Monster Hunter Wilds patch 1.021 will release tomorrow, but it won’t bring the performance fixes PC players have been hoping for. Instead, Capcom is focusing on endgame content and weapon balance tweaks, leaving serious optimization improvements for later updates.
Yuya Tokuda, the game’s director, shared a Director’s Letter explaining what’s coming with patch 1.021 and what’s still coming soon. The update will include endgame changes originally planned for Title Update 3 and some weapon balance adjustments, including rolling back some nerfs from the previous update.
Performance-wise, patch 1.021 will only fix a crash bug related to player gestures and connection issues. Major improvements to frame rate and CPU usage won’t arrive until Title Update 3, scheduled for late September, with further CPU load reductions planned for the fourth update this winter. Capcom faces challenges because increasing the native frame rate also raises CPU usage significantly, which can cause stability problems on some systems. Tokuda said, “as making changes to CPU processing could affect the game’s overall performance, we plan to proceed with caution.”
“In regards to CPU load reduction, we plan to address this issue in the fourth title update scheduled for this winter. Once the initial implementation is complete, we will proceed with a second stage of further mitigation measures.” – Yuya Tokuda
After tackling CPU load, the developers will then work on optimizing GPU usage. Capcom has already implemented some performance improvements, like adding DLSS4 and FSR4 support in Title Update 2, fixing shader compilation issues, and reducing the impact of the anti-cheat system on performance.
Monster Hunter Wilds still struggles to recover from its rocky launch and mostly negative reviews. While patch 1.021 might not fix performance woes, the added endgame content and weapon tweaks could keep some players around until the bigger fixes arrive. Yikes, it’s gonna be a long wait for those smooth frame rates.