Monster Hunter Wilds: Hammer Build Guide

by

Quick Links

  • Low Rank

  • High Rank
  • Finishing Touches

When it comes to choosing your preferred tool of battle, you’re looking for something that feels just right; a weapon that becomes as familiar as an extension of yourself. For me, that was the Hammer in Monster Hunter World, which came back alongside all the other weapons and boasted some incredible new features.

Come along as we demonstrate various builds for Wilds’ Hammer, providing insights into crafting an efficient beast-crushing tool. Occasionally, a comprehensive plan or top-tier equipment may not be required; at times, all you need is a simple club!

In this case, the “rock on a stick” refers to a straightforward and basic weapon setup that can still be effective in certain situations.

Low Rank

In Monster Hunter Wilds, the Low Rank section forms a significant part of the storyline and offers plenty of room for newcomers. Generally speaking, tailoring your armor and weapon set to your preference is generally doable, but since this guide aims to provide essential insights into a strong Hammer build, let’s get started right away.

Among the initial options, the updated set proves beneficial if you’ve decided to master Hammer playstyle. You soon realize that stamina is crucial yet easily depleted during charging, making the Bone Set’s focus on Marathon Runner a valuable asset as it extends your time for strategic strikes.

A Marathon Runner minimizes persistent energy drains, encompassing not just sprints but also the energy expenditure during hammer-charging.

Just like the Hope Hammer tree, it’s a fantastic option that prioritizes practicality over flashiness. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any added debilitating effects. Given its enhanced ability to deliver multiple strikes, it would be a missed opportunity not to take advantage of these hits right from the start.

The tree seamlessly adapts to its designated role in the game, offering paralysis as one of its potent ailments right from the start. Its inherent ability, Stamina Thief, boosts your attacks by adding extra exhaust damage to monsters, creating opportunities for you during extended battles when the monster has to take a break.

High Rank

In Wilds, you’ll find yourself primarily in the High Rank area, and let me tell you, it’s where all the action happens! As we talked about earlier, Hammer truly shines when it comes to afflictions. If you recall our past build guides for Wilds, you’ll remember that it’s tough to beat the Artian Selection when it comes to effective, on-the-spot afflictions.

Artian weapons offer versatility in how they function, making them exceptional choices for end-game scenarios. For instance, focusing on paralysis with a Jail Hammer could create numerous opportunities for your team during combat.

Paralysis isn’t the only valuable choice, by no means. A blasting disease can cause significant additional harm, and a focus on sleep can help keep monsters subdued as much as feasible. If your group doesn’t have a Greatsword, a Hammer can still deliver its powerful strikes to jolt any creature.

Without a doubt, one of the most advantageous features of Artian weapons lies in their ability to accommodate three size-three decoration slots, offering increased customization options for your desired build. In my previous example, I emphasized strategies to enhance charge damage and reduce charging time, making it ideal for battles where you’re honing your skills to predict the monster’s movements effectively.

Since our abilities largely depend on the armor we choose, it would be beneficial to examine our armor options first, before delving into the best decorations.

For our demonstrative construction, we aim to combine abilities that enhance bonding factors, endurance enhancements, and techniques to facilitate locking onto a creature’s head and delivering a powerful blow.

For our armor, we aim to enhance its late-game perks for optimal damage and stamina output. Let’s kick things off with the Beta Guardian Anjanath helmet and Alpha Guardian Anjanath gauntlets, which grant us the Fulgur Anjanath’s Will bonus.

In the Agitator feature, the helm provides an additional decoration slot of size three, along with one point in this feature. Meanwhile, the gauntlets offer Maximum Might and another point in Agitator. Aside from these individual abilities, the set bonus introduces a secondary, smaller stamina bar when your maximum is reached.

In simpler terms, when using abilities like Maximum Might that need a fully charged stamina meter, the extra stamina bar offered by the Anjanath armor set isn’t considered, leaving you with the regular stamina bar to manage. This way, you can keep Maximum Might’s bonus active.

Afterward, let’s pick up the boots and leggings belonging to the Gore Magala collection. This gear equips us with beneficial traits such as Constitution, Flinch Free, and Antivirus. The set bonus, Black Eclipse, will activate upon engaging in combat with a big monster, instantly inflicting us with the Frenzy virus.

Cleaning the Frenzy virus consistently enhances your damage output, but enhancing your Antivirus level (and adding more with embellishments) can also provide substantial affinity bonuses. Additionally, both Constitution and Flinch Free will offer additional benefits, decreasing the stamina cost for actions like rolling and making you resistant to monster impacts respectively.

Using the Zoh Shia beta chestpiece to complete our armor set offers robust protection along with a bonus of two extra points in Agitator. When monsters become enraged, it’s unavoidable, but these additional points in Agitator can transform potentially dangerous situations into significant damage output chances instead.

Let’s lay out the important skills we’re shooting for, for reminder’s sake:

  • Agitator – Grants a damage boost whenever the monster is enraged
  • Maximum Might – Grants a damage boost as long as your primary stamina gauge remains full
  • Antivirus – Gives an extra affinity boost whenever you cleanse the Frenzy Virus
  • Constitution – Lowers any form of stamina drain, including charging, rolling, or sprinting
  • Flinch Free – Stops your hunter from flinching in response to damage, roars will still stun you

Here are some additional abilities that significantly enhance Hammer’s capabilities. Let’s explore a few of them!

In this sentence, I have replaced “These are just the skills our build covers on its own” with “Here are some additional abilities”, to make it clearer that we are discussing extra skills. Also, I changed “there are still plenty” to “significantly enhance” to express the positive impact these skills have on Hammer’s capabilities. Lastly, I used “Let’s explore a few of them!” instead of “Let’s take a look at a few of those!” for a more casual and inviting tone.

Finishing Touches

As a fellow enthusiast, I’d like to share my perspective on customizing armor decorations: It’s mostly about personal taste, and there are numerous paths to shape your build. For instance, if you’re wielding a hammer, enhancing it with Critical Eye and Critical Ailment can amplify the secondary effects of your weapon significantly.

If you opted for a raw-focused hammer such as Arkveld or Zoh Shia, it would still be wise to prioritize boosting affinity. Swapping Critical Ailment for Critical Eye will maximize your attack potential, while incorporating Handicraft will help maintain sharpness during the heavy onslaught of hits from the hammer.

Including the ones discussed here, skills that slot well into Hammer consist of:

  • Handicraft – Boost weapon sharpness, great since Hammer’s new moves rely on multi-hits frequently
  • Critical Eye – Boosts affinity
  • Critical Ailment – Increase Ailment buildup when landing a crit
  • Critical Element – Increase elemental damage when landing a crit
  • Earplugs – Allows you to ignore roars entirely at higher levels, getting extra DPS during roars
  • Charge Master – Increase damage and ailment/element on charged attacks
  • Charge Up – Increase stun damage on charged attacks

As an avid fan, I can confidently say that Wilds’ rendition of the hammer offers the most satisfying bang for your buck you could ever imagine. Following the essentials outlined in the guide, I’m all geared up and eager to start breaking some skulls!

Get out there, hunters. The Forbidden Lands are calling!

Read More

2025-05-24 18:09