Monster Hunter Wilds layered weapons planned for future update, balance changes and PC improvements detailed

Following today's Monster Hunter Wilds  news about it crossing 10 million units worldwide, Capcom has posted a letter from Director Yuya Tokuda detailing balance adjustments, fixes, and other features in the works.

The highlights in the letter include more-challenging monsters coming in the May update, improvements to the VRAM usage on PC, DirectStorage upgrades, balance adjustments to mantles, weapon adjustments, and more. Director Yuya Tokuda also confirmed that a free item pack will be distributed to celebrate the 10 million milestone. From the balance adjustments, he calls out the Corrupted Mantle specifically. This isn't surprising if you've used it in-game, but Capcom's plan is to tune it down and buff the other Mantles. Layered Weapons will be coming in a future update as well. 

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

You can find the full letter from Director Yuya Tokuda below:

Hello hunters! This is Yuya Tokuda, the director of Monster Hunter Wilds.

Thank you so much for playing Monster Hunter Wilds.

As announced today, Monster Hunter Wilds has now sold more than 10 million copies globally.

We are very happy that so many people around the world are playing the game.

To commemorate the 10 million milestone, we are planning to release a free item pack for the community, so please look forward to more information.

We would also like to thank you for the many comments, thoughts and feedback we have received since the game was released.

The development team has been reading your feedback, and we are encouraged by it. We are also using the comments and feedback we have received to help us plan our future actions.

In this message, I'd like to take a moment to run through some of our upcoming plans based on your feedback, including a few areas that have already been in the works.

Future Planned Updates

We plan to add new content and make various improvements and adjustments on an ongoing basis. Here's a look at what's currently on the way:

As we just announced, the first Free Title Update is scheduled to be released on Friday, April 4th.

In addition to adding new content, such as the additional monster, Mizutsune, and the new multiplayer gathering location, the Grand Hub, we also plan to make various tweaks to the game.

We will also continue to release further updates, with an update at the end of May, a second Free Title Update around summer, and more free title updates to come beyond that.

Challenging Monsters

In addition to Tempered Arkveld (★8), future updates will see more Tempered Monsters (★8) added to the game.

Free Title Update 1

In the first title update, Mizutsune will be unlocked at HR 21 or higher, and at HR 41 or higher, Tempered Mizutsune (★8) will also be available to hunt in the Environmental Overview.

Additionally, starting with the release of Free Title Update 1, you will also be able to repeatedly hunt a High-Rank version of Zoh Shia, who you could previously only challenge once in the story up until now.

And for even more of a challenge, Arch-tempered monsters will make an appearance. These are even stronger versions of tempered monsters.

Arch-Tempered Rey Dau will be the first, featuring in a limited-time event quest from Wednesday, April 30th and Free Challenge Quest from Wednesday, May 7th. Make sure you're HR50 or above to take on this quest and earn its new rewards!

End of May Update

In addition, the update at the end of May will add the Tempered Monsters (★8) Gore Magala and the apex predators of each locale: Rey Dau, Uth Duna, Nu Udra, and Jin Dahaad.

Each of these monsters have had various behind-the-scenes adjustments to make them more resilient, such as increased health, resistance to wounding, and tweaks to multiplayer scaling.

Challenging monsters will also appear in future updates, so keep an eye out for further information about them.

Balance Adjustments

In response to some of the feedback after launch, we are planning to make various adjustments to the game, including weapon balance changes. These will be implemented gradually with each upcoming title update in order to make the game more enjoyable for everyone for a longer period of time.

Depending on the content, these changes may take some time to prepare.

For example, we are currently carefully considering upward adjustments for the Hammer, and then looking at other overall weapon balance adjustments with a goal to implement them either in the end of May update or the second title update in summer.

Some unintentionally overpowered things will be adjusted downward, but we will also be adjusting other parts upward, making for a generally balanced update.

The Corrupted Mantle was overtuned at launch, causing it to build up more damage than expected, thus narrowing the range of options for choosing other Mantles.
In the first title update, the effect of the Corrupted Mantle will be adjusted downwards, while the other Mantles will be adjusted upwards, balancing the line-up of Mantles to suit everyone's style of play.

Quality of Life Improvements

We will continue to make quality of life improvements to the game in all areas, not just the ones listed below, for points that players are finding inconvenient. Like the other changes, these will be implemented gradually in the forthcoming updates.

First of all, in the first title update, we have made various functions available in the Grand Hub, and have also made several adjustments, such as reducing the waiting time when accessing facility functions in each locales.

In addition, although some of these improvements are included in the above adjustments, we will make it easier to access the information you need through UI/UX improvements in future updates. The team also will continue to make additional adjustments and improvements to further enhance the overall feel of the game to curate an even smoother gameplay experience, including but not limited to the ease of restocking items, checking skill information, participating in multiplayer quests and using the Seikret; and camera behaviour during hunts.

Improving Game Stability and other additions.

Improving Game Stability

The team is continuing to identify stability issues and make improvements where possible, especially on the Steam version. This will be an ongoing process, where we'll aim to make continual steps forward in this area and respond to critical issues.

Improvements coming very soon include a reduction in VRAM usage and an upgrade to the DirectStorage version of the Steam version in Free Title Update 1. These should result in an overall improvement in stability for our PC players.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to address reported issues and improve the overall technical experience for players on all platforms. Look forward to continued improvements in Free Title Update 1 and future updates and patches to come.

Game Cycle Balance Adjustments

In addition, we also plan to take a wider look at overall gameplay flow, which encompasses a range of things, such as the in-game economy, balance and other areas.

We are also planning on addressing elements that require more time for preparation, starting with overall game balance including downward adjustments. We will update when we have further information regarding elements that are planned to be addressed in future updates.

More Information on Additional Features

Some of the additional features that we've seen requested from the community are scheduled to be implemented in future updates.
As we just announced in the Monster Hunter Wilds Showcase, we plan to implement a list where you can see a preview of each endemic life you've captured in the update coming at the end of May.

In addition, layered weapons will be coming in a future update. As more information on layered weapons becomes available, we'll be sure to share it with you!

Looking Ahead!

We will continue to add new elements and content to make Monster Hunter Wilds even more enjoyable for all hunters through our free content updates, while at the same time making further improvements and adjustments to the game.

We will do our best to ensure that you will enjoy the collaboration with another Capcom title in the update at the end of May, as well as the additional features in future updates, so we hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for your continued support for Monster Hunter Wilds.

Happy Hunting!
Yuya Tokuda, director of Monster Hunter Wilds