Recruiting Palicos

Learn how to recruit new Palico companions in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate! Discover where to find them and how to scout and recruit them for your team.

Alright, so you've been playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for a bit and you're ready to expand your feline crew, huh? It's pretty cool how you can actually recruit new Palicos to join you! Once you've gotten a bit further into the game, specifically after you've reached Cheeko Sands and Sunsnug Isle and finished the key quest called Wild Palico Panic, you'll unlock the ability to recruit more Palicos. It's not just about finding them anywhere, though; you'll need to encounter these Wild Palicos while you're out on quests in the different areas.

Think of it like this: every major zone in the game has a little spot where these cats tend to hang out. For instance, in the Ancestral Steppe, there's a place in area 10 that everyone calls the “Cat shrine.” It's basically their hangout spot where Felynes, Melynxes, and sometimes even the Wild Palicos you're looking for will stash their stuff. It's a good idea to make a habit of swinging by these spots when you're on a quest to see if any new Wild Palicos show up.

When a Wild Palico does appear, you'll notice it looks a bit different from the regular Felynes and Melynxes chilling there. To scout it, just walk up to it – you'll see an action prompt, usually pressing the [A] button, to scout the Palico. Once you've done that, just finish up the quest you're currently on. Don't worry about it too much right then; the important part is scouting it.

After you've successfully completed the quest and are looking at the rewards screen, you'll get to see some info about the Palico you scouted. Most of the details about them, like their skills or personality, are either determined by the area you found them in or are just random. This means you probably won't recruit the exact same Palico twice, which is pretty neat! You'll then get a choice to recruit them or not. If you decide to bring them aboard, you'll even have the option to give your new Palico a custom name.

All the Palicos you recruit will end up living at Sunsnug Isle. Initially, you can have a maximum of twenty Palicos there. But here's a cool thing: later in the game, you can actually upgrade Sunsnug Isle, which will increase the number of Palicos you can house! So, keep an eye out for those upgrade opportunities.

There's also a neat feature involving StreetPass. You can send out one of your Palicos using StreetPass, and if you happen to pass by another hunter who also has StreetPass enabled, they can recruit your Palico. And guess what? You might even get to recruit one of theirs! Just a heads-up, though: you can't send out your very first Palico, or the one that automatically joins you right after you complete the Wild Palico Panic quest.

Later on, after you've completed that initial quest, there's another one called Meownster Hunter Havoc. Finishing this quest will automatically recruit three more Palicos for you. You can send these three out via StreetPass, so they're available for trading with other hunters!