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Monster Hunter: World gear: how to craft armour, best sets for your weapon

A solid defence.

Dave Irwin avatar
Guide byDave Irwin Former Guides Writer
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Perhaps the most important thing to understand in Monster Hunter: World is that armour comes with its own strengths, weaknesses, and even skills that it grants the wearer. It's all well and good knowing how to pack a punch, but knowing what to wear when going out on a hunt is just as crucial to surviving anything a tough creature can dish out. This guide will detail the types of armour available, as well as which ones are best suited to certain weapons, and how to craft them in the first place.

Monster Hunter: World armour guide

More basic equipment will provide basic buffs and protection against certain elements, but as you unlock and craft more armour, the benefits you get become more of a factor into deciding what to wear on a hunt. But while having better armour does keep you alive longer, knowing how to dodge and hunt is far more important for a beginner. Those new to the game can look at our Monster Hunter World guide to get up to speed.

If you are looking for specifically Monster Hunter World Iceborne guides, then we have created a separate guide hub for just expansion stuff. Head over to our Monster Hunter World Iceborne guide to make your start. Those looking specifically for Iceborne armour should check out the Monster Hunter World Iceborne armor guide for all the armor recipes and the best Monster Hunter World Iceborne builds.

Player is visiting the Smithy

How to craft armour in Monster Hunter: World

For some more specific details on the armour you can create, how strong defensively it is, and the materials you need to craft them, head on over to our Monster Hunter: World armour builds guide for all the armour sets, no matter if they're low rank or high rank.

Each monster you kill gives you a variety of different ingredients that are required to make their corresponding armour. For example, if you go ahead and kill a bunch of Great Jagras, you'll get their corresponding items which can be turned into the Jagras armour set.

You'll want to have a wardrobe of armour at your beck and call in order to go up against a variety of different creatures; after all, there's nothing worse than wearing the wrong outfit on a hunt. Higher-level gear sometimes requires loot from multiple different monsters, so it's worth double checking as to what you need in order to make that better gear.

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How to upgrade armour

Once you have created armour, you'll be able to upgrade the capabilities of said armour with "Armor Spheres". These don't come around very often, usually the reward for completing a quest, and beyond the first level of upgrading you'll need multiple of these spheres to make your gear better. It's worth holding off as long as you can before sinking these into your equipment.

Unlocking high-level armour

In order to get hold of the best gear in the game, and indeed any of the Alpha and Beta armour, you'll need to defeat Zorah Magdaros for the second time to unlock a mission where you need to track a creature through multiple regions. Upon doing so, you'll see a tab in the Smithy that allows you to create High-Rank armour from scratch. You're essentially starting again, but the armour is significantly better. Taking part in High Rank expeditions is a good way to get a lot of much needed loot quickly.

Various hunters taking on a monster

Best armour sets for weapon choice

Much like the weapons in the game, there is no one-size-fits-all best armour in Monster Hunter: World. That's because each one is balanced to have various strengths and weaknesses that make them great against some monsters you can hunt, but awful against others. There's also the fact that you can upgrade armour pieces with Armor Spheres and place decorations in them, so armour you've invested in might be better defensively, but not suited to the monster you're about to face because it is weak to that monster's elemental attacks. It's a bit of a difficult balancing act in that sense and you should focus on creating multiple sets for all sorts of purposes.

That said, there are some that grant skills that greatly benefit certain weapon types that you should in theory consider. Those with Great Swords and Long Swords should look at the Odogaron set initially, before upgrading to Nergigante once the better tier armour is unlocked. Dual Blades users can investigate the Kushala and Nergigante upon reaching higher ranks since its skills complement the multi-hitting attacks, while Insect Glaive wielders should opt into the Lumu set as soon as it's available thanks to its abilities having great synergy. Rathian or Odogaron armour is good for hammers, while ranged weapon users like bows and the multiple Bowguns can take advantage of the Anja and Legiana sets respectively.

Having decent defence will keep you alive, but what weapons are best for taking out the monsters? To find out, have a gander at our Monster Hunter: World combat guide to see which weapon is best suited for you, or if you want to get your Palico all kitted out as well, you can head to our Monster Hunter: World Palico guide.

Monster Hunter World guide links

PC specific guides

Individual monster guides

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Dave Irwin avatar
Dave Irwin: Dave was a guides writer for Rock Paper Shotgun from 2018-2020. He previously worked as a freelancer for TheSixthAxis, Tech Advisor and Kotaku, producing hundreds of guides to help people get better at their favourite games. He now writes guides for PCGamesN.
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Monster Hunter: World

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