Hammer
A seemingly basic weapon, it involves charging and hitting the monster in the head with the big blunt end of your weapon. The only weapon to currently viably use KO, and a fun spinning Special.
Notes
Armor marked by a 🔸 indicate that the piece is optional, and adds either minimal power to your set or has strong competition in the slot. These sets are created to maximize offensive firepower without many difficult-to-activate conditional skills. The listed grades will be the minimum required to obtain the offensive skills, and it is recommend you upgrade them further than listed if you find the need for more defense. **The build site shows max armor skills.
Other weapon builds
Early Game (Pre-Anjanath)
| Head | Kulu Headpiece (Grade 2) |
| Body Armor | Leather Mail (Grade 2) |
| Vambraces | Girros Vambraces (Grade 2) 🔸 |
| Belt | Leather Belt (Grade 2) 🔸 |
| Greaves | Kulu Greaves (Grade 2) |
The Kulu Headpiece and Greaves are the most important, as they translate well even into late-game. The Girros Vambraces may be swapped for Kulu Vambraces, although the Crit Eye is unlocked at Grade 4.
Mid-Game (Pre-Diablos)
| Head | Kulu Headpiece (Grade 4) |
| Body Armor | Pukei Mail (Grade 4) 🔸 |
| Vambraces | Kulu Vambraces (Grade 4) |
| Belt | Jagras Coil (Grade 4) 🔸 |
| Greaves | Kulu Greaves (Grade 2) 🔸 |
The Pukei Mail provides faster charge time for your hold attack. Leather is still good, though. The coil slot is very flexible, being interchangable with Paolumu and Leather. The Kulu Greaves can be swapped for Jyuratodus Greaves to gain more Focus.
End Game (Pre-Rathalos)
| Head | Rathalos Helm (Grade 5) |
| Body Armor | Rathalos Mail (Grade 6) |
| Vambraces | Rathian Vambraces (Grade 6) |
| Belt | Rathalos Coil (Grade 5) |
| Greaves | Kulu Greaves (Grade 6) 🔸 |
The Kulu Greaves can be swapped for Jyuratodus Greaves, if you find +2 Focus more helpful than extra affinity. There is also an argument for Diablos Greaves, where the extra KO from slugger may be huge.
Hammer Weapon Choice
| Kulu Beak (Kulu) | a strong contender for early progression, providing affinity and the same raw as the Ore tree. |
| Blooming Hammer (Pukei) | another powerful early game progression tool. Added poison and the same raw as Kulu and Ore, alongside looking like a giant feather duster. |
| Girros Hammer (Girros) | a gimmicky choice that combines the fact that Hammer can KO to make a double stun setup (para AND stun). Mostly used as in funny multiplayer sets. |
| Diablos Sledge (Diablos) | the king of the Hammers at the moment. Raw so high it eclipses Kulu's effective raw, and no negative affinity at all. It comes at grade 5 with 512 raw out of the box, truly powerful. |
| Thunder Hammer (Tobi-Kadachi) | your only Thunder option. Good on thunder matchups, you may need it for the Raths. |
| Aqua Hammer (Jyuratodus) | your Water hammer. A good element, and can help squash Kulu, Girros, Tobi, and Anja in record time. |
| Blazing Hammer (Anjanath) | your Fire hammer. There is no Rathalos hammer, so you'll have to make do with this one. Still strong against fire matchups, of course. |
