How Monster Hunter Wilds’ Two Spiders Give It the Most Biome Diversity

A lot of Monster Hunter Wilds’ Field Surveys, side missions, and spontaneous hunts require research into what time of day or what environment cycle needs to be accommodated. In turn, players are treated to dynamic biomes rotating naturally or manually through a day-and-night cycle as well as weather patterns that drastically influence what a habitat will look like, let alone what monsters might appear there. This is all as immersive as players would like it to be and keeps environments interesting to come back to after a spell, but two monsters in particular are arguably responsible for Monster Hunter Wilds’ most exciting biomes.

Monster Hunter Wilds’ Oilwell Basin is a grimy sludge mudslide with some exceptionally eccentric monsters, such as Rompopolo or Nu Udra. Likewise, the Windward Plains is a great introductory region with its stunning Sandtide Inclemency and diverse range of monsters between Quematrice, Balahara, and Rey Dau. This is wonderful since the base game content is relatively truncated in High Rank at the moment and players will undoubtedly see the same regions an infinite number of times over the course of hundreds of hours. In particular, two temnocerans are distinct as they greatly affect the regions in which they were initially discovered.

Monster Hunter Wilds’ Pop-Up Camps are More Amusing Than They are Accommodating

Monster Hunter Wilds’ campsites work a lot differently than in World or Rise and with great accessibility comes great humor in immersive RNG.

Lala Barina is Floral Beauty in Monster Hunter Wilds’ Scarlet Forest

If it wasn’t for its distinctly red waters—the Scarlet Forest’s namesake—and stunning red silk, Monster Hunter Wilds’ Scarlet Forest bears quite a few similarities with Monster Hunter Rise’s Flooded Forest due to its ruins and Downpour Inclemency. It’s a boon, then, that the Forest’s waters run red during the Fallow as it signifies a visually unique and dynamic habitat instead of a traditional forest, as gorgeous and multifaceted as it is already. The red webs strewn about also exemplify this, and it’s all thanks to Lala Barina.

Lala Barina abdomens possess massive roses (technically “red, petal-like bristles” according to the Large Monster Field Guide) that release poisonous spore florets drifting in the air.

Monster Hunter Wilds’ Lala Barina are graceful in their movements, too, and therefore less behaviorally recognizable as a spider than their fellow temnoceran Nerscylla. Still, it’s definitely the Forest’s most novel monster in comparison to Rathian, Yian Kut-Ku, and Congalala. Uth Duna are certainly a signature of the Forest’s ruinous corner, to be fair, and yet with red waters and webs so near to the base camp the Lala Barina has more of a ubiquitous claim over the region regarding its visual identity.

Nerscylla is Arachnophobia Incarnate in Monster Hunter Wilds’ Iceshard Cliffs

Rather, Nerscylla takes a one-note biome—the Iceshard Cliffs’ gelid caverns in Monster Hunter Wilds—and transforms it into a den of horrors. Nerscylla is more of a traditional spider in its move set, complete with poison, sleep, and binding status effects, and nests in an ordinary yet giant web that behaves like a stage for its fight and features huge hordes of hatchlings, evoking imagery of Dark Souls 2’s Duke’s Dear Freja or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ Aragog boss fight.

Here, the temnoceran has Gypceros carcasses strung up in webbing. Interestingly, a horrific quirk of Monster Hunter Wilds’ Nerscylla is that they “adorn themselves” with Gypceros hides, which consequently grant them thunder resistance until destroyed. Nerscylla even ensnares Gypceros during their turf wars. This spider monster could’ve made its default home in any biome, really, but for its nest to be in the Cliffs specifically is brilliant and necessary as it adds an unnerving aesthetic layer to what is arguably Wilds’ visually weakest region.