Part 2: Weapons

With the many dangerous creatures known and unknown roaming the land and oceans, hunters need a plethora of weapons to deal with them. While the weapons list is smaller than in previous installments, we do see a newcomer, the Switch axe, as well as being able to customize and build your own Bowguns for the first time. Weapons in general are overall more balanced and have better tweaked animation in the third generation of monster hunter.

Those wondering why weapon types were cut from the game, it's due to Capcom wanting to go back to basics with the weapon selection, so new players aren't as confused and conflicted when choosing a weapon. They took the classic weapons from the first game, and one of the favorites from the second generation of the series, while they mainly focused their efforts on underwater combat with all weapons and their new customizing system for Bowguns as well as the the new Switch axe.



The sword and shield is a small lightweight weapon, it's strength lies in it's versatility, with high maneuverability and fast combos, with the ability to block. Where it's real strength lies in is being able to use items from behind a shield, this weapon while weak, it is more of a support weapon as it synergies well with armor sets that speed up item use, increases the potency of item use, or being able to heal nearby allies with healing items when consuming them to heal yourself.

Appearances:
Monster hunter 1, Monster hunter 2, Monster hunter: Tri.

Pros:
Speedy attacks.
Can block.
Great elemental and status affect potential.
Can use items from behind the shield.
Great evasive maneuverability.
Kan perform knockouts to smaller monsters.

Con:
Low-ish sharpness.
Low base damage.
Sub par blocking.



What the Great sword lacks in mobility it gains in power with it's high base damage and charge attacks, it also has great range though it is a hard weapon to master. If used correctly with a series of evasive dodge rolls and blocks, more skilled players can avoid getting hit as well as being able to close the gap between you and the enemy. That being said, it's a hard weapon to master as you won't deal as much damage unless you hit with the middle/base of the blade as the tip does less damage.

Appearances:
Monster hunter 1, Monster hunter 2, Monster hunter: Tri.

Pros:
Extremely powerful.
Can block.
Long range melee range.
Can perform charged attacks.
Sharpness is lost very slowly while attacking.
Can be drawn instantly to block or attack monsters with ease.

Con:
Extremely slow.
Takes tremendous skill and lots of practice to use and master its striking ranges.
Blocking reduces sharpness.
Takes great timing to unleash its powerful attacks.
Sub par blocking.



This weapon rivals the raw power of the Great sword in base damage and the ability to charge your weapon up, though it charges differently. While you've lost the ability to block and lose the massive range the Great sword offer, you gain more mobility, the ability to knock out monster and tire them out quickly. The weapon can be tricky to learn at first, as hitting the head of monsters for the knock outs can be troublesome, but once you master it no monster should be a match for you.

Appearances:
Monster hunter 1, Monster hunter 2, Monster hunter: Tri.

Pros:
Extremely powerful.
Surprisingly light for its power.
Can perform charged attacks.
Can preform knockouts, stunning the enemy for a period of time.
Deals massive stamina damage and exhausts monsters quickly.

Con:
Cannot block.
Requires great timing.
Slow to attack.
Relatively short-ranged compared to other melee weapons.



Often times the lance is considered the perfect defense, with it's near impenetrable shield, almost nothing can hurt an experienced lancer. The weapon however defensive it is, has the lowest mobility of all weapons. The large heavy shield and massive lance weighs a hunter down, to the point where they can only side and back step. Experienced hunters will use the sidesteps to great advantage and use them to close the gap or get into a better position between the player and the monster. The lance also gains the benefit of having a long range, on top of a number of defensive maneuvers.

Appearances:
Monster hunter 1, Monster hunter 2, Monster hunter: Tri.

Pros:
Great defense and can block almost anything with your shield without taking damage.
Can attack with your shield raised.
Can charge at an enemy while attacking.
Has great range.
Generally has a fairly high sharpness overall.
Can knock out smaller monsters.

Con:
Lowered mobility.
Cannot dodge, can only back step or side step.
Can be hard to hit evasive enemies.



The bowgun is the ranged weapon for the game, it can use a myriad of ammo types to help assist hunters as well as occasionally having special attachments. Such as a long barrel for longer firing range, shields or power barrels for more damage. On top of that, in the third generation of monster hunter, the bowgun itself became customizable, allowing the player to modify the bowgun to suit their needs. The downside to the bowgun depends on how the bowgun is customized, the biggest downside is, bowgun users must use special gunners armor. The gunners armor is a lot weaker than normal armor, but usually sports better elemental resistances as a trade off, as the bowgun users aren't supposed to be in close combat.

Appearances:
Monster hunter 1, Monster hunter 2, Monster hunter: Tri.

Pros:
Can attack at long ranges.
Customizable ammo.
Highly customizable to suit any situation.
Can rapid fire multiple shots of varying types for a single bullets cost.

Con:
Ammo takes up inventory space.
Special ammo can be hard to make and obtain the components for.
Cannot move while aiming in certain aim modes.
Vulnerable while reloading as you can't move.

Light bowgun:
Mobility: High.
Reload speed: Fast.
Power: Low.

Medium bowgun:
Mobility: Medium.
Reload speed: Balanced.
Power: Medium.

Heavy bowgun:
Mobility: Low
Reload speed: Slow
Power: High



The Long sword boast a fine tuned combination of speed, power and mobility, it's damage is fairly high, with great range, but where it shines is it's spirit bar and spirit combo system. With each successive full combo of attacks on an enemy, the blade's strength becomes higher. As you lack a shield, it is best to master the ability to dodge and use the speed of the weapon to your advantage.

Appearances:
Monster hunter 2, Monster hunter: Tri.

Pros:
Good power.
Good speed.
Long melee reach.
A full spirit gage allows for more powerful attacks and a higher sharpness.
High maneuverability.
Attack power charges up the more you use your full spirit combo.

Con:
Cannot block.
Speed is not as good as Sword and shield or Dual Swords.
Cannot cancel and roll quickly during a combo.
Can be a bit of a pain in multiplayer with it's long reach and wide sweeps as it hit's other players.



The Switch axe is a newcomer to the series, it's main focus is versatility, with the ability to switch between a Great sword and a giant axe. While the Great sword can't block or charge, it has special status effect or elemental attacks it can unload into enemies. While in an axe you become more mobile, the axe form focusing more on combo attacks for massive damage, though using combos do leave you open for retaliation. No mater what form the Switch axe is in, it still have great good range and can reach even the toughest of spots to hit.

Appearances:
Monster hunter: Tri.

Pros:
Has endless combo's in axe form.
Can seamlessly switch back and fourth in combat from axe to a greatsword like form.
The greatsword form can have various elemental and status attacks.
Has great range in both forms.
can discharge a large portion of the phials element into an enemy in a single attack.
Great mobility while in axe form.

Con:
Slow reloads when reloading a phial.
Cannot use greatsword form until the phial is reloaded.
Slow mobility while in greatsword form.
Cannot block like greatswords.
Does not have as high damage as greatswords while in greatsword form.
Endless axe combo's drain stamina fast.
Can be hard to cancel an axe combo once it's started.