Monster Hunter Freedom Skills Catalogue by Soop

A guide to armour and Felyne Whim skills

Thanks to :

Spydr101 for the Original skills list
Lord Grahf for the info about the bomber skill, and the attack up stats (from his Melee damage FAQ)
Fong for the list of bowguns (from his FAQ)
Sniper101010 for the info on hunger negate and gluttony
DaiIchiban for all the info about luck
Adelaine for all the corrections!

This isn’t finished yet. Need to update the shot add matrix and the Felyne Whim skills.

Skill name: Attack
Activates: Attack Up (Large, Med, Sm)
Attack up is a useful skill early in the game. Depending on the value of attack up from your armour, it gives a small, medium or large increase in your weapons base power. It loses its appeal slightly later on because the increase it gives to more powerful weapons is less in terms of percentage (for example, you would get a larger boost from a sharpness increase). The attack increases are as follows:
Hammer Greatsword Lance Sword and Shield Dualswords Bowguns
Large (+25 points) 52 48 23 14 14 12
Med (+15 points) 26 24 11 7 7 6
Sm (+10 points) 15 14 6 4 4 3
Example armours: Kut Ku, Rathalos.

Skill name: Defense
Activates: Defense +
Defense simply adds raw defense to your armours total. Like attack, it’s more useful in the beginning of the game, as the amount of defense it gives is small compared to G-class armours.
15 defense points activates Defense +20
10 defense points activates Defense +10
-10 defense points activates Defense -10
-15 defense points activates Defense -20
Example armours: Rathian

Skill name: Health
Activates: Health +
This skill increases or decreases your health bar, but unlike a kitty-kitchen increase it stays with you as long as you wear the armour, not just your first life. If you’re wondering how much the value is, a default health bar is 100 units, and the maximum is 150.
25 health points activates health +30
15 health points activates health +20
10 health points activates Health +10
-10 health points activates Health -10
-15 health points activates Health -20
Example armours: Rathian heart

Skill name: Hunger
Activates: Hunger negated, hunger X
Hunger stops your stamina bar decreasing completely (which is a useful skill for stamina dependant weapons such as hammers, lances, dualswords and heavy bowguns), slows the amount at which it decreases (half as slow) or speeds up the amount at which it drops (50% faster, or twice as fast). It doesn’t affect the normal stamina drop when running or when demonized, but the rate at which you lose a chunk of 25 stamina (out of a maximum of 150). The standard time for one chunk of stamina loss is after around 7 minutes.
+15 Hunger Activates Hunger negated
+10 Hunger Activates Hunger 0.5x
-10 Hunger Activates Hunger 1.5x
-20 Hunger Activates Hunger 2.0x
Example Armour: Bone, Bistro, Diablo (negative).

Skill name: Gluttony
Activates: Speed eater, Eating+
Gluttony is a little useless when you get a gourmet BBQ spit, as it increases the amount of stamina you get from a steak. Normally, a rare steak or a ration will add 25 stamina, a well-done steak adds 50 stamina, and gourmet steak takes stamina up to 150 regardless.
+25 Gluttony Activates Speed Eater, which makes you eat very slightly faster, no bonus stamina!
+15 Gluttony activates Eating +2, which adds 50 more stamina than normal
+10 Gluttony activates Eating +1, which adds 25 more stamina than normal
Example armour: mosswine

Skill name: Cold res
Activates: Anti Cold, Cold X
Similar to hunger, this skill will stop your stamina from dropping, but protects you from the effects of cold (IE the caves in the swamp). It’s like having a permanent hot drink. If the skill points go into the negative, they have the adverse effect of speeding stamina decrease in the cold.
15 Cold res points activates Anti-cold No stamina decrease in cold
10 Cold res points activates Cold [0.5x] (Stamina decrease .5x in cold)
-10 Cold res points activates Cold [1.5x] (Stamina decrease 1.5x in cold)
-15 Cold res points activates Cold [2.0x] (Stamina decrease 2.0x in cold)
Example armours: Gravios, Hi-metal, Kirin, lobster.

Skill name: Heat res
Activates: Anti heat, heat X
This is so similar to Cold res, I’ve actually copy and pasted it and changed parts. This skill will stop your Health from dropping in hot areas (volcano, desert). It’s like having a permanent cold drink. If the skill points go into the negative, they have the adverse effect of speeding health decrease in the heat.
15 Heat res points activates Anti-Heat - No Health decrease in Heat
10 Heat res points activates Heat [0.5x] (Health decrease .5x in Heat)
-10 Heat res points activates Heat [1.5x] (Health decrease 1.5x in Heat)
-15 Heat res points activates Heat [2.0x] (Health decrease 2.0x in Heat)
Example armours: Cephalos, Basarios, Bone.

Skill name: Backpacking
Activates: Backpacking Expert
An invaluable skill for quests involving the carrying of eggs or powderstones (or dragonrocks – backpacking expert is one of my top choices for treasure hunting), this skill allows you to run roughly twice as fast while carrying a heavy object. It’s a fairly easy skill to get too, so it’s easy to try out. For best results, drink megajuice or powerjuice.
Backpacking +10 activates backpacking expert.
Example armours: Leather, Vespoid, Battle, Black piercing.

Skill name: BombstrUp
Activates: Bomber
This is the armour equivalent of the Felyne Whim skill “Felyne bomber”. It upgrades the strength of:
sm barrel bombs from 20 damage to 30
sm barrel bomb +’s from 30 damage to 45
Large barrel bombs from 80 damage to 120
Large barrel bomb +’s from 150 damage to 225
So basically 50%.
Three things to note: One, the cats say that the feline bomber skill doesn’t affect large BB+’s. This is unverified, but I suspect it to be untrue.
Secondly, the white rocks in HR3 Treasure Hunting have about 150 Hp.
Thirdly, bombs deal damage to the whole wyvern, not a specific area, but they can break specific parts, IE Horns, chestplates.
Bombstr Up +10 activates Bomber.
Example armours: Felyne Mask

Skill name: Artisan
Activates: Sharpness +1
This is one of my favorite skills, and it works for a lot of end-line weapons. It increases the sharpness bar of some (not all) melee weapons, and sometimes adds a new colour (and thus adding to the total percentage of damage), often taking blue sharpness up to white. Times when it will definitely not work are when a weapon already has a full sharpness bar, although there are instances when it doesn’t work despite this (ie Insector Slicers).
Artisan +10 activates Sharpness +1.
Example armours: Rathalos S, Kirin S, Monoblos S

Skill name: Sharpness
Activates: Sharpsword/Bluntsword
Sharpsword is particularly useful for dualsword users, or for arena battles where it’s just not sensible to sit down for a couple of minutes sharpening. It decreases the rate at which sharpness decreases by 50%. Bounced hits (or sparked hits if you’re superpounding, lance charging, or using demon combos) take off twice the sharpness, so if you have sharpsword, it’s decreased back to 100%. Normal (non-bounced) hits reduce sharpness by 50% with this skill.
Bluntsword is pretty rare in my experience. It increases the sharpness drop. I don’t know how much, but I would assume by 150%.
Sharpness +10 activates sharpsword
Sharpness -10 activates bluntsword
Example armours: Garuga S

Skill name: Fencing
Activates: ESP
ESP is extremely useful for three reasons, some more obvious than others:
Bounced/sparked hits reduce sharpness by the normal amount
Your weapon never bounces

The critical hit pause never happens when you cut through a wyverns weakpoint (ie Rathalos’s head) speeding up your damage output slightly.
ESP is generally a high-end skill, mostly available in G-class, however by collecting 2 sm lao claws you unlock SwordSaint Piercing (SSP) which gives fencing +10. This is available at HR1.
Fencing +10 activates ESP
Example armours: SSP, Arouros/Glyph Ten

Skill name: Sword sharpener
Activates: Sharpeningskill
Like sharpsword, this is useful for arena quests and duals users, but it works differently: When activated, the time taken to sharpen your weapon is reduced dramatically. Your character will make one motion, and sharpness will be restored. Very useful. Conversely, if you have -10 points, it activates sharpeningskill .5, where the time taken will be normal, but whetstones will restore 0.5 times the sharpness (equivalent to the mini whetstones you’re given in VC quests)
Swrdshrpner +10 activates SharpeningsSkl inc
Swrdshrpner -10 activates SharpeningsSkl .5
Example armour: Rathalos soul

Skill name: Autoguard
Activates: Autoguard
This skill is available early and cheap with protection piercing. I thought it was great when I first got it (I didn’t know about armour skills) but it has its drawbacks. If you’re weapon is drawn, you’re not rolling/swinging and you’re attacked, you’ll block the attack. However, although the blocking action is quick, there are times you may not want to block, and this is a hindrance. Also in my personal opinion, relying on an autoblock feature means you won’t develop the skills you’ll need later in the game.
Autoguard +10 activates Autoguard
Example armour: Protection Piercing

Skill name: Guard +
Activates: Guard X
Later in the game, you face enemies that can damage you even through your block. For some, this isn’t too much of a problem as you can evade instead, but lance users will find that harder. With Guard + you can eliminate this problem to a degree, as strong attacks will inflict less damage. Also, this skill decreases the push-back from certain attacks (something particularly useful for SnS users). This also speeds up block animation recovery, enabling you to high-tail it without getting whooped. Guard +1 works to a lesser degree than guard +2. If you happen to get negative points for this skill, it won’t adversely affect your block animation, but you’ll take more damage through a block.
Guard +15 Activates Guard +2
Guard +10 Activates Guard +1
Guard -10 Activates Guard -1
Guard -15 Activates Guard -2
Example armour: Rathian S

Skill name: Guard Inc
Activates: Guard Up
Guard Up is often confused with guard +, but they’re different. There are several “unblockable” attacks in this game. This skill allows you to block them! Gravios’ firebeam, sleep gas, and firefart are all blockable with this skill! The downside? Only 2 armour sets carry this skill. Hunter + and Battle S. *note* www.pokernator.com/MHF/ does not at the time of writing, distinguish between the two guard skills.
Guard Inc +10 activates Guard up.
Example armour: Hunter +, Battle S

Skill name: [x] Shot Up
Activates: [x] Shot Up
This skill is for gunners, and multiplies the damage for each shot (where [x] is a shot type) by 110%, making it extremely powerful. It works for multiple shot types, but the two best are probably pierce and normal S.
+10 [x] Shot Up activates [x] Shot Up.
Example armour: Sure Shot Piercing

Skill name: [x]Shot Add
Activates: [x]Shot Add
Here’s another one for you gunners, and it’s a beauty. Have you ever thought “Man I love that gun, but I just wish it would fire pierce”? (Empire Lao) Now with Pierce shot add, it will! Add clust compatibility or pierce where it wasn’t before! You can step it up from level 1 to level 3 in 3 steps. The actual number of shots you can carry in a clip depends entirely on the gun – for example, the Expert bowgun gets a whopping 3/3/3 for clust, which rivals Demonlock and Island of the Gods but with veryfast reload.
+10 [x]Shot Add Activates [x]Shot add level 1
+15 [x]Shot Add Activates [x]Shot add level 1&2
+25 [x]Shot Add Activates [x]Shot add level 1,2&3
Example Armours: Gravios U, Silver Sol

Skill name : Load
Activates : Load+
When you buy a bowgun, it has a fixed speed of veryfast, fast, moderate, slow, or veryslow. With this skill, you can increase or decrease the loading speed. For example, if you take a veryslow bowgun and notch up +25 load points, it will now have a “fast” reload. A lot of good gunning skills come with a load penalty, so it’s good to have a few pieces of battle S which gives a load+5 bonus.
+25 Load activates Load +3
+15 Load activates Load +2
+10 Load activates Load +1
-10 Load activates Load -1
-15 Load activates Load -2
-25 Load activates Load -3
Example armour: Battle S

Skill name: Map
Activates: Farsight
Real hunters don’t use maps! All joking aside new hunters might find this skill useful, but veterans really won’t be interested. It simply causes a map to be displayed. The negative effect will cause the map never to be displayed even if you take one from the chest.
+10 Map activates Farsight
-10 Map activates Map invalid
Example armour: Hunter

Skill name: Fishing
Activates: Fishing Expert
I like this skill. Nothing is more frustrating that waiting ages for a bite and then losing your bait. No more! Now the moment your lure dips under the water stretches out for an eternity! You’re bound to catch the fish now!
+10 Fishing activates Fishing Expert
Example armour: Hunter

Skill name: Fate
Activates: Luck Booster
This skill is a definite must have. Seeing as one of the main points of the game is to get wyvern parts, this skill helps immensely. What it won’t do however, is affect carves, or give you a higher chance of getting a rare item (such as a ruby) in rewards. What it does is increase the chance of you getting another stack of rewards. DaiIchiban said it far better than I ever could, so I’m going to quote him:
Luck does not alter the rarity of items. Luck increases your chances of receiving extra “stacks” of rewards.
You normally receive 4 stacks, and have a 22/32 chance of getting another stack. If the check is successful, it checks again, if the check is unsuccessful, it no longer checks.
Luck booster ups the chance for more rewards to 29/32, good luck 26/32.
Mega lucky Cat 26/32, Ultra lucky 29/32.
Luck skills do not stack, the best chance is checked first.
Extra rewards (rewards for breaking parts such as claws, horns and head crests) are checked after the extra rewards process, thus are not influenced by luck.
And that pretty much sums it up! BTW, the pig does not affect luck at all.
+15 Fate activates Luckbooster
+10 Fate activates Good Luck
-10 Fate activates Bad Luck
-15 Fate activates Calamity
Example Armour: Golden Moon, Gravios U, Velociprey U, Rathian Heart

Skill name: Psychic Vision
Activates: Autotracker, Detect
Autotracker comes in very handy for monsters who change area a lot. When you learn their starting zones (which Autotracker really helps with) then it becomes slightly less useful. What it does is automatically “paintball” Any wyverns, dragons or dromes on the map, and even changes the paintball dot to a wyvern icon (wyverns and dragons only) that tells you which way they’re facing and if they’re angry or not (not rage mode, but if they’ve spotted you). Detect will give you the same effect, but you actually need to paintball the wyvern first, making it a bit useless.
+15 Psychic Vision activates Autotracker
+10 Psychic Vision activates Detect
Example armour: Rathalos soul, Black piercing

Skill name: Worry
Activates: Stealth/Provocation
This skill is underused, but could be fun. It only works in multiplayer. If you’ve ever noticed in multiplayer, a wyvern will attack everyone in turn. If you keep track of the pattern you can do whatever you want in the time before your next attack. However with Stealth, you will receive less than your fair share of attacks (useful for gunners) and with Provoke, you’ll get more than your fair share (perhaps useful for helping out newer players). And if you have a lot of gunners for instance, you could have a tanker character (perhaps a lancer with megajuice) to attract the attacks. (thanks Adelaine!)
+10 Worry activates Stealth
-10 Worry activates Provoke
Example armour: Dark Metal

Skill name: Wind Pressure
Activates: Wind Pressure Lrg, Sm
Most Wyverns generate wind while taking off and landing, and a lot of them have wind attacks too, meant to stun you setting you up for an attack. All weapons have an anti-wind attack apart from bowguns and SnS, and even SnS can block wind. Plus, crouching also renders you anti-wind (great for carving in an arena etc). But while all these things are possible, Windpressure allows you to inflict some serious damage while the wyvern is helpless, or to just escape if you need to. It comes in 2 flavours, large and small. Rathalos and Rathian for example generate wind that can be countered by Windpressure Sm. Monoblos, Diablos and Kut Ku would need Windpressure Lrg to counter their effects.
+15 Windpressure activates Windpressure Lrg
+10 Windpressure activates Windpressure Sm
Example armour: Diablos

Skill name: Hear protect
Activates: Earplug, High grade earplug
When Wyverns scream, it can easily stun you long enough for them to attack you – particularly as they seem to roar a lot in rage mode when their speed increases. This can be fatal for gunners, who can’t block and have light armour. It’s also handy for duals users and hammer users, as they have no block either.
Much like the Windpressure skill, there are 2 levels that can block out certain wyverns screams. Kut Kus scream doesn’t stun anyway, Plesioth doesn’t roar, but Rathalos Rathian and Garuga can be covered by the Earplug skill. High grade earplugs will block out any roar.
+15 Hear protect activates High grade earplug
+10 Hear protect activates Earplug
Example armour: Rathalos soul, Garuga S

Skill name: Whim
Activates: Divine whim, Spirits Whim
Extremely useful for gathering missions, particularly volcano mining where there is a lot of mining spots, or treasure hunting. This skill simply makes it less likely for the pickaxe or bugnet you’re using to break. It has 4 grades from very good, good, bad, very bad.
+15 Whim activates Divine whim
+10 Whim activates Spirits Whim
-10 Whim activates Spectres whim
-15 Whim activates Devils Whim
Example armour: Guild knight

Skill name: Gathering
Activates: Gathering +
The Gathering skill is perhaps the most useful skill when it comes to gathering rare ores, thunderbugs, or even greatstones. It simply gives you more stuff before the “there is nothing here” message appears, meaning you can maximize a trip. Now you can regularly get 3 or so firecell stones per quest! It comes in 4 stages however, so a gathing specific armour set is suggested. This is also a great skill for treasure hunting.
+15 Gathering activates Gathering +2
+10 Gathering activates Gathering +1
-10 Gathering activates Gathering -1
-15 Gathering activates Gathering -2
Example armour: Melahoa flower, Guild Knight

Skill name: Hi Speed Gather
Activates: Hi Speed Gathering
This skill speeds up the time it takes to carve, or gather from plants, mushrooms etc. Very useful, especially for getting all 9 carves from Lao Shan Lung. Earlybird Piercing is a helm which activates the skill in one piece, and is given to you by the Village Elder when you slay 20 of each wyvern.
+10 Hi Speed Gather activates Hi Speed Gathering
Example armour: Earlybird Piercing

Skill name: [Elemental] Res Up
Activates: [Elemental] Resist +
Every wyverns physical attack has an element attached. If Plesoth hip-checks you and you’re wearing 200 defense armour with -10 water it will probably kill you. However, with +10 water, it’s a different story. Although armour has its own elemental resistance built in, you can modify the total with this skill. It comes in Fire, Water, Thunder, Dragon, and All (covering all four previous elements).
+25 [element] Res activates [element] resist +10
+15 [element] Res activates [element] resist +5
+10 [element] Res activates [element] resist +3
-10 [element] Res activates [element] resist -3
-15 [element] Res activates [element] resist -5
-25 [element] Res activates [element] resist -10
Example armour: Blue, Red, Yellow Piercing

Skill name: Protection
Activates: Divine Protection/Demonic Protection
A strange skill this. When you get hit by a wyvern, there’s a 25% chance that you’ll take 30% less damage than you normally would. It’s not one of the main skills people go for, as it’s unreliable in battle, but as a bonus it’s pretty good! The flip-side is demonic protection which has a 25% chance of you taking 30% more damage! Ouch!
+10 Protection activates Divine protection
-10 Protection activates Demonic protection
Example armour: Kirin, Arouros Ten

Skill name: Spc Attack
Activates: Abnormal Status Atk Up
This skill enhances the attribute of Poison, Stun, and Sleep weapons. Each wyvern has a certain tolerance to status elements, and when this tolerance is reached, the effect takes hold (they get poisoned, stunned, put to sleep). This skill takes the attribute power of each hit, and multiplies it by 1.125 – adding 12.5% extra element. It does not however, raise the frequency of element-tinged attacks. It only raises the power. It is also worth noting:
The built-up effect of elements wears away quite quickly, so a quick succession of elemental hits is required.
A wyvern cannot be affected by an element while it is asleep or stunned. However, by keeping up poisoned hits, a wyvern can be re-poisoned immediately after recovering.
Automatically comboing attacks, ie the lance charge, demon combo, hammer spin, will afflict element for every hit if the first hit is elemental. If not, none of the hits will.
+10 Spc Attack activates Abnormal Status Atk Up
Example armour: Chaoshroom

Skill name: Faint
Activates: K.O. Negated
This skill makes you immune to being K.O.ed, which is a specialty of Kut Ku or Gypceros. It’s the animation where you have stars going around your head after being flashed by Gypceros or hit twice in quick succession by Kut Ku. You can actually get out of K.O. by rotating the analogue nub around quickly, but it’s sill interesting. In lower and minus skill points, the K.O time gets halved or doubled respectively
+15 Faint activates K.O. Negated
+10 Faint activates K.O. [0.5x]
-10 Faint activates K.O. [2.0x]
Example armour: Velociprey

Skill name: Paralysis
Activates: Stun Negated
This skill makes you immune to being stunned by Genprey/dromes, Kirin, Vespoids or Khezu. It’s the animation where you lay stunned with electricity by lightning hits or genprey attacks. In lower and minus skill points, the stun time gets halved or doubled respectively
+15 Paralysis activates stun Negated
+10 Paralysis activates stun [0.5x]
-10 Paralysis activates stun [2.0x]
Example armour: Genprey

Skill name: Poison
Activates: Poison Negated
This skill makes you immune to being poisoned which is a specialty of Ioprey/dromes, Basarios or Gypceros. It’s the animation where you have purple bubbles coming out of you while your health decreases. In lower and minus skill points, the poison time gets halved, doubled, tripled, or even multiplied by four!
+15 Poison activates Poison Negated
+10 Poison activates Poison [0.5x]
-10 Poison activates Poison [2.0x]
-15 Poison activates Poison [3.0x]
-25 Poison activates Poison [4.0x]
Example armour: Ioprey

Skill name: Sleep
Activates: Sleep Negated
This skill makes you immune to being put to sleep by Gravios. It’s the animation where you lay with white bubbles popping out after Gravios’ gas attack. (This can be blocked with guard inc BTW). In lower and minus skill points, the sleep time gets halved or doubled respectively
+15 Sleep activates Sleep Negated
+10 Sleep activates Sleep [0.5x]
-10 Sleep activates Sleep [2.0x]
Example armour: Vespoid

Skill name: Wide Rec
Activates: Wide Area Recover, Herbal Med Wide
This one’s only useful in Multiplayer. When potions are used, any team mates in the area are healed also. With the lower Herbal Med Wide skill, it gives the same effect, but with herbs only. Very useful.
+15 Wide Rec activates Wide Area Recover
+10 Wide Rec activates Herbal Med Wide
Example armour: Vespoid U

Skill name: StealNoEff
Activates: Anti-theft
This skill is pretty useful, but really, the only two things that steal from you are melynx and Gypceros. And one of those can be countered with a pocket full of felvine. If you feel the need, you can protect your gourmet BBQ spit with this skill.
+10 StealNoEff activates Anti-theft
Example armour: Bone

Skill name: Recovery
Activates: Recovery Items Weak/Strong
A useful booster to upgrade herbs, potions, megapotions to about 1.25 ~1.50 times more health. The negative skill steps things down the other way.
+10 Recovery activates Recovery Items Strong
-10 Recovery activates Recovery Items Weak
Example Armour: Khezu U, Gravios U (negative)

Skill name: Rec Speed
Activates: Recovery Speed +
This is a hugely useful defensive skill. Whenever you get hit, some of the damage can be recovered if you leave it long enough. The health that gets recovered goes from red back up to green, usually slowly, but this skill can speed it up or slow it down, by 4 times or 3 times. Also, all the damage caused by poison or heat can be recovered given time.
+25 Rec Speed activates Recovery +2
+10 Rec Speed activates Recovery +1
-10 Rec Speed activates Recovery -1
-25 Rec Speed activates Recovery -2
Example armour: Khezu U

Skill name: Wide-Cntr
Activates: Wide Area Antidote
This skill means that using an antidote will heal any poisoned team mates in the area. Not incredibly useful.
+10 Wide-Cntr activates Wide Area Antidote
Example armour: Gypceros

Skill name: Wide Effect
Activates: Wide Area Power
This skill causes any power or armour seeds and demondrugs/armourskins taken by the player to affect any team mates in the area too. Now that’s value for money!
+10 Wide Effect activates Wide Area Power
Example armour: Diablos

Skill name: Flute
Activates: Flute Expert
This skill is the equivalent of feyline woodwind, and decreases the chance of a flute breaking. It’s most useful in a situation where you have a lot of flutes and have team mates in the area to affect. It’s also a cheap alternative to bringing lots of demondrugs/potions etc and giving yourself constant buffs. (thanks Adelaine)
+10 Flute activates Flute Expert
Example armour: Bone

Skill name: Alchemy
Activates: Alchemy
This skill unlocks further combos, some of them very useful. Once you unlock the combo (by performing it for the first time), it will go into your combo list, but only while you have this skill activated. If you manage to perform every combo, the backpacking man in town will give you the Alchemy book. This is like a 6th combo book, and while carried with the rest of the books it will make every combo including the Alchemy combos 100% successful
+10 Alchemy activates Alchemy
Example armour: Bullfango

Skill name: Mix Success Rate
Activates: Combine +
Every combination has a certain combine success rate, and if it’s below 100% there’s a chance you will combine it wrong and end up with garbage. Carrying combo books increases the success rate, but you can also use armour to up your success.
+25 Mix Success Rate activates: Combine +20%
+15 Mix Success Rate activates: Combine +10%
+10 Mix Success Rate activates: Combine +5%
-10 Mix Success Rate activates: Combine -5%
-15 Mix Success Rate activates: Combine -10%
-25 Mix Success Rate activates: Combine -20%
Example armour: Bone S

Skill name: Shot Mix
Activates: Bullet Limit
Another gunner skill. When you combine some Ammo types, you get more than one shot from each combination, and this could be for example, anywhere from 1 to 4. What bullet limit does is ensure you always combine the maximum amount of bullets, saving you money and giving you more bullets in total!
+10 Shot Mix activates Bullet Limit
Example armour: Basarios U

Skill name: Rapidfire
Activates: Rapidfire
Considered the holy grail of gunner armour, this skill has a major hidden drawback. Although it means you don’t have to reload except when changing shot types, it increases every shot to the maximum recoil, making it useful only for shots which have the maximum recoil already. It’s not even useful for clust 2, as you have to keep combining after 2 shots to keep the no reload bonus. It should speed up level 2 status shots, and some of the level 3 shots.
+10 Rapidfire activates Rapidfire
Example armour: Only available on Fatalis armour.

Skill name: Recoil
Activates: Recoil +
For damage output this is the best skill available, but as with Rapidfire, it comes with a penalty of –load. Unlike the Rapidfire penalty, this one can be countered. Here’s how recoil works:

There are 3 different recoil weights. The slowest and heaviest, throws you back several steps. The next throws you back one step. The lightest and quickest doesn’t move you.
Now each shot type has a recoil weight attached to it. They’re usually the most powerful shot.
With recoil +1, the weight of the shot will move down a step, speeding up the fire rate. With Recoil +2, it drops every shot the gun fires to the quickest rate.
However, each gun also has a recoil value, which in itself can raise or decrease every shot by one step, although it’s rare for the recoil to be effected in this way.

Recoil +2 can only be achieved with a load penalty, but recoil -1 can be achieved using a combination of load + and torso + parts.
+15 Recoil activates Recoil +2
+10 Recoil activates Recoil +1
-10 Recoil activates Recoil -1
-15 Recoil activates Recoil -2
Example armour: Arouros/Glyph Ten is the only armour set with this skill.

Felyne Whim Skills

Felyne Heroics
When health is at 10 or below, Defense and Attack are multiplied by 1.5

Felyne Escape
When you’ve been spotted by a wyvern, stamina decreases slower when running away.

Ultra Luckycat
More chance of extra rewards. Equivalent to Luckbooster skill (see above)

Mega Luckycat
More chance of extra rewards. Equivalent to Good Luck skill (see above)

Felyne Martial Arts [hi] [lo]
Use less stamina when rolling

Felyne Dismantle [hi] [lo]
Chance of an extra carve (works for all carveable monsters, doesn’t work on tails, for Lao and Fatalis, it gives you chance of an extra carve per spot)

Felyne Bravery
????

Felyne Courage
Less chance of doing the cowering animation when a monster spots you.

Felyne Strongcat
Use less stamina when running with an egg

Felyne Supercat
Chance of an egg not breaking when you get hit.

Feyne Charisma
Get more and better trades with Veggie Elders

Felyne Negotiations
Better chance of retrieving items from the Melynx village, Greater chance of a free item from veggie elders

Felyne Blunt Force
Increases power of bowgun melee attack from 2, to be based on the power of the bowgun

Felyne Great Break
Weapons have less chance of “breaking” (a sudden random drop in sharpness)

Felyne Woodwind
Flutes have less chance of breaking Equivalent to Flute skill (see above)

Felyne Frugality
Bugnets and Pickaxes have less chance of breaking. Equivalent to the X Whim skill. (see above)

Felyne Special Attack
Increases Status attack power by 1.125. Equivalent to Abnormal Status Attack up Skill (see above)

Felyne Combine [hi] [lo]
Adds 5% and 10% success to combinations. Equivalent to combine skill (see above)

Felyne Bomber
Increases power of small and Large barrel bombs. Equivalent to Bomber skill (see above)

Felyne Defense [hi] [lo]
Gives a Defense increase. Equivalent to Defense skill (see above)