[Top 7] MHW Best Hammers That Wreck Hard

Monster Hunter World, Best weapon, Hammer

Updated:

14 Nov 2021

Meatiest hits on the most tender monster parts!

Beat those monsters with your meat!

The King of KO’s — in the words of a wise Hammer main, it is the Hunting Horn’s cousin that skipped band practice in favor of going to the gym. It is blunt, heavy, deals massive damage, and is just all-around a blast to play with. And this list is here to help you find the 7 best Hammers to nail some heads in!

7. Polaris Bash

This build guide by Retrou offers a variety of stuff that you can do with the weapon, ranging from DPS builds to comfy builds.

An entry from the Frostfang Barioth. The high damage, decent affinity, high enough elemental damage that actually matters for every hit, and purple sharpness make this a really powerful weapon in the early late game. It sadly has no jewel slots but the stats it brings to the table compensate for that well enough.

The lovely part about this weapon is, if you don’t have a good Safi hammer to fight Alatreon with, this Ice hammer is your next best thing!

1404 Damage
15% Affinity
20 hits of purple sharpness and 120 hits of white sharpness
660 Ice

6. Ruinous Obliteration

Here is one of many build offers by Thales Moustache, providing the perfect balance of DPS and survivability!

The entry from one of the strongest monsters from the game, Ruiner Nergigante. This weapon offers high raw damage, no affinity (which is always better than negative affinity), a bit of Dragon element, and a thick chunk of white sharpness. It offers a really comfy build without sacrificing too much damage, and with a level 1 jewel slot, there’s a bit of room for customization as well.

So I highly recommend picking up this weapon and taking it on most of your hunts on your way to the true endgame monsters! That bit of high Elderseal that it offers will do you wonders against the Elder Dragons too.

1508 Damage
0% Affinity
110 hits of white sharpness
180 Dragon (High Elderseal)
1 socket for level 1 jewel

5. Mane Malice Rajang

Another build offered by Thales Moustache, this weapon showcases a high DPS but still comfy build against a Banbaro.

With an incredibly high raw damage to offer, this weapon from the Rajang ranks here. Usually, you’d see the Furious Rajang weapon instead when it comes to these tier lists but, in this case, the Rajang’s hammer simply has a much higher raw damage. This makes it better even with the negative affinity. And while it only has blue sharpness, it can be further upgraded to 50 hits of white with the Handicraft armor skill.

1612 Damage
-15% Affinity
60 hits of blue sharpness
120 Thunder
1 socket for level 4 jewel

4. Dawning Tranquility

This video by JinJinx and Tuner offers a couple of comprehensive build guides on the weapon, though it also has other hammers with their own builds shown in it.

The Hand of God can be obtained from the Shara Ishvalda. Now, if you greatly dislike violence and simply want to head pat some monsters until they fall asleep, then this weapon is for you! Its relatively high damage along with upgradable white sharpness can help you pat the monster with ease and comfort until they become tame enough for you to take home.

Not only does it offer high damage, but it can also be paired with the Non-Elemental Boost armor skill to further boost it along. So go on! Pat those monsters on the head! They need it!

1456 Damage
0% Affinity
10 hits of white sharpness
480 Dragon (Hidden)
2 sockets for level 1 jewels

3. Safi’s Shattercrusher

Another build guide by Thales Moustache, this build beautifully emphasizes why the Hammer is the King of KOs.

An entry from the Safi’Jiva, this hammer offers insane damage potentials and customization, making it a favorite in the speedrunner community. But, even in its most basic form, it has really high raw damage to offer as well as white sharpness that you can further boost to 90 hits with the Handicraft armor skill.

Truly a fitting weapon from a siege monster.

1612 Damage
5% Affinity
40 hits of white sharpness
210 Blast
1 socket for level 4 jewel

2. Lightbreak Hammer

This is a video of an absolutely beautiful speedrun by Retrou on Shara Ishvalda featuring the Lightbreak Hammer.

An entry from the Raging Brachydios, this monster of a weapon brings in the huge DPS with its peerless simplicity: High raw damage and Blast. It also has 2 slots for jewel customization, leaving you with good room for quite a few builds.

The reason this weapon ranks higher than the Safi Shattercrusher is simply because of ease of access. Compared to the grind you need to do to not only get but also upgrade the Safi Shattercrusher to bring out its full potential, the Lightbreak Hammer is a one-and-done craft that is highly effective on nearly every hunt you do.

1560 Damage
0% Affinity
20 hits of purple sharpness
270 Blast
1 socket for level 4 jewel and 1 socket for level 3 jewel

1. Fatalis Demolisher

This video has a few builds offered by IDeVaste featuring Retrou’s solo speedrun on Fatalis in the background.

It should come as no surprise that the number one Hammer in the game comes from the final boss of the game, Fatalis. It does one thing best and that is to offer the highest possible damage. Even with the negative affinity, just the sheer numbers on this weapon let it dominate all other hammers by a longshot.

A very fitting endgame weapon to end all monsters.

1820 Damage
-20% Affinity
10 hits of purple sharpness
150 Dragon (High Elderseal)
2 sockets for level 4 jewel

Honorable Mention: Juicy Well-done Hammer

Here is an incredible showcase by Team Darkside featuring the power of the hammer (and infinite flinch shot).

What’s there to dislike? It’s big, it’s meaty, and it’s fresh off the grill so it’s smoking hot!

Now, admittedly, it only has blue sharpness but it’s so damn thick that you will never ever need to sharpen it in a hunt, which should be weird in the first place. Why would you ever sharpen a thick piece of chicken leg at all?

All joking aside, it has really high damage to offer and a bit of Fire element as well. And while the damage is high, it's best served either on a plate for your consumption or as layered armor.