It’s no secret that Monster Hunter World is a dense game whose systems are intricate and deep. The game does have an extensive tutorial, but even then players might not fully understand how everything works, or more importantly how specific items or skills can benefit the monster hunt.

One stat that many might be curious about is Affinity since it appears on every weapon and there are several skills that increase it. So what is Affinity in Monster Hunter World?

Affinity appears as a percentage under the weapon tab. For sharp weapons, the affinity stat will use be a positive percent but for lower level weapons made of blunt materials it is typically a negative percent.

How Affinity Impacts Weapon Damage

Some might think that Affinity is simply critical hit chance, but it is slightly more than that. That’s certainly a reductive way to describe it, but Affinity is more like the percent chance that a weapon strike will do a little extra damage. Most will see this in their critical hit damage, since focusing on monster weak points is key to the game anyway, but it actually has the chance to buff any weapon strike.

Depending on a player’s build in Monster Hunter World they may want to stack as many affinity boosting skills as possible. If, for example, the player is using a burst damage weapon, like the charge blade, long sword or hammer, then higher affinity will help ensure that short window of damage is as high as possible.

On the flip side, low or negative affinity will result in un-buffed damage numbers. By no means is this bad, but getting extra damage is typically going to be worth it.

While there are tons of different skills in Monster Hunter World, quite a few of them emphasize affinity – boosting the stat directly or in certain conditions. And now that players know what the stat does they can effectively maximize their build for damage.

Monster Hunter World is out now for PS4 and Xbox One. The PC version will release in the fall.