A mysterious message appears just as your weapon’s power should surge-“Awakening condition not met.” What triggers it, and how can you make your weapon reach its true potential in Wild Hearts?
What does “Awakening condition not met” mean in Wild Hearts?
What does “Awakening condition not met” mean in Wild Hearts?
In Wild Hearts, “Awakening condition not met” appears on weapon upgrade trees when prerequisites for a node remain unfulfilled. Players must craft specific armor sets matching the node’s color-blue or purple for Human Path pieces, orange or red for Kemono Path-and defeat the associated Kemono from designated story chapters. Resetting or forging a new weapon version often clears the block, allowing access to locked stats and paths.
There are two ways to improve your chances hunting the giant kemono in Wild Hearts: upgrading your Karakuri and forging new weapons (and armor).
Your Karakuri abilities have their own menu where you’ll spend Kemono Orbs that you get from (successfully) hunting giant Kemono to improve the various Basic and Dragon Karakuri you know. You’ll even be able to unlock some new Dragon Karakuri through that tree.
At a forge – either the one in Minato or one you build as Dragon Karakuri at a Dragon Pit camp – choosing to forge a weapon lets you either create a new type of weapon, or improve the stats on one you already have. Improving a weapon adds new skills and extra (elemental) damage by using Kemono parts you get from hunts.
Both of those upgrade trees, though, will have nodes with question marks over them that tell you “Awakening condition not met.” While it’s not really explained, all that means is that you haven’t progressed the main story enough.
As you make progress through the story, you’ll encounter new Kemono to hunt. And, during those hunts, you’ll learn (i.e., awaken) new Karakuri abilities. Those new Kemono drop monster parts that will fill in the blanks on your weapon upgrade tree, and those new Karakuri abilities will remove the question marks from the Karakuri upgrade tree.
How do I unlock prerequisite weapons for awakening in Wild Hearts
In Wild Hearts, prerequisite weapons or nodes for awakening (upgrading in the weapon tree) are unlocked by hunting specific Kemono to reveal branch starting points, then resetting your current build to craft a new path from the base weapon.
Unlock Process
Hunt enough early Kemono (e.g., Ragetail, Kingtusk) to activate leaf-symbol nodes as entry points for side branches in the tree. These hunts provide materials and unlock upgrade options on left/right paths from your base weapon type, like katana or bow.
Reset and Branch
At the forge, reset your equipped weapon to its base form to recover all materials-this lets you rebuild along a different route without losing resources. For example, reset a main-line katana, then sidegrade right to access a locked awakening node.
Progression Tips
Progress the main story through Chapter 1 (defeat Earthbreaker) to unlock all eight base weapons first, as advanced trees require them. Repeatedly farm relevant Kemono if a branch stays locked, focusing on their drops to enable higher awakenings.
How do I roll back a weapon build in Wild Hearts
To roll back a weapon build in Wild Hearts, go to the blacksmith forge and select the weapon tree for your current build. Click on a previous node (enhancement) in the path to revert to that point, which refunds all crafting materials but costs a small amount of gold (typically 50-300G depending on the rollback distance).
Step-by-Step Process
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Open the weapon upgrade menu at any forge.
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Highlight the desired earlier node on your active path (e.g., base form or prior upgrade).
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Confirm the “discard enhancements” or “restore” prompt-materials return fully, enabling a new branch without re-farming.
Key Notes
This respec system encourages experimentation, as gold is easy to farm but acts as the main cost. For full resets to base weapons (unlocking side trees), rollback fully then craft a fresh path using Kemono materials from hunts.
