Most weapon stats are fairly intuitive - even if you don’t know the exact mechanics, you’ll probably understand what stats like Attack/Element do inasmuch as seeing a higher Attack or Element value means that weapon is better than lower-stat variants. Affinity, however, is a rather generic term that may befuddle new players, and while it’s rather quick to give a rough definition, how affinity work in Monster Hunter Wilds is worth explaining in detail - this page will cover what the affinity stat on weapons does, how to increase it and useful builds revolving around affinity.

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Affinity Effects¶

In Monster Hunter, a weapon’s affinity is critical hit chance. Pretty simple, right? Different weapons have varying base affinity stats, generally ranging from -20% to 20%. This stat tends to be inherited by all weapons in a certain tree - the G. Doshaguma Tree’s Greatswords all have -20% affinity while the Gore Magala Tree’s Greatswords all have 20% affinity.

If your weapon has positive affinity, that value determines the chance the weapon will land a critical hit, dealing 125% normal damage. On the other hand, if a weapon has negative affinity, that’s the chance the weapon will deal only 75% normal damage. A weapon with 0% affinity deals normal damage (100% damage) every hit.

Early on, this isn’t going to matter much. Using Pink Maracas I (Daggers - 168 Attack) with 5% affinity versus Dosha Fastflayers I (Daggers - 196 Attack) with -5 affinity probably won’t make much of a difference. When it comes to high-tier weapons with 15-20% affinity, however, the damage bonus you’ll gain from landing critical hits can be quite pronounced. When coupled with certain skills, however, an affinity (read: critical hit) build becomes something to seriously consider.

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(1 of 4) Weapons with low affinity may deal only 75% of their normal damage,

Affinity Skills and Builds¶

Given that affinity on a weapon is, by itself, trending towards the inconsequential, even if you know what affinity does and how it works you may not consider it a worthwhile stat to pursue. The thing about Monster Hunter, however, is that damage buffs are pretty special, especially at top-tier gameplay. The bonus damage from Sharpness may be easier to get and more important, but when you’re stacking sharpness, meal buffs, Demondrugs and affinity you can put up some spectacular damage numbers.

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On its own, affinity isn’t a huge damage driver - 20% affinity will only boost your average damage output by 5% - but with various skills those numbers could improve significantly!

Affinity takes a bit of work, however, and one of the key skills you need is “Weakness Exploit”, which grants you bonus affinity when you hit weak points and more if you hit wounds. At skill level one this is a mere +5% / +8% boost, but at Lv5 it goes up to a whopping +30% / +50% affinity boost. Pair that with a weapon with a base 20 affinity weapon and your attacks on weak points now have a 50% critical hit rate (a 12.5% damage increase) while your attacks on wounds now have a 70% critical hit rate (17.5% extra damage). Mix with skills like Flayer (easier to inflict wounds), Partbreaker (more damage when destroying wounds with a focus strike) and Critical Eye (flat affinity boost) to give yourself a substantial damage boost when you hit enemies where it hurts! Flavor with Critical Element, Critical Status or Critical Draw depending on your weapon type and playstyle.