Monster Hunter Wilds has been out for a little more than a week, yet many Hunters have already completed the main story of the game! However, we doubt that they will run out of content anytime soon, as the Monster Hunter franchise is known for its intricate and very rich endgame for which Hunters must take on a whole other kind of beast: gear building. Indeed, aside from crafting armors and weapons for their character and their Palico, this game offers another way to further customize, compliment and ultimately enrich a Hunter’s adventure through the Decorations system. Learn everything there is to know about those curious little orbs in this guide.
An Introduction to Decorations
Decorations are a fairly recent concept in the Monster Hunter franchise, yet it is essential to understand what they are, what they do and allow and how to get them in order to experience the game to the fullest! However, many players new to the series might find the concept difficult to grasp, especially given the vast amount of information and tutorials Wilds throws at you. In this guide, we will take you through all you need to know about those strange little beads and even offer some advice and tips regarding how to get them!
What are Decorations?
Decorations are a feature introduced in Monster Hunter World a few years ago that allows for the fine-tuning a Hunter’s set. These little gems are slotted into armor pieces and grant valuable Skills (much like weapons and armors themselves) that can help compliment certain playstyles. Flexibility and adaptability are the focus here, as decorations can do virtually anything, from enhancing your combat capability (increasing elemental damage, critical damage, making it easier to apply status effect…) to providing more passive boons that improve quality of life (increasing the number of resources you can get from a single gathering point, decreasing the amount of time it takes to sharpen a weapon…). As such, they are an essential part of the endgame cycle of Monster Hunter in which monsters get tougher and deadlier with each Hunter Rank level.
Each armor piece has up to three slots used to house decorations. The possibilities are endless!
It is important to note that most Skills in the game, whether granted by weapons, sets or decorations, have levels that often go up to 5 and that dictate how effective they are. For example, a loadout composed of a helm that grants Fire Resistance level 1 and a chest piece that gives Fire Resistance level 1 would effectively add +12 Fire Resistance to your stats. If you were to add a decoration, say a level 1 Fire Res Jewel, you would instead benefit from a +20 Fire Resistance boost on top of a +10 Defense bonus for completing the Skill set! As you’ll quickly learn, level 1 decorations are useful when you’re missing a level or two in a Skill that your armor set already provides. Outside from this very specific instance, they often aren’t effective enough, given the limited decoration slots you’re working with, and you’ll want level 2 or 3 decorations in combination with talismans (that also gives you access to Skills).
When equipping decorations onto armor pieces, you can see what each Skill does and how it scales for each level you put in it. Pretty handy!
But let’s say you’ve found a level 3 decoration that maxes out a Skill all on its own… You’d have to own an armor piece with a level 3 slot in order to use it! Indeed, much like everything else in Monster Hunter, slots too have a level. Armor pieces and weapons with higher level slots often don’t have many decoration slots. Thus, you’ll have to decide what you prefer: an armor piece that allows for precise fine-tuning with three level 1 slots or one that has the potential to max out a skill through a lone level 3 slot. In truth, many Skills do not require to be maxed out in order to be effective, but it all comes down to personal preference!
Neat! With a single level 3 decoration, I can max out the Ice attack Skill! Let’s freeze ’em solid!
The Skill pool for decorations slotted on weapons is different than the one for decorations slotted on armor pieces, with each type of decoration having their own exclusive boons. For example, weapon decorations offer combat-oriented Skills that directly connected to weapon stats and functionality (Critical Draw, Elemental Attacks, Guard…) while armor decorations focus more on defensive capabilities (Elemental Resistance, Evasion Window, Ailment Resistance…).
While every playstyle and most loadouts are viable, we recommend you look out for some of those Skills when building your gear, as they are somewhat generic and yield good results for most builds:
- Attack Boost (weapon): A Skill with 5 levels that simply boosts your Attack stats by fixed amounts (in addition to Attack percentages if you max out the Skill). Simple yet very effective, pretty much always a fine choice!
- Elemental Attack (weapon): A set of Skills with 3 levels each that boosts the elemental attack of a given element by both fixed amounts and certain percentages. A must-have if you’re going for an elemental build!
- Weakness Exploit (armor): A Skill with 5 levels that boosts your affinity (or critical rate) when hitting weak points or wounds on the monster. The boost should pretty much be always active, since you’ll be looking to hit weak points most of the time.
- Partbreaker (armor): A Skill with 3 levels that makes it easier to break parts of a monster (tail, claws…). Also boosts the damage you do when inflicting Focus Strikes on wounds! Good for damage AND farming monster parts!
- Flayer (armor): A Skill with 5 levels that makes it easier to inflict wounds (glowing red spots) on monsters and deals big burst of additional non-elemental damage. Pretty universal and versatile, as taking advantage of wounds also grants materials for armor and weapon crafting!
The UI can be a bit crowded at times. Highlighted in green are the different part of the UI that inform you on the level of the decoration slots on your armor pieces. There are differences in the slot icons!
How to Get Decorations: Orbs and Melding
At some point in the main story of the game, Gemma, the lovely blacksmith, will let you know that you have unlocked access to the Decorations system. There two ways of gathering decorations: Hunts/Investigations and Melding. The former requires the least effort: at the end of each Hunt, you’ll receive orbs. Those orbs will then get appraised automatically during the quest recap, thus immediately letting you know the level, Skill(s) and type (armor or weapon) of the decorations you’ve just earned.
On the map, you can see which type of orbs you’ll get before starting an investigation! You can also do so on the Rewards tab before starting a Quest.
However, you should note that some orbs are more valuable than others! Indeed, there are several types of orbs: one for armor pieces and one for weapons. Each type of orb has 3 different levels of rarity (sounds familiar?):
- Mystery Orb (rarity 4): The lowest grade orbs that yield the most common decorations (most often level 1). Mystery Orbs can be earned as rewards for completing 4* Optional Quests. It is therefore pointless to farm them.
- Glowing Orb (rarity 5): The most common orbs in the postgame. They yield decent decorations when appraised (level 2 or sometimes higher). Most Investigations will provide those orbs as rewards. Additionally, you can earn them by completing 5* Optional Quests.
- Ancient Orb (rarity 6): The highest orb level. They’ll be your highest priority as you try and perfect your build. Obtainable only as rewards for 6* Optional Quests or Investigations targeting Apex Monsters (Rey Dau, Uth Duna, Nu Udra, Jin Dahaad, Arkveld, Gore Magala).
On the map, you can see which type of orbs you’ll get before starting an investigation! You can also do so on the Rewards tab before starting a Quest.
But what if you hate Apex Monsters and do not want to have to fight the same six monsters again and again? Fear not, for Vio and her Melding Pot got you covered! The sweet, sweet old lady resides in Suja in a tent with a giant cauldron. Through this NPC, you’ll be able to access the Wyverian Melding process that lets you craft your own orbs as long as you have the necessary materials! You’ll need to sacrifice some decorations of your own in order to reach a certain Melding point threshold (which depends on the rarity level of what you want to craft) and get your goodies. We recommend recycling your useless level 1 decorations through this process. The more you progress in the postgame Main Quests, the more options you’ll have when it comes to Melding. Most notably, Ancient Orbs only becomes available to craft after beating the postgame.
This sweet, sweet old lady and her froggy friend will help you take care of all your Melding needs!
If you don’t feel like sacrificing decorations in order to obtain new ones, you can also fill the Melding Meter through other means. The ever elusive Melding tickets (Silver or Gold), obtainable through NPC trading, provide tremendous amounts of Melding points but are quite rare. You can also opt for swapping out decorations for precious materials or certain Guardian Monster Parts. We recommend holding onto some items such as Sild Cotton, Great Hibiscus or Mimiphyta Tickets as you’ll need them to craft the secret armor sets of this game.
And there you go! You’re all set! You now know everything there is to know about Decorations in Monster Hunter Wilds! We thank you for making it through the end and bid you a safe journey in the Forbidden Lands.
