Monster Hunter: World – Dual Blades Gear Progression

Gear progression is the heart and soul of Monster Hunter: World. There are countless combinations of gear you could choose to use, and combined with decorations, A and B variants, and more, it can absolutely be overwhelming for someone who isn’t experienced in the Monster Hunter franchise. The goal of this guide is to offer a recommendation for the Dual Blades weapon path at various milestones of your MHW experience – hope it helps!

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Low Rank

Entering into Low Rank, you’ve got a ton of flexibility here. It honestly doesn’t matter what setup you use in Low Rank, as you’ll be able to complete it with anything. Take your pick as to what you prefer most, with the understanding that once you hit High Rank, you’ll be replacing all of it. Also, enjoy the game – take time to learn the monsters and DB attacks and movements.

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Starting High Rank

The second you enter High Rank (immediately following the Zorah Magdaros encounter), you should utilize the SOS Finder to farm Zorah Magdaros. This doesn’t take long at all and will provide you with an initial complete set of High Rank armor and weapon. You won’t be using this gear very long, so definitely don’t upgrade it at all. However, this set will allow you to be able to grind the your next High Rank set, which will last you through the end of the main story.

• Head: Zorah A
  
• Chest: Zorah A
  
• Hands: Zorah A
• Legs: Zorah A
• Feet: Zorah A
• Charm: Attack Charm I
• Weapon: Zorah Magdaros

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High Rank

So you’ve reached High Rank and you’ve quickly farmed up the Zorah Magdaros set. Now you can start focusing on an Odogaron setup! This build is going to be your training wheels of getting into the more difficult content. It provides quick sharpening (stay sharpened) and high Critical Eye (affinity). You’ll shoot for the Alpha set (A),  as you won’t have many decorations (slots) early on in High Rank. This setup will last you up through the completion of main story.

• Head: Dragonking Eyepatch A
  
• Chest: Odogaron A
• Hands: Odogaron A
• Legs: Odogaron A
• Feet: Odogaron A
• Charm: Attack Charm II
• Weapon: Nergal Gouge, Diablos Clubs, Anja Cyclone II

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Post-Main Story

Once you’ve completed gathering your Odogaron High Rank set above, you can start gathering materials for your post-main story setup. This will be your first venture into a mixed set, and where you’ll really start caring about building up specific Skills. The main focus of this setup is Expose Armor > Attack Power > Critical Eye. Note you’ll receive the 2-piece Rathalos set bonus which will give you increase Elemental critical damage.

• Head: Strategist A
• Chest: Rathalos B
• Hands: Xeno’Jiiva Claws A
• Legs: Odogaron B
• Feet: Rathalos A
• Charm: Attack Charm III
• Weapon: Fire and Ice, Decimation Claws, Anja Cyclone III
• Decorations: Attack Jewels

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Tempered / Multi-HR

First off, glad you’re enjoying Monster Hunter: World and have gotten this far in progression – welcome to the true end game. Tempered monsters and fighting multiple of them at a time will prove truly challenging, and as such, I’m not going to attempt to recommend a setup. Instead, leverage what you’ve learned so far and modify your current setup to what you feel most comfortable with. It’s worth noting that many recommend losing some damage to gain Earplugs 5, as multiple roars can leave you helpless.

Here is a great write-up providing some insight into Best In Slot (BiS) weapons:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/211368-monster-hunter-world/76290641

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Conclusion

That about wraps it up! This guide was intended to reduce that overwhelming feeling the game can instill in a newcomer or someone simply not as experienced in the Monster Hunter franchise. Feel free to modify these recommended setups to your liking. Hopefully they will help you stay ahead of the curve with difficulty and put you in a spot where you’re capturing and slaying monsters with ease!

I’d like to also send a huge thank you to the /r/MonsterHunterWorld community, namely LordBasedGod and Levie on the MHW Reddit Discord. Definitely join up with the Discord, pop into the #dual-blades channel and say hello! Also a quick shoutout to Arrekz Gaming for their constant phenomenal YouTube content.