Monster Hunter: World has a story and dozens of monsters to slaughter, but after a point you have to start setting your own objectives to get the most out of the game. Those objectives are often armor builds. By combining armor pieces with skills that fit your fighting style, you stand to deal damage to monsters a lot faster. Some of the toughest monsters require you to craft armor that resists their favorite element.
Alternatively, you might just want to look awesome when you're on the hunt with friends. When you hit high rank you can start customizing colors, and there is a massive range of armor bits to mix and match—five in each set, to be precise.
To help your efforts, and because it can be a pain to navigate Monster Hunter: World's crafting menus, we've taken pictures of all the armor sets we've unlocked so far. There are a bunch more to discover deeper into high rank, but we've found a considerable chunk of them. There are a few that you only unlock in the crafting menu when you pick up specific objects, so look out for sinister cloth and Mosswine pigs on your travels. They unlock some pretty weird sets.
We've included a brief summary of the armour's traits under each set. For deeper stats the Monster Hunter: World wiki is a great resource. If you're just getting started with Monster Hunter: World check out our beginner's guide, our weapons guide, our overview of how armor skills work, and our overview of the monsters themselves.
LOW RANK SETS
Jagras
Hunt: Jagras, Great Jagras
Skills: Speed eating x1, Intimidator x1, Palicao Rally x1, Fortify x1, Speed Crawler x1
Notes: Weak to fire, but strong against water attacks.
Kulu
Hunt: Kulu-Ya-Ku
Skills: Fire resistance x1, stamina surge x1, pro transporter x1, item prolonger x1, critical eye x1
Notes: Strong defensively against water and dragon elements, but weak to ice attacks.
Alloy
Hunt: No hunt needed, you can craft this from Malachite ore, Iron Ore and Earth Crystal
Skills: Windproof x1, water resistance x1, defense boost x1, poison resistance x1, speed sharpening x1
Notes: Strong against dragon and water, but weak against fire, thunder, and ice.
Barroth
Hunt: Barroth
Skills: Guard x1, stamina thief x1, marathon runner x1, muck resistance x1, stun resistance x1
Notes: Strong against thunder attacks, weak against fire
Jyura
Hunt: Jyuratodus
Skills: Aquatic expert x1, muck resistance x1, water attack x1, ice resistance x1, focus.
Notes: A little weak to fire, quite weak against thunder, but strong against water
Kadachi
Hunt: Tobi-Kadachi
Skills: Constitution x1, jump master x1, evade extender x1, thunder attack x1, thunder resistance x1
Notes: Quite weak against water, but strong against lightning
High Metal
Hunt: No hunts needed, just mine Dragonite, Machalite, Iron, Earth Crystals and find four Sharp Claws.
Skills: Ice resistance x1, earplugs x1, defense boost x1, capacity boost x1, heavy artillery x1
Notes: Good ice defense, but you take more damage from lightning and water attacks.
Shamos sunglasses
Hunt: The small Shamos monsters
Skills: Detector x1
Notes: Weak to ice, offers resistance to fire and water.
Hornetaur
Hunt: Hornetaur bugs
Skills: Dungmaster x1 (more effective dung pods), effluvia expert, free meal, carving pro, handicraft
Notes: A little weak against fire and water, but good vs dragon damage
Rathian
Hunt: Rathian
Skills: Health boost x1, botanist x1, poison attack x1, poison resistance x1, recovery up x1
Notes: Strong against fire, weak against lightning, and weaker still against dragon
Tzitzi
Hunt: Tzitzi-Ya-Ku
Skills: Blindsider x1, constitution x1, stun resistance x1, wide-range x1, sleep resistance x1
Notes: Quite weak against lightning, slightly less weak against ice.
Lumu
Hunt: Paolumu
Skills: Stamina surge x1, master mounter x1, artillery x1, divine blessing x1, windproof x1
Notes: Weak against fire and water, but offers a little resistance to ice
Baan
Hunt: Radobaan
Skills: Slugger x1, sleep resistance x1, sleep attack x1, guard x1, bleeding resistance x1
Note
Ingot
Hunt: Mine lots of ore for this one. You need Dragonite, monster bones, Iron Ore, Machalite Ore, coral Crystal, Lightcrystal and Earth Crystal
Skills: Thunder attack x1 , thunder resistance x1 , health boost x1 , windproof x1 , defense boost x1
Notes: Weak to fire, strong against lightning
Death Stench
Hunt: You'll need bones. Lots of bones. And some Sinister Cloth
Skills: Resuscitate x1, fortify x1, focus x1, dragon attack x1, handicraft x1
Notes: Strong against ice, fire, and water. Weak to lightning and very weak to dragon.
Brigade
Hunt: Fight monsters in Arena quests
Skills: Recovery speed x1 , divine blessing x1 , heavy artillery x1 , geologist x1 , scholar x1
Notes: Strong against dragon, lighting and fire, weak to nothing.
Legiana
Hunt: Legiana
Skills: Divine blessing x1 , evade window x1 , airborne x1 , ice resistance x1 , ice attack x1
Notes: Strong against water and ice, weak to fire, very weak to lightning
Set bonus: Legiana blessing—good luck, greater rewards from quests
Odogaron
Hunt: Odogaron
Skills: Bleeding resistance x1, speed sharpening x1, constitution x1, critical eye x1, quick sheath x1
Notes: Strong against fire and water, but weak to lightning and ice
Set bonus: Punishing draw—adds stun to draw attacks
Rathalos
Hunt: Rathalos
Skills: Attack boost x1, weakness exploit x1, fire resistance x1, fire attack x1, jump master x1
Notes: Strong against fire, offers some resistance against water and ice, weak to lightning and quite weak to dragon
Set bonus: Rathalos power—crits do extra elemental damage
Diablos
Hunt: Diablos
Skills: Critical draw x1, slugger x1, heroics x1, marathon runner x1, tremor resistance x1
Notes: Strong against fire and dragon, weak against water and ice
Set bonus: Diablos power—bludgeoner, attack goes up as sharpness goes down
HIGH RANK SETS
At High Rank armor sets come in two versions—alpha and beta. Alpha sets have more build-in armor skills, but beta sets have slots for decorations, which lets you customise the armor's skills. Decorations are the best way to fine-tune a set to min-max perfection if you want to play the numbers for your character, but for casual hunting with friends you can't go too wrong with either variety.
In the pictures the alpha set is on the left, and the beta set is on the right. Most of them are just palette swaps, but a few have extra detailing to set them apart.
Leather
Hunt: You just need some Carbalite Ore and High-quality pelts to craft this
Skills: Hunger resistance x2, fire resistance x1, recovery speed x1, stamina surge x1 cliffhanger x1
Notes: Strong against fire, not particularly weak against anything
Chainmail
Hunt: Mine Carbalite Ore and Dragonite Ore
Alpha skills: Master gatherer x1, guard x1, water resistance x1, recovery speed x1, quick sheath x1, recovery up x1
Beta skills: Master gatherer x1
Notes: Is resistant to water, and not particularly weak to any other element
Hunter's armor
Hunt: Jagras
Alpha skills: Scoutfly range up x1, scholar x1, slinger capacity x2, stealth x2, master gatherer x1, stealth x1, scenthound x1, slinger capacity x1
Beta skills: Scoutfly range up x1, slinger capacity x1, stealth x1, scenthound x1, BBQ master x1
Notes: Good against fire and water
Bone
Hunt: Collect lots of bones
Alpha skills: Health boost x1, entomologist x1, attack boost x3, slugger x1, horn maestro x1, master fisher x1, entomologist x2
Beta skills: Health boost x1, attack boost x1, slugger x1, horn maestro x1, entomologist x1
Notes: Strong against fire, lightning, dragon and water
Alloy
Hunt: Mine Carbalite Ore, Dragonite Ore, Lightcrystal, Machalite Ore, Dragonvein Crystal
Alpha skills: Windproof x1, defense boost x2, water resistance x4, speed sharpening x3, poison resistance x1
Beta skills: Windproof x1, water resistance x1, defense boost x1, poison resistance x1, speed sharpening x1
Notes: Weak against fire, lightning and ice
Butterfly
Hunt: Grab as many insects as you can
Alpha skills: Botanist x4, Evade window x3, Quick sheath x3, leap of faith x1, honey hunter x1, forager's luck x1
Beta skills: Evade window x2, quick sheath x2, botanist x2, honey hunter x1, forager's luck x1
Notes: Slightly weak to fire and water, strong against lightning and dragon
Vespoid
Hunt: Vespoids
Alpha skills: Quick sheath x1, Paralysis attack x3, windproof x2, paralysis resistance x3, honey hunter x1
Beta skills: Quick sheath x1, windproof x1, paralysis attack x1, paralysis resistance x1, honey hunter x1
Notes: Resists water, lightning, ice, and dragon, but is weak against fire.
Mosswine mask
Hunt: Mosswine pigs
Skills: Mushroomancer x2
Notes: Mild resistance to all elements
Kestodon arm guards
Hunt: Kestodons
Alpha skills: Focus x1, affinity sliding x1
Beta skills: Affinity sliding x1
Notes: Small resistance to fire
Gajau boots
Hunt: Gajau
Alpha skills: Aquatic expert x2, water attack x1
Beta skills: Aquatic expert x1, water attack x1
Notes: Resistant to water damage
Girros
Hunt: Great Girros
Alpha skills: Horn maestro x1, paralysis resistance x3, palico rally x2, paralysis attack x3, effluvial expert x1
Beta skills: Horn maestro x1, paralysis x1, palico rally x1, effluvial expert x1, paralysis attack x1
Notes: Weak to water and lightning, offers slight resistance to dragon attacks
Pukei
Hunt: Pukei-Pukei
Alpha skills: Sporepuff expert x3, item prolonger x1, botanist x3, poison resistance x2, poison attack x3
Notes: Strong against water, weak to lightning
Anja
Hunt: Anjanath
Alpha skills: Fire attack x3, fire resistance x3, marathon runner x1, special ammo boost x1, artillery x3
Beta skills: Fire attack x2, marathon runner x1, special ammo boost x1, fire resistance x2, artillery x1
Notes: In addition to the fire resistance skills the armour is naturally strong against fire, though it is weak against water, lightning and ice
Zorah
Hunt: Zorah Magdaros
Alpha skills: Handicraft x 1, blast attack x3, windproof x1, free elemental ammo up x1, bombadier x3, fortify x1, tremor resistance x1, earplugs x1
Beta skills: Handicraft x1, blast attack x2, free elemental ammo up x1, fortify x1, bombadier x2
Notes: Very resistant to fire, weak against water, lightning, ice, and dragon
