Monster Hunter Wilds boasts a range of different armor sets to kit your Hunter out with from the get-go, with more and more armor sets becoming available to you as you slay new monsters and progress with the game’s story. As you’d expect, every set has its pros and cons, though ultimately, all of them can be upgraded — and mixed and matched — to land you with the ultimate armor set for any type of hunt.
To upgrade your armor in Monster Hunter Wilds, you’ll need an abundance of a vital item known as Armor Spheres, as well as the materials necessary to forge the armor you wish to upgrade and wear. To help you out with just that, here’s our guide on how to upgrade armor in Monster Hunter Wilds.
How to upgrade armor in Monster Hunter Wilds
To begin upgrading your armor in Monster Hunter Wilds, you’ll want to pay a visit to the Smithy at any of your Base Camps across the map. Though, it’s worth noting that armor upgrades will not be available until you reach the Oilwell Basin region during the game’s story. This is fortunately just a few hours in!
At the Smithy, select the ‘Forge/Upgrade Armor’ menu. This is where you can forge the armor you want if you haven’t already got it in your possession. If you then double-click/press the piece of armor you wish to upgrade — with the armor piece already forged and while still in the Forge/Upgrade Armor menu — you’ll be given the option of forging another piece or upgrading the existing piece.
Select ‘Upgrade’, and you’ll then be presented with a list of all the Armor Spheres in your possession that are ready to be spent on upgrades to your gear.
Armor Spheres are valuable items vital for upgrading armor. These, depending on what type of Armor Sphere you use, provide points to a piece of gear. The more points you put into a piece of armor, the more you can level it!
For example, the below Armor Sphere’s offer the following points:
- Armor Sphere: 10 points
- Armor Sphere+: 50 points
- Advanced Armor Sphere: 200 points
Let’s say you’re trying to upgrade a Low Rank armor set. Each piece of the armor set has eight levels total that you can acquire, and each level requires 30 points until you reach Level 6. After this point, additional levels cost 200 points, and you want to spend your Armor Spheres wisely!
Now, if you’re instead looking to upgrade your High Rank armor, prepare to spend a lot of Armor Spheres on doing so. High Rank armor pieces have four levels in total to acquire, and each level will require 200 points. That’s an entire Advanced Armor Sphere!
How to get Armor Spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds
Armor Spheres are rewards from quests and assignments in Monster Hunter Wilds. You’ll quickly notice that they drop as a reward from many of the story-related quests you wind up completing, such as the quest to repel the Jin Dahaad or hunt the Xu Wu.
That said, one of the most efficient ways to farm Armor Spheres is by completing optional quests that align with what monsters you want to hunt or materials you want to farm.
For example, I’m currently trying to forge a full Lala Barina armor set, so I’ve been selecting optional quests involving the monster. That way, I can kill two birds with one stone by farming the materials I need and the quest rewards — namely Armor Spheres — simultaneously by completing quest after quest.
Alternatively, after entering Wilds’ post-game, you can smelt unneeded, excess monster materials into Armor Spheres via the Smelting Foundry. This is located at your Base Camp in Oilwell Basin, and it’s one way of making use of those low rank monster mats you may have acquired from questing but don’t necessarily plan on using.
For more on Monster Hunter Wilds, take a look at our tips and tricks to help you make the most of the game, all the Palico gear you can unlock, and all bosses (plus their weaknesses).