Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - how to forge and upgrade weapons and armour sets

When you're not mixing potions and creating ammunition, you'll be spending your hard-earned crafting resources on new weapons and armour. The next part of our guide explains how to go about getting your hands on new pieces of equipment, upgrading them, and making sure you get the appropriate armour skill bonuses.

There's a wealth of information out there when you're ready to research this subject in greater detail, but our introductory guide should get you well on the way to evaluating equipment, and choosing the right gear for the job at hand.

Gear to aim for in Monster Hunter 4

In this guide we're concentrating on the earliest days of your hunting career, but there are a few milestones to keep in mind if you've hit a brick wall. As a general rule, you probably want to have a full set of Jaggi armour - choose the correct set for your Blademaster or Gunner specialisation - by the time you go up against the Kecha Wacha fight.

This gear will probably see you through just fine up until the Tetsucabra, but it's probably a good idea to go one more upgrade up when you come up against the Basarios. It's not absolutely necessary to do so, but you'll be punished hard for any mistakes you make. As for weapons, just keep performing regular upgrades but think carefully before committing to a completely new branch of the weapon.

Forging weapons and armour

Forging new weapons and armour in Monster Hunter 4 is pretty simple. Early on in the game you'll be introduced to The Man, a blacksmith back at the village who'll take those resources you gather and forge them into new equipment.

Items you'll be able to craft with the materials you own - including those you have in storage - will be highlighted in white, while those you currently lack the materials for will be greyed out. If you're missing a few resources that you've seen recently, consider completing quests again to grab what you need.

Don't forget to check in on The Man's vendor friend nearby. This character stocks a wide range of base equipment which you'll be able to enhance and upgrade into different avenues of progression.

Before forging or buying any piece of armour, make sure you check the set's weapon affinity! Blademaster armour can only be worn by hunters wielding Blademaster weapons, while Gunner armour can only be worn by Gunners. As you'd expect, items marked as Blademaster / Gunner can be used by either weapon specialist.

Upgrading weapons and armour

Rather than crafting an entirely new weapon, or buying one outright from the weapons vendor, you can upgrade it using the various materials that you've squirrelled away during your adventures. Head to The Man back at base and select the Upgrade Equipment option to see what you can do to give your weapons a little more bite, and your armour a little more weight.

Your first few weapons upgrades are pretty easy to get your head around, and simply involve spending resources in order to boost the raw weapon damage - simple enough, and you can see what's required for each upgrade stage in the bottom left-hand panel on the upper screen. If you're lacking the materials, jump into an Expedition and - hopefully - grab what you need, or just carry on questing if the upgrade's not essential right now. Maybe you'll have what you need later on.

Things get a little more complex when you start facing alternative upgrade options that require different sets of materials. Before committing to one of these upgrade paths, make sure you check the associated stats and elemental bonuses carefully.

One upgrade may boost damage more significantly than another, but you may not be getting an elemental damage boost that's particularly well suited to your current questing environment and prey. Alternatively, the blade may dull more quickly, forcing you into a sharpening stance more often than you'd like.

Armour upgrades are a little easier to understand, as you can level them up by spending Armor Spheres, earned by completing quests or by tapping mining nodes. While these don't seem to be quite as rare as they were in earlier Monster Hunter games, it's worth hanging onto these for as long as you can. More often than not, you might as well just craft a more powerful armour set, rather than waste these precious upgrade tokens on comparatively primitive gear.

How Armour Skills work in Monster Hunter

You're highly incentivised to work towards completing sets of armour in order to accumulate various skill points. As you equip certain pieces of a set, you'll receive a handful of these points. Equip enough pieces - and get enough points in the process - and you'll unlock new skills.

This might result in a boost to your health pool, for example, or leave you less vulnerable to becoming stunned in combat. Another still might allow you to sharpen your blades more quickly and so on.

The skills you value the most will be tightly associated with the weapons you wield and your preferred style of combat. For this reason, it's worth researching new upgrades and purchases carefully before committing your money or your materials.

To see the skills you're currently benefiting from, press Start, then select Status, then scroll right until you see the Skills screen. Here you can scroll up and down and press Y to see how each bonus works.

Towards the end of your third set of Village Quests, you'll also unlock NPCs who can help you craft powerful trinkets that can be used to plug any gaps in your skill trees. You'll find these helpful characters in the Harth region of the game, after you've killed the Tetsucabra.

- Our Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate guide continues with the lowdown on your first five massive monster fights.

- Head back to the first page of this article for the rest of our Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate guide.