Some may argue that the best defense in Monster Hunter Wilds is a well-timed dodge roll, but if you're anything like me then you'll still find yourself taking some chunky damage here and there. Something that can help you stop taking half-health hits (apart from, you know, evading) is plugging Armor Spheres into your gear.
Each piece of armor in Monster Hunter Wilds can be reinforced with Armor Spheres, boosting its defense stat and giving you an extra layer of protection. It's especially helpful if you've got handy skills tied to a slightly lower defense piece of armour but you want to hold onto it a while longer.
You don't get access to Armor Spheres right away—you'll have to play through the story a bit first—but here's where you can obtain them, how to smelt them, and how to attach them to your armor.
Monster Hunter Wilds: Armor Sphere overview
How to get Armor Spheres
You'll first notice Armor Spheres dropping around the time you fight Uth Duna in Chapter 1-5, where you'll get a handful as a hunt reward. From here on out, you'll be able to obtain them from a whole bunch of places:
- Hunt rewards from every quest you do
- Using Item Trade with villagers like Gawdygog
- Smelting at the Everforge once you unlock it in chapter two
Initially you'll only receive the lowest tier of Armor Sphere, but eventually you'll be able to obtain five different levels of sphere, each one offering an increasing number of points towards an armor's upgrade level:
⭐ Armor Sphere (2 star quests) – 10 points
⭐ Armor Sphere+ (3 star quests) – 25 points
⭐ Advanced Armor Sphere (4 and 5 star quests) – 200 points
⭐ Hard Armor Sphere (6 and 7 star quests) – 1000 points
⭐ Heavy Armor Sphere (8 star quests) – 5000 points
Quests are the most natural source of Armor Spheres income. You'll receive them for every monster you successfully hunt, and the sphere you get depends on the difficulty of the quest.
You can also trade for them. Occasionally villagers will offer them up as items, and Gawdygog in the Wudwud Hideout also offers them in exchange for Wyvern Coins. I highly recommend against doing this though, as Wyvern Coins can be used on far more valuable things later on. Save your coins and instead hunt or, better yet, make use of the Smelting Foundry in Azuz.
Turn extra monster parts into Armor Spheres
How to smelt Armor Spheres
Once you fight the Black Flame in Chapter 2-4, you'll unlock the ability to smelt Armor Spheres at the smelting foundry in Azuz, the Everforge. The quickest way to get there is to fast travel to the Oilwell Basin base camp, and Roqul will be standing at the forge nearby.
To smelt Amor Spheres:
- Speak to Roqul and head into the Smelt Armor Spheres menu
- Select an Armor Sphere
- Use spare monster parts until you have enough points to smelt
Rarer monster parts offer more points than others, and you can sort your materials by quantity to use up the stuff you've hoarded the most.
Upgrade armor at the forge
How to use Armor Spheres
Once you've got some Armor Spheres, go ahead and speak to Gemma. Jump into the Forge/Upgrade Armour menu and then select a crafted piece of gear to bring up the Upgrade/Forge submenu.
From there, hit Upgrade, and you'll be brought into a new menu displaying all your owned Armor Spheres, the current level of your piece of gear, and how many points you need to reach the next level.
Higher rarity armor will require more points to level up, while all armor pieces can be reinforced by up to 13 levels depending on the armor rarity—lower rarity gear has more levels, reducing down to seven by the time you're at the good stuff. Higher rarities also require more zenny to level up, though it's unlikely you'll ever be short on cash in this game. Once you've got a piece of armor to its level cap, you'll have maxed out its defense and won't be able to chuck any more spheres at it.
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