Monster Hunter Wilds Whiteflame Torrent skill explained

The MH Wilds Whiteflame Torrent skill that was added as part of the Title Update 1 is connected to all the weapons made from Zoh Shia's pieces. The problem is that the unclear description of Whiteflame Torrent and its relationship to the Scorcher skill make it one of the more confusing abilities in all of Monster Hunter Wilds, and people can't work out if it's actually any good or not.

Fortunately, I've gone and tested the weapons of Zoh Shia to lay down the parameters of how Whiteflame Torrent works in Monster Hunter Wilds, what the effect is and how it relates to the Scorcher skill. If you want to know the complex details, we've got them all laid out below.

What does Whiteflame Torrent in Monster Hunter Wilds do?

From my experiences, the Whiteflame Torrent skill in Monster Hunter Wilds does an extra flat 50 damage on certain hits with your weapon. So a 25 damage strike might become a 75 damage strike when it activates. However, the actual pattern with which this extra damage occurs is fairly complicated.

Article continues below

There are two elements to the Whiteflame Torrent skill: a cooldown and a random dice roll.
When you land the extra 50 damage, it starts a cooldown of 3 seconds before it can happen again.
However, that doesn't mean the next hit will necessarily deal the 50 damage. Instead, once the cooldown is over, the weapon has a one-in-three chance to deal the extra damage.
This chance then increases proportionately with each non-triggering strike. If it hasn't been activated by your third weapon strike, it's guaranteed to.
Once the extra damage activates, the cooldown begins again and we return to step one.

To illustrate the odds of the extra damage a little more easily, imagine that there are three doors, one of which has extra damage behind it. If you land the first attack (or open the first door) and there's no damage, it means you have a much higher chance, because now it's one-in-two. If you get it wrong again, there's only one door left, so then it's a guarantee!

Now, no matter which door you need, the triggering of the 50 damage will reset the cooldown, and you can't open any doors for the next three seconds. Damage distribution done in this way means that there's no real greater advantage to using weapons that strike faster – the Dual Blades aren't necessarily better than the Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword in this case.

The community has been bewildered by the unclear abilities of Whiteflame Torrent since it was added to MH Wilds, but thanks to dreamingsuntide for being one of the first to decipher the mechanics of this ability and draw my attention to it! Having tested the weapons in the game myself, this does seem to fit the pattern of how they work.

The Whiteflame Torrent Skill is tied to all weapons crafted from fighting the Monster Hunter Wilds Zoh Shia hunt. At time of writing, there's no other way to get this skill for yourself.

The other thing to keep in mind is the Scorcher ability, tied to some of the Monster Hunter Wilds best armor, that from the Rathalos set. Scorcher, alongside the normal abilities of that skill, also increases the flat damage dealt by the Whiteflame Torrent ability, but turns it to Fire damage (so enemy resistances may kick in, depending on the foe).

Want more info on everything added by Title Update 1? Check out how to slay the Monster Hunter Wilds Mizutsune, or find out where to find the Monster Hunter Wilds Ayejack location for "The Apple of Her Eye" quest and retrieving Alma's Glasses.