In the world of Monster Hunter Now, the Great Sword stands out as a formidable weapon, capable of dealing massive damage with each swing. However, its size can make it challenging to handle. To maximize its potential, you'll need to slow down your targets. Recent updates have introduced the ability to craft sleep-based weapons using certain monster materials, but achieving frequent sleep effects requires the right skills and gear. Here's how to build the best sleep-focused Great Sword setup for Monster Hunter Now.
Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build
While the Long Sword thrives on poison, the Great Sword excels with sleep-based attacks. To fully realize this build, you'll need materials from a rare monster, but the majority of the gear can be obtained from more common foes.
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
The Frilled Blade is your go-to sleep-based Great Sword in Monster Hunter Now. It comes equipped with the Evade Extender skill, which helps you gain distance after dodging an attack, making defensive maneuvers smoother with this hefty weapon. To craft this blade, you'll need to hunt the Somnacanth for the necessary materials.
Helmet & Greaves
A significant portion of this build relies on gear from the Nightmare Paolumu, introduced in 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 attack against a sleeping monster. While Nightmare Paolumu are more common now, they may still require patience to encounter during events or as rare spawns post-main story.
Mail, Gauntlets, & Coil
The remainder of the build 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 to enhance your evasion capabilities. These parts primarily come from the Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, which is easier to track and hunt using the paintball tracker.
Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Driftstone Slots
This build requires relatively few Driftstone slots to unlock its full potential. Ideally, you should aim for five slots in Sleep Attack to enhance your sleep buildup. Alternatively, you can use these slots to improve your evasion with Artful Dodger and Evade Extender or increase damage dealt from behind with Sneak Attack.
- Sleep Attack - Boosts the weapon's sleep buildup value. Rank 1 adds 50, while Rank 5 adds 150. (Azure only)
- Sneak Attack - Enhances damage dealt to a monster when attacked from behind. Rank 1 increases damage by 10%, and Rank 5 by 30%. (Pale only)
- Artful Dodger - Makes evasion easier to execute. Slightly easier at Rank 1 and significantly easier at Rank 5. (Azure only)
- Evade Extender - Extends the distance of evasion. Very slight increase at Rank 1 and massive at Rank 5. (Pale only)
