Hunt monsters, carve their materials, turn them into better gear, repeat. Wilds makes that loop smoother than ever: your Seikret carries a second weapon and auto-travels to the target, Focus Mode lets you hit wounds for big damage, and meals before every hunt keep you alive.
Welcome to the Forbidden Lands. Monster Hunter can feel like a lot at first: fourteen weapons, a dozen menus and monsters that hit like trucks. The good news is that the core idea is simple. Here’s everything we wish someone had told us on day one.
The core loop
You hunt a monster, collect its materials, and turn those into better weapons and armor. Better gear lets you take on bigger monsters, which give better materials. That’s the whole game, and it’s a great one.
- After a main assignment, optional quests let you hunt the same monster again for more materials.
- You can craft from the menu out in the field, but materials sitting in storage can only be used from the tent.
Your Seikret is your best friend
The Seikret is your mount, and it does far more than carry you around:
- Auto-move takes you to the quest target or to any marker you set on the map. You can take the reins any time.
- It carries your second weapon (more on that below).
- It has its own item pouch, stocked with quest supplies at the start of each quest and slowly refilled.
- While riding you can use items, sharpen your weapon and gather things as you pass.
- Knocked down? Call your Seikret to get back up, reposition and heal on the move.
Two weapons, and how to switch
You carry a primary and a secondary weapon, and you choose both at the tent under Equipment, then Change Equipment. In the field you can swap between those two. Press D-pad Right while riding to swap. On foot, the same button calls your Seikret, jumps you on and swaps, so don’t press it in the middle of a monster’s combo. To take a different weapon altogether, you need to visit a camp tent.
Try every weapon in the training area at camp before you commit. Picking a main weapon without trying the others is one of the most common beginner mistakes. Our weapon pages explain how each one plays.
Focus Mode and wounds
Hold L2 (the default) to enter Focus Mode and aim your attacks precisely. Ranged weapons enter it when they aim.
- Hit the same spot again and again and it becomes a red wound. Wounds take extra damage.
- In Focus Mode, press R1 for a Focus Strike. It destroys the wound for big damage, can stagger or topple the monster, and can drop extra materials.
- Destroying wounds also feeds some weapon resources, like the Long Sword gauge and Insect Glaive extracts.
The Slinger and the world around you
Your Slinger fires pods and ammo you pick up from the environment, gathers items from a distance, even while riding, and fires the Capture Net. Dung Pods drive monsters away when you need a breather. The world fights on your side too: vine traps, hanging boulders and toads like the Paratoad can all be turned against a monster.
Your Palico
Your Palico fights next to you and uses support moves, like healing with Vigorwasps. It gains abilities and levels as you hunt together, and you craft its gear from monster materials just like your own.
Camps, pop-up camps and meals
Base camps have a tent where you change gear, cook and manage items, plus a training area. With the Camping Kit you can set up pop-up camps: extra tents with the same functions that also work as fast-travel points. Monsters can wreck them, but you can repair them with Guild Points.
Eat before every hunt. Meals temporarily raise your health and stamina and give food skills. When the effect wears off, eat again. You can cook at the tent or anywhere with the Portable BBQ Grill, which also turns raw meat into Well-Done Steaks.
Title Update 1 added a Transfer Items option for restocking outside the tent. Title Update 2 put item boxes outside tents, with an optional one at pop-up camps, and added quick restocking.
What to bring
- Potions and Mega Potions. Honey and herbs combine into them, so turn on auto-crafting for Mega Potions.
- Antidotes and Nulberries for poison and blights
- Rations for stamina
- Shock and Pitfall Traps plus Tranq Bombs if you want to capture
- Flash Pods for flying monsters
- Hot or Cool Drinks for extreme climates
The seasons
Each region cycles through three states: the lean Fallow, the stormy Inclemency, when apex monsters appear, and the lush Plenty. From High Rank you can rest at a tent to change the environment and time of day, which costs 500 Guild Points.
Four mistakes almost everyone makes
- Picking a main weapon without trying the others
- Fighting with a blunt weapon instead of sharpening
- Hunting on an empty stomach
- Ignoring Focus Strikes on wounds