Monster Hunter Rise - Best Skills for Sword and Shield

Recommended Weapon Skills for your Sword and Shield Build or Loadout in Monster Hunter Rise (MH Rise). Skills are organized by type and their skill effects.

All Best Skills for Sword and Shield in Monster Hunter Rise

The Sword and Shield is one of the fourteen weapon types the player can pick when hunting Monsters in Monster Hunter Rise. The weapon type benefits from being the highest DPS raw weapon type, its ability use items while the weapon is drawn or in guard, and fast recovery time that allows for more chain of attacks compared to other weapon types.

All Weapon Guides

For a list of weapon attacks and combos, read our Sword and Shield Weapon Guide:

Weapon Guide for Sword and Shield

For a list of weapon upgrades and weapon tree, read our Sword and Shield Weapon List:

List of Sword and Shield Weapons

Sword and Shield Recommended Skills

Here is list of recommended skills for your Sword and Shield Hunter Build and Loadout:

This is a tentative list based from previous Monster Hunter games. Skills are to be confirmed and changed when Monster Hunter Rise is officially released worldwide.

Sword and Shield Weapon Offensive Skills

Recommended Skill	Skill Effect
Critical Eye	Increases affinity.
Critical Boost	Increases the damage of critical hits. Synergizes well with weakness, exploit, maximum might, and critical eye skills.
Critical Element	Increases elemental damage (Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice, Dragon) when landing critical hits.
Critical Status	Increases abnormal status effect damage (Paralysis, Poison, Sleep, Blast) when landing critical hits.
Weakness Exploit	Increases affinity when attacking monster weak points.
Maximum Might	Increases affinity as long as stamina is kept full for a period of time.
Agitator	Increases attack power and affinity when large monsters become enraged.. Allows you to deal more damage when monster is angered.
Dragon Attack	Increases the power of Dragon Attacks.
Fire Attack	Increases the power of Fire Attacks.
Ice Attack	Increases the power of Ice Attacks.
Thunder Attack	Increases the power of Thunder Attacks.
Water Attack	Increases the power of Water Attacks.
Sleep Attack	Increases the rate of sleep buildup. (Elemental buildup has a maximum limit.)
Paralysis Attack	Increases the rate of paralysis buildup. (Elemental buildup has a maximum limit.)
Poison Attack	Increases the rate of poison buildup. (Elemental buildup has a maximum limit.)
Blast Attack	Increases the rate of blast buildup. (Elemental buildup has a maximum limit.)
Partbreaker	Makes it easier to break or sever parts of large monsters.

Sword and Shield Weapon Defensive Skills

Recommended Skill	Skill Effect
Guard	Reduces knockbacks and stamina depletion when guarding.
Guard Up	Allows you to guard against ordinarily unblockable attacks.
Earplugs	Grants protection from large monsters’ roars.
Evade Extender	Increase evade distance.
Health Boost	Increases health.

Sword and Shield Weapon Utility Skills

Recommended Skill	Skill Effect
Mind’s Eye/Ballistics	Prevents attacks from being deflected. Also shortens the distance before ammo and arrows reach maximum power.
Protective Polish	Weapon sharpness does not decrease for a set time after sharpening.
Speed Sharpening	Speeds up weapon sharpening when using a whetstone.

Sword and Shield Weapon Support Skills

Recommended Skill	Skill Effect
Wide-Range	Allows the effects of certain items to also affect nearby allies.
Mushroomancer	Lets you digest mushrooms that would otherwise be inedible and gain their advantageous effects.
Speed Eating	Increases meat-eating and item-consumption speed.
Free Meal	Gives you a predetermined chance of consuming a food or drink item for free.