Monster Hunter Now: Top Great Sword Build for Max Damage

Among the diverse arsenal in *Monster Hunter Now*, the Great Sword stands out as a formidable weapon. Capable of delivering massive damage with each swing, it's an ideal choice for those looking to deal significant blows to monsters. However, mastering this hefty weapon can be challenging due to its size and slower attack speed. To optimize your gameplay with a Great Sword, focusing on a sleep-based build can be highly effective, especially after recent updates that introduced materials for crafting sleep-inducing weapons. To make the most of this strategy, you'll need specific gear and skills that enhance sleep effects and improve your combat efficiency.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

While the best build for the Long Sword in *Monster Hunter Now* leverages poison attacks, the Great Sword excels with a sleep-based strategy. Crafting this build requires materials from a relatively rare monster, but you can gather most of your gear from more commonly encountered creatures.

Full Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

Weapon

In *Monster Hunter Now*, options for sleep-based Great Swords are limited, but the Frilled Blade stands out as the best choice. It comes equipped with the Evade Extender skill, enhancing your defensive capabilities by allowing you to create distance after dodging. While not essential for the build's core function, this skill significantly aids in managing the Great Sword's unwieldy nature. To craft this weapon, you'll need to hunt Somnacanth for the necessary materials.

Helmet & Greaves

The core components of this build come from the Nightshade Paolumu, introduced during the first paid event. This monster provides crucial parts and skills, notably all three levels of Rude Awakener, which boosts your damage by 100% on the first attack against a sleeping monster. Nightshade Paolumu has become somewhat more common, but you may need to wait for events or seasonal spawns after completing the main story quest to encounter them.

Mail, Gauntlets, & Coil

The remainder of the build focuses on maximizing the Status Sneak Attack skill, ensuring sleep buildup with every back attack. You'll also gain points in Evade Extender and Artful Dodger to enhance your evasion tactics. Tzitzi-Ya-Ku provides the bulk of these parts and is more accessible, thanks to the paintball tracker.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Driftstone Slots

This build offers the advantage of requiring relatively few Driftstone slots to be fully effective. Ideally, you should allocate five slots to Sleep Attack to maximize sleep buildup. However, you can also use these slots to bolster your evasion with Artful Dodger and Evade Extender or increase your damage output with Sneak Attack when attacking from behind.

• Sleep Attack - Boosts the weapon's sleep buildup value, from 50 at rank 1 to 150 at rank 5. (Azure only)
• Sneak Attack - Enhances damage dealt to a monster when attacked from behind, from 10% at rank 1 to 30% at rank 5. (Pale only)
• Artful Dodger - Improves ease of evading, from slightly easier at rank 1 to significantly easier at rank 5. (Azure only)
• Evade Extender - Extends the distance of evasion, from very slightly at rank 1 to massively at rank 5. (Pale only)