When you are first starting out in Monster Hunter World, your armor choice can make or break you. You are just beginning to learn about armor skills, and so the steep progression curve that is endemic to Monster Hunter games can seem quite intimidating at first. However, the right armor choice can make your hunting experience a much more enjoyable one.

10. Bone Armor

This armor set is just a basic set of bone armor. Nothing fancy. However, it gives you Health Boost, Attack Boost, and Slugger (which increases your KO chance), which are pretty valuable skills that you will be using for a long time. These pieces, once upgraded, will hold you over until you can get some better armor. Valuable at the very beginning!

What’s good about Bone Armor?

• Super, super cheap to make
• Attack Up skill to increase your attack power, which is usually quite low at this level of the game
• Health Boost to increase your health bar’s size!
• Slugger makes it easier to KO monsters. Great for Hammers and Sticky Gunners!

How to Get Bone Armor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgNooFWZVjU

9.  Kadachi Armor

While this armor isn’t going to keep you for very long, it is your first dip into two very important skills; Jump Master and Evade Extender. Jump Master makes it so all of your airborne attacks deal more damage. This is particularly nice for insect glaives, SnS players, and hammers. Evade Extender makes it so when you dodge, you roll farther. This is a valuable survivability skill for any play style.

What’s good about Kadachi Armor?

• Gives a rank of Evade Extender, which increases your mobility and survivability greatly
• Gives you Jump Master, which is extremely valuable for weapons with airborne attacks.
• Easy to Obtain! Made from low-rank Tobi Kadachi materials
• Mixable. The Arms and Chest can be mixed with other armors to create decent early-game mixed sets

How to get Tobi Kadachi Armor:

https://monsterhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Kadachi_Armor_(MHW)

8. Butterfly Armor

A lot of your experience in the early parts of playing the game will be around gathering. Butterfly Armor gives you a few skills that will make your time spent gathering an easy one. Honey Hunter increases the amount of honey you find at beehives. This is extremely valuable in the early game when you are crafting mega potions non-stop. This armor set also gives you Forager’s Luck, which increases your chance of finding rare items at gathering spots! This will help you, even into late-game.

What’s good about Butterfly armor?

• Look so pretty!
• Increases your honey yield, which is very important in early game
• Makes gathering more productive by increasing your chances of finding rare items.

How to get Butterfly Armor:

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Butterfly+Armor+Set

7. Hornetaur Armor

The rotten vale is a tough place for newcomers to the series, with the added danger of environmental damage. This damage can spell doom for a newbie hunter. Thankfully, at the same time the Rotten Vale is unlocked, so is the Hornetaur armor! This armor will protect you from the effluvium that clouds the vale! With Free Meal and Handicraft as well, this is a surprisingly good armor set for early game. Cave gas and unbearable heat are a thing of the past!

What’s good about Hornetaur Armor?

• Effluvial Expert makes the environmental damage in the Rotten Vale a non-issue
• Free Meal gives you a 25% chance of consuming an item for free.
• Handicraft increases your weapon’s sharpness

How to get Hornetaur Armor:

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Hornetaur+Armor+Set

6. Anjanath Armor

This is an armor set near and dear to my heart. As a long-time bowgun-user, this was my bread and butter for early game sticky builds. In addition, this is your introduction to set bonuses, with 3 pieces of this armor giving you Adrenaline, which reduces your stamina depletion when your health is low. Valuable for GTFO-ing when things are looking rough.

What’s good about Anja Armor?

• Special Ammo Boost is useful for ranged hunters
• Artillery increases the damage of explosives, like Gunlance shells and bowgun sticky ammo
• The set bonus, Adrenaline, can help you get out of a sticky situation.

How to get Anja Armor

https://monsterhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Anja_Armor_(MHW)

5. Paolumu Armor

Another early-game staple, the Paolumu armor offers an array of useful skills. Master Mounter makes it easier to mount monsters. Artillery makes your sticky ammo and gunlance shells deal more damage. Divine Blessing is the best of these skills though, as it gives you a set chance of reducing the damage you take from attacks! This set is easily mixed with other sets, making it valuable for a good long time.

What’s so good about the Lumu Armor Set?

• Gives Artillery, which can be mixed with the artillery from the Anja set, giving you 2 ranks. 
• Divine Blessing is such a good skill! You’ll be thanking your lucky stars you have it later.
• Master Mounter makes it easier to mount monsters. This is fun.

How to get Lumu Armor:

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Lumu+Armor+Set

4. Brigade Armor

Oh, such a good support set! Not only does this set give you the Divine Blessing skill, which is a godsend, it also gives you heavy artillery (which increases the damage of things like cannons and ballistae) and Scholar, which speeds up your research and special investigations! Cannons… FIRE!!!

What’s good about Brigade Armor?

• Decent Elemental Resistances. No negative numbers!
• Divine Blessing ensures your survival in your hunts
• The Scholar skill is so useful for the early game!

How to get Brigade Armor:

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Brigade+Armor+Set

3. Legiana Armor

The Legiana armor has pretty decent skills, including Divine Blessing, Evade Window Up, and Airborne. Where it really shines is in its set bonus, Good Luck, which increases your quest rewards dramatically. This skill will ensure that you get what you need when you are farming in the early game. The armor is also pretty good, as far as defense goes.

What’s good about Legiana Armor?

• Another piece with Divine Blessing. Mix the hat with other armor pieces to get Divine Blessing to Level 3!
• Evade Window helps you roll through attacks that come your way.
• Set Bonus is extremely useful for early game grinding.

How to get Legiana Armor:

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Legiana+Armor+Set

2.  Rathalos Armor

Now we’re really getting into the meat of the game! Rathalos is one of the flagship monsters of Monster Hunter, the original cover monster. His armor is nothing to thumb your nose at, either. With Attack Boost and Weakness Exploit, and Critical Element for a set bonus, this armor will likely play a role in many of your early-game builds.

What’s good about Rathalos Armor?

• Attack Boost increases your damage
• Weakness Exploit increases your affinity, as long as you are striking a weak point
• So much fire resistance!
• Critical Element is a useful set bonus. Increases your elemental damage whenever you land a critical hit!

How to get Rathalos Armor:

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Rathalos+Armor+Set

1. Kirin Armor

This armor looks cool and has a great set bonus. Capture Master makes it so your rewards are supercharged when you capture a monster! With High defense and a rank of divine blessing, this will be valuable in mixed sets for some time. In addition, this is your first armor made from elder dragon pieces, so it’s kind of like a rite of passage to craft it, right?

What’s good about Kirin Armor?

• Looks really cool!
• Divine Blessing on the hat. Becoming unkillable is easier than ever!
• Set Bonus is so good. It increases your capture rewards dramatically.
• High Defense means you can survive longer in a fight.

How to get Kirin Armor:

https://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Kirin+Armor+Set

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