Great Sword Guide
Great Sword begins with a wager: where will the monster be when the blade lands? The opening then determines a full release, an early release, a Tackle, or a Strongarm Stance counter. When the read is right, that prediction becomes one deliberate hit.
The charged route ends in True Charged Slash, a two-hit attack whose second hit is the main payoff. The first hit must strike a soft weak point to turn the second into True Charged Slash (Power). Sunbreak adds Strongarm Stance, which can turn a correctly timed read into an immediate charged finisher.
This guide uses Sunbreak's final balance. Detailed weapon controls are in the in-game Hunter's Notes; the official manual covers general controls. Combat Mechanics explains hitzones, affinity, and sharpness, and the complete attack data is in Motion Values.
If this weapon is new to you, try it in the Training Area first. Use the in-game Hunter's Notes to practice its basic attacks; this guide explains how to connect them into a hunt.
Charge
Holding Charged Slash, Strong Charged Slash, or True Charged Slash raises its charge level. Release at the last flash for the highest level. Holding beyond it overcharges the attack and drops its power by one level. shortens charge time, so it helps when the opening must last through the charge instead of being skipped by a counter.
The ground route is Charged Slash -> Strong Charged Slash -> True Charged Slash. A Tackle can replace a charged attack in that sequence: it inherits the cancelled attack's charge level and advances the route to the next charged attack. One Tackle reaches Strong Charged Slash; two reach True Charged Slash.
A maximum charge is worthwhile only when it will connect. Release at a lower level when the target will leave sooner, or cancel into defense when the incoming attack makes the release unsafe. After an attack, roll as soon as the recovery permits when you need to move or begin a new approach.
Tackle
Tackle lets its animation continue through most knockback while reducing, rather than negating, incoming damage. It spends stamina, deals blunt damage, and does not consume sharpness. Damage and stun buildup still matter, so preserving the charge is useful only when you can survive the hit and the target will remain in reach.
From a sheathed guard, guard -> kick -> Tackle enters the charge route without first releasing a draw attack. This gives you a route to the next charge stage when you are already positioned for the opening.
Guard Tackle replaces the shoulder attack with a forward block. It is slower and travels farther than Tackle, and a successful block can lead directly to True Charged Slash or Rage Slash. Unlike the standard tackle, blocking can consume stamina and sharpness. Choose between them by deciding whether you need the standard tackle's faster armored advance or Guard Tackle's longer frontal block and direct finisher route.
An idle guard also consumes sharpness when it blocks. It remains an emergency answer when moving, tackling, or countering would not protect you in time.
Strongarm Stance
Strongarm Stance costs two Wirebugs and briefly blocks an incoming attack. A successful use grants a full charge and a damage bonus. If you activated it while charging, the follow-up can be True Charged Slash or Rage Slash. From neutral, its charged-slash-combo follow-up is a fully charged opening slash instead, so begin a charge before the counter when the intended reward is the finisher.
The stance is a timed guard, so a successful counter can activate ; Tackle cannot because it does not guard. Turn toward the attack as you activate the stance, then aim the follow-up at the part that will still be in reach. For Power True Charged Slash, its first hit still needs to land on a soft weak point.
When the monster cannot attack, a Barrel Bomb can supply the hit: place it, begin charging, and counter its blast with Strongarm Stance. This sequence exchanges two Wirebugs and some setup time for the counter's charged finisher, so reserve it for an opening long enough to complete the setup.
Two Wirebugs are also the price of giving up both default gauges at once. Before committing, decide whether the predicted finisher is worth temporarily losing access to another Silkbind or Wirefall. improves Wirebug recovery, but it does not remove that immediate resource choice.
Switch Skills
Each scroll carries one choice in every slot. A charging scroll can pair Tackle, True Charged Slash, the charged route, Strongarm Stance, and either mobility option; these are choices, not the game's default loadout.
| Slot | Choice | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Shoulder | Tackle | Guard Tackle |
| Finisher | True Charged Slash | Rage Slash |
| Route | Charged combo | Surge Slash Combo |
| Silkbind | Strongarm Stance | Hunting Edge or Adamant Charged Slash |
| Mobility | Backslide | Power Sheathe |
Backslide spends one Wirebug to retreat without sheathing. During the charged route, it cancels the current charge, preserves that charge level, and advances the next charged attack in the sequence. This makes it a repositioning tool only when moving backward keeps the next swing aligned; it can also preserve an overcharge, so release or cancel before the last flash passes.
Power Sheathe moves and sheathes the weapon while briefly raising Attack. Choose it when leaving the current position and returning from sheathed movement serves the next opening better than preserving an active charge.
Hunting Edge costs one Wirebug in the final Sunbreak balance. It leaps toward the target, and connecting allows an aerial charged follow-up. After landing, the route can continue into Strong Charged Slash or Strong Wide Slash. Its value therefore depends on landing the initial leap and having space for the aerial follow-up.
Adamant Charged Slash costs one Wirebug, moves forward, and delivers a Strong Charged Slash with knockback protection during the advance. It does not prevent damage, so use it through an attack only when the remaining health and final position are both acceptable.
Rage Slash is a single, freely aimed finisher that is weaker than True Charged Slash before its special condition. Damage received during its charge strengthens the release, while the move's armor prevents most knockback but does not prevent health or stun buildup. It exchanges the two-hit finisher's higher ceiling for easier aiming and a payoff tied to surviving an incoming hit.
Surge Slash Combo replaces the charged opening with Falling, Vortex, and Rising Slash chains. The three inputs can be mixed across stages I, II, and III, and a completed stage-III chain leads to Strong Charged Slash. Vortex attacks have higher element modifiers in the move data, so an elemental build has a concrete reason to prefer that branch; the style still asks you to manage forward commitment and repeated hit placement.
Switch Skill Swap lets the second scroll carry a different answer without declaring either universally better. For example, one scroll can hold the charged counter route while the other holds Hunting Edge or Surge Slash Combo for a target that offers a different kind of opening.
Fight loop
Begin by predicting the target part's position at release, not its position at the start of the charge. If the opening remains stable, advance toward True Charged Slash. If it closes early, release the current charge for a smaller hit or roll away. If an attack crosses the charge, choose Tackle when reduced damage and preserved route are enough, or Strongarm Stance when the attack can be blocked and two Wirebugs are worth the immediate finisher. When moving backward keeps the next charged attack aligned, use Backslide to preserve the charge level and advance the route.
On a knockdown, use the longest route that will still place the final hit before the monster moves. A full route is Charged Slash -> Strong Charged Slash -> True Charged Slash. Aim the first finisher hit at a soft weak point for Power. The barrel-bomb counter is an alternative when both Wirebugs are ready and the setup fits; it is not automatically better than a route that begins dealing damage immediately.
Target selection supplies the other half of the decision. For example, Great Izuchi's head has a sever hitzone of 80 in the game data. Charging where that head will settle converts prediction into both a likely connection and a valuable hitzone; merely reaching the last flash does neither.
Skills
Build around the attacks you can actually land. Getting Started covers meals, Spiribirds, Petalace, and pouch preparation. Those systems and upgraded armor can keep a failed read from ending the hunt; the tables below focus on skills whose mechanism directly matches Great Sword's charge decisions.
Damage and charge
| Skill | Why it fits |
|---|---|
| Shortens charge time, turning some openings that close before the last flash into full-charge openings. It does not shorten a charge skipped by Strongarm Stance. | |
| Lv 3 | A perfectly timed guard grants 15% Attack temporarily. A successful Strongarm Stance can trigger it; Tackle cannot. |
| Lv 3 | Adds 50% affinity on raw hitzones of 45 or higher, rewarding the same target-part discipline that Power True Charged Slash requires. |
| and | raises affinity; affinity above 100% has no effect. raises critical-hit damage, so its return depends on how often the build actually crits. |
| Lv 4+ | Lv 4 is the first level that combines a percentage Attack increase with a flat increase. It improves connected hits but does not rescue a missed charge. |
| Raises Attack and affinity only while the large monster is enraged, so judge it by how often that condition is active in the hunt. |
prevents most damage reactions between players. Its mechanism matters in a group where allies can interrupt your charge; it has no such target in solo play. covers a different set of reactions and should not be presented as an equivalent effect.
Keep a color
A lower sharpness color reduces raw damage, and Great Sword's guard can also consume sharpness. Choose a management skill only when the weapon's native gauge and your sharpening opportunities do not already keep the intended color.
| Skill | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Extends the sharpness gauge when the weapon can accept more sharpness. | |
| Prevents sharpness loss on some critical hits, so it becomes more consistent as affinity rises. | |
| Prevents sharpness loss for a fixed period after sharpening. | |
| Reduces sharpness consumption on average without requiring critical hits. | |
| Grants a timed sharpness-related boost after enough sharpness levels are restored; ordinary combo hits do not restore those levels. | |
| Shortens whetstone use, which changes which openings are long enough to sharpen. |
Survival and control
| Skill | Decision it supports |
|---|---|
| Lv 3 | Prevents stun after attacks absorbed by Tackle or Rage Slash still add stun buildup. |
| Can reduce damage from a hit you choose to absorb, but its chance-based trigger cannot make that choice safe by itself. | |
| Improves Wirebug handling, reducing the opportunity cost of repeated Silkbind use without changing the two-Wirebug upfront cost of Strongarm Stance. | |
| Reduces stamina spent by evasion and certain actions, which helps repeated rolls and Tackle use. | |
| Shortens ordinary sheathing; it does not shorten a charge. | |
| Increases roll distance. That can clear an attack, but the new endpoint may also move the next charge away from the target part. | |
| Improves blocking for Guard Tackle or emergency guard; it does not turn the standard Tackle into a guard. | |
| Allows guards to block attacks that normally cannot be blocked; it does not change Tackle. |
Styles
These styles change which opening the build is trying to exploit.
| Style | What changes |
|---|---|
| Hunting Edge | Trades one Wirebug for an aerial route, but only after the initial leap connects. |
| Adamant Charged Slash | Trades one Wirebug and some health risk for protected forward movement into Strong Charged Slash. |
| Surge Slash Combo | Replaces the charged opening with repeated attacks; matching elemental attack and can support its higher-element Vortex branch. |
| Rage Slash | Accepts a lower unboosted motion value than True Charged Slash in exchange for free aiming and a damage bonus after taking a hit during the charge. |
Builds its gauge while sheathed and loses gauge with each hit. At Lv 3, a full gauge reaches 1.30x, so sheathed approaches can load more of the bonus onto the next connected charge. | |
| Draw | and apply to qualifying draw attacks, not every later finisher in the route. |
Match the hunt
Monster-dependent skills are useful only when their named interruption or condition is present often enough to change your charge decisions.
| Skill | Relevant condition |
|---|---|
| Prevents a tremor from interrupting a charge. | |
| Prevents supported wind-pressure reactions from interrupting a charge. | |
| Prevents supported roar reactions; a counter can answer a predictable roar without occupying the same skill slots. | |
| Prevents elemental blights when the hunt applies them and matching elemental resistance is not your chosen answer. | |
| Resists specified roars, wind, and tremors while the large monster is enraged, so it does nothing before that condition. | |
| Accelerates part breaks but does not increase damage to the monster's health. Use it when the break itself is the objective. |
Skills that look better than they are
- needs a perfectly timed guard. It does not activate from Tackle.
- can prevent bouncing under its conditions, but it does not improve the hitzone or satisfy the soft-weak-point condition for Power True Charged Slash.
- depends on restoring sharpness levels; ordinary Great Sword combo hits only consume sharpness.
- depends on sliding before the attack, so it contributes nothing in an opening without a usable slope.
- affects Wyvern Riding buildup, not whether True Charged Slash becomes a mounting attack.
Settings
Set automatic sheathe to Manual when you want every return to the sheath to be deliberate, especially for draw attacks and . Use Automatic only when its convenience is worth giving up that control.
If the head drifts while you hold a charge, raise or pan the camera before you release. A low view that clips into the body makes it harder to keep True Charge on the stun zone instead of the neck or chest.