Introduction: Take to the Skies with the Insect Glaive
The Insect Glaive stands out in Monster Hunter World, offering unparalleled aerial mobility and a unique symbiotic relationship with the Kinsect. It blends swift ground combos with devastating airborne assaults. Mastering its verticality and Kinsect mechanics is crucial for controlling the hunt and maximizing damage. This guide delves into advanced aerial maneuvers, effective Kinsect usage, buff priorities, and build strategies to elevate your gameplay.
Understanding the Kinsect: Your Essential Partner
More than just a tool, the Kinsect is your airborne partner. You dispatch it (L2/LT + Triangle/Y) to extract vital essences from specific monster parts, which grant powerful buffs upon recall (L2/LT + Circle/B). You can also mark a target (L2/LT + R2/RT) for the Kinsect to focus on, generating damaging dust clouds. Understanding Kinsect stats (Power, Speed, Heal) and essence gathering is fundamental.
- Power Kinsects: Prioritize raw or elemental damage, often slower.
- Speed Kinsects: Excel at rapidly gathering essences across the battlefield.
- Heal Kinsects: Provide recovery, mitigating damage taken or status effects.
Mastering Aerial Combat: Flow and Execution
True mastery lies beyond simple vaults. Fluid aerial combat involves chaining moves, repositioning effectively, and knowing when to strike. The core loop involves launching, maneuvering, attacking, and often finishing with a powerful Descending Thrust. Remember that aerial actions consume stamina.
- Vault (R2/RT + X/A): Your launchpad into aerial sequences. Can be initiated standing or after an evade.
- Mid-Air Evade (X/A while airborne): Repositions you in mid-air, dodges attacks, and extends airtime. Can be performed up to once between attacks.
- Jumping Advancing Slash (Circle/B while airborne): A horizontal slash, good for repositioning or hitting wide targets. Can be chained after Vault or Mid-Air Evade.
- Descending Thrust (R2/RT while airborne): A powerful diving attack that hits multiple times on the way down and ends with a ground-based finisher if it connects. Excellent for targeting specific parts and initiating mounts. Aim it carefully!
Essential Essence Management: The Triple Buff
Extracting essences with your Kinsect is non-negotiable. Combining all three (Red, White, Orange) grants the powerful Triple Buff, significantly boosting your capabilities. Maintaining this buff is paramount for peak performance. The skill 'Power Prolonger' extends buff durations.
- Red Essence (Attack): Boosts attack power and enhances your glaive's moveset (e.g., more hits per attack). Usually gathered from monster heads or primary attack limbs.
- White Essence (Speed): Increases movement speed and vault height/distance. Often found on wings or legs.
- Orange Essence (Defense): Boosts defense and grants knockback resistance (like Earplugs Lv 1). Typically gathered from the monster's main body, back, or tail.
- Green Essence (Heal): Instantly restores a small amount of health. Gathered from various parts depending on the monster, often the tail.
Building for the Skies: Armor Skills
Your armor skills should complement the Insect Glaive's unique style. Focus on boosting damage (especially critical hits), enhancing aerial attacks, extending buffs, and maintaining sharpness or stamina.
- Core Damage: Critical Eye, Weakness Exploit, Critical Boost, Agitator.
- IG Specific: Power Prolonger (extends buff duration), Airborne (increases jumping attack damage by 30%).
- Utility: Health Boost, Evade Window, Stamina Surge (more airtime/dodges), Master's Touch (prevents sharpness loss on critical hits - pairs well with high affinity builds), Handicraft (if needed for sharpness).
Strategic Approaches & Monster Matchups
The Insect Glaive shines against monsters with high weak points that are hard for grounded weapons to reach consistently. Its mobility allows for safe repositioning and easy mounting attempts. Use the vault to dodge ground-based attacks like charges or tail swipes.
Examples: Against Rathalos or Legiana, stay airborne to target their heads and wings, easily dodging fireballs or ice attacks. For large, sturdy monsters like Diablos, use aerial attacks to focus on breaking horns or wings, while using ground combos when it's downed. Against agile monsters like Odogaron, use Mid-Air Evade frequently to stay out of reach while waiting for Descending Thrust opportunities.
Continue Your Hunt: Further Resources
The journey to mastering the Insect Glaive is ongoing. Consult these resources and practice consistently to refine your skills: