Despite being the same formula that helped it break multiple records for the franchise, Monster Hunter Wilds offers a massive amount of new features to experience to surprise both veterans and beginners alike. From overhauling most weapons to providing a more streamlined experience for the overall gameplay experience, there's a little something for everyone in Monster Hunter Wilds​​​​​​. This latest entry is also the first to introduce an entirely seamless open world, being able to travel to most locations in the game without having to wait for a single loading screen.

While many of Monster Hunter Wilds' new features have been fantastic improvements for the series, it can be hard to keep track of them all at once. It doesn't help that many of the new features, like the overhauled fishing system and new investigation mechanics, aren't clearly explained in the game itself. Whether you've already beaten Monster Hunter Wilds or are just going through it for the first time, there are plenty of new features that take the experience to even greater heights.

10 Saving Time With The Favorites Tab

Reducing Frustration From Navigating Menus

Aside from its performance issues, one of the biggest criticisms directed towards Monster Hunter Wilds is simply how difficult it is to navigate the menus. Even a simple task like playing multiplayer with friends is overly complicated with a confusing number of steps involved, especially when compared to the previous entries that primarily relied on Steam invitations.

Thankfully, Monster Hunter Wilds favorite tab alleviates most of these issues, allowing you to keep a selection of your most used or essential buttons in one place. Having these options readily available not only reduces time spent scrolling through menus, but the favorites tab can be a lifesaver if you need to quickly pause the game when in a singleplayer lobby, snap a quick photo, and more.

9 Dealing Bonus Damage During Mounting

Getting The Most Out Of Your Limited Mounts

While mounting isn't significantly different compared to previous entries, the mounting mechanic had several changes that require a bit of re-learning to take full advantage of the ability. Wilds explains most of how to mount monsters and create wounds when doing so, but you still might not be dealing as much damage as you could be.

The damage potential is still more than worth attempting at least once or twice during a hunt.

It took a while for me to realize mounting and attacking a monster's head near walls causes the monster to smash into it, dealing a significant amount of extra damage that's more than worth the effort. While not every kind of environment will be as harmful, walls covered in brambles or anything destructible will offer a massive damage boost to any monsters foolish enough to charge into them. While the importance of mounting has been significantly toned down compared to MH Rise, the damage potential is still more than worth attempting at least once or twice during a hunt.

8 Decorating Pop-Up Camps Unlocks Useful Features

More Than Simple Cosmetic Upgrades

Monster Hunter Wilds already s its ability to edit pop-up camps to your liking, but some players might see the feature as simple visual customization. While Wilds still offers an extensive tent design system with plenty of patterns and colors to choose from, it's the external equipment that makes each one even more unique.

After speaking to the pop-up camp manager in any of Wilds' base camps, you can choose from several external decoration options, which range from seating options, campfires, barbeques, and standard decorations like flowers. What shines most with the new feature is how interactable some of these furnishings are, with the campfire allowing you to play songs with your friends or the barbeque letting you collect free food on the go. By far the most useful feature from the pop-up camp customization is the portable training barrel, allowing you to test out combos alongside your friends outside the standard training room.

7 Alma Restocking Your Seikret

Free Supplies Perfect For Your Hunting Needs

While many fans are understandably frustrated by the Seikret's auto-pathing in Wilds and might be put off from taking advantage of the mount, it's the most useful addition to Monster Hunter in years. Not only is the Seikret never too far behind in case you need to quickly swap for your secondary weapon, but your trusty mount also holds some valuable materials that are directly related to your current quest.

The Seikret is more than a way to simply get around the map faster.

From sleeping pods to hot drinks needed to survive certain environments, the Seikret is more than a way to simply get around the map faster. Alma also periodically gathers from the environment and puts the additional supplies in the Secret's pouch. Even after grabbing everything you can carry at the start, it's worth checking in every once in a while, especially after Alma announces her discoveries.

6 Collecting Materials Without Looking On Your Seikret

A More Efficient Way To Gather While Traveling

While you might have already noticed that you can easily collect materials from the comfort of your very own Seikret, there's a somewhat hidden feature that makes it even more effective. Rather than having to quickly look around you in a desperate attempt to grab every material you can, Wilds can do all the heavy lifting for you instead.

Keyboard and Mouse s can use the Q and E keys to scroll through collectible items after holding the right mouse button to aim, then pressing the F key to grab them as normal.

While holding down the Left Trigger on controller, you can use the D-Pad to scroll through any nearby items, letting you collect them much more efficiently without even having to look around. This not only saves time when gathering, but it helps avoid frustration when you try collecting something just as it gets too far to reach. On top of collecting materials on the Seikret, you can even utilize the binoculars to check for any abnormally sized monsters on-the-go, saving them as investigations for easy crown farming.

5 Taking Advantage Of Trading For Rare Resources

Unlocking Hidden Gear And Valuable Supplies

Side quests are the lifeblood of any Monster Hunter game, unlocking powerful tools and unique allies to help you on your journey. One of the best examples of this is completing quests for NPC traders, as after completing certain quests they'll exchange incredibly rare materials for items that can't be obtained anywhere else. From farming materials to some of the coolest armor sets in the game, it's worth checking in consistently to see what new treasures are on offer for those willing to pay the price.

Thankfully, Nata will eventually let you access all the trading NPCs through him, on top of accessing the material gatherers from each village, letting you access all of your farming NPCs in one place from any of the base camps across Wilds. It's also a good habit to periodically check the drop rates for the materials you've chosen to collect, as their rates can fluctuate over time, making it more efficient to swap out between what has the highest drop chance at the time.

4 Keeping An Eye Out For Material Emergences

Saving Time From Grinding In The Long-Run

The map is easily one of the most useful tools at the hunter's disposal in Monster Hunter Wilds, not only letting you get around via fast travel, but also showing detailed information about monsters and materials. While Material Emergences aren't exceedingly rare, they go away fairly quickly, making it essential to take advantage of one as soon as you spot it.

Usually there are only a couple of locations to pick up the rare material that spawns, so it won't be much of a detour from normal gameplay. While some of these rewards are simply currency used to acquire ingredients or monster materials, others can be exchanged for incredibly rare resources like Sinister Cloth that can't be obtained any other way.

3 Having Meals With NPCs For Powerful Buffs

It's Hard To Say No To A Free Dinner

Occasionally, throughout Monster Hunter Wilds, you may see a pop-up saying someone wants to have a meal with you, but it can be easy to miss if you aren't paying attention. While a free meal might not sound too lucrative given how cheap it is to make yourself, the buffs that meal invitations provide are leagues ahead of what the recommended cooking would normally offer.

Meal invitations are a fantastic way to get more out of your regular gameplay.

NPC meals can provide several incredibly powerful ive bonuses that you would normally have to find rare ingredients to acquire, while lasting longer than normal ones. From maximizing your stats to increasing the amount of times you can carve a monster or even faint in a quest, meal invitations are a fantastic way to get more out of your regular gameplay. Aside from the pop-up notification, you can also check the world map to see if someone has invited you out for a meal, with an orange food icon next to the location of the dinner host.

2 Saving Investigations For More Efficient Farming

Providing Guaranteed Rewards Without Worry

Regardless of what monster you're farming for, investigations are almost always the best way to go about grinding for materials. On the map for each area, every monster will show the bonus rewards after successfully hunting it, with some even offering a guaranteed chance to acquire incredibly rare gems or decoration drops. Even if you're busy on another hunt or simply don't have the time to face it right now, you can save a hunt for later by marking it as an investigation.

While it can take some time to build up a library of worthwhile investigations, each one can be replayed up to three times, making investigations a great way to speed up material farming on top of granting impressive rewards on the side. It's always a good habit to save any monsters with plentiful rewards or high-ranking tempered monsters, even if you don't need the materials just yet. Having these guaranteed rewards is a massive improvement from traditional farming methods, letting you target specific rewards better suited to your needs over simply replaying optional quests each time.

1 Dodging Attacks With The Seikret

A Life-Saving Move For Dire Situations

Another feature I didn't realize until after beating Wilds' low-rank story mode is that the Seikret will quickly come to your aid after being knocked down the moment you whistle for it. While mechanics like this are one of the reasons Wilds has been branded too easy by some, there's plenty of punishment for hasty summons during intense battles. Much like the similar Wirebug Escape seen in MH Rise, a mistimed Seikret dodge can easily get you into more trouble than it's worth, as I've carted one too many times after calling for pickup too early during a Tempered hunt.

A mistimed Seikret dodge can easily get you into more trouble than it's worth.

Given how powerful the Seikret dodge mechanic can be for quickly escaping danger to recover health or sharpen with little consequences, monsters from future title updates are likely to be balanced around these moves. Overall, these kinds of features are entirely optional depending on what you want out of your desired experience and difficulty, but offer incredibly handy tools for those who want to take advantage of everything that Monster Hunter Wilds has to offer.