Even Monster Hunter veterans will need to learn new skills to take on the kemono of Wild Hearts. So if you’re just starting out on your hunting adventures, heed the seven Wild Hearts tips and tricks for beginners below to help you become a legendary hunter in far less time.
Wild Hearts tips and tricks for beginners
© Omega Force
1. Use the training bear
You’ll get access to a selection of weapons early in Wild Hearts, with a further three unlocked later in the story. Equipping each one shows a brief tutorial message, but it won’t actually teach you the moveset.
© Omega Force
Outside the first camp you’ll make is a training bear dummy you can use to practice Interact with it and you’ll be prompted to pull off a series of attack combos that really show you what the weapon can do.
Every time you craft a new weapon, we highly recommend visiting the training bear to learn its moves and unique systems. You can also unlock the ability to build more training bears from your Dragon Karakuri upgrades to save you coming back here every time.
2. Hunt Dragon Pits to build camps and hunting towers for fast travel
© Omega Force
To it’s credit, Wild Hearts does teach you this stuff, but it’s very easy to forget while out on a hunt. As you explore the land, make sure you prioritize locating Dragon Pits, even when you’re tracking a kemono. Accessing these will unlock the points needed to place down more buildings, which will make your life far, far easier.
When you have the points, periodically place down a camp in useful spots using your Dragon Karakuri. These will act as fast travel points in future, letting you move about the map far more quickly. Each area also has a few free camp locations near to wells. If you spot one on your map, make sure to head there and set up a camp, fire, and forge.
Once your camp is set, we also recommend placing a hunting tower down once you’ve unlocked it in the upgrades tree. Activate these to scan the circle shown on your map. They’ll mark any larger kemono and let you see their silhouette through walls. Placed next to fast travel points, they’re easily accessible at the start of every hunt.
3. Use your basic Karakuri constantly, and don’t be afraid to run
You’ll unlock karakuri cubes and and springs very early in the game. This Wild Hearts tip is simply to use them, a lot. Cubes can be stacked up to block kemono attacks, or used as bounce pads from which to launch aerial attacks. For certain weapons, these are essential to maximize your damage output. You’ll also unlock a defensive wall formation that can be quickly thrown up to block many attacks.
© Omega Force
Springs, on the other hand, are good for offense and defense. When a kemono is winding up a heavy aoe attack, quickly placing a spring down is a great way to launch yourself to safety, especially if you’re covered in slime so can’t dodge. If you know you’re going to fight a kemono somewhere, you can even set up Karakuri in advance. They’ll also stick around between hunts, provided they aren’t destroyed during the battle.
All Karakuri cost threads, which you can earn by damaging kemono, from your assistant orb, or by mining them. When you run low in a fight, don’t be afraid to run away and find a mining rock to stock up. Karakuri will help you take down kemono far faster and are all but essential in some tough fights.
4. You can pet small kemono
© Omega Force
You don’t have to kill everything. Sneak up on most small kemono while crouched and you’ll be given two options: Slay or Pet. Choose to pet in Wild Hearts and you’ll be rewarded with a cute animation and a different resource. Once you’ve encountered a beast, you cn check your Cyclopedia to see which resources it’ll reward depending on whether you slay or pet it.
5. Establish a network (and destroy unwanted kit)
Once you’ve made it to the town of Minato, you’ll have everything you need to start establishing a network across your hunting grounds. Each time you drop into an area, start placing flying vines and springs to help you speed your way between key points. It takes a bit of time at first, but future you will thank you for all the time saved, trust us.
Flying vines are one of the most useful traversal tools in your arsenal, but they take up a lot of points from your Dragon Pit supply. If you built one in a less-than-helpful spot (such as when you first connect to Minato), make sure to return there and break it down so you can build more elsewhere
6. On PC? Get a mouse with more buttons
© HyperX
The default PC controls for Wild Hearts are lackluster at best. The fifth of our Wild Hearts tips and tricks is partly to spend some time rebinding, but also to kit yourself out with better gear. You can make your kemono-hunting life far easier with the right mouse in play.
The HyperX Pulsefire Raid comes with 11 programmable buttons. That’s enough to let you bind all the basic karakuri summons and dodge to quick inputs available at the tap of a button. No more faffing with menus in the middle of combat!
If you prefer to play with a gamepad, keep en eye out for the Clutch Gladiate. Releasing in March, this officially licensed Xbox controller includes remappable rear buttons that are ideal for rapid karakuri deployment.
7. Inherit skills when you upgrade weapons
© Omega Force
The Wild Hearts weapon upgrades tree is lengthy and complicated. One of the most important aspects to grasp is inheriting skills. Each weapon upgrade has access to inherent skills as well as free slots to inherit skills you’ve already unlocked. The starting upgrade choice for each weapon is between increased damage or critical chance. But thanks to the ability to inherit skills, you can actually have both.
Unlock both paths and you’ll have the option to inherit skills from the former, bringing over that boosted damage or crit chance to make an even more powerful weapon. You’ll use this later on to combine far more powerful options, but in the opening stages this can let you boost your weapons with solid buffs before you take on some of the tougher opening hunts.
