Forget battling Natarkveld, Monster Hunter Wilds modders have now made playable anthropomorphic Arkveld a thing for reasons and used it to replace a certain kid

Warning: Spoilers for Monster Hunter Wilds lie ahead.

Hello. Monster Hunter Wilds modders have been getting pretty weird lately, both in the name of bizarre fetishes and the most widespread in-joke the community’s developed since this latest MonHun came out. Here’s another case of the latter – meet anthropomorphic Arkveld Nata.

But, you say, haven’t Wilds modders already created a freaky half big murderous beastie, half child who at one point during Wilds confusingly says he’s just like that murderous beastie, a line that’s since become a source of endless MH community gags? Yes, Natarkveld exists. However, Wilds modders clearly weren’t done bringing Nata and Arkveld together in literal ways.

Enter ‘Arkveld Nata‘, a mod by XenonValstrax which replaces Nata, the arguably kinda annoying “mysterious young boy that accompanies you on your journey” in Wilds, with, er, an anthropomorphic Arkveld.

Basically, it’s the reverse of the aforementioned Natarkveld mod – Natarkveld slaps Nata’s head and hands onto Arkveld’s body, Arkveld Nata swaps Arkveld’s head and limbs onto Nata’s body. Confused? Good, it’s not like you wouldn’t end up that way anyway when a deadly monster dressed in human clothes suddenly starts talking in a child’s voice or gently weeping.

To be honest, I think that prospect might be more terrifying than anything Natarkveld or vanilla Akveld could throw at you. It doesn’t end there either – that anthro Arkveld model XenonValstrax has used here is one they created for another mod they recently put out: ‘Hunter Arkveld‘

Yep, if you hadn’t guessed, that one lets you swap out your hunter and play as an anthro Arkveld. It comes in two versions, one of which comes with the risk of making your character’s head invisible, just in case you don’t think being able to kill Arkveld as Arkveld’s weird human-bodied cousin isn’t trippy enough. XenonValstrax also warns that “this mod loads a monster model every time in game and might cause performance loss” and adds that it hasn’t been tested with female character models.

It’s also worth noting that both Arkveld Nata and Hunter Arkveld appear not to currently work as intended for folks whose PCs have AMD graphics cards – if you’re affected, it’s up to you if you view that as a blessing or a curse. For non-AMDers, you’ll need Fluffy Mod Manager and REFramework to get these mods working.

If you’re planning to jump into Monster Hunter Wilds and embrace the surreal Arkveldiness, you can check out the array of helpful guides and tips we’ve got.