Most of the weapons you can craft in Monster Hunter Wilds take the pieces of defeated monsters and give you a weapon that uses the same element they did in combat. Every monster has an element they are weak to and takes more damage from along with resistances that help them take less damage.
Understanding elemental damage is crucial for making more challenging fights much easier, and some skills can help boost your elemental damage even further. Critical Element is one of these skills, and when equipped, it will help your critical hits deal even more damage.
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While the game is easier as a whole, these encounters should offer players a significant challenge.
How Does Critical Element Work In Monster Hunter Wilds?
Critical Element boosts just the elemental damage of your attacks when landing critical hits. It can be easy to not understand when this skill is working as there is no active display or notification when it is being used, unlike skills such as Latent Power. Know that this skill is always in effect, and whatever kind of critical hit you’re doing will do more damage than it normally would.
You’ll know you landed a critical hit when a blue or red light appears over the damage number from an attack. A blue light indicates a negative affinity and that your attack actually did less damage, while a red light indicates a positive affinity and a critical hit that dealt more damage, and the activation of Critical Element.
The level of Critical Element is determined by how many gear pieces you have equipped that have this skill. Equipping more gear with it and increasing the level will increase the percentage boost of your elemental damage, making this skill much more effective.

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How To Get More Critical Hits In Monster Hunter Wilds
Landing critical hits is determined by your affinity, with every weapon having a base affinity. Outside of switching to a different weapon, there are various skills that boost your affinity, and these should be your go-to method.
Your weapon is the biggest factor in your affinity, so it may be best to focus on a weapon with a very high affinity instead of an extra level in this skill, as landing more critical hits at a lower level will lead to more damage overall depending on your build. Critical Element comes with a lot of decorations, and this may be the ideal way to reach level three instead of choosing your weapon based on having this skill.

- Released
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February 28, 2025
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence, Blood, Crude Humor