What is Affinity?: How to Raise Affinity Stat | Monster Hunter Rise | MHR (MH Rise)

This is a guide to affinity, a damage modifying stat in Monster Hunter Rise (MH Rise) for the Nintendo Switch. Read on to learn what affinity is, how affinity works, and how to raise affinity.

What is Affinity? What Does Affinity Do?

Monster Hunter's Term for Critical Strike Chance

Zero Affinity	Zero Affinity = Zero chance to deal 25% more damage
Positive Affinity	Positive Affinity = Chance to deal 25% MORE damage
Negative Affinity	Negative Affinity = Chance to deal 25% LESS damage

Affinity is Monster Hunter's version of critical strike chance, meaning it's the chance you get to deal more or less damage. But how does affinity work exactly?

The default state of your affinity is zero. When positive, that means your weapon has a chance to amplify your damage by 25%. When negative, your weapon has a chance to decrease your damage by 25%.

So for example, if your affinity is 30%, that means your weapon has a 30% chance to deal 25% more damage.

Visual Effects of Affinity-related Damage

Positive Affinity	Negative Affinty
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When you have positive affinity, you will occasionally see a shiny red light behind your damage number. That means you're doing critical damage!

On the other hand, when you have negative affinity, you will sometimes see a shiny purple light behind the damage number. This means you're dealing less damage than normal.

Elemental Damage is Not Affected

Affinity-related damage only increases raw damage, and not elemental damage. Normally, the calculation goes like this:

Due to this reason, elemental builds rely on the skill called Critical Element which will make your elemental attacks do critical strikes as well!

How to Raise Affinity

Equip Affinity-Raising Skills

Affinity-raising skills like Critical Eye are highly recommended if you wish to increase your affinity stat. You can get these from armor, talismans, and decorations, so it's important to plan your build!

List of Skills

Use Rampage Skills

With the Ramp-Up feature at the Smithy, you'll be able to equip Rampage Skills to your weapons. Affinity Boost is a Ramp-Up Skill that increases affinity.

List of Rampage Skills (Ramp-Up Skills)

Equip High Affinity Weapons

There are weapons with particularly high affinity, with a few going up to 40% base affinity. You can spot how much affinity a weapon has even before crafting it, so keep an eye out for high affinity weapons! The affinity stat usually sits under the weapon's element and sharpness.

How To Deal With Negative Affinity

Cancel Out Your Negative Affinity by Raising It

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If you want to use a weapon that has negative affinity, you can always increase your affinity until it reaches zero. Some weapons are worth the effort because of their high raw damage, so don't dismiss them just because they have negative affinity!

Equip the Brutal Strike Rampage Skill

There's another way to make use of negative affinity. Brutal Strike is a Rampage Skill that gives the weapon a chance to increase your damage instead of lowering it in the event of a negative affinity strike. Keep this Rampage Skill in mind!

Best Rampage Skills (Ramp-Up Skills)

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