic parts and the monster you want isn't spawning.

Check your map often and see the Environment Overview on what monsters are available in what area. If you want a specific time and condition, or just to reset spawns, rest using your grill or at a camp (via the BBQ menu) to set it to what you want.

Tempered

A little more lethal, a lot more rewards!

Thanks to your efforts in saving the Forbidden Lands, the ecosystem is flourishing more than ever. However, more food leads to more competition, and only the strongest can survive. Tempered monsters are creatures who have survived many battles, making them tougher than normal. However, the battle scars they’ve taken have become weaknesses. Open them back up and destroy them, and they’ll suffer major damage.

Don't underestimate Tempered monsters. They can one-shot you.

Taking on these monsters leads to better rewards, such as better decorations and parts for making Artian weapons. The more powerful the monster, the better the decorations you’ll get out of them, maybe even obtaining jewels with two skills on them. Two levels of both Handicraft and Razor Sharp, anyone?

Frenized

Fear the Virus.

Gore Magala is back in this entry, and they are bringing the Frenzy Virus with it. This horrific affliction will occasionally infect other monsters, making them more aggressive and capable of inflicting Frenzy on a hunter. Your reward for hunting these monsters is Frenzy Crystals and better rewards than a normal monster.

Attack, attack, attack!

If you need to know, Frenzy is a special ailment that you may get if you get hit by an attack. It will immediately hinder your natural health regeneration and will cause a (annoyingly small) Frenzy meter to appear above your health bar. Should that meter fill up, you’ll contract Frenzyblight, which stops your natural regen and makes you take a lot more damage from Frenzy attacks. However, this meter can be reduced by consuming Nulberries, buying you time to cure it, which is done by attacking monsters. If you manage to do so, you’ll get a nice affinity bonus and temporary immunity to the Frenzy. You can tell how close you are to beating the Frenzy by either the gauge turning from purple to blue or your hunter’s aura doing the same thing.

Artian Weapons

May the past provide a better future.

After a few Assignments, you’ll unlock the ability to forge Artian weapons from Gemma. Artian series weapons are different from your normal craftable weapons: you don’t need monster materials. Instead, they are created from parts rewarded by taking down Tempered foes, with harder prey giving you rarer drops. These parts are individually given random traits like their element and Artian bonus (Attack or Affinity). If you match elements, it adds it to the final product (e.g. two Thunder parts make the weapon have Thunder element). They must be all of the same rarity, so try not to mix and match.

I really hope layered weapons get added in a Title Update.

They don’t have inherent skills like the other weapons; however they more than make up for it by their customizability. Aside from the aforementioned initial crafting of the weapon, it'll come with three Sword decoration slots (which get better the higher the rarity) and can be reinforced using the ores obtained from Azuz’s Festival Shares (and occasionally from the item farm and trade) to make them stronger with random bonuses. They might not be the strongest weapon types out of the box, but with time and patience (and the right decos), you can bring out their potential and create something monstrous yourself.

Village Intermediary

Bind the world together.

Post-story, Nata becomes the Village Intermediary, and that means you don’t have to go to every village to take advantage of some of their services. Nata will allow you to trade items, collect ore from the Firespring Festival, and manage and retrieve the materials gathered by others all in one place. It’s extremely convenient, so you should talk to Nata frequently.

Nata is awesome.

However, you will need to travel to the other villages if you want to meld decorations, craft armour spheres, visit the Support Ship, etc. I should point out that material yields are determined by the current conditions of the location. You'll get tons during Plenty, little from Fallow, and nothing during Inclemency. You can boost their yields temporarily if you take down a monster that is giving them trouble, which you can see in the Environment Overview so, as I said, be sure to check on them and Nata regularly.

Check your Monster Field Guides

A good hunter does their research.

While you’re safe to mostly ignore the various monster guides in your Info menu in Low Rank, the information can be lifesavers in High Rank.

I'm not telling you what monsters you'll encounter in High Rank.

Everything you might want to know about a monster – like what parts you need, how to obtain them, what their drop chances are, even what statuses they inflict – is all in the guides. It is the most robust it has been in the series, so take advantage of it. Also, wishlists have been improved, so it will pin the required monsters that need to be hunted in both the guide and the map and will even show you if you got the necessary materials in the results screen. If you find yourself not getting the right thing, there is no need for a third-party source to check; It's all in-game.

Do the Side Quests

I promise it's worth it.

It might be a pain to find specific endemic life or fish up rare creatures, but more than a few features are locked behind the various side quests, such as item farms, charms, and ingredients for cooking.

Always eat and keep your buffs up.

As you do side quests, villagers will offer to feed you meals which are way better and last longer than whatever you can make, having powerful food skills that are difficult to get, like Insurance (a free cart) and Carver (more carves from dead monsters). They aren't always available even if you get the notification (for example, Y’sai won't be available during the night or during Sandtide). Be sure to check the weather conditions.

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There’s still a lot to do in High Rank, with title updates introducing new monsters and event quests to give you unique hunting experiences, and hopefully, a few cool crossovers, your hunting journey won’t be finished even after a couple hundred hours. Happy hunting!