The Top 10 Best Weapons In Monster Hunter World (2025)

From the cult-classic Greatsword to the intricate and delicate Light Bowgun, there are many different types of weapons you can learn to master in Monster Hunter World. Each one comes with its own combos, customisation options and advantages and disadvantages. You can even choose which cosmetic charm you want hanging off your weapon!

Every weapon is viable, regardless of which monster you’re taking on. Each Blade, Gun, and Hammer has different elemental variants, allowing them to exploit every monster’s innate elemental weakness. All Hunters are encouraged to master the weapon of their choice and not forced to pick one due to an underlying meta.

Okay, time to get on with it. I’ll rank these weapons based on their gameplay and general design. Read on to discover my favourite Monster Hunter World weapons!

Insect Glaive

Here it is. The best weapon in the entirety of Monster Hunter World, the Insect Glaive!

This polearm is the king of the air, allowing its wielder to fly through the air easily. This opens up a new avenue for movement and attacks.

Its freedom personified in Monster Hunter World, and it’s for that reason that I love it.

Aside from flinging Hunters into the air, the Insect Glaive also has a system similar to the Charge Blade. By using the insect-like mechanism to gather three types of essence from different body parts of a monster, this weapon can considerably boost its damage, elemental damage and jumping range.

When all three essences have been acquired, the Insect Glaive’s moveset will change completely, allowing a hunter to execute more powerful moves that can easily be chained together.

The insect can also apply additional elemental damage, even being able to set up explosive dust clouds that explode.

I’ve almost exclusively used the Insect Glaive while playing Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. It’s a complex weapon that requires an acute awareness of a monster’s body parts and the spatial awareness of each environment.

I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of flinging myself around with the Insect Glaive!

Hunting Horn

What’s better than a Hammer? A Hammer that can imbue itself and its hunting party with numerous beneficial effects.

The Hunting Horn’s basic moveset is pretty simple to get the hang of; it’s just a lot of slow swings and slams. The real magic of this weapon is the different songs that it’s able to play, like Attack UP L or Divine Protection. These melodies benefit every hunter within a certain radius and can be stacked and reapplied at will.

Different Hunting Horns offer different melodies, but all of them are worked into the weapon’s combos, so you’ll never have to disengage from a monster to activate them.

The Hunting Horn is the de facto support weapon in Monster Hunter World, and it’s solely for this reason that I love it; this weapon also deals half-decent blunt damage, but that is simply a bonus for me.

Hammer

I think it’s pretty obvious why I like the Hammer so much. There’s nothing as satisfying as smacking a monster upside the head paired with that satisfying sound…

You wouldn’t be wrong for connecting the dots between the Greatsword and the Hammer, but the latter has a few differences that widely separate the two.

The Hammer is the king of dealing raw, blunt damage. This potentially makes each swing a powerful stun that can knock a monster clean off its feet.

Paired with having the most potent sliding attack in the game and the ability to charge up your swings, it’s no surprise that this weapon has built a cult following within the Monster Hunter franchise.

The Hammer is my go-to weapon whenever I feel like knocking some heads. Trust me that whenever you try this weapon, you’ll be hooked or hammered, I suppose?

Dual Blades

The Dual Blades are the epitome of Death By a Thousand Cuts.They revolve entirely around speed and lightning-fast slashes that you may miss if you aren’t paying enough attention. If you want to feel like you’re moving at light speed, these are the weapons for you.

Staying true to their Form, you won’t be seeing many high damage numbers when you use the Dual Blades. Instead, you’ll be getting used to watching many smaller numbers pop up. As I previously mentioned, their power doesn’t lie in their raw damage but in the speed that they possess.

These weapons also grant the wielder access to the Demon and Archdemon modes, further boosting your attack speed and power.

Unfortunately, the Dual Blades have some shortcomings, like having feeble reach and the fastest sharpness deterioration. They also require an ungodly amount of stamina to use.

If you can manage the speed of this weapon, you’ll be able to rip through any and all monsters with ease.

Greatsword

Ah yes, the Greatsword. The poster child of Monster Hunter weapons, known for massive damage and size. I highly doubt there’s a more iconic weapon than this monster of a blade.

I tend to drift towards more fast-paced and mobile weapons so picking up the Greatsword was a significant change for me.However, whilst it deals the most severe damage in the game per hit and can even be used as an impromptu shield if the need arises, the Greatsword is quite unwieldy, forcing a long wind-up time for attacks and an overall lack of mobility.

Aside from its ability to easily stun monsters, the Greatsword offers a decent level of defence. This weapon is straightforward to use but takes a lot of time to use well.

While it’s a slow and heavy weapon, the Greatsword is excellent for learning the timings of particular monsters’ attacks. It is probably the best weapon for hitting heavy satisfying slashes.

Bow

Being the quintessential and most accessible ranged weapon in the game, the Bow allows hunters to pepper any monsters from afar with barrages of arrows, each with different coatings.

When I first picked up this weapon, I was under the illusion that it’d be the most effective if I kept my distance from the monsters, but I thought wrong.

Whilst it is helpful at a long distance, the Bow excels at close-quarters combat, too, especially if you can master the Bow Dancing technique. A skill involves charging up your shot to the highest level and then maintaining it by constantly dodging until you run out of stamina, hence the ‘dancing’.

As I mentioned, you can coat the tips of your arrows in different substances, making them cause other effects to monsters, such as paralysis or sleep.

Out of all the ranged weapons in Monster Hunter World, the Bow will always be my go-to, thanks to how easy it is to use initially but hard to master. Its gameplay versatility and various arrow customisation options are a big bonus.

Switch Axe

Although it’s similar to its cousin, the Switch Axe, I find the Charge Blade slightly easier to use. Honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference between them when I first picked up the Switch Blade.

This blade focuses on a unique playstyle that involves balancing between the Axe Form and Sword Form. The prior Form serves as a base allowing you to use swift attacks to build up energy, whilst the Axe Form focuses on dealing damage. You can gain charge by performing specific attacks in either mode before storing said charge in phials. This will grant you access to this weapon’s most powerful and deadly technique: Elemental Discharge.

Frankly, I find it fun having essentially three weapons built into one. Despite the relatively complex nature of the Switch Axe.

Gunlance

As you’ve probably implied from the name, the Gunlance is precisely what it sounds like. A Lance with a massive explosive shotgun barrel attached to it. It’s a weapon that offers the wielder high offensive power and incredible defensive capabilities. This allows any Hunter to stand toe-to-toe with even the most violent monsters.

Instead of relying solely on thrusting like the Lance, the Gunlance utilises sweeps, stabs and overhead slams. This lets it cover lots of distance and different angles.

This weapon is known more for its explosive techniques than its regular ones, such as Wyvern’s Fire which sees the Gunlance charge up for a few seconds before unleashing a massive blast that deals an extreme amount of damage.

It also provides a bulwark of defence thanks to its large shield attachment allowing Gunlance Hunters to mitigate practically any dangerous attacks that come their way. This lets them stand their ground against every monster they encounter.

Honestly, I’d be hard-pressed to find a weapon as offensive and defensive as the Gunlance. However, it’s a solid choice of weapon if you’re looking to be the non-moving, dependable anchor of your hunting group.

Longsword

Arguably one of the most popular weapons in the entire game, the elegant Longsword is iconic to Monster Hunter World alongside its signature move, the Helmbreaker. The high-flying technique is entertaining, allowing you to hit any monster with multiple slashes from a single strike. It makes it child’s play to topple the giant monsters and Elder Dragons alike.

Although it looks a little unorthodox to use, the Longsword has a ridiculous amount of vast, long-reaching slashes and combos that grant you hyper-amour, powerful counterattacks and even invincibility frames. With all of this, you may think that this weapon restricts movement, but the Longsword has you covered. It’s common knowledge that you can dodge out of almost all of your combos, meaning that you can react to any monster’s attack at the last second.

The only downside to this blade is that it struggles with losing its Sharpness since it relies on slicing monsters instead of bludgeoning them; the Longsword will often bounce straight off a monster’s hide if it isn’t sharp enough.

But that’s nothing a few scrapes from a Whetstone can’t fix!

Between its cool-looking techniques and intricate design, there’s no need to wonder why it’s so prevalent in Monster Hunter World and the franchise as a whole.

Charge Blade

The Charge Blade is precisely what it sounds like. It’s also one of the most polarising weapons in Monster Hunter World. Whilst it is absurdly powerful in the right hands, a fair few hunters find this tricky weapon very complicated and difficult to understand, and frankly, I’m one of them.

The Charge Blade uses similar gameplay mechanics, relying on building up and storing energy within its phials. The only difference between the two weapons is that the Charge Blade can imbue its Sword Form with different effects, like increased damage or additional stunning effects. The only downside to the Charge Blade is its mind-boggling combos that involve switching between the various forms.

Whilst it can deal severe damage and even allow you to block specific attacks, the Charge Blade takes a lot of time to understand and master fully; but I think the reward is well worth the effort.

Conclusion

Although there are obvious favourites, I want to reassure you that this list is my opinion. Every single weapon in Monster Hunter World is more than viable. There were some weapons that I didn’t include because they didn’t appeal to me, like the Bowguns and the Sword & Shield.

Whilst I’m pretty satisfied with this game’s weapon selection, I feel it would’ve been amazing to have a few more unique weapons. Just imagine delivering a powerful uppercut to a monster using a pair of massive, oversized boxing gloves!

(Credit goes to Boomstick Gaming for the video)