When Wild Hearts first begins, players will be 'forced' to use the default weapon, the Karakuri Katana, for the first little stretch of time, up until they reach the Tree Base in Harugasumi Way. Then, after that, Natsume the Blacksmith can help them upgrade their weapon or build new ones (the Maul, for example, is a great option). And, while looking at the weapon option here, players will probably likely face some confusion, as three of the weapons aren't unlocked and are instead replaced with '???' Prompts on their slots.
In the 10-hour trial of Wild Hearts, this was also the case but many thought this was just due to it being a trial version. But, now that the game is out a lot of the Wild Heart players are wondering when exactly the three other weapons are unlocked.
How To Unlock All Weapons In Wild Hearts
To be blunt, the last three weapon choices are locked behind story progress in Wild Hearts. Thankfully, it's not too far into the story, right before the start of Chapter 2. So, to paint a picture of how long this will take, here are the mandatory story hunts they'll need to complete before the Earthbreaker hunt at the end of Chapter 1 becomes available:
- Ragetail
- Sapscourge
- Kingtusk
- Spineglider
- Lavaback
- Gritdog
While 6 Kemono may seem like a lot for players to only have access to 5 out of 8 weapons, it actually doesn't take much time at all if all side quests or other Kemono (as fun to fight as they can be) are ignored until this point. So a player who is aware of when exactly these weapons are unlocked can focus entirely on the story hunts without getting distracted by collectibles, optional hunts, or side quests and reach the Earthbreaker in a few short hours.
The Exact Moment To Look For
To give as detailed a description of when the weapons are available as possible, let's break down the events leading up to the weapon unlocks, step by step:
- Continue progressing through the main story until it's time to hunt the Earthbreaker and steal its precious Mirrorstone item drops.
- Afterward, enjoy the celebratory festival and talk to Natsume to transition to a cutscene introducing Amaterasu.
- After waking up at home in Minato the next morning, talk to Toga Hime outside of the upstairs exit to the home.
- Accept her request to go and protect/clear the way for the Tsuruhashi Clan of builders coming from Akikure Canyon to help Minato.
- After accepting this request, look in the top left at the optional objectives, one should be to 'Talk to Natsume about a new weapon'.
- Talk to Natsume, she'll talk more about the Hand Cannon and her ability to make more weapons now, and the Hand Cannon, Clawblade, and Karakuri Staff should now be available.
Basically, when the objective at the top left of the screen says 'Ensure the safety of the Tsuruhasi clan in Akikure Canyon', the new weapons are available. Players can then quickly experiment with their new weapon of choice at the Training Dummy Bear in the field behind their Minato home to see how it works and which Karakuri attacks it works best with before hopping right into Chapter 2.
Wild Hearts is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.