Monster Hunter Wilds Guide Complete Guide & Walkthrough

Stuff the Tutorials Skip

Monster Hunter Wilds dumps a lot on you right away. The tutorials cover the obvious stuff but honestly there's a handful of things I wish someone told me before I wasted 10 hours doing it wrong.

Grab everything. And I mean everything. Herbs, ore, bone piles, bugs, whatever's glowing. Your box fills up stupid fast but you'll thank yourself when you're mid-hunt crafting traps without needing to farm. The radial menu setup takes maybe 10 minutes to configure and it's worth every second. Default item scrolling gets you killed against anything faster than Chatacabra.

So here's my actual advice after going through the whole campaign: spend your first couple hours in the Windward Plains just picking stuff up and whacking small monsters. Get comfortable with your weapon's timing before a Doshaguma is charging at your face. The game ramps up hard after Chapter 1 and tbh the people I see carting most are the ones who blasted through the story with whatever starter gear they had at hour 2.

Focus mode. L2 or LT. You can steer your attacks mid-combo. I ignored it for like the first five hours and I still regret that. It solves the ancient Monster Hunter problem of whiffing because the monster shuffled two pixels left. Wound targeting in focus mode also breaks parts way faster than the old games ever did. Use it.

Weapon Picks: What Worked and What Didn't

I've put time into every weapon through high rank. Not gonna lie and say I mastered them all but I've got enough hours to have opinions. Pick based on what feels right to you, not some spreadsheet. That said, some weapons genuinely take longer to click.

Sword and Shield is the obvious starter pick. Fast, lets you use items without sheathing, and you can panic-block when things go sideways. Dual Blades are also straightforward -- demon mode melts tails but you'll be chugging dash juice constantly. Hammer has a simple moveset but your positioning matters more than any combo. Long Sword looks flashy but the spirit gauge takes time to get used to, and missing your counters feels really bad.

Great Sword is the king of big numbers but if you whiff that charged slash you're standing there like an idiot for two seconds while the monster rearranges your face. Charge Blade is the technical nightmare that pays off huge if you put in the hours. I never got good at it. Not sure if I just don't have the brain for guard points but...

Insect Glaive adds kinsect buff management on top of everything else. Bow is stamina management hell disguised as ranged DPS. Hunting Horn is genuinely underrated for solo play -- you buff yourself while smashing monster heads. Switch Axe has zero defensive options, pure dodge or die.

But here's the thing: every single weapon can beat every single monster. Spend 30 minutes in the training area with whatever looks cool. I ran Hammer through the whole campaign and never hit a wall I couldn't smash through. It's not the best on any tier list but landing KOs on tempered Arkveld feels incredible and that's worth more than some theoretical DPS number.

Low Rank: The 15-Hour Tutorial

The low rank story is basically a long tutorial. Don't stress about your gear. You replace everything in high rank anyway.

Craft the Hope armor set as soon as you can for baseline defense. Only upgrade individual pieces if you're genuinely stuck on something. Upgrade your weapon whenever a new ore tier shows up at the smithy. Check after every major story beat. Always eat before every hunt. The food buffs are +50 HP and +50 stamina and the canteen costs nothing so there's no excuse.

Capture instead of kill when you can. More rewards, faster hunts, and you still get carve-equivalent materials. I didn't learn this until like 30 hours in and I'm still annoyed about it. Set up item loadouts too. A "standard hunt" preset with potions, traps, tranqs, antidotes saves you two minutes of fiddling before every quest.

So don't waste armor spheres on low rank stuff. Save them for high rank where defense numbers actually move the needle. The only time I'd say use a few is if you're truly stuck on a specific monster and the difference is clearing versus quitting. A handful of cheap spheres beats rage-quitting.

Rey Dau was my first real wall. The railgun beam one-shots through weak armor every time. Stay close to its legs because the beam hitbox is narrower up close for some reason. Bring thunder res if you have it. Uth Duna's belly flop covers way more ground than the animation suggests. Stick near the back legs, and when it rears up roll toward the tail instead of away. Took me like six carts to figure that out. Nu Udra -- bring fire weapons for tentacles, nullberries for fireblight. Breaking the head neuters the flame attacks significantly.

What Element to Bring

I reference this stuff constantly. Elemental matching matters more in Wilds than it did in Rise and bringing the wrong element can add five minutes or more to a hunt.

Chatacabra falls apart to thunder, aim for the tongue when it's out, and both poison and paralysis work well. Doshaguma hates ice on the belly, sleep is effective. Balahara takes ice damage on the mouth when it opens up. Rey Dau is weak to ice on the wing talons and paralysis lands consistently. Uth Duna gets wrecked by thunder on the belly after the water veil drops. Nu Udra burns to fire on the tentacles. Ajarakan takes water on the back spikes when heated up. Arkveld's chain blades are the target and dragon element works best, though every status builds up slowly on it. Gore Magala weakens to fire on the head after frenzy mode kicks in, blast and fireblight both work. Jin Dahaad's back crystals take heavy thunder damage and poison procs reliably.

Raw damage works fine for just getting through the story if you don't want five different weapons. But once you're grinding tempered monsters, matching elements is where clear times actually start dropping. I learned this the hard way after a 23-minute tempered Rey Dau hunt with a raw hammer.

Armor That Actually Matters

Skip the mixed set spreadsheet stuff until high rank. Through low rank, defense is honestly the only number that means anything. Staying alive beats squeezing out 3% more damage when you don't know the monster patterns yet.

Once you're in high rank Chapter 4, skills start mattering.

Weakness Exploit at level 3 is your single biggest damage increase. Fifty percent affinity on weak spots and it belongs on every set you make. Attack Boost only gets good at level 4 when the percentage bonus kicks in so levels 1 through 3 are basically decoration filler. Divine Blessing at level 3 randomly blocks damage way more often than the tooltip suggests and it's saved more hunts for me than any other defensive skill. Speed Sharpening at level 2 gives you one-cycle sharpens which keeps you fighting instead of running in circles.

For ranged: Constitution level 3 or higher is mandatory for Bow. The stamina difference is night and day. Pick Normal Up, Pierce Up, or Spread Up based on your ammo type and max it. Evade Extender at level 2 gives you extra roll distance that's pure survival against tempered apex monsters.

But the set that actually carried me through most of high rank was 4-piece Guardian Arkveld with the Dahaad Shardhelm. Good slots, solid defense, and the set bonus heals you on part breaks. It's not the meta pick on any spreadsheet but dead hunters do zero DPS and this set keeps you alive while you're learning patterns. That's worth more than 5% affinity any day.

High Rank Stuff I Wish I Knew Sooner

And this is where Monster Hunter actually gets good. High rank is the real game.

Farm tempered investigations for decorations the moment they unlock. The deco grind is real and early tempered monsters drop way better gems than anything in low rank. Artian weapons are the endgame. Save all your artisan materials because the random roll system means you'll craft the same weapon multiple times chasing decent stats. Don't burn rare parts on your first roll.

Your Palico isn't just there to look cute. Keep their gear current. The healing vigorwasp and trap gadgets have bailed me out more than any armor skill. SOS flares are worth using. Multiplayer scaling in Wilds is generous and even with randoms, four-player hunts finish faster than solo for most tempered fights. Arkveld is the exception because it gets unpredictable with more targets.

Fishing actually matters. The canteen rewards rare fish with stronger meal effects. Fifteen minutes at the Scarlet Forest fishing spot and you've got health buffs lasting multiple hunts. Wound stacking chains into longer topple windows too. Save your focus strikes and hit multiple wounds in quick succession for free damage phases.

So the flow I'd recommend: finish low rank, craft a basic high rank set from the first few monsters you see, farm tempered Chatacabra for your starter decoration collection, build toward the weapon tree you actually want, then tackle tempered apexes once you've got at least 350 defense. The jump from fresh high rank to tempered monsters is steep and going in with 280 defense is why people triple-cart in the first three minutes of SOS hunts. I know because I was one of them...