{"id":1133519,"date":"2026-02-03T23:38:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T23:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/6bgJ7bLmKeur3wxL5K4FhX"},"modified":"2026-02-03T23:38:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T23:38:51","slug":"monster-hunter-wilds-new-cooking-system-is-a-win-for-balance-but-theres-a-meowscular-chef-shaped-hole-in-my-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/monster-hunter-wilds-new-cooking-system-is-a-win-for-balance-but-theres-a-meowscular-chef-shaped-hole-in-my-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Monster Hunter Wilds’ new cooking system is a win for balance, but there’s a Meowscular Chef-shaped hole in my heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The opening hours of Monster Hunter Wilds are a shotgun blast of new information for returning hunters. Before I had even a handful of hunts under my belt, Capcom had dazzled me with cool quality-of-life upgrades like Seikrets, base camps, weapon holsters, makeshift camps, and seamless quest creation. “This is so much faster,” I thought. “Capcom really gets what longtime players want!”<\/p>\n

But around the eight-hour mark, I started to ask a question I was afraid to know the answer to: These on-map base camps are neat, but does that mean Wilds has no centralized village? That kinda stinks. The benefits of Wilds’ streamlining are easy to spot, but its victims are smaller details that gave the series, and especially World, its personality. Wilds has no one place my hunter calls home\u2014no dedicated headquarters for all things questing, crafting, melding, farming, gathering, and cooking. It’s that last one that stings worst of all.<\/p>\n

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\"Monster<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

Some fish I heated up. <\/span>(Image credit: Capcom)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Miss you, chef. <\/span>(Image credit: Capcom)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Stationed dead in the center of the Windward Plains base camp is a cat surrounded by fresh ingredients. I’d assumed since the first open beta that in the full game he’d be this Monster Hunter’s version of the Meowscular Chef, always on deck to aggressively cook a nutritious meal before a hunt. Not so much: Turns out he’s just there to hand out free rations every once in a while. That’s how I learned Wilds’ “expanded” BBQ grill that lets me throw together a quick meal in a pan wherever I am isn’t just another<\/em> way to feed myself pre-hunt, but the<\/em> new <\/em>way.<\/p>\n

Cooking in Wilds is undeniably convenient. Not only can you do it anywhere, but Capcom pared World’s complex ingredients system down to a simple formula: Ration + Ingredient + Topping = Meal with buffs. Similar to the dango in Monster Hunter Rise, you’re almost guaranteed to get the bonus associated with the special ingredient and topping thrown into the cook, like enhanced healing or fire resistance. I also appreciate that the special ingredients themselves are harder to get. Wilds is pretty stingy about handing them out, and I spent a lot of Low Rank making naked steaks that gave me nothing but a standard HP and stamina fill. I like the intentionality this adds\u2014the best meal for my next hunt isn’t a given, I have to go out and actually seek the ingredients.<\/p>\n

A couple of times during hunts, the ability to cook anywhere has been a godsend\u2014instead of turning tail and riding all the way back to base camp to inhale a steak, I can just throw on the stealth mantle, hide behind a rock, and feast.<\/p>\n

Struggle meal<\/h2>\n

But am I feasting? As expected, Capcom goes above and beyond to make my little makeshift steak topped with mushrooms and honey look delicious in the cooking cutscene, and I love that every ingredient I cook with is now a visible part of the meal, but I can’t kid myself here\u2014my hunter eats like a single dude in his 20s who owns one pan and three forks. A head of lettuce with some cheese melted on top? I don’t believe for a second that the same struggle meal I’d make when I had $78 in my bank account in college contains the nutritional value needed to slay Rey Dau, apex predator of the Windward Plains.<\/p>\n