Monster Hunter Wilds offers a lot of very different monsters to hunt and kill, each requiring different strategies and builds to help make the fight easier. While there are a lot of concepts and tools players can use in just about any fight, aiming for a weakness should always be your goal.
While you can hit any part of a monster, hitting their weakness will result in yellow numbers, which overall deal more damage than gray numbers. Knowing where to hit a monster is crucial, and always aiming for a weakness is greatly buffed by the Weakness Exploit skill; here’s how it all works.
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What Are Weaknesses & How To Check Them In Monster Hunter Wilds
Weakness does not apply to using the right element against a specific monster, especially in the wording of Weakness Exploit. A weakness refers to the part of a monster’s body that isn’t armored and takes more damage, and it will be labeled as weak in the book. Hitting the monster’s weakness will result in yellow damage numbers, though these can also appear when hitting a breakable body part.
While you can attack randomly on a monster and hope you are hitting the weakness, you can also find it clearly marked in the Large Monster Field Guide in the main menu. When hovering over a monster, tab over to the second page for that monster to see which body part is weak. When fighting a monster, aim for these body parts in order to maximize your damage while also trying to break off the body parts mentioned on that same page.
Just about any part of a monster can be wounded, which leads to dark orange damage numbers.
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How Does Weakness Exploit Work In Monster Hunter Wilds
Weakness Exploit is a simple boost in affinity when hitting a monster’s weakness, with an additional bonus on an open wound. Affinity is basically like this game’s version of critical hit chance, which leads to more damage. You’ll know you landed a critical strike when a small pink star icon appears over your damage number, and seeing more of those is the effects of Weakness Exploit. Overall, this skill increases your total damage by increasing your odds of getting critical strikes as long as you’re attacking in the right places.
There are five levels for Weakness Exploit:
|
Skill Level |
Effects |
|---|---|
|
Level 1 |
Attacks that hit weak points gain affinity +5%, or 8% on wounds. |
|
Level 2 |
Attacks that hit weak points gain affinity +10%, or 15% on wounds. |
|
Level 3 |
Attacks that hit weak points gain affinity +15%, or 25% on wounds. |
|
Level 4 |
Attacks that hit weak points gain affinity +20%, or 35% on wounds. |
|
Level 5 |
Attacks that hit weak points gain affinity +30%, or 50% on wounds. |
- Released
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February 28, 2025
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence, Blood, Crude Humor