Back in 2025, I hoped Monster Hunter Wilds would finally fix the series' multiplayer. Now it is 2026, and I am here to tell you: nope, it is still a headache. Wilds is an incredibly streamlined action game. Capcom filed down the clunky systems from World and Rise until they were smooth as a well-honed Long Sword. But the one system that should have been first on the chopping block, multiplayer, remains as obtuse as ever. Honestly, it might be worse. 🤦♂️
I am a Monster Hunter veteran. I have sunk hundreds of hours into solo hunts, and I have dragged friends kicking and screaming into the franchise. The best way to break into Monster Hunter is with your buds. So why does Capcom keep making it feel like you need a PhD in menu navigation just to stab a dragon together? Let us break down the madness.
The Menu Maze: Squads, Lobbies, Link Parties, Environment Links
Let me run down all of the different multiplayer systems in Wilds. Stop reading whenever your eyes start to roll back in your head and foam starts bubbling out of your mouth. Basically, though there is nothing basic about it, you have got squads, lobbies, link parties, environment links, and friends. They all overlap with each other in confusing ways.
| System | What it does | Why it is confusing |
|---|---|---|
| Squads | A permanent group of up to 50 hunters | Setting it up requires unique Monster Hunter IDs and invites buried in menus |
| Lobbies | Temporary sessions like a squad | Overlaps with squads and link parties |
| Link Party | Up to four players can join each other's missions without sharing a lobby | Does not let you see each other in the open world |
| Environment Link | Lets up to four players see and run around the open world together | Must be set with each person, moves everyone to host instance, and sometimes desyncs |
| Friends | Basic friends list | Not enough for seamless co-op on its own |
The most straightforward system is squads. If you play with the same people all the time and you just want to run missions and investigations together, this option lets you set up a permanent lobby. Everyone can load into this lobby whenever they want, and everyone in the lobby can join any posted missions. While it is simple to use, setting it up is a whole other story.
After setting up a squad with the Squad Manager at base camp, you need to send an invite to each squad member using their unique Monster Hunter ID. Good luck walking everyone through how to find that. Even better luck getting everyone to find and accept the invite in Monster Hunter's endless pause menu.
This only works if you hunt with the same group of people, up to 50. If you want to hunt with people in other squads or you have more than 10 friends playing at the same time, you either have to join multiple squads and bounce between them, start a new lobby, which is like a temporary squad, or set up a Link Party. A Link Party is a way for four people to join each other's missions, but it does not require them all to be in the same lobby.
Finally, if you actually want to see other people and run around the open world with them, you need to set up an Environment Link. It does not matter if you are in a Squad, a lobby, or a Link Party. You need to establish an Environment Link with each person, up to four, you want to play with. Then everyone will be moved to the host's instance. Sometimes. It is hit or miss, and you may occasionally desync. Got all that? 😵💫
I Just Want To Stab Dragons With My Buds
Once you understand all the different ways to party up and find one that works for you, there are still other issues. There are far too many menus to navigate. Menus within menus within menus, with multiple redundant ways to access them, and lots of bad UI that will make you think you have sent or accepted an invite when you really have not.
We also still have the same old cutscene problem that forces you to constantly split up from your party during story moments and then have everyone abandon their quest and party up with one person to complete the mission. It is tedious, annoying, and somehow already solved by every other co-op game with cutscenes like decades ago. It is incredibly disruptive to the co-op experience through the main campaign. At this point, I just play Monster Hunter alone until all of my friends have finished the story, and then we hunt together. It feels like it does not need to be that way, and I cannot figure out why it is.
On top of that, you have more typical network issues. Players de-sync and drop out of the party mid-hunt. Players disconnect from the lobby and cannot join missions. Your friends are standing next to you one second, and the next second they mysteriously vanish. It would not be so bad if you did not have to click through ten menus to get back to where you were, but that is Monster Hunter, baby.
Capcom, It Is 2026. Please.
Capcom straightened out so many tedious and cumbersome systems for Wilds. It is mind-blowing that the worst one is still here. In 2026, we have seamless co-op in so many games. Why can't Monster Hunter Wilds just let me link to my environment squad lobby bro? I do not want to manage five overlapping social systems. I want to pick a quest, invite my friends, and go. Is that too much to ask?
Maybe Capcom likes it this way. Maybe there is something unique about Monster Hunter that prevents streamlining multiplayer. But I doubt it. The series has evolved combat, traversal, and monster behavior. Multiplayer should evolve too. Until then, I will keep hunting, sometimes alone, sometimes with a squad of patient friends who do not mind a little menu gymnastics. But for the love of Fatalis, Capcom, please fix this. 🙏
For better or worse, Wilds is a streamlined game. The series' notoriously cumbersome systems, which saw major refinement in both World and Rise, have essentially been filed down to nothing. Wilds is a fairly straightforward action game compared to what came before it. I would debate whether all of those smooth edges make Wilds a better game. But there is still one remaining obtuse system that, ironically, should have been the first to go. Setting up multiplayer in Wilds is as big of a headache as ever, and in fact, might even be worse. That is the frustrating holdover from past games and the only thing everyone can agree should have changed years ago. Does Capcom like it this way? Is there something unique about Monster Hunter that prevents it from streamlining multiplayer? Playing with your buds is the best way to break into the series, but for some reason, Capcom continues to make multiplayer as off-putting as possible. And in 2026, that still stings.