One of the new features in Monster Hunter Wilds is the Wound system. By constantly attacking the same monster body part, you can create Wounds that can be targeted for increased damage and potential items. While this creates a more immersive experience and allows for unique strategies, some players find that the Wound system can make things too easy.
Normal and Tempered Wounds remove some of the randomness of Monster Hunter
By focusing your attacks on specific parts of a monster using regular attacks, Focus Strikes, or mounting them, you can increase your damage and the drop chance for certain items. While this feature was somewhat present in past Monster Hunter games (i.e. constantly hitting a monster’s tail with a bladed weapon to cut it), the Wound system in Monster Hunter Wilds elevates things by allowing you to create your own visible weakpoints.
Apart from normal Wounds, which are created by damaging a body part enough times and have a red hue when viewed in Focus Mode, Tempered monsters have Tempered Wounds that occasionally appear and have a blue hue. While attacking Tempered Wounds increases the damage done to a monster (as with normal Wounds), breaking them also has a chance to drop different kinds of Wyverian Bloodstones – rare items that can be exchanged at the Melding Pot in Suja, Peaks of Accord for Melding Points. Melding Points are integral to the endgame, which incentivizes players to target Tempered Wounds when on a quest.
The benefits of the Wound system make Monster Hunter Wilds easier compared to past games
Any hunter worth their salt should endeavor to create and attack Wounds. Not only does this increase the damage dealt to the monster (thus decreasing the quest runtime), but breaking Tempered Wounds provides important endgame materials. While the latter advantage is understandable from a material gathering standpoint, some take issue with how the Wound system trivializes hunting monsters.
While Capcom has a lot of post-content planned for Monster Hunter Wilds, the endgame is too easy for some. The lack of a significant challenge is only magnified by the Wound system. Since Wounds can easily be created by constantly attacking monster parts (skills like Flayer make creating Wounds even easier), a hunter’s damage potential can skyrocket with just a few of these weakpoints present. When combined with buffs provided by healing items, gear, Mantles, and the like, quests can be completed in record time. Though this is possible in other Monster Hunter titles, it is much easier to do in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Don’t get the wrong idea; the Wound system is an excellent addition to Monster Hunter Wilds. Being able to focus your attacks on a desired area to create weakpoints adds more depth to the Monster Hunter experience. But the ability to deal increased damage on a routine basis can be an issue, one that Capcom might address in the future.
Monster Hunter Wilds is out now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).
