The mighty glacier!
The ultimate embodiment of the mighty glacier, the Great Sword is the iconic weapon of Monster Hunter and embraces all that is its heritage. Best known for its legendary charge attack, the Great Sword has one of the highest raw attack points of all the weapon classes which punishes monsters once you unleash your weapon’s fury. Master the Great Sword, master the monster. Land that perfectly timed charge right as a monster charges towards you and feel satisfaction bubble forth in your veins. Congratulations, hunter.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Sky-high raw damage, level 3 charge attack is one of the most powerful attacks in the game | *Very* slow attacks, lack of mobility when the weapon is unsheathed |
| You can block with the blade if you’re stuck in a pinch | The weapon as a shield is very weak and blocking consumes a lot of sharpness |
| Landing a charge right as a monster takes off to bring it crashing back down feels so good | Precise timing required to master when to unleash charges because you are immobile while charging |
| Controls | Attack (Guild Style) |
|---|---|
| X | Overhead slash. Hold down and then release for a charge attack |
| A | Wide horizontal slash |
| X+A | Verticle slash |
| R | Block |
| B | Evasive roll |
Guild Style
Your charge attack is your bread and butter. No ifs ands or buts about it. Pop in an attack or two if you can if the monster is moving too fast or you’re unfamiliar, but as you begin to get into your rhythm, larger gaps will appear. For example, when drooling, monsters will sit in one spot for a long time. Flying Wyverns when preparing an attack will often take two steps to rotate, which is enough time for you to get a charge attack off.
Note that your charge attack has three levels, plus you can overcharge which is bad. Your hunter will be surrounded by flashing yellow light each time you increase one charge level, when you hit the third level, release the button you’re pressing to unleash your wrath!
Your combo potential in the Great Sword is, naturally, pretty limited (all the power you need is in your charge attack), but if the monster is incapacitated, you can do this: Charge attack by pressing and releasing X, then press X once for a side slap . After that, press and hold X again for a strong charged attack . Your hunter will hold their sword behind their body at a much more extreme angle than usual. This is an indicator of awesome power! You can also do this with your triple-A combo as well. A will do the wide slash, then press and hold A for a strong charged attack, and then press A again for a shorter finisher.
Of interesting note is that you can perform a small, weak side slap with the flat of your blade if you kick. This does rack up stun damage but it’s very little. The reason this can be used is because you can chain from a side slap rapidly into other attacks.
You can equip two Hunting Arts in Guild Style.
Striker Style
Striker Style behaves exactly like Guild Style except you lose your strong charged attack. This might not seem like a big deal but the lack of damage does add up over time, especially when the monster is tipped over (as a result, using the triple X or triple A combo will just have you do standard charge attacks each time). In exchange, you can equip three Hunting Arts, so be sure to equip some that can dish out damage to compensate for your lack of your powered up charge attack!
Aerial Style
You get a new move when you first unsheathe your weapon. You will lunge forward and do an overhead slash downwards. This is really helpful to cover some ground. Neat! However, you can no longer perform a charge on the ground, and so that means you, just like in Striker, lose your strong charge attack! You also can’t side slap after a kick.
Instead, if you successfully vault off of a monster, press and hold X for an aerial charge attack . You cannot overcharge and you will automatically release the charge when you land so just hold X until you hit the ground. If you see that you will miss if you wait, you can release X early to do a level 1 or level 2 charge instead. Be aware that this charge has been slightly nerfed in terms of power compared to the other styles’ charge attacks since it charges up much faster.
If the slow speed of the Great Sword doesn’t appeal to you, then try Aerial Great Sword! It adds refreshing speed and grace to a traditionally slow weapon. You can equip one Hunting Art.
Adept Style
You preserve your ground charge but just like the other styles bar Guild Style, you don’t have your strong charge. If you perfect evade successfully, however, you can press X to do an upswing attack that moves you forward. Then you can hold X and do a very fast-charging strong charge to punish the monster. And to finish off the combo, press X one more time for a strong slash attack. Constantly perfect evade to be able to unleash these strong charges and finish off the monster with speed and style.
You can equip one Hunting Art.
Recommended Skills
Unless you’re in Aerial Style, you will definitely want Focus . Focus will shorten the time it takes for you to reach level 3 charge, which is invaluable because you can now take advantage of shorter gaps. You’ll also be unsheathing and sheathing your weapon a lot since the Great Sword is so slow, so something like Critical Draw or Punishing Draw can further augment the power of your charge attack (you can unsheathe directly into a charge attack by pressing and holding X instead of just pressing X to unsheathe). For similar reasons, you might also get good mileage out of Quick Sheathe .
The Great Sword can bounce so be sure to bring Mind’s Eye for monsters with particularly tough hides or scales. Sharpness +1/+2 will help push your weapon’s power and longevity further. Due to how few hits you need to dish out damage, Razor Sharp is not as necessary.
Sign up
No Comments