Top 5 Skills you want on every build in Monster Hunter Wilds

Buildcrafting in Monster Hunter Wilds, and the series in general, is as central to the gameplay as fighting monsters is. And while each game introduces new Skills and adjusts old ones to shake up the meta, there are five you can always count on to improve a build.

The five Skills you want on every Monster Hunter Wilds build

Note that the Monster Hunter Wilds Skill meta is in flux as the community starts reaching the endgame and digging into the numbers. We'll be updating this article once the meta solidifies. The Skills we're listing here are the best workhorse options for almost any build you can dream up.

Critical Eye

Critical Eye has always been a top-tier Skill because it only has one effect: increasing your build's Affinity. Affinity is the chance to score a critical hit with an attack. You'll know you've landed a crit by a bright pink star burst next to the damage number. Crits deal 25 percent additional damage.

The Critical Eye Skill in Monster Hunter Wilds isn't quite as strong as it once was, with each stack only granting a four percent Affinity boost up to 20 percent. However, if you pair that bonus with wound damage, additional Affinity from your weapons, and other gear, you can potentially build into 50 percent Affinity or higher. One critical hit every two damage ticks adds up quickly.

Critical Eye also helps out those weapons that start with negative Affinity. Negative Affinity gear often has a higher raw damage value to compensate for losing out on crit chance, and you'll deal 25% less damage if you hit within the negative Affinity zone. Keeping Critical Eye active can mitigate those chances significantly.

Weakness Exploit

Weaknes Exploit, or WEX, got a modest but still statistically notable nerf in Monster Hunter Wilds. However, it's still one of the best generalist perks in the game, as its effects don't rely on specific actions or playstyles. Play the game in almost any way, and WEX will do the work.

WEX's effect is simple. Hit an enemy's weak point (for yellow damage), and you get up to 30 percent extra Affinity on the hit. You also get up to a 20% bonus Affinity when hitting Wounds. That's it. It's always on, and if you're attacking a monster's head, limbs, and other squishy areas, WEX will always give you value. The only determining factor is the amount of damage it can modify, as it doesn't provide raw or elemental damage on its own.

Agitator

Another endgame staple, Agitator, is the first on this list to require an in-hunt activation condition. Thankfully, that condition is very common. Agitator activates whenever a monster enters the Enrage state (almost always after a roar). Like WEX and Critical Eye, its effects are simple.

While an enemy is Enraged, Agitator grants up to a flat +20 Attack and 15 percent additional Affinity. Combining it with WEX and Critical Eye can, therefore, easily get you to 100% in-hunt Affinity with almost no effort on your part.

Agitator's biggest advantage is the flat Attack stat bonus. The higher your Attack, the more damage your weapons deal. While an additional 20 points to the stat doesn't seem like much, it does add up over time, and there's no upper limit on how high you can boost your Attack beyond what you can equip.

Attack Boost

One of the simplest Skills in Monster Hunter Wilds, Attack Boost, or AB, does exactly what you think it does: boost your Attack stat. What's interesting about high levels of AB is how it scales your attack.

The first three levels of AB grant a +3, +5, and +7 bonus to your Attack, but levels four and five instead increase your attack by two percent and four percent, respectively. Levels four and five also provide a +8 and +9 Attack stat bonus, respectively, that's retroactively calculated into the percent increase.

In short, if you can, get to at least level four of Attack Boost for the much more generous damage increase. If you can't, it's not a huge deal. Even a few stacks of AB can go a long way.

Critical Boost

Another simple Skill that pairs well with the other four listed here, Critical Boost also does exactly what you'd think: increases critical hit damage. Again, by default, a critical hit deals 25% additional damage. Critical Boost...boosts that damage by up to 40 percent at level five.

Critical Boost has no activation requirement beyond you getting critical hits. It's always on, waiting for one to happen. Like WEX and Critical Eye, however, Critical Boost cannot increase your base damage. It only modifies what you can already do. Sure, it's a big modification, but if your raw damage is pitiful, your crits will be too.

Monster Hunter Wilds Skills we're watching

Monster Hunter Wilds added a number of new perks to the pool with incredible potential. There are also a few old standbys worth watching as well.

• Burst provides a small raw and elemental damage boost on the first hit, increasing that bonus after five hits. On the right weapons (the Longsword, Dual Blades, and other fast-hitting options), it could be a real menace in the right hands.
• Flayer makes inflicting wounds easier and automatically deals a burst of non-elemental damage once you've dealt enough damage of your own. Wounds are a central mechanic to hunting Monster in Wilds, making Flayer a solid contender for the top tier.
• Resentment provides up to a flat +25 bonus to your Attack stat whenever you have red, recoverable health. This effect defined high-risk, high-reward gameplay in both Monster Hunter World and Rise, and it very well could again with Wilds.
• Evade Window increases the number of invincibility frames you receive when dodging. At the highest levels of play, the goal is to never be hit at all, and Evade Window trades damage for safety, which is antithetical to most endgame builds. For a larger audience, it might be a better, more comfortable choice.
• Coalescence increases your elemental damage and status buildup after you recover from a blight or status of your own. It was incredibly powerful in previous games in certain builds, regardless of the weapon you used, so I'll be curious to see if it makes a return to form in Wilds.

Those are the Skills I'd recommend always having on hand regardless of what kind of build you're going for. They're easy to understand, easy or free to activate, and never truly go out of style.

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