Monster Hunter World Capture Net Guide: how to get pets for your room with the capture net

With the use of your capture net, you can get yourself some cute little pets.

While the big, bad monsters will take up a lot of your time in Monster Hunter World, you shouldn't neglect the little guys. One of the best things about Monster Hunter World is that its large-scale environments are home to all manner of realistic wildlife – from insects to birds, fish and smaller critters. While you'll spend a lot of your time battling enormous behemoths, there is something you can do with those smaller creatures – take them on as pets.

In Monster Hunter World you unlock pets by capturing them with the capture net. The capture net is an item you'll have from the moment the commission first sets you up with your gear in Astera, so you can get to capturing little creatures from pretty much the first moment you venture into the Ancient Forest properly.

In order to use the capture net, hold L1 / LB to open up your menu and then use Square / X and Circle / B to sort back and forth through the items equipped on your item bar. Unless you've removed it from the shortcut bar using the method we describe in our Monster Hunter World beginner's tips guide the capture net will be found here, and then simply pressing Square / X will equip it properly – another press will unequip.

Once the Capture Net is properly equipped, it takes over your Slinger. That means your slinger ammo will be set aside for the meantime and you'll use L2 / LT to aim and R2 / RT to fire the net. The net is cast out in a wide way and is represented on Monster Hunter World's user interface by a big square. The net doesn't have enormous range, but it fires out in a different, broader way than slinger shots.

Monster Hunter World makes it all easier by ensuring that big square changes color whenever a monster is in range and ready to be captured when you fire. You'll have to be careful, though – a lot of little creatures spook when you get close, so remember you can sneak with a tap of X / A and remember that you can use the Gillie Mantle or long overgrowth to give yourself a stealthy edge.

When you capture critters, head back to your room in Astera and chat to your housekeeper – that's the Palico that isn't your personal buddy that you'll find in your quarters. That Palico will know about your capture and will allow you to place some of your captured creatures out into the room where they act as your pets. You can interact with them a little and your hunter will feed them and the like when you choose to rest in your room.

Capturing actual monsters – that's a story for another day…