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Monster Hunter Wildsis a huge game with tons of features, hidden mechanics, consumables, and game-specific terms to learn. While veterans of the franchise have common knowledge to fall back on, new players are often left wondering what certain words used in the menus mean, especially when the game expects players to already know about them.
One of these confusing terms is affinity, a mechanic specific to weapons inMH Wilds. It is a core combat stat, nearly as useful as flat attack and defense in certain scenarios. Here is how it works.
What Does Affinity Do in Monster Hunter Wilds
InMonster Hunter Wilds,Affinity is the in-game term used in place of Critical Hit Chance, i.e. the percentage chance to land a critical hit on an enemy while using a weapon. Affinity ranges from 0 to 100, with 0 meaning a 0% Critical Hit Chance and 100 meaning a 100% Critical Hit Chance. A weapon with a 100 affinity rating willalwaysland a critical hit on every single attack.
A successful Critical Hit will, by default, deal+25% weapon damage on hit. So if a weapon is supposed to hit for 100 damage, it will instead hit for 125 damage. This percentage can be increased using the Critical Hit Boost skill. Best of all affinity hits compound the effect ofbonus damage on Wounds, making them even more devastatingly effective.
Players can easily tell which weapon attack was a Critical Hit by a telltalepink glowing line above the damage number(pictured below).
Achieving the 100 affinity mark on a weapon is possible but requires concentrated effort, a compatible build, and the right skill combination to pull off. Naturally, the payoff is worth it.
Elemental damage cannot critical hit using the affinity stat by default.
What Happens If A Weapon Has Negative Affinity
In certain cases, weapons can have a negative affinity. Something like -5 affinity is a fairly common occurrence and is usually a debuff on a powerful weapon meant to balance its other overpowered stats.If a weapon has negative affinity, it has the chance to deal weakened damage.
A -10 affinity weapon will give that weapon a 10% chance to deal weakened damage on hit. Weakened damage is the direct opposite of Critical Hits, meaning these attacks will deal -25% damage on hit. So, if a regular hit was supposed to hit for 100 damage, it would instead hit for 75 damage.
Hunters can increase their affinity stat using the following methods.
+Affinity Weapons
Certain weapons inMonster Hunter Wildscome with a base increase in affinity rating from the get-go. These are the best bases for builds relying on a high-affinity rating to deal massive damage. You can easily check how much affinity a weapon comes with by checking the compare window in the right context menu duringweapon forging.
+Affinity Skills
Certain skills inMonster Hunter Wildscan increase the affinity rating of a weapon as long as certain conditions are met. The best +Affinity skills are:
