Fighting a Monster: Hunting

Go for the Flank: Attack a monster's soft bellies, legs, and tails. While the head is dangerous, impact weapons (Hammer, Hunting Horn) can dizzy monsters with well-timed blows.

Play Cautious: Learn monster attack patterns. Attack a few times after they finish an attack, then evade. A common tactic is two or three hits followed by a roll away.

Play Safe: When low on health, holster your weapon and retreat to allow the red (permanent) health chunk to regenerate. Use potions to heal the green (recoverable) portion. Prioritize keeping health high.

Stay Sharp: Weapon sharpness affects damage output and the ability to penetrate monster armor. Different sharpness colors (Red to Purple) offer increasing damage bonuses. A certain sharpness color or the Minds Eye skill is needed to avoid weapon bounces on armored parts.

Check Elements: Weapons can deal extra elemental damage (Fire, Water, Ice, Thunder, Dragon). Exploiting a monster's elemental weakness can double damage. Equipping armor strong against a monster's elemental attacks reduces damage taken.

Check Ailments: Weapons can inflict status effects like Poison (damage over time), Paralysis (incapacitates), and Sleep (monster becomes unconscious until hit, with the first hit dealing bonus damage).

Affinity: This statistic represents your Critical Hit chance. Higher Affinity means more critical hits, increasing damage output.