How to upgrade armor in Monster Hunter Wilds

Slaying monsters in Monster Hunter Wilds isn’t just a matter of maximizing the damage you inflict. You need to be able to survive some pretty vicious attacks too. Whatever type of armor you’re using, it’s always a good idea to upgrade it.

While the ability to upgrade weapons unlocks very early on in Monster Hunter Wilds, you have to play quite a long way through the story before you can upgrade any of your armor. Once you pass that point, though, upgrading armor is a pretty straightforward process, and well worth doing as the monsters you face get stronger and stronger.

When does armor upgrading unlock in Monster Hunter Wilds?

After you hunt the Rompopolo (A use Ignited) and complete Chapter 2-1 Toward Fervent Fields, talk to Gemma at the Oilwell Basin Base Camp, and she’ll speak to you about buffing your armor using Armor Spheres. From now on, when you select Forge/Upgrade Armor from the Smithy Menu, you can upgrade your existing armor items.

How to upgrade your armor at the Smithy in Monster Hunter Wilds

Speak to Gemma at any of the Base Camp Smithies and say, “I’d like to manage my equipment.” Select Forge/Upgrade Armor from the Smithy Menu, then highlight one of your existing pieces of armor on the list. Instead of the required forging materials, you can see the current level and defense stat of that piece of armor and the number of points required to upgrade this armor to the next level. Confirm, choose Upgrade, then choose which type of Armor Sphere you want to use. At first, you only have basic blue Armor Spheres (worth 10 points each), but later you can get better types that are worth more points.

Select the number of Armor Spheres you want to spend. As you do this, the armor’s level is shown increasing, but you have to select Upgrade and say Yes to spending the Armor Spheres and Zenny to actually finalize the upgrade. You can upgrade as much armor as you like as long as you have enough Armor Spheres and Zenny.

How to get more Armor Spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds

If you want to upgrade your armor but are running low on Armor Spheres, you’d better get out into the wilds and start completing some missions. Armor Spheres can’t be found or looted, but they are offered as a reward for completing many of the missions in the game. And after you complete the main story, you can even acquire Armor Spheres by smelting down monster parts.

By completing tougher missions and smelting higher numbers of monster parts, you can get better types of Armor Spheres. While basic Armor Spheres are worth 10 points each, each Armor Sphere+ is worth 50 points, an Advanced Armor Sphere is worth 200 points, and a Hard Armor Sphere is worth 1,000 points.