Monster Hunter has always been known as a challenging series, and for some that might be a put off. The Portable Series (known as Freedom in the West) required players to use the "claw method" to control the game, monsters hit hard, the game gave little to no direction, and hit boxes were a little weird. It was a commitment to get into the games, but once you were hooked, you were in for the long haul.
Moving forward, the series continued to make quality of life adjustments, and made other changes to make things a little easier. Monster Hunter Tri introduced underwater fights to change things up, but the return to a full controller provided multiple options for people to use. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate included a free movement camera for those who had a New Nintendo 3DS or the Circle Pad Pro, and also included a lock on feature to keep a monster focused in view. These features carried forward into Monster Hunter Generations, with Monster Hunter World bringing a much wider range of quality of life updates later on.
With Monster Hunter World, a lot of the guesswork and "clunky" mechanics were taken out or refined. Items could be used while moving, monsters were marked on the map and didn't need to be physically found and marked by the player, items used to gather resources no longer took up inventory space, and nearly every main mechanic of the game was fixed up and refined. These improvements made playing the game even easier, and a lot less frustrating for new players to get started on their new addiction. Monster Hunter Rise then went on to introduce a mount to the game, that not only allowed you to travel the map quicker, but also let you to quickly climb walls and pick up items on the move; which once again helped speed up the pacing of the game.
All of these changes have helped improve Monster Hunter, and players will be happy to know that they made the jump to Monster Hunter Wilds as well. However, that doesn't mean the game doesn't have changes of its own.
As with each entry before it, Wilds introduces quite a few new features to the game, and many quality of life improvements. They make this the smoothest Monster Hunter to date, but they also make the game a bit easier. Of course being easier isn't necessarily a bad thing, nor are all of these new features fully required. While I previously brought some of these points up in our Monster Hunter Wilds Review, I thought it would be a good idea to directly inform everyone exactly what changed, and how it can make your monster hunting life a bit easier.
Auto Navigation
One of the biggest changes to Wilds is the inclusion of the mount system, and the new auto navigator and discovery feature.
When on their seikret, players can choose to travel to the monster target location automatically. This means players do not have to worry about navigating the maze like sections some of the maps contain, and they do not have to spend time hunting for monster tracks or locating the monster themselves. Just hop on the mount, hit up on the d-pad, and away you go. Of course monsters appear on the maps themselves as well, but even this is extra work that is no longer needed, and it is not limited to just big monsters either. Small monsters are also tracked, and way points can be placed to direct the mount to specific areas. It speeds things up, and allows players to do things like sharpen their weapons as they travel.
Additionally there is also a "discovery" mode where your mount will take you to places containing rare items, so that is always useful as well.
The New Cooking System
Cooking has always been key to survival in Monster Hunter. It provides special buffs, additional max health and stamina, and different recipes can be used to give yourself advantages against different targets. However, all of these buffs would only last for a single quest, and they would go away if players fainted in battle. While quests allow for three faints before a failure, losing your food bonuses after the first faint can seal your fate.
Even the most skilled hunters can mess up from time to time, and sometimes unexpected outside forces will cause just that. You could be setup to take down a monster with ease, only to have a second one fall from the sky and blindside you out of nowhere. If you were to faint, you'll be taken back to the camp, and all your bonuses will be gone.
This was bad.
With the food bonuses, often the health boost alone was enough to keep players alive. Even with end game armor, there are times where the only reason an attack is survivable is due to the additional max health. Without it, players would have to be perfect to avoid getting killed in a single hit, and less skilled players could easily fail the quest without that buffer.
Monster Hunter Wilds changes all of this.
Instead of cooking before leaving on a hunt, players can cook at any time, and the buffs last for 30 minutes by default, with other recipes and additional ingredients extending this time along with providing additional buffs. Fainting also doesn't take away the buffs, so getting knocked out once isn't the end of the world. This makes things a LOT easier in the long run, and also allows players to change up their food based on how a fight is going.
NPC Party Members
Monster Hunter World introduced a unique new multiplayer system; the SOS Flare. This item allowed players to shoot off a help request, and made their current quest available for others to join. In previous Monster Hunter games users couldn't join a hunt mid-hunt, and had to be in the party before departing, but this new item made it possible.
Wilds brings back the SOS Flare, and it works exactly the same. Players can set out on a hunt, shoot the flare off, and players can freely join as long as there is room for them. However with so many hunts going on, and players mostly joining in what benefits them the most, it is very likely no one will join if the quest isn't anything special (for example, a main story hunt).
This is where NPC Party Members come into play.
If no one joins a hunt, support party members will join instead. These are highly skilled NPC characters who can help players clear the quest. It makes the game a lot easier in general, and they get replaced by real players if anyone does join later on. This means everyone using an SOS Flare will never hunt alone, and real players are not locked out by the NPCs that help while you wait.
Towns and Camps
Another major change to Wilds is one similar to the cooking system change.
In past games the hub town was somewhere you prepped for your hunts, and once you left you couldn't go back to it until the quest was over. The maps themselves would have mini camps to allow you to rest, manage items, etc, but all the main features remained locked to the town.
That is no longer the case.
As Wilds features a fully open map, players are free to come and go as they please. All towns and camps are open at all times (unless a monster knocks down a camp that is), and that provides full access to everything. Crafting new armor, making new weapons, fully changing load-outs; nothing is off limits and that can change a lot. Those looking for a single material to craft the next set can simply do so the moment they get it, and more items can be purchased if running low on stock. Of course this requires leaving the monster for a bit, but with fast travel, and a mount that takes you right back, this really isn't a problem.
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Materials Dropping During the Fights
Along with being able to travel back to town to craft new gear, materials themselves are no longer limited to very special occasions, and carving and capturing monsters at the end of a quest. Instead a new weakness system has been put in place, which allows players to use focus mode and target key points. Hitting these glowing spots will not only weaken the monster, but cut off materials right then and there, that are automatically harvested by the entire party.
This means each hunt not only provides more than just three carves per kill, but allows players to get what they need without actually taking down a monster... And that speeds things up a lot.
In previous games it wasn't uncommon to fight the same monster 20 - 30 times before you got everything you needed from it. With this change in Wilds, resources drop almost non-stop, and it greatly cuts down on the amount of hunts needed to finish off an armor set. Of course rare drops are still rare, but with more chances to get the items, it doesn't feel like as much of a grind. Not to mention many quests now have guaranteed rare drops, so that helps out a lot too.
Sub-Weapons
Another new feature that goes along with the seikret mount, is the ability to switch to a sub-weapon. A sub-weapon is weapon you are free to change to during a hunt, and can be anything you want. It could be a different version of the weapon type you are currently using, or it can be a completely different weapon. It is fully up to the player to decide what they want to bring, but it can be used to pick weapons to cover different weaknesses.
For example, if a hunt is up against a monster that is weak to fire, and one that is weak to ice; both weapon types can come with you to cover both situations. Or for monsters that are more resistant to being cut, a hammer could be brought along to help smash things up. There are really countless ways this sub-weapon system can be used, and it allows for greater flexibility when out on a hunt. It can really help turn the tides if used right, but that also requires complete understanding of the game's monsters and mechanics.
Extra: Turning Off Features
Although Monster Hunter Wilds introduces, and continues to use a lot of "helpful" features from World, many can be turned off for "old school" players who prefer to keep doing things the old way.
Auto targeting and locking onto a monster can be switched off, controls can be customized, the auto weapon sheath system can be disabled, the auto-pilot to a monster doesn't have to be used, sub-weapons don't have to be used, you can choose not to return to town during hunts, and there are other settings to help fine tune the overall experience in general. There are also join options for the SOS Flare, so even this can be customized to choose who you allow in a quest. While it isn't possible to make everything 100% like the old days, there are ways to come close.
On the other hand, cooking, materials falling off of monsters, etc; these are all core parts of the gameplay and cannot be changed. Those who enjoy farming monsters for sets however, will be happy to learn that there are actually four versions of each High Rank set, and two versions of each in Low Rank. So those who want to collect everything will still have their work cut out for them, but the material gain will still be higher.
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