Monster Hunter Rise Guide – How to Upgrade Armor Skills and Capture Monsters

Like its predecessors, Monster Hunter Rise has a number of different skills. Each skill has a level and when pairing armor pieces with the same skill together, the skill’s level increases. This can also occur if a weapon, Decoration or Talisman has the corresponding skill. However, there’s also a level cap to each skill – Divine Blessing, for instance, goes up to level 3 and trying to stack it beyond this won’t provide any additional bonus. There are also skills that have only one level – equipping a single instance of it is enough to max out the skill.

Monster Hunter World had Alpha and Beta versions of its armor with some skills on the former having higher levels (offset by the latter having more and/or higher level Decoration slots). Monster Hunter Rise does things slightly differently – there’s only one armor set for each monster but you can craft the same in both Low and High Rank with slight differences in Skills and Skill levels. For example, the Zinogre Set at Low Rank has Latent Power x3, Critical Eye x2 and Constitution x3. The Zinogre S Set at High Rank, however, has Latent Power x4, Critical x1, Weakness Exploit x1 and Constitution x3.

While set bonuses from Monster Hunter World seem to be gone, Rise offers bonuses to all resistances if three or more pieces from the same armor set are equipped. Equipping three pieces of the same set provides +1 to All Resistances while four pieces provides +2 and five pieces provides +3.

How to Capture Monsters

Some objectives in Monster Hunter Rise require capturing instead of slaying monsters but it can be beneficial to prioritize the former whenever possible. First off, capturing a monster requires weakening it. Once it starts limping, you’ll see a blue icon appear which means it can be captured. If it’s sleeping, use Shock Traps or Pitfall Traps and then hit it with Tranq Bombs.

Capturing monsters is a great way to shorten hunts since you don’t have to waste time finishing it off. However, if you’re targeting specific materials that can only be obtained by breaking off parts, then you won’t get them through capturing the monster. If you’re not targeting a specific material, then capture away.