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Monster Hunter Rise is easily one of the most beginner friendly entries in the series, with a wide variety of quality of life features letting you focus on killing monsters with sick weapons instead of more frivolous things like managing your inventory.
Still, the game’s explanation of weapon mechanics isn’t perfect, especially if you’re not going to spend time in the training room or doing optional tutorial quests. While the weapons are balanced enough that any monster can be killed by any weapon, some are way easier to get into for the uninitiated than the others. Considering how often subreddits and Facebook groups are littered with “which weapon should I play” threads, we decided to make our own list of weapons in Monster Hunter Rise for the beginners out there.
Switchaxe- For Those Who Like Mecha Anime
The Switchaxe is easily one of the flashiest weapons in the game, comprising of a massive axe that transforms into an exploding sword for explosive finishers. It shares this gimmick with the Charge Blade, which ironically enough sits on the opposite end of beginner friendliness thanks to its built-in minigames about phial management.
Instead, the Switchaxe is a lot more straightforward- using it in axe mode gets you bigger damage, while transforming it into Sword Mode gets you faster attacks and additional effects, all at the cost of the Switch Meter.
Over the course of the games they’ve added more features to the Switchaxe such as the Amped Mode, which now gives both modes an aftershock of explosions, as well as access to the super stylish Zero Sum discharge, revving your sword into the monster for a big explosion.
Aside from the fact it just looks cool, the Switchaxe is fairly low maintenance, with the main skills you’ll want to be using on it early game being Rapid Morph to speed up the transformation or Evade Extender so you can move across the battlefield without sheathing your weapon.
The fact that it’s a faster weapon also means it works really well with aggressive players, since you’ll want to keep your combos going to do big damage. Best bit is they’ve removed the launching properties of the upswing, so friends of the local Switchaxe main won’t have to worry about being recklessly hurled into the air.
Greatsword – Because Big Number is better than Do Combo
I have a buddy who is a ride-or-die Greatsword main, and he described the necessary skills to play Greatsword as “the ability to count to three and hit a button”. At its most basic level that’s what the Greatsword does- look for openings, then charge your swings to exploit them for big damage.
The Greatsword is a great teaching tool, forcing you to learn a monster’s patterns. Unlike the Switchaxe which rewards your aggression, the Greatsword rewards smarts- Learn the effective ranges of you and the monsters and watch those big orange numbers fly.
For those whose souls are not bound by gravity, the Greatsword has one more trick up its sleeve- thanks to the aerial charge slash, the Greatsword is effectively one of the best mounting weapons in the game. Sorry, Insect Glaive mains. This is a slightly more advanced play with the Greatsword since you’ll also need to be able to predict where the monsters are going to be and your own trajectory, but once you main Greatsword you’ll notice other weapons are way easier to get into.
If you’re thinking of testing your mental arithmetic, one of the best skills you’ll want for your Greatsword will be Focus, which speeds up the charging process. You can get this once you unlock Khezu, and you can shoot for Barioth too to get Crit Draw, further embiggening the number.
Bow – Because You Saw Hawkeye And Thought He Was Cool
On the ranged end, it’s hard to not recommend the Bow as a good starter weapon. Unlike Bowguns light and Heavy, you won’t need to do nearly as much inventory management, making sure each gun has their own specific ammo types.
I mean, you can, that’s kind of the point of Bow- the coatings for your arrows are a great source of status and elemental damage. But you don’t have to, since you’ll also have the option to just use close range coatings, letting you do a pretty decent chunk of damage.
Aside from that, you can also dash cancel out of attacks, leaving you feeling a lot more mobile than say, the Heavy Bowgun. You can also use your silkbinds to recover stamina faster, giving you what’s essentially the ranged Greatsword experience.
While you absolutely can get by in the lower quests with the close range coating, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to improve. More advanced players can try their hands with things like Exhaust coating, giving you a way to KO enemy monsters from a safe distance.
Just like with Switchaxe Evade Extender is a good skill here thanks to its ability to reposition you faster, since you won’t want to be seeing the white in the monsters eyes when you fire off those shots.
Obviously, these aren’t the only beginner-friendly weapons in the Monster Hunter Rise. But if you’re going in totally blind, they’re definitely the best place to start. Some honorary mentions would go to the Longsword, whose flashiness make it a fun pick, or even the Sword and Shield- the most versatile weapon, having speed and utility at its disposal.
That being said, no matter your weapon choice, you’re sure to have a good time with Rise’s mobile combat, and find a good playstyle that suits you.
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