The Great Sword is a heavy, hard-hitting weapon that deals massive damage in a single hit in Monster Hunter Wilds. See all the new moves for the Great Sword, its mechanics, controls, best combos, advanced tips, and how good it is!

Great Sword Mechanics

Great Sword Mechanics
Slow but Hard-Hitting Attacks Have Charge Levels Has Lots of Survivability Use Offset Rising Slash to Parry Use Focus Mode to Redirect Attacks Break Wounds with Focus Slash: Perforate

Slow but Hard-Hitting

The Great Sword is the slowest weapon in the game, but also one of the hardest hitting. This makes it a high risk, high reward weapon.

Proper usage of the Great Sword requires practice and game knowledge, such as knowing when to sheathe your weapon for mobility, knowing when it's safe to fully charge your attacks, and so on.

Attacks Have Charge Levels

Three of the Great Sword's attacks (Charged Slash, Strong Charged Slash, True Charged Slash) can be charged up, making them deal more damage with each charge level. These charge levels can also affect the damage of other attacks, such as the Tackle or the Leaping Wide Slash.

The only downside is that you are vulnerable while charging as you have to stay still. If you can charge up to max, however, you will be able to deal a lot of damage to monsters.

Do Not Overcharge Your Attack

Overcharging your charged attacks (holding the charge until your character automatically swings) is not ideal, as it is treated as a Level 2 charge attack. To avoid this, you must release the attack as soon as your character flashes red.

Has Lots of Survivability

To make up for its slow attack animations, the Great Sword has numerous defensive capabilities that you can use to protect yourself.

For example, you can block with your weapon, which reduces the damage you take at the cost of your weapon's sharpness. If you time it properly and perform a Perfect Guard, however, you will mitigate all damage and negate the sharpness decrease. You can also trigger a Power Clash upon performing one.

You can also use the Tackle's Hyper Armor to cancel monster roars and prevent knockdowns that can disrupt your combos. Finally, the Great Sword has access to the Offset RIsing Slash, which can counter enemy attacks if timed correctly, opening them up to a counter attack.

Use Offset Rising Slash to Parry Attacks

The Great Sword can parry monster attacks using the Offset Rising Slash. To do so, charge up your Offset Rising Slash as the enemy is winding up for an attack, and release it as they swing down. If timed correctly, the monster will be knocked down, and you can follow-up with a powerful attack.

It is important to remember that the follow-up attack has a cooldown, so you cannot do it over and over again. You can, however, still perform Offset Rising Slashes to parry attacks.

Use Focus Mode to Redirect Your Attacks

You can change the direction of your attacks, especially your charged ones, by entering Focus Mode. This allows you to redirect your powerful attacks, which is helpful if your target moves as you are charging.

This is especially helpful with the Great Sword's True Charged Slash, its most powerful attack, as you can change direction mid-swing.

Break Wounds with Focus Slash: Perforate

By entering Focus mode, you will also be able to perform the Focus Slash: Perforate. This is a powerful attack that can destroy wounds, deal heavy damage, and possibly topple monsters, opening them up to attack.

Additionally, you can chain this attack to a True Charged Slash after destroying a wound. You can then perform another Focus: Slash Perforate to destroy another wound, and then chain another True Charged Slash to it. This can be repeated as long as the monster has wounds on them.

Great Sword Controls

Basic Controls

PC

PS5

Xbox

Overhead Slash Attack
Charge	(Press and Hold)
Tackle	While Charging
Wide Slash
Rising Slash	+
Offset Rising Slash	(Press and Hold)+ (Press and Hold)
Guard
Kick	(While Guarding)
Focus Slash: Perforate	+

Overhead Slash Attack
Charge	(Press and Hold)
Tackle	While Charging
Wide Slash
Rising Slash	+
Offset Rising Slash	(Press and Hold) + (Press and Hold)
Guard
Kick	(While Guarding)
Focus Slash: Perforate	+

Overhead Slash Attack
Charge	(Press and Hold)
Tackle	While Charging
Wide Slash
Rising Slash	+
Offset Rising Slash	(Press and Hold) + (Press and Hold)
Guard
Kick	(While Guarding)
Focus Slash: Perforate	+

Great Sword Best Combos

Great Sword Mechanics
Standard Fast True Charged Slash Evading True Charged Slash Strong Wide Slash Combo Poke Combo

Standard Fast True Charged Slash

PC

PS5

Xbox

Combo Input
→ ▶︎ → Full Charge

Combo Input
→ ▶︎ → Full Charge

Combo Input
→ ▶︎ → Full Charge

Like its predecessor MH World, the new Great Sword uses the bread-n'-butter combo. Alongside the new Focus Mode, you will now be able to regularly use this combo even while out of position!

This combo is best used while your Great Sword is sheathed as it removes the Overhead Slash's initial animation

This Can be Chained to Another True Charged Slash Combo

After performing a True Charged Slash Combo, you can immediately dodge and perform two tackles to skip the first two charged attacks. This allows you to perform a True Charged Combo as fast as possible.

Evading True Charged Slash

PC

PS5

Xbox

Combo Input
Dodge→ → → Full Charge

Combo Input
Dodge→ → → Full Charge

Combo Input
Dodge→ → → Full Charge

After evading a monster attack, you can immediately use the tackle move to transition into a Strong Charged Slash. Do not charge this slash to quickly set up your TCS, allowing you to perform a combo a really quick combo in under 8 seconds!

This combo is best used while your Great Sword is unsheathed as the dodge tackle skips the Overhead Slash's animation, allowing you to jump straight into the Strong Charge Slash.

Strong Wide Slash Combo

PC

PS5

Xbox

Combo Input
Tackle → Full Charge→ → Full Charge

Combo Input
Tackle → Full Charge→ → Full Charge

Combo Input
Tackle → Full Charge→ → Full Charge

This combo is a great one to use once you knock down an enemy. With roughly 10 seconds to carry out the combo, you will be able to deal a lot of damage during a monster's downed duration.

Use Focus Mode to make sure that your True Charged Slash hits your opponent's weak spot.

Poke Combo

PC

PS5

Xbox

Combo Input
→ + → ▶︎ + (Offset Rising Slash)

Combo Input
→+ → ▶︎ + (Offset Rising Slash)

Combo Input
→ +→ ▶︎ + (Offset Rising Slash)

If you find yourself having a hard time punishing monsters due to their quick recovery, you can opt to use this combo to sneak some hits as it is not as committal as the usual Great Sword combos! This combo takes roughly 3 seconds to complete each rotation.

Furthermore, it gives you room to assess whether a monster will perform a move you can Offset, allowing you to deal more damage to them!

The biggest downside of this combo, however, is that it quickly decreases your weapon sharpness, so keep an eye on it and use a Whetstone when needed.

Great Sword Advanced Tips

Great Sword Advanced Tips
Tackle to Avoid Roars and Attacks Perform Perfect Guards and Offsets Often Use Focus Mode to Change Your Charged Attack Direction Chain Focus Slash: Perforate to True Charged Slash

Tackle to Avoid Roars and Attacks

The Great Sword has a Tackle action that can be used while charging attacks as the tackle has Hyper Armor. This means that it can tank through roars and. powerful attacks, after which you can follow up with a TCS.

Hunters can use this to TCS aggressively, as they can tackle through attacks and follow-up. In particular, the start of a fight often has the monster roar, which presents a great opportunity for this combo. Additionally, as tackling lets you do the next level of charge attack, you can quickly prepare a True Charged Slash by tackling an enemy twice in a row!

Perform Perfect Guards and Offsets Often

Perfect Guards and Offsets are two of the strongest moves in your kit, as they can both mitigate damage, while also giving you the opportunity to deal large amounts of damage. As such, it is ideal that you practice using them so that you can mitigate even the strongest of Arkveld's attacks.

Use Focus Mode to Change Your Charged Attack Direction

If ever you notice that you are about to miss your TCS, use Focus Mode to steer your attack towards the monster. This is also helpful if you have to perform a TCS on a sleeping monster in a tight area, or if you are not sure what the proper spacing is.

Chain Focus Slash: Perforate to True Charged Slash

After using the Focus Slash: Perforate to destroy a Wound, you can immediately charge up and use a True Charged Slash. Since destroying wounds, especially those on the monster's legs, has a tendency of knocking monsters down, it makes them a prime target for a fully charged TCS.

How Good is the Great Sword?

Tier List Ranking

Weapon Ranking
Damage Type	Entry Barrier	Difficulty to Master
Sever	Low	★★★☆☆
Weaknesses and Strengths
Excellent Damage Great Defensive Capabilities Easy to Pick Up and Use Slow Attack Animations Needs Practice to Maximize Damage

Entry Barrier pertains to how easy it is to learn the weapon from scratch, while Difficulty to Master is a rating on how difficult it is to perfectly execute the weapon mechanics.

The Great Sword is one of the easiest weapons to pick up and use, thanks to its simple and easy-to-understand kit. Not only that, but its multiple defensive capabilities makes it a great weapon for both new players who are not yet used to the game's dodge mechanic, and veteran players who want to use its Perfect Guard and Offset mechanic.

However, the weapon does take some practice to master. Although Focus Mode has made aiming the Great Sword's attacks easier, it still requires practice and experience to know when to use said attacks thanks to its slow attack animations. The timing of the Great Sword's Offset slash also adds to the difficulty of mastering this weapon.

Best Weapon Type Tier List

Monster Hunter Wilds Related Guides

All Weapons and Guides

All Weapon Guides

All Weapon Tutorials
Great Sword		Long Sword		Sword & Shield
Dual Blades		Hammer		Hunting Horn
Lance		Gunlance		Switch Axe
Charge Blade		Insect Glaive		Light Bowgun
Heavy Bowgun			Bow

All Weapon Trees

All Weapon Trees
Great Sword		Long Sword		Sword & Shield
Dual Blades		Hammer		Hunting Horn
Lance		Gunlance		Switch Axe
Charge Blade		Insect Glaive		Kinsects
Light Bowgun		Heavy Bowgun		Bow