While adorning yourself in the most fashionable of outfits oftentimes takes priority, managing the Armor Skills of your equipment in Monster Hunter World is just as important. The levels of these Skills, in particular, can determine how effective a specific build you are going for is. You also need to consider how many levels are available for a distinct Skill, as attempting to go beyond the maximum number of slots is impossible. Nevertheless, before we go into too much detail, let’s go over how leveling up Armor Skills works in MHW.
How To Upgrade Armor Skills in MHW
Be careful not to confuse upgrading your equipment with leveling up your Armor Skills. Spending Armor Spheres at the Smithy will not increase the levels of your Skills; conversely, stacking or equipping gear that shares the same Skills will.
Let’s use my “Resource Gatherer Build” as an example. Because I use this preset for farming plant nodes in the environment, Botanist is a must-have for this set. To reach Botanist’s max level of 3, I have equipped Rathian Mail (chest) and Butterfly Brachia (arms), two pieces of gear that have the Botanist Skill.
Combined, these two pieces of equipment “level up” my Botanist Armor Skill to the max in MHW, granting me the full mechanical benefits of the Skill. However, I should note that both gear pieces possess Level 2 Botanist, but that doesn’t mean I can reach Botanist Level 4 since that doesn’t exist. You needn’t worry about the game penalizing you for “overstacking” Skills, though.
Likewise, keep an eye on how many levels or slots a given Armor Skill has available. Skills like Master Gatherer and Forager’s Luck max out at Level 1, while Attack Boost can go all the way up to Level 7. That said, whenever mixing and matching your gear for specific builds, consider how many levels of an Armor Skill the equipment offers before heading out to the hunting grounds.
