Visual Guide to the Mid Game Model Hunt Party (Core Game)

To follow up from the early game model hunt party, here is the framework around which I build my parties in the core game only. As the game's content becomes more expansive the further you get into a campaign the harder it is to provide a comprehensive list of the top builds. I've had to cut from this list the dual weapon blood paint build for example (which honestly works better when you have Gorm + Screaming Antelope because of the Rib Blade).

The largest change which happened in 1.6 was the pushing the design team did to the Phoenix Armor + Dual Sonic Tomahawks build, it's pretty viable now. However, the Counterweighted Axe still works better with Phoenix Armor because of how reach and monster movement armor abilities like Charge interact. It's easier to get your charge hits in if you have reach due to the increased power projection that gives you. It's very hard to fit the Counterweighted Axe alongside activated Phoenix Armor without expansions though due to the poor quality of red affinity options.

The main change in the core only mid game is the arrival of Leather Armor, the Arc Bow, the Sonic Tomahawk, the Zanbato, the Counterweighted Axe and Phoenix Armor. Phoenix Armor is the most durable armor that doesn't have the problematic heavy keyword. So while the set has some serious problems due to its lack of affinities it is still the biggest pile of armor points on a light armor. The main thing is, Leather Armor just does the tanking job better unless you have an absurd amount of Insanity points because of its synergy with Monster Grease - something Phoenix Armor struggles to achieve without access to promotional or expansion gear. The lack of affinities on the Waist and Gloves is a nightmare.

The Mid Game is also the place where you should be aiming to complete Shield Mastery, Fist & Tooth Mastery and Spear Mastery. These three masteries are the best ones for a settlement due to how useful their specialisations are. Unfortunately that does not leave a lot of room for fun exciting weapon masteries, so I recommend rushing those three masteries as quickly as possible, that'll leave you 15ish lantern years to pursue other options.

In this period of the game you are going to be reliant on survivor strength to help push your hunts further, weapons in the game have a huge power gap between the mid game stuff and the supposed end game gear (Blacksmith location). This gap is filled somewhat when you have expansions like the Sunstalker, Dragon King and Dung Beetle Knight, but you'll always feel this stretch and gap until we get a more solid set of late game monsters to hunt.

A small side note on the choice of tank weapon, the best two options are the Counterweighted Axe and the Zanbato - in 1.5 and earlier the decision usually skewed to  Zanbato because of how easy it was to craft them. These days I prefer to hand the Zanbato to the main damage dealer and leave the Counterweighted Axe in the hands of the leather tank, but you can be sure that if I get to a second Zanbato I'll switch that up.

The Scrap Sword DPS is the weakest of the builds up there, it's forced to slot in that Bone Club to reach the two red affinities that activate Deadly (I do not understand why the activation is RRB not RBB - since when does Red link to luck?) That's not a clean thing to have to do, but sometimes you've got to compromise and if I didn't try to show how you can make the Scrap Sword work then we'd just be rotating around the same small group of weapons eternally.