Planting barrel bombs at the head of a sleeping monster is a time-honored Monster Hunter tradition—and unfortunately, so is planting them poorly so you only harm yourself when you set them off. With the quality-of-life features added in Monster Hunter Wilds, Capcom’s shown mercy to its struggling amateur demolitionists: You can now pick up a placed barrel bomb, and even roll it across the ground. You and your teammates can even set up a pile of explosives and huck a final barrel bomb at it to trigger the detonation from a safe distance.
Surprising absolutely nobody, the advent of physics-driven, rollable explosives has enabled hunters to blow themselves up in all kinds of exciting ways. Like in this piece of absolute cinema from redditor, and I apologize for this, “Wanker_Danker”:
In all due fairness to Wanker_Danker—or perhaps undue fairness, based on their handle—rollable barrel bombs have quickly proven to be a rowdy bunch. They’re liable to bounce unpredictably, and they have an unfortunate habit of clipping through the geometry.
The spot featured in Wanker_Danker’s video is a source of countless barrel bomb mishaps. It’s the section of pipe in the Oilwell Basin where Nu Udra retreats to recover when it’s on the last of its many legs. As with real cephalopods, Nu Udra can squirm into surprisingly small spaces, and trying to send a barrel bomb tumbling into the glowing tunnel it’s taking refuge in is a tempting way to finish off a hunt.
Unfortunately for redditor sappiiii and their hunting party, that temptation proved a little too strong, and the panic that followed can’t be blamed on the barrel bomb:
After 80 hours my biggest brain fart yet from r/MonsterHunter
I love that clip. It’s such a pure moment of relatable fumbling, when you’ve inexplicably chosen to do the exact wrong thing and the only response your brain can produce in the ensuing chaos is to make it worse.
As hard as it might be to believe, rolling barrels packed with gunpowder can produce mayhem even when your technique is on point. And as Prozac, the palico of redditor deletedmessages discovered, sometimes there’s collateral damage:
Goodnight, sweet Prozac.
Barrel bombs have produced plenty of chaos, but when the stars align, they’re also capable of creating miracles. Here’s a clip from @2hKX3zpWWZxVVbY on X, who whiffed their way into success:
自分を天才と思った瞬間💣#モンハンワイルズ #MHWilds pic.twitter.com/W9u3Pwx3o2March 10, 2025
Still, despite all the mishaps, barrel bombs remain a valuable tool in the hunter kit—and not just for capping off a hunt with a hefty chunk of burst damage. One of the magical things about Monster Hunter is that you can find new applications for almost anything.
In past games, seasoned hunters figured out how to use the damage from barrel bombs to trigger manufacture parry windows to charge their long swords or trigger powerful counterattacks on demand. These old magicks survive today, and with them, blowing yourself up with a barrel bomb can even be a way to ensure your survival:
Wake up, new tech to avoid Jin Dahaad’s AOE just dropped from r/MonsterHunter
That’s Monster Hunter, to me.
