Monster Hunter World: The Board Game will soon grace fans' tables with beautiful miniatures, innovative gameplay, and giant monsters to hunt. While many are focusing on all the currently confirmed monsters for the Monster Hunter board game, others are more curious to see what weapon types will be supported. In Monster Hunter World, there are 14 different types of weapons that players can choose between, but it seems like some of these may have been cut for the board game. At the very least, players can definitely use five different types of weapons, but it looks like at launch there will be twelve supported overall.

For those that aren't aware, Steamforged Games has a history of taking popular video game franchises and adapting them to a tabletop setting. By the nature of the task, this often requires innovation and the introduction of unique mechanics, so Monster Hunter World: The Board Game probably won't be any different. When showing off the Kickstarter pledge levels, Steamforged Games confirmed that players can get twelve different Hunter miniatures if they pledge at the highest level, but even if each of those represents a different weapon that still leaves two out.

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The entry level pledge comes with four different Hunters, all of which are clearly shown in the promotional image above. From the looks of it, players that opt in for this pledge level will be able to use the Longsword, Hammer, Light Bowgun, and Gunlance to start out. Though they may seem random, these weapon types were probably chosen because they each offer a different type of combat than the others. The Longsword hunter must get in close but still has great mobility, whereas the Hammer hunter can deal heavier damage at the cost of maneuverability.

The Light Bowgun weapon is a great choice for ranged combat and even support, although the Bow or Heavy Bowgun would have worked just as well. Finally, the Gunlance provides players with a medium range option that isn't present in any of the other weapons, and lends itself well to tank style of gameplay. It seems likely that these four weapon types will be in the core box no matter what, as they are shown several times throughout the pledge levels as four of the twelve available hunter miniatures. That said, there are still eight more to be discovered from other expansions.

The core level pledge will net players everything included in the entry level pledge as well as another box featuring monsters from the Wildspire Waste. It also comes with four more Hunters, but these aren't as easy to see. Zooming in doesn't help much because of the poor image quality, so the best fans can do is guess at what they see. On the Wildspire Waste board to the far left seems to be a Hunter using a Charge Blade, while the right side of the board could show a Heavy Bowgun.

On the Ancient Forest board, a Great Sword Hunter can be seen clearly on the bottom, but the other two are a bit more unclear. To the right it looks like a hunter potentially using the classic Sword and Shield weapon, but the one on the left is practically unidentifiable. If this box does come with a Sword and Shield, Great Sword, Heavy Bowgun, and Charge Blade, it would actually mimic the roles of the first four hunters. Like the Longsword, Sword and Shield is fast and mobile, while the Great Sword and Hammer are slower but heavier. The two Bowguns offer ranged options while the Charge Blade features a unique mechanic like the Gunlance.

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With the all-in pledge, players gain access to three Elder Dragons that will probably function similarly to Dark Souls: The Board Game's Mega Bosses, but there are also separate boxes for the Kula-Ya-Ku and what appears to be a character box. Unfortunately, there's no picture shown here, so it's impossible to tell what weapon types will be made available in this box, but the Kickstarter would imply that it has four more Hunters for players to use.

At the moment, it seems as though the Longsword, Hammer, Light Bowgun, Gunlance, Sword and Shield, Great Sword, Heavy Bowgun, and Charge Blade are already covered, so that leaves six potential options for this box to include. Players can expect to see at least four of these weapon types as part of this expansion: The Dual Blades, Switch Axe, Bow, Hunting Horn, Insect Glaive, and Lance. Though it's difficult to say which four of these would be chosen for the final expansion box, there are some things that can help to narrow them down potentially.

Ultimately, two weapons from these six will probably be skipped over initially, so it's up to players to speculate on which two those would be. Before knowing that both the Heavy and Light Bowguns were already included, it would make sense for one of these weapon types to be cut since they are so similar, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, it's helpful to look at what types of roles are already covered and what could realistically be skipped over without missing much content.

As unfortunate as it is, the first one to the chopping block is the Lance weapon. Though it is superior in terms of defense to the Gunlance, the two are functionally very similar and the Gunlance is a bit flashier. Beyond this, though, there are a number of approaches Steamforged Games could take. On the one hand, the Insect Glaive features a complicated mechanic that would be difficult to implement, but the Hunting Horn is primarily a support weapon and could be skipped over as well. It seems likely that the Dual Blades and Bow will make it in, but fans won't know for certain until more details are revealed.

Monster Hunter World: The Board Game launches its Kickstarter in April of 2021.

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