Ready to dominate the hunt? Our definitive Monster Hunter Wilds weapon tier list breaks down the best arms across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox-revealing which weapons deliver the highest damage, greatest survivability, and ease of mastery in the latest meta. Whether you wield the swift Long Sword, the powerful Gunlance, or the versatile Bow, discover which tools will carve your path to victory in the wilds.
In this Monster Hunter Wilds best weapon 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 best weapon tier list
Monster Hunter Wilds features a diverse arsenal of 14 weapon types, but a few consistently stand out at the top of the current meta according to multiple tier lists. The Bow, Long Sword, and Gunlance are widely regarded as the best weapons thanks to their high damage output, versatility, and strong survivability. The Bow excels with sustained ranged damage and mobility, making it accessible and powerful for both new and experienced hunters. The Long Sword is prized for its fluid combos, effective counters, and balanced reach, allowing players to handle a wide variety of monsters with ease. The Gunlance offers impressive burst damage and defensive options, making it a reliable pick for those who want both offense and protection. While every weapon is viable in skilled hands, these top-tier choices are favored for their efficiency, adaptability, and overall effectiveness in hunts across all platforms.
Our Monster Hunter Wilds best weapon tier list is as follows:
- S-tier list: Long Sword, Bow, Sword and Shield, Hunting Horn
- A-tier list: Switch Axe, Heavy Bowgun, Hammer, Dual Blades, Insect Glaive, Gunlance, Great Sword
- B-tier list: Lance, Light Bowgun, Charge Blade
This tier list ranks each weapon typebased 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.
S-tier list weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds
The S-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds are widely regarded as the easiest to use and most powerful options for both new and experienced players. These weapons-including the Bow, Gunlance, and Long Sword-offer high damage output, great versatility, and straightforward mechanics that allow hunters to excel in combat without needing to master complex systems. The Bow stands out for its safe range and mobility, the Gunlance for its explosive, armor-ignoring damage, and the Long Sword for its fluid combos and rewarding counters. Some tier lists also place the Great Sword and Sword & Shield in S-tier due to their exceptional damage and adaptability. Ultimately, these weapons provide a strong foundation for any hunter looking to maximize their effectiveness 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.
Long sword
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.
Bow
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.
Sword and shield
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.
Hunting horn
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 list weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds
A-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds strike a strong balance between power, versatility, and accessibility, making them excellent choices for hunters who want reliable performance without the highest skill barrier. Weapons like the Dual Blades, Great Sword, Heavy Bowgun, Insect Glaive, and Sword and Shield are commonly placed in this tier. These options offer solid damage output and effective utility in various situations, but may require a bit more mastery or have slightly less raw power compared to S-tier picks. For example, the Great Sword delivers massive charged attacks and is rewarding for players with good timing, while the Dual Blades excel at rapid, sustained damage up close. The Heavy Bowgun provides ranged firepower with flexible ammo types, and the Insect Glaive offers unique aerial mobility. Meanwhile, the Sword and Shield stands out for its blend of offense, defense, and item use on the fly, making it a favorite for adaptable playstyles. Overall, A-tier weapons are dependable and rewarding for both newcomers and veterans looking for strong, well-rounded tools in the hunt.
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.
Switch axe
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.
Heavy bowgun
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.
Hammer
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.
Dual blades
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.
Insect glaive
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.
Gunlance
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.
Great sword
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 list weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds
B-tier weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds include the Lance, Light Bowgun, and Charge Blade, each offering unique strengths but also notable limitations compared to higher-tier options. The Lance excels at defense and precise thrusting attacks, allowing hunters to maintain steady damage while staying protected behind the game’s strongest shield, though its lower mobility and slower hunt times keep it from ranking higher. The Light Bowgun provides ranged versatility and rapid-fire capabilities, but its overall damage output and survivability fall short of top-tier choices. The Charge Blade is a complex weapon with both sword and axe modes, rewarding skilled players with strong burst damage, yet its steep learning curve and reliance on precise execution limit its accessibility and consistent performance. While all B-tier weapons are viable in skilled hands, they generally require more effort to master and may not deliver the same efficiency or versatility as S- and A-tier alternatives.
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.
Lance
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.
Light bowgun
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.
Charge blade
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.
Which weapons dominate the current meta in Monster Hunter Wilds
The current meta in Monster Hunter Wilds is dominated by the Long Sword, which stands out due to its exceptional reach, fast attack speed, and powerful counterattack options, making it a top pick for both solo and group hunts. The Bow is also highly favored for its precise, high-damage output and strong mobility, allowing hunters to stay safe while applying consistent pressure. The Sword and Shield is another top-tier choice, valued for its versatility, high mobility, and effective blocking and countering mechanics.
The Great Sword remains popular for its unmatched raw damage per hit, though it requires more skill to master due to its slower, heavier playstyle. Among weapon trees, Artian Weapons are especially dominant, with about half of high-rank hunters opting for them due to their strong stats and customization options.
In summary, the Long Sword, Bow, and Sword and Shield are the weapons that currently dominate the Monster Hunter Wilds meta, with the Great Sword and select Artian Weapons also seeing significant use among top players.
Why is the Long Sword so popular among high-rank hunters in Wilds
The Long Sword is exceptionally popular among high-rank hunters in Monster Hunter Wilds due to its unique combination of accessibility, versatility, and high skill ceiling. Its strengths include swift, fluid combos, excellent mobility, and a long reach that makes targeting monster weak points easier than with most melee weapons. The weapon’s Spirit Gauge system rewards aggressive play and precise timing, enabling players to unleash powerful finishers like the Spirit Helm Breaker once fully charged.
Additionally, the Long Sword offers multiple counterattack options, such as the Iai Spirit Slash and Foresight Slash, which grant invincibility frames and allow skilled players to evade and retaliate against monster attacks effectively. This makes it appealing to both newcomers, who appreciate its approachable moveset and forgiving counters, and veterans, who enjoy mastering its nuanced mechanics and maximizing damage output.
Aesthetically, the Long Sword’s katana-inspired design and flashy animations also contribute to its popularity, tapping into the “anime samurai” appeal that resonates with many players. The combination of high damage potential, stylish play, and rewarding mechanics explains why the Long Sword consistently tops weapon usage charts among high-rank hunters in Wilds.
