After wrapping up Monster Hunter Wilds’ main story and venturing into the post-game, which doesn’t take all that long at all, you’ll begin to rack up Side Missions like there’s no tomorrow. One set of Side Missions that task you with catching Aquatic Life are given by Kanya, who eventually tasks you with the grand feat of catching a Whopper.
Whoppers are large fish in Wilds, such as Gastronome Tuna or Gajau, and they’re much trickier to catch than your average fish. To help you out, however, here’s our guide on how to catch a Whopper in Monster Hunter Wilds.
How to catch a Whopper in Monster Hunter Wilds
To catch a Whopper in Monster Hunter Wilds, you first want to make your way to the huge lake in Area 17 of Scarlet Forest. Here, you’ll likely run into some fishing Wudwud folk, and more importantly, you should — with some luck — see some rather big fish in the lake.
Now that you’re in Scarlet Forest, let’s get some housekeeping out of the way. A Whopper isn’t a specific type of fish. Instead, it’s a name given to any particularly large fish, such as a Gastronome Tuna (a large, shiny, blue fish) or Gauja (an even larger green fish with orange spikes on its back).
As a result, after equipping your Fishing Rod, you then want to equip a Lure — your fish bait — suitable for a large fish. The Lure’s you should use can be either of the following, which should be in your possession by now:
- Tuff Joint Bait – ‘A lure shaped like Cephalos. Good for catching large, swift fish, like Gastronome Tuna.’
- Duster Rig – ‘A lure shaped like a Starduster. Good for catching fish that like dark or muddy places, like Gajau.’
With your rod and lure equipped, it’s time to start fishing. Catching a Whopper isn’t as straight-forward as catching your average fish, and instead requires you to be on your guard. Once hooked, a Whopper will begin to thrash and you will need to move LS in the direction that the fish is swimming.
Failing to do so increases the tension in your line and runs the risk of you losing the fish! Once the fish is tired and the thrashing slows down, you then want to move LS up and down to slowly reel it in.
There’s one more thing to note when it comes to catching a Whopper, and that’s leaping. Sometimes, a Whopper may leap out of the water in an attempt to unhook itself from your line. To prevent this from happening, you will need to move LS in the direction it is leaping and press RT to reign it in.
Much like failing to restrain a thrashing fish, failing to calm down a leaping one will increase the tension in your line. However, if you successfully subdue the leaping fish, they’ll become tired quickly, and you’ll soon be able to reel in your catch!
For more on Monster Hunter Wilds, take a look at our guides to all Endemic Life in the game, all Small Monsters and their drops, and all Large Monsters and their weaknesses.