Monster Hunter Wilds Weapons Guide#
Monster Hunter Wilds keeps its roster fixed at 14 weapons — no new categories were added — but every weapon picked up new moves built around wounds and Focus Mode. This page first maps out the mechanical role and best scenarios for each of the fourteen, then covers how Focus Mode and the wound system affect every weapon and how to pair two weapons in your pouch, and finally breaks down the endgame centerpiece in full: Artian Weapons and Gogma Artian Weapons. For finished build ideas, see the build guides.
The Fourteen Weapons at a Glance#
None of the fourteen weapons in this game gets power-crept out of relevance; the choice comes down to how you like to play and what you enjoy doing. Focus Mode makes “picking out wounds” pay off across the entire roster, so easy-to-learn weapons that can also fight at range — Sword and Shield, Light Bowgun, and Bow — suit first-time learners best. The table below sorts them by mechanical role and fitting scenarios, with no strength scoring:
| Weapon | Mechanical role | Best suited for |
|---|---|---|
| Great Sword | Charged, high-power single slashes | Opportunistic damage: punish big openings and break parts |
| Long Sword | Long reach; trades and counters in a close-quarters rhythm | Players who like reading moves and answering attack with attack |
| Sword and Shield | Shielded melee with fast attacks, balanced between offense and defense | Beginner-friendly entry and steady close-range damage |
| Dual Blades | The closest-range weapon with the highest hit density | Stacking damage onto wounds nonstop |
| Hammer | Impact weapon built on charged heavy blows | Stun control and part breaking |
| Hunting Horn | Impact weapon whose songs buff the whole party | Blending damage and support in multiplayer |
| Lance | Shield defense at its core, with a measured attack rhythm | Methodical close-range pressure |
| Gunlance | Attack-defense hybrid mixing shield, thrusts, and shelling | Consistent damage plus part breaking |
| Switch Axe | Swaps between axe and sword modes | Mixing reach with sustained output |
| Charge Blade | Sword and axe modes; bank energy for massive burst hits | Players chasing the biggest single hits |
| Insect Glaive | Airborne combat with the Kinsect; the best mobility in the game | Aerial hit-and-run and flexible positioning |
| Light Bowgun | Highly mobile ranged play with flexible footwork | Ranged beginners and element or status damage |
| Heavy Bowgun | High-firepower ranged that can block behind a shield | Sustained firepower and forgiving playstyles |
| Bow | Flexible ranged built on charged shots | Hit-and-move ranged damage |
How Focus Mode and the Wound System Affect Each Weapon#
Focus Mode is the game’s core new mechanic: hold it to steady your aim on a specific body part and open a wound, then land a Focus Strike on the weakened wound to burst it. Wounds visibly change the monster — severed tails, cracked hide, weakened limbs — and going after them both raises your damage and unlocks rare material drops. For basic controls and the wound loop, see the combat system guide.
Wound value isn’t the same for every weapon — the difference comes down to whether a weapon can keep working the same part accurately over time:
| Group | Weapons | Why wound payoff differs |
|---|---|---|
| Shield weapons | Sword and Shield, Lance, Gunlance, Charge Blade | Guard counters keep you glued to the same part for long stretches, so wounds build steadily |
| Impact weapons | Hammer, Hunting Horn | Already excel at breaking parts and knocking monsters off balance — a natural fit for focusing one spot |
| Ranged weapons | Light Bowgun, Heavy Bowgun, Bow | Pick at the same wound from a safe distance, at the cost of leaning harder on Focus Mode aim correction |
| Remaining melee | Great Sword, Long Sword, Dual Blades, Switch Axe, Insect Glaive | Wound payoffs hold for every weapon: stick to a part with positioning and combos, and make your Focus Strikes count |
The Weapon Pouch and Dual-Weapon Pairings#
The weapon pouch carries two weapons you can swap between at any point in a hunt, so running a pair is the standard way to play. Two approaches come up most often. The first is range pairing: melee handles the close-range windows while ranged keeps damage going when the monster moves or during its most dangerous phases. The second is element pairing: every weapon in this game carries both raw and element values, and the element on a weapon directly shapes the build around it, so giving the two weapons different elements or statuses and swapping for the target’s weakness gets the most out of every hunt.
Once Artian Weapons come online, dual-weapon pairings stretch element coverage further still: two Artian weapons can run different element combinations. See the build guides for the trade-offs.
Artian Weapons: The Complete Guide#
Artian Weapons are the game’s core endgame crafting line: each of the 14 weapon classes has 3 variants — 42 finished weapons in all — and no graduation build gets around them. This section walks the whole process in order: unlocking, rarity, elements, and upgrades, closing with the complete per-class material table.
Unlocking and Building#
Clearing the Chapter 4 story quest “Wyvern Sparks and Rose Thorns” earns your first Broken Weapon Shard, unlocks Gemma’s Artian Weapon crafting, and opens the first tier of Tempered monsters. From then on, choose “Forge Artian Weapons” at Gemma and assemble the finished weapon from four part types — Blades, Mechanisms, Discs, and Tubes — in fixed combinations.
Three Rarity Tiers and Where Shards Come From#
The three shard types map to three rarity tiers, and the finished tier is decided entirely by which shards you use:
| Rarity | Shard | Main source | Tier profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Broken Weapon Shard | 5-star Tempered monsters | Low attack, three level 2 decoration slots, blue sharpness |
| 7 | Rusted Weapon Shard | 6-star Tempered monsters | Mid attack, three level 2 decoration slots, white sharpness |
| 8 | Ancient Weapon Shard | Tempered apexes at 7-star and above | Highest attack, three level 3 decoration slots, white sharpness |
Materials from different rarities can’t be mixed. Shards mostly come from slaying Tempered monsters of the matching tier, and rarity 8 shards drop from Tempered apexes at 7-star and above: Arkveld, Rey Dau, Nu Udra, Jin Dahaad, Gore Magala, Plesioth, Seregios, and Lagiacrus. The Meld Relics at Suja, Peaks of Accord can also produce Artian materials — farming routes are covered in the materials and rarity guide.
Rarity never rises: finished rarity 6 and 7 weapons cannot reach 8, so the complete package means crafting from Ancient Weapon Shards from scratch. Once your weapon hits rarity 8, the graduation goal on the armor side is the Gamma (γ) series from Arch-tempered hunts (AT, as players usually shorten it) — pair it with Artian Weapons for a full endgame configuration.
Elements, Built-In Bonuses, and Scrapping#
Every part carries one element or status ailment plus one Artian bonus, and both carry over to the finished weapon. Elements work in two stages: two parts of the same element give the weapon that element; three of the same trigger an Element Infusion, adding +20 or +30 element depending on the weapon type. Watch the raw values, though — Blast and Poison sit at -150 and Sleep and Paralysis at -200, and no element applies at all unless you land a matching combination.
Each finished weapon also inherits one fixed built-in bonus: an Attack bonus (+5 Attack) or an Affinity bonus (+5% Affinity), decided by the parts used — you don’t get to choose.
Breaking an Artian Weapon down never returns the Artian parts, only upgrade materials — Ancient Weapon Shards take real effort to stockpile, so settle your combination before you commit.
Upgrading and Random Augments#
Once built, weapons upgrade at Gemma up to Lv5. Upgrading consumes four materials — Drearisite, Specklite, Argecite, and Oricalcite — with no fixed recipe required; they simply fill the upgrade bar, and every full bar levels the weapon up and rolls one random augment:
| Augment | Effect and cap |
|---|---|
| Attack Boost | +5 Attack, stacks up to 5 times |
| Affinity Boost | +5% Affinity, stacks up to 3 times |
| Element Boost | +20 to +80 element, depending on weapon type |
| Sharpness Boost | +30 Sharpness, stacks up to 2 times |
| Ammo Capacity Boost | Raises bowgun ammo capacity; Light Bowgun and Heavy Bowgun only |
Augments are pure RNG, so your ideal spread comes down to farming upgrade materials over and over. For folding augments into a build, see the skill system guide.
Material Combinations for Every Class#
Each weapon class takes a fixed part combination — gather to the table below before you craft:
| Weapon | Part combination |
|---|---|
| Great Sword | Blade, Blade, Tube |
| Long Sword | Blade, Tube, Tube |
| Sword and Shield | Blade, Tube, Disc |
| Dual Blades | Blade, Blade, Disc |
| Hammer | Disc, Disc, Tube |
| Hunting Horn | Disc, Mechanism, Mechanism |
| Lance | Blade, Disc, Disc |
| Gunlance | Disc, Disc, Mechanism |
| Switch Axe | Blade, Blade, Mechanism |
| Charge Blade | Blade, Disc, Mechanism |
| Insect Glaive | Blade, Tube, Mechanism |
| Light Bowgun | Tube, Mechanism, Mechanism |
| Heavy Bowgun | Disc, Tube, Mechanism |
| Bow | Tube, Tube, Mechanism |
Gogma Artian Weapons#
Gogma Artian Weapons arrived with the fourth major update (TU4), upgrading existing rarity 8 Artian Weapons to a tier above standard rarity 8. Two things change fundamentally. First, they can hold 1 random set bonus skill and 1 random group skill, which massively expands how freely you can mix armor — the single biggest edge over standard rarity 8. Second, upgrades let you pick the augment direction (Attack, Affinity, or Element) instead of leaving it to random rolls.
Three conditions unlock them: reaching the Hunter Rank cap at HR100, clearing the story quest “A First Cry”, and defeating Gogmazios in the extra quest “Ghosts Pay No Heed to Tomorrow” — Gogmazios is the base game’s only Elder Dragon and arrives with TU4. Once unlocked, you can hunt Gogmazios repeatedly in the ★9 event quest “Specter of Their Sins”, spending the Tarred Devices it drops to upgrade rarity 8 Artian Weapons. TU4 also added the Forgotten Machineworks, a new special arena in the Oilwell Basin.
A Look Ahead: Expansion Move Additions#
The expansion Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance is set for 2027, and the weapon system keeps growing: the base game will add new moves for all fourteen weapons through updates, excluding the augment-move portion, while the expansion brings the Boost Bracer, which — once activated with a bowgun — temporarily amplifies each of the 14 weapons’ own signature traits. The exact list of new moves awaits official announcements. Until then, getting your rarity 8 Artian augments into shape is the most dependable long-term goal of the current version.
Revision note (2026-10-03): every claim on this page has been verified item by item against official update announcements and post-release material; numbers that could not be confirmed and speculative content have been removed.