Monster Hunter World: Best Weapons (For Beginners) Tier List

Monster Hunter: World only has 14 different weapon types, but every single one is extremely unique! It can be hard to choose the best weapons as a beginner.

Starting the game with a weapon that isn’t beginner-friendly can make Monster Hunter: World feel more frustrating than it needs to be.

In this article, we’ll tell you which weapons are the best for beginners and rank them on a tier list!

Best Weapons For Beginners Tier List

S Tier

Let’s break down the tier list from top to bottom, starting with our S tier: Long Sword, Dual Blades, Light Bowgun, and Sword & Shield.

These weapon types are all extremely easy to use and versatile, so they earn their spot as the most beginner-friendly!

They can deal good damage and don’t impair your mobility, so they’re fantastic to learn the game and monsters’ patterns with.

A Tier

In the A tier, we have the Hammer, Lance, and Bow.

The main reason for the Hammer and Lance to be here is that they are slow and impair your mobility.

This raises the skill ceiling for them, as you need to learn monsters’ attack patterns better to excel with them.

That said, their movesets are overall extremely simple and easy to use if you can get past the mobility issues!

The Bow, on the other hand, is mostly here due to the fact that you need to carefully manage different ammo types in a way that Lightbow users don’t really need to. It takes some getting used to for sure!

B Tier

Moving on to the B tier we have the Charge Blade and Switch Axe.

These weapons both have multiple modes you’ll need to learn to use if you want to succeed with them.

Each mode’s moveset isn’t too complex, but it still means you’ll need to learn two different movesets!

On top of that, you’ll need to learn which mode to use when. You’ll also need to master combos which allow you to switch between modes while attacking.

All in all, they’re both weapons with rather high skill floors!

Tier List Breakdown Continued: Low Tiers

C Tier

We’ll find the Great Blade and Gunlance in the C tier.

Both of these weapons completely neuter your mobility and have very slow attacks, which makes using them frankly painful for most beginners.

The Great Blade in particular is very slow and forces you to slowly walk when it’s drawn.

The Gunlance is a tad faster, but you’ll need to learn to master its gun mechanics to truly make the most of it. It’s much harder to use effectively than the standard Lance!

D Tier

Lastly, the D tier is where we’ve placed the Hunting Horn, Insect Glaive, and Heavy Bowgun. They’re all here for different reasons, as well!

The Hunting Horn is a support-style weapon where performing certain combos will allow you to play melodies to buff yourself and your allies.

You’ll need to master these combos and have great situational awareness to know when to play which melody. On top of that, the melodies are different for each Hunting Horn!

Similarly, the Insect Glaive is a weapon that requires you to micro-manage a new system if you wish to excel with it: Kinsect.

Kinsects can be sent out to attack monsters and aid you in combat. Knowing what every type of Kinsect does and mastering them will be key to properly using this weapon.

However, Kinsect add a lot of micro-management to the game’s combat, which makes them very beginner-unfriendly.

Lastly, the Heavy Bowgun is at the end of our list due to one reason alone: mobility.

The Heavy Bowgun is as heavy as its name implies, so your Hunter will be forced to walk slowly once you draw the weapon. It fully trades away mobility for the sake of devastating shots.

This makes it very hard to use effectively for beginners when compared to the Light Bowgun and the Bow.

On top of that, the lack of mobility and slower fire rate make ammo management more important than other ranged weapons. You’ll want to make sure you use the right ammo types, as every shot counts!

Nonetheless, every weapon in Monster Hunter: World is fantastic when in the right hands. If you’re curious, we also have a tier list ranking weapons with a lesser focus on what’s beginner-friendly.

But always remember, tier lists are just guidelines! Make sure to try out every weapon to see which one you find most enjoyable. Whatever you go with, we wish you good hunting!