Sword and Shield High Rank and Endgame Builds for Monster Hunter Wilds

Welcome to our Monster Hunter Wilds build guide for the Sword and Shield in both High Rank as well as endgame. Listed below you will find the best builds for the Sword and Shield both for progressing through the earlier stages of High Rank as well as the best builds for Sword and Shield at endgame.

To skip straight to the endgame builds, click the button below!

Title update 1, released on April 4th brought two major new monsters to hunt in High Rank - Zoh Shia and Mizutsune - each with new armor sets and weapons available. Mizutsune unlocks at HR21, adding new gear options to the pool around the midgame, while Zoh Shia only becomes available in High Rank at level 50 at the tail end of your journey.

A quick breakdown of changes on this page as of the title update are as follows:

• An additional set focused on HR50+ endgame has been added, with the previous Gore Magala HR40 set being rolled into the mid-game section.
• Zoh Shia items can be found on the HR50 Endgame set, with both the Chest and Weapon being recommended crafts in the standard build. Endgame build has switched to a 4-piece Gore Magala set while still maintaining Weakness Exploit.
• Mizutsune Legs are used in the midgame set, but does not carry forward into the later build.

The first set to craft as you start your path through High Rank grabs some of the stronger offensive skills from Low Rank armor paired with some comfort while you get your footing farming monsters. These will slowly be phased out as you begin to unlock stronger versions of these sets, but for now the early armor on offer is fairly limited.

Your decoration collection at this stage will still be quite small, and while it may be appealing to farm them it's simply not worth the time early on. Once you gain access to some of these decorations though, it opens up room to start tailoring your build to more offensive setups.

This set strikes a good balance between comfort and offensive power for the Sword and Shield when getting started, still managing to get points in some long term high value skills such as Burst. As element counters are a key part of Sword and Shield in general you have quite a few weapon options, with Balahara Blade III providing Offensive Guard, Water element and blue sharpness while being very easy to obtain quickly. A Thunder alternative with Rey Kuara II is also a great option depending on the matchup.

Your priority hunts are Balahara or Rathian early to craft a strong weapon to bring it up to blue sharpness. The 2-piece Guardian Ebony Set brings 2 points in Burst and a slight bump in power (though the main benefit comes from the first point), and the Conga Beta Set adds a third point in for good measure. Finally, the Arkveld set gives Flayer which, while not a premium skill for Sword and Shield, does provide some healing when popping wounds with the 2-piece bonus.

• Burst - Level 3
• Divine Blessing - Level 3
• Offensive Guard - Level 2
• Flayer - Level 2
• Blight Resistance - Level 1
• Bleeding Resistance - Level 1
• Guardian's Pulse - 3-piece
• Ebony Odogaron's Power - 2-piece
• Guardian Arkveld's Vitality - 2-piece

As you progress through High Rank, more monsters are unlocked at High Rank and comes with more flexibility in Alpha and Beta sets available. With each tiered unlock comes more opportunity to cut away comfort skills and move toward offensive options, allowing you to round out the efficiency of your build to lean into the Sword and Shield playstyle. This starts with the midgame monsters unlocking at HR20, and is pushed even further at 40+ with Gore Magala being added to the pool.

We've separated these two stages into the tabs below depending on what gear you currently have access to:

With additions in Title Update 1, the ideal build options have shifted slightly to add in some of the more efficient pieces provided by Zoh Shia. This also opens up the option to move toward a 4-piece Gore Magala set without needing to fill out skills with off-pieces, so requires you to be HR50 to complete.

With the addition of the Zoh Shia Chest in Title Update 1 the appeal of a highly efficient Agitator piece is high, shifting the build toward a 4-piece Gore Magala set with Sane decorations means affinity is mostly covered. Changes to Maximum Might management also means it's now much more realistic to maintain, meaning previous options in Guardian Fulgur Anjanath are no longer necessary.

The Zoh Shia weapon, Blazing Mikal, also now becomes the ideal crafted weapon until reaching Artian offerings. As always though, the Sword and Shield leans into element counters, so a list of ideal crafts with dropdowns of match-ups is as follows:

• Fire - Melting Point - Click for Match-ups

  • Blangonga
  • Congalala
  • Doshaguma
  • Gore Magala
  • Gypceros
  • Hirabami
  • Jin Dahaad
  • Lala Barina
  • Nerscylla
• Water - Sandsea Katduva - Click for Match-ups

  • Ajarakan
  • Guardian Ebony Odogaron
  • Gravios
  • Nu Udra
  • Quematrice
  • Rompopolo
• Thunder - Kuara Clairsword - Click for Match-ups

  • Balahara
  • Chatacabra
  • Mizutsune
  • Uth Duna
• Ice - Precipice Mateptro - Click for Match-ups

  • Guardian Fulgur Anjanath
  • Rey Dau
  • Xu Wu
  • Yian Kut-Ku
• Dragon - Blazing Mikal - Click for Match-ups

  • Arkveld
  • Guardian Doshaguma
  • Guardian Rathalos
  • Rathalos
  • Rathian
  • Zoh Shia

Your weapon skills are also dictated by the base skill present on the weapon, as each element comes with different base effects. In order of priority you should aim for the following:

• Critical Boost 3 - extremely efficient damage to go alongside the high Affinity the build uses, and should be priority decorations either as a 3-slot or a 2-slot plus a 1-slot.
• Master's Touch - the most efficient sharpness tool available when using the build, and if you have no other sharpness methods should be the go to pick. Alternatives are Razor Sharp 3 and any points in Handicraft.
• Offensive Guard 3 - perfect guards granting up to 15% extra attack is too valuable to pass up if you have spare decoration slots, and is almost always worth slotting in.
• Critical Boost 4/5 - if you already have all the above covered in your weapon, any spare slots can be spent maxing this out all the way to 5.

Artian Weapons are the strongest available options for the Sword and Shield in all scenarios even after the release of Title Update 1, and due to it leaning into element counters you may find yourself needing to craft quite a few. These will generally be the strongest options even before you max out reinforcements largely because of the triple 3-slot decorations you can fit in, and picking some tailored Verdoloto weapons to cover each match-up is your ultimate goal when completing your sets.

You should always aim to craft weapons with all 3 of the same element on your Blade, Disc and Tube selections to maximize its values. Also aim to use 3 Attack infusions to maximize the raw throughput. Ideally, you want the following reinforcements:

• Attack Boost +5
• Attack Boost +5
• Attack Boost +5
• Attack Boost +5
• Sharpness Boost +30

This can shift around some and having a perfectly optimized craft doesn't detract from how much better Artian weapons are in general, so don't worry too much about getting it absolutely perfect.

For the 3 decoration slots, fill this with Critical Jewel III, Guardian/Handicraft and Master's Touch to cover the three main bases of ideal weapon decorations.