For those of you who haven't had the joy of playing this game, Monster Hunter is a series of games about, fittingly, hunting monsters. The player is dropped into a world with several towns and habitats, and has to hunt the creatures residing in them in order to progress in the game. The game itself repeats a cycle of hunting and building with the materials you gathered from the hunt to improve your attack and defense, among other things. The story, unlike the gameplay, is rather bland and is not incredibly necessary to pay attention to. It is overall an excellent game, and, though I am very biased in this matter, I would recommend getting it.

Not long after completing the first story event of the game, you will be asked to go to your room and select a weapon. There are fourteen different options, and all are very different from one another. Picking the right weapon for you is essential to monster fights, as you will need every bit of skill you can get.

The Longsword is a combo-based weapon, able to build up charge and release a relentless flurry of attacks. It is heavily built towards evading, but a weak counter is also provided. An excellent choice for players who enjoy a weapon that is both easy to learn, effective, and flashy.

The Greatsword is a heavy weapon, using slow attacks to reap great payoffs. This weapon does an incredibly high amount of damage, but leaves you wide open for a monster attack. The Greatsword, while allowing for evading and blocking, should be combined with as much defense (see armor section) as possible to make up for the long windows where you are vulnerable to monsters.

The Dual Blades are incredibly fast weapons, using speedy but damaging attacks and dodge-oriented playstyle to wreak havoc upon the monster they are being used against. When the monster is vulnerable, players can enter Demon Mode. This mode increases the speed and damage of attacks, but drains stamina faster than a Kushala drains your health bar. After ending this mode, if enough attacks are executed, users will enter Archdemon Mode, which is essentially a Demon Mode for Demon Mode.

The Sword and Shield (furthermore referred to as S&S) is a weapon that balances the playstyles of evading and guarding to create the fast-paced masterpiece that it is. A very malleable weapon, the S&S suits almost all hunters, allowing for an easy beginner weapon for those new to the game and an effective tool for a seasoned hunter. It also allows for using consumables without removing your weapon.

The Lance is a weapon designed to do damage behind a thick wall of armor. Built for guarding and guarding only, this weapon tanks hits from the hardest monster and delivers attacks that, though weak, have a huge range. The Lance also provides an excellent counter and a special attack that allows it to travel faster than any other player.

The Gunlance is a tank. Not in the sense of the playstyle, but a T-34. This weapon mixes the playstyle of the Lance with moderately damaging explosives, also allowing for attacks with heavy damage and KO potential. However, the Gunlance is known for being somewhat clunky and having Greatsword-like vulnerability windows. Fun and effective, but difficult to use.

The Hammer is about as simple as it gets. Mains of this weapon strike the monster on the head with a stick, dealing heavy damage, and ritually complain about Longsword users tripping them on the forums. The only downsides to this weapon are the short range and high risk of taking damage. Very fun, and players will likely get addicted to slide-attacking.

The Hunting Horn is a weapon that combines blunt attacks comparable in nature to those of a Longsword with the ability to buff both yourself and other players. This weapon is very dodge-oriented, providing no alternative to simply evading. However, you can deal an amazing amount of damage by using its spin attack after a regular one.

The Charge Blade is a weapon that, using extremely complex combos and maneuvers, can be extremely effective against monsters. Or you could just spam SAED (the weapon's ultimate attack) as much as possible. All jokes aside, this weapon is heavily combo based, often requiring players to switch modes mid-combo. The Charge Blade has two modes: the S&S mode, which performs as one might think, and an axe mode similar to Greatsword. Players can build up charges and use them in either of these modes, increasing the effectiveness of attacks. The most common way to do this is to slot it into the axe mode and perform the element discharge combo. Overall a fun and very effective, but extremely complex. For more information, see the video below.


The Switch Axe, similarly to the Charge Blade, is a fast-paced, weapon-morphing monstrosity. however, this one is much less complex and relies more on Longsword-like mechanics. Players must attack monsters in axe mode (similar to Longsword in playstyle) to build up a charge meter in order to reach its sword mode. This mode allows for much stronger and faster attacks, but each attack slightly depletes the charge meter, which, when empty, will return to axe mode.

The Insect Glaive is a fast-paced weapon that deals moderate damage. Users launch a bug on their arm to extract oils from the monster, which power up the player. They would then enter the air using the Insect Glaive's Vault attack and spam the monster with aerial attacks, occasionally releasing specialized dust that can be attacked to heal the player or damage the monster. It is overall a very fun weapon to play, and is also decently effective.

(WIP)