Weapon Mechanics

=Attack Power= The Attack Power is the raw damage done without the aid of elements or secondary status effects. It is important to favor raw damage over elemental damage and secondary statuses because raw damage is universal and has more weight in most cases (100 points of raw damage is worth more than 100 points of element damage).

=Affinity= Affinity is a hunters chance to deal either more or less damage with a weapon attack. It is measured in percentages, and varies based on weapons, armor, and skills. A positive affinity means attacks have that percentage chance to use 125% attack power, while a negative affinity is the chance to use 75% attack power. Some monsters can cause a status condition which lowers affinity temporarily. Note: Affinity doesn't effect element, shelling, crag S or clust S.

=Sharpness= Sharpness is the sharpness of a melee weapon, represented by the color of the little blade near the clock on the game interface. It is a very simple scalar variable which increases attack power by a percentage.

MHFU: Purple: 1.50, white: 1.30, blue: 1.25, green: 1.125, yellow 1.00, orange: 0.75, and red is 0.50.

MH3: Purple: 1.50, white 1.32, blue 1.20, green 1.05, yellow 1.00, orange 0.75, red 0.50.

Note - These Numbers represent the amount of your weapons attack power which is used when calculating damage, not straight damage.

Sharpness also affects elemental damage similarly.

MHFU&MH3: Purple: 1.20, White: 1.125, Blue:   1.0625, Green:  1.0, Yellow: 0.75, Orange: 0.50, Red:    0.25

Also, the sharpness influences the chance of your weapon bounce on hard body parts of a monster. A Gravios back shell for example can only be penetrated by white, or not even purple when on a G-ranked quest. The head of a Barroth is only penetratable with blue or above, while elsewhere on its body green sharpness will work. Additionally, bouncing ´will prevent you of chaining attacks.

=Slots= Like armor pieces, weapons may or may not have empty slots where decoration jewels can be placed to supplement a skill tree.

Damage Formula
To calculate the damage for weapons in Monster Hunter 3 go here Monster Hunter 3 Damage Formula.

On this Page, you find the exact descrition how damage you deal with your weapon: MHFU Monster Damage Formula. (Under construction)

=Elements= Elements are the secondary damage that is done. Like raw damage, it is done directly. How much the element effects a monster is dependent on the monster's weaknesses. In MH3, monster's element attacks now have status conditions. The elements are fire, water, thunder, dragon and ice. Each link will take you a page with more specific information.

=Special Attack Attribute= The types of special attack attributes that weapons may have.

Also see
Status Effects Elemental Resistances