Sunbreak Affinity Guide: How to Increase Critical Chance

Affinity is a damage-modifying stat in Monster Hunter Rise (MH Rise): Sunbreak. Read on to learn the meaning of affinity, explanations for how it works, and how to raise critical chance.

What is Affinity? What Does Affinity Do?

Monster Hunter's Term for Critical Hit Chance

In Monster Hunter Rise, affinity can be explained as the chance you have to deal 25% more or less physical damage.

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

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

Visual Effects of Affinity-related Damage

Positive Affinity	Negative Affinty

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.

Affinity Caps at 100%

The maximum affinity for any weapon is always 100% and guarantees all hits will be critical hits. Going over 100% affinity will not do anything to improve damage or critical hits. Be sure to account for this when adding skills like Weakness Exploit in your builds to make the most of all the skills!

Chaotic Gore Magala weapons are notable exceptions since they have two affinity values. Their positive affinity caps out at 100 minus the negative affinity value (for example, if a weapon has -30% affinity, the positive affinity will be capped at 70%).

Elemental Damage is Normally Unaffected

Elemental Ammo (Normal)	Elemental Ammo (Critical)
103 Damage	118 Damage (+15%)

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

In the example above, the total damage increase is less than 25%, meaning elemental damage is not boosted by critical hits. However, there is a skill called Critical Element, which will increase elemental damage with critical hits!

Critical Element Skill Effects

Critical Boost Further Increases Damage

Normal Shot	Critical Boost Lv 3
81 Damage	113 Damage (+40%)

Having the Critical Boost skill increases the damage of your critical hits from 25% up to 40%, depending on the level. It's a must-have skill for affinity-focused builds, so make sure to slot it in when you can!

Critical Boost Skill Effects

How to Raise Affinity

Equip Affinity-Raising Skills

Use Rampage Skills and Decorations

Engage in Qurious Weapon Crafting

Equip High Affinity Weapons

Have an Affinity Up Melody Effect

Overcome the Frenzy

Look for Affinity-Raising Endemic Life

Bring a Fight Palico for Rousing Roar

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 and Decorations

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.

Once you reach Master Rank, you'll be able to equip Kushala Daora Soul through its Rampage Decoration on several weapons to gain its 15% affinity bonus. You can even augment weapons with additional affinity!

For Dual Blades, equipping the Raging Jewel 3 rampage decoration gives Hellion Mode which will help increase affinity during Demon Mode at the cost of doubled sharpness loss.

List of Rampage Skills (Ramp-Up Skills)

Engage in Qurious Weapon Crafting

Your weapon's affinity can be raised through the Affinity Boost augment in Qurious Crafting available for endgame Master Rank weapons.

Stack the affinity you get from the Qurious Crafting augment with other affinity-boosting skills to have a higher chance in dealing critical hits!

Affinity Boost Augment: Upgrade Materials

Equip High Affinity Weapons

There are weapons with particularly high affinity, with a few going up to 40% base affinity such as the Rakna-Kadaki and Nargacuga weapons. 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.

Have an Affinity Up Melody Effect

When using a Hunting Horn within your party, look out for equipment that has Affinity Up under Melody Effects.

Performing Affinity Up will temporarily grant increased affinity to all hunters and buddies near the performer. Position accordingly and stack this with other affinity boosting skills to deal more critical hits.

Hunting Horn Songs and Effects

Overcome the Frenzy

Frenzy is a negative Abnormal Status Effect usually contracted the monsters Gore Magala and Shagaru Magala, present in the Sunbreak DLC. Overcoming the Frenzy status gives 15% affinity for around a minute.

Equip the Bloodlust Skill

You can give yourself the Frenzy on any hunt by equipping the Bloodlust skill, which also raises the affinity bonus to at least 20% and can extend the duration of the affinity boost.

Status Effects and Elemental Blight

Look for Affinity-Raising Endemic Life

The Cutterfly and Red Lampsquid are Endemic Life that grants hunters temporary increased affinity upon interaction.

Look out for these, study their effects, and remember their locations if you want you and your party to deal more critical hits out on the field!

Sunbreak Endemic Life

Bring a Fight Palico for Rousing Roar

Rousing Roar increases affinity for all allies by 30% when activated. It lasts for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, which is fairly long. There's no way to control when your Palicoes will use Rousing Roar, but the affinity boost alone is a good reason for bringing a Fight Palico.

Best Palico Support Type and Equipped Moves

How To Deal With Negative Affinity

Cancel Out Your Negative Affinity by Raising It

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

Weakness Exploit Provides 50% Affinity

Weakness Exploit is a highly valuable skill as Lv.3 boosts affinity by 50% for attacks that hit weak spots. This skill allows even weapons with negative affinity to deal critical hits reliably, as long as weak points are being hit.

Weakness Exploit Skill Effects

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 hit. It's even available in Master Rank as a Rampage Decoration. Keep this Rampage Skill in mind!

Best Rampage Skills (Ramp-Up Skills)

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