Multiplayer and Expeditions
Monster Hunter Wilds supports co-op for up to four hunters through Link Parties, lobbies, SOS Flares, and Squads, and you can also play the whole game solo with AI companions. Monster health scales with party size, from 100 percent solo up to roughly 240 percent at four, and AI Support Hunters summoned by an SOS count toward that just like real players do. Outside of quests you can free-roam a map with friends through Environment Link or alone through Expeditions.
Monster Hunter Wilds supports full cooperative play for up to four hunters. You can play the entire game solo with AI companions, or team up with friends and strangers through multiple matchmaking systems. The game also features open-world expeditions where you can explore freely without quest constraints.
Multiplayer Systems
Link Parties
Link Parties are the best way to play with friends consistently. When you form a Link Party, every member gets automatic prompts when someone posts or starts a quest.
How to set up a Link Party:
- Open your menu and go to the Communications tab.
- Select "Link Party" and invite friends from your friends list or lobby.
- Once formed, all members get notifications when any member posts a quest.
- Accept the notification to join automatically.
Link Parties persist through multiple quests. You do not need to re-invite after every hunt. When someone posts a new quest, everyone in the party gets the join prompt.
Lobbies
Lobbies are the traditional gathering hub, and their capacity depends on the type.
| Lobby Type | Capacity | Details |
|---|---|---|
| General Lobby | Up to 100 | Open matchmaking. Search by quest type, target monster, or Hunter Rank. |
| Squad Lobby | Up to 50 | Restricted to members of a Squad. |
| Private Lobby | Up to 16 | Password-protected. Only players with the code can join. |
You can see other hunters in the hub, arm-wrestle in the Grand Hub, and check each other's gear. Post quests from the Quest Counter, and anyone in your lobby can join.
SOS Flares
The SOS Flare is your mid-hunt call for backup.
How to use it:
- Open your radial menu during a quest.
- Go to the Actions tab.
- Fire an SOS Flare.
- Other hunters browsing SOS listings can now join your quest in progress.
Responding to SOS Flares:
- Go to the Quest Counter.
- Select "Join Request" or "Respond to SOS."
- Filter by monster, quest type, or Hunter Rank.
- Pick a quest and join.
If no human players respond to your SOS, the game fills empty slots with NPC Support Hunters. These AI companions fight alongside you and contribute to damage, but they are not as effective as human players.
Support Hunters summoned by an SOS Flare do count toward party size for scaling. Fill all three slots with AI and the monster carries the same 2.4x health it would against four humans. Firing an SOS is a real trade, not free backup: you are buying three mediocre damage dealers at the price of a full multiplayer health pool.
The exception is the Support Hunters the story assigns you during Assignments. Those do not count toward party size.
Squads
Squads function as persistent groups (like guilds or clans). Up to 50 players can join a single Squad, and you can belong to up to eight of them.
What Squads give you:
- A shared Squad Chat channel
- Easy access to join each other's lobbies
- A Squad Card showing collective hunt statistics
- Squad-exclusive sessions where only members can join
Create or join a Squad from the Communications tab.
What Needs an Online Connection
Online multiplayer and downloadable content both require the latest version of the game installed. Ver. 1.042 pulled a chunk of quest content out from behind that requirement. All 25 currently available event quests and Challenge Quests previously needed an online connection to accept, and you can now play them offline. The limited-time event quest "Just What the Doctor Ordered" is now a permanent addition and also plays offline.
The Grand Hub and Arena
At Hunter Rank 16 a tutorial mission appears that unlocks the Grand Hub. Trigger it by talking to Tetsuzan in Suja, The Peaks of Accord. Added in Title Update 1, the Grand Hub is the game's dedicated multiplayer hub and its own location bordering Suja, separate from both the settlement and your Base Camp.
What the Grand Hub offers:
- The Canteen: The only one in the game, voucher-gated, serving 60 minute meals.
- Arena Quest Counter: Accept timed competition quests with predetermined equipment loadouts, run by Ricardo. Completion times upload to worldwide rankings.
- Barrel Bowling: A multiplayer minigame that yields exclusive Pendants and utility items.
- Full player lobby: See and interact with other hunters in a shared social space.
Multiplayer Scaling
Monster health adjusts based on how many hunters are in the quest.
| Hunters in Quest | Estimated HP Scaling |
|---|---|
| 1 (Solo) | 100% (Base HP) |
| 2 | ~160% |
| 3 | ~200% |
| 4 | ~240% |
Capcom has never published these figures, so treat them as community measurement and not documentation. Support Hunters count as hunters for this purpose, so the "number of hunters" here means bodies in the quest, not humans in the quest.
Scaling is not strictly linear. Four coordinated hunters deal far more than 2.4x a solo hunter's damage, so full parties are the fastest way to clear hunts. Stagger thresholds, status application buildup, and wound creation are shared across all team members. Note that your Palico comes along at one or two hunters and is withdrawn at three or four.
A full party of four focused on the same body part will wound and break it much faster than a solo hunter. Coordinate with your team to focus fire on the same part (head for stuns, tail for severs) for the biggest efficiency gains.
Playing Story Quests in Co-op
Story quests (Assignments) have special rules for multiplayer:
- Unlock multiplayer first. You must complete the opening story missions and reach your first base camp solo before multiplayer unlocks.
- Form a Link Party with your friends.
- Everyone starts the same Assignment individually from their own Quest Counter.
- Clear the pre-quest cutscene first. The actual rule is that a player who has not yet seen a given pre-quest cutscene cannot join that quest, which is where the solo-only idea comes from. Everyone watches or skips it on their own, and then you can hunt together.
- Sync up once the hunt begins. Fire an SOS Flare or have party members join manually.
Cutscenes inside a quest are shared, and they only skip if every participant holds the skip input. This behavior has not changed since launch, so do not wait for a patch to fix it. It applies to first-time story missions, and repeating an Assignment afterwards works like any normal quest.
If you and a friend are both doing a story quest for the first time, you each need to get past the opening cutscene before the game will let you join each other. Start the quest, watch or skip the cutscene, then invite or SOS your friend once the hunt phase begins.
Environment Link (Open-World Co-op)
Environment Link lets you roam a map with friends outside of a quest.
How it works:
- Form a Link Party.
- Select "Environment Link" from the menu.
- Your party deploys together into a free-roam version of the selected map.
- Explore, gather, hunt any monsters you find, and trigger dynamic events.
Limitations:
- You cannot post or progress quests while in Environment Link.
- No quest rewards, but you keep all gathered materials and monster drops.
- Best used for farming materials, exploring new regions, or practicing against specific monsters.
Open-World Expeditions
Expeditions are the solo counterpart to Environment Link. You deploy into a region with no time limit and no quest target.
Why run expeditions:
| Reason | Details |
|---|---|
| Gathering runs | Farm ores, bones, plants, and bugs without quest pressure |
| Building investigations | Save monsters you find as Investigations, either off the map or from your Field Survey History afterwards |
| Material farming | Hunt any monster you find for drops. No faint limit means no quest failure. |
| Region exploration | Find all camp locations, endemic life, and environmental features |
| Crown hunting | Look for unusually large or small monsters for crown achievements. Binoculars show a crown under the monster's name from about 50m out, and they flag miniature crowns as well as silver and gold. |
During expeditions, monsters come and go naturally. If you are hunting a Rathalos and it leaves the map, another monster will eventually cycle in. Inclemency weather events trigger on their regular timer, so you can experience weather-specific monster behavior.
Field Surveys are how you build your investigation stockpile. When you spot a monster worth farming, save it as an Investigation from the map, through Create Quest on the Environment Overview, or from your Field Survey History after the fact. Investigations are the most efficient way to farm rare materials.
Investigation Sizes and Crowns
Monster size is rolled when the monster spawns in the field, and a single-target Investigation keeps whatever size it was saved with. Run that Investigation again and the monster is the same size, so crown-hunters trade Investigations with each other instead of re-rolling.
Three caveats the usual advice leaves out. An Investigation is limited to three attempts, so "run it repeatedly" has a hard ceiling. Double-monster Investigations reroll every monster's size, so they are not locked at all. And resting at a tent does reroll spawns and sizes, but that is a general high rank mechanic costing Guild Points, not something specific to Environment Link. The manual actually forbids changing locale while you are inside an Environment Link, which gets in the way of the usual reroll loop.
Multiplayer Etiquette
These are not rules the game enforces, but following them makes you a better hunting partner:
- Bring Lifepowders. They heal the entire party. Carry some and use them when teammates are low.
- Do not wake a sleeping monster without coordination. If someone puts a monster to sleep, the first hit deals double damage. Wait for the Great Sword user or a Barrel Bomb setup.
- Do not trip melee players. Long Sword users standing behind the head can trip Hammer users. Position yourself to avoid hitting allies (or use Flinch Free Lv 1 to ignore it).
- Call out traps. If you are placing a Shock Trap or Pitfall Trap, use a quick chat message so teammates know to lure the monster over.
- Match the host's goal. If the quest leader is trying to capture, do not kill the monster. Watch for skull icons and trap callouts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does multiplayer scaling work in Monster Hunter Wilds?
Monster HP scales with party size: 100 percent solo, around 160 percent with two, around 200 percent with three, and around 240 percent with four. Capcom has not published these numbers, so treat them as community measurement. Scaling is not strictly linear, so four coordinated hunters clear a hunt faster than a solo player.
Do NPC Support Hunters make the monster tougher?
Yes. Support Hunters brought in by an SOS Flare count toward party size, so filling all three slots with AI puts the monster at the same 2.4x health as a full human party. Only the Support Hunters the story assigns you during Assignments are exempt. Firing an SOS is a trade and not free help.
Can you play story quests in co-op?
Yes. Assignments are fully playable in multiplayer. The catch is that a player who has not yet seen a quest's pre-quest cutscene cannot join it, so everyone has to watch or skip that themselves first, then sync up once the hunt begins. Cutscenes inside a quest are shared and only skip if everyone holds skip.
What is the difference between Environment Link and Expeditions?
Environment Link is free roam with a Link Party and Expeditions are the solo counterpart. Neither has a quest target or a time limit. Environment Link pays no quest rewards, though you keep every gathered material and monster drop.
How do you unlock the Grand Hub in Monster Hunter Wilds?
Reach Hunter Rank 16 and talk to the NPC Tetsuzan in Suja in the Peaks of Accord. The Grand Hub is the dedicated multiplayer hub and holds the Arena Quest Counter, Barrel Bowling, and a full player lobby.
Do you need to be online to play event quests in Monster Hunter Wilds?
Not since Ver. 1.042. All 25 currently available event quests and Challenge Quests previously required an online connection to accept and now play offline, and the limited-time event quest Just What the Doctor Ordered became a permanent addition that also plays offline. Online multiplayer and downloadable content still require the latest version of the game installed.
What to Read Next
- Getting Started. Core game loop and your first hours.
- Weapons and Combat. Optimize your contribution to the team.
- 100% Achievement Guide. Multiplayer-specific achievements and co-op requirements.
- Tips and Tricks. SOS scaling, the Palico cutoff, and the Assignment cutscene gate.