Typically, on would assume that a decoration is nothing more than ornamentation. A little bit of fashion. Monster Hunter thrives on layered armor allowing you to make your own fashion, after all.
However, Decorations are really major effects you can put into your weapons and armor. In the case of Monster Hunter Stories 3’s weapons, they can also provide brand-new Skills for you to use during combat. Here are some of the best the game has to offer.
These Decorations are spread across a variety of weapon types, and listed in no particular order.
Cheer – Any Weapon
Cheer is a useful little Decoration purely for the fact that it can be equipped on any weapon, and offers its effect to every one in your party, rather than just you. This helps in scenarios where you can’t afford to pull out a Hunting Horn just for one stat boost.
Cheer grants Speed Up to all allies, and only costs 15 Stamina to use. It’s simple, but can be a great extra Skill to have if you have a spare Decoration slot that needs filling.
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Absolute Evasion – Any Weapon
One of the hardest things to manage in Stories is Speed. It determines when your turn takes place, and also your general ability to dodge, though this is never guaranteed. This is dangerous when even a single hit can fully defeat you when you’re not prepared.
And that’s what makes Absolute Evasion such a gem. Not only can you equip it on any weapon, but it will always take priority when used, meaning you’re guaranteed to dodge any attack on the turn it’s used. It does cost 50 Stamina though, so make sure you only use it when necessary.
Striking Secret – Hammer
Every weapon has some unique effect that helps it stand out from others, and for the hammer, it’s quite simple but very effective. Every attack, including regular ones, can damage the Wyvernsoul Gauge.
This is already a great method when low on Stamina, but Striking Secret makes it even more effective. It’s a direct increase to the amount of damage you deal with regular attacks. Just keep in mind this bonus doesn’t apply to other Skills.
Charge Burst – Great Sword
The core rotation of Great is is to charge up to gain more power and gain access to more powerful Skills, and then expending that power t unleash said Skills.
Charge Burst just makes that final release even stronger. With it, you gain Attack Up when using Charge, with the degree gained relative to the level of the decoration itself. You’ll be hitting like a truck.
Battle Ready – Bow
Bows are quite generous in how they’re used, and variety of coatings let you use them in a wide variety of scenarios, all with a single weapon. And the Battle Ready Decoration makes them even better.
With it, one of your default Coatings will be applied at random when the battle begins, and will also already have a Charge Level too, with even more at higher levels.
Blast – Hunting Horn
The Hunting Horn is offense and support all in one. That does make it harder to use the weapon for both at once, but does at least allow you to build up buffs while taking down the enemy.
Blast exists outside of the Melody system, but is such a useful Skill. It only costs 15 Stamina to use, deals heavy Wyvernsoul damage to every enemy, and even has a chance to inflict Stun. It’s very good.
Spinning Meteor – Hammer
Another Hammer Skill, but one of the benefits of many of this weapon’s Skills is how effective they are are depleting various meters, be it HP, Wyvernsoul, or Monster Parts.
Spinning Meteor is one of the best in this regard. While you have to accept low Wyvernsoul damage, it deals quite a lot of HP damage still, and a frankly ridiculous degree of Part damage, even if you’re not using the most effective weapon type on it.
Deft Hands – Bow
Another Bow Decoration, Deft Hands makes the Bow even more effective at what it already does. As your Charge gauge increases, so too does the strength of your equipped coating.
With Deft Hands, you can easily change coatings while gaining an extra Charge level, and even has a chance to gain another on top with higher levels ofthis Decoration, letting you potentially gain three Charge levels in one.
Counter Boost – Long Sword
The Long Sword is a weapon also focused on building up a gauge, though in a slightly different way. After filling the Spirit Gauge, you can perform a Stance Skill, which puts you into Special Sheathe, unlocking automatic counters and other unique Skills.
Counter Boost improves Special Sheathe directly. You take less damage, and deal more from your automatic follow-ups. And as the Decoration increases in power, so too do the bonuses it provides.
Any DRG Or WYV Decoration
Throughout the game, you’ll get Decorations that are Skills you already have but with a few extra letters beside it, such as ATK or TLNT. These slightly alter the values of the Skill to make it geared towards dealing more damage, saving Stamina, and so on.
Later, after full beating Invasive Monsters, you can get DRG and WYV versions of certain Skills. These are both direct upgrades over the original Skills, yet still cost the same amount of Stamina.
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