Best Monster Hunter Wilds Insect Glaive build

What is the best Monster Hunter Wilds Insect Glaive build? It might be easy to look at the Insect Glaive with its unique extract system and think it’s too complicated. The Insect Glaive plays differently compared to most of the other MH Wilds weapons, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll control the battlefield like no other.

The Insect Glaive is perfect for those who like a bit of showmanship in Monster Hunter Wilds. If twirling your glaive around like a demented blender before landing on the back of a MH Wilds monster doesn’t seem like your bag, then we don’t know what to tell you. There are a ton of Monster Hunter Wilds builds you could try in the RPG game, but for us, the Insect Glaive is up there with the best.

Best Monster Hunter Wilds Insect Glaive build

The best build for the Insect Glaive is:

• Primary weapon: Lala Stromatopelm (Insect Glaive)
• Secondary weapon: Aeternal Palamedes (Heavy Bowgun)
• Kinsect: Cancadaman
• Armor: Balahara Helm A (Helm), Balahara Mail A (Chest), Quematrice Braces A (Arms), G. Seikret Coil A (Waist), Balahara Greaves A (Legs)
• Decorations: Airborne, Attack Boost, Critical Eye, Critical Status, Paralysis Attack
• Talisman: Exploiter Charm
• Mantle: Mending Mantle
• Equipment Skills: Evade Window (Lv. 1), Stamina Surge (Lv. 1), Fire Resistance (Lv. 1), Flinch Free (Lv. 1), Earplugs (Lv. 2), Jump Master (Lv. 1), Evade Extender (Lv. 1), Weakness Exploit (Lv. 1)

The Lala Stromatopelm defines the best Insect Glaive build. This elemental weapon inflicts paralysis, a debilitating status that’s effective against most monsters. The Insect Glaive has a high hit rate as standard, Lala Stromatopelm white-grade sharpness means it’s an exceptional choice for relentless elemental buildup. It also boasts a high base affinity, which means any crit-based decorations you slot into this build will ensure consistent crit damage.

A Heavy Bowgun is the ideal secondary weapon for a close-range melee weapon like the Insect Glaive, and they don’t come much better than the Aeternal Palamedes. Used primarily for support, the Aeternal Palamedes can be used to deal damage while you recover, and utilizing Tranq and Paralysis ammo can come in clutch when trying to capture monsters.

You can play around with your Kinsect, but we find that pairing your Kinsect’s powder ability with your weapon is a surefire way of building up a status effect. With Cancadaman, we can use our Kinsect’s paralysis powder to augment our attacks, making it extremely easy to paralyze monsters in long fights.

As for MH Wilds armor, the Master Mounter set bonus skill is perfect for Insect Glaive users, letting us more easily mount monsters, and deal more damage when we’re up there. The Balahara Helm A, Balahara Mail A, Quematrice Braces A, and Balahara Greaves A all boast this skill. The Balahara set offers excellent water, dragon, and ice resistance, with the Quematrice Braces coming in to round it off with some extra fire resistance.

The G. Seikret Coil A gives us two critical skills to be able to maintain our acrobatics: Earplugs and Jump Master. The former nullifies monster roars, while the latter prevents you from being knocked back in mid-air. The exceptional thunder resistance rounds off the set nicely, making sure that our build has no major weaknesses.

Lastly, the Recovery Mantle allows us to break away from a fight and gain some health back if needed, and the Exploiter Charm gives us extra damage to wounds and weak spots – something we’ll be targeting a lot with the Master Mounter group skill.

How to use the Monster Hunter Wilds Insect Glaive

Notoriously complex and finicky, the Insect Glaive can be one of the most rewarding weapons to use in MH Wilds if you give it some time. On paper, the glaive may seem like more trouble than it’s worth, but things will start to make sense once you put words into action, allowing you to reap the rewards that come with its power.

The basic premise of the Insect Glaive is this: you have a glaive (a staff with a blade at the end) and a Kinsect (a big flying bug). You can instruct this insect to gather various extracts from monsters, and these extracts unlock buffs and powerful attacks.

Instructing your Kinsect to gather extracts can be done in a few ways: aiming with RT and pressing Y on a part of the monster will see your Kinsect gather the extract from that part and return it to you. This is a bit unwieldy, and in the heat of battle is not always possible, so by far the most consistent way to do it is to enter targeted mode while attacking. Any part of the monster you hit with your glaive is also then targeted by your Kinsect.

You can also gather all extracts at once by using a focus thrust on a wound. This not only deals decent damage, and destroys the wound, but you will instantly store red, white, and orange extracts.

There are several types of extract, each generally coming from different parts of a monster’s body (head, tail, etc.), and each of these individually grants you a buff.

Here is every Insect Glaive extract and its effects:

• Red: Unlocks charged heavy attack.
• White: Increases movement speed and jump height.
• Orange: Negates knockback while weapon is drawn.
• Green: Cannot be stored, instead heals the player when Kinsect returns.
• Red + White: Increases attack.
• White + Orange: Increases defense.
• Red + White + Orange: Unlocks advanced attacks, reduces wind pressure, tremors, and roars, and further increases attack.

You have a basic combo, which is your bread and butter when you don’t have all three main extracts stored: three light attacks, followed by a heavy attack. When used consistently in targeted mode, it will usually gather what extracts you need to unlock the advanced combo.

What sets the Insect Glaive apart from the other MH Wilds weapons is that you’re usually airborne for most of the fight, dealing damage from above and getting as many MH Wilds mounts as you can. You can launch yourself in the air by pressing RT/R2 + A/X, then when in the air, you can air dash using dodge, or attack using either light or heavy.

If you hit a light attack while airborne, you vault off the monster and can attack or dodge again. This can be done up to four times, depending on your stamina level. Once you have all three of the main extracts stored, your light attack is transformed into a multi-hit whirling combo.

As a result, it’s important to vary your approach with the Insect Glaive. Once you’ve completely a mount, it’s time to attack from ground level. With all three extracts stored, you can unleash a massive combo with a light attack, and a charged heavy attack, finishing off with another heavy attack in targeted mode. You’ll pull off a corkscrew-like move, launching yourself up into the air, and dealing considerable damage to anything unfortunate enough to be above you.

If you’re struggling to gather all three extracts, a surefire way of gathering them all in one go is to attack a wound with Focus Thrust Leaping Strike – this can also be used while airborne. Buffing yourself with these extracts, and then executing your Rising Spiral Slash is the general rotation you want to aim for.

Monster Hunter Wilds Insect Glaive moveset

Here are all the moves and combos for the Insect Glaive:

• Rising Slash Combo: Basic light attack, hits several times.
• Wide Sweep: Basic heavy attack that covers a wide area. It will also recall Kinsects if used while in focus mode.
• Vault: Launch yourself up into the air. You can execute an attack, or another dodge from here.
• Focus Thrust Leaping Strike: A thrusting attack that is effective against wounds. After hitting a wound or weak point, your Kinsect will pierce through the monster, collecting red, white, and orange extracts.
• Charge: With red extract stocked, you can use the Descending Slash and Rising Spiral Slash with your heavy attack.
• Basic combo: Three Light attacks followed by a heavy. Move forward or backward before using the last heavy attack to perform an Overhead Smash, or dodge Smash.
• Advanced combo: Two light attacks, followed by a charge heavy, then another heavy attack in focus mode. A flurry of blows is capped off with a Rising Spiral Slash, dealing heavy damage. This consumes all three extracts.

With our best Monster Hunter Wilds Insect Glaive build, you’ll be slicing and dicing like the best of them. If you want something decidedly more down to earth, why not give our best MH Wilds Sword and Shield and MH Wilds Great Sword builds a look? As always, make sure to check the MH Wilds quests and MH Wilds map before you step foot out of camp.