Monster Hunter Wilds: Complete Palico Guide

Your Palico Companion in Monster Hunter Wilds: The Ultimate Guide

Your Palico companion is more than just an adorable sidekick in Monster Hunter Wilds — it’s an essential part of your hunting toolkit. These feline friends provide vital support, specialized skills, and companionship, helping you take down powerful monsters and navigate the expansive environments of the game. This guide covers everything you need to know about Palicoes, from creation and customization to skills, equipment, combat roles, and more.

Creating and Customizing Your Palico

When you begin Monster Hunter Wilds, you’ll have the opportunity to create your very own Palico companion. The character creator offers extensive customization options, allowing you to fine-tune the following aspects:

• Fur pattern, color, and markings
• Ear shape and size
• Eye shape, color, and expression
• Tail type and length
• Voice pitch and personality traits

If you later decide you’d like to tweak your Palico’s appearance, you can easily do this at your tent or via the main menu with an appearance voucher. While minor adjustments such as fur color and markings can be changed anytime at the tent, major alterations like body shape and voice can only be modified using a Palico edit voucher, accessed from the save file menu.

Deploying and Benching Your Palico

Your Palico can either accompany you on quests or remain at base in standby mode, depending on your preference:

• Deploy Mode: Your Palico joins the hunt, actively assisting you in combat and gathering items.
• Standby Mode: Your Palico stays behind but continues receiving experience points from your completed quests.

To set your Palico’s deployment status, enter a tent at any camp and select “Palico Menu,” then “Palico Deployment Status.” Simply choose “Deploy” or “Standby” based on your current needs.

Note: When hunting in multiplayer with more than two hunters, Palicoes automatically enter standby mode until the quest concludes.

Palico Classes and Roles

In Monster Hunter Wilds, Palicoes fall into various specialized support roles, each designed to provide unique assistance during quests:

1. Healer Palico

2. Focuses on supporting your hunter by restoring health, curing status ailments, and deploying healing items like Vigorwasps.

3. Assist Palico

4. Sets traps and places helpful tools such as Flashflies to distract and disable monsters, creating openings for your attacks.

5. Fighter Palico

6. Aggressively engages monsters with offensive attacks and combos, helping dish out additional damage.

7. Gathering Palico

8. Expert at collecting additional resources, such as monster materials and endemic life, increasing your overall quest rewards.

9. Bombardier Palico

10. Specialized in deploying explosive barrel bombs and blast-based attacks to deal heavy damage and break monster parts effectively.

Make sure to choose the Palico role that complements your hunting style. Experimenting with different roles can help you find the perfect companion for every situation. You can train other Palicoes at the Buddy Dojo to diversify your options.

Palico Skills and Abilities

Your Palico comes equipped with special skills and gadgets, enhancing their effectiveness on hunts. As your Palico gains experience, you unlock new skills and upgrade existing ones. Some examples include:

• Healing Bubble: Creates restorative bubbles that heal you when touched.
• Shock Tripper: Places traps to temporarily immobilize monsters.
• Pilfer: Has a chance to steal rare materials from monsters during combat.
• Flash Bombay: Launches Flashflies, stunning monsters momentarily.
• Mega Barrel Bombay: Sets large bombs for significant monster damage.

To enhance your Palico’s effectiveness, regularly check the Palico skill menu at the Buddy Board or tent. Equip new skills and gadgets as you unlock them to optimize your Palico’s capabilities.

Palico Equipment and Gear

Just like your hunter, Palicoes can be equipped with specialized armor and weapons, providing both protection and increased combat strength. Craft Palico gear at the blacksmith using monster resources and materials gathered during your hunts.

Palico armor sets grant defense and elemental resistances, while weapons determine attack power and damage type (such as blunt or slashing). Choose gear that matches your Palico’s role and the types of monsters you’re hunting. Remember to regularly upgrade your Palico’s equipment as you progress into tougher quests.

Side Quests and Endemic Life Captures for Your Palico

Your Palico will offer special side quests involving the capture of endemic life throughout your adventure. Completing these tasks unlocks additional skills, gadgets, and rewards, further enhancing your companion’s utility. Here are some examples from the Windward Plains biome:

• Healing Help: Capture a Vigorwasp, found around desert oasis areas during clear weather.
• Flash Course: Capture Flashflies, which appear at night near the oasis or in caves during the day.
• A Gutsy Move: Capture a Giant Vigorwasp, typically located near bodies of water such as the oasis.

Always be on the lookout for endemic life forms. Completing these capture quests quickly unlocks powerful tools and abilities for your Palico, making your hunts more successful and enjoyable.

Managing Your Palico’s Behavior and Combat Strategies

You can tweak your Palico’s behavior in battle through the Palico Menu. Adjusting these settings allows you to control how proactively your Palico engages monsters, supports you, or gathers materials. Settings include:

• Target Priority: Decide whether your Palico targets your current monster or freely engages any nearby threats.
• Support Frequency: Set how often your Palico uses skills and abilities during combat.
• Gathering Focus: Choose if your Palico prioritizes combat or resource gathering.

Tailoring these behaviors to your playstyle ensures your Palico supports you exactly how you prefer during your hunts.

Tips for Maximizing Your Palico’s Potential

• Train multiple Palicoes at the Buddy Dojo to diversify your hunting strategies.
• Regularly upgrade your Palico’s gear to maintain effectiveness against higher-level monsters.
• Complete Palico side quests early for powerful skills and gadgets.
• Experiment with different Palico classes to find the ideal support for your playstyle.
• Customize your Palico’s behavior settings to match your hunting preferences.

Conclusion

A well-equipped, carefully managed Palico is an invaluable asset in Monster Hunter Wilds. By customizing your companion’s class, gear, skills, and behaviors, you significantly boost your effectiveness on every hunt. Follow this guide and your furry friend will become an irreplaceable ally, accompanying you to victory against the fiercest monsters the Wilds has to offer.