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Monster Hunter Wilds Online Multiplayer Guide – How To Play Through the Story With Friends, Squads, Links, Lobbies, and More

by Mikhail Madnani on 27 February, 2025

Monster Hunter Wilds brings lots of quality of life improvements and enhancements to the core hunting experience, but it sadly is a regression for playing with friends, at least for the main story. Our Monster Hunter Wilds multiplayer guide covers how to play with friends online during the main story and also the differences between lobbies, squads, links, and environment links. It also covers what Online Singleplayer means when you load your save.

How to play through the story in Monster Hunter Wilds with friends

The answer here isn't simple, sadly. Just like in Monster Hunter World, you need to have seen the story cut-scenes before you can join your friends or have your friends join you. The structure will vary by quest and story progression as well. Some story quests have a lot of walking and talking which you will need to go through on your own. Basically, as soon as you see the "Begin Quest" alert on the screen, you can have your friends, randoms, or even NPCs join your hunt.

If you want to play through the main story in Monster Hunter Wilds alongside your friends and do the hunts together, you can, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired with needless friction involved. You can't do it as easily as in Monster Hunter Rise, and it is also a bit more cumbersome than Monster Hunter World was at times. 

Capcom has added a few online related features to make this a bit easier, but the way co-op is handled during the main story is easily one of the weakest aspects of Monster Hunter Wilds.

Monster Hunter Wilds lobbies and multiplayer explained

Lobbies in Monster Hunter Wilds are similar to how they are in other games. A lobby here is a persistent instance of a game that has up to 100 players in a single instance. You will not see all of them, but you can view what other hunters are doing, their Hunter Profiles, join quests they post (if applicable), and more. You can chat with those in a lobby with you, join quests posted by people in a lobby, invite friends to a lobby, send friend requests to others in a lobby (or also via Hunter ID search), and more. Joining a lobby is the default way to play Monster Hunter Wilds just like it was in Monster Hunter World. 

Monster Hunter Wilds Link Party explained

This is where things get confusing. A link party is when you want to play with a specific group of people. A Link Party is not the same as a lobby. Think of Monster Hunter Wilds Link Parties as a private party you have set up for when you want to hunt with friends after work for a few hours. Link Parties have their own dedicated chat and also automatically sends invitations to other Link Party members when someone posts a quest. 

As an example, if you are in a Link Party with 3 others and you are doing the main story quests, once the "Begin Quest" pops up on your screen, an invitation to the same quest will be sent to the 3 other members so they can quickly accept and join your hunt. Once a hunt like this or any hunt completed in a link party is completed, everyone remains in the Link Party to keep playing together. 

If you play regularly with a small group of friends, Monster Hunter Wilds Link Party is what you need to use. Also the "Invite Friend" option is for use to invite friends on your current platform's friend list to your lobby.

Monster Hunter Wilds Environment Links explained

Capcom's naming here is really bad. Monster Hunter Wilds Environment Links are basically only for when you want to go on an expedition in a fixed map with friends. You cannot post any optional or story quests here, and basically only do it to explore a single map together to gather, hunt whatever monsters are on the map, or to get into Photo Mode and take group photos.

If you want to actually do quests together with friends, this is not what you need. Stick to Link Party. Also there will be restrictions on Environment Links depending on story progress. If you are ahead of someone, you will need to join their Environment Link rather than inviting them. 

Monster Hunter Wilds Online Singleplayer explained

When you try and load into your save in Monster Hunter Wilds, you get options to search for lobbies, join a recommended lobby, or even get in using Online Singleplayer. Online Singleplayer has you connected to the servers, but you can pause the game while hunting and also send out an SOS Flare when you need help. If you are in a lobby, Link Party, or Environment Link, you cannot pause the game so keep that in mind.

If you see yourself doing most hunts solo or with NPCs, this is the mode to use since you can always join a lobby later or fire an SOS Flare to get help when needed (depending on your SOS Flare settings). 

Monster Hunter Wilds Squads explained

Squads are like a Guild from prior games. This is not the same as a lobby or Link Party in any form. Squads are basically a community in Monster Hunter Wilds. As an example, we have an RPG Site squad in-game. This squad lets you create lobbies with the ability to post messages that remain even when you log out. You can join up to 8 squads with 50 members per squad on your save file in Monster Hunter Wilds. The Squad Lobby capacity goes up as the Squad itself grows in size.

Monster Hunter Wilds Online Multiplayer modes and features in short

If you've gotten this far and are still confused, I apologize, but I'll try and summarize everything here: 

  • Monster Hunter Wilds is crossplay across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam meaning you can play with all your friends regardless of platform.
  • Monster Hunter Wilds' story co-op is similar to Monster Hunter World and not as easy as Monster Hunter Rise.
  • If you want to play with the same group of friends, be in a Link Party together so quest invites go out to the same group of friends automatically.
  • Only use an Environment Link if you literally want to be in the same single map together exploring and not actually do quests. You can hunt monsters on said map though.
  • Join a Squad in Monster Hunter Wilds to be a part of a specific community.
  • If you play mostly on your own but want the flexibility of having randoms join you, use Online Singleplayer.

Monster Hunter Wilds is now available worldwide on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam). Check out all our Monster Hunter Wilds guides here.