In our ultimate Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword Guide we will explain how to use the Great Sword and benefit from this weapon. You will learn about the pros and cons of this weapon, and understand its mechanics and moves. We also provide information about Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword controls for PS5, Xbox, and PS, and share the best combos.
4.9Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword Overview
Monster Hunter Wilds Greatsword is a beloved weapon of many players — both newcomers and already experienced gamers prioritize the Great Sword over other weapon types. The Great Sword is a melee heavy weapon with cut & blunt damage type that allows you to slash monsters with direct attacks or swing to deal damage to multiple monster parts. It is slow, but deals massive damage, and has lots of various attack combos to play more aggressively and with greater variativity.
“Makes up for its slow swings and movement with its arsenal of tricks for every situation, such as evasion, sheath-and-run tactics, and Offset attacks”.
The Great Sword in MH Wilds comes in lots of types and rarities, and some of them are either hard to get, or very expensive. Or both. But if you are looking for a specific type of the Great Sword our team can offer you our helping hand and get the desired weapon fast and easy.
Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword Strengths and Weaknesses
Is the Great Sword good in Monster Hunter Wilds? Though MH Wilds Great Sword is a leader of all current tier lists, it has both pros and cons:
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| ✅ Damage as great as the sword itself; | ⛔️ One of the slowest weapons with low attack speed; |
| ✅ Reliable defensive capabilities; | ⛔️ Huge recovery timing after powerful attacks; |
| ✅ Stays sharp for a longer period. | ⛔️ Requires good stamina management. |
Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword Mechanics
Each weapon has a specific set of related mechanics that help improve weapon control, add variety to weapon utility options, and add more variation and scenarios for fighting a monster in the game. The same goes for the Great Sword. Playing with Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword you can meet the following mechanics:
- Attacks with Charge Levels — you can charge your attacks to hit harder, e.g. Charged Slash → Strong Charged Slash → True Charged Slash, but overcharging can weaken the attack;
- Enhanced Tackles — using the Tackle mechanics allows you to defend yourself from monster attacks without losing charges;
- Power Clashes — you can block enemy hits with your sword at the cost of its sharpness, and you can even lower the incoming damage to 0 if done in time;
- Jumping Attacks & Mounting — you can mount a monster that you are fighting to take an advantageous position and hit the weakest spot;
- Focus Mode — Focus mode is one of the best in-game mechanics, it helps you to aim precisely and destroy wounds with Focus Slash: Perforate which hits heavily, especially when followed by True Charged Slash.
All in all, you can simply hit the attack button for basic attacks, or charge attacks to inflict massive damage to monster wounds, and even block enemy attacks. For extra impact, use combos that we provide further in our guide. If you want to master all the mechanics and train with a professional player by your side, ask our team for a Coach and start training straightaway.
Enhanced Tackles
In MH Wilds the Tackle is a useful mechanic for Great Sword players, allowing you to maintain charge levels while fending off monster attacks. You can imply two types of Tackles in your combat:
- Normal Tackle: Cuts off the charge animation and provides super armor to withstand knockback effects, such as monster roars;
- Enhanced Tackle: New in Wilds, this option retains the charge level when blocked by an attack, facilitating an instant transition into a True Charged Slash.
✏️ Tip: When anticipating an oncoming hit when charging, switch to a Tackle instead of dodging to maintain your charge and continue your attack uninterrupted.
Power Clashes
Power Clashes are a new feature in Monster Hunter Wilds, and they occur when you successfully perform a Perfect Guard with your Great Sword against some monster attacks:
- Starting a Power Clash: Performing a Perfect Guard leads to a brief struggle with the monster;
- Victory in the Clash: Winning this battle makes the monster stumble, providing an opportunity to release a True Charged Slash.
✏️ Tip: While all guard-capable weapons can make a Power Clash, the Great Sword is assisted significantly by its high damage.
Jumping Attacks & Mounting
In MH Wilds you can mount a monster for taking an advantage in combat. The Great Sword excels at mounting monsters because of its powerful aerial attacks:
- Jumping Charge Slash: A flying version of the Charged Slash, with high damage (press △ / Y while airborne);
- Plunging Thrust: A rapid descending thrust that strikes repeatedly, increases mount accumulation (press R2 / RT while airborne);
- Jumping Wide Slash: A wide horizontal slash in the air, gives wide range against large monsters.
Great Sword Focus Mode
A Focus Mode is a game-changing feature in Monster Hunter Wilds that makes the Great Sword much more useful. There are two main purposes of the Focus Mode: control the direction of your hits and target wounds. How to use Focus Mode with Great Sword in MH Wilds:
- Use Directional Control: You can rotate up to 180 degrees during a True Charged Slash, ensuring your attack lands even if the monster has moved. (e.g., L2 on PS5 or LT on Xbox). It helps to ensure that even if the monster moves, your charged attacks will hit;
- Targeting Wounds: While in Focus Mode, wounds on monsters are indicated red so you can target and shoot at them with ease. Performing the Focus Slash: Perforate (for example, L2 + R1 / LT + RB) when in this mode strikes wounded areas with increased damage, potentially bursting them and stunning the monster.
✏️ Tip: Focus Mode can help you to avoid situations in which a monster moves or steps aside.
Adding Focus Mode to your fighting style allows for finer strikes and greater utilization of monster weaknesses. It works with Charged Slash, Strong Charged Slash, or True Charged Slash. Keep in mind that your Hunter Rank affects the gameplay and allows you to have better weapons and armor. Get the desired rank with our team in the blink of an eye to achieve the highest Great Sword efficiency.
Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword Moves
While in combat, you will have to deal with lots of moves that allow you to fight effectively. In Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword moves are not limited to basic “hit” and “roll” actions. You can charge, unleash overhead attacks, tackle, guard, kick, and even more. In this section of our guide, we aim to get you acquainted with a whole pack of Great Sword moves and explain how each of them works.
All MH Wilds Great Sword moves can be separated into 3 major categories:
- Basic Attacks;
- Charged Attacks;
- Defensive Moves.
As seen from their naming, you can use the attacks of each type for your current situation, be it the first hit or an attempt to flee the battlefield. By the way, don’t forget that you can use Decorations on some Great Swords which makes the gameplay more pleasant. If you don’t have any decorations yet, ask our pro players to get you as much as you need.
Before moving further in our guide, study this gamepad key symbols table that we use when describing mechanics and movesets.
| Key |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | △ | 〇 | B | Y | LT | L2 | RB | R2 | RT |
Basic Attacks
The Great Sword is a huge weapon, and the physics of its attacks dictates that you’ll most likely swing the blade to deal a ton of damage to a monster. But the attacks are not limited by swings, and you can also launch the enemy into the air or block their toughest hits.
Here’s a full list of the Great Sword attacks that can be used in offensive scenarios:
| Name | PS5 | Xbox | PC | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead Slash Attack | △ | Y | LMB | A slow but heavy downward slash that starts most Great Sword combos and leads into stronger attacks. |
| Charge | Hold △ | Hold Y | Hold LMB | Charging increases damage, but overcharging weakens the attack. |
| Wide Slash | 〇 | B | RMB | A wide sweep that hits multiple parts of a monster and helps reposition. |
| Rising Slash | △ and 〇 | Y and B | LMB + RMB | An upward strike that launches enemies and chains into Offset Rising Slash. |
| Offset Rising Slash | Hold △ + Hold 〇 | Hold Y + Hold B | Hold LMB + RMB | A charged parry that blocks attacks and counters with a strong follow-up. |
| Tackle | 〇 while Charging | B while Charging | RMB while Charging | Cancels charge animation, grants super armor, and resists knockback while countering. |
| Guard | R2 | RT | R | Allows you to block attacks, reducing incoming damage at the cost of sharpness and stamina. Perfectly timed guards will nullify all damage and set up follow-up attacks. |
| Kick | △ while Guarding | Y while Guarding | LMB while Guarding | Blocks the attack of small monsters, but lowers your sharpness and stamina; if timed well, can reduce the incoming damage to 0. |
| Focus Slash: Perforate | L2 + R1 | LT + RB | LMB + Shift | A Focus Mode attack that carves through monsters, stacking wound damage and chaining into a finisher |
Charged Attacks
Charging attacks of your Great Sword allow your hunter to prepare a massive attack and deal extra damage. You can charge the attack to three levels, and the higher the level, the more damage you will deal. But there’s a drawback: if you overcharge, you’ll lose the gained power and your weapon will reset the attack back to a Level 2 hit. Therefore, maintain decent timing, and do not overstay.
| Name | PS5 | Xbox | PC | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charged Slash | Hold △ | Hold Y | LMB | Basic Charged Slash that deals extra damage. |
| Strong Charged Slash | After a Charged Slash, Hold △ | After a Charged Slash, Hold Y | After a Charged Slash, Hold LMB | A follow-up charged attack to be used after a Charged Slash. |
| True Charged Slash | Last Step of the Combo | Last Step of the Combo | Last Step of the Combo | The ultimate charge, when timed well deals close-to-critical damage. |
✏️ Tip: Focus Mode ( / , L2, or LT) allows to focus on your target and ensure that you don’t miss True Charged Slash.
Defensive Moves
Even though MH Wilds Great Sword is used for offensive moves, you still have a few options to block the attacks of your enemies:
| Name | PS5 | Xbox | PC | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guard | R2 | RT | R | Raise a sword to block an attack. |
| Perfect Guard | Timed R2 | Timed RT | Timed R | Nullifies the damage if timed well (a few moments before the monster’s hit) |
How to Guard with Great Sword? To protect yourself with the Great Sword from enemy attacks in Monster Hunter Wilds, press R2 (PlayStation), RT (Xbox), or R (PC) while having your weapon drawn. This basic action allows you to mitigate incoming damage and knockbacks. A Perfect Guard timed right before an attack hits cancels all damage and keeps the weapon sharp.
Moreover, the timed guard also triggers a Power Clash, which will trigger a brief battle with the monster. Winning the clash freezes the creature up and leaves it vulnerable to attack. In addition, the Guard Cancel mechanic provides a swift transition from recovery from an attack into defense by mashing the guard button during the attack’s recovery frame, enhancing smoothness in combat.
Great Sword Combos
Building a perfect sequence of the Great Sword skills can significantly improve your hunting and monster encounters. Combos have a much better impact than a series of unrelated skills, and help you to save stamina. And combos done with the best Armor have even more impact, so make sure to get a suitable set for your hunter with the help of our monster-slaying professionals.
Here we offer you a list of classic MWH Great Sword Combos:
| Name | PS5 | Xbox | PC | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Charge Slash Combo | △ → Hold △ (Charge Slash) △ → Hold (Strong Charged Slash) → Hold △ (True Charged Slash) | Y → Hold Y (Charge Slash) Y → Hold Y (Strong Charged Slash) → Hold Y (True Charged Slash) | LMB → Hold LMB (Charge Slash) LMB → Hold LMB (Strong Charged Slash) → Hold LMB (True Charged Slash) | Series of charged attacks. Charge each attack to increase your damage. |
| Tackle Cancel Combo | △ (Charge Slash) → 〇 (Tackle) → △ (True Charged Slash) | Y (Charge Slash) → B (Tackle) → Y (True Charged Slash) | LMB (Charge Slash) → RMB (Tackle) → LMB (True Charged Slash) | Tackle-cancel into the next charge level to reach TCS faster. Tackle grants super armor to counter roars or incoming attacks. |
| Evade into True Charged Slash | Dodge → △ (Charge Slash) → △ (Strong Charged Slash) → △ (True Charged Slash) | Dodge → Y (Charge Slash) → Y (Strong Charged Slash) → Y (True Charged Slash) | Dodge → LMB (Charge Slash) → LMB (Strong Charged Slash) → LMB (True Charged Slash) | Immediately charge a slash and transition into a fully charged TCS after dodging an attack. |
| Offset Rising Slash Combo | △ and 〇 (Rising Slash) → Hold △ + Hold 〇 (Offset Rising Slash) → △ (Cross Slash) | Y and B (Rising Slash) → Hold Y + Hold B (Offset Rising Slash) → Y (Cross Slash) | LMB and RMB (Rising Slash) → Hold LMB + Hold RMB (Offset Rising Slash) → LMB (Cross Slash) | The Offset Rising Slash clashes against monster attacks, followed by a Cross Slash that deals huge damage and sets up a Charged Slash follow-up. |
| Guard into True Charged Slash | R2 (Guard) → △ (Perfect Guard Counter) → △ (True Charged Slash) | RT (Guard) → Y (Perfect Guard Counter) → Y (True Charged Slash) | R (Guard) → LMB (Perfect Guard Counter) → LMB (True Charged Slash) | Nullify damage by timing a perfect guard and immediately counter with TCS. |
| Focus Slash: Perforate to True Charged Slash | L2 + R1 (Focus Slash: Perforate) → △ (True Charged Slash) | LT + RB (Focus Slash: Perforate) → Y (True Charged Slash) | Ctrl + Shift (Focus Slash: Perforate) → LMB (True Charged Slash) | The Focus Slash: Perforate hits multiple wounds at once, then TCS enhances the damage window. |
Best Great Sword Combos
Though the Great Sword combos are good, there are some attack combinations that are even better. They slightly differ from basic combos, work better than other basic combos, or require knowledge of the Great Sword mechanics. Currently, there are 4 best combos for the Great Sword:
- Fast True Charged Slash Combo;
- Evade into True Charged Slash;
- Strong Wide Slash Combo;
- Poke Combo.
You can master these combos to perfection and kill monsters with precise attacks. But it usually takes a lot of time to reach the level of mastery when your moves are ideal and hits are strong. If it’s not your cup of tea, ask our team to kill any Monster for you and skip those beasts that you don’t like.
Fast True Charged Slash Combo
- PS5: △ → △ (Hold for Charge Slash) → 〇 (Tackle) → △ (Full Charge True Charged Slash);
- Xbox: Y → Y (Hold for Charge Slash) → B (Tackle) → Y (Full Charge True Charged Slash);
- PC: LMB → LMB (Hold for Charge Slash) → RMB (Tackle) → RMB (Full Charge True Charged Slash).
One of the most reliable and efficient Great Sword combos for dealing damage quickly. Removes the initial Overhead Slash animation if your weapon is sheathed, making it faster to execute. Can be chained into another True Charged Slash (TCS) immediately by dodging and performing two Tackles to skip the first two charge steps.
✏️ Tip: Use this Combo on weapon parts of the monster for the greatest impact.
Evade into True Charged Slash
- PS5: Dodge → △ (Charge Slash) → △ (Strong Charged Slash) → △ (Full Charge True Charged Slash);
- Xbox: Dodge → Y (Charge Slash) → Y (Strong Charged Slash) → Y (Full Charge True Charged Slash);
- PC: Dodge → LMB (Charge Slash) → LMB (Strong Charged Slash) → LMB (Full Charge True Charged Slash).
Designed for quick repositioning after avoiding an attack. The Dodge into Tackle transition lets you skip the Overhead Slash animation, getting you to TCS faster. Deals 349 MV in under 8 seconds, making it a high-damage punish combo.
Strong Wide Slash Combo
- PS5: 〇 (Tackle) → △ (Full Charge Strong Slash) → 〇 (Wide Slash) → △ (Full Charge True Charged Slash);
- Xbox: B (Tackle) → Y (Full Charge Strong Slash) → B (Wide Slash) → Y (Full Charge True Charged Slash);
- PC: RMB (Tackle) → LMB (Full Charge Strong Slash) → RMB (Wide Slash) → LMB (Full Charge True Charged Slash).
One of the highest damage combos, dealing 547 MV over roughly 10 sec. Ideal for capitalizing on a monster’s knockdown window. Use Focus Mode to precisely align your TCS for a direct hit to weak spots.
Poke Combo
- PS5: 〇 (Wide Slash) → △ and 〇 (Rising Slash) → 〇 (Wide Slash) → △ and 〇 (Offset Rising Slash);
- Xbox: B (Wide Slash) → Y + B (Rising Slash) → B (Wide Slash) → Y + B (Offset Rising Slash);
- PC: RMB (Wide Slash) → LMB + RMB (Rising Slash) → RMB (Wide Slash) → LMB + RMB (Offset Rising Slash).
A safer, less committal combo for hitting fast-moving monsters. Deals consistent chip damage (80 MV every 3 seconds) while keeping your mobility flexible. Great for assessing the monster’s movement before committing to a big attack.
4.9Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword is a strong weapon for players who appreciate melee combat with slow but powerful hits. All it takes to master this weapon is learning its strengths and weaknesses and remembering a few of the most powerful combos. Additionally, pay attention to the mechanics and controls to make sure that you won’t panic in a tough encounter.
