Powering up your Palico in Monster Hunter Wilds is your best bet for ensuring this feline friend offers maximum support during each and every hunt. Though they may not seem it, Palicoes are powerful, especially when you get them some good equipment and unlock their strongest support abilities.
One way to make a Palico stronger in Wilds early on is to give it a paralysis or sleep weapon like the Felyne Barina Needle or the Rompopolo Blaster. With this, your cat can slowly build a status on the monster causing it to stop moving or pass out—even better if it's a status your weapon also applies for extra gains.
Palico upgrades work a little differently in Wilds, however, and there's a lot less choice than was available in Rise. You can level your Palico to 15 through low rank and high rank, but you need to complete the urgent mission that becomes available at HR 40 to raise Palico level cap to 30. All that said, here's how to unlock every Palico upgrade in Wilds.
How to upgrade your Palico in Monster Hunter Wilds
Upgrading your Palico in Wilds is very different to Rise. In that game you had a whole pet plaza where you could recruit new Palicoes, train them, and effectively put them through a selective breeding program to create your ideal cat candidate. You can't really do any of that in Wilds. In this game you've one Palico and you won't be recruiting any more.
That said, as your Palico levels up it'll acquire upgraded versions of its abilities—all viewable if you cycle across to the Info tab in the regular menu and look at Palico Info. You can also gain new abilities for your Palico by completing certain quests that unlock in high rank.
Another way to strengthen your Palico is through skills. The Palico Rally skill for example, which features prominently on the Kunafa armour set, increases both their attack and defense.
All Palico abilities in Monster Hunter Wilds
Besides the ones your Palico starts with, these are the abilities you can unlock by completing quests along with how to do so.
Attract Vigorwasps
This first ability comes from the Healing Help quest which unlocks as soon as you arrive in high rank, after you defeat the Yian Kut-Ku. Talk to your Palico at camp and it'll ask you to catch a vigorwasp using your capture net. Do so, speak to your companion again, and it'll unlock the skill. In its upgraded form, this ability lets your Palico attract a giant vigorwasp that you can then use for health.
Flashfly Cage
This second ability unlocks via the Flash Course quest that unlocks directly after the previous. Catch some flashflies with the capture net for your Palico and it'll get the ability to place down a cage filled with them that you can smash to blind monsters.
Rath-from-Above
The next ability quest for your Palico won't unlock until a while later. You'll need to reach HR 20 and complete the relevant urgent quest. After that, speak to your Palico to start Rath-from-Above, Go! in which they ask you to hunt a Quematrice in an optional quest of the same name. During the quest, your Palico will show off their new Rath-from-Above ability that lets them fly around in a hot air balloon shooting a monster with wyvern fire.
Plunderang
The next Purrfect Plundering quest unlocks right after the last one and sees you undertake an optional mission of the same name to fight a Guardian Ebony Odagaron. This Palico ability isn't really all that offensive, but it's great from a resource perspective. Your cat hurls a boomerang that steals a bit of the monster and gives it to you as a material. Considering I've literally gotten a gem from the Plunderang before, it's well worth having.
Vigorwasp Revival
The final Palico ability quest unlocks at HR 38 and is called A Gusty Move. This last quest is pretty easy—use your capture net to acquire a giant vigorwasp—and you'll get the best ability of all. Vigorwasp Revival is exactly as it sounds; get downed during a hunt and the Palico will revive you, though this ability does have a fairly long cooldown.
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