In the world of Monster Hunter Now, the Great Sword stands out as a formidable weapon capable of delivering massive damage with each swing. Its sheer size can make it a bit cumbersome to wield, but with the right build, you can transform this behemoth into a sleep-inducing powerhouse. To craft a top-tier Great Sword build, you'll need to slow down your foes, and thanks to recent updates, you can now craft sleep-based weapons using specific monster materials. Pair these with the right skills, and you're on your way to creating an unbeatable build.
Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build
While the Long Sword thrives on poison, the Great Sword shines with sleep-inducing capabilities. To fully realize this build, you'll need to hunt down some rarer monsters, though you can gather most of your gear from more common ones.
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
For a sleep-based Great Sword, the Frilled Blade is your best bet. It comes equipped with the Evade Extender skill, which helps you gain some distance after dodging an attack, making defensive maneuvers smoother. To forge this weapon, you'll need to hunt down Somnacanth for its materials.
Helmet & Greaves
The core of this build is sourced from the Nightmare Paolumu, introduced during the 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 hit to a sleeping monster. While Nightmare Paolumu are more common now, they might still require some patience to encounter, either through events or as rare spawns in later seasons after completing the main story quest.
Mail, Gauntlets, & Coil
The rest of your gear focuses on maximizing the Status Sneak Attack skill, ensuring sleep buildup when attacking from behind. You'll also gain points in Evade Extender and Artful Dodger, enhancing your evasion capabilities. Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, a more common monster thanks to the paintball tracker, is your go-to for these parts.
Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Driftstone Slots
This build benefits from a relatively low requirement to unlock all its Driftstone slots. Ideally, you'll want to allocate five slots to Sleep Attack to maximize your sleep buildup. Alternatively, you can enhance your dodging with Artful Dodger and Evade Extender or boost your damage with Sneak Attack when striking from behind.
- Sleep Attack - Boosts the weapon's sleep buildup value. 50 at rank 1 and 150 at rank 5. (Azure only)
- Sneak Attack - Increases damage dealt to a monster when attacked from behind. 10% at rank 1 and 30% at rank 5. (Pale only)
- Artful Dodger - Makes evading easier to perform. Slightly easier at rank 1 and significantly so at rank 5. (Azure only)
- Evade Extender - Extends evasion distance. Very slightly at rank 1 and massively at rank 5. (Pale only)
