As you progress through the story quests in Monster Hunter Now, you will unlock new weapons and armor sets. Unlike some other mobile games, the Monster Hunter Now weapons are not ranked through a 5-star or SSR system. Instead, weapons become available to you based on where you are in the story and which monsters you can hunt.
Monster Hunter Now: Bow Guide | Monster Hunter Now: Great Sword Guide | Monster Hunter Now: Long Sword Guide
There are three steps to powering up your weapons: forging new weapons, upgrading current weapons, and overgrading weapons for more effective Special Skills. Sometimes, overgrading will unlock Equipment Skills.
Forge
Forging unlocks when you reach Hunter Rank 6. If you’ve unlocked new equipment pieces but can’t forge them, they will appear as opaque on your screen. You’ll be able to see their attack stats, so you can pick and choose depending on what you need. This is useful when you need weapons of a specific element.
If the equipment can be forged, it will have a red hammer in the upper right corner of its icon. Some equipment will unlock as you defeat more and more Large Monsters. However, other equipment sets may unlock after you forge a certain amount of other equipment.
To forge equipment:
- Select the weapon icon on the Main Screen. This is next to your Hunter icon.
- Tap on a weapon or piece of armor with a red hammer on it.
- Tap on Forge.
After forging, the equipment will be ready to use. As you continue playing the game, some equipment will automatically be forged at a higher Grade. For example, after defeating the first Paolumu, the Lumu Armor Set will be forged at Grade 2.
Upgrade
Upgrading unlocks when you reach Hunter Rank 4 and allows you to upgrade your starting equipment – the Leather Armor set and Hunter’s Knife. Weapons and Armor require their associated Monster materials, other materials such as ore, and Zenny to upgrade.
Every piece of equipment will have an arrow in the upper right corner of its icon. When the arrow is gray, the equipment can still be upgraded but you don’t have the materials to do so. When the arrow is green, the piece is ready to upgrade.
To upgrade your equipment:
- Select the weapon icon on the Main Screen. Tap on a weapon or piece of armor with a green arrow. This will bring up the Equipment Details screen. If you tap on the green arrow directly, it will automatically take you to the upgrade screen.
- From the Equipment Details screen, select the Level Up button.
- Tap on Level Up again to upgrade your equipment.
Equipment can be leveled up five times per grade. Once you reach Level 5 of a given Grade, you need to overgrade the equipment in order to continue upgrading it.
Overgrade
Unlocking at Hunter Rank 11, overgrading allows you to increase the grade of your equipment. At certain grades, your equipment will gain equipment skills. All weapons have one equipment skill while armor pieces may have two. At Grade 2, all weapons gain their Special Skill. Currently, all equipment can be overgraded up to Grade 10.
Equipment capable of being overgraded will also be marked with the green Upgrade arrow. To overgrade your equipment, follow the upgrading instructions.
Related Guides: Monster Hunter Now: Sword & Shield Guide | Monster Hunter Now: Hammer Guide | Monster Hunter Now: Light Bowgun Guide | Monster Hunter Now: Equipment Skills Guide
