Monster Hunter Rise Switch Skills Guide

Monster Hunter Rise’s Switch Skills compose one of the game’s biggest new features. Switch Skills add new weapon abilities you can swap out, so you’re no longer stuck with a weapon’s basic skills. Some Switch Skills replace Wirebug Silkbind moves as well. The game is pretty terrible about telling you how to unlock some of these skills, but our Monster Hunter Rise Switch Skills guide has everything you need to know.

Monster Hunter Rise First Switch Skills

You’ll unlock Rise’s first set of Switch Skills by progressing through Village Quests. After completing the 3-star Urgent Quest or completing the 2-star Hub Quests, the game notifies you that a Switch Skill for every weapon is unlocked. Item boxes now have a Switch Skill option you can use to manage all your skills. Some of these initial Switch Skills swap out basic attacks, such as the Great Sword’s tackle. Others give you new Wirebug skills, though.

Best Switch Skills — First Round

Figuring out which are the best Switch Skills from the first round is admittedly not too important. They’re free, and it’s worth experimenting with them all to see how they suit your play style. However, if you’re looking for the ones that have the most potential, these are some of the best:

Great Sword

• Guard Tackle — Turns regular tackle into a guarded forward rush. Harder to use in a combo, but negates all damage during the attack.

Long Sword

• Sakura Silkbind — Replaces Soaring Kick with a dash attack that increases the Spirit Gauge

Sword and Shield

• Sliding Slash — Replaces the forward step attack with a slide attack. Follow up with A or X to perform an aerial attack, then A or X again for a plunge attack.

Gunlance

• Ground Splitter — Slashes upward and increases all shell attack damage. Replaces Hail Cutter aerial move.

Charge Blade

• Condensed Spinning Slash — Replaces Element Slash, turning the shield into a rotating saw weapon, changing to Axe mode, and transforming energy into phials

Heavy Bowgun

• Healing Mech Wyvernsnipe — Same as base move, but deals less damage in exchange for healing you

Monster Hunter Rise Switch Skills Part Two

The second set of Switch Skills is more difficult to uncover, and the game doesn’t tell you how. You’ll need to upgrade a weapon five times — five different slots on any of the weapon’s trees — to unlock its second Switch Skill. It’s very easy to miss the in-game notice when you’ve unlocked it. If you purchase the necessary upgrades and don’t see the message, check with Utsushi in the Gathering Hub to see if they’ve been unlocked.

It’s expensive, but you can offset the material cost in a few ways. The first is sending Buddies on Meowcenary missions, so you don’t have to collect materials yourself. The second is rolling back your upgrades if you don’t need them. That returns the used materials to you at no extra cost.

Best Switch Skills — Round Two

Either way, getting the second round of Monster Hunter Rise Switch Skills takes more time. In lieu of highlighting a few of the best, we’ve listed out all the round two Switch Skills and offered advice on how helpful they are:

Great Sword Switch Skill

• Adamant Charged Slash — Wirebug dash forward and deal a Strong Charged Slash. Has knockback protection. Excellent evolution of the base Wirebug skill.

Long Sword Switch Skill

• Drawn Double Slash — Unleashes two consecutive attacks. Absorbs enemy attacks and can be combined with ZR to pull off Spirit Blade II with no other setup.

Sword and Shield Switch Skill

• Drill Slash Combo — Multi-hit drill slash attack based on shield thrust.

Dual Blades Switch Skill

• Feral Demon Mode — Powered-up Demon Mode with better attack and evasion. Dual Blades aren’t that complex, so any boost in attack potential is worth spending materials on.

Lance Switch Skill

• Insta-Block — Swings shield to parry attacks. Time right before an enemy attack lands to trigger a Cross Slash follow-up strike.

Gunlance Switch Skill

• Blast Dash — Aims weapon backward to launch closer to target. Good for covering distances fast and can be used repeatedly. This one is better than it sounds. Gunlance movement is incredibly slow, as is drawing your weapon once you’re near the target.

Hammer Switch Skill

• Charge Switch: Courage — Lowers charge levels, but makes linking charges easier. Good for faster attacking.

Hunting Horn Switch Skill

• Bead of Resonance — Places Wirebug cocoon on the ground. Using a melody activates the same effect around the cocoon, making this a fantastic support skill.

Switch Axe Switch Skill

• Forward Overhead Slash — Winds the axe up for a lunging smash attack. Slow, but strong. A follow-up Sword attack will automatically be Double Slash.

Charge Blade Switch Skill

• Counter Morph Slash — Longer version of Morph Slash with better blocking potential. Increases Discharge Slash damage for the next attack.

Insect Glaive Switch Skill

• Advancing Roundslash — Spinning forward attack. If you’re attacked while spinning, you lunge into the air. Good for setting up plunge attacks.

Light Bowgun Switch Skill

• Quickstep Evade — Faster evasion move. Covers less area but powers up the next attack.

Heavy Bowgun Switch Skill

• Tackle — Attack with your shoulder. Prevents knockback and flinching. Not as good as the Melee Attack skill it replaces.

Bow Switch Skill

• Aerial Aim — Uses Wirebug launch to fire arrows. Arrows fired from midair deal increased damage.

Monster Hunter Rise Switch Skills Part Three

There’s a third round of Switch Skills in Rise, though we’ve yet to unlock them all so far. Getting the third set of Switch Skills involves raising your Hub Level rank and taking on missions connected to specific weapons. The first set unlocks at Hub Level rank 4. However, you don’t have to use that weapon in the mission to obtain its third Switch Skill. It also seems that you don’t have to unlock its second Switch Skill to obtain this one either.

Hub Level Rank 4 Switch Skills

• Sword and Shield
• Light Bowgun
• Switch Axe
• Hunting Horn

Hub Level Rank 5 Switch Skills

• Great Sword
• Hammer
• Lance
• Heavy Bowgun
• Charge Blade

Hub Level Rank 6 Switch Skills

• Long Sword
• Dual Blades
• Gunlance
• Bow
• Insect Glaive

---

That’s it for our Monster Hunter Rise Switch Skills guide. Be sure to check out our other Monster Hunter Rise guides:

• Monster Hunter Rise beginner’s guide
• Monster Hunter Rise‘s best weapons for beginners
• Monster Hunter Rise Rampage tips

---