Thoughts on Guaranteed Gem Quests (MH Wilds)

Monster Hunter Wilds has many differences from the earlier games. Among them, I think the quests that give out a gem as a guaranteed reward shook the game’s basic framework. To be precise, they’re quests that give out guaranteed coveted materials like plates and gems, but the share of gems is overwhelmingly high, so I’ll call them gem guaranteed quests.

Pros

Going by the earlier series, items with about a 1%~3% chance of being obtained are given as guaranteed rewards. I think that contributed greatly to light users and beginners clearing the game to the end without dying off midway. It feels like the developers often put coveted materials into parts that perform well or look cool. So it pushes you to hunt one type of monster repeatedly.

But I started with Monster Hunter: World, and back then I took down ten-odd Legiana in the Coral Highlands to get the Legiana gem. It wasn’t such a pleasant experience. So there’s a positive side: it cut down quite a lot of the grinding that can feel unpleasant while you progress through the game.

Cons

Monster Hunter is a game where the weapon controls are awkward, and when you attack a monster, you hit the parts where damage goes in well or that can set off special gimmicks. So while you hunt one type of monster repeatedly, it’s also a process where you can pick up the weapon controls and raise your practical understanding of that monster.

The low drop rate of coveted materials plays the role of pushing this kind of repeat hunting, but with the arrival of guaranteed reward quests, there’s also a tendency for players to get a gem once somehow and be done, without understanding the monster’s weak points or the special gimmicks each individual has. Personally, I take the position that a game isn’t a tool for training but something to enjoy, but I do think guaranteed quests are an excessive easing.

Changes with the Updates

Before and after Monster Hunter Wilds hit ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ in Steam reviews, the official side received feedback reports. Possibly because many users in these feedback reports thought the gem guaranteed quests had a bigger negative side, patches went in the direction of gradually removing guaranteed quests.

‘Zoh Shia’ and ‘Mizutsune’, added in Title Update 1, have gem guaranteed quests. ‘Lagiacrus’ and ‘Seregios’, added in Title Update 2, were changed so that guaranteed quests don’t appear for normal individuals and appear only for the Tempered Monsters. But possibly because there was a lot of additional feedback about them remaining even for the Tempered Monsters, ‘Omega Planetes’ added in Title Update 3 and ‘Gogmazios’ added in Title Update 4 were classified as Optional Quests and Event Quests, so the gem guaranteed quests disappeared completely.

To add my personal opinion, just as ‘Zoh Shia’ appears during the ‘Inclemency’ in the Ruins of Wyveria, I think ‘Gogmazios’ would also have appeared at a certain chance during the ‘Inclemency’ in the ‘Oilwell Basin’, and there would have been a gem guaranteed quest too.

Also, a system called ‘Armor Transcendence’ appeared in Title Update 4 as well. It’s a system that raises the upgrade cap of armor, and for low-rarity armor, it expands the existing Decoration sockets or gives additional Decoration slots. It requires coveted materials here.

Looking at the flow of the updates comprehensively, patches went in the direction of making gem guaranteed quests gradually stop occurring and increasing the amount of gems required.

Overall Review

I agree with the direction of lowering the entry barrier for light users and beginners and lowering the share of people who quit the game midway. But I don’t think the Wilds-style gem guaranteed quests are the answer to that. When I look around me, I’ve often seen people get a gem guaranteed quest, feel so disappointed if they failed it, and keep doing Rest rerolls until a gem guaranteed quest showed up. Every time, I felt strongly that the game’s system was broken.

Rather, I think it fits the game’s direction to raise the base chance of a gem showing up when you carve or capture, let players feel the joy of scoring an item, and have them take on monsters as much as they like. In the game, when you ride the Cart, Palico or Alma says lines like ‘It’s okay, there are still plenty of chances left.’ And if you fail the quest outright, they say things like ‘Just do well next time.’ My assessment is that the gem guaranteed quests are a product that’s out of focus with this kind of game atmosphere.

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