Monster Hunter World: 10 Tips & Tricks The Game Doesn't Tell You
The hunt is on.
The New World is a mystery no more.
The floodgates have swung open, ushering in a new generation of aspiring monster hunters, naive yet eager to test their mettle against beasts so grand in size that to even be considered worthy of a place on the menu would be complimenting our kind's meagre presence.
Shouldering an unwieldy sword forged from the carcass of a fallen enemy you may be, it's nought but a decorative toothpick in the eyes of Monster Hunter World's megafauna. The odds are, and will always be, stacked against you in this inhospitable land, and that's the way Capcom likes it.
Make no mistake, World marks an important milestone for the series in that it's the most accessible entry to date - easily digestible tutorials aplenty punctuate the game's first few hours - but Capcom's made a few omissions to the Hunter Handbook, some intentional, others not.
You won't be taught how to mount gargantuan beasts or what the lucrative benefits of fishing are without an external primer such as this - you're expected to discover their importance on your own - or, for that matter, the myriad systems put in place to safeguard your delicate digits, but worry not, that's what we're here for.
Dread every visit to the Smithy for fear of being overwhelmed by special properties and number-crunching stat sheets? You've come to the right place, friend.
10. Weapon Affinity
As you begin to accrue rarer and more lucrative upgrade materials out on your travels, Astera's Smithy will become the go-to port of call after every mission to see what - if any - weapon upgrades are available. Damage, elemental infusion and sharpness are all self-explanatory benefits, but accompanying those on the stat sheet is the mysterious Affinity rating.
Represented as a percentage, any given weapon can bestow a positive or negative Affinity bonus, but what do those digits mean and why should you care?
Simply put, Affinity measures the chance a weapon has to deal a critical hit. Anything zero or above is bang on the money, but you'll want to steer clear of crafting weapons with a negative Affinity rating, at least until you're able to offset the deficiency with armour skills, as it'll put a dent in your damage output.
That might make the latter seem useless, but different Hunter builds number in the millions by the time endgame rolls around. There's every chance that -30% Affinity Switch Axe you've ignored for the last 20 hours just so happens to make the perfect pair with an as-yet undiscovered armour set, so be sure to keep checking back.