Monster Hunter Rise best armor sets and gear

The best Monster Hunter Rise armor will depend on your personal preferences, to a degree at least, and the approach you take to combat and exploration in the game. You'll need to take into consideration your preferred weaponry, along with damage types and mobility as these all feed into deciding what will be the top tier pick for you. 

Then there's the fact that you'll need to farm specific monsters, and carve the right pieces off them to craft the pieces you need, where different options will give you specific advantages – outlined in the skill section later. Late game, when you're into high level armor sets, you'll find most provide massive defense boosts, so the choice becomes less about protection and more about complementary skills that enhance your build.

It makes the question of the best Monster Hunter Rise armor tricky to answer at high levels, because there's a lot of combinations and options. It's much like the situation with the Monster Hunter Rise best weapons – the 'best' depends on how you play and what you want to achieve. So, coming up, we've focused on a series of solid, sturdy, dependable options to help you.

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Monster Hunter Rise best armor pieces

Monster Hunter Rise best head armor - Rathian Helm

This helmet requires three Rathian Shells and a Rathian Spike to craft so it's a simple get. However, it grants you protection against all elemental blights and just the first level reduces the duration of them by 50%. Then you get a 75% reduction at level two, and complete nullification at level three. It also increases Fire Resistance, which is great for the Lava Caverns and any fire-based monsters you fight off against.

Rathian Helm Forging Materials:

• Rathian Shell 3x
• Rathian Spike 1x
• Flame Sac 2x
• Lightcrystal 2x

Monster Hunter Rise best chest armor - Barroth Mail

Barroth Mail has some excellent perks that increases both your attack and your defense, with two perks for the price of one. These go all the way up to level seven, topping out with +10% attack and an extra bonus +10, while the defense gets +10%, a bonus +35, and +5 to all elemental resistances. A Barroth Scalp isn't a guaranteed drop though, so you may have to slay a few.

Barroth Mail Forging Materials:

• Barroth Shell 3x
• Barroth Scalp 1x
• Fertile Mud 1x
• Big Fin 2x

Monster Hunter Rise best arm armor - Somnacanth Braces

The Somnacanth Braces also has two perks on the go at once which are most effective when using explosive items like bomb barrels. Levelled up to the third stage, the Bombardier skill gives +30% explosive power. Then there's Divine Blessing, which can reduce how much damage you take up to a maximum of 50%. It also increases your water resistance, but you'll need quite a few Somnacanth parts to craft it.

Somnacanth Braces Forging Materials:

• Somnacanth Scale 3x
• Somnacanth Talon 1x
• Somnacanth Shell 1x
• Great Baggi Claw 1x

Monster Hunter Rise best waist armor - Basarios coil

For your waist, look no further than the Basarios Coil. You may need to slay more than one Basarios to get the required materials, but when you do, you get another piece of armor with two perks rather than just one. One of these is the aforementioned Defense Boost, also seen on the Barroth Mail, so you'll become even more tanky. The other is Speed Sharpening, which speeds up weapon sharpening when using a whetstone. This might not seem hugely important, but when you're whittling away at a huge monster and constantly need to back off to sharpen your weapon again, it becomes hugely important. The third level removes three cycles from the sharpening process, making it insanely quick.

Basarios coil Forging Materials:

• Basarios Shell 3x
• Flame Sac 1x
• Basarios Wing 1x
• Earth Crystal 2x

Monster Hunter Rise best leg armor - Ingot Greaves

The Ingot Greaves have lower defense stat than some other armor pieces but make up for it by being easier to craft and having two perks. Both are simple too: Attack Boost buff your attack by up to +10% with a bonus +10 at level seven. While Critical Eye, increases your affinity by up to 40%, which is essentially how likely you are to land a critical hit with each weapon swing. Very useful indeed.

Ingot Greaves Forging Materials:

• Dragonite Ore 2x
• Machalite Ore 3x
• Iron Ore 3x
• Lightcrystal 1x

Monster Hunter Rise best armor sets

When you're ready to farm specific monsters and grind the materials you need for entire sets, these are what we recommend. The benefit you get from a full set of armor is +3 to all resistances (+1 and +2 for three and four pieces from the same set respectively), so no matter which set you go for, the individual armor perks are the most important thing.

Best Monster Hunter Rise beginner armor - Bone set

Make the first full set you craft after Kamura armor be the Bone set, because this does an excellent job at giving you general buffs in combat. Partbreaker makes it easier to sever large monster parts, Stamina Thief means monsters will get exhausted quicker, and Focus increases the fill/charge rate for various weapons. Muck Resistance, on the other hand, means that your mobility is less affected when stuck in monster muck or deep snow. All of these combined make it a great choice early on, and you look seriously badass and feral kitted out in full Bone armor.

Best Monster Hunter Rise mid-game armor - Basarios set

When you're able to take on the level four Basarios, we'd recommend slaying a few so you can craft the full Basarios armor set. The full set will give you a very handy level four Defense Boost, which is a huge help to survive monster attacks. Speed Sharpening also features for that quick whetstone usage, while Guard reduces knockbacks and stamina depletion when guarding. Finally, Load Shells is very useful for anyone using a ranged weapon, because it improves the reloading speed.

Best Monster Hunter Rise end-game armor - Medium set

The Medium armor set is unique in that isn't based around attack or defense, instead focusing on support, making it an excellent choice for online. Speed Eating means you consume items much quicker, while Free Meal gives you the chance to consume a food or drink item for free. Finally, Wide-Range – which is level three by default when you have the full Medium set – means items will also affect your nearby teammates, so any time you consume something, so do they. Level that up to the fifth stage and they get the full effect of those items, rather than just a percentage at the earlier levels. 

Monster Hunter Rise armor skills explained

Every item you can wear has a Monster Hunter Rise armor skill that acts like a buff. This includes things like reducing damage taken, or increasing elemental damage. You'll get the effect by wearing the item but you can stack and increase its effects by wearing another item with the same effect, up to three times.

For example, one item with the skill Recovery Speed doubles the speed at which you heal recoverable damage. However if you wear two items with the Recovery Speed armor skill it will triple the speed you heal, and three will quadruple it. You can mix and match across sets to stack these effects. As far as a full set of matching armor goes, that will buff all your resistances to damage up to three times when you wear a full set. While a few options have some special buffs for wearing it all.  

The best way to check all these Monster Hunter Rise armor skills is at the blacksmith. Talk to Hamon and choose Forge/Upgrade Armor, and then Forge Armor. If you click R3 on any piece of armor you can make, or have made, it'll show the active skill it has. From there you can click R3 again to leave that screen and check other items, or press the right bumper to see everything you have equipped and what skills stack (as shown in the screen above). 

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