Monster Hunter Wilds Food Guide Top Meals Buffs and Cooking Tips

Prepare to feast like a true hunter in Monster Hunter Wilds, where the right meal can mean the difference between triumph and defeat. From boosting your defense with fish and kunafa cheese to enhancing healing with Eastern honey, mastering the best food buffs and meals is key to conquering the wilds. Whether you prefer a defensive edge, random attack boosts, or a safety net against fainting, this guide reveals the top recipes and rare ingredients that will power your hunts across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Our guide dives into the best food buffs in Monster Hunter Wilds, as well as some meal suggestions to go alongside them. If you’re unsure how to get some rare ingredients, we’re also detailing a few methods that should help.

How to get rare ingredients in Monster Hunter Wilds

To obtain rare ingredients in Monster Hunter Wilds, focus on several key methods. First, after defeating Apex monsters in each area, you can trade with local NPCs who offer rare extra ingredients in exchange for items they desire, with the trade options changing daily, so act quickly to get what you need. Additionally, finishing touches like Eastern Honey and Wild Herbs can be farmed from specific resource nodes, with higher drop rates during Plenty weather conditions. Rare fish such as Gravid Bowfins yield ingredients like Jeweled Mullet Roe, while some rare monster parts drop unique materials when you break specific body parts like tails or horns. Completing event quests and side missions also rewards rare ingredients, and visiting base camp traders after unlocking them provides a reliable source for regional delicacies. Combining these approaches ensures a steady supply of rare ingredients for powerful meals and crafting.

Gathering the main ingredient for every meal in Monster Hunter Wilds is a simple endeavor. It’s the additional touches, however, that are more elusive. Whenever you’re out exploring a biome, there’s always a chance of stumbling upon what you need. In case this proves to be more difficult than expected, the game offers a few alternative options.

The first involves the Environment Overview screen, which you can access while looking at the map. By default, the menu will showcase the Update tab. But if you move to the Forecast tab, you’ll get a breakdown of any forthcoming events.

If you’ve been searching for tempered monsters to gather Hunter Symbols, you’ll likely be familiar with this already. Aside from monsters, the game will notify you of upcoming material and ingredient upsurges, which is useful.

The second method is less arbitrary as it involves item trading. A number of key characters you meet throughout the story will hang around in biomes after meeting them, offering trade items of all sorts, including ingredients. In order to gain access to them, all you have to do is progress through the main quest.

The only downside is that some of the requested items can be rare to spot, so prepare to do some serious exploration for some of the trades. Plus, remember that trading inventories change throughout the in-game day.

Below are all traders and their locations in Monster Hunter Wilds:

Wudwud Hideout in the Scarlet Forest: Musharpeye and Gawdygog
Windsong Village: Kilama
Oiwell Basin: Aida, Yabran, and Dogard
Ruins of Wyveria: Ren
Iceshard Cliffs: Rove
Suja, Peaks of Accord: Sekka
Everywhere: Nata (he will always appear outside of your tent at each camp you visit)

If you’re unable to find any specific ingredients out in the wild, the aforementioned methods should help. Once you have everything you need, jump to the next section for some recommendations.

Best food buffs in Monster Hunter Wilds

The best food buffs in Monster Hunter Wilds provide significant advantages tailored to different playstyles and encounters. The Moxie Meal is highly valued for survival, as it prevents fainting once per hunt, combining meat for attack boost, sild garlic, and wild herb to reduce ailments. The Caprice Meal suits fast, combo-based weapons like dual blades, offering random attack boosts through ingredients like meat, airy egg, and wild herb. For evasion-focused hunters, the Tumbler Meal enhances rolling distance and mobility, using fish, mud shrimp, and monster chili to negate environmental effects. Defensive meals featuring fish and moxie skills help withstand tough monsters, while general defender meals reduce damage taken and status effects. These meals not only boost HP and stamina but also grant powerful food skills that persist through hunts, making them essential for efficient and strategic hunting in Monster Hunter Wilds.

If you’re looking for recommendations on the best food buffs and meals to prepare in Monster Hunter Wilds, these are our picks:

Medic Meal (healing boost)

In Monster Hunter Wilds, healing is almost as important as attacking or dodging. While you should always have mega potions in your inventory before a hunt, there’s a way of increasing their efficiency further. The Medic Meal skill, obtained from eastern honey, increases the amount of health you recover when healing. Note that this isn’t specific to potions but healing in general, which is even better.

Here’s a meal idea to prepare:

Main ingredient: Fish (for the defense boost)
Additional ingredient: Sild garlic (prevents fainting one time)
Finishingtouches: Eastern honey (increased healing)

If you’re heading toward a fight where you know the odds are against you, this meal will make it so you’re less worried about being carted and more about the encounter itself.

Defender Meal (defence boost)

If you’re the type of hunter who likes to march head-on against monsters and tank while squadmates focus on targeting weak points or setting traps, you should get your hands on kunafa cheese for the Defender Meal skill. The low rank version of this ingredient decreases damage taken sometimes, while the high rank version does so often. In short, both chances are random, but it’s better than having none.

Main ingredient: Fish (for the defense boost)
Additional ingredient: Kunafa cheese (decreases damage taken at random)
Finishingtouches: Monster chili (negates effects of hot and cold climates while increasing defense in areas with them)

With this meal, alongside the defense boost of the main and secondary ingredients, you’ll get an extra protective layer when heading toward biomes like the Oilwell Basin and Iceshard Cliffs.

Caprice Meal (attack boost)

Eggs are not only a great source of protein, but in Monster Hunter Wilds, they’re a good option to increase your damage. Adding a fluffy or airy egg to your meals will provide the Caprice Meal food skill. The skill makes it so repeatedly attacking can boost attacks at random intervals.

Main ingredient: Meat (for the attack boost)
Additional ingredient: Egg (additional attack boosts at random)
Finishingtouches: Wild herb (lessens effects of various ailments)

Caprice Meal will pair nicely with weapons such as the dual blades, which are fast and deliver multiple attacks in quick succession, granting more chances of activating the effect. For finishing touches, the wild herb makes it so the exposition of being in the offensive isn’t as tough to contend with. That being said, you can alternate the wild herb with a jeweled mullet roe if you’re facing a water-type monster like Uth Duna, as you’ll get an attack increase when wet.

Black Belt Meal (decrease stamina drain)

Keeping an eye on your stamina is key to survival. Even with a hefty meal in your stomach, tough encounters will have you depleting your stamina fast. That’s where the Black Belt Meal skill comes useful, which is obtained by using mushrooms like the delishroom as an ingredient. The skill reduces stamina depletion when performing actions such as evading and other stamina-draining moves. Note that this isn’t a buff that happens at random intervals, but one that is active until the meal effect wears off.

Main ingredient: Veggie (increased elemental resistance)
Additional ingredient: Delishroom (decreases stamina depletion when evading, etc.)
Finishingtouches: Eastern honey (increased healing)

If you’re using weapons like the bow, the Black Belt Meal skill is a must. Moreover, there are other weapons, like great swords, that force constant evasion in order to reposition yourself. The skill also helps in such cases. The other two ingredients are there to support your hunter in general.

Moxie Meal (defense boost / prevent fainting)

Some fights might seem fatal before you’ve even started. The Moxie Meal skill, courtesy of garlic, grants you a second wind by preventing your hunter from fainting once. If you’re not too interested in complimenting your stats with more specific ingredients, this is a good choice for a straightforward, yet powerful skill.

Main ingredient: Fish (for the defense boost)
Additional ingredient: Garlic (prevents fainting once)
Finishingtouches: Wild herb (lessens effects of various ailments)

Garlic is the key ingredient of the whole meal, but the skill only happens once. As such, you should still prioritize defense when possible, as well as keeping an eye out for any ailments, depending on which monster you’re fighting.

What are the most effective food buffs to maximize my hunter’s strength in Monster Hunter Wilds

To maximize your hunter’s strength in Monster Hunter Wilds, the most effective food buffs focus primarily on boosting attack power and stamina management, along with some defensive perks depending on your playstyle:

Meat + Droolshroom (Black Belt Meal): This combination grants an Attack +2 boost and the Black Belt Meal skill, which reduces stamina depletion during fixed stamina actions like dodging and special attacks. This is especially valuable for heavy weapon users such as Great Swords and Hammers who consume a lot of stamina.
Meat + Airy or Fluffy Egg (Caprice Meal): This meal provides a random attack boost of +15 raw attack for about 10 seconds at irregular intervals during a hunt. While the buff is intermittent, it is the only inherent offensive gain from food skills and pairs well with fast weapons like dual blades that can capitalize on the bursts of increased damage.
Kunafa Cheese + Fish + Wild Herb (Defender Meal): For a more defensive approach that still enhances survivability, this meal reduces damage taken at random intervals and provides defense and elemental resistance boosts. This is useful for hunters who prefer a tankier style or face elemental-heavy monsters.
Veggies + Delishroom + Eastern Honey (Black Belt Meal with Elemental Resistance and Healing): This meal reduces stamina depletion (via Delishroom), boosts elemental resistance (from veggies), and enhances healing (from Eastern Honey), making it ideal for weapons requiring stamina management and for surviving tough encounters.
Fish + Mud Shrimp (Tumbler Meal): While primarily defensive, this meal increases defense and grants increased evade distance on dodge rolls, improving survivability by making evasive maneuvers more effective.

For maximizing pure offensive strength, focus on meals with Meat as the main ingredient combined with Airy or Fluffy Eggs for the Caprice Meal skill, and consider adding Wild Herb for ailment resistance. For stamina-heavy weapons, the Black Belt Meal from Droolshroom or Delishroom is indispensable. Defensive buffs from Kunafa Cheese and Fish can complement aggressive builds by improving survivability.

In summary, the best food buffs to maximize your hunter’s strength are those that increase attack power directly (Meat + Airy Egg for Caprice Meal), reduce stamina consumption (Meat + Droolshroom for Black Belt Meal), and optionally enhance defense and elemental resistance for balanced survivability.

Which food buff provides the biggest attack boost for my hunter in Wilds

The food buff that provides the biggest attack boost in Monster Hunter Wilds is the Caprice Meal, which is obtained by combining Meat as the main ingredient with Airy or Fluffy Eggs as additional ingredients. This meal grants a base Attack +2 boost from Meat and repeatedly activates a large temporary attack boost at random intervals during the meal’s duration, significantly increasing your damage output in bursts.

The Caprice Meal is especially effective for fast weapons like dual blades, which can take advantage of the random attack boosts by landing multiple rapid hits. The meal typically lasts about 50 minutes, during which the attack boosts can trigger multiple times, though the timing is random and somewhat unpredictable.

In summary, the Caprice Meal with Meat and Airy or Fluffy Eggs provides the highest potential attack increase by combining a steady +2 attack with powerful, repeated temporary boosts throughout the hunt.