In Monster Hunter Wilds, Guardian monsters possess the unique ability to generate Wylkrystals: crystalline structures that can be strategically used by hunters to inflict significant damage on even the strongest monsters.
Understanding Wylkrystals
Wylkrystals are created during battles with Guardian monsters, such as the Guardian Rathalos or Guardian Ebony Odogaron. The Crystals are created when the Guardian lands his attacks inside a Wylk Pool. These crystals react when exposed to elemental attacks. Notably, you can trigger these explosions using Slinger ammo, turning the environment into a tactical advantage.
Strategies for Using Wylkrystals
- Elemental Attacks: Weapons imbued with elemental powers, such as dragon or fire element, can blow up Wylkrystals upon hitting it, causing massive damage to the Guardian (or yourself and friend if anyone else is too close, so remain careful).
- Slinger Ammo: If you do not have any elemental weapon, you can fire Slinger ammo at Wylkrystals to trigger explosions. It works with dragon pods for example.
Other Crystal Mechanic
You can also kill the Guardian inside the Wylk Pool. After a certain amount of time, the body will crystallize and can obtain items named Crushed Crystals, used for melding materials.
Another important thing to know is that if you are under the Dragonblight effect, your elemental damage will not work. The Dragon blight status effect prevents you from doing any elemental damage, and this counts also for shooting elemental ammo at crystals.
You can also have a look at the original Reddit post about the subject for more details in the comments:
