Monster Hunter Wilds is still a few weeks off, launching on February 28th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. However, the hype continues to build, especially for veterans of Monster Hunter World. Considering how influential the latter is on the former, it makes sense to compare all their differences. You may even learn of changes debuting in the series for the first time. Without further ado, here are 15 of the biggest differences between Monster Hunter Wilds and Monster Hunter World.
The New Improved Mount
Monster Hunter World allowed mounts in different locales after Iceborne dropped, but first, you had to befriend different tribes. It would transport you to a target – otherwise, its mobility was limited. The Seikret in Wilds, on the other hand, is freeform and can go almost wherever you please on top of gliding (though it can also be set to automatically guide you to a monster). Plus, you don’t need to jump through hoops to get one (that we know of).
Multilingual Palicoes
While Palicoes were content to meow their way through World with the Felyne language (with subtitles conveying their intent), Wilds allows them to fully speak English and Japanese. Depending on your taste, this may be either too good to be true or utterly annoying. The good news is that the Felyne language is still available in case you want to go back to the incessant meowing.
Pick up Traps and Explosive Barrels
Have you ever placed a trap and wandered about, hoping that the monster would walk your way and trigger it? How about accidentally placing an explosive barrel and not saving it for the big wake-up damage? You really couldn’t do much in World, save for returning to camp and restocking, but Wilds lets you pick up traps and explosive barrels after setting them. It’s a brave new world, truly.
New Moves
The trademark weapon trees have seen their changes, buffs, and new moves over the years, and Wilds is no exception. While several move sets from World remain, like the Sword and Shield’s Perfect Rush, the Longsword is now much more dependent on filling the Spirit Gauge for specific slashes. Picking up your favorite weapon should feel familiar yet depending on which one, it could offer a world of untapped potential compared to World.
Tenderizing vs. Focus Strikes
Of course, there are also Focus Strikes, which target wounds and inflict massive damage on a monster when performed correctly. It’s a huge contrast to tenderizing post-Iceborne, where players had to grapple and then attack a monster’s body part with the clutch claw. This allowed for dealing more damage and players having a higher critical hit chance against it for a period. Meanwhile, in Wilds, keep attacking a part to create a wound and then Focus Strike to damage it.
Carrying a Second Weapon
Sometimes, you embark on a quest with the wrong weapon – it happens to all of us. However, Monster Hunter Wilds has found a pretty great solution – you can now carry a second weapon on your mount and switch to it. This is also ideal if you feel like your current weapon isn’t doing the best and a swap is required. Just make sure both of them aren’t the wrong weapons.
Slinger Hook Changes
Ah, the Slinger Hook – my best friend at times in World, and my worst enemy when it came to grappling monsters in Iceborne. The latter doesn’t return, thankfully, but you can use the former to obtain items from afar while on your mount. It makes gathering so much easier without slowing down the tempo of exploration.
Starting Hunts in the Wild
Gone are the days when you had to continuously return to base or even camp (in the case of the Guiding Lands) to turn in quests and take on more. Now you can start a hunt upon attacking a monster, with the related quests popping up, though Mission Boards and accepting quests from the Handler are still a thing.
Cooking Meals on the Go
Cooking meat on the portable BBQ is one thing, but how about cooking an entire meal on the go? Wilds allows for it. Best of all, you’ll receive rations from the Ingredient Center, which can be used as whatever ingredients you want. It’s still possible to cook meals in camps, but there are also feasts that are initiated when venturing to new villages (which are more dramatic than anything but still incredible to behold).
NPC Hunters
Monster Hunter Rise featured this, but Wilds is going further, allowing players to summon an entire team to help out. How beneficial they’ll be without Wyvern Riding to supplant the damage remains to be seen, but if you never play online, it could be the closest to having other hunters helping out.
Monster Corpses
After slaying a monster in World, its corpse would eventually turn transparent and disappear after carving. Thank goodness for current-gen hardware because after carving them up, the corpse will remain and slowly decompose until there are bones left. It’s the little things, but they add so much more to the immersion.
More Radial Menus
One of the more underrated quality-of-life changes is having eight radial menus instead of the usual four from World. This means even more customization for items, ammo, emotes, traps, etc. It’s even possible to customize the number of slots for each, keeping things more manageable.
Dynamic Weather
When venturing out for hunts in World, you could arrive in stormy weather and rain. Which was neat and whatnot, but in Wilds, the weather will actually transform the locale in question. The Windward Plains could go from peaceful to engulfed in a sandstorm or dodging lightning. There are even different resources and endemic life which become available depending on the weather.
Underwater Exploration
Water combat is sadly not returning, but it’s now possible to freely explore underwater and gather materials. Compare this to Monster Hunter World, which used underwater swimming sections as transitions in areas rather than providing full freedom. And who knows? Maybe this could herald the return of underwater monsters and combat in a future expansion for Wilds.
Monsters With Higher Health and Flinch Values
One of the more interesting changes in Wilds is that its monsters have higher health and flinch values compared to those in World. This isn’t a simple bump to make hunts longer, though. Director Yuya Tokuda said it’s due to the new Focus Strikes and how much damage they can deal with. “It’s not as if that was our intention from the start, but health did end up being a little bit higher than World once we thought about maintaining appropriate playtimes and player satisfaction compared to past titles.”
You can also expect monsters to have higher flinch resistance, though they won’t feel more tedious, per Tokuda. “Part of the purpose of Focus Mode is to allow players to feel more accomplished through shorter loops. We tried to design it so that the time they spend hunting is even more concentrated than before.” However, some Focus Strikes on specific weapons were a bit too strong in the beta and will be more “standardized” for the game.
