Welcome to High Rank! After defeating Apex Arzuros, you'll face tougher versions of familiar monsters along with exciting new challenges. These monsters hit harder and have more health, so upgrading your gear becomes crucial for both offense and defense.

Guardian weapons and Blackbelt Armor were added as catch-up gear for Sunbreak's release. While these pieces are powerful and easy to obtain, I strongly recommend avoiding them on your first playthrough. A core part of Monster Hunter's experience is exploring different armor skills, farming materials, and crafting various sets. However, the choice is yours.

I've included builds for both progression paths below.

High Rank 4 star is our first stepping stone. While there aren't many new monsters yet, we'll focus on upgrading our gear to prepare for tougher challenges ahead.

Our weapon upgrade requires ores from the Lava Caverns - I'll explain how to get these when we discuss the Ingot Greaves S below. For armor, start by hunting a High Rank Lagombi for its helm.

You can craft High Rank versions of several Low Rank pieces using gathered materials. We'll upgrade to the Hunter's Mail S and Kamura Braces S for improved defense.

The Ingot Greaves S are slightly tricky to obtain early but worth the effort. You'll need to access the Lava Caverns through the Event Quest 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind's Eye', join the quest, mine the necessary ores, and return from quest.

The crown jewel of this set is the Skalda/Spio Coil with Weakness Exploit 2. While obtaining it requires farming Toxic Kumori from the Argosy (a rare byproduct from herbs and fish at the Icebarb Bazaar), the massive damage boost makes it worth the effort.

high rank entry set

This is our first set with Weakness Exploit, one of the most impactful damage skills for lance. Combined with the Paladin Lance II's blue sharpness, this set marks a significant power spike in our progression. The 55% affinity means we'll be landing critical hits more than half the time!

EFFECTIVE RAW

⚔️

325

AVG AFFINITY

🎯

55%

SHARPNESS 20 blue hits

After defeating Jyuratodus in the Urgent Quest, we gain access to 5 star Hub Quests. While we won't make massive changes to our build here, we'll add some important upgrades.

The Rampart Lance, craftable with Flooded Forest ores, becomes our next weapon upgrade. More exciting is our access to High Rank Barroth - its armor is even better than the Low Rank version, providing our first taste of Offensive Guard through the helm and arms.

We can now craft our first decorations! Focus on the Diversion Jewel to maintain monster attention and Speed Sharpening jewels to compensate for our current lack of sharpness management skills.

Don't forget to complete the 'Learn the Lance' quest to unlock Spiral Thrust, a powerful Switch Skill. If you haven't already, crafting 8 different lances will unlock Instablock, the most powerful switch skill if mastered to perfection.

offensive guard initiate

The Barroth helm introduces us to Offensive Guard, a cornerstone lance skill that rewards perfect guards with a 5% damage boost per level. While the damage increase might seem small, it adds up significantly during hunts since we're constantly guarding.

New decoations: Diversion helps keep monsters focused on us, while Speed Sharpening makes maintenance much more manageable during fights.

EFFECTIVE RAW

⚔️

374

AVG AFFINITY

🎯

40%

SHARPNESS 30 blue hits

Defeating Mizutsune opens up 6 star Hub Quests, giving us access to two key monsters: High Rank Zinogre and Rathalos. Their armor pieces are significant upgrades: specifically the Zinogre Mail S and Rathalos Braces S.

For those who enjoy multiplayer hunts, this is where we can craft the essential Flinch Free jewel using Zinogre and Mizutsune materials - no more getting knocked around by your teammates!

weakness exploit master

This set maximizes our Weakness Exploit potential at the cost of one Attack Boost level. The trade is worth it - hitting weak spots with 60% affinity means we're landing critical hits more consistently.

The Rathalos braces are a sidegrade that provide better defense, which helps when we're learning to counter more aggressive monsters.

EFFECTIVE RAW

⚔️

384

AVG AFFINITY

🎯

60%

SHARPNESS 30 blue hits

After taking down Rakna-Kadaki, we unlock both 7 star Hub Quests and a crucial new melding method. This improved melding system gives us better odds at specific skills - we'll use it to craft a Weakness Exploit talisman, enabling us to use the powerful Diablos Mail S.

The biggest upgrade comes from switching to the Diablos Lance. Don't let its negative affinity scare you, its tremendous raw attack power more than makes up for the occasional missed critical hit, especially with our Weakness Exploit skill helping to offset the penalty.

defense is the best offense

Despite its negative affinity, the Diablos Lance's raw power makes it our best option at this point.

The set gives us more Offensive Guard levels plus our first level of Guard, making our defensive capabilities much more reliable. Don't let the negative affinity scare you - our Weakness Exploit skill helps offset it significantly.

important rampage skill

The Attack II rampage skill needs to be added while the weapon is still in the bone tree, before upgrading to the Diablos path. This is crucial for maximizing our damage output.

EFFECTIVE RAW

⚔️

446

AVG AFFINITY

🎯

30%

SHARPNESS 30 blue hits

AUGMENTS

attack

Congratulations on defeating Narwa! While this technically completes the High Rank story, there's still plenty of content to explore. Though you could jump straight into Master Rank, I strongly recommend farming the newly unlocked decorations first - they're incredibly powerful and will serve you well in both late High Rank and early Master Rank.

The new charm melding options are also worth exploring. Focus on getting a talisman with Level 3 and Level 2 slots, this combination is invaluable for both our High Rank endgame builds and early Master Rank progression. Additionally try to craft the following decorations:

Beyond the main story, High Rank offers plenty more challenges. As you increase your HR level, you'll unlock new quests featuring powerful Elder Dragons and Apex Monsters, each bringing unique armor sets and weapons to craft. Whether you choose to tackle Master Rank immediately or explore all High Rank has to offer is up to you!

For our final High Rank progression set, we'll craft the ultimate version of the Diablos Lance, boasting both impressive raw damage and respectable sharpness. To complement it, we'll need to farm materials for several crucial decorations. Having these decorations crafted now will make your early Master Rank experience much smoother.

triple threat diablos

This set represents our first 'complete' build, maxing out three core lance skills: Attack Boost, Offensive Guard, and Weakness Exploit.

Guard 3 provides excellent defensive capabilities that will serve us well through the remaining High Rank content and into early Master Rank. Thanks to our ability to craft decorations for core skills, we can now use a flexible 3-2 slot charm to round out the build.

weapon augment

The Attack II rampage skill needs to be added while the weapon is still in the bone tree, before upgrading to the Diablos path. This is crucial for maximizing our damage output.

EFFECTIVE RAW

⚔️

492

AVG AFFINITY

🎯

30%

SHARPNESS 50 white hits

AUGMENTS

attack

Welcome to the pinnacle of High Rank! These endgame builds all feature Guard 3 for comfortable play, though veteran hunters can check out the Guard 0 builds in the linked album for maximum damage potential.

We'll explore two distinct build paths. The first utilizes Valstrax's Dragonheart skill, which provides massive damage bonuses when below 80% health. While this is unquestionably the strongest option for experienced hunters, it requires careful health management. For those preferring a more comfortable playstyle, we also have a reliable build that trades a bit of damage for consistency.

Both builds utilize the final upgrade of the Tigrex Lance, available after defeating Valstrax. Its white sharpness makes it slightly stronger than our trusty Diablos Lance, providing the perfect weapon for the endgame.

Comfy

Dragonheart

comfy endgame set

This balanced endgame setup provides all our core offensive skills (Attack Boost 4, Weakness Exploit 3, Offensive Guard 3) while maintaining Guard 3 for comfortable blocking.

The combination of white sharpness and Protective Polish 2 ensures we maintain peak damage output, while Critical Boost adds extra punch to our critical hits. Feel free to adjust Protective Polish and Critical Boost levels based on your playstyle.

rampage skill

We are getting Attack III to maximize damage output.

EFFECTIVE RAW

⚔️

506

AVG AFFINITY

🎯

45%

SHARPNESS 20 white hits

AUGMENTS

attack

dragonheart endgame set

This aggressive setup leverages Dragonheart 5's massive raw boost and Resuscitate's activation through dragonblight for maximum damage potential. While it requires managing your health below 80%, it represents the highest damage potential available in High Rank.

The single level of Protective Polish helps maintain our white sharpness uptime, though you'll need to be more mindful of sharpness management.

rampage skill

We are getting Attack III to maximize damage output.

EFFECTIVE RAW

⚔️

524

AVG AFFINITY

🎯

35%

SHARPNESS 20 white hits

AUGMENTS

attack

With these endgame builds, you're now fully equipped to handle everything High Rank has to offer - from Apex Monsters to the toughest Elder Dragons.

When you're ready to face even tougher monsters and craft even more powerful gear, click below to start your Master Rank journey. Good hunting!