Monster Hunter World: 10 Tips & Tricks The Game Doesn't Tell You

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.