Below is a quick list of the current best Charge Blades in Iceborne. For more detail on each of the Charge Blade and a guide on making the best build in current meta, read on!

Non-Element Charge Blade

Thanatos Force

Inescapable Karma
Melting Grasp

Element Charge Blade

Glavenus Bardred – Fire
Deep Schnegel II – Ice
Despot’s Thunder Gale – Thunder

DeathAxe Vaal Aspida – Dragon

Best Charge Blades [MHW Iceborne]

The Saber Maw II

You can never go wrong with a Jagras weapon. This is basically the case here. As soon as you finished the battle with the introductory monster of the new map. Jagras weapon is pretty easy to craft.

As this is a non-element focus weapon, your meta relentless build is still viable and can be used effectively until the appearance of monster-like Tigrex. The Tigrex marks a new phase of the Iceborne journey where you need to face off with the classic monster.

Saber Maw II Materials

Monster Slogbone x3
Great Jagras Hardclaw x3

Great Jagras Thickhide
Tough-Claw x3

PROS	CONS
– Easy to craft – Two level 3 Jewel – Hidden Sleep	– Low Base Damage – Ugly Design

Thanatos Force

If you still love the classic Elementless build (Diablos Tyrannis II) You can get back all that feel again with Thanatos Force. Upgrading directly from the Diablos tree, this weapon keeps the classic -30% Affinity in compensating for 1044 Damage (Highest in the base Iceborne)

Thanatos Force’s Material

Blackcurl Stouthorn x3
Black Diablos Cortex x3

Monster Solidbone x3
Large Wyvern Gem x1

PROS	CONS
– Sync With Elementless Build	– Minus Affinity

Best Element Charge Blades

Deep Schnegel II – Beotodus Charge Blade (Ice)

Surprise? Yeah, I am surprised too, about half of your journey on Master Rank, you will begin to face the like of Brachydios and Glavenus, which is weak to Ice. With just two or three runs on this Lavasioth cousin, you can have yourself an elemental Charge Blade that can keep those monsters at bay.

Deep Schenegel II’s material

Rimed Hide x2
Beotodus Grandfin x2

Cryo Sac x2
Large Wyvern Gem x1

PROS	CONS
– Easy to Craft – Highest Ice Element	– Situational

Glavenus Bardred – Glavenus Charge Blade (Fire)

Remember the Rathalos Charge Blade in our MHW Best Charge Blade Guide? The Glavenus has now taken the place for the best Fire Charge Blade in MHW Iceborne.

Starting off with 390 Fire Damage & Power Element. This Charge Blade comes with 936 Damage.

PROS	CONS
– Highest Fire Charge Blade – Looks cool	– 0% Affinity

Death Axe Vaal Aspida – Black Veil Vaal Hazak Charge Blade (Dragon)

This takes the spot as the best Dragon Charge Blade with 420 Dragon elements. It also comes with 900 Damage and 0% Affinity.

Deathaxe Vaal Aspida’s material

Vaal Hazak Hardclaw x3
Shadowpierce Fang x2
Deceased Shard x5

Deathweaver Membrane x3

PROS	CONS
– Level 4 Jewel – High Dragon Element	– Slap on Design

Despot’s Thunder Gale (Thunder)

One of the coolest looking Charge Blade in the game. Crafted from nonother than the Blue Lighting Dog Zinogre, this weapon requires you to finish the Story mode and unlock the Guiding Land.

But it is by far the best Lighting Charge Blade in Iceborne.

Despot’s Thunder Gale’s material

Spiritvein Solidbone x5
Zinogre Hardhorn x2

Zinogre Deathly Shocker x5
Large Elder Dragon Gem x1

PROS	CONS
– Cool Design – Strongest Lighting Charge Blade	– Hard to craft

Best End Master Rank Charge Blade

Inescapable Karma (Raw Damage)

Start off the list is the final boss Charge Blade. This one makes off the list thanks to it’s a powerful design and hidden element. With this, you can easily used that Elementless jewel again for your build.

Inescapable Karma’s Materials

Shara Ishvalda Tenderclaw x4
Shara Ishvalda Tenderscale x4

Shara Ishvalda Tenderplate x2
Shara Ishvalda Gem x1

Pros	Cons
– Good Design – Purple Sharpness – High Damage – Well Rounded	– Level 1 Jewel Slot

Melting Grasp (Raw Damage)

This is upgraded directly from the Saber Maw II, and is another charge blade that

Melting Grasp’s material

Vaal Hazak Hardclaw x2
Acidic Glavenus Hardfang

Acidic Glavenus Spineshell
Glavenus Mantle x1

PROS	CONS
	– Minus Affinity

Safi’jiiva Charge Blades

VARIANT	ELEMENT
Safi’s Hellshield	180 Fire
Safi’s Aquashield	180 Water
Safi’s Frostshield	180 Ice
Safi’s Boltshield	180 Lighting
Safi’s Drakshield	180 Dragon
Safi’s Venomshield	150 Poison
Safi’s Bindshield	120 Paralysis
Safi’s Dreamshield	120 Sleep
Safi’s Shattershield	150 Blast

All of Safi’jiiva Charge Blade starts with 972 Base Damage and 5% Affinity, Level 4 Jewel slot.

Iceborne Charge Blade Builds

Advancing to Master Rank in MHW does not make a Charge Blade build cheaper, you will still need those Magazine/Artillery jewels (Hell, now with the Level 4 Jewel upgrade, getting the Level 4 Artillery jewel is basically your life now)

However, during your progression, mixed sets are still a good way to go. With the introduction of returning monsters like Brachydios and Glavenus, you also have several new sets that can help to go through Iceborne story mode with Charge Blade.

A typical Armor Set in early Master Rank can be as below

Builder Link

Damacus Chest Beta and Coil Alpha – This is for Focus Level 3 and some utility slot for your jewel
Brachydios Helm, Gloves & Leg – These are for a quick boost in damage if you don’t have much Attack Jewel to go through. The new Agitator Select can give a quick boost to your Damage

Wearing an Artillery Charm Level 3 for your Phials Blast

This is basically a good start to finish the main storyline. You still have several slots for Health, Attack, Defense bonuses.

With the introduction of the Offensive Guard armor skill, The Charge Blade can now utilize this new mechanic to boost the damage even further.

For almost all end-game or professional build, Offensive Guard is always maxed out.

With the focus on elemental damage of Charge Blade, several hunters have come up with a new playstyle for the Charge Blades, if you prefer blasting out with Power Element, pick up the Melting Grasp and start with the below build.

As soon as you unlock the Master Rank version of Zora Magdaros – It’s time to test out the Artillery Select. Three pieces of this armor will give you a quick boost to Artillery Level 5, making your phial blast even stronger.

Builder Link

Near the end of Master Rank, marking by unlocking access to Guiding Land, you can face the infamous trio

Zinogre

These monsters will introduce you to the Guiding Land, a special place to gather end game material – which is needed to craft the final weapon on the weapon tree. These materials are also used to augment Master Rank weapons

The build set above is made from the awesome mhwbuilder from honeyhunterworld. You can check out her patron here, and use the tool at this link.

As for the build, I compiled base on the deep insight from mhwbuilds.net which is famous for his Charge Blade guide, make sure you drop him a visit!

The Safi’jiiva Meta Charge Blade Builds

Thankfully for me, I wrote this after the release of the Safi’jiiva. As in my latest guides on this Red Dragon, you can pick the three weapons from the rewards list. As all of the Safi’s Charge Blade are elemental ones, you can just pick one and tailor your build a little to your liking.

For some general use and comfy build, Safi’s Shatter Shield is currently the best Charge Blade. Below is a build that used the Safi’s ShatterShield.

Conclusion

MHW Iceborne will come to PC on 9 Jan 2020. For returning hunter using the Charge Blade, you can quickly start off Master Rank with Saber Maw, progressing and upgrade to Melting Grasp.

Depend on your liking, you can then pick any of the end game Charge blades above before the Safi’jiiva Siege.

Want to take a look at other weapons in Iceborne?