Monster Hunter Wilds has been available to everyone for just over a week. Now, some players are showing that they have managed to reach the maximum hunter rank in record time. This has led to speculation in the community about how this is possible.
What have the players actually achieved? On X, more and more Japanese players are proudly showing their hunter profile. Seen on it is the maximum hunter rank of 999, as well as often the playtime and the number of different monsters or all missions:
- User @xtk_q_ shares his achievement of JR 999 in about 134 hours and 1776 quests via x.com.
- User @AfxiqMHW proudly posts a similar playtime of around 135 hours with 1992 missions via x.com.
- @SoR4Ko does not share his playtime via x.com, but shares a total of 1836 quests to reach his goal.
Many other Japanese players on X claim to have achieved similar things. Their accomplishments are leading to an extensive debate in the community. After all, the game has only been out for just over a week – 7 days correspond to about 168 hours, and the shared posts are from March 7, 2025.
Fans are questioning how they could have accomplished this in such a short time, while other ambitious grinders with around 100+ hours of playtime find themselves far below this rank (via Reddit). They have some thoughts and ideas on this.
Incredible Speed?
What theories do the fans have? Many fans doubt that it is possible to achieve hunter rank 999 in such a time. On Reddit, they are therefore presenting various considerations and discussions about whether and how this can be possible without cheats or mods being used.
They have some specific theories:
- The account was used simultaneously by several people.
- They could exploit quests with high XP output by spamming monster hunts with two hardened opponents with a hunting time of 1 to 2 minutes.
- They could have joined many hunts just before the objective was completed.
- They could have worked as a group to maximize the XP output and share suitable hunts.
The community mainly suspects group work to maximize experience as quickly and efficiently as possible while investing little time. However, many also suspect the use of cheats and mods, such as those that allow the hunter rank to rise faster. Some comments under the respective players’ posts on X at least partially confirm this assumption (via x.com).
The most likely theory aligns with the assumption that efficient groups were working. Among Japanese players, there are optimized groups that specialize in heavy bowguns and can complete optional high-rank quests in under 2 minutes, as seen on YouTube.
Even with this tactic, reaching the maximum hunter rank in such a short time is really ambitious. It is also not entirely clear whether the respective players had access to the game before the release. So far, none of the Japanese players have commented on how they managed to achieve this so quickly.
How they actually achieved this accomplishment remains a mystery for now. If you want to try to achieve it with the current community theories, you should find a good group with ambitious fellow hunters.
If you haven’t even reached the endgame to think about something like this, we have a post for you about what you can expect: Monster Hunter Wilds: Guide to the Endgame – Goals and what to expect
