As you complete the main story of Monster Hunter Wild, you’ll find yourself entering the exciting world of high-rank gameplay.
This guide will walk you through the key features, mechanics, and strategies to help you complete this challenging new phase of the game.
Entering High Rank
After completing the story, you’ll start at high rank level 6.
From here, you’ll need to progress through the ranks, unlocking main quests every five levels or so.
The story isn’t over yet – it continues to unfold as you climb the ranks.
The Support Ship
One of the first new mechanics you’ll encounter is the Support Ship in the Windwood Plains. This ship appears periodically as you complete quests and progress through the game. Here, you can purchase goods using Guild Points, including:
- Mega Armor Skin
- Dust of Life
- Specific monster parts for crafting
- Upgraded weapons
You can also request specific goods, choosing from medicinal, equipment-focused, or MK items. For beginners, focusing on medicinal items is recommended, while more advanced players might prefer MK items for special and trading goods.
New Ecosystems and Seasonal Changes
The events of the main story have significantly impacted the Forbidden Lands, ushering in a season of plenty. This surge of life attracts various monsters, including Yen Cus in The Scarlet Forest.
As you progress, you’ll notice that seasons and times shift, and monsters appear and behave in new ways. Completing hunts and quests builds up high rank points, which in turn raises your rank.
Field Surveys and Investigations
Field surveys become available at this stage, offering rewards such as decorations and extra monster materials. You can save these as investigations, allowing you to repeat the hunt up to three times for additional rewards.
High Rank Gear
High rank introduces more powerful weapons and armor:
Weapons
- Access to higher rarity weapons (up to Rarity 8)
- Improved stats, skills, and sharpening
Armor
- Significantly stronger than low rank armor
- Additional decoration slots
- Improved skills
For example, the high rank Hope Helm has 26 defense compared to the low rank version’s 2 defense. It also features two levels of divine blessing instead of one level of stun resistance.
Layered Armor
Any high rank gear you craft becomes available as layered armor, allowing you to customize your hunter’s appearance without sacrificing stats.
Village Intermediary: Nata
Nata becomes a village intermediary, offering several useful services:
- Item Trade: Interact with traders from all villages in one place
- Festivals Share: Collect rewards during special events like the fire spring
- Material Retrieval: A farm-like system where NPCs gather materials for you
Palico Support Moves
At Rank 10, your Palico starts learning powerful support moves, including:
- Big heals
- Flash bombs
- Revive skills
Complete side quests offered by your Palico to unlock these abilities.
Hunting Assistants: Gemma and Werner
These smithies offer side quests that unlock them as hunting assistants. They’ll occasionally appear on hunts with special tools:
- Gemma: Useful trap tool
- Werner: Repeating explosive barrel
Rest Mechanic and Environment Changes
The rest mechanic allows you to change the environment and time of day. This refreshes available quests, trader inventories, and monster spawns.
Camp Management
Set up proper camps in all locals by managing pop-up camps at the support desk. This provides safe alternatives to dangerous camps and improves your hunting efficiency.
Smelting Foundry
Located in the A Basin, the smelting foundry offers two main options:
- Smelt Armor Spheres: Upgrade your gear’s defense
- Smelt Ore: Used in the Aran weapon system (unlocked later)
Charms
Two important items to obtain are:
- Armor Charm: Reduces damage taken (unlocked at Hunter Rank 15)
- Power Charm: Increases damage dealt (unlocked at Hunter Rank 20)
Complete specific arena quests to unlock these charms.
Tempered Monsters and Aran Weapons
At Hunter Rank 20, you’ll encounter tempered monsters. Defeating these challenging foes rewards you with special materials called Aran relics. These are used to forge and upgrade Aran weapons, a new and powerful weapon system.
Aran weapons come in various elements and status effects, including:
- Attack infusion
- Affinity infusion
- Poison
- Paralysis
- Sleep
- Blast
Progression and Future Content
The main reveal quests finish at Hunter Rank 40, but additional unlocks are available at ranks 50 and 100. As you progress through high rank, you’ll gradually unlock all these systems and mechanics.
Tips for Success in High Rank
- Prioritize upgrading to high rank armor for better defense and skills
- Complete Palico side quests to unlock powerful support moves
- Utilize the rest mechanic to refresh quests and monster spawns
- Set up camps in strategic locations across all areas
- Take advantage of the village intermediary system for efficient resource gathering
- Craft and carry Armor and Power Charms as soon as possible
- Focus on completing both main and side quests to unlock new features
- Experiment with layered armor to customize your hunter’s appearance
- Engage with the smelting foundry to upgrade your gear and prepare for Aran weapons
- Don’t neglect field surveys and investigations for additional rewards
Alright, let’s cut to the chase. High rank in Monster Hunter Wild is where the real fun begins, but don’t expect to master it overnight. Every new system they throw at you – from tempered monsters to Aran weapons – is another layer of awesome to sink your teeth into.
Look, we’ve all carted more times than we’d like to admit when hitting high rank.
But that’s the beauty of it, right?
Whether you’re farming tempered elders, min-maxing your Aran gear, or just vibing in the Forbidden Lands, there’s always something to keep you hooked.
So here’s the deal: keep at it.
Polish those i-frames, perfect those combos, and take on bigger, badder beasts. Monster Hunter Wild’s world is massive and full of surprises – high rank is just your warm-up for the real endgame grind.
Now get out there and show those monsters who’s boss.
