If you’re just starting your hunt in Monster Hunter Wilds, you’ve likely already realized that armor choice is about far more than just raw defense. Picking pieces that fit your playstyle and cut down on early-game frustration can make the difference between taking down a monster on your first try and wasting hours grinding for lost zenny after repeated carts. The monster hunter wilds clerk vambraces are one of the most underrated low-rank armor pieces in the game, and far too many players sleep on them because they don’t have the flashy design or high base stats of boss-drop armor. But if you know how to use them, they’ll carry you through the first 20 hours of gameplay with ease.
What Makes the Monster Hunter Wilds Clerk Vambraces Stand Out for New Players
Most low-rank armor pieces force you to make tradeoffs: you might get a nice attack boost, but you’ll also get a penalty to fire resistance or stamina regen that makes it not worth the effort for new players. The Clerk Vambraces skip those tradeoffs entirely, with zero negative skills and utility perks that benefit every playstyle, no matter what weapon you main. I first picked these up when I was stuck fighting the game’s first fire wyvern, and I kept dying because I kept getting caught mid-potion drink by its charge attacks.
The first big draw is the Item Use Speed +1 base skill, which cuts the time you spend chugging potions, applying buffs, or sharpening your weapon by 15%. That might not sound like a lot on paper, but for players still learning monster attack patterns, that split second you save is often enough to get your heal off before a hit lands. They also have a base defense of 28, which is on par with most other low-rank armors you can get in the first two regions of the map, so you won’t be sacrificing protection for utility.
Another huge plus is that you don’t need to defeat any large monsters to craft them. Most early armor sets require you to farm parts from Jagras or Kulu-Ya-Ku, but the Clerk Vambraces only use common gathering materials and rewards from simple side quests. That means you can craft them within the first few hours of gameplay, long before you unlock most other low-rank armor sets.
How to Craft the Clerk Vambraces: Full Material List
Crafting the Clerk Vambraces is straightforward, even for total beginners. You won’t need to grind any boss fights or explore dangerous high-level areas to get the required materials, and most players will already have half the required items in their inventory by the time they unlock the first armor smith in Astera’s new Wilds outpost.
- 12 x Wilds Clerk Cloth: Dropped as a reward from Feline Caravan delivery side quests, which you can pick up from the cat NPC next to the quest board in the main outpost
- 4 x Iron Ore: Mined from common ore nodes in the Forest of Beginnings and Sandy Basin regions, most often found near cliff edges and cave entrances
- 2 x Beetle Carapace: Collected from the large green beetles that spawn along riverbanks in the Forest of Beginnings, most frequently during in-game morning hours
- 300 Zenny: The standard low-rank armor crafting fee, which you’ll earn easily from your first few side quests
If you’re having trouble farming enough Wilds Clerk Cloth, don’t waste time repeating the same delivery quests over and over. Pro tip: you can farm extra Clerk Cloth by doing the daily caravan time trial quests, which only take 5-10 minutes each and give double the cloth rewards of standard delivery quests. I farmed enough cloth for three full sets of clerk armor in less than an hour using this method, and I had enough left over to sell for extra zenny when I was done.
Once you have all the materials, just bring them to the armor smith in the main outpost, and you can craft the vambraces immediately. You can also upgrade them up to level 3 with extra iron ore and beetle carapaces, which bumps their base defense up to 37 for very little extra effort.
Top Perks and Hidden Benefits of the Clerk Vambraces
The Item Use Speed skill gets most of the attention, but the Clerk Vambraces have a few hidden perks that most players don’t find out about until they’ve already swapped them out for high-rank gear. These hidden benefits make them useful even when you’ve progressed past the point where their base defense feels competitive for main story hunts.
The biggest hidden perk is the +5% side quest reward bonus that applies any time you turn in a side quest while wearing the vambraces. This bonus stacks with other reward boost skills from other pieces of the clerk armor set, and it applies to both zenny and material rewards. That might not feel like a lot for single quests, but if you’re grinding 10 or 20 side quests to farm materials for a new weapon, that 5% adds up fast. I once got an extra rare Rathian plate from a side quest reward because I was wearing my clerk vambraces, and that saved me almost two hours of grinding boss fights.
The vambraces also have 12 base fire resistance, which is higher than almost any other low-rank armor piece you can get before you fight your first fire monster. That makes them perfect for tackling the early fire wyvern hunts that trip up so many new players, since you’ll take significantly less damage from fire attacks without having to slot in specific fire resistance decorations.
They also have one level 1 decoration slot, which is rare for low-rank armor. That means you can slot in a small skill boost to fit your playstyle without losing the base perks of the vambraces. For bow and light bowgun users, the vambraces work perfectly with the Quick Reload decoration, which lets you reload your weapon faster while still keeping the item use speed boost for healing.
The only real downside to the Clerk Vambraces is their very low ice resistance, sitting at -8 base. You won’t want to wear them if you’re hunting ice-aligned monsters like Barioth or Beotodus, because you’ll take almost 20% extra damage from ice attacks. But for every other early game monster, they’re more than up to the task.
Best Builds to Pair With the Clerk Vambraces
The Clerk Vambraces are extremely versatile, and they work with almost every low-rank build, no matter what weapon you prefer. There are two main setups that I recommend for most players, depending on whether you’re focused on progressing the main story or farming materials for upgrades.
If you’re a new player still working through the main story, pair the vambraces with the rest of the low-rank Clerk armor set for a full Item Use Speed +3 and 10% side quest reward bonus. This build is unbeatable for early game progression, because you’ll be able to heal and sharpen so fast that you’ll rarely get caught mid-action by monster attacks. I used this exact build to beat the first three elder dragons in the main story, and I didn’t feel the need to swap it out until I unlocked high-rank hunts.
If you’re focused on farming materials for new weapons and upgrades, you can mix and match the vambraces with other low-rank armor pieces to get the best of both worlds. For melee players, pair the vambraces with the Kulu-Ya-Ku chest piece and Jagras leg armor to get an extra attack boost while still keeping the item use speed and reward bonus perks. For ranged players, pair them with the Leather chest piece for extra stamina regen, so you can roll out of the way of attacks faster and spend more time firing at the monster.
You don’t need to upgrade the vambraces past level 3, by the way. The stat gains from upgrading them to level 4 or 5 are minimal, and you’ll be replacing them with high-rank armor eventually anyway. Save your upgrade materials for your weapon, which will make a far bigger difference in your hunt times.
Even after you progress to high-rank hunts, it’s worth keeping a pair of the monster hunter wilds clerk vambraces in your item box for side quest runs. The reward bonus adds up so fast that you’ll earn back the materials you spent crafting them in just a few hours of farming, and the item use speed boost still comes in handy when you’re grinding low-rank monsters for rare parts. They’re not the flashiest armor piece in the game, but they’re one of the most practical choices for new players, and I still recommend them to every friend I bring into the game for the first time.