To complement this priority of attacking the head, almost every attack with the hammer produces knockout, allowing a skilled hunter to not only deal insane amounts of damage, but also knock it out at the same time, allowing for even better opportunities to do damage.

Read more after the jump.

On top of all of this, every hit that has the potential to do the KO effect also lowers a monsters stamina, making them hungry faster and severely hindering their fighting prowess.  Now, I said “potential” to do the KO will lower their stamina, meaning the attack doesn’t need to hit their head, but if it did it would have to had done the KO effect.  Attacks that don’t do any KO and are simply just damage are the spin attack, the unsheathe attack, the sideswing, etc.  Hitting the monster in the head with these won’t produce the KO and won’t lower its stamina.

Aside from all of these behind the scenes things that happen with the hammer, I thought I should talk a little bit about a few of the hammers signature attacks.  The hammer, much like the GS, is able to “charge” up an attack.  Unlike the great sword, however, you are still able to move around while it is charging, giving this seemingly slow weapon a great deal of mobility.

At its lowest, the charge attack will only replicate the unsheath attack, which is able to combo into the normal triple pound.  At its mid level, you will lunge forward and do a sort of “uppercut” with the hammer, very useful for quickly closing the distance between you and the monster for that one extra hit.  At its final charge level, if you are moving when you let go, you will go into a sort of whirlwind attack, dealing tons of hits (great for applying status ailments) to the monster and finishing off with one grand swing (if timed correctly).  If you are standing still, you will do a superpound.  One massive slam into the ground dealing tons of damage in one fell swoop.

As you can see, the hammer is a VERY effective weapon at hunting monsters.  So next time you are on a hunt with a hammer user, be sure to give them some room to pound on the head, you won’t be sorry.”

Here’s Bastion’s other weapons tips: Lance , Bowgun , Great Sword , Long Sword , Switch Axe , Sword and Shield