Master Rank Armor Augmentation & Custom Upgrades
Once you've reached Master Rank in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, the true depth of armor customization opens up through Augmentation and Custom Upgrades. This system allows you to further enhance your existing Master Rank armor pieces, pushing their defensive and offensive capabilities to their absolute limits. Augmenting requires specific materials, often found through high-level investigations and tempered monster hunts, such as Tempered Elder Dragon Blood and Spiritvein Crystals. These materials are scarce, making careful selection of which armor pieces to augment paramount.
Custom Upgrades are applied after an armor piece has been augmented. This process involves spending additional materials and Zenny to add extra slots for Decorations or to boost the armor's base stats. For example, a piece of armor might have its Defense increased by a significant margin, or gain an additional Level 4 Decoration slot. This is where you can truly tailor your build. A common strategy involves augmenting armor pieces that offer crucial skills like Attack Boost +4 or Critical Eye +4, and then using Custom Upgrades to add more slots for specialized Decorations like Expert Jewel +4 or Tenderizer Jewel +4.
The key to effective Master Rank armor augmentation lies in understanding your target build. Are you aiming for raw damage output with skills like Agitator Secret and Weakness Exploit? Or perhaps a more defensive approach with Health Boost +3 and Guard Up? Each Master Rank armor set, such as the formidable Raging Brachydios armor, offers unique skill combinations that can be amplified. Prioritize augmenting pieces that provide the most impactful skill boosts or the most valuable Decoration slots for your chosen weapon and playstyle. Don't overlook the importance of the Artillery Charm V when considering artillery-focused builds, as its effectiveness can be further bolstered by optimized armor.
Mistakes to avoid include indiscriminately augmenting every piece of armor you acquire. Focus on pieces that form the core of your endgame builds. Furthermore, ensure you are farming the correct materials for augmentation. For instance, specific tempered monsters in the Guiding Lands drop unique materials crucial for certain augmentations. Always check the required materials in the Smithy's augmentation menu before embarking on hunts.