Monster Hunter World: All Skills List

In Monster Hunter World all weapons, armor pieces and charms come with one or more skills. These skills give you special boosts. High-Rank Armor either has 2 skills or provides you with decoration slots to add your own skills (they are like rune slots).

Skills also have multiple levels. You can equip multiple gear pieces with the same skill to make them stack. So if you have one armor piece with a level 1 attack power boost and another with a level 2 attack power boost you get a total of level 3. As you increase one specific skill its effects will grow stronger. The amount of levels per skill ranges from 3 to 7.

To avoid any confusion: none of these skills are permanent. They are specific to your armor & weapon, but changing the gear will make you lose the skills. Your set of skills in the story will be ever changing as you craft new gear. In the endgame this becomes more important as you will have to decide on your build and change tactics for endgame monsters.

Here is a handy overview of all skills in the game (alphabetized):

Skill List:

• Agitator: Increases attack power and affinity when large monsters become enraged.
• Aquatic Expert: Improves mobility in water.
• Artillery: Strengthens explosive attack like gunlance shells, Wyvern’s Fire, charge blade phial attacks, and sticky ammo.
• Attack Boost: Increases attack power. Also improves affinity at higher levels.
• BBQ Master: Improves your skill at cooking meat.
• Blast Attack: Increases the rate of blast buildup.
• Blast Resistance: Grants protection against blastblight.
• Bleeding Resistance: Grants protecting against bleeding.
• Blindsider: Improves the effectiveness of flash attacks and items.
• Bombardier: Increases the damage of explosive items.
• Botanist: Increases the quantity of herbs and other consumable items you gather.
• Capacity Boost: Increases the gunlance’s shell capacity and charge blade’s phial capacity.
• Critical Draw: Increases affinity when performing draw attacks.
• Critical Eye: Increases affinity.
• Defense Boost: Increases defense. Level up to improve resistance as well.
• Divine Blessing: Has a predetermine chance of reducing the damage you take.
• Dragon Attack: Increases dragon element attack power.
• Dragon Resistance: Increases dragon resistance. Also improves defense at higher levels.
• Dungmaster: Makes monsters hit with slinger dung pods more likely to run.
• Effluvia Resistanc: Gain a resistance to effluvial buildup.
• Entomologist: Decreases the chance of destroying the bodies of small insect monsters, allowing them to be carved.
• Evade Window: Extends the invulnerability period when evading.
• Fire Attack: Increases fire element attack power.
• Fire Resistance: Increases fire resistance. Also improves defense at higher levels.
• Focus: Increases the fill rate for weapons with gauges and the charge rate for weapons with charge attacks.
• Fortify: Increases your attack and defense every time you fall in battle.
• Free Elem/Ammo Up: Unlocks your weapon’s hidden element. Also increases bowgun loading capacity.
• Free Meal: Gives you a predetermined chance of consuming a food or drink item for free.
• Handicraft: Extends the weapon sharpness gauge. However, it will not increase the gauge past its maximum.
• Health Boost: Increases health.
• Heavy Artillery: Increases the firepower of ballistae and cannons.
• Honey Hunter: Increases the quantity of honey you receive when gathering in the field.
• Horn Maestro: Increases the effect duration of hunting horn melodies.
• Hunger Resistance: Reduces maximum stamina depletion over time.
• Ice Attack: Increases ice element attack power.
• Ice Resistance: Increases ice resistance. Also improves defense at higher levels.
• Iron Skin: Grants Protection against Defense Down.
• Item Prolonger: Extends the duration of some item effects.
• Leap of Faith: Allows you to do a dive-evade when facing towards large monsters, and extends the dive-evade distance.
• Geologist: Increases the number of times you can use a gathering point.
• Guard: Reduces knockbacks and stamina depletion when guarding.
• Marathon Runner: Slows down stamina depletion for actions which continuously drain stamina (such as dashing).
• Maximum Might: Increases affinity when stamina is full.
• Meat Fisher: Improves your skill at fishing.
• Muck Resistance: Reduces impairments to mobility when stuck in monster muck.
• Mushroomancer: Lets you digest mushrooms that would otherwise be inedible and gain their advantageous effects.
• Normal Shots: Increases the attack power of normal ammo and normal arrows.
• Quick Sheath: Speeds up weapon sheathing.
• Palico Rally: Powers up Palicos.
• Partbreaker: Makes it easier to break or sever parts of large monsters.
• Peak Performance: Increases attack when your health is full.
• Poison Attack: Increases the rate of poison buildup.
• Poison Resistance: Reduces the duration of poison by 30% / 60% / 100%.
• Pro Transporter: Increases your speed while transporting items and decreases the likelihood of dropping them.
• Recovery Speed: Speeds healing of recoverable damage (the red portion of the health gauge).
• Recovery Up: Increases the amount recovered when restoring health.
• Resentment: Increases attack when you have recoverable damage (the red portion of your health gauge).
• Scenthound: Increases your scoutflies’ gauge fill rate when you find tracks and other traces left by monsters.
• Scholar: Speeds up progress on research levels and special investigations.
• Scoutfly Range Up: Expands your scoutflies’ detection range.
• Sleep Attack: Increases the rate of sleep buildup.
• Sleep Resistance: Reduces the duration of sleep by 30% / 60% / 100%.
• Slinger Capacity: Increases the loading capacity for slinger ammo obtained in the field.
• Slugger: Makes it easier to stun monsters.
• Special Ammo Boost: Increases the power of bowgun special ammo and Dragon Piercer.
• Speed Eating: Increases meat-eating and item-consumption speed.
• Speed Sharpening: Speeds up weapon sharpening when using a whetstone.
• Sporepuff Expert: Recover health when using sporepuffs.
• Stamina Thief: Increases certain attacks’ ability to exhaust monsters.
• Stealth: Makes it easier for monsters to lose sight of you.
• Stun Resistance: Reduce stun duration by 30% / 60% / 100%.
• Thunder Attack: Increases thunder element attack power.
• Thunder Resistance: Increases thunder resistance. Also improves defense at higher levels.
• Tool Specialist: Reduces the recharge time for specialized tools.
• Water Attack: Increases water element attack power.
• Water Resistance: Increases fire resistance. Also improves defense at higher levels.
• Wide-Range: Allows the effects of certain items to also affect nearby allies.
• Windproof: Grants Protection against wind pressure.

For more on Monster Hunter World including all armor sets and crafting materials, check out our Monster Hunter World Wiki.