The Best Monster Hunter Rise Builds

June 23rd, 2022 JC Features

Figuring out the best Monster Hunter Rise builds is a lot of trial and error for some people. While knowing what weapon you might want to use is one part of the puzzle, it’s also worth knowing what kind of damage you want to output, what role you want to play if you’re in a multiplayer group, and also finding what fits your playstyle.

So, rather than figuring out the best Monster Hunter Rise builds for each weapon, we’ve decided it would be fun to separate them out into what you’re aiming to do with them. That way, you can still find a build you like, but you might also find that you end up with a little bit of inspiration for what other weapons you might like.

Best Monster Hunter Rise builds

We’ve split the best Monster Hunter Rise builds into five categories here. It’s worth noting that you can absolutely mix and match these as you want if you don’t mind being a little less than optimal. For example, you can use a longsword to inflict status effects or as a defensive weapon. Nothing in this game is set in stone, but these are our recommendations.

Best Monster Hunter Rise builds for status effects

Status effects are a solid go-to in Monster Hunter Rise. Sleep is ideal if you like a chance to breathe and also deal massive damage with bombs. Blast is fun if you like seeing a big number every so often. Poison is good for getting damage in against enemies that move around too much. Paralysis is excellent for forcing openings against monsters. Two of the best

weapons for these things are the sword and shield and the dual blades. Dual blades are generally slightly more efficient, but the sword and shield is a good choice if you like to be able to defend yourself.

The key thing here is to focus on a single element. Often the best armour sets for status effects come from the late-game monsters, like the Mizuha set from Chameleos for poison, which not only boosts the speed of poison build-up and damage, but can also extend the duration of the effect. As your aim with these builds is to hit as often as possible, we also recommend boosting your stamina in every way possible too, as you’ll want to stay in the fight to try and get more status effect procs.

Best Monster Hunter Rise builds for raw damage

If what you’re after is simply damage output, then our favourite four weapons for this are the great sword, long sword, hammer, and gunlance. Each of these has a different move set and strengths and weaknesses, but if what you want is just damage, then they’re all good options. The great sword is ideal for big single strike attacks, the hammer is good at breaking monster parts, the long sword is nice for range, and the gunlance has some solid defence while still allowing for big explosive attacks.

Generally speaking, the best way to up your damage output is with Nargacuga’s gear. The weapons always have high affinity anyway, and you can boost that further with the armour set, which also happens to boost your evade. Then just use attack boost gems to round out your loadout and you’ll be dealing obscene damage.

Best Monster Hunter Rise builds for Elemental Damage

Elemental damage requires a little more thought than raw damage, because you’ll often need to change up your weapon to match the weaknesses of what you’re hunting. It’s fun though, and only made more exciting because you’ll be using either a charge blade or a switch axe. Transforming weapons are simply cool.

Along with boosting whatever element you’re using at any given moment, we also recommend using gems to keep your weapon sharpness high, as this helps you deal more elemental damage against monsters. Other than that, there’s a lot of flexibility in elemental builds, which is fun if you like to switch it up a lot.

Best Monster Hunter Rise builds for support

You might not think about support when staring down a Rathalos, but maybe you should. Some of the best Monster Hunter Rise builds are those with support in mind, and that’s because keeping everyone alive and having a lot of utility can massively improve your team’s chance of survival. The best support weapons are the light bowgun, heavy bowgun, bow, and hunting horn.

If you’re using a ranged weapon here, then taking anything that boosts your ranged attacks or reduces the chance of using up your special ammo is essential, and horn users should always have the horn maestro skill too. Outside of that, you can assist your team more efficiently by using the friendship jewels, which grant a skill called Wide-Range, which allows your items to affect teammates too.

Best Monster Hunter Rise builds for defence

If you’re one of the people who thinks that the best offence is a good defence, then this is likely how you’ll want to play. We’ve got two choices for this category, the lance and the insect glaive. The difference here is important though. The lance is strong at defence because of the shield, while the insect glaive is strong because you can dodge incredibly well.

If you’re using a shield, then you’ll want skills like guard and guard up, and for the insect glaive then evade extender is good. You’ll also want to grab defence boost, for obvious reasons, both recovery speed and recovery up to keep yourself naturally healthy, and also the Crimson Valstrax armour. The last one is because it grants the Dragonheart effect, which massively boosts elemental resistances as long as you have below 80% health, which is easy to manage.