Master the Sword & Shield in Monster Hunter Wilds: Top Beginner Tips & Skill Synergies

In simpler terms, Monster Hunter Wilds boasts an impressive variety of 14 different weapons, but this vast selection might be intimidating for novice players. Personally, I’d recommend the Sword and Shield as a great starting weapon choice for beginners.

This weapon type is user-friendly for beginners due to its straightforward moves and combinations, and it features a protective shield against incoming assaults.

On the other hand, the Sword & Shield is surprisingly adaptable in its use. It’s equipped with numerous sophisticated techniques, mechanisms, and combo sequences that, when mastered, can significantly alter the outcome of a pursuit.

For a quicker mastery of the sword and shield in Monster Hunter Wilds, we’ve put together a beginner-friendly guide. This resource will detail the various moves at your disposal, suggest optimal gear skills to complement it, and offer recommendations for crafting effective Sword & Shield combinations.

What is the Sword & Shield?

The Sword & Shield is a fast-hitting, light weapon type where you wield a small sword & shield.

With its blade, this weapon is designed for slashing attacks, enabling you to sever monster tails and trim their wings. Simultaneously, the shield portion offers protection against foes’ assaults and has the ability to knock out monsters with a well-placed strike to their faces.

Among all the available weapon types, the Sword & Shield stands out due to its special feature: players can consume items even with the weapon drawn, eliminating the need to sheathe the sword before drinking potions.

Previously, in Monster Hunter games, the Sword & Shield was a multipurpose weapon, capable of delivering offense, defense, and support. In Monster Hunter World, this versatility has been significantly enhanced with an array of new techniques and the introduction of the Focus Mode mechanic.

Moves and combos

In The Sword & Shield game, you’ll find an extensive arsenal of attacks and combos, capable of dealing massive damage or offering protective strategies as you attack enemies concurrently. This array of moves encompasses:

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 wielding Sword & Shield, I primarily employ a special attack sequence, followed by Spinner Reaper and Charged Chop as concluding moves due to their high damage output in a brief span of time. To restart the sequence, I utilize the Backstep technique.

When a creature steps aside, I can either employ the Sliding Swipe to bridge the gap or utilize the Side-Step with my Standard Attack to adjust my position and maintain my offensive without striking a part of the beast that my sword might rebound from. If I’m battling a monster with tough body parts, I’ll opt for the shield bash version of my Special Attack sequence, since my shield won’t bounce off, regardless of how thick the creature’s hide is.

Focus Mode

Activating Monster Hunter Wilds’ exclusive Focus Mode can be done by maintaining pressure on or repeatedly toggling the left trigger button (depending on your gamepad), and this feature is accessible across all weapon classes.

In Focus Mode with The Sword & Shield, you’ll be able to dodge sideways and deflect attacks during combos. This special mode also lets you execute special moves called Focus Strikes (by pressing the right bumper while in Focus Mode). These strikes can severely wound monsters, dealing massive damage.

With the Focus Strike move in Sword & Shield, you can grab a monster and choose between two actions: either perform a plunging sword strike as you descend, splitting the monster apart, or execute a jumping uppercut with your shield, which can be followed by additional attacks similar to those used in a Backhop jump attack.

Here’s another handy trick: In Monster Hunter World, you can discharge Slinger Ammo even with your weapon unsheathed by pressing the left analog stick while in Focus Mode. A lesser-known fact we wish we had known earlier is that Focus Strikes can be executed on a unique vulnerable point that emerges after a monster performs its ultimate move.

Striking this unique, sensitive area will make the monster collapse momentarily, offering you an opening for your attacks.

Best Equipment Skills to synergize with

When wielding a Sword & Shield, you’ll find that it delivers quick attacks but lacks in dealing significant single-hit damage compared to weapons like the Greatsword or Hammer. To make up for its lower raw damage, consider crafting elemental Sword & Shields instead. This way, you can take advantage of the extra elemental damage they provide, which targets a monster’s specific weakness.

Choosing swords and shields with status-inducing abilities can be an effective strategy, since their quick strikes increase the likelihood of causing status issues in enemies more than the slower weapon categories do.

Regarding the abilities that optimize weapon damage and enhance your durability during combat, here are some suggestions to consider while creating your character setup:

1. For optimal damage, prioritize skills like Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage, and Masterwork. These will significantly boost your offensive capabilities.
2. To increase survivability, focus on defensive abilities such as Health Regeneration, Shield, Armor, and Dodge. These skills will help you endure more damage in battle.
3. Don’t forget about utility skills like Speed Boost or Stealth to give yourself an edge in various situations.
4. Lastly, consider synergies between skills and choose complementary abilities to maximize their effects.
5. Remember that the best build is one that suits your playstyle, so experiment with different combinations until you find what works best for you!

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

Wrapping up, here’s our introductory tutorial covering the use of Sword & Shield in Monster Hunter Wilds. Equipped with these tips, you should find it simpler to master this intricate weapon category and vanquish the fearsome creatures lurking in Monster Hunter Wilds more efficiently.

The upcoming game, Monster Hunter Wilds, which is the next-gen follow-up to one of Capcom’s top-tier Xbox games and PC games like Monster Hunter World, is set to be released on February 28, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and personal computers through Steam.

2025-02-27 14:19