Fighting a Monster: Monster Hunting

Go for the Flank: While attacking a monster's head might seem appealing, it's often dangerous due to sharp teeth. Focus your attacks on more exposed areas like the monster's soft belly, legs, and tail. However, if you are using an Impact weapon (like a Hammer or Hunting Horn), well-timed blows to the head can dizzy the monster, creating an opportunity for significant damage.

Play Cautious: Monster fighting often involves patience. Learn when monsters are vulnerable and attack only after they've finished their own assaults. A common tactic is to land two or three hits and then immediately roll away using the evade maneuver, which cancels most actions. Observe the monster and move in again when another opening appears. This approach prioritizes avoiding damage over overextending your attacks.

Play Safe: When you take damage, a portion of your health bar turns red and will not regenerate on its own. The green portion of your health bar will regenerate over time if you avoid taking further damage. Potions will heal from the tip of your green bar and ignore the red portion. If you take a significant hit, it is advisable to sheath your weapon and retreat to allow the red portion of your health bar to regenerate before using a potion to heal the remainder. Try to maintain a full health bar as much as possible to prepare for powerful monster attacks.

Stay Sharp: Weapon sharpness is crucial for maximizing damage. Different parts of a monster's armor require specific sharpness colors to penetrate. If your weapon's sharpness is too low, or you lack the Minds Eye skill, your attacks will bounce off the monster's hide, resulting in minimal damage and preventing combos. The damage multiplier for sharpness is as follows: Red (50% damage, 25% elemental), Orange (75% damage, 50% elemental), Yellow (100% damage, 75% elemental), Green (105% damage, 100% elemental), Blue (120% damage, 106% elemental), White (132% damage, 113% elemental), and Purple (144% damage, 120% elemental). Stunning a monster can provide a window to sharpen your blade.

Check Elements: Weapons can deal additional elemental damage that stacks with standard weapon damage. If a monster has a specific elemental weakness, exploiting it can potentially double your damage output. Conversely, some monsters deal elemental damage with their attacks, and equipping armor strong against that element can reduce the damage you sustain. The elemental types are abbreviated as: FI (Fire), WA (Water), IC (Ice), LI (Thunder), and DR (Dragon). You can view your equipment's elemental properties in the 'check equipment' menu.

Check Ailments: Weapons can also inflict status ailments, which do not have an immediate effect but can trigger after sustained attacks. These are particularly useful for ranged attackers. The ailments are: PO (Poison), which damages an enemy over time; PA (Paralysis), which can incapacitate a monster, allowing for uninterrupted damage; and SL (Sleep), which renders a monster unconscious. The first hit on a sleeping monster deals enhanced damage, making it ideal for powerful charged attacks or setting up explosive barrels. Different monsters have varying tolerances to ailments, so consult a creature's page to choose the most effective status effect.

Affinity: Affinity represents your Critical Hit chance. A higher Affinity increases the likelihood of landing critical hits, while a negative Affinity reduces it.