The Best Weapons to Beat Fatalis in Monster Hunter World

Fatalis. The name causes terror and excitement for any Monster Hunter veteran, and its appearance in Monster Hunter World is no different. It is, bar none, the most difficult fight in the game, and even with the best weapons available, beating Fatalis is still as much a test of skill and patience as it is of your gear.

The Five Best Weapon Types to Beat Fatalis in Monster Hunter World

There are 16 weapon types in Monster Hunter World, but because of how Fatalis fights — its attacks, health pool, and damage output — I can think of only six that make defeating it a more comfortable experience. We’ll go over all of those weapon types, as well as the specific weapons you’ll want.

Switch Axe

My main weapon, and one of the best in the game overall, the Switch Axe, is one of the best weapons to beat Fatalis for a lot of reasons. However, there are a few that set it apart: the Zero Sum Discharge attack, the invincible side shop, and its sheer DPS. Let’s break each down.

The Zero Sum Discharge, or ZSD, is one of the most powerful attacks in Monster Hunter World. It’s capable of DPS in the thousands, tons of part break damage, and is much easier to execute with the Clutch Claw. A well-executed ZSD spam on Fatalis’ head is essential to making the fight as consistent as possible. The third phase of the fight, after the second time you hide behind the large steel barricade, is phenomenally tougher if you don’t break Fatalis’ horns and depower its flame breath. With both horns intact, the flame is now blue-white hot and deals several times more damage per tick than its already deadly standard flame.

The Switch Axe’s invincible side hop is another huge benefit. Fatalis is fond of two or three-hit combo attacks that will quickly kill even the best-equipped hunters, but a well-timed side hop, or set of them, neutralizes any threat the dragon poses. Combined with proper ZSD application, few other weapons in MHW are as consistent as the Switch Axe for fighting Fatalis, solo or with a group.

Greatsword

The Greatsword against Fatalis can be something of a one-trick pony, because shoudlering through its attacks will stick rob you of an absurd amount of health. However, if you build entirely around the True Charge Slash (which you should be doing anyway), and you’re good about baiting Fatalis around the arena, you can do thousands of damage in a single hit.

The shoulder tackle is, of course, still important for those moments where your timing is just a little bit off, and you know you can get the TCS in. You always need to have confidence that you can actually survive the attack, even with the tackle’s damage reduction. Even Fatalis’ weakest attacks can take out half a fully-buffed health bar, and if he surprises you with anything, you could be carting back to camp anyway.

The other advantage the Greatsword has over other weapons of its size, and more than a lot of weapons generally, is the mobility and freedom it gives you. Sure, during a TCS attempt, you aren’t going anywhere fast, but with the right decorations, you can pull out and put away (Quick Sheathe) a Greatsword incredibly quickly. A meta Greatsword build can not only deal massive damage consistently, but it can also get the hell out of dodge just as fast. If you’ve fought Fatalis enough to know even some of its attack timings, you’ll know whether you should even try to attack with the Greatsword.

If you ever find yourself in a position with the Greatsword drawn and know you need to avoid the next attack, you can sheathe the weapon and have full movement speed plus the emergency dive. You have equal access to healing items, can get to the ballistae and cannons, and generally run relative circles around Fatalis in ways that almost any other weapon could only dream of.

Dual Blades

If the Greatsword is the king of single-attack damage and mobility, the Dual Blades (DBs) are death by 10,000 cuts that come from all directions. The amount of movement opportunities Dual Blades provide is almost criminal, and you can easily dance around Fatalis with the right setup. The biggest hurdle you need to overcome with DBs is the stamina drain while empowered, but if you’re fighting Fatalis with these weapons, you should have mastered that particular mechanic.

The Dual Blades also offer some of the easiest-to-access invincibility frames in Monster Hunter World. Because the DBs are the smallest weapons in the game, you’ll almost always need to be right up in Fatalis’ face, meaning your ability to capitalize on its few openings is higher than with other weapons. The flip side of that coin is, if Fatalis puts you up against a wall or the camera (the real boss of MHW) gets wacky, you might not be able to see what the world-ending dragon has in store.

Besides your mobility, the Dual Blades’ other advantage is the volume of Element and status buildup they generate. Fatalis is weakest to Dragon element, and with a Dragon set of Dual Blades with high Elderseal, you can go a long way toward crippling Fatalis with both damage and element/status.

I would be remiss not to mention the Dual Blades’ DPS potential once you know when and how to attack. One attack in a combo might only do 150 damage, but if there are 20 attacks in that combo? That’s 3,000 damage in just a few seconds. Fatalis has a frankly insulting 66,000 HP when fought solo so that 3,000 damage is a small but significant chunk of its HP bar. Things do get a bit wackier in multiplayer, but if your teammates give you the opportunity, you can easily out-damage two of them unless they’re also using Dual Blades.

Hunting Horn

The Hunting Horn (HH) is rarely the optimal weapon for most fights, but that doesn’t mean it’s any slouch against Fatalis. There are a few reasons for that. First and foremost are the buffs you can give yourself and the rest of your hunting party that stack with the consumables they’ve used for more attacks and defenses. The HH might be one of the more technical weapons to use, but no party will ever say no to a skilled player. Like the Wide Range/Free Meal heal bot with the Wiggler Head, a Hunting Horn expert instantly elevates the effectiveness of a team of four or even as a solo.

The second reason the Hunting Horn does so well against Fatalis is the amount of stun and break damage it can do with the right attacks. Spinning the horn at the dragon’s head is a great way to snap its horns off and work toward stunning it.

Buffs and break/stun damage buildup aside, the Hunting Horn is also a solid damage dealer in its own right. More than that, it’s got solid mobility. It’s not on the level of the Greatsword, and especially not the Dual Blades, but you can move around more quickly with the HH than its size would make you assume.

Combine the Hunting Horn’s ability to buff, its amazing all-around damage potential, and better than it appears mobility, and there’s real potential for the weapon when used against Fatalis. If you’re the kind of good-hearted soul that plays the HH and acts as a party healer, you’ll make so many friends. The relief a lot of players feel when beating Fatalis the first time, especially if they used an SOS flare in the fight, is always palpable. They will show you and the rest of the squad a level of appreciation and wholesomeness unseen in gaming when the legendary dragon dies. Ask me how I know.

Longsword

Sadly, the Monster Hunter World Longsword is a shadow of the one we got in Rise, but it’s still one of the best weapons in the game, including against Fatalis. The dragon might have lots of insta-kill combos, but because none of its attacks are particularly fast, you can easily Foresight Slash through them, all while building up tons of meter for Helmbreaker attacks.

Speaking of Helmbreakers, because at least a few of Fatalis’ attacks have long recovery times, you can get more than your fair share of the Longsword’s most powerful attack in. Like the other top contenders listed here, the Longsword is incredible for easily and consistently breaking Fatalis’ horns, thus making the final phase of the fight infinitely more survivable.

The Longsword is also one of the more mobile weapons in Monster Hunter World, but it has another benefit: it’s…long. Wow, shocker, I know. Putting that braindead assessment aside, the length of the Longsword allows certain attacks to damage Fatalis’ head when even the Greatsword would have trouble. And because the Longsword’s attacks are so much faster than a Greatsword and have so much more reach than a Hunting Horn, having a Longsword user on your team could generate a stagger or knockdown at the exact right moment, letting the whole party wail on Fatalis for a good 15 seconds for the low cost of a single attack.

The Best Weapons to Use Against Fatalis

We have the five best weapon types, now we need the right weapons of those types. And there are only two I can recommend: the Safi’Jiiva and Alatreon versions. One of the biggest complaints I can level against Monster Hunter World Iceborne is how the game power crept itself into oblivion, with each new monster update giving us access to weapons that were just better than anything we had before. Besides the Fatalis gear itself, there are no weapon versions you can use against the legendary dragon better than the Safi and Alatatreon ones.

There are a couple reasons for this preference. First and foremost is the massive amount of Dragon element damage both weapons do. Sure, they have an absurd level of purple or white sharpness and their base damage is beyond anything you can get at any other point in Iceborne, but the volume of Dragon element (and Elderseal, though that’s less important) is too much to give up.

I personally recommend Safi-Jiiva weapons over Alatreon ones because Safi is easier to get your hands on. Random multiplayer against Alatreon is the world’s biggest crapshoot, and soloing it takes a level of patience and skill that doing a Safi’Jiiva siege will never require. That’s not to say you can get a crappy team when fighting Safi, but it’s a much more forgiving fight with a generally more consistent loot grind.

The ironic thing about Fatalis is that the best weapons to use against it can only be made from its parts. Fatalis weapons don’t need any fancy elements or status effects. Their raw damage is so absurdly high that they outclass everything else in the game by several times. Oh, and if you pair a Fatalis weapon with a full set of its armor, you’ve unlocked Monster Hunter World easy mode, even against Fatalis itself. No, you won’t be one-shotting the dragon, but it is a much more comfortable, consistent, and enjoyable fight all the same.

Lacking Fatalis gear for whatever reason, then, you’ll want to use Alatreon or Safi’Jiiva gear to kill Fatalis itself. You’ll also want to use only weapons you’re comfortable with, and that usually takes dozens of hours to do.

Lastly, I do not recommend using the Bow, Bowguns, or Lance-type weapons for your first Fatalis kill. They’re either too heavy, too inconsistent, or rely too much on blocking powerful attacks than avoiding them. And with Fatalis’ attacks dealing so much knockback, so much raw damage, and its movement being so unpredictable at times, many of the advantages these weapons otherwise offer are entirely overridden.