I want to understand if this armor is allowed or not for any% or earlier categories. Since the armor is granted to anyone playing on 10.10 even if they haven't purchased anything, exclusive or not. The armor is even able to be used at the character creator (stated on Monsterhunter.com) as well as the ore upgrade kit. Is either of these things banned?

Well, Guardian is a one time claim so I'd assume it's banned since it's then considered "LTO." What about the "Early Weapon Upgrade Materials Set" which I claimed on a little test run to see if the Guardian set could be claimed twice. Claiming this would allow for players to upgrade their weapon to the 4th upgrade (IE. Iron Grace 1, ect.) before even fighting the kestodon!

The sets distributed are, for the most part, considered DLC as well, though we do not have an official ruling on it yet. As for the Guardian Armor, if it is limited release, then it will be considered DLC like the Origin Armor and Fairwind Charm. There's also an open discussion in the MHW Speedrun Discord (https://discordapp.com/invite/z8suWUX) if you would like to share your thoughts there as well.

ah yes, I'll join that. For the Guardian armor set it's one per copy of MHW as of 10.10 it seems. So it's not limited release per say. You just can't have two characters with this set

@DarrkDucky it does appear the Guardian Armor and Item Pack are only available until October 3rd. This would warrant a limited release and a DLC tag. I'll be making an official post shortly on the topic.