What Is Affinity In Monster Hunter Wilds?

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From the beginning of the Monster Hunter series, up to its most recent versions, it’s taken delight in keeping some aspects of its gameplay somewhat mysterious or complex. Although this has evolved over time to offer more transparency, even the latest installment, Monster Hunter Wilds, still conceals certain features that might leave you guessing.

In this game, Affinity seems to be one of the key elements in combat that isn’t explicitly detailed. To put it simply, Affinity isn’t a term the game uses frequently, and it might not immediately convey its function. Let’s clarify what Affinity is and how you can utilize it effectively.

What Is Affinity?

Affinity in the game refers to the probability of landing a critical hit, although it’s not explicitly stated as such. Essentially, it operates similarly to conventional systems labeled as ‘critical hit chance’. Therefore, a weapon with an affinity of 20% has a 20% chance of causing a critical hit on every strike.

Seriously, every skill just says critical hit instead of affinity.

In this game, if you encounter the term “Affinity,” mentally translate it to “Critical Hit Chance.” This adjustment should help simplify your understanding of the system. To clarify, the game indicates a critical hit by altering the appearance of damage numbers, such as making them bigger and adding a red halo around them.

How Does Negative Affinity Work?

In contrast, the Affinity system stands out with a distinctive feature known as Negative Affinity. Some weapons may possess an Affinity value in negative percentages. To clarify, this essentially implies that it functions in reverse to positive affinities, meaning… unfortunately, it likely operates as you might expect.

As a gaming enthusiast, having a Negative Affinity feels akin to rolling a critical failure in tabletop RPGs. Essentially, it means there’s a 20% chance that every strike I make will do less damage than expected. However, these weapons often compensate for their negative affinity by boasting an exceptionally high base damage or by being equipped with skills that can flip the negative into a positive.

Experiencing Frenzy or donning items from the Gore Magala armor set is beneficial because it significantly increases your Affinity when you manage to shake off Frenzy.

Best Skills To Increase Affinity

Trusting Affinity in battle is crucial due to its continuous availability, as it has no cooling-off period. In simpler terms, a 100% chance of Affinity means every strike you make will be a critical hit. This aspect is what makes Affinity-focused builds so appealing. With some skill and finesse, you can build a crit setup that’s highly effective against enemies. All it takes is the right set of skills.

And here are some of the best skills you can use to get the most out of Affinity from the get-go:

Skill Effect
Critical Boost Increases the damage of critical hits, can be increased to level 5.
Critical Draw Increases the affinity of draw attacks, can be increased to level 3.
Critical Element Increases elemental damage when landing critical hits. Can be increased to level 3.
Critical Eye Increases base Affinity, increasing critical hit chance. Can be increased to level 5.
Critical Status Increases status effect build-up when landing critical hits. Can be increased to level 3.

There are numerous other abilities that can be enhanced by Affinity, including the skill called “Weakness Exploit” which is useful when targeting vulnerable spots. However, there are also plenty of fantastic skills that you can effortlessly incorporate into your gameplay using decorations alone, significantly enhancing various aspects of your character with just Affinity. Experiment with these options to discover a setup that suits your playing style best.

Additionally, remember to choose armor pieces that align with your Affinity build, since there are several useful equipment abilities too.

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2025-03-06 20:03