Monster Hunter Wilds weapon tier list

A weapon tier list can help you make sense of the overwhelming amount of weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds. Sure, any weapon can work against any monster, but knowing which is the strongest or which might suit you best saves you time — and, more importantly, upgrade materials.

In this Monster Hunter Wilds guide, we’ve compiled a tier list ranking each of the game’s 14 weapons based on what they offer in battle.

Monster Hunter Wilds weapon tier list

Our Monster Hunter Wilds weapon tier list ranks each of the game’s 14 weapons based on how useful they are in battle — not on how easy they are to learn or how newcomer-friendly they might be.

The exception to the rule is if a weapon is more complex than others without offering higher damage output or a more interesting variety of ways to play compared to others. We’ve also taken into account how versatile a weapon is. For example, one that lets you balance offense and defense without sacrificing mobility will rank higher than one whose main draw is just letting you move more quickly.

If you’re not sure how each weapon works, here’s our list of all Monster Hunter Wilds weapons, or check out our recommendations of the best weapon for beginners and the best secondary weapon combos.

S-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds

S-tier weapons offer the most utility and balance with the fewest caveats. Some still have high learning curves, such as the hunting horn, but learning how they work gives you the biggest advantages in the game.

The S-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds are the long sword, bow, sword and shield, and hunting horn. Below, we explain why these weapons are S-tier.

The long sword strikes the perfect balance in almost every way. It’s multifaceted without being overwhelming, thanks to its spirit gauge attacks, and it’s capable of dealing high damage amounts across several combos, rather than relying solely on one or two burst-type attacks. Better yet, it has some of the best reach of any weapon, without being bulky and tough to aim like the great sword.

You can give a little poke to faces, wings, and other hard-to-reach areas with a simple upward strike, and if you’re a bit too close to a rampaging foe, the long sword comes with a fade slash that lashes out and sees you hop backward out of harm’s way. The classic sheathe and strike combo also lets you cover a lot of ground quickly while delivering a heavy slash attack to your target. All of these skills work even when the long sword’s spirit gauge is empty, so you’re never at a loss for ways to defend yourself and take down your target. They’re just more powerful when the gauge is full.

Capcom gave the bow a much-needed set of upgrades for Monster Hunter Wilds, including improved mobility and a broader variety of attacks. The weapon’s new trick shot gauge lets you fire tracing arrows, which act as a homing device that other arrows automatically flock to and explode after a short time, dealing extra damage. The standard arc shot attack also leaves arrows you can detonate, so if you plan well, you can drop arrows all over a monster, then use the bow’s Focus Strike to trigger multiple explosions at once.

Wilds’ bow also has a new evasion move that, with the right timing, can act as a powerful counter to an incoming attack, and Thousand Dragons Shot doesn’t require special ammo anymore. On top of all that, you can still apply special coatings and use elemental ammo. You might want to bring a melee weapon along as a secondary weapon combo in case you need to inflict more damage faster, though.

Wilds’ version of the sword and shield comes with fewer changes than some other weapons, but they make a bigger difference than you might expect. The inclusion of perfect guard counters makes defense less passive and gives you a chance to still damage your foe while blocking incoming attacks, though it takes practice to get the timing right. Capcom also added a new, multi-part charged attack that delivers an upward strike before finishing with a strong downward thrust. It’s one of those moves like the hammer’s focus strike, where connecting on the first hit means the last part deals damage even if the monster moves while the animation plays out, which is always useful.

That’s about it for Wilds’ sword and shield, but when you have a weapon that gives you defense, strong offense, mobility, and even an airborne attack, you don’t need much more.

Conventional Monster Hunter wisdom considers the hunting horn a support weapon designed primarily for multiplayer use. Not anymore. The hunting horn in Monster Hunter Wilds is a fantastic weapon that lets you buff yourself and any nearby allies, as always, but it also comes with a new feature: Echo Bubbles. You can strategically drop these to provide extra buffs for allies or even to damage monsters, depending on which horn you’re using, and Echo Waves add different damage types to your arsenal, including elemental damage. That’s in addition to the heavy blunt damage the horn dishes out with its standard attacks.

There’s a definite learning curve with the horn, though. That’s as true for playing standard melodies as it is for taking advantage of the horn’s new performance move that increases the power of your melodies, but only if you press the right buttons at the right time. Heck, there’s even a miniature rhythm game involved in using the horn’s focus strike to its full extent. It’s a complex, but rewarding weapon, and one that works in any situation.

A-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds

These weapons are powerful and effective, but they come with more drawbacks than our S-tier picks. Aiming might be a chore, or they might require more inputs or precision with less spectacular results than other straightforward weapons. Still, they’re worth tinkering with to see what you think about them.

The A-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds are the switch axe, heavy bowgun, hammer, dual blades, insect glaive, gunlance, and great sword. Below, we get into why they’re A-tier — pretty excellent, but not quite best of the best.

Capcom gave the switch axe some excellent new combos that let you do more than just work toward the same burst moves repeatedly. You get a move that, timed right, almost always knocks a monster down, plus some follow-up combos that unlock once your target falls. Meanwhile, sword mode has additional discharge skills alongside the usual, multi-hit discharge. You get speed and heft in one package and a more complex playstyle that rewards you with high damage numbers once you figure it out. “Complex” is key, though, as there’s a steep learning curve to figuring this one out.

The only thing keeping the heavy bowgun out of the S-tier is its lack of mobility and recovery options. Sure, you get a sidestep move, but you have to mash it twice to successfully evade attacks from larger monsters.

The positives make the heavy bowgun worth the annoyance, though. It’s powerful enough on its own, and access to elemental ammo makes exploiting monster weaknesses easy, without the fuss of scrounging materials together for a specific elemental tree. The heavy bowgun also comes with a powerful alternate fire mode, Ignition, that deals extra damage and is perfect for targeting a monster’s weak points. You can even get a special type of ammo that lets you parry incoming attacks and potentially knock a monster down. It’s a slow weapon, though, so make sure to pair it with a faster secondary weapon.

The hammer is better than ever thanks to a new sidestep ability that lets you maintain your charge level while avoiding incoming attacks. This weapon is still the most powerful in Monster Hunter from a raw damage perspective and one of the most straightforward to use. You’ve got three ways to hit enemies, including a charged attack and a chain attack, and that’s basically all you need to do: bonk monsters repeatedly.

The downside is the hammer’s short range, which forces you into close proximity to a monster and leaves you open to your foe’s most dangerous attacks as a result. The Big Bang chain attack also has long windup animations, and if you miss a hit, you’re left unable to move for a second or two while your hunter recovers.

What the dual blades lack in raw power, they make up for in mobility. This weapon is among the fastest in Monster Hunter Wilds and a rare case where your movement speed with the dual blades equipped is roughly the same as your movement speed with a sheathed weapon.

The dual blades don’t have the reach of something like the long sword or the great sword, but they let you chain multiple attacks together quickly. That means more wounds, more often, and an easier time dealing heavy damage to a monster’s weak areas. Demon mode, the weapon’s special feature, powers up your attacks and speed even more, but at the cost of stamina. Using these effectively requires careful stamina management and good planning with meals and charms.

With its midair vaulting slash attacks restored, Monster Hunter Wilds’ insect glaive is more than just a one-trick weapon again. Its best attacks rely on harvesting all three kinsect essence types, and managing kinsects effectively takes practice. However, even if you don’t want to use kinsects that often, you can still get a lot out of the glaive’s basic slashing attacks and high evasion potential. Destroying wounds automatically gives you all three essence types anyway, so with an aggressive playstyle, you can regularly use tornado slash and its other high-powered skills.

Capcom gave the gunlance some welcome improvements to shelling and its ultimate move, Wyvernblast, that make the Wilds version its best and most versatile yet. You can attack more often and in more ways without worrying about the gunlance’s sharpness plummeting, and you can even manage Wyvernblast charges more effectively thanks to how the skill recharges when you attack. The gunlance also has excellent guarding potential — and tough aim requirements. Positioning the gunlance so it actually makes contact with your target takes getting used to, and it’s not easy to move while you’re lugging this behemoth around.

The great sword is good, even great (ha) sometimes – assuming you land the hit. It’s the sharp version of the hammer, with a few basic attacks and a charged skill that deals exceptionally high damage when it connects. Charging takes a while, and unlike with the hammer, you have to perform two charged attacks to power up the third. These animations are lengthy, and it’s not uncommon for your target to have repositioned itself before the attack lands.

B-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds

B-tier weapons are fine! But not much more. They’ll see you through a hunt, but Wilds has more productive and enjoyable ways to fight than these.

The B-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds are the lance, light bowgun, and charge blade. They’re not bad, per se — just not quite as excellent as the S-tier and A-tier weapons. We get into it below.

Despite landing in this list’s B-tier, the lance is a good weapon and the best choice if you need to guard. It’s just not that strong, even with new combos and better versatility compared to the lances in older Monster Hunter games. You’ll be safe with this one, even against the likes of Zoh Shia, but expect hunts to last much longer than they would with any other weapon.

The light bowgun finds itself in an odd place in Wilds. It offers better mobility than the heavy bowgun, but lower firepower, the lack of a strong burst mode, and high recoil make it hard to recommend over the heavy bowgun. There’s no real advantage to using the light bowgun this time, so you might as well just go for the ranged weapon that hits harder.

The charge blade is in an odd place. It’s fun to learn, assuming you enjoy its combat style, but for all the complexity, it offers little that you can’t get from other weapons — and without as much hassle. Wilds also locks Savage Axe, one of the charge blade’s best moves, out of regular use and restricts it to focus strikes against wounds instead, which limits how many combos you can pull off. If you don’t enjoy the style and want something else instead, you’re not missing anything by skipping the charge blade.

To also help you understand Monster Hunter Wilds, we explain how to capture monsters, how to change weapons, and teach you how fishing and layered armor works.