Crafting and Upgrading: Basics

Understand that equipment can be forged or upgraded. Upgrading armor increases defense, while upgrading weapons increases attack power, sharpness, elemental power, and affinity (or can decrease affinity). Deviant equipment has a special upgrade system detailed elsewhere.

Recognize that upgrading in Monster Hunter Generations is more complex than in previous games, featuring gear levels and upgrade branches. Armor only has levels, not upgrade trees.

To upgrade armor, you need zenny, material points, and armor spheres.

Material points are earned from monster parts, with common materials worth 1 point and rarer materials worth 3 points.

Armor requires contributing materials until a cap is reached, followed by paying zenny and using the next component.

Armor spheres are special items used to fortify gear. They can be mined, and lower grades can be purchased from Neko (means “Cat”). Higher grades of armor spheres (e.g., Advanced Armor Spheres, Armor Spheres+) are needed for higher upgrade levels.

Weapons also level up, requiring zenny, monster parts, and miscellaneous ores or bugs. Different weapons have different level caps.

Leveling up a weapon significantly increases its power and sharpness, making most weapons viable in the endgame due to their level caps.

A weapon's level is independent of its position on the upgrade tree. Leveling up a weapon unlocks different branch possibilities.

Choosing an upgrade branch resets the weapon's level to 1, and the materials required for upgrades will change.

Upgrading a weapon changes its appearance and theme. For example, max-level Petrified Daggers can be upgraded into options like Insecticutters or Obsidian Daggers.

You can choose to only level up a weapon without changing its branch, or select a new branch, which resets its level to 1.

Changing an upgrade path might cause a slight initial power decrease, but this is compensated for as the weapon is leveled up again.

Some weapons are available to be forged directly, bypassing upgrade trees, by spending more zenny and monster parts. This can save resources.

Other weapons are gated within upgrade trees and cannot be forged directly. Always check the Smithy for available options before committing resources.