Playing multiplayer isn’t as simple as it sounds in Monster Hunter Wilds — there are multiple methods for linking with friends, and understanding how each of them works will make your cooperative questing so much more fun. Whether you’re working together on defeating monsters or running around a region and collecting items, this is what you need to know about playing multiplayer with friends.
To make joining multiplayer with friends easier, here’s a step-by-step guide walking you through the process from the beginning of the game — when you’ll need to make and customize your character.
When Does Multiplayer Unlock?
Multiplayer unlocks early in the game — after you’ve created your character and watched the opening story cutscenes, eventually you’ll reach an open-world base camp area.
- After reaching the large base, you’ll visit your personal camp space. Leaving the tent, you’ll appear in a Public Lobby if you’re playing in Online Mode.
At this point, you’ll be able to access multiplayer and play online with friends through lobbies. To start playing with friends, you’ll need to add friends — you can do this on a public or private lobby, but private lobbies are best for working with friends to complete hunts.
How To Play In Private Lobbies
To join friends, you’ll want to create a Private Lobby. You can play with friends in a Public Lobby (with about 100~ players occupying each lobby) but a Private Lobby makes the process a little easier.
- How To Start A Private Lobby: Go to the Main Menu and go to Start Game -> Choose Your Hunter -> Private Lobby
You can also start a Private Lobby by talking to Alma in your base camp. This brings up a menu with multiple tabs — tab over to the right to Change Lobby and select Private Lobby. You can do this at any time.
- How To Join A Private Lobby: To join a private lobby, your friends will need to open the In-game Menu and go to the Communication tab. Select Invite A Friend if you’ve added them as a friend, otherwise you’ll need to share your Lobby ID.
If you aren’t friends yet, your friends can join your private lobby with the Lobby ID. Here’s how to get it and use it.
- How To Get Lobby ID: To share your Private Lobby code so friends can join, open the In-game Menu and go to the Communication tab. Go down to Member List to see the Hunter ID and Lobby ID. Share the Lobby ID with friends to allow them to join.
Once you’ve shared the Lobby ID, here’s what your friends need to do.
- How To Join A Private Lobby: Start from the Main Menu and go to Start Game -> Choose Your Hunter -> Lobby Search -> Lobby ID Search
Input the Lobby ID and you’ll load into your friend’s private lobby. This is much, much easier if you add your friends. Let’s go over how to add friends in Monster Hunter Wilds.
How To Add Friends
Adding friends requires sharing your Hunter ID. You’ll find your Hunter ID in the In-game Menu -> Communication -> Member List. Your name will always be at the top of the list. The Hunter ID is to the right of the name and HR number.
Go to Invite A Friend in the Communication tab and input the Hunter ID — whenever a request is sent, you can find it later under the Invitation List option in the same tab. Once you are friends, you can automatically join Friend Lobbies from the start of the game.
- How To Join Friend Lobbies: On the Main Menu, go to Lobby Search -> Hunter Friend Search to find a list of lobbies your friends are currently in. You can choose which lobby to join here.
The Member List can also be used to add friends. If you’re in the same lobby as someone you want to friend, just check the Member List and you can send friend requests to other hunters directly. If you’ve setup a Private Lobby and shared the Lobby ID, you can simply send friend requests to everyone that joins.
Using SOS Flares
SOS Flares are a mechanic that allows you to request help mid-mission — this mechanic only summons hunters to help you for the duration of your current quest and can be used to call for random help from other players in your server. It isn’t limited to just your friends. Hunters from any lobby can join you, so friends in different servers may also get a SOS invitation.
- To launch an SOS Flare, go to Missions & Quests in the Main Menu and select SOS Flare.
- This can be done in offline mode — it will summon NPC helpers to you.
SOS Flares are opt-in only, so only other players that agree to the invitation will join. Feel free to send SOS Flares whenever you’re struggling in a quest.
Joining A Link Party
To more easily work with friends over long play sessions, you’ll want to create a Link Party. This feature allows groups of up to 4 hunters to work together and more easily join each other’s quests. When in a Link Party you’ll have a private text chat window and private voice chat. Players in different lobbies can also be in a Link Party — so you can play on separate public lobbies and still form a Link Party with friends.
- How To Create A Link Party: Open the Main Menu -> Communication -> Invite To Link Party
- Selecting this option will open up a list of hunters on your friends list and other hunters in your current lobby. It will also list hunters you’ve recently played with before.
Like all invitations, you can find the request under Invitation List in the Communication tab of the main menu. Whenever a Link Party member joins a quest, a notification will appear asking if you’d like to join — you’ll find quests in the Quest Counter menu.
How To Explore Regions With Friends
There’s a downside to multiplayer — unless you’re in quest, every player is in their own instance of the game world, so you can’t actually explore the open-world maps unless you form an Environment Link — this is a special type of Link Party that allows your party to play together and explore the same instances while hunting.
- To join an Environment Link, you must create a Link Party first. Check above for instructions.
- To turn a Link Party into an Environment Link, open the Main Menu -> Communication -> Link Party – Invite to Environment Link
This sends an invite to all the players in your Link Party. Whoever sends the request will become the host of the Environment Link — all other players will join their specific region instance. While an Environment Link is active, only the host can choose quests to play together.
This cool feature lets you explore open-world areas together and fight monsters. You’ll be stuck in your host’s region, but you can swap Environment Link hosts at any time by dropping out and creating a new Environment Link.
That should cover all the ways you can play with friends — there’s so much more to know about multiplayer that we can’t cover it all here. But this should get you started hunting with friends and exploring the world together.
