That can mean free exploring or replaying hunts or doing investigations. As I’ve alluded to in other points, the idea is that from time to time, you’re going to need to do a bit of farming to move on.
That seems like relatively basic stuff going in, but if you just play every new story mission as soon as it arrives, you’re going to start feeling swamped, exhausted and overmatched. Monster Hunter World doesn’t exactly…tell you how the entire game is supposed to work. The Core Feedback Loop Is Not Immediately Apparent