Ever locked in an affinity pairing with a friend who stopped playing Mobile Legends, or accidentally selected the wrong hero for your permanent affinity buff? You’re not alone. Thousands of players run into this issue every month, and most don’t know there’s a straightforward way to undo the pairing without losing other account rewards. This guide breaks down exactly how to remove affinity in Mobile Legends, plus tips to avoid missteps that could cost you in-game currency or exclusive perks.
Pre-Requisites Before You Remove Affinity in Mobile Legends
Before you jump into the removal process, there are a few critical checks you need to run to avoid wasting resources or hitting error messages mid-process. Most players skip these steps and end up frustrated when the system won’t let them complete the removal, so take 60 seconds to go through this list first.
First, confirm you have at least 50 diamonds in your account if your affinity partner is inactive or won’t approve the removal request. If both you and your partner agree to unbind, you won’t have to pay this fee, but it’s good to have the diamonds on hand just in case the request times out after 72 hours. Next, make sure you’ve claimed all existing affinity rewards tied to your current pairing, including limited skins, avatar borders, and battle emotes. Once you remove the affinity, you’ll lose access to any unclaimed rewards permanently, and you can’t get them back later.
Finally, double check that you’re not currently registered for an affinity-exclusive event, like the annual Partner Ranked Boost event. If you are registered, wait until the event ends to remove your affinity, otherwise you’ll forfeit all event progress and any prizes you would have earned for completing event milestones.
Step-by-Step Process to Remove Hero or Partner Affinity
The removal process is identical for both hero affinity pairings and partner player affinity pairings, as of the latest game update. You can complete the whole process in less than two minutes if you have all the pre-requisites sorted out. Follow these steps exactly to avoid mistakes:
- Open Mobile Legends and tap your profile icon in the top left corner of the main lobby screen
- Select the “Social” tab from the left hand menu, then tap the “Affinity” option from the sub-menu that pops up
- Find the affinity pairing you want to remove from the list, tap the three dots in the top right corner of their card, and select “Remove Affinity”
- If removing a partner affinity, choose whether to send a request to your partner for free, or pay 50 diamonds to remove the pairing immediately without their approval
- Confirm your choice when the pop-up warning appears, and restart your game to make sure the change takes effect
That's it, the whole process is far simpler than most players assume. If you get an error message when you tap “Remove Affinity”, it’s almost always because you missed one of the pre-requisite checks we covered earlier. Go back and confirm you’ve claimed all rewards, have enough diamonds if needed, and aren’t locked into an affinity event, then try again.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Removing Affinity
Even with the simple steps above, a lot of players make avoidable errors that cost them diamonds, rewards, or even their ability to form a new affinity for 30 days. We’ve compiled the most frequent mistakes we’ve seen from thousands of players in the ML community, so you can skip the headaches.
The most common mistake is removing affinity right before a big affinity event to pair with a new partner. Most new affinity pairings have a 7-day waiting period before you can qualify for event rewards, so if you remove your old pairing too close to an event start date, you’ll miss out on all the exclusive prizes. Another mistake is paying the 50 diamond removal fee when you could just wait three days for the request to auto-approve if your partner is inactive. If you don’t need to form a new affinity immediately, waiting the 72 hours will save you diamonds you can spend on skins or hero fragments instead.
You also don’t want to remove an affinity right after you hit a new affinity level, unless you’ve already claimed the level-up reward. Affinity level rewards are tied to the specific pairing, not your account, so you’ll lose access to that reward permanently once the pairing is removed. Many players have lost limited edition emotes and recall effects this way, so always double check your reward inventory before confirming the removal.
What to Do After You Remove Your Affinity Pairing
Once your affinity is successfully removed, there are a few quick steps you can take to make the most of the change, whether you’re planning to pair with a new partner or stick to solo play for a while.
If you’re planning to form a new affinity pairing, make sure you read the new pairing rules first. As of the latest update, you have to play at least 10 ranked matches with your new partner before you can unlock affinity perks like in-game battle buffs and shared chat emotes. This rule was added to cut down on players swapping affinities every week to farm event rewards, so make sure you play those matches before you try to claim any new affinity rewards.
If you don’t plan to form a new affinity right away, you can turn off affinity requests in your social settings to avoid getting spammed with requests from random players. You can also use the empty affinity slot to test out hero affinity pairings for your main hero, which gives you small but consistent stat boosts in all match types, including ranked and classic games. Hero affinity pairings don’t require a partner, so you don’t have to worry about someone going inactive or misaligning with your play schedule.
It’s also a good idea to check your in-game mail for any leftover rewards from your old affinity pairing for 24 hours after removal. Sometimes the system sends leftover reward fragments to your mail even if you thought you claimed everything, so it’s worth a quick check to make sure you don’t miss out on free resources.
At the end of the day, affinity pairings are supposed to make your Mobile Legends experience more fun, not lock you into a pairing that no longer works for you. Now that you know how to remove affinity in Mobile Legends safely, you can adjust your pairings whenever you need to without worrying about losing rewards or wasting in-game currency. Take the time to run through the pre-requisite checks first, follow the step-by-step process, and avoid the common mistakes we covered, and you’ll have the whole process done before your next ranked queue pops.