Best Hammer Builds Guide and Progression - Monster Hunter Rise (MH Rise) | MHR

In this post I will cover the Best hammer builds through the story progression and what should you target for the endgame.

Hammer related skills

Here are the skills listed by priority. Have in mind with a Hammer, you always want to hit the Monster Head. There are two reasons: they usually are its weak spots and you deal stun damage to the monster.

1. Attack Boost - Boosts raw damage. This will work on all your attacks
2. Weakness Exploit - gives a large boost to affinity when hitting monster weak spots
3. Critical Boost - increases your critical damage, scales well when your total affinity get high above 50%
4. Critical Eye - boosts the affinity
5. Wirebug Whisperer - will increase the rate at which you can use your Switch Skills. Level 1 allows the third wirebug to stay longer. Level 2 and 3 increases their recharge rate
6. Slugger - this skill has a lower priority than the others. The reason being is that it will not result in more total KO, unless the fights for you take a long time.
7. Focus - will charge your Hammer faster. However, it is still better to have a high critical rate and raw damage than faster charging.

Endgame: High Rank 100+ (3.0 patch)

In this section, I will cover multiple hammers builds that become available after the 3.0 patch.

Dragonheart Night Eternal build

This build is the best hammer build damage-wise. However, you will need to have your HP below 80% for it to work. This can be hard for the less experienced players or those that are hunting in a group

Weapons and Armor

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Switch Skills
Night Eternal	Attack Boost III	Any

 

Item	Skills
Valstrax Helm	Dragonheart Lv 1 Weakness Exploit Lv 1
Valstrax Mail	Dragonheart Lv 1 Resuscitate Lv 2
Valstrax Braces	Dragonheart Lv 1 Weakness Exploit Lv 2
Valstrax Coil	Dragonheart Lv 1 Resuscitate Lv 1 Resentment Lv 2
Valstrax Greaves	Dragonheart Lv 1 Resentment Lv 1

Talismans and Decorations

Talisman + slots	Decorations	Notes
Wirebug Whisperer 1+	Critical Jewel 2 x3 Attack Jewel 2 x4 Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Sharp Jewel 2 x1	The best option where you can get Protective Polish, level 4 Attack Boost and decreased Wirebug cooldown
Attack Boost 2	Sharp Jewel 2 x1 Critical Jewel 2 x3 Attack Jewel 2 x2 Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Wirebug Jewel 2 x1	Quite a lucrative talisman enabling to have Protective Polish
Any skill	Critical Jewel 2 x3 Attack Jewel 2 x4 Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Wirebug Jewel 2 x1	In case you want to sustain white sharpness for longer, switch Attack Jewel 2 with Sharp Jewel 2

Tigrex Pure Damage build

This hammer build drops the Dragonheart armors, that need to sustain less than 80% health. Choosing this option can make the group hunts a bit easier as you may receive some heals from party members

Tigrex overall has higher effective Raw, due to this it is a better contender. Moreover, it can be quite effective with just Lv 2 Protective Polish skill

Weapons and Armor

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Switch Skills
Tigrex Hammer	Attack Boost III	Any skill

We will concentrate on getting the highest affinity possible

Item	Skills
Kaiser Crown	Critical Eye Lv 3 Critical Boost Lv 1
Nargacuga Mail S	Critical Eye Lv 2 Evade Window Lv 1
Valstrax Braces	Dragonheart Lv 1 Weakness Exploit Lv 2
Anjanath Coil S	Attack Boost Lv 2
Ingot Greaves S	Attack Boost Lv 2 Critical Eye Lv 2

Talismans and Decorations

I recommend adding Sharp Jewel 2 for Protective Polish. Although you will do higher damage with additional Critical Jewel 2 and Attack Jewel 2 for a short period of time

Talisman + slots	Decorations	Notes
Wirebug Whisperer 1+	Tenderizer Jewel 2 x1 Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Sharp Jewel 2 x2 Critical Jewel 2 x2	Similar to any skill option you will also get a third wirebug. This allows greater damage output overall
Any skill	Tenderizer Jewel 2 x1 Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Sharp Jewel 2 x2 Critical Jewel 2 x2	An option where you have any skills and two level 2 decoration slots for the hammer build
Weakness Exploit 1	Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Sharp Jewel 2 x2 Critical Jewel 2 x1	The baseline talisman that you will already have

Elemental Hammer build

This build is not perfect but it will be a good start for making Elemental damage. The idea that the armor set will work on all the hammers.

Weapons and Armor

There are many weapons to select. here are some recommendations for different elements:

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Additional info
Huracan Hammer	Element Exploit	Fire Element
Daora's Colossus	Kushala Daora Soul	Ice
Sinter Hammer	Attack Boost III	Water
Rampage Hammer S	Sharpness Type I Thunder IV Affinity Surge	Thunder
Reddnaught Hammer	Attack Boost III	Dragon Element Take Critical Jewel 2 or Attack Jewel 2

 

Item	Skills
Kaiser Crown	Critical Eye Lv 3 Critical Boost Lv 1
Vaik Mail S	-
Sinister Gauntlets S	Hellfire Cloak Lv 1 Handicraft Lv 2
Anjanath Coil S	Attack Boost Lv 2
Ingot Greaves S	Attack Boost Lv 2 Critical Eye Lv 2

Talismans and Decorations

You can always add an additional Sharp Jewel 2 for longer protective polish. I suggest removing Attack Jewel in this case.

Talisman + slots	Decorations	Notes
Wirebug Whisperer 1	Elemental Jewel 1 x5 Tenderizer Jewel 2 x3 Critical Jewel 2 x2 Handicraft Jewel 3 x1	The best option unlocking the most potential: having high sharpness, damage, and third wirebug.
Any skill	Elemental Jewel 1 x5 Tenderizer Jewel 2 x3 Critical Jewel 2 x1 Wirebug Jewel 2 x1 Handicraft Jewel 3 x1	The optimal build to start off with elemental hammers

High Rank: HR 40-99

This is the grindy part of the game, where you will be fighting against strong monsters like Elder Dragons. Be prepared to die a lot as you will have to learn their moves.

Sharpness Mastery Hammer build

Another option that allows concentrating on having White Sharpness for longer periods of time.

Weapons

The only hammer that you need

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Switch Skills
Night Eternal	Attack Boost III	Any

Armors

Item	Skills
Kaiser Crown	Critical Eye Lv 3 Critical Boost Lv 1
Vaik Mail S	-
Rathalos Braces S	Attack Boost Lv 2
Anjanath Coil S	Attack Boost Lv 2
Hunter's Greaves S	Attack Boost Lv 2 Stun Resistance Lv 1

Talismans and Decorations

Talisman skills + slots	Decorations	Notes
Wirebug Whisperer 2	Tenderizer Jewel 2 x2 Attack Jewel 2 x1 Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Mastery Jewel 2 x2 Critical Jewel 2 x2	Allows using silkbind skills more often. A powerful option but the talisman is quite rare to get
Weakness Exploit 1	Tenderizer Jewel 2 x1 Attack Jewel 2 x1 Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Wirebug Jewel 2 x1 Mastery Jewel 2 x2 Critical Jewel 2 x2	Decent amount of White sharpness, additional Wirebug, and great overall damage. You should already have this talisman
Any skill	Tenderizer Jewel 2 x2 Attack Jewel 2 x1 Grinder Jewel 1 x3 Wirebug Jewel 2 x1 Mastery Jewel 2 x2 Critical Jewel 2 x2	Optimal option, when you have 2 level 2 decoration slot talisman

High Rank: HR 7 - 40 (Patch 2.0)

During this phase of the game, your main encounters will be with Elder Dragons.

Moreover, you should start having good Talismans at hand. This will unlock more possibilities to better manage your decorations and skills

Night Eternal build

This Hammer build continues the usage of Nargacuga derived weapons. You can expect high  critical chance and damage

Weapon

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Switch Skills
Night Eternal	Attack Boost III	Any Skill

Armors

Item	Skills
Zinogre Helm S	Latent Power Lv 1 Weakness Exploit Lv 1
Remobra Suit S	Critical Boost Lv 1
Rathalos Braces S	Attack Boost Lv 2
Anjanath Coil S	Attack Boost Lv 2
Golden Hakama	Latent Power Lv 1 Critical Boost Lv 2

Talismans and decorations

I personally prefer having increased Slugger (KO Jewel), for faster monster knockdowns. Although this will probably result at best in 2 additional knockouts per hunt.

However, this only works if you hit the monster's head. If you have a hard time doing it switch the KO Jewel 2 with Attack Jewel 2

Talisman skills + slots	Decorations	Notes
Wirebug Whisperer 2	Grinder Jewel 1 x3 KO Jewel 2 x2 Tenderizer Jewel 2 x2	Wirebug Whisperer will allow you to use silkbind skills more often and also increase your Affinity to 95 with additional Tenderizer Jewel 2.
Weakness Exploit 1	Grinder Jewel 1 x3 KO Jewel 2 x2 Wirebug Jewel 2 x1 Tenderizer Jewel 2 x1	This option should be easily accessible because you will be able to meld talismans for Weakness Exploit.
Any skill	Grinder Jewel 1 x3 KO Jewel 2 x2 Tenderizer Jewel 2 x2 Wirebug Jewel 2 x1	In case you do not get talismans with the skills listed above, this is recommended option for any of the builds.

High Rank: HR 6 - 7

Hidden Breaker Build

The build revolves around the Nargacuga derived hammer but is now at the higher tier. This results in high affinity

Weapons

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Switch Skills
Hidden Breaker II	Attack Boost III	Any

Armors

Item	Skills
Zinogre Helm S	Latent Power I Weakness Exploit I
Remobra Suit S	Critical Boost I
Lagombi Vambraces S	Critical Eye Lv 2 Ice Attack I
Skalda Elytra S / Spio Elytra S	Weakness Exploit Lv 2
Ingot Greaves S	Attack Boost Lv 2 Critical Eye Lv 2
Talisman	One of the below: Attack Boost Lv 1 Weakness Exploit Lv 1 Wirebug Whisperer Lv 1 (recommended)

High Rank: HR 4 - 6

Now the game will open up and become more challenging. If you skipped the last build I suggest getting new gear as soon as possible.

Optimal build

This is the build that can be used at the start of High Rank. The materials to craft it are readily available.

Weapon

You will get a bit of blue sharpness. This will be complemented by Hunter's Mail S, which provides Handicraft for increased sharpness

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Switch Skills
Kulu Crusher	Attack Boost I	Any
War Basher	Attack Boost III	Any

War Basher is better but requires some better materials to craft.

Armors

Ingot Greaves are back again with the High-Rank version. Skalda Elystra S is recommended coil. However, its materials can be hard to get or farm. Due to this, an easier option is to get Baggi Coil S.

Item	Skills
Izuchi Helm S	Critical Eye Lv 1
Hunter's Mail S	Attack Boost Lv 1 Handicraft Lv 1
Kamura Braces S	Critical Eye Lv 2 Heroics Lv 1
Skalda Elytra S / Spio Elytra S	Weakness Exploit Lv 2
Ingot Greaves S	Attack Boost Lv 2 Critical Eye Lv 2
Talisman	One of the below: Attack Boost Lv 1 Weakness Exploit Lv 1 Wirebug Whisperer Lv 1 (recommended)

I personally prefer Wirebug Whisperer and using the silkbind abilities often. However, the most impactful without them is probably Weakness Exploit Talisman

Low-Rank Builds

This part of the game is more like a tutorial. You will learn about the main game mechanics, monster attack patterns, etc.

So just relax and enjoy all that Monster Hutner Rise has to offer.

Early Low Rank - Village Quests 1 - 3 stars

Weapon

I recommend Kulu Bludgeon I. This is a great early hammer, having Green sharpness. Moreover, it will provide an additional affinity of 10%, resulting in a boost to the critical chance

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Switch Skills
Kulu Bludgeon I	Affinity Boost II	Any

As soon as you can upgrade it to Kulu Bludgeon II

Armors

These are the armor pieces that will be available for you early in the game. They will give a decent boost to your damage.

Item	Skills
Izuchi Helm	Critical Eye Lv 1
Izuchi Mail	Critical Eye Lv 1 Recovery Speed Lv 1
Jaggi Gauntlets	Attack Boost Lv 1
Izuchi Coil	Critical Eye Lv 1
Ingot Greaves	Attack Boost Lv 1 Critical Eye Lv 1

Middle to Late Low Rank

Weapon

Now you can get access to a very powerful hammer, that comes with 40% affinity.

Weapon	Rampage Skills	Switch Skills
Hidden Breaker I	Affinity Boost II	Any

Armors

Ingot Greaves is still an excellent item that will maximize your damage output. Feel free to put some upgrades on it for additional defense.

Item	Skills
Barroth Helm	Attack Boost Lv 1
Nargacuga Mail	Critical Eye Lv 1
Anjanath Vambraces	Slugger Lv 1 Attack Boost Lv 1
Anjanath Coil	Attack Boost Lv 2
Ingot Greaves	Attack Boost Lv 1 Critical Eye Lv 1
Talisman	Wirebug Whisperer 1

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post. I hope it explains all that you need to know for the best hammer builds in Monster Hunter Rise.

Feel free to leave a question or feedback below in the comments