Monster Hunter’s latest announcement has led to an entire new topic of discussion and speculation within the global community. With the rumor mill running at full speed, the official social media account has presented a new optional quest called ‘Hunting Exercises.’ The gaming community is more than ready to engage in epic 9-star tempered creature hunts, albeit with some peculiar rules. The creature will show up at a specific location and its strength will be set at a predetermined level. On top of that, it will not be the case, as in some other scenarios, that there will be large, fearsome animals as the main characters in the party. Instead, it will be pure skill that will be put to the test. And players have lit up the discussion…they are not silent, after all.
For the less-informed ones, the new high-difficulty single-monster quests that Capcom will be implementing into Monster Hunter are nothing but predictable. The monster will be at the same spot every time, the level of difficulty will be predetermined, and there will be no interruptions. It is a solution for the mastery of particular hunts. It is a direct response to the players asking for more structured challenges in addition to the random Investigation quests.
As for the response, it is a real mixed bag which has become the standard for anything related to Monster Hunter. Some players are entirely in the camp of the new features. User syn_mh summed it all up with a brief, “More optional quests, fixed spawn locations😍.” This is the vibe for a number of hunters who just want to perfect their performance against the monster they fear with no surprises involved. LeadFaun voiced the very same idea, saying it is a “Very cool addition, been wanting more quests.” Thus for this segment, it is an evident win.
Still, on the other side of the debate, there are the people who oppose such measures. And it got “heated” in the responses. The main topic of discussion was who is this really for? Some players like LikdeesNutz were doubting the necessity if these new Hunting Exercises do not provide distinctive rewards. “Honestly, I just don’t understand the reason for these Hunting Exercises unless they come with distinct rewards,” they expressed. It is indeed a reasonable claim! Gaining loot is an indispensable part of the Monster Hunter loop. You defeat the monster to collect its parts for the construction of the next gear, which you then use to fight even stronger monsters. Hence, introducing extremely tough quests without any new loot to chase seems… strange to some.
The argument shifted toward the question of whether this content was intended only for the speedrunners. User TomPT_Original seemed to suggest that these were meant for the elite players, which started a whole debate. Ganjanath jumped in with a… let’s say, very enthusiastic defense. “It’s not about the reward or speedrunners,” they said, stating that with Monster Hunter Wilds making an effort to provide a new, dynamic experience, having these simple, consistent quests is necessary to let “the simplicity of old school MH” shine. They even claimed it to be “fan-fucking-tastic for the future of WILDS” since it indicates that Capcom has been considering variety and consistency for future systems, like Deviants.
However, LikdeesNutz retaliated, “Basically every single person who plays these games is concerned with the rewards, lol. That’s quite literally the reason we hunt monsters.” And you know what? They are right. The reward system is what keeps the players engaged. But then, Revvy (Detective) responded, “The introduction of optional content for a small but highly enthusiastic segment of the community is actually a great move!” And that’s the beauty of Monster Hunter – it is a large group. Casual players who love the hunt, loot addicts, and speedrunners all have their places who want a clean, reproducible challenge to perfect.
The debate became so convoluted that other users started to be confused. TheSpiciestCake responded to someone with a very straightforward, “Is everything okay upstairs?” which can be taken as the internet’s way of saying ‘this argument has lost the plot.’ And D_Art_MH pointed out a strawman argument, reacting with, “They didn’t literally say anything like that. Holy ‘You must hate waffles since you like pancakes.’ Lmao.” It was quite a scene.
In the middle of the confusion, a few practical tips were also being shared back and forth. One person was inquiring about a specific hunt, and Fleshly_Delight went so far as to suggest an entire build: “Evade Extender 3 and Thunder Resist 2 or 3… Eat Azuz meal for Evade Window increase… EE 3 and EW 3-4 should make the fight extremely easy.” That is the exact spirit of these exercises! It is a controlled environment to test and master specific challenges on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
