Monster Hunter: World is a deep game, one that doesn’t always make its inner-workings clear. Crafting better and more powerful gear in order to take on more colossal and exceedingly-deadly creatures is a major part of the Monster Hunter: World experience, but because of the way the game handles some of the data fed to the player - attack values in particular - it can be difficult to determine just how much better or worse a new weapon actually is. Thankfully, one dedicated Monster Hunter fan took the time to break it down for all the new hunters out there.

Deft hands and high-stats will often win the day when engaging one of the game’s magnificent monsters, but knowledge of exactly what one’s gear can do can often mean the difference between success and failure. In the video below, Monster Hunter: World player and YouTuber Gaijin Hunter lays out exactly what a weapon’s attack value means and how it relates to that weapon’s actual damage output. It's a great thing to know when considering a monster's weaknesses and what kind of weapon is best suited to felling it.

As described in the video, a weapon’s attack value represents its maximum damage output. That’s the number that would be used if 100% of a hunter’s strength is put into an attack with that weapon. That said, not every attack is going to have 100% strength put behind it, and not every weapon can be used with that much power anyway. This is where weapon types come in and where Gaijin Hunter really starts digging into the system.

Gaijin Hunter makes his comparison by pitting a greatsword against a sword and shield. The greatsword is a heavier weapon and has a longer animation, meaning that each swing will deliver a large portion of its attack value. The sword and shield, on the other hand, work as a lighter weapon with a shorter animation. It is swung much more quickly than the greatsword and thus delivers a much smaller portion of its attack value with each swing.

Basically, weapons with the same attack value will both inflict the same amount of DPS, but the number of hits required to deliver it differs depending on how quickly the weapon can be swung.

This all ties into a weapon’s “motion value,” which more or less boils down to “the longer an attack takes to do, the closer to its max power rating it does.” Digging into motion value is a great way for those who love min-maxing to get the most of their gear, but Gaijin Hunter says it’s not something beginners need to worry about all that much.

When choosing between weapons with equal attack values, the type of prey being hunted and one’s own play-style are often more important factors than per-swing damage. For those that do want to dive more deeply into motion values though, Gaijin Hunter has another video that does exactly that.

Monster Hunter: World is a complicated game that allows for many different ways for players to get the upper-hand over their prey. Maximizing one’s damage potential is one way, while making sure to eat the right food before a fight is another. Players need every edge they can get when hunting a new monster, and putting this knowledge into practice should help make first encounters a bit easier.

Monster Hunter: World is available for PS4 and Xbox One, with a PC release planned for later this year.