Monster Hunter Wilds features a staggering number of 14 weapon types to choose from, which can be overwhelming for newcomers. If you were to tell me which weapon type would be perfect for beginners, my vote would go to the Sword & Shield.
This weapon type has simple moves and combos that new players can easily understand how to use, and it sports a shield to protect from incoming attacks.
However, the Sword & Shield is also a deceptively versatile weapon type. It is packed with all kinds of advanced techniques, mechanics, and combo strings that could turn the tide of a hunt if you take the time to master them.
To help you learn this weapon faster, we have prepared a beginner’s guide on Monster Hunter Wilds’ Sword & Shield that will cover what moves you can do, what gear skills are best paired with it, and what kind of Sword & Shields you should make.
What is the Sword & Shield?
The Sword & Shield is a fast-hitting, light weapon type where you wield a small sword & shield.
The sword part of the weapon will allow you to deal cutting damage so you can cut off monster tails and clip wings. Meanwhile, the shield part of the weapon can block enemy attacks and deal KO damage to stun monsters by hitting them in the face with it.
The Sword & Shield is unique among the other weapon types because it can allow the player to use items while the weapon is still unsheathed, so they drink potions without putting the weapon away.
In previous Monster Hunter games, the Sword & Shield has always been a jack-of-all-trades weapon type that can do a little bit of everything from offensive, defense, and even support. In Monster Hunter Wilds, its versatility has been upgraded even further thanks to an assortment of new moves and the new Focus Mode mechanic at its disposal.
Moves and combos
The Sword & Shield features a wide range of attacks and combos that dish tons of damage or provide defensive maneuvers to protect the player while damaging enemies simultaneously. These moves include:
- Standard Attack: Pressing Y will perform a standard slash attack that can form a 4-hit combo when chained together. If you hold the left analog stick while pressing Y, you can do a side-step slash to reposition yourself in the direction you hold the stick towards while attacking the enemy.
- Special Attack: Pressing B will perform a heavy slash attack that can be chained into a 3-hit combo. If you hold the left analog stick forward while pressing B, you can do a shield bash attack that can stun enemies if you hit them in the head. This shield bash attack can also chain into a 3-hit combo.
- Advancing Slash: Pressing Y+B together will have your character run forward while slashing at a monster’s heels. If you perform this attack while on a sloping hill or a ledge, the Advancing Slash’s attack will change into a terrain-specific attack where you will slide down the hill to do a sliding attack or jump off a ledge to slash at an enemy.
- Roundslash: At any point during any combo, pressing Y+B will have you do a spinning slash attack. If you perform it at the end of a combo, the Roundslash will be upgraded into the more powerful Spinning Reaper.
- Charged Chop: Holding Y+B will have you perform a mighty lunge attack where you plunge your sword into a monster’s hide and rip it down its body to deal multiple ticks of damage. The power of the Charged Chop can be increased the longer you hold the buttons down and if you perform it at the end of combos.
- Backstep: Holding back on the left analog stick while pressing B during a combo will have you jump backward to avoid an incoming enemy attack and follow up with a regular slash. However, while doing the Backstep, you can perform one of two attacks – the Perfect Rush or the Charged Slash.
- Perfect Rush: Pressing Y while performing the Backstep will unleash a multi-hit attack that deals extra elemental damage or status-effect build-up. Press Y when your character flashes during the Perfect Rush animation to increase the damage output of this attack.
- Charged Slash: Holding down B when performing the Backstep will have you do a heavy jump attack that will launch you into the air if you hit an enemy with it. While in the air after landing the Charged Slash, you can follow up with either a Jumping Slash, Falling Bash, or Plunging Thrust.
- Jumping Slash: Pressing Y after jumping from a Charged Slash will do a midair chop attack that will enable you to mount a monster.
- Falling Bash: Pressing B after jumping from a Charged Slash will have you come crashing down a monster’s head with the shield, dealing stun damage.
- Plunging Thrust: Pressing Y+B after jumping from a Charged Slash will have you plunge your sword into a monster’s body dealing multiple ticks as you’re coming down.
- Guard: Pressing the right trigger will let you block with the shield. If you perform Guard at the last second before an attack hits you, you can perform a Stalwart Guard that will negate most of the damage and allow you to follow up with a Counter-Slash by pressing Y. If you block an attack enough times, you will enter a cinematic Power Clash with a monster where you will need to mash the attack buttons to overpower the monster.
- Sliding Swipe: Pressing the right trigger+Y will have your character slide on the ground while hacking away at a monster’s heel. This attack is mainly used as an evasive technique to slide out of the way of an incoming attack or to close the distance with a monster that’s far away.
When I use Sword & Shield, I mainly attack by using the Special attack combo, then use the Spinner Reaper and Charged Chop as combo enders as they deal a good chunk of damage in a short amount of time. Then, I use the Backstep technique to reset the combo and do it again.
If a monster is moving out of the way, I’ll use the Sliding Swipe to close the distance or the Standard Attack’s side-stepping to reposition myself to continue my assault without hitting a body part my sword will bounce on. If I am fighting a monster with hard body parts, I’ll use the shield bash variant of the Special Attack combo, as the shield doesn't bounce no matter how thick a monster’s hide is.
Focus Mode
By holding the Left trigger (or toggling it depending on your controller) settings, you can activate Monster Hunter Wilds’ unique Focus Mode mechanic which is available to all weapon types.
The Sword & Shield’s Focus Mode will allow you to strafe and redirect attacks mid-combo. Focus Mode can also perform unique moves called Focus Strikes (by pressing the right bumper while in Focus Mode,) which can pop a monster’s Wounds for insane amounts of damage.
The Focus Strike of Sword & Shield will let you latch onto a monster and do one of two attacks: the plunge sword attack, where you a monster apart as you’re coming down, or a jumping uppercut with the shield that can be followed with the same attacks available a Backhop jump attack.
Another cool tip: you can fire Slinger Ammo while your weapon is unsheathed by pressing the left analog stick while in Focus Mode. Another tip we wished we had known before playing Monster Hunter Wilds is that Focus Strikes can be used on a special weak spot that appears after a monster uses its ultimate attack
Hitting this special weak spot will cause the monster to fall and leave it briefly vulnerable to your attacks.
Best Equipment Skills to synergize with
While the Sword & Shield weapon type can dish out fast attacks but it doesn’t do big damage in single hits like the Greatsword or Hammer. To help you compensate for the lack of pure raw damage, it’s recommended you forge elemental Sword & Shields so you can benefit from the bonus elemental damage that targets a monster’s elemental weakness.
Sword & Shields with status ailment properties are also a solid option as the Sword & Shield’s fast attacks will have a higher chance of inflicting status effects on monsters compared to the slower weapon types.
As for the equipment skills to help you maximize its damage output while increasing your survivability in battle. Here are some skills I highly recommend to keep in mind when making your builds:
Offensive Equipment Skills
- Attack Boost: Increases the raw attack power of your weapon.
- ‘Insert element here’ Attack: Skills like Fire Attack, Water Attack, Thunder Attack, Ice Attack, and Dragon Attack will increase the bonus damage you inflict with a Sword & Shield’s elemental property.
- ‘Insert status effect here’ Attack: Skills like Paralysis Attack, Sleep Attack, Poison Attack, and Blast Attack increase the amount of status effect build-up a Sword & Shield with status ailment properties inflicts.
- Critical Eye: Increases your weapon’s affinity. The higher your affinity, the higher the chances you will inflict Critical hits on enemies and deal more damage.
- Weakness Exploit: This skill will grant you an affinity boost when striking at a monster’s weak spots. Weakness Exploit will also give you a bigger affinity boost when striking at a monster’s exposed Wounds.
- Maximum Might: Increases your weapon’s affinity so long as your Stamina gauge is full.
- Critical Boost: Increases the damage you deal when you make critical hits.
- Critical Element: Increases the bonus elemental damage you deal when achieving Critical hits.
- Critical Status: Increases the amount of status effect build-up you inflict on monsters when landing critical hits.
- Master’s Touch: This skill prevents your weapon from losing sharpness when you inflict Critical hits. This skill is best paired with Sword & Shields that have low Sharpness levels so you can keep it sharper for longer before needing to repair with Whetstones.
- Razer Sharp: This skill has a chance of decreasing the amount of Sharpness your weapon loses when attacking a monster so it can stay sharp for longer before needing a Whetstone.
- Handicraft: Increases your Sharpness gauge but not beyond its maximum limit.
- Speed Sharpening: Increases the speed at which you sharpen your weapon using a Whetstone.
- Burst: This skill grants you a buff to your raw and elemental attack power after hitting an enemy enough times, and the buff’s duration will refresh so long as you keep hitting a monster. Do note the attack boost you get differs depending on what weapon type you use it with.
- Flayer: This skill makes it easier to open up Wounds on a monster and allows you to cause a small non-elemental explosion upon inflicting enough damage to an enemy.
- Adrenaline Rush: Increases your attack power after dodging an enemy’s attack at the last second.
- Peak Performance: Increases attack power when your Health gauge is full.
- Agitator: Increases attack power and affinity when a large enemy monster becomes enraged.
- Partbreaker: This skill makes it easier to break a monster’s body parts and increases the damage you deal when destroying a monster’s Wound with a Focus Strike.
- Foray: Increases attack power and affinity against monsters suffering from the Poison or Paralysis status effects.
Defensive Equipment Skills
- Guard: This increases the guarding capabilities of the shield so it reduces knockback and stamina depletion when the player is blocking attacks.
- Offensive Guard: This skill grants the user a huge damage boost for a when blocking an enemy’s attack at the last second.
- Guard Up: This skill will grant you the ability to block enemy attacks that are normally unblockable without it. Although there are very few attacks in this game can’t be blocked so it’s a very situational skill at the moment.
- Evade Extender: This will increase the distance of your dodge rolls so you can out of the way of incoming attacks more easily or close the distance with a monster that runs away a lot.
- Evade Window: This skill will increase the amount of invincibility frames your dodge rolls so you can be briefly invulnerable to attacks while dodging. Although you will still need to time your dodges carefully and there are certain attacks that linger forever that invincibility frames can’t help you through.
- Earplugs: This skill will prevent a monster’s roar from stunning you. Not will this skill protect you from vulnerable to a follow attack after a roar, it can grant you a free window to hit a monster while its busy roaring since you’re now immune to roars.
- Speed Eating: Increases the speed which you use items and eat meat.
- Wide-Range: Allows you to pass on the effects of items like healing potions or stat boosting potions to nearby party members.
- Free Meal: This skill grants you a passive buff that will randomly prevent items being consumed upon use so you can use it again for free.
Jack-of-all-trades, master of hunts
And that concludes our beginner’s guide on how to use the Sword & Shield in Monster Hunter Wilds. With this primer, you will now have a better grasp on this deceptively complex weapon type and hunt all the horrifying monsters of Monster Hunter Wilds with greater ease.
Monster Hunter Wilds, the next-gen successor to one of Capcom's best Xbox games and best PC games, Monster Hunter World, is scheduled to launch on February 28, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
If you want to learn more about the game itself, check out our review for Monster Hunter Wilds on Xbox.
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