Powering up the Kinsect: Upgrading Insect Glaive

Learn how to level up your Kinsect for the Insect Glaive in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate! Discover Nectar feeding, stat boosts, and evolution paths to power up your weapon.

So, you've picked up the Insect Glaive and noticed it's a bit different, right? No branching upgrade trees here, just straight paths. And get this – you can't even upgrade the glaive itself directly! First, you've gotta level up your Kinsect. Weird, I know!

Don't sweat it, though. This guide's gonna break it all down for you. Your Kinsect needs to be leveled alongside your weapon, and its evolution paths are totally separate from the Insect Glaive's. Every Kinsect is either Blunt or Cutting, which decides the type of damage it does, and each has its own fixed upgrade path. This means if you have two different Insect Glaives with the same type of Kinsect, their Kinsect upgrade paths will be identical!

Think of your Kinsect as a living creature that needs Nectars to evolve. You'll want to feed it the best Nectars available because it can only absorb so much before it's ready to evolve. Be careful, though – you can actually mess up an Insect Glaive's potential permanently! Nectars boost your Kinsect's Power, Stamina, and Speed. To get the most out of it, only use Nectars that give two points to a stat. Also, feeding a Nectar that boosts one stat will lower another, so pay attention to the order you feed them. Once your Kinsect's Nectar bar is full, it's ready to evolve. After your Kinsect evolves a few times, your Insect Glaive will get an upgrade too – we'll cover that next!