MHR: Affinity and Elemental Weaknesses can make you powerful
Best answer: Affinity is how likely your weapon is to make a critical attack. The higher the percentage, the more likely you’ll be to land better hits. Conversely, a negative Affinity percentage indicates the probability of landing a weaker attack than average. You’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of your overall stats in addition to Affinity to effectively take down monsters.
Weapon Stats
Every weapon and piece of armor in Monster Hunter Rise has stats assigned to it that affect the overall power of your hunter. There’s usually a trade-off of some kind. For instance, a weapon might not have as high of an attack but might also be able to land elemental damage. Choosing which weapons to use will depend on your fighting style and the armor you’re wearing.
There are lots of layers to becoming a powerful hunter. All of the complexity that goes into Monster Hunter Rise is one of the reasons it is one of the best Nintendo Switch games you can play.
What those stats mean
| Stat | What it means | |
|---|---|---|
| Rarity | This is basically a way to explain the tier level of various weapons. Typically, the higher the rarity level, the better the weapon. | |
| Attack | The amount of damage a weapon can deal. | |
| Sharpness | The higher a weapon’s sharpness, the more damage it can deal. A weapon’s sharpness reduces as it gets used, so hunters need to use a whetstone to sharpen it back up. The sharpness scale goes in this order: Red > Orange > Yellow > Green > Blue > White (red having the least potency and white having the most). |
|
| Element | Weapons can have thunder, water, fire, ice, or dragon Elements assigned to them. Every Monster has elemental weaknesses and resistances, so exploiting that can help you take them down easier. However, Elemental damage is not affected by Affinity. If you land a critical hit, it will only count towards Physical damage and not Elemental damage. | |
| Affinity | Positive Affinity percentages determine the likelihood of landing a critical physical attack, while negative Affinity percentages determine the likelihood of landing a weaker attack than normal. | |
| Defense Bonus | This determines how much extra defense a weapon adds to your stats. | |
| Slots | Weapons can have up to three slots where players can equip decorations that activate additional skills. |
Monster Hunter Elemental weaknesses
There are some exceptions, but this is typically the elemental weakness chart for Monster Hunter Rise. We’ll also go over the various blight status conditions that the Elemental types can inflict on you.
| Element | Strong against | Weak against |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | Ice | Water |
| Water | Fire | Thunder |
| Thunder | Water | Dragon |
| Ice | Thunder/Dragon | Fire |
| Dragon | Dragon | Dragon/Thunder/Ice |
- Fire Element: Getting hit with Fire damage can cause Fireblight, a status condition that slowly lowers your health. You can put it out by rolling around repeatedly or stop it instantly by rolling in water. You know — stop, drop, and roll.
- Water Element: Getting hit with Water damage can cause Waterblight, a status condition that slows Stamina recovery.
- Thunder Element: Getting hit with thunder damage can cause Thunderblight, which can stun you.
- Ice Element: Getting hit with ice damage can cause Iceblight, a status condition that increases the amount of Stamina you use.
- Dragon Element: Getting hit with dragon damage can cause Dragonblight. This status condition is a doozy as it lowers weapon Affinity, removes a weapon’s Elemental Damage, and makes it harder to build up Poison, Paralysis, Sleep and Blast attacks.
Monster Hunter Rise Affinity and other Stats
If you pay attention to your weapons and armor stats, you can really make yourself a force to be reckoned with. Before embarking on tough missions, consider your main target’s Elemental Weakness and then arm yourself appropriately.
Stop the rampage!
Monster Hunter Rise
Destroy monsters before they destroy you
Kamura Village is in danger of getting attacked by rampaging monsters, just like it did a thousand years ago. It’s up to you to take them down and become more powerful. You’ll even have a cat and dog fighting at your side.
