How to get armor spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds

Armor spheres are an item in Monster Hunter Wilds that let you upgrade your armor at the smithy. Upgrading your armor lets you increase the defense of any piece of armor you’ve forged by spending armor spheres. But where do you get armor spheres?

Our Monster Hunter Wilds guide will tell you all about armor spheres, including when they’ll start showing up and how to get more of them.

When do you start getting armor spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds?

You’ll get your first armor spheres when you go looking for Maki during Chapter 2-1 “Toward Fervent Fields.” That’s the main story mission where you hunt down your first Rompopolo shortly after arriving in Azuz.

When you return from the hunt, Gemma will call you over to the smithy and start to tell you about upgrading your armor using armor spheres.

How to get armor spheres in Monster Hunter Wilds

You’ll often get armor spheres as rewards for completing Monster Hunter Wilds’ main story missions. Beyond that, you’ll get them as rewards for optional quests — the one-off monster hunts you pick up from Alma. You’ll start getting them with the two star quest, “March of the Kranodath,” and will get them as a reward with every optional quest after. Each hunt will only reward you with one or two, though.

You can also get them through trading — specifically with Gawdygog in the Wudwud Hideout of the Scarlet Forest.

Late in the game, you’ll also unlock the smelting foundry in Azuz. There, you can convert monster parts into armor spheres.

Should you spend or save your armor spheres?

The short answer is: Armor spheres don’t do you any good if you don’t spend them and upgrading your armor will only help you.

That said, you’ll constantly unlock new sets of armor with every hunt you go on. If you’re really struggling with a hunt, go ahead and drop a few armor spheres into upgrades to get your defense up. But maybe hold off on maxing out an entire set until you’re most of the way through the game.

To also help you understand Monster Hunter Wilds, we explain how to change weapons, how to upgrade armor, provide some Seikret tips, and teach you how fishing and layered armor works.