Monster Hunter Wilds will finally arrive early next year, bringing with it a myriad of improvements, changes, and additions to the beloved beast slaying franchise. Though the newest installment keeps many of the core elements of the series fans have come to know, it also looks to be the most accessible entry released so far. Things like the weapon choices and overarching gameplay structure remain largely the same, but the finer points like moves, hunting tactics, and the monsters at hand have all grown since World and Rise.

Wilds takes players to the Forbidden Lands, an area dotted with a variety of diverse biomes and creatures, as they search for a missing group called The Keepers and the title’s flagship monster Arkveld, also known as The White Wraith. Though players have begun exploring some features with the Monster Hunter Wilds beta, Screen Rant recently traveled to Osaka to visit Capcom’s studio and get hands-on time with a more finalized - though not fully complete - version of the title. These were the ten biggest changes, additions, and improvements we noticed.

10 Seikrets Change How Hunters Explore

These New Companions Have Many Uses

The map size of Monster Hunter Wilds, just like other entries in the series, is extremely large, featuring an array of diverse biomes. Traversing this vast landscape is now easier than ever with the addition of Seikrets, a new mountable creature similar to the Palamutes of Monster Hunter Rise. One of their best features is an auto-navigation ability, which can naturally lead players to monsters or other points of interest needed for the current quest at hand.

Not having to worry about where one is going allows players a great number of advantages. For one, it means they can better utilize tools like the Slinger or ranged weapons like the Light Bowgun for attacks while moving, and can even launch off a Seikret for an aerial attack with a melee weapon. Additionally, there are some traveling scenes in which players are encouraged to look at different reference points in the environment to learn more about it, which becomes much more doable with a Seikret on autopilot.

9 Monster Hunter Players Are No Longer Limited To One Weapon

Hunters Can Change Their Attack Strategy On The Fly

Seikrets also offer another boon outside of autopilot in the form of allowing players to carry a secondary weapon. With fourteen weapons to choose from in the game, previously players have been confined to changing their choice of monster slaying tool back at base camp. Now they can store another weapon on their Seikret when going out into the world, making it much easier to switch up attack strategies in the moment.

While players aren’t able to change the weapon directly, and must mount the creature in order to swap, this is still a large improvement from prior games. In my own time with the title, I found it incredibly useful to be able to adjust my strategy from up-close melee weaponry to ranged based on the fight at hand. As much as players can attempt to find the perfect weapon ahead of time for the monster they’ll be facing, having the ability to approach things differently if the initial plan isn’t panning out as hoped can help turn a fight around.

8 Monster Hunter Wilds Has A Feature To Help Hunters

Finding Wounds With Focus Mode Changes The Game

Though it was already discussed in a previous Monster Hunter Wilds preview, the strength of the new additions Wounds and Focus Mode bring to the title can’t be overstated. These two new features go hand-in-hand, and are part of a push to make the game more approachable for newcomers to the series, as well as improving strategy for franchise veterans. Wounds are brought on by monsters being attacked repeatedly in certain areas, forming vulnerable spots on their body.

These, in turn, can be viewed in Focus Mode, appearing as red marks of varying size for easy targeting. Once a wound is attacked again, it’s destroyed, dealing huge amounts of damage to the creature. Even the very strongest monsters can be wounded, and utilizing the system to chip away bigger chunks of health can be the turning point in a fight where it feels like the creature is simply infallible. As someone newer to the series, this made me always feel like I had a plan of action, even in long fights where victory sometimes felt uncertain.

7 Players Can Expect Longer, More Detailed Hunts In Wilds

Monsters Can Have Packs, Alphas, & More

The additions of Focus Mode and Wounds is especially useful considering the bigger emphasis on longer, more detailed fights in Monster Hunter Wilds. Fight time has always been somewhat variable across the series, and, of course, depends upon things like a player’s knowledge of the monster and their general skill in the game. However, from my time with Wilds, it was clear they’ve expanded on this idea, with longer fights often being the norm.

Some of this has to do with monsters more frequently changing location, with many of my fights taking me to a handful of different locales on my Seikret as I chipped away at a creature’s health. Monsters are also now more frequently found in packs, leading to a bigger overall challenge and fight time. The bear-like Doshaguma, for example, has a pack led by an alpha, and my fight with a Congalala also included several smaller Congas that needed dispersing simultaneously.

6 The Slinger Is Back & Better Than Ever

The Trusty Tool Can Help In Fights & Gathering

The Slinger tool from Monster Hunter World returns in Wilds, and is even more useful this time around. It retains its previous abilities, like being able to sling special types of ammo at enemies, but it's much more of a multitool now. Environmental manipulation using the Slinger is encouraged as a part of combat, as it can do things like pull down loose rocks onto enemies or trigger traps.

Its other biggest use once again ties into the mountable Seikret, allowing players to gather resources from afar while riding the creature as they make their way to a new location. This saves a great deal of time, and makes it much easier for players to stay stocked on various crafting supplies. There are still a few resources like ore that can’t be harvested with the Slinger, but almost everything can be quickly harvested on the go.

5 Players Have Much More Freedom With Armor

Gender & Stat Locked Pieces Are A Thing Of The Past

In previous Monster Hunter titles, players were very beholden to the gender they chose at the beginning of the game when it came to their Hunter’s gear. This was an issue for many players, as the differences between male and female gear was often quite stark in the overall aesthetic. In Wilds, this is finally no longer the case, with any craftable armor being available to any character.

Another nice touch is that each section of craftable armor will come in multiple styles, but can retain the same stats. The pieces of headgear, chest armor, gauntlets, and other bits of protection Hunters can make from each monster come in two different styles, but each offers the same boons. This means that players no longer have to choose between dressing how they want and receiving ideal benefits from each hunt, which will make character customization a lot more satisfying.

4 Hunters Can Summon Help Even Offline

NPC Companions Can Be Brought In For Big Fights

Though Monster Hunter Wilds features 100-player lobbies for online play, Hunters aren’t limited to online options when it comes to aid in a fight. Players can now also summon NPC Hunters to fight alongside them with one quick action mid-fight. All they need to do is launch a flare into the sky, which can be done from the item action wheel, and three other characters will arrive to help take down a monster.

During my time with the game, these helpers showed up prepared, coming with various close and far-range weaponry. This provided a great balance for fights, and was particularly helpful when facing battles where smaller creatures of a pack were providing reinforcements for the larger monster. These NPCs are also in it solely for the love of the hunt, leaving all the harvesting rewards from the slain monster to the player.

3 Story Is A Much Bigger Part Of Monster Hunter Wilds

The Hunter & Other World Inhabitants Have More Focus

While previous entries in the Monster Hunter series have featured a general storyline, the humans residing in the world have a much bigger emphasis this time around. There’s much more time spent getting to know the characters who reside in the Forbidden Lands and how they interact with their environment and the monsters that live alongside them. Players will often travel with their party, even expanding the role of Handler from World to be more of an active participant.

This expansion of participation in the storyline also goes for the player themselves. In the character creator, players will choose a voice for their Hunter, who will be a much more active participant in cutscenes than in previous titles. There are even dialogue choices for players now, which they can utilize to optionally learn more about different characters, monsters, and story beats.

2 Weather In Monster Hunter Wilds Changes How Players Hunt

Different Types Of Weather Mean Different Creatures & Hazards

The concept of a changing environment isn’t completely new to the Monster Hunter series. Previous entries have included things like a day-night cycle and a few weather effects to make the world seem more realistic, but Wilds is taking these effects to whole new heights. Monsters have always been tied to the ecology of their homes, but now certain monsters will only be available during certain periods of weather, like the fish-like Uth Duna, which only comes out in heavy rain.

Wilds will also have a season cycle, and while I didn’t get to experience enough of the game to see it in action, we do know what these seasons will be. There’s Fallow, a time of food scarcity in which more monsters can be seen out and about looking for food, and Inclemency, a sort of in-between period in which the environment builds back up to a rich period called Plenty. This will provide players with much greater variance in what they can hunt and when, and provide a greater depth of strategy when it comes to planning hunting trips.

1 Pausing Has Returned In Monster Hunter Wilds

Having To Rest Your Console To Pause Is A Thing Of The Past

One of the most universal complaints from players about Monster Hunter World was undoubtedly the lack of a pause feature. While there were a few workarounds, like suspending the entire console, as a whole this was seen as prohibitive and led to many failed quests. Thankfully, despite the fact it does have online features, the coveted pause feature returns in Monster Hunter Wilds.

Alongside helping players not fail quests due to having to step away from the game, the return of pausing is useful in several other ways as well. For one, it means the temporary stat boosts granted from meals, which usually last an hour, won’t run out if Hunters need to take a break. Monster Hunter Wilds' new weather effects can also be preserved by pausing, meaning if players had been waiting for rain to find a specific creature, they won’t have to risk skies clearing in their absence.

Source: Capcom USA/YouTube