Monster Hunter WildsInsect Glaive Guide

The Insect Glaive is Monster Hunter’s “newest” weapon, debuting in Monster Hunter 4. Originally designed for more experienced players, this weapon prioritizes aerial mobility, burst attacks, and mounting opportunities.

Armed with a trusty bug companion called a Kinsect, players can extract essence from monsters for buffs (more on that below) to aid in combat and fell monsters with extreme grace and style.

If you wanna check out another highly mobile weapon, be sure to look at Dual Blades. For a quick overview on every weapon, check out our "Choose a Weapon" guide to find the best pick for you.

This article was written by @PeanutWizard.

Strengths

• Aerial Attacks and Mobility
• • The Insect Glaive moveset prioritizes speed and maneuverability above all else. The kit includes a feature not included in other weapons, the ability to launch yourself into the air at will and perform midair attacks and dodges.
  • Not only do these moves look super cool, but when chained together well they can do a ton of damage in succession.
  • Once Insect Glaive locks into its very fluid attack groove it can be devastating to monsters of all types. Additionally, most IG attacks are very quick and do not lock you into long animations in the face of oncoming attacks like some of the heavier weapons in the game. This can allow for easier positioning on the ground and in the air.
• Kinsect Buffs
• • Your Kinsect allows for long-range attacks on monsters that extract essence to grant you buffs. These can increase your speed, attack power, defenses, heal you in a pinch, and even grant skills like Earplugs.
• Mounting
• • Insect Glaive players’ ability to do damage in the air makes them one of the primary mount damage weapons, which is very useful in both solo and multiplayer hunting.

Weaknesses

• Lack of Overall Defense
• • The Insect Glaive’s aerial mobility is not without cost. Midair dodging can be very dangerous if used recklessly. Once you choose to vault, there are no guardrails. In fact, there is no guarding at all. IG’s primary method of not taking damage is to avoid it with speed and dodging, which is inherently more risky and skill-dependent.
• Kinsect Stuff Is Tricky
• • Getting all your extracts can be a major pain. Each monster has different placings for where on the body you are supposed to aim. The Kinsect can also be a bit slow and struggle to accurately hit more agile monsters. Buff timers are around a minute per buff. To maintain maximum uptime, you need to consistently keep track of what’s about to expire and re-extract as necessary.
• High APM Needed For Good Damage
• • A common insect glaive complaint is that the button inputs for doing decent damage are very taxing on players. The control scheme for IG, in comparison to most of the other weapons in the game, does have a high-skill floor. This has seen multiple iterations throughout the series, but generally, Capcom does want IG to feel complex with high amounts of skill expression to use the weapon effectively. This may turn off newer players or those seeking simpler gameplay experiences.

The Basics

R2 + △ : Send out Kinsect to extract. You can aim this attack while holding R2. Holding down Triangle will charge up the Kinsect attack and activate your Kinsect’s extract boost effect.

Check your reticle while aiming to see which extract colors come from each part of the monster (head, legs, tail, etc). Keeping the Kinsect out over time will drain its Stamina bar. It will be forced to return to the hunter once its Stamina is depleted.

RL2 + ◯: Recall Kinsect. Will receive or refresh buff if your Kinsect is extracted successfully. Kinsects extract up to two buffs at a time before returning. Kinsects will also return passively if a recall command is not given.

Hold R2, Then Tap R2: Marks a spot on the monster for your Kinsect to attack and extract passively. Marks can eventually be expunged to cause status effect buildup or elemental damage depending on your Kinsect.

R2 + X: Vault yourself into the air to perform dodges or attacks.

△ (Ground): Your most standard attack, can be linked up to 3 times to perform a basic combo.

◯ (Ground): Your stronger attack which hits in a large sweeping range. Can be followed up with an Overhead Smash.

Hold ◯ (Ground): Strong Descending Slash: Usable when you have Red Extract. Charge up and release to unleash a flurry of blows. This is one of the precursor moves for the Rising Spiral Slash.

Aerial Moves

A critical thing to keep in mind once you’re in the air is your stamina bar. Dodging while you’re up there will drain the bar and you cannot regain stamina until you touch the ground. By default, you are allowed to evade once in the air or evade and attack before you are forced to return to the ground. This can be reset up to three times by successfully landing the last hit of a Jumping Advancing Slash. Aerial moves will increase in power after every reset.

△ (Midair): Jumping Advancing Slash: Usable with Red Extract. Unleashes an aerial flurry. If this attack’s last hit connects you are lifted further up and your aerial combo resets, meaning you can attack or evade again.

△ (Midair): Jumping Slash: Does high mounting damage.

X (Midair): Midair Evade: Costs a portion of stamina. The evade limit (typically once) can be reset after a successful last hit of a Jumping Advancing Slash.

Hold ◯ (Midair): Descending Thrust: You plunge into the ground with your Kinsect, piercing straight through the monster and leaving a Kinsect mark at the end. Becomes much stronger and becomes a precursor move to Rising Spiral Slash with Red Extract.

Focus Mode Moves

R1 while holding L2: Focus Thrust: Leaping Strike: This attack is very effective against wounds and will send your Kinsect to attack the monster as well, consuming the wound and gathering extracts.

L2+Circle after a Strong Descending Slash/Thrust: Rising Only usable if you have the Triple Up buff. Will consume the Triple Up buff. Deals a ton of damage with multiple hits as you rise into the air. Your Kinsect will also contribute and restock extracts it gained during the attack. This is IG’s ultimate move!

How Kinsects Work

Using well-known MH: World numbers for buffs. The MH: Wilds effects and durations are unclear.

Extracts

To manage Insect Glaive effectively, one must understand extract buffs and what they grant to a hunter. Kinsects can extract 4 types of buffs, listed below:

RED: Upgrades most of your attacks to their stronger versions. Usually extracted from Kinsect hits to the monster’s head.

WHITE: Increased speed and jump height. Usually extracted from Kinsect hits to the monster's limbs ( i.e. wings, legs, arms, etc).

ORANGE: Negates Knockback while the weapon is drawn, similar to the Flinch Free skill. Usually extracted from Kinsect hits to the Monster’s body.

GREEN: Grants a small heal. Usually extracted from Kinsect hits to the monster’s tail.

Additional Extract Bonuses

RED + WHITE = Attack increase

WHITE + ORANGE = Defense increase

RED + WHITE + ORANGE (aka Triple Up Buff) = Attack increase + Defense increase + Earplugs, Tremor Resistance, and Wind Pressure Negation. Enables the Rising Spiral Slash finisher move.

All buffs last 60 seconds and you can refresh singular buffs. However, when all 3 are enabled you cannot refresh buffs and they will reset after 60 seconds have passed. It is very important to have all 3 extracts up simultaneously for your damage throughput. The weapon is severely neutered if you don’t have extracts active.

Kinsects can be obtained and upgraded by going to the Smithy, quite similarly to the process for forging and upgrading weapons. They will start at Rarity 1 during the beginning of the Low-Rank campaign.

To unlock Rarity 2 Kinsects, you must complete the Chapter 2 Main Mission The Eye of The Storm by defeating Rey Dau. Return to the Smithy to upgrade your Kinsect provided you have the necessary materials.

Rarity 4 Kinsects can be unlocked by capturing Yian Kat-Ku in the Chapter 4 Main Mission New Ecosystems. This will allow you to access the entire tree of the 20 Kinsects currently available in the game once you return to the Smithy.

From the Smithy menu, you can choose to Buy a Kinsect (start anew on the starting Kinsect trees) or Raise a Kinsect (continue to upgrade within the Kinsect tree).

The Starting Kinsects

Once you purchase your first Kinsect, you will begin a progression path that will last through the entirety of the Low-Rank campaign. Kinsects range in Rarity from levels 1 to 4.

The First Upgrade Menu for the Mauldrone Tree

Kinsect Types and Relevant Stats

Kinsects have the following stats:

Attack Type: Either Slashing or Blunt damage, like all the melee weapons in Monster Hunter

Element/Status: The Kinsect inherits the Element or Status effect of your equipped weapon. 

Note: Kinsects will NOT contribute to status buildup with their attacks if a status weapon is equipped

Kinsect Powder: The effect of attacking the powder left by a Kinsect after it attacks a monster. Powder types are as follows:

• Poison: Builds Poison status on nearby monsters.
• Paralysis: Builds Paralysis status on nearby monsters.
• Blast: Builds Blast status on nearby monsters
• Recover: Heals self and allies near the cloud once triggered.

Kinsect Level: Increases the Kinsect’s scaled values (Powder Effect, Power, Speed, and Stamina) per Kinsect level. Kinsect Level increases with the level of the currently equipped weapon. Currently, this is capped at level 10.

Powder Effect: Increases the potency of Kinsect powders (either status buildup or healing)

Power: Increases raw damage output by the Kinsects auto-attacks or contributions during Focus Mode attacks

Speed: How fast the Kinsect moves

Stamina: How quickly Kinsects regain Stamina when recalled to the hunter.

Kinsect Bonus: A pairing of the following effects from the list below, with one Primary and one Secondary:

Primary Kinsect Bonuses:

• Attack Boost: Powder: Boosts Kinsect Powder's effectiveness of building up abnormal status effects.
• Kinsect Combo Boost: Element: Buffs Kinsect Elemental damage output
• Kinsect Boost: Harvest Extract: Also allows the Kinsect to hold up to three Extracts during certain attacks (like R2+ held Triangle and the Focus Moves).

Secondary Kinsect Bonuses:

• Attack Boost: Weak Point Focus: The Kinsect deals extra damage when it hits the monster during Focus Mode attacks like 
• Kinsect Boost: Stamina Recovery: Greatly increases the Kinsect Stamina recovery rate.
• Extract Boost: Recovery: Amplifies the healing properties of Green Extract.

Kinsect Boost: Fast Charge: Speeds up the time to Charge Kinsect: Harvest Extract (R2+ held Triangle). Typically this attack takes over half a second to charge, but the bonus reduces the time significantly.

Recommended Kinsects

Low-Rank: Gullshad/Windchopper

Both of these Rarity 2 Kinsects have rather high-Speed stats, allowing for quicker and more consistent extract buff uptime during the early campaign hunts.  

High-Rank: Fiddlebrix/Arkmaiden

Kinsect Boost: Harvest Extract is debatably the best Kinsect Bonus as it enables very high combo uptime with the ability to gather up to three extracts at a time. This allows moves like Rising Spiral Slash to gain full Triple Up buff immediately after expending it if the attack is placed in the right spot on a monster’s body. These two Kinsects are the only Rarity 4s with this power, and as such they deserve the recommendation.

Low-Rank

Balahara Tree (Balahara Glaive I / Balahara Glaive II): Decent base Attack value, solid Elemental Water damage, and a good chunk of natural green Sharpness paired with an early source of Power Prolonger (arguably one of the best skills for IG) make this a great weapon tree to invest in for a smooth Low-Rank campaign.

Lala Barina Tree (Barina Perche I / Barina Perche II): Paralysis weapons in Low-Rank hunts are a very safe option for new players to the Monster Hunter series. The Lala Barina tree is no exception, as it provides an early level in Critical Status and a very respectable Status power (not to mention a very hefty Green Sharpness bar) to make paralysis proc more often, crucially granting free damage windows throughout the campaign. 

High-Rank

Rathian Tree (Queen Regalia): This weapon is a great all-rounder for most of the High-Rank quests and endgame hunts. There is so much to like about this weapon: high amounts of white Sharpness, great poison effect, high Affinity, free maxed Critical Status and Poison Duration Up skills, above average Attack value, and a great 3,2,1 Decoration slot spread. This tree has everything a Status IG build wants and then some. Additionally, since this doesn’t need too many offensive support gems to function well, all of your remaining Decorations/gear can be devoted to defensive and comfort skills.  

Gore Magala Tree (Leumundsgift): For the high-risk Elemental damage fiends out there, this IG tree boasts the highest Dragon Element damage (non-Artian), a whopping 20% base Affinity, and a free 3 ranks of Critical Element. If you have the right Affinity and Dragon Attack gear, this weapon is an absolute powerhouse. Its high base affinity makes it one of the few trees in the game that can achieve 100% affinity and punish the current endgame hunts with brutal ease. Running this weapon with the Gore Magala antivirus synergies puts it over the top on damage output. However, the high commitment to offense can limit your defensive options more than other builds. 

Depending on your Insect Glaive build, here are the sort of skills you'll often see IG players using.

The IG has gone over numerous major design iterations throughout its history, but MH: Wilds seems to be giving its fans some much-desired QoL.

(On Dec 19th, 2024 Capcom announced changes were being made to the IG from the Beta client. These have not been implemented as of Beta 2).

Other Changes We Know Are Coming

• You can fire marks for your Kinsect while in the air.
• There is now an indicator to show what color of extract you are aiming for before you send out your Kinsect.
• There is a highly damaging move that will spend your Triple Up (All three extracts online) buff while sending you up into the air.
• There are new moves utilizing Focus Mode that target and consume monster wounds.

From the official Monster Hunter channel: