As you collect tracks and learn more about animals, you’ll slowly earn experience towards leveling up your knowledge on the specific animals that you track. But, you’ll also earn Research Points along the way, which are very useful, and in this article we’ll go over what Research Points are, what they do, and how you can use them to further your hunter’s knowledge of the New World.
Research Points Explained
Like Zenny—the main type of money—Research Points act as a type of currency in Monster Hunter: World, which means you’ll be able to track it and spend it on various things. As we said above, Research Points can be earned by simply doing things while out on a hunt—like trapping monsters, tracking them, and even capturing smaller beasts as pets. Overtime you’ll begin to earn more and more of these points, and you’ll be able to spend them on items and mechanics that will help make your time as a hunter much easier.
How to Spend Research Points
Right now you can use Research Points to unlock items like Palico Equipment, food at the Canteen, Tailraider Safari missions, and even on fertilizer at the Botanical Research Center.
You’ll need to use Research Points anytime that you craft new equipment for your Palico, which can be done at the Smithy, where you can also create your own new equipment.
You can save Zenny by using Research Points to purchase different meals at the Canteen. Simply choose the ‘Pay with Points’ option and you’ll use your hard-earned Research Points instead of the Zenny that you have stocked up so far.
You can grow different plants at the Botanical Research Center, and you can use Research Points in this area to purchase and use things like Fertilizer, Summoner Jelly, and Catalysts. This will help plants grow more effectively, allowing you to grow stronger herbs and other items.
Finally, you can spend Research Points to deploy the Tailraider Safari missions. This set of missions is unlocked much later into the game and will allow you to send out a group of Palicoes that will hunt monsters and collect different items for you. The only downside here is that you will need to spend upwards of 600 Research Points and beyond to complete these missions.
Remember that you’ll get Research Points for completing a ton of different things while out on the hunt. This means you’ll want to gather items, collect tracks, and trap monsters to continue constantly raising the amount of points that you have to work with.
For more help head back over to our Monster Hunter: World guide and be sure to check out our guide on how to mount monsters, as well as our in-depth article on how to use Hammers.
