Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – Skills, Numbers & Modifiers Guide

Guide to Skills, Numbers & Modifiers

Weapons

Low Sharpness Mod (LSM)

• Up to 40% raw reduction depending on the timing of the hit animation if you have Sharpness that is Yellow or lower.
• Spirit gain is impacted by hitzone.

Greatsword

• 5% sharp mod on center of blade
• Charge attack sharp mods
  • Level 1 = 1.1 / Level 2 = 1.2 / Level 3 = 1.3
• Charge ele mods
  • Normal Charge – Level 1 = 1.2 / Level 2 = 1.5 / Level 3 = 2.0
  • Strong Charge – Level 1 = 1.8 / Level 2 = 2.25 / Level 3 = 3.0

Longsword

5% sharp mod on center of blade

• The spirit levels are all raw mods. White, Yellow and Red are 5%/10%/30% respectively.
• White/Yellow/Red spirit lasts for (6mins 30 secs/4mins 30 secs/2 mins).
• When you fill your spirit (flashing) you get a 13% sharp mod.
• Hitting higher hitzones will give you more gauge.
• Using bigger MV moves will give you more gauge.

Sword and Shield

• Hidden 1.06 sharp mod on bladed attacked
• 2.0 ele mod on charged attack

Dual Blades

• A single button press with multiple hits only rolls for affinity once (all of sling shot crits, demon dance and so on) still applies to other weapons as well.
• Demon mode modifies MV by a hidden 1.10-1.15 mod
• Has .50 ele mods littered around the kit

Switch Axe

• Power Phial +20% raw on sword mode attacks
• Element Phial +25% Element or Status (still has BM proc rate for status)
• Ele Phial also awakens latent element in sword mode

Insect Glaive

• 20% raw with White and Red
• 25% raw with Triple Up
  • Red lasts for 60 seconds, White lasts for 90, Orange lasts 45
  • Triple up turns the timer into a uniform 60
  • Extract extender doubles the duration of extracts.

Hunting Horn

Songs (encores replace the effect of the original song):

• +10% raw for Attack Up (S) song.
• +15% raw for Attack Up (S) Encore.
• +15% raw for Attack Up (L) song.
• +20% raw for Attack Up (L) Encore.
• +15% element (Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice, Dragon) for Elemental Attack Boost song.
• +20% element for Elemental Attack Boost Encore.
• +10% Status (Poison, Para, Sleep) for Abnormal Attack Boost song.
• +15% Status for Abnormal Attack Boost Encore.
• +15% Affinity for Affinity Up Song.
• +20% Affinity for Affinity Up Encore.

Innate Mind’s Eye for user only for Self-Improvement Encore. (Does not replace movement speed increase of standard song).

Gun Lance

• Shells are fixed damage with a smidge of fire & still impacted by def mod
• Has super back hops like lance (backhop and tap back at the same time)

Clown Blade

Red Shield buffs

• +20% damage on all axe attacks
• +35% damage for Impact Phial bursts.
• +35% KO for all Impact Phial bursts.
• +35% Exhaust for all Impact Phial bursts.
• +40% Element for all Element Phials

• Phial damage % increase from food and armor skills caps at 40%
• Phial effects are fixed damage that scale with raw & still impacted by def mod
• When charging Shield Buff, each phial equals 30s.
• Shield buff increases your block tier
• GP increases your block tier
• Yellow indicates 30 seconds of shield charge left.

Lance

Innate Impact/Cut Hitzone

If the Impact value * 0.72 > Cut value for a single hitzone of a monster, then use the Impact value in full to calculate damage. Deals Cut-type damage for the purpose of severing tails.

Lance dash has a .50 ele mod on the ticks.

Tapping back on the movement pad at the same time as a back hop will cause you to super hop.

Bow

• +50% raw when power coats are applied
• Close Range Coating boost gives close coat power coat’s damage mod 
• (+50% raw, Seregios bow only)
• The Temper food skill works, Sharpshooter does not
• +20% status applied if it gets that status coating boosted

Charge 1 (no charge)

• 0.40 raw/0.7 ele

Charge 2

• 1.0 raw/0.85 ele

Charge 3

• 1.5 raw/1.0 ele

Charge 4

• 1.7 raw/1.125 ele

Light Bowgun

• +30% raw mod

Long Barrel is roughly +7% additive raw based on the base raw of the gun only and before buffs

Heavy Bowgun

• +48% raw mod.

Limiter off changes the 48% mod (50% display) to 70% (+22% raw mod).

Power barrel is +10% additive raw based on the base raw of the gun only and before buffs.

Critical Distance

• +0% Raw at Normal Range.
• +50% Raw at Critical Distance.
• -20% Raw at Long Range.
• -50% Raw at Extremely Long Range.
• +20% Raw at Critical Distance (+70%) when under the effects of Demon S.

A shot’s Critical Distance is determined by the amount of time it has spent in the air.

Armor Skills

Compound skills use the same “slots” as the skills they are combinations of and thus do not stack. Unless stated otherwise everything else stacks.

I will not be listing every skill in the game.

Name of the skill point under skill name.

Challenger 1/2

Spirit

• +10 raw & +10 affinity when a monster in the same area is enraged
• +25 raw & +20 affinity when a monster in the same area is enraged
• Hand skill

Weakness Exploit

Tenderizer

• +5 to a hitzone when attacking a 45 or above hitzone (brings a 45 hitzone to 50 for example)

Attack up S/M/L/Xl

Attack

• 10/15/20/25 raw respectively

Crit eye 1/2/3/god

Expert

• 10/15/20/30 affinity respectively

Critical Draw

Crit draw

• +100 Affinity on draw attacks

Focus

Fastcharge

• +20% charge speed for GS and Bow
• +20% charge/gauge gain rate for Hammer, LS, DB, SA and CB phials

Pierce up

Pierce up

• Increases raw damage of Pierce ammo as well as Pierce arrows by 10%

Rapid/Normal up

Normal up

• Increases raw damage of Normal ammo and Rapid arrows by 10%

Pellet/Spread up

Increases the raw damage of Pellet by 20% and Increases the raw damage of Spread arrows by 30%

Trajectory

Dead eye

• +50% on the backend time frame of critical distance

Sharpness +1

Handicraft

• +50 units of sharpness if it can be added

Razor Sharp

Sharpness

• Halves sharpness usage if the move uses at least 2 unit of sharpness
• 50% chance to negate sharpness loss if the move uses 1 unit
• There is no such thing as “half a unit of sharpness”

Recoil Down 1/2/3

Recoil

• Reduces recoil of bowguns by 1/2/3 level(s)

Reload Speed 1/2/3

Reload speed

• Increases Reload speed of Bowguns bow 1/2/3 level(s)

(Element) Attack +1/2/3

(Element) attack

• +5% then +4/+10% then +6/+15% then +9 element respectively

Element Attack up

Elemental

• +10% element on all elements

You will over cap on element with this and element attack up 3 and most of this skill will be wasted.

Artillery nov/expert/god

Artillery

• +30%/+35%/+40% damage respectively on CB phial effects
• +10%/+20%/+30% shell damage on GL

Evasion

Evasion

• Evasion -1: 0.1 seconds (3 frames) 
• Default : 0.2 seconds (6 frames) 
• Evasion +1 : 0.33 seconds (10 frames) 
• Evasion +2 : 0.40 seconds (12 frames)
• Evasion +3: 0.60 seconds (18 frames)

Evade Extender

Evade distance

• +50% to the distance of roll, dash and hop actions

Load Up

Loading

• Grant bow an additional level of charge if it is not already at max
• Gives Charge Blade 1 more phial and more charge per hit
• Gives Gunlance 1 more shell
• Gives Bowguns +1 to mag sizes

Peak Performance

Unscathed

• +20 raw when you are at 100% HP
• Hand skill

Adrenaline +1/2

Potential

• +15 defense/ +45 defense and +30% raw if HP is 40% or less respectively
• Does not stack with the food skill Heroics

Fortify

Survivor

• +10% raw and +15% def for each cart.
• Stacks up to 2 times

Latent Power 1/2

Gloves off

Upon taking 180 damage or staying in the same area as the monster for 5 mins, gain 30 affinity & -50 stamina consumption/ 50 affinity % -75% stamina consumption

• For 90 seconds
• Hand skill

Elemental Crit

Crit element

On a Critical Hit, increases your Element (Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice, Dragon) by a specific amount, based on the weapon type.

• Great Sword – +20%.
• Light Bowgun and Heavy Bowgun – +30%.
• Sword and Shield, Dual Blades, and Bow – +35%.
• Other weapons – +25%.

Status Atk +1/2

Status

• +10%, then +1 True Status (Poison, Para, Sleep) damage.
• +20%, then +1 True Status (Poison, Para, Sleep) damage.

Status Crit

Crit status 

On a Critical Hit, increases your Status (Poison, Para, Sleep, Blast) by a specific amount, based on the weapon type.

• Great Sword – +15%.
• Bow – +50%.
• Other weapons – +20%.

Awaken

Free element

Enables latent element/status on your weapon if it wasn’t active before

Rock Steady

Unshakable

Compound skill of Windproof (Lo) and Earplugs

Additional Knockback Resistance – Reduces reaction to getting hit by monsters and teammates alike. Does not stop flinches

Torso Up

Torso Up

• Not really an actual skill per say
• All torso up armor comes with no slots and only torso up
• Doubles the skill points of your chest piece.

Compound Skills

Honed Blade

Edgemaster

Compound skill of Attack up L and Sharpness +1

Steady Hand

Edgelore 

Compound skill of razor sharp and minds eye

Sheath Control

Readiness

Compound skill of Punish Draw and Quick Sheath

Ruthlessness

Brutality 

Compound skill of Weakness Exploit and Crit eye +2

Fleet feet

Prudence 

Compound skill of Peak Performance and Evade Extender

Enlightened Blade

Arcana

Compound skill of Awaken, Elemental attack up and status attack +1

Wrath Awoken

Fury

Compound skill of Guts and Adrenaline +2.

Food Skills

Attack Meals

• S – +3 True Raw
• M – +5 True Raw (same effect & slot as Demon drug)
• L – +7 True Raw (Same effect & slot as Mega Demon drug)

Bombardier (food skill)

• +15% Raw for Crag S
• +10% damage for Ballistae and Cannons.
• +10% Fire for Gunlance Shells.
• +15% more damage for CB phial effects.

Booster

+3 Raw and +10 Defense for 10 minutes at the start of the quest, or for 10 minutes after you sleep at the Base Camp bed.

Heroics

• +35% raw at 10 or less HP

Does not stack with the armor skill Adrenaline

Sharpshooter

• 10% more damage on Normal shot bowgun ammo

Temper

• 5% more raw on all bowgun shots and bow’s arrows

Doesn’t work on secondary hits (slicing’s cuts for example)

Increases deviation by 1 level

Cool Cat

• +15 True Raw when using Kick Back gesture.

Specialist

• +12.5% Status.

Slugger

10% more ko (same effect and slot as KO king armor skill)

Others

Power Charm

• +6 raw when in inventory

Power Talon

• +9 raw when in inventory

Demon shot

• +10 raw
• 10% sharp mod for Blade Master
• 20% more damage in critical distance for Gunners

Might Seed

• +10 raw for 3mins (same effect & slot as demon horn)

Might Pill

• +25 raw for 30 seconds

Same buff slot as seed

Overcoming Frenzy

• +15 affinity.