Monster Hunter Wilds: How to focus on monsters during combat

One of the more difficult parts of combat for new players in Monster Hunter Wilds is trying to focus on a single monster. More often than not, your character will randomly start facing the wrong, away from the monster, and you'll unleash a flurry of attacks that carve up the ground rather than your target.

While you'll eventually be able to practice more and get the hang of combat, there is a way you can make your character target a single enemy. This won't make you lock on to that enemy at all times, but it will allow your character to understand what they're supposed to be fighting in Monster Hunter Wilds.

For starters, there are two types of "focus" in Monster Hunter Wilds. The first is "Focus Mode," which is used in combat and allows you to target a monster's wounds and unleash specific attacks with your weapon of choice. You can use Focus Mode while attacking to deal extra damage to cuts on an enemy's body, destroying their limbs and slowly whittling down their health.

The other form of focus can be called "targeting," which sets a specific target on the monster you're currently fighting. When you target an enemy, a crosshair will appear over the head, letting you know that they are your current target. As previously mentioned, this doesn't fully make your character lock on to them at all times, so you still have to maneuver your character to face the correct way and attack from the right distance.

However, targeting a monster does put the focus on them and makes it easier to attack in their vicinity. To target an enemy in Monster Hunter Wilds, all you have to do is check your controls to see what keybind is bound to this action. On PC, you can go to settings from the main menu and select "Keyboard Configuration."

From there, scroll down until you reach the "Camera Controls" section. Here, you'll see the "Enable Focus/Target Camera" option along with a keybind. You need to press that keybind, or whatever you change it to, to target an enemy. On controller, go to the "Controls" section and see what keybind is dedicated for targeting an enemy.

If you press that button once, you'll see the crosshair appear over a monster. However, you can press the button again to remove the target if you're fighting more than one monster.

Targeting enemies directly isn't as effective as using Focus Mode, as that allows you to directly focus on a monster and target your attacks efficiently. If you just want to make sure you're looking at the right enemy initially, though, press the target button and continue on with the fight in Monster Hunter Wilds.

Now that you know that combat tidbit, you can also check out our other Monster Hunter Wilds guides on switching between weapons and upgrading armor.