Monster Hunter Now: Best Great Sword Build for High Damage

The Great Sword in *Monster Hunter Now* stands out among the arsenal of weapons for its sheer power, capable of delivering devastating blows to monsters with each swing. However, mastering this hefty weapon requires skill due to its cumbersome nature. To create an effective Great Sword build, slowing down the enemy is crucial. Recent updates have introduced sleep-based weapons, crafted from specific monster materials. Pairing these weapons with the right skills to frequently induce sleep is essential for an optimal build.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

While the Long Sword thrives on poison attacks, the Great Sword excels with sleep-inducing capabilities. To fully realize this build, you'll need to hunt down a rare monster, though many parts can be sourced from more common foes.

Full Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

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 distance after dodging, enhancing your defensive capabilities. While not crucial for the build, this skill aids significantly in managing the Great Sword's unwieldiness. You'll need to hunt Somnacanth to gather the necessary materials for crafting this weapon.

Helmet & Greaves

The core of this build derives from the Nightmare Paolumu, introduced during the first paid event. This monster provides crucial parts and skills, including the three levels of Rude Awakener, which boosts the initial attack damage on a sleeping monster by 100%. Although Nightmare Paolumu are more common now, they still require patience to encounter, often appearing in events or as rare spawns post-story quest.

Mail, Gauntlets, & Coil

The rest of your gear should focus on maximizing the Status Sneak Attack skill, which guarantees sleep buildup when attacking from behind. Additional skills like Evade Extender and Artful Dodger will help in evading attacks effectively. Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, being more common thanks to the paintball tracker, is your primary target for these parts.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Driftsmelt Slots

This build benefits from a relatively low requirement to unlock its Driftstone slots. Ideally, you should aim for five slots in Sleep Attack to maximize sleep buildup. However, you can also enhance your dodging capabilities with Artful Dodger and Evade Extender or boost your damage with Sneak Attack when striking from behind.

• Sleep Attack - increases the weapon's sleep buildup value. 50 at rank 1 and 150 at rank 5. (Azure only)
• Sneak Attack - increases the 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)