Your weapon sharpness affects the damage you deal in Monster Hunter World . How does sharpness affect your attack values and how can it be improved?
Your equipment is everything you possess in Monster Hunter World when fighting against the monsters. In this action RPG, there is no XP system that automatically makes your character stronger over time. You always need to try to get the most out of your armor and weapons.
Improving your weapon’s sharpness is one way to increase the damage value. Sharpness can multiply the base damage of your weapon.
Sharpness – Damage multiplier for melee weapons
Sharpness is a damage multiplier represented by different colors on a bar. The colors on the bar indicate how much extra damage you can potentially deal with the sharpness of the weapon.
How do the colors affect the weapon’s damage values?
- Red: 50% potential extra damage
- Orange: 75% potential extra damage
- Yellow: 100% potential extra damage
- Green: 105% extra damage
- Blue: 120% extra damage
- White: 132% extra damage
- Purple: 145% extra damage (currently not in Monster Hunter World. It remains to be seen if purple will come through a DLC)
A weapon sharpness from the blue area provides you with good extra damage, while the red area results in much less damage:
Melee weapons lose sharpness in battle – Use a whetstone
The sharpness value is only relevant for melee weapons, which continuously lose sharpness when striking. These weapons wear down over time in battle. The lower the sharpness of a weapon, the more often its attacks are deflected. If your sharpness is in the red area, your strikes will almost always bounce off the monster and you will deal hardly any damage.
You can restore the weapon sharpness by using a whetstone. So you need to constantly improve your weapon actively on missions. When you use a whetstone, you are bound to one place for a while. Your hunter kneels down to sharpen their weapon.
Ranged weapons (bow, light and heavy bowgun) are not affected by the sharpness value. You use a new projectile with each attack, which therefore cannot wear down over time.
The sharpness of your weapon is displayed at the top left under your weapon and you can observe its wear. You have the whetstone equipped by default and you have an unlimited supply of whetstones available. In the lower pie menu, the whetstone is visible at the top.
Skills and decorations improve the sharpness of your weapon
When you use the whetstone, you go through sharpening cycles, and that can take a lot of time. However, there are skills that can improve the base value of sharpness or remove sharpening cycles.
Your armor is equipped with skills, and decorations can also grant new skills to your equipment. Each piece of armor from a set has different skills that affect your fight against monsters. Some of these skills improve the sharpness of your weapon.
Decorations can be used once you reach high rank. Here we explain how to rank up in Monster Hunter World and unlock new armor. They are embedded in armor pieces or talismans.
Skills that positively affect sharpness:
Skill: Crafting
Improves sharpness based on the number of equipment with this skill that the hunter carries. The individual levels improve sharpness as follows:
- Level 1: Weapon sharpness +10
- Level 2: Weapon sharpness +20
- Level 3: Weapon sharpness +30
- Level 4: Weapon sharpness +40
- Level 5: Weapon sharpness +50
The skill Crafting is found in the armor pieces:
- Boots Alloy Set
- Chestpiece Odogaron Set
- Gloves Alloy Set Alpha
- Boots Alloy Set Alpha and Beta
- Headgear Damascus Set Alpha
- Gloves Damascus Set Alpha
The skill Crafting is available as a decoration, in the form of the Crafting jewel. If you add the decoration to armor, it gains this skill.
Skill: Fast Sharpening
Removes one sharpening cycle based on the number of equipment with this skill that the hunter carries. The individual levels remove cycles as follows:
- Level 1: Removes one sharpening cycle when sharpening
- Level 2: Removes two sharpening cycles when sharpening
- Level 3: Removes three sharpening cycles when sharpening
Fast Sharpening is found in the armor pieces:
- Boots Alloy Set
- Chestpiece Odogaron Set
- Gloves Alloy Set Alpha
- Boots Alloy Set Alpha and Beta
- Headgear Damascus Set Alpha
- Gloves Damascus Set Alpha
The skill Fast Sharpening is available as a decoration in the form of a jewel. If you add the decoration to armor, it gains this skill.
If you are using fast melee weapons, the sharpness value is particularly important for you. Especially the dual blades wear down quickly and can receive an extra boost from sharpness.
An overview of all 14 weapon classes in Monster Hunter World is available here
