In the vast arsenal of weapons available in Monster Hunter Now, the Great Sword stands out as a formidable choice. Its sheer power can deliver devastating blows to monsters, although its large size can make it challenging to wield. To create an effective Monster Hunter Now Great Sword build, it's crucial to incorporate mechanics that slow down your targets. With recent updates, you can now craft sleep-based weapons using certain monster materials. However, to maximize the effectiveness of these weapons, you'll need specific skills to frequently induce sleep. Here's a detailed guide to assembling the best build for your Great Sword.
Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build
While the optimal build for the Long Sword in Monster Hunter Now focuses on poison, the Great Sword excels with sleep-based attacks. To fully assemble this build, you'll need to hunt a relatively rare monster, though most of the required gear can be obtained from more common foes.
Full Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build
| Item | Effect | |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Frilled Blade |
|
| Helmet | Nightshade Paolumu Helmet |
|
| Tzitzi-Ya-Ku Mail |
| |
| Vambraces | Tzitzi-Ya-Ku Vambraces |
|
| Coil | Tzitzi-Ya-Ku Coil |
|
| Greaves | Nightshade Paolumu Greaves |
|
Weapon
The options for sleep-based Great Swords in Monster Hunter Now are limited, but the Frilled Blade is your best bet. It comes with the Evade Extender skill, which enhances your ability to create distance after dodging an attack. Although not crucial for the build, this skill significantly improves defensive maneuvers with the Great Sword. To craft this weapon, you'll need to hunt Somnacanth for the necessary materials.
Helmet & Greaves
The core of this build is sourced from the Nightshade Paolumu, introduced in the game's first paid event. This monster provides essential parts and skills, including all three levels of Rude Awakener, which boosts your damage by 100% on the first strike against a sleeping monster. While Nightshade Paolumu have become more common, they might still require some patience to encounter during events or as rare spawns post-main story.
Mail, Gauntlets, & Coil
The remainder of the build concentrates on maximizing the Status Sneak Attack skill, which ensures sleep buildup when attacking from behind. Additional skills like Evade Extender and Artful Dodger further enhance your evasion capabilities. The Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, which is more readily available thanks to the paintball tracker, is your go-to for these components.
Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Driftstone Slots
This build has the advantage of requiring relatively fewer Driftstone slots to unlock its full potential. Ideally, you should aim for five slots in Sleep Attack to maximize sleep buildup. However, you can also allocate slots to enhance evasion with Artful Dodger and Evade Extender or boost damage with Sneak Attack when striking from behind.
- Sleep Attack - Enhances the weapon's sleep buildup value. Increases from 50 at rank 1 to 150 at rank 5. (Azure only)
- Sneak Attack - Boosts damage dealt to a monster when attacked from behind. Increases from 10% at rank 1 to 30% at rank 5. (Pale only)
- Artful Dodger - Improves evasion ease. From slightly easier at rank 1 to significantly easier at rank 5. (Azure only)
- Evade Extender - Increases evasion distance. From very slightly at rank 1 to massively at rank 5. (Pale only)
