Damage
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Damage in Monster Hunter can be divided in 3 types: Raw, Fatigue & KO and Element & Status.
Mastering how they work is absolutely necessary to optimize your hunts.
Mastering how they work is absolutely necessary to optimize your hunts.
Raw
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This is the basic damage your weapon can deal to the monster, directly affecting its HP.
The data shown in the weapon's menu is not the raw damage. The data shown is the weapon's raw damage multiplied by that weapon's power factor.
The power factors are the following:
Great Sword: 4.8
Long Sword: 3.3
Sword & Shield: 1.4
Dual Blades: 1.4
Hammer: 5.2
Hunting Horn: 5.2
Lance: 2.3
Gunlance: 2.3
Switch Axe: 5.4
Charge Blade: 3.6
Insect Glaive: 3.1
Light Bowgun: 1.3
Heavy Bowgun: 1.5
Bow: 1.2
This means that a Great Sword with 1440 damage and a Lance with 690 damage will have an equal raw damage of 300.
What makes the real difference are the motion values. Every attack of the weapons has a different motion value.
The raw damage is multiplied by the motion value of that attack to deal damage, this is what makes Great Swords deal more damage, they have higher motion values. This means that the Great Sword will deal stronger attacks slowly but the Lance will deal weaker attacks fast thus the total amount of damage dealt will be similar.
Affinity:
This sets how often you'll make a critical attack, critical attacks deal 125% damage.
Sharpness:
Depending on your sharpness you'll deal more or less raw damage and elemental damage.
Red: x0.5 damage - x0.25 element
Orange: x0.75 damage - x0.50 element
Yellow: x1.00 damage - x0.75 element
Green: x1.05 damage - x1.00 element
Blue: x1.20 damage - x1.06 element
White: x1.32 damage - x1.12 element
Purple: x1.44 damage - x1.20 element
The data shown in the weapon's menu is not the raw damage. The data shown is the weapon's raw damage multiplied by that weapon's power factor.
The power factors are the following:
Great Sword: 4.8
Long Sword: 3.3
Sword & Shield: 1.4
Dual Blades: 1.4
Hammer: 5.2
Hunting Horn: 5.2
Lance: 2.3
Gunlance: 2.3
Switch Axe: 5.4
Charge Blade: 3.6
Insect Glaive: 3.1
Light Bowgun: 1.3
Heavy Bowgun: 1.5
Bow: 1.2
This means that a Great Sword with 1440 damage and a Lance with 690 damage will have an equal raw damage of 300.
What makes the real difference are the motion values. Every attack of the weapons has a different motion value.
The raw damage is multiplied by the motion value of that attack to deal damage, this is what makes Great Swords deal more damage, they have higher motion values. This means that the Great Sword will deal stronger attacks slowly but the Lance will deal weaker attacks fast thus the total amount of damage dealt will be similar.
Affinity:
This sets how often you'll make a critical attack, critical attacks deal 125% damage.
Sharpness:
Depending on your sharpness you'll deal more or less raw damage and elemental damage.
Red: x0.5 damage - x0.25 element
Orange: x0.75 damage - x0.50 element
Yellow: x1.00 damage - x0.75 element
Green: x1.05 damage - x1.00 element
Blue: x1.20 damage - x1.06 element
White: x1.32 damage - x1.12 element
Purple: x1.44 damage - x1.20 element
Fatigue & KO
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Some weapons can deal fatigue & KO damage with some attacks, every monster has a fatigue meter and a KO meter, once you deal enough fatigue damage to a monster it'll be fatigued and its attacks will be slower and easier to handle, and once you deal enough KO damage it'll be stunned.
Fatigue, KO and HP are separate values. Fatigue damage is dealt anywhere but KO damage is only dealt on the monster's head (A white splash while hitting means you've dealt KO damage).
Fatigue, KO and HP are separate values. Fatigue damage is dealt anywhere but KO damage is only dealt on the monster's head (A white splash while hitting means you've dealt KO damage).
Element & Status
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Weapons can have elemental and Status damage.
These damages are the same for every attack, meaning that more attacks means more elemental damage dealt and more status damage dealt.
Monsters have a Status resistance, once you deal enough status damage to break the resistance, you'll inflict the status.
Besides, monsters have a status recovery, meaning that every X time they'll recover part of their resistance.
Every time you inflict a status, the monster's resistance will raise, unless it's already at max.
NOTE: KO damage and mounts work exactly like Status damage (Except KO damage is different depending on the motion value).
These damages are the same for every attack, meaning that more attacks means more elemental damage dealt and more status damage dealt.
Monsters have a Status resistance, once you deal enough status damage to break the resistance, you'll inflict the status.
Besides, monsters have a status recovery, meaning that every X time they'll recover part of their resistance.
Every time you inflict a status, the monster's resistance will raise, unless it's already at max.
NOTE: KO damage and mounts work exactly like Status damage (Except KO damage is different depending on the motion value).
Other important data
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Cut VS Impact
Monster's parts are weaker to cut or impact, usually hard parts are weaker to impact and reverse.
Cut weapons make cutting tails easier while Impact weapons make breaking parts easier.
You can see what your weapon's type is in it's data.
Bombs
Bombs have set values.
Large Barrel Bomb = 50 damage
Large Barrel Bomb G = 150 damage
A large Barrel Bomb G equals approximately a fully charged Great Sword attack.
Sleep-Hit
The first attack dealt to a sleeping monster will deal x2 damage and bombs will do x3 damage.
Monster's parts are weaker to cut or impact, usually hard parts are weaker to impact and reverse.
Cut weapons make cutting tails easier while Impact weapons make breaking parts easier.
You can see what your weapon's type is in it's data.
Bombs
Bombs have set values.
Large Barrel Bomb = 50 damage
Large Barrel Bomb G = 150 damage
A large Barrel Bomb G equals approximately a fully charged Great Sword attack.
Sleep-Hit
The first attack dealt to a sleeping monster will deal x2 damage and bombs will do x3 damage.
How should you use this data
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-More damage in the weapon's data doesn't always mean more damage, choose the weapon you like to play, no matter the damage shown, if you want to compare it to another weapon use the true raw damage.
-If you want to exploit a monster's weakness to an element or status, using fast attacking weapons is the best option.
-Be aware what your role is:
Hammer/Hunting Horn user : Aim for the head, try to break it and stun the monster.
Swords: Aim for the tail, once it's cut, let the Hammer/HH users keep attacking the head and focus in getting another part of the monster.
Gunner: Just stay away of the monster and try not to hit your mates with your attacks.
If your weapon has a charged attack and the monster is down, you can aim for the head but, don't get in the way of the rest of your team, you don't want to stop their charged attacks or yours to be stopped.
-When a monster is sleeping you have 2 options, use a bomb or let the most powerful weapon in your team deal the first blow in the monster's weakest point (Usually the head).
-List of the Weapon's Motion Data values at Kiranico.
-If you want to exploit a monster's weakness to an element or status, using fast attacking weapons is the best option.
-Be aware what your role is:
Hammer/Hunting Horn user : Aim for the head, try to break it and stun the monster.
Swords: Aim for the tail, once it's cut, let the Hammer/HH users keep attacking the head and focus in getting another part of the monster.
Gunner: Just stay away of the monster and try not to hit your mates with your attacks.
If your weapon has a charged attack and the monster is down, you can aim for the head but, don't get in the way of the rest of your team, you don't want to stop their charged attacks or yours to be stopped.
-When a monster is sleeping you have 2 options, use a bomb or let the most powerful weapon in your team deal the first blow in the monster's weakest point (Usually the head).
-List of the Weapon's Motion Data values at Kiranico.
Sources
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