Best Switch Axe Skills in MHWilds- InMonster Hunter Wilds, the satisfying gameplay loop of hunting monsters to get loot to craft stronger gear to hunt strongermonstersmakes a grand return. And with this grand return also comes the return of a variety of skills that come with the equipment you will be forging and using in your hunts.
In Monster Hunter Wilds, there are a total of 148Skillsthat have unique effects, and each one of them is helpful in a particular aspect when you are playing the game. A lot of the skills that were in the previous games make a return with a few newly added skills.
The biggest change to skills in Monster Hunter Wilds is that some of the Equipment skills that were on the armor pieces in the previous games have been moved to the weapons. This particular change makes it so that you will not be locked into specific monster trees when using a particular weapon.
In this guide, we will be taking a look at the skills that will bring out the Switch Axe’s full potential during your hunts.
The Switch Axe is a morph weapon that can alternate between axe mode and sword mode, featuring two gauges and two powered-up modes. Managing these gauges and maintaining the powered-up modes leads to great damage output. Therefore, skills that enhance these mechanics are the best to include in your loadout when using the Switch Axe as your primary weapon.
Best Switch Axe Skills in MHWilds
Best Switch AxeSkills
Second Best Switch AxeSkills
Optional Switch AxeSkills
The Best Tier skills to use with the Switch Axe
The best skills to have when using the Switch Axe are theRapid Morph, Power Prolonger, Focus, Partbreaker, ResentmentandFlayerskills. The Rapid Morph, Power Prolonger and Focus skills are equipment skills that can be found on weapons and the Partbreaker, Resentment and Flayer skills are equipment skills that can be found on armor pieces.
Rapid Morph- The Rapid Morph skill increases the rate at which your weapon morphs between forms and boosts morph attack damage by +20% at the highest level (level 3). This increased morph rate is especially beneficial for the Switch Axe, as it quickens your combat flow by reducing downtime during morph transitions. Additionally, it enhances the damage of your morph slashes, significantly increasing your overall damage output, making it one of the best skills for the Switch Axe.
Power Prolonger -The Power Prolonger skill extends the duration of the weapon’s powered-up states. The Switch Axe features two powered-up modes: the Power Axe mode and the Amped state. The Power Axe mode increases the damage you deal with your axe and boosts the fill rate of your Switch Gauge, which is consumed with each sword mode attack. After filling the Amp Gauge by landing attacks in sword mode, you enter the Amped state, during which you can execute the Switch Axe’s most powerful attacks—the Full Release Slash and the Zero Sum Discharge. The Power Prolonger skill increases the window available for using these attacks and helps you manage the gauges, allowing you to fully unleash the power of the Switch Axe.
Focus- The next skill, Focus, increases the fill rate of the gauges and reduces the charge time of your attacks. This skill works exceptionally well with the Switch Axe because the weapon relies on two gauges—the Switch Gauge and the Amp Gauge—and one of its most powerful attacks, the Full Release Slash, is a charged attack. The increased fill rate of the gauges is highly beneficial, as you need to worry less about filling them up and can focus more on finding the opening to land your Full Release Slash or powerful Elemental Discharge finishers.
Although none of the Switch Axes from different trees offer all 3 skills—Rapid Morph, Focus, and Power Prolonger—at the same time, you’re able to choose the one that provides your favorite skill at the highest level and use a decoration slot to equip the other skills, making it possible to have all three simultaneously.
Partbreaker- The next skill, Partbreaker, increases the damage you deal to the monster’s weak parts—such as the head and tail—and also boosts the damage you do when you destroy Wounds inflicted on a monster during a hunt. Since you will be aiming for a monster’s weak parts with your Zero Sum Elemental Discharges and Full Release Slashes, this skill significantly increases your damage output. Additionally, as it enhances the damage of your Morph Assault attack, it allows you to stack up damage quickly over a short period.
Resentment -The Resentment skill increases your attack when you have recoverable damage (the red portion of your Health Gauge). At maximum level (level 5), this skill boosts your attack by +25 when active. Resentment works particularly well with the Switch Axe because you will often be hit by monster attacks as you maintain pressure with your strikes and fill your gauges. Whenever you have red recoverable damage in your health gauge, this skill turns that disadvantage into an advantage by increasing your overall damage during the hunt.
Flayer -The Flayer skill is an end-game ability that makes it easier to inflict Wounds and adds to a weapon’s non-elemental damage, which is why I’ve included it in this Best Switch Axe Skills in MHWilds Guide. This skill not only increases your flat damage output from the non-elemental damage boost, but also increases the frequency of Wounds you’re able to destroy, leading to massive overall damage. Since you will be performing many multi-hit attacks on a single spot with your Elemental Discharge or Zero Sum Discharge attacks, this skill makes it much easier to inflict wounds with those attacks, resulting in increased damage when using the Switch Axe.
When putting together these skills, it can be challenging to assemble the exact combination you want. However, decoration slots and a talisman will allow you to more easily obtain the desired skills for your Switch Axe build.
Tier II Skills
These next set of skills may not focus on and help with all the core mechanics of using the Switch Axe, but they will still help you in certain aspects increasing the ease of use and chance of success in your hunts, which is why they are included in this Best Switch Axe Skills in MHWilds Guide.
Quick Sheathe- The Switch Axe is one of the weapons that has a relatively long sheathing and as such can be cumbersome when using it. The Quick Sheathe skill increases your weapon sheathing skill and at the max level, the increase in speed is extremely noticeable. This skill will help relieve some of the mobility problems when using the Switch Axe.
Defense Boost- This skill provides excellent defensive value if you find yourself getting hit by monsters more often than desired during combos. The +35 defense boost, an additional +10% increase in overall defense, and +5 elemental resistance will make you much more tanky and enhance your survivability during hunts. Since you’ll often aim for the Elemental Discharge and Full Release Slash attacks with the Switch Axe—and these attacks can take some time to execute—having this skill significantly increases your survivability.
Weakness Exploit -The Weakness Exploit skill increases your affinity when attacking a monster’s weak parts and further boosts affinity when you hit or destroy Wounds. If you are using a more affinity-prone weapon or skills, Weakness Exploit can reliably raise your affinity to upwards of 50% whenever you hit a weak point.
Critical StatusandCritical Element- These skills are ideal for players aiming for a more affinity-centric build. The Critical Status skill increases your status effect buildup with each critical hit, while the Critical Element skill boosts elemental damage on critical hits. These skills benefit the Switch Axe user, depending on the phial type of the Switch Axe, by triggering more status effects or simply increasing overall damage output.
Critical Eye- This skill increases your affinity, and at maximum level, it boosts your affinity by a total of +20%. This flat increase, paired with a high affinity-centric weapon, enables you to land critical hits reliably, thereby enhancing your damage output.
Other Optional Skills to use with the Switch Axe
In addition to the above mentioned skills, these skills can also help the player while they are farming for the parts needed to get the skills they want to use with their strongest loadouts, so I’ve mentioned them in this Best Switch Axe Skills in MHWilds Guide.
Element Boost- The Switch Axe’s sword mode and phial explosions can deal massive amounts of elemental damage. When paired with a matching element boost skill (e.g., Fire Attack, Thunder Attack, Dragon Attack, etc.) that corresponds to the element of your Switch Axe, the increased elemental damage becomes substantial, leading to faster hunts.
Attack Boost-TheAttack Boostskill is a good option if you don’t have the decorations needed for your favorite skills yet. The raw increase in stats provided by this skill will help during your hunts by increasing your overall physical damage output.
Razor Sharp-TheRazor Sharpskill is a decoration-exclusive skill with a chance to prevent your weapon from losing sharpness. At level 3, it offers a 50% chance of avoiding sharpness loss, which can be particularly useful for the Switch Axe, as executing the full Elemental Discharge combo or Zero Sum Discharge can quickly drain your sharpness gauge.
Protective Polish-TheProtective Polish skillis another good skill to use if you want to worry less about your sharpness levels during your hunts. This skill will grant you a duration where your weapon will not lose its sharpness depending on the level and at level 3, it provides a 90 second window where you will not lose any sharpness with your Zero Sum Discharges.
So, these are the best skills to use with the Switch Axe in bringing out its full potential in my opinion. I hope you find this helpful. If you disagree or have suggestions on which skills could work better with the Switch Axe, please leave them in the comment below. Be sure to check outthe wikiformore tips and guidesand May the Hunt Favour You!
