“Investigate the regions and raise your HR” is a vague, reoccurring objective in Monster Hunter Wilds once you embark upon your High Rank journey.
Once you unlock High Rank, you will embark on a mission that shows how the events leading up to the end credits have affected the world around you. The introduction of your first High Rank monster, Yian Kut Ku, being non-native to the Forbidden Lands, is a big hint of what’s to come.
This is where Monster Hunter Wilds makes the most of its open-world design: the rolling shadow mission “Investigate the regions and raise your HR.” This page explains what it means in practice, and how to effectively progress it.
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What ‘Investigate the regions and raise your HR’ means
Once in High Rank, each time you reach a new hunter rank (HR) soft cap, you will unlock the next story mission (denoted with a red asterisk on the map).
Complete each of these missions, and you will raise your soft HR cap by a few levels and be told, once again, to “investigate the regions and raise your HR” until the next soft cap, where new missions will unlock. This is effectively the game’s new loop — and one where you’re free to define your way forward.
But what are the best ways to progress through “investigate the regions and raise your HR,” exactly?
How to raise your HR cap in Monster Hunter Wilds
There are two main ways to increase your HR. The first (and most obvious) is to hunt monsters.
This can either be in the form of optional quests that you start by talking to Alma, or initiating a hunt while out and about, exploring the wilds. After you finish a hunt, you will receive a given number of Hunter Points as part of the (sometimes very busy) rewards screen.
Get enough Hunter Points and you will raise your HR. Generally speaking, it takes one or two Large Monsters to raise your HR for the first few dozen ranks.
The second way to do this is to complete side quests. These are denoted with a yellow asterisk on the map. You can view and swap between these in the (again, very busy) Start/Options menu.
These are pretty varied – some will have you chasing down endemic life or catching fish, while others will see you battle a pair of very powerful High Rank monsters. As such, since some are a lot more difficult than others, they will reward you with more points.
However, there are more reasons than this to finish your side quests. We strongly advise you prioritize these over your optional quests, as they unlock some very useful items and mechanics.
Essentially, the aim is to keep increasing your HR rank to break through the soft caps and keep progressing to new story beats. Our how to unlock High Rank explainer goes into these specifics and more.
How to ‘Investigate the regions’ in Monster Hunter Wilds
This command is a little less grandiose than the game makes it sound. There is no rigid structure here: You’re effectively free to do your own thing. If you check your world map at this point, you will see a bunch of unidentified monsters roaming around. Approach them and their icons will update to whatever it is that you’re looking at.
Once a monster is identified, it remains identified. For example, you don’t need to worry about all Rathalos being a surprise; once you’ve seen one, all of the Rathalos on the map will be identifiable for the rest of the game.
There are two important things to note at this point.
* The first is that you are free to tackle the cool new monsters at your leisure. You are free to go out and do what you do best.
* The second is that you need to visit each of the regions in turn, talking to the locals, finding out what’s different and exacting swift, Darwinian revenge on those invading species.
So, simply put: go visit each of the friends you’ve made over the course of the game, and keep an eye out for cool new monsters. Remember, science is more fun with a sword in hand.
To get the most out of combat in Monster Hunter Wilds, learn how to mount, create wounds, capture monsters, cut tails and get fangs, and work around the “your item pouch is full” warning.
