Yet Another Weapon Guide - Hammer

Intro

Purpose

Guide Contents

At A Glance

How Do I Play Hammer?

Hot Tips

Meta Stuff

Cool Stuff

Controls & Style Rundown

Guild Style

Striker Style

Aerial Style

Adept Style

Valor Style

Alchemy Style

Hunter Arts

Spinning Meteor

Provoke

Typhoon Trigger

Impact Press

What Hammer To Use?

Progression Recommendations

Endgame Hammer Recommendations

What Skills Should I Use?

Progression Armor Sets

Skill Recommendations

Final Thoughts


Intro


Hammer is the more offensive of two Impact-type weapons in the game, mainly dealing damage based on different hitzones than most other weapons. Hammer has the ability to KO or Stun monsters with repeated strikes to the head, and mastery of Hammer play will see you be extremely effective on monsters with exposed heads. Plus, it just feels great every time you land a golf swing, right?!

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Purpose

This guide is meant for new players of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (MHGU) or for people who wanna bash monster’s skulls in with Hammer for the first time. Note that this guide will not assume any prior knowledge, regardless of games played before in the Monster Hunter series.

Guide Contents

        This guide will contain a comprehensive guide on Hammer controls, commentary on Hammer styles and combinations, recommendations on progression Hammers, and a final note on matchups against most monsters in the game.

Video Guide

https://youtu.be/HroIgoSsyFA

At A Glance


How Do I Play Hammer?

  • Press and hold R to charge. Charging takes up Stamina while you’re charging, and different levels of charge will be different moves. Furthermore, the moves will be different if you’re moving or if you’re idle when you release R.

  • From idle, X will deal more damage, but A will give you super armor for the entirety of your combo. Choose based on whether or not you’ll be tripped when you’re mid-combo.

  • KO will, in general, only apply to the head of the monster. Hit that to rack up KO damage.

  • KO will decay over time, which means if you take too long to head over to another area or don’t hit the head consistently, the monster will slowly recover from the built-up KO damage.

  • The most basic form of headsniping is attacking just as the monster turns to face you.

  • The third and final X attack is the most effective in general. Try to adjust your angle so that it’ll hit the head head-on, as the attack’s hitbox is angled.

Hot Tips

  1. Unlike Bow, Hammer doesn’t want to charge all of the time. Each of Hammer’s charge attacks is important in some way, so you’ll need to figure out which one you need, based on the current and near-future situation.

  1. The most versatile and common charge attack is Charge 2’s moving attack. It strikes straight-on with a moving uppercut, and it moves you a fair distance. It’s most commonly used as a gapcloser.

  1. The next most used attack is Charge 1, utilized as a combo extender. You can opt to either tilt the Control Stick to move slightly in a direction, or not if you’re already close to the monster.

  1. The best Charge 3 attack is from idle, as it’ll dish out a fair amount of damage. If you use the moving Charge 3 attack, you should get out of that as soon as possible, as it doesn’t deal much damage and it’s somewhat hard to get out of the way of an attack if you do happen to use it.

  1. You can cancel any charge attack by rolling. If you don’t have enough stamina to cancel a roll, then you won’t be able to roll out of a charge attack.

  1. You can also use Charge Attacks in midair, so long as you’re charging from when you were on the ground. Charge 3’s midair attack is incredibly effective, as you follow it up with a golf swing.

Meta Stuff

  • Hammer, like Great Sword, is especially effective when you can reliably predict where and how the monster will move. Take off your Palicos, if you have any enabled, and try to play solo.

  • In practice, Charge 3 Attacks are especially rare, except when used from a ledge. If you’re charging to Charge 3, then it’s usually in your best interest to cancel yourself.

  • Counting KO Values can let you attack more than you normally would. Strong predictions, as well as knowledge of the monster’s KO thresholds and current KO modifier, will benefit advanced players, though you’ll tend to get a feel for when monsters will be KO’d after a while of playing Hammer.

  • Counting stagger and exhaust values are much in the same vein as keeping track of KO values, but is more difficult than KO. The former relies on knowing how much damage you’re dealing and the latter relies on knowing your Exhaust damage of each of your moves.

  • In general, the most used style is Guild.

  • Striker loses the golfswing, which is a big no-no, and Hammer’s HAs are mediocre.

  • Aerial and Adept are used in specific situations, like if you can’t reach the head normally or if the monster attacks frequently.

  • Valor’s ability to chain together charge attacks sees some use where you can be particularly aggressive.

  • Alchemy’s ability to generate Earplugs and to not use the Spin Attack is surprisingly decent.

  • None of Hammer’s arts particularly stand out. Most setups just use Absolute Evasion and Absolute Readiness for the most part. 

  • Spinning Meteor deals damage and Exhaust decently enough, and Typhoon Trigger is more focused on KOs.

  • Provoke is only useful in multiplayer, and only gives you a slight buff to your Attack and Defense otherwise.

  • Impact Press’s shockwaves are cool, but the effect is only slight.

  • Earplugs and HG Earplugs are both useful since they let you ignore roars. Roars usually keep the monster’s head still, which means you can slam the monster’s head more than you usually would. Remember to check if the monster you’re hunting needs what grade of Earplugs, or even if you need them at all.

  • Razor Sharp isn’t really needed on Hammer. Use Sharpness+1/2 depending on what you need instead.

  • Focus isn’t really needed either, as you need to keep control over what charge attack you use.

Cool Stuff

  • Need to slightly readjust where you’re attacking? Use the Charge 1 attack and press in the direction you need to.

  • If the monster’s head is especially squirmy while it’s down, try facing the monster head-on. Heads usually squirm vertically, but not horizontally!

  • Charging gives you immunity to wind pressure, once you’ve started. Use this to hit a monster’s head as they’re landing!

  • The golfswing has a larger hitbox than you think. Much like HH’s attacks, try facing a different angle to adjust for how close to the ground the head is. Face to the left for lower to the ground, and face to the right for higher off the ground.

  • Ever have pesky Long Sword users or Lance users near *your* head? Golf swing them or Charge 3 Slam them to establish and keep dominance.

Controls & Style Rundown


Guild Style

Two Hunter Art slots (1 SP Art), unlimited access to Charge Attacks.

  • X - Strong Pound
  • 40% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 15 Exhaust
  • While sheathed and moving, X - Draw Swing
  • 20% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • A - Side Swing
  • 15% damage
  • 22 KO
  • 5 Exhaust
  • Gives Super Armor.
  • Strong Pound/Side Swing, X - Weak Pound
  • 20% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 15 Exhaust
  • Weak Pound, X - Golf Swing
  • 90% damage
  • 50 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • R (hold) - Charge
  • While Charging, release - Charge Attack (the length of time you charge changes the attack)
  • Charge, release immediately - Charge Attack Lv. 1
  • 25% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 15 Exhaust
  • Charge Attack Lv. 1, X - Charge Attack Lv. 1 Followup
  • 20% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Charge to first flash, release - Charge Attack Lv. 2
  • 40% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Adjust direction with Control Stick.
  • Charge to second flash, release:
  • While idle - Charge Attack Lv. 3 (Overhead Smash)
  • 15% + 76% damage
  • 5 + 27 KO
  • 5 + 40 Exhaust
  • While moving - Charge Attack Lv. 3 (Top Spin)
  • 20% + 10% (up to 4 more times) = 60% max damage
  • 5 * 5 = 25 KO
  • 5 * 5 = 25 Exhaust
  • Top Spin, spin for 1-3 times, X - Spinning Hook
  • 60% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Top Spin, spin for 4-6 times, X - Spinning Golf Swing
  • 90% damage
  • 5 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Top Spin, don’t press X - Top Spin Finisher
  • 40% damage
  • 20 KO
  • 22 Exhaust
  • X in midair - Jumping Swing
  • 40% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Release Charge in midair:
  • Jumping Charge Lv. 1
  • 65% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Jumping Charge Lv. 2
  • 70% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Jumping Charge Lv. 3
  • 80% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust

Guild Style is the most popular and most reliable of all of Hammer’s Styles. Most of the time you’ll be waiting just outside of the range of the monster near the head and waiting for an opportune time to perform a gapcloser on the head and start a combo. Despite the small moveset, Guild can also extend its combos by feeding into another charge attack, generally Charge Lv. 1.

Recommended Hunter Arts:

  • Absolute Evasion
  • Absolute Readiness

Gap-Closing Combo

Hold R until first flash, release, X, X, X.

Charge -> Charge Attack Lv. 2 -> Strong Pound -> Weak Pound -> Golf Swing.

This combo provides a measure of closing in on the monster’s head easily. This is your bread-and-butter combo for neutral play, so use it often.

Downed Monster Combo

A, X, X, Hold R, release, (repeat)

Side Swing -> Weak Pound -> Golf Swing -> Charge Attack Lv. 1.

This combo is best for small monsters, such as Khezu. The initial A attack provides Super Armor, protecting you from pesky Long Sword users while making the combo faster, and the final charge attack allows you to loop the combo.

Striker Style

3 Hunter Art slots (1 SP Art), auto-Focus, but loses Golf Swing.

  • Cannot Golf Swing.
  • Cannot Spinning Golf Swing.
  • Auto-Focus on Charge. (-20% Charge thresholds)
  • Weak Smash, X - Striker Power Pound
  • 60% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust

Striker Style loses the golf swing, easily the best part about Hammer. It gains an HA slot, but Hammer’s HAs aren’t anything particularly special either and auto-Focus to charge up faster isn’t really worth it. If you want to Overhead Smash, use Alchemy instead.

Recommended Hunter Arts:

  • Absolute Evasion
  • Absolute Readiness
  • Spinning Meteor

Extended Gap-Closing Combo

(loop) Hold R until first flash, X, X, (end loop)

(loop) Charge Attack Lv. 2 -> Strong Pound -> Weak Pound (end loop)

This combo is similar to the Guild combo, but omits the final pound.

Aerial Style

1 Hunter Art slot (1 SP Art). Use the Aerial Hop to jump off of monsters and bash with the A attack to attack twice. Loses the Charge Lv. 3 variations.

  • Cannot Charge Lv. 3 (Top Spin) or Charge Lv. 3 (Overhead Smash).
  • Charge until the second flash, release - Charge Attack Lv. 3 (Dash Attack)
  • 60% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • B (forward) - Aerial Hop
  • Boost Jump, X - Aerial Smash
  • 42% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Boost Jump, A - Aerial Double Down
  • 35% + 50% damage
  • 15 + 55 KO
  • 10 + 20 Exhaust
  • If you miss the first attack, you’ll stumble when you hit the ground.
  • Boost Jump, R - Charge

Aerial Style is average. It maintains the Golf Swing and loses Charge Lv. 3 altogether, which means you always have the Dash Attack to gapclose. Being Hammer however, you will be using a lot of Stamina, so keep an eye on it. Furthermore, if you want to use Aerial Double Down, be sure you’re hitting the monster, as if you miss you’ll have greater recovery frames when you hit the ground.

Recommended Hunter Arts:

  • Absolute Readiness

Hop Spam

(loop) B, Boost Jump, A, B (sideways), Hold R until first or second flash, release towards monster, (end loop)

(loop) Boost Jump -> Aerial Double Down -> Side Roll -> Charge Attack Lv. 2/3 (end loop)

This combo’s effectiveness relies on how exposed and static the monster’s head is. Exchange the A attack with X attacks if you’re not confident landing the A hit.

Adept Style

1 Hunter Art slot (1 SP Art). Use the Adept Dodge to roll through monster attacks and use enhanced Charge Attacks.

  • Cannot Charge Lv. 1 Followup.
  • Charge until the first flash, release - Charge Attack Lv. 2 (Rushing Swing)
  • 38% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 15 Exhaust
  • Charge Attack Lv. 2 (Rushing Swing), X - Charge Lv. 2 Followup
  • 20% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Adept Dodge, X/A - Adept Rushing Swing
  • 38% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 15 Exhaust
  • Adept Dodge, R - Adept Strong Charge
  • Adept Strong Charge, release - Adept Strong Charge Lv. 1 (Upswing)
  • 50% damage
  • 45 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Adept Strong Charge until first flash, release - Adept Strong Charge Lv. 2 (Strong Upswing)
  • 60% damage
  • 55 KO
  • 15 Exhaust
  • Adept Strong Charge until second flash, release:
  • While idle - Adept Strong Charge Lv. 3 (Strong Overhead Smash)
  • 20% + 90% damage
  • 10 + 27 KO
  • 10 + 55 Exhaust
  • While moving - Adept Strong Charge Lv. 3 (Quick Overhead Smash)
  • 20% + 80% damage
  • 10 + 27 KO
  • 10 + 45 Exhaust
  • Jumping variants:
  • Adept Jumping Charge Lv. 1
  • 75% damage
  • 45 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Adept Jumping Charge Lv. 2
  • 80% damage
  • 45 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Adept Jumping Charge Lv. 3
  • 90% damage
  • 45 KO
  • 10 Exhaust

Adept Style is quite solid since you don’t really lose much, only the Charge Lv. 2’s Rushing Uppercut. You still maintain Charge Lv. 1’s gapclosing ability and Charge Lv. 2 also becomes a slightly stronger Charge Lv. 1 so you’re not completely gimped in terms of being able to close in on a monster. You do get the ability to perform Strong Charges after you Adept Dodge, and if you use these well you can really put the smacking on a monster.

Recommended Hunter Arts:

  • Absolute Readiness

Strong Charge Strike:

Adept Dodge, Hold R until second flash, release while idle, B (sideways)

Adept Dodge -> Adept Strong Charge Lv. 3 (Strong Overhead Smash) -> Side Roll.

The typical Post-Adept Dodge attack. You should vary up the charge levels depending on how idle the monster is, or will be.

Valor Style

1 Hunter Art slot (1 SP Art). Use an especially powerful Valor Swing to charge up the gauge quickly and use chaining charge attacks.

In any state:

  • Cannot Golf Swing.
  • Y - Valor Sheathe
  • Valor Sheathe, X - Valor Stance Hook
  • 70% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Valor Sheathe, A - Valor Side Swing
  • 15% damage
  • 22 KO
  • 10 Exhaust

Outside of Valor State:

  • Cannot Charge Lv. 1 Followup.
  • Cannot charge to Charge Lv. 3 (nor perform its attacks by extension).
  • Charging to Lv. 2 takes a long time.

While Valor State is active:

  • B - Valor Dash Step
  • R - Valor Charge
  • Valor Charge:
  • Immediate release - Valor 1st Charge 1
  • 25% damage
  • 15 KO
  • 15 Exhaust
  • Wait for flash, release - Valor 1st Charge 2
  • 40% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • After any Valor 1st Charge attack, R - Valor Charge 2
  • Can evade right after you start charging, and retain charge.
  • Immediate release - Valor 2nd Charge 1
  • 45% damage
  • 35 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Wait for flash, release - Valor 2nd Charge 2
  • 65% damage
  • 45 KO
  • 15 Exhaust
  • After any Valor 2nd Charge Attack, R - Valor Charge 3
  • Immediate release - Valor 3rd Charge 1
  • 15% + 85% damage
  • 10 + 50 KO
  • 5 + 25 Exhaust
  • Wait for flash, release - Valor 3rd Charge 2
  • 20% + 105% damage
  • 10 + 60 KO
  • 5 + 30 Exhaust
  • Jumping variants of the above:
  • Valor Jumping 1st Charge 1
  • 65% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Valor Jumping 1st Charge 2
  • 70% damage
  • 40 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Valor Jumping 2nd Charge 1
  • 75% damage
  • 45 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Valor Jumping 2nd Charge 2
  • 80% damage
  • 45 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Valor Jumping 3rd Charge 1
  • 90% damage
  • 50 KO
  • 10 Exhaust
  • Valor Jumping 3rd Charge 2
  • 100% damage
  • 50 KO
  • 10 Exhaust

Valor Style puts a heavy focus on chaining together Charge Attacks in order to forcefully and quickly put the nails on a monster, and to KO them even faster. Thanks to the Valor Stance Hook, you can charge it up extremely quickly, and you can even neglect to charge the first two attacks in the chain to get to Lv. 3 quickly as well. It’s no wonder that it’s the second-most popular style for Hammer.

Recommended Hunter Arts:

  • Absolute Readiness

Valor Gauge Charge

Y, then X.

Valor Sheathe -> Valor Stance Hook.

The main way you’ll charge up Valor. This attack is very, very slow, so it, and Valor Hammer in general, will only see use on slower monsters.

Valor Gauge Quick Cancel

Y, A, X.

Valor Sheathe -> Valor Side Swing, Strong Pound.

The faster, but slower way to charge up Valor. If you’re stuck fighting a faster monster, try using this.

Valor Charge Strong Chaining

While in Valor Mode: Hold R until flash, release, Hold R until flash, release, Hold R until flash, B (sideways)

Valor 1st Charge 2 -> Valor 2nd Charge 2 -> Valor 3rd Charge 3 -> Side Roll.

The more powerful variant of Valor Charge Chaining. In practice you won’t usually get to perform this attack, but if you hold your charges this can be nice.

Valor Charge Quick Chaining

While in Valor Mode: Hold R, release, Hold R, release, Hold R until flash, release while idle, B (sideways)

Valor 1st Charge 1 -> Valor 2nd Charge 1 -> Valor 3rd Charge 2 -> Side Roll.

If you really want to get to that 3rd attack fast, this is the way to do it.

Alchemy Style

3 Hunter Art slots (3 SP Arts). Charge the Alchemy Barrel to give you and your teammates useful items and increase your SP Level.

  • Cannot chain into a Charge from Golf Swing.
  • Cannot Charge Attack Lv. 3 (Top Spin) and its related attacks.
  • Charge Attack Lv. 3 (Overhead Smash) charges the Alchemy Gauge especially quickly.
  • B (forward) + Y - Alchemy Barrel (can also access via the item bar normally)

Alchemy Style is actually quite solid aside from the inability to extend your combo from Golf Swing. You retain the Golf Swing in comparison to Striker and you lose the pesky Top Spin, making the Overhead Smash quite accessible and more usable. Furthermore you can use the Alchemy Barrel to generate Alchemy Earplugs, giving you immunity to the next monster roar.

Recommended Hunter Arts:

  • Absolute Evasion (SP)
  • Absolute Readiness (SP)
  • Spinning Meteor III OR Typhoon Trigger III (SP)

Alchemy Fast Charging

Hold R until second flash, release.

Charge Attack Lv.  3 (Overhead Smash).

A pretty basic way to speed up your Alchemy gauge. Not always possible, though.

Alchemy Single Combo

Hold R until first flash, release towards monster, X, X.

Charge Attack Lv. 2 -> Strong Pound -> Weak Pound.

The Guild combo, but you can’t infinite it. Shame.

The Style hierarchy is Guild > Valor > Alchemy >> Striker/Aerial/Adept. Guild has the basics of Hammer on its side without any gimmicks, and so is used the most. Valor Hammer has the ability to chain together multiple charges, and so is effective for monsters with long periods of vulnerability. Adept and Aerial Hammer are effective within their niche but are too gimmicky for normal use. Alchemy and Striker have the worthless 3rd HA slot, and so, the other styles are seen as upgrades to these ones. Alchemy does have the golf swing, though. That alone makes it pretty good.

Hunter Arts


Spinning Meteor

When activated, your hunter begins to spin your Hammer vertically, continuously striking the monster. After this initial windup, your hunter smashes down, dealing a brief setup hit before finishing it off with a giant hit. This HA is focused on dealing damage and Exhaust, but not so much KO.

HA Rank

To Charge

Damage

KO

Exhaust

I

830 (1196 SP)

(20 * 2) + 15 + 110 = 165% / 4 hits

55

70

II

920 (1304 SP)

(20 * 3) + 15 + 125 = 200% / 5 hits

70

85

III

1100 (1520 SP)

(20 * 4) + 15 + 165 = 260% / 6 hits

85

110

This is one of two damage arts for Hammer, and a quite solid one too. Despite not being versatile, styles with 3 HA slots can definitely use this when the monster’s KO’d to make the most of their big openings. Styles without 3 HA slots can go without this, as combo extensions via golf swing are more popular, and deal more KO if the monster’s just been tripped. As always, you can get knocked out of this art by monster attacks.

Provoke

Execute a short swing upward, then makes your hunter more likely to be attacked for a brief duration.

HA Rank

To Charge

Duration

Additional Notes

I

670 (1004 SP)

30 seconds

II

750 (1100 SP)

60 seconds

Grants +20% Defense.

III

830 (1196 SP)

60 seconds

Grants +15 Attack. Yes it’s flat Attack.

Swing deals 45% damage, 15 KO, and 15 Exhaust.

Provoke is an art only really useful in multiplayer or when you’re playing with Palicos… which slightly defeats the main point of Hammer in the first place, which is to hog the aggro anyway to hit the head. The stat buffs don’t really make up for the HA slot usage either. Furthermore, the effect ends prematurely if you area transition. This is a pretty niche art, all considered. Remember that, like other HAs with casting times, if you’re affected by damage or roars, then you’ll lose the effect and lose the HA charge, so make sure you’re okay before casting this.

Typhoon Trigger

Once activated, your hunter starts to spin horizontally while charging. Pressing X while you’re charged will let your hunter do a devastating uppercut, dealing a bunch of KO damage. Increasing levels of Typhoon Trigger will allow you to charge up more by spinning more.

HA Rank

To Charge

Charge Levels

I

250 (500 SP)

1

II

330 (596 SP)

1-2

III

420 (704 SP)

1-3

Attack

Damage

KO

Exhaust

Swings 1-3

5%

2

4

Swings 4-6

5%

2

2

Stumble

20%

40

10

Finisher I

50%

60

20

Finisher II

60%

100

25

Finisher III

80%

125

30

Typhoon Trigger’s the fastest Hammer HA to charge up, perhaps speaking to the frequency with which it should be used. The issue is that the Golf Swing is usually much more reliable and faster to use than this art and the damage dealt as well as KO and Exhaust is fairly balanced. Plus you can just waste the HA’s charge and damage by either overcharging or by getting knocked out of it, and why do that when you could simply use the Absolutes instead.

Impact Press

After a brief cast time, charge your hammer to perform additional animations which cause shockwaves to appear at the location of your attack. The higher levels of charge, the more shockwaves appear.

HA Rank

To Charge

Effect Duration

I

670 (1004 SP)

80 seconds

II

750 (1100 SP)

100 seconds

III

830 (1196 SP)

120 seconds

Each shockwave deals 6% damage, 12 KO and 4 Exhaust damage.

Like the other buffing HAs, if you get interrupted during the (fairly lengthy) cast time, you’ll lose the effect and the HA Charge. Otherwise, this HA is… okay? It helps you deal a lot of KO making stunning monsters easier to do, while the damage is negligible otherwise. Remember that increasing levels of charge attacks will increase the amount of shockwaves that are sent out upon attacking.

What Hammer To Use?


You want to choose hammers with high amounts of raw and hammers that have a decent amount of sharpness as well. The nature of hammer is that you aren’t gonna hit monsters especially frequently, or well, not as much as DBs, so element isn’t gonna be a priority, nor is a high amount of Sharpness. However, you can get away with using an amount of element, as monster’s heads usually receive elemental damage somewhat well. But most people and sets prefer higher raw.

Progression Recommendations

Low Rank (Hub 1-3*, Village 1-6*)

The default Hammer you can get happens to strike a good balance between sharpness and raw damage. It’s a good idea to maintain and upgrade too, as it’ll eventually upgrade into the Obsidian Hammer, which is a good Hammer for late High Rank hunts.

Often swaps places with the Petrified Hammer thanks to gaining more Sharpness at certain points with the cost of Attack.

Crests really high in Village 5 with its level 3 upgrade, granting it high Attack power & Green Sharpness.

All of these Hammers are pretty good to be honest. Just match up the hammer to the elemental weakness of the monster that you’re gonna be fighting. Though the Giant’s Hammer might be used the least. They all have a good amount of green Sharpness and decent raw for Low Rank transitioning to High Rank. Scorching Isshata in particular is great because it’s upgradable fairly early on into High Rank.

High Rank (Hub 4-8*, Village 7-10*)

This Hammer in particular can be upgraded after fighting a few Kut-Ku to sport 160 raw and quite a bit of green Sharpness early on in High Rank, which is quite valuable. You can use this Hammer for quite a few things in early High Rank.

This Hammer needs a little bit of upgrading to get it past the power level of the Scorching Isshata, but once you get it past that point, you don’t need any other Hammers for the rest of High Rank, unless you prefer auto-sharpening.

The Seregios Hammer, despite being nerfed from 4U, still are quite solid as mid-High Rank Progression weapons. Due to the sharpness restoration ability, you can maintain their sharpnesses quite easily, since you’re already likely incorporating rolls into your playstyle as Hammer.

Solid Water tech choice if you feel like you need it for certain monsters, such as Gravios or Basarios.

Rathalos’s Hammer becomes good at Village 10 if you feel like you need the Fire tech for certain monsters.

Khezu’s Hammer becomes a good Thunder option at this point as well, following along the same lines as the above.

A solid choice for anyone planning to stick around in High Rank, the Hellblade Hammer has a very formidable 200 raw, Blast, and natural White Sharpness. Combine with Hayasol for maximum effectiveness.

A great Hammer for levelling Hellblade due to high Attack and Sharpness. Affinity should be compensated for with access to Weakness Exploit.

A fantastic Hammer to take on lengthy Hunt-a-thons with few chances to sharpen up. Only loses a bit of Attack & Blast compared to the Hellblade Hammer but has naturally high Affinity to compensate.

G-Rank (Hub G1-G4*)

A really easy Hammer to make that boasts impressive raw and Sharpness despite being one of the first Hammers you can make in G-Rank. Because of that, this Hammer will usually surpass anything you can make even in late High Rank, and even keeps its worth through the majority of early G-Rank too.

Your Anti-Lao tech choice, if you feel like you need to kick a bit harder vs Lao. You do need a Worn Hammer first to get this, but if you’ve already got one, this becomes an option.

Gets a smidge of Purple Sharpness in G3, which makes it a great raw Hammer choice at this point in the game.

With access to the G-Rank Fated Four, this makes a return as the Fire Hammer of choice. This is also a good alternative if you don’t want to make the Research Hammer from scratch just for G3.

Mizutsune’s Hammer also gets an upgrade in G3, which brings it back to speed. This is a good anti-Water tech choice, and upgrades into the best Water Hammer in the game.

If you’re looking for a good general-use Hammer at the tail end of G-Rank, this will be your choice. Good Attack & Sharpness are this Hammer’s main selling points.

Endgame Hammer Recommendations

Main Recommendations:

Crimson Fatalis’s Hammer. A solid Hammer for a variety of situations due to it only needing Sharpness +1, having triple slots, blast, and an above-average raw of 330. This is a great all-purpose Hammer.

The Hammer of Ahtal-Ka is quite solid, having a good amount of raw - 330 - and having a maintainable amount of Sharpness at base levels with just Absolute Readiness. This often cuts above the Fatalis Destroyer in lengthy hunts, such as the EX Deviants, due to it having more space for damage-boosting skills.

The Gore Magala Hammer has recently taken over many prime spots due to its great raw - 320 - and large +30% Affinity for that all-powerful ‘critsistency’, so it’s been used more and more often. Make sure to get Purple with Sharpness +2. It even has 2 slots for set flexibility.

Like practically every Elderfrost Blademaster weapon, this really only kicks in when you have both Sharpness +2 and Razor Sharp, but when you do have those, the monstrous 370 raw really mauls monsters, especially those weak to Ice. Use if you don’t have to use Earplugs and can instead just run the sharpness skills.

An alternative to the Elderfrost Grandslam, trading in 20 Attack and Ice for Purple Sharpness at +2 & two slots. As you can imagine, this has more flexibility and is a fun alternative - just beware the lack of Deviant Boost.

Great for when you can’t or don’t want to run Absolute Readiness, especially on one-slot styles. The length of White Sharpness allows you to run without Sharpness maintenance skills.

Off-Meta Recommendations: Don’t Use Unless You Really Want To!

Elemental Hammer Recommendations

Disclaimer: You may be slightly slower with Elemental Hammer due to the mechanics of element not favoring Hammer that much. If you’re fighting monsters weak to the element then these may be up for consideration, but usually will be slower than the general hammer recommendations above.

This is Silver Rathalos’s Hammer. Gains Purple Sharpness when you use Sharpness +2 and packs an absolutely lethal amount of Fire with 50 points of it. Plus it has 2 slots for that set flexibility, and it doesn’t sacrifice too much in terms of raw either, with 310 raw. It even has 15% Affinity! Useful for Barioth, Gore, or other Fire-weak monsters.

A good all-around Water Hammer, ideal for… I guess not much, given the lack of heavily-Water-skewed matchups that also aren’t weak to Water. It offers two slots for flexibility, though.

The Khezu Hammer is a fairly solid Hammer with a good 330 Attack and 33 Thunder. Requires Sharpness +2 for Purple.

An alternative to the Khezu Hammer for matchups slightly more sensitive to Thunder, such as the crabs. It only trading 10 Attack for enhanced Thunder and Sharpness (only requiring +1) is great.

Status Hammer Recommendations

Super Disclaimer: Status Hammer is really ineffective due to how rarely Hammer hits consistently.

The Garuga Hammer has the best raw capabilities of the Poison Hammers and it has triple slots too. 25% Affinity is nice too, so that you can crit a lot with crit-focused sets.

Honestly, this Volvidon Hammer has the best raw out of the Paralysis Hammers. The other Hammers generally lose way too much raw to get higher Paralysis capabilities. Even this Hammer only caps out at White Sharpness and has no Affinity nor slots.

Nerscylla’s non-Hyper Hammer. The only Sleep Hammer that isn’t a joke, both in terms of design or damage. Upsides: This Hammer has natural Purple and a maxed out Sharpness meter and it’s got a spare slot. It also has some natural Affinity to work with. Downside: You’re still dealing less damage than traditional Hammers.

What Skills Should I Use?


We’ll go over skills and armor sets for progression in this section. In general Hammer can forego some of the typical Blademaster skills, such as Razor Sharp, since Hammer is on the slower end of hit count. Depending on the Hammer, you might need to run Sharpness + skills but those situations are few and far between. Late-game, you’d ideally make some mixed set built for the Hammer (and monster) you have in mind, so I’ll give you an idea of what sort of skills you may or may not want.

Progression Armor Sets

Low Rank (Village 1-6*, Hub 1-3*)

  • BuJaBu

The classic early-game progression set, it provides an early Attack Up (L) for Blademasters. You can’t go wrong by using this. Remember that it’s Bulldrome Cap, then Jaggi and Bulldrome alternating, and add some Attack Decorations on top of that.

If you’re feeling an upgrade past BuJaBu is appropriate at this point and you don’t mind losing Attack Up, then Ceanataur’s a good alternative. Though slightly weaker for Hammer it does carry Razor Sharp regardless, so it’ll make it easier to maintain sharpness in Low Rank a little bit better.

Classic Rathalos will get you a bunch of damage-focused skills, particularly Weakness Exploit which will bump up your damage a ton when you’re striking weak spots, which you’re usually doing as Hammer. This is generally used to get through to High Rank due to the ease of creation.

  • Rathalos Mixset

A set that uses Rathalos Cap/Rathalos Mail/Ceanataur Braces/Rathalos Faulds/Bnahabra Boots to get Weakness Exploit, Razor Sharp, and Attack Up (S). This set is better though slightly annoying to get due to the use of Bnahabra Boots. If you can assemble it though, the minor loss in attack is compensated for by the addition of Razor Sharp, and extends the usefulness of the set. You will also lose some Defense in comparison to full Rathalos though, so it’s your call which one you use.

High Rank (Village 7-10*, Hub 4-8*)

If you really want to upgrade from Rathalos due to the fear being put in you by a certain fish, then Ceanataur S is your answer. You’ll lose the damage from Weakness Exploit and Attack Up, but you’ll keep Razor Sharp if you opted to go for the mixset variation of the Rathalos armor.

Much in the same vein as Rathalos armor is, this is just more damage with Weakness Exploit and Attack Up. Not much to say besides that.

  • Rathalos Mixset S

Basically just the same as the LR version but with High Rank parts. Use this if you’re comfortable with sacrificing defense for additional Razor Sharp functionality.

Silver Rathalos armor that gives you Critical Boost instead of Attack Up. Unlike the Rathalos Mixset, I don’t believe that you can mix this with the same parts and get the same skills.

  • Hayasol

The legendary Hayasol mixed set from Gen. If you’re dedicated enough to clear most of LR Village’s quests then you’ll unlock the Hayabusa Feather after a particularly tough Village Quest. Getting this headpiece means that you can also get this set, which basically was the singular armor set used in Gen lategame. This set can even carry you through HR Break. If you happen to have the Hayabusa Feather, then go ahead and make this set.

G-Rank (Hub G1-G4*)

  • Hayasol

This set’s skillset is good enough to get you through to HR Break, or that’s what I’ve heard. I wouldn’t recommend it because armors in G-Rank start to get more lucrative defense offerings and skill offerings, but if you’re good enough you could legitimately get through G-Rank with just Hayasol on your back.

Ceanataur X is just more of the same when it comes to Ceanataur armors -- Critical Eye and Razor Sharp. GX is slightly further down the road since it makes you get Pristine Ores from Mewstress but it provides a different skillset -- namely Sharpness +1, Critical Eye +1, and Repeat Offender, which is slightly more useful than the Razor Sharp you get from Ceanataur X. Ceanataur XR isn’t available until G3, and only when you’ve cleared all of the keys there. But if you do manage to get it and farm up it, it provides both Sharpness +1, Critical Eye +3, and Razor Sharp, all of which are more or less useful. And you can recycle some of the parts to use later in Jho Ceana.

Rathalos once again is the next big stepping stone in terms of armors, and it even offers Hearing for the Hammer users; you just have to gem the skill in.

  • Jho Ceana

The frequent Jho Ceana set recommended (Esurient XR/Ceanataur XR alternating) is a general Blademaster set, and works well enough for Hammer if you don’t have a specific Hammer set yet. I’d still use other armor set searchers to make more specific sets tailored for Hammer though.

  • Mixed Sets

For maximum effectiveness, you’ll generally want to tailor your set to the appropriate weapon, and sometimes even the specific monster you’re gonna be tackling. In general, the priorities for Blademasters goes Sharpness-related skills (Sharpness +1 or 2, Razor Sharp), then weapon-specific core skills, then skills that boost Attack as appropriate. Take a look at the following section to get a good idea of what you’ll want.

Skill Recommendations

  • Weakness Exploit

Most monster weakspots are on their head, and since you’re aiming for the head anyway this skill is gonna take effect a lot of the time. Remember to check Impact zones for weakspots!

  • Sharpness +1/2

The use of this skill will honestly depend on which Hammers you decide to take, but getting this skill is really easy at endgame due to the existence of Esurient XR. Generally, take only Sharpness +1 if the length of the sharpness grade is ‘long enough’. See: Crimson Fatalis Hammer for a good reference.

  • Razor Sharp

Generally doesn’t need to be used unless you’re using a Hammer which only has a tiny sliver of Sharpness, like Elderfrost’s Hammer. In those cases though, it really helps your Sharpness game out a bunch.

  • Critical Boost

What can I say, with Weakness Exploit you’re boosting your damage by an additional 7.5% just by putting this skill on. Stacking this with other Affinity-related skills will provide the most benefit.

  • Critical Eye

Standard Affinity boosting skill with standard Critical-focused set, nothing to see here.

  • Earplugs/HG Earplugs

Since monsters usually stay still while they’re roaring, Earplugs will give you a great opportunity to hit their heads that normally wouldn’t be available otherwise. But remember that HG Earplugs won’t protect you from associated damage that the roar can cause, like Tigrex’s roars. And some monsters won’t roar either. Keep those in mind and you should be able to make sets catered towards countering specific monsters.

  • Challenger +1/2

Monsters enrage frequently in G-Rank, and you’re in a perfect position to make the most use of this skill as your skillset as a Hammer user is generally lighter than others. Just make sure you don’t overload on Affinity when you’re using this.

Final Thoughts

Unlike in MH4U, Hammer’s niche isn’t completely obliterated by Charge Blade, due to the fact it was nerfed. Hammer itself is still the solid KO machine it was, but HAs don’t do very much for it, aside from the vanilla ones which are shared with every weapon. The Styles Hammer has mostly gave it gimmicks that obstruct normal usage as well, though some of the gimmicks are better than others. The matchups Hammer has mostly favor it if the head is relatively safe to hit and if the monster can be KO’d. Otherwise, the more Golf Swings, the better. Hammer is best with experience, since you can more easily predict the monster’s movements, but you’ll be able to get away with more simple gameplay, by hitting a monster’s weakspot.

Looking for more guides?

Beginner’s Guide To MHGU

Great Sword

Long Sword
Sword and Shield

Dual Blades

Hunting Horn

Lance

Gunlance

Switch Axe

Charge Blade

Insect Glaive

Light Bowgun

Heavy Bowgun

Bow

Prowler

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