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Monster Hunter Now advanced tips for the weapons you are using

Monster Hunter Now advanced tips for the weapons you are using

Monster Hunter Now has tons and tons of weapons. As you take on larger, more powerful beasts, you will find yourself unlocking more. It can become quite overwhelming, trying to figure out what to spend your limited resources on and what to level up. So, have created a guide to help you with the weapons available in Monster Hunter Now. This breakdown will cover the abilities of weapons, the various play styles of the weapons, and what you should invest in.

Types of Weapons in Monster Hunter Now

pulling a sword upon a green dragon rushing

Sword and Shield: Sword and Shield is a close-range weapon that feels quick in attack. Using this weapon gives you the ability to dodge more, especially as you need to be so close to your enemy to attack them. Great Sword: Great Sword is a large weapon, which takes some time to attack. These massive blows do a huge chunk of damage, but if your enemy attacks often, it can be a challenge. Light Bowgun: The Light Bowgun is a ranged weapon, which allows your character to do several shots before needing to reload. I find this weapon is best for team play as the monster will target one player and you can hang back, attacking. Long Sword: Long Sword is a sort of middle weapon between the Sword and Shield and the Great Sword. It's faster than the Great Sword but doesn't offer the bit of defense a shield does. Hammer: The Hammer is similar to the Great Sword, dealing massive blows but taking some time for your character to lift up the weapon. You'll need to time things well for this weapon! Bow and Arrow: The Bow and Arrow is a ranged weapon, allowing you to stay a bit far away from the monster. I find these weapons to be another one great for team play. There is a reload time on this weapon, reloading after every shot.

Everything you need to know about Weapon Elements

Weapon elements

When you look at the weapon overview within the game, there are one or two symbols on each one. The first symbol is a sword, showing the damage that the weapon can do. The second symbol is the weapon's element. Poison, water, lightning and more can be seen as a stat, that does increase when you power up the weapon.



These elements not only cause more damage but have different effects. Poison, my personal favourite, slowly ticks down the monster's health even when you are not attacking, as long as you poison the enemy. Lightning, on the other hand, can have a small knockback effect as well as more damage caused on a particularly impactful hit. These elements also can make the weapons more effective against monsters. 

When you go to fight a larger monster, you can see symbols of the elements that cause more damage to be done to them. Having a good match when it comes to the element can really clinch the kill if you are struggling!

What is Affinity in Monster Hunter Now?

When you select a specific weapon, in between the attack and element symbols, there is a percentage for affinity. Affinity is a statistic that tells you your chance of performing a critical hit. Some weapons have 0%, while others have actual chances of hitting critically and dealing a lot of damage. Affinity isn't something I personally pay a lot of attention to, but it's worth being aware of!

Special Skill and Equipment Skills

Special weapon skills in Monster Hunter Now

At the bottom of the page of your individual weapon, there's a Special Skill and Equipment Skills category. These are sometimes locked behind a specific level that you need to upgrade your weapon to but do show what you will be working towards. 

The special skill is an attack that you can use once it is filled completely. This attack not only makes you invincible to any attacks from the monster you are targetting but also allows your character to jump onto that monster's back, really doing a lot of damage all at once. This is charged up by doing normal attacks on the monster, slowly filling up the circle.

Equipment skill is more of a passive boost, not one you need to activate. This skill is one that often can give you a bit more health or protection when it comes to your battle, which can help you passively as you fight. Others can help you dodge better or survive a specific attack. 

Here is a list of all of the Monster HJunter Now Skills within the game:

  • Artful Dodger: Increases the timing window for a perfect evade.
  • Attack Boost: Increases attack power.
  • Burst: After landing consecutive hits quickly, you will see an increase in attack power temporarily.
  • Concentration: Increases Special Gauge fill rate.
  • Critical Eye: Increases affinity (chances to perform a critical hit)
  • Defense Boost: Increases defense.
  • Divine Blessing: Gives you a chance to reduce damage from a single attack.
  • Earplugs: Decreases the effectiveness of monster roars, which can freeze you in place.
  • Evade Extender: Increases the distance you can evade.
  • Fire Attack: Increases your fire damage
  • Fire Resistance: Decreases monster's fire damage.
  • Firm Foothold: Decreases knockback when you take damage
  • Focus: Increases the rate at which your Spirit Gauge fills and decreases weapon charging time.
  • Fortify: After you revive from fainting, you will see a temporary increase in attack power.
  • Guard: Decreases the damage and knockback taken when guarding an attack.
  • Guts: Allows you to survive one lethal attack per hunt.
  • Health Boost: Increases your max health
  • Heroics: When you hit low (red) health, your attack power increases.
  • Ice Attack: Increase your weapon's ice damage.
  • Ice Resistance: Reduces your enemies' ice damage.
  • Last Stand: When you have low (red) health, your defense increases.
  • Lock On: Target a specific monster part to attack.
  • Offensive Guard: Following a successful block, your attack power increases.
  • Paralysis Attack: Increases your weapon's paralysis build-up.
  • Paralysis Resistance: Gives you a chance to prevent paralysis.
  • Partbreaker: Increases the damage you are able to deal to breakable parts.
  • Peak Performance: Increases your attack power.
  • Poison Attack: Increases your weapon's poison build-up.
  • Poison Resistance: Gives you a chance to prevent being poisoned.
  • Recoin Down: Reduces your weapon's recoil.
  • Reload Speed: Decreases reload time when using your weapon.
  • Resentment: After taking damage, temporarily increases your attack power.
  • Rising Tide: As the hunt timer runs out, your attack power and defense increase.
  • Slugger: Increases your Stun Power
  • Sneak Attack: Increases damage when you attack from behind an enemy.
  • Special Boost: Increases your speak skill damage
  • Thunder Attack: Increases your weapon's thunder damage
  • Thunder Resistance: Decreases thunder damage from monsters.
  • Water Attack: Increases your weapon's water damage.
  • Water Resistance: Decreases water damage from monsters.
  • Weakness Exploit: Increases your critical hit chance when attacking a weak spot.
  • Windproof: Decreases the effects of wind pressure.

With all of this information, you should be in a better place to make decisions on what weapons you want to use and level up so that you can fight against larger monsters! In the end, may we suggest redeeming some of the promo codes for Monster Hunter Now, you might get some game-breaking rewards!

Jupiter Hadley
Jupiter Hadley
Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, and judges many jams and events. You can find her on Twitter as @Jupiter_Hadley