Monster Hunter Wilds Materials Farming Guide: Rare Drops & Efficient Routes

Why You’re Always Short on Materials

You need a Rathalos Ruby for your weapon upgrade. The drop rate is 3%. You’ve killed Rathalos twelve times and haven’t seen one. Sound familiar? Material farming is the core loop of Monster Hunter Wilds, and doing it wrong wastes hours. Doing it right means fewer hunts for the same results.

This guide covers drop rate mechanics, investigation farming, and efficient routes for the materials that gate the most upgrades.

Understanding Drop Rates

Reward Slots Explained

Every completed hunt gives you rewards from multiple sources:

Source	Slots	Notes
Quest Rewards	4-8	Standard completion loot
Part Break Rewards	1-2 per break	Break the head, tail, wings separately
Capture Rewards	2-4	Replace carve rewards when capturing
Carve Rewards	3	From carving the dead monster
Investigation Bonus	1-3	Bronze/Silver/Gold slots

Each slot rolls independently against the drop table. More slots means more chances at rare items. This is why breaking every part matters — each break is another dice roll.

Capture vs. Kill

This is the oldest debate in Monster Hunter. Here’s the data for Wilds:

• Capture gives 2-4 reward slots with slightly higher rare drop rates (roughly 5% vs 3% for gems on most monsters)
• Kill gives 3 carve slots plus allows you to carve tails (if severed) for an extra 1-2 rolls

General rule: Capture for gems and plates. Kill for tails and mantles. Check the specific monster’s drop table on the Hunter’s Notes — some materials only appear in capture rewards, and some only appear in carve rewards.

Palico Material Drops

Your Palico contributes extra material rewards at the end of hunts. The longer your Palico stays active and attacking during the fight, the more bonus materials you’ll see in the reward screen. Keep your Palico alive and equipped with the best armor you have — a dead Palico gives you nothing.

Investigation System

Investigations are the single best farming tool in the game. They offer bonus reward slots — Bronze (1 slot), Silver (2 slots), Gold (3 slots) — with elevated rare drop rates.

How to Get Investigations

Open your map, find a monster icon, and select “Save As Investigation” to spend Guild Points and lock in a repeatable quest. You can also generate investigations from tracking monsters in the open world. The fastest way to farm investigations:

1. Load into an expedition in the monster’s home area
2. Ride your Seikret along the monster’s patrol route
3. Pick up every footprint, mucus, and marking you see
4. Don’t engage the monster — just collect traces
5. Return to base and check your investigation list

You’ll generate several investigations per expedition run. Delete Bronze-only investigations and keep anything with Silver or Gold rewards.

Gold Investigation Priority

A Gold reward investigation with 3 bonus slots is worth more than five standard hunts. The gem drop rate in Gold investigation slots sits around 13% compared to 3% in quest rewards. If you’re chasing a specific rare drop, never run standard hunts when you have Gold investigations available.

Rare Material Drop Rates

Gems and Rubies

These are the bottleneck materials. Every weapon tree and most armor sets need at least one.

How to maximize gem chances per hunt:

1. Run a Gold investigation (elevated gem chance per Gold slot)
2. Break the head (separate gem chance on head break reward)
3. Sever the tail and carve it (additional rolls per tail carve)
4. Capture the monster (bonus capture slots with higher rare rates)
5. Keep your Palico alive for bonus end-of-hunt materials

Total independent rolls per hunt: 8-12 chances. Statistically, you should see a gem within 3-5 optimized hunts instead of 15-20 casual ones.

Mantles (Endgame Ultra-Rares)

Mantles drop at very low rates from standard sources. The only reliable way to farm them:

• Tempered investigations with Gold/Silver slots — Tempered investigations have boosted mantle rates
• Break every part — Tempered monster part breaks have a separate mantle table
• Check the Melding Pot in Suja — you can convert excess rare materials into the mantle you need (available at HR 41 for Tier 1, HR 100 for Tier 2)

Artian Materials

For endgame Artian weapon crafting (R6/R7/R8), you need Artian fragments from Tempered monsters. These only drop from monsters with purple-bordered quest icons. Focus on farming Tempered versions of monsters whose element you want for your Artian weapon.

Efficient Gathering Routes

Ore Route: Windward Plains

Start at Camp 1. Head northeast along the cliff face — three mining outcrops within 60 seconds of each other. Continue east to the cave system for two more. Loop back south through the ravine for three more outcrops. One circuit takes about 4 minutes and yields 15-20 ores.

Run this route while waiting for investigation targets to spawn. Ore sells well and you’ll always need it for weapon upgrades.

Bug Route: Scarlet Forest

Bugs and endemic life cluster around water sources. Start at the southern camp, follow the river upstream. Every tree along the bank has a gathering point for Thunderbugs, Flashbugs, and Godbugs. One run fills your crafting supply for 10+ hunts.

Bone Route: Oilwell Basin Expeditions

Kill everything. Small monsters in the open world drop monster bone materials at high rates and die in a few hits. A 15-minute expedition clearing small monsters yields plenty of bones. Fight the larger monsters you encounter too — every large monster drops bone materials alongside their unique parts.

Seikret Gathering Tips

Your Seikret mount gathers automatically while you ride through the open world. It picks up herbs, mushrooms, and bugs without you dismounting. For passive material gathering:

• Ride through dense vegetation areas at a relaxed pace
• Your Seikret grabs herbs, bugs, and mushrooms automatically
• Check what you’ve gathered periodically

This is free materials you’d otherwise walk past. Over a long farming session, your Seikret passively collects a solid pile of gathering materials without you lifting a finger.

Farm Efficiency Checklist

Before starting a farming session:

• Check investigation list — use Gold/Silver first
• Make sure your Palico has strong armor (alive Palico = bonus materials)
• Ride your Seikret through gathering areas for passive pickups
• Bring Capture tools (Shock Trap, Tranq Bombs)
• Eat for Felyne Carver (Hi) — extra carve chance from fish meal
• Check Hunter’s Notes for which parts drop your target material
• Bring appropriate element/weapon to break specific parts

The Lucky Voucher Trick

Lucky Vouchers increase quest reward quantity by roughly 50%. Combined with a Gold investigation, you’re looking at maximum possible reward slots. Save Lucky Vouchers for the hunts where you need a specific gem or mantle. Don’t burn them on standard hunts where you’re farming common materials.

When RNG Won’t Cooperate

Sometimes you do everything right and the gem still won’t drop. After 10+ optimized hunts with no rare drop:

1. Check the Melding Pot in Suja. You can convert excess rare materials into the one you need. The conversion rate isn’t great, but it’s deterministic. Tier 1 melding unlocks at HR 41, Tier 2 at HR 100.
2. Switch to a different quest. Some monsters share material types — if one investigation is dry, try a related monster.
3. Run events. Limited-time event quests occasionally have boosted drop rates or guaranteed rare material rewards.
4. Take a break. Farm something else and come back. RNG evens out over time, but tilting and rushing hunts leads to sloppy play and failed quests, which give zero rewards.

The worst thing you can do is fail a Gold investigation because you were impatient. Every failed quest is zero materials and one fewer investigation attempt.