Item hog: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Wycoon cart upgrade guide | Technobubble

Technobubble is a regular gaming and technology feature by Jason Hidalgo. Follow him on Twitter @jasonhidalgo

Hiya, Doodles! So are you tired of acting like a glorified delivery boy and gathering mats and catching fish in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate's various maps? Perhaps it's time to work smarter instead of harder.

Thanks to the Wycoon's cart and the Sunsnug Isle casting machine, you can easily gather herbs, shrooms, honey, insects and fish pretty easily. Here are some key things to quickly boost your resource-gathering prowess. While you're at it, don't forget to check our guide to upgrading the Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate's canteen ingredients as well.

INCREASING YOUR CART

Kitty carting ain't good. Increasing your Wyporium carts, on the other hand, is. The Wycoon starts off with just one cart but you can add a couple more if you wish. You'll want to do this so you can duplicate multiple types of items at once in one cycle. To add more carts, do the following quests:

1. Oil Toil: Deliver 5 Slagtoth oils (4-star village quest)

2. Advanced: (Something) Trade Route: Hunt a Zamtrios and a Lagombi (5-star village quest)

* So for the life of me, I can not remember the full name of this mission. Just find the advanced mission with those 2 monsters.

UNLOCKING MORE VILLAGES

Villages determine the types of items you can trade for in the multiplication cart. Here are the different villages and how you unlock them.

1. Pokke Village Farm: Specializes in plants such as herbs, seeds and berries. This is unlocked from the beginning.

2. Kokoto Mushroom Farm: As its name implies, these feature fungi such as blue mushrooms, Parashrooms and Dragon Toadstools. This too is unlocked from the beginning.

3. Moga Bee Yard: For honey and insects such as Flashbugs, Godbugs and Thunderbugs, this is the farm to use. To unlock, you'll need to do the 3-star village "Boulder-bash" quest where you hunt a Tetsucabra. This will unlock the villager request "Honey Sweetens the Deal." The request requires 1,500 caravan points, 1 Monster Fluid and 3 Glueglopper.

4. Dundorma Town Market: Use this for fangs, claws, dung bombs and catalysts. Unlocking the villager request for this requires you to have finished the "Honey Sweetens the Deal" request and have Cathar Village already accessible. This will unlock the "Trading With the Town" request, which can be fulfilled with 2,000 caravan points, 3 Pale Extracts and 3 Lightcrystals.

* To increase the item yields from these places, simply use them often. You'll get to 2 stars after 21 uses and 3 stars after 46 uses.

INCREASING FISHING YIELDS

OK, this isn't affiliated with the cart but I'm putting it here because it involves resource gathering. At Cheeko Sands, there's a fishing machine your cats can use to to catch different types of fish and even a Plesioth. To increase the amount of fish you can catch with the machine, you'll need to do the fish delivery side quest. Start off by doing the 2-star village quest "Chip Off the Old Blockade" and the 3-star village quest "Shipshape Skin." Then talk to the merchant lady at Val Habar and do the "Sushifish SOS" 2-star village quest. Talk to the merchant again then go to Harth to talk to the merchant over there. This will unlock the 3-star village quest "Fish Wish." Do that then talk to the merchant again and head to Cheeko Sands after that. Talk to the Felyne Fisher to unlock Goldenfish Gold Mine. Finish that and you can now catch more fish with the Casting Machine.