By
Lauren Harper,Casey DeFreitas,Angie Harvey,+12 more
updated
There are many ways to connect with other hunters online in Monster Hunter Rise. There is local multiplayer and online multiplayer with friends. There are even easy ways to connect with random players online and easily connect with them again! Here's how multiplayer works in Monster Hunter Rise, with guides on how to join a friend's quest, how to play with randoms, and hunter connects, for both Monster Hunter Rise on the PC and the Nintendo Switch versions as well as the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S versions that launched in January 2023.
Jump to a Section:
- How to Play With Friends
- How to Join a Quest
- How to Play With Randoms Online
- How to Respond to a Join Request -
- How Hunter Connects (Squads/Guilds) Work
- The Like System
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About Crossplay
Unfortunately, there is no crossplay or cross-saves in Monster Hunter Rise between the Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
PlayStation can play with PlayStation and Xbox with Xbox, but nothing beyond that.
Gathering Hub vs. Village Quests (Multiplayer Scaling)
Multiplayer Gathering Hub quests are more difficult than Village Quests even though the difficulty dynamically scales based on the number of hunters on a quest.
Can You Play Village Quests in Multiplayer?
The short answer: No, you can't play Village Quests with other people. These are single-player only. However, in the Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak expansion, all of the new Master Rank Quests are "hub" quests and can be played solo or with other players!
There are also no tutorial missions in multiplayer, so we recommend starting with the Village Key Quests - which are significantly easier and include tutorials - before moving over to the Gathering Hub. Unless you're already a veteran Monster Hunter or have someone to play with who's already knowledgeable!
Also See: Story Walkthrough - Village and Hub Key Quests
How to Play With Friends
To play online on the Nintendo Switch, you need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. You don't need additional subscriptions to play online on a PC (Steam), naturally. The method to play online either on the Switch or PC is the same - Monster Hunter Rise will pull from your Nintendo Switch friend list or your Steam friend list, and should do the same for your Xbox friends list or PlayStation friends list. Here's how to join a friend's quest in Monster Hunter Rise.
What Are Lobbies?
A "Lobby" in Monster Hunter Rise is a multiplayer session in which up to 4 people can join. While in a Lobby, Hunters can go about their business in Kamura Village, and even do their own single-player Village Quests.
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The method to play with friends is generally the same regardless if you're playing Locally or Online:
- Speak to Senri the Mailman - it's the Palico right across the way from the Village Quest Counter!
- Choose Play Locally or Play Online
- Create a Lobby - If Online or in a public setting, set a passcode if you want to play with specific people. Otherwise, anyone will be able to join.
- Your friends now just have to look at their Friend List, choose you and "View Lobby Info" to join your lobby.
After creating an Online Lobby, send an invite to a friend from your Friend List to let them know you can play. They will still need to join your lobby with the method described above, though.
As you play with friends, you'll earn free items that help in multiplayer, like Lifepowders, Armor Powder, and more.
How to Join a Quest
Once you're in a lobby with friends, one of you will have to post a quest while the rest will need to join it.
To post a multiplayer quest, go to the Gathering Hub and talk to Minoto at the Quest Counter and choose a quest. Quests from Hinoa, who is outside, will not be joinable by other players. In Sunbreak's Elgado, speak to Chichae the Quest Damsel.
To join a quest once it's posted, interact with the Quest Board to the right of Minoto inside the Gathering Hub. Additionally, the Quest Board is available in your quick-access item menu on the bottom right of the screen - bring it up with the D-Pad to join a quest from anywhere in the village!
Once you've joined a quest, make sure you're "ready" (press ZR / R2 ). Then, when the quest poster starts the quest, the whole group will leave with them. If they accidentally start the quest without everyone, others can still rejoin once the poster has loaded into the quest.
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How to Play With Randoms Online
There are two ways to join with random players in Monster Hunter Rise. These methods are the same on both Nintendo Switch and PC.
Join an Online Lobby
- Speak to Senri the Mailman - it's the Palico right across the way from the Village Quest Counter!
- Choose Play Online
- Create a Lobby and leave it open, or choose Find Lobby to join one someone has already created.
- You'll have to follow the same "How to Join a Quest" instructions above to create or join a quest.
Send Friend Requests from Within Monster Hunter Rise:If you play with someone you like, add them to you Nintendo Switch or Steam Friend List from within Rise! While in a Lobby with someone, open the Multiplayer tab in your menu. Look at Player List. From there, you can look a their Nintendo Switch Profile and send a friend request.
Respond to a Join Request - Pick a Specific Quest!
Respond to a Join Request to join a specific quest with other people! Simply bring up the Quest Board with the D-Pad, choose Respond to Join Request, and pick whichever quest you'd like to do. You'll join an in-progress quest.
You can also post your own Hub Quest and open it for others to join by posting a quest at the Hub Quest Counter and choosing "Accept via Join Request." Then, others may join your quest while you're on it (so yes, you have to start the quest - players won't join your lobby this way).
Lost? Check out the Monster Hunter Rise Beginner's Guide and Tips!
How to Use Voice Chat
Built-in voice chat for Monster Hunter RIse is only available on *PC. For the Switch version, you'll have to use a third-party service such as Discord. On Steam, voice chat should work automatically both in lobbies with friends and on quests with randoms as long as you have a compatible microphone connected to your computer.
We still need to test if the PlayStation and Xbox versions have built-in voice chat! At least we know you can definitely party up with friends using the usual voice chat features, but we're unsure if you'll be connected with randoms.
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How Hunter Connects Work
A Hunter Connect is essentially a way to easily organize a group of people, like Squads were in Monster Hunter World.
How to Create or Join a Hunter Connect: Create a Hunter Connect by looking at the Multiplayer Tab in your main menu, and choosing Hunter Connect. From there, choose Join Invited Connect to join someone else's group, or Create New Connect to create your own.
Invites to Hunter Connects don't pop up on the screen - you need to go into the menu using the method above to accept invites, auto or otherwise.
About Auto Invites: If Auto Invite is turned on, anyone who joins a lobby you are also in will be able to join your Hunter Connect, and any other Hunter Connect you're a part of that has Auto-Invites turned on!
To Invite Specific People: To invite only particular people, turn Auto Invite off. Then, when someone is in your Lobby, open up the Hunter Connect menu, choose a Hunter Connect, then "Invite to Connect."
How to Use Hunter Connects: Now that you've created or joined a Hunter Connect, speak with Senri the Mailman, choose "play online" then "Hunter Connect." Create an Online Lobby with the Hunter Connect of your choosing - if someone else has already created a lobby with your Hunter Connect settings, you can join it from here!
Hunter Connect is the easiest way to organize a group of friends. If you're all part of the same Hunter Connect and make it a habit to create a Hunter Connect Lobby, everyone in that group can easily join without having to coordinate with specific people. Everyone just has to use it! Multiple lobbies can me made under the same Hunter Connect, too.
The Like System
At the end of a quest, you can send "Likes" to the hunters you played with. You can send a Like to each of them by pressing the corresponding direction on a D-Pad.
You can see a list of Mutual Likes by talking to Senri the Mailman, and can join an Online Lobby of a mutual like if they leave it open. Mutual Likes can also join your own open Online Lobby.
Up Next: How to Unlock and Use Decorations
Top Guide Sections
- Sunbreak Expansion
- Sunbreak Armor - Master Rank
- Sunbreak Layered Armor
- Sunbreak Monster List
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