Ask any hunter and they’ll tell you that there’s much more to hunting than shooting an animal with a rifle, or a bow, or in the case of Monster Hunter, a gunlance made out of dragon teeth. Before you even step foot on the hunting grounds, a lot of the work that goes into hunting has already been done. The more you learn about your prey, and the more prepared you are, the better a hunter you’ll be.
Monster Hunter Wilds shifts the balance between prep and combat pretty dramatically. In the past, the gear you wore, the food you ate, and the items in your inventory were just as important as the damage numbers that fly out of the tip of your long sword every time you take a swing – if not more so.
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Monster Hunter Wilds’ New Freaky Little Guy Wants To Be Khezu So Bad
Rompopolo is definitely a freaky little guy, but it’s not in the same league as Khezu.
That’s not really the case in Wilds. The newest entry in the series has made hunting so forgiving that you can basically show up to the fight with a busted hammer and two pieces of string and somehow you’ll manage to fell the king of the Scarlet Forest.
You’ll have to forgive the hyperbole in the headline – I don’t actually think you can play Monster Hunter wrong. If you want to run at Rathalos full speed, close your eyes and mash triangle, that’s totally your prerogative. Live your best life. But if there’s one element of hunting prep that’s still essential it’s managing your inventory, and if you’re not bringing these 12 essential items on every hunt, you’re probably making things way harder for yourself than you need to.
The 12 Items Every Hunter Must Carry At All Times
There’s an unbelievable number of consumables in Monster Hunter Wilds, and they all have their uses in different situations. There are no wrong items to carry, but there are definitely some right ones. These are the 12 most broadly useful consumables you should have in your inventory at all times. Create a new loadout, register these 12, and make sure you restock between each fight. Let’s start with the list, then I’ll break down the choices.
- Potion
- Mega Potion
- Antidote
- Nulberry
- Hot Drink
- Cool Drink
- Armorskin
- Demondrug
- Flash Pod
- Dung Pod
- Armorcharm
- Powercharm
That’s it. If you have these 12 items, you’re 99 percent ready to take on pretty much any fight. Now let’s talk about what makes each of these items essential.
A Remedy For Every Ailment
There are three groups of items here, and the first one is your healing items. Potions and mega potions are pretty self-explanatory, but you need to keep a full stack of each. Wild’s new quick select menu will select the most efficient item for you, so it will use small potions when you have a small amount of damage, and mega potions when you have mega damage. It’s also good to have potions for when you run out of mega potions, and as long as you have at least one open slot for a mega potion, picking up honey in the field will automatically craft one of your potions into a mega potion.
Antidote heals poison while nulberry heals blights, and those are all the ailments you will need medicine for. You don’t need deodorant because you can remove stink by rolling in water. Ditto for being on fire, though you don’t need water for that; stop, drop, and roll will do. When you get a debuff, you can use the quick select menu to automatically use an antidote or nulberry, depending on which one you need.
Protect Yourself From Getting Hurt In The First Place
The next category of items are your buffs, which will make you big and strong so you don’t have to use a healing item in the first place. Your Hot Drink and Cold Drink will protect you from cold and warm environments, respectively. They’re not needed on every hunt, but they’re needed often enough that it’s worth carrying them with you. If you find yourself without them, there are usually hot and chill peppers nearby you can use to craft more.
Armorskin and Demondrug are some of the more costly, but most useful consumables in the game. You don’t need to drink these defense and attack buffs on every hunt, but if you’re taking on anything even the least bit challenging for you, you might as well chug. These will save you from carting and help you kill the monster before it kills you. Use them as often as you need to.
Finally, the Armorcharm and Powercharm are defense and attack buffs that are active as long as they sit in your inventory, so you’d be foolish not to carry them at all times. These items unlock from late-game side quests. If you need help getting them, check out our guide.
Bring The Right Ammo For (Almost) Every The Job
Finally, you should always keep a stack of flash pods and dung pods on you. Different slinger ammo will be useful in different situations, but these are the two that will come up the most often. Flash pods are useful for grounding flying monsters, which are difficult for some weapons to deal with, and generally just harder monsters to fight. Nothing turns a Tempered Rathalos fight around faster than a well-timed Flash pod.
Dung pods are one of the first slinger ammos you’ll learn to use, and it’s a lesson you won’t want to forget. Having other monsters crash your hunter can be extremely annoying, but a quick dung pod will usually get rid of them for good.
There are other items I personally carry at all times. My loadout includes mega barrel bombs, shock traps, tranq bombs, luring pods, and ancient potions. You only have so much space to work with so you’ll have to figure out what’s most important to you, but if you can keep those 12 items with you, you’ll never have too much trouble hunting monsters in Wilds.
- Released
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February 28, 2025
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence, Blood, Crude Humor