Monster Hunter Wilds is 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 in MH Wilds. It is a core combat stat, nearly as useful as flat attack and defense in certain scenarios. Here is how it works.
Monster Hunter Wilds: 7 Early Side Quests You Should Not Skip
Level up your Hunter quickly through these optional hunts and quests.
What Does Affinity Do in Monster Hunter Wilds
In Monster 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 will always land 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 of bonus damage on Wounds, making them even more devastatingly effective.
Players can easily tell which weapon attack was a Critical Hit by a telltale pink 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.
Monster Hunter Wilds: How to Capture Monsters
To capture monsters, Monster Hunter Wilds players must craft a Trap and any Tranquilizer, then weaken the monster they want to capture.
How to Increase Affinity in Monster Hunter Wilds
Hunters can increase their affinity stat using the following methods.
- Weapons with increased Affinity
- Skills that increase Affinity
+Affinity Weapons
Certain weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds come 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 during weapon forging.
+Affinity Skills
Certain skills in Monster Hunter Wilds can increase the affinity rating of a weapon as long as certain conditions are met. The best +Affinity skills are:
- Critical Eye: Increases affinity.
- Critical Draw: Increases affinity when performing draw attacks (e.g. Long Sword).
- Latent Power: Temporarily increases Affinity and reduces stamina depletion when certain conditions are met. An in-depth breakdown is found here.
- Weakness Exploit: Increases the Affinity of attacks that exploit a monster's weak points and wounds.
Skills can be acquired via set bonuses, decorations, and talismans.
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WHERE TO PLAY
- Franchise
- Monster Hunter
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
