There are many vendors and upgrade systems available in Wild Hearts. Some are more visible than others, but all are valuable. One of the less clear of these systems is the Restorative Baths, which you can technically get to the moment you get to Minato, but it won’t be available for use for a little while. Once you can use them, they’re one of the game’s most valuable non-gear upgrade paths. Here’s how it all works.
How the Restorative Baths Work in Wild Hearts
Screenshot by GameSkinny
When you first reach Minato, the Restorative Baths are a broken-down building on the upper levels of the town, looked over by their dour caretaker, Tamakazura. They tell you the place is run down, but they’ve been keeping it safe as a favor to their old mentor.
You won’t be able to restore the Baths until the end of Chapter 1 following a pair of fights. First, you’ll need to defeat your first Lavaback kemono, activate the Dragon Pit at the back of Spirit Isle, then beat the Earthbreaker kemono in the big setpiece hunt.
Once you defeat the Earthbreaker, head back to the Baths’ location to find it back in working order, with Tamakazura as its new proprietor. He’ll explain that bathing is an excellent way to, well, restore oneself, but in mechanical terms, bathing in one of the special baths will permanently increase your health by a small but not insignificant amount.
How to Use and Upgrade the Restorative Baths
Screenshot by GameSkinny
There are two ways to use the Baths in Wild Hearts. The first is to simply head into them regularly for some role play. Speak to Tamakazura and select Bathe in Current Water. Your character will enjoy the heated water but earn no benefits other than enjoying some time out of their armor.
You’ll need to upgrade the Baths to unlock different versions to increase your health. When you speak to Tamakazura, you can take a bath or develop one. Developing requires specific materials you’ll need to go out of your way to find. One of the first baths you unlock, the Healing Herb Bath, requires two Lotuswing Swallow Tail items as part of its unlock requirements, and you can only get those by keeping a Lotuswing Swallow as a pet.
Additional baths unlock as you progress through the game and will require rarer and harder-to-find materials. The permanent health increase is well worth the search, though.
One thing to bear in mind: you can only use a Bath to increase your health a single time. Additional uses of that Bath will default you to the roleplay aspect of the mechanic.
Those are the basics of the Restorative Baths in Wild Hearts. They’re not just a nice world-building addition to the game, but they have one of the nicest gameplay upgrades you can earn for relatively little effort. For more content around the game like this, head to our Wild Hearts guides hub.
Featured image via Electronic Arts
