Awakened Abilities information
Awakened abilities offer an upgrade and customization system exclusive to Safi'jiiva Weapons. At the Smithy, select Upgrade Equipment to infuse such weapons with awakened materials obtained from the Safi'jiiva Siege. This process allows to mix and match up to five awakened abilities per weapon, which come in many variants and six tiers of increasing power.
| Awakening | I | II | III | IV | V | VI |
| Attack (GS/H) | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 14 |
| Attack (other) | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 15 |
| Element/Status | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Affinity | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 15 |
| Sharpness | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 70 |
| Defense | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 |
| Decoration Slot | s1 | s2 | s3 | s4 | ||
| Set Bonus | x | x | x | |||
| Weapon Mod | x | x | x |
Above tables gives an overview of awakened abilities. Note that further upgrades from Augmentations can be applied independently. At any time, a weapon can hold at most
- one tier VI ability
- one decoration ability
- one defense ability
- one set bonus and
- one weapon mod.
Otherwise, any combination of up to five abilities is possible. For attack, sharpness, affinity, status or elemental damage, a maximum of one tier VI and four tier V abilities can be stacked.
Safi'jiiva Weapons start with 270 raw damage, so awakening three attack abilities of tier V brings them en par with Lightbreak Weapons. An exception are Greatswords and Hammers (GS/H), for which the attack upgrades at tier V and VI are slightly lower.
Sharpness upgrades can extend a Safi'jiiva Weapon's white sharpness from 40 units up to 120 units, while all upgrades exceeding 80 units yield purple sharpness. Note the Handicraft skill adds another ten units of sharpness per skill level.
Set bonus abilities count as one piece towards a given armor set skill. This allows to combine set bonus effects that require six pieces of equipment in total, of which five are covered by armor pieces. A popular example is the combination of Silver Rathalos Essence and Namielle Divinity.
Weapon Mods refers to modifications that are exclusive to certain weapon classes, such as kinsect bonus effects, applicable coatings, phial types, horn melody sets or shelling types.
Bestowing awakened abilities
Manifesting a new ability requires a certain amount of awakened materials, which depends on the weapon's awakening level.
- 8 units up to level 6
- 15 units up to level 11
- 20 units up to level 23
- 15 units up to level 26
Any excess units from materials used will carry over. The currently available materials provide
- 1 unit per Dracolite Shard
- 5 units per Dracolite
- 20 units per Large Dracolite
- 50 units per Rigid Dracolite
The awakening level of a weapon is the sum of tiers for each of its current awakened abilities. Since five abilities can be combined, and only one can be upgraded to tier VI at a time, the maximum level is 26. At level 23 and above, all Safi'jiiva Weapons change their appearance.
Once a new ability is manifested, the player can choose one from three randomized options. This way, up to a total of five abilities can be added. A newly manifested ability can also replace or upgrade a chosen ability. Tier VI abilities are only accessible by means of upgrading a tier V ability. If another tier VI ability is already present, it will be rolled back to tier V in the process.
Storing Potential
Instead of selecting a manifested ability, you can choose to store potential. By storing potential, the next an ability is manifested, the odds of adding a awakened ability of tier IV or V increases. However, repeatedly storing potential for more than 20 times will add no further benefit.
Element and Status
In contrast to most other properties, the element or status type of a Safi'jiiva Weapon cannot be changed via awakening skills. The base values and upgrades of status and elemental damage vary per weapon class, and are generally higher on heavier and slower weapons.
| Class | Element | Poison/Expl. | Para/Sleep |
| Hunting Horn | 180 | 300 | 180 |
| Great Sword | 150 | 300 | 180 |
| Switch Axe | 180 | 240 | 180 |
| Gun Lance | 180 | 240 | 180 |
| Hammer | 180 | 210 | 180 |
| Long Sword | 180 | 210 | 120 |
| Lance | 180 | 210 | 120 |
| Insect Glaive | 150 | 180 | 90 |
| Sword and Shield | 150 | 180 | 90 |
| Charge Blade | 180 | 150 | 120 |
| Dual Blades | 120 | 150 | 90 |
| Bow | 120 | 120 | 120 |
Some examples of the awakening upgrades for status elemental damage per weapon class are shown below.
| Awakening | I | II | III | IV | V | VI |
| Element (SA) | 10 | 30 | 50 | 70 | 90 | 120 |
| Element (H) | 20 | 40 | 60 | 90 | 120 | 150 |
| Element (IG) | 10 | 20 | 30 | 50 | 70 | 100 |
| Element (DB) | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 90 |
| Status (GS) | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 70 |
| Status (IG) | 30 | 50 | ||||
| Status (DB) | 20 | 40 |
Note that lower tier status upgrades are unavailable to most weapon classes, which makes awakening those abilities more difficult.
All Awakened Abilities
NB: Sometimes people or set building tools may call Velkhana Divinity as Velkhana Essence. They are the same, for simplicity sake, when people are talking about a monster set bonus awakening they may call it "[Monster] Essence" since half of them are called like that. Just be aware that if you're searching for example for Velkhana Essence through the awakenings, you're actually looking for Velkhana Divinity.
Skill |
Effect |
| Silver Rathalos Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Slinger Ammo Secret (Increases the maximum level of Slinger Ammo skill to 5) Unlocks setbonus: True Critical Element (Greatly Increases elemental damage on critical hits) |
| Gold Rathian Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Divine Blessing Secret (Raises the maximum level of divine blessing skills) Unlocks setbonus: True Critical Status (Greatly Increases status effect damage (paralysis, sleep, blast, poison) when landing critical hits) |
| Lunastra Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Tool Specialist Secret (Reduces the recharge time for specialized tools) |
| Kushala Daora Flight / Kushala Daora Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Nullify Wind Pressure (Negates all wind pressure) |
| Namielle Divinity / Namielle Essence | Unlocks setbonus: True Element Acceleration (Continually attacking a monster activates Free Elemental/Ammo Up Lv 3 and Increases elemental damage) |
| Zorah Magdaros Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Artillery Secret (Increases the maximum level of the Artillery skill to Lv5) |
| Teostra Technique / Teostra Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Master's Touch (Prevents your weapon from losing sharpness during critical hits) |
| Zinogre Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Latent Power Secret (Increases the maximum level of Letent Power skill to 7) |
| Deviljho Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Stamina Thief Secret (Increases the maximum level of the Stamina Thief skill to 5) |
| Glavenus Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Maximum Might Secret (Increases the maximum level of Maximum Might skill to 5) |
| Bazelgeuse Ambition / Bazelgeuse Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Guts (Above a certain health threshold, you withstand an attack would normally cart you once per hunt) |
| Diablos Ambition / Diablos Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Slugger Secret (Increases the maximum level of Slugger skill to 5) |
| Rajang's Rage / Rajang Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Mind's Eye Ballistics (Prevents attacks from being deflected. Also shortens the distance before ammo and arrows reach the maximum power) Unlocks setbonus: Protective Polish (Weapon sharpness does not decrease for a time [60s] after sharpening) |
| Vaal Soulvein / Vaal Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Super Recovery (Allows recovery to exceed the red portion of the health gauge) |
| Shara Ishvalda Divinity / Shara Ishvalda Essence | Unlocks setbonus: True Gaia's Veil (While wearing a mantle, gain Tremor Resistance Lv3, Earplugs Lv5, max Windproof, and Flinch Free) |
| Rathian Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Poison Duration Up (Extends the duration of your poison's effect on monsters) |
| Legiana Ambition / Legiana Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Bow Charge Plus (Increase max bow charge level by one) |
| Instructor's Guidance | Unlocks setbonus: Capture Master (Highly Increases chance of Increasesd capture rewards) |
| Uragaan Ambition / Uragaan Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Guard Up (Allows you to guard against ordinarily unblockable) |
| Brachydios Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Agitator Secret (Raises the maximum level of the Agitator skill to Lv7) |
| Barioth Hidden Art / Barioth Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Punishing Draw (Adds a stun effect to draw attacks and slightly Increases attack power) |
| Nargacuga Essence | Unlocks setbonus: True Razor Sharp/Spare Ammo (Greatly reduces sharpness loss and bows and bowguns have a chance not to expend coating or ammo) |
| Anjanath Dominance / Anjanath Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Stamina Cap Up (Increases the maximum stamina cap by 50) |
| Velkhana Divinity / Velkhana Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Critical Element (Increases elemental damage (fire, water, thunder, ice, dragon) when landing critical hits) Unlocks setbonus: Frostcraft (An aura of frost builds when your weapon is sheathed, raising attack. Wanes each melee hit or shot fired) |
| Kirin Divinity / Kirin Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Great Luck (High chance of Increasesd quest rewards) |
| Tigrex Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Free Meal Secret (Increases the maximum level of the Free Meal to 3 [75%]) |
| Odogaron Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Protective Polish (Weapon sharpness does not decrease for a time [60s] after sharpening) |
| Nergigante Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Hasten Recovery (Regenerates your health as you continually attack a monster. Recovery varies by weapon) |
| Ancient Divinity | Unlocks setbonus: Critical Status (Increases abnormal status effect damage (paralysis, poison, sleep, blast) when landing critical hits) |
| Commission Alchemy | Unlocks setbonus: Bombardier Secret (Raises the maximum level of the Bombardier Skill to 5) |
| Sharpness Increases | Increases sharpness. |
| Affinity Increases | Increases affinity(For Affinity Increase I/II/III/IV/V/VI; +2/4/6/8/10/15 affinity). |
| Element Up | Increases elemental attack power. |
| Defense Increases | Increases defense(For Defense Increase I/II/III/IV/V/VI; +10/20/30/40/50/60 defense). |
| Attack Increases | Increases Attack(For Attack Increase I/II/III/IV/V/VI; For all weapons except Hammer and Greatsword: +2/4/6/8/10/15 attack. For Hammer and Greatsword; +2/4/6/8/9/14 attack). |
| Slot Upgrade | Adds jewel slots (works similar to augment). |
| Kinsect Bonus (Power/Spirit) | Switch Kinsect bonus to power and spirit boost. |
| Kinsect Bonus (Recovery) | Switch Kinsect bonus to stamina upgrade and healing. |
| Reload Assist | Speeds up reload times. Effectiveness varies with ammo used. |
| Recoil Suppressor | Lowers the recoil. Effectiveness varies with ammo used. |
| Deviation Suppressor | Lowers the deviation. |
| Normal Capacity | Increases Normal ammo capacity. |
| Pierce Capacity | Increases Pierce ammo capacity. |
| Spread Capacity | Increases Spread ammo capacity. |
| Elemental Capacity | Increases Elemental ammo capacity. |
| Shelling Wide | Change shelling type to wide. |
| Shelling Long | Change shelling type to long. |
| Shelling Normal | Change shelling type to normal. |
| Shelling Normal II | Upgrade up to normal shells level 7. |
| Status Effect Up | Increases status build up. |
| Exhaust Phial | Swap to exhaust phial. |
| Status Coating | Lets you apply strong poison coatings, as well as paralysis sleep coatings. |
| Element Phial | Swap to Element Phial. |
| Rathalos Essence | Unlocks setbonus: Mind's Eye/Ballistics (Prevents attacks from being deflected. Also shortens the distance before ammo and arrows reach the maximum power) |
| Impact Phial | Swap to impact phial. |
| Elemental Melody | Switches notes to Fire Res Boost, Attack Up, etc. melody effects. |
| Attack Melody | Switches to Attack Up, Earplugs, Environmental Damage Negation, etc., melody effects. |
| Stamina Melody | Switches notes to Stamina Use Reduction, Health Rec, Wind Pressure Negated, etc., melody effects. |
| Abnormal Status Melody | Switches notes to Abnormal Status Attack type melody effects. |
| Earplug Melody | Switches notes to Earplugs type melody effects. |
Awakened Materials
You can acquire dracolites from quest Safi'jiiva Siege, The Red Dragon or Point of No Return. You can also give Awakened Weapons to the Elder Melder to make Dracolites. Do this if you have a lot of Awakened Weapons stockpiled in your inventory.
Name |
Awakening Point |
| Dracolite Shard | 1 |
| Dracolite | 5 |
| Large Dracolite | 20 |
| Rigid Dracolite | 50 |
| Pure Dracolite | 100 |
Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Is it possible to get gold rathian essence? I've done well over 100 roles and never seen it.
Hey guys, your wiki is a great source of MHW info. Just signed up to contribute to this page - I really think we could explain the key upgrades in a more compact table before listing the plethora of set bonuses. The relevant info is easily lost there. Will give that a try and add a few words about key stats like sharpness.
- Anonymous
It looks like Dragonvein Awakening is missing from this page. That is an unlockable ability on the weapons.
- Anonymous
This is what I got for you if you have questions about the basic upgrade equipment. The Safi weapons got 5slots to fill, there are the normal fillers like: Atack up and element up they are multi fillers. Then you got the unique fillers like a perk from a armor set bonus, or for example reload assist. They can only be placed as a single filler because they are unique. Then you got the 6star rate(rainbow color) that is also a unique, so can only be placed 1. So uniques can't be place more then 1. The armor set uniques count for 1 point of the set bonus. Expl Odogaren set bonus needs 3 pieces but the unique give 1, so only 2 pieces are needed for the set bonus. See the list on the wiki to see what kinde there are. INPORTANT IS: the wiki doesn't tel what kind of stars the perks have. The game rades the set bonus perks whit sudden stars, what means it's hard to find what you looking for if you compleet build in for Expl 5 slots: 3x element up 5, 1x element up 6 and 1 element up 4. Means your lowest is a 4 star. What means that if you store potential it want to help you and reward you for a upgrade. But if the set perk you want is a 2 star, it wil be super hard to get that perk because it trya to help you. So it Wil keep looking for your lowest slot to fil it in whit a higher tier. What makes sense in the long run because it's callt Upgrade equipment. So yea it's dum that there are no stats on the wiki telling you there tier aka star lvl.si if you are new to this and don't know the tier of the sets, keep 1 slot on a lvl 1 or 2 so you can see them come by. Els you Wil end up like some one whit 96x store potential and stil don't have that lvl 2 star perk. So to prefend wasting your time and your mats keep 1 low lvl til you know what rank they come by. Vote this up if this help you so others can see and understand the system. If some is still little confusing to you, place a reply and I or other people from the communitie will help you. Stay save hunters
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I just got dual blades to help me beat Alatreon. I put odogaron essence on it to prevent sharpness loss. Do I have to have 2 pieces of odogaron armour to get it to work, or will it just work? I havnt tested it yet
- Anonymous
Good to know: one point "guts" (Bazelgeuse essence) on weapon dont stack with one point "guts" (Kulve Taroth something) on armor piece. That's weird.
- Anonymous
So I was wondering if there is an essence for Brachydios Will? I’m referring to Raging Brachydios. Because I’d like to get Artillery Secret from his gear instead of Zorah. Does anyone know if that’s possible????
- Anonymous
how any silver rathalos essence can you have on weapon? can you only have 1/4 or i can it be upgraded to 4/4?
- Anonymous
In case anyone might be confused, in-game Teostras essence shows up as "Teostra Technique".
- Anonymous
I have a Safi Frostspear with 120 stored potential... yes you read that correctly, why hasn't Zinogre Essence popped up? that's all i want
- Anonymous
I had to check if Goldian's True Crit Status is here. It does, now that just means RNG is making everything difficult for to get it.
- Anonymous
Can you roll a (monster) essence even though youve never fought said monster before?
- Anonymous
Double checking but you cannot roll with Kulve Taroth in this, right?
- Anonymous
Oh man! I left a message here yesterday! Agh again, if I have ... let's say Golden Rathina Essense, is it possible to upgrate it far from 3 stars level? Can the same be done with Ancient Divinity? - This is not clear, and I'm afraid I don't know if I'll ever get the ability I need by keeping on using dragonites on this weapons to increase my chances on higher level skills.
- Anonymous
So, for Ancient Divinity or GoldenRathian Essence... can you have them MAX out. For example, if I keep on adding dracolites, will I ever find Ancient Divinity 5 stars. Or Golden Rathian Essence level 6? I know you can't stock them up, but hell can I find higher lvls with this???
- Anonymous
Essenza del brachydios a me risulta di quello normale e non del furioso e possibile?
- Anonymous
There doesn't seem to be a max cap for certain skills. I'm able to get sharpness 11 by getting a sharpness 6 and a sharpness 5 on the same weapon. Can push it well into purple. Not sure about other skills.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
If i put the essence of a monster on the weapon, do i get the whole ability or just one "setpiece"? cause im reading a lot about teostra essence, but wont i need 2 other pieces of teostra armor?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Awakened abilities are not random. They come in predetermined orders like melding deco's does. Maybe upgrading the stored potential level will change the order but I can't test it because safi isn't in town atm.
- Anonymous
So uh I had 40 Awakening Potential on my Bowgun. I killed 3 Safis, got like 10 Large Dracolite, 3 Rigid from my last one, and all those rolls didn't give me Elemental Capacity up 3. Am I missing something? Because I've seen bowguns with ele cap up 3. But I haven't got it. Is my awakening just too damn high or
- Anonymous
Does "Guild Pride" really exist as an Awakened Ability or is the Wiki just wrong?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I feel bad for the noob that put this together. Came here thinking I'd learn something new but what a waste of time
Many things about awakened abilities are not explained in the game, and I guess here we don't have much more so I will write some of my observations : - Maximum level of most abilities (eg. Sharpness, Attack, Defense) is 6, but you wont find it just as no matter how much potential you have - first you have to get the ability on level 5 and then you have to level until you get upgrade for this ability. - You can have only 1 ability on maximum level. Some abilities have diffrent maximum level (Slot Upgrade ability ends on level 4). Once you have something maxed out and you find upgrade for other ability you can upgrade it, but the first maxed out ability will lose 1 level. - Some abilities can be stacked (like Sharpness) but it follow a bit diffrent leveling procedure. First you can find it only on level 3-4 (I think 4 is possible but with my luck I was getting 3 the whole time) and then once you level up you might get the chance to upgrade it further, up to level 5. At this point I didn't have enough time to test it but from my observations you can stack only once (you can have only 2 of the same skill). - Maximum level of potential is finite ( I don't remember how big it was but it was 15 or 25) and stacking it more don't give you any more benefits. You might still be storing it if abilities you roll are not to your liking. - As GL: all Shelling abilities have level 2. I had some problems with rolling Shelling Long II normally, I had to first get it on level 1 and then I found the 2nd one. But it might be only mine bad luck as other types of shells rolled on level 2 without problems and plenty at that.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Does sharpness go above level 3? That's the highest I've seen it go so far no matter how much potential I store.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
there's also shelling long and shelling normal too, shelling normal II puts it up to normal shells level 7, haven't seen a shelling normal III yet but I imagine there is one which would be 6 stars
- Anonymous
do i need to have like 2 velkhana divinity to make the armor skill work in a safi'jiiva weapon?
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