We’re continuing our coverage of Monster Hunter Wilds, this time covering every caveman’s favourite weapon—the Unga Bunga, sometimes known as the Hammer. This guide will be written with PlayStation/Xbox controls in mind.
The Hammer is perfect for hunters who want to land big, meaty hits without losing mobility. It has superb KO/stun damage and stagger damage, so you will create many openings to then unleash a full combo on your prey.
Your general strategy will be to stay near the head and keep the weapon charged. The hammer has some excellent defence utilities, including an off-set (parry) and a quick-dash while charging the weapon, but you will need to learn to dodge roll while staying close to the monster’s head.
Monster Hunter Wilds – Hammer Basics: Offence
You have 4 main attacks in your arsenal:
1. Overhead Smash, your bread and butter combo when the monster is down or distracted. (triangle triangle triangle/Y Y Y)
The hammer smashes downwards twice, and the third hit is an upswing. You can charge this third hit by holding triangle/Y for longer. This charged upswing is an off-set (parry) attack. You should never go into this combo intending to hit the off-set; however, if the monster moves or begins to attack during this combo, then it is worth charging the third hit and attempting to off-set it. IF you are successful, you will topple the monster and create a great opening!
2. Charge, your main hit-and-run attack. (Hold R2/RT; charges up into 3 stages.).
The charge attack is something you can prep and run around the monster with while it’s enraged. The second level of charge is an uppercut, which deals excellent KO damage and breaks heads quickly. You can dash (called Charged Step) while charging by pressing circle/B. This will quickly dash you forward to avoid attacks without losing your charge level. Rolling to avoid damage will make you lose your charge level.
3. Mighty Charge, your highest damage-dealing attack. (Hold R2/RT to charge to level 3, then hold triangle and circle/Y and B to transition into Mighty Charge).
The Mighty Charge is the Hammers equivalent to Great Swords True Charged Slash. It is slow and requires quite a lot of time to prepare as it charges into two levels, the second dealing the highest damage. This prep time leaves you open/vulnerable to damage, but it is often worth it due to the damage being HUGE. This attack hits so hard, it often KOs the monster and lets you prepare a second Mighty Charge.
4. Big Bang combo, for when the monster has a long opening. (5x Circle/B)
This attack is a long combo string that doesn’t deal too much damage. By itself, it is unimpressive and not worth using compared to the Overhead Smash.
Monster Hunter Wilds – Hammer Advanced Techniques & Combos
1. Your Mighty Charge is the best offence you have, let’s learn how to use it effectively. This huge hit can be used to end the Overhead Smash and Big Bang combos.
With the Overhead Smash combo, you can add a Mighty Charge onto the end of it to really optimise damage when the monster falls over or is stunned/paralysed. The timing is pretty tight; you have to transition straight into holding R2/RT and triangle circle/Y&B after upswinging. If you mistime it, you will go into starting your regular charge.
But with the Big Bang combo, you can replace the lacklustre final hit of that combo with the Mighty Charge by quickly holding R2/RT and triangle+circle/Y+B instead of landing the 5th hit. Your inputs will be circle circle circle circle/BBB, then transition straight into holding R2/RT and triangle+circle/Y+B. You can transform the Big Bang combo into a nice, longer combo!
2. Midair Spinning Bludgeon lets you charge while sliding down a slope to unleash a very quick spinning attack. Its damage isn’t great, but this lets you quickly mount monsters to create more openings and break parts. Use the Focus camera (L2/LT) to aim your spinning and land on the monster’s head for KO damage.
Monster Hunter Wilds – Hammer Recommended Skills:
The Hammer isn’t flashy, and we don’t need to rely on too many utility skills to optimise offence.
1. Offensive skills:
We want to increase the damage dealt by Mighty Charge, so raising our affinity and increasing the damage critical hits do is the easiest way to achieve this.
Weakness Exploit, Critical Boost and Critical Eye help here. These skills are all weapon exclusive in Wilds, using Weapon Decorations or a Talisman to add to your mixset. Critical Boost will significantly increase your damage, but only when your affinity is high!
2. KO skills:
Hammer has great KO damage, so increasing this helps create more opportunities to land Mighty Charge or combos.
Slugger is OK; it won’t really add more KOs to your hunt but will help you get those KOs quicker. Charge Up is good, increasing the stagger and KO of charged hits, and is a Hammer-exclusive skill. Punishing Draw is good for landing those charged level two uppercuts as well. I prefer Charge Up, as it is available as a level-3 decoration with Critical Eye.
3. Utility/Armour skills:
The Hammer can’t block, so we dodge roll a lot. Adding Evade Extender so you roll further away or close the distance to the monster quicker is a great help.
Due to being at the monster’s head a lot, we leave ourselves open to roars and quick jabs a lot. Earplugs are OK, but you do get those built-in to the Rocksteady Mantle. I like Divine Blessing and Counter Strike, as one reduces damage when hit while the other increases your attack when you’re hit. There is good synergy there, and the attack boost, if you max the skill out, is quite high.
Quick Sheath is another cheap skill to add in; this lets you put the weapon away quickly if you need to heal or lay a trap.
Agitator is another good offensive skill that is exclusive to armour and gives you both an attack increase and affinity—this works well if you have Critical Boost on your weapon skills.
Let us know if these tips helped you land more KOs or optimise your mixset!
Be sure to check out our review on Monster Hunter Wilds, the best settings to change, as well as our beginner introduction!
