Read this Monster Hunter World: Iceborne guide to know the best & recommended armor skills for the melee weapon - Hammer!!!
Table of Contents
Related Article On Hammer
 How To Use | Best Builds |
| Best Skills | Endgame Tier List |
Hammer Features & Overview
Heavy Blunt Weapon With High Damage
The Hammer is a heavy blunt type of weapon that specializes in dealing massive amounts of damage to a monster. It will be able to knock down or stun a monster. However, some of its attacks require you to charge before unleashing them.
Possesses Power Charge Feature
The Hammer also possesses the Power Charge feature. You will be able to boost your attack power until you sheathe your weapon or take damage. In the right hands, the hammer is an extremely deadly weapon!
Recommended Skill List For Hammer
| Skill | Recommendation Criteria |
|---|---|
| Slugger | Increases hunting efficiency due to higher stun power of the weapon |
| Attack Boost | Further increases your weapon's attack power, allowing you to deal much more damage |
| Weakness Exploit | Attacking the monster's weak spots increases your affinity, which in turn increases your DPS |
| Handicraft | With a bigger sharpness gauge, you will be able to focus more on hunting the monster instead of sharpening your weapon |
| Earplugs | Nullifies monster roars, allowing you to take use the roar as an opportunity to attack or continue combos |
| Evade Window | Increases your invulnerability window, allowing you to dodge incoming attacks better |
| Stamina Thief | Increases hunting efficiency due to easily exhausting monsters |
| Critical Boost | Increases damage dealt in critical hits |
| Agitator | Increases attack and affinity, allowing you to deal more damage in hunts |
| Focus | Increases gauge fill rate and reduces charge times, allowing you to land hits and power up much faster |
| Bludgeoner | Attack increases as your weapon becomes less sharp. Highly recommended for the Diablos Shatterer II |
Best Hammer Skills To Equip
Slugger
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Stun power +10% |
| 2 | Stun power +20% |
| 3 | Stun power +30% |
Easier To Perform Stuns
This skill increases your stun values when attacking monster heads. This works best when paired with hammers as they are highly increase the stun values when attacking the monster's head.
Attack Boost
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Attack +3 |
| 2 | Attack +6 |
| 3 | Attack +9 and Affinity +5% |
| 4 | Attack +12 and Affinity +5% |
| 5 | Attack +15 and Affinity +5% |
Useful For Any Weapon Type
This skill is a must-have for all weapons as the skill raises your attack power and affinity at higher levels. This skill will do exceptionally well to amp up the hammer's damage!
Weakness Exploit
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 15% increased affinity |
| 2 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 30% increased affinity |
| 3 | Attacks that hit weak spots have 50% increased affinity |
Increases Damage When Hitting Heads
Hammers are best used for stunning monsters by hitting their heads. Since several monsters have their heads as weak spots, you can pair this skill with the hammer to massively increase your affinity rate when hitting monster heads!
Handicraft
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Weapon sharpness +10 |
| 2 | Weapon sharpness +20 |
| 3 | Weapon sharpness +30 |
| 4 | Weapon sharpness +40 |
| 5 | Weapon sharpness +50 |
Increase Your Weapon's Sharpness Gauge
This skill will give your weapon a longer sharpness gauge so it will take longer for it to dull. This is especially handy for hammers as they are weapons that can easily lose their sharpness when fighting monsters.
Alternative Hammer Skill List
Earplugs
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Slightly reduces the effects of weak monster roars |
| 2 | Reduces the effects of weak monster roars |
| 3 | Nullifies weak monster roars |
| 4 | Nullifies weak monster roars and reduces the effects of strong monster roars |
| 5 | Nullifies weak and strong monster roars |
Opportunity To Attack The Head
Earplugs at the highest level will negate the roar effects of any monster that you encounter. You can use this opportunity to attack the monster's head and stun it.
Evade Window
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very slightly increases invulnerability window |
| 2 | Slightly increases invulnerability window |
| 3 | Increases invulnerability window |
| 4 | Greatly increases invulnerability window |
| 5 | Massively increases invulnerability window |
Excellent For Avoiding Attacks
The Hammer will not be able to block attacks like other weapons. Hammer users will spend a good amount of time attacking a monster's head making them vulnerable to multiple attacks. Since evasion is the only option, this skill is very useful.
Stamina Thief
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Exhaust power +10% |
| 2 | Exhaust power +20% |
| 3 | Exhaust power +30% |
Useful For Long Drawn-Out Battles
This skill will be useful for longer drawn-out battles as it helps you easily exhaust the monster that you're hunting. However, remember to replace this skill when facing elder dragons as this skill will not work against them.
Critical Boost
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 30% |
| 2 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 35% |
| 3 | Increases damage dealt by critical hits to 40% |
Pair With Other Skills For Maximum Effect
Critical Boost is very useful when paired with other skills such as Weakness Exploit. The more often you land critical hits, the better as this skill will increase the damage that you deal when you crit!
Agitator
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | While active, grants attack +4 and increases affinity by 3% |
| 2 | While active, grants attack +8 and increases affinity by 6% |
| 3 | While active, grants attack +12 and increases affinity by 9% |
| 4 | While active, grants attack +16 and increases affinity by 12% |
| 5 | While active, grants attack +20 and increases affinity by 15% |
Useful For Enraged Monsters
There may be times when a monster goes into an enraged state while being hunted. This will increase their attack power, and they will become more aggressive. This skill will increase your DPS when a monster is enraged!
Focus
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Increases gauge fill rate by 5% and reduces charge times by 5% |
| 2 | Increases gauge fill rate by 10% and reduces charge times by 10% |
| 3 | Increases gauge fill rate by 20% and reduces charge times by 15% |
Excellent Skill For Charged Attacks
The Focus skill will shorten your charged attacks wind up time while simultaneously increasing gauge fill rate. This is useful as your attack speed will increase with a slow weapon.
Bludgeoner
| Lvl | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Raises attack as your weapon loses sharpness. Also boosts ranged weapon melee attacks and odds of stunning |
Excellent With the Diablos Shatterer
The Bludgeoner skill is a situational skill that is perfect for the Diablos Shatterer hammer. Please note that this is a skill acquired from Diablos Mastery so you will need to have 2 pieces of Diablos equipment on your hunter.
