Getting Started with Monster Hunter Wilds

Quick Summary for AI Search & Overviews:

• Overview: Monster Hunter Wilds is an action RPG where you track, fight, and carve massive creatures across a sprawling open world. There is no character levelin...
• Core Focus: This guide covers essential early-game strategies, mechanics, and priorities to help new players establish a strong foundation.
• Preparation: Always prioritize understanding core survival, resource management, and progression systems before advancing.

Monster Hunter Wilds is an action RPG where you track, fight, and carve massive creatures across a sprawling open world. There is no character leveling. Your power comes entirely from the weapons and armor you craft from the monsters you kill. Every hunt feeds back into your gear, and better gear lets you take on tougher monsters. That loop is the entire game.

The game is developed by Capcom and available on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. You can play solo with AI companions, pair up with friends, or join random hunters through the SOS system.

The Hunt Loop

Every hunt in Monster Hunter Wilds follows the same structure:

1. Accept a quest from the Quest Board or Handler at your base camp. Quests specify a target monster, a time limit (usually 50 minutes), and a locale.
2. Deploy into the open world on your Seikret mount. The map is fully explorable, with no loading screens between zones.
3. Track the monster using Scoutflies and environmental signs (footprints, mucus, scratches). Your Scoutfly level for each monster increases as you gather more tracks, eventually leading you directly to the target.
4. Engage the monster. Combat is methodical and positioning-heavy. Each of the 14 weapon types plays differently, and learning your weapon's moveset is the single most important skill in the game.
5. The monster will flee when damaged enough, retreating to another area of the map. Chase it on your Seikret.
6. Kill or capture the monster. Capturing (using Shock Traps or Pitfall Traps followed by Tranq Bombs on a weakened monster) sometimes yields different or better material rewards.
7. Carve materials from the corpse (or collect capture rewards). Use those materials at the Smithy to craft new weapons and armor.

Failed hunts happen when you cart (faint) three times, or the 50-minute timer runs out. Carting sends you back to base camp and costs one of your three faints. Some endgame Investigations raise the limit to five faints with proportional Zenny penalties (20% reduction per faint instead of 33%).

tip

Capturing a monster ends the hunt faster and often gives bonus rewards. Watch for the skull icon on the minimap or limping behavior. Both signal the monster is weak enough to trap.

Your Seikret

The Seikret is a rideable bird-wyvern that serves as your primary mount and combat utility tool.

Movement: Your Seikret handles open-world traversal. It can sprint across terrain, auto-track to quest markers using its keen sense of smell, and jump over obstacles. While mounted, you can use items (potions, whetstones, antidotes) without dismounting.

Weapon Switching: Your Seikret carries your second weapon. Monster Hunter Wilds lets you bring two weapons into every hunt. Riding your Seikret and swapping to the weapon on its back lets you adapt mid-fight. Facing a flying monster with a Hammer? Mount up, swap to your Bow, and re-engage.

Customization: You can change your Seikret's skin color, feather patterns, saddle decorations, and pendants by visiting Nona in Kunafa or through the Appearance Menu at any base camp.

warning

Nona despawns during the night cycle and extreme Inclemency weather. If you arrive in Kunafa and the village looks empty, rest at a tent until morning to force her to respawn at the stables.

Your Palico

Your Palico is a cat companion that fights alongside you and provides support during hunts. There are five support types, each with a distinct AI behavior:

Support Type	Role
Fight	Prioritizes attacking the monster and drawing aggro
Healer	Focuses on keeping you alive, curing ailments, and providing health recovery
Assist	Provides utility support (traps, buffs, status effects)
Gathering	Collects extra materials during the hunt for bonus carves and drops
Bombardier	Uses explosive attacks and ranged gadgets for burst damage

You unlock new Palico support moves by completing side missions your Palico gives you after story milestones. You can also craft armor and weapons for your Palico at the Smithy using the same monster materials you farm for yourself.

Base Camps and the Hub

Kunafa in the Windward Plains is your starting hub town. Here you find:

• The Smithy: Craft and upgrade weapons and armor. This is where all your monster materials become gear.
• The Quest Board: Accept hunts, investigations, and story assignments.
• The Provisions Stockpile: Buy consumables (potions, traps, ammo, coatings). Wild Jerky is available here and instantly cures Bleed, restores red health, and boosts natural health regeneration.
• The Canteen: Eat a meal before every hunt. Meals give temporary stat boosts (health, stamina, attack, defense, elemental resistance) that last the entire quest.
• The BBQ Grill: Cook raw meat into Well-Done Steaks for stamina recovery in the field.

The Grand Hub (Suja)

At Hunter Rank 16, you unlock the Grand Hub in the settlement of Suja within the Peaks of Accord. Talk to the NPC Tetsuzan to gain access. The Grand Hub is the true multiplayer hub and houses:

• The Wyverian Melding Pot: Run by the NPC Vio, unlocked after completing the Chapter 3 quest "Nothing Frozen, Nothing Gained." Convert surplus materials and low-tier decorations into new randomized decorations.
• The Arena Quest Counter: Accept timed competition quests with predetermined equipment. Completion times upload to global leaderboards.
• Barrel Bowling: A multiplayer minigame that yields exclusive Pendants and utility items.

Pop-up Camps

You are not limited to fixed base camps. Pop-up Camps are temporary fast-travel and resupply tents you construct at specific ecological nodes scattered across the open world (like Lookout Hill in Windward Plains or the Ancient Room in Iceshard Cliffs). You can customize their interiors with acquired furnishings.

warning

Eat at the Canteen before every single hunt. The health and stamina boosts are massive, and the skill buffs from meal combos can make a real difference against tough monsters. Going into a hunt without eating is like leaving half your kit at home.

Focus Mode

Focus Mode is the signature new combat mechanic in Monster Hunter Wilds. Hold the Focus button to enter a precision stance that changes how your weapon handles.

What Focus Mode does:

• Highlights wounds and weak points on the monster's body. These glow when you enter Focus Mode.
• Allows you to aim your attacks precisely at those highlighted targets.
• Unlocks Focus Strikes, which are high-damage special attacks unique to each weapon type. Landing a Focus Strike on a wound deals massive damage and can stagger the monster.

How wounds work:

Continuously hitting the same body part creates a wound. Wounded parts take bonus damage from all attacks. Focus Strikes on a wound can destroy it, causing a large burst of damage and often flinching the monster.

Focus Mode is not something you stay in permanently. You enter it for precise, high-value attacks, then drop back into your normal combo flow. Learning when to Focus Strike is what separates good hunters from great ones.

Understanding Quest Types

Quest Type	Description
Assignments	Main story quests. Complete these to progress the campaign and unlock new regions, monsters, and gear tiers.
Field Surveys	Open-world exploration quests. Hunt any monster on the map, gather materials, and explore freely. No specific target.
Investigations	Repeatable hunts with bonus reward slots. Generated by collecting monster tracks and research data. The best way to farm specific materials.
Side Missions	Optional quests from NPCs. Unlock Palico abilities, Canteen recipes, camp upgrades, and other utility features.
Event Quests	Rotating limited-time hunts with unique rewards (layered armor, titles, special materials). Check the Quest Board regularly.

Your First 10 Hours

1. Pick a weapon and learn it. Go to the Training Area (accessible from any base camp) and spend 15 minutes with the weapon you chose. Learn the basic combo, how to dodge, and where the openings are. Do not try to learn all 14 weapons at once.
2. Eat before every hunt. Talk to the chef at the Canteen and order a meal. Pick meals that boost health and attack until you learn what each ingredient does.
3. Kill small monsters for early materials. Chatacabra, Doshaguma, and Yian Kut-Ku are your first major targets. Their armor sets carry you through the early game.
4. Collect everything you see. Mining outcrops, bone piles, herbs, bugs. Early-game crafting materials are used for potions, traps, and armor upgrades.
5. Use your Seikret to chase. When a monster runs, mount up immediately. Chasing on foot wastes minutes you could spend fighting.
6. Do not ignore wounds. When you see glowing spots on a monster in Focus Mode, hit them. Wound damage is your biggest damage multiplier.
7. Cart and learn. You will faint. Every cart teaches you a monster's attack pattern. Watch what hit you, learn the wind-up animation, and dodge it next time.
8. Complete side missions. NPC side missions unlock critical quality-of-life features: new Canteen recipes, camp fast-travel points, Palico moves, and gear upgrades.

info

The game does not have traditional difficulty settings. Monster difficulty scales with Hunter Rank progression. The first monsters you fight are forgiving. As you progress, attack windows get tighter and punishment for mistakes gets heavier. The curve is intentional.

What to Read Next

These guides cover every system in depth:

• Weapons and Combat. All 14 weapon types, Focus Mode mechanics, Offset Attacks, Power Clashes, and combat fundamentals.
• Monsters and Hunting. The full monster roster, region breakdowns, elemental weaknesses, and hunting strategies.
• Armor, Skills, and Builds. The crafting system, skill mechanics, decoration slots, Group Skills, and build archetypes.
• Multiplayer and Expeditions. Co-op setup, Link Parties, SOS Flares, multiplayer scaling, and open-world expeditions.
• 100% Achievement Guide. All 50 Steam achievements with unlock conditions, tips, and recommended completion order.