Switch Axe High Rank and Endgame Builds for Monster Hunter Wilds

Welcome to our Monster Hunter Wilds build guide for the Switch Axe in both High Rank as well as endgame. Listed below you will find the best builds for the Switch Axe both for progressing through the earlier stages of High Rank as well as the best builds for Switch Axe at endgame.

To skip straight to the endgame builds, click the button below!

Title Update 4, released on December 19th, is the final major update, featuring the fearsome Gogmazios siege. This brings in upgraded Artian weapons that have a significant impact on ideal builds, alongside new armor sets and the ability to transcend armor - providing better decoration slots. Due to all of this, there's a significant shake up from previously recommended endgame sets.

A quick breakdown of Switch Axe changes on this page as of the title update are as follows:

• A new section focused on the Gogmazios Artian Weapon upgrade path and ideal skills to pick up has been added. This provides information on best practices for reinforcements, and skills to aim for.
• The ideal endgame set has seen significant changes. With the benefits of transcending paired with Gogmazios Artian weapons providing a skill, the options are significantly increased.
• Talismans remain the chase goal for your endgame gearsets - with rank 7 and 8 having access to skill combinations that, if lucky, can outperform craftable options.

A well rolled Artian Weapon is one the strongest option available for the Switch Axe in all situations, and is the end goal of endgame farming. Your end goal is to have one of each Element available to utilize counters, so you'll need more than one to tackle the most challenging hunts.

You should always aim to craft weapons with all 3 of the same element on your two Blades and one Device selections to maximize their infusion values. Also aim to use 3 Attack infusions to maximize the raw throughput. Ideally, you want the following reinforcements:

• Attack Boost
• Attack Boost
• Attack Boost
• Sharpness Boost
• Sharpness Boost

A perfect roll isn't necessary to make this a valuable craft, as they can be rerolled once it's upgraded to a Gogma Artian. Ideally you're aiming to max out (or as close to) your Affinity with all other armor set buffs considered, and some extra Sharpness. For the 3 decoration slots, you have a few options:

• Critical III recommended - a boost to your Affinity damage any way you cut it, always worth slotting in.
• Enhancer/[Element] Attack recommended - increases the amount of time you spend in Amped state. Very high value.
• Critical II/III - maxes out your Critical Boost skill for maximum offense. This is optional with the below two other choices.

After defeating Gogmazios, you'll receive Tarred Devices, which can be used by Gemma to reinforce the previous Artian Weapon, Mundus Atlas, into a much stronger version. When upgraded, your previous Switch Axe will have its Element or Status maintained, but gain additional bonuses to either Attack, Affinity, or Element depending on the devices used. You should be using three Attack infusions. It will also gain one random Set Bonus Skill and one random Group Skill from a pool, and allow you to reinforce the the 5 bonuses it rolls. Reinforcements and Skills can be rerolled for additional materials.

Your goal is to acquire both Gore Magala's Tyranny and Lord's Soul, but the priority is always the set bonus skill first to match your armor set. Your ideal reinforcements are two Attack EX, one Attack III, and two Sharpness EX. You can only ever have two of any level of a given reinforcement per attribute though, so if you roll a combination of extra Attack or Affinity, these can sometimes be worth keeping with a high enough level.

Due to the nature of acquiring your ideal Artian weapon, and how much armor sets now rely on this random roll, it may be difficult to assemble the endgame set provided on this page. Due to that, below is a list of skills to prioritize while working toward the complete setup:

Armor Skills:

• Gore Magala's Tyranny - 2-piece
• Antivirus - Level 3 (With the Gore set bonus)
• Agitator - Level 5
• Lord's Soul - 3-piece
• Maximum Might - Level 3
• Counterstrike - Level 3
• Burst - Level 1
• Latent Power - Level 1-5
• Rey Dau's Voltage - 2-piece
• Coalescence - Level 1-3

Weapon Skills:

• Power Prolonger - Level 3
• Critical Boost - Level 5
• Attack Boost - Level 1-5
• Elemental Attack - Level 1-3 (Depending on Element)
• Critical Eye - Level 1-5

The absolute strongest options involve using element counters on specific monsters (especially on Rank 9 hunts), as these come at no cost to raw power on Artian weapons. You still want to aim for the same all-attack infusions, though having a Switch Axe of each element available for match-ups is your ultimate goal. Below are some drop-down lists of monsters countered by each element:

• Fire - Click for Match-ups

  • Blangonga
  • Congalala
  • Doshaguma
  • Gore Magala
  • Gypceros
  • Hirabami
  • Jin Dahaad
  • Lala Barina
  • Lagiacrus
  • Nerscylla
  • Gogmazios (Solid)
• Water - Click for Match-ups

  • Ajarakan
  • Guardian Ebony Odogaron
  • Gravios
  • Nu Udra
  • Quematrice
  • Rompopolo
• Thunder - Click for Match-ups

  • Balahara
  • Chatacabra
  • Hirabami
  • Mizutsune
  • Seregios
  • Uth Duna
  • Omega Planetes
• Ice - Click for Match-ups

  • Guardian Fulgur Anjanath
  • Rey Dau
  • Xu Wu
  • Yian Kut-Ku
• Dragon - Click for Match-ups

  • Arkveld
  • Guardian Doshaguma
  • Guardian Rathalos
  • Rathalos
  • Rathian
  • Zoh Shia
  • Gogmazios (Liquid / Gaseous)

Added as a bonus update during Title Update 2, hunts against monsters that are 9 star and above can now also reward appraisable talismans. These can come with skill and decoration slots otherwise unobtainable from the smithy, and should you be lucky enough, can push your build to the next level. Rolling a perfect talisman is an extremely big time investment, so sometimes it's best to just look out for options that are good enough. Big ticket skills to look out for are:

• Attack Boost
• Power Prolonger
• Agitator
• Handicraft
• Critical Eye

Acquiring any of these skills - especially alongside a weapon decoration slot - outpaces any other option available to craft. If you can't get hold of these though, generally a Counter Charm III, Challenger Charm III or Power Charm III will suffice, depending on preference. Remember that when you slot in a talisman that provides weapon skills, you may need to adjust your decorations to still pick up provide the desirable armor skills.

Traditionally the most powerful armor sets available in Monster Hunter, in Wilds the Gamma sets are being released with each Title Update. These grant access to the Lord's Soul 3-set bonus - a powerful additional cheat death effect - while coming with a slightly higher budget for strong skills. The sets currently released are:

• Rey Dau - this set focuses on Latent Power, and comes on some efficient pieces. Despite being added in Title Update 1, this is still used as a way to activate Lord's Soul.
• Uth Duna - this set features Peak Performance prominently, which is generally very difficult to optimize, and isn't generally used.
• Nu Udra - this set features Burst and Resentment, which aren't typically skills the Switch Axe stacks. However, the Chest in particular is a powerful piece utilized in endgame builds.
• Jin Dahaad - this set features Agitator and Foray, and while it's very efficient, it doesn't provide any pieces that slot into the endgame setup comfortably.

After reaching Hunter Rank 50, you unlock access to the majority of endgame monsters, and will slowly unlock more event quests as you progress up to 100. Currently we have a curated primary endgame build, and a starting build for you to tackle endgame hunts effectively.

The first set to aim for as you begin High Rank still leans very heavily on some Low Rank sets, as they have far superior offensive skill options available. The best place to start is a mix of comfort and damage to adjust to the new monsters you'll be facing so you can find your footing. As you progress through the ranks these will be slowly swapped out for more tailored pieces to go with the Switch Axe playstyle.

Decorations are still something you'll be building a collection of at this stage, and while you will start to see slots appear on more gear, it's not really worth the time to go out and farm them this early. Simply use the ones you pick up that look like they'll add some comfort and keep progressing.

This set provides you with a solid starting point to get stuck into High Rank hunts and begin raising your Hunter Rank freely. It immediately starts with a craft of the Barina Hache III to unlock a solid blue sharpness weapon with Paralysis - a running theme for the Switch Axe as you move through the ranks. That means prioritizing a Lala Barina kill as early as possible is a good idea.

For the set to match with it, generally Low Rank pieces are much more useful this early, so use these with some Armor Sphere upgrades. Sticking to the Arkveld 2-piece to grant some points in Flayer and, more importantly, the set bonus to heal from wounds provides excellent early comfort. Pairing this with Guardian Rathalos for some points in Weakness Exploit and a single Guardian Ebony Odogaron piece to get a point in Burst provides a rounded overall setup. The Leaping Charm II also keeps some points in Evade Extender as a great complimenting Switch Axe skill.

• Flayer - Level 2
• Weakness Exploit - Level 2
• Evade Extender - Level 2
• Critical Draw - Level 1
• Critical Status - Level 1
• Burst - Level 1
• Blight Resistance - Level 1
• Bleeding Resistance - Level 1
• Guardian's Pulse - 3-piece
• Rathalos's Flare - 2-piece
• Guardian Arkveld's Vitality - 2-piece

As you move deeper into High Rank and unlock monster armor sets with access to stronger skills, you can start cutting out inefficient pieces and work toward a more offensive endgame build. This starts at HR20 with many of the Alpha and Beta sets from stronger monsters, and once Gore Magala is unlocked at Rank 40+ you can make a shift to a fully offensive setup.

We've separated these two stages into the tabs below depending on what gear you currently have access to: