Weapon Progression - Charge Blade

Charge Blade
Low Rank

The Charge Blade like the Switch Axe has phials, but only has Impact, and Power-Element.

Impact is our preferred phial type, to the point where anything that has Power-Element should be disregarded.The progression path for Charge Blade is actually very easy and clean, especially in Low Rank.

The short answer for this guide is: Make the Bone Path, pick up the Jagras Charge Blade, then as soon as possible pickup the Rathian Charge Blade, and use it for all of Low Rank, then swap back to the Jagras Charge blade for the start of high rank, then you can flip flop between Jagras and Rathian, and then to no one’s surprise, pick up the Nergigante Charge Blade.

Now for the long answer:

The Proto Commission Axe 1 you start with is good for the first missions but you’ll want to build the bone path as soon as possible.

Make a Bone Strongarm 1, and upgrade it to a Bone Strongarm 2 by using 3 Monster Bone S.

You’ll use this to take on the Great Jagras

Immediately upgrade your Bone Strong Arm 2, into a Jagras Stongarm 1 by using 1 Great Jagras Claw, 1 Great Jagras Hide, 3 Great Jagras Scale, and 1 Sharp Claw. You can get sharp claws from regular old Jagras.. Pick this up, you’ll be using it for awhile.

Once you unlock Wildespire wastes, you can go through standard progression, and hunt Barroth, and a Jyuratodus.

After Jyuratodus, make his weapon.

Upgrade your original Proto Commission Axe 1 to a Proto Commission Axe 2 by using 2 iron ore. Then upgrade it to a  Mudslide blade 1 by using 1 Jyuratodus Fin, 1 Jyuratodus Shell, 3 Jyuratodus Scale, and 1 Aqua Sac.

Build the Jyuratodus Charge blade now, but don’t use it. You lose the Impact Phial for Power-Element and the damage is about par with the Jagras Strongarm 1. We’re simply getting this as a bridge to our next actual Charge Blade.

You could continue with your mandatory hunts of Tobi-Kadachi and Anjanath, but what you really want to do is deviate, and hunt a Rathian.


The Rathian Charge Blade is all you need to take you through Low Rank. I’m not even joking. The raw damage alone is equivalent to weapons from the final tier of low rank. The comparables are just not up to snuff damage wise, or lose out on the Impact Phial, or require rare materials. You’ll also gain Poison as a nice bonus.

Upgrade your Mudslide Blade 1, into a Dear Lutemis by using 3 Rathian Spike, 5 Rathian Scale, and 4 Rathian Shell. You’ll likely need to farm at least 2 Rathians for the materials. Make sure to cut the tails for extra carves, and break its wings, back and head if possible.

Now you’re situated for the rest of Low Rank.

There will be some optional deviations you can make towards the end, but they aren’t necessarily better.

Here are some of your alternative options, and keep in mind these require materials from the final monsters in Low Rank.

Girros Strong Arm 2 - 468 Raw (Same) 15% Affinity, 210 Paralysis Impact Phial
Diablos Fang x2, Great Girros Fang x3, Great Girros Hood x2, Paralysis Sac x2

Garon Strongarm 1 -  468 (same) 20% affinity, no element, Impact Phial.

Diablos Wall 1, 612 (way higher raw), -30% affinity, and +10 defense. Huge damage, but also requires diablos materials. Diablos may very well be your last Low Rank hunt, so keep that in mind.

So you can see, that Dear Lutemis is your best and easiest option through the entirety of low rank.

Continue standard progression by absolutely demolishing Tobi-Kadachi and Anjanath.

Afterwards it’s Zorah Magdaros.

In the Coral Highlands, you’re forced into an expedition to explore. Hunt a Tzitzi Ya Ku here for materials to upgrade the Jagras Charge Blade for when we bridge it to high rank, but you can always come back later.

Continue progressing through the main story, Take out Paolumu, then you’ll descend into the Rotten Vale, and take out Radobaan.

Then you’ll have to take on Legiana, followed by Odogaron, Rathalos and Diablos.

If you want, the Diablos Wall 1 will be an upgrade to the Dear Lutemis. You can build one by going through the Bone Tree again. Build a Bone Strong Arm 1, and upgrade it to a Bone Strong Arm 2 by using 3 Monster Bone S. Then upgrade to a Bone Strongarm 3 by using 2 Monster Bone M, and 1 Ancient Bone. Then into a Hard Bone Strong Arm 1 by using 1 Monster Bone L, 5 Monster Bone M, and 2 Boulder Bone.

Finally, upgrade it to a Diablos Wall 1 by using 1 Twisted Horn, 2 Diablos Fangs, 4 Diablos Shell, and 3 Monster Bone+.

You will have a plethora of options available at the start of high rank, so while this is a great option, you may prefer to come back to it later on.

After beating the Zora Magdaros setpeice, and killing a deceptively strong Pukei-Pukei, you’ll gain access to High Rank quests. Congratulations, the baby gloves are coming off.

High Rank

Our immediate goal in High Rank is a weapon upgrade to compensate for the increased health of monsters, with a long term goal of bringing our sharpness to the next level.

You have a ton of options once you hit High Rank with Charge Blade.

If you were lucky during the Zorah Magdaros Setpeice and got a Gem, you can use it to build a Magda Manus. You’ll need to build a Dragonbone Cutter 1, by using 5 Warped Bones, 5 Coral Bones, 5 Boulder Bones, and 5 Ancient Bones. These are all bones from bone piles in each area throughout the game. Warped Bones are from Rotten Vale, Coral Bones are from the Coral Highlands, Boulder Bones are from Wildspire Wastes, and the Ancient Bones are from the Ancient Forest.

Then upgrade your Dragonbone Cutter 1, into a Magda Manus by using 4 Zorah Magdaros Heat Scale, 8 Zorah Magdaros Carapace, 4 Zorah Magdaros Magma, and 1 Zorah Magdaros Gem. This is better, over all than the easiest option, but it’s fairly comparable. Unfortunately it doesn’t scale well later, and it’s a bit of a dead end, so don’t lose sleep if you didn’t get a gem or build this

If you built the Diablos Wall 1, you can upgrade it to a Diablos Wall 2 once you get 4 Monster Keenbones from monsters like Barroth, or Anjanath. Upgrade your Diablos Wall 1 into a Diablos Wall 2 by using 4 Monster Keenbone, 4 Diablos Ridge, 2 Diablos Tailcase, and 1 Diablos Marrow.

Here are some other honorable mentions, but they’re more difficult, and taper off quickly (odogaron)

Those will be good Charge Blades early, but will be harder to upgrade or taper off too much. You’ll want to hunt Great Jagras, to upgrade your Jagras Strong Arm 1, to a Jagras Escudo 1 by going through the following path.

Upgrade your Jagras Strongarm 1 into a Jagras Strongarm 2 by using 2 Great Jagras Claw, 2 Great Jagras Mane, 2 Coral Bones and 3 Tzitzi-Ya Ku Claw. Then upgrade it again to a Jagras Strongarm 3 by using 3 Monster Bone+, 5 Great Jagras Scale, 3 Great Jagras Claw, and 3 Great Jagras Mane.

Finally, upgrade to a Jagras Escudo 1 by using 6 Great Jagras Scale+, 4 Great Jagras Claw+, 6 Great Jagras Mane and 5 piercing claw. The piercing claws are carves from regular old Jagras.

This is the weapon I chose for early Low Rank, as it’s by far and wide the easiest to build.

This is technically optional, but does represent a reasonable upgrade, to blue sharpness and gaining poison. Use your new Jagras Escudo 1 to hunt a Rathian.

Upgrade your Dear Lutemis, into a Dear Lutemia by using 3 Rathian Spike+, 5 Rathian Scale+, 4 Rathian Carapace, and 1 Rathian Plate. The plate is rare, and makes this less than optimal.

Use this to hunt a Pink Rathian as part of standard progression, the Jagras Escudo will be adequate if you chose to skip it.

From here you have options again. You can continue down the Jagras path, which has higher raw damage, or you can use the Rathian path, which has lower damage, but added poison. They have roughly equivalent blue sharpness.

If you want to do the Jagras Path:
Hunt a Tzitzi-Ya Ku for Claws, and use the Monster Hardbones you got from Pink Rathian to upgrade your Jagras Escudo 1 to Jagras Escudo 2 by using 4 Monster Hard Bone, 6 Great Jagras Claw+, 6 Great Jagras Hide+ and 5 Tzitzi Ya Ku Claw+.

If you want to use the Rathian Path:
Upgrade your Dear Lutemia, to Dear Hecatel by using 4 Rathian Spike+, 5 Pink Rathian Scale+, 4 Pink Rathian Carapace and 1 Wyvern Gem. The Wyvern Gem can be found as carves or rewards from monsters like Barroth, Jyuratodus, and Radobaan.

Either of these will be adequate for taking out Nergigante, but you can also optionally hunt Diablos to upgrade again.

Upgrade your Diablos Wall 2, into a Diablos Tyrannis 1 by using 3 Majestic Horns, 6 Diablos Carapace, 5 Diablos Ridge+, and 1 Blos Medulla. This is a great weapon, but has -30% affinity, and only a sliver of Blue Sharpness.

Your next hunt is going to be Nergigante, all three of those options will be adequate for Nergigante. Dear Hecatel was my preference but performance wise they should all be similar. Jagras Escudo 2 will be the easiest to build by far.

If after your hunt, you got 3 Elder Dragon Blood, you can upgrade your Dear Hecatel, into a Dear Hecatelia. I wouldn’t recommend this, because of the Rathian Ruby requirement, and the Elder Dragon blood being better spent on other equipment. Instead, you should build the Nergal Lacerator by going through the Ore Path.

Build a Proto Commision Axe 1, and upgrade it into Proto Commision Axe 2, into Proto Commission Axe 3, into Elite Commission Axe 1, into Elite Commission Axe 2, into Elite Commission Axe 3, into Chrome Guardian 1. Then upgrade that into a Nergal Lacerator by using 3 Nergigante Talon, 4 Nergigante Regrowth Plate, 2 Nergigante Tail, and 2 Nergigante Carapace.

Congratulations, you now have a weapon that’s completely capable of getting you through the rest of the game, and one of the best Charge Blades.

This will be adequate for taking out the remaining Elder Dragons.

After taking out Xeno’jiva, you can upgrade the Nergal Lacerator one more time into Devastation’s Thorns by using 2 Xeno’Jiva horns, 5 Nergigante Horn+, 5 Nergigante Talons, and 1 Nergigante Gem. The gem will take a lot of time, unless you’re lucky, but will be well worth the investment.

For additional end game weapons, you can hunt Black Diablos to upgrade your Diablos Tyrannis 1 into a Diablos Tyrannis 2 by using 2 Nergigante Horn+, 3 Black Spiral Horn+, 4 Black Diablos Carapace, and 1 Wyvern Gem.

Once you gain access to equipment and decorations to offset the negative affinity, and gain Non-Elemental Damage Up, this will be the hardest hitting Charge Blade in the game.