Top 12 Monster Hunter Maps: Number 4 | Merry Huntmas 2024

[@carterlazarus813]

As I said when this was uploaded at midnight, if there's one thing I've gathered from this countdown, if a game has Glavenus armor, Connor is wearing it.

[@Old_Murdock]

Very nice pick for number 4. I’ve always loved the Wildspire Wastes but never really bothered to put it into words. Yet you worded it perfectly

[@G1eatShad0w]

The Wild Spire Waste was the first Monster Map I ever laid eyes on and I’d say it was a pretty good starting point to get me hooked. This locale is so much more than a desert and it was clearly intended to be that way. It‘s relationship with the Ancient Forest is interesting. It‘s colors are stunning in a lot of places. It‘s monster roster is wonderfully fitting and it doesn’t really fall into the endless flat plains trap a lot of other deserts can’t overcome. Even with all of this I didn’t think it would be this high and I had kind of lost hope it would appear at all. Yes it’s a good map but I do think I would place it a good bit lower. Out of all the World maps it feels weirdly safe? I don’t know I love it but it‘s the most conventional world map for sure. Even so I’m happy to see it here and I adore that battle theme.

[@jockpackage1770]

My biggest gripe is how they made the watery zones. Only 2 monsters actually kind of fit them well... Or 1 and a half. Barroth only gives a shit for having bugs to eat and a place to cool off so any water will do. Jyratadus is the only one that actually uses the water and he's such a nothing monster that making these 2 zoned dedicated to him and having an entire gameplay system tied to pretty much just him is pointless. I wonder what they would have made in his place, if the leviathan skeleton worked and they hadn't wasted as much time as they did on this engine and zorah. What was suppose to be in the swamp? They've always had a weakness, where swamps don't exactly have monsters the feel at home there. Most just kind of exist and are hardly even adapted for it. Much less feel like they should be there and not really in other maps.

[@athos9293]

​@@jockpackage1770Maybe Lagiacrus was also planned to be able to go to the Waste's swamps. That, or something like a Gobul/Nibelsnarf/Royal Ludroth relative or subspecies. Maybe even a mud Agnaktor. I say that because Uragaan would never work in the Rotten Vale, but they made a close relative of him that fits the map perfectly, so something similar could've been also planned for returning leviathans.

[@eeeeeeeeee0114]

Honestly, Wildspire is probably one of the most underrated maps in the entire series. Compared to pretty much every other desert map in the series, it just does so much more with the concept. Would I have put it this high personally? No, but I can understand it.

[@CouldveBeenKing13]

Here we have my favorite map from the 5th Generation, heck, maybe just my favorite map in the series. While I love the unique idea and aesthetic of the Rotten Vale, and the Hoarfrost Reach is THE snowy map I would love to build a base in... the Wildspire Wastes is just superb. So many things like Connor said ring true for me as well. The clear connection to the Ancient Forest with the river and lush areas in the top left of the map, along with shared monsters that travel between the two zones. The wide variety of beasts that prowl this map goes from Elder-level threats to silly-little egg thieves. But the most impressive to me has to be how many biomes exist in this map and all feel believable - the small bit of woods, the little waterfalls flowing into a wetland, the muddy marsh, the sand dunes, the rocky canyon... it somehow does all of this and I feel like it could be an actual place I am walking through. The worst hazard it poses is the muddy water slowing us down, but easy to mitigate that plus only some of its bestiary sticks to those zones. Not to mention the titular spires being made by the massive carrier ants in this zone is just a neat bit of world building, along with bringing one brutish insectivore along to feast on them. I can look at every inch of this map and easily see why the local wildlife calls it home, which feels so damn good. It is also pretty easy to navigate for me as well, a nice change after the mess that the Ancient Forest can be. A mostly 1-layered map with clear paths linking different zones, with camps littered across it to make it easy to get to most corners quickly, but still requiring us hunters to run into certain areas for the hunts. Not huge stretches where we have to chase our prey down, but just light jogs across a couple zones. There are side paths, but they usually lead to small little sections of the map, and how narrow they are often makes it easy to tell you are taking a detour, and not confusing it for the primary path. Is the map perfect? Probably not - could use a couple more wedge beetles in certain spots, the camp by the Rathain nest feels useless most of the time (along with the nest being underground and away from the forested section feeling odd), and some of the side paths you can get lost in... but those negatives do not detract that much from it in my eyes. The Wastes feel like a perfect blend of easy traversal, good ecology and fun gameplay. I hope that whenever we return to the New World, we get to see this map once more.

[@Andrew-hz5zc]

Number 4 Wildspire? Not to say it's not a great map, but dang, even above Rotten Vale? This placement is just making me curious what the last few spots are going to be. If Wildspire is ranked as the best World map I think I'm going to have some problems with that lol. Speaking positively about Wildspire though, one thing I really like about this map is the surprising amount of lore it has. You can feel just how close the map is to the Ancient Forest through the river that originates from it, the small forested section on the west side of the map, and the shared monsters between the two maps like Pukei and Anjanath in high rank, having been displaced from the Ancient Forest due to ecosystem weirdness taking place in the story. There's also the fact that the whole underground part of the map was canonically caused by Diablos digging it out over time, which is awesome. Most other desert maps in the series kind of just exist to be desert maps, but they really seemed to go out of their way to make the Wildspire stand out among them with interesting sights and lore. With the Windward Plains in Wilds, we're 2 for 2 on actually interesting desert maps since 5th gen (Sandy Plains was a remake, I'm not counting it).

[@G1eatShad0w]

I‘m only gonna have a problem with it if the Coral Highlands isn’t still to come. Surly it’ll be on this list, right?

[@jockpackage1770]

It's an... Interesting take. I would not put this map this high, not sure if it would even be on the list for me. I don't dislike it but it has too many negatives others don't have or don't have as bad. My biggest counter point is that a big section of the map, the swamp, is kind of wasted. It only has 2 monsters use it, semi properly, and one of them is a complete waste of a slot. One that they added, in a panic, when a certain skeleton didn't work. Makes me wonder, if they are telling the truth with making the maps first, what was planned for the watery zones if the skeleton issue didn't happen? Do we have a concept art in our future, of what these monsters would have been? Or was almodron half "we were thinking of using this yokai anyway" and half "you couldn't make that work in time but we may be able to rework this concept into our game"? They even wasted time coding a mechanic that was only used for 2 early game monsters use (3 in the expansion). That being aquatic/polar expert/that trait of the water mantle are nothing because the monsters they counter are pointlessly weak. If they pose 0 challenge then what reason is there to use consider mitigation tools? I was begging for Iceborne to cover this weakness of World and they just ignored it, entirely. Thank Gog that Wilds, the scarlet forest, and uth duna seam to be correcting this mistake. Maybe more things will use a similar idea, like the ice map and oilwell basin. But, the mistake was still made in World and with this map. You say that only minor gripes make this map beat the last couple but this map has a huge hole in its design. The map flows but has a worthless 2 zones, where their potential is squandered, is still a worthless 2 zones. The bogs try to fix the weakness of every swamp map, lack of believable wildlife that fit that niche/want to be there, and fail miserably. All we really got was barroth, who settles for any water in the desert and bugs nearby so he doesn't care, and new shitty mud fish. That's it. I respect your love for the concept but the execution is awful. The grassy zones is another downside, just an excuse for forest monsters to bleed into this map too. This map was nice as an idea but the execution is far from great. Not that many monsters use the grassy zones and it's kind of just an excuse for the high rank quests at the start of "wow, what the hell are these forest monsters doing in the desert... that has a bit of forest." I will concede that the larger desert zones and the sink hole trap cave for diablos are awesome.

[@GBA-049]

As a fan of everything desert related, (mainly music) the Wildspire Waste is a damn joy to explore and immerse myself in. The fact that it's multiple locales meshed into one is quite impressive that isn't seen as often in the series. It really does a lot to emphasize the world of Monster Hunter as a whole and everything that thrives fits like a glove

[@ThatOneTinCan]

Yumskies!

[@BaronSterling]

Definitely a crazy take. I could get it being at number 12, maybe, but 4? It's a very mid map that lacks any standout creativity that several of the maps below it have. When the standout feature of a map is "it has a LITTLE bit of water!", it probably shouldn't be above masterpieces like the Tri volcano, the Old Swamp, or the Misty Peaks. I think the fact that the last few maps had you stretching hard for nitpicks in order to find any flaws to talk about, while this one had a decently long section of flaws at the end, perfectly demonstrate that this map was misplaced too high tbh.

[@Armbrust210]

Nice choice! This is by far the best map of MHW. Variety, traversability, transitions and style done right. Not much more needs to be said about this one. It just works. Sadly i feel it also eclipses what we've seen from Wilds so far. Still hoping they won't scrap variety on maps just because they are connected to the others now

[@davidperdue7541]

Excellent choice with all points well said. My gut told me to mention Wildspire when I gave my predictions, but I picked Ancient Forest over it for better demonstrating the "Living World" concept with its larger cast of iconic monsters creating a very meaningful food web. EVEN THEN, though, Wildspire is generally the more fun map to fight on. So I'm glad it's in 4th. Well earned.

[@IThinkIStoleYourSandwich]

This is the only world map I've gained any sort of understanding about where I am and where I can go lol. By far the best design in world imo at least in terms of accessibility and gameplay focus

[@lander6443]

Wildspire is cool, but definitely falls to the wayside in World. Both in terms of good maps (R.Vale, Hoarfrost) and somewhat meh maps (A.Forest). I love how varied the map is, from the traditional desert area to the more swampy and forestry areas. Even if I wish the lower swampy areas were used more frequently. I don’t mind the monster roster, but it’s a case of me not being super bothered by most of the common ones. Wildspire is a solid map overall, I don’t mind it but there’s better desert maps.

[@Viper-Zealot]

*psst* hey, might I just say. that Christmas hat looks positively incredible on you sir. You'd make for a great W.C.H.A. member.

[@JhonTed-kl3br]

I watched this video when you accidentally uploaded this yesterday lol

[@gunktrunker5669]

Definitely the best base world map

[@anfernycrab8029]

Alright let’s see hoarfrost reach in the next 3 spots 🤞

[@viterio5410]

Not sure how I missed this video for so long. Wildspire shoulda been number 1

[@athos9293]

I guess the only thing i deslike about this map is the bright white filter it has during daytime. I'm glad the Windward Plains don't have that

[@Viper-Zealot]

Interesting pick for the number Four spot. although I do like the wildspire waste with its theme being a dry, aired location with giant skyscraper sized anthills on one half that's contrasted by having waterfalls, rivers, lush forest's and vegetation on the other side of its region. That ends with a mire at the bottom half of the map. I wouldn't necessarily put it in my top 5. (Don't get me wrong I still think that the wildspire waste is by far and away the best desert map Capcom made, it's just that I've kinda grown tired of desert maps y'know?)

[@Viper-Zealot]

You know what I HAVEN'T grown tired of? Seeing all your guy's favourite villains/antagonists that you're bringing with you to my event!! Also I'm pleased to announce a new member!! Everyone, give a round of applause tooooooo.... "Velkhanatheicebornewyvern" for joining the W.C.H.A. as a proud member!! If you wanna join the W.C.H.A. (or just curious) then press lightly on the viper Tobi-kadachi wearing a Christmas hat icon and there you'll find all that you inquire about!!

[@G1eatShad0w]

@@Viper-Zealot It‘s amazing how many new members where getting laity! This Party is about to break some records!

[@ActualCatfish]

Alright, I heard you out on the first few placements I disagreed with, but now you're mad. The Wildspire Waste isn't even in the top 4 World maps, let alone for the whole series

[@yourdad5799]

I'm sure your top 12 isn't that different. You have something horrid there too don't lie

[@Sunaki1000]

After the massively irritating Forrest, the Wildspire turned out to be quiet enjoyable to navigate. But overall, I have to say this map is just kinda OK. Its solid, but I litteraly can think of a million better maps to talk about. And now thinking about your No. 1 I wonder. I have the feeling its gonna be something like Everwood, but theres multible Everwood like Areas, like Guidinglands, and even that one map. I wonder which one you choose. I belife its just fair if place one goes to "that map" but who knows?

[@salamander1738]

Extremely good take. While the Windward Plains is certainly a fresh spin on a desert, I can’t help but to feel a little underwhelmed after the perfection that was the Wildspire Waste. It just makes the desert climate look so appealing, with plenty of variation and a beautiful yet believable home for a nice variety of monsters. I also think its theme is one of the most underrated in the series. Akihiko Narita is the monster hunter team’s best composer IMO

[@kingkamina4953]

Ngl this is one of my least favorite maps, definitely my least favorite desert map. Respect your opinion though

[@gatomojaomomos]

Idk map.

[@blastshooter8791]

a very nice pick for number 4. The wildspire waste is a really cool map loved walking around on this map outside some issues this is one of my favorite dessert maps with the windward plains being the only to complete with it for best desert map. Solid 9 out of 10