Monster Hunter Wilds Hunter Rank Guide: HR Caps, Unlock Milestones, and Best Farming Methods

How Hunter Rank Works

Hunter Rank (HR) is your progression number in Monster Hunter Wilds. It determines which quests you can access, what monsters you can fight, what you can craft, and where you stand in the endgame. Every quest, every monster hunt, and every investigation gives HR experience.

But here’s what trips people up: HR is capped during the story. You earn experience, but your displayed rank won’t increase past certain thresholds until you complete specific story quests. Once those caps release, all the banked experience dumps into your rank at once.

I hit the HR 41 cap release and jumped straight to HR 67. Months of investigation grinding during Chapters 4-6 all paid out in one glorious spike.

HR Progression and Caps

Low Rank: HR 1-15

This covers Chapters 1 through 3. The entire Low Rank story.

Your HR is soft-capped during this stretch. You’ll naturally reach HR 15 by the time you beat Zoh Shia and watch the credits. No reason to grind HR during Low Rank. Just play the story, fight the monsters, let the experience accumulate.

High Rank Begins: HR 16+

After credits roll and High Rank unlocks, the game starts gating your HR behind story progress again.

HR 16-20: Capped during Chapter 4. You need to complete Chapter 4’s key quests (Yian Kut-Ku capture, Frenzied Nerscylla, Tempered Lala Barina) to push past HR 20.

HR 20-31: Capped during Chapter 5. Chapter 5 involves harder monster variants and new Tempered encounters. Complete them to push past HR 31.

HR 31-40: Capped during Chapter 6. The final story stretch. You’ll fight High Rank Arkveld and complete “What Lies Ahead” to remove the cap entirely.

HR 41+: Cap removed. After “What Lies Ahead,” the floodgates open. All HR experience banked during capped chapters applies retroactively. If you did a lot of optional quests and investigations during Chapters 4-6, your HR jumps dramatically. Players who only ran required quests end up at HR 41. Players who farmed during caps often land at HR 60-70+.

The Cap Release Spike

I want to stress this because it confuses first-time players. During Chapters 4, 5, and 6, you’re earning HR experience even though your number isn’t moving. The game tracks every point. When the cap lifts, all stored experience converts instantly.

Don’t skip optional content during capped chapters. Every investigation, every optional quest, every Tempered hunt you run during Chapters 4-6 is banking experience for the release. This is free progress toward the HR milestones you actually want to reach.

Key HR Milestones

HR 41: Melding Tier 1 Decorations

Once the cap lifts, the Elder Melder unlocks Tier 1 decoration melding. You can convert monster materials into decorations for your armor build. Tier 1 covers common skills like Attack Boost, Defense Boost, and elemental resistance jewels.

This is your first real step toward optimized builds. Run a few melds, fill your missing deco slots, and start thinking about build synergies.

HR 50: Arch-Tempered Rey Dau and Uth Duna

Arch-Tempered (AT) monsters start appearing at HR 50. These are even stronger than Tempered monsters. More health, more damage, new attack patterns, and unique material drops for upgraded armor.

AT Rey Dau and AT Uth Duna are the first two available. Both are significantly harder than their Tempered versions. AT Rey Dau’s lightning attacks chain across wider areas. AT Uth Duna’s water beams track your position more aggressively than anything in the base story.

The armor sets from AT materials are some of the best in the game, with set bonuses not available from standard Tempered gear.

HR 61: Rarity 7 Artian Relics

A new category of Artian weapons becomes available at HR 61. Rarity 7 Artian Relics have randomized stats and drop from high-tier Tempered investigations with bonus relic reward slots.

Some Relics roll with stat combinations that exceed what normal Artian crafting can achieve. The randomization means you might need dozens of runs for a good roll, but a perfectly rolled Relic weapon is the strongest option available.

HR 100: The Big Unlock

HR 100 is the milestone endgame hunters push toward. It opens:

9-star Tempered investigations — The hardest repeatable content in the game. Monsters hit like trucks and have deep health pools. These drop the rarest materials and highest-tier decorations.
Melding Tier 2 — Allows melding of rare decorations (Critical Boost, Weakness Exploit, etc.). This is how you fill the last holes in endgame builds without relying purely on investigation drops.
Arch-Tempered Arkveld — The hardest monster in the base game. Multi-phase fight with one-shot mechanics and relentless pressure. Its armor set has the best skills available. Expect to fail multiple times before clearing.
“Established Hunter” trophy/achievement — Bragging rights for the milestone.

HR 999: Hard Cap

The maximum Hunter Rank is 999. No gameplay unlock tied to it. Purely a dedication marker. Most players will never reach it through normal play. Dedicated farmers who grind high-yield investigations for months eventually get there.

Best HR Farming Methods

Once the cap lifts at HR 41, here’s how to level efficiently:

Tempered Investigations with Gold Rewards

Gold-reward Tempered investigations give the most HR experience per minute of any repeatable content. A 5-minute Tempered kill with Gold rewards yields more experience than a 15-minute standard quest. Prioritize these above everything else.

Multi-Monster Hunts

Investigations requiring 2 or 3 monsters give proportionally more HR experience than single-monster quests. They take longer, but the experience-per-hunt ratio is better. Look for these on the investigation board.

Event Quests

Event quests rotate on a schedule and some offer boosted HR experience. Check the event board weekly. When an “HR Boost” event is active, farm it aggressively. These windows are the fastest way to climb.

Group Hunts

Multiplayer hunts give the same HR experience per participant as solo, but they’re faster. A coordinated group of four can clear a Tempered investigation in 3-4 minutes that would take 8-10 solo. Experience gain per hour in multiplayer roughly doubles what you get alone, assuming competent teammates.

What NOT to Do

Don’t grind Low Rank quests for HR. The experience scaling makes anything below High Rank worthless. A Low Rank quest gives a fraction of what a single Tempered investigation provides.

Don’t repeat the same easy quest endlessly. The game has diminishing returns on experience for quests you’ve completed multiple times. Rotate between different investigations and quest types.

Don’t ignore optional quests. Many optional quests in High Rank give substantial one-time HR experience bonuses on first completion. Clear them all before settling into investigation grinding.

HR and Multiplayer Expectations

Your HR is visible to other players in lobbies and quest boards. In practical terms:

HR 41-50: Fresh out of the story. Nobody expects much.
HR 50-100: You’ve seen endgame content. Expected to know your weapon and monster matchups.
HR 100+: Endgame hunter. Expected to contribute efficiently in Tempered and AT hunts.
HR 200+: Respect earned through raw hours.

Nobody kicks you from a lobby for low HR unless it’s an AT Arkveld room and you’re at HR 50. But higher HR signals experience, and experienced players are more willing to run difficult content with someone who’s clearly put in the time.

Quick Reference Table

HR Range	Status	Unlock
1-15	Low Rank (Ch 1-3)	Base game content
16-20	Capped (Ch 4)	High Rank begins
20-31	Capped (Ch 5)	More Tempered monsters
31-40	Capped (Ch 6)	Final story quests
41	Cap removed	Melding Tier 1
50	Milestone	AT Rey Dau, AT Uth Duna
61	Milestone	R7 Artian Relics
100	Major milestone	9-star Tempered, Melding Tier 2, AT Arkveld
999	Hard cap	Dedication marker

Push through the story caps, bank experience during capped chapters, farm Tempered investigations once the cap lifts, and aim for HR 100. That’s the path.