Monster Hunter Rise guide: What is affinity?

There are dozens of skills to be aware of when playing Monster Hunter Rise. While most of them are pretty obvious — like the Attack Boost skill boosting attack power — some are less obvious. One of the most obtuse is affinity. If you ever wondered what the affinity stat does, we have the answer.

In this Monster Hunter Rise guide we’ll explain what affinity is. We’ll detail how the stat can be both beneficial and harmful. This guide will also explain which armor skills boost this stat so you can be your most powerful.

What is affinity (affinity vs attack)?

Affinity is a value that determines how likely you are to land a powerful or weak attack.

This stat is similar to a critical hit chance in other games, but with a Monster Hunter twist. Affinity can be either positive or negative. If the stat is positive, then it determines the chance you will perform a stronger attack than usual. If affinity is negative, then you’ll have a chance of performing a weaker strike.

Each weapon in the game comes with its own affinity value. When forging or upgrading weapons, you can see the affinity stat in the equipment info tab on the right side of your screen.

Grid View

• Positive affinity Image: Capcom via Polygon
• Negative affinity Image: Capcom via Polygon

Weapons with positive affinity will display the value in green. Weapons with negative affinity will display the stat in red. When deciding on what weapon to use, you must balance the effectiveness of a weapon’s power, elemental traits, and affinity stat.

How to raise affinity

If there’s a weapon you really want to use that has a negative affinity stat, you can raise your affinity to offset it. When forging armor, keep an eye our for certain armor skills that boost affinity. You can also forge decorations to raise your affinity.

The following skills will boost your affinity:

• Affinity Sliding — After sliding, your affinity increases
• Agitator — Affinity increases when a monter becomes enraged (red icon under portrait)
• Critical Draw — Increase affinity after performing a draw attack
• Critical Eye — Boosts affinity
• Latent Power — Temporarily increases affinity (and stamina reduction) after battling a monster for a while
• Maximum Might — If stamina is kept full, affinity rises
• Weakness Exploit — Affinity bonus granted when hitting weak spots