The sharpness meter on the equipment details page, showing various levels of sharpness
Sharpness is a feature of all melee weapons, visible via the Equipment Details page and shown among the weapon details when forging or upgrading a melee weapon at the smithy.
Weapon sharpness is separated into different levels. The sharpness level dictates the percentage of damage a melee weapon deals with each strike. It also reflects what the weapon can penetrate. How long your weapon remains in a level of sharpness is dictated by the length of the respective color, visible in the weapon's details page.
The weapon's current level of sharpness
Within a quest, the current sharpness is represented by a sword icon located near the upper left corner of the screen.
Losing sharpness[]
At the start of the quest, a weapon will start with its maximum sharpness level. With each successful hit, the weapon's sharpness is reduced, until it shifts to a lower level. The Gunlances' Shelling and Wyvern's Fire always reduce sharpness.
Great Sword and Charge Blade will also lose sharpness when blocking.
Dual Blades, however, has a chance to reduce sharpness on each hit instead of every hit to compensate the sheer attack counts.
Restoring sharpness[]
Sharpness can be restored through sharpening the sword on a Whetstone. The animation for sharpening must finish for the item to be successful, and this may be sped up with the Speed Sharpening armor skill. In certain games, there are also several skills that may reduce or negate the need to sharpen via Whetstones, such as Protective Polish or Bladescale Hone.
Fifth Generation[]
In the Fifth Generation, the Whetstone is a default item that can be reused infinitely. In Monster Hunter: World there are also special fish materials, Whetfish Fin and Whetfish Fin+, that can be used like Whetstones. Sharpening a weapon with a fin is faster than using a Whetstone, but the fins cannot be reused infinitely. Whetfish Fin+ has a lower chance of breaking than the regular fin. In Monster Hunter Rise, Whetfish go back to being as fast as a regular Whetstone, but restore more of the sharpness bar at a time.
1st-4th Generations[]
In the games that came before Monster Hunter: World, whetstones need to be mined or bought at the shop. There is also a Supply Item called Mini Whetstone provided for free on some quests, but they restore less sharpness than normal Whetstones. Special fish called Knife Mackerel (before MH3) and Whetfish (since MH3) can be used like Whetstones. Each successful sharpening process will remove the used item from the inventory.
Required sharpness[]
Different monsters require different levels of sharpness to successfully strike. Using a level of sharpness (usually Green) or higher will allow successful attacks, while lower levels will cause the weapon to bounce, a side effect negated by ESP (Mind's Eye/Ballistics in MHW). Additionally, different parts of a monster may need higher or lower sharpness. Monster statuses may also change sharpness requirements, such as Rage, Armor mode, or other special conditions, such as Agnaktor's cooled lava. Whether a monster is in Low, High, or G/Master-rank also affects what sharpness can do.
Even with White or Purple Sharpness, which usually pierce through anything, some monsters like Gravios have parts which cannot be successfully attacked without the use of ESP (Mind's Eye/Ballistics in MHW).
Sharpness levels by game[]
| Main Series Raw Damage Multiplier | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Name | Red | Orange | Yellow | Green | Blue | White | Purple |
| Monster Hunter | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.125 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Monster Hunter G | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.125 | 1.25 | 1.5 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter Freedom | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.125 | 1.25 | 1.30 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter 2 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.125 | 1.25 | 1.50 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter Freedom 2 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.125 | 1.25 | 1.30 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter Freedom Unite | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.125 | 1.25 | 1.30 | 1.50 |
| Monster Hunter 3 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | 1.50 |
| Monster Hunter Portable 3rd | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | 1.44 |
| Monster Hunter 4 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | 1.45 |
| Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | 1.45 |
| Monster Hunter Generations | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | 1.39 |
| Monster Hunter World | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | 1.39 (Iceborne) |
| Monster Hunter Rise | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.05 | 1.20 | 1.32 | 1.39 (Sunbreak) |
| Frontier Series Raw Damage Multiplier | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red / 赤 | Orange / 橙 | Yellow / 黄 | Green / 緑 | Blue / 青 | White / 白 | Purple / 紫 | Sky Blue / 空色 |
| 0.60 | 0.85 | 1.10 | 1.325 | 1.45 | 1.60 | 1.70 | 1.80 |
| Online Series Raw Damage Multiplier | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Orange | Yellow | Green | Blue | White | Purple |
| 0.5 | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.125 | 1.25 | 1.3 | 1.5 |
| Main Series Elemental Damage Multiplier | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Name | Red | Orange | Yellow | Green | Blue | White | Purple |
| Monster Hunter | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Monster Hunter G | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter Freedom | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter 2 | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter Freedom 2 | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter Freedom Unite | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | 1.20 |
| Monster Hunter 3 | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | 1.20 |
| Monster Hunter Portable 3rd | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.06 | 1.13 | 1.20 |
| Monster Hunter 4 | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | 1.20 |
| Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | 1.20 |
| Monster Hunter Generations | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | N/A |
| Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | 1.20 |
| Monster Hunter World | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.15 | 1.25 (Iceborne) |
| Monster Hunter Rise | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.15 | 1.25 (Sunbreak) |
| Frontier Series Elemental Damage Multiplier | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red / 赤 | Orange / 橙 | Yellow / 黄 | Green / 緑 | Blue / 青 | White / 白 | Purple / 紫 | Sky Blue / 空色 |
| 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 | 1.00 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | 1.15 | 1.20 |
| Online Series Elemental Damage Multiplier | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Orange | Yellow | Green | Blue | White | Purple |
| 0.25 | 0.5 | 0.75 | 1.0 | 1.0625 | 1.125 | 1.2 |