Best Insect Glaive builds in Monster Hunter Wilds

The best Insect Glaive build in Monster Hunter Wilds is one that takes into account its unique abilities as a weapon. Someone could say that about any weapon, you might be thinking, but don't forget; the Insect Glaive literally allows you to fly. Even among Monster Hunter's complex arsenal, it's particularly specialized. It's a weapon that has a massive advantage when mounting monsters and fighting flying foes and that's something you can easily build into.

For those that are new to Insect Glaive, the key to this weapon is the Kinsect; a bug buddy who sits on your arm and flies around gathering white, red, orange, or green essence. While green simply heals you, the other three fill your essence bar in the top left, unlocking powerful new attacks, including a combo in Wilds that actually consumes the essence for big DPS.

Below I'll sum up the most optimal playstyle for glaive, including some details about what's changed from previous games. Then I'll move onto the build. Since Wilds is a game about constant progression, I provide a path you can follow for armor and weapons, some suggestions for High Rank sets, plus an endgame build you can try once you get there.

Looking for more hunting tips? Check out our Monster Hunter Wilds guide hub for all the G-Rank advice we've crafted so far.

How to play Insect Glaive in Monster Hunter Wilds

In comparison to previous games, optimal Insect Glaive play is massively simplified in Monster Hunter Wilds and boils down to a pretty simple rotation:

1. Launch yourself into the air using RT + A and attack the monster with Y enough to mount it
2. Press Y to perform Strong Knife Attacks on the monster's back and open every wound possible by moving between positions, before performing a Weapon Attack on one of the wounds with right bumper to bring it down
3. Use Focus Strikes to harvest wounds and get full Kinsect essence
4. Hold LT + press B to charge and release a Strong Descending Slash in Focus Mode and then press B again to move into a powerful Rising Spiral Slash that consumes your essence.

So, the new playstyle centres on breaking wounds with Focus Strikes to get max essence and then consuming it to pull off a powerful Rising Spiral Slash. There are, however, a few important things to note that change this playstyle slightly:

• You can use Focus Mode and Focus Strikes midair: Holding LT to enter Focus Mode while performing Vaulting Dance makes your Kinsect attack alongside you. You can also use Focus Strikes midair for hard-to-reach wounds, though you'll have to aim precisely as you can see in the clip above.
• You need full essence to unlock Vaulting Dance: You used to only require red essence to perform this flying combo, but now you need all three. When you do have full essence, your usual midair Y transforms into this multi-hit attack.
• You can perform a Strong Descending Slash with only red essence: The first half of the most powerful Insect Glaive combo is available with just red essence. You can also charge this combo while midair and release it to drop into a Descending Thrust which can lead into a Rising Spiral Slash, provided you have full essence.
• You can gather essence on the ground in Focus Mode: As mentioned, holding LT causes your Kinsect to attack alongside you, and it'll gather essence from the parts it hits as it does.
• You can tag monsters with your Kinsect to create powder clouds: Either by whacking a monster with RT or holding RT and pressing the right bumper, you can mark a point for your Kinsect to attack as long as it has stamina. This creates clouds which, when hit, will activate your Kinsect's powder type, such as building poison. Obviously if the Kinsect is doing this it can't attack alongside you in Focus Mode, so it's not always optimal in Wilds.
• You can offset attacks with Insect Glaive: Doing an offset is essentially like parrying an attack—it creates a big explosion of sparks and a clanging metal sound, momentarily stopping the monster in its tracks. Insect Glaive can offset with the first horizontal slash of its charged red combo, and the same goes for dropping into that combo from midair, though it's significantly harder to time. The clip below shows it in action.

Overall, what this means for Insect Glaive is that the traditional way of gathering essence via aiming your Kinsect with RT and commanding it with Y or B is kind of useless now. It's far more efficient to mount, open wounds, and break wounds for immediate max essence while also getting access to Vaulting Dance and that all-powerful Rising Spiral Slash.

Insect Glaive is now a weapon about wound economy as you try to perform a powerful combo for every wound you break.

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Best Insect Glaive Low Rank build

This build focuses on the Scaling Prowess group skill, survivability, and access to powerful early game elements.

• First weapon: Barina Perche I

Besides your starting Hope Glaive, the first weapon you should craft is the Barina Perche I after you fight the Lala Barina in the Scarlet Forest. This gives you access to the paralysis element, which is extremely powerful, especially if you also get your Palico a Felyne Barina Needle so it can help build the status. When it procs, the monster is frozen stiff so you can get some damage in. The Barina Perche also has 10% affinity meaning you'll crit more, which is great for a weapon that hits so often. After you fight Rey Dau, the apex predator of the Windward Plains, you should equip:

• First armor set: Chainmail Helm, Quematrice Mail, Quematrice Braces, Leather Belt, Quematrice Greaves

The most important thing initially is to make sure you have three armor pieces with the Scaling Prowess group skill that makes it easier to both mount and wound monsters in that state. With its aerial attacks, glaive already has a big advantage in mounting, and this makes it almost instantaneous. When you meet the monster early on, craft the Quematrice Mail, braces, and greaves and then whack on the Leather Belt and Chainmail Helm for Botanist and Geologist respectively—these give extra drops from bone piles, mining outcrops, and herbs, which is useful at first.

When you fight the Balahara, craft the Balahara Vambraces and Balahara Greaves to replace your Quematrice ones and grant the Evade Extender skill, which is far better for glaive's evasive playstyle.

After you defeat Rompopolo in the Oilwell Basin you're ready for another upgrade. You'll want to kill a Kranodath—the stone-headed small monsters in the area—to get some Krano Copper and unlock its set. At this point you'll also have access to the Ingot Mail set. Now you're ready to craft and equip your second armor set.

• Second weapon: Rey Halilintar I

This is a fantastic weapon which will honestly carry you through the rest of Low Rank. It deals thunder damage and comes with the Focus skill, which increases elemental damage with charged attacks—perfect if you're using that Rising Spiral Slash like you should be.

• Second armor set: Ingot Helm, Kranodath Mail, Balahara Vambraces, Ingot Coil, Balahara Greaves

You'll also have unlocked talismans, so craft and equip a Blessing Charm I to top off your Divine Blessing. With this amazing combo of survivability skills you'll have x3 Divine Blessing, x2 Evade Extender, x2 Flinch Free, and you'll still have top level Scaling Prowess. The final upgrade I'd recommend for Low Rank is after you defeat Rey Dau. You should move to:

• Third armour set: Rey Sandhelm, Rey Sandmail, Balahara Vambraces, Balahara Coil, Balahara Greaves

With this you'll get x3 Evade Extender, x1 Constitution, x1 Latent Power, retain Scaling Prowess, but also acquire the Rey Dau's Voltage group skill which extends Latent Power. Considering Latent Power reduces stamina consumption by 30% and Constitution does so by a fixed 10%, these are perfect for Insect Glaive and endlessly jumping into the air to fly around.

This should make the rest of Low Rank pretty breezy. If you do find yourself in need of an upgrade, the Guardian Oda set is good for glaive, providing Burst and a set bonus that increases that skill's duration.

Best Insect Glaive High Rank build

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Once you get into High Rank you'll have access to all sorts of weapon elements, decorations, and armor skills. The ideal element to use will largely depend on the monster you're facing, as ever, but there are a few armor sets I recommend looking into for glaive:

• Guardian Ebony: You may have already messed around with this set in Low Rank but it's even better in High Rank due to the way its skills are distributed between the A and B sets. If you equip helm B, braces A, coil B, and greaves A, you'll end up with max level Burst, Divine Blessing, and the set bonus that increases Burst duration. Burst is a great skill for Dual Blades and Insect Glaive, enhancing stats when you land consecutive hits.
• Butterfly: This is one of Wilds' secret armor sets and it's obvious from its bug theme and skills that it's intended for glaive. While it has no damage perks, it's got max level Constitution, Evade Window, Evade Extender, plus Recovery Up and Recovery Speed, making it a great set for an evasive playstyle.
• Guardian Arkveld: Just as in Low Rank, this set is amazing. It's got Flayer, Partbreaker, Weakness Exploit, plus the special skill, Elemental Absorption that buffs elemental attack and resistances when you take elemental damage. The set bonus also heals you when you break wounds which has excellent synergy with its skill selection.

While these are strong sets for glaive, my favorite endgame build centres around paralysis and the Guild Ace set, which I'll run through below.

Guild Ace Paralysis endgame build

This build centres around the Guild Ace armor, currently one of only three rarity 8 sets in the game. The reason it's so good for paralysis glaive is that it gets max level of the Foray skill, increasing attack power and affinity against monsters affected by paralysis or poison. Both of these are easy to apply with your weapon or Kinsect, letting you unleash a Rising Spiral Slash for big damage once they've got either ailment.

The set also provides max Constitution and Peak Performance for glaive stamina and an easy to maintain attack buff when you're at full health. The second reason this set is amazing is because it gets five level three decoration slots, giving it almost unparalleled skill customization. I personally take the Breaker Charm II and top it off with a Destroyer Jewel [2] for max Partbreaker and a 30% damage increase to Focus Strikes.

I then take two Flayer Jewel [3] for the Flayer skill that makes wounds appear more often, and two Tenderizer Jewel [3] for two levels of Weakness Exploit, increasing affinity against weak points and wounds.

The final touch with this build is adding the Expert Jewel III to the Lala Stromatopelm glaive, buffing its affinity to 27%, the Crit Status Jewel II, which increases paralysis buildup on crits, and a Critical Jewel I to buff crit damage by 28%. While you can choose whichever Kinsect you want, I go with the Monarch Alucanid for max power, while still having enough speed to deliver you essence.

All in all, this will let you crit often, building extra paralysis as you do, and do big damage to the monster when it is paralyzed or poisoned. You'll also create wounds more often and do significantly more damage against them, especially if you manage to crit on a Focus Strike. The key things to remember with this build are to unleash your Rising Spiral Slash combo when the monster is paralyzed or poisoned and to heal to full when you get damaged to maintain your Peak Performance buff.

Considering there are no defensive skills in this build, you'll also want to buff your armor with some armor spheres for increased defense.

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