Monster Hunter Wilds Weapon Attack Stats: How to Read Them

The attack number on a Wilds weapon is a lie — not a big one, but enough to mislead anyone comparing weapons across different classes. A 396-attack Long Sword and a 396-attack Hammer are not the same strength, and the floating damage numbers you see in a hunt will not match either one. Here is what the stats actually mean and how to read the 14 weapon types against them.

The hidden display coefficient

Every weapon class multiplies its real attack by a hidden number before showing it in the menu, purely to make heavy weapons feel impressive. You can turn this off: go to System > Options > Game Settings and set Weapon Attack Power Display to Display Without Coefficient.

The difference is dramatic. The Iron Katana I, a starter Long Sword, shows 396 attack by default — its true value is 120. Heavy weapons carry bigger coefficients than light ones, which is why comparing a Great Sword’s displayed attack against a Dual Blades’ is meaningless until both are converted. Turn the display setting off once, and every weapon in the smithy becomes directly comparable.

What each stat does

• Attack is the raw physical damage pool. It is never dealt whole: each move in a weapon’s moveset applies its own hidden motion value (roughly 0.1 to 1.0) to it. A 120-true-attack swing with a 0.2 motion value lands for 24 raw damage before sharpness and monster resistances. This is why a Great Sword’s slow, high-motion-value chops hit like trucks while Dual Blades’ rapid pokes chip away.
• Affinity is your critical-hit chance. Positive affinity rolls a critical that boosts physical damage (the series-standard bonus is 25%); negative affinity rolls a soft critical that deals reduced damage. Affinity scales beautifully on fast weapons that land many hits, which is why endgame builds obsess over it.
• Element (Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice, Dragon) is calculated by a separate formula layered on top of physical damage — roughly the element value divided by ten, multiplied by the move’s elemental motion value (usually near 1.0), sharpness, and how weak that monster part is. Status effects (Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, Blast) work differently: they build toward a proc rather than dealing per-hit damage.
• Sharpness modifies how much damage lands and whether attacks bounce off hide, and it degrades during a hunt. Element and physical damage are affected by it differently.

The 14 weapon types at a glance

All values verified from Capcom’s official weapon descriptions:

Weapon	Guard	Damage profile	Signature mechanic
Great Sword	Yes	Slow, huge single hits	Charge attacks; hit-and-run tactics
Long Sword	No	Fluid combos	Counter via foresight; Spirit Gauge turns red for empowered moves
Sword & Shield	Yes	Fast, modest	Use items while drawn; shield attacks
Dual Blades	No	Fastest attacks in the game	Demonize for boosted output
Hammer	No	Heavy blunt	Charge strikes; KO monsters with head hits
Hunting Horn	No	Heavy blunt	Echo bubbles and performance buffs for you and allies
Lance	Yes	Steady pokes	Top-class guard; counter from block
Gunlance	Yes	Thrusts + fixed shelling	Shelling ignores hitzone quality
Switch Axe	No	Morphing reach	Axe mode reach, sword mode speed, amped phial bursts
Charge Blade	Yes	Morphing burst	Charge phials in sword mode, spend them in axe mode
Insect Glaive	No	Mobile, mid-weight	Kinsect extracts; the only free aerial fighter
Light Bowgun	No	Ranged, low per-shot	Rapid-fire mode on special ammo
Heavy Bowgun	Yes	Ranged, heavy	Dragon heat mode special ammo; auto-guard option
Bow	No	Ranged, charged	Focus arrows home in and detonate

How to use this to pick a weapon

• Compare true attack within a class, never across classes. The coefficient difference makes cross-class displayed numbers noise. A Hammer’s true attack being higher than a Sword & Shield’s does not make it “stronger” — motion values per move are what balance them.
• Fast weapons want affinity and element; slow weapons want raw. Dozens of hits per hunt give Dual Blades and Bow many rolls to crit and many element procs, while a Great Sword’s few, huge swings are best amplified by pure attack and high motion values.
• Hunt the part, not the monster. Even a perfect stat line loses damage on an armored limb. The in-game Field Guide’s per-part star ratings tell you where to aim — our hitzone guide goes deeper.

For where each class currently ranks in the meta, see our weapon tier list. Each type’s movesets are detailed in the weapon types guide, our hitzone guide goes deeper on per-part damage, and the best weapon walkthrough covers the usual first picks for newer hunters.

Related guides

• Monster Hunter Wilds Weapon Tier List
• Monster Hunter Wilds Weapon Types
• Monster Hunter Wilds Weakness Hitzones
• Monster Hunter Wilds Best Weapon