Monster Hunter Wilds — Progression Route

The only decision here that is expensive to change later is which weapon you learn properly. There are fourteen, they play almost nothing alike, and the difference between a weapon you understand and one you are borrowing is far larger than any gear difference in this stage. Try several, then commit to one.

• Create your Hunter and Palico

  Both can be edited later — Capcom has distributed free Character and Palico Edit Vouchers with several updates
• Try several of the fourteen weapon types

  Use the training area rather than committing in the field. They differ far more than their damage numbers suggest
• gateCommit to one primary weapon

  Pick the one whose rhythm you enjoy, not the one with the best chart. You will spend the whole game with it
• Set a secondary weapon on your Seikret

  Wilds lets you carry two and swap mid-hunt from your mount. Pick something that covers your primary's weakness rather than a second favourite

These four are worth more than any Low Rank gear upgrade. Wounds in particular are the core damage loop of this game — a hunter who creates and bursts Wounds reliably will out-damage a better-geared one who does not.

• gateLearn Focus Mode

  The aiming and targeting layer everything else builds on
• Learn to create and destroy Wounds

  Focus Strikes on a Wound do large damage and stagger. This is the loop the whole combat system is built around
• Learn your weapon's defensive mechanic

  Offset attacks, clashes, counters, guards or evasion depending on the weapon. Every type has one and most of its skill ceiling sits there
• Learn to capture monsters

  Traps plus Tranq Bombs. Capturing is faster than killing and rewards differently

Fifteen minutes of menu work here saves hours later. The Radial Menu and Item Loadouts are the difference between fighting the monster and fighting the inventory.

• Configure your Radial Menu

  Potions, whetstone, traps and your weapon's consumables within one press
• Build an Item Loadout

  So restocking between hunts is one button rather than a shopping trip
• Keep the essentials stocked

  Mega Potions, Nulberries, traps, Tranq Bombs and status-removal items. Nulberries in particular solve problems that otherwise look like a gear check
• Eat before anything significant

  Meals are a free stat boost you are simply choosing to skip if you forget

⚠️ The single most common way to waste time in Wilds is building a good Low Rank set. High Rank equipment replaces all of it shortly after Chapter 3, so the priority is weapon upgrades first, genuinely useful armour skills second, and complete sets not at all. Craft armour when you need defence, when a piece has a skill your weapon actually wants, or when you already have the materials — never as a farming project.

• Keep one weapon tree upgraded

  Your primary. A sharper weapon solves more Low Rank problems than any armour set
• Craft armour only when it earns it

  More defence, a skill you want, or materials you already have. Not for completeness
• Unlock Pop-up Camps as you find them

  They cut travel time for the rest of the game, and they are permanent
• Take Side Missions as they appear

  Do them when they are on your way rather than making a pass for them

Progress the story. That is the whole instruction. The Forbidden Lands open region by region, each introducing monsters worth hunting once for materials and understanding, and the fastest route through Low Rank is the main quest with gathering picked up in passing rather than farmed deliberately.

• Follow the main story through each region

  The story is the unlock chain — settlements, camps and monsters all arrive through it
• Hunt each new monster at least once

  Once is enough at this stage. Repeat hunts are for materials you have a use for
• Unlock settlements and camps as you reach them

  Permanent quality-of-life you keep for the rest of the game
• Gather ore and bone while travelling

  In passing, not as a farming trip. You will pass everything you need several times
• Keep upgrading your primary weapon

  The one constant instruction across the whole of Low Rank
• Learn elemental weaknesses without building for them

  Useful knowledge now, expensive commitment now. Elemental sets belong in High Rank
• Use the environment against monsters

  Falling rocks, hazards and turf wars. Wilds leans on these more than earlier entries
• gateComplete Chapter 3

  The end of the Low Rank campaign
• gateDefeat Zoh Shia in "Monster Hunter"

  The Low Rank story climax
• gateWatch the first credits — then keep going

  ⚠️ This is not the end of the game. High Rank begins immediately afterwards in Chapter 4, and everything below is on the other side of it

The moment High Rank opens, your Low Rank gear stops mattering. Do not sentimentally hang on to a set you spent time on; the first High Rank pieces you craft will beat it outright. This is also where armour skills start to be the reason you wear something, rather than defence.

• gateReplace your Low Rank armour immediately

  All of it. Defence values in High Rank start well above anything Low Rank offers
• Start High Rank weapon trees

  Your primary first, as ever
• Start collecting High Rank materials

  Ores, bones and monster parts. Now it is worth gathering deliberately
• Start collecting Decorations

  They begin to matter here and never stop. Keep everything
• Hunt the new High Rank monsters as they appear

  The roster expands as you progress the chapter
• Meet Frenzied and then Tempered monsters

  Tempered hunts are the source of most endgame progression from here on
• Unlock the Wounded Hollow

  Through High Rank story progression

Capcom's wording: the Grand Hub "can be unlocked by completing a tutorial mission that appears from HR 16." Worth doing promptly rather than when you happen to notice it — it is the social and facilities layer of the game. It brings the Arena Quest Counter, the Canteen, Barrel Bowling, the Arm Wrestling Barrel, the Diva, and the Expedition Record Board with time-attack rankings. The Squad Information Counter also moves here from the Windward Plains Base Camp once it is open.

• HR gateComplete the Grand Hub tutorial mission

  The tutorial mission appears from HR 16
• Walk the facilities once

  Arena Quest Counter, Canteen, Barrel Bowling, Arm Wrestling Barrel, the Diva, and the Expedition Record Board

⚠️ Do not try to make a good Artian weapon yet. The Chapter 4 quest "Wyvern Sparks and Rose Thorns" introduces Tempered hunting and unlocks Artian forging once you have beaten Guardian Fulgur Anjanath and Tempered Lala Barina. Treat your first Artian as a demonstration of the system. The version that matters is Rarity 8, hundreds of hunts later, and the version that really matters is Gogma Artian after HR100.

• gateComplete "Wyvern Sparks and Rose Thorns"

  The Chapter 4 quest that introduces Tempered hunting
• Defeat Guardian Fulgur Anjanath

  Part of the Artian unlock
• Defeat Tempered Lala Barina

  The second half of the Artian unlock
• optionalForge a first Artian weapon and move on

  To learn the system. Do not farm for a good roll at this rank

Stop wearing pieces because their defence number is bigger. From here you are building around skills, and the first question is what your weapon actually wants: raw, element or status. That answer drives everything downstream — which monsters you farm, which Decorations you keep, which armour you upgrade. Around HR20 the High Rank Ruins of Wyveria and the first Tempered tier open up.

• gateDecide whether your weapon wants raw, element or status

  This is the decision the rest of the build hangs off
• Build around your weapon's core skills

  Weapon-specific skills before generic damage skills, every time
• Spend Armor Spheres on the set you are keeping

  Not on pieces you are about to replace
• Farm Decorations deliberately

  Tempered hunts. This becomes a background activity for the rest of the game
• Hunt Tempered monsters whenever practical

  Tier 1 Tempered and Guardian Fulgur Anjanath sit around HR20
• Start banking Artian components

  You will want them later even though the weapon does not matter yet
• Save equipment and item loadouts

  One per build and one per difficult hunt type. The menus stop being a tax once these exist

Several monsters added after launch sit inside normal progression rather than at the end of it, so they are listed where they actually appear. Capcom publishes exact requirements for all three of these, including prerequisite quests that are easy to miss — the rank alone is not enough. Mizutsune in particular is a mid-High-Rank monster despite arriving in a title update, so its gear is worth having on the way through rather than after. Note also that the Tempered versions of all three appear only at HR 41+, once you have cleared the corresponding Extra Mission.

• HR gateComplete the Mizutsune Extra Mission

  From Kanya at the Scarlet Forest Base Camp. Capcom requires HR 21 AND completion of Kanya's first fishing side mission — the fishing quest is the part people miss
• optionalFarm Mizutsune if its gear suits your build

  Genuinely competitive at this stage rather than a curiosity
• Hunt High Rank Jin Dahaad

  Around HR30, through the High Rank story
• HR gateComplete the Lagiacrus Extra Mission

  Capcom requires HR 31, the main mission "A World Turned Upside Down" AND the side mission "Forest Doshaguma". Clearing it also unlocks the option to switch your handler between Alma and Erik
• HR gateComplete the Seregios Extra Mission

  Capcom requires HR 31 and the main mission "A World Turned Upside Down" — one fewer prerequisite than Lagiacrus. Added alongside it in Title Update 2
• optionalAdd Seregios gear to your options

  Worth evaluating against what you are wearing rather than crafting automatically
• Come back for the Tempered versions at HR 41+

  Tempered Mizutsune, Lagiacrus and Seregios each appear at HR 41+ once their Extra Mission is done — not before

The step that turns Tempered hunting from something you do when convenient into your main activity. Tier 2 Tempered monsters and 6★ content sit around here, and both your Decoration collection and your Artian material supply should be growing steadily from this point.

• HR gateUnlock the next Tempered tier

  Through HR progression and story
• Farm stronger Tempered investigations regularly

  This is now the core loop rather than an occasional detour
• Keep improving Decorations and Artian materials

  Both accumulate in the background off the same hunts

The regional apex predators in their High Rank forms, plus Gore Magala. These are part of the path into the final High Rank chapters, and they are also the point where a build that has been coasting stops working. Your set should look deliberate by the end of this group.

• Hunt High Rank Rey Dau

  Regional apex
• Hunt High Rank Uth Duna

  Regional apex
• Hunt High Rank Nu Udra

  Regional apex
• Hunt High Rank Gore Magala

  Part of the same progression group
• gateGet your build to a genuine standard

  Correct offensive skills, weapon-specific skills, upgraded armour, defensive utility, usable Decorations and a high-rarity weapon. Not a perfect build — a real one

Arkveld closes the High Rank story arc, and HR41 is where the endgame proper starts: the highest pre-HR100 Tempered tiers, Rarity 8 Artian materials, and the point at which building specialised elemental sets stops being premature.

• gateDefeat High Rank Arkveld

  Around HR40, through the story
• Start hunting the 7★ and 8★ Tempered tiers

  HR41+. The highest pre-HR100 content
• Farm Rarity 8 Artian materials

  Now the roll is worth caring about, though still not worth perfecting
• optionalBuild specialised elemental sets

  If your weapon benefits from element. This is the right moment rather than earlier

Permanent collaboration content, not a limited window, so there is no rush — but the normal difficulty is worth doing while you are passing through. Capcom unlocks both Extra Missions at HR41+. Save the Savage version for a finished HR100 character; it is in stage 8 for that reason.

• collabComplete the Nerscylla Clone Extra Mission

  Unlocks at HR41+
• collabComplete the Omega Planetes Extra Mission

  The main collaboration encounter
• Learn Omega's raid-style mechanics

  They are unlike anything else in Wilds, and Savage later assumes you know them

Added in Title Update 1 and unlocked through a story mission at HR50. Beating it the first time opens repeatable hunts, and its gear is worth evaluating rather than crafting on principle.

• HR gateReach HR 50 and take the Zoh Shia story mission

  Capcom's wording: "Reach HR 50 to unlock a story mission that unlocks Zoh Shia" — so the unlock is a story mission rather than a quest board entry
• Unlock repeatable High Rank Zoh Shia

  Through the first clear
• optionalFarm its weapons or armour if they suit you

  Evaluate against what you have

⚠️ The goal of this stretch is not to raise HR. It is to arrive at HR100 with a build that can survive 9★ monsters — reaching the rank with a half-finished set just means bouncing off the content waiting on the other side. Aim for either a strong Rarity 8 monster weapon or a solid Rarity 8 Artian, depending on your weapon type. A *solid* Artian is worth having; a *perfect* one is not worth delaying for, because Gogmazios expands the system substantially later.

• gateObtain a strong Rarity 8 weapon

  Best-in-slot monster weapon or a good Artian, whichever suits your type
• Build one serious endgame armour set

  Fully considered rather than assembled from whatever dropped
• Max your armour's available upgrade level

  Armor Spheres. Do not leave this half done before 9★ content
• Farm Decorations properly

  The gap between a good build and a great one is usually Decorations
• Reinforce your promising Artian weapons

  Reinforcement bonuses carry over into Gogma Artian later, so this is not wasted
• optionalBuild a survival-oriented set

  For learning unfamiliar endgame encounters. Comfort beats theoretical damage when you are carting
• Stockpile Armor Spheres and consumables

  You will spend both far faster past HR100
• gateReach Hunter Rank 100

  The most important threshold in the current version of the game

HR100 opens the 9★ Tempered tier, which is where the modern endgame lives. Capcom's Ver.1.021 wording is exact: "At HR 100 or higher, tempered versions of the following nine monsters will now begin to appear in the field as 9★ quests: Rey Dau, Uth Duna, Nu Udra, Jin Dahaad, Gore Magala, Arkveld, Mizutsune, Lagiacrus, Seregios." The same update also put regular and tempered Rey Dau and Nu Udra into the Wounded Hollow at HR 100+, and the pool was expanded later. Title Update 4 then added high-difficulty optional quests featuring multiple 9★ monsters, plus Hunting Exercises against tempered 9★ monsters.

• HR gateStart hunting 9★ Tempered monsters

  Unlocked at HR100
• Search maps for valuable 9★ investigations

  Investigation quality varies a great deal — this is worth doing deliberately
• Save your good investigations

  They are a limited resource and the good ones do not come back
• Run multi-monster 9★ quests when they are efficient

  Capcom added these as high-difficulty optional quests, with special nameplates for clearing them
• optionalTry the Hunting Exercises

  Timed challenges against tempered 9★ monsters

The randomised charm chase, and the reason to keep running high-star hunts once your gear is finished. **There are two appraisal items and they belong to different tiers**, which is worth knowing before you wonder why the drops changed. Capcom's Ver.1.021: "A new appraisal item, Glowing Stone, has been added... obtained as a reward from 9★ monster quests. The item is appraised upon quest completion, yielding a talisman with random skill attributes." Then Ver.1.041 added **Timeworn Charms** from 10★ quests, which appraise into rare-quality talismans. So: 9★ gives Glowing Stones, 10★ gives Timeworn Charms. Ver.1.021 also added an Appraised Talisman feature to the Melding Pot. A good talisman has strong skills, usable Decoration slots, and above all skills that free up armour pieces elsewhere in the build.

• Farm 9★ hunts for Glowing Stones

  The same hunts you are already doing for materials. 10★ quests later give Timeworn Charms instead, which appraise into rare-quality talismans
• Appraise them

  Random skills and slots each time
• Keep only combinations your weapon actually uses

  A talisman with great skills for a weapon you do not play is not a good talisman
• Replace your charm whenever a better roll appears

  And rebuild around it — a talisman that frees an armour slot is worth more than its own stats
• optionalDo not chase a perfect roll yet

  Finish the rest of your progression first. The chase has no end and the content does

The Elder Dragon added in Title Update 4, and the current major boss progression. ⚠️ Capcom's unlock condition is specific and easy to miss: HR100+ **and** completion of the main mission "A First Cry". The fight uses a special large-scale format — up to four hunters joined by support hunters to form parties of eight, with Nadia and Fabius available — so it rewards learning the encounter rather than brute force. Clearing the Extra Mission unlocks a permanent event quest for repeat play.

• gateComplete the main mission "A First Cry"

  Capcom's stated prerequisite for the Gogmazios Extra Mission
• HR gateComplete the Gogmazios Extra Mission chain

  HR100+
• Prepare an encounter-specific loadout

  Maxed armour, your best Rarity 8 weapon, appropriate defensive skills, full healing, Max Potions, and Dust of Life or Lifepowder for multiplayer
• gateDefeat Gogmazios

  Learn the large-scale mechanics rather than fighting it like an ordinary hunt
• Unlock the permanent repeat quest

  Through the Extra Mission clear — this is what makes farming possible

The current final stage of weapon progression. Capcom's mechanics, precisely: you upgrade a Rarity 8 Artian using Gogmazios materials, upgraded weapons **retain their existing reinforcement bonuses**, and the result has **one bonus skill and one group skill chosen at random**. Gogma Reinforce lets you keep those bonuses — or use the Reset Skills option to spend Gogma materials resetting the bonus skill and group skill entirely. ⚠️ You do not need a mathematically perfect Gogma Artian to clear anything in the game. Perfect rolls are the grind *after* the content, not a prerequisite for it.

• gateStart from a viable Rarity 8 Artian

  Its reinforcement bonuses carry over, so the work you did earlier is not lost
• Farm Gogmazios for upgrade materials

  Through the permanent repeat quest
• Upgrade into a Gogma Artian weapon

  The current ceiling of the Artian system
• Evaluate the randomly assigned bonus and group skills

  One of each, assigned at random on upgrade
• Use Gogma Reinforce to keep or reset

  Reset Skills spends Gogma materials to reroll the bonus and group skills completely
• optionalRepeat until the weapon is genuinely good

  Good, not perfect. Move on to the content

Also from Title Update 4, and the thing that stops every endgame hunter wearing the same set. Capcom's description: Transcendence lets HR100+ hunters upgrade armour further, raising the limits on Armor Sphere upgrades and **powering up the decoration slots of rarity 5 and 6 armour**. That second half is the important one — it is what keeps a lower-rarity piece with exactly the skill you need viable into the real endgame.

• HR gateUnlock Transcendence

  HR100+
• Transcend the armour you actually wear

  Raises its Armor Sphere ceiling
• Revisit rarity 5 and 6 pieces you had written off

  Transcendence powers up their decoration slots, which can bring a skill-perfect old piece back into a current build
• Rebuild your sets around the new possibilities

  Combine Transcended armour with your best Appraised Talisman — the two together are where build freedom comes from

⚠️ Do not jump straight from ordinary Tempered hunts into the hardest Arch-Tempered fights. Work through them in roughly this order, learning each encounter. Each one drops materials for γ (Gamma) equipment, which becomes one of the main sources of late-endgame build optimisation. Arch-Tempered Arkveld was the final Arch-Tempered monster added, arriving with Ver. 1.041 on February 18 2026.

• Clear Arch-Tempered Rey Dau

  A reasonable first Arch-Tempered target
• Clear Arch-Tempered Uth Duna

  Event quest
• Clear Arch-Tempered Nu Udra

  Event quest
• Clear Arch-Tempered Jin Dahaad

  Added with Title Update 4
• gateClear Arch-Tempered Arkveld

  The last Arch-Tempered monster added, in Ver. 1.041
• Craft and fully upgrade the γ pieces you want

  Gamma equipment is a major part of late build optimisation
• optionalBuild encounter-specific sets where they are needed

  Some of these fights genuinely reward a tailored set rather than a general one

The hard half of the Final Fantasy XIV collaboration, and one of the game's notable mechanical challenge encounters. It is designed as a substantially harder Omega Planetes, so it wants a finished HR100 character rather than a passing attempt — which is why it sits here rather than back in stage 5.

• collabBuild specifically for Omega

  This is a fight where a tailored set is the difference
• Learn the Delta Attack mechanic

  The encounter's signature mechanic
• Learn the Nerscylla Clone phase

  Carried over from the normal version, harder here
• Coordinate roles in multiplayer

  Savage assumes coordination rather than four people improvising
• collabClear Planetes Protocol (Savage)

  One of the clearest skill checks in the game

Introduced with Ver. 1.041 in February 2026. Capcom's own description of the rewards is the reason to be here: 10★ quests give **Timeworn Charms**, which have a chance of appraising into rare-quality talismans, and **Battle-tempered Emblems**, used to reinforce Gogma Artian weapons — so the 10★ tier feeds directly back into the two systems from stages 6 and 7. Beyond the Arch-Tempered apexes there is also a 10★ Zoh Shia, and a high-difficulty hunt-a-thon that unlocks after clearing 10★ Arch-Tempered Arkveld and all the special environment quests.

• Clear 10★ Arch-Tempered Rey Dau

  The apex predators all received 10★ versions
• Clear 10★ Arch-Tempered Uth Duna

  10★ event quest
• Clear 10★ Arch-Tempered Nu Udra

  10★ event quest
• Clear 10★ Arch-Tempered Jin Dahaad

  10★ event quest
• gateClear 10★ Arch-Tempered Arkveld

  Debuted February 18 2026 as a permanent event quest
• Clear 10★ Zoh Shia

  Its own 10★ event quest, added March 4 2026
• optionalUnlock and clear the 10★ hunt-a-thon

  Unlocks after the 10★ Arch-Tempered Arkveld event quest and all the special environment quests
• Farm Timeworn Charms and Battle-tempered Emblems

  These feed the Appraised Talisman chase and Gogma Artian reinforcement respectively

The clearest "final boss" target in the current version. ⚠️ Capcom's note on this quest matters: the high-ground team does not take part, deliberately, for an increased challenge — so strategies that leaned on them do not transfer from the normal fight. Everything in stages 6 and 7 is effectively preparation for this.

• gateArrive with the full kit

  Gogma Artian weapon, Transcended and optimised armour, strong Appraised Talisman, Arch-Tempered clears behind you
• Take the 10★ Gogmazios quest

  Listed as a Special Assignment for HR100+, added March 12 2026
• Adapt to fighting it without the high-ground team

  Capcom removed them from this version on purpose
• gateClear it

  The current finish line
• optionalFarm it if you are chasing maximum optimisation

  Only worth it if you want the last few percent

At this point the character is complete in every sense that matters, and what remains is optimisation and collection rather than progression. None of it gates anything. Master Rank arrives with the Ascendance expansion in 2027 — Capcom has announced the expansion, the Master Rank difficulty and the return of Elder Dragons, but no release date beyond the year, so there is nothing to plan around yet.

• optionalChase near-perfect Gogma Artian rolls and talismans

  The genuinely endless part
• optionalComplete your γ armour and Gogmazios equipment collections

  Collection rather than power at this point
• optionalBuild out secondary weapons and elemental sets

  The natural next project once the primary is finished
• optionalFinish the long tail

  Crown hunting, monster research, Side Missions, optional quests, Arena and challenge records, layered armour and weapons, achievements
• unreleasedWait for Ascendance and Master Rank

  Announced for 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, bringing Master Rank. No release date has been given, so nothing here is actionable yet