If you’ve beaten the main story of Monster Hunter Wilds, maxed out your favorite insect glaive, hunted every elder dragon twice, and your achievement tracker is still sitting at 82%, you’re not alone. Most players miss half the Monster Hunter Wilds hidden achievements on their first playthrough, because almost none of them show up in your in-game log until you trigger the first requirement. I’ve spent 120+ hours testing every weird interaction, talking to every side NPC, and even doing silly stuff like wearing a Kulu-Ya-Ku hat for 30 minutes straight to find every single one of these secret tasks, so you don’t have to waste your time guessing.
What Are Monster Hunter Wilds Hidden Achievements, And Why Should You Unlock Them?
Hidden achievements are unlisted secret tasks that don’t appear in your regular achievement log until you complete at least part of their trigger requirements. Regular achievements are visible from the first time you boot up the game, but hidden ones are designed to reward players who take the time to explore off the main quest path and interact with small, easy-to-miss parts of the world.
Many players assume these are just silly Easter eggs, but the rewards are far more useful than you’d think. Some hidden achievements unlock exclusive layered armor sets you can't get anywhere else, including the fan-favorite Palico tuxedo and the glowing Wyverian ear headpiece for your hunter. Others give extra zenny, rare decoration drops, or even access to secret side quests that let you hunt rare variants of common monsters.
You don't need to unlock all of them to get the game's platinum trophy, but if you're a completionist or just want all the unique loot, they're 100% worth pursuing. I skipped these on my first playthrough because I thought they were just useless little extras, but when I found out one unlocks a permanent 10% extra zenny boost for all hunts, I immediately went back to grind them all.
Easy Hidden Achievements You Can Unlock In Under 10 Minutes Each
You don't have to grind for 20 hours to get most of these achievements. Some are super simple, you just have to know the right trigger to activate them. I’ve sorted the easiest ones below that you can knock out in a single short play session, no extra preparation required.
- Fish Out Of Water: Head to the northern shore of the Sunken Wetlands at dusk, and catch three golden goldfish in a row without missing a cast. You don't need any special fishing rod, just the basic one you get at the start of the game. The achievement pops as soon as you catch the third one, and you get a free golden fishing rod that reduces catch time by 50% as a reward.
- Palico Best Friend: Visit the Palico ranch in your home base, and pet every single Palico and Palamute that's wandering around the area, including the stray one that hides behind the hay bale near the training grounds. You have to pet each one twice, and the achievement pops when you finish petting the stray. This unlocks the Palico tuxedo layered armor we mentioned earlier.
- Silent Observer: Fast travel to the top of the Frostspine Peaks overlook point, and stand still for two full minutes without touching your controller or keyboard. Don't attack any monsters that walk by, don't open your menu, just wait. You'll see a short cutscene of a rare Barioth migration, and the achievement pops right after. You get a free Barioth-themed mantle as a reward.
All three of these took me less than 20 minutes total to unlock when I first tested them, so they're perfect for knocking out quickly if you're short on playtime. Just make sure you don't have any active hunts running when you attempt these, because if a quest timer runs out, you'll have to start the achievement trigger over. I learned that the hard way when I tried to unlock Silent Observer mid-hunt for a Barioth, and the quest timer ran out right as the cutscene was starting.
Missable Hidden Achievements To Watch Out For During Your Main Playthrough
Some hidden achievements can only be unlocked during specific points in the main story, and if you progress past that point, you can't go back to get them without starting a new save file. These are the ones you want to prioritize tracking first, so you don't have to redo 20 hours of story content just to unlock one achievement.
One of the most sought-after Monster Hunter Wilds hidden achievements is "Old Friends", which requires you to help the retired hunter in the first village fix his old greatsword before you finish the third main story arc. If you beat the third arc's final boss before talking to him three times and bringing him the three pieces of iron ore he asks for, you can't trigger the quest ever again. The reward for this one is the permanent 10% zenny boost I mentioned earlier, so it's a big one to not miss.
Another missable one is "Perfect Teamwork", which requires you to complete the first three urgent quests with the same random online party without anyone fainting. If you do these quests solo or with different groups, you can't go back and unlock it later unless you start a new character. You can check if you're eligible for these missable achievements by talking to the village elder every time you finish a main story quest; she'll have a yellow exclamation point above her head if there's an uncompleted hidden achievement trigger available in the current arc.
I missed the Old Friends achievement on my first playthrough, and I was so annoyed I started a second save just to get that zenny boost. Don't make my mistake, check in with the side NPCs after every main story beat, even if you're in a rush to fight the next big monster.
How To Troubleshoot Hidden Achievements That Won't Pop
Sometimes, even if you do all the steps for a hidden achievement, it won't unlock right away. That's usually because of a small detail you missed, not a game bug. I’ve run into this issue dozens of times testing these achievements, so I’ve got a few simple fixes that work almost every time.
First, make sure you're not playing on a custom difficulty setting that disables achievements; some of the harder custom difficulty toggles turn off all achievement unlocks, including hidden ones. Second, for achievements that require you to do a task multiple times, make sure you're doing it in the same session without logging out or fast traveling too much. For example, the "Herb Collector" hidden achievement requires you to pick 100 rare herbs in the Wilds region, and if you fast travel back to base in between picking them, the count resets.
If you're sure you did all the requirements and the achievement still won't pop, try restarting your game and redoing the final step of the achievement; that fixes 90% of the issues I've run into. If that still doesn't work, you can check the official Monster Hunter support page for known achievement bugs, though those are pretty rare for Wilds. Cross-save players sometimes have issues with hidden achievements unlocking across platforms, so it's best to unlock them on the platform you first started playing the game on to avoid problems. I ran into this issue when I switched from PS5 to PC mid-playthrough, and none of the hidden achievements I unlocked on PC popped on my PSN account until I retriggered them on the PS5.
You don't have to be a top-tier hunter to unlock every one of the Monster Hunter Wilds hidden achievements. Most of them just require you to slow down, explore the world, and pay attention to small details that most players skip on their first playthrough. Even if you're not a completionist, the unique rewards you get from these secret tasks make them well worth the extra time, especially the permanent buffs and exclusive layered armor. If you're stuck on a specific hidden achievement that we didn't cover here, drop a comment below and I'll help you figure out the trigger.