Monster Hunter World: Ranking Every Weapon From Worst To Best

Pros: Versatile, huge damage w/axe, Phial in both forms

Cons: Requires complex combos for full damage

Making the Switch Axe look like a shoddy prototype, by comparison, World's Charge Blade extracts the best bits of every melee weapon and combines them to create monster-hunting perfection.

This marvel of engineering not only houses the clout of the hammer, reach of the long sword and staying power of the Gunlance, but the versatility of the Switch Axe to boot, thanks to its two forms.

As is the case with its outdated counterpart, the Charge Axe relies on the Phial System to produce maximum damage, the key difference being that both forms - axe and sword & shield - benefit from its building. Expending the guage in either form can bolster damage and defence respectively with explosive results, but it's skillfully transitioning from one mode to another while building Phial juice that'll provide the most bang for your buck.

A beast of a weapon that hides no weakness besides a steep learning curve, Monster Hunter veterans will have a headstart in wiping out entire ecosystems with the Charge Blade in hand, but if they put in the man hours, even rookies will be causing mass extinction events on a whim.