Wild Hearts Beginner Guide – In this Wild Hearts Beginner Guide, I’m going to share the best tips to help you understand confusing mechanics and the things you can do to maximize your time in Wild Hearts. If you’re looking for a comprehensive Wild Hearts Beginner Guide, then this Guide is for you!
Wild Hearts Beginner Guide
The first thing we’ll discuss in this Wild Hearts Beginner Guide, is that Wild Hearts contains a lot of nuances that players will want to keep an eye out for to seamlessly navigate their way in the game. Although it features several mechanics familiar to Monster Hunter fans, some of them may still seem confusing right from the start. In this Wild Hearts Beginner Guide, I’m going to discuss what Kemono Orbs are and how to farm for them, Stamina management, and good Karakuri thread sources. First up are the best starter weapons to wield in Wild Hearts.
Wild Hearts Beginner Guide – Best Starting Weapons
You initially have access to 5 weapons in Wild Hearts, and among these, the ones that are easiest to learn in terms of usability and damage are the Karakuri Katana and Bladed Wagasa. The Karakuri Katana is your default weapon that’s fast and deals massive burst damage when you jump from at least 3 levels of crates in order to pulverize your foe. Oftentimes, it’s better to do this due to the overall damage you inflict compared to building a Pounder. In the Katana’s unbound state, you get to unleash whips, which substantially increases your damage even more.
Next is the Bladed Wagasa, which is the perfect weapon for those who want to unleash a relentless hail of thousands of small cuts on their enemies. While the weapon does not deal a ton of burst damage, what it can do is deliver a consistent stream of smaller attacks that keep your DPS high. When choosing this, remember to keep your momentum as its damage increases when you consistently perform uninterrupted hits and fill up your weapon meter. Similar to the Katana, being airborne lets you deal more damage, so make sure to leap from crates from time to time as well.
Wild Hearts Beginner Guide – Karakuri Thread Sources and the Best Ones to Build
The Karakuri is a structure you build to defeat Kemono as effectively as possible. Now to create this, you’ll need Karakuri threads, which due to limited space, cannot be farmed with the intent of stockpiling them so high that you have a near infinite resource, but you will need to farm some nonetheless. Potential thread sources include huge rocks, trees, and enemy weak spots, which you need to climb on.
The best way to increase your max thread count is by collecting Old Cog by befriending Tsukumo. Tsukumos give off a distinct bamboo rattling sound when nearby so be sure to pay attention to this easily missable audio cue. If you’re playing solo, they’ll throw out these threads at random times for you to pick up and use. This will allow you to hold more threads, so that you can build more in combat.
The best Karakuri to build are the Bulwark, Pounder, and Torch. The Bulwark is the first fusion Karakuri that you’ll unlock. It has a very cheap cost of 6 threads to construct, and only needs 2×3 boxes stacked on top of each other. The Bulwark can even throw enemies off, provided that they’re charging at it at a very high speed. Because of the size, you’re able to take cover behind it, giving you ample breathing room to consume healing water, which has a lengthy animation.
Next is the Pounder, a large hammer that’s a great source of damage. It’s also a useful way to interrupt an enemy. Some Kemono will float in the air to launch deadly projectiles while others will perch on rocks just out of reach. A well-placed Pounder hit will knock them down and ensure that these enemies behave themselves while you get in some attacks, punishing them.
And last but not least is the basic Karakuri known as the Torch. This is going to be useful early on as most of the Kemono in the first area are weak against fire. You also won’t unlock fire element weapons until after a difficult fight with the Lavaback, so the Torch is a great way to get fire damage before you’ve done this. Use these a lot early on.
Wild Hearts Beginner Guide – Farming for Kemono Orbs
Another precious resource in Wild Hearts is the Kemono Orbs. These small balls of light are primarily used to unlock new Karakuri or upgrade existing ones. Since the Karakuri tree has a massive number of possible nodes, accumulating as many Kemono Orbs as you can is of utmost importance. The only reliable way to obtain them is by defeating giant Kemono. You do get penalized for every knockout suffered by you or your team though, so it’s important to know when to duck in and out of combat. You’re better off playing it safe by gaining healing water and Karakuri threads to regain your composure rather than taking a massive hit to the Kemono Orbs you’d potentially get.
The giant Kemono you should constantly go after are the Sapscourge, King Tusk, and Gritdog because they only take a few minutes to defeat. You can easily climb on top of them as well to harvest Karakuri threads since they’re also relatively smaller and don’t erratically move as much. What’s more, is that repeated hits on their weak spots will cause a few more Kemono Orbs to drop in the area, allowing you to farm Kemono Orbs even more quickly, which is great.
Wild Hearts Beginner Guide – Claim and Upgrade as Many Dragon Pits as Possible
As soon as you set foot in the field, you should make it a point to collect crystals to claim and upgrade Dragon Pits. But remember that you don’t necessarily need to build Dragon Karakuri around these pits – they simply dictate how many structures you can build overall, not where you can construct them. Because of the flexible Dragon Karakuri System, you can set up your own camps in strategic locations. Ideally, you’d want to have an ancient tree nearby to be able to build water reserves when you run out of healing water, which happens often.
Another good location is in areas with high elevation. Here, you can create zip lines with Flying Vine to launch you in a specific direction and even a Glider to make traveling through rough terrain much easier. More camps mean more respawn points, and you can also instantly fast-travel to a camp, making chasing down fleeing Kemono less time-consuming. So make sure that you build lots of camps, it will make your life a lot easier.
The last essential structure to create are Hunting Towers. Hunting Towers will quickly locate all giant Kemono in the vicinity. Their silhouettes will even be highlighted, providing you with some insight as to which monster is in what direction so it’s going to be useful in farming specific Kemono. Just like camps, make a lot of these so that you don’t spend a lot of time tracking down your prey, and you can spend more time in combat fighting them instead.
Stamina Management and Staying Alive
One of the things this Wild Hearts Beginner Guide will focus on is Stamina Management. Stamina doesn’t need to be micromanaged too much as compared to the Monster Hunter games. Attacks do not consume stamina at all, freeing up the precious resource for dodging, rolling, grabbing onto the enemy, and sliding into position. Another added bonus is that sprinting doesn’t use up stamina either, meaning you can constantly run around at max speed and have enough energy to perform dodge rolls if needed. The kicker is that this resource does not regenerate at all while sprinting, though it will only need a couple of seconds to fully refill while you are not sprinting, so make sure to slow down when you need to regenerate it.
Consuming healing water will be your primary and most reliable way to restore health. This has a lengthy animation, however, and your movement speed will be reduced to a crawl. One trick is for you to drink two charges in quick succession by pressing the D-pad Up button twice. The animation will be extended a bit as compared to drinking one sip but is definitely shorter and more effective than individually taking two. There are also gear skills that reduce the drinking animation while consuming water such as Speed Swallow. One example is taking the Rhododendron Weapon Path, which provides this bonus.
How Equipment Forging Works
All of your weapons and armor will come from Natsume, the local blacksmith. You can easily craft the basic versions of all weapons to try them out, but to upgrade them you will need to spend more and more rare resources dropped directly from Kemono. Each specific type will have an upgrade tree that features different elements, inherent skills, and inherited skills. Inherent skills are embedded into the weapon itself and cannot be passed along. Inherited skills, on the other hand, can be transferred over when upgrading.
This feature thus makes it important to plan your upgrade path in terms of the perks you want. You can even move sideways in the tree in case you want to pick up any notable inherited skills along the way. Each node also has a maximum number of these skill types so be extra careful not to move to a node with fewer slots than the one you’re currently on.
If you want to go down a different path, you can create a new base weapon entirely and upgrade it from the beginning. Alternatively, you can go back to any number of orbs in the upgrade tree for a minimal gold price. You’ll be refunded for any materials you’ve spent previously, which makes this a lot less painful than it sounds.
Comparatively, armor crafting is much more straightforward compared to weapons, though, you cannot “upgrade” any pieces in the traditional sense. You can modify each armor piece to focus on the Human Path or the Kemono Path. Between the two, the Kemono Path generally grants higher stats, so you likely want to focus on that one if you can, though it can take longer to farm materials.
Co-Op Features to Take Note Of
This Wild Hearts Beginner Guide will tell you that playing with friends will usually be the preferred way to face off against the mighty Kemono. Do note that just like in most games, enemies will scale depending on how many are in your group. Your Tsukumo companion will not be able to join you in battle if ever you hunt with a friend. Therefore, you cannot rely on them to give you Karakuri thread or taunt the enemy when you’re stunned, so bare that in mind.
Minato Requests (or sidequests) can be a bit confusing in multiplayer as only the host can see the side quest icons on the map. Only they can start and turn in quests as well. The entire session, including what to hunt and where, will be up to the host entirely. Resources in the world are instanced though so everyone in the group can benefit them. This includes things such as plant life, crystals, thread, and healing water.
Next, remember that the Karakuri placed down is usable by all players. You can even finish a fusion Karakuri that was started by your friends, as long as you place down the correct basic items. Additionally, only the host can claim and upgrade Dragon Pits, build wells at ancient trees, and deconstruct any Dragon Kemono placed into the world. So make sure they know they need to do this or you might be at a disadvantage!
Stay tuned for more Wild Hearts Guides and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. What did you think of this Wild Hearts Beginner Guide? Which weapon will you be playing first? Let us know in the comments below! For other content, check out Hogwarts Legacy 10 Things You Should Know Before You Play and Hogwarts Legacy Review.
