Tired of the frustrating “Your item pouch is full” warning blocking your screen just when you’re in the heat of a hunt in Monster Hunter Wilds? This alert pops up when your 25-slot pouch reaches capacity, forcing you to juggle items mid-battle. Luckily, with a few smart inventory management tips and handy shortcuts, you can keep your pouch clear and your focus sharp, turning that annoying warning into a thing of the past.
Our Monster Hunter Wilds guide will tell you all about the “your item pouch is full” warning, managing your item pouch, and how to avoid getting the alert in the first place.
What does it mean when your pouch is full in Monster Hunter Wilds?
In Monster Hunter Wilds, the warning “Your item pouch is full” means that you have collected too many items and your item pouch has reached its capacity of 25 slots. Nine of these slots are permanently occupied by Essential Items, leaving the rest for consumables and materials you gather. When all slots are filled and you try to pick up new items that cannot stack with existing ones, the game alerts you with this warning. This indicates there is no space left for new items in your pouch, requiring you to manage your inventory by transferring items to your field pouch or item box to make room for more loot.
Your item pouch is where all the stuff you pick up – like herbs and bugs – goes. It is also where all of your consumables – like potions and well-done steaks – are stored. As you grab new things, they either get added to the stacks already in your pouch, or get registered to a new slot.
These slots correspond to the item bar in the lower right of your screen. You access it by holding down L1/LB and then scrolling left and right with square/X and circle/B. This is how you equip the item you use when you hit square/X.
The item pouch has 25 slots in it. Nine of them are always taken up by your Essential Items – the portable BBQ grill, fishing rod, binoculars, capture net, throwing knife, paint pod, and ghillie mantle – and you can’t remove them. Everything else you carry like potions, rations, and each kind of mushroom and herb get their own slots when you pick them up.
Once all 25 slots are full, you’ll get the “your item pouch is full” warning whenever you pick up new things (items that don’t get added to existing stacks). It just means there are no more slots available for new items.
How to free up space in your pouch in Monster Hunter Wilds
To free up space in your item pouch in Monster Hunter Wilds, you have several practical options. You can quickly send newly picked-up items to your field pouch carried by your Seikret by pressing the button sequence X/A > Circle/B > X/A, which dismisses the “item pouch full” warning and transfers the item automatically. Another method is to manually discard unnecessary items from your pouch by selecting them and specifying the quantity to throw away, freeing up slots for new materials. Additionally, you can replace less-needed items in your pouch with new ones on the spot, sending the replaced items to the field pouch for later use. For more thorough management, visit your tent or base camp to transfer items between your pouch and item box, allowing you to reorganize and create space without losing important supplies. Regularly cleaning out your pouch by keeping only essential items aligned with your playstyle helps avoid the warning and keeps your inventory efficient during hunts.
Chances are, when you see that “your item pouch is full” warning, it’ll be at an inconvenient time and you won’t really want to deal with full screens of menus.
And easy way to just automatically send whatever you picked up to your field pouch (the one your Seikret carries) is to hit X/A > Circle/B > X/A. This dismisses the warning, dumps the item in your field pouch, and confirms that that’s really what you want to do.
It’s not perfect, but it’s quick enough once you learn the process.
You can also take the time to find something in your item pouch to drop into your field pouch, and slot in the new item.
A much more proactive way to deal with it is to make sure you’ve always got plenty of extra space in your item pouch.
You set up what’s in there inside your tent with the Items Menu > Transfer Items > Item Pouch option. On that screen, you’ll see your item pouch at the top and your item box at the bottom. The Essential Items – the ones you have infinity of that you can’t remove – will be stacked on the left and right ends.
Here you can add things from the item box and rearrange where they show up in your item pouch (and, in turn, the item bar at the lower right of your screen). More importantly, it’s also where you can pare down the contents of your item pouch.
What stays and goes depends on your style of play and what kind of monsters you’re tackling. At a minimum, you should keep some potions, nulberries, rations or well-done steaks, and any traps or slinger ammo you tend to use. Keeping it limited to that will leave you extra room for all the stuff you collect on a hunt.
You’ll just have to remember to clean out your item pouch periodically as you pick up new stuff.
How to avoid filling your pouch in Monster Hunter Wilds
To avoid the “Your item pouch is full” warning in Monster Hunter Wilds, it’s essential to manage your item pouch proactively. The pouch has a limited capacity of 25 slots, with nine permanently occupied by essential items, leaving limited space for other materials and consumables. To prevent the warning, regularly clean out unnecessary items and only carry what you need based on your playstyle and the monsters you face. You can transfer excess items to your Seikret’s field pouch, which acts as extra storage, by quickly dismissing the alert with a button sequence or manually moving items at your tent. Additionally, organizing and streamlining your pouch loadout before hunts helps maintain space for new items, reducing interruptions during gameplay.
The really short (and sarcastic) answer here is: stop picking stuff up. But that doesn’t really help.
Instead, it’s better to only pick up what you need. You’ll have to dig into the crafting list to figure out a lot of it, but it’ll save you a ton of headache. If you never use ammo, for example, you never need to collect things like blastnuts, bomberries, slashberries, flowferns, red herbs, or snow herbs. If you’ve ended up with 500 potions in your item box like we did, it’s probably time to stop grabbing herbs and honey. If you never use pitfall traps, you can skip over all of the spider webs and ivy you see.
Items that are already slinger ammo when you pick them up – like thorngrass pods, rockburst, or sparkflint – are different. These aren’t craftable and you can only use them as you find them (they’ll have the slinger ammo icon when you pick them up), so they don’t get counted in your item pouch.
Discover the simple trick that keeps your item pouch from filling up during hunts
The simple trick to keep your item pouch from filling up during hunts in Monster Hunter Wilds is to regularly manage and streamline your pouch contents from your tent before heading out. Use the Items Menu > Transfer Items > Item Pouch option to transfer unnecessary items to your item box and keep only essentials like potions, rations, and traps that suit your playstyle and the monsters you face. This proactive approach prevents your pouch from reaching its 25-slot limit and stops the frustrating “Your item pouch is full” warning from interrupting your hunts. Additionally, when the warning does appear, quickly pressing the sequence A > B > A will dismiss the alert and automatically transfer the new item to your Seikret’s field pouch, saving you time and hassle on the battlefield.
What is the most effective way to prevent your item pouch from filling up during hunts
The most effective way to prevent your item pouch from filling up during hunts in Monster Hunter Wilds is to proactively manage and streamline your pouch contents before and during quests. Specifically, keep only essential items such as potions, nulberries, rations or well-done steaks, and traps or slinger ammo you frequently use, limiting your inventory to these key supplies to leave ample space for newly gathered materials. You can manage your pouch from your tent by transferring unnecessary items to your item box and arranging your loadout to suit your playstyle and the monsters you expect to face. Additionally, when the “Your item pouch is full” warning appears, quickly pressing the sequence A > B > A dismisses the alert and automatically transfers the new item to your Seikret’s field pouch, saving time and preventing interruptions. This combination of careful pre-hunt preparation and quick in-hunt management is the best strategy to avoid the frustrating pouch full warnings.
