Monster Hunter Wilds multiplayer guide: How to hunt with your buddies

In Monster Hunter Wilds, nobody hunts alone. Not unless you want to, anyway—or unless the confusing multiplayer menus send you running in terror. Multiplayer has always been a Monster Hunter mainstay, but connecting with friends still carries some lingering clunkiness from the series' earlier years, and this time around you're likely to say out loud to yourself "What the heck is a link party?" at least once.

While Wilds has a few options for bringing along hunting partners, wrapping your head around its lobbies, Link Parties, Environment Links and SOS flares takes some doing. Luckily we're here to serve up a Monster Hunter Wilds multiplayer hunting guide to make those fiddly bits less fiddly. If you want to bring some friends along when you set out to slay any number of fanged beasts, flying wyverns, and various reptiles, here's how to do it.

One quick note: You'll need to complete character creation and the initial Chatacabra tutorial hunt before you can head online.

Does Monster Hunter Wilds have crossplay?

Monster Hunter Wilds does have multiplayer crossplay. To play with a friend who's hunting on consoles, you'll need their Hunter ID, which they can find under their character name while selecting their save as the game starts, or by going to Menu > Info > Hunter Profile and pressing Tab to toggle Hunter ID. Alternatively, while playing in a lobby, you can find your Hunter ID by going to Menu > Communication > Member List, and looking for yourself in the Lobby Member tab.

When you've got their Hunter ID, you can search for them by going to Menu > Communication > Member List > Hunter ID Search. Once you've found them, you can add them to your in-game friends list, after which you can invite them to your Link Party or search for their lobby when you start up the game.

How does multiplayer work in Monster Hunter Wilds?

To understand Monster Hunter Wilds multiplayer, you'll need to know the two main multiplayer systems: Lobbies and Link Parties. Let's break down that terminology.

• Lobbies in Monster Hunter are large online game sessions where hunters can socialize, group up, and join each other's quests on the fly—and in Wilds, lobbies are larger than they've ever been, with up to 100 hunters sharing the same online session. If you're not playing Wilds in singleplayer, you'll be playing in a lobby. Lobby members can see each other roaming around base camp, communicate in lobby text and voice chat, and freely join each other's quests.
• Link Parties are smaller, private groups of up to four players. These are your traditional multiplayer parties, intended to help you and a couple friends hunt together. You'll get notifications whenever anyone in your Link Party posts a quest, you can join each other's quests from a Link Party quest menu while talking to Alma, and you'll stay in a Link Party together once the quest is finished. Importantly, Lobbies and Link Parties exist independently of each other—someone can be in your Link Party even if they're in another lobby or in online singleplayer mode. Link Parties also let you join an Environment Link; more on that below.

Do I want a Link Party or a lobby? What's the difference?

🔗If you want to play with your friends, specifically, you'll want to make a Link Party.

Forming a link party is just like partying up in other multiplayer games (though navigating through the associated menus might be a bit more confusing). When you and your friends are in a Link Party, you'll have an easier time joining each other's hunts, and you'll remain in the party together after those hunts are over.

🌐Think of lobbies as shared public spaces.Though you can create private lobbies as well (for your Squad, for example), they're almost like tiny MMOs: You'll see other lobby members milling around in base camps, and you can freely join any quests posted by other lobby members (assuming you've progressed far enough to be eligible).

To reiterate, Lobbies and Link Parties are independent systems. You can be in a lobby without being in a Link Party, you can be in a Link Party with someone in a different lobby, you can be in a Link Party without being in a lobby at all—they're separate systems with different purposes.

How to play with friends in Monster Hunter Wilds

Your best option for hunting with friends is forming a Link Party, which will let you easily join quests in a squad of up to four friends. To play multiplayer with friends in Monster Hunter Wilds, follow these steps to invite them to a Link Party and hunt together:

1. While in an online lobby or in online singleplayer mode, go to Menu > Communication > Invite a Friend to invite someone from your Steam friend list to a Link Party. Alternatively, you can go to Menu > Communication > Link Party > Invite to Link Party to invite someone from your in-game Hunter Friends list. You do not need to be in the same lobby. Once your friend accepts your invite, you'll be in a Link Party. Worth noting: only the Link Party leader can invite people to the Link Party.
2. Start a quest by either talking to Alma, selecting a monster on your environment map to start a Field Survey quest, or attacking a monster in the wilderness until it initiates a Field Survey quest. Members of your Link Party will get a notification that you've posted a quest.
3. Your friends can now join your quest through the "Link Member Quests" menu by talking to Alma.
4. Prep, depart, and hunt! (Unless you started your quest by smacking a monster; just wait for your friend to show up, in that case.)

After creating the Link Party by sending the initial invite, you can just invite your other friends directly from your Steam friend list. No, I don't know why you can't just do this in the first place. That's Monster Hunter for you.

Can I play through the Monster Hunter Wilds story with friends?

Kind of. While in a Link Party, you'll get a notification when your friends' story hunts are joinable once they see the "Begin Quest" marker and the actual hunt begins, after which you can jump right in by going to the Link Party Member Quests meny at Alma.

We're not entirely sure whether completing a story quest with a friend will advance your own progress if you're on the same step of the story. During the review period, our staff was only able to hop into each other's story hunts after some of us were further along. Sometimes we'd be bounced back to base camp when the quest host's cutscenes played; other times, we'd watch the cutscene with them.

How Link Parties work in Monster Hunter Wilds

Now that we've covered the basics of how Wilds multiplayer works, let's dig into the details of Link Parties.

• Once again, Link Party members do not need to be in the same lobby. Link Parties and lobbies are separate systems. As long as you and your friends are online in Monster Hunter Wilds, you can be in a Link Party together—even if you started the game in online singleplayer mode.
• Link Parties can have a maximum of four players. This is, not coincidentally, also the maximum number of players who can join a quest.
• You'll receive a notification when a Link Party member posts a quest, so you'll know exactly when you're able to join.
• You can join Link Party member hunts from the Link Party Quests menu while talking to Alma. Everyone isn't forced to hunt together if you're in a Link Party, though. You can split your party between multiple quests if you'd like.
• While you don't need to be in the same lobby to be in a Link Party together, you won't see your friends at base camp unless you're in the same lobby.
• If you want to run around the open environments together, you'll need to form an Environment Link. Yes, this is another thing. More on that below.
• There's a separate Link Party text chat, so you can talk to your friends without the whole lobby reading your conversation. Open the in-game chat and press Tab to change chat channels.

What's the deal with Environment Links? How do I explore the open world with my friends in Wilds?

If you've got a friend in your Link Party in Wilds, you'll probably notice that you won't see your buddies while you're roaming around the world until you've started a quest, and that they disappear once you finish a quest together. To explore Wilds' seamless wilderness environments with friends, you'll need to form an Environment Link.

An Environment Link is yet another specific kind of multiplayer connection available to players in a Link Party, letting party members run around the open wilderness together and initiate Field Surveys on the fly for back-to-back hunts.

To invite your Link Party to an Environment Link, go to the Communication menu > Link Party > Invite All to Environment Link.

Unfortunately, you can't start optional quests or saved investigations from Alma while in an Environment Link. Your hunting will be limited to whatever monsters appear on the World Map. This is a less structured, more "let's just hang out and fight some stuff" way of playing together.

When you're ready to go back to traditional quest posting and joining, go back to the same menu and select Disband or Leave Environment Link, depending on whether you're hosting or not.

How lobbies work in Monster Hunter Wilds

With Link Parties out of the way, let's talk lobbies. Lobbies are the traditional form of Monster Hunter multiplayer; if you're wondering why playing with friends online in Monster Hunter has its specific brand of clunkiness, it's because the system is still heavily informed by the days when Monster Hunter was mostly played in Japan through lobbies over local ad hoc networks on portable consoles. It was a different time.

Still, even lobbies have changed considerably in Wilds. Here's the rundown:

• Public lobbies can now hold up to 100 players in Monster Hunter Wilds. When you choose "recommended lobby" after starting the game, you'll get sorted into a public lobby with available slots. You can also search for lobbies meeting specific criteria, lobbies where your in-game friends are currently playing, and squad lobbies.
• Lobby members can see each other in base camp, meaning a full lobby is a great opportunity to admire the latest hunter fashions.
• Lobby members can freely join each other's quests by going to the Lobby Member Quests menu while talking to Alma. You won't get notifications when a lobby member posts a quest, but it's a nice way to hop into some casual co-op.
• If that feels a bit too public, you can create private lobbies. Once you've made a private lobby, other hunters will need to search for its Lobby ID to join. To find your current Lobby ID, go to Menu > Communication > Member List, and it'll be listed on the right side of the screen. Private lobbies have a smaller player cap, but it's an option if you want to play with a specific group of people but more than a single Link Party can hold.
• Squads have their own lobbies. If you have a larger group of people that wants to play together regularly, Squad lobbies are probably your best bet. More on Squads below.

How Squads work in Monster Hunter Wilds

A bit like MMO guilds, Squads are persistent player groups that exist independent of lobbies and Link Parties, and they're a great way to streamline playing together with groups and communities that won't all fit in one Link Party.

To create or search for a squad, go to Menu > Info > Manage Squads, or speak to Felicita in the Windward Plains base camp outside the tent with the Endemic Life researchers. When creating a squad, you can choose its name, emblem, "vibe," and Hunter Rank preferences. You can also set whether you want your squad to be open for anyone to join or require approval from the squad leaders and sub-leaders. Each hunter can join up to 8 squads, and each squad can have up to 50 members.

The main benefit of creating a squad is that each squad has its own associated lobby. When you're starting up the game, you can choose to search for squad lobbies, so you can quickly hop into hunts with your squad buddies. As with other lobbies, squad lobby members can freely join each other's quests and see each other in base camps.

Squads also have their own text chat channel that you can chat in across lobbies. Unlike other in-game chat, messages in squad chat will persist after logging off, so everyone can follow the gossip.

How SOS Flares work in Monster Hunter Wilds

SOS flares act as a kind of co-op on-demand option. Even when you're playing a quest in singleplayer, you can request assistance from other hunters by going to the menu > Missions & Quests > SOS Flare or selecting SOS Flare from your radial menu.

If you're playing offline, your SOS flare will call in AI-controlled "support hunters" to fight alongside you. While online, firing an SOS flare will allow other hunters to join your quest from the SOS Flare Quests menu at the Quest Counter. The support hunters will still fill any open hunter slots you have if nobody's joined after some time has passed.

Joining SOS flare quests is a great way to quickly jump into co-op, sending you directly into a hunt with someone who's asked for help. The SOS Flare Quests menu also lets you specify criteria for which kinds of SOS Flares you want to respond to—you can narrow your SOS flare search by quest difficulty, quest type, locale, host language, and host platform. Best of all, you can specify a target monster for your SOS flare search, so you can easily hunt for whatever monster you need even if it's not currently in your saved investigations or on your world map anywhere.