Monster Hunter World armor skills explained

Monster Hunter World armor skills

Everyone knows Monster Hunter World is a good game. It’s not simple though and one of the most complex systems are the Monste🔜r Hunter Worlds armour skills. Well, good news, that’s what this entire guide is for, helping you understand the Monster Hunter World armour skills and what it all means. Aren’t you lucky? 

It’s not a simple game, though, and there’s plenty to learn as you go along. But rather than having to figure out the still-rather-obtuse systems within the game, it’s much easier to just come to us for explainers on things like, say, armor skills. Like this one he🍷re. This explainer on armor skills. Right here. Ahem.

Enough with the words, on with the explanati🎃ons (which also happen to include more words):

What are armor skills?

Armor has stats – how much protection a piece offers, how much resistance it has to different elements – but it also has extra skills listed on itꦚs info pane. These armor skills – activated automatically on equipping a piece of armor – are something you might not pay attention to much at first, but as you get into the swing of things you’ll realise they’re very importan🅰t to the Monster Hunter World experience.

Each skill offers a boost to a different thing – it could be making you stronger, it could be making you faster or maintain stamina longer, it could be something completely different. Armor skills also come in a different levels, from one up to seven, though not all skills have seven levels (more on that below). Whatever the skill is, it’s something you have to both pay attention to and take into consideration when kitting yourself o𓃲ut. It’s also a system muc🌜h simplified compared to previous Monster Hunter titles, thankfully.

What do the armour skills mean?

Rather than list the armor skills and what they achieve – as well as their level cap – right here, they’re going to be shunted down to the bottom of the article – don’t want them getting in the way of any other info you might be looking for. But if you are after a list of what each armour🐼 skill is and what it do🍎es, scroll down.

Some, like Defense Boost, are self-explanatory. Others like Bombadier you will probably figure 🍬out quickly enough. But then there’s some that are just confusing or vague, like Wide Range, so it’s nice to have the list of armour skills and what they do to hand.

How do they affect my game?

This can go one of a few ways, really. You can ignore armor sk💎ills, but that would be daft. You can pay attention to them but not actually take them into consideration when equipping your hunter, which is also daft.

Less daft-ly, you should end up either building your armor sets around specific armour skills and boosts &nd🌊ash; o﷽pting out of grand defensive upgrades in favour of a higher-level effect, for example – or you should build the best armor for your specific loadout/play style while also factoring in armour skills. Neither way is wrong, really. Or daft.

How do I level up armour skills?

You cannot level up armour skills in Monster Hunter World just by visiting the workshop and spending an armor sphere – that will upgrade its base defensive stats, but you’ll need a different approach to improve the levels of your arm🎐our skills. Basically: you need to stack.

What this means is you’ll want to gather – and wear – multiple pieces of armour with the same skill on ♈them. Each separate piece of armour being worn with the same skill will add together to increase its efficiency – an early-ish example being combining Anja Coil and Bone Mail, which will bump your Attack Boost skill to level two.

Decorations also feature armour skills so can be factored in withꦆ high rank armour kits, and later on in the game you will unlock armour with more than one armour skill per piece, so there’s more scope to mix and match as you progress.

Finally, charms – these little trinkets include armour skills to add to your bonuses, but differ in that they can be upgraded by improving them at the smithy. Another thing to bear 🥂in mi💛nd if you’re looking to max out a skill.

Are there any other skills?

Yes! Unique skills come with full high rank armour sets of certain types – unsurprisingly available after de💞feating Monster Hunter World’s most difficult quarries. This is high level stuff you won’t be touching for a long while, but keep an eye out when you do face the likes of the Vaal Hazak, Pink Rathian and – of course – Nergigante.

Hopefully that all puts you on the way to conquering any🏅 wee beastie that stands in your way. After all, a good, thick helmet is often more useful than a hunting horn, because the hunting horn is… too hard to use. Hmm. And now the list of armour skills!

List of Monster Hunter World armour skills:

Adrenaline: Redu🍒ces stamina depletion when health is 40% or lower, temporarily

Affinity Sliding: Sliding 🌌boosts affinity for a short time

Airborne: Increased damage from jumping attacks

Aquatic Expert: Improves water-based mobility

Artillery: Strengthens explosive attacks – for items, see Bombardier (three levels)

Attack Boost: Increases attack pow🌠er – at higher levels improves affinity (seven levels)

BBQ Master: Increases your skills cooking meat

Blast Resistance: Protection against blastblight

Blast Attack: Increa♏ses the rate of blast build-up

Bleeding Resistance: Protection against bleeding

Blindsider: Improved effectiv⛎♕eness of flash attacks and items

B❀light Resistance: Grants protection from elemental blights

Bombardier: Increases damage from explosive items – for explosive attacks, see Artillery

Botanist: You gather more herbs, mushrooms and other consum🍒ables on your travels

Cliffhanger: Stamina depletion decrea♔ses when hanging fromꦕ walls/vines

Con💮stitution: Stam🦋ina depletion decreases when running, attacking and evading (five levels)

Critical Eye: Boosts affinity (seven levels)

Defense Boost: Increases defense♛ power &𒈔ndash; at higher levels improves affinity (seven levels)

Earplugs: Monster roars hav𒅌e fewer neg🌠ative effects (five levels)

Entomologist: Sma🌺ll iꦑnsect monsters are less likely to be destroyed, allowing more carving

Evade Extender: Dodge further (three levels)

Evade💛 Window: Increases how long you’re invulnerable for when dodging (five levels)

Fire Attack: Increases fire element attack power (thr✅ee leve𝄹ls)

Fire Resistance: Increases fire resistance– at higher levels improves affinity (three le🎃vels)

Focus: ꦇIncreases fill rate/charge rate for weapons with gauges/charge attacks

Fortify: Attack and defense increased when you fall in battle🌱, up to two times

Guard: 🦩Stamina loss and knockbacks reduced when guarding

Health Boost: Increases health (three levels)

Heavy Artillery: Increased firepow🍌er of ballistae and cannons

Honey Hunter: Increased quantity of honey 🦹gathered in the wild

Horn Maestro: Increases effect duration of hu⛄nting horn melodies

Hunger Resistanc🔴e: Stamina depletion from hunger r🎉educed (five levels)

Ice Attack: Increases ice elem▨ent attack power (three levels)

Ice Resistance: Increases ice resistance – at higher levels improves deꦛfense (three levels)

Intimidator: Reduc♚ed chance small monsters w🏅ill attack on sight

Item Prolonger: Some item effects are&♚hellip; prolonged

Jump Master: You can&rsqu🌌o;t be knocked back during a jum𒆙p

Marathon Runner: Actions continuously depleꦏting stamina – like running – do so slower

Master Gatherer: Gather quicker and immunit✨y to knock♔backs while gathering

Master Mounter: Makes it easier to mount monsters

Muck Resistance: Mobility impairment reduced when covered i💃n muck

Palico Rally: Powers up palicos

Paralysis Resistance: Reduced duration of paralysis when bei🐲ng attacked with the status (three levels)

Paraylsis Attack: 🦋Increased duration of your paralysing attacks (three levels𒐪)

Poison Attack: Increased rate of poison 🎐build-up on your poison attacks (three🐲 levels)

Poison Resistanc𝕴e: Protection against the effects o♚f poison rises (three levels)

Pro Transporter: Transport items, like eggs,🐻 quicker and have less 🐽chance of dropping them

Quick Sheath: Put your weapon away quicker

Recovery Speed: Temporary damage – the red🔥 line shown on your health gauge – recovers quicker

Recovery Up: Health restoration effects increased

Scent𓆏hound: Increases scoutfly gauge fill rate when tracking monsters

Scoutfly ▨Range Up: Expands scoutfly detection range

Slinger Capacity: Slinger can hold more shots

Slugger: Dizzying/stunning monsters ꦫbecomes easier

Special Ammo Boost: Increases power of bowgun special ammo and Draꦐgon ♏Piercer (two levels)

Speed 💎Crawler: Increas♛ed movement speed while crouching

Spee﷽d Eating: Increased speed of consuming items and eating meat

Speed Sharpening:ಞ Whetstone sharpenin🍎g becomes quicker

Sporepuff Expert: Recover health when usin🃏🐼g sporepuffs

Stamina Surge: Speeds up stamina recovery

Stamina Thief: 🎶Certain attacks will tire out monsters quicker

Stealth: Becomes easier to hide from꧋ monsters in the field (three levels)

Stun Restistan♍ce: Stun doesn’t last 𒆙as long (three levels)

Thunder Attack: Increased thunder element a✨💮ttack power (three levels)

Thunder Resistance: Increases thunder resistance – at higher levels improves defense (thre✨e levels)

Water Attack: Increas🅠ed water e🐼lement attack power (three levels)

Water Resistance: Increases water resistance – at higher levels improves defense (three lev꧋els)

Wide Range: Effects of c🥃ertain items sp𝐆read to nearby hunting-mates (five levels)

Windproof: Gra💫nts protection against wind pressure (five levels)

Ian Dransfield is an experienced writer and editor, having contributed to a wide variety of Future Plc publications like 3D Artist, games™, PC Gamer, Retro Gamer, and more. With a career spanning more than a decade, Ian has done everything from work as a freelance consultant for the Guinness World Records to putting in the time as features editor of Raspberry Pi's Wireframe magazine. I🥂an Dransfield is currently the games editor for Media Foundry.