Monster Hunter Rise Wirebug Guide: Mastering Attacks, Core Skills, and More

Monster Hunter Rise introduced the Wirebug, a cyan critter that opens up countless options for traversal, provides access to many of the game’s “new” combat mechanics, and generally speeds up gameplay across the board. It’s something you’ll have to come to grips with in MH Rise — there’s just no way around it.

There are plenty of intricacies to maximizing your Wirebug efficiency. However, in this Monster Hunter Rise guide, we’ll cover the most critical mechanics you’ll want to master before taking on the more complicated systems.

Monster Hunter Rise Wirebug Basics

You’ll get a general rundown of the Wirebug in the Back to Basics quest, but there are few nuances you’ll want to practice even in the earliest missions.

Activating any Wirebug ability sees you holding down left trigger and pressing a button specific to that ability. Doing so spends one charge on the Wirebug meter at the bottom of the screen. Once used, that charge will be on a brief cooldown depending on the type of ability used — simple actions refill quicker than more advanced maneuvers, attacks, and skills.

The first and most frequent Wirebug ability you’ll use is the simple Wiredash, a movement technique.

Depending on your input and camera position, it allows you to move up, down, or forward. Hold left bumper and press either the Use button (A on Switch, Circle on a PlayStation-style controller, or B on an Xbox-style controller) or the Light Attack button (X on Switch, Triangle on PlayStation, or Y on Xbox). Doing so will move you in the direction the camera’s facing or vertically.

Be aware you can only use the standard Wirebug Wiredash while your weapon is sheathed. Using it with your weapon drawn will use one of the Switch Skills you have equipped, which is an article unto itself.

You’ll most often use Wiredash to traverse throughout a level, and you can chain as many Wiredash uses as you have Wirebugs to spend. You also have a double jump after each Wiredash that allows you to completely change direction or provide additional momentum at the end of the dash.

The other basic technique is stopping in mid-air. This requires pressing the Use button during a Wiredash in the air. You’ll stop and hang from the Wirebug’s thread for about 10 seconds before dropping.

Stopping on its own is good for getting a look around an area, but its actual utility is skipping the end of quest cutscenes. If you hang from a Wirebug with five or so seconds left on the after-quest countdown and stay up there, the Quest Complete screen will automatically play without you needing to watch your Hunter gesticulate for 15 seconds.

Intermediate Wirebug Skills

There are two areas of expertise to build up once you have a basic understanding of using the Wirebug. The first is Charge Management; the second is the appropriate use of Wirefall.

Charge Management

It’s no stretch to say the Wirebug is at the core of everything in Monster Hunter Rise. Without one handy, you can’t make use of some of your weapon’s most powerful abilities. You can’t get out of tough situations, and you’ll be effectively barred from traversing even the least vertical parts of each level. That makes it essential you learn to keep track of how many Wirebug charges you have left.

Charge Management doesn’t come quickly and will require effort to master. The easiest way to practice is on early-mid game monsters in an Expedition quest. Pick a monster you’re comfortable fighting and see how long it takes for both Wirebug charges to come back after use, how efficiently you can chain Wirebug abilities, etc.

Wirefall

Whenever you get knocked down or thrown into the air in Monster Hunter World, you can press the left bumper and the Use button to perform a Wirebug Wirefall recovery.

You’ll immediately flip out of the thrown or knocked state and can attack or otherwise avoid threats. It’s almost always advantageous to use this recovery technique over falling, but if you just used your other charge, taking the fall isn’t always the worst option.

You can’t Wirefall if you don’t have a Wirebug charge, of course, so you’ll likely be caught flatfooted at least once. That’s why it’s vital you master Charge management first before you get your Wirefall usage down.

Advanced Wirebug Trainer Crash Course: Switch Skills & In-Combat Abilities

The volume of little details and mechanical optimizations the Wirebug affords is staggering. We won’t be getting into all of them here. Instead, we’ll focus on the most important but most challenging to implement parts of using the little guys: Switch Skills and in-combat abilities.

Most weapons have one offensive skill and one defensive skill and learning when to use which of them is vital to your success in Rise.

Early in your hunting career, you’ll get access to Switch Skills; alternate weapons moves that use a Wirebug Charge to activate. Your weapon will also have a default Wirebug skill. To use these abilities, hold down the left bumper and press the Light or Strong attack buttons while your weapon’s drawn.

For instance, if you’re using the Charge Blade with the Wirebug, proper use of the Counter Peak Performance shield enhancer can make the difference between life and death in High-Rank. The more offensively-minded skills involve movement, so they help with positioning and damage.

Using the Wirebug skills in tandem with the more traditional abilities is paramount. The advice for learning their optimal use is the same as learning charge management, with one huge asterisk. Early on, you’ll want to focus on discovering how long each ability takes to activate, how long it’s active for, and how long it makes the Wirebug cooldown.

However, unlike Wirebug Charge Management, you need to extend your knowledge base to every monster in the game. Every attack has different timings, but as long as you know intrinsically how long your abilities take to use from input to activation, implementing them is a matter of practice.

The tough part is your practice will come with cart trips back to camp, which is about as fun as it sounds. Enjoy!