Monster Hunter: World – Iceborne has plenty of new features to keep even veteran players busy for months to come. One of the most convenient is the Monster Hunter Steamworks. This new, useful facility opens up shortly after you begin the Iceborne expansion. And it will help you get acclimated to your new environment by reducing the game’s grind considerably. But Monster Hunter doesn’t explain its Steamworks all that well. That’s why we’re here! It’s time to check out our Monster Hunter Steamworks guide for Iceborne.
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The Steamworks in Monster Hunter: World – Iceborne are more complicated than they seem. That said, it’s not hard to get started you. Just need some fuel and to mash buttons. The game itself will walk you through the basics of this process. But to reiterate: you need to press X, Square, and Triangle (A, X, and Y on Xbox). Guessing the correct order of these three buttons will net you one semi-random item. These include consumables, crafting materials, and even decor items for your in-game room.
That’s not all, though! Pressing the right button also builds up the Steamworks’ pressure gauge. You can fill this bar up three times per visit. Ideally, you will always fill it up to the maximum tier — triggering a special cutscene in the process. That’s because filling the gauge three times nets you the Overdrive Bonus. You can always check what item this will be before initiating the Steamworks mini-game in Monster Hunter.
Complimentary Items & Rewards – Monster Hunter Steamworks Guide
There are a few extra wrinkles to the interim rewards, too. Besides the Overdrive Bonus, you can check the rarity of each Complimentary Item. These are the rewards you get for correctly (or incorrectly) guessing the button combinations at the Steamworks. The lowest rarity items are marked with a grey paw icon, while the mid-tier ones are marked in yellow. The rarest items are marked in red. However, these only appear under very specific circumstances.
Rewards with a grey rarity are awarded if you fail to correctly guess any three-button combination at the Steamworks in Monster Hunter: World. As such, you’ll see these a lot. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. The items include Mega Potions and other everyday necessities. That saves you the trouble of farming for these commonly used items, and frees up the Botanical Research Center for more interesting things.
Yellow items are awarded for correctly guessing any three-button sequence. That’s easier said than done, of course. The order is completely random and does occasionally repeat — meaning you can’t rely on the previous combination to narrow your choices on the next one. You just have to get lucky. On the bright side, even a failed or partially correct combo will net you some steam for the overdrive gauge. It’s never a total loss!
Finally, we have the red rewards. These are obviously the most sought after; they have a one-in-five chance of being a Celestial Wyverian Print. This is the item you use to craft Master Rank monster mantles at the Elder Melder. In other words, they’re the Master Rank equivalent of Gold Wyverian Prints, which you can use to craft monster gems, in Monster Hunter: World. And they’ll save you a ton of farming for the rarest monster materials in the game.
Red rewards aren’t easy to get, though. You need to continue playing the Steamworks mini-game until the buttons randomly start to glow red. The Tech Chief will sometimes call this out by telling you that a Steamworks “jackpot” is possible, but not always. You should pay attention to the colors of the buttons and be ready to manually pick them out when the time comes.
Bonus Time – Monster Hunter Steamworks Guide
We mention this because there is a shortcut to using the Steamworks in Iceborne. You can just hold R2 (Right Trigger on Xbox). This will automatically hit a preset combination for you over and over again. Anecdotally, though, it seems slightly less successful than hitting buttons at random. It also increases the odds that you’ll miss Bonus Time, so we recommend only using it if you’re just killing time. If there’s any chance at all that hitting the buttons randomly increases your odds, you want to make sure you do it for the red jackpot sections, at least.
Speaking of Bonus Time: it comes in two flavors at the Monster Hunter Steamworks. Although which one you get also seems random. The camera might zoom in on the Steamworks at give you increase steam for the overdrive gauge for every combination. Otherwise it will summon three felynes — one for each button you can press — that straight-up tell you the correct order. It’s very important to pay attention at this point! Not only are you guaranteed yellow rarity items, your gauge will also increase quite a bit. As far as we can tell, there’s not even a time limit. You can just be patient and follow the felynes’ directions.
Triggering Bonus Time is easy, but still mostly random. The Tech Chief will occasionally inform you that you have a limited number of turns to get a perfect combo. Doing so just once during this window triggers bonus time. We had the most success during this window by performing a sequence, checking if it was correct, and repeating whatever order was correct before if we got the wrong one. It’s not clear if this is just dumb luck, though.
Fuel, Coal, & Overdrive Bonuses – Monster Hunter Steamworks Guide
Fuel is the final pillar of the Steamworks in Monster Hunter: World. And you can acquire it in two ways. The first is to let it accumulate naturally. You can check the Natural Fuel level by speaking to the Tech Chief. This builds up more every time you do a mission, similar to items at the Botanical Research Center. And just like that other facility, your natural fuel has a maximum limit. Thankfully the game will warn you when you reach your cap upon returning from a quest. Just check the event log on the right-hand side of the screen — where you’re also notified about Tailraider Safaris and the Argosy.
You can also pump fuel into the Steamworks manually. Just select “Add Fuel.” If you have any coal, which is only good for powering the Steamworks anyway, it will ask if you want to deposit it all. After that, you can also add unwanted ore for an extra boost. And if you’re going to use the Steamworks anyway, you really ought to. We find it best to have a little more than 1200 total fuel in the Steamworks — at least — if you’re going to play the mini-game. That way you’re guaranteed to reach the Overdrive Bonus and get the unique item at the end. This includes King Armor Spheres and Celestial Wyverian Prints, just like the ultimate Limited Bounty every week.
If you don’t reach the Overdrive Bonus on your first go, though, don’t fret. All of your progress at the MHW Steamworks gets saved between uses! The next time you start it, all the pressure you built up before will still be there. So there’s no reason not to use up excess natural reserves.
Coal is found in Monster Hunter like any other kind of ore. You just mine for it during Master Rank quests. Whatever you do, though, don’t let that Natural Fuel go to waste! We recommend always using it up as soon as it maxes out. Extra ore is plentiful and easy to acquire, so just dump in a surplus if you need to. Whether it’s for a King Armor Sphere or a Celestial Wyverian Print, you can’t get wrong with either Overdrive Bonus.
And that’s that! Thanks for checking out our Steamworks guide for Monster Hunter: World – Iceborne. We’ll be sure to update this guide if anything changes or the facility gets some new additions. Otherwise, good luck farming for those very useful items!
