Armor Skills

Learn how armor skills work in Monster Hunter Generations! Understand skill points, positive/negative effects, and how to mix armor sets for powerful builds.

Hey there, Hunter! Let's dive into one of the most crucial parts of gearing up in Monster Hunter Generations: Armor Skills. Think of these as the secret sauce that makes your armor truly shine, going way beyond just raw defense. Every single piece of armor you craft comes with its own set of skill points. You can check out all your current skills and what they do right from the START menu. Just highlight a skill and press Y, and you'll get a breakdown of its effects and how many points you need to activate it. Most skills need a solid ten points to kick in, but some of the really powerful ones might ask for fifteen or even twenty points.

Now, here's a super important thing to remember: you can actually go into the negative with skill points! If you rack up negative points, you'll get a twisted, often terrible, version of the skill. For instance, having +10 points in 'Sharpness' gives you the awesome 'Razor Sharp' skill, which halves how fast your weapon loses sharpness. But, if you dip to -10 points in 'Sharpness', you'll get the dreaded 'Blunt Edge,' which *doubles* the rate your weapon dulls! Thankfully, you only start suffering the negative effects when you hit -10 points or lower. This means you can actually mix and match armor pieces and aim for as low as -9 skill points in a certain area without any downside, which is a neat trick for optimizing your build.

When you wear a full set of armor made from the same monster, you'll usually get a nice bundle of related skills. These often tie into the monster's strengths, but you might also get a negative skill or two thrown in. Don't sweat those negative ones too much, though! You can often cancel them out or mitigate them using Decorations you slot into your armor or Talismans you equip.

The variety of armor skills out there is absolutely massive. Some skills are exclusive to either Blademaster or Gunner armor types, so keep that in mind when you're choosing your gear. Others can totally change how you manage your stamina, speed up how fast you chug Potions, or even boost your Attack, Defense, and Health caps. You'll also find skills that fine-tune your weapon's sharpness, buff specific ammo types for ranged hunters, and honestly, so much more. Experimenting with different armor combinations to find the skills that best suit your playstyle is a huge part of the fun in Monster Hunter Generations!