Post-Story
Post-Story
Optimized builds for the post story and guiding lands!
Congratulations on defeating Shara Ishvalda! Now it's time for Iceborne's extensive endgame content. Your focus will be on three key areas:
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Leveling the Guiding Lands to acquire special materials for weapon augments and charm upgrades
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Farming decorations to complete optimal skill setups
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Completing Special Assignments to unlock powerful monsters and increase your Master Rank
Welcome To The Grinding Lands - MR 24🎖️
Your first priority is assembling a strong set for efficient Guiding Lands farming and tackling the initial Special Assignments.
If you can defeat the Frostfang Barioth event quest (available at MR24), its lance offers a significant upgrade over the Kulu weapon. This is the first lance with purple sharpness, and it comes with ice element - perfect for the upcoming monsters that are predominantly weak to ice.
Post-story monsters hit considerably harder, making Guard 5 and Guard Up increasingly valuable. We'll incorporate both into our build. If you lack a Guard Up decoration, you can obtain one from the Elder Melder after completing the story. Since decoration collections are likely limited at this point, we'll use the Seething Bazelgeuse mail for efficient Guard levels.
Fortify becomes essential in the Guiding Lands since there's no faint limit. This skill provides substantial damage and defense bonuses for 50 minutes after each cart, making it extremely valuable for extended farming sessions.
Eternal Winter
The Frostfang Barioth Lance represents a major upgrade with its purple sharpness and high raw damage. We maintain three Teostra pieces for Master's Touch to preserve this valuable purple sharpness during extended hunts.
With our remaining slots, we prioritize Guard 5 and Offensive Guard 3 through strategic armor choices and charm selection. The addition of Fortify provides a significant damage boost specifically for Guiding Lands efficiency, making this set perfectly balanced for the initial endgame grind.
Climbing The Ranks - MR 50-70🎖️
The journey to MR 100 involves several important milestones and targets:
MR 50 Priorities
Aim to complete these tasks before reaching MR50:
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Explore the Guiding Lands to gather unique materials from outcrops and bone piles. This area is also excellent for farming Steamworks fuel, which during events yields melding tickets for obtaining missing High Rank decorations.
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Hunt Radobaan in the Guiding Lands to craft the Ironside Charm IV upgrade.
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Level the Forest region to 3 to unlock Yian Garuga, whose greaves will be crucial for our next build.
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Complete the Special Assignments 'Sterling Pride' (Kirin) and 'Reveal Thyself, Destroyer' (Rajang).
MR 70 Objectives
At MR 70, focus on these goals:
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Raise the Forest region to level 6 to unlock Scarred Yian Garuga, whose materials enable the Health Augment for our weapon.
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Complete 'Across the Lost Path' (Stygian Zinogre) to unlock the final Guiding Lands region: the Tundra.
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Farm decorations through the event quest 'The Wrath of Thunder Descends' (Tempered Zinogre). Target High Rank decorations like Critical Boost, Tenderizer, and Ironwall jewels, plus combination decorations such as Guardian/Expert, Guardian/Attack, Challenger/Vitality, or Flawless/Vitality.
Below is a reference build for what a well-optimized setup at MR 70 should resemble:
Scarred Veteran
This build represents a significant upgrade from our starter set. By incorporating new armor pieces from Yian Garuga and Rajang, we gain Critical Boost 3 without sacrificing our core skills. Since we've traded armor pieces with built-in Guard, we compensate with the Guard charm.
The most important addition is the Health Augment on our weapon - a game-changing upgrade that makes chip damage management substantially more comfortable, especially during extended hunts in the Guiding Lands.
We're getting our first health augment helping us dealing with chip damage.
The Final MR Cap - MR 100🎖️
At MR 100, focus on these important objectives:
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Complete the Special Assignment '...And My Rage for All' (Raging Brachydios) to access its exceptional weapon and armor pieces.
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Level the Coral Highlands region to 7 for Tempered Namielle materials, enabling Rarity 12 Health Augments.
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Finish the Special Assignment 'Point of No Return' (Safi'jiiva recon).
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Raise the Rotten Vale region to level 4 for Tempered Oilshell+, needed to upgrade to the Ironside Charm V.
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Level the Wildspire Waste region to 7 to craft the Challenger Charm V.
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Continue decoration farming through the event quest 'Day of Ruin' (Tempered Teostra), which offers the best decoration rewards post-MR 100.
The following build represents an optimal target to work toward before preparing for the ultimate challenges of Alatreon and Fatalis:
Explosive Perfection
This mixed set combines Teostra and Raging Brachydios pieces to secure both Master's Touch and Agitator Secret - a deadly combination. Agitator shines in Iceborne due to the ease of triggering monster enrage through clutch claw wall slams, providing near-constant uptime.
The Challenger Charm V unlocked at MR 100 makes maxing Agitator straightforward, while Master's Touch ensures our purple sharpness lasts throughout each hunt. Note that we have Weakness Exploit 4 (one point is excess), but this remains the most efficient armor combination unless you possess the extremely rare Ironwall+ decorations.
We're getting a health augment helping us dealing with chip damage and an affinity augment to get to 100%. With the last slot we're just getting a defense augment.
You can replace the fortitude/attack deco on the weapon with whatever you still need.
The Master Of All Elements - MR 100🎖️
After completing the Safi'jiiva recon, you'll unlock the Alatreon Special Assignment. This elder dragon presents a unique challenge with his elemental mechanics and devastating Escaton Judgment nova.
Alatreon cycles through three forms: Fire, Ice, and Dragon. In the assignment, he begins in Fire Active mode where he's most vulnerable to ice. Later, he transitions to Dragon Active before performing his Escaton Judgment - a powerful nova that will kill you unless you've dealt sufficient elemental damage to weaken it. After the nova, he normally shifts to Ice Active, unless you break his horns during Dragon phase, which forces him back to Fire Active.
Our strategy involves using an ice weapon to deal enough elemental damage for the topple while breaking his horns to prevent the shift to Ice Active (where our ice weapon would be ineffective). The Frostfang Barioth Lance strikes an ideal balance between ice element and raw damage - important since Alatreon's hitzones actually favor raw attacks while still requiring elemental damage to survive his nova.
If you're struggling with the elemental threshold, consider farming for Safi or Kjarr ice lances, though these are random drops and may take time to obtain.
Players comfortable with Alatreon's moveset and tenderizing opportunities can use our MR100 build with the Frostfang Lance. For those seeking more security, this specialized build sacrifices minimal damage for significantly improved survival chances by reaching 100% affinity without tenderizing - particularly valuable since maintaining tenderized parts on Alatreon can be challenging.
Anti Alatreon Set
We return to the Frostfang Barioth Lance with its ideal combination of ice element for topples and strong raw damage. Our armor combines three Teostra pieces for Master's Touch with the Raging Brachydios greaves and Frostfang Barioth helm - a setup that enables us to reach 100% affinity without part tenderizing.
The four empty level 1 slots provide flexible customization. Consider Blight Resistance 3 to negate all blights (especially important for preventing Dragonblight, which nullifies elemental damage), Divine Blessing for damage reduction, or Attack Boost 4 if you're confident in your play. This build balances offensive capability with practical survivability for this challenging encounter.
We're getting a health augment helping us dealing with chip damage and an affinity augment to get to 100%. With the last slot we're just getting a element augment.
The Legendary Black Dragon - MR 100🎖️
Fatalis represents the pinnacle challenge in Monster Hunter World, featuring devastating attacks that can one-shot hunters without appropriate preparation. Breaking his head once weakens his fire attacks in the final phase, while breaking it twice significantly reduces the fight's difficulty.
Confident players can tackle Fatalis with our MR100 raw build. For those seeking extra security, this specialized defensive build maintains strong damage output while incorporating valuable survival skills. We'll use Alatreon's lance, which offers less raw than the Lightbreak Lance but compensates with dragon element (Fatalis's weakness) and exceptional sharpness.
This extended sharpness bar allows us to abandon Master's Touch in favor of Divine Blessing Secret, providing crucial damage reduction. The strategy works particularly well against Fatalis due to numerous sharpening opportunities during phase transitions, mini-novas, and flying sequences.
Anti Fatalis Set
This specialized setup combines three pieces of Raging Brachydios for Agitator Secret with two Gold Rathian pieces for Divine Blessing Secret - a powerful defensive combination. Coalescence provides substantial value as you'll frequently be affected by fireblight, turning a hindrance into an advantage.
We include Protective Polish to maintain sharpness between the numerous opportunities to safely sharpen during Fatalis's fight. Remember to equip Heavy Artillery in one of your mantles to maximize damage output with the roaming ballista - a key tool for securing head breaks.
We're getting a health augment helping us dealing with chip damage and an affinity augment to get to 100%. With the last slot we're just getting an element augment.
After conquering Fatalis, you're ready to craft true endgame builds and face the final challenge: Arch-Tempered Velkhana. Explore optimal endgame setups in our dedicated section:
👑 End Game Builds