Frequently Asked Questions for Monster Hunter: World
This page answers questions that are frequently asked in the Weekly Questions Thread and elsewhere.
Platforms and Release
When is the PC release?
Controls and Camera
My hunter keeps sheathing their weapon for no reason!
There are two possible reasons for this.
One is that you still have Auto Sheathe enabled. You can turn this off by selecting (Start)→⚙️ System→Options→🎮 Controls→Sheathe Settings→Manual Sheathe.
The other possibility is that you're accidentally clicking the left stick, which will put away your weapon and start sprinting. You can turn this off by selecting (Start)→⚙️ System→Options→🎮 Controls→Dash Settings→R1 only.
Weapon Damage and Mechanics
Why is my weapon's element greyed out and in (parentheses)?
This means the weapon's element or status is “hidden”, and won't have any effect unless you have one or more points in the Free Elem skill.
Taking points in this skill is optional. The weapon might still be worth using even without the element or status damage.
What happens when I hit a monster with an element that it resists or is immune to?
Physical damage and elemental damage are calculated separately, and then added together to produce the final damage number on screen.
If you have a weapon with 200 attack and 150 fire, and you hit a monster who is completely immune to fire, it has the same effect as a hit from a weapon with 200 attack and no element.
What is affinity?
Affinity is a percentage chance to deal a critical hit for 1.25x physical damage. Negative affinity is a percentage chance to deal a feeble hit for 0.75x physical damage.
Equipment and Skills
What's the difference between Alpha 𝛼 and Beta 𝛽 sets?
Alpha sets have more built-in skill points, but few or no decoration slots.
Beta sets have more decoration slots, but fewer built-in skill points.
If you don't have many good decorations yet, Alpha pieces can be more powerful. Once you do have lots of decorations, Beta pieces tend to be more flexible.
Is there a benefit to wearing full sets?
Some sets have a set bonus that becomes active when wearing 2/3/4 pieces of the same set, or related sets. This set bonus is listed in the same area as each piece's other skills.
When trying to activate set bonuses, you can freely mix Alpha and Beta gear, and you can freely mix normal-species gear (e.g. Rathalos) and subspecies gear (e.g. Rath Soul, from Azure Rathalos).
Other than the explicit set bonuses, the only advantage of matching your armour is that it makes you look fashionable.
Materials and Crafting
What's the best way to get Wyvern Gems, and other monster gems?
Do non-tempered investigations with as many gold and silver boxes as possible. These have much higher gem drop rates than normal quest/carve rewards, and the purple boxes from tempered investigations can't drop gems.
Carving and capturing have the same drop rate for gems, but capturing gives 4 rewards instead of the 3 from carving, making it marginally better for gem farming.
What is this mystery blue ticket that I need to upgrade my charms?
That's a Research Commission Ticket. It's awarded by the quest The White Winds of the New World, which you unlock by completing all 1–8★ optional quests.
Items and Radial Menus
My radial menus keep resetting!
Radial menu configuration is saved and loaded with your item loadouts.
If you want your radial menu changes to stick, load your favorite item loadout, set up your radial menus, and then save over the top of that item layout.
How do I rearrange my horizontal item bar?
Open up your item pouch, and press △/Y to bring up the item bar subscreen.
Here you can rearrange your item bar manually, or click R3 to sort it based on the order of your item pouch.
Monsters
How do I capture a monster?
A monster is captured when three conditions are true at the same time:
- The monster has low health
- The monster is currently in a shock trap or pitfall trap
- The monster has 2 tranq bombs' worth of tranq status
When these are all true, the monster is instantly captured.
A monster is wounded enough to capture when it limps away from the area, when it is sleeping naturally in its nest, when it shows a skull icon on the mini-map, or when its heartbeat is consistently low while awake.
Tranq bombs can be applied to a sleeping monster, and will not awaken it. This is useful when the monster has developed a partial resistance to traps during the quest.
Elder Dragons cannot be trapped, and cannot be captured.
Multiplayer
Do I need PS Plus or Xbox Live Gold?
You will need them to play multiplayer with other humans.
You don't need them to play the base game solo.
What am I missing if I don't have PS Plus or Xbox Live Gold?
Other than being able to play with other humans, you are missing almost nothing.
All non-arena quests have separate monster health scaling for solo and multiplayer, and you still get access to log-in bonuses and rotating Event Quests. There are no multiplayer-specific lockouts.
Arena quests have monster health pools balanced for two players. This makes them harder to play solo, though it's certainly possible.
Where can I hunt with the community?
Check out https://discord.gg/monsterhunter from the sidebar. There's a bot that will let you post session IDs and descriptions for other players to join, separated by platform.
How does monster difficulty scale in multiplayer?
As soon as there are two or more human players in the same quest, all monsters have their health pools increased to multiplayer levels.
Multiplayer health pools don't scale with the specific number of players. Monsters fought by 2 hunters have the same health as monsters fought by 4 hunters.
If all other humans leave the quest, the multiplayer health pools are still in effect. There is no way to return to solo monster health levels during a quest.