Hey Folks. Last night I hit the first credit roll in Monster Hunter Wilds which marks the end of the initial main story quest. I remember something like this happening in Monster Hunter as well when I transitioned to the High Rank hunts. Essentially my Hunter Rank was uncapped up to level 25 and as soon as I completed the quest I zoomed from level 7 to level 11. I am going to try and keep this relatively spoiler free, even though the Monster Hunter Wilds story is not really anything to write home about. I did get treated to a few really cool cut-scenes as I prepared to fight a boss which appeared to be coated in Plaster of Paris. What made the effect even cooler was the fact that I was essentially decked out in a full set of gear that matched for both myself and my Palico.
This is honestly part of what took me so long before I transitioned to High Rank is that I wanted to craft a full set of Arkveld gear and two matching weapons. Additionally I wanted to upgrade my defensive charm to the next step. This was easier sounding than it actually ended up being, because I had to kill so many Chatacabras and Guardian Doshagumas trying to get one specific part each. I almost had a freakout because when Chatacabras finally dropped a Jaw… I suffered an immediate crash and was scared that the game had not saved my progress. However when I got back in I still had the Jaw and was able to craft the precursors that were required to make the Arkveld Hammer. Similarly it took forever for the Guardian Doshaguma to drop a claw and when it did… I was finally as upgraded as I could possibly get going into that final fight.
I spent some time last night hanging out with my friend Ace on chat, but they lacked the spoons to actually do group content. So instead I fiddled with my various item collection hunts what we chatted about the awful state of the world right now. Hopefully this weekend I can spend some time helping to catch them up on the various boss fights and transition into High Rank hunts. All told the more I play… the more I want to play. Initially I was struggling a bit to reattach to the game, but I kept poking at a few boss fights each night and eventually over time… it started to get in my blood again. If you read this blog in 2018…. you will remember just how into Monster Hunter World I ended up getting. I think I even did some streaming and spent time joining a few streamer friends on their streams doing some group hunts.
I figured I would probably share a few things that I have figured out, since everything in a Monster Hunter games seems to be way more cumbersome than it should. I’ve shared my friend code a few times (3N88N5TP) but never actually shared how you actually friend someone. There might be multiple ways to do it, but the easiest method I have found is to open your Communications menu, choose Member List, and then click the final tab at the top. This will bring up the dialog that allows you to search for a specific hunter and then once found you can throw them a friend invite. You can also do squad invites off this menu. I’ve found a few places that allow for you to search for hunters, but did not seem to allow me to take any actions based on it.
The other thing that makes the game infinitely more enjoyable is to make it so you always have three NPC support hunters joining on you solo hunts. One would think this might be located in the game settings menu, but it is not. Instead you have to talk to Alma and open up the dialog like you are posting a quest. This then allows you access to her settings menu, which has the configuration for various grouping parameters. If you choose Automate SOS Flare it will fire off an SOS any time you get into combat with a major monster. Additionally if you choose “Only Support Hunters” it will fill your party instantly with the NPC hunters making it so there is no delay in them showing up. Often times by the time I get to the monster they will all be there waiting on me to start the fight. If you allow player and support hunters both… the game will attempt to fill your party with players and as such have a significant delay, and when they do show up… they will show up one at a time.
Last night I did the first High Rank hunt, but hoping between lunch and this evening I will make a proper dent in the content. I’ve heard that the Arkveld set can pretty much take you through all of the High Rank hunts, which is part of why I spent time assembling a full set. I really like the heal that procs off the armor, and I have to admit will probably replace it with the high rank version at some point pending it has the same perks. I will likely replace my weapon before I replace anything else, but I am not really share what the next best weapon to go for is. A bunch of upgrades showed up last night when I moved over to High Rank, but not really sure what the early availability is going to be like.
