Monster Hunter World’s latest expansion, Iceborne, is a massive addition to the base game. It adds tons of new monsters and brings back old favorites. That also means new armor, and while plenty of it looks badass, a few pieces are bafflingly terrible.
Iceborne offers a lot of good armor sets. The Master Rank Tobi-Kadachi set is fabulous, and armor from from returning monsters like Glavenus and Nargacuga retain classic looks as chunky gear and sleek, ninja-style digs respectively. But some of the pieces are a little ridiculous, especially the weapons. Many of these have been changed from their classic designs, leading to some truly gnarly stuff. Chief among these are weapons and gear from the explosive-slime slibbering Brachydios. When I first saw these, I laughed my ass off. A video by Monster Hunter veteran gaijin hunter highlights some of the more perplexing armor and weapons.
The Brachydios dual blades are particularly egregious, to the point that gaijin hunter and some players on social media have compared them to KFC chicken drumsticks. Indeed, they’re a radical departure from how Brachydios blades looked in previous games. Those were pretty sleek, with neat glowing parts. These are something straight out of the Flintstones. Other changes include totally new designs for Nargacuga dual blades. Meanwhile, some Brachydios weapons keep their classic designs but only if they’re above rarity level 10.
Some of the lower-level items can have their appearances replaced (and layered armor sets also can hide some of the stranger designs) but that’s a small Band-Aid for a curious change to iconic weapons and armor. It’s not the end of the world, but when so many of Iceborne’s designs are high quality, the clumsier and less elegant weapons really stick out. It’s hard to say if anything will change or if new designs will be limited, but I know I might hold on to my Viper Kadachi dual blades and Shrieking Legiana set a little longer before bothering with Brachydios gear.