The Long Sword weapon boasts several advantages such as decent range, stylistic combos, and skillful parries in Monster Hunter Wilds. The weapon has a perfect blend of slow and fast combos, but at the same time puts a lot of focus on perfectly timed counters to deal damage.
However, it takes a lot of practice to master all the combos and mechanics and get the timings correct. The first step to learning the Long Sword is figuring out the mechanics and best combos. Here’s a complete guide on the Long Sword in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Long Sword Weapon Overview in Monster Hunter Wilds
If there was ever a middle ground among all the melee weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds, it would be the Long Sword. Its attacks have decent width and range, allowing you to easily hit targets even if you aren’t looking directly at the target.
Using the weapon for the first time can feel awkward since the combos aren’t intuitive. You’ll need to master alternating between different attacks and learn about unique attacks like the Spirit Helm Breaker, Iai Spirit Slashes, and Special Sheathes.
Some of these moves have specific effects and consequences, and some revolve around the unique meter called the Spirit Gauge. You are always playing around with the Spirit Gauge and trying to fill it up quickly through simple combos.
Once you gain enough, you start executing flashy and massive combos that hit for a lot of damage while having the flexibility to switch combos up to keep the Spirit Gauge running instead of dumping your whole gauge at once. Overall, the weapon is hard to use because of the complexity of its combos and mechanics, but since it is a bit fast, it isn’t as hard as the other weapons that can punish you for small mistakes.
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Long Sword Spirit Gauge Mechanics
Likethe Dual Bladesand other weapons, they have unique gauges and the Long Sword has the Spirit Gauge. Landing attacks with the Long Sword fill up the Spirit Gauge, and using Spirit Blade attacks consumes it.
When performing combos, the Spirit Gauge can also level up when you land a Spirit Roundslash or a Focus Strike. At max level, the Spirit Gauge turns red, enhancing your attacks and giving you access to powerful attacks.
Many mechanics revolve around the Spirit Gauge, such as unleashing a wild combo like the Spirit Release Slash or executing a Foresight Slash counter into a Spirit Roundslash for an instant level-up. Hitting enemies with a charged Spirit Blade (Spirit Charge when holding R2 or RT) also gives you a buff to gain more Spirit Gauge over time.
Long Sword users play around the Spirit Gauge, aiming to reach the maximum level as fast as possible and unleash devastating combos.
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All Long Sword Combos in Monster Hunter Wilds
While there could be way more combos listed up there, you’ll mostly revolve around this one. You can use a lot of attack combinations because you can switch up Overhead Slashes with Rising Slashes, Thrusts, and more. It depends on the situation and whether you want to use which attack for your combo.
You are mostly looking at hitting enemies with a Spirit Roundslash to level up your Spirit Gauge while also trying to maintain your Spirit Gauge level so you can continuously perform Spirit Blade combos.
Once your Spirit Gauge is maxed out, you start looking for ways to release a devastating combo (Spirit Release Slash finishers) for maximum damage.
In different situations, you can mix in Spirit Blades, Foresight Slashes, and Special Sheathes, but these come with experience. Executing perfect counters with Foresight Slashes is always good. Some players love to keep the buff from the Iai Slash, but it isn’t that good to have it up all the time to make it mandatory.
You are always looking to max out your Spirit Gauge, dump it through combos, and repeat. The faster you can repeat the combos and cycle, the more damage you can deal.
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Best Long Sword Weapons and Armor in Monster Hunter Wilds
Best Long Sword Weapons
The best Long Sword weapon should have the highest attack when progressing through the campaign. Elemental damage is decent, but you also want to look at the equipment skills such as Attack Boost and Critical Draw.
Again, in the early stages, you don’t have to think much about the best Long Sword weapon. You want the Long Sword with the highest damage output at your Hunter Rank. A simple Bone Shotel or a Dosha Fatecleaver would already do the trick in the early game.
Upgrade these sets until you reach rarity eight gear and look for theRighteous Lancelot or the Stahlrecht. The Rathion tree or theWyvern Blade “Holly”is also great for an all-around weapon.
Surprisingly, forging an Artian Long Sword weapon will have a lower “Attack” value than most of the eight craftable weapons from the weapon tree, making any of these crafts a decent “endgame” weapon already.
Best Long Sword Armor Sets
When it comes to armor sets, there are a few equipment skills you can go after, especially some unique ones exclusive to the Long Sword. One of those exclusive equipment skills would beQuick Sheathe, allowing you to use Special Sheathes much faster. But if you don’t use the Special Sheathe often, you are better off looking for different equipment skills to boost your damage.
You can get the Quick Sheathe from armor likeAlloy or Balahara armor sets. You want to maximize your critical strike with Critical Boost and Critical Draw for massive damage.
Critical Boost and Critical Draw will come from weapons like theWyvern BladeandBlangongaberge, respectively. More weapons may have those equipment skills and you want to pair them with equipment skills from armor sets like Burst and Weakness Exploit.
Burst gives you a huge stat boost when you hit a target five successive times, perfectly synchronizing with long Spirit Blade or Spirit Helm Breaker combos that end with a Spirit Release Slash. Burst comes mostly fromEbony sets, with some fromCongo and Udraleg and chest armor pieces.
Weakness Exploit gives you more affinity when hitting weak points, giving you more damage. There’s also another affinity bonus for hitting wounds, giving you more damage when hitting wounded spots. Pair this with a perfectly-timed Focus Strike, activating your Spirit Gauge to the max level and unleashing a devastating combo immediately.
Weakness Exploit comes from multiple armor sets, such asDahaad and Chatacabra, but most will come fromRathalos, Arkveld, and Arkvulcanarmor pieces.
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Enzo Zalamea
Enzo is a staff writer at Prima Games. He began writing news, guides, and listicles related to games back in 2019. In 2024, he started writing at Prima Games covering the best new games and updates regardless of the genre. You can find him playing the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Path of Exile, Teamfight Tactics, and popular competitive shooters like Valorant, Apex Legends, and CS2. Enzo received his Bachelor’s degree in Marketing Management in De La Salle University and multiple SEO certifications from the University of California, Davis.
