Best starter weapon for beginners in Monster Hunter Wilds
These are the best weapons for beginners to try in MHWilds
What is the best starting weapon for beginners in Monster Hunter Wilds? If you're just now learning the sheer number of complex weapons that the Monster Hunter series has grown to offer, then know that it's very common to feel overwhelmed. The combos, movesets, and systems that each Monster Hunter Wilds weapon employs is pretty dizzying when you're just getting started. You're not alone, and we're here to help.
If you're struggling to land on one particular weapon to pick as your starting weapon in Monster Hunter Wilds, then hopefully we can help you out with this guide. Below, we'll walk you through our opinion on the three best weapons for beginners to use, along with our complexity ranking for all 14 weapon types to help you better understand what to expect from each weapon.
Best weapon for beginners in Monster Hunter Wilds
The very best starting weapon in Monster Hunter Wilds is the Sword And Shield, thanks to its extreme mobility and the ease with which you can both dodge and block attacks. But if you're looking for something that can deal a bit more damage per hit, then the Long Sword and Hammer are also phenomenal weapons that beginners can easily get to grips with.
Below is my rating of all the best beginner weapons from least to most complex, so you have a better idea of how much time you might end up spending to master each weapon. Bear in mind that this is a rough guide, and you might end up being naturally more aligned with particular playstyles, so your mileage may vary.
| Rank | Weapon | Complexity | Why? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sword And Shield | Very Low | So easy to avoid damage and stay mobile. |
| 2 | Hammer | Very Low | Simple moveset but high mobility. |
| 3 | Long Sword | Low | Great reach and power with the simplest attacks. |
| 4 | Lance | Low | Learn the game from behind a giant shield. |
| 5 | Dual Blades | Low | A simple moveset; only difficulty is stamina management. |
| 6 | Bow | Medium | The fastest, most freeing ranged weapon. |
| 7 | Great Sword | Medium | Simple moveset but timings can be challenging. |
| 8 | Gunlance | Medium | Ranged options make it a more complex Lance. |
| 9 | Insect Glaive | Medium | Unusual choice, lots of airborne attacks. |
| 10 | Switch Axe | High | The different gauges can be a lot to take in. |
| 11 | Light Bowgun | High | Reloads and ammo options lend a lot of complexity. |
| 12 | Heavy Bowgun | High | Reloads, ammo options, and low mobility. |
| 13 | Charge Blade | Very High | Two complex movesets in one, plus phials. |
| 14 | Hunting Horn | Very High | Musical combos take a lot of learning. |
Below we've gone into more detail with the top three best starting weapons for beginners, so you can understand why you might want to start with them.
1. Sword And Shield
The Sword And Shield is the very best starting weapon for Monster Hunter beginners to use, and in Monster Hunter Wilds the Sword And Shield feels more powerful than it's ever been in previous games. So this is a great time to use it as your gateway into the Monster Hunter arsenal.
The Sword And Shield is meant to be a balance between pretty much everything. It's got low range, but good consistent damage, great mobility, the ability to block (and even Power Clash) large monster attacks if you can't dodge out of the way in time; and the combos, while not as simplistic as the Great Sword or Hammer, are still quite easy to learn.
The key to success with the Sword And Shield is twofold: first, use the Sliding Swipe extremely often to evade attacks and stick to the enemy like glue. Second: use the Backstep + Scaling Slash combo to get up high in the air, after which you've a variety of very powerful moves as you're coming back down to earth. Sometimes it's hard to aim your attack while you're in the air, but with practice this will become one of the best and fastest ways to deal damage and also proc your status effects - another real strength of the fast-attacking Sword And Shield.
2. Hammer
The Hammer has one of the simplest movesets of any weapon, which makes it an ideal starting point for beginners in Monster Hunter Wilds. But the Great Sword's skillset is arguably even simpler, and I would not recommend it for new players. What makes the Hammer so beginner-friendly is that even though it's a big weapon that deals lots of damage, you still have a lot of mobility. The fact that you can run around and dodge while charging up your strongest attacks makes it one of the easiest weapons in the game to master.
The thing that might trip up beginners when using the Hammer is simply getting used to the fairly short range (compared to other large weapons). You have to stay close, and ideally aim for the head, because the Hammer's blunt damage is fantastic for stunning monsters with repeated head attacks. But the head is also the danger end of most monsters, so it can take a bit of time to understand when you're safe and when you're not. But that's the type of learning of monster movesets that you'll need to do with any weapon anyway.
The Hammer delivers outrageous damage while the monster is stunned or otherwise occupied, and even while you're the sole focus of the monster, you maintain more than enough mobility to outmanoeuvre it until the time is right to unleash your strength. It's a very good starting point into Monster Hunter Wilds which can happily take you to the endgame if you decide you don't feel like changing things up.
3. Long Sword
The Long Sword has long been my favourite weapon in Monster Hunter, and the same is true in Wilds. It's amazingly fast considering the reach that you have even with just the regular attacks, and you'll quickly find you can deliver a lot of damage to monster parts that are frequently too high to hit for smaller weapons, all while maintaining enough agility to easily dodge out of the way of dangerous attacks.
It's easy to learn the basics of the Long Sword; the reason it's not very often mentioned as a good starting weapon is because of its Spirit Gauge, which builds up with attacks but builds up faster if you understand particular sets of attacks which can fast-track your way to a full gauge. Once you've maxed out the Spirit Gauge, your attacks all change to become multi-step and more powerful, although to be honest they're all still quite easy to learn with a bit of practice. The only tricky part is understanding the systems by which you'll raise or lower your Spirit Gauge.
Despite this, the basics of the Long Sword are simple enough, and the benefits strong enough, that I'd recommend them to any player who's unsure of which starting weapon to use. It's great at lopping off tails, it's swift enough to proc elemental and status effects decently fast, and it strikes a brilliant balance between power and mobility.
That wraps up our guide on the best starting weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds, but we've plenty more to offer if you need more help with the weapons arsenal, including our guide on the best solo weapon in MHWilds. We've also got a Monster Hunter Wilds walkthrough and a list of the main quests if you're stuck on the campaign. Alternatively, you can also head to our guides on how to capture monsters, how to pause and how to get layered armor.