Monster Hunter Rise is, like any Monster Hunter game, filled to the brim with weapon choices to make. Not just in the actual weapon type you choose to use, but in the specific weapon in the vast crafting trees with its copious effects, elements, and decoration slots. This is deepened even further in Rise, with the ability to choose between different silkbind moves for each weapon as well.
One of the more interesting weapons in Monster Hunter is the Insect Glaive, the long glaive equipped with a kinsect that allows you to maneuver yourself around the skies - a level of verticality other weapons could never achieve until now. But with such a vast amount of them to pick from, which is the best for you?
Updated July 13th, 2022 by Hilton Webster: After a long wait and minimal updates to the base game, the massive Sunbreak expansion has finally arrived. It comes with plenty of monsters and mechanics to keep you busy, at least until the next updates come along with brand new monsters. With the introduction of Master Rank however, all those high-rank weapons are left to gather dust in favor of shiny new weapons. We've updated this article to reflect those additions, and give you more to think about when it comes to choosing the right weapon for your hunting.
9 Defender Glaive
Anyone who's played Monster Hunter knows that the hunt, that grind to ascend to ever greater heights, is the game. That enticing loop of hunting for that one specific piece you need and destroying a monster in just the right way is so addictive. If you want to jump straight to Sunbreak though, going through the whole game to reach it may seem like a slog.
Enter the Defender weapon set. Though nothing special in terms of utility or build quality, they're simple and powerful weapons that will easily carry you through low and high rank until you reach Master Rank.
Best Kinsect
Considering the overpowered nature of the Defender Glaive in the early game, there's no singular best kinsect since you'll likely be demolishing everything anyway. As such, try out the different types of kinsect, (assist, speed, and powder) to see what you find the most enjoyable.
8 Watercolor Glaive
The Watercolor Glaive is a bit of an unfair entry. In the grand scale of things, it's not exactly a tremendous weapon and, in terms of raw gameplay, has no particular standout features. It actually has quite a good base damage, and water elemental damage on top of that with some nice blue sharpness too, though negative affinity as well.
But the real greatness of the Watercolor Glaive is quite simply its appearance. It is, quite simply, a massive paintbrush with the bristles of the brush getting split when you attack enemies or vault into the air. It also fits wonderfully with the game's watercolor art style. You can fashion yourself as an artist with this glaive, and that's just nice.
Best Kinsect
Considering the nature of the Watercolor glaive as a weapon, the best kinsect for it would likely be an assist type, one that can jump in on some of your attacks for an extra little chunk of damage. As such, either the Carnage Beetle or Monarch Alucanid works best, whether you'd prefer blunt or severing damage.
7 Rampage Glaive
Introduced newly to Monster Hunter Rise are Rampage Weapons, named after the also new Rampage mode where you defend Kamura Village from invading monsters almost like a tower defense game. Rampage weapons themselves are designed to be highly customizable, with multiple rampage skills able to be slotted in where regular weapons only have one.
The Insect Glaive Rampage weapon may not be the most versatile or useful of the weapons, especially when you get to high-rank hunts, but it has the benefit of being highly customizable for a time when other weapons are out of reach and allows you to make a build that fits you a bit better early on no matter what you have access to.
Best Kinsect
Due to the massive degree of flexibility of the Rampage Glaive, it's hard to recommend any singular kinsect. Though since most builds may lean towards elemental, a powder kinsect (ones that leave behind a powder cloud that can detonate) would suit best, such as Ladypavise or Cancadaman.
6 Queen Regalia
In Rise, Insect Glaives are usually best when configured for overall DPS. But that said, there are still some viable builds along the road to high rank builds that can take advantage of elemental effects, and Queen Regalia is one of them.
Paired with surprisingly high damage and a decent level of blue sharpness, Queen Regalia makes up for its lack of affinity with poison build-up. These effects can be easy to trigger on monsters due to the high speed of Insect Glaive attacks and give a decent extra chunk of damage as a bonus.
Best Kinsect
Once again focussing around elements, more specifically poison, a powder kinsect would also synergize perfectly with Queen Regalia. The best pairing then would likely be Cancadaman. This way, you can double up on the poison build-up while also causing some paralysis as a backup.
5 Reddnaught Shuma
As part of the rather intimidating Crimson Glow Valstrax set, the Reddnaught Shuma fills a slightly different approach to many other weapons that more closely rely on affinity. Instead, the Reddnaught Shuma becomes reliant on the whole of the Valstrax set.
Instead of focusing on affinity, the Reddnaught Shuma actually relies on you getting your health below 80 percent to activate the set bonuses, inflicting you with dragonblight, and massively boosting your dragon attack. It's a weapon that definitely requires some management to pull off properly due to the health requirement and the red-white sharpness, but has a huge pay-off.
Best Kinsect
The Reddnaught Shuma is a complex weapon and one that a great variety of kinsects could fit with. The best though would either be an assist type like the Carnage Beetle to double up on the damage during ground combos, or a speed type like Bullshroud to deal damage when you're in the air. Either works great!
4 Tigerclaw Glaive
In second place comes the incredibly powerful Tigerclaw Glaive. This glaive, much like Tgrex itself, is based on raw, relentless power. In fact, it has the highest base damage of any glaive, and with the right, but very specific set-up, can be the most powerful overall.
The Tigerclaw glaive is a tad more situational. It has white sharpness, though very low affinity, meaning it can be hard to maintain the sharpness. Though if paired with a party setup that can negate that low affinity, and thus effects that maintain sharpness, the Tigerclaw Glaive can wreak unimaginable havoc.
Best Kinsect
Due to being a high damage focused weapon, most of your attacks with the Tigerclaw Glaive will likely be on the ground to take advantage of the harder-hitting moves there, and as such an assist type like the Carnage Beetle or Monarch Alucanid work best. This way, you can also quickly fill up your glaive with bonuses and get into your powered-up attacks.
3 Evening Calm
Topping basically every best Insect Glaive list there is, is the Evening Calm glaive from the Nargacuga set. Building on the strengths of others' weaknesses, Evening Calm has high sharpness, high attack, and most critically, high affinity.
Like Nargacuga itself, it's all about speed and keeping up the attack. As such, it pairs well with decorations and set bonuses that increase and maintain your sharpness and boost critical hit rates and crit damage. Frankly, it's basically unmatched since raw damage is the best way to go for Insect Glaives right now.
Best Kinsect
Evening Calm falls into a similar niche as the Tigerclaw Glaive with a heavy focus on raw damage, though with the bonus of high affinity to keep the damage flowing and sharpness high. As such, the same kinsects apply: Carnage Beetle and Monarch Alucanid. Both give quick access to attack powder which powers up your moveset, so you can't go wrong with either.
2 Fine Kamura Glaive
Coming from lowly beginnings, the Fine Kamura Glaive comes from the base Kamura tree — the very same tree you start the game with. It's something of a blank slate, waiting to be impressed on, for you to leave your own mark on it.
As a result, it's a pretty general glaive in that regard. You can build it out in lots of different ways, but it's a safe bet to carry you through the endgame. It comes with high sharpness and damage right off the bat, with decorations allowing you to stretch the affinity or sharpness even further.
Best Kinsect
Because of the general nature of the Fine Kamura Glaive, it fits pretty well with any of the kinsects, so choose whichever you're most comfortable with. The kinsects added with Sunbreak come with brand new abilities from those in the base game, so give those a try for a new challenge.
1 Abyssal Insectoid
There are plenty of viable builds in Rise, Sunbreak adding even more variety to the pool. In the base game, affinity rules the game. Though there's more freedom now, the power of raw damage can't be overstated, and the Abyssal Insectoid packs a whole lot of damage.
Crafted primarily from pieces of Gaismagorm, you'll have to finish the story of Sunbreak before you get access to this weapon. However, it's worth it. It comes with incredibly high damage and sharpness, balanced out with no general decoration slots and minus 25 percent negative affinity. It takes work to balance that out, but the reward is becoming an unstoppable flying machine.
Best Kinsect
The Abyssal Insectoid focuses highly on raw damage. Though a powder kinsect may be helpful to build up preliminary status effects, you'll likely want to use an assist kinsect like the Gleambeetle of Exalted Alucanid.