Monster Hunter Wilds takes an infamously rare and annoying material from the old games and absolutely buries you in it – and also buries you in tiny spiders

Among many other quality-of-life wins (and some losses), Monster Hunter Wilds seems to make a point of shoveling piles of a once-rare material at players while simultaneously making it nearly worthless, and we have a bunch of little spiders to thank.

First, a history lesson. Throughout the Monster Hunter series, several pieces of high-value equipment have required some version of Monster Fluid to craft, which is ordinarily extracted from small bug monsters. Squishing bugs – easy, right?

The problem is that killing these tiny bugs without destroying their bodies and, with them, their precious fluids, could be a headache. Ironically, ripping scales out of a dragon was often easier. I have, well, not fond memories but clear memories of using low rank weapons in endgame hunts or bringing stacks of poison bombs to kill these bugs as gently as possible. It had that 'herding cats' annoyance and inconsistency about it, but for certain armor pieces, there was no way around it.

Skip ahead to Monster Hunter Wilds and Capcom is practically giving out Monster Fluid on the street. I was explaining this to my hunting crew just last night, and Monster Hunter animator NCH handily summarized it in a Twitter post: "Infinite monster fluid now.... to think how hard it was to get back in the old games..."

Monster Hunter Wilds brought back the spider monster Nerscylla, and with it we've gotten dozens upon dozens of baby Nerscyllas which you can easily mow down en masse. Each one you squish is another shot of Monster Fluid in your pocket, and as NCH shows, you can even camp their spawn point for functionally infinite juice. This is yet another change that would blow the minds of old-school Monster Hunter players if you went back in time to share it, and I'm putting it on the list with slinger gathering as an uncontested win.

The kicker? Barely any gear seems to use Monster Fluid now, and none of the equipment that does seems especially valuable. Monster Hunter giveth, and taketh away.

Elsewhere in Monster Hunter boomer rants: Monster Hunter Wilds revived a play style I fell in love with almost 10 years ago, and now it's one of my favorite ways to play all over again.