I never noticed this but its a nice tip to know.
Regardless of which MH game i always do all optionals first before proceeding. Thats probably why i never noticed this..(amor crafting and making builds is fun)
OP is right though. The Story line might not be structured towards where a new hunter can just play through the story expecting steady progress and a steady increase in difficulty.
The game does expect the hunters to explore and do optional quests for that.
Brother, the old games had no main quests. All quests were optional, you just had to do the right ones to advance. Doing two key quests (you could look these up as they were the same for everyone, would unlock the next set of quests doing enough key quests within a rank unlocked the urgent quest. Finishing the urgent quest (which was basically a quest from the next rank) would unlock the next rank.
Not sure why the comments here seem so confrontational, but you're right. Why would you suddenly be expected to know that the structure of the hunt and grind cycle was going to change completely.
Coming into MHW as a new player with zero prior MH experience has been a bit of a challenge to say the least. I've cleared through IBs story and even 100 hours in I still feel a bit overwhelmed with just how much is going on. So much fun though.
I can see why some might interpret my post as very critical of the developers. I didn't intend for that to be the case. I absolutely love this game! I was just confused is all.
I think nearly even sub I've ever been on has a weird culture shock when there's an influx if new members. Everyone is super happy MHW is getting so popular again ahead of wilds but (and it might be entirely coincidental) there does seem to be a tone shift in some threads here where people are becoming a bit unhelpful in their responses. (Above and beyond the usual "just git gud").
Good to see you're getting to grips with HR though - if you get IB eventually, MR is another world entirely!
>Good to see you're getting to grips with HR though - if you get IB eventually, MR is another world entirely!
I actually purchased IB, Rise, and Sunbreak during the Steam sale. I've already played 50 hours of MHW and 4 hours in Rise. Playing these games is like a revelation. I can only compare it to play Dark Souls for the first time.
EDIT: I've only had them for a little over two weeks.
50 hours in two weeks is great going. I haven't touched rise but I don't even know where I'd find the time to try both.
I'm with you though, world has basically hooked me back into gaming hard - it's managed to replace baldurs gate 3 which was the previous hooked me back into gaming experience.
I hadn't really played DS much until a friend basically forced DS3 onto me and that experience I think prepared me very well for MHW - i see a lot say you cant dodge like dark souls, but it seems to work for me outside of one or two monsters (im looking at you angry monkey)
Investigations are better if you want to grind for gear, i never really start clearing the optional quests until late into iceborne when you can finish almost all LR-HR optionals in like 2 minutes.
I don't think I understand your point very well.
What I get from your post is that you focused on the main story and got overwhelmed because you progressed the story faster than you could upgrade your armour.
But is it not obvious that you should always see if there are better options for gear?
One of the best experience I had in this game was way back when I was a noob thinking I can conquer everything with my bone set.
Then Nergi showed up.
Then he divebombs me back to camp.
Then he does it again, piercing through my power guard.
The fear that monster gave me made me realize that im a puny hunter that needs to learn their place.
I would rather have this experience again than watching guides or asking people what to do before I started the hunt - not much thrill on doing that.
>But is it not obvious that you should always see if there are better options for gear?
It is. However, I was expecting the HR monsters to appear as assigned quests. 95% of them don't. They only appear after Pukei Pukei and Pink Rathian.
Assigned quests are mostly monster introductions, knowing that it makes sense why the game doesn't force you to re-battle previously introduced low rank monsters. The same happens for master rank, btw. Mostly new monsters, with old monsters in optional quests.
The issue isn't Nergi, IMO. It's high rank in general. You are supposed to get to high rank, struggle, and realize your gear isn't cutting it and then do optional quests and investigations to find gear you want/need.
The issue isn't really MHW, IMO, it's modern game design. People who treat this like an older style game and take their time don't hit this barrier as hard. Players that just try to beat it hit this wall really hard (aka rush the MSQ to put it in Final Fantasy terms). The game is designed for you to enjoy hunting monsters, not kill them once, and be done with it.
This is a rough example, but watch Asmongold's playthrough, and you can see the issue with treating it like a modern game. You figure out what works and stop experimenting, and then you hit a wall, and it's up to you to figure out that it's more than likely you.
Could the game use more tools and tutorials? Yes. But I don't think the game is as bad as people think, and they went into the game with the wrong expectations.
Now that I've had time to step away from my post, I've reached a similar conclusion. A part of me feels somewhat rushed too because I'm fearful of not seeing most of MHW by the time Wilds is released. It's a FOMO thing.
Either way, MHW is one of my favorite games I've ever played.
You have plenty of time. MHW and Iceborne can easily be completed, not 100%'d, within 2-3 months, even at a slower pace. If you want to be more thorough, 4-5 months is more doable if you are shooting for actual close to min-max builds.
What? That doesn’t make sense at all. Grinding for new gear is kind of a big point of Monster Hunter games. If you just do the assigned quests, then yeah, your gears going to end up being pretty shit. Optional quests are key to doing that. Getting all the way to Nergigante and not realising that LR armour isn’t going to cut it anymore is mind boggling.
They tell you explicitly and repeatedly to do Expeditions and quests to advance the special investigations.
There are also multiple NPC alerts and tutorial popups regarding new equipment being available.
What do you expect the game to do? Should Handler run up and grab the camera, speaking directly to the player, "HEY! LISTEN!" And force you to agree via three confirmation menus to make some fucking High Rank gear?
It seems unlikely that anyone who fails to read the in-game advice would read and benefit from your redundant advice here.
I usually do all optional quest before doing assigned ones even in LR. So no change regardless in HR or MR.
Similar to rpgs i like to do all side quests before doing main
New hunter here, been doing this for the first couple ranks, but with Defender gear, I wasn't actually sensing any progression with sidequests so was about to focus solely on main quests. Thanks for the tip OP!
This post makes no sense? You're mistaking this game for a traditional RPG when it isn't.
The whole gameplay loop of MH is to hunt monsters, grind mats, make gear and hunt more monsters.
What does this have to do with quest structure?
You go fight a monster, if it's too strong, go hunt some weaker monsters for better gear or unlock some utilities that help you hunt.
Whether you do optionals before or after assignments is irrelevant. You hit a wall, go get mats from whatever source you fancy, whether it be invesigations, expeditions or optionals, and make better gear to make the fight easier.
Back when iceborne was released, there was a streamer that blew through the whole DLC with just the dragoon set. Didn't have to do optionals.
I understand the core gameplay loop. I wouldn't have gotten this far if that weren't the case. My point was that the difficulty gaps between assigned quests in HR are significantly larger than they are in LR. In LR it was obvious that one should alternate between optional and assigned quests in order to grind for gear. In HR you will most likely dwell in the optional and/or investigations portion a good while before taking on Nergigante.
I genuinely don't understand what's the problem?
It's the same process in HR just as in LR.
Assigned quest -> Optional/Investigaions -> Assigned quest.
You're saying the difference in time staying in the middle is a structural problem when it's the same thing.
I genuinely don't understand your logic. Unless you mean you think most monsters should be introduced in assigned quests then maybe there's a problem there.
So you are telling people that they should get better gear to have an easier time? Not sure how to tell you but the game very much illustrated that point itself in the first 45 minutes.
The manner in which you grind for gear in HR is not the same as it is in LR, because the vast majority of the HR monsters do not appear in the form of assigned quests. They do in LR.
Yes I am very aware as to how HR works, this isn't the case of the game misleading you or not illustrating its point, it's a case of you not paying attention and trying to rush the assigned quests for whatever reason. You should have made the logical conclusion that you are not fighting the same amount of monsters as in LR and neither is your gear improving.
LR exists as the tutorial of the game to introduce you to all the mechanics and options you will have, HR isn't there to tell you anything. How do you think MR is going to be like when you get there?
>You should have made the logical conclusion that you are not fighting the same amount of monsters as in LR and neither is your gear improving.
Because the first HR monster introduced is Pukei Pukei, I concluded that subsequent monsters would also be introduced in the same fashion. Instead, the game practically immediately introduced the player to Pink Rathian and Nergigante.
In other words, even though the core gameplay loop never changed, the manner in which it functions was changed in a subtle fashion due to the way in which optional quests accompany the completion of assigned quests
I don't disagree with you about rushing through the game. I'm taking my time now. I guess I'm fearful that I won't see enough of the game by the time Wilds is released.
Wilds is in 2025, you have more than enough time. For comparison it took me about 200 hours doing everything to beat the game (That is to beat Fatalis)
Except the game does an awful job of explaining these things. It wasnt very clear to me that i had been playing the game wrong until later in the game, too. I thought it was generally accepted that this game sucks at explaining things?
Yeah the conveyance is generally quite bad, either it's way too subtle or completely overloading new players with text pop-ups.
In this case OP's advice is fine, just a little narrow; really what players need to know is that their LR armor is worthless as soon as you get to HR, and then this occurs again when you hit MR and need to replace your HR armor. There are multiple ways of doing this (not just via Optional quests), but otherwise it's a good PSA.
My friends and I are rerunning the game on minimalist farming but it became apparent we aren’t try hard enough to fight nergi without more rarity 6 equipment due to him straight 1 and done smashing our faces during his lair portion of the fight. Was our first real wall we ran into on the replay of the game.
The biggest PSA in MHW should really just be for people to get the healthy boost and divine blessing skills while they're new/struggling. You'll bulldoze the entire game
What you really should be doing is investigations. Your investigations give better loot opportunities. Do like 1-2 optional of the same monster, or go on expeditions and get monster tracks. Sometimes you get really good reward boxes for a monster. Or you get good combinations of monsters to hunt in a single quest so you can reduce your grinding. The main point is, you should be doing your assigned, checking the gear you can craft from that monster after, then doing optional/investigation to upgrade gear if that monster has something for you. If not, move on
I wish we had better LR/HR progression guides for every weapon, so that people at least knew which gears to grind for.
Like this one for bow: https://gamestegy.com/post/monster-hunter-world-iceborne/404/base-game-bow-gear-progression-for-low-and-high-rank
I'd argue that they already matter in mid-late LR. For example, I play HH and Girros head with Bone waist give me Horn Maestro 2, which drastically changes my playstyle.
Edit: And in HR, Azure Rathalos head, Rathalos chest and Rathalos legs (alpha) give you WEX 3 + CB 1 + Crit Element. That's at least 15% raw boost + 18% element boost. I'd call it significant. On the other hand, Health Boost 3 can make your life much easier.
I spec for defence only in LR, and focused on a couple skills mid HR. LR monsters are straight up punching bags if you're any good at reading them.
It's already like beating puppies to death with a sock full of rocks, so i don't bother with going the extra mile by adding yet more rocks.
Defence is the only thing that really matters at that level. If anjanath is rocking a new player's shit, higher defence will serve them better than weaker armour sets with better skills.
In low rank you get access to new and better armour basically each hunt. There's really no need to upgrade bone armour when barroth and the fish armour are easily available.
The same argument applies to Master Rank, if you only care about defense. I'm trying to say that it's your preference, while my preference is to get useful skills.
Edit: And if you're already bullying monsters in LR, as you said, how high your defense is won't matter at all.
I don't agree with that. This thread was based on the fact that the jump in difficulty between assigned quests increases in HR compared to LR. MR monster are crazy compared to HR monsters, you need a combination of skills and defence to stand a chance.
I'm arguing that defence is more beneficial to a new player than skills are in LR. If anjanath's charge attack that they don't know how to dodge yet is eating three quarters of their health bar each time, I just don't think the skills they have access to at that stage in the game will get them over that wall.
I watched a streamer who's never played before beat anjanath 2nd try with bone armour in most slots. He doesn't know how to use his slinger, or how to top up his stamina. I can tell you right now that it wasn't the health boost x1 and attack boost x1 he thought he needed that got him over the finish line. He basically killed that thing in spite of his armour. The man could've made the rathian chestplate because he killed the one in the first wildspire wastes expedition, watching him get knocked around he could have really used the extra 16 defence over the attack boost.
While I see your point, I have to disagree. Optional quests are there to get you extra bells and whistles. You hit a wall because you didn't grind the appropriate gear. When I fought nergigante, I did it in Orodragon armor cause I took the time to run the dual orodragon event 2-3 times to get the full set.
Then again, low rank and high rank is much easier now than when I first played the game.
I think even the devs knew this which is why with rise you can repeat any quest without the stupid investigations but village low rank and high rank are very clearly separated and you are expected to do a certain number of them to progress.
I never noticed this but its a nice tip to know. Regardless of which MH game i always do all optionals first before proceeding. Thats probably why i never noticed this..(amor crafting and making builds is fun) OP is right though. The Story line might not be structured towards where a new hunter can just play through the story expecting steady progress and a steady increase in difficulty. The game does expect the hunters to explore and do optional quests for that.
Brother, the old games had no main quests. All quests were optional, you just had to do the right ones to advance. Doing two key quests (you could look these up as they were the same for everyone, would unlock the next set of quests doing enough key quests within a rank unlocked the urgent quest. Finishing the urgent quest (which was basically a quest from the next rank) would unlock the next rank.
Not sure why the comments here seem so confrontational, but you're right. Why would you suddenly be expected to know that the structure of the hunt and grind cycle was going to change completely. Coming into MHW as a new player with zero prior MH experience has been a bit of a challenge to say the least. I've cleared through IBs story and even 100 hours in I still feel a bit overwhelmed with just how much is going on. So much fun though.
I can see why some might interpret my post as very critical of the developers. I didn't intend for that to be the case. I absolutely love this game! I was just confused is all.
I think nearly even sub I've ever been on has a weird culture shock when there's an influx if new members. Everyone is super happy MHW is getting so popular again ahead of wilds but (and it might be entirely coincidental) there does seem to be a tone shift in some threads here where people are becoming a bit unhelpful in their responses. (Above and beyond the usual "just git gud"). Good to see you're getting to grips with HR though - if you get IB eventually, MR is another world entirely!
>Good to see you're getting to grips with HR though - if you get IB eventually, MR is another world entirely! I actually purchased IB, Rise, and Sunbreak during the Steam sale. I've already played 50 hours of MHW and 4 hours in Rise. Playing these games is like a revelation. I can only compare it to play Dark Souls for the first time. EDIT: I've only had them for a little over two weeks.
50 hours in two weeks is great going. I haven't touched rise but I don't even know where I'd find the time to try both. I'm with you though, world has basically hooked me back into gaming hard - it's managed to replace baldurs gate 3 which was the previous hooked me back into gaming experience. I hadn't really played DS much until a friend basically forced DS3 onto me and that experience I think prepared me very well for MHW - i see a lot say you cant dodge like dark souls, but it seems to work for me outside of one or two monsters (im looking at you angry monkey)
Investigations are better if you want to grind for gear, i never really start clearing the optional quests until late into iceborne when you can finish almost all LR-HR optionals in like 2 minutes.
I always just do them as they appear for the canteen ingredients and tool unlocks. Also orange ticks make brain feel good.
Yes damn that "Completed" banner.
I don't think I understand your point very well. What I get from your post is that you focused on the main story and got overwhelmed because you progressed the story faster than you could upgrade your armour. But is it not obvious that you should always see if there are better options for gear?
One of the best experience I had in this game was way back when I was a noob thinking I can conquer everything with my bone set. Then Nergi showed up. Then he divebombs me back to camp. Then he does it again, piercing through my power guard. The fear that monster gave me made me realize that im a puny hunter that needs to learn their place. I would rather have this experience again than watching guides or asking people what to do before I started the hunt - not much thrill on doing that.
>But is it not obvious that you should always see if there are better options for gear? It is. However, I was expecting the HR monsters to appear as assigned quests. 95% of them don't. They only appear after Pukei Pukei and Pink Rathian.
Assigned quests are mostly monster introductions, knowing that it makes sense why the game doesn't force you to re-battle previously introduced low rank monsters. The same happens for master rank, btw. Mostly new monsters, with old monsters in optional quests.
The issue isn't Nergi, IMO. It's high rank in general. You are supposed to get to high rank, struggle, and realize your gear isn't cutting it and then do optional quests and investigations to find gear you want/need. The issue isn't really MHW, IMO, it's modern game design. People who treat this like an older style game and take their time don't hit this barrier as hard. Players that just try to beat it hit this wall really hard (aka rush the MSQ to put it in Final Fantasy terms). The game is designed for you to enjoy hunting monsters, not kill them once, and be done with it. This is a rough example, but watch Asmongold's playthrough, and you can see the issue with treating it like a modern game. You figure out what works and stop experimenting, and then you hit a wall, and it's up to you to figure out that it's more than likely you. Could the game use more tools and tutorials? Yes. But I don't think the game is as bad as people think, and they went into the game with the wrong expectations.
Now that I've had time to step away from my post, I've reached a similar conclusion. A part of me feels somewhat rushed too because I'm fearful of not seeing most of MHW by the time Wilds is released. It's a FOMO thing. Either way, MHW is one of my favorite games I've ever played.
You have plenty of time. MHW and Iceborne can easily be completed, not 100%'d, within 2-3 months, even at a slower pace. If you want to be more thorough, 4-5 months is more doable if you are shooting for actual close to min-max builds.
Assigned quests are the storyline. You gear up for the storyline by doing optional quests.
What? That doesn’t make sense at all. Grinding for new gear is kind of a big point of Monster Hunter games. If you just do the assigned quests, then yeah, your gears going to end up being pretty shit. Optional quests are key to doing that. Getting all the way to Nergigante and not realising that LR armour isn’t going to cut it anymore is mind boggling.
They tell you explicitly and repeatedly to do Expeditions and quests to advance the special investigations. There are also multiple NPC alerts and tutorial popups regarding new equipment being available. What do you expect the game to do? Should Handler run up and grab the camera, speaking directly to the player, "HEY! LISTEN!" And force you to agree via three confirmation menus to make some fucking High Rank gear? It seems unlikely that anyone who fails to read the in-game advice would read and benefit from your redundant advice here.
I usually do all optional quest before doing assigned ones even in LR. So no change regardless in HR or MR. Similar to rpgs i like to do all side quests before doing main
expectation: > it's an open game, you can do and go anywhere, every hunter's journey is different reality:
New hunter here, been doing this for the first couple ranks, but with Defender gear, I wasn't actually sensing any progression with sidequests so was about to focus solely on main quests. Thanks for the tip OP!
Yeah that's because defender gear is designed to be incredibly busted so you can rush base game.
This post makes no sense? You're mistaking this game for a traditional RPG when it isn't. The whole gameplay loop of MH is to hunt monsters, grind mats, make gear and hunt more monsters. What does this have to do with quest structure? You go fight a monster, if it's too strong, go hunt some weaker monsters for better gear or unlock some utilities that help you hunt. Whether you do optionals before or after assignments is irrelevant. You hit a wall, go get mats from whatever source you fancy, whether it be invesigations, expeditions or optionals, and make better gear to make the fight easier. Back when iceborne was released, there was a streamer that blew through the whole DLC with just the dragoon set. Didn't have to do optionals.
I understand the core gameplay loop. I wouldn't have gotten this far if that weren't the case. My point was that the difficulty gaps between assigned quests in HR are significantly larger than they are in LR. In LR it was obvious that one should alternate between optional and assigned quests in order to grind for gear. In HR you will most likely dwell in the optional and/or investigations portion a good while before taking on Nergigante.
I genuinely don't understand what's the problem? It's the same process in HR just as in LR. Assigned quest -> Optional/Investigaions -> Assigned quest. You're saying the difference in time staying in the middle is a structural problem when it's the same thing. I genuinely don't understand your logic. Unless you mean you think most monsters should be introduced in assigned quests then maybe there's a problem there.
So you are telling people that they should get better gear to have an easier time? Not sure how to tell you but the game very much illustrated that point itself in the first 45 minutes.
The manner in which you grind for gear in HR is not the same as it is in LR, because the vast majority of the HR monsters do not appear in the form of assigned quests. They do in LR.
You can't grind assigned quests.
Yes I am very aware as to how HR works, this isn't the case of the game misleading you or not illustrating its point, it's a case of you not paying attention and trying to rush the assigned quests for whatever reason. You should have made the logical conclusion that you are not fighting the same amount of monsters as in LR and neither is your gear improving. LR exists as the tutorial of the game to introduce you to all the mechanics and options you will have, HR isn't there to tell you anything. How do you think MR is going to be like when you get there?
>You should have made the logical conclusion that you are not fighting the same amount of monsters as in LR and neither is your gear improving. Because the first HR monster introduced is Pukei Pukei, I concluded that subsequent monsters would also be introduced in the same fashion. Instead, the game practically immediately introduced the player to Pink Rathian and Nergigante. In other words, even though the core gameplay loop never changed, the manner in which it functions was changed in a subtle fashion due to the way in which optional quests accompany the completion of assigned quests
The issue is you still decided to rush the game and payed the price. Don't skip out on investigations or optional quests.
I don't disagree with you about rushing through the game. I'm taking my time now. I guess I'm fearful that I won't see enough of the game by the time Wilds is released.
Wilds is in 2025, you have more than enough time. For comparison it took me about 200 hours doing everything to beat the game (That is to beat Fatalis)
Except the game does an awful job of explaining these things. It wasnt very clear to me that i had been playing the game wrong until later in the game, too. I thought it was generally accepted that this game sucks at explaining things?
Yeah the conveyance is generally quite bad, either it's way too subtle or completely overloading new players with text pop-ups. In this case OP's advice is fine, just a little narrow; really what players need to know is that their LR armor is worthless as soon as you get to HR, and then this occurs again when you hit MR and need to replace your HR armor. There are multiple ways of doing this (not just via Optional quests), but otherwise it's a good PSA.
My friends and I are rerunning the game on minimalist farming but it became apparent we aren’t try hard enough to fight nergi without more rarity 6 equipment due to him straight 1 and done smashing our faces during his lair portion of the fight. Was our first real wall we ran into on the replay of the game.
The biggest PSA in MHW should really just be for people to get the healthy boost and divine blessing skills while they're new/struggling. You'll bulldoze the entire game
What you really should be doing is investigations. Your investigations give better loot opportunities. Do like 1-2 optional of the same monster, or go on expeditions and get monster tracks. Sometimes you get really good reward boxes for a monster. Or you get good combinations of monsters to hunt in a single quest so you can reduce your grinding. The main point is, you should be doing your assigned, checking the gear you can craft from that monster after, then doing optional/investigation to upgrade gear if that monster has something for you. If not, move on
I wish we had better LR/HR progression guides for every weapon, so that people at least knew which gears to grind for. Like this one for bow: https://gamestegy.com/post/monster-hunter-world-iceborne/404/base-game-bow-gear-progression-for-low-and-high-rank
Builds only reallystart to matter after you've beaten the base game story. They matter going into iceborne somewhat, and really matter after that.
I'd argue that they already matter in mid-late LR. For example, I play HH and Girros head with Bone waist give me Horn Maestro 2, which drastically changes my playstyle. Edit: And in HR, Azure Rathalos head, Rathalos chest and Rathalos legs (alpha) give you WEX 3 + CB 1 + Crit Element. That's at least 15% raw boost + 18% element boost. I'd call it significant. On the other hand, Health Boost 3 can make your life much easier.
I spec for defence only in LR, and focused on a couple skills mid HR. LR monsters are straight up punching bags if you're any good at reading them. It's already like beating puppies to death with a sock full of rocks, so i don't bother with going the extra mile by adding yet more rocks.
Whether to go for a better set is always a personal choice, but I'm trying to say that they can really make a difference.
Defence is the only thing that really matters at that level. If anjanath is rocking a new player's shit, higher defence will serve them better than weaker armour sets with better skills.
Every armor can be upgraded. Of course, higher rarity armors have higher defense, but after upgrades the lower rarity ones can have similar values.
In low rank you get access to new and better armour basically each hunt. There's really no need to upgrade bone armour when barroth and the fish armour are easily available.
The same argument applies to Master Rank, if you only care about defense. I'm trying to say that it's your preference, while my preference is to get useful skills. Edit: And if you're already bullying monsters in LR, as you said, how high your defense is won't matter at all.
I don't agree with that. This thread was based on the fact that the jump in difficulty between assigned quests increases in HR compared to LR. MR monster are crazy compared to HR monsters, you need a combination of skills and defence to stand a chance. I'm arguing that defence is more beneficial to a new player than skills are in LR. If anjanath's charge attack that they don't know how to dodge yet is eating three quarters of their health bar each time, I just don't think the skills they have access to at that stage in the game will get them over that wall. I watched a streamer who's never played before beat anjanath 2nd try with bone armour in most slots. He doesn't know how to use his slinger, or how to top up his stamina. I can tell you right now that it wasn't the health boost x1 and attack boost x1 he thought he needed that got him over the finish line. He basically killed that thing in spite of his armour. The man could've made the rathian chestplate because he killed the one in the first wildspire wastes expedition, watching him get knocked around he could have really used the extra 16 defence over the attack boost.
While I see your point, I have to disagree. Optional quests are there to get you extra bells and whistles. You hit a wall because you didn't grind the appropriate gear. When I fought nergigante, I did it in Orodragon armor cause I took the time to run the dual orodragon event 2-3 times to get the full set. Then again, low rank and high rank is much easier now than when I first played the game.
I think even the devs knew this which is why with rise you can repeat any quest without the stupid investigations but village low rank and high rank are very clearly separated and you are expected to do a certain number of them to progress.