Monster Hunter Rise: How to Upgrade Armor

In Monster Hunter Rise it’s important to upgrade your armor, especially if you want various sets prepared for whatever monsters you plan to slay and carve. Upgrading armor in Monster Hunter Rise is a mercifully straight-forward affair, but there are a few things worth considering before you go absolutely nuts and waste your Armor Spheres.

Upgrade armor in Monster Hunter Rise by visiting the Smithy.

The Smithy is your go to guy for all your armor and weapon needs in Monster Hunter Rise, to include upgrading your armor. He is located in the center of Kamura Village, near the Village quest maiden. He’s the older gentleman sitting down sharpening a katana. Interact with him to enter the Smithy menu, where you’ll see “Forge/Upgrade Armor” as the second option. Select this to enter a sub-menu, and select “Upgrade Armor” to, well, upgrade your armor.

You’ll enter a menu where every piece of armor you’ve forged will be listed by set. Highlighting an item will bring it up in the “Preview Equipment” panel on the left, and its stats will be in the panel on the right. In the left panel you will see what level that armor is at (and what the current cap is), what its Defense rating is, and how many points are required to level it.

Selecting the highlighted item will open the Upgrade Armor interface in Monster Hunter Rise. From here you will select the upgrade material/Armor Sphere you’d like to use, then the number you plan to dump into the armor you plan to upgrade. Early on you won’t have many Armor Spheres on hand for upgrades, but these can be earned out in the field and by completing Side Quests from either the Village maiden or Hub maiden (Side Quests are shared between the two).

Once you have the number of Armor Spheres needed to upgrade your armor in Monster Hunter Rise select the amount you wish to use. A bar below the item will fill, visually indicating how many more points are required to level up that piece of armor. When the level increases the text will turn orange to indicate the change, and the Defense stat will also increase. To commit to the armor upgrade select confirm at the bottom of the UI, where the Money price will be listed. Yes, you’ll need both upgrade materials and coin to upgrade your armor in Monster Hunter Rise.

Simply repeat this process for all the armor you plan to upgrade, and remember to return to the Smithy when you have Armor Spheres available to keep your different armor sets up to date. Their level caps will increase as you play the game, so don’t assume maxing out a piece of equipment is the end of the line.

Monster Hunter Rise is available now on the Nintendo Switch.