Monster Hunter Wilds Tempered Monsters Guide: Farming and Strategy

When Tempered Monsters Show Up

Tempered monsters aren’t something you stumble into randomly. They’re introduced at a specific story beat: Chapter 4-3, the quest called “Wyvern Sparks and Rose Thorns.” The game makes it clear these are different — a purple border appears around the monster’s icon on the map and in the quest menu. Once you see that border, you know you’re dealing with something that hits harder, takes more punishment, and doesn’t forgive mistakes.

Before Chapter 4-3, the game has been relatively forgiving. Tempered monsters are where Monster Hunter Wilds stops holding your hand.

What Makes Tempered Different

The differences are straightforward but significant:

More HP — Tempered monsters have roughly 30-50% more health than their standard versions, depending on star rating. Hunts take longer, which means more opportunities to make mistakes.

More Damage — Attacks hit harder across the board. A move that took 40% of your health from a normal monster might take 60% from a Tempered version. One-shot deaths are possible if you’re running low defense.

More Aggressive AI — Tempered monsters chain attacks faster, spend less time in idle states, and are more likely to target the player who just healed. The behavior patterns are the same, but the windows between attacks are tighter.

No New Moves — This is important. Tempered monsters don’t gain new attacks. If you’ve fought the normal version and learned its moveset, all that knowledge transfers. You just have less room for error.

The Star Rating System

Tempered monsters come in three tiers, each requiring different Hunter Rank thresholds and offering different rewards.

7-Star Tempered

These are your entry-level Tempered fights. Accessible once you reach High Rank and complete Chapter 4-3. Monsters like Tempered Chatacabra, Tempered Kulu-Ya-Ku, and Tempered Congalala fall here. They’re good practice for learning the Tempered pace, but the rewards aren’t exciting for long.

Use 7-stars to practice wound targeting on Tempered monsters. The mechanics are identical to higher tiers, but the punishment for mistakes is lower.

8-Star Tempered

The middle tier, available as you progress through High Rank. This is where monsters like Tempered Rathalos, Tempered Rathian, Tempered Gravios, and Tempered Nerscylla live. These fights are a genuine step up — longer, more dangerous, and requiring solid armor sets to survive comfortably.

8-star Tempered monsters are your primary source of mid-tier Artian materials. If you’re building your first Artian weapon set, you’ll spend a lot of time here.

9-Star Tempered (HR 100+)

The top tier. You need Hunter Rank 100 or higher to access these quests, and they represent the hardest standard content in the game (Arch-Tempered is a separate category).

The 9-star Tempered roster:

Gore Magala
Arkveld
Rey Dau
Mizutsune
Lagiacrus
Seregios
Nu Udra
Uth Duna
Jin Dahaad
Ajarakan
Gelidron
Blangonga

Every monster on this list is a serious fight. Tempered Gore Magala and Tempered Arkveld are the two hardest, but don’t underestimate Tempered Jin Dahaad or Tempered Lagiacrus — they both have moves that can one-shot you through Health Boost 3 if your armor isn’t upgraded.

Tempered Wounds and Wyverian Bloodstones

This is the unique resource mechanic that makes Tempered hunting different from just fighting the same monster with bigger numbers.

When you activate Focus Mode against a Tempered monster, wound targets glow blue instead of the standard orange. These are Tempered Wounds. Breaking them works the same as normal wounds (Focus Strike the glowing spot), but the drops are different: Tempered Wounds yield Wyverian Bloodstones, a material exclusive to Tempered hunts.

Wyverian Bloodstones are used in high-level weapon augmentation and Artian weapon crafting. You cannot get them from any other source. This means Tempered hunting isn’t optional if you want to reach maximum weapon potential — it’s mandatory.

Farming tip: Focus on wounding as many parts as possible per hunt rather than speedkilling. Each broken Tempered Wound has a chance to drop Bloodstones, so a 15-minute hunt where you wound six parts gives more Bloodstones on average than a 10-minute hunt where you wound two.

Partbreaker 3 is your best friend for Bloodstone farming. It increases the damage dealt to parts, meaning faster wound breaks, meaning more drops per hunt.

Artian Materials: What They Are and Why You Need Them

Artian weapons are the endgame weapon tier in Monster Hunter Wilds. They’re crafted from Artian materials dropped by Tempered monsters, and they have the highest base stats of any weapon line in the game.

Each Tempered monster drops specific Artian materials that correspond to different weapon trees. There’s no universal “Artian Ore” that works for everything. You need to hunt specific Tempered monsters for specific weapons.

Which Tempered to Prioritize

This depends on your weapon, but here’s a general priority order for getting your first competitive endgame set:

First priority — Tempered Rey Dau. Rey Dau materials feed into the Thunder Artian weapon line, which is effective against a large number of endgame monsters. Thunder is the most broadly useful element in Wilds.

Second priority — Tempered Rathalos or Tempered Rathian. Fire Artian weapons are essential for the Gogmazios siege and Gore Magala fights. Having a solid Fire weapon covers your second most common matchup.

Third priority — Your weapon’s best Dragon option. You’ll need Dragon for the Gogmazios DPS check and certain Arch-Tempered fights. The specific Tempered monster depends on your weapon class.

Fourth priority — Whatever your armor needs. Artian armor requires its own material set. Check what you’re missing and target those hunts.

The Artian Upgrade Path

Artian weapons come in tiers: R6, R7, and R8. R6 drops from 7-star Tempered, R7 from 8-star, and R8 from 9-star. You upgrade sequentially, so you can’t skip to R8 without going through R6 and R7 first.

R8 Artian weapons are the ceiling for damage in Wilds. Every endgame build revolves around them. Getting your main weapon to R8 should be your first major goal after reaching HR 100.

General Tempered Hunting Strategy

Skill Priorities

Your standard DPS set from High Rank probably won’t cut it for 8-star and above. Here’s what to consider adding:

Health Boost 3 — non-negotiable for 9-star
Divine Blessing 3 — random damage reduction saves carts you didn’t see coming
Partbreaker 3 — essential for Bloodstone farming, useful for wound-based damage strategy
Evade Window 2-3 — the tighter attack windows in Tempered fights make extra i-frames extremely valuable
Stun Resistance 3 — getting stunned against a Tempered monster usually means carting

The Farming Loop

Once you’re geared for Tempered, here’s the efficient loop:

Check your Artian weapon crafting needs — what materials are you short on?
Find the Tempered monster that drops those materials
Equip Partbreaker 3 and focus on wounding every available part
Carve everything, collect all shinies, break the tail if possible
Repeat until you have enough for the next upgrade tier

Don’t try to farm 9-stars with 7-star gear. The progression is sequential for a reason. Get your R7 Artian weapon before pushing into 9-star territory, or you’ll spend more time carting than farming.

Multiplayer vs. Solo

Tempered hunts scale with player count, but the scaling isn’t perfectly linear. Two-player hunts are widely considered the most efficient because the monster’s health doesn’t scale as aggressively as it does for four players, and having a second hunter to share aggro makes wound-breaking much easier.

Solo is absolutely viable for all tiers. The monster has less health, you control the aggro entirely, and you never waste time on another player’s cart. It’s slower but more consistent.

Four-player groups are the fastest if everyone knows the fight, and the slowest if someone doesn’t. Your call on whether you trust the matchmaking.

Quick Reference

Star Rating	HR Requirement	Purpose
7-star	High Rank (post Ch 4-3)	Practice, R6 Artian materials
8-star	Mid-High Rank	Core farming, R7 Artian materials
9-star	HR 100+	Endgame gear, R8 Artian, Bloodstones

Key Material	Source	Used For
Wyverian Bloodstones	Tempered Wounds (blue glow)	Weapon augmentation
R6 Artian Materials	7-star Tempered	Entry Artian weapons
R7 Artian Materials	8-star Tempered	Mid Artian weapons
R8 Artian Materials	9-star Tempered	Best-in-slot weapons