How to upgrade armor in Monster Hunter Wilds

By Jesse Lennox Published March 2, 2025

Staying alive shouldn’t be a surprising tip or trick you need to learn in Monster Hunter Wilds. While upgrading your weapons comes down to forging new ones with Gemma, which is made all the easier with the wishlist feature, the early hours of Monster Hunter Wilds will force you to make new armor sets if you want to increase your defense. Once you get a bit further into the story, though, you will be able to upgrade your existing armor so you can keep all your favorite perks and skills associated with it. Here is when you can upgrade your armor and how it works.

How to upgrade armor

A hunter upgrading armor in Monster Hunter Wilds. — Capcom

You won’t be able to upgrade your armor until the early parts of Chapter 2. Once you reach the Oilwell Basin region and can access the forge again, Gemma will tell you about armor upgrades.

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To upgrade any piece of armor, enter the forge and got to the Forge/Upgrade Armor menu. Select the currently equipped armor you want to upgrade, and you can now select Upgrade. This will pop open a new menu where you need to spend Armor Spheres to add XP to an armor. Add enough Spheres that it levels up and it will get stronger.

Normal Armor Spheres will give 10 points, Armor Sphere + 50 points, and Advanced Armor Spheres 200 points toward leveling up. However, each piece of armor can only be leveled up so many times so don’t spend one of your more expensive Spheres on a piece of gear that will max out before using all the points.

Armor Spehres are earned as rewards from quests and assignments. You can see if a quest will give you any, and what kinds, by looking at the quest info before accepting it.

Jesse Lennox has been a writer at Digital Trends for over five years and has no plans of stopping. He covers all things…

Gaming

Best way to farm Armor Spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds

Hunter in armor in Monster Hunter Wilds.

Not only can you make some wicked-looking armor in Monster Hunter Wilds, but you can upgrade them as well by using Armor Spheres. If you want the best defense, you'll want to upgrade your best armor as soon as possible.

Eventually, you'll run out of Armor Spheres and need to hunt for them yourself. Also, once you enter High Rank, you'll have a whole new selection of armor to upgrade. There are a few different ways to come by Armor Spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds, but only one farming method is the best.
How to farm Armor Spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds
The most lucrative method of farming Armor Spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds is to defeat High Rank monsters and smelt extra monster materials for Armor Spheres. Once you make it to Azuz in the main campaign, you'll eventually unlock the Smelting Foundry. This will allow you to turn monster parts into Armor Spheres. As you tackle the same monsters over and over again, you'll start to collect an overabundance of materials. When you don't need them anymore, take them to the Smelting Foundry so they can become Armor Spheres.

Gaming

All Dareel and Samin Research Report quests in Monster Hunter Wilds

Monster Hunter Wilds companions gathered together.

Sometimes, you get to take a break from taking down huge monsters and go hunting for the little creatures. Both the Dareel and Samin Research Report side quests in Monster Hunter Wilds have you track down and capture Endemic Life, but unless you've already spotted one before, finding their whereabouts can be tricky.

As you play the main story and unlock new areas, you'll also find more of these capture quests, of which there are six total. To ensure that you don't get lost trying to spot these little creatures and that you're hunting in the right areas, here's how to complete all of the Dareel and Samin Research Report side quests in Monster Hunter Wilds.
How to complete Dareel and Samin Research Report quests
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How long is Split Fiction?

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There are plenty of great co-op games on the market, and a lot are great for couples, but Split Fiction from Hazelight Studios is a special case. Unlike most multiplayer games, this one actually requires you to have a partner to play. Thankfully, that is easier than ever with cross-platform support and the Friend Pass, but it does mean you need to plan a bit more to make sure you both have enough time to see it through to the end. Each of the stuidio's games have gotten a bit longer, but is that the case with Split Fiction? Here's how long it takes to beat this co-op adventure.
How long is Split Fiction?

Split Fiction is roughly the same length as It Takes Two. From our experience, that puts it comfortably within the 10 to 12 hour range. However, that can easily be pushed to 12 to 15 hours depending on the skill level of both players and your ability to coordinate. Even a pair of veteran gamers who have never played a game as reliant on team work might struggle a bit early on and get slowed down.