There’s nothing more frustrating than being mid-hunt against a powerful Anjanath, down to your last potion, your greatsword dull enough to bounce off scales, and realizing you’re 15 minutes of running away from the nearest safe spot. If you’ve ever found yourself in that mess, you already know why learning how to set up camp in Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the most essential skills for new and veteran hunters alike. Camps aren’t just places to catch your breath; they’re fast travel hubs, on-the-go crafting stations, and safe zones where you can escape enraged monsters before you cart back to the main settlement. Even if you prefer to rush straight to big monster fights, taking 10 minutes to set up a few well-placed camps will save you hours of wasted travel time over the course of your playthrough.
Step-by-Step Process to Set Up Camp in Monster Hunter Wilds
First, you’ll need to unlock the camp construction feature by completing the first three main story quests. Once you have access, you can start scouting for valid camp spots across every biome. Valid spots are marked with a faint tent icon on your mini-map when you get within 100 meters of them, and they’re always located on flat, open ground away from extreme environmental hazards like active lava flows or toxic gas vents.
When you find a spot you like, you first need to clear the immediate area of all hostile small monsters. Jagras, Rhenoplos, and other aggressive small mobs will attack you mid-construction if you leave them alive, and any interruption will reset the build timer. Once the area is clear, interact with the camp marker to view the required materials for that specific spot.
Drop all required materials into the marker’s inventory, then confirm the construction. The build takes 30 in-game seconds, during which you can stand guard or take a quick second to sharpen your weapon or heal up. You can only set up 2 permanent camps per biome, so don’t waste a spot on a location you’ll only use once. Temporary, disposable camps work for short-term hunts, but permanent spots stay unlocked for your entire playthrough.
Essential Materials You’ll Need for Permanent Camp Construction
Camp material requirements vary slightly by biome, but all permanent camps follow the same core material framework. You can view exact requirements for any spot by interacting with the camp marker before you start gathering, but this list covers the base items you’ll need for almost every location:
- 3 units of biome-specific building material (ancient lumber for forest biomes, cooled basalt for volcanic zones, frozen pine for tundra areas)
- 2 pieces of medium monster hide (from Aptonoth, Rhenoplos, or similar common mid-sized monsters)
- 1 roll of heavy wirebug silk (dropped by large golden wirebugs found in high elevation spots)
- 1 portable camp kit (purchased from the main settlement provisioner for 200 zenny)
You don’t have to carry all materials at once, if you’re low on inventory space you can drop off items at the camp marker in separate trips. Portable camp kits are consumed when you build a permanent camp, so stock up on 3 or 4 before you head out to explore a new biome for the first time. I once forgot to grab extra kits before heading to the volcanic region, and had to make a 40 minute round trip back to the main settlement just to pick one up, so don’t make that mistake.
If you’re missing a specific biome material, you can check the resource map in your menu to see exact spawn locations. Most building materials respawn every 10 in-game minutes, so you can farm as much as you need in one trip if you plan ahead.
How to Pick the Best Camp Location for Your Playstyle
The right camp location depends entirely on what you spend most of your time doing in the game. If you’re a hunt main who farms large monster parts for gear, place your camps as close as possible to common large monster spawn points. That cuts down travel time between hunts by 70% in most biomes, and lets you get back to farming faster if you cart during a fight.
If you’re a gatherer who spends more time collecting rare resources and endemic life, place your camps near clusters of rare nodes, like ancient mining outcrops or rainbow herb patches. You can even place one camp near the biome entrance for quick supply drops, and another near the farthest resource clusters to cut down on running time.
Never place a camp within the patrol route of an apex monster, no matter how good the spot looks for hunting. Apex monsters like Rathalos or Barioth will attack your camp periodically if it’s in their territory, and if they destroy it, you lose all the materials you put into it and have to rebuild from scratch. I placed my first tundra camp right near a Barioth’s usual path, and it got destroyed twice before I moved it to a spot on the other side of the ice ravine, so trust me on that one.
Beginners should stick to placing camps near the biome’s main fast travel point for the first few hours of play. That way, if you get overwhelmed by a monster you’re not ready to fight, you can run back to camp and fast travel to safety without risking a cart.
Pro Tips to Get the Most Out of Your MH Wilds Camps
Once your camp is built, you can upgrade it with extra features to make it even more useful. Basic upgrades add an item box that connects to your main settlement storage, a cooking pot so you can make stat-boosting meals out in the field, and even a small item stash where you can leave extra supplies for later hunts. Upgrades cost extra materials, but they’re worth every zenny if you spend a lot of time in that biome.
You can assign a Palico to your camp to run supply runs for you, a feature most new players don’t discover until 20+ hours into the game. Just leave enough zenny in the camp’s supply box, and your Palico will bring you extra potions, ammo, or crafting materials every 10 minutes. This is a game-changer for long hunts against apex monsters, where you might burn through your entire stock of supplies mid-fight.
If you’re playing co-op, all players in your group can use your camps, so you can coordinate placements with your team to cover more ground. One player can place a camp near monster spawns, another near resource nodes, and you’ll all have access to both spots for the rest of the session.
For short, one-off hunts far from your permanent camps, use disposable portable tents instead of building a new permanent spot. They only cost 1 wirebug silk and 1 small monster hide to craft, take 5 seconds to set up, and work exactly like a permanent camp for as long as you’re in the area. Temporary camps can be used to fast travel back to permanent camps or the main settlement for free, so you don’t have to run all the way back across the biome if you need to restock mid-hunt.
At the end of the day, you don’t have to spend hours planning every camp placement to get value out of the feature. Even a single well-placed camp in each biome will make your hunts faster, less stressful, and way more fun. Take the time to test out different spots, adjust when a camp keeps getting attacked by roaming monsters, and don’t skip gathering the small materials you need to build them. Once you master how to set up camp in Monster Hunter Wilds, you’ll wonder how you ever played the game without this game-changing quality of life feature.