Monster Hunter World: Elemental damage explained

Monsters in Monster Hunter World feature elemental gaps, and to take advantage of it, you can forge weapons with elemental damage, boosting the weapon’s potential in the fights you take. That said, there’s more to elemental damage than just that—and I’m here to explain the secrets if you’re interested.

What is elemental damage in Monster Hunter World? 

Simply put, some weapons in Monster Hunter World feature elemental effects, and using them against monsters who are weak to that particular element will let you deal higher damage than you’d with a weapon with no elemental advantage. While you can always capture them, killing monsters is usually the way to go, and elemental damage is a necessity to conquer such bloody duels. 

There are five elemental attributes in Monster Hunter World, namely fire, water, ice, dragon, and thunder, and multiple monsters with associated weaknesses or immunity to these attributes. Each monster is threatened by at least two elemental weaknesses, but they can also be resistant or immune to certain elements. Using a weapon with a certain elemental effect on a monster, which is immune to the same element, weakens the weapon’s damage potential when hit. 

So, say you’re facing Anjanath in a fight, you wouldn’t want to use a weapon using the fire element; instead, use something with water to deal the most damage. Monsters can be more resistant to one element than others. Anjanath is very weak against water, but it isn’t as vulnerable to thunder or ice and is resistant against dragon. 

Also, while elemental damage isn’t usually affected by a weapon’s affinity, you can deal a critical hit with an elemental weapon if the Critical Element Skill is active.

When in Monster Hunter World, choose your weapons wisely, especially if you’re taking on a large monster—you definitely need weapons with elemental damage for this one. 

How to view and calculate elemental damage in Monster Hunter World

To check if a weapon offers elemental strengths in Monster Hunter World, you can bring up the Equipment menu and tap on the weapon to view the base and elemental damage it can deal. Additionally, you can upgrade a weapon to enhance its base and elemental damage potential.

There’s a formula to calculate the elemental damage portion of the total damage you deal to a monster, based on the fact that elemental damage is influenced by the Sharpness and Monster Body Part factors.

According to Monster Hunter World wiki, elemental damage is the starting elemental point of the weapon divided by 10 and then multiplied by Sharpness, Quest Difficulty, Rage Status, and Body Part factors. As much as it sounds confusing, don’t worry—in most cases, you can just straight up add elemental damage to base damage, as shown in the weapon’s stat page to calculate the total damage.