Earlier this month, some Monster Hunter Wilds players reported that the game actually performed better on Steam when it has more DLC installed. Word about that improvement spread quickly among the Monster Hunter Wilds community, but the real reason for the game’s improvement isn’t about whether the game has DLC. Instead, the problem arises when Monster Hunter Wilds checks for DLC.

Digital Foundry debunked the notion that more DLC was speeding up Monster Hunter Wilds. Instead, DF discovered that there’s an automatic check for DLC that greatly impacts Wilds’ performance. According to the report, when the option for DLC content was offered, the game itself “checked for DLC thousands upon thousands of times, adding to the CPU load of an already over-burdened processor” in less than a minute.

Essentially, this recurring issue in the hub area near a Support Desk Felynes has nothing to do with the DLC itself; it’s happening because the game is constantly checking for DLC. That’s slowing everything down, even if there isn’t any DLC to be found.

Other players have already noticed this and released a less DLC checks mod that helps alleviate the issue. It doesn’t solve all of Monster Hunter Wilds’ underlying issues on PC, but it can solve this one until Capcom decides to eventually address it.

Capcom had previously promised that an update released this winter would directly target the biggest problems with Monster Hunter Wilds on PC. Many of those issues still persist, and it’s unknown when or if they will be fixed.