The best Great Sword build in Monster Hunter Wilds will see you dishing out the most damage in the game. These beefy blades have always been Monster Hunter’s heavy hitters, but their high damage potential is usually offset by their sluggishness, requiring a long wind-up to unleash their most potent attacks. Things are looking a lot better for Great Sword hunters in Wilds, though.
Indeed, Great Sword hunters can now expect to be fairly agile, or at least reactive, thanks to the new ability to control the direction of your strike both while you’re charging up an attack or while you’re actually unleashing it. If a monster is in range, it’s gonna take a beating. Great Sword hunters are also pretty tanky thanks to the ability to guard with the sword, so you can dish it out and protect yourself. This is a powerful, versatile weapon choice, and while it comes with a bit of complexity, even newcomers are going to have a good time with this stupidly large sword.
OK, enough of the elevator pitch. It’s time to dig into the basics, and then I’ll move onto some builds it’s worth working towards to make your time in low rank go smoothly.
How to play Great Sword in Monster Hunter Wilds
The first thing you need to know is that the Great Sword is a relatively slow weapon—unsurprisingly, given its heft. Basic attacks have a longer animation than most weapons, and to make the most out of this bad boy, you’ll have to spend extra seconds charging up your attacks to maximise their damage.
Thankfully, we have the Focus mechanic now, and by holding down LT (assuming you’re using an Xbox Controller or similar) you can aim your attacks. You can do this while gearing up for an attack, like when you’re charging, or during the attack itself, making sure every strike in the combo hits your target, even if it’s leaping or writhing around.
- Focus also allows you to break wounds. When holding down LT, you’ll see wounded areas glowing red, and you can then use Focus Slash: Perforate (LT+RB) to break them for a beastly amount of damage.
- To do a truly absurd amount of damage in one go, save up the wounds, and then when you do your Focus Slash angle your attack so you hit as many of them as possible in one strike.
By sheathing your weapon, you’ll also be able to claw back some extra mobility, and this is one area where the Great Sword is a speed demon: You can go from sheathed to combat ready quickly, drawing straight into an attack, which you can take advantage of thanks to some gear that we’ll be discussing later.
The True Charged Slash combo is your bread and butter. This classic Monster Hunter combo will be more than familiar to veteran Great Sword players and will be responsible for the bulk of your damage. It’s a simple Y, Y, Y combo, going from a Charged Slash, to a Strong Charged Slash, and finishing up with a huge, two-step True Charged Slash that’ll see you flip over as you unleash your final hits.
- You can charge each of the attacks in this combo up to three levels (you’ll notice the charge levels by the glow of your hunter). The combo is powerful without charging, but if you can afford to spend time charging up each attack—like if the monster is trapped or subdued—then you’ll be rewarded with much greater damage.
- As mentioned above, Focus is a great boon here. You can aim each attack in this combo while holding down LT, so you won’t miss out just because the monster moved while you were charging up.
- Throwing in a tackle will reduce the chances of this combo being interrupted. Just hit B, either between attacks or while you’re charging one up, and you’ll smash into the monster shoulder-first, blocking their damage with hyperarmour (and dealing KO damage which could knock them down), after which you can immediately continue your combo.
- If you time your tackle right when the monster attack should hit you, you’ll pull off a perfect tackle, allowing you to keep your current charge level, so you can come out of the tackle and then pull off a fully charged slash.
- To quickly get your True Charged Slash, you can also use the tackle to skip attacks in the combo. So you start charging with Y, but then quickly cancel into a tackle with B, and then do the same thing again, and then you’ll go into a True Charged Slash, shaving a few seconds off the combo.
Your Forward Lunging combo isn’t at the level of the True Charged Slash when it comes to damage, but it still has some great utility. This B, B, B combo will let you take wide slashes doing damage over a greater area, and the second part of the combo lets you tackle, giving you a bit more mobility while letting you tank some damage.
- The Wide Slash and Leaping Wide Slash attacks in this combo are great for clearing out groups of smaller monsters, as well as damaging groups of larger ones. Unlike the True Charged Slash, it doesn’t require nearly as much precision.
- The tackle will let you close the gap if your target moves mid-combo and, as mentioned above, will give you hyperarmour, letting you shrug off an attack and prevent monsters from interrupting the combo.
- You can get to the Leaping Wide Slash, the strongest and final part of the combo, quickly by rolling into a tackle (confusingly this is A, Y instead of A, B), after which you can hit B for a Leaping Wide Slash.
The Stationary combo is the one you’ll probably use the least. It’s a straightforward deal, with you just standing there and slashing with your big ol’ sword. With B, Y+B, you go from a Wide Slash into a Rising Slash. That said, the Rising Slash attack can be a doozy in certain situations, and you don’t need to use the Wide Slash first to pull it off.
- Holding down Y+B will let you charge your Rising Slash attack for greater damage, but the best way to use it is as a parry. Charge your Rising Slash, and then when the monster attacks you, unleash it, pulling off an Offset Rising Slash, netting you a ton of damage and potentially toppling the monster if it connects right as the monster’s attack makes contact.
- After the Offset Rising Slash, you can hit Y for a Follow Up Cross Slash, netting you two more hits. You can then follow that up with a Strong Wide Slash with B or a Strong Charged Slash by holding down Y.
While not as agile as an Insect Glaive hunter, Great Sword hunters can still do quite a bit of damage from the air. By leaping off a ledge or from the saddle of your seikret, you can perform a Plunging Thrust with RT, letting you hit the ground quicker while doing a downward thrust. You can also hold down Y to do a Jumping Charged Slash.
- The Plunging Thrust gets you down to the ground quickly, but it doesn’t do much damage, so you’ll probably want to ignore it in favour of the Jumping Charged Slash, which has a lot more damage potential.
- The Jumping Charged Slash can be charged up to three levels, and can then be chained into the Strong Wide Slash, followed by a True Charged Slash. This is the best way to take advantage of a ledge or jumping from your mount.
- Any attacks that connect midair deal “mounting damage”, which has a chance of mounting the back of a monster, where you can hack away at it until you create a wound. From there you can move around the monster to create another wound, then perforate them with RB, breaking the wound and potentially netting you some monster parts. Lots of damage is a nice bonus, too.
While the close-range and heavy damage suggests an ultra-aggressive playstyle, Great Sword hunters also enjoy some great defensive capabilities. You can use RT to guard, using your massive sword like a shield, but this also opens the door to an aggressive follow up.
- Guarding normally will mitigate quite a lot of damage and protect you from some stuns, but to really take advantage of this mechanic you’ll want to time it perfectly.
- Guard at just the right time, as the monster is about to hit you, and you’ll pull off a Perfect Guard. This lets you brush off even more damage, but more importantly it can trigger a Power Clash.
- A Power Clash is a quick button-mashing minigame that knocks the monster back, after which you can punish them with—of course—a True Charged Slash. Lovely stuff.
There’s quite a bit to remember, but I find it easier to just think of the Great Sword as a True Charged Slash machine—I’m always looking for ways to chain into this crucial attack. And conveniently, there are so many ways to pull it off. You can even go into a True Charged Slash after a Focus Slash. Expect to see your hunter flipping over their sword all the time.
Best Great Sword build for Low Rank
This build progression focuses on taking advantage of the Great Sword’s high damage potential, keeping you hitting monsters as much as possible, and as a bonus it’s pretty dang tanky.
- First weapon: Buster Sword I
I’ve gone back and forth over this one so many times, and I might do it again, but for now I’ve settled on the Buster Sword I as the best early weapon. It has the highest raw damage of any of the first weapons you’ll unlock, and the Critical Draw skill bumps your Affinity up to 50% when you’re performing a draw attack, giving your first strike out of the sheath extra critical damage. This is really good for Great Sword because you should be sheathing a lot to reposition, and Critical Draw rewards those efforts. If you’ve not got your hands on any malachite ore yet, the Bone Blade I is also a strong starting sword, with the second-highest raw damage output and a skill that reduces your charge time by 5%. With a lot of monsters weak to fire, the Quematrice Espada I is also a good pick, and as a bonus it looks incredibly cool.
- Second weapon: Dosha Fellslayer I
We’re going for raw damage again. Once you get access to Doshaguma fights, this will be your heaviest-hitting weapon. Thanks to the Punishing Draw skill you can do more damage from draw attacks, and they also have a small chance to stun monsters. I won’t deny that the -10% Affinity stings a bit, but to make up for this you get a defence bonus of 20, buffing your damage resistance.
- Third weapon: Dosha Fellslayer II
A bit basic, I know, but I’m recommending the second version of the Dosha Fellslayer. It’s a nice, simple upgrade—a lot more damage, a smaller Affinity penalty and an extra level of Punishing Draw. You’ll need to defeat the Guardian Doshaguma to get the materials. This fight will also unlock the Dosha Grimslayer I, which does significantly more damage, but has a 20% Affinity penalty and no defensive bonus. At higher levels its skill, Focus, is very useful, but honestly a 5% increase in charge speed just ain’t that much.
If you’d like some elemental damage at the cost of some raw damage output, Nul Krake I is also worth your time. The damage is very reasonable at the stage you can unlock this sword, and the substantial fire damage is a lovely bonus.
- First armour set: Alloy Helm, Alloy Mail, Quematrice Braces, Alloy Coil, Quematrice Greaves
For Low Rank, where armor perks are generally underwhelming, we’re keeping this straightforward. At least initially. So to start with, you just need to do a spot of mining and craft the full Alloy set. No monster grinding required! You’ll get a nice defensive bump over your Hope armour, as well as some handy skills. The helm and greaves will net you Quick Sheathe at level 2, speeding up the time it takes for you to sheathe your weapon and pairing nicely with the Buster Sword’s Critical Draw perk. This might not sound like a big deal, but you’ll be doing it a lot as a Great Sword hunter, to give you a much needed mobility boost when you’re repositioning or chasing down monsters.
The level 3 Tremor Resistance you get from the mail, vambraces and coil is just as helpful, as it nullifies all ground tremors, keeping you nice and stable while large monsters pound the ground. But you can also mix it up a bit. If you’d prefer some broad Stun Resistance, you can swap your vambraces and greaves for Bone Vambraces and Bone Greaves. You’ll lose a level of Tremor Resistance and Quick Sheathe, and it’s lacking the Alloy’s defensive power, but you’ll gain two levels in Stun Resistance.
After you’ve done some hunting, you’ll definitely want to throw some Quematrice armour in there, as the helm, braces and greaves give you Flinch Free, and at level 3 this prevents all knockbacks and tripping. You’ll lose Quick Sheathe and a level of Tremor Resistance, but Flinch Free is worth it against the aggressive beasts in the back half of the Low Rank story. You can enjoy the best of both worlds by just taking the Quematrice Braces and Quematrice Greaves, keeping the Alloy Helm for a level of Quick Sheathe.
- Second armour set: Doshaguma Helm, Doshaguma Mail, Doshaguma Braces, Doshaguma Coil, Duna Greaves
After you’ve started hunting Doshaguma, the giant bear monster’s armour set is the toughest you’ll be able to find, and while you’ll soon be able to find gear with more defensive capabilities once you start slaying Rompopolo and the beasties that come after them, the Doshaguma armour’s set bonus will ensure you’ll be sticking to this over-the-top, very hairy outfit.
Doshaguma’s Might is a set bonus that gives you Powerhouse II, as long as you’re wearing four pieces of the set. This temporarily grants you attack +25 after you pull off a Power Clash or Offset attack. Once you master your Perfect Guard and your Offset Rising Slash—both of which you’ll hopefully be nailing by this point—you’ll be taking advantage of this skill frequently.
Less critical but still handy, you’ll get Fortify from using three pieces of this set, which increases your attack and defence after fainting during a quest. Fainting is never part of the plan, but it’s normal for new Great Sword players. The helm, mail and greaves also give you level 3 Free Meal, giving you a 45% chance of consuming food or drinks for free. This includes things like healing potions and antidotes. The braces, meanwhile, give you Recovery Speed, doubling the speed at which you heal. Finally, the coil gives you Item Prolonger, extending the duration of item effects by 10%.
So while Doshaguma’s Might is the highlight here, the set offers a lot. It’s worth noting, though, that you can replace one piece of gear and still get the full effect of Doshaguma’s Might. I recommend Duna Greaves for Peak Performance, which increases your attack by +3 when you’re at full health. You’ll just need to sacrifice a level of Free Meal. Rey Sandhelm is also worth considering for the Latent Power skill, increasing Affinity by 10% and reducing stamina depletion by 30% while it’s active. Both of these pieces have more defence than the Doshaguma items, but they are from slightly later fights.
- Third armour set: Guardian Doshaguma Helm, Guardian Doshaguma Mail, Guardian Doshaguma Braces, Guardian Doshaguma Coil, Guardian Doshaguma Greaves
I’m being a bit boring here. This is effectively an enhanced version of the first Doshaguma set, and gives you Doshaguma’s Might again. While the set bonus is unchanged, this set offers a lot more defence, as well as several handy new skills. Wylk Burst increases your stamina recovery speed when you’re near Wylkrystals (those milky grey puddles in some regions); Iron Skin reduces the duration of the defence down debuff (by 75% at level 2); Marathon Runner slows down stamina depletion for certain actions, like dashing, and with three pieces of this set it jumps up to a 50% reduction; and finally there’s Heroics, which, at level 3, gives you +5% attack and +100 defence when your health drops to 35% or lower.
Now, if you went for Nul Krake I instead of Dosha Fellslayer II, you might want to consider a different armour set—one that takes advantage of your elemental damage. For this, you should go with Guardian Rathalos. With this set, you get the Rathalos’s Flare bonus, which gives you Scorcher II, netting you additional fire damage after landing an attack. While I still reckon Doshaguma’s Might is the perfect bonus for Great Sword hunters, it’s situational and requires you to actually get good at pulling off Offset Rising Slashes and Perfect Guards. This one just gives you a straight buff, so it’s more consistent.
It’s worth noting, too, that there’s no one-size-fits-all, best-of-the-best armour or weapon. You’re going to want to mix and match, and to experiment, depending on what monster you’re facing. If you go all-in on a fire build, you’ll wipe the floor with a lot of monsters, but you’ll have a horrible time facing any with lots of fire resistance. Another reason I like going for raw damage.
