If you’ve just made the jump to high rank in Monster Hunter Wilds and are trying to craft your first set of viable endgame-ready gear, you’ve probably hit a familiar roadblock. You have all the scales, feathers, and monster fluids you need, but you’re missing one critical material that just won’t drop no matter how many monsters you carve. That missing piece is almost always monster hunter wilds monster hardbone, a mid-tier bone material that acts as a gatekeeper for dozens of popular weapon and armor builds. We’ve put together all the tips you need to farm it fast, avoid common mistakes, and get back to hunting the big monsters you actually care about.
What Is Monster Hunter Wilds Monster Hardbone Used For?
Monster Hardbone is a core crafting material used for most bone-based weapon and armor sets in the first half of high rank. It’s not used for low rank gear at all, which is why you’ve probably never seen it before hitting the high rank quest unlock. Monster Hardbone is exclusively a high-rank drop, so don’t waste hours grinding low rank monsters thinking you just got unlucky on RNG. I made that exact mistake when I first unlocked high rank, spending three hours carving low rank Anjanath over and over before a friend told me I was chasing a drop that doesn’t exist. You’ll need it for everything from the popular Bone Slasher greatsword upgrade to the Kulu Bone armor set that gives a huge +15 attack boost for early high rank play. It’s also used for a handful of tool upgrades, like the higher tier paralyze trap and health booster mods that make high rank hunts far easier.
Top Monsters That Drop Monster Hardbone
Not all high rank monsters drop Monster Hardbone, so you don’t want to run around killing every large monster you see. Only smaller, bone-heavy brute and bird wyverns have a consistent drop rate for the material, with capture rewards almost always giving a higher chance of getting it than carving. We’ve tested drop rates across 200+ farm runs to narrow down the three best targets for fast farming:
- High Rank Great Jagras: 32% drop rate on carve, 28% on capture reward. It’s the easiest monster to farm in the entire game, spawns in the starting coast biome every 10 minutes, and goes down in less than two minutes with a decently upgraded high rank weapon.
- High Rank Kulu-Ya-Ku: 29% drop rate on carve, 30% on capture. It drops extra bone materials on top of hardbone if you break its head and the rock it carries in its claws, so it’s a great pick if you need extra common bone materials for other crafts.
- High Rank Barroth: 27% drop rate on carve, 35% on capture. It’s the best choice if you also need Barroth scales and mud plates for parallel gear crafting, since you can knock out two material goals with one farm run.
You might notice that capture rates are higher for most of these monsters, which is a pattern across all bone material drops in the game. Capturing instead of killing monsters boosts your hardbone drop chance by up to 12% on average, so it’s always worth bringing extra trap tools and tranq bombs on farm runs. You don’t need to break any specific parts to get Monster Hardbone, but breaking parts will give you extra bonus materials that you can use for other crafts, so it’s still worth a quick hit to the head or legs if you have time. If you’re running a group farm, you can split up to tag three Great Jagras spawns at once, and you’ll get 8-10 hardbones per hour without even rushing.
Best Farming Routes for Fast Hardbone Collection
The right farm route can cut your total farming time in half, even if you’re playing solo. We’ve tested dozens of routes across all biomes to find the two most efficient options, depending on if you’re playing alone or with a group. For solo players, start by spawning at Coastal Camp 1, then head west to the first Great Jagras spawn. Weaken it, capture it, then fast travel to Jungle Camp 3 to take down the Kulu-Ya-Ku that spawns just south of the camp. Capture that, then fast travel to Canyon Camp 2 to take out the Barroth that patrols the dry riverbed. Capture it, then fast travel back to Astera to reset the map spawns, and repeat the loop. The whole run takes about 12 minutes on average, and you’ll get 2-3 hardbones per run, plus extra materials for other crafts. Bring a palico with the bone scavenger skill to get an extra free bone material drop every single run, which often ends up being an extra hardbone every 2-3 runs. For group play, have four players each take a different spawn point across the three biomes, mark monsters on the map as you find them, and rotate captures. You can easily get 15+ hardbones per hour with this method, which is more than enough to craft every gear set that uses the material. But don’t get distracted by rare spawns while you’re farming. I once stopped mid-run to chase a tempered Rathian spawn, and lost 20 minutes fighting it only to get zero hardbones for my trouble. Stick to the route, and save the rare hunts for when you’re done farming.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Farming Monster Hardbone
Even if you’re farming the right monsters, small mistakes can add up to hours of wasted time. We’ve rounded up the most common mistakes players make when grinding for this material, so you can skip the frustration. First, don’t waste time farming low rank monsters, no matter how easy they are to kill. Low rank drop pools never include Monster Hardbone, so you could carve 100 low rank Great Jagras and never get a single one. Second, don’t forget to stock up on trap tools and tranq bombs before you head out. There’s nothing worse than weakening a Great Jagras only to realize you don’t have any traps left to capture it, so you lose that extra drop boost. Third, don’t skip the pre-hunt meal buffs. Eat a lucky cat meal before heading out to the map, and you’ll get a 10% boost to all material drop rates for 30 minutes, which adds up to a lot of extra hardbones over multiple runs. Fourth, don’t waste time breaking every part of the monster if you’re only farming for hardbone. You don’t need to cut the tail or break the legs to get the drop, so just weaken the monster enough to capture and move on. You can break the head if it only takes a couple extra hits, but don’t spend five minutes wailing on a Barroth’s mud-covered legs just for a chance at an extra scale. That said, if you need extra materials for other gear, go ahead and break parts, it just adds a bit of time to your run.
Farming for crafting materials doesn’t have to be the worst part of playing Monster Hunter Wilds, and once you know the right targets and routes, getting monster hunter wilds monster hardbone is faster than you think. Even if you’re playing solo, you can get enough hardbone to craft all the gear you need for early high rank in less than two hours, and if you’re playing with friends, you can knock it out in 30 minutes. Save a few extra hardbones in your item box while you’re farming, too, because you’ll need them for weapon upgrades later on as you progress through high rank. Next time you’re stuck staring at a crafting screen missing that one last hardbone, just pull up these tips and you’ll be back to hunting elder dragons in no time.