Hello, Hunters! This is a short and simple guide about your weapon, armor, and gear progression at various stages in Monster Hunter World. Let’s get right to it.
Check this out!!! Other TeamBRG MHW Guides
MHW Low Rank Armor: What to craft?
First off – two important notes:
- This set can bring anyone all the way to High Rank.
- DO NOT TRY TO COLLECT or TRYHARD CRAFT LOW RANK GEAR. THEY ARE COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. Read more below.
| Type | Item | Skill | # | Skills TOTAL | # |
| Weapon | Any | – | – | Health Boost | 1 |
| Head | Bone | Health Boost | 1 | Affinity Sliding | 1 |
| Hands | Kestodon | Affinity Sliding | 1 | Attack Boost | 3 |
| Chest | Bone | Attack Boost | 2 | Fortify | 1 |
| Legs | Jagras | Fortify | 1 | Speed Sharpening | 1 |
| Boots | Alloy | Speed Sharpening | 1 | ||
| Charm | Attack | Attack Boost | 1 |
Again, DO NOT AMASS LOW RANK ARMOR.
Each and every person I KNOW who did has massively regretted it.
The only other low-rank armor I crafted were the Kulu Gloves
For the skill “Pro Transporter” to help delivery quests.
The above set is all you need.
Low Rank Weapon Tree?
I won’t tell you how to play, but if you’re looking for advice
– IMO AVOID Elemental Weapons during story mode.
You want a weapon that’s great “ALWAYS”, look for any Elementless viable weapon. Blast or Paralysis is OK too. It’s better to focus on and own one (max two) weapons that are great against EVERY MONSTER.
MHW High Rank Armor Progression v1
When you first step into HR, right into about 7* quests.
IMO, the most efficient way to progress through high-rank is a “multi step process”. Here is the FIRST STEP INTO HIGH RANK Armor set.
| Type | Item | Skill | # | Skill | # | Slots | Skills TOTAL | # |
| Weapon | Any | – | – | – | – | – | Attack Boost | 4 |
| Head | Kulu a | Fire Resistance | 1 | Weakness Exploit | 1 | – | Speed Sharpening | 3 |
| Hands | Alloy a | Defense Boost | 1 | Speed Sharpening | 1 | – | Weakness Exploit | 1 |
| Chest | Bone a | Attack Boost | 2 | – | – | – | Fortify | 1 |
| Legs | Jagras B | Fortify | 1 | – | – | s | Defense Boost | 1 |
| Boots | Alloy a | Speed Sharpening | 2 | – | – | – | Fire Resistance | 1 |
| Charm | Attack | Attack Boost | 1 | – | – | – |
Customize MHW “BASIC High Rank Armor build” v1 in MHWCalc.
This build has a lot going for it. First of all – ALL THE MATERIALS COME from GARBAGE TIER MONSTERS, wildlife, and resource nodes. If you can’t craft one of these, simply use any of the low rank options above to fill up your slots.
Remember you get a free Attack Boost jewel.
High Rank Weapon Tree?
Again my advice stands.
- Avoid Elemental Weapons for now. As exciting as they are, I would rather build up weapons that are ALWAYS EFFECTIVE.
- Go for any weapon that fits the Elementless setup. I suppose I can make a list of the best weapons for the elementless setup. You want something great against ANY MONSTER.
- Status weapons are “fine” I suppose. I lean towards Paralysis and Blast for general purpose weaponry.
MHW High Rank Armor Progression v2
7*+ Quests, up to beating Xeno’Jiiva.
As I said, it’s multi-step process. It’s around this time curiosity and ideas set in, and you want to craft ALL THE THINGS! While I don’t blame you – I don’t think it’s the best use of time YET, as you want to amass USEFUL pieces of gear for ANY WEAPON TYPE OR HUNT.
Safe and Useful Pieces to mix and match:
- No “Niche Skills” (resistances, elemental attack, gathering related)
- Have “a good skill” + slot.
- Look for Weakness Exploit and Handicraft (Great skills)
Lots of customization and personalization go into a build.
If you need inspiration or a starting point,
here are two sample build paths:
Do you need Handicraft 5 for white Sharpness?
| Type | Item | Skill | # | Skill | # | Slots | Skills TOTAL | # |
| Weapon | Any | – | – | – | – | – | Weakness Exploit | 3 |
| Head | Dragonking a | Weakness Exploit | 2 | – | – | Handicraft | 5 | |
| Hands | Kushala B | Handicraft | 2 | – | – | Speed Sharpening | 2 | |
| Chest | Teostra B | Weakness Exploit | 1 | – | – | |||
| Legs | Rath Heart B | Handicraft | 1 | – | – | |||
| Boots | Alloy A | Speed Sharpening | 2 | – | – | |||
| Charm | Handicraft | Handicraft | 2 | – | – |
Customize “Basic HR Build Handicraft 5 WE 3” in MHWCalc
No need Handicraft 5 (Using Nergigante Weapon or similar)
Weapons with excellent Blue Sharpness levels, but cannot upgrade to white (Nergi, most Barroth, most Jagras… or weapons with natural full white) do not need Handicraft 5 at all. So we look for DPS elsewhere.
| Type | Item | Skill | # | Skill | # | Slots | Skills TOTAL | # |
| Weapon | Any | – | – | – | – | – | Maximum Might | 3 |
| Head | Nergigante a | Maximum Might | 2 | Attack Boost | 1 | s | Weakness Exploit | 3 |
| Hands | Rathalos B | Weakness Exploit | 2 | s | Attack Boost | 4 | ||
| Chest | Teostra B | Weakness Exploit | 1 | b | Partbreaker | 1 | ||
| Legs | Uragaan B | Partbreaker | 1 | m | Agitator | 1 | ||
| Boots | Nergigante a | Maximum Might | 1 | Agitator | 1 | s | ||
| Charm | Attack | Attack Boost | 2 |
Customize “Basic HR Build MM3 WE3” in MHWCalc
If your stamina is full often (mostly depends on weapon type) – you can use the awesome Maximum Might! It’s an amazing skill which you should always TRY to fit in.
| Type | Item | Skill | # | Skill | # | Slots | Skills TOTAL | # |
| Weapon | Any | – | – | – | – | – | Weakness Exploit | 3 |
| Head | Dragonking a | Weakness Exploit | 2 | – | – | b | Attack Boost | 7 |
| Hands | Dober B | Attack Boost | 2 | – | – | b | Health Boost | 3 |
| Chest | Teostra B | Weakness Exploit | 1 | – | – | b | ||
| Legs | Nergigante B | Attack Boost | 2 | – | – | m | Slots OPEN | |
| Boots | Dober B | Attack Boost | 2 | – | – | s | bbbm | |
| Charm | Health (Any) | Health Boost | 3 | – | – | – |
Customize “Basic HR Build WE3 + General DPS” in MHWCalc
If your build cannot utilize Maximum Might due to your weapon using high stamina – you can use something like this. Pure stats!
For any armor set – I follow this 99% of the time (unless making a razor specific “niche” hard counter type of build):
ARMOR SKILLS CONTAIN YOUR BASIC DPS AND UTILITY SKILLS.
USE DECORATIONS TO STACK NICHE DEFENSE AND RESISTANCES.
While I can give you ideas – I cannot possibly outline every possible viable build PATH for every weapon type out there.
I hope this jump starts your exploration of builds.
Endgame Armor (Transition)
As you amass more decorations (which are the cornerstone of fully fleshing out a build) and have the capability to farm all weapons and armor, you will inevitably zero in to many different “build templates” that you can edit for more offense or more defense. These finely tuned builds are what I would consider end-game.
As for what these are, I can’t cram them in here – ENDGAME BUILDS WILL BE IN A SEPARATE PAGE EACH!
Good luck and check out our other MHW Guides!
This might be old, but you switched hands and chest.
This might be a little late. But can I replace Jagras B for Zorah B for the high rank set v1? Since both have the Fortify skill anyway
Amazing work. It is so helpful for storyline progression. Lov ur work
Hi, can you check that HR Armor v2 that you wrote for hand to be Rathalos B with Weakness Exploit skill. But in this game im seeing skill Fire Resistant instead of Weakness Exploit. Did they change skill recently or what?
@Vali: i had the same issue and i ended up running this *If you’re just looking for the skills*
Head- Nerg a – Max Might 2- Attack Boost 1
Chest- Rath B – Weakness Exploit 2
Hands- Kasier B – Weakness Exploit 1
Waist- Uragaan B- Part Breaker 1
Boots- Nerg a- Max Might 1- Agitator 1
Charm- Attack III -Attack boost 3
I play on PS4: GT is the same as my username, if you need help grinding for the gear lmk
I like this guide and I think it’s pretty informative. I personally collected some of the low rank armor and grinded for every elemental hammer during story mode because I figure I’ll need the practice with each monster so I know their moves better for high rank. Unless they have different moves for high rank, but I’m pretty sure they just have buffed stats.
I know this post is a little old but some of the skills for the gear recommended is not matching up in game.
For example the Kaiser Mail B has Special Boost 2 instead of Weakness Exploit. Wasn’t sure if they change skills for specific gear or not.
I believe i have the skills of two of the pieces switched… ill recheck this.
Hi! Could you provide more info on the MHW High Rank Armor Progression v1? is it HR 7 when you should start getting those? Are they upgraded versions from the normal sets or do they appear as new craftable items down the list eventually?
Should I max out the low tier first with the armor upgrades and then look to get the following?
Thanks! Just started playing and found this guide to be very useful.
The low-rank armor does not evolve into the high rank ones. You will unlock high rank armor after the 6 Pukei-Pukei hunt I believe. Upgrading the old armor with stones is just “as you need”, which isn’t a value that I can pinpoint for everyone – but don’t worry about it as you’ll get more than enough stones later on.
Hello, I just wanted to say that is a very useful guide. Thank you.
I know this is a couple months old, but for the low rank armor set, the bone chest plate only gives attack boost 1, not 2.
I will look into it, thanks for pointing it out!