Wild Hearts – Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Jumping into Wild Hearts for the first time and taking on your first towering Kemono can feel daunting. That’s not to say that the onboarding process or tutorials are lacking, but more that developer Omega Force has crafted a deep, compelling Monster Hunter-inspired experience with lots to take on and master. Even after quite a few hours with the game, we’re still unearthing lots and regularly getting decimated by Kemono.

If you’re feeling a little out of your depth, our tips and tricks for Wild Hearts beginners should help. From the importance of combos and food to using Hunting Towers effectively and making the most of your Tsukumo companions, these should set you up to enjoy what is one of 2023’s best surprises so far.

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Learn and Abuse Combos in Wild Hearts

Wild Hearts’ first few encounters with a Kemono offer up a major learning curve for new players. The battles are long, arduous affairs that are a test of skill and patience. If, like me, you went into those first few fights pressing random attack buttons in the hope of a swift win only to come out bruised and battered, then you’re missing a major trick – combos.

Each weapon has a unique set of combos that, when performed correctly and mixed and matched, cause massive damage to Kemono. While the game doesn’t do a particularly good job of highlighting the importance of combos, you can learn combos at any of the training dummies in the game.

The dummies offer a guided crash course in button combinations, chaining combos, and even how to mix in Dragon Karakuri contraptions to increase your damage output. It’s guaranteed that your next fight will go a lot smoother once you’ve mastered a few combos.

Take On Low-Level Kemono Multiple Times

Killing a Kemono in Wild Hearts rewards you with vital resources and materials. These you can put to good use to upgrade weapons and armor to improve stats, making the next fight a little easier. But, if the next Kemono is proving too challenging, don’t hesitate to take on low-level Kemono multiple times, then use the spoils to improve your gear.

After a few upgrades and as you hone your hunting skill, you’ll slay early-game Kemono in a handful of minutes, which makes farming for resources quite efficient. As an added benefit, defeating each Kemono five times unlocks further into the Cyclopedia, which you can access by tapping the map button and cycling through to the right-most tab at the top.

Unlock Karakuri Regularly

Though some Karakuri contraptions and skills unlock automatically, usually during flashes of inspiration mid-battle, most need unlocking in the expansive Karakuri tree, accessible by tapping the map button and cycling through to the right tab. Upgrades cost a set amount of Kemono Orbs, obtained, you guessed it, from killing Kemono.

Don’t neglect to pop into the tree occasionally to expand your selection of tools and buildings. In particular, we recommend unlocking the Water Toter node that extends your healing water capacity to start. Of equal importance are Karakuri Fusion tools. These stack Basic Karakuri like the crate in inventive ways, including a shielding Bulwark that stuns charging Kemono, or the Pounder, which unleashes a massive hammer whack for usually triple-digit damage.

READ MORE: Wild Hearts Karakuri List

Forge and Try Out New Wild Hearts Weapons

Wild Hearts offers players a generous selection of playstyles courtesy of an arsenal of eight unique weapons. Each has different combos, strengths, and weaknesses, so it’s well worth trialing each at least once to determine whether it’s a good fit. For more information on how to unlock weapons in Wild Hearts, check out our dedicated guide.

You can craft new weapons by building a Field Forge at a Dragon Pit. The initial crafting requirements aren’t demanding, so you aren’t wasting valuable resources. Test out the weapons on a low-level Kemono or visit the training dummy outside the Giant Tree Trunk Camp in Harugasumi Way.

Hunting Towers Have a Defined Radius

After several attempts to track down a Kemono at Hunting Tower only for none to appear, I was convinced I’d met a troublesome bug. But after a few frustrating minutes and a chance glance at the map while the tower was searching, it became clear that each one has a set radius. If a Kemono is grazing outside the tower’s range, it won’t show up. To counter this, plop down Hunting Towers at most several Dragon Pits in each region. They act as a mesh, so using one fires all of them up.

Eat Food Before Each Fight

Though Wild Hearts doesn’t put enough stress on the importance of food to boost your fighting attributes, always gobble down a few ingredients before taking on a Kemono. These boost your health, defense, and offense and can temporarily level up certain skills. A well-fed hunter is a better fighter.

You’ll see a gauge in the food menu representing how much you can eat. Try and push it as close to 100 as possible to maximize benefits. Better yet, process food on a Drying Rack by building one near a Dragon Pit. This allows you to mix and match ingredients to improve the base attributes.

Later, invest in unlocking the Pickling Jar Karakuri for similar food prep benefits. These contraptions take time to process food, so it’s best to plan ahead and get them going while exploring or foraging for ingredients between big fights.

Tsukumo and Karakuri Threads

Tsukumo are the sentient mechanical orbs that follow your hunter around, helping in battle, usually by distracting a Kemono to give you vital breathing room. But they also play a crucial role in managing your stock of Karakuri Threads – the resource that dictates what Karakuri contraptions you can and can’t build.

The basic aim here is to have as many threads as possible to put down crates, springs, bulwarks, and pounders when needed without juggling scarce resources. The best way to do this is to upgrade Tsukumo to boost your max capacity of threads. You can do this at any Campfire you’ve built near Dragon Pits around the map.

Tsukumo upgrades require Old Cogs, obtained from finding Tsukumo throughout the game. They produce a distinctive clicking sound when one is nearby, so keep an ear out as you explore.

Use The Wild Hearts Map to Track Completed Quests

When you first visit Minato, the town’s many demanding citizens hound you with requests for various materials. However, there isn’t a straightforward way to track progress. There’s no quest menu or list, but you can use the map to track completed quests. These appear with a checkmark on the map, a prompt for you to chat with the quest-giving NPC to score your well-earned reward.

READ MORE: Wild Hearts Kemono List

That covers our Wild Hearts tips and tricks for beginners. Need an explainer on the fast travel system? Check out our dedicated guide, or take a look at how to unlock weapons in Wild Hearts.