Monster Hunter Now: Best Great Sword Build for High Damage

Master the Monster Hunter Now Great Sword: A Sleep-Based Build Guide

The Great Sword in Monster Hunter Now is a powerful weapon capable of devastating blows, but its size can make it challenging to wield effectively. This guide details a build maximizing sleep effects for optimal damage output.

To build a truly effective Great Sword, you'll need to reliably put monsters to sleep. Recent updates have introduced sleep-inducing weapons, but you'll also need the right skills. Let's dive into the optimal gear:

Optimal Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

Unlike the poison-focused Long Sword, the Great Sword excels with sleep. This build requires materials from a somewhat rare monster, but the majority of the equipment comes from more common hunts.

Complete Great Sword Build Breakdown

Weapon Choice: The Frilled Blade

The Frilled Blade is the premier sleep-based Great Sword. Its Evade Extender skill adds crucial distance after dodging, improving survivability. While not essential, it significantly enhances Great Sword maneuverability. You'll need to hunt Somnacanth for its crafting materials.

Helmet and Greaves: Nightmare Paolumu

The core of this build utilizes Nightmare Paolumu parts, introduced in an early paid event. These provide crucial Rude Awakener skills (boosting damage to sleeping monsters by 100% on the first hit), available in three tiers. While less frequent now, they appear in events or as rare spawns.

Mail, Vambraces, and Coil: Tzitzi-Ya-Ku

The remaining pieces focus on maximizing Status Sneak Attack, guaranteeing sleep buildup with rear attacks. You'll also gain additional Evade Extender and Artful Dodger for enhanced evasion. Thankfully, Tzitzi-Ya-Ku is a relatively common target, easily tracked with paintballs.

Optimizing Driftstone Slots

This build offers a significant advantage: readily available Driftstone slots. While five Sleep Attack slots are ideal, you can also enhance dodging (Artful Dodger, Evade Extender) or rear-attack damage (Sneak Attack).

• Sleep Attack (Azure): Increases sleep buildup (50 at rank 1, 150 at rank 5).
• Sneak Attack (Pale): Boosts damage from rear attacks (10% at rank 1, 30% at rank 5).
• Artful Dodger (Azure): Improves evasion ease (noticeable at rank 5).
• Evade Extender (Pale): Increases evasion distance (significant at rank 5).

This comprehensive guide provides a powerful and effective Great Sword build for Monster Hunter Now. Remember to adapt your Driftstone slots to your preferred playstyle!