Your Felyne Palico friend isn’t just there to act cute during life-threatening hunts. They are also armed with Palico Gadgets to support you. From free healing and extra buffs to taking aggro and inflicting additional damage, your Palico can do it all. But which one is the best MHW Palico Gadget that you should always bring to a hunt? Below, we’ve ranked all six of them according to their utilities.
Monster Hunter World Iceborne: The Best Palico Gadgets Ranked by General Utility
In total, there are six different Palico Gadgets you can give to your best hunting buddy in MHW. Aside from Vigorwasp Spray, they can be unlocked by befriending each area’s Tailrider: the Grimalkyne, Gajalaka, or Boaboa. Don’t forget that you can manually tell your Palico to use a Gadget skill through the Radial Menu or the standard bottom-right menu.
6. Flashfly Cage
This Palico Gadget is best used when playing through MHW Low Rank and the early part of High Rank. Thing is, Flashfly Cage becomes pretty useless when you start fighting Elder Dragons and most Master Rank monsters.
First, the Shock Trap-like effect of Thunderbug Cage’s tier one skill will not affect Elder Dragons. They cannot be trapped, after all. Second, the stationary flashbang Flashfly Cage is indeed quite useful for a free Flash Bomb. But the effectiveness of Flash Bomb is greatly reduced in Master Rank since a monster will build up flash immunity. At best you can only flash them three times every 5 minutes or so.
The Iceborne tier three Boombug Cage trap can give bonus damage and stagger when a monster steps on it. But I never used it much considering there are other Palico Gadgets with better utilities in MHW.
5. Vigorwasp Spray: The Not-So-Best Palico Gadget in MHW
The default Palico Gadget you get when starting MHW is not exactly the best one but it gets the job done. And its job is to give players a safety net in the form of healing while they’re discovering the game mechanics.
Call the tier two Vigorwasp Station and your Palico will pull out a stationary Vigorwasp, which heals anyone nearby when popped. Meanwhile, the basic Vigorwasp Shower will have your Palico flying towards you with a Vigorwasp.
Nevertheless, the Vigorwasp Revive upgrade you can unlock for the MHW Palico Gadget in Iceborne is a death trap, in my opinion. Getting revived once per quest is extremely good on paper, but you instantly become vulnerable again once your character gets out of the green goop. Even when they’re doing that silly “victory pose”!
I’ll never forget the embarrassment of when my Hunter got wrecked twice in a row by a Banbaro charge. All because I have no control over my character until they’re out of the revived animation.
4. Plunderblade
Personally, I use Plunderblade much less than Flashfly Cage, but I do see its function for specific cases. Notably, if you waste no time doing optional quests or looking for materials, and head straight to Master Rank.
If you skipped through Low and High Ranks using the Defender set, you might be lacking materials and money. If that’s the case, then using Plunderblade while hunting missing mats could help you get them faster. Don’t forget to bring along a Tailraider too if you’re farming! They will reward you with bonus items at the end of your quest. You can then sell off any unused or Trade-In items for some Zenny.
I’ve seen some players try to cheese postgame materials like Alatreon and Fatalis with Plunderblade. Go into the quest, get a wallbang for a free shiny if possible, spam Plunderblade, then pick “Return from Quest.” But I found doing it takes as much time as trying to beat them legit, anyway.
3. Coral Orchestra
Honestly, Coral Orchestra and Shieldspire are tied in utility in my 1,667 hours of playtime, but I had to kick Orchestra down a notch because of how much of a life-saver Shieldspire is when I’m fighting postgame monsters alone.
Giving your Palico the Coral Orchestra Gadget feels like having a personal Hunting Horn user. The tier one Coral Cheerhorn gives random stats buffs or Poison cures. Meanwhile, Coral Cheerbongo gives bonus status effect resistance, including Earplug and Stun. Then, the last upgrade, Coral Sonicgong, will flinch any monster nearby.
While “random buff” sounds unreliable, your Palico spams them often enough. I can’t tell you how often the Divine Blessing, Stun Resistance bonus, and Sonicgong flinch have saved my life. Especially when fighting much tougher monsters like Deviljho, Rajang, and Kirin. The MHW Palico Gadget effect will be given party-wide too if you’re playing with one other player!
2. Shieldspire
The second best Palico Gadget in MHW, personally, is the Shieldspire. All three tier skills of this Gadget will draw away a monster’s attention from you to another target — mostly your cat partner — but your Palico can put out a wacky inflatable balloon with the tier three Shieldspire Stooge. The tier two Shieldspire Bash can also deal extra Stun damage.
If you’re struggling against a monster, especially in Iceborne with the tier three unlocked, I’d argue this is your best solution. I think I can only beat Fatalis alone if I bring my Palico with the Shieldspire and spam the Stooge.
A Palico’s Shieldspire Stooge could take Fatalis heat for a few worthwhile seconds. Then, thanks to Gunlance’s fixed Shelling damage, you can just blast away its legs for free damage! With the right setup, dealing a few thousand damage from Charged Long Shelling while the MHW Palico Gadget is still up is easy. You can also try observing a monster’s attack pattern while they’re focusing on your cat and its balloon.
1. Meowlotov Cocktail: The Best Palico Gadget in MHW
The last one, and the one I use the most often, is the Meowlotov Cocktail. Once you have mastered a monster moveset, then all you need is to maximize damage to end the quest as fast as possible. At that point, what’s the best Palico Gadget you can give to your MHW partner except the one that deals extra damage?
Frankly, I do find the tier one Meowlotov Assault to be pretty lacking as your Palico will often miss. But the Rath-of-Meow deals pretty good damage and uses your cat’s weapon Element to boot. And come on, that mini-tank is just too adorable. The MHW Iceborne upgrade for the Palico Gadget, Meowcano, is also quite satisfying to see.
Sure, the visual effect could be a bit too much, especially when paired with Boosters. But just watch the damage numbers rain after you wallbang or stun a monster and your Palico dropped one nearby. Meowcano also works great for making flying monsters fall thanks to its rapid-fire damage.
