Best Monster Hunter Wilds Endgame Guide: Gear Progression
In Monster Hunter Wilds, High Rank is the standard difficulty for most Hunters, as all the most powerful weapons, armor, and Decorations can only be obtained from this mode. After beating the final boss of Low Rank, it may initially seem daunting to try and tackle Tempered monsters, but here we’ll guide you through Monster Hunter Wilds’ gear progression for an easier start. This should also help you get the best gear in the game.
Table of Contents
High-Rank Armor Progression
While some of the Low-Rank armors, such as the Arkveld set, give you a good start for the early High-Rank hunts, your first goal is to start with a good HR armor set, as these objectively have more physical defense and elemental resistance than the highest rarity Low-Rank armor.
Note that when getting armor in this rank, always go for the β / Beta variants as these have more Decoration slots, which is another important endgame grind.
These armor sets can give you a good start for early High Rank:
- Hope β: (Starts with Divine Blessing and multiple status resistances)
- Quematrice β: (Has Flinch Free and Latent Power for longer hunts)
- Ingot t β: (Divine Blessing and Resentment; only requires mined ores)
Once you have any of these, you should move on to the Guardian or Apex Predator armor sets, as these are the basis for endgame builds. Some notable armor sets include the following:
- Guardian Ebony β: (Contains the reliable Burst skill for high DPS uptime)
- Guardian Rathalos β: (Weakness Exploit increases affinity on weak spot hits)
- Xu Wu β: (Heroics and Adrenaline are paired together in this set)
- Artian α: (By far the most reliable armor set with multiple stability skills)
- Dahaad β: (Weakness Exploit and Agitator will often proc in harder hunts)
- Gore β: (Coalescence and Antivirus synergize well with each other)
Finally, once you’re done with the High-Rank main questline, your last goal for armor should be:
- Guardian Arkveld β: (Partbreaker, Flayer, and Weakness Exploit for easy wounds)
Of course, most builds will require you to mix and match certain armor pieces, but having these full armor sets gives you room to truly optimize your build for fast endgame clears.
Weapon Goals
Every weapon in the game is part of a crafting tree. Usually, the best weapons are the Rarity 8 variants at the end of the tree. While monster-crafted weapons are powerful on their own, the absolute best in slot gear you can get is the Artian weapons. Unlike most crafted gear, Artian weapons give you more control over the damage, affinity, and element that you need.
Rarity 6 and 7 Artians have all deco slots at level 2, while the highest rarity ones have all level 3 slots, making them extremely versatile. Lastly, you can reinforce them with Azuz ores to grant them randomized boosts for physical/elemental damage, sharpness, or affinity.
Assembling Artian Weapons
To create an Artian weapon, you’ll need these components: Blade, Disc, Tube, and Device. Assembling one for the class you need will require two or three of these components. For reference, these are the component combos:
- 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, Device, Device
- Lance: Blade, Disc, Disc
- Gunlance: Disc, Disc, Device
- Switch Axe: Blade, Blade, Device
- Charge Blade: Blade, Disc, Device
- Insect Glaive: Blade, Tube, Device
- Light Bowgun: Tube, Device, Device
- Heavy Bowgun: Disc, Tube, Device
- Bow: Tube, Tube, Device
As for the component rarities, you can find them in the following Tempered quests:
- Rarity 6
- Balahara
- Lala Barina
- Congalala
- Rathian
- Quematrice
- Rarity 7
- Ajarakan
- Gravios
- Blangonga
- Hirabami
- Xu Wu
- Guardian Ebony Odogaron
- Guardian Fulgur Anjanath
- Rathalos
- Gravios
- Rarity 8
- Rey Dau
- Uth Duna
- Nu Udra
- Gore Magala
- Arkveld
Decoration Endgame
These gems are essential skills that you can slot into your armor, giving you room to customize your build. Decorations like Critical Eye, Attack Boost, and Earplugs are some of the meta choices, but you can always get the ones that work best for your build.
Some of the best Decorations you should get are the following:
- Attack Jewel III
- Expert Jewel III
- Earplugs Jewel II
- Flayer Jewel III
- Brace Jewel I
- Chain Jewel III
- Challenger Jewel III
- Critical Element Jewel III
While 5-star High-Rank quests provide consistent level 1 and 2 Decorations, clearing 6 to 7-star hunts will drop level 3 jewels for you. Some monsters may even spawn in the open world with a bonus reward modifier for Decorations.
Endgame Monster Farm
The goal for MH Wilds’ endgame is to beat the hardest Tempered monsters in the game, with Gore Magala, Jin Dahaad, and Arkveld being the main focus for much of the endgame. These monsters drop the highest-level Artian fragments and Decorations that will make you extremely powerful.
While High Rank is the current endgame, Monster Hunter traditionally slowly releases new monsters every once in a while to prepare players for the expansion, which not only has more monsters but also includes the final difficulty of Master Rank, which is always the hardest mode in the game.
If you have a surplus of Decorations, you can convert these into points to buy randomized Decorations and Artian Fragments at the Melding Pot. For Armor Spheres and Azuz ores, you can instead turn in extra monster parts for forging points.
