Monster Hunter Wilds offers the same wide assortment of weapons that series' fans have come to know and love. Across the game's 14 weapon types, there are dozens of different weapons to craft, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. With the new ability to equip two weapons simultaneously, there are nearly unlimited ways to build your character.

Choosing the right weapon isn't always easy to figure out, and since many strong weapons require hours of grinding to craft, it's important to be informed before you make the wrong investment.

What Are Elemental Weapons?

Every weapon you make in Monster Hunter Wilds has a unique stat spread. Some weapons also have an element, which is an additional damage value on top of its base attack. Elemental damage is calculated separately from attack damage, and will vary based on the monster you're hunting and where on its body your attacks land.

There are five elemental damage types: Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice, and Dragon.

Some weapons also have status effects. Dealing repeated damage to a monster with a status effect-enabled weapon will eventually cause the monster to suffer from that ailment.

The four types that may appear on weapons are Poison, Sleep, Paralysis, and Blastblight.

Are Elemental Weapons Worth It?

When choosing a weapon, it's important to remember that, generally speaking, elemental weapons will have lower attack or affinity compared to non-elemental weapons of the equivalent rarity.

This is a way to balance the extra elemental damage these weapons have. Every monster has different elemental weaknesses and resistances, so the element you choose will be more or less effective, depending on your target.

For this reason, it is always better to prioritize attack damage over elemental damage. While you can enhance your elemental damage with decorations and create powerful builds around a specific elemental damage type, you will inevitably run into a monster that resists your chosen element. Taking advantage of elemental weaknesses can make a big difference against powerful end-game monsters, but for general everyday use, you're better off using weapons with high attack values.

Status effects are a little different. While some monsters are resistant or immune to certain status effects, weapons with status effects are more universally useful than elemental weapons. It's typically considered good team composition when each hunter in your party prioritizes different inflicting different status effects on the monster.

Paralysis is probably the most all-around effective status effect you can use.

It's generally a good idea to equip your Palico with weapons that have a status effect. They don't do as much damage as you, but having them inflict paralysis or sleep on a monster is always going to be useful.

When Should I Use An Elemental Weapon?

Each monster guide has a page called Detailed Strategy where you can see which elemental attack types are recommended. You can dig a little deeper by reading the Suggested Strategy Page and tabbing over to the monster's damage chart. Here you can see a complete breakdown of each elemental damage type and the amount of damage it will do to each of the monster's body parts.

Unless you're really struggling with a particular monster, it's not recommended to use elemental weapons against them unless they have at least a three-star weakness to that element on multiple or easy-to-target body parts. This is because in most cases you will do significantly more damage to a monster simply by using a weapon with high attack value.

Other than attack damage, the most important thing to consider when crafting a weapon is the skills it has. Skills are what make your builds, and a weaker weapon with better skills may actually increase your potency in battle.

With the exception of the Guardian Ebony Odogaron - who is weak to Water-type damage - none of the monsters you encounter in the main campaign have significant weaknesses to elemental damage. In fact, many of them are resistant or even fully immune to elemental attacks. For example, Nerscylla, the Spider-like monster, is immune to Water, Thunder, and Dragon-type damage, while Ararakan and Guardian Rathalos are both immune to fire.

Until you are faced with an especially difficult monster that you can't defeat with your strongest weapon, you don't need to prioritize crafting elemental weapons. Of course, if using a fire weapon is part of your Monster Hunter fantasy, you won't be especially punished for using elemental weapons either. But if you want to be strong and efficient on hunts, elemental damage should only be used when a specific situation calls for it.