What does Weapon Affinity mean in Monster Hunter Wilds?

Affinity is one of the many confusing gameplay mechanics in Monster Hunter Wilds, and if it’s your first experience with the franchise, there are a lot of glaring stats and words you might not be familiar with.

MH Wilds doesn’t always explain what this terminology means, with Weapon Affinity being the most common confusion for newcomers. Weapon Affinity is one of the many stats that appear when crafting a new weapon or checking your status or equipment info, but the text doesn’t tell you what it does. In everyday language, “affinity” has a number of different definitions, but it basically means a sort of attraction or feeling of kinship with someone or something. This doesn’t really do the term justice in MH Wilds, because the definition in the decades-old RPG franchise is quite different.

Luckily for veteran and new gamers alike, it’s fairly simple to explain. Here’s everything there is to know about Affinity in Monster Hunter Wilds

What is Affinity in Monster Hunter Wilds?

Affinity is the Critical Hit Chance stat in Monster Hunter Wilds, with the percentage representing how much extra damage your weapon can deal against a monster if you get lucky.

Affinity is determined by the weapon and skills you have equipped, either through your armor or other means, and is displayed as a percent value in the Attack Status menu or when looking at a weapon you want to create from the Smithy.

How Affinity works in Monster Hunter Wilds

If you have a positive percentage in Affinity, that represents the chance of an attack hitting for a critical hit (higher damage). For example, if you have 10 percent Affinity, you have a 10 percent chance of hitting and dealing 10 percent extra damage.

On the other range of the spectrum, though, a negative percentage in Affinity means you have a chance to blunder the attack and apply a penalty. So if we use 10 percent again, you’d be dealing 10 percent less damage 10 percent of the time. Most of the time, Dragon Elemental Weapons are the only weapons with high negative Affinity. With high Affinity, they would likely be a bit overpowered.

The crit damage is based purely on the weapon alone and does not apply to Elemental Damage. You can tell if Affinity has been activated by a unique symbol when attacking a monster different from the usual effect.

How to increase Weapon Affinity in Monster Hunter Wilds

You can increase Weapon Affinity and the damage applied by various Skills and Equipment, such as the Critical Boost skill. Skills like Critical Element also apply the crit chance to Elemental Damage on top of your weapon’s base attack points.

Skills like Agitator, for example, increase Affinity when a Large Monster is enraged. You also have Critical Status that allows Affinity to affect Status Damage, such as Poison weapons. So, be sure to check out all your skills and equipment to boost Affinity as much as possible to deal massive damage.

Now that you know all about Affinity, get out there with your high Affinity weapons to deal some mega damage to all monsters on your hunts.