Elemental Damage or Elements in Monster Hunter World (MHW) refers to the secondary damage dealt by Weapons and Monsters and lowered by specific Resistances.
For a more complete rundown on combat with Monsters, see Weapon Mechanics, Defense, and Elemental Resistances.
FAQ: Some Weapons have Elemental Damage that is grayed out and in parentheses. These Weapons require a skill called Free Elem/Ammo Up in order to take effect.
Elemental Damage
Each monster has weaknesses and resistances that will cause it to take more or less damage from specific sources. For example a fire monster may take more elemental damage from weapons that deal water damage but less or zero elemental damage from weapons that deal fire elemental damage.
Monsters can also deal elemental damage to the hunter. Armor with high resistances to certain elements will cause you to take less damage and reduce the effects of Elemental Blights.
Some important things to note when considering Elemental Damage against Monsters
- Elemental weakness is not always a given. Just because a monster uses fire does not mean it is weak to water.
The ingame Monster Field Guide contains information on Monster weaknesses. - Some monsters possess resistances that change during the course of a fight because of breakable defenses.
- Elemental Damage is normally not affected by a weapon's Affinity. The Critical Element Skill will allow Elemental Damage to strike critical hits.
- Poison, Sleep, Paralysis, Blast and Stun are Status Effects, which are separate from Elemental Damage and Raw (Physical) Damage. They do not deal damage with each hit, but rather cause a hidden buildup that will eventually trigger an effect.
See Elemental Resistances for more information on resistances possessed by Monsters and the Player & Allies.
Calculating Elemental Damage
Like Raw Damage, Elemental Damage is modified by Sharpness and Monster Body Part multipliers; it is not affected by Combo Move multipliers or weapon type, however. This means that, for the most part, Elemental Damage is a flat addition to a weapon's damage.
The formula for the Elemental portion of damage displayed during combat is:
Starting Elemental / 10 x Sharpness
x Body Part x Quest Difficulty x Rage Status
For example, hitting a Great Jagras' tail with a Wide Slash from the Red Wing (180 Fire and 768 Physical), assuming Quest Difficulty and Rage status multipliers of 1.0 and no boost to Fire Damage from Skills, will yield:
18 (Starting Elemental value / 10)
x 1.0625 (Sharpness multiplier for blue level sharpness towards elemental)
x 0.15 (Monster Part multiplier for Great Jagras' tail against Fire Damage
= 2.9 Fire Damage (in addition to 22.5 slashing damage)
Notes
Displayed Damage numbers are an addition of both Physical and Elemental Damage (if any).
While trying out weapons in the Training Area, note that the Monster Part multiplier for the large training post is 0.8 for Physical damage and 0.3 for all types of Elemental.
Refer to the Sharpness, Weapons and Monsters pages for more information on these multipliers.
Refer to Affinity to see how it can affect displayed damage numbers.
Elemental Ammo
Elemental Bowgun Ammo is noteworthy for having both a Raw (Physical) component and an Elemental component. The Elemental component is calculated much like Physical damage in that it begins with the current value for Attack, and is subjected to both a Weapon type multiplier and a Combo Move multiplier.1 Skills that boost Elemental Damage increase this starting value taken from Attack, before the Weapon type multiplier is applied.
The formula for the Damage displayed from Elemental Ammo is:
Attack / Weapon Type x Motion Value x Body Part
+ (Attack + Skill Bonus) / Weapon Type x Motion Value x Body Part
For example:
Without the Water Attack Up Skill, Water Ammo from an Aqua Assault I (180 Attack) against the Large Training Post will yield:
180 / 1.5 (Attack modified by Weapon Type)
x 0.08 (Physical Motion Value multiplier for Elemental Ammo)
x 0.8 (Body Part multiplier for Training Post against Physical)
+ (180 + 0) / 1.5 (Starting Elemental value modified by Weapon Type and Skill)
x 0.22 (Elemental Motion Value multiplier for Elemental Ammo)
x 0.3 (Body Part multiplier for Training Post against Elemental)
= 16 Damage (rounded up)
With Water Attack Up level 3, Water Ammo from an Aqua Assault I (180 Attack) against the Large Training Post will yield:
180/ 1.5 (Attack modified by Weapon Type)
x 0.08 (Physical Motion Value multiplier for Elemental Ammo)
x 0.8 (Body Part multiplier for Training Post against Physical)
+ (180+ 100) / 1.5 (Starting Elemental value modified by Weapon Type and Skill)
x 0.22 (Elemental Motion Value multiplier for Elemental Ammo)
x 0.3 (Body Part multiplier for Training Post against Elemental)
= 20 Damage
In the case of Elemental Ammo striking a critical hit (Affinity,) the critical hit multiplier will normally be applied to the Physical portion only.
With the Critical Element or the 
Iceborne-only True Critical Element Skills active, a special critical hit multiplier will apply to the Elemental portion. This special multiplier is dependent on Weapon type.
The Critical Boost Skill only affects the Physical portion of Elemental Ammo.
See Light Bowgun and Heavy Bowgun for information on Combo Move multipliers of Ammo and more.
Types of Elemental Damage
The following are the five types of Elemental Damage that can be wielded by Hunter Weapons or Monster attacks.
See Status Effects for more information on their corresponding Elemental Blights and Elemental Resistances for information on defending against Elemental attacks.
Fire
Fire Element is usually strong against Ice but weak to Water. Taking fire damage can cause Fireblight, which slowly depletes Health and leaves no recoverable damage. This can be removed by rolling repeatedly. Rolling through water will remove it instantly.
Water
Water Element is usually strong against Fire but weak to Thunder. Taking water damage can cause Waterblight, which slows Stamina recovery.
Thunder
Thunder Element is usually strong against Water and Dragon, but weak to Ice. Taking thunder damage can cause Thunderblight, which increases susceptibility to Stun.
Ice
Ice Element is usually strong against Thunder and Dragon, but weak to Fire. Taking Ice damage can cause Iceblight which increases Stamina use.
Dragon
Dragon Element is quite a bit different from other elements. Its the only element in the game that is usually weak to itself. Frequently, it is also weak to Thunder and Ice. Taking Dragon damage can cause Dragonblight, which lowers weapon Affinity, completely removes a Weapon's Elemental Damage, and lowers the Status buildup of Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, and Blast attacks.
Improving Elemental Damage
Skills
The following Skills and Effects can be used to improve Elemental Damage performance on Weapons.
- Fire Attack increases Fire Damage by a flat amount
- Water Attack increases Water Damage by a flat amount
- Thunder Attack increases Thunder Damage by a flat amount
- Ice Attack increases Ice Damage by a flat amount
- Dragon Attack increases Dragon Damage by a flat amount
- Critical Element allows the Elemental Damage of a Weapon to be affected by Affinity
- Elemental Attack Boost (S)/(L) from Hunting Horns increases Elemental Damage by approximately 7.5% and 10% respectively, displaying to the nearest 10. See Status Effects for more information.
Effect
Using the previous example of the Red Wing (180 Fire and 768 Physical), and adding one level of the Fire Attack Skill will improve the weapon's Fire damage to 210 and yield:
21 (Starting Elemental value / 10)
x 1.0625 (Sharpness multiplier for blue level sharpness towards elemental)
x 0.15 (Monster Part multiplier for Great Jagras' tail against Fire Damage
= 3.3 Fire Damage (in addition to 22.5 slashing damage)
Notes
- Since elemental damage Skills add a flat amount and and are not affected by weapon-type or motion value multipliers, they are more often suited to fast weapons such as the Dual Blades or Sword & Shield.
1 Information taken from a Reddit post made by user mltsquigs and confirmed ingame.
AnonymousI think its stupid to lay out the blanket statement that elemental damage skills are more valuable on fast weapons like dual blades than slow weapons. The game is aware of this advantage and gives more base elemental damage to slower weapons to compensate, so they will benefit more from the percentage elemental damage you get from the elemental attack skills at level 4+. Also, critical element and true critical element grant higher bonuses to greatsword, hammer, and horn, allowing them to benefit more from elemental skills.
To give some perspective, the Alatreon dual blades give 480 (critical element increasing to 648 effective) dragon attack, while the Alatreon hunting horn gives 780 (critical element increasing to 1170 effective) dragon attack.
Finally, all weapons with elemental damage have a maximum, usually around a 30% increase of the base but varying from weapon to weapon. The sole purpose of building elemental attack skills is reaching that maximum, it usually only takes level 2-4 of the respective attack skill to reach it, so the skills themselves are equally valuable across all weapons, but it could easily be argued that its better to build elemental damage on slower weapons than faster ones. Horn and Hammer both have multihit attacks with low motion values that will benefit more from elemental damage anyway.
- Anonymous
Sight the dmg numbers still confuse me even after watching 6 diff vids
- Anonymous
What about bows? Do they use the bowgun formula, or the weapon formula?
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I have ebony odogaron glaive that does dragon damage, and full Velkana armor which gives + on elemental damage on critical hits,, and frost aura. That means I'm dealing dragon and ice damage at the same time?
- Anonymous
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could weapon elements be combined, say, ice and thunder in the same weapon using decorations?
- Anonymous
Just wondering, if I equip a piece of armor with elemental atk skill (Jyura Vambraces as an example, Water Attack I) and a weapon with a different element, would I get the +30 Water Attack still from the vambraces? or that bonus would just go away since it doesn't match the weapon?
- Anonymous
Dumb question been trying to find out is there a way to remove elemental damage on a weapon? Like block it?
- Anonymous
My IG Infinite wisdom gas the elemental dmg in () and idk what that means
- Anonymous
Anybody have any information on what the elemental cap is like now?
- Anonymous
Why is anja weapon strong against ice but anja armor is weak against ice that's contradictory
- Anonymous
What I'm curious about that I have yet to see clarified is the amount of effectiveness an element has on a creature. This info is listed as stars ranging from a red X meaning the monster takes no elemental damage from said attack all the way up to 3 stars. What I am curious about is the number value each star represents, for example is a monster with a one star to fire only take 33% of the damage caused by fire? does he take double? what about 2 stars does that raise it to 66% or triple? What does each star represent when it comes to how weak a monster is to a certain element?
- Anonymous
What about when the elemental damage display is gray and in parenthesis?
- Anonymous
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is there basicly a way to scale physical vs elemental dmg ? i made a calculation of the weapon damages and im not really sure how to add the physical and elemental dmg to an over all dmg
- Anonymous
the number of damage show when i attack the monster is only aw damage right ? because when i use the Dual destroyer II and the Kirin bolts + at training arena,it see the number of damage of the Dual destroyer II is higher than the Kirin bolts+,it 's strange because the element damage on the Kirin bolts is higher,i tested both on my Kirin full armor set
- Anonymous
Question: Does dealing an elemental damage a monster is weak to bypass a resistance threshold, or does it multiply damage taken? Important distinction not touched on in this article.
- Anonymous
uhm what does more damage on a bow/dual blade an elemental build or an raw build ? from what i've gathered i do more damage with a raw build, at least from what i've seen in number.
- Anonymous
is it an addition to the regular damage, or like a percentage thing? like, will enduring schism deal more damage to a 3 star weak to dragon monster than nergal gouge?
- Anonymous
What does it mean when something is (130) elemental damage?
- Anonymous
My weapon gives 90 fire damage, and i have + 100 from fire attack Level 3. but it only showcases that i have 120 fire damage instead 190. whats this?
- Anonymous
If I have a Weapon with elemental dmg 300 and raw dmg 500 and a weapon with raw dm 650 wich one would be better if the element is super effectiv against the monster?
- Anonymous
I still don't quite understand how element works in MHW, aside from what I read that certain monster better bring certain types element to fight with, but how about the armor? anybody could enlighten me?
- Anonymous
Im new to the MH series, and im not far into to the game yet. But what this tells me is if i can have bone weapons with 190 dmg and bone weapons with 190 dmg and 100 XXXElement dmg. Take the one with the Element dmg if the monster is weak to it i do more dmg than with the Normal one, and if the monster does not have a weaknes against it i still do the same dmg with both of them? That means if the weapons have the same Normal Dmg than take one with an Elemen on it.
- Anonymous
Help. Does elemental defence also change the damage? Like if someone would have 100 Def and someone had 100 Def and 20 Fire Res. One would not be set on fire from a fire ball but would one take more damage from the first impact?
Elemental tips and info:
* when it comes to status elements/ailments like sleep/paral/poison/etc the number you see on a weapon is not the potency of the damage. purely an example: lets say a monster needs 5000 "points" in order for a status to work on them and their weaknesses remove 1000 each. (so if they are 3 star weakness to poison then you its now only 2000 points) each weapons potency does that number to them. so if you have a weapon with 300 poison, each hit adds that, until you reach 2000. they then become poisoned. poison itself will only tic health at its designated dps. your weapon number will not change that number. these numbers are entirely made up, and there might be a few extra calculations within but this is the EASIEST way to create a more visual/descriptive idea of how it works for ppl to understand it better
* when building a set around an element keep note that there is always an elemental cap on your weapon, when making a build to boost with "Element Attack" charms /armor sets/etc is to watch for your weapons cap. you might only need rank 1 or 2 and anymore is just excessive and will not change your stat higher.
* when working with a closed element weapon( such as the diablos ones that have Greyed out ice status) if you have no "Free Elem/Ammo Up" abilities. the weapon will remain NON ELEMENT and NON ELEMENTAL Attack Jewels will increase this.
* "Attack" numbers and "element damage" numbers are not overlapped. as in. if you have a 1k wpn attack and 300 element attack. that doesnt mean that 300 of that 1k is the element. it means you do 1k AND 300. this can be good and bad because yes you do more damage. BUT it also means theres 2 defenses to fight thru now. if a monster has X non element defense. the weapon has to fight thru that defense. and if it also has X defense of the element you are using, you are now fighting through both of those defenses. this is why it is highly recommended to ALWAYS bring a weapon that will work properly against a monster even if you think its no big deal.
- Anonymous
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SO if for example I have a weapon with Thunder damage and I equip a decoration that adds a level of water damage will my attack use both elements?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Is there a way to remove the elemental damage from a weapon. Have the diablos shatter with ice damage and not suppose to have it on there and would like it gone.
- Anonymous
I have a set that increases dragon element damage, but I don't have a dragon element weapon. Is the dragon element on the armor set mean nothing? Will it add dragon element damage to all my attacks no matter what my weapon? Or do I need a Dragon element weapon in order for it to activate?
- Anonymous
Zorah mag longsword has 300 explosion and Bazel longsword has 150 why do i get the same explosion damage(120) can someone elaborate?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
To clear up any stipulations with Elemental damage types I'll explain everything that I've figured out. First, Non-Elemental boost does NOT work on weapons with abnormal effects, such as sleep, blast, ect. Or at least this is what I have encountered. Second, Non-elemental damage is NOT affected by strengths or weaknesses of monsters. If you have 1,000 base damage it will only go through the physical resistance of the monster you are fighting, Therefore Monster Hunter veterans will tell you to try and go for a base damage build with no elements since it will only go through one resistance instead of two. If you want to try for this build it's up to you. Lastly each element has it's own attack boost. Ex. If you have armor/charm/gem with attack boost it will only affect base damage, if you want to boost your elemental effect you will need to find an armor set/charm/gem with fire attack, blast attack, dragon attack, thunder attack ect. I wish that the game explained this in full detail as I am not to sure about some of the things in this and would like someone to confirm it.
- Anonymous
is the non elemental damage of your weapon reduced aswell when the monster is resistant to the weapons element?
- Anonymous
Is elemental effects considered magic or science in monster hunter? I don't know much about the lore and was curious about this
- Anonymous
What is the maximum base elemental damage value for insect glaive ? I read somewhere that any weapons has a maximum limit and it could be useful tu put it in the wiki page...
- Anonymous
a long sword with damage of 530 + 300 blast.
a long sword with damage 360 + 120 dragon element.
which one would do the most damage against a rathian? bearing in mind that he has weakness against dragon element but the first sword has a greater base damage.
I started in the game now and do not yet understand much how the damage works in the game
- Anonymous
you upgrade your weapon. As they grow, they gain extra effects. You should use a guide if you want a specific effect.There is an upgrade tree. Each weapon can branch into different kinds with different element. Many weapons that start having no element will eventually get one if you keep boosting it.
- Anonymous
How do I add element damage to my weapons? Is there a way to do that?
- Anonymous
Can someone teach me how the explosion element works in this game?
is fire damage? or the blast damage is different?
- Anonymous
just to let people know and to have someone that can write clearer than i can update this page the element increase you can give to your weapon varies between a third and 30% a couple of examples are the rare 7 nergigante insect glaive with 120 dragon caps at 160 dragon a third increase and a higher element one like the dragon bone weapons with the rare 4 versions give a 30% increase from 330 to 430
- Anonymous
the zorah magdaros armor has a effect that activate the hidden element i think i was on the gloves
later there is more equiment with that effect
- Anonymous
I got a problem. My steelblade III got the explosion element but it's somehow not activated and it's written in light grey instead of white. What I got to do to activate it?
- Anonymous
What is the elemental cap? I have +4 dragon dmg and my nerga blade is yellow at 160.. Won't go any higher or just not listed?
- Anonymous
Why isn't my fossil buldgeon III doing the thunder dmg?! The thunder damage is grayed out in the weapon screen.
- Anonymous
how does it make sense that say a lightning resist arrmor set gives boosts to lightning weapons when you either need the lightning weapon for a water monster and the armor makes you super weak to the water monster you wanna kill or the other way around, i i go strong with a water resist armor set and it gives a bonus to water weapons yet a water weapon would suck...
- Anonymous
What does it mean when your elemental damage is in paretheses and not being used? Blast/Poison (120).
- Anonymous
Water is strong against tobi and he's thunder. Ma wanna fix the water element.
This is extremely stupid. Somebody needs to spit out some real numbers so we can actually tell how much it's worth. People start talking about how it's relative, or it's a different number for different body parts. Stop! Just come up with a range of numbers. *** = X% damage. JFC it's too hard to figure stuff out in this game, and nobody actually knows the important information.
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