Understanding Set Bonuses in Monster Hunter: Wilds

While many fans of Monster Hunter Wilds are drawn to the intense boss battles, there’s a significant portion of players who find joy in crafting impressive armor sets. Equipping your character with a new high-level outfit serves as a badge of honor in the community, showcasing your skill as a hunter.

However, armor is not just about looks. It boosts your base defense and elemental resistances, and it also influences the skills you can use during combat. Unlike other action RPGs, Monster Hunter doesn’t have a straightforward upgrade path. Instead, your capabilities depend on your chosen loadout. Below, we outline the various types of skills in Wilds and how they work together.

Understanding Equipment Skills

Equipment skills are abilities linked to specific armor or weapons you have equipped. For instance, if you use a sword and shield that features the Guard ability, you’ll gain that capability while hunting.

These skills come with levels, allowing for further enhancement. Wearing a helmet that grants Speed Eating provides you with Speed Eating Lv1, but adding another piece of gear with the same skill boosts it to Lv2, and equipping yet another piece raises it to Lv3.

Most skill effects are capped at either Lv3 or Lv5, depending on whether you equip three or five items with the same skill.

As you customize your skill loadout through thoughtful armor crafting, you gain a significant level of flexibility. You can opt for a wider range of lighter skills or concentrate on fewer but more powerful perks.

Overview of Group Skills

Group skills come into play when certain armor pieces work in tandem to provide additional abilities, regardless of whether they come from the same monster.

For example, there are various armor sets that fall under the Flexible Leathercraft classification. Equipping any three items from this category grants you the Hunter Gatherer skill, no matter the sources of the armor. Below is a summary of all the group skills available in the game:

Armor Group Name	Group Skill Name	Group Skill Effect
Alluring Pelt	Diversion	Increases monster attention when you attack.
Butterfly Leathercraft	Affinity Sliding	Boosts your affinity while sliding.
Flexible Leathercraft	Hunter Gatherer	Prevents knockback and boosts speed for carving and gathering.
Fortifying Pelt	Fortify	Enhances attack and defense after fainting, usable twice.
Guardian’s Protection	Ward of Wyveria	Reduces elemental damage in the Ruins of Wyveria.
Guardian’s Pulse	Wylk Burst	Boosts stamina and red gauge recovery near Wylkrystals.
Imparted Wisdom	Forager’s Luck	Increases chances of finding rare gathering spots.
Lord’s Favor	Inspiration	Boosts attack power when using area effects.
Lord’s Fury	Resuscitate	Increases attack when dealing with ailments.
Neopteron Alert	Honey Hunter	Increases honey gathering.
Neopteron Camouflage	Fleetfoot	Boosts movement speed while crouching and helps evade monster attention.
Scale Layering	Adrenaline	Reduces stamina consumption when health drops below 40%.
Scaling Prowess	Master Mounter	Makes mounting monsters easier.

To activate group skills, you must equip three armor pieces.

Understanding Set Bonuses

Set bonuses function similarly to group skills, but they have more requirements. You need specific armor from certain monsters to gain their advantages.

Interestingly, full armor sets aren’t necessary to trigger these bonuses. The first level activates with just two pieces equipped, and the second level requires four. Here are the set bonuses you should keep an eye out for:

Set Bonus Name	Effect
Arkveld’s Hunger	Lv1: Regenerates a portion of health while attacking monsters. Lv2: Increases the health regenerated while attacking monsters.
Blangonga’s Spirit	Lv1: Increases ally attack power with the To Victory! emote. Lv2: Greatly increases ally attack power with the To Victory! emote.
Doshaguma’s Might	Lv1: Buffs attack power by +10 after performing a Power Clash or Offset attack. Lv2: Buffs attack power by +25 after performing a Power Clash or Offset attack.
Ebony Odogaron’s Power	Lv1: Extends the Burst skill and boosts attack power +3 while Burst is active. Lv2: Significantly extends the Burst skill and boosts attack power +10 while Burst is active.
Fulgur Anjanath’s Will	Lv1: Grants an additional stamina gauge. Lv2: Increases the duration of the additional stamina gauge.
Gore Magala’s Tyranny	Lv1: Inflicts Frenzy status when near large monsters. Lv2: Inflicts Frenzy status when near large monsters and boosts attack power.
Gravios’s Protection	Lv1: Reduces damage by 5% when at full health. Lv2: Reduces damage by 10% when at full health.
Guardian Arkveld’s Vitality	Lv1: Restores some health when defeating a wound. Lv2: Restores a substantial amount of health when defeating a wound.
Jin Dahaad’s Revolt	Lv1: Increases attack power after recovering from being webbed, pinned, frostblight, or Power Clash. Lv2: Further increases attack power under the same conditions.
Nu Udra’s Mutiny	Lv1: Increases damage while Resentment status is active. Lv2: Greatly increases damage while Resentment status is active.
Rathalos’s Flare	Lv1: Activates a chance to deal fire damage with each attack. Lv2: Buffs the fire damage of each attack.
Rey Dau’s Voltage	Lv1: Slightly extends the activation time of Latent Power. Lv2: Greatly extends the activation time of Latent Power.
Uth Duna’s Cover	Lv1: Increases defense when using a specialized tool. Lv2: Significantly increases defense when using a specialized tool.
Xu Wu’s Vigor	Lv1: Buffs attack power by +15 after consuming food like well-done steak. Lv2: Buffs attack power by +25 after consuming food like well-done steak.