to engage in hunts. Each locale is typically small, but condensed. They're divided into ten or so smaller sections, usually consisting of an open area interconnected to its neighbors by narrow ageways. Sometimes, there are shortcuts, secrets, or different elevations to make exploration a little more interesting, but in general, players can complete even the largest Monster Hunter maps in 30 minutes.

But Monster Hunter Wilds is a lot more open than previous games. Hub areas are connected to each individual map, not separate from them, and players are a lot less beholden to the village and the Quest Board when it comes to starting and finishing hunts. Its maps clearly draw a lot from their predecessors, but in of how they're laid out and how the player navigates, they couldn't be more different. Here's how they compare in of size and structure.

Monster Hunter Wilds Map Size Is Bigger Than World & Rise

How Wilds & World Compare

Some of Monster Hunter Wilds' maps are as much as double the size of some World maps, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) by @in the Wilds open betas.) They were able to calculate the rough scale of the two maps by timing footage of players running for an equivalent amount of time in each, then plotting out their routes on each map.

It's plain to see that just one of Wilds' massive, open areas is about equivalent to the entire surface map of the average World area. However, it is worth noting that the maps are plotted differently, which can make Wilds' maps look a lot bigger than they actually are. World layers its maps - the subterranean area of Wildspire Wastes is clearly visible on the map above, criscrossing beneath the surface in narrow, reddish-brown lines. But Wilds maps are three-dimensional, so when displayed as a 2D screenshot, above-ground areas appear right alongside below-ground ones.

Still, Wildspire Waste's underground area is pretty small, and the Windswept Plains has two massive, open areas that clearly equal it in size. Therefore, compensating for each map's layers and unexplorable areas, it's safe to say that this Wilds map is about twice the size of its World counterpart. That trend continues throughout the game, too - Wilds has several other maps that sur World's in size, although few are as large as the Plains. Therefore, as a whole, Wilds is probably a little less than double the size of World, and even bigger compared to Rise.

How Many Areas Are In Monster Hunter Wilds?

Every Map & How They Compare

Excluding the Training Area, which, while technically its own separate map, is far too small to be considered its own region, Monster Hunter Wilds has six main areas that players will explore as part of the story. These are, in more or less the same order players will visit them throughout the campaign (you'll do a lot of jumping back and forth):

• Windward Plains
• Scarlet Forest
• Oilwell Basin
• Iceshard Cliffs
• Suja, Peaks of Accord
• Ruins of Wyveria
• Wounded Hollow

However, Suja is a pretty small region in and of itself; it really just consists of a small, mountainside hub area. It's one of the most pivotal locations in the game, both story- and gameplay-wise, as you'll be spending a lot of time here receiving major story revelations and melding accessories. Additionally, the Ruins are inaccessible for the grand majority of the story, as well as part of the postgame. Wounded Hollow mostly serves as an arena for various challenge hunts. Therefore, while they are part of the open world, Suja can't really be called a region unto itself, and the Ruins aren't quite so open as the rest of the map.

So, your four main maps are the Plains, the Forest, the Basin, the Cliffs, and the Ruins. Each of these are comparable in size and ever-changing, full of free-roaming monsters. The maps change in nature throughout the story: certain regions have multiple seasons and weather effects, which may alter the entire nature of the map entirely. For example, sandstorms rage around the Plains during the season of Fallow, while visibility improves and plant life thrives during the season of Plenty.

Is Monster Hunter Wilds Open-World?

Yes, But Only In The Epilogue

Monster Hunter Wilds is not truly open-world, in the sense that you can't walk into endgame areas unhindered from the very moment you start the game. You can travel freely between the various different regions once they're unlocked, but the operative word here is "unlocked." You'll discover new map regions as you progress the story, and they're all interconnected - there are very clear points of transition between regions marked on each map. You can also fast travel between regions freely using the World Map feature.

However, Wilds is significantly more open than previous games. In previous games like World and Rise, you have to post quests even if you just want to explore an area openly. These so-called Expeditions allow you to roam a selected area freely, gathering items and attacking monsters at will. By contrast, in Wilds, you can simply walk out of the hub area into the wilds, and you're there.. If there are other players on your server, you may even run into them out in the world.

If you attack a monster while out in the open world while you have a quest available to hunt it, that quest will automatically begin after you land a few hits on them.

In effect, Monster Hunter WIlds becomes open-world once you've beaten the story. But you have to get through 15 or so hours of more linear, mostly on-rails story content to get to that point. Therefore, it wouldn't be fair to call Wilds an open-world game, but the series certainly seems to be heading in that direction.

Plus, it's worth noting that Wilds isn't even in its final form. World had the benefit of DLC to build out its maps, whereas Wilds has only just launched. With an impressive roap already in place, Monster Hunter Wilds' world is only due to grow bigger in the future - if not in land size, at least in the diversity of monsters and amount of content available.