What does Affinity do in Monster Hunter Wilds?

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Affinity is a mysterious stat in Monster Hunter Wilds. Unless you’re a long-time veteran that remembers all the ins and outs, there’s a good chance you’ve either forgotten what Affinity does or have yet to learn about it. This is a critical stat (pun intended) that can play a massive part in your damage output.

What does Affinity do?

Affinity is your weapon’s chance to deal bonus damage or less damage. A weapon with no Affinity will never be able to perform a critical hit. In order to take advantage of crit-specific skills, your weapon must have some form of Affinity.

  • Positive Affinity means extra damage when a critical hit occurs
  • Negative Affinity means less damage when a critical hit occurs

It’s clear that there are two distinct types of Affinity: positive and negative. A positive Affinity may increase your weapon’s potential damage by 25%, raising the total to 125%. Conversely, a negative Affinity can lower the damage your weapon inflicts on a hit by 25%, resulting in a total of only 75% damage.

Why would I want negative Affinity?

At this point, many players are puzzled as to why they should prefer having a negative Affinity on their weapon. A weapon with a negative Affinity stat usually inflicts much higher base damage, when compared to a similarly-elemental and rarity-leveled weapon that has positive Affinity.

This means you will be dealing more damage most of the time with a percentage chance to deal less damage whenever Affinity activates. You could offset the negative Affinity with some Skills, Decorations, and Charms. This would allow you to keep a high base damage while mitigating the negative stat or even increasing it to the positive side.

How to know when Affinity activates

There is an icon above or below your damage number whenever Affinity activates on a hit:

  • Positive Affinity is a pink star above the damage number
  • Negative Affinity is a blue star below the damage number

Now that you know Affinity is tied to your damage output, you can plan out some better builds. Keep an eye on those damage numbers to see how often it’s activating and whether you need to supplement your build with Affinity-specific skills. Read over our Monster Hunter Wilds page for help with other mechanics like understanding Lucky Vouchers.

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2025-03-18 05:28